The Maya Chronicles | Page 5

their faces. They were signally defeated by the troops of Montezuma, but not reduced to vassalage.[24-1]
At the time of the Conquest the province of the Huastecs was densely peopled; "none more so under the sun," remarks the Augustinian friar Nicolas de Witte, who visited it in 1543; but even then he found it almost deserted and covered with ruins, for, a few years previous, the Spaniards had acted towards its natives with customary treachery and cruelty. They had invited all the chiefs to a conference, had enticed them into a large wooden building, and then set fire to it and burned them alive. When this merciless act became known the Huastecs deserted their villages and scattered among the forests and mountains.[24-2]
These traditions go to show that the belief among the Aztecs was that the tribes of the Maya family came originally from the north or northeast, and were at some remote period closely connected with their own ancestors.
§ 4. Political Condition at the Time of the Conquest.
When the Spaniards first explored the coasts of Yucatan they found the peninsula divided into a number of independent petty states. According to an authority followed by Herrera, these were eighteen in number. There is no complete list of their names, nor can we fix with certainty their boundaries. The following list gives their approximate position. On the west coast, beginning at the south--
1. Acalan, on the Bahia de Terminos. 2. Tixchel (or Telchac?) 3. Champoton (Chakanputun, or Potonchan). 4. Kinpech (Campech or Campeche). 5. Canul (Acanul or H' Canul). 6. Hocabaihumun. 7. Cehpech, in which Merida was founded. 8. Zipatan, on the northwest coast.
On the east coast, beginning at the north--
9. Choaca, near Cape Cotoche. 10. Ekab, opposite the Island of Cozumel. 11. Conil, or of the Cupuls.[TN-3] 13. Bakhalal, or Bacalar. 14. Chetemal. 15. Taitza, the Peten district.
Central provinces--
16. H' Chel (or Ah Kin Chel) in which Itzamal was located. 17. Zotuta, of the Cocoms. 18. Mani, of the Xius. 19. Cochuah (or Cochva, or Cocolá), the principal town of which was Ichmul.
As No. 15, the Peten district, was not conquered by the Spaniards until 1697, it was doubtless not included in the list drawn up by Herrera's authority, so that the above would correspond with his statement.
Each of these provinces was ruled by a hereditary chief, who was called batab, or batabil uinic (uinic=man). He sometimes bore two names, the first being that of his mother, the second of his father, as Can Ek, in which Can was from the maternal, Ek from the paternal line. The surname (kaba) descended through the male. It was called hach kaba, the true name, or hool kaba, the head name. Much attention was paid to preserving the genealogy, and the word for "of noble birth" was ah kaba, "he who has a name."
Each village of a province was organized under a ruler, who was styled halach uinic, the true or real man. Frequently he was a junior member of the reigning family. He was assisted by a second in command, termed ah kulel, as a lieutenant, and various subordinate officials, whose duties will be explained in the notes to Nakuk Pech's narrative.
Personal tenure of land did not exist. The town lands were divided out annually among the members of the community, as their wants required, the consumption of each adult being calculated at twenty loads (of a man) of maize each year, this being the staple food.[27-1]
§ 5. Grammatical Observations.
Compared with many American languages, the Maya is simple in construction. It is analytic rather than synthetic; most of its roots are monosyllables or dissyllables, and the order of their arrangement is very similar to that in English. It has been observed that foreigners, coming to Yucatan, ignorant of both Spanish and Maya, acquire a conversational knowledge of the latter more readily than of the former.[28-1]
An examination of the language explains this. Neither nouns nor adjectives undergo any change for gender, number or case. Before animate nouns the gender may be indicated by the prefixes ah and ix, equivalent to the English he and she in such expressions as he-bear, she-bear. The plural particle is ob, which can be suffixed to animate nouns, but is in fact the third person plural of the personal pronoun.
The conjugations of the verbs are four in number. All passives and neuters end in l, and also a certain number of active verbs; these form the first conjugation, while the remaining three are of active verbs only. The time-forms of the verb are three, the present, the aorist, and the future. Taking the verb nacal, to ascend, these forms are nacal, naci, nacac. The present indicative is:--
Nacal in cah, I ascend. Nacal á cah, thou ascendest. Nacal ú cah, he ascends. Nacal c cah, we ascend. Nacal a cah ex,