Brinton.J ^-'■^ [Nov. 4 



recovered it was satirically said of them that they had given up their 

 sovereignty. To quote his words : 



"Bubas: galel vel iepex. * * Quando an pasado dicen xin colah 

 " ahauarem, id est, ya an dejado su senoria, porque el que las tiene se 

 "esta sentado, sin hacer cosa, como si fuese senor 6 seuora. 



"Senora: xogohau ; Senoria, xogohcmarem * * Deste nombre xogo- 

 " hau vsan metaphoricamente para decir que una muger moza tiene 

 "bubas; porque se esta sin hacer cosa, mano sobre mano, * * y 

 "quando a sanado de la enfermedad, dicen, si es varon : xucolah 

 " rahauarem aclil rumal tepex. Tepex es la enfermedad de bubas." 



I should not omit to remark that this strange association of ideas is not 

 confined to the dialects of which I am speaking. It occurs not unfre- 

 quently. In Maya, ku is the earliest and broadest name for divinity: 

 kukul is to worship, and it also means a scab or sore. As in Kiche puh 

 means the pus or matter from a sore, the term alipu applied to the highest 

 god may also mean, "he who has running sores." Furthermore, in the 

 Aztec tongue nanahuatl means a person sufl;ering from syphilis ; it is 

 also, in a myth preserved by Sahagun, the name of the Sun God, and it is 

 related of him that as a sacrifice, before becoming the sun, he threw into 

 the sacrificial flames, not precious gifts, as the custom was, but the scabs 

 from his sores.* So also Caracaracol, a prominent figure in Haytian 

 mythology is represented as suffering from sores or buboes. 



The name Gucuinatz is correctly stated by Ximenez to be capable of two 

 derivations. The first takes it from gugum, a feather ; tin gugumah, I 

 embroider or cover with feathers (enplumar algo, como ponen en los 

 guay piles, etc. Goto. S. v. Pluma). The second derivation is from gug, 

 feather, and cumatz, the generic name for serpent. The first of these is 

 that which the writer of the Popol Vuh preferred, as appears from his ex- 

 pression : "They are folded in the feathers {gug), the green ones ; there- 

 " fore their name is G-ugumatz ; very wise indeed are they (p. 6)." The 

 brilliant plumage of the tropical birds was constantly used by these tribes 

 as ornament for their clothing and their idols, and the possession of many 

 of these exquisite feathers was a matter of much pride and pleasure. The 



*Boturini gives a moral coloring to this myth, which most likely it did not 

 originally have. His version is that at the time of tiie Second Age, the gods 

 gathered together all the people to reward them for their virtue, and ordered 

 those who felt themselves meritorious enough to cast tht-mselves into a fire, 

 and thus attain celestial rewards. They began to debate who first should take 

 the leap. While they were thus disputing the god Centeotl-inopitlziii (csto es. 

 el dios huerfano, solo y sin padres> appeared to one who was sick, Nana-huatzin 

 (el buboso, ei podridol and said: "What do you do here? Do you not see that 

 your companions are engaged in vain disputes? Fling yourself into the flames 

 and thus rid yourself of the sufferings which for years you have borne with 

 heroistn.and gainimmortal honor." Inspired by these words, Nana-huatzln 

 sprang into the flames, and his companions watched liim consume. Then an 

 eagle descended from heaven and carried his ashes to the sky where lie became 

 Tonatiuh. the Sun. Boturini Benaducci, Idea de una Nueva Historia Ge7ie)\il de 

 la America Septentrional, pp. 37, 38 (Madrid, 17J6). 



