  From the Book of Chilan Balam of Mani. The first chronicle which I present is the only one which has been heretofore published. On account of its comparative fullness it deserves especial attention. It is taken from the Book of Chilan Balam of the town of Mani. This town, according to a tradition preserved by Herrera, was founded after the destruction of Mayapan, and, therefore, not more than seventy years before the arrival of the Spaniards. Mayapan was destroyed in consequence of a violent feud between the two powerful families who jointly ruled there, the Cocoms and the Xius or Tutul Xius. The latter, having slain all members of the Cocom family to be found in the city, deserted its site and removed south about fifteen miles, and there established as their capital a city to which they gave the name Mani, “which means ‘it is past,’ as if to say ‘let us start anew.’” I find among the memoranda of Dr. Berendt The first publication of the document was in the Appendix to the second volume of Mr. Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (New York, 1843). It included the original Maya text, with a not very accurate translation into English of Pio Perez’s rendering of the Maya. From Mr. Stephen’s volume, the document has been copied into various publications in Mexico, Yucatan and Europe. The most important recent study of the subject has been made by Dr. Valentini, who published the notes of Pio Perez on his translation, and gave a general re-examination of ancient Maya history, with a great deal of sagacity and a large acquaintance with the related Spanish literature. Much use of this chronicle has been made by the recent historians of Yucatan, Don Eligio Ancona Dr. Berendt, although earnestly devoted to collecting and copying these records did not, as Dr. Valentini observes, ever attempt a translation of any of them. No hint is given as to the author of the document, nor do we know from what sources he derived his information. It has been plausibly suggested that it was an epitome of the history of their nations, which was learned by heart and handed down from master to disciple, and which served as a verbal key to the interpretation of the painted and sculptured records, and to the “katun stones” which were erected at the expiration of each cycle and inscribed with the principal events which had transpired in it. The AbbÉ Brasseur placed at the head of his edition of this chronicle the title, in Maya:— “Lelo lai u tzolan katunil ti Mayab,” which he translates— “SÉries des Epoques de l’Histoire Maya.” This is an invention of the learned antiquary. TEXT. Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes TRANSLATION. Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes Notes NOTES. Maya I have already explained the term u tzolan katun; lukci is the aorist of lukul, which forms regularly luki, but the mutation to ci is used when the meaning since or after that is to be conveyed; as Beltran says, “cuando el verbo trae estos romances, despues que Ò desde que, como este romance; despues que murio mi padre, estoy triste: cimci in yume, okomuol” (Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 61). cab means country or place, in the sense of residence, whereas luum, used in the same paragraph, is land or earth, in the general sense. The Dicc. de Motul says: “cab, pueblo Ò region; in cab, mi pueblo, donde yo soy natural.” yotoch is a compound of the possessive pronoun u, his or their, and otoch, the word for house when it is indicated whose house it is; otherwise na is used; otoch is probably allied to och a verbal root signifying to give food to, the house being looked upon as specifically the place where meals are prepared. The word cante is translated by Perez and Brasseur as four, and applied to the Tutulxiu, while the intervening word anilo is not translated by either: cante is no doubt the numeral four with the numeral particle te suffixed. But here a serious difficulty arises. According to all the grammars and dictionaries the particle te is never used for counting persons, chikin, the West, literally, that which bites or eats the sun, from chi, the mouth, and, as a verb, to bite. An eclipse is called in Maya chibal kin, the sun bitten; ti chikin, toward the West. talelob, plural form of tal or talel, to come to, to go from. chiconahthan is not translated by either Pio Perez or Brasseur, nor in that precise form has it any meaning. I take it, however, to be a faulty orthography for chichcunahthan which means to support that which another says, hence, to agree with, to act in concert with; “chichcunah u thanil, having renewed the agreement” (Diccionario de Ticul). It refers to an agreement entered into by the different leaders who were about to undertake the migration into unknown lands. Possibly, however, this is not a Maya word, but another echo of Aztec legend. Chiconauhtlan, “the place of the Nine,” was a village and mountain north of the lake of Tezcuco and close to the sacred spot Teotiuacan, where, in Aztec myth, the gods assembled to create the sun and moon (Sahagun, Historia de Nueva EspaÑa, Lib VII, cap. II). Tulapan Chiconauhtlan would thus become a compound local name. Interlinear Translation.
