The Maya Chronicles Part 23

2. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled; these were their names while they ruled.

3. The fourth ahau was the name of the katun; in it they arrived, the Great Arrival, the Less Arrival, as they are called.

4. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled, in which they took names, at that time, while they resided here; in the thirteenth the residence was continued, they resided here.

5. The fourth ahau katun; then took place the search for Chichen Itza; at that time they were marvelously improved by the fathers. They went forth in four divisions which were called the four territories. One division came forth from the east of Kin Colah Peten; one division came forth from the north of Nacocob; one division came forth from the gate of Zuyuua to the west; one division came forth from the mountains of Canhek, the Nine Mountains, as the land is called.

6. The fourth ahau katun; then took place the calling together of the four divisions, the four territories as they were called, and they arrived at Chichen Itza and were called the men of Itza. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled; then the plottings were introduced by Hunnac Ceel, and the territories were destroyed. Then they went into the midst of the forests, into the midst of Xuluc Mul, so called. The fourth ahau katun; then singing for their happiness took place. It was the thirteenth katun in which they governed and had heavy labor.

7. The eighth ahau katun; thus it took place that there arrived the remainder of the Itza men as they were called; then they arrived; and about that time they governed Chakanputun. In the thirteenth ahau katun those called the Maya men founded the city Mayapan. In the eighth ahau the towns were destroyed; then they were driven wholly out of the province. In the sixth katun they were destroyed, and it was ended with those called Mayas. It was the eleventh ahau katun in which it ended with those called Mayas. The Maya men were all called Christians and came under the control of Saint Peter and the King, the rulers.

NOTES.

1. _U zihilob_, the births, probably meaning the beginning of things.

_Pauaha en cuh_ has no meaning that I can make out; I therefore suppose it an error for _pachah u cah_, and translate in accordance with this emendation. The phrase seems to refer to the first settlement of the country, or to the first time the scattered inhabitants were gathered together in towns by their chiefs.

2. "These were their names"; but no names are given. They seem to have been omitted by the copyist.

3. _Emciob noh hemal ?eemal_, faulty orthography for _noh emel, ?eemel_, the latter syncopated from _?e?emel_. Literally, "since they descended; the Great Descent, the Little Descent."

The tradition here referred to is given at more length by Father Lizana, in his _Historia de Yucatan_, and is discussed also by Cogolludo (_Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. IV, cap. III). As the work of the former is wholly inaccessible, I quote from the reprint of a portion of it in Bra.s.seur's edition of Diego de Landa's _Relacion_ p. 354. "In former times they called the East _Cen-ial_, the Little Descent, and the West _Nohen-ial_, the Great Descent. The reason they give for this is that on the east of this land a few people descended, and on the west a great many; and with that syllable they understand little or much, to the east and the west; and that few people came from one direction and many from the other." Father Lizana goes on to express his opinion that the few who came from the East were the Carthaginians, and the many from the West were the Mexicans.

The very corrupt form in which he has given the words has led Senor Eligio Ancona to suppose they belonged to the archaic and secret language of the priests (_Historia de Yucatan_, Tomo I, p. 24), and Dr.

Carl Schultz-Sellack to imagine that they referred to East and West, right and left, as he adopted the misreading _?iic_, left, for _?e?_, little (_Die Amerikanischen Gotter der Vier Weltgegenden_, in the _Archiv fur Ethnologie_, Band XI, 1879). But they are readily a.n.a.lyzed when we have their correct orthography, as given above. The reference to them in this place shows that the author of the chant was dealing with the most ancient legends of his race.

The Itzas who resided in the Peten district left the region around Chichen Itza some time in the fifteenth century, probably after the fall of Mayapan. They were ruled by an hereditary chieftain, called by the Spaniards "the great king, Canek." Under him the territory was divided into four districts, each with its own chief, with whom the Canek consulted about important undertakings.

Evidently in removing to Peten the Itzas were retracing their steps on the line of their first entrance to the peninsula. They even attempted to go further west, and guided, probably, by ancient memories, a large number set out for Tabasco and the banks of the Usumaciuta,[TN-23] where repose the ruins of Palenque, possibly the home of their ancestors. But they were attacked and driven back by the natives of Tabasco, with the loss of their leader, a brother-in-law of the great Canek. These and other particulars about them are repeated by Villagutierre Sotomayor, _Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza_, folio, Madrid, 1701.

4. The elliptical form of expression here renders the translation difficult. The verb _cutal_ (old form _cultal_), pret. _culhi_ or _cuthi_, fut. _culac_, means to sit down, to remain in a place, to be at home there, to reside, etc. Perhaps the translation both here and in -- 2 should be, "for thirteen katuns they ruled, etc."

5. The word _yum_, plural _yumob_, means father and also chief, leader, ruler, etc. In modern Maya it is the translation of Sir, Mister, Senor.

The proper names of the localities whence the four divisions are said to have come, have a mythological cast. I cannot find any of them in the present geography of Yucatan. Kin Colah Peten is mentioned in a "katun wheel" in this same Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, as the name of one of the towns which furnished a katun stone. Zuiva I have already referred to as appearing in the Quetzalcoatl myth (see page 110).

