The Maya Chronicles

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"The ascent, my being occupied with, carrying on."

This is what has been called by Friedrich Mueller the "possessive
conjugation," the pronoun used being not in the nominative but in the
possessive form.

The aorist presents a different mode of formation:--

Nac-en, (i.e. Naci-en) I ascended.
Nac-ech, Thou ascended.
Naci, He ascended.
Nac-on, We ascended.
Nac-ex, You ascended.
Nac-ob, They ascended.

Here _en_, _ech_, _on_, _ex_, are apparently the simple personal
pronouns I, thou, we, you, and are used predicatively. The future is
also conjugated in this form by the use of the verbal _bin_, _binel_, to
go:

Bin nacac en, I am going to ascend.
Bin nacac ech, Thou art going to ascend.
etc.

The present of all the active verbs uses this predicative form, while
their aorists and futures employ possessive forms. Thus:--

Ten cambezic, I teach him.
Tech cambezic, Thou teaches him.
Lay cambezic, He teaches him.

Here, however, I must note a difference of opinion between eminent
grammatical critics. Friedrich Mueller considers all such forms as--

Nac-en, I ascended,

to exhibit "the predicative power of the true verb," basing his opinion
on the analogy of such expressions as--

Ten batab en, I (am) a chief.[31-1]

M. Lucien Adam, on the other hand, says:--"The intransitive preterit
_nac-en_ may seem morphologically the same as the Aryan _as-mi_; but
here again, _nac_ is a verbal noun, as is demonstrated by the plural of
the third person _nac-ob_, 'the ascenders.' _Nac-en_ comes to mean
'ascender [formerly] me.'"[31-2]

I am inclined to think that the French critic is right, and that, in
fact, there is no true verb in the Maya, but merely verbal nouns,
_nomina actionis_, to which the pronouns stand either in the possessive
or objective relations, or, more remotely, in the possessive relation to
another verbal noun in apposition, as _cah_, _cuchi_, etc. The
importance of this point in estimating the structure of the language
will be appreciated by those who have paid any attention to the science
of linguistics.

The objective form of the conjugation is composed of the simple personal
pronouns of both persons, together with the possessive of the agent and
the particle _ci_, which conveys the accessory notion of present action
towards. Thus, from _moc_, to tie:--

Ten c in moc ech, I tie thee,
literally, I my present tying thee.

These refinements of analysis have, of course, nothing to do with the
convenience of the language for practical purposes. As it has no dual,
no inclusive and exclusive plurals, no articles nor substantive verb, no
transitions, and few irregular verbs, its forms are quickly learned. It
is not polysynthetic, at any rate, not more so than French, and its
words undergo no such alteration by agglutination as in Aztec and
Algonkin. Syncopated forms are indeed common, but to no greater extent
than in colloquial English. The unit of the tongue remains the word, not
the sentence, and we find no immeasurable words, expressing in
themselves a whole paragraph, such as grammarians like to quote from the
Eskimo, Aztec, Qquichua and other highly synthetic languages.

The position of words in a sentence is not dissimilar from that in
English. The adjective precedes the noun it qualifies, and sentences
usually follow the formula, subject--verbal--object. Thus:--

_Hemac cu yacuntic Diose, utz uinic._
He who loves God, [is] good man.

But transposition is allowable, as--

_Taachili u tzicic u yum uinic._
Generally obeys his father, a man.

As shown in this last example, the genitive relation is indicated by the
possessive pronoun, as it sometimes was in English, "John, his book;"
but the Maya is "his book John," _u huun Juan_.

Another method which is used for indicating the genitive and ablative
relations is the termination _il_. This is called "the determinative
ending," and denotes whose is the object named, or of what. It is
occasionally varied to _al_ and _el_, to correspond to the last
preceding vowel, but this "vocalic echo" is not common in Maya. While it
denotes use, it does not convey the idea of ownership. Thus, _u c[=h]een
in yum_, my father's well, means the well that belongs to my father; but
_c[=h]enel in yum_, my father's well, means the well from which he
obtains water, but in which he has no proprietorship. Material used is
indicated by this ending, as _xanil na_, a house of straw (_xan_, straw,
_na_, house).

