190 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



whispers when any servants were in the rooms. A 

 laugh was the comment upon everything, and in the 

 evening we were deep in the mysteries of Indian his- 

 tory. 



Besides the Mexican or Aztec language, spoken by 

 the Pipil Indians along the coast of the Pacific, there 

 are twenty-four dialects peculiar to Guatimala. Though 

 sometimes bearing such a strong resemblance in some 

 of their idioms that the Indians of one tribe can under- 

 stand each other, in general the padres, after years of 

 residence, can only speak the language of the tribe 

 among which they live. This diversity of languages 

 had seemed to me an insuperable impediment in the 

 way of any thorough investigation and study of Indian 

 history and traditions ; but the cura, profound in every- 

 thing that related to the Indians, told ns that the Quiche 

 was the parent tongue, and that, by one familiar with 

 it, the others are easily acquired. If this be true, a new 

 and most interesting field of research is opened. Du- 

 ring my whole journey, even at Guatimala, I had not 

 been able to procure any grammar of an Indian lan- 

 guage, nor any manuscripts. I made several vocabu- 

 laries, which I have not thought it worth while to pub- 

 lish ; but the padre had a book prepared by some of the 

 early fathers for the church service, which he promised 

 to have copied for me and sent to a friend at Guatima- 

 la, and from which I copied the Lord's prayer in the 

 Quiche language. It is as follows : 



Cacahan chicah lae coni Vtzah. Vcahaxtizaxie mayih 

 Bila Chipa ta pa Cani ahauremla Chibantah. Ahuamla 

 Uaxale Chiyala Chiqueeh hauta Vleus quehexi Caban 

 Chicah. Uacamic Chiyala. Chiqueeh hauta. Eihil 

 Caua. Zachala Camac quehexi Cacazachbep qui. Mac 

 Xemocum Chiqueeh : moho Estachcula maxa Copahic 



