alibal, and these words are frequently employed to designate the Supreme Power.
The ceremonies connected with the installation of a king or head chief, are described in an interesting passage of the Annals, [Sec. 41]: “He was bathed by the attendants in a large painted vessel; he was clad in flowing robes; a sacred girdle or fillet was tied upon him; he was painted with the holy colors, was anointed, and jewels were placed upon his person.” Such considerable solemnities point to the fact that these people were on a much higher plane of social life than[21] one where the possession of the leadership was merely an act of grasping by the strongest arm.
Of the four nations, the Quiches were the most numerous and powerful. At times they exercised a sovereignty over the others, and levied tribute from them. But at the period of Alvarado’s conquest, all four were independent States, engaged in constant hostilities against each other.
There is no means of forming an accurate estimate of their number. All early accounts agree that their territory was thickly populated, with numerous towns and cities.[21-1] The contingent sent to Alvarado by the Cakchiquel king, to aid in the destruction of Quiche, was four thousand warriors in one body, according to Alvarado’s own statement, though Xahila puts it at four hundred. There are various reasons for believing that the native population was denser at the Conquest than at present; and now the total aboriginal population of the State of Guatemala, of pure or nearly pure blood, is about half a million souls.
The Capital City of the Cakchiquels.
The capital city of the Cakchiquels is referred to by Xahila as “Iximche on the Ratzamut.” It was situated on the lofty[22] plateau, almost on a line connecting Gumarcaah, the capital of the Quiches, with the modern city of Guatemala, about twelve leagues from the latter and eight from the former. Its name, Iximche, is that of a kind of tree (che=tree) called by the Spanish inhabitants ramon, apparently a species of Brosimium. Ratzamut, literally “the beak of the wild pigeon,” was the name given to the small and almost inaccessible plain, surrounded on all sides by deep ravines, on which Iximche was situated. Doubtless, it was derived from some fancied resemblance of the outline of the plain to the beak of this bird.
The capital was also called simply tinamit, the city (not Patinamit, as writers usually give it, as pa is not an article but a preposition, in or at); and by the Aztec allies of the conqueror Alvarado, Quauhtemallan, “place of the wood-pile,” for some reason unknown to us.[22-1] The latter designation was afterwards extended to the province, and under the corrupt form Guatemala is now the accepted name of the State and its modern capital.
The famous captain, Pedro de Alvarado was the first European to visit Iximche. He entered it on April 13th, 1524 (old style). In his letter describing the occurrence, however, he says little or nothing about the size or appearance of the buildings.[22-2]
[23]Scarcely more satisfactory are the few words devoted to it by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who spent a night there the same year. He observes that “its buildings and residences were fine and rich, as might be expected of chiefs who ruled all the neighboring provinces.”[23-1]