The Maya Chronicles

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Transcriber's Note

A number of typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
maintained in this version of this book. They have been marked with a
[TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list found at the
end of the text. One error that was corrected is also listed at the end
of the text.

Oe ligatures used in the original text have been expanded. The following
codes are used for characters that are not able to be represented in the
text format used for this version of the book.

[c] small open o
[C] capital open o
[=h] h with stroke
[)o] o with breve
[)u] u with breve
[k] tresillo

LIBRARY

OF

ABORIGINAL AMERICAN
LITERATURE.

No. 1.

EDITED BY

D. G. BRINTON

BRINTON'S LIBRARY OF
ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.
NUMBER 1.

THE
MAYA CHRONICLES.

EDITED BY
DANIEL G. BRINTON

AMS PRESS
NEW YORK

Reprinted from the edition of 1882, Philadelphia
First AMS EDITION published 1969
Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 70-83457

AMS PRESS, INC.
New York, N.Y. 10003

TO THE MEMORY
OF
CARL HERMANN BERENDT, M.D.,

WHOSE LONG AND EARNEST DEVOTION TO THE ETHNOLOGY
AND LINGUISTICS OF AMERICA HAS MADE THIS WORK
POSSIBLE, AND WHOSE UNTIMELY DEATH HAS
LOST TO AMERICAN SCHOLARS RESULTS
OF FAR GREATER IMPORTANCE,

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The belief that the only solid foundation for the accurate study of
American ethnology and linguistics must be in the productions of the
native mind in their original form has led me to the venturesome
undertaking of which this is the first issue. The object of the proposed
series of publications is to preserve permanently a number of rude
specimens of literature composed by the members of various American
tribes, and exhibiting their habits of thought, modes of expressions,
intellectual range and aesthetic faculties.

Whether the literary and historical value of these monuments is little
or great, they merit the careful attention of all who would weigh and
measure the aboriginal mind, and estimate its capacities correctly.

The neglect of this field of study is largely owing to a deficiency of
material for its pursuit. Genuine specimens of native literature are
rare, and almost or quite inaccessible. They remain in manuscript in the
hands of a few collectors, or, if printed, they are in forms not
convenient to obtain, as in the ponderous transactions of learned
societies, or in privately printed works. My purpose is to gather
together from these sources a dozen volumes of moderate size and
reasonable price, and thus to put the material within the reach of
American and European scholars.

Now that the first volume is ready, I see in it much that can be
improved upon in subsequent issues. I must ask for it an indulgent
criticism, for the novelty of the undertaking and its inherent
difficulties have combined to make it less finished and perfected than
it should have been.

If the series meets with a moderate encouragement, it will be continued
at the rate of two or three volumes of varying size a year, and will, I
think, prove ultimately of considerable service to the students of man
in his simpler conditions of life and thought, especially of American
man.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Sec. 1. The Name Maya, p. 9. Sec. 2. The Maya Linguistic Family, p. 17.
Sec. 3. Origin of the Maya Tribes, p. 20. Sec. 4. Political Condition at
the Time of the Conquest, p. 25. Sec. 5. Grammatical Observations, p. 27.
Sec. 6. The Numeral System, p. 37. Sec. 7. The Calendar, p. 50. Sec. 8. Ancient
Hieroglyphic Books, p. 61. Sec. 9. Modern Maya Manuscripts, p. 67.
Sec. 10. Grammars and Dictionaries, p. 72.

THE CHRONICLES.

INTRODUCTORY p. 81

I. The Series of the Katuns, p. 89. Text, p. 95. Translation,
p. 100. Notes, p. 106.

II. The Series of the Katuns, p. 136. Text, p. 138. Translation,
p. 144. Notes, p. 150.

III. The Record of the Count of the Katuns, p. 152. Text, p. 153.
Translation, p. 158. Notes, p. 163.

IV. The Maya Katuns, p. 165. Text, p. 166. Translation, p. 169.
Notes, p. 173.

V. The Chief Katuns, p. 177. Text, p. 178. Translation, p. 180.
Notes, p. 182.

THE CHRONICLE OF CHAC XULUB CHEN.

Introductory, p. 189. Text, p. 193. Translation, p. 216. Notes,
p. 242.

VOCABULARY p. 261

I.

INTRODUCTION.

CONTENTS.

