THE MAYAS. 155 



sentecl in Socouusco along the historic route by which the Aztecs in comparatively- 

 recent times migrated from Anahuac to Nicaragua. The warlike Chiapanec nation 

 still survives in the north-west part of the state which from them takes the name 

 of Chiapas. The more numerous but less cultured Tzendals, Tzotzils, and Quelens 

 (" Bats ") occupy the forest regions comprised between the Tehuantepec depression 

 and the Guatemalan frontier. Lastly, the numerous nomad or settled groups 

 belong to the same family as those of west Guatemala — Lacandons and Chontals 

 in the north, Chols and Chanabals in the centre, Mames in the south. They all 

 appear to be connected by language, primitive usages, and traditions with the 

 cultured Mayas of Yucatan, the most advanced representatives of this ethnical 

 division The Mayas held out more valiantly against the Spaniards than the 

 Aztecs ; they would also appear to have reached a higher degree of civilisation 

 than the Nahuas in pre-Columbian times. Although never actually visited by 

 Columbus, he had, nevertheless, heard of their fame. The work of extermination, 

 as described by Las Casas and Diego de Landa, resulted in the almost total dis- 

 appearance of the Maya race; which, however, has gradually revived and even 

 preserved the national speech. Those acquainted with Spanish are said to abstain 

 from speaking it, and Maya is still generally current in all the rural districts 

 except in the neighbourhood of Campeachy. In the inland provinces the 

 descendants of the Spaniards have to a large extent forgotten their mother tongue, 

 and in Yucatan the conquerors may be said to have themselves been conquered. 

 Even in Merida everybody is obliged to learn Maya in order to hold inter- 

 course with the maeegiiales {wazrhiiaf/), as the natives are called. 



The Spaniards and Mestizoes are represented chiefly in the towns and southern 

 parts of Chiapas which are traversed by the more-frequented highways between 

 Mexico and Guatemala. The half-caste Maya-Spanish race is one of the finest 

 in America, and the women especially are remarkable for their personal charms. 

 It is noteworthy that the Indian type of features is perpetuated from generation 

 to generation. However white the complexion m ly^ become, the Yucatec Mestizo 

 always preserves certain Maya traits by which he may be at once recognised. 



The range of the Maya language, which embraces the Iluaxtec territory in the 

 State of Vera Cruz, extends far beyond the frontiers of Yucatan, for it comprises 

 nearly the whole of Tabasco, a part of Chiapas, and about half of the Guatemalan 

 republic. According to their own traditions the Mayas reached the peninsula 

 from opposite directions, from east and west, from the sea and the mainland. A 

 god had guided them across the ocean, and it is certain that they were acquainted 

 with navigation. They had even decked vessels, which probably hoisted sails, and 

 voluntary or involuntary^ voyages frequently^ took place between Yucatan and the 

 island of Cuba. Once established in the peninsula the Mayas long remained its 

 peaceful rulers. In a region lying apart from the regular highway of migrations 

 along the Pacific coast they had nothing to fear from invading hosts. At the time 

 of its greatest expansion the Aztec empire was conterminous with Mayaland only 

 at its south east extremity, and the Nahuas had scarcely any knowledge of Yucatan, 

 where the more cultured part of the nation was settled. 



