V The Chief Katuns
From the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel.
The document which follows is brief, but of peculiar interest. It does not appear to aim at a connected history of events, but in the form of a chant to refer certain incidents to the katuns in which they occurred. It has more of a mythological character, and the repetitions remind one of the refrain of a song.
It is also found in the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, and is inserted without explanation or introduction, copied, no doubt, from some ancient writing.
Text.
Notes1. Can ahau u kaba katun; uchci u zihilob——178-1pauaha en cuh u yahauob.
Notes2. 178-2Oxhunte ti katun lic u tepalob, lay u kabaob tamuk u tepalob lae.
Notes3. Can ahau u kaba katun; emciob 178-3noh hemal, 178-4ɔeemal, u kabaob lae.
Notes4. Oxlahunte ti katun, lic u tepalob, lic u kabaticob, ti i ualac u cutob. Oxlahun cuthi, u cutob lae.
Notes5. Can ahau u katunil; uchci u caxanticob u chicħeen Ytzua; tii utzcinnahi mactzil tiob tumen u yumoobe. Cantzuc lukciob cantzucul cab u kabaob; likul ti likin kin colah peten bini huntzuci; 178-5kul xaman naco cob 178-6hok huntzucci; heix hoki huntzucci holtun çuyuua ti chikin; hoki huntzuccie canhek uitz, bolonte uitz u kaba u luumil lae.
Notes6. Can ahau u katunil 178-7uhci u payalob tu cantzuccilob can tzuccul cab u kabaob, ca emiob tu chicħeen Ytzae ahYtza tun u kabaob. Oxlahunte ti katun, lic u tepalob; ca oci u kebanthanobi tumen hunnac ceeli. Ca paxci u calob. Ca biniob tan yol che tan xuluc mul, u kaba. Can ahau u katunil; uchci yauat pixanobi. Oxlahunte ti katun lic u tepalobi y u numyaobi.
Notes7. Uaxac ahau u katunil; uchci yulelob yalaob ahYtza u kabaob. Ca ulob tii ca ualac u tepalob Chakanputun. Oxlahun ahau u katunii u heɔob cah mayapan mayauinic u kabaob. Uaxac ahau paxci u cahobi; ca uacchabi ti peten tulacal. Uac katuni paxiob, ca haui u Maya kabaob. Buluc ahau u kaba u katunil hauci u maya kabaob; Maya uinicob Christiano u kabaob tulacal u cuchcabal tzo ma Sanc Pedro y Rey ahtepale.
Translation.
Notes1. The fourth ahau was the name of the katun; the births took place;—; the towns were taken possession of by the rulers.
Notes2. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled; these were their names while they ruled.
Notes3. The fourth ahau was the name of the katun; in it they arrived, the Great Arrival, the Less Arrival, as they are called.
Notes4. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled, in which they took names, at that time, while they resided here; in the thirteenth the residence was continued, they resided here.
Notes5. The fourth ahau katun; then took place the search for Chichen Itza; at that time they were marvelously improved by the fathers. They went forth in four divisions which were called the four territories. One division came forth from the east of Kin Colah Peten; one division came forth from the north of Nacocob; one division came forth from the gate of Zuyuua to the west; one division came forth from the mountains of Canhek, the Nine Mountains, as the land is called.
Notes6. The fourth ahau katun; then took place the calling together of the four divisions, the four territories as they were called, and they arrived at Chichen Itza and were called the men of Itza. It was the thirteenth katun in which they ruled; then the plottings were introduced by Hunnac Ceel, and the territories were destroyed. Then they went into the midst of the forests, into the midst of Xuluc Mul, so called. The fourth ahau katun; then singing for their happiness took place. It was the thirteenth katun in which they governed and had heavy labor.
Notes7. The eighth ahau katun; thus it took place that there arrived the remainder of the Itza men as they were called; then they arrived; and about that time they governed Chakanputun. In the thirteenth ahau katun those called the Maya men founded the city Mayapan. In the eighth ahau the towns were destroyed; then they were driven wholly out of the province. In the sixth katun they were destroyed, and it was ended with those called Mayas. It was the eleventh ahau katun in which it ended with those called Mayas. The Maya men were all called Christians and came under the control of Saint Peter and the King, the rulers.
Notes
Maya
English1. U zihilob, the births, probably meaning the beginning of things. Pauaha en cuh has no meaning that I can make out; I therefore suppose it an error for pachah u cah, and translate in accordance with this emendation. The phrase seems to refer to the first settlement of the country, or to the first time the scattered inhabitants were gathered together in towns by their chiefs.
