Chapter 3

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.[39-1] 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.

According to the _Popol Vuh_, "the chief god of the Cakchiquels was _Chamalcan_, and his image was a bat."[40-1] Brasseur endeavored to trace this to a Nahuatl etymology,[40-2] but there is little doubt it refers, as do so many of the Cakchiquel proper names, to their calendar. _Can_ is the fifth day of their week, and its sign was a serpent;[40-3] _chamal_ is a slightly abbreviated form of _chaomal_, which the lexicons translate "beauty" and "fruitfulness," connected with _chaomar_, to yield abundantly. He was the serpent god of fruitfulness, and by this type suggests relations to the lightning and the showers. The bat, _Zotz_, was the totem of the Zotzils, the ruling family of the Cakchiquels; and from the extract quoted, they seem to have set it up as the image of Chamalcan.

The generic term for their divinities, employed by Xahila, and also frequently in the _Popol Vuh_, is _[c]abuyl_, which I have elsewhere derived from the Maya _chab_, to create, to form. It is closely allied to the epithets applied in both works to the Deity, _[c,]akol_, the maker, especially he who makes something from earth or clay; _bitol_, the former, or fashioner; _[c]aholom_, the begetter of sons; _alom_, the bearer of children; these latter words intimating the bi-sexual nature of the principal divinity, as we also find in the Aztec mythology and elsewhere. The name _[c]axto[c]_, the liar, from the verb _[c]axto[c]oh_, to lie, also frequently used by Xahila with reference to the chief god of his nation in its heathendom, may possibly have arisen after their conversion to Christianity; but from the coincidence that the Algonkin tribes constantly applied such seemingly opprobrious terms to their principal deity, it may have arisen from a similar cycle of myths as did theirs.[41-1]

There are references in Xahila's _Annals_ to the Quiche deities, Exbalanquen, Cabrakan, Hunahpu, and Tohil, but they do not seem to have occupied any prominent place in Cakchiquel mythology. Several minor gods are named, as _Belehe Toh_, nine Toh, and _Hun Tihax_, one Tihax; these appellations are taken from the calendar.

Father Pantaleon de Guzman furnishes the names of various inferior deities, which serve to throw light on the Cakchiquel religion. Four of these appear to be gods of diseases, _Ahal puh_, _Ahal te[t]ob_, _Ahal xic_, and _Ahal [t]anya_; at least three of these second words are also the designations of maladies, and _ahal_ is probably a mistake of the copyist for _ahau_, lord. As the gods of the abode of the dead, he names _Tatan bak_ and _Tatan holom_, Father Bones and Father Skull.

Another series of appellations which Guzman gives as of Cakchiquel gods, show distinctly the influence of Nahuatl doctrines. There are _Mictan ahauh_, lord of Mictlan, this being the name of the abode of darkness, in Aztec mythology; _Caueztan ahauh_, probably _Coatlan_, lord of the abode of serpents; _Tzitzimil_, the _tzitzimime_ of the Aztecs; and _Colele_, probably _colotl_, the scorpion, or _tecolotl_, the owl, which latter, under the name _tucur_, is also mentioned by Xahila.[42-1]

Father Coto refers to some of their deities of the woods and streams. One of these, the Man of the Woods, is famous throughout Yucatan and most of Central America. The Spaniards call him _Salonge_, the Mayas _Che Vinic_, and the Cakchiquels _ru vinakil chee_; both these latter meaning "the woods man." What gives this phantom especial interest in this connection is, that Father Coto identifies the woodsman with the _Zaki[c]oxol_, the white fire maker, encountered by the Cakchiquels in Xahila's narrative (Sec. 21).[42-2] I have narrated the curious folk-lore about the woodsman in another publication, and need not repeat it here.[42-3] His second name, the White Fire Maker, perhaps refers to the "light wood" or phosphorescence about damp and decaying trees.

