CHAPTER V.
TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MAYA NATIONS.
Ancient Civilization of Tabasco and Chiapas—The Tradition of Votan—The First Emigrants to America—City of Nachan—The Votanic Document—Ordoñez—Brasseur and Cabrera on the Tzendal Document—The Empire of the Chanes—The Oldest Civilization—The Earliest Home of the Mayas—The Quichés—Their Origin Tradition—The Quiché Cosmogony—The Creation of Man—The Quiché Migration—Tulan—Mt. Hacavitz—Human Sacrifices instituted—Four Tulans—Association of the Mayas and Nahuas—Heroic Period of the Quichés—Xibalba and its Downfall—Exploits of the Quiché Chieftains—War of the Sects—Xibalba and Palenque the same—Mayas of Yucatan and their Traditions—Culture-Heroes—Zamna and Cukulcan—Christ Myth.
THE most ancient civilization on this continent, judging from the combined testimony of tradition, records, and architectural remains, was that which grew up under the favorable climate and geographical surroundings which the Central American Region southward of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec afforded. The great Maya family with its numerous branches, each in time developing its own dialect if not its own peculiar language, at an early date fixed itself in the fertile valley of the River Usumasinta, and produced a civilization which was old and ripe when the Toltecs came in contact with it. Here in this picturesque valley region in Tabasco and Chiapas we may look for the cradle of American civilization. Under the shadow of the magnificent and mysterious ruins of Palenque a people grew to power who spread into Guatemala and Honduras, northward toward Anahuac and southward into Yucatan, and for a period of probably twenty-five centuries exercised a sway which, at one time, excited the envy and fear of its neighbors. We are fully aware of the uncertainty which attaches itself to tradition in general, and of the caution with which it should be accepted in treating of the foundations of history; but still, with reference to the origin and growth of old world nations, nothing better offers itself in many instances than suspicious legends. The histories of the Egyptians, the Trojans, the Greeks, and of even ancient Rome rests on no surer footing. It is certain that while the legendary history of any nation may be confused, exaggerated, and besides full of breaks, still there are some main and fundamental facts out of which it has grown, and this we think is especially true of the new world traditions. Clavigero says: “The Chiapanese have been the first peoplers of the new world, if we give credit to their traditions. They say that Votan, the grandson of that respectable old man who built the great ark to save himself and family from the deluge, and one of those who undertook the building of that lofty edifice which was to reach up to heaven, went by express command of the Lord to people that land. They say also that the first people came from the quarter of the north, and that when they arrived at Soconusco, they separated, some going to inhabit the country of Nicaragua and others remaining in Chiapas.”[308] The tradition of Votan, the founder of the Maya culture, though somewhat warped, probably by having passed through priestly hands, is nevertheless one of the most valuable pieces of information which we have concerning the ancient Americans. Without it our knowledge of the origin of the Mayas would be a hopeless blank, and the ruins of Palenque would be more a mystery than ever. According to this tradition, Votan came from the East, from Valum Chivim, by the way of Valum Votan, from across the sea, by divine command, to apportion the land of the new continent to seven families which he brought with him. It appears that he had been preceded in America by two others named Igh and Imox, if the researches of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg can be relied upon. In the Tzendal calendar, Votan’s name appears as that of the third day, while Igh and Imox are the first and second respectively. If, as is supposed, the names represent the true succession of the Maya chiefs, there is some ground for the Abbé’s view.[309] The doubtful portions of the tradition which may be interpolations are the ambiguous assertions that he saw the Tower of Babel, and was present at the building of Solomon’s temple. Probably the remains only of the former structure may be referred to.
With these contradictions we have nothing to do, as they do not in any way affect the subsequent history of the Votanites, or interfere with the probability of their old world origin. To attempt to designate the point from which Votan started or the means by which he reached the new world, would be the height of folly. Votan is said to have made four journeys to the land of his nativity. His achievements in the new world were, however, as great as those of any of the heroes of antiquity. His great city was named “Nachan,” (city of the serpents), from his own race, which was named Chan, a serpent. This Nachan is unquestionably identified with Palenque. The date of his journey is placed at 1000 years B. C.[310] The kingdom of the serpents flourished so rapidly that Votan founded three tributary monarchies whose capitals were Tulan, Mayapan, and Chiquimula.[311] The former is supposed to have been situated about two leagues east of the town of Ococingo; Mayapan is well-known to have been the capital of Yucatan, and Chiquimula is thought to have been Copan in Honduras.[312] One of the great works of this hero was the excavation of a tunnel or ‘snake hole’ from Zuqui to Tzequil. He also deposited a great treasure at Huehuetan, in Soconusco, which he left under the vigilant care of a guard, directed by one of the most honorable women of the land. Finally, he wrote a book in which he recorded his deeds and offered proof of his being a Chane (or serpent). This ancient document, which is claimed to have been written by one of Votan’s descendants, of the eighth or ninth generation and not by himself,[313] was in the Tzendal language, a dialect or branch of the Maya, spoken in Chiapas and around Palenque. Its history is, however, quite checkered, and the information which it contained comes very indirectly. For generations the Votanic document was scrupulously guarded by the people of Tacoaloya, in Soconusco, but was finally discovered by Francisco Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas. In the preamble of his Constituciones, § xxx,[314] he claims to have read this document, but it is probable that only a copy, still in the Tzendal language but written in Latin characters, had come into his possession.