CHAPTER XIII.

HISTORY OF THE MAYAS IN YUCATAN.

ABORIGINAL NAMES OF YUCATAN-THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS FROM THE EAST AND WEST-ZAMNÁ, THE PONTIFF-KING-THE ITZAS AT CHICHEN-RULE OF CUKULCAN AT CHICHEN AND MAYAPANHIS DISAPPEARANCE ON THE GULF COAST-THE COCOME RULE AT MAYAPAN-APPEARANCE OF THE TUTUL XIUS-TRANSLATION OF THE MAYA RECORD BY PEREZ AND BRASSEUR — MIGRATION FROM TULAN-CONQUEST OF BACALAR AND CHICHEN-ITZA ANNALS-TUTUL XIUS AT UXMAL-OVERTHROW OF THE COCOME DYNASTY-THE CONFEDERACY, OR EMPIRE, OF TUTUL XIUS, Itzas, AND CHELES-FABLE OF THE DWARF-OVERTHROW OF THE TUTUL XIUS-FINAL PERIOD OF CIVIL WARS.

Respecting the original name of Yucatan, Bishop Landa tells us that it was called Ulumil Cuz and Etel Ceh, 'land of turkeys and deer.' Padre Lizana writes the name U Luumil Cutz and U Luumil Ceb. Malte-Brun claims to have found a tradition to the effect that in the early time the interior plains of the peninsula were submerged, forming lakes, and the people lived in isolated groups by fishing and hunting. Landa also applies the name Peten, 'isle,' thinking that the natives believed their country to be surrounded with water. The Perez manuscript terms the peninsula Chacnouitan, which Gallatin believes to have been its true name; while Brasseur regards this as the ancient name of only the southern portion of the country. There is no doubt that the native

MIGRATION FROM THE EAST.

615

name of Yucatan at the coming of Europeans and afterwards was Maya. Several authors define this as 'land without water,' a most appropriate name for this region. Brasseur in one place derives the name from Mai, that of an ancient priest; Cogolludo says the country was named from its capital or chief city thus differing at each successive epoch, being in ancient times Mayapan, but in the time of the writer, Campeche. Ternaux-Compans declares that from the fall of Mayapan to the coming of the Spaniards the country had no general name. All agree that the name Yucatan originated from a misunderstanding by the Spaniards of the words first pronounced by the natives when questioned about the name of their country.1

The earliest inhabitants are supposed to have come from the east. As they fled before their enemies their god had opened a path for them through the sea.2 Lizana believes these first inhabitants came from Cuba, which may have been connected with the peninsula in those primitive times; while Orozco y Berra seems to favor the idea that they came to Cuba from Florida. From this original population, few in numbers, is supposed to have come the ancient name cenial, or 'little descent,' applied by the inhabitants to the east; while the name ohenial, 'great descent,' by which the west was called, originated from a larger migration from that direction. Cogolludo, it is true, claims that the eastern colony was the more numerous of the two, yet, this is not tradition, but his theory, based on the prevalence of the Maya language in connection with the unfounded.

1 On the name of this country see:-Landa, Relacion, and Brasseur, in Id., pp. 6, 8, 42-3; Lizana, in Id., p. 348; Perez MS., in Id., pp. 421, 429; Id., in Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii., pp. 465, 467; see also vol. i., pp. 139-40; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 60-1, 178-9; Villagutierre, Hist. Cong. Itza, p. 28; Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xevii., pp. 30-1; MalteBrun, Yucatan, pp. 14–15; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 60.

2 Landa, Relacion, p. 28; Herrera, dec. iv., lib. x., cap. ii.

3 Lizana, in Landa, Relacion, p. 354; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 128. Cogolludo, Ilist. Yuc., p. 178, quotes this from Lizana.

assumption that those who came from the west must have spoken Aztec. All that can be learned from these traditions is the existence among the Mayas of a vague idea that their ancestors came originally from opposite directions. Their idea of the most primitive period of their history, like the idea entertained by other nations whose annals have been presented, was connected with the arrival of a small band from across the ocean. This was the 'little descent'; by this first band and their descendants the country was peopled and the Maya institutions established. The great descent' referred to the coming of strangers from the south-west, probably at different times, and at a much later period.

