The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 2, Civilized Nations / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 2

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

The administration of justice and the execution of the laws were among the Mayas entrusted to the officials that have been mentioned in what has been said respecting government. Serious crimes or other important matters affecting the interests of the king, of the state, or of the higher ranks of nobility, were referred directly to the royal council presided over by the monarch. The king's lieutenants, or lords of royal blood who ruled over provinces, took cognizance of the more important cases of provincial interest; while petty local questions were decided by subordinate judges, one of whom was appointed in each village or hamlet. But even in the case of the local judges the advice of a council was sought on every occasion, and persons were appointed to assist both judges and parties to the suit in the character of advocates. Although these judges had the right to consult with the lord of their province, and the latter, probably, with the royal council, yet after a decision was rendered, there was apparently no right of appeal in any case whatever; but we are told that in Yucatan at least a royal commissioner traveled through the provinces and reported regularly on the manner in which the judges performed their duties, and on other matters of public import. Both judges and advocates might receive presents from all the parties to a suit, according to Cogolludo, and no one thought of applying for justice without bringing some gift proportioned to his means. In Guatemala, as Las Casas states, the judge received half the property of the convicted party; this is probably only to be understood as applying to serious crimes, which involved a confiscation of all property.

In Vera Paz the tax-collectors served also as constables, being empowered to arrest accused parties and witnesses, and to bring them before the judges. Very little is known of the order of procedure in the Maya courts, but great pains was apparently taken to ascertain all the facts bearing on the case, and to render exact justice to all concerned. Court proceedings, testimony, arguments, and decisions are said to have been altogether verbal, there being no evidence that written records were kept as they were by the Nahuas, although the Maya system of hieroglyphic writing cannot be supposed to have been in any respect inferior to that of the northern nations. Nothing in the nature of an oath was exacted from a witness, but to guard against false testimony in Yucatan a terrible curse was launched against the perjurer, and a superstitious fear of consequences was supposed to render falsehood impossible. In Guatemala so much was the perjurer despised that a fine and a reprimand from the judge were deemed sufficient punishment. Torture, if we may credit Las Casas, by tying the hands, beating with clubs, and the inhalation of smoke, was resorted to in Vera Paz to extort confession from a person suspected of adultery or other serious crimes. Great weight seems to have been attached to material evidence; for instance, it was deemed important to take the thief while in actual possession of the stolen property; and a woman to convict a man of rape must seize and produce in court some portion of his wearing-apparel. The announcement of the judge's decision was, as I have said, delivered verbally, and sometimes, when the parties to the suit were numerous, Cogolludo informs us that all were invited to a banquet, during which the verdict was made known. As there was no appeal to a higher tribunal, so there seems to have been no pardoning power, and the judge's final decision was always strictly enforced. Except a mention by Herrera that the Nicaraguan ministers of justice bore fans and rods, I find no account of any distinguishing insignia in the Maya tribunals.

MAYA PUNISHMENTS.

Punishments inflicted on Maya criminals took the form of death, slavery, and pecuniary fines; imprisonment was of rare occurrence, and apparently never inflicted as a punishment, but only for the retention of prisoners until their final punishment was legally determined. Cogolludo states that culprits were never beaten, but Villagutierre affirms that, at least among the Itzas, they were both beaten and put in shackles; and the same author speaks of imprisonment for non-payment of taxes at Coban. The death penalty was inflicted by hanging, by beating with the garrote, or club, and by throwing the condemned over a precipice. Ximenez mentions burning in Guatemala; Oviedo speaks of impalements in Yucatan; those condemned to death in Nicaragua seem to have been sacrificed to the gods by having their hearts cut out; and throwing the body from a wall or precipice is the only method attributed to the Pipiles.

At a town in Yucatan called Cachi, Oviedo mentions a sharp mast standing in the centre of a square and used by the people for impaling criminals alive. The method of imprisonment, as described by Cogolludo, consisted in binding the hands behind the back, placing about the neck a collar of wood and cords, and confining the culprit thus shackled in a wooden cage. At Campeche a place of punishment is mentioned by Peter Martyr and Torquemada as having been seen by the early voyagers. Three beams or posts were fixed in the ground, to them were attached three cross-beams, and scattered about were blood-stained arrows and spears. This apparatus would indicate, if it was really a place of punishment, a method of inflicting the death-penalty not elsewhere mentioned; and a stone structure adjoining, covered with sculptured emblems of punishment is suggestive of ceremonial rites in connection with executions. The death sentence generally involved the confiscation of the criminal's property and the enslaving of his family. All but the most heinous offences could be expiated by the payment of a fine consisting of slaves or other property, and the whole or a large part of this fine went to the judges, the lords, or the king.

Murder was punished in all the nations by death, but in Yucatan and Nicaragua if there were extenuating circumstances, such as great provocation or absence of malice, the crime was atoned by the payment of a fine. In Yucatan a minor who took human life became a slave; the killing of another's slave called for payment of the value destroyed; the killing of one's own slave involved a slight penalty or none at all. In Nicaragua no penalty was decided upon for the murder of a chief, such a crime being deemed impossible.

Theft was atoned by a return of the stolen property and the payment of a fine to the public treasury. In case the criminal could not pay the full value he was sold as a slave until such time as he might be able to redeem his freedom. In some cases the amount seems to have been paid with the price he brought as a slave, and in others he served the injured party. Fines, however, in most cases seem to have been paid by the relatives and friends of the guilty party, so that the number of persons actually enslaved was perhaps not very large. In Guatemala stolen articles of trifling value went with the fine to the public treasury, since the owner would not receive them. The incorrigible thief, when his friends refused to pay his fine, was sometimes put to death; and death was also the penalty for stealing articles of value from the temple. In Nicaragua the thief who delayed too long the payment of his fine was sacrificed to the gods; and in Salvador, banishment was the punishment for trifling theft, death for stealing larger amounts. Landa informs us that in Yucatan a noble who so far forgot his position as to steal had his face scarified, a great disgrace.

CRIMINAL CODE.