Translation of Pio Perez. Esta es la serie de Katunes corridos desde que se quitaron de la tierra y casa de Nonoual en que estaban los cuatro Tutulxiu al poniente de Zuina; el pais de donde vinieron fuÉ Tulapan. Translation of Brasseur. C’ est ici la sÉrie des epoques ÉcoulÉes depuis que s’ enfuirent les quatre Tutul Xiu de la maison de Nonoual etant a l’ouest de ZuinÀ, et vinrent de la terre de Tulapan. Free translation suggested. This is the order of the Katuns since the four Katuns during which the Tutulxiu left their home and country Nonoual to the west of Zuiua, and went from the land and city of Tula, having agreed together to this effect. Their name is the only one in the paragraph with a distinctively Maya physiognomy. It is a compound of xiu, the generic term for herb or plant, and tutul, a reduplicated form of tul, an abundance, an excess, as in the verb tutulancil, to overflow, etc. (Diccionario de Ticul, MS.). It would appear therefore to be a local name, and to signify a place where there was an abundance of herbage. The surname is Xiu only, and as such is still in use in Yucatan. But it may also be claimed that even this is a Nahuatl name; for also in that tongue xiuitl means a plant, as well as a turquoise, a comet, a year, and in composition a greenish or bluish color; while tototl is a bird or fowl. The Maya xiu and the Nahuatl xiuitl (in which itl is a termination lost in composition) are undoubtedly the same word. Which nation borrowed it from the other? It is certainly a loan-word, for these two languages have no common origin, while, as we might expect from neighbors, each does have a number of loan-words from the other. I answer that the Maya xiu is unquestionably a loan from the Nahuatl, and my reason for the opinion is that while in Maya the root xiu is sterile and has no relations to other words (unless perhaps to xiitil, to open like a flower, to brood as a bird, to augment, to grow), in Nahuatl it is a very fertile root, and nearly thirty compounds of it can be found in the dictionaries (See Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, That in either language the name Tutulxiu can be translated “Bird-tree” (Vogelbaum), as is argued by Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack (Archiv fÜr Ethnologie, Band XI, 1879), and on which translation he bases a long argument, is very doubtful. It certainly could not in Maya; and in Nahuatl, tototl in composition would drop both its terminal consonants. The remaining names, Nonoual, Zuiua, Tula-pan, clearly indicate their Nahuatl origin. Zuiua, which was erroneously printed in Pio Perez’s version as Zuina is Zuiva; Nonoual is Nonohual; Tulapan, literally “the standard of Tula,” refers to the famous city of the Toltecs, presided over by Quetzalcoatl. All these names are borrowed directly from the myth of this hero-god. Zuiven was the name of the uppermost heaven, the abode of the Creator Hometeuctli, the father of Quetzalcoatl, and the place of his first birth as a divinity. In later days, when the Quetzalcoatl myth had extended to the Kiches and Cakchiquels, members of the Maya family in Guatemala, “Tulan Zuiva” was identified with the Aztec Chicomoztoc, the famous “Seven Caves,” “Seven Ravines,” or “Seven Cities,” from which so many tribes of Mexico, wholly diverse in language and lineage, claimed that their ancestors emerged in some remote past (compare the Codex Vaticanus, Lam. I; Codex Zumarraga, chap. I, with the Popol Vuh, pp. 214, 227). To this spot the ancestors of the Guatemalan tribes were reported to have gone to receive their gods; from it issued the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli; in it still were supposed to dwell his mother and other mighty divinities; and Quetzalcoatl was again the youngest born of Iztac Mixcohuatl, the Tula, properly Tollan, a syncopated form of Tonatlan, which means “the place of the Sun,” was a name applied to a number of towns in Mexico, all named after that magnificent city inhabited by the Tolteca (“dwellers in the place of the Sun”), servants and messengers of the Light-God their ruler, the benign, the virgin-born Quetzalcoatl. The common tradition ran that it was destroyed by the wiles of Tezcatlipoca, the brother, yet the eternal enemy, of Quetzalcoatl, and that at its destruction the Toltecs disappeared, no one knew whither, while