Compound words are frequent, but except occasional syncope, the members
of the compound undergo no change. There is little resembling the
incapsulation (_emboitement_) that one sees in most American languages.
Thus, midnight, _chumucakab_, is merely a union of _chumuc_, middle, and
_akab_, night; dawn, _ahalcab_, is _ahal_, to awaken, _cab_, the world.

While from the above brief sketch it will be seen that the Maya is free
from many of the difficulties which present themselves in most American
tongues, it is by no means devoid of others.

In its _phonetics_, it possesses six elements which to the Spaniards
were new. They are represented by the signs:

c[=h], k, pp, t[=h], tz, [c].

Of these the c[=h] resembles dch, pronounced forcibly; the [c] is as dz;
the pp is a forcible double p; and in the t[=h] the two letters are to
be pronounced separately and forcibly. There remains the _k_ which is
the most difficult of all. It is a sort of palato-guttural, the only one
in the language, and its sound can only be acquired by long practice.

The _particles_ are very numerous, and make up the life of the language.
By them are expressed the relations of space and time, and all the finer
shades of meaning. Probably no one not to the manor born could render
correctly their full force. Buenaventura, in his Grammar, enumerates
sixteen different significations of the particle _il_.[35-1]

The elliptical and obscure style adopted by most native writers, partly
from ignorance of the art of composition, partly because they imitated
the mystery in expression affected by their priests, forms a serious
obstacle even to those fairly acquainted with the current language.
Moreover, the older manuscripts contain both words and forms unfamiliar
to a cultivated Yucatecan of to-day.

I must, however, not omit to contradict formally an assertion made by
the traveler Waldeck, and often repeated, that the language has
undergone such extensive changes that what was written a century ago is
unintelligible to a native of to-day. So far is this from the truth
that, except for a few obsolete words, the narrative of the Conquest,
written more than three hundred years ago, by the chief Pech, which I
print in this volume, could be read without much difficulty by any
educated native.

Again, as in all languages largely monosyllabic, there are many
significations attached to one word, and these often widely different.
Thus _kab_ means, a hand; a handle; a branch; sap; an offence; while
_cab_ means the world; a country; strength; honey; a hive; sting of an
insect; juice of a plant; and, in composition, promptness. It will be
readily understood that cases will occur where the context leaves it
doubtful which of these meanings is to be chosen.

These _homonyms_ and _paronyms_, as they are called by grammarians,
offer a fine field for sciolists in philology, wherein to discover
analogies between the Maya and other tongues, and they have been
vigorously culled out for that purpose. All such efforts are
inconsistent with correct methods in linguistics. The folly of the
procedure may be illustrated by comparing the English and the Maya. I
suppose no one will pretend that these languages, at any rate in their
present modern forms, are related. Yet the following are but a few of
the many verbal similarities that could be pointed out:--

MAYA. ENGLISH.
bateel, battle.
c[=h]ab, to grab, to take.
hol, hole.
hun, one.
lum, loam.
pol, poll (head).
potum, a pot.
pul, to pull, carry.
tun, stone.

So with the Latin we could find such similarities as _volah_=volo,
_[c]a_=dare, etc.

In fact, no relationship of the Maya linguistic group to any other has
been discovered. It contains a number of words borrowed from the Aztec
(Nahuatl); and the latter in turn presents many undoubtedly borrowed
from the Maya dialects. But this only goes to show that these two great
families had long and close relations; and that we already know, from
their history, traditions and geographical positions.

