This is the series of Katuns that elapsed from the time of their separation from the land and house of Nonoual, in which were the four Tutul Xiu, lying to the west of Zuina, going out of the country of Tulapan.
With these few words the Maya author states his purpose. He wishes to enumerate the Katuns or periods of time from the beginning of the history of his nation to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. He tells us that his nation lived in a land called Tulapan, which was westerly from another called Zuina, and that from thence, under the lead of four chiefs, the Tutul Xiu, they had immigrated into this new country, Yucatan.
[Map showing the movement of the Mayas as stated in the Manuscript.]
By Tutul Xiu the author evidently means the name of the reigning family, which, at the arrival of the Spaniards, were considered as the ancient rulers and hereditary lords of Chichen-Itza.[[42]] In regard to the countries referred to by the names Tulapan and Zuina, we can only say that in Central American traditions the name Tulapan oftentimes returns under the form of Tulan. Thus, for example, the Quichés and Cakchiqueles, sister nations of the Mayas, make mention of the above countries in their annals.[[43]] Upon a closer examination of the text, contained in the so-called “Popol Vuh,” we were unable to detect any grounds for the assumption that these countries or places lay in a distant orient. They probably will turn out to have been, or by the annalists were thought to have been, situated on the northern boundaries of Mexico, on a route of migration ending with the high plateaus of Guatemala.
§1. Four epochs were spent in travelling before they arrived here with Holon Chantepeuh and his followers. When they began their journey towards this island, it was the 8th Ahau, and the 6th, 4th and 2d were spent in travelling, because in the 1st year of the 13th Ahau they arrived at this island, making together eighty-one years they were travelling between their departure from their country and their arrival at this island of Chacnouitan. These are 81 years.
We learn that four Ahau periods had passed the 8th, 6th, 4th and 2d before the wanderers arrived with their leader, Holon Chantepeuh, at the island of Chacnouitan. In the following 13th Ahau they are said to have been already settled there. It is of the highest importance to note that the Maya author here acknowledges that he reckoned each Ahau period as 20 years, and he remains faithful to this method to the end of the manuscript. By this fact alone, we should be compelled to follow the division of 20 years thus established, even if in contradiction to the statements of other chroniclers, which fortunately is not the case.
As the author treats of the affairs of the Tutul Xiu or the so-called Itza race, and attributes to them the discovery and colonization of Yucatan, it is highly probable that he made use of the annals of the Itzaes, and that they were arranged in periods of just 20 years. If we should be right in this assumption the 20–year period must be regarded as the most ancient ever used in Yucatan.
We cannot fully agree with Señor Perez and his countrymen that the author intended to designate the peninsula of Yucatan when he speaks of the Island of Chacnouitan. This name appears for the first and only time in this manuscript. It is generally acknowledged that the name had never previously been heard of.[[44]] We should state that the words of the text are always nay ti petene Chacnouitan. If in Maya peten meant only a peninsula, we should take no exceptions. But the fundamental meaning of peten is an island, and as the demonstrative pronoun nay means as well “of this place” as “of that place,” the translation could as well stand for “that distant island.” Whether the island was situated in the ocean or in any of the many inland lakes, the probabilities seem to lie with the latter supposition, for they came by land. Had they come by sea, tradition would have dwelt with some characteristic remark upon such an exceptional case. From the following paragraph it will become still more evident that the Chacnouitan discovered by the Itzaes was neither the whole nor the northern part of Yucatan, but a district situated in the southwest of the peninsula.
§2. The 8th Ahau, the 6th Ahau, in the 2d Ahau arrived Ajmekat Tutul Xiu, and ninety-nine years they remained in Chacnouitan—years 99.