The American Race / A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America

by Daniel G. Brinton

Dr. Julius Scherzer has further added to the confusion about the Popolocas of Guatemala by printing at Vienna a vocabulary under this name which he had obtained near the Volcan de Agua.[201] It is nothing more than the ordinary Cakchiquel dialect of that locality, known as the lengua metropolitana from its official adoption by the church.

10. THE MAYAS.

The geographical relations of the members of the Maya stock are in marked contrast to those of the Uto-Aztecan—its only rival in civilization. Except the colony of the Huastecas on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the valley of the Rio Panuco, all its dialects were in contiguity. The true Maya, which is believed to be the purest form of the language, extended over the whole of the peninsula of Yucatan, around Lake Peten, and far up the affluents of the Usumacinta, the dialect of the Lacandons being closely akin to it. The principal tribes in Guatemala were the Quiches, the Cakchiquels and the Mams; while in Tabasco the Tzendals and the Tzotzils held an extensive territory. We cannot identify the builders of the ruined cities of Palenque in Tabasco and Copan in Honduras with the ancestors of any known tribe, but the archæological evidence is conclusive that whoever they were, they belonged to this stock, and spoke one of its dialects.

The historic legends of several members of the family have been well preserved. According to the earliest authorities, those of the Quiches went back more than eight hundred years before the conquest,[202] that is, to about 700 A. D.; while the chronicles of the Mayas seem to present a meagre sketch of the nation nearly to the beginning of the Christian era.[203] The uniform assertion of these legends is that the ancestors of the stock came from a more northern latitude, following down the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. This is also supported by the position of the Huastecas, who may be regarded as one of their tribes left behind in the general migration, and by the tradition of the Nahuas which assigned them a northern origin.[204] So far no relationship has been detected with any northern stock, but the striking similarity of some art remains in the middle Mississippi to those of Yucatan, suggests that one should search in this vicinity for their priscan home.[205]

Physically the Mayas are short, strong, dark, and brachycephalic. The custom of compressing the skull antero-posteriorly which formerly prevailed, exaggerated this latter peculiarity. When first encountered by the Spaniards they were split into a number of independent states of which eighteen are enumerated in Yucatan alone. According to tradition, these were the fragments of a powerful confederacy which had broken up about a century before, the capital of which was Mayapan. The tribes were divided into gentes, usually named after animals, with descent in the male line. A man bore the names of both his father’s and mother’s gens, but the former was distinguished as his “true name.” The chieftainship was hereditary, a council from the gentes deliberating with the ruler.

The art in which these people excelled was that of architecture. They were born builders from a remote epoch. At the time of the conquest the stately structures of Copan, Palenque, T’Ho, and many other cities were deserted and covered with an apparently primitive forest; but others not inferior to them Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Peten, etc., were the centers of dense population, proving that the builders of both were identical. The material was usually a hard limestone, which was polished and carved, and imbedded in a firm mortar. Such was also the character of the edifices of the Quiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala. In view of the fact that none of these masons knew the plumb-line or the square, the accuracy of the adjustments is remarkable.[206] Their efforts at sculpture were equally bold. They did not hesitate to attempt statues in the round of life-size and larger, and the facades of the edifices were covered with extensive and intricate designs cut in high relief upon the stones. All this was accomplished without the use of metal tools, as they did not have even the bronze chisels familiar to the Aztecs. Gold, silver and copper were confined to ornaments, bells and similar purposes.

The chief source of the food supply was agriculture. Maize was the principal crop, and the arable land was carefully let out to families by the heads of the villages. Beans and peppers were also cultivated and bees were domesticated, from which both honey and wax, used in various arts, were collected. Cotton was woven into fabrics of such delicacy that the Spaniards at first thought the stuffs were of silk. It was dyed of many colors, and was the main material of clothing. Brilliant feathers were highly prized. Their canoes were seaworthy, and though there was no settlement of the Mayas on the island of Cuba as has been alleged, there was a commercial interchange of products with it, since Columbus was shown wax from Yucatan and was told about the peninsula. An active commerce was also maintained with southern Mexico, along the Gulf Coast, the media of exchange being cacao beans, shells, precious stones and flat pieces of copper.[207]

The points which have attracted the most attention in Maya civilization, next to its architecture, are the calendar and the hieroglyphics. The calendar is evidently upon the same basis as that of the Mexicans, turning upon the numerals thirteen, twenty, and four. But the Mayas appear to have had more extended measures for the computation of time than the Aztecs. Besides the cycle of twenty years, called by them the katun, and that of fifty-two years, they had the ahau katun, or Great Cycle, of two hundred and sixty years.

Both the Cakchiquels, Quiches and Mayas of Yucatan were literary peoples. They made frequent use of tablets, wrote many books, and covered the walls of their buildings with hieroglyphs carved on the stone or wood, or painted upon the plaster. Their characters are entirely different from those of the Mexicans. Most of them have rounded outlines, something like that of a section of a pebble, and for this reason the name “calculiform” has been applied to the writing. Their books were of maguey paper or of parchment, folded like those of the Mexicans. Although five or six of them have been preserved, as well as numerous inscriptions on the walls of buildings, no satisfactory interpretations have been offered, largely, perhaps, because none of the interpreters have made themselves familiar with the Maya language.[208]