BUILDINGS, MEDICINE, BURIAL, PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES, AND CHARACTER OF
THE MAYAS.
SCANTY INFORMATION GIVEN BY THE EARLY VOYAGERS--PRIVATE
HOUSES OF THE MAYAS--INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT, DECORATION, AND
FURNITURE--MAYA CITIES--DESCRIPTION OF UTATLAN--PATINAMIT,
THE CAKCHIQUEL CAPITAL--CITIES OF NICARAGUA--MAYA
ROADS--TEMPLES AT CHICHEN ITZA AND COZUMEL--TEMPLES OF
NICARAGUA AND GUATEMALA--DISEASES OF THE MAYAS--MEDICINES
USED--TREATMENT OF THE SICK--PROPITIATORY OFFERINGS AND
VOWS--SUPERSTITIONS--DREAMS--OMENS--WITCHCRAFT--SNAKE-CHARMERS
--FUNERAL RITES AND CEREMONIES--PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES--CHARACTER.
A full résumé of the principles of Maya architecture, gathered from
observations of ruins made by modern travelers, will be given in
another part of this work.[1126] I shall, therefore, without regard to
the inevitable scantiness and unsatisfactory nature of such
information, confine myself in this chapter to the descriptions
furnished by the old writers, who saw the houses and towns while they
were occupied by those who built them and the temples before they
became ruins, or at least were contemporaries of such observers.
The accounts given of the dwellings of the Mayas are very meagre. The
early voyagers on the coast of Yucatan, such as Grijalva and Córdova,
saw well-built houses of stone and lime, with sloping roofs thatched
with straw or reeds; or, in some instances, with slates of
stone;[1127] but this is all they tell us, and, indeed, they had
little opportunity for close examination; the natives of those parts
were fierce and warlike, and little disposed to submit to invasion, so
that the handful of adventurers had barely time to look hastily about
them after effecting a landing before they were driven back wounded to
their boats. Here, as elsewhere, too, the temples and larger buildings
naturally attracted their sole attention, both because of their
strangeness and of the treasures which they were supposed to or did
contain. These men were soldiers, gold-hunters; they did not travel
leisurely; they had no time to examine the architecture of private
dwellings; they risked and lost their lives for other purposes. Bishop
Landa, however, has something to say on the subject of Maya dwellings.
The roof, he says, was covered with straw, which they had in great
abundance, or with palm-leaves, which answered the purpose admirably.
A considerable pitch was given to the roof, that the rain might run
off easily. The house was divided in its length, that is, from side to
side, by a wall, in which several doorways were left as a means of
communication with the back room where they slept. The front room
where guests were received was carefully whitewashed, or in the houses
of nobles, painted in various colors or designs; it had no door but
was open all the length of the front of the house, and was sheltered
from sun and rain by the eaves which usually descended very low.[1128]
There was always a doorway in the rear for the use of all the inmates.
The fact of there being no doors made it a point of honor among them
not to rob or injure each other's houses. The poor people built the
houses of the rich.[1129] A new dwelling could not be occupied until
it had been formally blessed and purged of the evil spirit.[1130]
[Sidenote: NICARAGUAN DWELLINGS.]
In Nicaragua, the dwellings were mostly made of canes, and thatched
with straw. In the large cities the houses of the nobles were built
upon platforms several feet in height, but in the smaller towns the
residences of all classes were of the same construction, except that
those of the chiefs were larger and more commodious. Some, however,
appear to have been built of stone.[1131] Of the dwellings in
Guatemala, still less is said. Villagutierre mentions a Lacandone
village in which were one hundred and three houses with sloping
thatched roofs, supported upon stout posts. The front of each house
was open, but the back and sides were closed with a strong stockade.
The interior was divided into several apartments. Cogolludo says that
their houses were covered with plaster, like those of Yucatan.[1132]
The house, or rather shed, near the Gulf of Dulce, in which Cortés
stayed, had no walls, the roof resting upon posts.[1133] In other
parts of Guatemala he saw 'large houses with thatched roofs.'[1134]
Gage does not give a glowing account of their dwellings. "Their
houses," he writes, "are but poor thatched Cottages, without any upper
rooms, but commonly one or two only rooms below, in the one they dress
their meat in the middle of it, making a compass for fire, with two or
three stones, without any other chimney to convey the smoak away,
which spreading it self about the room, filleth the thatch and the
rafters so with sut, that all the room seemeth to be a chimney. The
next unto it, is not free from smoak and blackness, where sometimes
are four or five beds according to the family. The poorer sort have
but one room, where they eat, dress their meat and sleep."[1135] Las
Casas tells us that when the Guatemalans built a new house they were
careful to dedicate an apartment to the worship of the household gods;
there they burned incense and offered domestic sacrifices upon an
altar erected for the purpose.[1136]
[Sidenote: HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE.]
Little is said about the interior appointment and decoration of
dwellings. Landa mentions that in Yucatan they used bedsteads made of
cane,[1137] and the same is said of Nicaragua by Oviedo, who adds that
they used a small four-legged bench of fine wood for a pillow.[1138]
In Guatemala, there was in each room a sort of bedstead large enough
to accommodate four grown persons, and other small ones for the
children.[1139] Brasseur de Bourbourg gives a description of gorgeous
furniture used in the houses of the wealthy in Yucatan, but
unfortunately the learned Abbé has for his only authority on this
point the somewhat apocryphal Ordoñez' MS. The stools, he writes, on
which they seated themselves cross-legged after the Oriental fashion,
were of wood and precious metals, and were often made in the shape of
some animal or bird; they were covered with deer-skins, tanned with
great care, and embroidered with gold and precious stones. The
interior-walls were sometimes hung with similar skins, though they
were more frequently decorated with paintings on a red or blue ground.
