[The numbers in the text refer to notes at the end of the study]
There is no document of greater importance to the study of the
pre-Columbian mythology of America than the "Popol Vuh." It is the
chief source of our knowledge of the mythology of the Kiché people of
Central America, and it is further of considerable comparative value
when studied in conjunction with the mythology of the Nahuatlacâ, or
Mexican peoples. This interesting text, the recovery of which forms one
of the most romantic episodes in the history of American bibliography,
was written by a Christianised native of Guatemala some time in the
seventeenth century, and was copied in the Kiché language, in which
it was originally written, by a monk of the Order of Predicadores, one
Francisco Ximenes, who also added a Spanish translation and scholia.
The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, a profound student of American
archæology and languages (whose euhemeristic interpretations of
the Mexican myths are as worthless as the priceless materials he
unearthed are valuable) deplored, in a letter to the Duc de Valmy,
[1] the supposed loss of the "Popol Vuh," which he was aware had been
made use of early in the nineteenth century by a certain Don Felix
Cabrera. Dr. C. Scherzer, an Austrian scholar, thus made aware of
its value, paid a visit to the Republic of Guatemala in 1854 or 1855,
and was successful in tracing the missing manuscript in the library
of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala. It was
afterwards ascertained that its scholiast, Ximenes, had deposited it
in the library of his convent at Chichicastenango, whence it passed
to the San Carlos library in 1830.
Scherzer at once made a copy of the Spanish translation of the
manuscript, which he published at Vienna in 1856 under the title
of "Las Historias del origen de los Indios de Guatemala, par el
R. P. F. Francisco Ximenes." The Abbé Brasseur also took a copy of
the original, which he published at Paris in 1861, with the title
"Vuh Popol: Le Livre Sacré de Quichés, et les Mythes de l'Antiquité
Américaine." In this work the Kiché original and the Abbe's French
translation are set forth side by side. Unfortunately both the Spanish
and the French translations leave much to be desired so far as their
accuracy is concerned, and they are rendered of little use by reason
of the misleading notes which accompany them.
The name "Popol Vuh" signifies "Record of the Community," and
its literal translation is "Book of the Mat," from the Kiché word
"pop" or "popol," a mat or rug of woven rushes or bark on which the
entire family sat, and "vuh" or "uuh," paper or book, from "uoch"
to write. The "Popol Vuh" is an example of a world-wide genre--a
type of annals of which the first portion is pure mythology, which
gradually shades off into pure history, evolving from the hero-myths
of saga to the recital of the deeds of authentic personages. It may,
in fact, be classed with the Heimskringla of Snorre, the Danish
History of Saxo-Grammaticus, the Chinese History in the Five Books,
the Japanese "Nihongi," and, so far as its fourth book is concerned,
it somewhat resembles the Pictish Chronicle.
The language in which the "Popol Vuh" was written, was, as has been
said, the Kiché, a dialect of the great Maya-Kiché tongue spoken at the
time of the Conquest from the borders of Mexico on the north to those
of the present State of Nicaragua on the south; but whereas the Mayan
was spoken in Yucatan proper, and the State of Chiapas, the Kiché was
the tongue of the peoples of that part of Central America now occupied
by the States of Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador, where it is
still used by the natives. It is totally different to the Nahuatl,
the language of the people of Anahuac or Mexico, both as regards
its origin and structure, and its affinities with other American
tongues are even less distinct than the those between the Slavonic
and Teutonic groups. Of this tongue the "Popol Vuh" is practically
the only monument; at all events the only work by a native of the
district in which it was used. A cognate dialect, the Cakchiquel,
produced the "Annals" of that people, otherwise known as "The Book of
Chilan Balam," a work purely of genealogical interest, which may be
consulted in the admirable translation of the late Daniel G. Brinton.
The Kiché people at the time of their discovery, which was immediately
subsequent to the fall of Mexico, had in part lost that culture which
was characteristic of the Mayan race, the remnants of which have
excited universal wonder in the ruins of the vast desert cities of
Central America1. At a period not far distant from the Conquest the
once centralised Government of the Mayan peoples had been broken up
into petty States and Confederacies, which in their character recall
the city-states of mediæval Italy. In all probability the civilisation
possessed by these peoples had been brought them by a race from
Mexico called the Toltecs2, who taught them the arts of building
in stone and writing in hieroglyphics, and who probably influenced
their mythology most profoundly. The Toltecs were not, however, in
any way cognate with the Mayans, and were in all likelihood rapidly
absorbed by them. The Mayans were notably an agricultural people,
and it is not impossible that in their country the maize-plant was
first cultivated with the object of obtaining a regular cereal supply3.
Such, then, were the people whose mythology produced the body of
tradition and mythi-history known as the "Popol Vuh"; and ere we pass
to a consideration of their beliefs, their gods, and their religious
affinities, it will be well to summarise the three books of it which
treat of these things, as fully as space will permit, using for that
purpose both the French translation of Brasseur and the Spanish one
of Ximenes.