Quetzalcoatl, after reigning a score of years in Cholula, journeyed far eastward to the home of the Sun, where he enjoyed everlasting life. Nonohual also had a place in this myth. It was a mountain over against Tulan. There it was that the eldest sister of Quetzalcoatl resided. When he was made drunken by the insidious beverage handed him as a healing draught by Tezcatlipoca, he sent for this sister, held to her lips the intoxicating cup, and with her passed a night of debauch, the memory of which filled him with such shame that nevermore dared he face his subjects. Such is the story recited at length in the Aztec chronicle called the Codex Chimalpopoca. Nonoalco was also the name of a small village near the city of Mexico which still appears on the maps. Sahagun tells us that some extreme eastern tribes in Mexico called themselves Nonoalca (Historia de la Nueva EspaÑa, Lib. X, SeÑor Alfredo Chavero, in his Appendix to Duran’s Historia de las Indias de Nueva EspaÑa (p. 45, Mexico, 1880), claims that Nonoalca was the name given to the Maya-Kiche tribes, or rather adopted by them, when, at an extremely remote epoch, they penetrated to the central table land of Mexico. He thinks that subsequently they became united with the Toltecs, and were dispersed with that people at the destruction of the city of Tula. The grounds for this theory he claims to find in certain unpublished manuscripts, which unfortunately he does not give in extracts, but only in general statements. Like much that this writer presents, these assertions lack support. All the names he quotes as of Nonoalca, that is, Maya origin, are distinctly not of the latter tongue, but are Nahuatl. And the introduction of the mystical city of Tula is of itself enough to invest the story with the garb of unreality. It is, in fact, nowhere in terrestrial geography that we need look for the site of the Tula of Quetzalcoatl, nor at any time in human history did the Tolteca ply their skillful hands, nor Tezcatlipoca spread his snares to destroy them. All this is but a mythical conception of the daily struggle of light and darkness, and those writers who seek in the Toltecs the ancestors or instructors of any nation whatsoever, make the once common This reference to the Quetzalcoatl myth at the commencement of the Maya chronicle needs not surprise us. We encounter it also in the Kiche Popol Vuh and the Cakchiquel Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan. These members of the Maya family also grafted that myth upon their own traditions. As history, it is valueless; but as indicative of a long and early intercourse between the Maya and Nahuatl speaking tribes, it is of great interest. As this question will also recur in reference to various later passages in the Maya chronicles, I will discuss it here. One of the earliest historians of Yucatan, the Doctor Don Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, states that six hundred years before the Spanish conquest the Mayas were vassals of the Aztecs, and that they were taught or forced by these to construct the extraordinary edifices in their country, such as are found at Uxmal and Chichen Itza. His words are: “Fueron tan politicos y justiciosos en Yucatan como los Mexicanos, cuyos vasallos habian sido seis cientos aÑos antes de la llegada de los EspaÑoles. De lo cual tan solamente hay tradicion y memoria entre ellos por los famosos, grandes y espantosos edificios de cal y canto y silleria y figuras y estatuas de piedra labrada que dejaron en Oxumual [Uxmal] y en Chicheniza que hoy se veen y se pudieran habitar.” Informe contra Idolum Cultores del Obispado de Yucatan, fol. 87 (Madrid, 1639). The vague tradition here referred to was made part of the Villa de Valladolid—AÑo de 1618. “Documento 1º. A la primera pregunta dijo este testigo que conoce al dicho Don Juan Kahuil y À la dicha DoÑa Maria Quen su legitima muger y que todos los contenidos en la pregunta, tuvo noticia muy larga de su padre de este testigo, porque fue en su antiguedad ahkin, sacerdote entre los naturales antiguos, antes que recibiesen agua de bautismo, como los susodichos contenidos en la pregunta vinieron del reino de Mexico y poblaron estas provincias, y que era gente bellicosa y valerosa y SeÑores, y asi poblaron À Chichenica los unos, y otros se fueron hacia el Sur que poblaron Á Bacalar, y hacia el Norte que poblaron la costa; porque eran tres Ò cuatro SeÑores y uno que se llamo Tumispolchicbul era deudo de Moctezuma, rey que fuÈ de los reinos de Mexico, y que Cuhuikakcamalcacalpuc era deudo muy cercano de dicho Don Juan Kahuil por parte de sus padres, y que dicha Ixnahaucupul hija de Kukumcupul fue muger de su abuelo de dicho D. Juan Kahuil, todos los cuales fueron los que vinieron de Mexico À poblar estas Provincias, gente principal