The Annals of the Cakchiquels Part 4

That Francisco Ernantez was not the author of the first part of the doc.u.ment seems evident. Under the year 1560 occurs the following entry:--

"Twenty days before the Feast of the Nativity my mother died; soon after, my late father was carried off (xchaptah) while they were burying my mother; my father took medicine but once before we buried him. The pest continued to rage for seven days after Easter; my mother, my father, my brother and my sister died this year."

It could not, of course, be the son of Balam, who died in 1521, who wrote this.

Under 1563 the writer mentions:--

"At this time my second son Raphael was born, at the close of the fourth year of the fourth cycle after the revolt."

The last entry which contains the characteristic words _ixnu[c]ahol_, "you my children," occurs in the year 1559, and is the last given in my translation. My belief is that the doc.u.ment I give was written by the father of Francisco Ernantez Xahila. The latter continued it from 1560 to 1583, when it was taken up by Francisco Diaz, and later by other members of the Xahila family.

The Abbe Bra.s.seur was of the opinion that these _Annals_ carry the record of the nation back to the beginning of the eleventh century, at least. A close examination of the account shows that this is not the case. Gagavitz, the earliest ruler of the nation, can easily be traced as the ancestor in the eighth remove, of the author. The genealogy is as follows:--

1. Gagavitz, "he who came from Tulan."

2. His son, Cay Noh, who succeeded him.

3. Citan Qatu, son of Cay Noh, who also ruled.

4. His son, Citan Tihax Cablah, who does not seem to have enjoyed the leadership. It was regained by

5. His son, Vukubatz, by the aid of the Quiche king, Quikab.[TN-8]

6. Oxlahuh Tzii, eldest son of Vukubatz, died A. D., 1509.

7. Succeeded by his eldest son, Hun Yg, who died, together with his eldest son Balam, the father of the author, in the year 1521.

Allowing to these seven who outlived their parents an average survival of twenty years, we are carried back to about the year 1380, as that on which the migration, headed by Gagavitz, began its wanderings, little more, therefore, than the length of two lives as protracted as that of the author himself. This result is that generally obtained by a careful scrutiny of American traditions. They very rarely are so far-reaching as has usually been supposed. Anything spoken of as more than three or four generations distant, may safely be a.s.sumed as belonging to myth, and not to history.

It was the expressed intention of the Abbe Bra.s.seur to edit the original text with his translation, but this he did not live to accomplish. He incorporated numerous extracts from it in his _Histoire des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique Centrale_, and added a few paragraphs in the original at the end of the first volume of that work; but these did not give much idea of the doc.u.ment as a whole.

When, with the aid of the previous partial translations and the a.s.sistance of some intelligent natives, he had completed a version into French, of that portion composed by the first two writers he gave a copy of it to Don Juan Gavarrete. This antiquary translated it into Spanish, and published it serially, in the _Boletin de la Sociedad Economica de Guatemala_, beginning with No. 29, September, 1873, and continuing to No. 43. Copies of this publication are, however, so scarce that I have been unable to learn of a complete file, even in Guatemala. The dissolution of the Sociedad Economica by order of the late President Barrios, scattered the copies in its own archives.

_Synopsis of the Annals of Xahila._

The work opens with a statement that the writer intends to record the ancient traditions of his tribe, as handed down from their early heroes, Gagavitz and Zactecauh. He begins with a brief genealogical table of the four sub-tribes of the Cakchiquels (Secs. 1-3), and then relates their notions of the creation of man at one of the mythical cities of Tulan, in the distant west (4, 5). Having been subjected to onerous burdens in Tulan, they determine to leave it, and are advised to go by their oracles (6-14).

They cross the sea, proceeding toward the east, and arrive at a land inhabited by the Nonoualcats, an Aztec people (15-17). Their first action is formally to choose Gagavitz and Zactecauh as their joint rulers (18-19), and under their leadership they proceed to attack the Nonoualcats. After a severe conflict the Cakchiquels are defeated, and are obliged to seek safety in further wanderings. At length they reach localities in Guatemala (20). At this point an episode is introduced of their encounter with the spirit of the forests, Zakiqoxol (21, 22).

They meet with various nations, some speaking a totally different language; others, as the Mams and Pokomams, dialects of their own. With the last mentioned they have serious conflicts (23-29). During one of their journeys, Zactecauh is killed by falling down a ravine (30). An episode here relates the traditional origin of one of their festivals, that in honor of Gagxanul, "the uncoverer of the fire" (31, 32).

Their first arrival at Lake At.i.tlan is noted (33), and the war that they waged with the Ikomags (34). Here an episode describes the traditional origin of the festival of Tolgom (35-37). A peaceful division of the lake with the Tzutuhils is effected, and marriages take place between the tribes (38).

The Cakchiquels, Quiches and Akahals now settle permanently in their towns, and develop their civilization (39, 40). They meet with numerous hardships, as well as internal dissensions, the chief Baqahol at one time obtaining the leadership. They succeed in establishing, however, family life and a fixed religious worship, though in almost constant war with their neighbors (41-46).

Gagavitz, "he who came from Tulan," dies, and is followed by Cay Noh and Cay Batz (47). These acknowledge the supremacy of Tepeuh, the king of the Quiches, and are sent out by him to collect tribute from the various tribes. They are seduced and robbed by the Tzutuhils, and conceal themselves in a cave, out of fear of Tepeuh. He forgives them, however, and they continue in power until their death (49-59).

