37 In Quechua the left hand was named lloque maqui and the right, pana
maqui. In the Chinchaysuyo dialect of Quechua the left hand was
hichoc maqui and the right, allaucay maqui (Vocabulario Padre Juan
de Figueredo).
38 Annals of the Cakchiquels. Library of Aboriginal Literature, vol.
VI, D. G. Brinton, p. 71. It is a striking coincidence which further
excavations may however destroy, that seven similar upright slabs
were found at Santa Lucia, six complete ones of which exhibit
individuals whose left hands bear special marks. What is more, these
figures are accompanied by animals which agree with a native
chronicle quoted by Dr. Otto Stoll (_op. cit._ p. 6). According to
this some of the totems or marks of dignity worn by certain Quiché
chieftains were representations of pumas, ocelots and vultures. It
is, perhaps, permissible to advance the hypothesis that the
personages on the slabs are representatives of the seven tribes and
display their totemic devices.
I would add a couple of observations which seem to indicate that the
language of the people who sculptured and set up the Santa Lucia
slabs was Nahuatl. In the first case on the long slab, figured by M.
Herman Strebel as No. 11, a chieftain in a recumbent position is
conferring with a personage masked as a deer. The date is sculptured
on this slab, recalling the Mexican method of figuring numerals and
indicates that a historical event is being recorded.
The Nahuatl word for deer is mazatl and we know that the Mazahuas,
or “deer-people” is the name of a native tribe which inhabits to
this day the coast region of Guatemala. A town named Mazatenango=the
capital or mother-city of the Mazahuas lies between the lake of
Atitlan and the coast (tenan=mother of somebody; tenamitl=walled
city). A small village named Mazahuat also lies farther south and
inland on the Lempa river, in San Salvador. On one of the upright
slabs two sculptured heads resembling dogs’ heads are enclosed in
circles. The Nahuatl name for dog is itzcuintl; and a town of the
same name, corrupted to Escuintla, lies between the latitude of
Amatitlan and the coast of Guatemala, at about the same distance
inland as the town of Maza-tenango. As both places were within easy
reach from Santa Lucia, it seems possible that the slabs may refer
to some conquest or agreement made with the “deer and dog people.”
At all events the agreement is worth noting as a hint for future
research.