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This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The Maya ChroniclesEditor: Daniel G. BrintonRelease date: December 28, 2006 [eBook #20205]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Julia Miller and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Title: The Maya Chronicles
Editor: Daniel G. Brinton
Editor: Daniel G. Brinton
Release date: December 28, 2006 [eBook #20205]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Julia Miller and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAYA CHRONICLES ***
Transcriber’s NoteA number of typographical errors have been maintained in the current version of this book. They aremarkedand the corrected text is shown in the popup. Alistof these errors is found at the end of this book along with a single correction that was made.This text uses the following less-common characters: ɔ (open o), ħ (h with stroke), ŏ (o with breve), ŭ (u with breve). If these characters do not display correctly, please try changing your font.
Transcriber’s Note
A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the current version of this book. They aremarkedand the corrected text is shown in the popup. Alistof these errors is found at the end of this book along with a single correction that was made.
This text uses the following less-common characters: ɔ (open o), ħ (h with stroke), ŏ (o with breve), ŭ (u with breve). If these characters do not display correctly, please try changing your font.
LIBRARY
OF
Aboriginal AmericanLiterature.
No. 1.
EDITED BY
D. G. BRINTON
BRINTON’S LIBRARY OFABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.NUMBER 1.
THE
Maya Chronicles.
EDITED BY
DANIEL G. BRINTON
AMS PRESSNEW YORK
Reprinted from the edition of 1882, PhiladelphiaFirst AMS EDITION published 1969Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 70-83457
AMS PRESS, INC.New York, N.Y. 10003
TO THE MEMORY
OF
CARL HERMANN BERENDT, M.D.,
WHOSE LONG AND EARNEST DEVOTION TO THE ETHNOLOGYAND LINGUISTICS OF AMERICA HAS MADE THIS WORKPOSSIBLE, AND WHOSE UNTIMELY DEATH HASLOST TO AMERICAN SCHOLARS RESULTSOF FAR GREATER IMPORTANCE,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED.
The belief that the only solid foundation for the accurate study of American ethnology and linguistics must be in the productions of the native mind in their original form has led me to the venturesome undertaking of which this is the first issue. The object of the proposed series of publications is to preserve permanently a number of rude specimens of literature composed by the members of various American tribes, and exhibiting their habits of thought, modes of expressions, intellectual range and æsthetic faculties.
Whether the literary and historical value of these monuments is little or great, they merit the careful attention of all who would weigh and measure the aboriginal mind, and estimate its capacities correctly.
The neglect of this field of study is largely owing to a deficiency of material for its pursuit. Genuine specimens of native literature are rare, and almost or quite inaccessible. They remain in manuscript in the hands of a few collectors, or, if printed, they are in forms not convenient to obtain,as in the ponderous transactions of learned societies, or in privately printed works. My purpose is to gather together from these sources a dozen volumes of moderate size and reasonable price, and thus to put the material within the reach of American and European scholars.
Now that the first volume is ready, I see in it much that can be improved upon in subsequent issues. I must ask for it an indulgent criticism, for the novelty of the undertaking and its inherent difficulties have combined to make it less finished and perfected than it should have been.
If the series meets with a moderate encouragement, it will be continued at the rate of two or three volumes of varying size a year, and will, I think, prove ultimately of considerable service to the students of man in his simpler conditions of life and thought, especially of American man.
INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. The Name Maya, p.9. § 2. The Maya Linguistic Family, p.17. § 3. Origin of the Maya Tribes, p.20. § 4. Political Condition at the Time of the Conquest, p.25. § 5. Grammatical Observations, p.27. § 6. The Numeral System, p.37. § 7. The Calendar, p.50. § 8. Ancient Hieroglyphic Books, p.61. § 9. Modern Maya Manuscripts, p.67. § 10. Grammars and Dictionaries, p.72.
THE CHRONICLES.
Introductoryp.81
Introductoryp.81
THE CHRONICLE OF CHAC XULUB CHEN.