Maya
English2. “These were their names”; but no names are given. They seem to have been omitted by the copyist.
Maya
English3. Emciob noh hemal ɔeemal, faulty orthography for noh emel, ɔeemel, the latter syncopated from ɔeɔemel. Literally, “since they descended; the Great Descent, the Little Descent.”
The tradition here referred to is given at more length by Father Lizana, in his Historia de Yucatan, and is discussed also by Cogolludo (Historia de Yucatan, Lib. IV, cap. III). As the work of the former is wholly inaccessible, I quote from the reprint of a portion of it in Brasseur’s edition of Diego de Landa’s Relacion p. 354. “In former times they called the East Cen-ial, the Little Descent, and the West Nohen-ial, the Great Descent. The reason they give for this is that on the east of this land a few people descended, and on the west a great many; and with that syllable they understand little or much, to the east and the west; and that few people came from one direction and many from the other.” Father Lizana goes on to express his opinion that the few who came from the East were the Carthaginians, and the many from the West were the Mexicans.
The very corrupt form in which he has given the words has led Señor Eligio Ancona to suppose they belonged to the archaic and secret language of the priests (Historia de Yucatan, Tomo I, p. 24), and Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack to imagine that they referred to East and West, right and left, as he adopted the misreading ɔiic, left, for ɔeɔ, little (Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden, in the Archiv für Ethnologie, Band XI, 1879). But they are readily analyzed when we have their correct orthography, as given above. The reference to them in this place shows that the author of the chant was dealing with the most ancient legends of his race.
The Itzas who resided in the Peten district left the region around Chichen Itza some time in the fifteenth century, probably after the fall of Mayapan. They were ruled by an hereditary chieftain, called by the Spaniards “the great king, Canek.” Under him the territory was divided into four districts, each with its own chief, with whom the Canek consulted about important undertakings.
Evidently in removing to Peten the Itzas were retracing their steps on the line of their first entrance to the peninsula. They even attempted to go further west, and guided, probably, by ancient memories, a large number set out for Tabasco and the banks of the Usumaciuta, where repose the ruins of Palenque, possibly the home of their ancestors. But they were attacked and driven back by the natives of Tabasco, with the loss of their leader, a brother-in-law of the great Canek. These and other particulars about them are repeated by Villagutierre Sotomayor, Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza, folio, Madrid, 1701.
Maya
English4. The elliptical form of expression here renders the translation difficult. The verb cutal (old form cultal), pret. culhi or cuthi, fut. culac, means to sit down, to remain in a place, to be at home there, to reside, etc. Perhaps the translation both here and in § 2 should be, “for thirteen katuns they ruled, etc.”
Maya
English5. The word yum, plural yumob, means father and also chief, leader, ruler, etc. In modern Maya it is the translation of Sir, Mister, Señor.
The proper names of the localities whence the four divisions are said to have come, have a mythological cast. I cannot find any of them in the present geography of Yucatan. Kin Colah Peten is mentioned in a “katun wheel” in this same Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, as the name of one of the towns which furnished a katun stone. Zuiva I have already referred to as appearing in the Quetzalcoatl myth (see page 110).
The mountains of Canhek and the Nine Mountains take us to the Itzas around Lake Peten, in the extreme south of the peninsula, this last mentioned division being, in fact, that from the south.
Maya
English6. U payalob, plural passive of pay, to call, to summon.
Tan yol che, ol or yol is the heart or centre of the leaf or plant; tan xuluc mul, see page 174. Yauat pixanobi, they were happy in singing, or, they gained favor by singing. The expression is obscure. The verb auat is applied to the singing of birds, the crowing of cocks, and generally to the natural sound made by any animal, and, in composition, to the sound of musical instruments, as, auatzah, to play on the flute, to blow a trumpet.
Maya
English7. Uacchahi from uacchahal, appears to be a strongly figurative expression. It is explained in Pio Perez’ Dictionary, “salirse con esfuerzo de su cubierta ó encaje, saltarse de ella como tripa por el ano.”
Hauic, from haual, to end, finish, cease to exist. Thus the chronicler closes his recital, repeating the to him no doubt bitter fact that the Maya nation and the Maya name had passed away.
178-1 pachah u cah.
178-2 oxlahunte.
178-3 nohemel.
178-4 ɔeɔemel.
178-5 likul.
178-6 hoki.
178-7 uchci.
THE CHRONICLE
OF
Chac Xulub Chen.
BY
NAKUK PECH.
1562.