Curtains of finest texture and most brilliant colors fell over the
doorways, and the stucco floors were covered with mats made of
exquisite workmanship. Rich hued cloths covered the tables. The plate
would have done honor to a Persian satrap. Graceful vases of chased
gold, alabaster or agate, worked with exquisite art, delicate painted
pottery, excelling that of Etruria, candelabra for the great odorous
pine torches, metal braziers diffusing sweet perfumes, a multitude of
_petits riens_, such as little bells and grotesquely shaped whistles
for summoning attendants, in fact all the luxuries which are the
result of an advanced civilization, were, according to Brasseur de
Bourbourg, to be found in the houses of the Maya nobility.[1140]
[Sidenote: MAYA FORTIFICATIONS.]
Of the interior arrangement of the Yucatec towns we are told nothing
except that the temples, palaces, and houses of the nobility were in
the centre, with the dwellings of the common people grouped about
them, and that the streets were well kept.[1141] Some of them must,
however, have been very large and have contained fine buildings.
During Córdova's voyage on the coast of Yucatan a city was seen which,
says Peter Martyr, "for the hugenesse thereof they call Cayrus, of
Cayrus the Metropolis of Ægipt: where they find turreted houses,
stately tenples, wel paued wayes & streets where marts and faires
for trade of merchandise were kept."[1142] During Grijalva's voyage a
city, the same one perhaps, was seen, which Diaz, the chaplain of the
expedition, says was as 'large as the city of Seville.'[1143] None of
the Yucatec cities appear to have been located with any view to
defense, or to to have been provided with fortifications of any
description.[1144] The towns of Guatemala, on the other hand, were
very strongly fortified, both artificially and by the site selected.
Juarros thus describes the city of Utatlan in Guatemala: "it was
surrounded by a deep ravine that formed a natural fosse, leaving only
two very narrow roads as entrances to the city, both of which were so
well defended by the castle of _Resguardo_, as to render it
impregnable. The centre of the city was occupied by the royal palace,
which was surrounded by the houses of the nobility; the extremities
were inhabited by the plebeians. The streets were very narrow, but the
place was so populous, as to enable the king to draw from it alone, no
less than 72,000 combatants, to oppose the progress of the Spaniards.
It contained many very sumptuous edifices, the most superb of them was
a seminary, where between 5 and 6000 children were educated; they were
all maintained and provided for at the charge of the royal treasury;
their instruction was superintended by 70 masters and professors. The
castle of the Atalaya was a remarkable structure, which being raised
four stories high, was capable of furnishing quarters for a very
strong garrison. The castle of Resguardo was not inferior to the
other; it extended 188 paces in front, 230 in depth, and was 5 stories
high. The grand alcazar, or palace of the kings of Quiché, surpassed
every other edifice, and in the opinion of Torquemada, it could
compete in opulence with that of Montezuma in Mexico, or that of the
Incas in Cuzco. The front of this building extended from east to west
376 geometrical paces, and in depth 728; it was constructed of hewn
stone of different colors; its form was elegant, and altogether most
magnificent; there were 6 principal divisions, the first contained
lodgings for a numerous troop of lancers, archers, and other well
disciplined troops, constituting the royal body guard; the second was
destined to the accommodation of the princes, and relations of the
king, who dwelt in it, and were served with regal splendour, as long
as they remained unmarried; the third was appropriated to the use of
the king, and contained distinct suits of apartments, for the
mornings, evenings, and nights. In one of the saloons stood the
throne, under four canopies of plumage, the ascent to it was by
several steps; in this part of the palace were, the treasury, the
tribunals of the judges, the armory, the gardens, aviaries, and
menageries, with all the requisite offices appending to each
department. The 4th and 5th divisions were occupied by the queens and
royal concubines; they were necessarily of great extent, from the
immense number of apartments requisite for the accommodation of so
many females, who were all maintained in a style of sumptuous
magnificence, gardens for their recreation, baths, and proper places
for breeding geese, that were kept for the sole purpose of furnishing
feathers, with which hangings, coverings, and other similar ornamental
articles, were made. Contiguous to this division was the sixth and
last; this was the residence of the king's daughters and other females
of the blood royal, where they were educated and attended in a manner
suitable to their rank."[1145]
Patinamit, the Cakchiquel capital, was nearly three leagues in
circumference. It was situated upon a plateau surrounded by deep
ravines which could be crossed at only one point by a narrow causeway
which terminated in two gates of stone, one on the outside and the
other on the inside of the thick wall of the city. The streets were
broad and straight, and crossed each other at right angles. The town
was divided from north to south into two parts by a ditch nine feet
deep, with a wall of masonry about three feet high on each side. This
ditch served to divide the nobles from the commoners, the former class
living in the eastern section, and the latter in the western.[1146]
Peter Martyr says of the cities of Nicaragua: "Large and great
streetes guarde the frontes of the Kinges courts, according to the
disposition and greatnes of their village or towne. If the town
consist of many houses, they haue also little ones, in which, the
trading neighbours distant from the Court may meete together. The
chiefe noble mens houses compasse and inclose the kinges streete on
euery side: in the middle site whereof one is erected which the
Goldesmithes inhabite."[1147]
The Mayas constructed excellent and desirable roads all over the face
of the country. The most remarkable of these were the great highways
used by the pilgrims visiting the sacred island of Cozumel; these
roads, four in number, traversed the peninsula in different
directions, and finally met at a point upon the coast opposite the
island.[1148] Diego de Godoi, in a letter to Cortés, states that he
and his party came to a place in the mountains of Chiapas, where the
smooth and slippery rock sloped down to the edge of a precipice, and
which would have been quite impassable had not the Indians made a road
with branches and trunks of trees. On the side of the precipice they
erected a strong wooden railing, and then made all level with
earth.[1149]
[Sidenote: MAYA TEMPLES.]