Introductory, p.189. Text, p.193. Translation, p.216. Notes, p.242.
Vocabularyp.261
Vocabularyp.261
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 acanoe.9-1Its inhabitants were said to be clothed, and the specimens of wax which were found among the Cubans must have been broughtfrom 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 calledMaia.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 theAntilles.10-2These islands werepeopled 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.
Mayawas 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 themselvesMaya uinic, Maya men, orah Mayaa, those of Maya; their language wasMaya than, the Maya speech; a native woman wasMaya cħuplal; and their ancient capital wasMaya pan, theMayabanner, 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 historianthinks,12-1seems 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 thelengua de Mayaand thelengua deCampeche.12-2The 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 formMayab, 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 Spanishcorruption.13-1
But this will not bear examination. All the authorities, native as well as foreign, of the sixteenth century, writeMaya. 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 capitalblunder.13-2
The explanation I have to offer is just the reverse. The use of the terminalbin “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 formmaabis sometimes used for the ordinary negativema, no; but, he adds, it is a word of the lower classes,es palabra de gente comun. So I have little doubt but thatMayabis 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 of a sentence and in certain dialects Dr. Berendt states that it is not infrequently heard asMa´ya´or evenMaya´.14-1
The meaning and derivation of the word have given rise to the usual number of nonsensical and far-fetched etymologies. The Greek, the Sanscrit, the ancient Coptic and the Hebrew have all been called in to interpret it. I shall refer to but a few of these profitless suggestions.
The Abbé Brasseur (de Bourbourg) quotes as the opinion of Don Ramon de Ordoñez, the author of a strange work on American archæology, calledHistory of the Heaven and the Earth, thatMayais but an abbreviation of the phrasema ay ha, which, the Abbé adds, means word for word,non adest aqua, and was applied to the peninsula on account of the scarcity of waterthere.15-1
Unfortunately that phrase has no such, nor any, meaning in Maya; were itma yan haa, it would have the sense he gives it; and further, as the Abbé himself remarked in a later work, it is not applicable to Yucatan, where, though rivers are scarce, wells and water abound. He therefore preferred to derive it frommaandha, which he thought he could translate either “Mother of the Water,” or “Arm of theLand!”15-2
The latest suggestion I have noticed is that of Eligio Ancona, who, claiming thatMayabis the correct form, and that this means “not numerous,” thinks that it was applied to the first native settlers of the land, on account of the paucity of theirnumbers!15-3
All this seems like learned trifling. The name may belong to that ancient dialect from which are derived many of the names of the days andmonths in the native calendar, and which, as an esoteric language, was in use among the Maya priests, as was also one among the Aztecs of Mexico. Instances of this, in fact, are very common among the American aborigines, and no doubt many words were thus preserved which could not be analyzed to their radicals through the popular tongue.
Or, if it is essential to find a meaning, why not accept the obvious signification of the name?Mais the negative “no,” “not;”yameans rough, fatiguing, difficult, painful, dangerous. The compoundmayais given in the Dictionary of Motul with the translations “not arduous nor severe; something easy and not difficult to do;”cosa no grave ni recia; cosa facil y no dificultosa de hacer. It was used adjectively as in the phrase,maya u chapahal, his sickness is not dangerous. So they might have spoken of the level and fertile land of Yucatan, abounding in fruit and game, that land to which we are told they delighted to give, as a favorite appellation, the termu luumil ceh, u luumil cutz, the land of the deer, the land of the wild turkey; of this land, I say, they might well have spoken as of one not fatiguing, not rough nor exhausting.
§ 2.The Maya Linguistic Family.
Whatever the primitive meaning and first application of the name Maya, it is now used to signify specifically the aborigines of Yucatan. In a more extended sense, in the expression “the Maya family,” it is understood to embrace all tribes, wherever found, who speak related dialects presumably derived from the same ancient stock as the Maya proper.
Other names for this extended family have been suggested, as Maya-Kiche, Mam-Huastec, and the like, compounded of the names of two or more of the tribes of the group. But this does not appear to have much advantage over the simple expression I have given, though “Maya-Kiche” may be conveniently employed to prevent confusion.
