1^ BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. S7 



was of very high rank the pottery sarcophagus took the form of 

 a human statue. A variant of the above procedure was to burn 

 only a part of the body, inclosing the ashes in the hollow head of a 

 wooden statue, and seaUng them in with a piece of skin taken from 

 the back of the dead man's skull. The rest of tlie body was buried. 

 Such statues were jealously preserved among the figures of the gods, 

 being held in deep veneration. 



Tlie lords of Mayapan had still another mortuary practice. After 

 death the head was severed from the body and cooked in order to 

 remove all flesh. It was then sawed in half from side to side, care 

 being taken to preserve the jaw, nose, eyes, and forehead in one piece. 

 Upon this as a form the features of the dead man were filled in with 

 a kind of a gum. Such was their extraordinary skill in this peculiar 

 work that the finished mask is said to have appeared exactly like the 

 countenance in life. The carefully prepared faces, together with the 

 statues containing the ashes of the dead, were deposited with their 

 idols. Every feast day meats were set before them so they should 

 lack for notliing in that other world whither they had gone. 



Very little is known about the governmental organization of the 

 southern Maya, and it seems best, therefore, first to examine conditions 

 in the north, concerning which the early authorities, native as well 

 as Spanish, have much to say. The northern Maya Hved in settle- 

 ments, some of very considerable extent, under the rule of hereditary 

 chiefs called Tidlach uinicil, or "real men," who were, in fact as well 

 as name, the actual rulers of the country. The settlements tribu- 

 tary to each halach uinic were doubtless connected by tribal ties, 

 based on real or fancied blood relationship. 



Duiing the period of the Triple Alhance (1000-1200 A. D.) there 

 were probably only three of tliese embryonic nations: Cliichen Itza, 

 Uxmal, and Mayapan, among wliich the country seems to have been 

 apportioned. After the conquest of Cliichen Itza, however, the 

 halach uioic of Mayapan probably attempted to establish a more 

 autocratic form of government, arrogating to himself still greater 

 power. The Spanish authorities relate that the chiefs of the country 

 assembled at Mayapan, acknowledged the ruler of that city as their 

 overlord, and finally agreed to live there, each binding himself at the 

 same time to conduct the affairs of liis own domain through a deputy. 



This attempt to unite the country under one head and bring about 

 a further centralization of power ultimately failed, as has been seen, 

 through the tyranny of tlie Cocom family, in wliich tlie office of halach 

 uinic of Mayapan was vested. This tyranny led to the overthrow 

 of tlie Cocoms and the destruction of centralized government, so that 

 when the Spaniards arrived they found a number of petty chieftains, 

 acknowledging no overlord, and the country in chaos. 



The powers of the halach uinic are not clearly underetood. He seems 

 to have stood at the apex of the governmental organization, and doubt- 