[315] He fails to give any definite information from the document except the most general statements with reference to Votan’s place in the calendar, and his having seen the Tower of Babel, at which each people was given a new language. He states that he could have made more revelations of the history of Votan from this document but for bringing up the old idolatry of the people and perpetuating it. With the zeal of a true Vandal, the bishop committed the dangerous documents, together with the treasure which he claims Votan to have buried in the dark-house, to the flames in 1691. There seems to have been other copies, however, of this remarkable manuscript, for about the close of the eighteenth century, Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera was shown a document in the possession of Don Ramon de Ordoñez y Aguiar, a resident of Ciudad Real in Chiapas, which purported to be the Votanic memoir.[316] Ordoñez, at the time, was engaged upon the composition of his work on the “History of the Heaven and Earth.”[317] It appears that Cabrera was admitted to the confidence of Ordoñez, and availed himself of a few facts communicated to him by the latter, which he supplemented by drawing from his imagination for the rest of his account.[318] Brasseur de Bourbourg accuses Cabrera of seriously misrepresenting Ordoñez and of warping his account.[319] The following, which is Cabrera’s account may be of interest to the reader: “He (Votan) states that he conducted seven families from Valum Votan to this continent and assigned lands to them; that he is the third of the Votans; that having determined to travel until he arrived at the root of Heaven, in order to discover his relations, the Culebras, and make himself known to them, he made four voyages to Chivim (which he expressed by repeating four times from Valum Votan to Valum Chivim, from Valum Chivim to Valum Votan); that he arrived in Spain, and that he went to Rome; that he saw the great house of God building; that he went by the road which his brethren, the Culebras, had bored; that he marked it, and that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebras. He relates that in returning from one of his voyages he found seven other families of the Tzequil nation who had joined the first inhabitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his own, that is, of the Culebras. He speaks of the place where they built the first town, which, from its founders, received the name of Tzequil; he affirms the having taught them refinement of manners in the use of the table, table-cloth, dishes, basins, cups, and napkins; they taught him the knowledge of God and of his worship; his first ideas of a king and of obedience to Him; that he was chosen captain of all those united families.” It is not necessary for us to point out the hand of the interpolator in this account; it is sufficiently apparent. However, its obnoxious prominence need not destroy our faith in the general facts of the account. The interpretation of the document we submit to the reader with the simple reminder that the symbol of life and power among the Central Americans and Mexicans has ever been a serpent, a fact which may have derived its significance from the meaning of the name of the Votanites together with the power attained by Palenque.[320] Votan’s followers were called Tzequites by their predecessors, probably by the descendants of Igh and Imox, the signification of which term is ‘men with petticoats.’ The Tzendal traditions refer always to the city of Nachan as the capital of the kingdom of the Chanes or Serpents, and the most significant feature of the traditional names of this people is the fact that the name Culhua, applied by the Nahua nations and especially by the Toltecs to a powerful people who had preceeded them at the south, is the exact equivalent of Chanes; the same is true of Culhuacan.[321] The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg obtained a copy of the fragmentary MS. of Ordoñez, which he informs us was written in two separate parts in quarto, at different times. The first or mythological part exists in a copy owned by the Abbé.[322] The second or historical part, if ever written, has never reached the light, and from the description of its contents found in the first part, we should think that the author might have made a rather imaginative historian.[323] While some of the details of the Votanic tradition are not worthy of a moment’s consideration, it is quite certain that in the general facts we have a key to the origin of what all Americanists agree in pronouncing the oldest civilization on this continent, one which was gray and already declining when the Toltecs entered Mexico. There is not the slightest evidence that it originated in any other place than in Chiapas, where it is found, and extended itself into Guatemala, Yucatan, and possibly branched northward in a colony as remote as Culhuacan. Sr. Orozco y Berra has found fifteen languages or dialects to be related to the Maya language, a fact which indicates the age and extent of that remarkable civilization.[324] Sr. Orozco is convinced from linguistic and other researches, that the inhabitants of Cuba and others of the West India Islands were Mayas, and points out the intermediate location of Cuba between Florida and Yucatan. He thinks the earliest home of the Mayas on this continent was on the Atlantic coast of the United States, from whence they emigrated to Cuba and thence to Yucatan.[325] Though we are not fully satisfied that the Mayas ever occupied Florida, it is quite likely that the islands of the Gulf were inhabited by them at an early day. The culture hero Votan is a mystery, and to arrive at his true character or office is simply an impossibility. For those disposed to speculate, there is abundant opportunity.