These affiliated tribes are, according to the investigations of Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt, the following:—
The languages of these do not differ more, in their extremes, than the French, Spanish, Italian and other tongues of the so-called Latin races; while a number resemble each other as closely as the Greek dialects of classic times.
What lends particular importance to the study of this group of languages is that it is that which was spoken by the race in several respects the most civilized of any found on the American continent. Copan, Uxmal and Palenque are names which at once evoke the most earnest interest in the mind of every one who has ever been attracted to the subject of the archæology of the New World. This race, moreover, possessedan abundant literature, preserved in written books, in characters which were in some degree phonetic. Enough of these remain to whet, though not to satisfy, the curiosity of the student.
The total number of Indians of pure blood speaking the Maya proper may be estimated as nearly or quite 200,000, most of them in the political limits of the department of Yucatan; to these should be added nearly 100,000 of mixed blood, or of European descent, who use the tongue in dailylife.19-1For it forms one of the rare examples of American languages possessing vitality enough not only to maintain its own ground, but actually to force itself on European settlers and supplant their native speech. It is no uncommon occurrence in Yucatan, says Dr. Berendt, to find whole families of pure white blood who do not know one word of Spanish, using the Maya exclusively. It has even intruded on literature, and one finds it interlarded in books published in Merida, verymuch as lady novelists drop into French in their imaginativeeffusions.20-1
The number speaking the different dialects of the stock are roughly estimated at half a million, which is probably below the mark.
§ 3.Origin of the Maya Tribes.
The Mayas did not claim to be autochthones. Their legends referred to their arrival by the sea from the East, in remote times, under the leadership of Itzamna, their hero-god, and also to a less numerous, immigration from the west, from Mexico, which was connected with the history of another hero-god, Kukul Càn.
The first of these appears to be wholly mythical, and but a repetition of the story found among so many American tribes, that their ancestors came from the distant Orient. I have elsewhere explained this to be but a solar or lightmyth.20-2
The second tradition deserves more attention from the historian, as it is supported by some of their chronicles and by the testimony of severalof the most intelligent natives of the period of the conquest, which I present on a later page of this volume.
It cannot be denied that the Mayas, the Kiches and the Cakchiquels, in their most venerable traditions, claimed to have migrated from the north or west, from some part of the present country of Mexico.
These traditions receive additional importance from the presence on the shores of the Mexican Gulf, on the waters of the river Panuco, north of Vera Cruz, of a prominent branch of the Maya family, theHuastecs. The idea suggests itself that these were the rearguard of a great migration of the Maya family from the north toward the south.
Support is given to this by their dialect, which is most closely akin to that of the Tzendals of Tabasco, the nearest Maya race to the south of them, and also by very ancient traditions of the Aztecs.
It is noteworthy that these two partially civilized races, the Mayas and the Aztecs, though differing radically in language, had legends which claimed a community of origin in some indefinitely remote past. We find these on the Maya side narratedin the sacred book of the Kiches, thePopol Vuh, in the CakchiquelRecords of Tecpan Atitlan, and in various pure Maya sources which I bring forward in this volume. The Aztec traditions refer to the Huastecs, and a brief analysis of them will not be out of place.
At a very remote period the Mexicans, under their leader Mecitl, from whom they took their name, arrived in boats at the mouth of the river Panuco, at the place called Panotlan, which name means “where one arrives by sea.” With them were the Olmecs under their leader Olmecatl, the Huastecs, under their leader Huastecatl, the Mixtecs and others. They journeyed together and in friendship southward, down the coast, quite to the volcanoes of Guatemala, thence to Tamoanchan, which is described as theterrestialparadise, and afterwards, some of them at least, northward and eastward, toward the shores of the Gulf.
