220 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



Guatemala only by the single group of the Pipils, who dwell, not in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Mexican frontier as might have been supposed, but in the eastern 

 provinces near others of the same race, settled in Salvador. At the time of the 

 conquest the Pipils occupied a far more extensive territory than at present. But 

 their domain has been gradually encroached upon, not only by Spanish, but also 

 by the spread of other native tongues, such as the Cakchiquel and Pokoman. At 

 present the Pipil forms two separate enclaves, one at Salama and on both banks 

 of the Motagua (Rio Grande), the other at Escuintla and Cuajiuiquilapa in the 

 Guacalate and Michatoya basins. 



Some historians regard the Pipils as a branch of the fugitive Toltecs who 

 migrated southwards after the overthrow of their dominion by the Chichiraecs, and 

 it is probable enough that such a migration may have taken place at some remote 

 epoch. Juarros tells us that Pijpil means " Children," and that the people were so 

 called by the Mexicans because they were unable to speak the Nahuatl language 

 correctly. But according to another interpretation the Pipils of Guatemala and 

 of the other Central Americjn republics represent the ancient Pipil tins, that is, 

 the "superior" or '' better," the nobler branch of the Aztec family. This name 

 they are supposed to have themselves assumed when they settled amongst the less 

 civilised populations south of Mexico. 



The great majority of the Guatemalan Indians belong to the same stock as that 

 of the Huaxtecs in the Vera Cruz uplands, and of the Mayas dominant in Yucatan. 

 All the populations speaking various forms of the common language are collectively 

 called Maya-Quiche, from the two most important members of the group, the 

 Maj^as of the Yucatan plains and the Quiches of the Guatemalan j)lateaux. 

 Within the limits of the latter state the Mayas, properly so-called, occupy an 

 extensive territory, comprising the Peten district and nearly the whole region 

 bounded southwards by the Pasion and Mopan rivers. In this region the Maya 

 nation is represented by the Itzas, one of the very purest members of the family. 

 Thanks to their isolation in the peten, or " island," of the great steppe lake, the 

 Itzas were long able to preserve both their political independence and the purity of 

 their race and national usages. The Lacandons, who dwell farther west, between 

 Lake Peten and the Usumacinta river, are also a pure ^Maya people, although 

 frequently called " Caribs " by the Spaniards and even by the Mayas themselves. 

 Like the Itzas, they have maintained their independence, and although admitting 

 strangers into their country, they yield obedience to no one, and still regard them- 

 selves as masters of the land. However, they are but a small group, scarcely 

 numbering more than 4,000 or 5,000, according to the estimate of travellers who 

 have visited them. They are described as an anœmic people, " flabby and soft," 

 which should perhaps be attributed to their mode of life passed entirely in the 

 humid atmosphere of dense forests. 



The Mopans, who are met in scattered groups south of L ike Peten and in the 

 upper valley of the Hio Mopan (Belize river), are also independent Mayas, 

 although their language is said to differ from that of the Itzas and Lacandons. 

 Their southern neighbours, the Chols, that is, " Men," who roam the steppe 



