Read Ebook: The Annals of the Cakchiquels by Arana Xajil Francisco Hern Ndez D Az Gebuta Quej Francisco Active Th Century Contributor Brinton Daniel G Daniel Garrison Editor

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PAGE PREFACE, v

INTRODUCTION, 9 ETHNOLOGIC POSITION OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, 9 CULTURE OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, 13 THE CAPITAL CITY OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, 21 COMPUTATION OF TIME, 28 PERSONAL AND FAMILY NAMES, 32 TRIBAL SUBDIVISIONS, 33 TERMS OF AFFINITY AND SALUTATION, 34 TITLES AND SOCIAL CASTES, 35 RELIGIOUS NOTIONS, 39 THE CAKCHIQUEL LANGUAGE, 48 THE ANNALS OF XAHILA, 53 SYNOPSIS OF THE ANNALS, 60 REMARKS ON THE PRINTED TEXT, 62

THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, by a Member of the Xahila Family, 66-194

NOTES, 195-200 VOCABULARY, 209 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES, 229

THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS.

INTRODUCTION.

The Cakchiquels, whose traditions and early history are given in the present work from the pen of one of their own authors, were a nation of somewhat advanced culture, who occupied a portion of the area of the present State of Guatemala. Their territory is a table land about six thousand feet above the sea, seamed with numerous deep ravines, and supporting lofty mountains and active volcanoes. Though but fifteen degrees from the equator, its elevation assures it a temperate climate, while its soil is usually fertile and well watered.

They were one of a group of four closely related nations, adjacent in territory and speaking dialects so nearly alike as to be mutually intelligible. The remaining three were the Quiches, the Tzutuhils and the Akahals, who dwelt respectively to the west, the south and the east of the Cakchiquels.

These dialects are well marked members of the Maya linguistic stock, and differ from that language, as it is spoken in its purity in Yucatan, more in phonetic modifications than in grammatical structure or lexical roots. Such, however, is the fixedness of this linguistic family in its peculiarities, that a most competent student of the Cakchiquel has named the period of two thousand years as the shortest required to explain the difference between this tongue and the Maya.

About the same length of time was that assigned since the arrival of this nation in Guatemala, by the local historian, Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman, who wrote in the seventeenth century, from an examination of their most ancient traditions, written and verbal. Indeed, none of these affined tribes claimed to be autochthonous. All pointed to some distant land as the home of their ancestors, and religiously preserved the legends, more or less mythical, of their early wanderings until they had reached their present seats. How strong the mythical element in them is, becomes evident when we find in them the story of the first four brothers as their four primitive rulers and leaders, a myth which I have elsewhere shown prevailed extensively over the American continent, and is distinctly traceable to the adoration of the four cardinal points, and the winds from them.

These four brothers were noble youths, born of one mother, who sallied forth from Tulan, the golden city of the sun, and divided between them all the land from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the confines of Nicaragua, in other words, all the known world.

The occurrence of the Aztec name of the City of Light, Tulan , in these accounts, as they were rehearsed by the early converted natives, naturally misled historians to adopt the notion that these divine culture heroes were "Toltecs," and even in the modern writings of the Abb? Brasseur , of M. D?sir? Charnay, and others, this unreal people continue to be set forth as the civilizers of Central America.

No supposition could have less support. The whole alleged story of the Toltecs is merely an euhemerized myth, and they are as pure creations of the fancy as the giants and fairies of mediaeval romance. They have no business in the pages of sober history.

The same blending of their most ancient legends with those borrowed from the Aztecs, recurs in the records of the pure Mayas of Yucatan. I have shown this, and explained it at considerable length in the first volume of this series, to which I will refer the reader who would examine the question in detail.

There is a slight admixture of Aztec words in Cakchiquel. The names of one or two of their months, of certain objects of barter, and of a few social institutions, are evidently loan-words from that tongue. There are also some proper names, both personal and geographical, which are clearly of Nahuatl derivation. But, putting all these together, they form but a very small fraction of the language, not more than we can readily understand they would necessarily have borrowed from a nation with whom, as was the case with the Aztecs, they were in constant commercial communication for centuries. The Pipils, their immediate neighbors to the South, cultivating the hot and fertile slope which descends from the central plateau to the Pacific Ocean, were an Aztec race of pure blood, speaking a dialect of Nahuatl, very little different from that heard in the schools of classic Tezcuco. But the grammatical structure and stem-words of the Cakchiquel remained absolutely uninfluenced by this association.