To account for the fact that but one language is spoken in Yucatan, and that closely related to those of Tabasco and Guatemala, Orozco y Berra supposes that the Mayas destroyed or banished the former inhabitants. They were evidently barbarians, as shown by their abandonment of the ruins; perhaps they were the same tribes that destroyed Palenque." But the reader already knows that the builders of the cities were found in possession of the country, and the unity of language is exactly what might be expected, if the traditional colony from the east peopled not only Yucatan, but the adjoining countries, and the subsequent returning colonies from the west came from the countries thus peopled. We learn from Boturini that the Olmecs, Xicalancas, and Zapotecs, of the eastern region of Mexico, fled at the approach of the Toltecs and settled in Yucatan. Veytia shows that if any of these peoples settled in Yucatan, it was from choice, not necessity; Torquemada and others add the Chichimecs and Acolhuas to the peoples that settled Yucatan. Cogolludo and

A Lizana and Cogolludo, as above. Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcvii., p. 32, also reverses the statement of the tradition respecting the relative numbers of the respective colonies.

Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 129.

Fancourt include the Teo-Chichimecs, while most modern writers favor the theory that the Toltecs occupied Yucatan after their expulsion from Anáhuac in the eleventh century, erecting the cities that have since been found there in so great numbers.7

The conjectures of the preceding paragraph and many others of a similar nature, are a part of the theory, so often noted in this work, of a general migration of American nations from north to south, a theory which has amounted almost to a mania for dispatching every ancient northern tribe southward, and for searching in the north for the origin of every ancient southern people. It was not enough that the people of Yucatan and Guatemala migrated from the far north-west; but it was necessary to find in each of these states traces of every nation whose presence in Mexico during the past ages has been recorded by tradition. After what has been said on this subject in this and preceding volumes, it is needless to repeat here the arguments against a Mexican origin for the people and monuments of Yucatan. No people in America show less indications of a past intermixture with foreign tribes; the similarity between the monuments and those farther north is sufficiently accounted for by the historical events to be recorded in this chapter; and the conjectures in question are not only unfounded, but wholly uncalled for, serving only to complicate a record which without them is comparatively clear if not very complete.

The Yucatec culture-hero was Zamná, or Ytzamná, who according to the traditions was the first temporal and religious leader, the civilizer, high-priest, and

Veytia, tom. i., p. 237; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 269; Lizama, in Landa, Relacion, p. 354; Cogolludo, Hist. Yur., p. 178; Fancourt's Hist. Yuc., p.

115.

7 Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii., pp. 304-8, 342-3, 453-4: Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 201-2; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 270-1; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 44-5; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. i., pp. 99-100: Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., pp. 33, 142; Prichard's Researches, vol. v., p. 346; Ternaux-Compans, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcvii., pp. 31-2.

law-giver, who introduced the Maya institutions, divided the country into provinces, and named all the localities in Yucatan. He was accompanied, like other culture-heroes, by a band of priests, artizans, and even warriors. Ruling the country from his capital of Mayapan, he gave the government of the provinces to his companions, reserving the best positions naturally for chieftains of his own blood. Zamná was the reported inventor of the Maya hieroglyphic art, and it is conjectured that the Cocomes, the oldest royal family in Yucatan, were the descendants of this first ruler. He died at an advanced age and was interred at Izamal, supposed to have been at that time near the sea shore, a city which was named for him, and probably founded by him, where his successors erected a sacred temple in honor of his memory, which was for many centuries a favorite shrine for Yucatec pilgrims. Another personage, Kinich Kakmo, is prominent in the Maya mythology, and may probably have been identical with Zamná, or one of his companions.8

Zamná may best be connected with the first colony, the little descent,' the first introduction of Maya institutions into the country, although it is not expressly stated that he was at the head of that colony; and both the colony and its leader may be identified most naturally with the introduction of the Votanic civilization and the establishment of the Xibalban empire already narrated from the traditions of the nations. Whether Zamná was a companion or disciple of Votan, or even identical with that personage, it is, of course, impossible to determine; and it is not by any means necessary to accept literally the arrival of either colony or leader. But the rôle played by Zamná was the same as that of Votan, and the same events at the same epoch may be reasonably supposed

8 On Zamná, see:- -vol. iii., pp. 462-5 of this work; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 178, 192, 196–7; Lunda, Relacion, pp. 328-30; Lizana, in Id., p. 356; Brasseur, Hist., tom. i., pp. 78-80; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 23; Malte-Brun, Yucatan, pp. 15-17.