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                             THE POPOL VUH

                     The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of
                     the Kichés of Central America


                                   By

                              LEWIS SPENCE



                    Published by David Nutt, at the
                 Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
                                  1908








PREFACE


The "Popol Vuh" is the New World's richest mythological mine. No
translation of it has as yet appeared in English, and no adequate
translation in any European language. It has been neglected to a
certain extent because of the unthinking strictures passed upon
its authenticity. That other manuscripts exist in Guatemala than
the one discovered by Ximenes and transcribed by Scherzer and
Brasseur de Bourbourg is probable. So thought Brinton, and the
present writer shares his belief. And ere it is too late it would
be well that these--the only records of the faith of the builders of
the mystic ruined and deserted cities of Central America--should be
recovered. This is not a matter that should be left to the enterprise
of individuals, but one which should engage the consideration of
interested governments; for what is myth to-day is often history
to-morrow.


LEWIS SPENCE.

July 1908.








THE POPOL VUH

[The numbers in the text refer to notes at the end of the study]


There is no document of greater importance to the study of the
pre-Columbian mythology of America than the "Popol Vuh." It is the
chief source of our knowledge of the mythology of the Kiché people of
Central America, and it is further of considerable comparative value
when studied in conjunction with the mythology of the Nahuatlacâ, or
Mexican peoples. This interesting text, the recovery of which forms one
of the most romantic episodes in the history of American bibliography,
was written by a Christianised native of Guatemala some time in the
seventeenth century, and was copied in the Kiché language, in which
it was originally written, by a monk of the Order of Predicadores, one
Francisco Ximenes, who also added a Spanish translation and scholia.

The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, a profound student of American
archæology and languages (whose euhemeristic interpretations of
the Mexican myths are as worthless as the priceless materials he
unearthed are valuable) deplored, in a letter to the Duc de Valmy,
[1] the supposed loss of the "Popol Vuh," which he was aware had been
made use of early in the nineteenth century by a certain Don Felix
Cabrera. Dr. C. Scherzer, an Austrian scholar, thus made aware of
its value, paid a visit to the Republic of Guatemala in 1854 or 1855,
and was successful in tracing the missing manuscript in the library
of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala. It was
afterwards ascertained that its scholiast, Ximenes, had deposited it
in the library of his convent at Chichicastenango, whence it passed
to the San Carlos library in 1830.

Scherzer at once made a copy of the Spanish translation of the
manuscript, which he published at Vienna in 1856 under the title
of "Las Historias del origen de los Indios de Guatemala, par el
R. P. F. Francisco Ximenes." The Abbé Brasseur also took a copy of
the original, which he published at Paris in 1861, with the title
"Vuh Popol: Le Livre Sacré de Quichés, et les Mythes de l'Antiquité
Américaine." In this work the Kiché original and the Abbe's French
translation are set forth side by side. Unfortunately both the Spanish
and the French translations leave much to be desired so far as their
accuracy is concerned, and they are rendered of little use by reason
of the misleading notes which accompany them.

The name "Popol Vuh" signifies "Record of the Community," and
its literal translation is "Book of the Mat," from the Kiché word
"pop" or "popol," a mat or rug of woven rushes or bark on which the
entire family sat, and "vuh" or "uuh," paper or book, from "uoch"
to write. The "Popol Vuh" is an example of a world-wide genre--a
type of annals of which the first portion is pure mythology, which
gradually shades off into pure history, evolving from the hero-myths
of saga to the recital of the deeds of authentic personages. It may,
in fact, be classed with the Heimskringla of Snorre, the Danish
History of Saxo-Grammaticus, the Chinese History in the Five Books,
the Japanese "Nihongi," and, so far as its fourth book is concerned,
it somewhat resembles the Pictish Chronicle.

The language in which the "Popol V