TRADE AND WAR
As regards the disposal of the dead, we find the same two methods
current among the historical Maya as were practised by the Aztec,
viz. inhumation and cremation. The first was that most commonly
observed among the generality of the inhabitants. Death was supposed
to be due to some evil spirit, and the friends and relations of the
deceased mourned for several days, by day in silence, at night with
lamentations, and the bereaved husband or wife observed a fast. The
corpse was enveloped in wrappings, the mouth filled with maize-meal
and currency-stones for use in the future life, and burial took place
in or behind the house. The house was usually abandoned, through
fear of the dead, unless a number of individuals were living there
together and consequently felt less nervous of the departed spirit.
The personal idols of a man were buried with him, and, in the case
of a priest, certain of his religious books also. Upon the latter
fact rests the hope that more of the precious manuscripts may yet be
discovered. Individuals of high rank were burned, and their ashes
deposited in large urns or in cavities in the heads of wooden figures
carved for the purpose. In the latter case only a portion of the ashes
were so preserved, the rest being buried. It is said that it was
customary to remove the heads of princes of the house of Cocom, and
to attach the facial portion of the skull, made up with artificial
features, to a statue which was kept in a private oratory, while the
ashes of high-priests were preserved in figures of pottery. Thus it is
evident that simple inhumation was characteristic of the lower orders,
cremation of the superior; and it is possible that the two methods
may represent two separate cultural elements, since there is reason
to believe that the ruling class belonged to a later immigration and
were the introducers of certain Mexican practices and beliefs into the
country. It seems possible that some form of cremation was practised
also by the Kakchiquel, since we are told that the “ashes” of great
men were mixed with the clay from which household idols were made; but
among this people also cremation may have been reserved for the ruling
class, since Fuentes states that at death the body lay in state for two
days and was then buried in a jar, omitting any reference to cremation.
It is possible that the term “ashes” may refer only to certain portions
of the body, and need not be taken to imply the practice of burning
the corpse; at any rate Gagavitz, the first Kakchiquel ruler, is
said to have been simply buried. Leon states that a high-priest was
buried in his house, seated upon his chair. The excavatory evidence,
though at present very deficient, seems to point to the conclusion
that cremation was a late practice among the Maya peoples. At Copan a
number of burials have been discovered, in which the position of the
bones implies that the body was arranged in a contracted position,
recumbent or sitting. Stone-lined cists have been found as depositories
for the dead sporadically from Quen Santo, through Alta Vera Paz to
Copan and Benque Viejo; but beyond, in the Uloa valley, large burial
sites have been discovered in which the bodies have been simply laid
in the earth. In Sacchana both extended and contracted burials have
been found, and in the Quiché country bones have been discovered in
such a position as to imply that the body was arranged in a seated
position on a pottery dish. British Honduras shows several styles of
burial, and our information is due almost solely to the excavations
made by Dr. Gann. About eighty miles from the coast on the Old River,
he found cist-burials, as mentioned above, urn-burials, in which the
bones were partly cremated, and burials both in a recumbent and in
a seated position. From the remains associated with the bones it is
evident that the cist-burials, both here and elsewhere in British
Honduras, contained the bodies of men of higher rank. At all the sites
mentioned above burials were found marked by mounds, but the presence
of the latter is not invariable, and it may be that as excavation
proceeds many cemeteries will be found of which no indications exist
upon the surface. At a site on the Rio Hondo, Dr. Gann was able to
distinguish between three distinct types of burial. The poorest graves
were found associated in some numbers in large flat mounds, sometimes
half an acre in extent; the bodies were contracted, and the grave
objects included hammer-stones, beads of clay and shell, rude weapons
and unburnished pottery. A better class of interment occurred singly,
in separate conical mounds of limestone blocks and dust, about 18 feet
high, with finer pottery and beads of stone; in these the bodies were
also contracted, and sometimes arranged head downwards. The finest
graves were cist-burials, each in a separate mound from twenty to fifty
feet high; in these the body lay at full length, and the associated
objects included fine painted vases, beads of jadeite, pearl-shell and
obsidian, and finely flaked stone implements. In Yucatan, burials have
occasionally been found in the so-called “chultunes,” or stone-lined
cisterns used by the former inhabitants; and human remains, some
suggesting cremation, have been discovered in the caves. The evidence
respecting the latter, however, seems to suggest that these caves
were not inhabited at an early period, and that the human occupation
did not last for any length of time; it is probable that they were
used only as places of refuge. On the whole such information as we
possess concerning the methods of disposal of the dead seems to imply
that burial was practised by the early Maya, and that cremation was
introduced by certain of those peoples who are definitely known to
be immigrants into the country at a date, as I hope to show shortly,
posterior to the building of the monuments (with the exception of the
later constructions at Chichen Itza).
