Corporation of Valladolid—Year 1618.
“Document No. 1. To the first question the witness answered that he knows the said Don Juan Kahuil and the said Dona Maria Quen his lawful wife, and all those referred to in the question; that this witness had full information from his father, who formerly was ahkin or priest among the natives, before they had received the water of baptism, how the parties above mentioned in the question came from the kingdom of Mexico, and established towns[116-1] in these provinces, and that they were a warlike and valiant people and lords, and thus some of them established themselves at Chichen Itza, and others went to the south and established towns at Bacalar, and toward the north and established towns on the coast; because they were three or four lords, and one, who was named Tumispolchicbul, was a kinsman of Montezuma, king of the kingdom of Mexico, and that Cuhuikakcamalcacalpuc was a very near kinsman of the said Don Juan Kahuil on his father’s side, and that the said Ixnahaucupul, daughter of Kukumcupul was wife of the grandfather of the said Don Juan Kahuil, all of whom were those who came from Mexico to found towns in these provinces, prominent people and lords; then they founded towns and ruled this land, because as he said, he heard his said father say that they were regarded, obeyed and respected as lords of this land, and that from one of them proceeded the said Don Juan Kahuil; and of these there is abundant information, and his said father often said to him that there was unanimity among them as to what took place by these lords.
“2ND. To the second question this witness answered that as he has said, he heard his father and other leading Indians say that the parties above mentioned in the first question came from the Kingdom of Mexico to found towns in these provinces; some remained in Chichen Itza, who were those who built the sumptuous edifices which are in the said locality; others went to found towns at Bacalar, and others to found towns on the coast to the north; and he who went to found towns on the coast was named Cacalpuc, from whom proceeds the said Don Juan Kahuil and those who thus made division went to found towns in the above mentioned provinces, and held them under subjection and government; and he chose a certain Cocom to rule in Chichen Itza, and they all obeyed him as lord, and those of the island of Cozumel were subject to him; and from there (from Chichen Itza) they passed to the province of Zotuta, where they were when the conquerors came, and they were always regarded, obeyed and respected as lords.
“3RD. To the first question this witness answered that he knew all the parties mentioned in the question and had abundant information about them, because Don Juan Carnal who was chief and governor of Sisal, one of the first who governed it by commission and brief given him by the Auditor Tomas Lopez, being one of the ancient chiefs of the said town in these provinces, spoke of the subject in conversation with his leading men and with this witness, who was constantly in his house and was chief clerk in ordinary in it, saying the parties mentioned had come from Mexico to found towns in this land of Yucatan, and that some settled at Chichen Itza, and erected the very stately edifices which are in the said locality, and that those who came from Mexico were four kinsmen or relatives with their friends and the people they brought with them; one settled as heretofore said at Chichen Itza, one went to settle at Bacalar, one went toward the north and settled on the coast, and the other went toward Cozumel; and they founded towns with their people, and were lords of these provinces, and governed them and ruled them many years; and that he had heard it said that one of them named Tanupolchicbul was a kinsman of Moctezuma, King of Mexico.”
This legend is also related, with some variation, by Herrera, and as I shall have occasion more than once to refer to his account, I shall translate it.
“At Chichen Itza, ten leagues from Itzamal, the ancients say there reigned three lords, brothers, who came from the west, and gathered together many people, and reigned some years in peace and justice; and they constructed large and very beautiful edifices. It is said that they lived unmarried and very chastely; and it is added that in time one of them was missing, and that his absence worked such bad results that the other two began to be unchaste and partial; and thus the people came to hate them, and slew them, and scattered abroad, and deserted the edifices, especially the most stately one, which is ten leagues from the sea.
“Those who established themselves at Chichen Itza call themselves Itzas; among these there is a tradition that there ruled a great lord called Cuculcàn, and all agree that he came from the west; and the only difference among them is as to whether he came before or after or with the Itzas; but the name of the building at Chichen Itza, and what happened after the death of the lords above mentioned, show that Cuculcan ruled the country jointly with them. He was a man of good disposition, was said not to have had either wife or children, and not to have known woman; he was devoted to the interests of the people, and for this reason was regarded as a god. In order to pacify the land he agreed to found another city, where all business could be transacted. He selected for this purpose a site eight leagues further inland from where now stands the city of Merida, and fifteen leagues from the sea. There they erected a circular wall of dry stone, about a half quarter of a league in diameter, leaving in it only two gateways. They erected temples, giving to the largest the name Cuculcàn, and also constructed around the wall the houses of the lords among whom Cuculcàn had divided the land, giving and assigning towns to each. To the city he gave the name Mayapan, which means “the Standard of the Maya,” as Maya is the name of their language.
“By this means the country was quieted and they lived in peace for some years under Cuculcan, who governed with justice, until, having arranged for his departure, and recommending them to continue the wise rule he had established, he left them and returned to Mexico by the same route he had come, remaining in Champoton some time, where, in memory of his journey, he erected a building in the sea, which remains to this day.”[120-1]
Bishop Landa and some other early writers also give versions of this tradition, but do not add any facts to those in the above quotations. Evidently it was a widespread legend of the origin of the great buildings of Chichen Itza. Is it a tradition of fact or is it a myth?
I confess that to me it has a suspiciously mythical aspect. It is too similar to what I may call the standard hero-myth of the American Aborigines. Everywhere, both in North and South America, we find the myth of the four brothers who divided the land between them, one of whom is superior to the others and becomes the ruler and instructor of the ancestors of the nation. He does not die, but disappears, or goes to heaven, and is often expected to return. Just so in one of the Maya myths, Cuculcan did not return to Mexico, but rose to heaven, whence once every year he descended to his temple at Mayapan and received the gifts which from far and wide pious pilgrims had brought to his shrine (Landa, Relacion, p. 302). All these myths relate to the worship of the four cardinal points and to the Light-God, as I have shown in a previous work (The Myths of the New World, chap. III. New York, 1876).