Sec. 6. _The Numeral System._

The Mayas had a mathematical turn, and possessed a developed system of
numeration. It counted by units and scores; in other words, it was a
vigesimal system. The cardinal numbers were:--

Hun, one.
Ca, two.
Ox, three.
Can, four.
Ho, five.
Uac, six.
Uuc, seven.
Uaxac, eight.
Bolon, nine.
Lahun, ten.
Buluc, eleven.
Lahca, twelve.
Oxlahun, thirteen.
Canlahun, fourteen.
Holhun, fifteen.
Uaclahun, sixteen.
Uuclahun, seventeen.
Uaxaclahun, eighteen.
Bolonlahun, nineteen.
Hunkal, twenty.

The composition of these numerals from twelve to nineteen inclusive is
easily seen. _Lahun_ is apparently a compound of _lah hun_ (sc.
_uinic_), "it finishes one (man);" that is, in counting on the fingers.
_Lah_ means the end, to end, and also the whole of anything. _Kal_, a
score, is literally a fastening together, a shutting up, from the verb
_kal_, to shut, to lock, to button up, etc.

From twenty upward, the scores are used:--

Hun tu kal, one to the score, 21.
Ca tu kal, two to the score, 22.
Ox tu kal, three to the score, 23,

and so on up to

Ca kal, two score, 40.

Above forty, three different methods can be used to continue the
numeration.

1. We may continue the same employed between 20 and 40, thus:--

Hun tu cakal, one to two score, 41.
Ca tu cakal, two to two score, 42.
Ox tu cakal, three to two score, 43,

and so on.

2. The numeral copulative _catac_ can be used, with the numeral particle
_tul_; as:--

Cakal catac catul, two score and two, 42.
Cakal catac oxtul, two score and three, 43.

3. We may count upon the next score above, as:

Hun tu yoxkal, one on the third score, 41.
Ca tu yoxkal, two on the third score, 42.
Ox tu yoxkal, three on the third score, 43.

The last mentioned system is that advanced by Father Beltran, and is the
only one formally mentioned by him. It has recently been carefully
analyzed by Prof. Leon de Rosny, who has shown that it is a consistent
vigesimal method.[40-1]

It might be asked, and the question is pertinent, and is left unanswered
by Prof. Leon de Rosny, why _hun tu kal_ means "one to the score," and
_hun tu can kal_ is translated, "one on the fourth score." This
important shade of meaning may be given, I think, by the possessive _u_
which originally belonged in the phrase, but suffered elision. Properly
it should be,

Hun tu u can kal.

This seems apparent from other numbers where it has not suffered
elision, but merely incorporation, as:--

Hun tu yox kal=hun tu u ox kal, 41.
Hu tu yokal=hun tu u ho kal, 81.

This system of numeration, advanced by Beltran, appears to have been
adopted by all of the later writers, who may have learned the Maya
largely from his Grammar. Thus, in the translation of the Gospel of St.
John, published by the Baptist Bible Translation Society, chap. II, v.
20; _Xupan uactuyoxkal hab utial u mental letile kulnaa_, "forty and six
years was this temple in building;"[41-1] and in that of the Gospel of
St. Luke, said to have been the work of Father Joaquin Ruz, the same
system is followed.[41-2]

Nevertheless, Beltran's method has been severely criticised by Don Juan
Pio Perez, who ranks among the ablest Yucatecan linguists of this
century. He has pronounced it artificial, not in accordance with either
the past or present use of the natives themselves, and built up out of
an effort to assimilate the Maya to the Latin numeral system.

I give his words in the original, from his unpublished essay on Maya
grammar.[42-1]

"Los Indios de Yucatan cuentan por veintenas, que llaman _kal_ y en
cierto modo tienen diez y nueve unidades hasta completar la primera
veintena que es _hunkal_ aunque en el curso de esta solo se encuentran
once numeros simples, pues los nombres de los restantes se forman de los
de la primera decena.

"Para contar de una a otra veintena los numeros fraccionarios o las diez
y nueve unidades, terminadas por la particula _tul_ o su sincopa
_tu_,[42-2] se juntan antepuestas a la veintena espresada; por exemplo,
_hunkal_, 20; _huntukal_, 21; _catukal_, 22; y _huntucakal_, 41;
_catucakal_, 42; _oxtucankal_, 83; _cantuhokal_, 140, etc.

