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 Abb�� 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 Abb�� 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 portion of the area of the present State of Guatemala. Their territory is a table land about six thousand feet above the sea, seamed with numerous deep ravines, and supporting lofty mountains and active volcanoes. Though but fifteen degrees