At the discovery, the rule in Yucatan was divided among a number of
princely houses who constituted a sort of feudal nobility. A chief was
succeeded by his son, though his brothers ranked high and possessed
much influence. The rulers governed their territory through sub-chiefs
appointed in the outlying villages, who consulted them on all important
matters, such interviews usually taking place at night. They maintained
considerable state, being accompanied by a retinue when they left their
residences, and etiquette enjoined that all visitors should bring some
ceremonial present when they approached their overlord. This apart from
the ordinary tribute of cotton tunics, game, cacao and personal service
(such as house-building) which constituted the princely revenue. The
scene on the vase shown in Pl. XXIV; p. 310, appears to represent an
interview between a chief and a subject; the former is seated on a
daïs, while the latter presents to him an object which is probably a
pouch containing copal. Similar pouches are seen on the reliefs and
in the manuscripts. Inheritance among petty chiefs followed Mexican
lines, that is to say a petty chief was succeeded by his brothers in
order of age, and his sons only came to power after the death of their
paternal uncles. At an earlier period the various chieftains had been
subjects of an overlord at Mayapan, to whom all paid tribute. The
city was founded, according to tradition, by the descendants of the
Tutul Xiu, now called the Itza, whose protecting deity was Kukulkan
(in his later and degraded manifestation). The family of the Cocomes,
however, seem to have gained the supreme power, but in any case the
government was for a time centralized. The tributary lords possessed
residences at the capital which were under the charge of intendants
appointed by them, and were supported by their respective provinces;
the inhabitants of the actual district of Mayapan were exempt from
tribute, but the members of the aristocracy served in the temples,
assisting in the festivals by day and night. Eventually, however, the
centrifugal tendency so characteristic of Mexican and Central American
politics reasserted itself, and the “league” split up into a number of
independent, and often hostile, princelings. It is probable that each
important group of ruins marks the site of some former centre of power,
and the buildings not definitely associated with religion may have been
in part the residences of feudal lords.
But though the formation of the Mayapan “league” seems to indicate the
paramountcy of the secular power, the priestly caste, as in Mexico,
must always have possessed enormous influence, and the early traditions
seem to imply that they were the actual directors of tribal policy.
Kukulkan and Itzamna are both mentioned as leaders of migrations, and
from this it is fair to infer that the latter were directed by the
priests of the gods. Little indication as to the _insignia_ of
the early chiefs can be gleaned from the monuments, though the later
reliefs of Chichen Itza show many figures bearing a diadem of Mexican
pattern. It is, in fact, almost impossible to distinguish between
priests and rulers, and this very difficulty may perhaps be taken to
imply that the rule had a religious basis. Possibly some of the armed
figures may be taken to represent secular chieftains, but the arms
themselves seem to be rather of a ceremonial nature, and at some sites,
notably Copan, armed figures do not occur at all, while at Quirigua
and Palenque the only weapon is the axe, which seems to be purely a
religious emblem. The presence of subsidiary figures interpreted as
prisoners may be thought perhaps to indicate secular might, but these
only occur in any numbers at Naranjo. On the whole it seems reasonable
to conclude that the early Maya lived under the sway of rulers in whom
the priestly aspect predominated, and that the election of chiefs whose
power rested on a secular basis was a later development.