[326] The most interesting traditionary history which has been discovered is that of the Quichés of Guatemala. By the name Quiché, in this immediate connection, we do not mean to speak of that people after they became amalgamated with the Nahua nations from Central Mexico, but as a branch of the great Maya monarchy, in all probability located at first at Tulha or Tula, which, it is believed, was situated near Ococingo. At first, we think, the Quichés developed their own institutions, dialects, etc., as one of the allied powers associated with the capital city Nachan, but gradually assumed an individuality which became distinctive, until a rivalry between the capital and its allied neighbor sprang up, which ultimately ended in the overthrow of the former. Sr. Pimentel, on the authority of an ancient author, states that the name Quiché was applied to the first empire of Palenque and signified many trees. It was employed by the “innumerable families of different nations which composed it, to symbolize its various branches.”[327] The tradition of their origin states that they came from the far East, across immense tracts of land and water; that in their former home they had multiplied considerably and lived without civilization, and with but few wants; they paid no tribute, spoke a common language, did not bow down to wood and stone, but lifting their eyes toward heaven, observed the will of their Creator, they attended with respect to the rising of the sun, and saluted with their invocations the Morning Star; with loving and obedient hearts they addressed their prayers to Heaven for the gift of offspring. “Hail, Creator and Maker! regard us, attend us. Heart of Heaven, Heart of the Earth, do not forsake us, do not leave us. God of Heaven and Earth, Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth, consider our posterity always. Accord us repose, a glorious repose, peace and prosperity, justice, life and our being. Grant to us, O Hurakan, enlightened and fruitful, Thou who comprehendest all things great and small.”[328] In the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quichés, we are enabled to arrive more closely at the cosmogony and worship of that remarkable people.[329] The reader may not be prepared for the irreconcilable contradictions and for the obscure and figurative language in which this work abounds; but with the remembrance that all nations of antiquity delighted in the use of figures, parabolic disguises and personifications under which the truth was couched, we may be able to profit by even the seeming foolishness and confusion of the Quiché record. The strange, wild poetry of the Quichés, can only be fully enjoyed by pursuing the unabridged accounts for which we regret we have not space.[330] In the order of the Quiché creation, the heavens were first formed and their boundaries fixed by the Creator and Former, by whom all move and breathe, by whom all nations enjoy their wisdom and civilization. At first there was no man or animal or bird or fish or green herb—nothing but the firmament existed, the face of the earth was not yet to be seen, only the peaceful sea and the whole expanse of heaven. Silence pervaded all; not even the sea murmured; there was nothing but immobility and silence in the darkness—in the night.[331] The Creator, the Former, the Dominator—the feathered serpent—those that engender, those that give being, moved upon the water as a glowing light. Their name is Gucumatz, heart of heaven—God. “Earth,” they said, and in an instant it was formed and rose like a vapor cloud; immediately the plains and mountains arose and the cypress and pine appeared. Then Gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, “Blessed be thy coming, O Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, thunderbolt!”[332] Animals were next formed, but because they could not praise their Maker they were doomed to become objects of prey. Four creations of men then followed. The first man was made of clay, but he had no intelligence and he was consumed in the water. Upon a second trial a man and a woman were made of a sort of pith, but they too were unsatisfactory experiments; though they had life and peopled the earth, they were very inferior, living like beasts and forgetting the Heart of Heaven. The Creator then destroyed them with a flood of resin, allowing only a few to escape, that now exist as little apes in the woods. The persons of the Godhead, enveloped in the darkness which enshrouded a desolated world, counseled concerning the creation of a more perfect order, and as a result they formed four perfect men named: Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam. These men were miraculously formed of white and yellow maize, and the Creator was content with his labors. “Verily, at last, were there found men worthy of their origin and their destiny; verily, at last, did the gods look upon beings who could see with their eyes and handle with their hands and understand with their hearts, grand of countenance and broad of limb, the four sires of our race stood up under the white rays of the morning star—sole light as yet of the primeval world—stood up and looked. Their great clear eyes swept rapidly over all; they saw the woods and rocks, the lakes and the sea, the mountains and the valleys, and the heavens that were above all; and they comprehended all and admired exceedingly. Then they returned thanks to those who had made the world and all therein was: we offer up our thanks, twice—yea, verily, thrice; we have received life, we speak, we walk, we taste, we hear and understand, we know both that which is near and that which is far off, we see all things, great and small, in all the heaven and earth. Thanks, then, Maker and Former, Father and Mother of our life, we have been created—we are.”[333] These four creatures were considered too perfect by the gods, and in order that their omniscience might be destroyed, they breathed a cloud of mist over their vision. To each of these men wives were made while they slept. A fourth creation seems to have taken place by which the ancestors of other races were formed.
