Zoque Indians

Zoque Indians

A Mexican tribe dwelling in the western part of Chipas, north of the Sierra Madre, and part of Tabasco and Oaxaca. Their capital was called Ohcahnay, in Mexican Tecpantlan or the "place of the palaces." When the Spaniards first met them, they were addicted to cannibalism. Most of the Zoque are now Christianized, but they retain not a few of their traditional beliefs and customs. Their language is akin to that of the Mixe, with whom they form the Zoquean linguistic stock. The Zoque-Mixe family nubers about 50,000, of whom about half are Zoque, engaged chiefly in cultivating maize and tobacco and in growing oranges.

A.A. MACERLEAN