In the Popol Vuh even clearer indications of this are given, and it
is evident that the authority of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah
and Iqi-Balam rested on the fact that they were the guardians and
high-priests of the gods given to them at Tulan. The association
between priest and god in this case seems to have been personal and
not transferable, for their sons do not immediately succeed to their
positions. In fact, the legend seems to indicate the substitution of a
more secular form of authority, since the titles and _insignia_
of power are sought and obtained from a people living to the east,
though these titles and _insignia_, not unnaturally, are conferred
upon the elder sons of the deceased leaders. The titles include that
of Ahpop, afterwards held by supreme chiefs, and the _insignia_
consist of canopy, throne, musical instruments, pigments, perfumes,
animal head-dresses, heron-plumes and shell and other ornaments,
many of which appear in the livery worn by the figures sculptured on
the early Maya monuments. The power of the rulers grew, centres of
authority, similar to Mayapan, but probably on a smaller scale, were
formed, and tribute of gems, gold, feathers and honey was imposed
upon the conquered tribes. In particular we are told that the ruling
people grew rich upon the bride-prices paid by the suitors of their
women, and it may be concluded that alliances with a princely house
were as much sought in Guatemala as in Mexico, and that the belief,
that rank could only be conferred by an individual in whose blood it
was inherent, was equally prevalent. The Popol Vuh gives a list of the
principal officers of the Quiché state, and those of the Cavek division
are quoted below. Nothing is known concerning them save the probable
translation of the titles, but they will serve to indicate the nature
of the Quiché constitution, which may well have been founded on some
system prevailing among the earlier Maya. The translations are those of
Brinton.
Ahau-Ahpop, the ruler.
Ahau-Ahpop-Camha, possibly the sub-chief of the Tziquinaha.
Ah-Tohil, the high-priest of Tohil.
Ah-Gukumatz, the high-priest of Gukumatz.
Nim-Chokoh-Cavek, the heir of the first.
Popol-Vinak-Chituy, the high councillor of Chituy.
Lolmet-Quehney, the overseer of tribute.
Popol-Vinak-Pa-Hom-Tzalatz, the councillor of the ball-game.
Uchuch-Camha, the high steward.
In a later passage a functionary called Tepeu-Yaqui, who may have been
the chief sacrificer, is substituted for the last. All these officials
are described as “lords of great houses.” The other divisions of the
Quiché were organized on similar principles.
In the same way the Kakchiquel appear to have commenced their migration
under priestly guidance; at any rate the election of the first ruler
comes at a late period in their “annals.” The _insignia_ of power
seem to have been the same; the electors say, “Thou shalt be the first
man among the Ahpo-Xahil and among the Ahpo-Zotzil.... We will give
to thee the canopy, the royal seat, the mat, the throne, with power
over men.” The enthronement of a later ruler is described as follows:
“They seated him on the seat ... washed him in the bath, the painted
vessel ... clothed him with the robe and the green ornaments; he
received the colours, the yellow stone, the pigment, the red earth.”
Later the Kakchiquel were ruled by a dual chieftainship, representing
the two chief tribes, the Zotzil and Xahil. The Zotzil chief was
called Ahpo-Zotzil, the Xahil chief Ahpo-Xahil, and the senior in
office was regarded as paramount. Their heirs held respectively the
title of Ahpop-Qamahay and Galel-Xahil, and they were supported by an
hereditary aristocracy and a number of officials like those of the
Quiché. Besides the mat, the canopy was an important _insigne_
of rank, that of the rulers being triple, of the heirs double, and of
the highest officials single. The populace was divided into warriors,
freemen, tributaries and slaves, and there was also a clan system,
similar to that of the Mexican calpulli, though based on relationship
rather than on locality. The clans were called chinamitl, and were
represented by officials called Ahtzalam, a word translated by Brinton
as “Keeper of the tablets”; besides allusions to the clans, there
are frequent references to seven cities and to thirteen divisions or
provinces. The Kakchiquel were never a large or very important people,
and their position among other tribes seems to have varied a good deal
at different periods of their history. At times they seem to have paid
tribute to the Quiché, though at the conquest they were independent,
while at other times they appear to have been able to extract tribute
from some of the surrounding nations. Such tribute consisted of gold
and silver, worked or unworked, engraved stones, feathers and cacao.
