1S81.] ^15 [Brinlon. 



the original is accurately translated. To one familiar with native Ameri- 

 can myths, this one bears undeniable marks of its aboriginal origin. Its 

 frecjueut puerilities and inanities, its generally low and coarse range 

 of thought and ^expression, its occasional loftiness of both, its strange 

 metaphors, and the prominence of strictly heathen names and potencies, 

 bring it into unmistakable relationship to the true native myth. This 

 especially holds good of the first two-thirds of it which are entirely 

 mythological. 



As a contribution to the study of this interesting monument, I shall under- 

 take to analyze the proper names of the divinities which appear in its pages. 

 Tlie especial facility that I have for doing so is furnished by two 

 MSS. Vocabularies of the Cakchiquel dialect, presented to the library of the 

 American Philosophical Society by the Governor of Guatemala in 1836. 

 One of these was written in 1651, by Father Thomas Goto, and w^as based 

 on the previous work of Father Francisco Varea. It is Spanish-Cakchi- 

 quel only, and the final pages, together with a grammar and an essay on 

 the native Calendar, promised in the body of the work, are unfortunately 

 missing. What remains, however, makes a folio volume of 972 double 

 columned pages, and contains a mass of information about the language. 

 As no part of it lias ever been published, I shall quote freely from it. The 

 second MSS. is a copy of the Cakchiquel-Spanish Vocabulary of Varea made 

 by Fray Francisco Ceron in 1G99. It is a quarto of 493 pages. I Iiave also 

 in my possession copies of the Gompendio cle Nomhres en Lengua Cakclii- 

 quel, by P. F. Pantaleon de Guzman (1704), and of the Arte y Vocabulario 

 de la Lengua Cakchiquel, by the R. P. F. Benito de Villacanas, composed 

 about 1580, as well as a copy of the Memorial de Tecpan-AUtlan, an im- 

 portant record written about the middle of the 16th ceutury by a member 

 of the royal Cakchiquel house of the Xahila. These formed part of the 

 invaluable collection left by the late Dr. C. Hermann Berendt, and have 

 aided me in my researches. 



Father Goto himself tells us that the natives loved to tell long stories, 

 and to repeat chants, keeping time to them in their dances. These chants 

 Avere called nugum tzili, garlands of words, from izih, word, and nug^, to 

 fasten flowers into w^reaths, to set in order a dance, to arrange the heads 

 of a discourse, etc. As preserved to us in the Popol Vuh, the rhythmical 

 form is mostly lost, but here and there one finds passages, retained intact 

 by memory no doubt, where a distinct balance in diction, and an effort at 

 harmony is readily noted. 



The name Popol Vuh given to this work is that applied by the natives 

 themselves. It is translated by Ximenez "libro del comuu," by Bras- 

 seur "livre national." The word popol is applied to something held in 

 common ownership by a number ; thus food belonging to a number is 

 popol nairn; a task to be woi'ked out by many, popol zamaJi ; the native 

 council where the elders met to discuss public affairs was popol tzili, the 

 common speech or talk. The word pop means the mat or rug of woven 

 rushes or bark on which the family or company sat, and it is possible that 



