The Annals of the Cakchiquels Part 3

The following are not employed:--

d, f, g, j, s, n, z.

The following are introduced, but with sounds differing from the Spanish:--

_h._ This is always a decided rough breathing or forcible expiration, like the Spanish j, or the strong English h; except when it follows c or [c], when it is p.r.o.nounced as in the Spanish, _cha_, _che_, etc.

_k._ This has never the sound of c, but is a rough palatal, the mouth being opened, and the tongue placed midway, between the upper and lower walls of the oral cavity, while the sound is forcibly expelled.

_v._ This letter, whether as a consonant (_v_) or a vowel (_u_), is p.r.o.nounced separately, except when it is doubled, as in _vuh_ (_uuh_), book or paper, when the double vowel is very closely akin to the English _w_.

_x._ In Cakchiquel and its a.s.sociated dialects, this letter represents the sound of _sh_ in the English words _she_, _shove_, etc.

Besides the above, there are five sounds occurring in the Cakchiquel, Quiche and Tzutuhil, for which five special characters were invented, or rather adopted, by the early missionary Francisco de la Parra, who died in Guatemala, in 1560. They are the following:--

[c,] [c,]h [c] [t] [tz]

The origin and phonetic value of these, as given by the grammarian Torresano, are as follows:[49-1]--

[t] This is called the _tresillo_, from its shape, it being an old form of the figure three, reversed, thus, [Ill.u.s.tration: Reversed 3]. It is the only true guttural in the language, being p.r.o.nounced forcibly from the throat, with a trilling sound (_castaneteando_).

[c] From its shape this is called the _cuatrillo_, Parra having adopted for it an old form of the figure 4. It is a trilled palatal, between a hard _c_ and _k_.

[c,] The name applied to this is, the _cuatrillo con coma_, or the 4 with a comma. It is p.r.o.nounced somewhat like the _c_ with the cedilla, c, only more quickly and with greater force--_ds_ or _dz_.

[tz] This resembles the "4 with a comma," but is described as softer, the tongue being brought into contact with the teeth, exactly as _tz_ in German.

[c,]h A compound sound produced by combining the cuatrillo with a forcible aspirate, is represented by this sign.

Naturally, no description in words can convey a correct notion of these sounds. To learn them, one must hear them spoken by those to the manner-born.

Dr. Otto Stoll, who recently made a careful study of the Cakchiquel when in Guatemala, says of Parra's characters:--

"The four new signs added to the European alphabet, by some of the old writers on Cakchiquel (Parra, Flores), viz: [t], [c], [c,], [c]h, are but phonetic modifications of four corresponding signs of the common alphabet. So we get four pairs of sounds, namely:--

c and [c]; k and [t]

ch and [c]h tz and [c,]

forming two series of consonants, the former of which represents the common letters, and the latter their respective "cut letters," which may be described as being p.r.o.nounced with a shorter and more explosive sound than the corresponding common letter, and separated by a short pause from the preceding or following vowel."[51-1]

The late Dr. Berendt ill.u.s.trated the phonetic value of such "cut"

letters, by the example of two English words where the same letter terminates one word and begins the next, and each is clearly but rapidly p.r.o.nounced, thus, the [t] is p.r.o.nounced like two gutteral[TN-6] _ks_ in "brea_k_ _k_ettle;" the [c] like the two _cs_ in "magic candle,"[TN-7]

etc.

There would appear to have been other "cut" letters in the old dialects of Cakchiquel, as in Guzman we find the _pp_ and _thth_, as in the Maya, but later writers dropped them.

I may dispense with a discussion of the literature of the Cakchiquel language, having treated that subject so lately as last year, in the introduction to the _Grammar of the Cakchiquel_, which I then translated and edited for the American Philosophical Society. As will be seen by reference to that work, it is quite extensive, and much of it has been preserved. I have examined seven dictionaries of the tongue, all quite comprehensive; ma.n.u.script copies of all are in the United States. None of these, however, has been published; and we must look forward to the dictionary now preparing by Dr. Stoll, of Zurich, as probably the first to see the light.

The Maya race, in nearly all its branches, showed its intellectual superiority by the eagerness with which it turned to literary pursuits, as soon as some of its members had learned the alphabet. I have brought forward some striking testimony to this in Yucatan,[52-1] and there is even more in Central America. The old historians frequently refer to the histories of their own nations, written out by members of the Quiche, Cakchiquel, Pokomam and Tzendal tribes. Vasquez, Fuentes and Juarros quote them frequently, and with respect. They were composed in the aboriginal tongues, for the benefit of their fellow townsmen, and as they were never printed, most of them became lost, much to the regret of antiquaries.

Of those preserved, the _Popol Vuh_ or National Book of the Quiches, and the _Annals_ of the Cakchiquels, the latter published for the first time in this volume, are the most important known.

The former, the "Sacred Book" of the Quiches, a doc.u.ment of the highest merits, and which will certainly increase in importance as it is studied, was printed at Paris in 1861, with a translation into French by the Abbe Bra.s.seur (de Bourbourg). He made use only of the types of the Latin alphabet; and both in this respect and in the fidelity of his translation, he has left much to be desired in the presentation of the work.

The recent publication of the _Grammar_ also relieves me from the necessity of saying much about the structure of the Cakchiquel language.