Of the land system among the Maya we know very little. No doubt, owing
to the comparative sparseness of the population and the fertility of
the climate, the land question had not attained the same importance
as in Mexico. In Yucatan at any rate land was common property,
and sufficient for the needs of each family was assigned to its
representative by the chiefs. The salt deposits on the coast were also
common, but were worked by the inhabitants of the locality who paid
their tribute in salt.
Little, too, is known of the judicial arrangements; official advocates
and a kind of police existed, and important cases in provincial
villages were referred to the overlords, whose power was absolute.
In the case of minor offences, the local chief had jurisdiction,
and if the parties belonged to different villages, the chief of the
offender’s village would send satisfaction to the other, or else strife
resulted. For many offences, even homicide if accidental, compensation
was possible, and the relations of the guilty person would assist
him in paying the fine, though the right of retaliation in cases of
manslaughter lay with the relations of the deceased. If the injury
were obviously malicious, the question was rarely settled without
the parties coming to blows. For theft the culprit was compelled
to restore the plunder, and if he could not he was enslaved; thus
the number of slaves in the community was considerably increased in
times of famine, for nearly all cases of stealing were connected with
food. Captives of lower rank also became slaves, but any slave might
redeem himself, though children born in slavery remained slaves until
compensation was paid to their owners. Slaves could be sold, but if
one died or escaped soon after his purchase, part of the price paid
for him could be reclaimed. The robbing of a minor was considered a
particularly disgraceful offence. In ordinary cases a man’s property
was divided among his sons, those who had contributed most towards its
increase receiving a larger share. Daughters had no right to any of
the inheritance, though they were usually given a portion. If there
were no sons, the property went to the nearest male relations, but if
the sons were still young, guardians were appointed to provide the
mother with the necessaries for their education. The arrangements were
made in the presence of the local chief and the principal men of the
place, and any dishonesty on the part of the guardians involved them in
infamy; however, we are told that the system was the cause of frequent
quarrels. Matrimonial cases were not infrequent, but the punishment was
severe; the male culprit was tied to a post in the chief’s quarter and
handed over to the injured husband, who might accept compensation, or
take his revenge by smashing the head of his supplanter with a stone.
The woman incurred perpetual obloquy, no light punishment, and was
usually divorced by her husband. Among the Kakchiquel we read of an
execution by fastening a prisoner to a tree and shooting at him with
arrows, while among the Tzutuhil of Atitlan hanging and quartering were
practised. At the latter locality the chief would send a relation to
enquire into offences committed in outlying villages; his decision was
without appeal, and in cases involving a fine he received one-half as
payment for his services. It is probable that similar systems prevailed
generally among the Quiché and Kakchiquel.
There was no special education for the young as in Mexico, at least as
far as our knowledge goes, apart from the training given to candidates
for the priesthood. Children were taught to have great respect for
their elders, and the young and unmarried associated little with
the latter. The distinction between bachelors and married men was
emphasized by the existence of a communal house where the former
congregated for amusement and where, as a rule, they slept.
The Maya preserved their genealogies, and great pride was taken in
descent from one of the Mayapan houses. Men bore, in addition to a
personal name, the names also of their father and mother. In this way
a system of surnames grew up, and community of name was taken to imply
community of blood; so much so, in fact, that all over the country a
traveller on reaching a strange village would mention his name and
immediately be welcomed and entertained as a relation by anyone who
happened to bear the same name. As a general rule travellers were well
treated, and many of the village chiefs kept open house, a custom which
lasted on well into the days of the Spanish _régime_, as many poor
white voyagers found to their advantage. The priests were the guardians
of family tradition and genealogies. Similar surnames existed among the
Kakchiquel, and each person bore, besides his personal name, the name
of his clan or chinamitl.
As regards marriage, Landa states that the Maya in former times
regarded twenty as a suitable age, but that the tendency in his time
was to marry much younger. According to most authorities, the Maya
were monogamous, but one states that polygyny was permitted. Probably
a plurality of wives was exceptional and limited to chiefs. As in
Mexico, a man never sought a wife for himself, but his father employed
the services of a go-between. Marriage was not allowed with a deceased
wife’s sister or husband’s brother, and no unions might be contracted
between persons bearing the same name, since community of name implied
blood-relationship. Further, a man might not marry his maternal aunt.