Of the Maya temples very little is said. There was one at Chichen Itza
which had four great staircases, each being thirty-three feet wide and
having ninety-one steps, very difficult of ascent. The steps were of
the same height and width as ours. On both sides of each stairway was
a low balustrade, two feet wide, made of good stone, like the rest of
the building. The edifice was not sharp-cornered, because from the
ground upward between the balustrades the cubic blocks were rounded,
ascending by degrees and elegantly narrowing the building. There was
at the foot of each balustrade a fierce serpent's head very strangely
worked. On the top of the edifice there was a platform, on which stood
a building forty-three feet by forty-nine feet, and about twenty feet
high, having only a single doorway in the centre of each front. The
doorways on the east, west and south, opened into a corridor six feet
wide, which extended without partition walls round the three
corresponding sides of the edifice; the northern doorway gave access
to a corridor forty feet long and six and a third feet wide. Through
the centre of the rear wall of this corridor a doorway opened into a
room twelve feet nine inches by nineteen feet eight inches, and
seventeen feet high; its ceiling was formed by two transverse arches
supported by immense carved beams of zapote-wood, stretched across
the room and resting, each at its centre, on two square pillars.[1150]
The island of Cozumel was especially devoted to religious observances,
and was annually visited by great numbers of pilgrims; there were
therefore more religious edifices here than elsewhere. Among them is
mentioned a square tower, with four windows, and hollow at the top; at
the back was a room in which the sacred implements were kept; it was
surrounded by an enclosure, in the middle of which stood a cross nine
feet high, representing the God of rain.[1151] Other temples so
closely resembled those of Mexico as to need no further description
here.[1152]
[Sidenote: NICARAGUAN TEMPLES.]
The temples of Nicaragua were built of wood and thatched; they
contained many low, dark rooms, where the idols were kept and the
religious rites performed. Before each temple was a pyramidal mound,
on the flat top of which the sacrifices were made in the presence of
the whole people.[1153]
In Guatemala, Cortés saw temples like those of Mexico.[1154] The temple
of Tohil, at Utatlan, was, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg, a
conical edifice, having in front a very steep stairway; at the summit
was a platform of considerable size upon which stood a very high
chapel, built of hewn stone, and roofed with precious wood. The walls
were covered within and without with a very fine and durable stucco.
Upon a throne of gold, enriched with precious stones, was seated the
image of the god.[1155]
* * * * *
The particular diseases to which the Mayas were most subject are not
enumerated, but there is no reason to doubt that they suffered from
the same maladies as their neighbors the Nahuas. They seem to have
been greatly afflicted with various forms of syphilis,[1156] and in
winter, with catarrh and fever.[1157] They were much troubled, also,
with epidemics, which not unfrequently swept the country with great
destruction.[1158]
[Sidenote: TREATMENT OF THE SICK.]
Medicinal practitioners were numerous. Their medicines, which were
mostly furnished by the vegetable kingdom, were administered in the
usual forms,[1159] and their treatment of patients involved the
customary mummeries. Clysters were much used.[1160] For syphilis they
used a decoction of a wood called _guayacan_, which grew most
plentifully in the province of Nagrando in Nicaragua.[1161] For
rheumatism, coughs, colds, and other complaints of a kindred nature,
they used various herbs, among them tobacco,[1162] and a kind of dough
made of 'stinking poisonous worms.'[1163] Sores arising from natural
causes they washed in a decoction of an herb called _coygaraca_, or
poulticed it with the mashed leaves of another named _mozot_.[1164]
Wounds taken in battle they always treated with external
applications.[1165] Cacao, after the oil had been extracted was
considered to be a sure preventive against poison.[1166]
When a rich man or a noble fell sick a messenger was dispatched with
gifts to the doctor, who came at once and staid by his patient until
he either got well or died. If the sickness was not serious the
physician merely applied the usual remedies, but it was thought that a
severe illness could only be brought on by some crime committed and
unconfessed. In such cases, therefore, the doctor insisted upon the
sick man making a clean breast of it, and confessing such sin even
though it had been committed twenty years before. This done, the
physician cast lots to see what sacrifices ought to be made, and
whatever he determined upon was always given even though it amounted
to the whole of the patient's fortune.[1167] In Yucatan the
practitioner sometimes drew blood from those parts of the patient's
body in which the malady lay.[1168] Lizana mentions a temple at Izamal
to which the sick were carried that they might be healed
miraculously.[1169] In Guatemala, as elsewhere, propitiatory offerings
of birds and animals were made in ordinary cases of sickness, but if
the patient was wealthy and dangerously ill he would sometimes strive
to appease the anger of the gods and atone for the sins which he was
supposed to have committed by sacrificing male or female slaves, or,
in extraordinary cases, when the sick man was a prince or a great
noble, he would even vow to sacrifice a son or a daughter in the event
of his recovery; and although the scapegoat was generally chosen from
among his children by female slaves, yet so fearful of death, so fond
of life were they, that there were not wanting instances when
legitimate children, and even only sons were sacrificed. And it is
said, moreover, that they were inexorable as Jephthah in the
performance of such vows, for it was held to be a great sin to be
false to a bargain made with the gods.[1170]
[Sidenote: PRACTICE OF SORCERY.]
The Mayas, like the Nahuas, were grossly superstitious. They believed
implicitly in the fulfillment of dreams, the influence of omens, and
the power of witches and wizards. No important matter was undertaken
until its success had been foretold and a lucky day determined by the
flight of a bird or some similar omen. Whether the non-fulfilment of
the prediction was provided against by a _double entendre_, after the
manner of the sibyls, we are not told. The cries or appearance of
certain birds and animals were thought to presage harm to those who
heard or saw them.[1171] They as firmly believed and were as well
versed in the black art as their European brethren of a hundred years
later, and they appear to have had the same enlightened horror of the
arts of gramarye, for in Guatemala, at least, they burned witches and
wizards without mercy. They had among them, they said, sorcerers who
could metamorphose themselves into dogs, pigs, and other animals, and
whose glance was death to their victims. Others there were who could
by magic cause a rose to bloom at will, and could bring whomsoever
they wished under their control by simply giving him the flower to
smell. Unfaithful wives, too, would often bewitch their husbands that
their acts of infidelity might not be discovered.[1172] All these
things are gravely recounted by the old chroniclers, not as matters
unworthy of credence, but as deeds done at the instigation of the
devil to the utter damnation of the benighted heathen. Cogolludo, for
instance, speaking of the performances of a snake-charmer, says that
the magician took up the reptile in his bare hands, as he did so using
certain mystic words, which he, Cogolludo, wrote down at the time, but
finding afterwards that they invoked the devil, he did not see fit to
reproduce them in his work. The same writer further relates that upon
another occasion a diviner cast lots, according to custom, with a
number of grains of corn, to find out which direction a strayed child
had taken. The child was eventually found upon the road indicated, and
the narrator subsequently endeavored to discover whether the devil had
been invoked or not, but the magician was a poor simple fool, and
could not tell him.[1173] Nor does there seem to have been any great
difference between the credulity and superstition of conquerors and
conquered in other respects. The Spanish Fathers, if we may judge from
their writings, believed in the Aztec deities as firmly as the
natives; the only difference seems to have been that the former looked
upon them as devils and the latter as gods. When the Spaniards took
notes in writing of what they saw, the Costa Ricans thought they were
working out some magic spell; when the Costa Ricans cast incense
towards the invaders telling them to leave the country or die,[1174]
the Spaniards swore that the devil was in it, and crossed themselves
as a counter-spell.
