These four nations were on the same plane of culture, and this by no means a low one. They were agriculturists, cultivating for food beans, peppers, and especially maize. To the latter, indeed, they are charged with being fanatically[14] devoted. “If one looks closely at these Indians,” complains an old author, “he will find that everything they do and say has something to do with maize. A little more, and they would make a god of it. There is so much conjuring and fussing about their corn fields, that for them they will forget wives and children and any other pleasure, as if the only end and aim of life was to secure a crop of corn.”[14-1]
In their days of heathenism, all the labors of the field were directed by the observance of superstitious rites. For instance, the men, who always did a large share of the field work, refrained from approaching their wives for some days before planting the seed. Before weeding the patch, incense was burned at each of the four corners of the field, to the four gods of the winds and rains; and the first fruits were consecrated to holy uses.[14-2] Their fields were large and extremely productive.[14-3] In this connection it is worth noting, in passing, that precisely Guatemala is the habitat of the Euchlæna[15] luxurians, the wild grass from which, in the opinion of botanists, the Zea Mais is a variety developed by cultivation.
Cotton was largely cultivated, and the early writers speak with admiration of the skill with which the native women spun and wove it into graceful garments.[15-1] As in Yucatan, bees were domesticated for their wax and honey, and a large variety of dye-stuffs, resins for incense, and wild fruits, were collected from the native forests.
Like the Mayas and Aztecs, they were a race of builders, skillful masons and stone-cutters, erecting large edifices, pyramids, temples, and defensive works, with solid walls of stone laid in a firm mortar.[15-2] The sites of these cities were generally the summits of almost inaccessible crags, or on some narrow plain, protected on all sides by the steep and deep ravines—barrancas, as the Spaniards call them—which intersect the plateau in all directions, often plunging down to a depth of thousands of feet. So located and so constructed, it is no wonder that Captain Alvarado speaks of them as “thoroughly built and marvelously strong.”[15-3]
[16]In the construction of their buildings and the measurements of their land, these nations had developed quite an accurate series of lineal measures, taking as their unit certain average lengths of the human body, especially the upper extremity. In a study of this subject, published during the present year, I have set forth their various terms employed in this branch of knowledge, and compared their system with that in use among the Mayas and the Aztecs.[16-1] It would appear that the Cakchiquels did not borrow from their neighbors, but developed independently the system of mensuration in vogue among them. This bears out what is asserted in the Annals of Xahila, that their “day-breaking,” or culture, was of spontaneous growth.
The art of picture writing was familiar to all these peoples. It was employed to preserve their national history, to arrange their calendar, and, doubtless, in the ordinary affairs of life.[16-2] But I am not aware that any example or description of it has been preserved, which would enable us to decide the highly important question, whether their system was derived from that of the Mexicans or that of the Mayas, between which, as the antiquary need not be informed, there existed an almost radical difference.
The word for “to write,” is
ibah, which means, in its[17] primary sense, “to paint;” ah