On this journey the intoxicating beverage made from the maguey, calledoctliby the Aztecs,ciiby the Mayas, andpulqueby the Spaniards, was invented by a woman whose name wasMayauel, in which we can scarcely err in recognizing thenational appellationMaya.23-1Furthermore, the invention is closely related to the history of the Huastecs. Their leader, alone of all the chieftains, drank to excess, and in his drunkenness threw aside his garments and displayed his nakedness. When he grew sober, fear and shame impelled him to collect all those who spoke his language, and leaving the other tribes, he returned to the neighborhood of Panuco and settled therepermanently.23-2
The annals of the Aztecs contain frequent allusions to the Huastecs. The most important contest between the two nations took place in the reign of Montezuma the First (1440-1464). The attack was made by the Aztecs, for the alleged reason that the Huastecs had robbed and killed Aztec merchants on their way to the great fairs in Guatemala. The Huastecs are described as numerous, dwelling in walled towns, possessing quantities of maize, beans, feathers and precious stones, and painting their faces. They were signally defeated by the troops of Montezuma, but not reduced tovassalage.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 andmountains.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—
On the east coast, beginning at the north—
Central provinces—
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 calledbatab, orbatabil uinic(uinic=man). He sometimes bore two names, the first being that of his mother, the second of his father, asCan Ek, in whichCanwas from the maternal,Ekfrom the paternal line. The surname (kaba) descended through the male. It was calledhach kaba, the true name, orhool kaba, the head name. Much attention was paid to preserving the genealogy, and the word for “of noble birth” wasah kaba, “he who has a name.”
Each village of a province was organized under a ruler, who was styledhalach uinic, the true or real man. Frequently he was a junior memberof the reigning family. He was assisted by a second in command, termedah 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 staplefood.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 toYucatan, ignorant of both Spanish and Maya, acquire a conversational knowledge of the latter more readily than of theformer.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 prefixesahandix, equivalent to the Englishheandshein such expressions ashe-bear,she-bear. The plural particle isob, 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 inl, 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 verbnacal, to ascend, these forms arenacal,naci,nacac. The present indicative is:—
When this form is analyzed, we discover thatin,á,ú,c,a-ex,u-ob, are personal possessive pronouns, my, thy, his, our, your, their; and thatnacalandcahare in fact verbal nouns standing in apposition.Cah, which is the sign of the present tense, means the doing, making, being occupied or busy at something. Hencenacal in cah, I ascend, is literally “the ascent, my being occupied with.” The imperfect tense is merely the present with the additional verbal nouncuchiadded, as—
Cuchimeans carrying on, bearing along, and the imperfect may thus be rendered:—
“The ascent, my being occupied with, carrying on.”
This is what has been called by Friedrich Müller the “possessive conjugation,” the pronounused being not in the nominative but in the possessive form.
The aorist presents a different mode of formation:—
Hereen,ech,on,ex, are apparently the simple personal pronouns I, thou, we, you, and are used predicatively. The future is also conjugated in this form by the use of the verbalbin,binel, to go:
The present of all the active verbs uses this predicative form, while their aorists and futures employ possessive forms. Thus:—
Here, however, I must note a difference ofopinion between eminent grammatical critics. Friedrich Müller considers all such forms as—
to exhibit “the predicative power of the true verb,” basing his opinion on the analogy of such expressions as—
M. Lucien Adam, on the other hand, says:—“The intransitive preteritnac-enmay seem morphologically the same as the Aryanás-mi; but here again,nacis a verbal noun, as is demonstrated by the plural of the third personnac-ob, ‘the ascenders.’Nac-encomes to mean ‘ascender [formerly]me.’”31-2
I am inclined to think that the French critic is right, and that, in fact, there is no true verb in the Maya, but merely verbal nouns,nomina actionis, to which the pronouns stand either in the possessive or objective relations, or, more remotely, in the possessive relation to another verbal noun in apposition, ascah,cuchi, etc. The importance of this point in estimating the structure of the language will be appreciated by those who have paid any attention to the science of linguistics.
