In speaking of the province of Chiapas the historian Herrera informs
us that it derived its name from the pueblo so-called, “whose
inhabitants were the most remarkable in New Spain for their traits and
inclinations.”[180] They had early acquired the art of horsemanship, they
were skillful in all kinds of music, excellent painters, carried on a
variety of arts, and were withal very courteous to each other.
One tradition was that they had reached Chiapas from Nicaragua, and had
conquered the territory they possessed from the Zoques, some of whom
they had rendered tributary, while others had retired further into the
Sierra. But the more authentic legend of the Chapas or Chapanecs, as they
were properly called from their totemic bird the _Chapa_, the red macaw,
recited that their whole stock moved down from a northern latitude,
following the Pacific coast until they came to Soconusco, where they
divided, one part entering the mountains of Chiapas, the other proceeding
on to Nicaragua, where we find them under the name of Mangues, or
Chorotegans, along the shores of Lake Managua.[181] Here they occupied a
number of populous villages, estimated by the historian Oviedo to contain
about forty thousand souls.[182] They were agricultural and sedentary,
and moderately civilized, that is, they had hieroglyphic books, wove
and spun cotton, were skilled in pottery and had fixed government. They
are described as lighter in color than most Indians, and wearing long
hair carefully combed. A small band wandered still further south, to the
vicinity of Chiriqui Lagoon.[183]
The Chapanec language is one of marked individuality. Its phonetics
are harmonious, but with many obscure and fluctuating sounds. In its
grammatical construction we find a singular absence of distinction
between subject and object. While the appreciation of number in the form
of nouns is almost absent, their relations are expressed with excessive
particularity, so that a noun may have different forms, as it is used in
different relations.[184] There is comparatively slight development of
the polysynthetic structure which is generally seen in American languages.