After this, a period of strife follows, and the names of four successive rulers are mentioned, but none of the occurrences of their reigns (60-66).

The narrative is resumed when Qikab, king of the Quiches, orders the Cakchiquels to settle at the town of Chiavar. He appoints, as their rulers, the warriors Huntoh and Vukubatz. A revolt agains[TN-9] Qikab, headed by his two sons, results in his defeat and death (67-81). During this revolt, a contest between the Cakchiquels takes place, the close of which finds the latter established in their final stronghold, the famous fortress of "Iximche on the Ratzamut" (82-85).

At the death of Huntoh and Vukubatz, they are succeeded by Lahuh Ah and Oxlahuh Tzii, who carry on various wars, and especially defeat the Quiches in a general engagement, which is vividly described (86-93).

They also conquer the Akahals, killing their king Ichal, and the Tzutuhils, with their king Caoke (94-98).

During their reign, a sanguinary insurrection occurred in Iximche, of such importance that the author adopts its date as the era from which to reckon all subsequent events (99-104). This date corresponded to the year 1496, A. D.(?)

The following years are marked by a series of unimportant wars, the outbreak of a destructive pestilence, and finally, in 1524, twenty-eight years after the Insurrection, by the arrival of the Spanish forces under Alvarado (105-144).

The later pages are taken up with an account of the struggles between the natives and the whites, until the latter had finally established their supremacy.

_Remarks on the Printed Text._

In printing the MS. of Xahila, I have encountered certain difficulties which have been only partially surmounted. As the Cakchiquel, though a written, is not a printed tongue, there has no rule been established as to the separation of verbs and their p.r.o.nominal subjects, of nouns and their possessive p.r.o.nouns, of the elements of compound particles, of tense and mode signs, etc. In the MSS. the utmost laxity prevails in these respects, and they seem not to have been settled points in the orthography of the tongue. The frequent elisions and euphonic alterations observable in these compounds, prove that to the native mind they bore the value of a single word, as we are aware they did from a study of the structure of this cla.s.s of languages. I have, therefore, felt myself free to exercise in the printed page nearly the same freedom which I find in the MS. At first, this will prove somewhat puzzling to the student of the original, but in a little while he will come to recognize the radical from its augment without difficulty.

Another trouble has been the punctuation. In the original this consists princ.i.p.ally of dashes and commas, often quite capriciously distributed.

Here also, I have been lax in reducing the text to the requirements of modern standards, and have left much lat.i.tude to the reader to arrange it for himself.

Capital letters are not often used in the original to distinguish proper names, and as the text has been set up from a close copy of the first text, some irregularities in this respect also must be antic.i.p.ated.

The paragraphs numbered in the text are distinctly marked in the original, but are not numbered there. The numerals have been added for convenience of reference.

FOOTNOTES:

[10-1] Dr. Otto Stoll, _Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala_, p. 157 (Zurich, 1884), on the phonetic laws which have controlled the divergence of the two tongues, Cakchiquel and Maya. See the same writer in his "Supplementary Remarks on a Grammar of the Cakchiquel Language,"

translated by Dr. D. G. Brinton, in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, for 1885.

[10-2] _Recordacion Florida, Discurso Historial, Natural, Material, Militar y Politico del Reino de Goathemala._ Lib. II, Chap. I.

[10-3] _Myths of the New World_, p. 181; _American Hero-Myths_, pp. 44, 73, 80, 162, etc.

[11-1] "Cuatro generosos mancebos, n.o.bles hermanos," says Fuentes y Guzman, _Recordacion Florida_, Lib. I, Cap. II. The story of the four brothers who settled Guatemala is repeated by Torquemada, _Monarchia Indiana_, Lib. XI, Cap. XVII, and other writers.

[11-2] _The Maya Chronicles_, 109-122 (Library of Aboriginal American Literature, Vol. I). For the evidence of the wholly mythical character of the Toltecs, and of their "King," Quetzalcoatl, see my _American Hero-Myths_, Chapter III. (Philadelphia, 1882).

Sanchez y Leon, quoting apparently some ancient Cakchiquel refrain, gives as the former name of their royal race, _ru tzutuh Tulan_, the Flower of Tulan, which wondrous city he would place in Western Asia.

_Apuntamientos de la Historia de Guatemala_, p. 2.

[12-1] Herrera observes of the natives of Guatemala, that the Nahuatl tongue was understood among them, though not in use between themselves.

"Corre entre ellos la lengua Mexicana, aunque la tienen particular."

_Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. IV, Lib. VIII, Cap. VIII.

[12-2] I have in my possession the only grammar of this dialect probably ever written: _Arte de la Lengua Vulgar Mexicana de Guatemala_, MS., in a handwriting of the eighteenth century, without name of author.

[13-1] The four names are given in this form in the _Requete de Plusieurs Chefs Indiens d' At.i.tlan a Philippe II_, 1571, in Ternaux-Compans, _Recueil des Pieces relatives a la Conquete du Mexique_, p. 419. The spelling of the last is there _Tecocitlan_. For their a.n.a.lysis, see Prof. Baschmann,[TN-10] _Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen_, p. 719.