The occasion of the marriage, which was performed by a priest, was
celebrated by a banquet in the house of the bride’s father, and the
husband remained and worked for his wife’s family for five or six
years. Marriage was by purchase, that is to say the man’s parents
handed over certain property to the father-in-law, but the presents
were not of great value, the real price being the personal service
contributed by the bridegroom. We are told that divorce was both easy
and frequent.
A somewhat similar system prevails to-day among the Lacandons, though
the young man demands his wife in person. If her parents agree, the
couple live as man and wife in the house of her father for a year
on trial. At the end of the year, the couple, their relations and
friends, paint themselves and assume their best ornaments; the bride
presents her husband with a stool and five cacao grains, and receives
from him a skirt and five cacao grains. Their hands are then joined by
the cacique, and a feast follows. The Lacandons are monogamous, and
divorce, probably owing to the system of trial-marriage, is rare.
Among the Quiché also marriage was by purchase, but the bride-price
was a serious matter, and apparently often amounted to a considerable
sum. We are told that the princes grew rich on the gifts which they
received in return for their daughters, but the system brought abuses
with it, and quarrels arose which became so frequent and serious that
the tribe split up into nine “families” and twenty-four “great houses.”
The tendency to matriarchy seen among the Maya is even more evident
among the Kakchiquel, since if the couple belonged to different clans
(chinamitl), the man regarded all the male members of his wife’s clan
as either brothers- or sons-in-law, according to age. This would seem
to imply that the man passed into his wife’s clan rather than she into
his.
Commerce flourished among the later Maya, and there was a good deal of
travelling to and fro in the country. The pilgrimages to celebrated
shrines along recognized routes have already been mentioned, and
also the fact that there was a particular god of travel, Ekchuah.
The Yucatec traded salt, textiles and slaves to Uloa and Tabasco, in
exchange for cacao and stone money; red shells were imported, and also
copper from New Spain. Diaz mentions that the Spaniards found, in a
village in Chiapas, a number of prisoners secured by wooden collars who
had been captured on the road, and he states that some of these were
travellers from Tehuantepec and Soconusco. On the border of Yucatan
and in the hilly region of Alta Vera Paz there were well-defined
trade-routes, and Cortés after crossing the Usumacinta came to a
district, which he calls Acalan, where the inhabitants maintained
trade-intercourse, mainly by boat, with Tabasco, and had trade-outposts
on the Golfo Dulce and the Honduras border. In the earliest times there
must have been much extended intercourse among the tribes, at any rate
pendants of sea-shells constitute one of the most frequent ornaments
seen on the monuments, and the Quiché seem to have sent an expedition
on a long journey to obtain royal _insignia_, as mentioned above.
Much of the trade was performed by direct exchange, but there were
certain forms of currency. Cacao formed the “small change,” and Herrera
states that 200 of the nuts went to a _real_. Red shells and stone
counters are also mentioned as money, as well as copper bells, the
value of which depended on their size. Both Cogolludo and Torquemada
speak of copper currency axe-blades, very thin and in the form of an
inverted T, which were imported from Mexico. The latter author states
that four of these, if new, were equivalent to five _reales_, but
that damaged specimens were only valuable for melting down and went at
ten to the _real_. Feathers were also employed as currency, and
in some places cloth, as in Mexico. The system of enumeration employed
in commerce was in the main vigesimal. The count proceeded by fives to
twenty, by twenties to one hundred, and by hundreds to four hundred;
from this point the higher numbers were reckoned in multiples of twenty.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--Detail from the relief in
the great tlaxtli-court at Chichen Itza.
(_After Seler_)]
The question of war and weapons is particularly interesting from
archæological and ethnological points of view. Taken as a whole the
monuments show few traces of military activity, and at some sites,
notably Copan, Quirigua and Palenque, armed figures are not seen at
all, for the axe which appears at the two latter sites is obviously
a purely ceremonial object. To omit Yucatan for the moment, it is
worthy of notice that reliefs suggesting the figures of warriors are
practically only found in the northern portion of the region over which
the earlier remains extend, viz. at Piedras Negras, Menché, Naranjo
and Tikal. The suggestion is conveyed by the presence of one or more
bound figures subsidiary to the main personage represented upon the
sculpture, or by the fact that the latter stands upon a crouching
figure of distinctly different, and far lower, type of physiognomy.