The objective form of the conjugation is composed of the simple personal pronouns of both persons, together with the possessive of the agent and the particleci, which conveys the accessory notion of present action towards. Thus, frommoc, to tie:—
These refinements of analysis have, of course, nothing to do with the convenience of the language for practical purposes. As it has no dual, no inclusive and exclusive plurals, no articles nor substantive verb, no transitions, and few irregular verbs, its forms are quickly learned. It is not polysynthetic, at any rate, not more so than French, and its words undergo no such alteration by agglutination as in Aztec and Algonkin. Syncopated forms are indeed common, but to no greater extent than in colloquial English. The unit of the tongue remains the word, not the sentence, and we find no immeasurable words, expressing in themselves a whole paragraph, such as grammarians like to quote from the Eskimo, Aztec, Qquichua and other highly synthetic languages.
The position of words in a sentence is not dissimilar from that in English. The adjectiveprecedes the noun it qualifies, and sentences usually follow the formula, subject—verbal—object. Thus:—
But transposition is allowable, as—
As shown in this last example, the genitive relation is indicated by the possessive pronoun, as it sometimes was in English, “John, his book;” but the Maya is “his book John,”u huun Juan.
Another method which is used for indicating the genitive and ablative relations is the terminationil. This is called “the determinative ending,” and denotes whose is the object named, or of what. It is occasionally varied toalandel, to correspond to the last preceding vowel, but this “vocalic echo” is not common in Maya. While it denotes use, it does not convey the idea of ownership. Thus,u cħeen in yum, my father’s well, means the well that belongs to my father; butcħenel in yum, my father’s well, means the well from which he obtains water, but in which he has no proprietorship. Material used is indicated bythis ending, asxanil na, a house of straw (xan, straw,na, house).
Compound words are frequent, but except occasional syncope, the members of the compound undergo no change. There is little resembling the incapsulation (emboitement) that one sees in most American languages. Thus, midnight,chumucakab, is merely a union ofchumuc, middle, andakab, night; dawn,ahalcab, isahal, to awaken,cab, the world.
While from the above brief sketch it will be seen that the Maya is free from many of the difficulties which present themselves in most American tongues, it is by no means devoid of others.
In itsphonetics, it possesses six elements which to the Spaniards were new. They are represented by the signs:
Of these the cħ resembles dch, pronounced forcibly; the ɔ is as dz; the pp is a forcible double p; and in the tħ the two letters are to be pronounced separately and forcibly. There remains thekwhich is the most difficult of all. It is a sort of palato-guttural, the only one in the language, and its sound can only be acquired by long practice.
Theparticlesare very numerous, and make up the life of the language. By them are expressed the relations of space and time, and all the finer shades of meaning. Probably no one not to the manor born could render correctly their full force. Buenaventura, in his Grammar, enumerates sixteen different significations of the particleil.35-1
The elliptical and obscure style adopted by most native writers, partly from ignorance of the art of composition, partly because they imitated the mystery in expression affected by their priests, forms a serious obstacle even to those fairly acquainted with the current language. Moreover, the older manuscripts contain both words and forms unfamiliar to a cultivated Yucatecan of to-day.
I must, however, not omit to contradict formally an assertion made by the traveler Waldeck, and often repeated, that the language has undergone such extensive changes that what was written a century ago is unintelligible to a native of to-day. So far is this from the truth that, except for a few obsolete words, the narrative of the Conquest,written more than three hundred years ago, by the chief Pech, which I print in this volume, could be read without much difficulty by any educated native.
Again, as in all languages largely monosyllabic, there are many significations attached to one word, and these often widely different. Thuskabmeans, a hand; a handle; a branch; sap; an offence; whilecabmeans the world; a country; strength; honey; a hive; sting of an insect; juice of a plant; and, in composition, promptness. It will be readily understood that cases will occur where the context leaves it doubtful which of these meanings is to be chosen.