1. THE NAME "MAYA." 2. THE MAYA LINGUISTIC FAMILY. 3. ORIGIN OF THE MAYA
TRIBES. 4. POLITICAL CONDITION AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST. 5.
GRAMMATICAL OBSERVATIONS. 6. THE NUMERAL SYSTEM. 7. THE CALENDAR. 8.
ANCIENT HIEROGLYPHIC BOOKS. 9. MODERN MAYA MANUSCRIPTS. 10. GRAMMARS AND
DICTIONARIES OF THE LANGUAGE.

Sec. 1. _The Name "Maya."_

In his second voyage, Columbus heard vague rumors of a mainland westward
from Jamaica and Cuba, at a distance of ten days' journey in a
canoe.[9-1] Its inhabitants were said to be clothed, and the specimens
of wax which were found among the Cubans must have been brought from
there, as they themselves did not know how to prepare it.

During his fourth voyage (1503-4), when he was exploring the Gulf
southwest from Cuba, he picked up a canoe laden with cotton clothing
variously dyed. The natives in it gave him to understand that they were
merchants, and came from a land called MAIA.[10-1]

This is the first mention in history of the territory now called
Yucatan, and of the race of the Mayas; for although a province of
similar name was found in the western extremity of the island of Cuba,
the similarity was accidental, as the evidence is conclusive that no
colony of the Mayas was found on the Antilles.[10-2] These islands were
peopled by a wholly different stock, the remnants of whose language
prove them to have been the northern outposts of the Arawacks of Guiana,
and allied to the great Tupi-Guaranay stem of South America.

MAYA was the patrial name of the natives of Yucatan. It was the proper
name of the northern portion of the peninsula. No single province bore
it at the date of the Conquest, and probably it had been handed down as
a generic term from the period, about a century before, when this whole
district was united under one government.

The natives of all this region called themselves _Maya uinic_, Maya men,
or _ah Mayaa_, those of Maya; their language was _Maya than_, the Maya
speech; a native woman was _Maya c[=h]uplal_; and their ancient capital
was _Maya pan_, the MAYA banner, for there of old was set up the
standard of the nation, the elaborately worked banner of brilliant
feathers, which, in peace and in war, marked the rallying point of the
Confederacy.

We do not know where they drew the line from others speaking the same
tongue. That it excluded the powerful tribe of the Itzas, as a recent
historian thinks,[12-1] seems to be refuted by the documents I bring
forward in the present volume; that, on the other hand, it did not
include the inhabitants of the southwestern coast appears to be
indicated by the author of one of the oldest and most complete
dictionaries of the language. Writing about 1580, when the traditions of
descent were fresh, he draws a distinction between the _lengua de Maya_
and the _lengua de Campeche_.[12-2] The latter was a dialect varying
very slightly from pure Maya, and I take it, this manner of indicating
the distinction points to a former political separation.

The name Maya is also found in the form _Mayab_, and this is asserted by
various Yucatecan scholars of the present generation, as Pio Perez,
Crescencio Carrillo, and Eligio Ancona, to be the correct ancient form,
while the other is but a Spanish corruption.[13-1]

But this will not bear examination. All the authorities, native as well
as foreign, of the sixteenth century, write _Maya_. It is impossible to
suppose that such laborious and earnest students as the author of the
Dictionary of Motul, as the grammarian and lexicographer Gabriel de San
Buenaventura, and as the educated natives whose writings I print in this
volume, could all have fallen into such a capital blunder.[13-2]

The explanation I have to offer is just the reverse. The use of the
terminal _b_ in "Mayab" is probably a dialectic error, other examples of
which can be quoted. Thus the writer of the Dictionary of Motul informs
us that the form _maab_ is sometimes used for the ordinary negative
_ma_, no; but, he adds, it is a word of the lower classes, _es palabra
de gente comun_. So I have little doubt but that _Mayab_ is a vulgar
form of the word, which may have gradually gained ground.

As at present used, the accent usually falls on the first syllable,
_Ma'ya_, and the best old authorities affirm this as a rule; but it is a
rule subject to exceptions, as at the end of a sentence and in certain
dialects Dr. Berendt states that it is not infrequently heard as
_Ma'ya'_ or even _Maya'_.[14-1]

The meaning and derivation of the word have given rise to the usual
number of nonsensical and far-fetched etymologies. The Greek, the
Sanscrit, the ancient Coptic and the Hebrew have all been called in to
interpret it. I shall refer to but a few of these profitless
suggestions.

The Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg) quotes as the opinion of Don Ramon de
Ordonez, the author of a strange work on American archaeology, called
_History of the Heaven and the Earth_, that _Maya_ is but an
abbreviation of the phrase _ma ay ha_, which, the Abbe adds, means word
for word, _non adest aqua_, and was applied to the peninsula on account
of the scarcity of water there.[15-1]

Unfortunately that phrase has no such, nor any, meaning in Maya; were it
_ma yan haa_, it would have the sense he gives it; and further, as the
Abbe himself remarked in a later work, it is not applicable to Yucatan,
where, though rivers are scarce, wells and water abound. He therefore
preferred to derive it from _ma_ and _ha_, which he thought he could
translate either "Mother of the Water," or "Arm of the Land!"[15-2]

The latest suggestion I have noticed is that of Eligio Ancona, who,
claiming that _Mayab_ is the correct form, and that this means "not
numerous," thinks that it was applied to the first native settlers of
the land, on account of the paucity of their numbers![15-3]

All this seems like learned trifling. The name may belong to that
ancient dialect from which are derived many of the names of the days and
months in the native calendar, and which, as an esoteric language, was
in use among the Maya priests, as was also one among the Aztecs of
Mexico. Instances of this, in fact, are very common among the American
aborigines, and no doubt many words were thus preserved which could not
be analyzed to their radicals through the popular tongue.

Or, if it is essential to find a meaning, why not accept the obvious
signification of the name? _Ma_ is the negative "no," "not;" _ya_ means
rough, fatiguing, difficult, painful, dangerous. The compound _maya_ is
given in the Dictionary of Motul with the translations "not arduous nor
severe; something easy and not difficult to do;" _cosa no grave ni
recia; cosa facil y no dificultosa de hacer_. It was used adjectively as
in the phrase, _maya u chapahal_, his sickness is not dangerous. So they
might have spoken of the level and fertile land of Yucatan, abounding in
fruit and game, that land to which we are told they delighted to give,
as a favorite appellation, the term _u luumil ceh, u luumil cutz_, the
land of the deer, the land of the wild turkey; of this land, I say, they
might well have spoken as of one not fatiguing, not rough nor
exhausting.

Sec. 2. _The Maya Linguistic Family._

Whatever the primitive meaning and first application of the name Maya,
it is now used to signify specifically the aborigines of Yucatan. In a
more extended sense, in the expression "the Maya family," it is
understood to embrace all tribes, wherever found, who speak related
dialects presumably derived from the same ancient stock as the Maya
proper.

Other names for this extended family have been suggested, as Maya-Kiche,
Mam-Huastec, and the like, compounded of the names of two or more of the
tribes of the group. But this does not appear to have much advantage
over the simple expression I have given, though "Maya-Kiche" may be
conveniently employed to prevent confusion.

These affiliated tribes are, according to the investigations of Dr. Carl
Hermann Berendt, the following:--

1. The Maya proper, including the Lacandons.

2. The Chontals of Tabasco, on and near the coast west of the mouth
of the Usumacinta.

3. The Tzendals, south of the Chontals.

4. The Zotzils, south of the Tzendals.

5. The Chaneabals, south of the Zotzils.

6. The Chols, on the upper Usumacinta.

7. The Chortis, near Copan.

8. The Kekchis, and

9. The Pocomchis, in Vera Paz.

10. The Pocomams. }

11. The Mams. }

12. The Kiches. }

13. The Ixils. } In or bordering on Guatemala.

14. The Cakchiquels. }

15. The Tzutuhils. }

16. The Huastecs, on the Panuco river and its tributaries, in Mexico.

The languages of these do not differ more, in their extremes, than the
French, Spanish, Italian and other tongues of the so-called Latin races;
while a number resemble each other as closely as the Greek dialects of
classic times.

What lends particular importance to the study of this group of languages
is that it is that which was spoken by the race in several respects the
most civilized of any found on the American continent. Copan, Uxmal and
Palenque are names which at once evoke the most earnest interest in the
mind of every one who has ever been attracted to the subject of the
archaeology of the New World. This race, moreover, possessed an abundant
literature, preserved in written books, in characters which were in some
degree phonetic. Enough of these remain to whet, though not to satisfy,
the curiosity of the student.

The total number of Indians of pure blood speaking the Maya proper may
be estimated as nearly or quite 200,000, most of them in the political
limits of the department of Yucatan; to these should be added nearly
100,000 of mixed blood, or of European descent, who use the tongue in
daily life.[19-1] For it forms one of the rare examples of American
languages possessing vitality enough not only to maintain its own
ground, but actually to force itself on European settlers and supplant
their native speech. It is no uncommon occurrence in Yucatan, says Dr.
Berendt, to find whole families of pure white blood who do not know one
word of Spanish, using the Maya exclusively. It has even intruded on
literature, and one finds it interlarded in books published in Merida,
very much as lady novelists drop into French in their imaginative
effusions.[20-1]

The number speaking the different dialects of the stock are roughly
estimated at half a million, which is probably below the mark.