To the water-sprites, the Undines of their native streams, they gave the name _xulu_, water-flies, or _ru vinakil ya_, the water people.

As their household gods, they formed little idols of the ashes from the funeral pyres of their great men, kneading them with clay. To these they gave the name _vinak_, men or beings (Coto).

Representations of these divinities were carved in wood and stone, and the words _chee abah_, "wood and stone," usually mean, when they appear together in Xahila's narrative, "idols or images in wood and stone."

The Stone God, indeed, is a prominent figure in their mythology, as it was in their daily life. This was the sacred _Chay Abah_, the Obsidian Stone, which was the oracle of their nation, and which revealed the will of the gods on all important civil and military questions. To this day, their relatives, the Mayas of Yucatan, attach implicit faith to the revelations of the _zaztun_, the divining stone kept by their sorcerers, and if it decrees the death of any one, they will despatch him with their machetes, without the slightest hesitation.[43-1] The belief was cherished by the rulers and priests, as they alone possessed the power to gaze on the polished surface of the sacred block of obsidian, and read thereupon the invisible decrees of divinity. (See above, p. 25).

As the stone came from the earth, it was said to have been derived from the under world, from _Xibalbay_, literally the unseen or invisible place, the populous realm in Quiche myth, visited and conquered by their culture hero, Xbalanque. Hence in Cakchiquel tale, the Chay Abah represented the principle of life, as well as the source of knowledge.[43-2]

The Cakchiquel _Annals_ do not pretend to deal with mythology, but from various references and fragments inserted as history, it is plain that they shared the same sacred legends as the Quiches, which were, in all probability, under slightly different forms, the common property of the Maya race. They all indicate loans from the Aztec mythology. In the Cakchiquel _Annals_, as in the _Popol Vuh_ and the _Maya Chronicles_, we hear of the city of the sun god, _Tulan_ or _Tonatlan_, as the place of their origin, of the land _Zuiva_ and of the _Nonoalcos_, names belonging to the oldest cycles of myths in the religion of the Aztecs. In the first volume of this series I have discussed their appearance in the legends of Central America,[44-1] and need not refer to them here more than to say that those who have founded on these names theories of the derivation of the Maya tribes or their ruling families from the Toltecs, a purely imaginary people, have perpetrated the common error of mistaking myth for history. It is this error that renders valueless much that the Abbe Brasseur, M. Charnay and others of the French school, have written on this subject.

Xahila gives an interesting description of some of their ancient rites (Sec. 44). Their sacred days were the 7th and 13th of each week. White resin was burned as incense, and green branches with the bark of evergreen trees were brought to the temple, and burned before the idol, together with a small animal, which he calls a cat, "as the image of night;" but our domestic cat was unknown to them, and what animal was originally meant by the word _mez_, I do not know.

He mentions that the priests and nobles drew blood with the spines of the gourd tree and maguey, and elsewhere (Sec. 37) refers to the sacrifice of infants at a certain festival. The word for the sacrificial letting of blood was _[c,]ohb_, which, by some of the missionaries, was claimed as the root of the word _[c]abuil_, deity.

Human sacrifice was undoubtedly frequent, although the reverse has been asserted by various historians.[45-1] Father Varea gives some curious particulars. The victim was immolated by fire, the proper word being _[c]atoh_, to burn, and then cut in pieces and eaten. When it was, as usual, a male captive, the genital organs were given to one of the old women who were prophetesses, to be eaten by her, as a reward for her supplications for their future success in battle.[45-2] The cutting in pieces of Tol[c]om, in the narrative of Xahila, has reference to such a festival.

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.[45-3]

A leading feature in their ceremonial worship was the sacred dance, or, as the Spanish writers call it, _el baile_. The native name for it is _xahoh_, and it is repeatedly referred to in the _Annals_. The legendary origin of some of these dances, indeed, constitute a marked feature in its narratives. They are mentioned by the missionaries as the favorite pastime of the Indians; and as it was impossible to do away with them altogether, they contented themselves with suppressing their most objectionable features, drunkenness and debauchery, and changed them, at least in name, from ceremonies in honor of some heathen god, to some saint in the Roman calendar. In some of these, vast numbers of assistants took part, as is mentioned by Xahila (Sec. 32).