Thesehomonymsandparonyms, as they are called by grammarians, offer a fine field for sciolists in philology, wherein to discover analogies between the Maya and other tongues, and they have been vigorously culled out for that purpose. All such efforts are inconsistent with correct methods in linguistics. The folly of the procedure may be illustrated by comparing the English and the Maya. I suppose no one will pretend that these languages, at any rate in their present modern forms, are related. Yet the following are but a few of the many verbal similarities that could be pointed out:—
So with the Latin we could find such similarities asvolah=volo,ɔa=dare, etc.
In fact, no relationship of the Maya linguistic group to any other has been discovered. It contains a number of words borrowed from the Aztec (Nahuatl); and the latter in turn presents many undoubtedly borrowed from the Maya dialects. But this only goes to show that these two great families had long and close relations; and that we already know, from their history, traditions and geographical positions.
§ 6.The Numeral System.
The Mayas had a mathematical turn, and possessed a developed system of numeration. It counted by units and scores; in other words, itwas a vigesimal system. The cardinal numbers were:—
The composition of these numerals from twelve to nineteen inclusive is easily seen.Lahunis apparently a compound oflah hun(sc.uinic), “it finishes one (man);” that is, in counting on thefingers.Lahmeans the end, to end, and also the whole of anything.Kal, a score, is literally a fastening together, a shutting up, from the verbkal, to shut, to lock, to button up, etc.
From twenty upward, the scores are used:—
and so on up to
Above forty, three different methods can be used to continue the numeration.
1. We may continue the same employed between 20 and 40, thus:—
and so on.
2. The numeral copulativecataccan be used, with the numeral particletul; as:—
3. We may count upon the next score above, as:
The last mentioned system is that advanced by Father Beltran, and is the only one formally mentioned by him. It has recently been carefully analyzed by Prof. Leon de Rosny, who has shown that it is a consistent vigesimalmethod.40-1
It might be asked, and the question is pertinent, and is left unanswered by Prof. Leon de Rosny, whyhun tu kalmeans “one to the score,” andhun tu can kalis translated, “one on the fourth score.” This important shade of meaning may be given, I think, by the possessiveuwhich originally belonged in the phrase, but suffered elision. Properly it should be,
Hun tu u can kal.
This seems apparent from other numbers where it has not suffered elision, but merely incorporation, as:—
This system of numeration, advanced by Beltran, appears to have been adopted by all of the later writers, who may have learned the Maya largely from his Grammar. Thus, in the translation of the Gospel of St. John, published by the Baptist Bible Translation Society, chap.II, v. 20;Xupan uactuyoxkal hab utial u mental letile kulnaa, “forty and six years was this temple inbuilding;”41-1and in that of the Gospel of St. Luke, said to have been the work of Father Joaquin Ruz, the same system isfollowed.41-2
Nevertheless, Beltran’s method has been severely criticised by Don Juan Pio Perez, who ranks among the ablest Yucatecan linguists of this century. He has pronounced it artificial, not in accordance with either the past or present use of the natives themselves, and built up out of an effort to assimilate the Maya to the Latin numeral system.
I give his words in the original, from his unpublished essay on Mayagrammar.42-1
“Los Indios de Yucatan cuentan por veintenas, que llamankaly en cierto modo tienen diez y nueve unidades hasta completar la primera veintena que eshunkalaunque en el curso de esta solo se encuentran once numeros simples, pues los nombres de los restantes se forman de los de la primera decena.
“Para contar de una à otra veintena los numeros fraccionarios ò las diez y nueve unidades, terminadas por la particulatulò su sincopatu,42-2se juntan antepuestas à la veintena espresada; por exemplo,hunkal, 20;huntukal, 21;catukal, 22; yhuntucakal, 41;catucakal, 42;oxtucankal, 83;cantuhokal, 140, etc.
“El Padre Fr. Beltran de Santa Rosa, como puede verse en suArte de Lengua Maya, formó un sistema distinto à este desde la 2ª veintena hasta la ultima, pues para espresar las unidades entre este y la 3ª veintena pone à esta terminandolas y por consiguiente rebajandole su valor por solo su anteposicion à dichas unidades fraccionarias, y asi para espresar el numero 45 por ejemplo diceho tu yoxkal, cuandooxkalòyoxkalsignifica 60.
