146 THE ARCHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



careful study of the annals I have come to the conclusion that these migrations took 

 place respectively about 353 and 113 years before the beginning of our era. That this 

 mio-ration could have come from the Archaic nation only is proved by the identity of 

 the graphic system of the Yucatecs with that of Palenque, Copan, Quirigua, and other 

 cities of the central region — a system found nowhere to the north, south, or west of it. 

 Even to this day the Yucatec language is more closely allied to that of the Tzentals 

 and Zotzils of that same region than to any of the other numerous Maya dialects. 

 That the Yucatec calendar and chronological system differ in several respects from 

 those of the Archaic cities is not a final or even grave objection to this theory, but 

 only what under the circumstances might be expected. The Xius found the Cocoms 

 and Itzas, older offshoots of the Maya race, already in possession of Yucatan, and 

 appear always to have acted a subordinate part to them in subsequent history. It is 

 not unlikely, therefore, that they changed their methods of computing time so as to 

 conform to those of their superiors ; or the change may have been made for some 

 reason not evident to us ; but that they did change their methods there can be no 

 doubt, and that too shortly after their contact with the other nations. Two of their 

 chronicles distinctly state that at a time equivalent to about the 257th year of our 

 era " Pop was put in order." The statement can refer only to a re-arrangement of their 

 calendars, for the calendars themselves had been in existence for unknown centuries ; 

 hence, these records probably denote the time at which they changed their chrono- 

 logical methods to conform to those of their neighbors. Our best hope of correlating 

 the calendars lies in the discovery of some record made by the Xius in their new home 

 previous to this change. 



If this argument should be rejected and the divergence of the calendars be insisted 

 upon as an insuperable obstacle to my theory, I will retreat to the invincible position 

 behind the graphic systems, and ask in what other quarter can be found such an 

 identity. There can be but one candid reply — nowhere. Yet a graphic system is the 

 very thing most likely to persist. Empires have been dismembered and become 

 separate nations with different languages and institutions, their original alphabet being 

 the only thing retained by them in common. The scattered branches of the English 

 race have changed many systems more radically .than the difference in question, yet 

 have held throughout to a common graphic one. So with the migrating Tutul Xius. 

 Whether the changes in their calendars originated with themselves or were made in 

 conformity to the usages of fellow-nations, is immaterial, since the persistency of habit 

 vindicated itself in the retention of their native graphic system — if not, indeed, of their 

 pure mother tongue. 



Assuming, then, as I think there is just ground for doing, that the Tutul Xiu 

 exodus took place from the Archaic empire, it is next in order to inquire into the 

 probable causes of it. Such manifest dispersion of a people as these two great 

 migrations show, would not be likely to occur except at the breaking up of some great 



