It appears to me that this incredulity is uncalled for. It is known that at the close of each of their larger divisions of time (the so-called “_katuns_,”) a “_chilan_,” or inspired diviner, uttered a prediction of the character of the year or epoch which was about to begin. Like other would-be prophets, he had doubtless learned that it is wiser to predict evil than good, inasmuch as the probabilities of evil in this worried world of ours outweigh those of good; and when the evil comes his words are remembered to his credit, while if, perchance, his gloomy forecasts are not realized, no one will bear him a grudge that he has been at fault. The temper of this people was, moreover, gloomy, and it suited them to hear of threatened danger and destruction by foreign foes. But, alas! for them. The worst that the boding words of the oracle foretold was as nothing to the dire event which overtook them—the destruction of their nation, their temples and their freedom, ’neath the iron heel of the Spanish conqueror. As the wise Gœthe says:
“_Seltsam ist Prophetenlied, Doch mehr seltsam was geschieht._”
As to the supposed reference to the cross and its worship, it may be remarked that the native word translated “cross” by the missionaries, simply means “a piece of wood set upright,” and may well have had a different and special signification in the old days.
By way of a specimen of these prophecies, I quote one from “The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel,” saying at once that for the translation I have depended upon a comparison of the Spanish version of Lizana, who was blindly prejudiced, and that in French of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, who knew next to nothing about Maya, with the original. It will be easily understood, therefore, that it is rather a paraphrase than a literal rendering. The original is in short, aphoristic sentences, and was, no doubt, chanted with a rude rhythm:
“What time the sun shall brightest shine, Tearful will be the eyes of the king. Four ages yet shall be inscribed, Then shall come the holy priest, the holy god. With grief I speak what now I see. Watch well the road, ye dwellers of Itza. The master of the earth shall come to us. Thus prophesies Nahau Pech, the seer, In the days of the fourth age, At the time of its beginning.”