348 [Jan. 4, 
Brinton.] 
lieve, no Professor of Cakchiquel has been appointed, and no systematic 
instruction given in the tongue, 
The meaning of the name Cakchiquel is obscure. A passage in Herrera 
gives it the translation, ‘eagle,’ with the explanation that it was the 
name of the site on which the city of Guatemala was founded, and was 
derived from the custom of the war chief of that nation carrying an eagle 
asa banner.* The dictionaries, however, do not support this derivation. 
Evidently Herrera’s informant took the name from cakia, the ara or gua- 
camaya, Trogon splendens, a bird of beautiful plumage, held sacred by 
most of the Central American tribes. But the derivation is too violent. 
The root cak means ‘‘red,’’ or more correctly, something red; cht, is 
mouth, literally and metaphorically, hence speech, language, dialect ; and 
in such proper names as Pokonchi, Kakchi, etc., it apparently has this lat- 
ter signification, as the dictionaries translate Oakchiquelehi by ‘the Cak- 
chiquel language.’’ The last syllable quel, has been translated ‘stone,’ 
though I do not find this form in the dictionaries, but only the allied ones, 
qual, a term applied to all precious and supposed medicinal or sacred 
stones, such as were used for amulets, and qgeley, brick, a connection 
strengthened by the adoption by some writers of the form Oakchigel.t 
Dr. Berendt suggested that the three syllables could thus be fairly trans- 
lated, ‘‘The Red Mouth of the Rock,’’ or mountain ; the reference being 
to the active volcanoes whose fiery outbursts have so often desolated that 
region, and which we know were regarded and worshiped with supersti- 
tious veneration. 
The natives, however, derived their name from a mythical tree, the caka 
chee, or red tree, which they brought with them from Tullan, their an- 
cient home beyond the sea. This is expressed in the following sentence 
from the Annals of Xahila : 
“Xa ka hun chi caka chee ka qhamey ok xoh pe xi qo ka qama pe chu 
chi Tullan, quereqa ka binaam vi Cakchiquel vinak.”’ 
The Oakachee is now the name of one of the dye woods which grow in 
Guatemala. 
T have said the language was called Oakehiquelchi, and they spoke ot 
*«“Ta, ciudad de Santiago de Guatemala, culo sitio llamé Cachequil, que sig- 
nifica Aguila, porque el General de esta Nacion, quando salia & la Guerra, lleva- 
ba un Aguila por Penacho, ete.” Herrera, Descripcion de las Indias Occidentales , 
Cap. XII. 
+The anonymous dictionary of the Cakchiquel, lately in the possession of Mr. 
E. G. Squier, usually gives this form. 