The mountains of Canhek and the Nine Mountains take us to the Itzas around Lake Peten, in the extreme south of the peninsula, this last mentioned division being, in fact, that from the south.

6. _U payalob_, plural pa.s.sive of _pay_, to call, to summon.

_Tan yol che_, _ol_ or _yol_ is the heart or centre of the leaf or plant; _tan xuluc mul_, see page 174. _Yauat pixan.o.bi_, they were happy in singing, or, they gained favor by singing. The expression is obscure.

The verb _auat_ is applied to the singing of birds, the crowing of c.o.c.ks, and generally to the natural sound made by any animal, and, in composition, to the sound of musical instruments, as, _auatzah_, to play on the flute, to blow a trumpet.

7. _Uacchahi_ from _uacchahal_, appears to be a strongly figurative expression. It is explained in Pio Perez' Dictionary, "salirse con esfuerzo de su cubierta o encaje, salta.r.s.e de ella _como tripa por el ano_."

_Hauic_, from _haual_, to end, finish, cease to exist. Thus the chronicler closes his recital, repeating the to him no doubt bitter fact that the Maya nation and the Maya name had pa.s.sed away.

FOOTNOTES:

[178-1] pachah u cah.

[178-2] oxlahunte.

[178-3] nohemel.

[178-4] ?e?emel.

[178-5] likul.

[178-6] hoki.

[178-7] uchci.

THE CHRONICLE OF CHAC XULUB CHEN.

BY NAKUK PECH.

1562.

CHRONICLE OF CHICXULUB.

Among the ancient doc.u.ments collected by Pio Perez was a series relating to the town of Chicxulub, about six leagues north of Merida. They are ent.i.tled _Doc.u.mentos de Tierras de Chicxulub, 1542_. They consist of a history of the town and of the conquest of the country, written by Nakuk Pech, about 1562; a survey of the town lands by several members of the Pech family, testified to Feb. 7, 1542; a partial list of the Spanish conquerors; a portion of an account by another member of the Pech family, and a further statement by Nakuk Pech.

The longest and the most interesting of these is the history of the Conquest, or, as the writer calls it, "the history and the chronicle of Chacxulubchen"--_u belil u kahlail Chac Xulub Chen_--this being one of the native forms of the name of the town. It is headed "Conquest and Map," but the map has disappeared. Usually such "maps" accompanying the t.i.tle papers of towns in Yucatan have as a central figure the outlines of a church with the name of the town; around this is drawn the figure of the town lands, with the names of the wells, trees, stones and other landmarks mentioned in the t.i.tles.

The writer, Nakuk Pech, baptized Pablo Pech, must have been between sixty and seventy years of age when he drew up his statement, inasmuch as he mentions occurrences, as late as 1562, and also speaks of himself as an adult in 1519. He belonged to a n.o.ble family, the Pechs of c.u.mkal, who are mentioned by Sanchez Aguilar as hereditary _batabs_, or independent chiefs. They appear to have given their names to the province on the west coast called Kin Pech, or Campech, known to the English as Campeachy, and to that of Ceh Pech, in which the city of Ho, afterwards called Merida, was situated. The Abbe Bra.s.seur,[TN-24] on very slight grounds, surmised that they were not originally of Maya stock, but probably descendants of the Caribs.[190-1]

He states that he was the son of Ak Kom Pech, in baptism Martin Pech, and the grandson of Ah Tunal Pech, while the head of the house of Pech seems to have been Ah Naum Pech, baptized Don Francisco de Montejo Pech.

Pech always uses as the name of his town _Chac Xulub Chen_, which means "the well of the great horns," probably because some huge antlers were found there, or were set up to mark the spot. The modern name _Chic Xulub_ was probably applied to it as a parody, or a play on words. It means to cuckold one, to put horns on him.[191-1]

A literal translation of the doc.u.ment was made by Don Manuel Encarnacion Avila, of Merida, about 1860, and this has been of service to me in completing the present rendering. But Senor Avila, though familiar with the Maya of to-day, was evidently not at all acquainted with the ancient terms with reference to the calendar, and the usages of the natives before the Conquest. He therefore made serious errors wherever such occurred.

Moreover, as it was his purpose to give an extremely literal translation, he often sacrificed to this both clearness and correctness, and in various pa.s.sages his sentences are unintelligible.

The Abbe Bra.s.seur (de Bourbourg) commenced to copy the original when in Merida, but completed only the first two paragraphs. He applied for a copy of the remainder; but by an error he received instead of this an unfinished transcript of another paper by the Pech family. These fragments he inserted, with a translation of his own, in the second volume of the Reports of the _Mission Scientifique au Mexique et a l'Amerique Centrale_, pp. 110-120 (4 to, Paris, Imprimerie Imperiale: 1870). As his lexicographic resources were, by his own statement, quite deficient (_id._, note to p. 116), he is scarcely to be criticised if, as is the case, much of his translation but faintly presents the meaning of the original.

It will be seen that I have sacrificed every attempt at elegance in the English translation to an endeavor to preserve faithfully the style of the original, even to its needless repet.i.tions and awkward sentences.