Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/41

Rh understanding of the text in this volume, to recognize the fact that many such terms in Cakchiquel are, in the majority of cases, terms of salutation only, and do not express actual relationship.

Examples of this are the words tata, father, used by women to all adult males; and tee, mother, employed by both sexes in addressing adult women. In Xahila's writings, we constantly find the words nimal, elder brother, and chaꜫ, younger brother, inserted merely as friendly epithets. The term mama, grandfather, almost always means simply "ancestor," or, indeed, any member of an anterior generation beyond the first degree. This word must not be confounded with mam (an error occurring repeatedly in Brasseur's writings), as the latter means "grandchild;" and according to Father Coto, it may be applied by a grandparent of either sex to a grandchild of either sex.

There are a number of terms of frequent recurrence in Xahila's text, expressing the different offices in the government, rank in social life and castes of the population, which offer peculiar difficulty to the translator, because we have no corresponding expressions in European tongues; while to retain them in the version, renders it less intelligible, and even somewhat repulsive to the reader. I have thought it best, generally, to give these terms an approximate English rendering in my translation, while in the present section I submit them to a critical examination.

The ordinary term for chief or ruler, in both the Cakchiquel and Maya dialects, is ahau. Probably this is a compound