The Yucatecs observed a curious custom during an eclipse of the moon.
At such times they imagined that the moon was asleep, or that she was
stung and wounded by ants. They therefore beat their dogs to make them
howl, and made a great racket by striking with sticks upon doors and
benches; what they hoped to accomplish by this, we are not told.[1175]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FUNERAL RITES.]
The Mayas disposed of the bodies of their dead by both burial and
cremation. The former, however, appears to have been the most usual
way. In Vera Paz, and probably in the whole of Guatemala, the body was
placed in the grave in a sitting posture, with the knees drawn up to
the face. The greater part of the dead man's property was buried with
him, and various kinds of food and drink were placed in the grave that
the spirit might want for nothing on its way to shadow-land.[1176]
Just before death took place, the nearest relation, or the most
intimate friend of the dying man, placed between his lips a valuable
stone, which was supposed to receive the soul as soon as it passed
from the body. As soon as he was dead, the same person removed the
stone and gently rubbed the face of the deceased with it. This office
was held to be a very important one, and the person who performed it
preserved the stone with great reverence. When the lord of a province
died, messengers were sent to the neighboring provinces to invite the
other princes to be present at the funeral. While awaiting their
arrival the body was placed in a sitting posture, in the manner in
which it was afterwards to be interred,[1177] and clothed in a great
quantity of rich clothing.[1178] On the day of the funeral the great
lords who had come to attend the ceremony, brought precious gifts and
ornaments, and placed them by the side of or on the person of the
corpse. Each provided also a male or female slave, or both, to be
sacrificed over the grave of the deceased. The body was then placed in
a large stone chest,[1179] and borne with great solemnity to its last
resting-place, which was generally situated on the top of a hill. The
coffin having been lowered into the grave with its ornaments, the
doomed slaves were immolated, and also cast in along with the
implements which they had used in life, that they might follow their
accustomed pursuits in the service of their new master in the other
world. Finally, the grave was filled up, a mound raised over it, and a
stone altar erected above all, upon which incense was burned and
sacrifices were made in memory of the deceased. The common people did
not use coffins, but placed the body in a sitting posture and wrapped
up in many cloths, in an excavation made in the side of the grave,
burying with it many jars, pans, and implements. They raised a mound
over the grave of a height in proportion to the rank of the
defunct.[1180]
Only the poorer classes of the Yucatecs buried their dead. These
placed corn in the mouth of the corpse, together with some money as
ferriage for the Maya Charon. The body was interred either in the
house or close to it. Some idols were thrown into the grave before it
was filled up. The house was then forsaken by its inmates, for they
greatly feared the dead.[1181] The books of a priest were buried with
him, as were likewise the charms of a sorcerer.[1182] The Itzas buried
their dead in the fields, in their every-day clothes. On the graves of
the males they left such implements as men used, on those of the
females they placed grinding-stones, pans, and other utensils used by
the women.[1183] In Nicaragua, property was buried with the possessor
if he or she had no children; if the contrary was the case, it was
divided among the heirs. Nicaraguan parents shrouded their children in
cloths, and buried them before the doors of their dwellings.[1184]
Among the Pipiles the dead were interred in the house they had lived
in, along with all their property. A deceased high-priest was buried,
clad in the robes and ornaments appertaining to his office, in a
sepulchre or vault in his own palace, and the people mourned and
fasted fifteen days.[1185]
Cremation or partial cremation seems to have been reserved for the
higher classes. In Yucatan, an image of the dead person was made, of
wood for a king, of clay for a noble. The back part of the head of
this image was hollowed out, and a portion of the body having been
burned, the ashes were placed in this hollow, which was covered with
the skin of the occiput of the corpse. The image was then placed in
the temple, among the idols, and was much reverenced, incense being
burned before it, almost as though it had been a god. The remainder of
the body was buried with great solemnity. When an ancient Cocome king
died, his head was cut off and boiled. The flesh was then stripped
off, and the skull cut in two crosswise. On the front part of the
skull, which included the lower jaw and teeth, an exact likeness of
the dead man was molded in some plastic substance. This was placed
among the statues of the gods, and each day edibles of various kinds
were placed before it, that the spirit might want for nothing in the
other life, which, by the way, must have been a poor one to need such
terrestrial aliment.[1186] When a great lord died in Nicaragua, the
body was burned along with a great number of feathers and ornaments of
different kinds, and the ashes were placed in an urn, which was buried
in front of the palace of the deceased. As usual, the spirit must be
supplied with food, which was tied to the body before cremation.[1187]
[Sidenote: MOURNING FOR THE DEAD.]
According to the information we have on the subject, the mourning
customs of the Mayas appear to have been pretty much the same
everywhere. For the death of a chief or any of his family the Pipiles
lamented for four days, silently by day, and with loud cries by night.