Those who wish to acquaint themselves with it, and follow the translation given in this volume by comparing the original text, will need to procure all the information contained in the _Grammar_. It will be sufficient to say here that the tongue is one built up with admirable regularity on radicals of one or two syllables. The perfection and logical sequence of its verbal forms have excited the wonder and applause of some of the most eminent linguists, and are considered by them to testify to remarkable native powers of mind.[53-1]

_The Annals of Xahila._

The MS. from which I print the _Annals of the Cakchiquels_, is a folio of 48 leaves, closely written on both sides in a very clear and regular hand, with indigo ink. It is incomplete, the last page closing in the middle of a sentence.

What is known of the history of this ma.n.u.script, is told us by Don Juan Gavarrete, who, for many years, was almost the only native of Guatemala interested in the early history of his country. He tells us in his introduction to his translation of it, soon to be mentioned, that in 1844 he was commissioned to arrange the archives of the Convent of San Francisco of Guatemala, by order of the Archbishop Don Francisco Garcia Pelaez. Among the MSS. of the archives he found these sheets, written entirely in Cakchiquel, except a few marginal glosses in Spanish, in a later hand, and in ordinary ink. The doc.u.ment was submitted to several persons acquainted with the Cakchiquel language, who gave a general statement of its contents, but not a literal and complete translation.[54-1]

When, in 1855, the Abbe Bra.s.seur (de Bourbourg) visited Guatemala, Senor Gavarrete showed him this MS., and the Abbe borrowed it for the purpose of making a full version, doubtless availing himself of the partial translations previously furnished. His version completed, he left a copy of it with Senor Gavarrete, and brought the original with him to Europe.[54-2] It remained in his possession until his death at Nice, when, along with the rest of the Abbe's library, it pa.s.sed into the hands of M. Alphonse Pinart. This eminent ethnologist learning my desire to include it in the present series of publications, was obliging enough to offer me the opportunity of studying it.

Previous to its discovery in Guatemala, in 1844, we have no record of it whatsoever, and must turn to the doc.u.ment itself for information.

The t.i.tle given it by Bra.s.seur, and adopted by Gavarrete, _Memorial de Tecpan At.i.tlan_, was purely fact.i.tious, and, moreover, is misleading. It was, indeed, written at the town of Tzolola or At.i.tlan, on the lake of that name, the chief city of the Tzutuhils; but its authors were Cakchiquels; its chief theme is the history of their tribe, and it is only by the accident of their removal to At.i.tlan, years after the Conquest, that its composition occurred there. I have, therefore, adopted for it, or at least that portion of it which I print, the much more appropriate name, _The Annals of the Cakchiquels_.

I say "for that portion of it," because I print but 48 out of the 96 pages of the original. These contain, however, all that is of general interest; all that pertains to the ancient history of the nation. The remainder is made up of an uninteresting record of village and family incidents, and of a catalogue of births, baptisms and marriages. The beginning of the text as printed in this volume, starts abruptly in the MS. after seventeen pages of such trivialities, and has no separate t.i.tle or heading.

The caption of the first page of the MS. explains the purpose of this miscellaneous collection of family doc.u.ments. That caption is

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cross]

VAE MEMORIA CHIRE [C]HAOH.

THIS IS THE RECORD FOR THE PROCESS.

The word _memoria_ is the Spanish for a record, memoir or brief, and the Cakchiquel _[c]haoh_, originally contention, revolt, was, after the Conquest, the technical term for a legal process or lawsuit. These papers, therefore, form part of the record in one of those interminable legal cases in which the Spanish law delighted. The plaintiffs in the case seem to have been the Xahila family, who brought the action to recover some of their ancient possessions or privileges, as one of the two ruling families of the Cakchiquel nation; and in order to establish this point, they filed in their plea the full history of their tribe and genealogy of their family, so far as was known to them by tradition or written record. It belongs to the cla.s.s of legal instruments, called in Spanish law _t.i.tulos_, family t.i.tles. A number of such, setting forth the descent and rights of the native princes in Central America, are in existence, as the _t.i.tulo de Totonicapan_, etc.

The date of the present rescript is not accurately fixed. As it includes the years 1619-20, it must have been later than those dates. From the character of the paper and writing, I should place it somewhere between 1620 and 1650.

In his _Advertencia_ to his translation of it, Senor Gavarrete a.s.serts that the doc.u.ment is in the handwriting of one of the native authors.

This is not my opinion. It is in the small, regular, perfectly legible hand of a professional scribe, a notarial clerk, no doubt, thoroughly at home in the Cakchiquel language, and trained in the phonetic characters, introduced with such success by Father Parra, as I have already mentioned. The centre lines and catch-words are in large, clear letters, so as to attract the eye of the barrister, as

VAE MEMORIA CHIRE VINAK CHIJ.

THIS IS THE STATEMENT OF THE TORTS.

or,

VAE MEMORIA [T]ANAVINAKIL.

THIS IS A RECORD OF THE WITNESSES.

The doc.u.ment is made up of the depositions and statements of a number of members of the Xahila family, but that around which the chief interest centres, and that which alone is printed in this volume, is the history of his nation as written out by one of them who had already reached adult years, at the epoch of the first arrival of the Spaniards, in 1524. Unfortunately, his simple-hearted modesty led him to make few personal allusions, and we can glean little information about his own history. The writer first names himself, in the year 1582, where he speaks of "me, Francisco Ernantez Arana."[57-1] The greater part of the ma.n.u.script, however, was composed many years before this. Its author says that his grandfather, the king Hun Yg, and his father, Balam, both died in 1521, and his own marriage took place in 1522. As it was the custom of his nation to marry young, he was probably, at the time, not over 15 years of age.[57-2]