The account which the Popol Vuh furnishes of the migrations of the ancient Quichés is somewhat confused, and it is scarcely possible to hope that the locations named should ever be fully identified. Their worship was at first purely spiritual. “Only they gazed up into heaven, not knowing what they had come so far to do.” In their original home, wherever that might have been, they grew weary of this kind of service—of watching for “the rising of the sun”—by which it seems they meant the coming of temporal power. The four men then forsook their abode and journeyed to Tulan-Zuiva, the seven caves or seven ravines. Here they found gods; to each of the four men a different deity was assigned. To Balam-Quitzé the god Tohil was given; to Balam-Agab the god Avilix; and to Mahucutah, the god Hacavitz; and though the fourth man Iqi-Balam also received a god, no special account is taken of him, since the latter of the four men left no progeny. The journey to Tulan is said to have been a very long one. Doubtless in this account we have an allusion to one of those modifications in religious notions which seems to have often attended a change of residence in early times. The abstract worship of the Creator is supplanted by the more material and ceremonial worship of intermediate deities (demi-gods). Tulan is described as a much colder climate than the eastern and tropical land which they had forsaken, and the god Tohil came to their relief by the creation of fire. But incessant rains, accompanied with hail, extinguished all their fires, which were again kindled repeatedly by the fire-god. Tulan was an unfavorable locality for permanent abode—rains, extreme cold, dampness, famine prevailed, and the peculiar misfortune of the confusion of tongues there befell them. No longer were the brother propagators of the race able to communicate with each other. “At Tulan there was as yet no sun,” is the significant but perplexing language of the narrative. At last Tulan, the mysterious land of the “seven-caves,” was forsaken, and under the leadership of Tohil the people began a migration which was attended with indescribable hardships and famine itself. Their way led through dense forests, over high mountains, a long sea passage, and by a rough and pebbly shore. We are, however, told that the sea was parted for their passage. Their tribulations were at an end when at last they arrived at a beautiful mountain, which they named after their god Hacavitz. Here they were informed that the sun would appear, and, as a consequence, the four progenitors of the race and all the people rejoiced. Here was everything beauteous and gladdening. The morning star shed forth a resplendent brightness, and the sun itself at last appeared, though then it had not the warmth which it possessed at a later day. Before the light of the sun, however, the gods Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz, together with the tiger and lion and reptiles, were changed into stone. To interpret this paragraph, which is greatly condensed, is a difficult undertaking, still there are certain facts which seem to serve as the basis of intelligent speculation. The language is extremely figurative throughout the entire narrative, and especially so here. Their worship of the morning star at an early period seems to connect them with the Mediterranean peoples of the old world. The allusions to the sun not yet having come may be retrospective, indicating that the worship of the sun had not been adopted at that early day, or it may indicate that the period of national strength had not dawned. The fact that the morning star shone more brilliantly on Mt. Hacavitz than at Tulan (the seven caves), may mean either that the worship of the star was more splendidly celebrated, or it may have reference to an astronomical fact, that the star itself was more luminous, and furnish evidence in harmony with the statements of the narrative that Mt. Hacavitz was a more southern location than the tempestuous Tulan. The petrifaction of the three tribal gods may have been the result of an age of peace and prosperity which offered an opportunity for developing their cultus; or, upon the other hand, if the coming of the sun refers to the advent of a new religion, that which is known to have prevailed among the Nahuas, the old gods may have been sculptured in stone, that their national character and deeds might not be forgotten before the increasing importance of the new faith. There they instituted sacrifices of beasts to the three stone gods Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz; they even drew blood from their own bodies and offered it to them. Finally, not content with these, the first four men, led by Balam-Quitzé, instituted human sacrifices. Captives were taken from neighboring tribes, kidnapping was practised extensively, until the hostility of their neighbors broke forth into open war. The contest, however, resulted favorably to the Quichés, and the surrounding tribes became subject to the victorious power. In Hacavitz they composed a national song called the Kamucu (“we see”)—a memorial of their misfortunes in Tulan—a lament for the loss of so many of their people in that unfortunate locality. This loss is described as occasioned by a portion of their race being left behind, rather than as the result of the misfortunes which attended them there. At last, at the noon-day of their national glory, it came to pass that the ancestors of their race, Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam, died—the men who came from the east, from across the sea, died—and their remains were enveloped in a great bundle and preserved as memorials of the ancestors of the race.[334] Then the Quichés sang the sad Kamucu, and mourned the loss of their leaders and that portion of their race which they left behind them in Tulan.
The definite location of Tulan is almost out of the question; it may only be conjectured. We have already stated, on the authority of Ordiñez, that there was a Tulan near Ococingo.[335] The Cakchiquel MS., known only through the writings of Brasseur de Bourbourg, but evidently a document containing the same facts as those stated in the Popol Vuh, gives the following information concerning Tulan: “Four persons came from Tulan, from the direction of the rising sun—that is one Tulan. There is another Tulan in Xibalbay, and another where the sun sets, and it is there that we came; and in the direction of the setting sun there is another, where is the god; so that there are four Tulans; and it is where the sun sets that we came to Tulan, from the other side of the sea where this Tulan is; and it is there that we were conceived and begotten by our mothers and our fathers.”[336] From this it appears that two of these Tulans were not upon the continent at all; one in the east across the sea, the birthplace of the race; another an imaginary locality somewhere toward the region of the setting sun, where the deity dwells; another Tulan is pretty certainly located in Chiapas near the capital of Xibalba; with this place, however, they do not state that they had any relationship, but another Tulan where the sun sets is designated as the locality to which they came from across the sea. Mr. Bancroft confounds the Tulan of their misfortunes with that which was located near Xibalba; but this view is plainly wrong, since the climatic surroundings of the Chiapan Tulan are quite the opposite of those described as prevailing at that Tulan where fire was so necessary. In the Tulan to which they journeyed they suffered from cold, and their god Tohil, whom they received there, gave them fire. Señor Orozco y Berra quite positively identifies this Tulan with the Toltec capital Tollan, north of Anahuac, and certainly with reason.[337] There their tongues were changed, there the Nahua language was encountered. No doubt that in the first period of the Toltec power in Tollan, the Maya-Quichés who had migrated northward from some locality in the Usumacinta region and intermingled with the Nahuas, sharing in their worship and appropriating certain elements of language, migrated southward to the elevated regions of Vera-Paz and founded a Quiché power in Guatemala.
