Chilam Balam: Introduction

This Prophet Balam lived during the last decades of the Fifteenth Century and probably the first of the Sixteenth Century 1 and foretold the coming of strangers from the east who would establish a new religion. The prompt fulfilment of this prediction so enhanced his reputation as a seer that in later times he was considered the authority for many other prophecies which had been uttered long before his time. Inasmuch as prophecies were the most prominent feature of many of the older books of this sort, it was natural to name them after the famous soothsayer.

The Books of Chilam Balam were written in the Maya language but in the European script which the early missionaries adapted to express such sounds as were not found in Spanish. Each book is a small library in itself and contains a considerable variety of subject material. Besides the prophecies we find brief chronicles, fragmentary historical narratives, rituals, native catechisms, mythological accounts of the creation of the world, almanacs and medical treatises. Many such passages were no doubt originally transcribed from older hieroglyphic manuscripts, some of which were still in existence in northern Yucatan as late as the close of the Seventeenth Century 2. As time went on, more and more European material was added to the native Maya lore. In some of the books not only do we find the ritual of a religion which is a

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The ability of the Maya to write their own language in European script was due to the educational policy of the Spanish missionaries. Although at first they rather admired the Maya for having a graphic system of their own, they were determined to destroy the old manuscripts and eradicate all knowledge of the glyphs from the minds of their converts. The Indians had a great reverence for their hieroglyphic writing which was permeated with the symbols of their old religion, and the friars felt that if they could wipe out this knowledge and substitute for it the European system of writing, it would be an effective means for the complete Christianization of the native population. This should be the easier, since the knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was confined to the priesthood and certain members of the nobility. Diego de Landa, afterward bishop of Yucatan, burned twenty-seven hieroglyphic manuscripts at the famous auto de fe in Mani in 1562, and although many of the Spaniards severely criticized him for this, there is little doubt that other missionaries followed his example whenever they had the opportunity.

The chiefs and former priests were ordered to send their sons to the schools established by the Franciscan friars, where they were taught to read and write their own language in European letters. Although some of the more promising pupils were taught Spanish, there does not seem to have been any general policy of attempting to impose the language of the conquerors upon the Indians. In the first place such a scheme was plainly impracticable owing to the comparatively small number of Spaniards in Yucatan and, besides, many of the missionaries frankly admitted that they preferred the local officials of the villages in their charge not to know Spanish. 2 This was probably in order that the latter should not complain too frequently of ecclesiastical discipline to the lay officials, who were sometimes at odds with the Franciscans. From a purely educational point of view the schools were a success, for after a time every village had its town clerk who could read and write, as well as many members of the more important native families; but the Spanish settlers complained in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century that many native schoolmasters and choir-masters were still practising idolatry in secret and that idols had even been found in the school-houses. 3

If such persons as these were not completely reformed, it is hardly surprising to find the successors of the former prophets and priests, the herb-doctors and sorcerers of colonial times, making use of this new and more convenient graphic system of the white man in the pursuit of their ancient

1 It is remarkable that not a single one of these books is known to have survived in Yucatan at the present time, for as late as the close of the Seventeenth Century Avendaño was quite familiar with them. In his account of the visit he made to the heathen Itzá at Tayasal he writes: "At the instant that we landed and I saw the said column and mask, 2 I came to recognize it since I had already read about it in their old papers and had seen it in their Anahtés, which they use, which are books of barks of trees, polished and covered with lime, in which by painted figures and characters they have foretold their future events." 3 This was Avendaño's first visit to any of the heathen Maya, and he could only have seen such hieroglyphic books as still survived in northern Yucatan.