y SeÑores, pues poblaron y se seÑorearon de esta tierra, porque como dicho tiene, le oyÓ decir al dicho su padre que eran tenidos, obedecidos y respetados como À SeÑores de esta tierra, y de uno de ellos procede el dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y de estos hay mucha noticia y dicho su padre le dijo muchas veces, que “2º. A la segunda pregunta dice este testigo, que como dicho tiene, oyÓ decir À su padre y otros Indios principales que los susodichos contenidos en la primera pregunta vinieron de los reynos de Mejico À poblar estÀs provincias, los unos se quedaron en Chichinica que fueron los que edificaron los edificios sontuosos que hay en el dicho asiento, y otros se fueron À poblar À Bacalar, y otros fueron À poblar la costa hacia el norte, y este que fuÉ À poblar la costa, se llamaba Cacalpuc, de donde procede el dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y estos que asÍ se repartieron, fueron À poblar las provincias susodichas, y las tuvieron sugetas y en govierno, y que le cupo À un Cocom, el poblar en Chichinica, y le obedecian todos por SeÑor, y los de la isla de cuzumel le eran sugetos; y de alli (de Chicinica) se pasaron À la provincia de Sotuta, donde estaban, cuando los conquistadores vinieron, y siempre fueron tenidos, obedecidos y respetados como SeÑores. “3º. A la primera pregunta dijÒ este testigo que conoce al dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y À la dicha Da Maria Quen, su muger, y que de todos los contenidos en la pregunta, tuvo muy larga noticia de ellos, porque D. Juan Camal, cacique È gobernador que fuÈ del pueblo de Sisal, de los primeros que lo gobernaron por comision e titulo que le diÒ el Oidor Tomas Lopez, oiendo como era de los antiguos caciques del dicho pueblo en estas provincias, lo trataba en conversacion À sus principales y este testigo, que siempre estaba en su casa, y fuÉ alguacil mayor ordinario en ella, como los contenidos habian venido de Mejico À poblar esta tierra de Yucatan, y que los unos poblaron À Chichinica y hicieron los edificiÓs que estan en dicho asiento muy suntuosos, y que habiendo sido los que (Translation.) Corporation of Valladolid—Year 1618. “Document No. 1. To the first question the witness answered that he knows the said Don Juan Kahuil and the said Dona Maria Quen his lawful wife, and all those referred to in the question; that this witness had full information from his father, who formerly was ahkin or priest among the natives, before they had received the water of baptism, how the parties above mentioned in the question came from the kingdom of Mexico, and established towns “2ND. To the second question this witness answered that as he has said, he heard his father and other leading Indians say that the parties above mentioned in the first question came from the Kingdom of Mexico to found towns in these provinces; some remained in Chichen Itza, who were those who built the sumptuous edifices which are in the said locality; others went to found towns at Bacalar, and others to found towns on the coast to the north; and he who went to found towns on the coast was named Cacalpuc, from whom proceeds the said Don Juan Kahuil and those who thus made division went to found towns in the above mentioned provinces, and held them under subjection and government; and he chose a certain Cocom to rule in Chichen Itza, and they all obeyed him as lord, and those of the island of Cozumel were subject to him; and from there (from Chichen Itza) they passed to the province of Zotuta, where they were when the conquerors came, and they were always regarded, obeyed and respected as lords. “3RD. To the first question this witness answered that he knew all the parties mentioned in the question and had abundant information about them, because Don Juan Carnal who was chief and governor of Sisal, one of the first This legend is also related, with some variation, by Herrera, and as I shall have occasion more than once to refer to his account, I shall translate it. “At Chichen Itza, ten leagues from Itzamal, the ancients say there reigned three lords, brothers, who came from the west, and gathered together many people, and reigned some years in peace and justice; and they constructed large and very beautiful edifices. It is said that they lived unmarried and very chastely; and it is added that in time one of them was missing, and that his absence worked such bad results that the other two began to be unchaste and partial; and thus the people came to hate them, and slew them, and scattered “Those who established themselves at Chichen Itza call themselves Itzas; among these there is a tradition that there ruled a great lord called CuculcÀn, and all agree that he came from the west; and the only difference among them is as to