Brinton.] "" [Oct. 17, 1881. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OP THE 



AMERICAi^ PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, M PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 



Vol. XXII. March, 1885. No. 118. 



On the Language and Ethnologic Position oj the Xinca Indians of Guate- 

 mala. By Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. 



[Read before the American Pldlosophieal Society, October 17, ISS4.) 



In the aboriginal ethnology of Guatemala, the affiliations of the Xinca 

 tribe have always remained uncertain. The opinion is expressed by Dr. 

 Stoll [Zur Ethnographic der Republik Guatemala, p. 170, Zurich, 1884) 

 that an investigation of their language might throw a new light on the 

 migrations of the ancient inhabitants of that region. 



Up to the present time, however, no words of their language have been 

 published, and students have had no means of comparing it with the dia- 

 lects which surrounded them. I am fortunate enough to be able to sup- 

 ply this deficiency to a moderate extent, and to ofler sufficient materials to 

 form some opinion as to this people. 



Tlieir precise location was on the Rio de los Esclavos and its branches, 

 which empties into the Pacific ocean, about N. lat. 13° 50', W. long. 90° 

 25', and westward to the Rio Michatoyat. Their area embraced most of 

 the departments of Santa Rosa and Jutiapa, and may roughly be said to 

 have extended about fifty miles along the coast, and back to the Sierra 

 some sixty miles. 



On the west they were bordered by the Pipiles, of Aztec lineage, speak- 

 ing a Nahuatl dialect not much corrupted ; on their north were the Poko- 

 mams, who belonged to the Maya stock, and on their east was a colony 

 of Popolucas, a tribe supposed to have been related to the Mixes of the 

 Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 



Their name has been variously spelled, Xinca, Xiuka and Sinca. The 

 first given is correct, the initial X having the value of the soft English sh, 

 as in ihow. 



According to the Geografia de las Lenguas Maya-Kiche, MS. of Dr. 



PROC. AMER, PHILOS. SOC. XXII. 118. L. PRINTED FEBRUARY 13, 1885. 



