Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/42

36 of ah, a common prefix in these tongues, originally signifying person, and hence, when attached to a verb, conveying the notion of one accustomed to exercise the action indicated; to a noun of place, a resident there; and to a common noun, a worker in or owner of the article; and u, a collar, especially an ornamental collar, here intended as a badge of authority.

Ahau is, therefore, "the wearer of the collar;" and by this distinction equivalent to chief, ruler, captain, lord, king, or emperor, by all which words it is rendered in the lexicons. It is not a special title, but a general term.

Scarcely less frequent is the term ahpop. This is a compound of the same prefix ah, with the word pop, which means a mat. To sit upon such a mat was a privilege of nobility, and of such dignitaries as were entitled to be present at the national council; ahpop, therefore, may be considered as equivalent to the German title Rath, counsellor, and appears to have been used much in the same conventional manner. In the Cakchiquel lexicons, popoh is "to hold a council;" popol, a council; popoltzih, "to speak in council," etc. All these are derived from the word pop, mat; from the mats on which the councillors sat during their deliberations.

Personages of the highest rank, of the "blood royal," combined these titles. They were ahau ahpop, "lords of the council." Uniting the latter title to the family names of the ruling house, the chief ruler was known as Ahpo' Zotzil, and the second in rank and heir-apparent, as Ahpo' Xahil. The oldest son of the former bore the title Ahpop-Ꜭamahay, which is translated by the best authorities "messenger of the council," and ordinarily was applied to an official who communicated the decisions of the councils of one village to that