The Annals of the Cakchiquels

Annals of the Cakchiquels, by
Daniel G. Brinton

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Title: The Annals of the Cakchiquels
Author: Daniel G. Brinton
Release Date: March 8, 2007 [EBook #20775]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's Note:

A number of typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
maintained in this version of this book. Typographical errors have been
marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list
found at the end of the text. A list of words that have been
inconsistently spelled or hyphenated is found at the end of the present
text.
The following codes are used for characters that are not present in the
character set used for this version of the book.
[)a] a with breve [=a] a with macron [c] quatrillo, resembles a 4 with a
tail [c,] quatrillo with comma [t] tresillo, resembles a reversed 3 [tz]
resembles a tz drawn together

LIBRARY OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.
No. VI.
EDITED BY D. G. BRINTON

BRINTON'S LIBRARY OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN
LITERATURE. NUMBER VI.
THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS.
THE ORIGINAL TEXT, WITH A TRANSLATION, NOTES AND
INTRODUCTION.
BY
DANIEL G. BRINTON
1885, Philadelphia

PREFACE.
Both for its historical and linguistic merits, the document which is
presented in this volume is one of the most important in aboriginal
American Literature. Written by a native who had grown to adult years
before the whites penetrated to his ancestral home, himself a member
of the ruling family of one of the most civilized nations of the continent
and intimately acquainted with its traditions, his work displays the
language in its pure original form, and also preserves the tribal history
and a part of the mythology, as they were current before they were in
the least affected by European influences.
The translation I offer is directly from the original text, and I am
responsible for its errors; but I wish to acknowledge my constant
obligations to the manuscript version of the late Abbé Brasseur (de
Bourbourg), the distinguished Americanist. Without the assistance
obtained from it, I should not have attempted the task; and though I
differ frequently from his renderings, this is no more than he himself
would have done, as in his later years he spoke of his version as in
many passages faulty.
For the grammar of the language, I have depended on the anonymous
grammar which I edited for the American Philosophical Society in
1884, copies of which, reprinted separately, can be obtained by any one
who wishes to study the tongue thoroughly. For the significance of the
words, my usual authorities are the lexicon of Varea, an anonymous
dictionary of the 17th century, and the large and excellent
Spanish-Cakchiquel work of Coto, all of which are in the library of the
American Philosophical Society. They are all in MS., but the
vocabulary I add may be supplemented with that of Ximenes, printed
by the Abbé Brasseur, at Paris, in 1862, and between them most of the
radicals will be found.
As my object in all the volumes of this series is to furnish materials for
study, rather than to offer finished studies themselves, I have steadily
resisted the strong temptation to expand the notes and introductory
matter. They have been limited to what seemed essentially necessary to
defining the nature of the work, discussing its date and authorship, and

introducing the people to whom it refers.

CONTENTS.
PAGE PREFACE, v
INTRODUCTION, 9 ETHNOLOGIC POSITION OF THE
CAKCHIQUELS, 9 CULTURE OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, 13 THE
CAPITAL CITY OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, 21 COMPUTATION OF
TIME, 28 PERSONAL AND FAMILY NAMES, 32 TRIBAL
SUBDIVISIONS, 33 TERMS OF AFFINITY AND SALUTATION,
34 TITLES AND SOCIAL CASTES, 35 RELIGIOUS NOTIONS, 39
THE CAKCHIQUEL LANGUAGE, 48 THE ANNALS OF XAHILA,
53 SYNOPSIS OF THE ANNALS, 60 REMARKS ON THE
PRINTED TEXT, 62
THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS, by a Member of the Xahila
Family, 66-194
NOTES, 195-200 VOCABULARY, 209 INDEX OF PROPER
NAMES, 229

THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS.
INTRODUCTION.
Ethnologic Position of the Cakchiquels.
The Cakchiquels, whose traditions and early history are given in the
present work from the pen of one of their own authors, were a nation of
somewhat advanced culture, who occupied a