The Maya Chronicles Part 12

The phrase _u ?abal u natob_ is not translated at all in the English rendering in Stephens' _Travels_, nor in that of Valentini. Bra.s.seur paraphrases it "by him who gives intelligence."

The proper names Ulmil and Ulil seem both to be derived from _ula_, host, the master of the feast.

Here, again, I shall give the originals of the two previous translators.

_Translation of Pio Perez._

"En este mismo periodo o _katun_ del 8 ahau fueron a destruir al rey Ulmil porque le hacia la guerra al rey de Izamal Ulil. Trece divisiones de combatientes tenia cuando los disperso Hunac-eel para escarmentarlos: la guerra se concluyo en el 6 ahau a los 34 anos."

_Translation of Bra.s.seur._

"C'est dans la meme periode du Huit Ahau qu'ils allerent attaquer le roi Ulmil, a cause de ses grands festins avec Ulil, roi d'Ytzmal: ils avaient treize divisions de troupes, lorsqu'ils furent defaits par Hunac-Eel, par celui qui donne l'intelligence. Au Six Ahau, c'en etait fait, apres trente quatre ans."

The name Hunac Eel should be Hunac Ceel, as it is given in the other chronicles. It means "he who causes great fear," _hunac_ in composition means much, great, and _ceel_, cold, also the fright and terror which makes one s.h.i.+ver as with cold ("espanto, asombro o turbacion que causa frio." _Dicc. de Motul_, MS).[TN-18]

11. This important section describes the destruction of the great city of Mayapan, which occurred somewhere between A.D. 1420-1450. The reasons given for the act are not clear.

_Tumenel u pack tulum, tumenel multepal ich cah Mayalpan_, appears to me to have the precise meaning I have given in the text; but Pio Perez translates the pa.s.sage thus "fue invadido por los hombres de Itza y su rey Ulmil, el territorio fortificado de Mayalpan, porque tenia murallas, y porque gobernaba en comun el pueblo de aquella ciudad."

The expression _multepal_, from _mul_, to do an act jointly, or in common, and _tepal_, to govern, is interesting as showing that the government of the country in its golden days of prosperity was not one of an autocratic monarch, but a league or confederation of the princ.i.p.al chiefs of the peninsula. This is also borne out by the descriptions of the ancient government to be found in the pages of Landa and Herrera.

The Itzas seized the territory in and around Mayapan, but they were not the ones who destroyed the city. This was the work of _Ahuitzil?ul_, foreign mountaineers. _?ul_, is the common term for a foreigner in Maya, and is now-a-days applied especially to the whites. _Uitz_, mountain, is used with reference to the high sierra which runs through central Yucatan, and so Pio Perez understood _ahuitzil_, "los que tenian sus ciudades en la parte montanosa." This is probably correct, though we do not know to whom this appellation refers. Yet it may be added that another meaning can be given to the phrase; _uitz_ is the term applied by the natives in some parts of the peninsula to the artificial mounds or pyramids on which their temples were situated, which are usually called _muul_.[132-1] In this sense _ahuitzil ?ul_ should be rendered "foreigners who had great pyramids."

The words _tan cah Mayapan_ (not Mayalpan as before) are rendered by Pio Perez and Bra.s.seur as the name of a province or district; but as they simply mean "in the middle of the city of Mayapan," it appears to be their signification here.

12. "After the fortress was depopulated" or destroyed. This no doubt refers to the fortress of Mayapan, spoken of in the previous section.

Aguilar and his companions were wrecked on the coast of Yucatan, in 1511, and this is probably the earliest date of any actual landing of Europeans, although in 1506, Pinzon had sighted the eastern sh.o.r.es.

13. _Mayacimil_, "the death of the Mayas," a term applied to a general and fatal pestilence. Such are referred to by Landa (_Relacion_, -- X.) and Cogolludo (_Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. IV, cap. VI),[TN-19] The _Diccionario de Motul_, MS. has this entry:

"MAYACIMIL: una mortandad grande que fue en Yucatan. Y tomase por qualquier mortandad y pestilencia que lleva mucha gente."

_Noh kakil_, _noh_, great, _kak_, fire, is the usual word for the smallpox.

The reference to the death of Ahpula, who, as we learn from another chronicle, was a member of the royal Xiu family, is especially valuable as a.s.signing a definite date in both the Maya and European calendars. It is specified with great minuteness, and yet Pio Perez made the serious error in his computations regarding the Maya calendar of reading "the sixth year of the 13th ahau" instead of "six years from the close of the 13th ahau," as, in fact, he himself elsewhere translated it.

The expression _u xocol haab ti lakin cuchie_, "the reckoning of the year was toward the East," refers to the circle or wheel marked with the four cardinal points by which the years were arranged with reference to the four "year-bearers" Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac.

The last words of this section, "sixty years after the fortress was destroyed," are an obvious error, as in the preceding section this date is said to be that of the first arrival of the Spaniards.

14. _Kul uincob_, "mighty men," from _kul_, strong, powerful, probably akin to _ku_, G.o.d, but not with the religious signification which _kuyen_ has (see page 125). _Caputzihil_, literally "to be born a second time." Bishop Landa a.s.sures us positively that a rite of baptism was known to the Mayas before the arrival of the whites, and that this name was applied to it (_Relacion_, p. 144). As will be seen on a later page, Maya writers usually employed another term to express Christian baptism.