“No sé de donde tomó los fundamentos en que se apoya este sistema, quiza en el uso de su tiempo, que no ha llegado hasta este; aunque he visto en varios manuscritos antiguos, que los Indios de entonces como los de ahora, usaban el sistema que indico, y espresaban las unidades integras que numeraban, y para espresar el numero 65 dicen;Oxkal catac hotulùhotu oxkal, que usa el Padre Beltran por45.43-1
“Mas el metodo que explico esta apoyado en el uso y aun en el curso que se advierte en la 1ª y 2ª veintena é indican que asi deben continuar las decenas hasta la 20ª y no formar sistemas confusos que por ser mas ô menos análogos à la numeracion romana lo juzgaban mas ô menos perfectos, porque la consideraban como un tipo a que debia arreglarse cualquiera otra lengua, cuando en ellas todo lo que no este conforme con el uso recibido y corriente, es construir castillos en el aire y hacer reformas que por mas ingeniosas que sean, no pasan de inoficiosas.”
In the face of this severe criticism of FatherBeltran’s system, I cannot explain how it is that in Pio Perez’s own Dictionary of the Maya, the numerals above 40 are given according to Beltran’s system; and that this was not the work of the editors of that volume (which was published after his death), is shown by an autographic manuscript of his dictionary in my possession, written about1846,44-1in which also the numerals appear in Beltran’s form.
Three other manuscript dictionaries in my collection, all composed previous to 1690, affirm the system of Beltran, and I am therefore obliged to believe that it was authentic and current among the natives long before white scholars began to dress up their language in the ill-fitting garments of Aryan grammar.
Proceeding to higher numbers, it is interesting to note that they also proceed on the vigesimal system, although this has not heretofore been distinctly shown. The ancient computation was:
This ancient system was obscured by the Spaniards using the wordpicto mean 1000 andkinchilto mean 1,000,000, instead of their original significations.
The meaning ofkal, I have already explained to be a fastening together, a package, a bundle.Bak, as a verb, is to tie around and around with a network of cords;picis the old word for the short petticoat worn by the women, which was occasionally used as a sac. If we remember that grains of corn or of cacao were what were generally employed as counters, then we may suppose these were measures of quantity. The wordkal(qal), in Kiche means a score and also specifically 20 grains of cacao;bakin Cakchiquel means a corn-cob, and as a verb to shell an ear of corn, but I am not clear of any connection between this and the numeral. Other meanings ofbakin Maya are “meat” and thepartes pudendasof either sex.
Calab, seems to be an instrumental form fromcal, to stuff, to fillfull.45-1The wordcalamis used in the sense of excessive, overmuch. In Cakchiquel the phrasemani hu cala, not (merely) onecala, is synonymous withmani hu chuvi, not (merely) one bag or sack, both meaning a countlessnumber.46-1In that dialect the specific meaning ofcalais 20 loads of cacaobeans.46-2
The termtzotzcehmeans deerskin, but forkinchilandalau, I have found no satisfactory derivation that does not strain the forms of the word too much. I would, however, suggest one possible connection of meaning.
Inkinchil, we have the wordkin, day; inalau, the wordumonth, and in the term for mathematical infinity,hunhablat, we findhun haab, one year, just as in the related expression,hunhablazic, which signifies that which lasts a whole year. If this suggestion is well grounded, then in these highest expressions of quantity (and I am inclined to think that originallyhun hablat, onehablat=20alau) we have applications of the three time periods, the day, the month, and the year, with the figurative sense that the increase of one over the other was as the relative lengths of these different periods.
I think it worth while to go into these etymologies, as they may throw some light on the graphic representation of the numerals in the Maya hieroglyphics. It is quite likely that the figures chosen to represent the different higher units would resemble the objects which their names literally signify. The first nineteen numerals were written by a combination of dots and lines, examples of which we find in abundance in the Codex Troano and other manuscripts. The following explanation of it is from the pen of a native writer in the last century:—