Tikal may almost be omitted from the above list, since only one such
relief occurs, and it resembles rather the sculptures of Menché than
the archaic stelæ which appear to be more characteristic of the site.
It is not absolutely certain, moreover, that the crouching figures
which serve as supporters represent actual prisoners, since in some
cases the main figure is shown with attributes which are of a purely
ceremonial nature; still the arrangement is suggestive, and it is
worthy of notice that by far the largest number of such stelæ is found
at Naranjo. Where the main figure is shown with a weapon, that weapon
is almost invariably a spear with a head of flaked stone. Such spears
are always rather elaborate and ornamental in form, and in some cases
it is difficult to distinguish them from a ceremonial staff. As stated
above, I do not think that the ceremonial axe can fairly be considered
a weapon, but one “axe” is shown in the hands of a figure at Menché
(stela II), which seems to answer to the description of the “swords”
seen by Columbus in Ruatan. The latter consisted of an edging of stone
flakes set in a groove in a wooden haft, and secured by lashing of
fish intestines. Shields are shown at most sites, and conform in the
main to two types, square and round (or four-sided with gently rounded
corners). Square shields are seen at Piedras Negras, the other pattern
at Menché, Copan, Quirigua, and Naranjo, though at the last-named site
one rectangular shield occurs. At Piedras Negras and Menché figures are
found carrying objects which I take to be long shields of some pliable
material, and these are paralleled in the reliefs on the ball-court at
Chichen Itza (Fig. 60). It is worthy of note that both Diaz and Diego
de Godoi mention long shields, covering most of the body, which could
be folded or rolled up and carried under the arm when not required,
as in use among the tribes of Chiapas. The shields of the rounded
type nearly always bear on the field a highly ornamental sun-face
(Fig. 82; p. 344). It should be observed that neither bows, arrows,
spear-throwers nor, apparently, slings are figured on the monuments
of the central region. On the whole it seems fair to conclude that
the early Maya were men of peace, and that wars, when they occurred,
were with the border tribes rather than among themselves; it should
be mentioned that one representation of bound prisoners is found at
Ixkun. When we come to consider Yucatan, we find that reliefs showing
figures are practically absent except at Chichen Itza, and there they
occur only on buildings ornamented in a distinctly later style, and
accompanied by glyphs of a non-Maya character. In the famous relief on
the ball-court (Fig. 60) is a long series of figures carrying a variety
of weapons, chiefly spears of the type mentioned above, wooden lances
with a single or double row of barbs, apparently cut from the solid,
sheaves of light throwing-spears with stone heads and, seemingly,
feathered butts, and spear-throwers of wood ornamented with feathers.
Light bucklers of a circular pattern, and long pliable shields of the
type mentioned before, both occur, but bows are absent. Other forms
of defensive armour seem to be lacking on the whole, but there is one
figure shown with a turtle-shell worn as a corslet. This may have some
mythological significance, but it is worth recording in this connection
that Diaz mentions turtle-carapaces used as shields at Ayagualulco, to
the west of the river Tabasco. Many of the figures wear a flat circular
object fastened to the girdle at the hip; this may possibly be the
leather pad worn in the ball-game, as described on p. 166, but more
likely it corresponds to the circular ornament which formed part of
the military uniform of the Huaxtec warriors. Now spear-throwers and
darts appear on the Dresden codex, but the absence, on the earlier
monuments, of anything remotely resembling either a spear-thrower or a
spear which could be hurled, seems to suggest that their builders were
ignorant of missile weapons. Chichen Itza, of which the late buildings
are, to anticipate, in Toltec style, was intimately associated with the
Tutul Xiu, and we are told that the spear-thrower was their principal
weapon. Further, Landa makes the statement that bows and arrows, which
were universal in Yucatan at the conquest, were introduced there by the
Mexicans, and that the Yucatec before they came into contact with the
latter were ignorant of these weapons. It may be conjectured that their
introduction was due to the Mexican mercenaries employed by the later
rulers of Mayapan. To turn for the moment to the Quiché and Kakchiquel,
we find that “arrows” were employed by the former in their wars with
the surrounding tribes shortly after the death of the original leaders,
but it is possible that these may in reality have been throwing-spears.