"El Padre Fr. Beltran de Santa Rosa, como puede verse en su _Arte de
Lengua Maya_, formo un sistema distinto a este desde la 2ª veintena
hasta la ultima, pues para espresar las unidades entre este y la 3ª
veintena pone a esta terminandolas y por consiguiente rebajandole su
valor por solo su anteposicion a dichas unidades fraccionarias, y asi
para espresar el numero 45 por ejemplo dice _ho tu yoxkal_, cuando
_oxkal_ o _yoxkal_ significa 60.

"No se de donde tomo los fundamentos en que se apoya este sistema, quiza
en el uso de su tiempo, que no ha llegado hasta este; aunque he visto en
varios manuscritos antiguos, que los Indios de entonces como los de
ahora, usaban el sistema que indico, y espresaban las unidades integras
que numeraban, y para espresar el numero 65 dicen; _Oxkal catac hotul_ u
_hotu oxkal_, que usa el Padre Beltran por 45.[43-1]

"Mas el metodo que explico esta apoyado en el uso y aun en el curso que
se advierte en la 1ª y 2ª veintena e indican que asi deben continuar las
decenas hasta la 20ª y no formar sistemas confusos que por ser mas o
menos analogos a la numeracion romana lo juzgaban mas o menos perfectos,
porque la consideraban como un tipo a que debia arreglarse cualquiera
otra lengua, cuando en ellas todo lo que no este conforme con el uso
recibido y corriente, es construir castillos en el aire y hacer reformas
que por mas ingeniosas que sean, no pasan de inoficiosas."

In the face of this severe criticism of Father Beltran's system, I
cannot explain how it is that in Pio Perez's own Dictionary of the Maya,
the numerals above 40 are given according to Beltran's system; and that
this was not the work of the editors of that volume (which was published
after his death), is shown by an autographic manuscript of his
dictionary in my possession, written about 1846,[44-1] in which also the
numerals appear in Beltran's form.

Three other manuscript dictionaries in my collection, all composed
previous to 1690, affirm the system of Beltran, and I am therefore
obliged to believe that it was authentic and current among the natives
long before white scholars began to dress up their language in the
ill-fitting garments of Aryan grammar.

Proceeding to higher numbers, it is interesting to note that they also
proceed on the vigesimal system, although this has not heretofore been
distinctly shown. The ancient computation was:

20 units = one _kal_ = 20
20 kal = one _bak_ = 400
20 bak = one _pic_ = 8,000
20 pic = one _calab_ = 160,000
20 calab = one _kinchil_ or _tzotzceh_ = 3,200,000
20 kinchil = one _alau_ = 64,000,000

This ancient system was obscured by the Spaniards using the word _pic_
to mean 1000 and _kinchil_ to mean 1,000,000, instead of their original
significations.

The meaning of _kal_, I have already explained to be a fastening
together, a package, a bundle. _Bak_, as a verb, is to tie around and
around with a network of cords; _pic_ is the old word for the short
petticoat worn by the women, which was occasionally used as a sac. If we
remember that grains of corn or of cacao were what were generally
employed as counters, then we may suppose these were measures of
quantity. The word _kal_ (_qal_), in Kiche means a score and also
specifically 20 grains of cacao; _bak_ in Cakchiquel means a corn-cob,
and as a verb to shell an ear of corn, but I am not clear of any
connection between this and the numeral. Other meanings of _bak_ in Maya
are "meat" and the _partes pudendas_ of either sex.

_Calab_, seems to be an instrumental form from _cal_, to stuff, to fill
full.[45-1] The word _calam_ is used in the sense of excessive,
overmuch. In Cakchiquel the phrase _mani hu cala_, not (merely) one
_cala_, is synonymous with _mani hu chuvi_, not (merely) one bag or
sack, both meaning a countless number.[46-1] In that dialect the
specific meaning of _cala_ is 20 loads of cacao beans.[46-2]

The term _tzotzceh_ means deerskin, but for _kinchil_ and _alau_, I have
found no satisfactory derivation that does not strain the forms of the
word too much. I would, however, suggest one possible connection of
meaning.