Upon the downfall of the Toltec monarchy in the eleventh century, no doubt many noble Toltec families forsook the unfortunate and fallen capital and founded in Guatemala the Quiché-Cakchiquel monarchy, composed of Maya and Toltec elements, which spread itself southward in colonies and branches into various parts of Central America, and flourished with such power and fame at the time of the Conquest. It is not the province of this work to take up the annals of this or any other people, but only to treat of their most primitive period. The gap in Quiché history between that which we have been treating and the period of the Annals is considerable, and no document has yet been discovered which will fill it with the wanting record. Mr. Bancroft has placed the annals within the reach of the English reader in his fifth volume. Mt. Hacavitz was the point at which the scattered tribes collected and formed the nucleus of the subsequently powerful monarchy in Guatemala of which Utatlan was the capital. The two places may have been identical. Several facts point to the early association of the ancestors of the Quichés with the Nahuas who subsequently figure so conspicuously as Toltecs and Aztecs. The tribes which migrated northward were called Yaqui (according to the Popol Vuh), and the name ethnographically has the same meaning as Nahuatl.[338] The Quichés applied the name to the inhabitants of Mexico. The god Tohil was called by the Yaqui tribes Yolcuat Quitzalcuat while the Quichés were in Tulan. Quetzalcoatl, of whom we shall speak more fully hereafter, was the greatest of the Nahua divinities.[339] The Aztecs and Toltecs as well as the Quichés came from the “Seven Caves,” that Tulan which seems to have been the early home of the two great families speaking radically different languages—the Maya and the Nahua. The statement so often met with that Tulan was across the sea is perplexing. Can we look for it upon some of the islands of the Gulf or Caribbean Sea? or are we to look upon the reference to the sea passage as an earlier event in the history of both peoples, which because of the lack of records has been confounded with some of the adventures of the march toward the northern Tulan, which was undertaken at least by the Mayas and possibly by the Nahuas from their common home in the Usumacinta valley? We are inclined, in the light of a large margin of testimony, to accept the latter view, and consider the Tulan of the Chiapan region to have been the early home of both peoples—the primitive one of the Mayas and the adopted one of the Nahuas—after leaving Hue Hue Tlappalan, the accidental centre to which in their wanderings they converged, and in which they met; here in an age of simpler manners they lived in the enjoyment of peace, preserving each their own institutions and language, though considerably influencing each other’s customs. The Tulan of this Central American region may have been confounded in name and characteristics with the original home of each race “across the sea.”
The Quiché record furnishes us with the account of an epoch in the early Quiché history which we are justified in characterizing as their heroic period. It occupies the same place in their history as the Trojan war in the history of Greece. The tradition of the fall of Xibalba, the terror of its neighbors, the power which by its enemies was called infernal, is a heroic composition founded on a combination of events as mysterious and wonderful as those contained in the Iliad itself. To locate the events in their proper place, to assign them their true period, is attended with as many difficulties as attend the Homeric history. The authorities differ as to the proper chronologic order of the record. The Popol Vuh, both in the Ximinez and Brasseur editions, give the narrative to which we have reference immediately after the destruction of the men made of pith or wood—the result of the first creation. Mr. Bancroft is somewhat indifferent about the order and follows the narrative. Brasseur de Bourbourg, however, considers that chronologically the narrative follows the third creation, that of the four founders of the Quiché race.[340] If we look upon the so-called creations as simply tribal origins and not as mythical accounts of the origin of man, there is room for the heroic period before the days of the four ancestors of the Quichés; but if, on the contrary, the two creations preceding that of Balam-Quitzé and his associates are mythical, are the legendary accounts of a fancied order in creation and not the origin of tribes, the view taken by the Abbé is the only one which can be accepted. The question cannot at present be definitely settled. If we resort to the latter view, that of the Abbé, it is necessary for us to suppose that the long reign of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam is that of a line, a dynasty, and not of individuals—which is altogether probable. Brasseur supposes the time of which the tradition speaks to have been about fifteen centuries before the Spanish conquest, and thinks Copan was the capital of a province called Payaqui (“in the Yaqui,” which we have seen was the name of the Nahuas), and that this capital, otherwise known as Chiquimula, owed its origin to a warrior known as Balam, who introduced human sacrifices. His authority is the Isagoge Historico MS. cited by Pelaez, to whose work we have already referred.[341] To attempt to determine upon the time definitely would be a hopeless undertaking. The mysterious tradition with its confused statements and allegorical allusions we will attempt to condense into intelligible shape. This has already been accomplished by Mr. Bancroft, and his version greatly facilitates our efforts in the same direction.
