CHAPTER VIII—THE MAYA: TRIBAL HISTORY
HAVING sketched the archæology of Mexico proper, explained as far as possible by what we know of the religion and customs of the early inhabitants, it now remains to consider the region to the south and east which was the scene of a distinct, but related, culture, that of the Maya. The area involved consists of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche and Yucatan in Mexico, British Honduras, Guatemala and the northern portion of Honduras. The task is one of far greater difficulty, since the ruined remains scattered over the country give evidence of a higher culture than that which prevailed at the conquest; but of the people who evolved that culture we know nothing except by implication. The sites which show the greatest architectural and artistic development had been abandoned at any rate some considerable time before the coming of the Spaniards, and the early chroniclers were unable to record anything concerning them. In Yucatan alone were traditions preserved which could be brought into relation with the ancient buildings, and then only with the most modern of them, which bear evident traces of non-Maya influence. The area now under consideration is separated geographically from that which formed the subject of the preceding chapters by the Tehuantepec depression; to the east of the latter, the southern section, including the greater portion of Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala (except the extreme north), and Honduras, are part of a mountain system which extends, with interruptions, into South America, and
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