The year in which Bishop Francisco Toral first came to Yucatan was 1562 (Cogolludo, _Hist. de Yucatan_, Lib. VI, cap. VI). He died in Mexico in 1571.

The remainder of this chronicle has never been translated or published.

It refers to facts after the Conquest, but I think it of interest to give it completely, as its manner of dealing with known dates will throw light on its general accuracy.

15. Bishop Diego de Landa, second bishop of the diocese of Merida, died at that city in 1579, aged fifty-four years. The first missionaries that came to Mani were Fathers Villalpando and Benavente, in 1547 (Cogolludo, _Hist._, Lib. V, cap. VII). The convent there was established in 1549.

16. No town of the name Yokhaa is now known. But I find on the ancient native map of Mani, dating from 1557, given by Stephens (_Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. II, p. 264), a locality marked _Yokha_, marked with a cross. This is no doubt the reference in the text.

17. The Auditor Don Tomas Lopez came to Yucatan from Guatemala. He was in Yucatan as early as 1552, and published laws in that year (Cogolludo, Lib. V, cap. XIX, Lib. VII, cap. XI). A hospital was founded very early in Mani, according to Cogolludo, but he does not give the exact date (_ibid._, Lib. IV, cap. XX).

18. Doctor Don Diego Quijada arrived in Yucatan in 1562, and remained until 1565.

19. When Landa was provincial, 1562-65, various Indians were hanged on account of the prevalence of suicide.

20. What Marshall is referred to is uncertain, _thulub_ should probably be _chulub_, and so I have translated it. Berendt suggested _ca botab chulub_, "when they paid for water," the reference being to a great drought.

21. An epidemic of measles and smallpox, in 1609, is referred to by Cogolludo (Lib. IX, cap. I).

22. In 1610 three Indians of Tekax were hanged for having killed their chief Don Pedro Xiu (Cogolludo, Lib. IX, cap. I).

23. The reference is to a census or a.s.sessment of the town. None is mentioned in this year by Cogolludo, nor does he speak of the Judge Diego Pareja.

FOOTNOTES:

[89-1] "No lo pudiendo sufrir los otros Senores, se conjuraron con el Senor de los Tutuxius, i acudiendo en Dia senalado a la Casa del Senor Cocom, le mataron con sus Hijos, salvo uno, que estaba ausente, i le saquearon la Casa, i le tomaron sus Heredades, i desamparon la Ciudad [de Mayapan], deseando cada Senor vivir en libertad en sus Pueblos, al cabo de quinientos Anos, que se fund, en la qual havian vivido con mucha Policia; i havria que se despobl, segun la cuenta de los Indios, hasta que llegaron los Castellanos a Yucatan, setenta Anos. Cada Senor procur de llevar los mas Libros de sus Ciencias, que pud, a su Tierra, adonde hicieron Templos; i esta es la princ.i.p.al causa de los muchos Edificios, que hai en Yucatan. Sigui toda su gente Ahxiui, Senor de los Tutuxius, i pobl en Mani, que quiere decir, ia pas; como si dixese, hagamos Libro nuevo; i de tal manera poblaron sus Pueblos, que hicieron una gran Provincia, que se llama oi dia, Tutuxiu." Herrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. IV, Lib. X, caps. II, III.

[90-1] _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. III, cap. VI.

[91-1] I quote Dr. Berendt's words. "Los datos historicos que public Stephens en el Apendice de su obra fueron extractados de tal libro de Chilam Balam en poder de un Indio de Mani, maestro de escuela, que por tener el mismo apelido Balam pretendio ser descendiente del sacerdote de los Mayas que llego a padrinar esta clase de escritos." _Chilam Balam, Articulos y Fragmentos en Lengua Maya_ MSS., Advertencia, p. vii.

I have also in my collection a ma.n.u.script copy of what Yucatecan scholars call the _Codice Perez_, a ma.s.s of materials copied by Senor Pio Perez, among them this chronicle. The following is his own note at its close:--

"Hasta aqui termina el libro t.i.tulado Chilambalam que se conserva en el Pueblo de Mani en poder del maestro de Capilla."

[92-1] _The Katunes of Maya History_, A Chapter in the Early Chronology of Central America, with special reference to the Pio Perez Ma.n.u.scripts.

By Philip J. J. Valentini, Ph. D. _Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society_, 1879. (Worcester, Ma.s.s. Press of Charles Hamilton, 1880). The reprint is 60 pages, octavo.

[92-2] Crescencio Carrillo, _Manual de Historia y Geografia de la Peninsula de Yucatan_, pp. 16-27. (12mo: Merida de Yucatan; imprenta de J. D. Espinosa e Hijos.)

[95-1] chichcunahthan.

[96-1] uchuc.

[96-2] haban.

[96-3] ximbal.

[97-1] ximbal.

[99-1] chulub.

[116-1] The Spanish word "poblar" does not mean to people an uninhabited country, but to found villages and gather the people into communities.

[120-1] _Historia de las Indias Occidentales Dec._ IV, Lib. X, cap. II.