The Maya Chronicles Part 10

1. The introductory paragraph is not less obscure in construction than it is important in its historical statements, and I shall give it, therefore, a particularly careful a.n.a.lysis.

I have already explained the term _u tzolan katun_; _lukci_ is the aorist of _lukul_, which forms regularly _luki_, but the mutation to _ci_ is used when the meaning _since_ or _after that_ is to be conveyed; as Beltran says, "cuando el verbo trae estos romances, _despues que desde que_, como este romance; despues que murio mi padre, estoy triste: _cimci in yume, okomuol_" (_Arte del Idioma Maya_, p. 61). _cab_ means country or place, in the sense of residence, whereas _luum_, used in the same paragraph, is land or earth, in the general sense. The _Dicc. de Motul_ says: "_cab_, pueblo region; _in cab_, mi pueblo, donde yo soy natural." _yotoch_ is a compound of the possessive p.r.o.noun _u_, his or their, and _otoch_, the word for house when it is indicated whose house it is; otherwise _na_ is used; _otoch_ is probably allied to _och_ a verbal root signifying to give food to, the house being looked upon as specifically the place where meals are prepared.

The word _cante_ is translated by Perez and Bra.s.seur as _four_, and applied to the Tutulxiu, while the intervening word _anilo_ is not translated by either: _cante_ is no doubt the numeral _four_ with the numeral particle _te_ suffixed. But here a serious difficulty arises.

According to all the grammars and dictionaries the particle _te_ is never used for counting persons, but only "years, months, days (periods of time), leagues, cacao, eggs and gourds." Moreover, what is _anilo_?

We have, indeed, the form _tenilo_, I am that one, from the particle _i_ (Buenaventura, _Arte de la Lengua Maya_, fol. 27, verso); and we might have _yanilo_, they are those. But this necessitates a change in the text, and if that has to be done I should prefer to suppose that _anilo_ was a mistake of the copyist, and that we should read _katun_ or _katunile_. This would reconcile the numeral particle and would do away with the _four_ Tutulxius, of whom we hear nothing afterwards.

_chikin_, the West, literally, that which bites or eats the sun, from _chi_, the mouth, and, as a verb, to bite. An eclipse is called in Maya _chibal kin_, the sun bitten; _ti chikin_, toward the West.

_talelob_, plural form of _tal_ or _talel_, to come to, to go from.

_chiconahthan_ is not translated by either Pio Perez or Bra.s.seur, nor in that precise form has it any meaning. I take it, however, to be a faulty orthography for _chichcunahthan_ which means to support that which another says, hence, to agree with, to act in concert with; "_chichcunah u thanil_, having renewed the agreement" (_Diccionario de Ticul_). It refers to an agreement entered into by the different leaders who were about to undertake the migration into unknown lands. Possibly, however, this is not a Maya word, but another echo of Aztec legend.

_Chiconauhtlan_, "the place of the Nine," was a village and mountain north of the lake of Tezcuco and close to the sacred spot Teotiuacan, where, in Aztec myth, the G.o.ds a.s.sembled to create the sun and moon (Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib VII, cap. II). _Tulapan Chiconauhtlan_ would thus become a compound local name.

It will be seen from the above that the translation which I have given of this paragraph does not satisfy me as certainly correct. I shall now give the original with an interlinear translation, and also those of Pio Perez and Bra.s.seur, adding a free rendering which I am inclined to prefer, although it modifies the text somewhat.

_Interlinear Translation._

Lai u tzolan katun lukci This (is) their order the katuns since they departed

ti cab, ti yotoch Nonoual cante from the land from their house Nonoual the four

anilo, Tutulxiu ti chikin Zuiua, those the (?) Tutulxiu to the West (of) Zuiua

u luumil u talelob Tulapan chiconah than.

their land (which) they came (from) was Tulapan acting in concert.

_Translation of Pio Perez._

Esta es la serie de Katunes corridos desde que se quitaron de la tierra y casa de Nonoual en que estaban los cuatro Tutulxiu al poniente de Zuina; el pais de donde vinieron fue Tulapan.

_Translation of Bra.s.seur._

C' est ici la serie des epoques ecoulees depuis que s' enfuirent les quatre Tutul Xiu de la maison de Nonoual etant a l'ouest de Zuina, et vinrent de la terre de Tulapan.