At dawn on the fifth day the high-priest publicly forbade the people
to make any further demonstration of sorrow, saying that the soul of
the departed was now with the gods. The Guatemalan widower dyed his
body yellow, for which reason he was called _malcam_. Mothers who lost
a sucking child, withheld their milk from all other infants for four
days, lest the spirit of the dead babe should be offended.[1188]
* * * * *
The Mayas, like the Nahuas, were mostly well-made, tall, strong, and
hardy. Their complexion was tawny. The women were passably
good-looking, some of them, it is said, quite pretty, and seem to have
been somewhat fairer-skinned than the men. What the features of the
Mayas were like, can only be conjectured. Their sculpture would
indicate that a large hooked nose and a retreating forehead, if not
usual, were at least regarded with favor, and we know that
head-flattening was almost universal among them. Beards were not worn,
and the Yucatec mothers burned the faces of their children with hot
cloths to prevent the growth of hair. In Landa's time some of the
natives allowed their beard to grow, but, says the worthy bishop, it
came out as rough as hog's bristles. In Nicaragua it would seem that
they did not even understand what a beard was; witness the following
'pretie policy' of Ægidius Gonsalus: "All the Barbarians of those
Nations are beardlesse, and are terribly afraide, and fearefull of
bearded men: and therefore of 25. beardlesse youthes by reason of
their tender yeres, Ægidius made bearded men with the powlinges of
their heades, the haire being orderly composed, to the end, that the
number of bearded men might appeare the more, to terrifie the[|m] if they
should be assailed by warre, as afterwarde it fell out."[1189]
Squinting eyes were, as I have said before, thought beautiful in
Yucatan.[1190]
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE MAYAS.]
Of all the Maya nations, the Yucatecs bear the best character. The men
were generous, polite, honest, truthful, peaceable, brave, ingenious,
and particularly hospitable, though, on the other hand, they were
great drunkards, and very loose in their morals. The women were
modest, very industrious, excellent housewives, and careful mothers,
but, though generally of a gentle disposition, they were excessively
jealous of their marital rights; indeed, Bishop Landa tells us that
upon the barest suspicion of infidelity on the part of their husbands
they became perfect furies, and would even beat their unfaithful
one.[1191] The Guatemalans are spoken of as having been exceedingly
warlike and valorous, but withal very simple in their tastes and
manner of life.[1192] Arricivita calls the Lacandones thieves,
assassins, cannibals, bloody-minded men, who received the missionaries
with great violence.[1193] The fact that the Lacandones strove to
repel invasion, without intuitively knowing that the invaders were
missionaries, may have helped the worthy padre to come to this
decision, however. The Nicaraguans were warlike and brave, but at the
same time false, cunning, and deceitful. Their resolute hatred of the
whites was so great that it is said that for two years they abstained
from their wives rather than beget slaves for their conquerors.[1194]
* * * * *
Next after the collecting of facts in any one direction comes their
comparison with other ascertained facts of the same category, by which
means fragments of knowledge coalesce and unfold into science. This
fascinating study, however, is no part of my plan. If in the foregoing
pages I have succeeded in collecting and classifying materials in such
a manner that others may, with comparative ease and certainty, place
the multitudinous nations of these Pacific States in all their shades
of savagery and progress side by side with the savagisms and
civilizations of other ages and nations, my work thus far is
accomplished. But what a flood of thought, of speculation and imagery
rushes in upon the mind at the bare mention of such a study! Isolated,
without the stimulus of a Mediterranean commerce, hidden in umbrageous
darkness, walled in by malarious borders, and surrounded by wild
barbaric hordes, whatever its origin, indigenous or foreign, there was
found on Mexican and Central American table-lands an unfolding
humanity, unique and individual, yet strikingly similar to human
unfoldings under like conditions elsewhere. Europeans, regarding the
culture of the conquered race first as diabolical and then
contemptible, have not to this day derived that benefit from it that
they might have done. It is not necessary that American civilization
should be as far advanced as European, to make a perfect knowledge of
the former as essential in the study of mankind as a knowledge of the
latter; nor have I any disposition to advance a claim for the equality
of American aboriginal culture with European, or to make of it other
than what it is. As in a work of art, it is not a succession of
sharply defined and decided colors, but a happy blending of light and
shade, that makes the picture pleasing, so in the grand and gorgeous
perspective of human progress the intermediate stages are as necessary
to completeness as the dark spectrum of savagism or the brilliant glow
of the most advanced culture.
[Sidenote: CONCLUSION.]
This, however, I may safely claim; if the preceding pages inform us
aright, then were the Nahuas, the Mayas, and the subordinate and
lesser civilizations surrounding these, but little lower than the
contemporaneous civilizations of Europe and Asia, and not nearly so
low as we have hitherto been led to suppose. Whatever their exact
status in the world of nations--and that this volume gives _in esse_
and not _in posse_--they are surely entitled to their place, and a
clear and comprehensive delineation of their character and condition
fills a gap in the history of humanity. As in every individual, so in
every people, there is something different from what may be found in
any other people; something better and something worse. One
civilization teaches another; if the superior teaches most, the
inferior nevertheless teaches. It is by the mutual action and reaction
of mind upon mind and nation upon nation that the world of intellect
is forced to develop. Taking in at one view the vast range of humanity
portrayed in this volume and the preceding, with all its infinite
variety traced on a background of infinite unity, individuality not
more clearly evidenced than a heart and mind and soul relationship to
humanity everywhere, the wide differences in intelligence and culture
shaded and toned down into a homogeneous whole, we can but arrive at
our former conclusion, that civilization is an unexplained phenomenon
whose study allures the thoughtful and yields results pregnant with
the welfare of mankind.
FOOTNOTES:
[1126] See vol. iv., pp. 267, et. seq.
[1127] 'A todo lo largo tenian los vecinos de aquel lugar muchas
casas, hecho el cimiento de piedra y lodo hasta la mitad de las
paredes, y luego cubiertas de paja. Esta gente del dicho lugar, en los
edificios y en las casas, parece ser gente de grande ingenio: y si no
fuera porque parecia haber allí algunos edificios nuevos, se pudiera
presumir que eran edificios hechos por Españoles.' _Diaz_,
_Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 286; see
also _Id._, pp. 281, 287. 'Las casas son de piedra, y ladrillo con la
cubierta de paja, o rama. Y aun alguna de lanchas de piedra.'
_Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 23. 'The houses were of stone or brick,
and lyme, very artificially composed. To the square Courts or first
habitations of their houses they ascended by ten or twelue steps. The
roofe was of Reeds, or stalkes of Herbs.' _Purchas his Pilgrimes_,
vol. v., p. 885; _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 2-3; _Bienvenida_,
in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série i., tom. ii., p. 311; _Oviedo_,
_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., p. 507, tom. iii., p. 230; _Montanus_, _Nieuwe
Weereld_, p. 72; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv., lib. i.
[1128] 'C'est encore aujourd'hui de cette manière que se construisent
à la campagne les maisons non seulement des indigènes, mais encore de
la plupart des autres habitants du pays, au Yucatan et ailleurs.'
_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 110-11.
[1129] _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 110.
[1130] _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 184.
[1131] 'Their houses of bricke or stone, are couered with reedes,
where there is a scarcitie of stones, but where Quarries are, they are
couered with shindle or slate. Many houses haue marble pillars, as
they haue with vs.' _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv., lib. iii., dec. vi.,
lib. v.; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.;
_Benzoni_, _Hist. Mondo Nuovo_, p. 102.
[1132] _Hist. Yuc._, p. 700. 'Las casas eran ciento y tres, de
gruessos, y fuertes Maderos, en que se mantenian los Techos, que eran
de mucha Paja, reziamente amarrada, y con su corriente, y descubiertos
todos los Frontispicios, y tapados los costados, y espaldas, de
Estacada, con sus Aposentos, donde las Indias cozinavan, y tenian sus
menesteres.' _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 311-12.
[1133] _Cortés_, _Cartas_, p. 447.
[1134] _Id._, pp. 268, 426.
[1135] _New Survey_, p. 318.
[1136] _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. cxxiv.
[1137] _Relacion_, p. 110.
[1138] 'Á la parte oriental, á siete ú ocho passos debaxo deste
portal, está un echo de tres palmos alto de tierra, fecho de las cañas
gruessas que dixe, y ençima llano é de diez ó doçe piés de luengo é de
cinco ó seys de ancho, é una estera de palma gruessa ençima, é sobre
aquella otras tres esteras delgadas é muy bien labradas, y ençima
tendido el caçique desnudo é con una mantilla de algodon blanco é
delgada revuelta sobre sí; é por almohada tenia un banquito pequeño de
quatro piés, algo cóncavo, quellos llaman duho, é de muy linda é lisa
madera muy bien labrado, por cabeçera.' _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p.
109.
[1139] 'Y en cada Aposento vn Tapesco, sobre maderos fuertes, que en
cada vno cabian quatro Personas; y otros Tapesquillos aparte, en que
ponian las Criaturas.' _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 312.
Gage writes: They have 'four or five beds according to the family....
Few there are that set any locks upon their doors, for they fear no
robbing nor stealing, neither have they in their houses much to lose,
earthen pots, and pans, and dishes, and cups to drink their
Chocolatte, being the chief commodities in their house. There is
scarce any house which hath not also in the yard a stew, wherein they
bath themselves with hot water.' _New Survey_, p. 318.
[1140] _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., pp. 68-9.
[1141] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x., cap. ii., iii.
[1142] Dec. iv., lib. i.
[1143] _Diaz_, _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom.
i., p. 287.
[1144] See vol. iv. of this work, pp. 267-8.
[1145] _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, pp. 87-8; _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Apologética_, MS., cap. lii.; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. ii., p. 493; _Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 123-4.
[1146] _Juarros_, _Hist. Guat._, pp. 383-4; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,
_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 520.
[1147] Dec. vi., lib. vi.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 263;
_Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.
[1148] _Lizana_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 358; _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, p. 193; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii.,
pp. 25, 46-7.
[1149] _Godoi_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série i., tom. x., pp.
171-2. At the Lake of Masaya in Nicaragua, Boyle noticed a 'cutting in
the solid rock, a mile long, and gradually descending to depth of at
least three hundred feet! This is claimed as the work of a people
which was not acquainted with blasting or with iron tools. Nature had
evidently little hand in the matter, though a cleft in the rock may
perhaps have helped the excavators. The mouth of this tunnel is about
half a mile from the town.' _Ride_, vol. ii., p. 11. Herrera, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. vii., mentions the same thing in a
very different manner: 'La subida y baxada, tan derecha como vna
pared, que como es de peña viua, tiene en ella hechos agujeros, adonde
ponen los dedos de las manos, y de los pies.'
[1150] For description of ruins of this building as they now exist,
and cuts of staircase, ground plan, and ornamentation, see vol. iv.,
pp. 226-9. Bishop Landa thus describes it: 'Este edificio tiene quatro
escaleras que miran a las quatro partes del mundo: tienen de ancho a
xxxiii pies y a noventa y un escalones cada una que es muerte
subirlas. Tienen en los escalones la mesma altura y anchura que
nosotros damos a los nuestros. Tiene cada escalera dos passamanos
baxos a ygual de los escalones, de dos piez de ancho de buena canteria
como lo es todo el edificio. No es este edificio esquinado, porque
desde la salida del suelo se comiençan labrar desde los passemanos al
contrario, como estan pintado unos cubos redondos que van subiendo a
trechos y estrechando el edificio por muy galana orden. Avia quando yo
lo vi al pie de cada passamano una fiera boca de sierpe de una pieça
bien curiosamente labrada. Acabadas de esta manera las escaleras,
queda en lo alto una plaçeta llana en la qual esta un edificio
edificado de quatro quartos. Los tres se andan a la redonda sin
impedimento y tiene cada uno puerta en medio y estan cerrados de
boveda. El quarto del norte se anda por si con un corredor de pilares
gruessos. Lo de en medio que avia de ser como el patinico que haze el
orden de los paños del edificio tiene una puerta que sale al corredor
del norte y esta por arriba cerrado de madera y servia de quemar los
saumerios. Ay en la entrada desta puerta o del corredor un modo de
armas esculpidas en una piedra que no pude bien entender. Tenia este
edificio otros muchos, y tiene oy en dia a la redonda de si bien
hechos y grandes, y todo en suelo del a ellos encalado que aun ay a
partes memoria de los encalados tan fuerte es el argamasa de que alla
los hazen. Tenia delante la escalera del norte algo aparte dos teatros
de canteria pequeños de a quatro escaleras, y enlosados por arriba en
que dizen representavan las farsas y comedias para solaz del pueblo.