Sec. 3. _Origin of the Maya Tribes._

The Mayas did not claim to be autochthones. Their legends referred to
their arrival by the sea from the East, in remote times, under the
leadership of Itzamna, their hero-god, and also to a less numerous,
immigration from the west, from Mexico, which was connected with the
history of another hero-god, Kukul Can.

The first of these appears to be wholly mythical, and but a repetition
of the story found among so many American tribes, that their ancestors
came from the distant Orient. I have elsewhere explained this to be but
a solar or light myth.[20-2]

The second tradition deserves more attention from the historian, as it
is supported by some of their chronicles and by the testimony of several
of the most intelligent natives of the period of the conquest, which I
present on a later page of this volume.

It cannot be denied that the Mayas, the Kiches and the Cakchiquels, in
their most venerable traditions, claimed to have migrated from the north
or west, from some part of the present country of Mexico.

These traditions receive additional importance from the presence on the
shores of the Mexican Gulf, on the waters of the river Panuco, north of
Vera Cruz, of a prominent branch of the Maya family, the _Huastecs_. The
idea suggests itself that these were the rearguard of a great migration
of the Maya family from the north toward the south.

Support is given to this by their dialect, which is most closely akin to
that of the Tzendals of Tabasco, the nearest Maya race to the south of
them, and also by very ancient traditions of the Aztecs.

It is noteworthy that these two partially civilized races, the Mayas and
the Aztecs, though differing radically in language, had legends which
claimed a community of origin in some indefinitely remote past. We find
these on the Maya side narrated in the sacred book of the Kiches, the
_Popol Vuh_, in the Cakchiquel _Records of Tecpan Atitlan_, and in
various pure Maya sources which I bring forward in this volume. The
Aztec traditions refer to the Huastecs, and a brief analysis of them
will not be out of place.

At a very remote period the Mexicans, under their leader Mecitl, from
whom they took their name, arrived in boats at the mouth of the river
Panuco, at the place called Panotlan, which name means "where one
arrives by sea." With them were the Olmecs under their leader Olmecatl,
the Huastecs, under their leader Huastecatl, the Mixtecs and others.
They journeyed together and in friendship southward, down the coast,
quite to the volcanoes of Guatemala, thence to Tamoanchan, which is
described as the terrestial[TN-1] paradise, and afterwards, some of them
at least, northward and eastward, toward the shores of the Gulf.

On this journey the intoxicating beverage made from the maguey, called
_octli_ by the Aztecs, _cii_ by the Mayas, and _pulque_ by the
Spaniards, was invented by a woman whose name was _Mayauel_, in which we
can scarcely err in recognizing the national appellation _Maya_.[23-1]
Furthermore, the invention is closely related to the history of the
Huastecs. Their leader, alone of all the chieftains, drank to excess,
and in his drunkenness threw aside his garments and displayed his
nakedness. When he grew sober, fear and shame impelled him to collect
all those who spoke his language, and leaving the other tribes, he
returned to the neighborhood of Panuco and settled there
permanently.[23-2]

The annals of the Aztecs contain frequent allusions to the Huastecs. The
most important contest between the two nations took place in the reign
of Montezuma the First (1440-1464). The attack was made by the Aztecs,
for the alleged reason that the Huastecs had robbed and killed Aztec
merchants on their way to the great fairs in Guatemala. The Huastecs are
described as numerous, dwelling in walled towns, possessing quantities
of maize, beans, feathers and precious stones, and painting their faces.
They were signally defeated by the troops of Montezuma, but not reduced
to vassalage.[24-1]

At the time of the Conquest the province of the Huastecs was densely
peopled; "none more so under the sun," remarks the Augustinian friar
Nicolas de Witte, who visited it in 1543; but even then he found it
almost deserted and covered with ruins, for, a few years previous, the
Spaniards had acted towards its natives with customary treachery and
cruelty. They had invited all the chiefs to a conference, had enticed
them into a large wooden building, and then set fire to it and burned
them alive. When this merciless act became known the Huastecs deserted
their villages and scattered among the forests and mountains.[24-2]

These traditions go to show that the belief among the Aztecs was that
the tribes of the Maya family came originally from the north or
northeast, and were at some remote period closely connected with their
own ancestors.