_Free translation suggested._

This is the order of the Katuns since the four Katuns during which the Tutulxiu left their home and country Nonoual to the west of Zuiua, and went from the land and city of Tula, having agreed together to this effect.

I have said nothing of the proper names in this paragraph. They are remarkable for the fact that three out of the four are unquestionably Nahuatl or Aztec, and hence they have given occasion for considerable theorizing in favor of the "Toltec" origin of the Maya civilization, and also of the Nahuatl descent of the princely family of the Tutulxiu.

Their name is the only one in the paragraph with a distinctively Maya physiognomy. It is a compound of _xiu_, the generic term for herb or plant, and _tutul_, a reduplicated form of _tul_, an abundance, an excess, as in the verb _tutulancil_, to overflow, etc. (_Diccionario de Ticul_, MS.). It would appear therefore to be a local name, and to signify a place where there was an abundance of herbage. The surname is Xiu only, and as such is still in use in Yucatan.

But it may also be claimed that even this is a Nahuatl name; for also in that tongue _xiuitl_ means a plant, as well as a turquoise, a comet, a year, and in composition a greenish or bluish color; while _tototl_ is a bird or fowl. The Maya _xiu_ and the Nahuatl _xiuitl_ (in which _itl_ is a termination lost in composition) are undoubtedly the same word. Which nation borrowed it from the other? It is certainly a loan-word, for these two languages have no common origin, while, as we might expect from neighbors, each does have a number of loan-words from the other.

I answer that the Maya _xiu_ is unquestionably a loan from the Nahuatl, and my reason for the opinion is that while in Maya the root _xiu_ is sterile and has no relations to other words (unless perhaps to _xiitil_, to open like a flower, to brood as a bird, to augment, to grow), in Nahuatl it is a very fertile root, and nearly thirty compounds of it can be found in the dictionaries (See Molina, _Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana_, fol. 159, verso). But the composition of the name follows the Maya and not the Nahuatl a.n.a.logy.

That in either language the name Tutulxiu can be translated "Bird-tree"

(Vogelbaum), as is argued by Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack (_Archiv fur Ethnologie_, Band XI, 1879), and on which translation he bases a long argument, is very doubtful. It certainly could not in Maya; and in Nahuatl, _tototl_ in composition would drop both its terminal consonants.

The remaining names, Nonoual, Zuiua, Tula-pan, clearly indicate their Nahuatl origin. Zuiua, which was erroneously printed in Pio Perez's version as Zuina is Zuiva; Nonoual is Nonohual; Tulapan, literally "the standard of Tula," refers to the famous city of the Toltecs, presided over by Quetzalcoatl. All these names are borrowed directly from the myth of this hero-G.o.d.

_Zuiven_ was the name of the uppermost heaven, the abode of the Creator Hometeuctli, the father of Quetzalcoatl, and the place of his first birth as a divinity. In later days, when the Quetzalcoatl myth had extended to the Kiches and Cakchiquels, members of the Maya family in Guatemala, "Tulan Zuiva" was identified with the Aztec Chicomoztoc, the famous "Seven Caves," "Seven Ravines," or "Seven Cities," from which so many tribes of Mexico, wholly diverse in language and lineage, claimed that their ancestors emerged in some remote past (compare the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_, Lam. I; _Codex Zumarraga_, chap. I, with the _Popol Vuh_, pp. 214, 227). To this spot the ancestors of the Guatemalan tribes were reported to have gone to receive their G.o.ds; from it issued the Aztec G.o.d Huitzilopochtli; in it still were supposed to dwell his mother and other mighty divinities; and Quetzalcoatl was again the youngest born of Iztac Mixcohuatl, the mighty lord of the Seven Caves (Motolinia, _Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana_ p[TN-12] 10, etc.).

_Tula_, properly _Tollan_, a syncopated form of _Tonatlan_, which means "the place of the Sun," was a name applied to a number of towns in Mexico, all named after that magnificent city inhabited by the Tolteca ("dwellers in the place of the Sun"), servants and messengers of the Light-G.o.d their ruler, the benign, the virgin-born Quetzalcoatl. The common tradition ran that it was destroyed by the wiles of Tezcatlipoca, the brother, yet the eternal enemy, of Quetzalcoatl, and that at its destruction the Toltecs disappeared, no one knew whither, while Quetzalcoatl, after reigning a score of years in Cholula, journeyed far eastward to the home of the Sun, where he enjoyed everlasting life.

_Nonohual_ also had a place in this myth. It was a mountain over against Tulan. There it was that the eldest sister of Quetzalcoatl resided. When he was made drunken by the insidious beverage handed him as a healing draught by Tezcatlipoca, he sent for this sister, held to her lips the intoxicating cup, and with her pa.s.sed a night of debauch, the memory of which filled him with such shame that nevermore dared he face his subjects. Such is the story recited at length in the Aztec chronicle called the _Codex Chimalpopoca_.

_Nonoalco_ was also the name of a small village near the city of Mexico which still appears on the maps. Sahagun tells us that some extreme eastern tribes in Mexico called themselves _Nonoalca_ (_Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. X, cap,[TN-13] XXIX, p[TN-14] 12); and the licenciate Diego Garcia de Palacio mentions "quatro lugares de Indios que llaman los Nunualcos" as dwelling, in his time (1576), in the eastern part of the province of San Salvador, of Aztec descent, and who had recently come there. (_Carta al Rey de Espana_, p. 60, New York, 1860). It should be mentioned in reference to these names and all others of similar vocalization, that both in Maya and Nahuatl the Spanish constantly confound the short o and u. As the Bachelor Don Antonio Vasquez Gastelu observes: "usan de la _o_ algunos tan obscuramente, que tira algo a la p.r.o.nunciacion de la _u_ vocal" (_Arte de lengua Mexicana_, fol. 1, verso, La Puebla de los Angeles, 1726).

Senor Alfredo Chavero, in his Appendix to Duran's _Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana_ (p. 45, Mexico, 1880), claims that _Nonoalca_ was the name given to the Maya-Kiche tribes, or rather adopted by them, when, at an extremely remote epoch, they penetrated to the central table land of Mexico. He thinks that subsequently they became united with the Toltecs, and were dispersed with that people at the destruction of the city of Tula. The grounds for this theory he claims to find in certain unpublished ma.n.u.scripts, which unfortunately he does not give in extracts, but only in general statements. Like much that this writer presents, these a.s.sertions lack support. All the names he quotes as of Nonoalca, that is, Maya origin, are distinctly not of the latter tongue, but are Nahuatl. And the introduction of the mystical city of Tula is of itself enough to invest the story with the garb of unreality.

It is, in fact, nowhere in terrestrial geography that we need look for the site of the Tula of Quetzalcoatl, nor at any time in human history did the Tolteca ply their skillful hands, nor Tezcatlipoca spread his snares to destroy them. All this is but a mythical conception of the daily struggle of light and darkness, and those writers who seek in the Toltecs the ancestors or instructors of any nation whatsoever, make the once common error of mistaking myth for history, fancy for fact.

Therefore, any notion that Yucatan was civilized by the Toltecs after their dispersion, or owes anything to them, as so many, and I might say almost all recent writers have maintained, is to me an absurdity.

This reference to the Quetzalcoatl myth at the commencement of the Maya chronicle needs not surprise us. We encounter it also in the Kiche _Popol Vuh_ and the Cakchiquel _Memorial de Tecpan At.i.tlan_. These members of the Maya family also grafted that myth upon their own traditions. As history, it is valueless; but as indicative of a long and early intercourse between the Maya and Nahuatl speaking tribes, it is of great interest. As this question will also recur in reference to various later pa.s.sages in the Maya chronicles, I will discuss it here.

One of the earliest historians of Yucatan, the Doctor Don Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, states that six hundred years before the Spanish conquest the Mayas were va.s.sals of the Aztecs, and that they were taught or forced by these to construct the extraordinary edifices in their country, such as are found at Uxmal and Chichen Itza. His words are: "Fueron tan politicos y justiciosos en Yucatan como los Mexicanos, cuyos vasallos habian sido seis cientos anos antes de la llegada de los Espanoles. De lo cual tan solamente hay tradicion y memoria entre ellos por los famosos, grandes y espantosos edificios de cal y canto y silleria y figuras y estatuas de piedra labrada que dejaron en Oxumual [Uxmal] y en Chicheniza que hoy se veen y se pudieran habitar." _Informe contra Idolum Cultores del Obispado de Yucatan_, fol. 87 (Madrid, 1639).

