IV. THE ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUEL[103]
The Cakchiquel Annals do not, like the Popul Vuh, form a work of primarily literary or historical intent, but are, both in form and in content, part of a brief, the purpose of which is to establish certain territorial rights of members of the family of Xahila, thus falling into the class of native titulos, written in Spanish, several of which have been published. From its nature the composition has not, therefore, the dramatic character of a mythic narrative; nevertheless its very purpose, as founding a title to lands anciently held, leads to the effort to establish this by the right of first occupation, and hence to stories of the first comers. That such accounts are reproduced more or less exactly from mythic narratives there can be no manner of doubt, internal traits showing near affinity with the tales of the Popul Vuh and kindred cycles.
The narrative begins with a record of "the sayings of our earliest fathers and ancestors, Gagavitz the name of one, Zactecauh the name of the other ... as we came from the other side of the sea, from the land of Tulan, where we were brought forth and begotten....
"These are the very words which Gagavitz and Zactecauh spake: 'Four men came from Tulan; one Tulan is at the sunrise, and one is at Xibalbay, and one is at the sunset; and we came from this one at the sunset; and one is where is God. Therefore there are four Tulans, they say, O our sons; from the sunset we came; from Tulan from beyond the sea; and it was at Tulan that, arriving, we were brought forth; coming, we were produced, as they say, by our fathers and our mothers.
"'And now the Obsidian Stone is brought forth by the precious Xibalbay, the glorious Xibalbay; and man is made by; the Maker, the Creator. The Obsidian Stone was his sustainer when man was made in misery and when man was formed; he was fed with wood, he was fed with leaves; he wished only the earth; he could not speak, he could not walk; he had no blood, he had no flesh; so say our fathers, our ancestors, O ye my sons. Nothing was found to feed him; at length something was found to feed him. Two brutes knew that there was food in the place called Paxil, where these creatures were, the Coyote and the Crow by name. Even in the refuse of maize it was found when the creature Coyote was killed as he was separating his maize and was searching for bread to knead, killed by the creature named Tiuh Tiuh; and from within the sea, by means of Tiuh Tiuh, was brought the blood of the serpent and of the tapir with which the maize was to be kneaded; the flesh of man was formed of it by the Maker, the Creator; and well did they, the Maker and the Creator, know him who was born, him who was begotten; they made man as he was made, they formed man as they made him; so they tell. There were thirteen men, fourteen women; they, talked, they walked; they had blood, they had flesh. They married, and one had two wives. They brought forth daughters, they brought forth sons, those first men. Thus men were made, and thus the Obsidian Stone was made, for the enclosure of Tulan; thus we came to where the Zotzils were at the gates of Tulan; arriving, we were born; coming, we were produced; coming, we gave the tribute in the darkness, in the night, O our sons.' Thus spake Gagavitz and Zactecauh, O my sons; and what they said hath not been forgotten. They are our great ancestors; these are the words with which they encouraged us of old."
PLATE XXV.
Monumental stela, Piedras Negras. This superb relief shows a divinity with quetzal-plume crest to whom a priest is presenting the group of bound captives, shown at the base. After photograph in the Peabody Museum.
These extracts indicate the style of the Annals, full of repetition and almost without relational expressions, but now and again lighted with passages of extraordinary vividness. The Obsidian Stone, Chay Abah, represented an important civic fetish or oracular talisman, if we may credit the description of Iximche, the Cakchiquel capital, transmitted by Fuentes y Guzman and quoted by Brinton.[104] On the summit of a small hill overlooking the town—so goes the account—"is a circular wall, not unlike the curb of a well, about a full fathom in height. The floor within is paved with cement, as the city streets. In the centre is placed a socle or pedestal of a glittering substance, like glass, but of what composition is not known. This circular structure was the tribunal or consistory of the Cakchiquel Indians, where not only was public hearing given to causes, but also the sentences were carried out. Seated around this wall, the judges heard the pleas and pronounced the sentences, in both civil and criminal cases. After this public decision, however, there remained an appeal for its revocation or confirmation. Three messengers were chosen as deputies of the judges, and these went forth from the tribunal to a deep ravine, north of the palace, to a small but neatly fitted-up chapel or temple, where was located the oracle of the demon. This was a black and semi-transparent stone, of a finer grade than that called chay (obsidian). In its transparency, the demon revealed to them what should be their final decision." This passage is not the only indication of the employment of divination by crystal gazing in primitive America; and it is even possible that the translucent green stones so widely valued were primarily sacred because of divinatory properties. Not all sacred stones were of the emerald hue, however; for in the Cakchiquel narrative one of the deeds of Gagavitz is the ascent of a volcano where, it is said, he conquered the fire, bringing it captive in the form of a stone called Gak Chog, which, the chronicler is at pains to state, is not a green stone.
The mythic affinities of the Cakchiquel narrative are already apparent in the passages quoted. The city of Tulan (frequently "Tullan" in the text) is clearly become a name for certain cosmic stations, namely the houses of sunrise, sunset, zenith ("where is God"), and nadir (Tulan of Xibalbay, the underworld). The successive creations of men, experimental men first, and finally maize-formed men, is certainly the same myth as that of the Popul Vuh, which is briefly described also by Las Casas and which is probably intimately associated with a cult of the maize-gods. "If one looks closely at these Indians," says an early writer quoted by Brinton,[105] (manuscript known as the Crónica Franciscana), "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."