whether he came before or after or with the Itzas; but the name of the building at Chichen Itza, and what happened after the death of the lords above mentioned, show that Cuculcan ruled the country jointly with them. He was a man of good disposition, was said not to have had either wife or children, and not to have known woman; he was devoted to the interests of the people, and for this reason was regarded as a god. In order to pacify the land he agreed to found another city, where all business could be transacted. He selected for this purpose a site eight leagues further inland from where now stands the city of Merida, and fifteen leagues from the sea. There they erected a circular wall of dry stone, about a half quarter of a league in diameter, leaving in it only two gateways. They erected temples, giving to the largest the name CuculcÀn, and also constructed around the wall the houses of the lords among whom CuculcÀn had divided the land, giving and assigning towns to each. To the city he gave the name Mayapan, which means “the Standard of the Maya,” as Maya is the name of their language. “By this means the country was quieted and they lived in peace for some years under Cuculcan, who governed with justice, until, having arranged for his departure, and recommending them to continue the wise rule he had established, he left them and returned to Mexico by the same route he had Bishop Landa and some other early writers also give versions of this tradition, but do not add any facts to those in the above quotations. Evidently it was a widespread legend of the origin of the great buildings of Chichen Itza. Is it a tradition of fact or is it a myth? I confess that to me it has a suspiciously mythical aspect. It is too similar to what I may call the standard hero-myth of the American Aborigines. Everywhere, both in North and South America, we find the myth of the four brothers who divided the land between them, one of whom is superior to the others and becomes the ruler and instructor of the ancestors of the nation. He does not die, but disappears, or goes to heaven, and is often expected to return. Just so in one of the Maya myths, Cuculcan did not return to Mexico, but rose to heaven, whence once every year he descended to his temple at Mayapan and received the gifts which from far and wide pious pilgrims had brought to his shrine (Landa, Relacion, p. 302). All these myths relate to the worship of the four cardinal points and to the Light-God, as I have shown in a previous work (The Myths of the New World, chap. III. New York, 1876). The proper names in the legend have nothing of a Nahuatl appearance. They are all pure Maya. The “kinsman of Moctezuma,” the second reading of whose name is the correct one, is given as tan u pol chicbul, “in front of the head of the jay-bird,” the chicbul being what the Spaniards call the It will be noticed that neither the legend nor the legal testimony speaks of these foreigners as of a different language or lineage, but leaves us to infer the contrary. Had they been of Aztec race it would certainly have been noticed, for the Mayas had frequent mercantile relations with these powerful neighbors, they borrowed many words from the Nahuatl tongue, and single chiefs in Yucatan formed alliances with the Aztec rulers, and introduced Aztec warriors even into Mayapan, as is shown by the Chronicles I publish in this work, and also by the fact that a small colony of Aztecs, descendants of these mercenaries, was living in the province of Canul, west of Merida, when the Spaniards conquered the country (Landa, Relacion, p. 54). Therefore the Aztecs were no strangers to the Mayas, and doubtless the learned members of the priesthood and nobles in the fifteenth century were quite well aware of the existence of the powerful empire of Anahuac. But regarding the legend I have quoted as, in part at least, I have already referred briefly to their history, and it is possible that after their serious reverses, about 1450, they sent migratory bodies to their relatives in Yucatan. At any rate, there seems a consensus of testimony that the general trend of migration of the Maya race, was from north to south, and in Central America, from west to east. We have in this paragraph examples of the use of three of the “numeral particles.” Cante bin ti katun, literally, “it (i.e. time) went on for four katuns,” and a few lines later hunpel haab, one year, hunpiztun, the first year. The correct translation of peten has been debated; it is from the root pet, anything round, a circle, and usually means “island.” By a later use it signifies any locality with definite boundaries, hence a province, or kingdom. The following is the entry in the Diccionario de Motul: “Peten; isla, item provincia, region, comarca—uay tu petenil