A comparison of these descriptions with the existing Books of Chilam Balam shows plainly that many portions of the latter are simply transcriptions of the old hieroglyphic manuscripts into European script. Aguilar mentions one of these early transcriptions which was written in a copy-book and contained an account of the creation of the world. He confiscated this book from a choir-master of the town of Sucopo. 4 As time went on, the transcriptions gradually took the place of the older hieroglyphic books. Fewer people were now able to read the glyphs, and much as the clergy condemned the Books of Chilam Balam, they were not considered such prima facie evidence of the crime of idolatry as was anything written in hieroglyphics. Aguilar also tells us how in their assemblies the Indians read the fables and histories contained in the books. Some of the contents were chanted to the accompaniment of a drum; old songs were sung; 5 and the dramatic representations, the names of which we find listed in the Motul dictionary, were enacted. 6 Cogolludo later wrote of such meetings that "God knows what goes on there, and at the very least many of them end up in drunkenness." 7

None of the Books of Chilam Balam that have come down to us were compiled earlier than the last part of the Seventeenth Century, and most of them date from the Eighteenth Century. The older ones were probably worn out by constant use. Nevertheless we have Maya legal documents covering almost

1 Genet and Chelbatz give a brief description of a Book of Chilam Balam of Telchac. 2

Of these books the Chumayel, Tizimin and Mani manuscripts have the greatest value for the study of Maya civilization, although the others are not lacking in interest. The Chumayel was a small quarto volume which appears to have originally consisted of fifty-eight numbered leaves. There are only 107 written pages in the University of Pennsylvania reproduction. Three leaves, numbers 1, 50 and 55, are missing, and there are breaks in the text at these places. The other pages seem to have been blank. The writer has seen only the leather cover, in which a hole had been burned; the book itself had disappeared. A number of the leaves are either torn or have crumbled away along the edges, and some of the pages are badly water-stained in places. Nevertheless the manuscript is very legible on the whole. Although it dates only from the year 1782, the language suggests the Seventeenth Century much more than it does the Eighteenth. The book contains comparatively little of the intrusive European material which predominates in other Books of Chilam Balam written at so late a date. The drawings which illustrate the volume are quite European in character, although many of the ideas which they represent are purely Maya.

Brinton was the first to make a translation of any considerable portion of the Chumayel. Using the Berendt copy of the text, he translated the three chronicles found in Chapters XIX, XX and XXI of the present work. 3 Martinez Hernandez has published his own Spanish translations of these chronicles, also the story of the Last Judgment in Chapter XXIII and the first part of the creation narrative in Chapter X. 4 Tozzer has translated the prophecy of Chilam Balam in Chapter XXIV and the chronicle in Chapter XX. 5 The writer

1 and the entire manuscript has been freely rendered into Spanish poetical prose by Mediz Bolio. 2

We know from internal evidence that the Chilam Balam of Chumayel was compiled by Don Juan Josef Hoil of that town, as we find his name signed to a notation written in the same hand as the rest of the book and dated 1782. 3 Only a few interpolations added at later dates are written in different hands. Subsequently the book passed into the possession either of a certain unnamed priest or of his secretary, Justo Balam, who inscribed two baptismal records on one of the blank pages in 1832 and 1833. 4 In 1838 Pedro de Alcantara Briceño of San Antonio made a record on the same page that he had purchased the book "in his poverty" for the price of one peso, probably from a priest, although the writing is very indistinct. It is possible that the priest was Don Diego Hoil, the son of the writer. On another blank page 5 the same Pedro Briceño noted that he made a loan of the book. The date here is badly written, but it is probably 1858. Some time during the next ten years it was acquired by Don Audomaro Molina, how or where, we do not know; but the latter stated to Sr. Martinez Hernandez in 1910 6 that he had given it to Bishop Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona. It was already in the Bishop's possession when Dr. Berendt copied it in 1868, and he permitted Teobert Maler to make the first photographs of it in 1887. When Bishop Carrillo died in 1897, the book passed into the hands of Don Ricardo Figueroa, and through the efforts of Sr. Molina it was loaned in 1910 to George B. Gordon, Director of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, who photographed it the same year. In 1913 the Museum published & handsome facsimile reproduction from which the present translation is made. The original was returned to Figueroa, in whose house Dr. S. G. Morley saw it in 1913. After Figueroa's death the manuscript was removed in 1915 to the Cepeda Library in Merida, but when Dr. Morley visited the Library in 1918 it had disappeared and its whereabouts is still unknown. As Dr. Morley has already noted, "In view of its doubtful fate, it is nothing short of providential that two photographic copies of it exist, the one made by Maler in 1887, a copy of which is in the Gates collection, and the other made by Gordon in 1910." 7