The vague tradition here referred to was made part of the testimony in a lawsuit at Valladolid, Yucatan, in 1618. These old doc.u.ments were brought to light by the late eminent Yucatecan historian Doctor Justo Sierra, and Dr. Berendt took a copy in ma.n.u.script of the most important points. I think it worth while to insert and translate this testimony.

VILLA DE VALLADOLID--AnO DE 1618.

"DOc.u.mENTO 1. A la primera pregunta dijo este testigo que conoce al dicho Don Juan Kahuil y a la dicha Dona Maria Quen su legitima muger y que todos los contenidos en la pregunta, tuvo noticia muy larga de su padre de este testigo, porque fue en su antiguedad _ahkin_, sacerdote entre los naturales antiguos, antes que recibiesen agua de bautismo, como los susodichos contenidos en la pregunta vinieron del reino de Mexico y poblaron estas provincias, y que era gente bellicosa y valerosa y Senores, y asi poblaron a Chichenica los unos, y otros se fueron hacia el Sur que poblaron a Bacalar, y hacia el Norte que poblaron la costa; porque eran tres cuatro Senores y uno que se llamo _Tumispolchicbul_ era deudo de Moctezuma, rey que fue de los reinos de Mexico, y que _Cuhuikakcamalcacalpuc_ era deudo muy cercano de dicho Don Juan Kahuil por parte de sus padres, y que dicha _Ixnahaucupul_ hija de _Kuk.u.mcupul_ fue muger de su abuelo de dicho D. Juan Kahuil, todos los cuales fueron los que vinieron de Mexico a poblar estas Provincias, gente princ.i.p.al y Senores, pues poblaron y se senorearon de esta tierra, porque como dicho tiene, le oyo decir al dicho su padre que eran tenidos, obedecidos y respetados como a Senores de esta tierra, y de uno de ellos procede el dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y de estos hay mucha noticia y dicho su padre le dijo muchas veces, que habia constancia entre ellos de lo sucedido por estos Senores.

"2. A la segunda pregunta dice este testigo, que como dicho tiene, oyo decir a su padre y otros Indios princ.i.p.ales que los susodichos contenidos en la primera pregunta vinieron de los reynos de Mejico a poblar estas provincias, los unos se quedaron en Chichinica que fueron los que edificaron los edificios sontuosos que hay en el dicho asiento, y otros se fueron a poblar a Bacalar, y otros fueron a poblar la costa hacia el norte, y este que fue a poblar la costa, se llamaba _Cacalpuc_, de donde procede el dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y estos que asi se repartieron, fueron a poblar las provincias susodichas, y las tuvieron sugetas y en govierno, y que le cupo a un Cocom, el poblar en Chichinica, y le obedecian todos por Senor, y los de la isla de cuzumel le eran sugetos; y de alli (de Chicinica) se pasaron a la provincia de Sotuta, donde estaban, cuando los conquistadores vinieron, y siempre fueron tenidos, obedecidos y respetados como Senores.

"3. A la primera pregunta dij este testigo que conoce al dicho D. Juan Kahuil, y a la dicha Da Maria Quen, su muger, y que de todos los contenidos en la pregunta, tuvo muy larga noticia de ellos, porque D.

Juan Camal, cacique e gobernador que fue del pueblo de Sisal, de los primeros que lo gobernaron por comision e t.i.tulo que le di el Oidor Tomas Lopez, oiendo como era de los antiguos caciques del dicho pueblo en estas provincias, lo trataba en conversacion a sus princ.i.p.ales y este testigo, que siempre estaba en su casa, y fue alguacil mayor ordinario en ella, como los contenidos habian venido de Mejico a poblar esta tierra de Yucatan, y que los unos poblaron a Chichinica y hicieron los edificios que estan en dicho asiento muy suntuosos, y que habiendo sido los que vinieron de Mejico, cuatro deudos parientes con sus allegados y gente que trajaron; el uno poblo como dicho tiene a Chichinica, y el otro fue a poblar a Bacalar, y el otro hacia el Norte y poblo en la costa, y el otro fue hacia Cozumel; e poblaron con gente, y fueron Senores de estas provincias, y las gobernaron y senorearon muchos anos; y que oyo decir que uno de ellos llamado _Tanupolchicbul_ era pariente de Moctezuma, rey de Mejico."