Yucatan, aqui en la provincia de Yucatan.” The name of the first leader, Holon Chan Tepeuh, does not recur in the Annals. Its signification is: holon, a generic name for large bees and flies; chan, sufficient, powerful, still in use in Yucatan as a surname; tepeuh, ruler, from tepeual, to rule. This last word is marked in the Diccionario de Motul as a “vocablo antiquo.” It is of Aztec origin, as in the The name Chacnouitan is elsewhere, as we shall see, spelled Chacnovitan and Chacnabiton. I am inclined to believe the last mentioned is nearest the correct form. By Pio Perez it was supposed to be an ancient name of Yucatan, and he translates the phrase, uay ti petene Chacnouitan, by “À esta isla de Chacnavitan (Yucatan).” Dr. Valentini says: “the translation could as well stand for ‘that distant island,’” and that “Chacnouitan was neither the whole nor the northern part of Yucatan, but a district situated in the southwest of the peninsula,” (loc. cit. p. 38). With this I cannot agree, as the adverb uay always refers to the place (in no matter how wide an accepation) where the speaker is. Therefore I translate it “here, (i.e. to this general country of Yucatan, and at first) to the province Chacnouitan.” The province referred to was, I doubt not, somewhere around Lake Peten. The word chac is often used in local names in Yucatan, and usually means either “water” or “red,” as it is a homonym with several significations. Several names similar to it are found in the Peten district. On Lake Yaxta, are the ruins of the very ancient city Napeten, and that lake may have once been called “Chac-napeten,” “the water of Napeten.” Again, on the road from Peten to Bacalar is the town Chacnabil, and the compound Chacnabiltan would mean “toward or in the direction of Chacnabil” (see Itinerarios y Leguarios que proceden de Merida, etc., p. 15, Merida, 1851). The Itzas always remembered the Maya The name Ahmekat is probably an old form for ahmeknah or ahmektan, both of which are given in the Diccionario de Motul for chieftain, leader, captain. Maya Of the proper names in this section Bakhalal, “the canebrakes” (halal, the cane, bak, a roll or enclosure), is the modern province of Bacalar, on the east coast of the peninsula. Ziyan caan appears to be used as a synonym of it, or else refers to a part of it. Its meaning is a picturesque reference to the view from the sea shore, where the horizon is clearly defined, and the sky seems to rise from the water, “the birth of the sky;” Ziyan, birth, caan, sky. Maya The name Chanputun, Champoton, or, reversed, Potonchan, is derived by Gomara from the Nahuatl potonia, to smell badly, and chan, house (in composition). Elsewhere, however, we find it in the form Chakanputun, and this is Maya. Chakan is the term applied to a grassy plain, a savanna, and it was especially applied to the ancient province in which the city of Ho, now Merida, was situated, as appears from the following entry in the Diccionario de Motul, MS. “Ahchakan: el que es de MÉrida, o de los pueblos de aquella comarca, que se llama Chakan.” The correct form of the name is probably Chakan peten, the savanna region. Maya I will add a verse from a curious prophetic chant in one of the Books of Chilan Balam, where this expression occurs, and which is an interesting example of these strange songs. Tzolah ti ahkin Chilam. (Recital of the priest Chilam.) Uien, uien, a man uah; Uken, uken, a man haa; Tu kin, puz lum pach, Tu kin, tzuch lum ich, Tu kin, naclah muyal, Tu kin, naclah uitz, Tu kin, chuc lum ɔiic, Tu kin, hubulhub, Tu kin, coɔ yol chelem, Tu kin, eɔeleɔ, Tu kin, ox ɔalab u nak yaxche, Tu kin, pan tzintzin Yetel banhob yalan che yalan haban. Translation. Eat, eat, thou hast bread; Drink, drink, thou hast water; On that day, dust possesses the earth, On that day, a blight is on the face of the earth, On that day, a cloud rises, On that day, a mountain rises, On that day, a strong man seizes the land, On that day, things fall to ruin, On that day, the tender leaf is destroyed, On that day, the dying eyes are closed, On that day, three signs are on the tree, On that day, three generations hang there, On that day, the battle flag is raised, And they are scattered afar in the forests. Maya Maya Mr. Stephens has taken considerable pains to prove that The phrase u heɔicab Ahcuitok Tutulxiu Uxmal is translated by Pio Perez “se poblÓ en Uxmal,” The expression halach uinicil, the real man, the true man, is a common idiom for governor or ruler, he being the only “real man” in an autocratic community (ante p. 26). The name of Mayapan is given in the form Mayalpan, which I think is dialectic. It is spoken of as an established city under the joint rule of several chiefs at the date of the founding of Uxmal. Maya Several of the names