The attempt has been made to learn something about Don Juan Josef Hoil, the compiler of the manuscript, from the surviving members of the Hoil family of Chumayel, and although he has not been completely identified, the results of the inquiry are not without interest. The writer is indebted to Sr. Martinez Hernandez of Merida for the following information.

There appears to have been but one Hoil family in Chumayel. The present generation consists of Miguel, care-taker at Uxmal; Alejandro, a brakeman on

1 Some passages are logically arranged in paragraphs, which is a great help, but many are not. There is little division of the text into sentences, and a capital letter rarely begins either a sentence or a proper name. Consequently it is necessary to establish a critical text before attempting a formal translation.

The greatest difficulty of all is found in the numerous obsolete words and phrases which occur. It has already been noted that the Chumayel is a compilation made from various earlier works, many of which were probably copied from still older books. This would account for an occasional corrupt text, which can often be rectified from parallel passages or similar stereotyped phrases occurring in the other writings. The meaning of obsolete words and phrases can be learned in three ways. They may be found in the older dictionaries which were written at a time when they were still in use; a more

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It has been suggested that a modern Maya Indian should be of great assistance in translating these old books, but none of the few efforts which have been made along this line of inquiry have had much success. The vocabulary of the average Indian is limited. Many words are now used with a changed meaning, and he is entirely too ready to resort to a typical Volksetymologie to explain any word which has now passed out of current use. This is evident from the explanations made by natives to the botanists in the case of plant-names composed of obsolete words. The errors of such native derivations are amply demonstrated by the Sixteenth Century Motul dictionary, in which many of these old words are found. Up to the present a little has been done in this respect with the native Maya priests, or h-menob, some of whom can still recite a number of the old incantations. Such men would be likely to rely more on tradition than on their own improvised etymology. Dr. Redfield's elucidation of the puzzling name of Ah Muzencab, the bee-god, from the explanation of one of these native sorcerers is an example of the results which may be looked for from this line of inquiry. Needless to say, it is difficult to persuade these native priests to explain their rituals.

Doubts have been expressed in the past as to whether it was possible to translate some of the passages in the Book of Chilam Balam. of Chumayel. Such scepticism was not unreasonable in view of the limited amount of related material accessible to the student at the time. In more recent years, however, additional manuscripts have been collected, and photographs or photostats have been made of nearly all the Maya writings known to be in existence. The archæological evidence uncovered in the course of the past few years and the reports of modern ethnologists have furnished explanations for a number of the obscure statements found in the Books of Chilam Balam. In view of these facts a translation of these books seems feasible at the present time; but there is little doubt that further search among the archives of Spain

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE MAYA TEXT

Like the other Books of Chilam Balam, the Chumayel manuscript is written in the European script which the Sixteenth Century Spanish missionaries adapted to the Maya language of Yucatan. It differs only in a few particulars from ordinary Spanish script. The letters d, f, g, q and r are not employed in writing Maya words, as the sounds which they represent do not occur in Maya. Some Maya writers substituted ij for ii, but neither the Spanish nor the English sound of j appears to be indicated. C is pronounced somewhat like the English k. The other letters have approximately the same sound as in Spanish except for the following, which represent sounds which do not occur in Spanish, viz. pp, th, ɔ, ch and k. The writer is indebted to Dr. M. J. Andrade for the following description: