Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/61

Rh the Tzutuhils; but its authors were Cakchiquels; its chief theme is the history of their tribe, and it is only by the accident of their removal to Atitlan, years after the Conquest, that its composition occurred there. I have, therefore, adopted for it, or at least that portion of it which I print, the much more appropriate name, The Annals of the Cakchiquels.

I say "for that portion of it," because I print but 48 out of the 96 pages of the original. These contain, however, all that is of general interest; all that pertains to the ancient history of the nation. The remainder is made up of an uninteresting record of village and family incidents, and of a catalogue of births, baptisms and marriages. The beginning of the text as printed in this volume, starts abruptly in the MS. after seventeen pages of such trivialities, and has no separate title or heading.

The caption of the first page of the MS. explains the purpose of this miscellaneous collection of family documents. That caption is

The word memoria is the Spanish for a record, memoir or brief, and the Cakchiquel ꜭhaoh, originally contention, revolt, was, after the Conquest, the technical term for a legal process or lawsuit. These papers, therefore, form part of the record in one of those interminable legal cases in which the