Magic and divination held a very important place in Cakchiquel superstition, as the numerous words bearing upon them testify. The form of belief common to them and their neighbors, has received the name _Nagualism_, from the Maya root _na_, meaning to use the senses. I have traced its derivation and extension elsewhere,[46-1] and in this connection will only observe that the narrative of Xahila, in repeated passages, proves how deeply it was rooted in the Cakchiquel mind. The expression _ru puz ru naval_, should generally be rendered "his magic power, his sorcery," though it has a number of allied significations. _Naval_ as a noun means magician, _naval chee_, _naval abah_, the spirit of the tree, of the stone, or the divinity embodied in the idols of these substances.

Another root from which a series of such words were derived, was _hal_, to change. The power of changing or metamorphosing themselves into tigers, serpents, birds, globes of fire, etc., was claimed by the sorcerers, and is several times mentioned in the following texts. Hence the sorcerer was called _haleb_, the power he possessed to effect such transformations _halibal_, the change effected _halibeh_, etc.

Their remarkable subjection to these superstitions is illustrated by the word _lab_, which means both to divine the future and to make war, because, says Ximenez, "they practiced divination in order to decide whether they should make war or not."[47-1]

These auguries were derived frequently from the flight and call of birds (as in the _Annals_, Secs. 13, 14, etc.), but also from other sources. The diviner who foretold by grains of maize, bore the title _malol ixim_, the anointer or consecrator of maize (_Dicc. Anon_[TN-4]).

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 (_trenzado en circulo_), who were consulted on ordinary occasions as diviners.[47-2]

The funeral rites of the Cakchiquels have been related at considerable length by Fuentes, from original documents in the Pokoman[TN-5] dialect.[48-1] The body was laid in state for two days, after which it was placed in a large jar and interred, a mound being erected over the remains. On the mound a statue of the deceased was placed, and the spot was regarded as sacred. Father Coto gives somewhat the same account, adding that these mounds were constructed either of stone or of the adjacent soil, and were called _cakhay_ or _cubucak_.[48-2] He positively asserts that human sacrifices accompanied the interments of chiefs, which is denied by Fuentes, except among the Quiches. These companions for the deceased chief on his journey to the land of souls, were burned on his funeral pyre. A large store of charcoal was buried with the corpse, as that was supposed to be an article of which he would have special use on his way. Sanchez y Leon mentions that the high priest was buried in his house, clothed and seated upon his chair. The funeral ceremonies, in his case, lasted fifteen days.[48-3]

_The Cakchiquel Language._

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, c, e, i, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, t, y.

The following are not employed:--

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

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

_h._ This is always a decided rough breathing or forcible expiration, like the Spanish j, or the strong English h; except when it follows c or [c], when it is pronounced as in the Spanish, _cha_, _che_, etc.

_k._ This has never the sound of c, but is a rough palatal, the mouth being opened, and the tongue placed midway, between the upper and lower walls of the oral cavity, while the sound is forcibly expelled.

_v._ This letter, whether as a consonant (_v_) or a vowel (_u_), is pronounced separately, except when it is doubled, as in _vuh_ (_uuh_), book or paper, when the double vowel is very closely akin to the English _w_.

_x._ In Cakchiquel and its associated dialects, this letter represents the sound of _sh_ in the English words _she_, _shove_, etc.

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:--

[c,] [c,]h [c] [t] [tz]

The origin and phonetic value of these, as given by the grammarian Torresano, are as follows:[49-1]--

[t] This is called the _tresillo_, from its shape, it being an old form of the figure three, reversed, thus, [Illustration: Reversed 3]. It is the only true guttural in the language, being pronounced forcibly from the throat, with a trilling sound (_castaneteando_).