Va desde et patio en frente destos teatros una hermosa y ancha calçada
hasta un poço como dos tiros de piedra. En este poço an tenido, y
tenian entonces costumbre de echar hombres vivos en sacrificio a los
dioses en tiempo de seca, y tenian no morian aunque no los veyan mas.
Hechavan tambien otros muchas cosas, de piedras de valor y cosas que
tenían depciadas.... Es poço que tiene largos vii estados de hondo
hasta el agua, hancho mas de cien pies y redondo y de una peña tajada
hasta el agua que es maravilla. Parece que tiene al agua muy verde, y
creo lo causan las arboledas de que esta cercado y es muy hondo. Tiene
en cima del junto a la boca un edificio pequeño donde halle yo idolos
hechos a honra de todos los edificios principales de la tierra, casi
como el Pantheon de Roma. No se si era esta invencion antigua o de los
modernos para toparse con sus idolos quando fuessen con ofrendas a
aquel poço. Halle yo leones labrados de bulto y jarros y otras cosas
que no se como nadie dira no tuvieron herramiento esta gente. Tambien
halle dos hombres de grandes estaturas labrados de piedra, cado uno de
una pieça en carnes cubierta su honestidad como se cubrian los indios.
Tenian las cabeças por si, y con zarcillos en las orejas como lo
usavan los indios, y hecha una espiga por detras en el pescueço que
encaxava en un agujero hondo para ello hecho en el mesmo pescueço y
encaxado quedava el bulto cumplido.' _Relacion_, pp. 342-6.
[1151] 'Vieron algunos adoratorios, y templos, y vno en particular,
cuya forma era de vna torre quadrada, ancha del pie, y hueca en lo
alto con quatro grandes ventanas, con sus corredores, y en lo hueco,
que era la Capilla, estauan Idolos, y a las espaldas estaua vna
sacristia, adonde se guardauan las cosas del seruicio del templo: y al
pie deste estaua vn cercado de piedra, y cal, almenado y enluzido, y
en medio vna Cruz de cal, de tres varas en alto, a la qual tenian por
el Dios de la lluuia.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. iii.,
cap. i. 'Junto à vn templo, como torre quadrada, donde tenian vn Idolo
muy celebrado, al pie de ella auia vn cercado de piedra, y cal muy
bien luzido, y almenado, en medio del qual auia vna Cruz de cal tan
alta, como diez palmos,' to which they prayed for rain. _Cogolludo_,
_Hist. Yuc._, p. 200. It is doubtless the same structure of which
Gomara writes: 'El templo es como torre quadrada, ancha del pie, y con
gradas al derredor, derecha de medio arriba, y en lo alto hueca, y
cubierta de paja, con quatro puertas o ventanas con sus antepechos, o
corredores. En aquello hueco, que parece capilla, assientan o pintan
sus dioses.' _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 23.
[1152] The pyramids are of different size: 'aunque todos de vna forma.
Son al modo de los que de la Nueua España refiere el Padre Torquemada
en su Monarquia Indiana: leuantado del suelo vn terrapleno fundamento
del edificio, y sobre èl vàn ascendiendo gradas en figuras piramidal,
aunque no remata en ella, porque en lo superior haze vna placeta, en
cuyo suelo estàn separada (aunque distantes poco) dos Capillas
pequeñas en que estaban los Idolos (esto es en lo de Vxumual) y alli
se hazian los sacrificios, assi de hombres, mugeres, y niños, como de
las demàs cosas. Tienen algunos de ellos altura de mas de cien gradas
de poco mas de medio pie de ancho cada vno.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, p. 193. Landa describes a pyramidal structure which differs
from others: 'Ay aqui en Yzamal un edificio entre los otros de tanta
altura que espanta, el qual se vera en esta figura y en esta razon
della. Tiene XX gradas de a mas de dos buenos palmos de alto y ancho
cada un y terna, mas de cien pies de largo. Son estas gradas de muy
grandes piedras labradas aunque con el mucho tiempo, y estar al agua,
estan ya feas y maltratadas. Tiene despues labrado en torno como
señala esta raya, redonda labrado de canteria una muy fuerte pared a
la qual como estado y medio en alto sale una ceja de hermosas piedras
todo a la redonda y desde ellas se torna despues a seguir la obra
hasta ygualar con el altura de la plaça que se haze despues de la
primera escalera. Despues de la qual plaça se haze otra buena placeta,
y en ella algo pegado a la pared esta hecho un cerro bien alto con su
escalera al medio dia, donde caen las escaleras grandes y encima esta
una hermosa capilla de canteria bien labrada. Yo subi en lo alto desta
capilla y como Yucatan es tierra llana se vee desde ella tierra quanto
puede la vista alcançar a maravilla y se vee la mar. Estos edificios
de Yzamal eran por todos XI o XII, aunque es este el mayor y estan muy
cerca unos de otros. No oy memoria de los fundadores, y parecen aver
sido los primeros. Estan VIII leguas de la mar en muy hermoso sitio, y
buena tierra y comarca de gente.' _Relacion_, pp. 328-30.
[1153] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 37; _Peter Martyr_, dec.
vi., lib. v.
[1154] _Cortés_, _Cartas_, p. 448.
[1155] _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 552. See also _Villagutierre_,
_Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 402.
[1156] 'Y en estas partes é Indias pocos chripstianos, é muy pocos
digo, son los que han escapado deste trabajoso mat (buboes) que hayan
tenido partiçipaçion carnal con las mugeres naturales desta generaçion
de indias; porque á la verdad es propria plaga desta tierra, é tan
usada á los indios é indias como en otras partes otras comunes
enfermedades.' _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., p. 365.