In _kinchil_, we have the word _kin_, day; in _alau_, the word _u_
month, and in the term for mathematical infinity, _hunhablat_, we find
_hun haab_, one year, just as in the related expression, _hunhablazic_,
which signifies that which lasts a whole year. If this suggestion is
well grounded, then in these highest expressions of quantity (and I am
inclined to think that originally _hun hablat_, one _hablat_=20 _alau_)
we have applications of the three time periods, the day, the month, and
the year, with the figurative sense that the increase of one over the
other was as the relative lengths of these different periods.

I think it worth while to go into these etymologies, as they may throw
some light on the graphic representation of the numerals in the Maya
hieroglyphics. It is quite likely that the figures chosen to represent
the different higher units would resemble the objects which their names
literally signify. The first nineteen numerals were written by a
combination of dots and lines, examples of which we find in abundance in
the Codex Troano and other manuscripts. The following explanation of it
is from the pen of a native writer in the last century:--

[Illustration]

"Yantac thun yetel paiche tu pachob, he hunppel thune hunppel bin haabe,
uaix cappele cappel bin haabe, uaix oxppel thuun, ua canppel thuune,
canppel binbe, uaix oxppel thuun baixan; he paichee yan yokol xane, ua
hunppel paichee, hoppel haab bin; ua cappel paichee lahunppiz bin; uaix
hunppel paichee yan yokol xane, ua yan hunppel thuune uacppel bin be;
uaix cappel thuune yan yokol paichee uucppel bin be; ua oxppel thuun yan
yokole, uaxppel binbe; uaixcanppel thun yan yokole paichee (bolonppel
binbe); yanix thun yokol (cappel) paichee buluc piz; uaix cappel thune
lahcapiz; ua oxppel thuun, oxlahunpiz."

"They (our ancestors) used (for numerals in their calendars) dots and
lines back of them; one dot for one year, two dots for two years, three
dots for three, four dots for four, and so on; in addition to these they
used a line; one line meant five years, two lines ten years; if one line
and above it one dot, six years; if two dots above the line, seven
years; if three dots above, eight; if four dots above the line, nine; a
dot above two lines, eleven; if two dots, twelve; if three dots,
thirteen."[48-1]

The plan of using the numerals in Maya differs somewhat from that in
English.

In the first place, they are rarely named without the addition of a
_numeral particle_, which is suffixed. These particles indicate the
character or class of the objects which are, or are about to be,
enumerated. When they are uttered, the hearer at once knows what kind of
objects are to be spoken of. Many of them can be traced to a meaning
which has a definite application to a class, and they have analogues in
European tongues. Thus I may say "seven head of"--and the hearer knows
that I am going to speak of cattle, or sheep, or cabbages, or similar
objects usually counted by heads. So in Maya _ac_ means a turtle or a
turtle shell; hence it is used as a particle in counting canoes, houses,
stools, vases, pits, caves, altars, and troughs, and some general
appropriateness can be seen; but when it is applied also to cornfields,
the analogy seems remote.

Of these numeral particles, not less than _seventy-six_ are given by
Beltran, in his Grammar, and he does not exhaust the list. Of these
_piz_ and _pel_, both of which mean, single, singly, are used in
counting years, and will frequently recur in the annals I present in
this volume.

By their aid another method of numeration was in vogue for counting
time. For "eighty-one years," they did not say _hutuyokal haab_, but
_can kal haab catac hunpel haab_, literally, "four score years and one
year." The copulative _catac_ is also used in adding a smaller number to
a _bak_, or 400, as for 450, _hun bak catac lahuyoxkal_, "one _bak_ and
ten toward the third score." _Catac_ is a compound of _ca tac_, _ca_
meaning "then" or "and," and _tac_, which Dr. Berendt considered to be
an irregular future of _talel_, to come, "then will come fifty," but
which may be the imperative of _tac_ (_tacah_, _tace_, third
conjugation), which means to put something under another, as in the
phrase _tac ex che yalan cum_, put you wood under the pot.

It will be seen that the latter method is by addition, the former by
subtraction. Another variety of the latter is found in the annals. For
instance, "ninety-nine years" is not expressed by _bolonlahutuyokal
haab_, nor yet by _cankal haab catac bolonlahunpel haab_, but by _hunpel
haab minan ti hokal haab_, "one single year lacking from five score
years."

Sec. 7. _The Calendar._

The system of computing time adopted by the Mayas is a subject too
extensive to be treated here in detail, but it is indispensable, for the
proper understanding of their annals, that the outlines of their
chronological scheme be explained.

The year, _haab_, was intended to begin on the day of the transit of the
sun by the zenith, and was counted from July 16th. It was divided into
eighteen months, _u_ (_u_, month, moon), of twenty days, _kin_ (sun,
day, time), each. The days were divided into groups of five, as
follows:--

1. _Kan._ 6. _Muluc._ 11. _Ix._ 16. _Cauac._
2. Chicchan. 7. Oc. 12. Men. 17. Ahau.
3. Cimi. 8. Chuen. 13. Cib. 18. Imix.
4. Manik. 9. Eb. 14. Caban. 19. Ik.
5. Lamat. 10. Ben. 15. E[c]nab. 20. Akbal.

The months, in their order, were:--

1. Pop.
2. Uo.
3. Zip.
4. Zo[c].
5. Zeec.
6. Xul.
7. [C]e-yaxkin.
8. Mol.
9. Chen.
10. Yaax.
11. Zac.
12. Ceh.
13. Mac.
14. Kankin.
15. Moan.
16. Pax.
17. Kayab.
18. Cumku.

As the Maya year was of 365 days, and as 18 months of 20 days each
counted only 360 days, there were five days intervening between the last
of the month Cumku and the first day of the following year. These were
called "days without names," _xma kaba kin_ (_xma_, without, _kaba_,
names, _kin_, days), an expression not quite correct, as they were named
in regular order, only they were not counted in any month.

It will be seen, by glancing at the list of days, that this arrangement
brought at the beginning of each year, the days Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac
in turn, and that no other days could begin the year. These days were
therefore called _cuch haab_, "the bearers of the years" (_cuch_, to
bear, carry, _haab_, year), and years were distinguished as "a year
Kan," "a year Muluc," etc., as they began with one or another of these
"year bearers."

But the calendar was not so simple as this. The days were not counted
from one to twenty, and then beginning at one again, and so on, but by
periods of 13 days each. Thus, in the first month, beginning with 1 Kan,
the 14th day of that month begins a new "week," as it has been called,
and is named 1 Caban. Twenty-eight of these weeks make 364 days, thus
leaving one day to complete the year. When the number of these odd days
amounted to 13, in other words when thirteen years had elapsed, this
formed a period which was called "the _katun_ of days," _kin katun_, and
by Spanish writers an "indiction."

It will be readily observed by an inspection of the following table,
that four of these indictions, in other words 52 years, will elapse
before a "year bearer" of the same name and number recommences a year.

___________________________________________________________
_1st year._ | _14th year._ | _27th year._ | _40th year_[TN-5]
-----------------------------------------------------------
1 | Kan | Muluc | Ix | Cauac
2 | Muluc | Ix | Cauac | Kan
3 | Ix | Cauac | Kan | Muluc
4 | Cauac | Kan | Muluc | Ix
5 | Kan | Muluc | Ix | Cauac
6 | Muluc | Ix | Cauac | Kan
7 | Ix | Cauac | Kan | Muluc
8 | Cauac | Kan | Muluc | Ix
9 | Kan | Muluc | Ix | Cauac
10 | Muluc | Ix | Cauac | Kan
11 | Ix | Cauac | Kan | Muluc
12 | Cauac | Kan | Muluc | Ix
13 | Kan | Muluc | Ix | Cauac.
-----------------------------------------------------------

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