The second division of the Popol Vuh contains the account of two attempts at the overthrow of the great Xibalban monarchy, founded by Votan. The first of these proved unsuccessful and fatal to the enemies of the great power; the second, undertaken by the descendants of the defeated chieftains, resulted in the downfall of the empire of the Serpents or Votanites, and in the revenge of the death of the unsuccessful warriors. The account is provokingly figurative; different allies of each of the powers being spoken of as owls, wild beasts, rabbits, deer, rats, lice, ants, etc., a custom which has always prevailed among savage and semi-civilized nations. Savages of the forests are usually referred to as wild beasts in early tradition. Xibalba is so hated by its enemies that its usual title is the “infernal regions.”[342] Torquemada refers to it as hell, and its king as the king of the “shades.”[343] The hatred was intense, and the worst invectives were mild in the estimation of the enemies of the no doubt oppressive power. We have already given the account of creation in which Gucumatz (the Plumed Serpent) figured conspicuously. He, however, is seen to have acted at the word of Hurakan (“Heart of Heaven”). The closing paragraphs of the first division of the Popol Vuh give some of the exploits of the young heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who figure as the defendants of the worship of the Heart of Heaven. A certain Vucub-Cakix, who assumed to be the sun and god of the people, and who in his pride offended the Heart of Heaven, fell at their avenging hands. His sons Zipacna and Cabrakan, whose pride was as offensive to Hurakan as had been their father’s, shared the same fate; though the brothers lost four hundred of their allies in the undertaking, by Zipanca toppling over a house upon them while they were rejoicing at his supposed death in a pit in which they had buried him.
The second division of the account reverts to events which preceded those in the closing paragraphs of the first division by one or more generations. The exploits of the ancestors of the brothers are narrated. Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, grandparents of the sun and moon, had two sons, Hunhunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu. The former of these sons married, and to him were born also two sons, Hunbatz and Hunchouen, who grew up to be wise and skillful and great artists. With all these persons Hurakan, the Heart of Heaven, communicated through his messenger Voc. At last Hunhunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu undertook a journey toward Xibalba, playing ball as they went, by which we understand that they set out upon a march of conquest. Upon hearing of their approach, Hun Came and Vukub Came, kings of Xibalba, sent them a challenge to a game of ball by four messengers who were called owls. From the ball-ground of Nimxab Carchah (now the name of an Indian town in Vera Paz), they followed the messengers down the steep road to Xibalba, crossing rivers and ravines and a bloody stream. After arriving at the royal palace, and during the process of arranging for the contest in which their strength should be tried, they were so unfortunate as first to be made the subjects of ridicule for the whole court, then put to torture, and afterwards were cruelly and it seems treacherously murdered. The head of Hunhunahpu was hung upon a tree, which at once became overgrown with gourds so as to hide the head of the unfortunate chief. Notwithstanding the royal decree that no one should approach the tree, Xquiq, a virgin princess, a Xibalban, determined to taste its forbidden fruit, and in an hour of solitude was in the act of reaching forth to pluck it, when Hunhunahpu spat into her hand and she immaculately conceived. Her condition was discovered by her father, who delivered her to the owls, the royal messengers, to be put to death. By bribing her executioners she escaped and went to the dwelling of the old grandmother Xmucane, who upon the death of Hunhunahpu’s wife had taken charge of his sons, the youthful Hunbatz and Hunchouen. Xquiq, by miraculous performances, satisfied Xmucane that Hunhunahpu was the father of her unborn children, and was received into her home. The Xibalban virgin brought forth twin sons in the house of the enemies of her country. These she named Hunahpu and Xbalanque. From the very first their lot with their great-grandmother was a hard one. Their half-brothers Hunbatz and Hunchouen treated them harshly, but in time the twins revenged themselves by changing the former into monkeys, and succeeding to their artistic skill and musical fame.
Various exploits of the twin brothers are narrated, chiefly—as we would interpret the figurative language—with the more savage tribes of the forests and mountains. From one of their captives whom they call a rat, they learned of the expedition of their father and uncle, and were brought into possession of their ball implements. The old ball-ground (probably battle-ground) of their fathers was resorted to by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, and when the Xibalban monarchs, Hun Came and Vukub Came, heard of their purposes, they were angered and sent a challenge to them as they had done to their ancestors. The message was delivered at the great-grandmother’s home, and the two chieftains, upon being acquainted with the news, returned to bid both mother and grandmother farewell. Before taking final leave, they planted in the centre of the house (probably the court) each a cane, which was endowed with the singular attribute of revealing to the family the fortunes of each of the brothers. The life and fate of each cane was inseparably connected with that of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. On their route to Xibalba the bloody river was passed and a stream called Papuhya; but, more wise than their predecessors, they took cunning precautions not to be deceived and sacrificed by the Xibalban monarchs. For this purpose, it is said, they sent an animal called Xan before them, equipped with a hair from Hunahpu’s leg, with which he pricked the princes and by their exclamations learned their names. Thus they detected the artificial wooden men whom we are told deceived their ancestors and made them the objects of ridicule.
By this strange personification we think we may understand that the father and the uncle of the two young heroes had treated with a couple of irresponsible Xibalbans who had been sent out to meet them, with the pretence that they were the kings, and when they had induced their enemies to enter the city, the true monarchs seized them and repudiated the action of the so-called wooden men, avowing no responsibility for their pledges. Hunahpu and Xbalanque avoided two other artifices of which their ancestors were the victims; one of these was a seat on a red-hot stone under the pretence that it was the seat of honor; the other was an ordeal in the “House of Gloom.”[344] The angry Xibalban kings then met them in a game of ball, but suffered a defeat. Hun Came and Vukub Came then requested the victors to give them four bouquets of flowers, which request was granted, the fortunate brothers themselves bearing them to the defeated kings. At their instance, however, the guards of the royal gardens committed Hunahpu and Xbalanque to the house of lances—the second of five ordeals common at Xibalba. Scarcely had this been done before a swarm of ants—allies of the brothers—came to their rescue, entered the royal gardens, bribed the lancers, released their leaders and punished the owls—guards of the Xibalban kings—by splitting their lips. The defeated monarchs began to realize the seriousness of the contest which was being waged against them. Hunahpu and Xbalanque were then subjected to ordeals in the houses of cold, of tigers, and of fire respectively, but without suffering harm. As we proceed, the account becomes more figurative than ever. In the next ordeal in the house of bats, we are told that Hunahpu’s head was cut off by the ruler of the bats, who, it seems, was recognized as of super-terrestrial origin. Strange to say, this violent proceeding did not prove fatal to Hunahpu; the animals assembled, came to the heroes’ relief, and by the strategic skill of the turtle and rabbit, at a great game of ball, the brothers came out of all the Xibalban ordeals unharmed.
