The Tlascaltecs were great lovers of liberty, and were always ready to fight for it; they were, besides, quick to take offence, otherwise they are said to have been of a peaceable, domestic disposition, content to stay at home and listen to or tell stories in their own families, an amusement of which they were very fond. They are further described as truthful, just, frugal, and industrious.[899]
The Cholultecs, so celebrated for their pottery, are reported to have been very peaceful, industrious, and shrewd traders, yet brave withal, and capable of defending their rights.[900] The Zapotecs were a fierce people, always at war with their neighbors.[901] The Miztecs are said by Herrera to have been the bravest people in all New Spain; the same writer asserts that they were lazy and improvident, while Espinosa speaks of them as an industrious race.[902] The natives of Vera Cruz are spoken of as affable and shrewd.[903] The people of Jalisco were witty and slothful, yet they willingly carried burdens for the Spaniards, Herrera tells us.[904] The Tarascos were exceedingly valorous, great liars, and industrious.[905]
CHAPTER XX.
GOVERNMENT, SOCIAL CLASSES, PROPERTY, AND LAWS OF THE MAYA NATIONS.
Introductory Remarks—Votan's Empire—Zamná's Reign—The Royal Families of Yucatan; Cocomes, Tutul Xius, Itzas, and Cheles—Titles and Order of Succession—Classes Of Nobles—The Quiché-Cakchiquel Empire in Guatemala—The Ahau Ahpop and Succession to the Throne—Privileged Classes—Government of the Provinces—The Royal Council—The Chiapanecs—The Pipiles—Nations of Nicaragua—The Maya Priesthood—Plebeian Classes—Slaves—Tenure of Lands—Inheritance of Property—Taxation—Debtors and Creditors—Laws and the Administration of Justice.
My reasons for dividing the Civilized Nations of our territory into two groups, the Nahuas and the Mayas, whose institutions are separately described, have been stated in the General View, to which a preceding chapter has been devoted. In the same place was given an outline sketch of the nations composing each group, and their mutual relations,[906] which may serve as an introduction to the remainder of this volume. Without further preliminary remarks I may therefore enter at once upon the subject-matter of this second division of my topic, a description of Maya institutions, or the manners and customs of the civilized nations whose home was south of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. It will be evident to the reader from what has been said that this account must be not only much briefer, but also less complete and satisfactory than that of the Nahua nations. Concerning the Aztecs and kindred peoples about the lakes of the Mexican valley, as we have seen, a large amount of information has been preserved; I have consequently been able, in treating of the northern peoples, to take these nations of the valley as a nucleus, adding in their proper places such fragments of knowledge as are extant respecting tribes outside the limits of Anáhuac. In the south, fragmentary information is all we have; there is no nucleus round which to group it; the matter of the following chapters will, therefore, be very similar in its nature to what that of the preceding would have been, had I undertaken to describe the Tarascos, Totonacs, Zapotecs, etc., without the Aztecs. In this branch of my subject I shall follow as nearly as possible the same order as in the preceding, bringing together into one chapter, however, the topics before treated in several. I shall also include the civilized nations of Nicaragua in this division, although one at least of them was of Nahua blood and language. In the days of ancient Maya glory when Votan and his successors reigned over mighty and perhaps confederated empires in Chiapas, Guatemala, and Yucatan, the kings played rôles to a great extent mythical, being pictured by tradition as combining the character and powers of legislators, teachers, high-priests, and monarchs. Details of the system by which they governed are altogether wanting,[907] but after a long term of prosperity this government in Guatemala and Chiapas became weakened and at last practically destroyed; the country was divided among petty chiefs, concerning whose rule even less is known than of that of their predecessors, but who not improbably based their forms of authority on the ideas handed down from Votan. From these governmental relics there sprung up in later years, under new and perhaps foreign leaders, the Quiché and Cakchiquel empires, of whose government some details are known, since these nations came into direct contact with the Spaniards at the conquest. Leaving these nations for the present, I will speak first of another branch of the primitive Maya empire.
VOTAN'S MAYA EMPIRE.
Yucatan received its culture traditionally from Zamná, who came from abroad, governed the Mayas through a long life, and left the throne as an heritage to his successors. He was doubtless a companion or a descendant of Votan, and founded institutions similar to those of the western kingdoms whence he came. The government and institutions established in Yucatan met to a certain extent the same fate as those of Chiapas; that is, the country was finally split up by civil wars into numerous petty independent sovereignties; but this division was at a much later date than that of Votan's western empire,—not long preceding the Spanish conquest—and the government of the independent chieftains was substantially that of their ancestors, many of whom claimed to be of the royal family founded by Zamná. Consequently some scraps of information are extant respecting the form of government, as well as other institutions, in Yucatan; and from these we may form a faint idea of the earlier institutions of Guatemala and Chiapas.
Zamná, like Votan, united in himself the qualities of ruler, law-giver, educator, and priest; he founded the city of Mayapan, and divided the whole country among the chiefs of the leading families who came with him, making them vassals of the king whom he left on the throne at Mayapan. The nobles of the royal family were of course the highest, a family which was perhaps that known later as the Cocomes, and which lasted to the coming of the Spaniards. Each of the vassal princes had to live in the capital during a certain part of every year; and Brasseur de Bourbourg, following Ordoñez, thinks that Mayapan may have formed a confederacy with Tulhá and Palenque in Chiapas.[908]
THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF YUCATAN.