334 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



In the Chilam Balam of Tzimin various lists are written together. 

 Katun 8 Ahau and the destruction of Mayapan are given twice. In 

 The first list at 2 Ahau we read: " In stone ' 18 ' (the division) the 

 strangers (the Spaniards) appeared; they came for the first time to 

 the land of the province of Yucatan" ninety-three years (after the 

 destruction of Mayapan) '\ In the second list, at 2 Ahau, we have 

 merely: "Then was the great eruptive sickness" (nohkakil). So, 

 too, in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel we have at 2 Ahau only " the 

 eruptive sickness, the great eruptive sickness (kakil noh kakil)". 



If we examine the list we find that the thirteenth division of 2 

 Ahau falls, according to my reckoning, in the year 1507, or, if Ave pre- 

 fer the estimates of Xakuk Pech, in the year 1509. This does not 

 agree with facts, for Valdivia's shipwreck, as I stated above, took 

 place in 1511 ; and Nakuk Pech also states in two places in his chron- 

 icle that the Spanish first came to Yucatan in the year 1511. At all 

 events, the year 1511 fell in the katun 2 Ahau, for the latter did not 

 end until the year 1514 or, according to Nakuk Pech's statements,, the 

 year 151(). The statement of the native chroniclers, within these ap- 

 proximately established dates, is therefore correct. The great erup- 

 tive sickness which occurred, according to the chroniclers, at this 

 very time is described by Bishop Landa as an epidemic which caused 

 great pustules of such a nature that " the body became putrid and 

 stinking and the limbs fell off piecemeal within four or five days '\'' 

 It is not improbable that the first appearance of the Spanish Avas fol- 

 lowed by an epidemic of smallpox, that scourge of the Indian race, 

 for the word kak, " fire ", is used later and at the present day gen- 

 erally for " eruptive sickness ", especially smallpox.^ The chroniclers 

 ascribe to 4 Ahau, the period jjreceding katun 2 Ahau, a pair of 

 national calamities: a general mortality (maya-cimil), which Landa 

 describes as a "' contagious, pernicious fever which lasted 24 hours, 

 after which the body swelled and burst and was full of worms"; 

 furthermore, a great slaughter. Landa speaks of 150,000 men who 

 fell in the battles. Native sources call it oc-na-kuch-il, '"■ where the 

 Zopilotes come into the houses " ; that is, where the dead lie about 

 everywhere unburied. 



Landa also tells us of a great whirlwind ^jrior to these events 

 which razed the country and overthrew all high buildings, but this is 

 not mentioned by native authors. 



The great event in the pre-Spanish history of Yucatan is the 



" The wording is almost the same as in the Chilam Balam of Mani, except that tz'ul, 

 " strangers ", is used instead of " espanioles ". and ilcob is used erroneously for uleob. 

 " they came " ; but possibly the former was the original word, in which case it ought to 

 be translated "they were (first) seen (in the land of Yucatan)'". 



'' I'estilencia do unos granos grandes que les pcdria el cuerpo con gran hedor. de manera 

 que les caian los miembros a pedazos dentro de 4 (5 5 dias. 



'•■ " Viruelas, granos i erupcion pustulera del cuerpo" (Perez). 



