NOTES.
[Maya]
[English]1. The writer begins with the 12th ahau, although nothing is noted until the 6th. Here we have the brief entry paxciob ahoni. This might be translated “those of Oni were driven out or scattered.” But no such locality is known or mentioned elsewhere. The Diccionario de Motul, MS. gives the meaning of ahoni as “pulido, galan, muy bien vestido,” ahoni a talel ex, “you come very well dressed.” I suppose, therefore, that it was a term applied to some early tribe who distinguished themselves in comparison with their ruder neighbors by elegance of costume. Later we shall find a similar term, “breechless foreigners,” applied to another tribe whose condition of nudity suggested their appellation.
The name Kinich Kakmo is mentioned by Cogolludo as that of an idol worshiped at Itzamal. He says:—“They had another temple on another mound in the northern part of the city, and this, from the name of an idol which they worshiped here, they called Kinich Kakmó, which means the sun with a face. They say that the rays were of fire and descended at mid-day to consume the sacrifice, as the vacamaya flies through the air (which is a bird something like a parrot, though larger in size, and with finely colored feathers). They resorted to this idol in time of mortality, pestilence or much sickness, both men and women, and brought many offerings. They said that at mid-day a fire descended and consumed the sacrifice in the sight of all. After this the priests replied to their inquiries about the sickness, famine or pestilence, and thus they learned their fate; although it often turned out quite the contrary of what he predicted.” (Historia de Yucatan, Lib. IV, cap. VIII.)
The title given by Cogolludo to the divinity appears to have also been adopted by the ruling chief, who may also have been the high priest. It is both imperfectly and incorrectly translated by the historian. Its components are kin, the sun, day; ich, the eye, the face; kak, fire; moo, the macaw, Psittacus Macao, deemed sacred throughout Mexico and Central America, on account of its beautiful plumage. The full translation of the name is “the Eye of Day, the Sacred Bird of Fire,” a symbolic name of a solar deity.
The Chan family is mentioned by Sanchez Aguilar (Informe contra Idolum Cultores, etc.), as among the princely houses of Yucatan at the date of the Conquest.
Paxci u cah, “the town,” that is, Chichen Itza. The writer composed his chronicle at that place, so he does not think it necessary to name it specifically. The distance in a straight line from Chichen Itza to Itzamal is 40 geographical miles.
[Maya]
[English]2. Yala, the remainder, from ala, above, over. A portion of the Itzas remained in Chichen after the attack by Kinich Kakmo; these also now leave it.
[Maya]
[English]3. The place Xuluc mul is unknown in the present geography of the peninsula. It means “the completed mounds,” mul being, as I have before remarked, the name given to the artificial pyramids and tumuli of stone so common in the peninsula, probably so called from the joint labor of many in their construction.
The province of Zaclactun-Mayapan is also unknown, although there is a hacienda Zaclactun within the boundaries of the modern district of Itzamal (Berendt, Nombres geograficos en Lengua Maya, MS.). The name apparently means “the place where white pottery is made.”