1898-99. | DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 183 
that the Ox Winik Yub or Atzih Winak Hunahpu, was the only rebel 
of importance. Whatever sympathy may have existed between the 
Quiche-Cachiquel monarchs and Cocyoéza of Oaxaca, it is evident that 
it was to their interest to act in concert, not so much for purposes of 
territorial aggrandizement as to oppose a united front to Mexican 
encroachment. This encroachment generally began through bodies of 
traders, who sought to detach from allegiance to their rulers the inhabi- 
tants of the regions in which they made their temporary or permanent 
trading posts, these preparing the way for the entrance of the Mexican 
armies. Doubtless the refusers of tribute counted upon Mexican inter- 
ference on their behalf, for, in 1469, Axayacatl had led a victorious army 
along the Pacific coast of Guatemala ; but the campaigns of Tehuantepec 
had so weakened the military power of the Mexican empire as effectually 
to shut out all hope of support from that quarter. Divided among 
themselves, the unhappy revolters were speedily crushed between the 
upper and nether millstones of Oaxaca and Guatemala, and at least eight 
hundred victims were slaughtered in cold blood by the sanguinary 
conquerors, as the penalty of their opposition, in addition to the number 
that fell in battle. Large as this number of the sacrificed may seem, it 
was a mere trifle compared with the human holocausts of the Mexican 
monarchs. Ahuitzotl, after his victory over Zaachilla III., offered no 
fewer than 80,400 prisoners on the altars of the bloodthirsty god 
Huitzilopochtli.s 
The deity to whom these eight hundred captives were offered is called 
Puchtunox, more briefly Puch or Vuch. This bird seems to have been 
the war-god ef the Quiches and their allied peoples, for the full name 
Puchtun Yok means “the fighter over or conqueror.” This god is 
associated on the Tablet with one called Holhun, which name stands for 
Holcan, a warrior, and this Maya name undoubtedly denotes the Quiche 
god Hurakan, whose messenger Vuch was. The other pair of deities 
mentioned are Ca-kulel, an epithet of Tepeu, and Hun-nak-pet, who can 
be no other than the Quiche Hunahpu, an ancestral god, and the same 
originally as the Egyptian Anubis. No reference is made to any 
Oaxacan divinity, although Cocyoéza appears, taking part in the sacrifice, 
which makes it evident that Palenque city belonged to the government 
of the Quiche-Cachiquel kings. As the Oaxacan king was pontifex 
maximus in his own dominions, so does Oxlahun-Pek appear to have 
been in his. He, therefore, offered the chief among the captives, leaving 
the common soldiers and people to be sacrificed by the priests. 
The Copan altar tablet meets with no illustration from historical 
documents beyond those which have already revealed the names of the 
