NOTES.
[Maya]
[English]The writer states, in a brief introduction, the nature and purpose of his composition.
U kahlay, the record, or the memoir, from kahal, to remember. The concrete meaning of the root is “to know by sight, to recognize.” ɔiban, past participle, passive voice, of ɔib to write: the original signification of the word is “to paint.” Yoheltabal, passive form of ohel, to know, which is always conjugated with the pronominal prefixes, u, a, y. Yolah, syncopated form of u uolah, he wills, wishes, uol=volo, uolah=voluntas.
It will be noticed that this chronicle is not called an “arrangement” of the katuns, tzolan katun, but a count or reckoning of them, xocan or xocol, from xoc, to count.
[Maya]
[English]1. The count begins with the discovery of Chichen Itza, mentions that Pop was “counted in order” at the beginning of the next following Ahau Katun, and having stated the desertion of Chichen Itza and the migration to Chakanputun, the chronicler draws a line, as if to separate broadly these occurrences from those which followed.
[Maya]
[English]5. The distinction between paa and tulum appears to be that tulum is an enclosure surrounded by a defensive wall, and this wall itself; while paa is a castle, or, in Maya land, a mound or pyramid with buildings on it erected for purposes of defence.
[Maya]
[English]6. Kakil nohkakil, the fire, the great fire, but here in the sense of a contagious febrile disease, probably the smallpox.