The next act was designed as the beginning of the end of the great struggle. Xibalba had failed because the brutes were not its allies. The brothers were determined to show the haughty rival their personal greatness, and resorted to the use of their magical arts. After proper instructions to their sorcerers, Xulu and Pacam, Hunahpu and Xbalanque mounted a funeral pyre and endured a voluntary death. But their ashes and bones which were thrown into a river, rose instantly into life, assuming the shape of young men. Five days subsequent to this wonderful event they appeared in the form of man-fishes; and on the day following, the sorcery was complete, for the brothers now presented themselves in the form of “ragged old men, dancing, burning and restoring houses, killing and restoring each other to life, and performing other wonderful things. They were induced to exhibit their skill before the princes of Xibalba, killing and resuscitating the king’s dog, burning and restoring the royal palace. Then a man was made the subject of their art. Hunahpu was cut in pieces and brought to life by Xbalanque. Finally the monarchs of Xibalba wanted to experience personally the temporary death; Hun Came the highest was first killed, then Vukub Came, but life was not restored to them.”[345] The twin sons of the unfortunate Xibalban virgin, an outcast from her home, triumphed, their father and uncle were avenged, the warlike Xibalbans—the fierce, frightful-looking, owl-like, faithless, hypocritical tyrants, black and white, and with painted faces, as they are described—were overthrown forever. The ancestors of the victorious chieftains were then deified and given places in the sun and moon; while their allies, the enemies of Xibalba, were made stars in the firmament.
To interpret fully this figurative account requires further knowledge, which it is hoped ultimately may come to light. The beheading of Hunahpu in the house of bats may signify the loss of the most important division of his army; for when the “animals” came to his relief—by which we understand the less civilized tribes of the country—he obtained a victory. The closing paragraphs of the account indicate that a long and tiresome warfare brought the brothers repeated victories, but not the entire overthrow of Xibalba; and that stratagem was resorted to—a stratagem no more improbable or difficult to understand than that of the wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks at Troy. The stratagem was at last successful, and Xibalba, of the Votanites—we suppose the empire of the Chanes—fell. The war seems to have been one of religion in part, for Hurakan, “Heart of Heaven,” inspired the contest, and Gucumatz, “the Plumed Serpent,” one of his associate though minor deities, was the god of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The wicked Xibalbans were puffed up against the Heart of Heaven, would not accept the true faith, and hence their overthrow before the advancing power of a new religion.[346] It is certain that the conquerors of Xibalba (which was no doubt Palenque) were near neighbors, who had been closely allied to the great power. Bancroft is of the opinion that they were the Tzequiles, who arrived during Votan’s absence and introduced new ideas of government and religion among his people.[347] Garcia Pelaez, in his Memorias, agrees with Juarros in calling them Carthaginians, and states that they arrived in that region about four hundred years before Christ, founded Tulan, the present Ococingo, and overthrew ancient Culhuacan or Palenque.[348] Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the Nahuas, coming into Mexico by sea at the south [i. e., in the south central region] slowly moved toward the north, to the regions bordering on California, and also spreading their civilization across the Usumacinta River, went into Yucatan and even Guatemala. This he thinks occurred in the year 174 of our era; Xibalba was at the height of her power, but was overthrown in the revolution and conquest.[349] While we do not attach much certainty to the Abbé’s date, still we think that the fall of Xibalba was due to Nahua influences brought to bear upon the ancestors of the Quichés. The old religion and civilization of the Votanites were compelled to yield to the vigorous and warlike power which brought with it a religion which has ever commended itself to the senses and impulses of semi-civilized peoples. The worship of the sun-symbol of the Heart of Heaven was destined to supplant all other faiths.
