Page:The Katunes of Maya History.djvu/65

57 utterances of Chacxibcliac against Hunac-eel." Of the ancient Maya ballads, it is to be regretted, none are known to exist. Yet there is no reason for relinquishing the hope altogether, that some day, at least, a copy of the painted annals, which our Maya writer evidently consulted, may be discovered, while we can willingly dispense with the ballads.

As long as such hopes fail of realization, we must be satisfied with the slight, but yet important, contribution offered us in the manuscript. We may complain of its brevity, yet notwithstanding it is the most complete document we possess of ancient American history. It is all the more important for the reason that it relates to Yucatan, which in our opinion, is the very cradle of early American civilization. It is also pleasant to observe that the manuscript is not at variance with what we have learned from the fragmentary records made by Landa, Lizana and Cogolludo. Notwithstanding its imperfections, it interprets and explains much that had hitherto appeared uncertain and deficient. It is of undoubted authenticity, and forms a firm foundation for the reconstruction of the history of the past, which till now has remained enigmatical, and which is faintly expressed by the crumbling ruins of the peninsula.

The manuscript, finally, affords a guarantee that the long past not only reached back to the remotest epoch of our era, but that more than all, it stands in a near, perhaps in the most intimate, connection with the history of the Nahuatl race. In reference to the homogeneous structure of the Maya and Nahuatl calendars we have already expressed our belief that these two nations were closely related to each other. In the traditions of both occurs the name of Tula or Tulapan, as a fatherland common to each of them. This supposition