Transcriber’s Note
A number of typographical errors have been maintainedin the current version of this book. They are markedand the corrected text is shown in the popup. A list of theseerrors is found at the end of this book.
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LIBRARY
OF
Aboriginal American
Literature.
No. VI.
EDITED BY
D. G. BRINTON
BRINTON’S LIBRARY OF
ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.
NUMBER VI.
THE ANNALS
OF THE
CAKCHIQUELS.
THE ORIGINAL TEXT, WITH A TRANSLATION, NOTES AND
INTRODUCTION.
BY
DANIEL G. BRINTON
1885, Philadelphia
Both for its historical and linguistic merits, the document which ispresented in this volume is one of the most important in aboriginalAmerican Literature. Written by a native who had grown to adult yearsbefore the whites penetrated to his ancestral home, himself a member ofthe ruling family of one of the most civilized nations of the continentand intimately acquainted with its traditions, his work displays thelanguage in its pure original form, and also preserves the tribalhistory and a part of the mythology, as they were current before theywere in the least affected by European influences.
The translation I offer is directly from the original text, and I amresponsible for its errors; but I wish to acknowledge my constantobligations to the manuscript version of the late Abbé Brasseur (deBourbourg), the distinguished Americanist. Without the assistanceobtained from it, I should not have attempted the task; and though Idiffer frequently from his renderings, this is no more than he himselfwould have done, as in his later years he spoke of his version as inmany passages faulty.
For the grammar of the language, I have depended on the anonymousgrammar which I edited for the American Philosophical Society in 1884,[vi]copies of which, reprinted separately, can be obtained by any one whowishes to study the tongue thoroughly. For the significance of thewords, my usual authorities are the lexicon of Varea, an anonymousdictionary of the 17th century, and the large and excellentSpanish-Cakchiquel work of Coto, all of which are in the library of theAmerican Philosophical Society. They are all in MS., b