[c] From its shape this is called the _cuatrillo_, Parra having adopted for it an old form of the figure 4. It is a trilled palatal, between a hard _c_ and _k_.

[c,] The name applied to this is, the _cuatrillo con coma_, or the 4 with a comma. It is pronounced somewhat like the _c_ with the cedilla, c, only more quickly and with greater force--_ds_ or _dz_.

[tz] This resembles the "4 with a comma," but is described as softer, the tongue being brought into contact with the teeth, exactly as _tz_ in German.

[c,]h A compound sound produced by combining the cuatrillo with a forcible aspirate, is represented by this sign.

Naturally, no description in words can convey a correct notion of these sounds. To learn them, one must hear them spoken by those to the manner-born.

Dr. Otto Stoll, who recently made a careful study of the Cakchiquel when in Guatemala, says of Parra's characters:--

"The four new signs added to the European alphabet, by some of the old writers on Cakchiquel (Parra, Flores), viz: [t], [c], [c,], [c]h, are but phonetic modifications of four corresponding signs of the common alphabet. So we get four pairs of sounds, namely:--

c and [c]; k and [t] ch and [c]h tz and [c,]

forming two series of consonants, the former of which represents the common letters, and the latter their respective "cut letters," which may be described as being pronounced with a shorter and more explosive sound than the corresponding common letter, and separated by a short pause from the preceding or following vowel."[51-1]

The late Dr. Berendt illustrated the phonetic value of such "cut" letters, by the example of two English words where the same letter terminates one word and begins the next, and each is clearly but rapidly pronounced, thus, the [t] is pronounced like two gutteral[TN-6] _ks_ in "brea_k_ _k_ettle;" the [c] like the two _cs_ in "magic candle,"[TN-7] etc.

There would appear to have been other "cut" letters in the old dialects of Cakchiquel, as in Guzman we find the _pp_ and _thth_, as in the Maya, but later writers dropped them.

I may dispense with a discussion of the literature of the Cakchiquel language, having treated that subject so lately as last year, in the introduction to the _Grammar of the Cakchiquel_, which I then translated and edited for the American Philosophical Society. As will be seen by reference to that work, it is quite extensive, and much of it has been preserved. I have examined seven dictionaries of the tongue, all quite comprehensive; manuscript copies of all are in the United States. None of these, however, has been published; and we must look forward to the dictionary now preparing by Dr. Stoll, of Zurich, as probably the first to see the light.

The Maya race, in nearly all its branches, showed its intellectual superiority by the eagerness with which it turned to literary pursuits, as soon as some of its members had learned the alphabet. I have brought forward some striking testimony to this in Yucatan,[52-1] and there is even more in Central America. The old historians frequently refer to the histories of their own nations, written out by members of the Quiche, Cakchiquel, Pokomam and Tzendal tribes. Vasquez, Fuentes and Juarros quote them frequently, and with respect. They were composed in the aboriginal tongues, for the benefit of their fellow townsmen, and as they were never printed, most of them became lost, much to the regret of antiquaries.

Of those preserved, the _Popol Vuh_ or National Book of the Quiches, and the _Annals_ of the Cakchiquels, the latter published for the first time in this volume, are the most important known.

The former, the "Sacred Book" of the Quiches, a document of the highest merits, and which will certainly increase in importance as it is studied, was printed at Paris in 1861, with a translation into French by the Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg). He made use only of the types of the Latin alphabet; and both in this respect and in the fidelity of his translation, he has left much to be desired in the presentation of the work.