With regard to the Kakchiquel the case is different; this people are
always, in the Annals of Xahila, insisting upon their status as a
warrior tribe, and it is stated definitely that the only riches which
their fighting-men bore with them from Tulan were their bows, their
bucklers and their rounded shields. Now both the Tutul Xiu and the
Quiché traced their origin from Tulan also, and if this be taken to
indicate some early contact with the Mexican valley, it follows that
the Tutul Xiu migration started before the introduction of the bow into
the valley by the Chichimec, while that of the Quiché and Kakchiquel
occurred subsequently. However, as stated above, the Tulan of the Tutul
Xiu tradition is not necessarily that of the Quiché and Kakchiquel
legends (see pp. 214–216).
According to Landa the bows of the historical Yucatec were solid and
straight, a little less than a man’s height, while the arrows, carried
in a quiver, had shafts of reed, foreshafts of wood and obsidian
heads; the Yucatec also carried stone-headed spears, copper-bladed
axes, the edges of which were hardened by hammering, and basket-work
shields covered with deer-hide. The spear remained the weapon of the
upper class, while the bow, as the arm of the mercenary, was used by
the commoners. Corslets, quilted with cotton and salt, are mentioned
as defensive armour, and Diaz speaks of slings and “swords” (probably
corresponding to the Mexican macquauitl) at Cape Cotoche and Champoton
respectively. The Maya forces were under the command of two generals,
one elected for three years and called Nacon (see p. 259), the other
hereditary. The generals maintained a force of regular soldiers, whose
food in times of peace was provided by the commune. Palisades were
practically the only defensive works known, and in fact very few of
the buildings throughout the Maya country, with the exception of a few
in western Guatemala, where traces of fortifications are seen on the
summits of mountains, seem adapted for defensive purposes. The Yucatec
carried off the jaw-bones of slain foes to be worn as armlets, a custom
also found in New Guinea. Axes and clubs were used by the Quiché and
Kakchiquel, and the latter also employed slings and blow-guns. In
later Guatemala mention is made by Alvarado of long wadded corslets
of cotton, three fingers thick and so cumbrous that, when the wearers
fell in attempting to escape from the Spanish attack, they could not
rise without assistance. A peculiar weapon mentioned in the Popol Vuh,
as used by the Quiché in the defence of a fortress, consisted of a
kind of bomb, formed of a gourd filled with live hornets; it is stated
that by means of this ingenious weapon they succeeded in repelling
an attack upon a fortified settlement. A good description of a fight
between the Quiché and the Kakchiquel is given in the “Annals.” “When
the dawn appeared, the Quiché descended from the hills, the cries
and the shouts of war broke forth, the banners were displayed. Then
were heard the drums, the trumpets and the conches of the combatants.
Truly this descent of the Quiché was terrible. They advanced rapidly
in rank, and one might see afar off their bands following one another
descending the mountain. They soon reached the bank of the river, the
houses by the water. They were followed by the chiefs Tepepul and
Iztayul, accompanying the god. Then it was that the battalions met.
Truly the encounter was terrible. The cries and the shouts, the noise
of the drums, the trumpets and the conches resounded, mingled with the
enchantments of the heroes. The Quiché were routed in all directions,
not one resisted, they were put to flight and delivered over to death
and no one could count their slain. A great number of them were taken
prisoner, together with the kings Tepepul and Iztayul, who delivered
up their god.” The capture of a god was evidently a feat much to be
desired, as we have seen when treating of the Mexicans (p. 56), and
there are passages in the Popol Vuh which relate the attempts made by
other tribes to capture the deities of the Quiché. Both the Quiché
and Kakchiquel seem to have been in the habit of executing prisoners
by the arrow-sacrifice, and the Yucatec also offered up captives
of rank, reducing those of lower status to slavery. Apart from the
attempts at capturing the enemy’s god, war did not have nearly so close
a connection with religion as in Mexico, at least as far as can be
ascertained. Most of the wars concerning which traditions have been
preserved either were dynastic or resulted from the refusal on the part
of a subject tribe to pay tribute.