The Maya Chronicles | Page 2

Text, p. 166. Translation, p. 169. Notes,
p. 173.
V. The Chief Katuns, p. 177. Text, p. 178. Translation, p. 180. Notes, p.
182.
THE CHRONICLE OF CHAC XULUB CHEN.
Introductory, p. 189. Text, p. 193. Translation, p. 216. Notes, p. 242.
VOCABULARY p. 261

I.
INTRODUCTION.
CONTENTS.
1. THE NAME "MAYA." 2. THE MAYA LINGUISTIC FAMILY. 3.
ORIGIN OF THE MAYA TRIBES. 4. POLITICAL CONDITION AT
THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST. 5. GRAMMATICAL
OBSERVATIONS. 6. THE NUMERAL SYSTEM. 7. THE
CALENDAR. 8. ANCIENT HIEROGLYPHIC BOOKS. 9. MODERN
MAYA MANUSCRIPTS. 10. GRAMMARS AND DICTIONARIES
OF THE LANGUAGE.
§ 1. The Name "Maya."
In his second voyage, Columbus heard vague rumors of a mainland
westward from Jamaica and Cuba, at a distance of ten days' journey in
a canoe.[9-1] Its inhabitants were said to be clothed, and the specimens

of wax which were found among the Cubans must have been brought
from there, as they themselves did not know how to prepare it.
During his fourth voyage (1503-4), when he was exploring the Gulf
southwest from Cuba, he picked up a canoe laden with cotton clothing
variously dyed. The natives in it gave him to understand that they were
merchants, and came from a land called MAIA.[10-1]
This is the first mention in history of the territory now called Yucatan,
and of the race of the Mayas; for although a province of similar name
was found in the western extremity of the island of Cuba, the similarity
was accidental, as the evidence is conclusive that no colony of the
Mayas was found on the Antilles.[10-2] These islands were peopled by
a wholly different stock, the remnants of whose language prove them to
have been the northern outposts of the Arawacks of Guiana, and allied
to the great Tupi-Guaranay stem of South America.
MAYA was the patrial name of the natives of Yucatan. It was the
proper name of the northern portion of the peninsula. No single
province bore it at the date of the Conquest, and probably it had been
handed down as a generic term from the period, about a century before,
when this whole district was united under one government.
The natives of all this region called themselves Maya uinic, Maya men,
or ah Mayaa, those of Maya; their language was Maya than, the Maya
speech; a native woman was Maya c[=h]uplal; and their ancient capital
was Maya pan, the MAYA banner, for there of old was set up the
standard of the nation, the elaborately worked banner of brilliant
feathers, which, in peace and in war, marked the rallying point of the
Confederacy.
We do not know where they drew the line from others speaking the
same tongue. That it excluded the powerful tribe of the Itzas, as a
recent historian thinks,[12-1] seems to be refuted by the documents I
bring forward in the present volume; that, on the other hand, it did not
include the inhabitants of the southwestern coast appears to be
indicated by the author of one of the oldest and most complete
dictionaries of the language. Writing about 1580, when the traditions of

descent were fresh, he draws a distinction between the lengua de Maya
and the lengua de Campeche.[12-2] The latter was a dialect varying
very slightly from pure Maya, and I take it, this manner of indicating
the distinction points to a former political separation.
The name Maya is also found in the form Mayab, and this is asserted
by various Yucatecan scholars of the present generation, as Pio Perez,
Crescencio Carrillo, and Eligio Ancona, to be the correct ancient form,
while the other is but a Spanish corruption.[13-1]
But this will not bear examination. All the authorities, native as well as
foreign, of the sixteenth century, write Maya. It is impossible to
suppose that such laborious and earnest students as the author of the
Dictionary of Motul, as the grammarian and lexicographer Gabriel de
San Buenaventura, and as the educated natives whose writings I print in
this volume, could all have fallen into such a capital blunder.[13-2]
The explanation I have to offer is just the reverse. The use of the
terminal b in "Mayab" is probably a dialectic error, other examples of
which can be quoted. Thus the writer of the Dictionary of Motul
informs us that the form maab is sometimes used for the ordinary
negative ma, no; but, he adds, it is a word of the lower classes, es
palabra de gente comun. So I have little doubt but that Mayab is a
vulgar form of the word, which may have gradually gained ground.
As at present used, the accent usually falls on the first syllable, Ma´ya,
and the best old authorities affirm this as a rule; but it is a rule subject
to exceptions, as at the end