[1157] 'Comiença el inuierno de aquella tierra desde san Francisco,
quando entran los Nortes, ayre frio, y que destiempla mucho a los
naturales: y por estar hechos al calor, y traer poca ropa, les dan
rezios catarros, y calenturas.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv.,
lib. iii., cap. iv.
[1158] _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 60-2.
[1159] Ay infinitos generos de cortezas, rayzes, y hojas de arboles, y
gomas, para muchas enfermedades, con que los Indios curauan en su
gentilidad, con soplos, y otras inuenciones del demonio.' _Herrera_,
_Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x., cap. xiv.; _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Apologética_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., p. 234.
[1160] 'Curan viejas los enfermos ... y echan melezinas con vn cañuto,
tomando la decoccion en la boca, y soplando. Los nuestros les hazian
mil burlas, desuenteando al tiempo, que querian ellas soplar, o riendo
del artificio.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 264; _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.
[1161] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., p. 365.
[1162] 'Ay en esta terra mucha diuersidad de yeruas medicinales, con
que se curan los naturales: y matan los gusanos, y con que restriñen
la sangre, como es el Piciete, por otro nombre Tabaco, que quita
dolores causados de frio, y tomado en humo es prouechoso para las
reumas, asma, y tos; y lo traen en poluo en la boca los Indios, y los
negros, para adormecer, y no sentir el trabajo.' _Herrera_, _Hist.
Gen._, dec. iii., lib. vii., cap. iii.
[1163] 'Hazen en el (Atiquizaya) vna massa de gusanos hediondos y
ponçoñosos, que es marauillosa medicina para todo genero de
frialdades, y otras indisposiciones.' _Id._, dec. iv., lib. viii.,
cap. x.
[1164] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., pp. 383-5.
[1165] 'Curauan los heridos con poluos de yeruas, o carbon que
lleuauan para esto.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv.,
cap. vii.
[1166] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., p. 321.
[1167] _Las Casas_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, tom. viii., p.
234; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 191-2; _Cogolludo_, _Hist.
Yuc._, p. 184.
[1168] _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 160.
[1169] 'Otro altar y templo sobre otro cuyo levantaron estos indios en
su gentilidad á aquel su rey ó falso Dios _Ytzmat-ul_, donde pusieron
la figura de la mano, que les servia de memoria, y dizen que alli le
llevavan los muertos y enfermos, y que alli resucitavan y sanavan,
tocandolos la mano; y este era el que está en la parte del puniente; y
assi se llama y nombra Kab-ul que quiere dezir mano obradora.'
_Lizana_, in _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 358.
[1170] _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 191-2, 209-10.
[1171] _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 183-4.
[1172] _Las Casas_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, tom. viii., p.
144; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 55; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._,
fol. 264; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 184.
[1173] _Ib._
[1174] In Campeche the priests 'lleuauan braserillos de barro en que
echauan anime, que entre ellos dizen Copal, y sahumauan a los
Castellanos, diziendoles que se fuessen de su tierra, porque los
matarian.' _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. xvii.
[1175] _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 183.
[1176] Cogolludo says that a calabash filled with _atole_, some large
cakes, and some maize bran, were deposited in the grave. The first,
for the soul to drink on its journey; the second, for the dogs which
the deceased had eaten during his life, that they might not bite him
in the other world; and the last to conciliate the other animals that
he had eaten. _Hist. Yuc._, p. 700.
[1177] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 574,
says that the body was embalmed; but Ximenez, from whom his account is
evidently taken, is silent on this point.
[1178] Ximenez, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, p. 210, et seq., affirms that
wealthy people, when they began growing old, set about collecting a
vast number of clothes and ornaments in which to be buried.
[1179] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 575,
says that the body was deposited in the grave seated upon a throne.
[1180] _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 210-14; _Palacio_, _Carta_,
p. 119; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 699-700.
[1181] Unless a great number of people were living in it, when they
seem to have gathered courage from each other's company, and to have
remained.
[1182] _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 196; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv.,
lib. x., cap. iv.
[1183] _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Cong. Itza_, p. 313.
[1184] _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 119; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv.,
p. 48.
[1185] _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 78; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.
Civ._, tom. ii., p. 556.
[1186] _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 196-8; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec.
iv., lib. x., cap. iv.
[1187] _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., pp. 48-9. In the island of
Ometepec the ancient graves are not surrounded by isolated stones like
the calputs of the modern Indians, but are found scattered irregularly
over the plain at a depth of three feet. Urns of burnt clay are found
in these graves, filled with earth and displaced bones; and vases of
the same material, covered with red paintings and hieroglyphics, stone
points of arrows, small idols, and gold ornaments. _Sivers_,
_Mittelamerika_, pp. 128-9.
[1188] _Landa_, _Relacion_, p. 196; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv.,
lib. x., cap. iv.; Id. lib. viii., cap. x.; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind.
Guat._, p. 214; _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 313;
_Palacio_, _Carta_, pp. 76-8.
[1189] _Peter Martyr_, dec. vi., lib. v.
[1190] _Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii., p.
414; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., dec.
iv., lib. x., cap. iii.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 111;
_Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 23; _Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, tom. i.,
p. 170; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, p. 700; _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp.
112-14; _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, p. 402; _De Laet_, _Novus
Orbis_, p. 329.
[1191] _Landa_, _Relacion_, pp. 100, 122, 188-90; _Villagutierre_,
_Hist. Conq. Itza_, pp. 312, 516; _Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, tom. i.,
p. 203; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iv.;
_Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yuc._, pp. 180, 187-8; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ynd._,
fol. 62; _Las Casas_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. viii., pp.
147-8.
[1192] _Gomara_, _Hist. Ynd._, fol. 268; _Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._,
tom. i., p. 148; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 33; _Las Casas_,
_Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. xlvi.
[1193] _Crónica Seráfica_, pp. 25-6.
[1194] _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii., dec.
iv., lib. iii., cap. ii.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iv., p. 39.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.