The recent publication of the _Grammar_ also relieves me from the necessity of saying much about the structure of the Cakchiquel language. Those who wish to acquaint themselves with it, and follow the translation given in this volume by comparing the original text, will need to procure all the information contained in the _Grammar_. It will be sufficient to say here that the tongue is one built up with admirable regularity on radicals of one or two syllables. The perfection and logical sequence of its verbal forms have excited the wonder and applause of some of the most eminent linguists, and are considered by them to testify to remarkable native powers of mind.[53-1]

_The Annals of Xahila._

The MS. from which I print the _Annals of the Cakchiquels_, is a folio of 48 leaves, closely written on both sides in a very clear and regular hand, with indigo ink. It is incomplete, the last page closing in the middle of a sentence.

What is known of the history of this manuscript, is told us by Don Juan Gavarrete, who, for many years, was almost the only native of Guatemala interested in the early history of his country. He tells us in his introduction to his translation of it, soon to be mentioned, that in 1844 he was commissioned to arrange the archives of the Convent of San Francisco of Guatemala, by order of the Archbishop Don Francisco Garcia Pelaez. Among the MSS. of the archives he found these sheets, written entirely in Cakchiquel, except a few marginal glosses in Spanish, in a later hand, and in ordinary ink. The document was submitted to several persons acquainted with the Cakchiquel language, who gave a general statement of its contents, but not a literal and complete translation.[54-1]

When, in 1855, the Abbe Brasseur (de Bourbourg) visited Guatemala, Senor Gavarrete showed him this MS., and the Abbe borrowed it for the purpose of making a full version, doubtless availing himself of the partial translations previously furnished. His version completed, he left a copy of it with Senor Gavarrete, and brought the original with him to Europe.[54-2] It remained in his possession until his death at Nice, when, along with the rest of the Abbe's library, it passed into the hands of M. Alphonse Pinart. This eminent ethnologist learning my desire to include it in the present series of publications, was obliging enough to offer me the opportunity of studying it.

Previous to its discovery in Guatemala, in 1844, we have no record of it whatsoever, and must turn to the document itself for information.

The title given it by Brasseur, and adopted by Gavarrete, _Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_, was purely factitious, and, moreover, is misleading. It was, indeed, written at the town of Tzolola or Atitlan, on the lake of that name, the chief city of the Tzutuhils; but its authors were Cakchiquels; its chief theme is the history of their tribe, and it is only by the accident of their removal to Atitlan, years after the Conquest, that its composition occurred there. I have, therefore, adopted for it, or at least that portion of it which I print, the much more appropriate name, _The Annals of the Cakchiquels_.

I say "for that portion of it," because I print but 48 out of the 96 pages of the original. These contain, however, all that is of general interest; all that pertains to the ancient history of the nation. The remainder is made up of an uninteresting record of village and family incidents, and of a catalogue of births, baptisms and marriages. The beginning of the text as printed in this volume, starts abruptly in the MS. after seventeen pages of such trivialities, and has no separate title or heading.

The caption of the first page of the MS. explains the purpose of this miscellaneous collection of family documents. That caption is

VAE MEMORIA CHIRE [C]HAOH.

THIS IS THE RECORD FOR THE PROCESS.

The word _memoria_ is the Spanish for a record, memoir or brief, and the Cakchiquel _[c]haoh_, originally contention, revolt, was, after the Conquest, the technical term for a legal process or lawsuit. These papers, therefore, form part of the record in one of those interminable legal cases in which the Spanish law delighted. The plaintiffs in the case seem to have been the Xahila family, who brought the action to recover some of their ancient possessions or privileges, as one of the two ruling families of the Cakchiquel nation; and in order to establish this point, they filed in their plea the full history of their tribe and genealogy of their family, so far as was known to them by tradition or written record. It belongs to the class of legal instruments, called in Spanish law _Titulos_, family titles. A number of such, setting forth the descent and rights of the native princes in Central America, are in existence, as the _Titulo de Totonicapan_, etc.

The date of the present rescript is not accurately fixed. As it includes the years 1619-20, it must have been later than those dates. From the character of the paper and writing, I should place it somewhere between 1620 and 1650.