184 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
Cachiquel kings. Brasseur explains these peculiar names: “At the 
birth of the first child they gave it the name of the deity who presided 
over that day according to the Calendar. Each day of the Calendar 
bore a different name, but at the end of the month the same name 
returned, though with a difference in the number. It is thus that there 
was a prince called Cablahuh-Tihax, Twelve Knives, Lahuh-Tzy, Ten 
Dogs, etc.” This inscription shews that the story of Oxlahun-Pek 
extended over Copan, Buluc and Holhun, and that the Hunich of Buluc, 
like the officer of the same kind who was killed in Palenque, was a 
native of Oaxaca, inasmuch as the Oaxacans in the Copan army 
deserted on his account. The Uacthanob, or speakers of Uac, must 
denote the Mexicans, whom the Maya-Quiche peoples called Yaqui. 
These Mexicans, however, cannot have been soldiers in the true sense 
of the term, but armed traders, capable, as has appeared, of holding their 
own against the best warriors of the lands they traversed. They offered 
their services, doubtless, in reward for permission to establish trading 
posts in Copan and the region dominated by it. The imprisonment of 
the Oaxacans by command of Oxlahun-Pek is an evidence, along with 
his execution of the Hunich, that, in spite of his humble language 
towards Cocyoéza on the Palenque Tablet, he was in no sense subject 
to, nor afraid of that monarch. 
What remains there may exist of the work of Oxpet, the royal scribe 
in Holom, cannot be known until the process of interpretation is applied 
to existing manuscripts of a hieroglyphic nature. He was hodzzb, Quiche 
ahtzib, a writer or secretary, not afgot, an engraver, who was a different 
officer, and one probably who transferred to stone the hieroglyphics 
sketched by the former. These officers were very highly esteemed by 
the Quiche-Cachiquel kings and ranked among the nobility of the 
nation.’ A proud conqueror like Oxlahun-Pek, desirous of having his 
great actions put on record, would be specially offended at the murder 
of such an officer, and his naturally ferocious disposition would make 
the assassin’s penalty a cruel one. There is much to interest in these 
inscriptions, in spite of their melancholy character, and comparatively 
modern origin, and, now that it has been proved a not very difficult task 
to read them, the student of history may look forward hopefully to 
further decipherments. 