These fanciful names, derived from some trivial local characteristic, were not at all translations of the native tribal names. For in their own dialects, Quiche, iche, means "many trees;" Tuztuhil, utuhil, "the flowery spot;" Akahal, "the honey-comb;" and Cakchiquel, a species of tree.

These four nations were on the same plane of culture, and this by no means a low one. They were agriculturists, cultivating for food beans, peppers, and especially maize. To the latter, indeed, they are charged with being fanatically devoted. "If one looks closely at these Indians," complains an old author, "he will find that everything they do and say has something to do with maize. A little more, and they would make a god of it. There is so much conjuring and fussing about their corn fields, that for them they will forget wives and children and any other pleasure, as if the only end and aim of life was to secure a crop of corn."

Cotton was largely cultivated, and the early writers speak with admiration of the skill with which the native women spun and wove it into graceful garments. As in Yucatan, bees were domesticated for their wax and honey, and a large variety of dye-stuffs, resins for incense, and wild fruits, were collected from the native forests.

The art of picture writing was familiar to all these peoples. It was employed to preserve their national history, to arrange their calendar, and, doubtless, in the ordinary affairs of life. But I am not aware that any example or description of it has been preserved, which would enable us to decide the highly important question, whether their system was derived from that of the Mexicans or that of the Mayas, between which, as the antiquary need not be informed, there existed an almost radical difference.

The form of government of the four nations of whom I am speaking approached that of a limited monarchy. There was a head chief, who may as well be called a king, deriving his position and power through his birth, whose authority was checked by a council of the most influential of his subjects. The details of this general scheme were not the same at all periods, nor in all the states; but its outlines differed little.

Among the Cakchiquels, who interest us at present, the regal power was equally divided between two families, the Zotzils and the Xahils; not that there were two kings at the same time, as some have supposed, but that the throne was occupied by a member of these families alternately, the head of the other being meanwhile heir-apparent. These chiefs were called the Ahpo-Zotzil and the Ahpo-Xahil; and their eldest sons were entitled Ahpop-amahay and Galel Xahil, respectively, terms which will shortly be explained.

Of the four nations, the Quiches were the most numerous and powerful. At times they exercised a sovereignty over the others, and levied tribute from them. But at the period of Alvarado's conquest, all four were independent States, engaged in constant hostilities against each other.

There is no means of forming an accurate estimate of their number. All early accounts agree that their territory was thickly populated, with numerous towns and cities. The contingent sent to Alvarado by the Cakchiquel king, to aid in the destruction of Quiche, was four thousand warriors in one body, according to Alvarado's own statement, though Xahila puts it at four hundred. There are various reasons for believing that the native population was denser at the Conquest than at present; and now the total aboriginal population of the State of Guatemala, of pure or nearly pure blood, is about half a million souls.

The famous captain, Pedro de Alvarado was the first European to visit Iximche. He entered it on April 13th, 1524 . In his letter describing the occurrence, however, he says little or nothing about the size or appearance of the buildings.

Scarcely more satisfactory are the few words devoted to it by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who spent a night there the same year. He observes that "its buildings and residences were fine and rich, as might be expected of chiefs who ruled all the neighboring provinces."

When the revolt of the Cakchiquels took place, soon afterwards, Iximche was deserted, and was never again fully inhabited. The Spaniards ordered the natives to settle in other localities, the fortifications of their capital were demolished, and many of the stones carried away, to construct churches and houses in other localities.

"Through the middle of the site of the city, from north to south, runs a trench a fathom and a half in depth, and its battlements of stones laid in mortar rise more than half a fathom in height. This trench divided the city into two parts, leaving the residences of the chiefs and nobles on the eastern side; those of the common people to the west. The principal street runs from the entrance of the city to the chief square of the Temple, which is near the Palace; and from this main street others run east and west, north and south, branching off from the main street, having many dwellings upon them well arranged and located, and displaying the high cultivation of the ancient rulers.

"Another broad street runs close to the main street, from the trench mentioned, toward the east, for about a quarter of a league, ending at a small hill which overlooks the town, on whose summit is a circular wall, not unlike the curb of a well, about a full fathom in height. The floor within is paved with cement, as the city streets. In the centre is placed a socle or pedestal of a glittering substance, like glass, but of what composition is not known.