It will be remembered that Quetzalcoatl was the leader and deity of the Nahuas, and that in their language his name signified “plumed serpent,” while Gucumatz, leader and patron deity of the Xibalban conquerors has precisely the same significance in the Quiché language. Utatlan upon the Guatemalian highlands was doubtless the point from which the allied forces under the brothers descended the precipitous road to the Usumacinta region below. It is probable that the Nahuas had lived for some time in the country, had reached it in their migrations by water along the Gulf coast, and spread their population to quarters both north and south of the point at which they entered. They may have been permitted to settle in the country without molestation, and in time to have united their forces with the rivals of Xibalba for the overthrow of a power which was the dread of the entire Central American region. The crumbling though wonderful ruins of Palenque are the sole vestiges which are left to us of a grand capital and noble empire, and these offer us nothing but the sealed histories which are graven in hieroglyphics upon its walls. Subsequently the Maya-Quiché nations divided and extended their language in three directions; one division journeyed toward Guatemala, another toward Mexico, and another into Yucatan; the latter region has ever remained a peculiarly Maya country. Las Casas states that some of the Guatemalians had a legend of their origin, to the effect that a divine pair of beings had thirteen sons (but by comparison with other authors, namely, Roman in Garcia, and Bancroft, vol. iii, pp. 74–5, it is clear that the writer designed to write three—tres—instead of thirteen—trece), or rather three sons. The eldest was puffed up in his own conceit, and attempted to create man against the will of his parents, but failed, except that he was able to produce vessels of the meaner sort. The younger sons, who exhibited quite a different spirit, were granted the privilege, and after creating the sun and moon and stars, created the first man and woman, the progenitors of the human race.[350] Las Casas adds, “They have among them knowledge of the flood and of the end of the world. They call it ‘butic,’ a name which signifies a flood of many waters. They also believe that another ‘butic’ and judgment will come, not of water but of fire. They hold that certain persons who escaped from the flood populated their land; these were called the Great Father and Great Mother.”[351] In Yucatan the origin traditions point directly to an eastern and foreign source for the population. The early writers report that the natives believed their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them.[352] It was also believed that part of the population came into the country from the West. Lizana says that the smaller portion of the population, the “little descent,” came from the East, while the greater portion, “the great descent,” came from the West.[353] Cogolludo disagrees with this view, and considers the eastern colony as the larger; a view which is not likely to be true. The author himself is not quite certain as to what he thinks upon the subject, and contradicts himself squarely on the same page, as to the direction from which Zamna, the Yucatanic culture-hero, is said to have come.[354] Señor Orozco y Berra, thinks that the Yucatanic population came from the north-east (from Florida), by way of Cuba and the islands adjacent.[355] The culture-hero, Zamna, the author of all civilization in Yucatan, is described as the teacher of letters and the leader of the people from their ancient home. His relation to the people and his office of priest and deity combined—the fact that he was the leader of a colony from the East, that he named all the divisions of the land, all the towns, coasts, bays and rivers—identifies him with Votan or rather with one of his disciples or associates. Cogolludo’s statement, first that he came from the West, may be true of the direction from which he came into Yucatan; and the statement that he came from the East, may refer to the original migration by which he in company with Votan reached Chiapas and from thence entered the peninsula on the north-east. He was the founder of the capital city of Mayapan, and after a long life died and was buried at Izamal.[356] This became a shrine for pilgrims and was visited for centuries afterwards by religious devotees in large numbers. Zamna is supposed to have founded the oldest royal house in Yucatan—that of the Cocomes.[357] The second culture-hero, of whom mention is made by all the early writers, was Cukulcan (meaning plumed serpent, precisely the same as Quetzalcoatl), who entered the country from the West and settled at Chichen-Itza.[358] Landa is not certain whether he preceded or followed the Itzas. His celibacy, general purity of morals, and the advanced character of his teachings, seem to identify him with the Nahua culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, and it is believed, with reason, that he appeared in Yucatan after his mysterious disappearance in the province of Goazacoalco. For some unknown reason, Cukulcan left Chichen-Itza after a residence there of ten years. Herrera states that he had two brothers who remained in Chichen-Itza, while Cukulcan went to Mayapan. He describes all as practising the purest asceticism. After the disappearance of Cukulcan, temples were erected to his memory and he was worshiped as a god.[359] The date of his residence in Yucatan is a matter of considerable dispute, Cogolludo placing it in the twelfth century, Herrera in the ninth, Brasseur de Bourbourg in the eleventh, and Bancroft in the second. To fix dates on no better data than such legends is folly. It is probable, however, that Cukulcan was the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, who was the teacher of the Nahua nations and figured as the introducer of the fine arts, of purity of morals, of confessional ceremonies and a humane and enlightened system of religion at Cholula, and afterwards disappeared toward the East upon the waters of the Gulf. With the rule of the Cocomes and the annals of that remarkable branch of the Chiapan family, composed of Maya and Nahua elements known as the Tutul Xius, we have nothing to do in this work.[360] Las Casas, in examining the doctrine of Hunab Ku, “the only God” among the Yucatecoes, who is described as the father of Zamna, discovered a most striking Christ myth; one which conforms so closely to the gospel account of Christ’s birth and ministry that we must conclude that either some foreigner must have been cast upon the coast after the Christian era began, bringing the gospel with him, or that one of two views is true, namely, that the Fathers fabricated the story, or that the natives, expecting favor of their conquerors, endeavored to harmonize their belief with that which was being taught them. Las Casas tells us of their belief in a Trinity consisting of Izona, the Father; Bacab, the Son, and Echuah, the Holy Ghost.[361] The Son was born of the Virgin Chibirias, and was rejected of men, was scourged and crucified on a tree with cross-arms; he descended into the regions of the dead, but rose again on the third day, and finally ascended to heaven. In fact the story is the Apostles’ Creed without the “Credo,” and is probably as much the work of the credulous and imaginative Spanish Fathers as of the designing natives. The story ought to be repudiated without question. It only remains for us to submit the question to the reader, whether the Maya peoples are not of transatlantic origin, as we believe the facts in this chapter indicate.