Sec. 4. _Political Condition at the Time of the Conquest._

When the Spaniards first explored the coasts of Yucatan they found the
peninsula divided into a number of independent petty states. According
to an authority followed by Herrera, these were eighteen in number.
There is no complete list of their names, nor can we fix with certainty
their boundaries. The following list gives their approximate position.
On the west coast, beginning at the south--

1. _Acalan_, on the Bahia de Terminos.
2. _Tixchel_ (or Telchac?)
3. _Champoton_ (Chakanputun, or Potonchan).
4. _Kinpech_ (Campech or Campeche).
5. _Canul_ (Acanul or H' Canul).
6. _Hocabaihumun._
7. _Cehpech_, in which Merida was founded.
8. _Zipatan_, on the northwest coast.

On the east coast, beginning at the north--

9. _Choaca_, near Cape Cotoche.
10. _Ekab_, opposite the Island of Cozumel.
11. _Conil_, or of the Cupuls.[TN-3]
13. _Bakhalal_, or Bacalar.
14. _Chetemal._
15. _Taitza_, the Peten district.

Central provinces--

16. _H' Chel_ (or Ah Kin Chel) in which Itzamal
was located.
17. _Zotuta_, of the Cocoms.
18. _Mani_, of the Xius.
19. _Cochuah_ (or Cochva, or Cocola), the principal
town of which was Ichmul.

As No. 15, the Peten district, was not conquered by the Spaniards until
1697, it was doubtless not included in the list drawn up by Herrera's
authority, so that the above would correspond with his statement.

Each of these provinces was ruled by a hereditary chief, who was called
_batab_, or _batabil uinic_ (_uinic_=man). He sometimes bore two names,
the first being that of his mother, the second of his father, as _Can
Ek_, in which _Can_ was from the maternal, _Ek_ from the paternal line.
The surname (_kaba_) descended through the male. It was called _hach
kaba_, the true name, or _hool kaba_, the head name. Much attention was
paid to preserving the genealogy, and the word for "of noble birth" was
_ah kaba_, "he who has a name."

Each village of a province was organized under a ruler, who was styled
_halach uinic_, the true or real man. Frequently he was a junior member
of the reigning family. He was assisted by a second in command, termed
_ah kulel_, as a lieutenant, and various subordinate officials, whose
duties will be explained in the notes to Nakuk Pech's narrative.

Personal tenure of land did not exist. The town lands were divided out
annually among the members of the community, as their wants required,
the consumption of each adult being calculated at twenty loads (of a
man) of maize each year, this being the staple food.[27-1]

Sec. 5. _Grammatical Observations._

Compared with many American languages, the Maya is simple in
construction. It is analytic rather than synthetic; most of its roots
are monosyllables or dissyllables, and the order of their arrangement is
very similar to that in English. It has been observed that foreigners,
coming to Yucatan, ignorant of both Spanish and Maya, acquire a
conversational knowledge of the latter more readily than of the
former.[28-1]

An examination of the language explains this. Neither nouns nor
adjectives undergo any change for gender, number or case. Before animate
nouns the gender may be indicated by the prefixes _ah_ and _ix_,
equivalent to the English _he_ and _she_ in such expressions as
_he-bear_, _she-bear_. The plural particle is _ob_, which can be
suffixed to animate nouns, but is in fact the third person plural of the
personal pronoun.

The conjugations of the verbs are four in number. All passives and
neuters end in _l_, and also a certain number of active verbs; these
form the first conjugation, while the remaining three are of active
verbs only. The time-forms of the verb are three, the present, the
aorist, and the future. Taking the verb _nacal_, to ascend, these forms
are _nacal_, _naci_, _nacac_. The present indicative is:--

Nacal in cah, I ascend.
Nacal a cah, thou ascendest.
Nacal u cah, he ascends.
Nacal c cah, we ascend.
Nacal a cah ex, you ascend.
Nacal u cah ob, they ascend.

When this form is analyzed, we discover that _in_, _a_, _u_, _c_,
_a-ex_, _u-ob_, are personal possessive pronouns, my, thy, his, our,
your, their; and that _nacal_ and _cah_ are in fact verbal nouns
standing in apposition. _Cah_, which is the sign of the present tense,
means the doing, making, being occupied or busy at something. Hence
_nacal in cah_, I ascend, is literally "the ascent, my being occupied
with." The imperfect tense is merely the present with the additional
verbal noun _cuchi_ added, as--

Nacal in cah cuchi, I was ascending.
Nacal a cah cuchi, Thou wast ascending.
etc.

_Cuchi_ means carrying on, bearing along, and the imperfect may thus be
rendered:--

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