(_Translation._)

CORPORATION OF VALLADOLID--YEAR 1618.

"DOc.u.mENT NO. 1. To the first question the witness answered that he knows the said Don Juan Kahuil and the said Dona Maria Quen his lawful wife, and all those referred to in the question; that this witness had full information from his father, who formerly was _ahkin_ or priest among the natives, before they had received the water of baptism, how the parties above mentioned in the question came from the kingdom of Mexico, and established towns[116-1] in these provinces, and that they were a warlike and valiant people and lords, and thus some of them established themselves at Chichen Itza, and others went to the south and established towns at Bacalar, and toward the north and established towns on the coast; because they were three or four lords, and one, who was named _Tumispolchicbul_, was a kinsman of Montezuma, king of the kingdom of Mexico, and that _Cuhuikakcamalcacalpuc_ was a very near kinsman of the said Don Juan Kahuil on his father's side, and that the said _Ixnahaucupul_, daughter of _Kuk.u.mcupul_ was wife of the grandfather of the said Don Juan Kahuil, all of whom were those who came from Mexico to found towns in these provinces, prominent people and lords; then they founded towns and ruled this land, because as he said, he heard his said father say that they were regarded, obeyed and respected as lords of this land, and that from one of them proceeded the said Don Juan Kahuil; and of these there is abundant information, and his said father often said to him that there was unanimity among them as to what took place by these lords.

"2ND. To the second question this witness answered that as he has said, he heard his father and other leading Indians say that the parties above mentioned in the first question came from the Kingdom of Mexico to found towns in these provinces; some remained in Chichen Itza, who were those who built the sumptuous edifices which are in the said locality; others went to found towns at Bacalar, and others to found towns on the coast to the north; and he who went to found towns on the coast was named Cacalpuc, from whom proceeds the said Don Juan Kahuil and those who thus made division went to found towns in the above mentioned provinces, and held them under subjection and government; and he chose a certain Cocom to rule in Chichen Itza, and they all obeyed him as lord, and those of the island of Cozumel were subject to him; and from there (from Chichen Itza) they pa.s.sed to the province of Zotuta, where they were when the conquerors came, and they were always regarded, obeyed and respected as lords.

"3RD. To the first question this witness answered that he knew all the parties mentioned in the question and had abundant information about them, because Don Juan Carnal who was chief and governor of Sisal, one of the first who governed it by commission and brief given him by the Auditor Tomas Lopez, being one of the ancient chiefs of the said town in these provinces, spoke of the subject in conversation with his leading men and with this witness, who was constantly in his house and was chief clerk in ordinary in it, saying the parties mentioned had come from Mexico to found towns in this land of Yucatan, and that some settled at Chichen Itza, and erected the very stately edifices which are in the said locality, and that those who came from Mexico were four kinsmen or relatives with their friends and the people they brought with them; one settled as heretofore said at Chichen Itza, one went to settle at Bacalar, one went toward the north and settled on the coast, and the other went toward Cozumel; and they founded towns with their people, and were lords of these provinces, and governed them and ruled them many years; and that he had heard it said that one of them named _Tanupolchicbul_ was a kinsman of Moctezuma, King of Mexico."

This legend is also related, with some variation, by Herrera, and as I shall have occasion more than once to refer to his account, I shall translate it.

"At Chichen Itza, ten leagues from Itzamal, the ancients say there reigned three lords, brothers, who came from the west, and gathered together many people, and reigned some years in peace and justice; and they constructed large and very beautiful edifices. It is said that they lived unmarried and very chastely; and it is added that in time one of them was missing, and that his absence worked such bad results that the other two began to be unchaste and partial; and thus the people came to hate them, and slew them, and scattered abroad, and deserted the edifices, especially the most stately one, which is ten leagues from the sea.