Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/203

Rh navipe, and pe, all three of which may usually be translated by "and," is not placed at the beginning of the clause, ꜭha is to speak in the general sense; hence, ꜭhabal, a language. Synonyms of this are tin cha, I say; tin tzihoh, I speak words, I harangue; tin biih, I name, I express myself; and quin ticheex, I tell or say, especially used in repeating what others have said (Coto, Vocabulario). These words are of frequent use in the text.

Rubanic chay abah ri ꜯapal, etc.; this obscure passage was, I think, entirely misunderstood by Brasseur. The word ꜯapal is derived from the neuter form ꜯape of the active tin ꜯapih, I shut up or enclose, and means "that which is shut up," lo cerrado, and ꜯapibal, the active form in the next line, means "that which shuts up," i.e., gates or doors. It will be remembered (see ante, p. 26) that the gates of Iximche were constructed partly of, or ornamented with, obsidian, and the same is supposed here of the gates of the mythical city or place of Tulan.

ki-kan; our burden, our tribute. The passage seems to indicate that they left their former country to escape subjection.

Ꜭoh qui tzih; the passage may be translated "theirs were the words which incited us," i.e., to revolt and to depart.

6. The articles mentioned as paid in the tribute, have been described in the Introduction (see p. 39).

7. "So spoke the Obsidian Stone," i.e., the sacred oracle, referred to as the final arbiter. See ante, p. 26.

"The wood and stone which deceive," that is, the idols of wood and stone which they worshiped.

8. This paragraph is obscure, and the numerous erasures in Brasseur's translation indicate the difficulty he found in discovering its meaning.

9. Ꜭholloh tacaxepeval rikan ꜭeche; Brasseur translates this: "Malheureux etaient les fils et les vassaux des Quiches." I take the word tacaxepeval to be the name of the first month in the Cakchiquel calendar (see ante, p. 29) ; and ꜭolloh means "to divest ourselves of, to get rid of."

13. This and the following section describes the efforts of certain inimical powers, under the guise of birds, to obstruct and deceive the Cakchiquels. The chahalçivan is a small bird which builds in the rocky sides of the ravines, and is called by the Spaniards by a literal translation, "El guarda barranca;" the gully-guard. The tucur is the owl; this name being apparently an abbreviation of the Nahuatl tecolotl. The bird called ꜭanixt