The Lacandones, those unconquered Indios of the Usumacinta, speak a dialect cognate with that spoken in Yucatan, Campeche, and the sacred island Cozumel; and what gives additional interest to the Maya language is the fact that all the inscribed monuments of Tikal, Copan, Quirigua, and Usumacinta belong to this race, and if interpreted, this is probably the key.
The Quekchi language (6) is spoken by the Indios of Coban Cahabon, Senajú, and adjoining parts of Alta Verapaz, while close at hand (San Cristobal, Tactic, Tucurú, La Tinta, and Teleman) we have the Poconchi form. Externally both tribes are alike, although the Quekchis perhaps dress rather better.
CARIB PLAITING A PETACA.
The extant literature of the Quichés has been freely consulted in the preparation of this chapter. Would my readers like to see what the original language of the “Popul Vuh” is like?
| Are u xe oher tzih varal Quichbe u bi. | This is the beginning of the story of those who were formerly in the land that is called Quiché. |
| Varal xchekatzibah, xchikatiqiba vi oher tzih, u tiqaribal, u xenabal puch ronohel xban pa ’tinamit Quiche, r’amag Quiche vinak. | There begins and commences the knowledge of the earlier time, the origin and beginning of all done in the Quiché state in the home of Quiché men. |
Uspantán has a little dialect all to itself (4). Of the Cakchiquel language we have a most interesting remnant in the “Cakchiquel Manuscript,” next in importance to the “Popul Vuh.” In it the account of the creation is copied, as was natural, from the Quiché narrative; but the main portion of the work is a history of the revolution which led to the departure from Utatlan and the occupation of Iximché, and also of the advent of the Spaniards and the subsequent events until the establishment of Christianity as the State religion. The author was the grandson of the king who died of the pest in 1519; and his story goes to the year 1582, when another member of the same family continues it to 1597.
The Tzutohiles (10), who, it will be remembered, were a fighting tribe on the shores of the Lago de Atitlan, are still of the same spirit; and when Mr. Maudslay attempted to photograph them, the women shook their fists in his face. The unwillingness to be photographed I also found among the Quiché women (old ones) of Sacapulas; but a word from the comandante subdued their opposition.
The Ixils (1) dwell in the Sierras west of Coban, and the Mames (2) are found at San Marcos, Chiantla, and Huehuetenango, all westward to Soconusco and south to Ocós. The Aguacateca (3) occupies a small space north of Utatlan, and the vocabulary given by Stoll differs entirely from that of Dr. Berendt’s already quoted. Chorti (16) is spoken at Chiquimula and Zacapa, and in the opinion of some is the language of the sculptors of the glyphs at Copan. Sinca (13) and Alaguilac (17) are almost unknown, and Stoll cannot classify them.
