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60 ON THE STEPS OF THE CABILDO, ATITLAN

CHAPTER VIII.

THE QUICHÉS AND CACHIQUELS. (BY A. P. M.)

will be as well now to give a slight sketch of the history of the Indians whose country we were passing through. At the time of Alvarado's entry into Guatemala in February 1524, the tableland round about the modern towns of Santa Cruz del Quiché and Quezaltenango was occupied by the Quiché Indians, who had their capital at Utatlan, close to Santa Cruz. The Cachiquels held the land to the east of the Quichés, and their capital, Patinamit or Iximché, stood near the modern town of Tecpan Guatemala, and is called by Alvarado the "City of Guatemala." The Tzutuhils, a less powerful tribe, appear to have held the land on the east and south shores of the lake of Atitlan, and probably had their headquarters on the site of the present Indian village of Atitlan. All three tribes spoke languages of (what is now known as) the Maya-Quiché stock, a family of languages which extends over the whole peninsula of Yucatan, through the greater part of Guatemala,