The site of Iximche was visited in 1840 by the eminent American traveler, John L. Stephens. He states that its position, the steep and profound barranca, and the plain, "warrant the description given of it by Fuentes." A century and a half had, however, almost erased the vestiges of human life. "The ground was covered with mounds of ruins. In one place we saw the foundations of two houses, one of them about one hundred and fifty feet long by fifty feet broad."

Mr. Stephens was also fortunate enough to see and examine the mysterious divining stone, preserved in the church of Tecpan Guatemala. But a great disappointment awaited him. "This oracular slab is a piece of common slate, fourteen inches by ten, and about as thick as those used by boys at school, without characters of any kind upon it."

A few years after Mr. Stephens' visit, the government of Guatemala appointed a commission to survey and examine these ruins. They completed their labors successfully, but I have been unable to learn that the results were published, although they were written out and placed in the governmental archives.

The Cakchiquels were probably acquainted with the length of the year as 365 days; there is even some evidence that they allowed an intercalary day every four years, by beginning the reckoning of the year one day earlier.

The beginning of their year is stated, by most authorities, to have been on the day corresponding to our January 31st or February 1st, old style .

Dates, however, were not assigned by a simple reference to days of the month, but by days of the week; these weeks being of thirteen days each, and including every day of the year. The week days were not named, but numbered only.

The brief description of their reckoning of time, given by Sanchez y Leon, may be quoted: "They divided the year into 18 months, and each month into 20 days; but they counted only by nights, which they mentioned as dawns ; the movements of the sun in the ecliptic governed their calendar; they began their year forty days before ours; they celebrated annually three great feasts, like Easters, at which periods both sexes assembled together at night, and indulged in drunkenness and wantonness."

I think in this extract the author should have said that they began their year 40 days later than ours, as this would bring his statement more into conformity with other writers.

The division of the early tribes into these numerous families was not ancient, dating, according to tradition, from about a century and a half before the Conquest.

The family name was sometimes derived from a locality, sometimes from a peculiarity, and at others from astrological motives.

In the Cakchiquel grammar which I edited, I have given a tolerably full list of the terms of consanguinity and affinity in the tongue . But it is essential to the correct understanding of the text in this volume, to recognize the fact that many such terms in Cakchiquel are, in the majority of cases, terms of salutation only, and do not express actual relationship.

There are a number of terms of frequent recurrence in Xahila's text, expressing the different offices in the government, rank in social life and castes of the population, which offer peculiar difficulty to the translator, because we have no corresponding expressions in European tongues; while to retain them in the version, renders it less intelligible, and even somewhat repulsive to the reader. I have thought it best, generally, to give these terms an approximate English rendering in my translation, while in the present section I submit them to a critical examination.

A well developed system of tribute seems to have prevailed, and it is often referred to by Xahila. The articles delivered to the collectors were gold, silver, plain and worked, feathers, cacao, engraved stones, and what appear as singular, garlands and songs, painted apparently on skins or paper.

The deities worshiped by these nations, the meaning and origin of their titles, and the myths connected with them, have been the subject of an examination by me in an earlier work. Here, therefore, it will be needless to repeat what I have there said, further than to add a few remarks explanatory of the Cakchiquel religion in particular.

Sanchez y Leon states that the most usual sacrifice was a child. The heart was taken out, and the blood was sprinkled toward the four cardinal points as an act of adoration to the four winds, copal being burned at the same time, as an incense.

The priesthood was represented by two high priests, elected for life by the ruler and council. The one who had especial custody of religious affairs wore a flowing robe, a circlet or diadem on his head ornamented with feathers, and carried in his hand a rod, or wand. On solemn occasions he publicly sacrificed blood from his ears, tongue, and genital organ.

His associate was the custodian and interpreter of the sacred books, their calendars and myths, and decided on lucky and unlucky days, omens and prognostics.

In addition to these, there were certain old men, of austere life, who dwelt in the temples, and wore their hair in plaited strands around their heads , who were consulted on ordinary occasions as diviners.

The Cakchiquel tongue was reduced to writing by the Spanish missionaries, and therefore, in this work, as in all the MSS, the following letters are used with their Spanish values,--a, b, c, ch, ?, e, i, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, t, y.

The following are not employed:--

d, f, g, j, s, ?, z.

The following are introduced, but with sounds differing from the Spanish:--

Besides the above, there are five sounds occurring in the Cakchiquel, Quiche and Tzutuhil, for which five special characters were invented, or rather adopted, by the early missionary Francisco de la Parra, who died in Guatemala, in 1560. They are the following:--

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