of the seven “men of Mayapan” have a Nahuatl appearance. Kakaltecat=Cacaltecatl, He of the Crow; Ytzcuat=Itzcoatl, Smirch-faced snake; Xuchueuet=Xochitl, the rose or flower; Pantemit=Pantenamitl, the Conqueror of the city wall. These would seem to bear out what Landa and Herrera say, to the effect that at one period the rulers of Mayapan invited Aztec warriors from the province of Tabasco to come and dwell in the city and aid them in controlling the inhabitants. Both Dr. Valentini and SeÑor Pio Perez are of opinion the Katuns at the commencement of this paragraph should read the 10th, 8th and 6th, instead of the 11th, 9th and 6th, as it is necessary in order to establish consistency with what follows. Maya Oxlahun uuɔ, “thirteen divisions;” uuɔ or uuuɔ means literally a fold or double, and hence appears to have been applied to ranks of men in double rows. I do not find, however, any such meaning given in the dictionaries. As a numeral particle it is used to count whatever occurs in folds or doubles. The phrase u ɔabal u natob is not translated at all in the English rendering in Stephens’ Travels, nor in that of Valentini. Brasseur paraphrases it “by him who gives intelligence.” The proper names Ulmil and Ulil seem both to be derived from ula, host, the master of the feast. Here, again, I shall give the originals of the two previous translators. Translation of Pio Perez. “En este mismo periodo Ô katun del 8º ahau fueron Á destruir al rey Ulmil porque le hacia la guerra al rey de Izamal Ulil. Trece divisiones de combatientes tenia cuando los dispersÓ Hunac-eel para escarmentarlos: la guerra se concluyÓ en el 6º ahau Á los 34 aÑos.” Translation of Brasseur. “C’est dans la mÊme pÉriode du Huit Ahau qu’ils allÈrent attaquer le roi Ulmil, À cause de ses grands festins avec Ulil, roi d’Ytzmal: ils avaient treize divisions de troupes, lorsqu’ils furent dÉfaits par Hunac-Eel, par celui qui donne l’intelligence. Au Six Ahau, c’en etait fait, aprÈs trente quatre ans.” Maya Tumenel u pack tulum, tumenel multepal ich cah Mayalpan, appears to me to have the precise meaning I have given in the text; but Pio Perez translates the passage thus “fuÉ invadido por los hombres de Itza y su rey Ulmil, el territorio fortificado de Mayalpan, porque tenia murallas, y porque gobernaba en comun el pueblo de aquella ciudad.” The expression multepal, from mul, to do an act jointly, or in common, and tepal, to govern, is interesting as showing that the government of the country in its golden days of prosperity was not one of an autocratic monarch, but a league or confederation of the principal chiefs of the peninsula. This is also borne out by the descriptions of the ancient government to be found in the pages of Landa and Herrera. The Itzas seized the territory in and around Mayapan, but they were not the ones who destroyed the city. This was the work of Ahuitzilɔul, foreign mountaineers. Ɔul, is the common term for a foreigner in Maya, and is now-a-days applied especially to the whites. Uitz, mountain, is used with reference to the high sierra which runs through central Yucatan, and so Pio Perez understood ahuitzil, “los que tenian sus ciudades en la parte montaÑosa.” This is probably correct, though The words tan cah Mayapan (not Mayalpan as before) are rendered by Pio Perez and Brasseur as the name of a province or district; but as they simply mean “in the middle of the city of Mayapan,” it appears to be their signification here. Maya Maya “Mayacimil: una mortandad grande que fuÉ en Yucatan. Y tomase por qualquier mortandad y pestilencia que lleva mucha gente.” Noh kakil, noh, great, kak, fire, is the usual word for the smallpox. The expression u xocol haab ti lakin cuchie, “the reckoning of the year was toward the East,” refers to the circle or wheel marked with the four cardinal points by which the years were arranged with reference to the four “year-bearers” Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac. The last words of this section, “sixty years after the fortress was destroyed,” are an obvious error, as in the preceding section this date is said to be that of the first arrival of the Spaniards. Maya The year in which Bishop Francisco Toral first came to Yucatan was 1562 (Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucatan, Lib. VI, cap. VI). He died in Mexico in 1571. Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya Maya I have also in my collection a manuscript copy of what Yucatecan scholars call the Codice Perez, a mass of materials copied by SeÑor Pio Perez, among them this chronicle. The following is his own note at its close:— “Hasta aqui termina el libro titulado Chilambalam que se conserva en el Pueblo de Mani en poder del maestro de Capilla.” |
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