Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/263

Rh Chel refusing salt and fish to the Cocomes. But in spite of this the population at large was prosperous, and increased in numbers, until a severe hurricane wrought much damage throughout the land, chiefly by causing the thatched roofs of the houses to catch fire. This disaster was followed by a plague, and then a series of sanguinary wars, after which smallpox appeared. Finally the Xiu, wishing to perform certain ceremonies at their old home, Chichen Itza, asked for a passage through the territory of the Cocomes. This was granted, but the party was enticed into a building which was set on fire and the inmates were massacred. Meanwhile the Spaniards had appeared in the country, and native history had reached its close.

The history of the Quiché exhibits some connection with that of the Kakchiquel, and further displays certain points of resemblance with the early legends of the Mexicans. Though both the Quiché and Kakchiquel accounts give lists of kings who ruled over their respective tribes, yet they furnish no dates, and the lengths of the various reigns can only be conjectured. Quiché history, like the Mexican, begins in myth, with the final or historical creation. The creating-gods fashioned four men out of maize, Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam. Of these the first three were the ancestors of the three Quiché divisions, the Cavek, Nihaib and Ahau-Quiché respectively. The fourth had no descendants, and therefore no place in the later history. We are told that besides these four individuals, the "Yaqui" or "sacrificers" (a name given in later times to the Mexicans) existed in numbers, and further the ancestors of various other tribes to the east (of the original Quiché home) were created, including the Tepeuh Oloman (probably the Olmec), the Tamub and Ilocab (the early inhabitants of the country later occupied by the Quiché), the seven tribes of Tecpan (perhaps the Pokomam and Pokonchi), the Kakchiquel, the