found in San Salvador and even further to the southeast, as far as Nicaragua and Panama, pointing to a stream of Nahua migration by an overland route. The Pipil themselves preserved a tradition that they had reached their present abode from Tuxtla. The Maya language as a whole exhibits certain points of similarity to that of the Mixtec and Zapotec, but its structure is more akin to that spoken on the islands of the Mexican Gulf and the northern coast of South America. A tradition existed in Yucatan that an early section of the inhabitants had come from the east, and the Maya of this neighbourhood were certainly good seamen, since large canoes with sails were met by the expedition of Columbus, so it is at least possible that a section of the early population were immigrants from the Antilles. But at present too little is known of the languages of Central America to admit of the formulation of definite theories based upon linguistic arguments, which constitute a class of evidence requiring extreme caution on the part of those who would make use of it.
The early history of the Maya tribes is by no means easy to extract from the traditions which have survived until the present day. The chief sources of information are as follows. The traditions relating to the Tutul-Xiu family, the centre of whose power at the time of the conquest lay at Mani in Yucatan, which were reduced to writing, under the name of the "Books of Chilan Balam" (Chilan Balam meaning Tiger-priest) in Spanish times. The legends of the Quiché, who in historical times occupied the plateau around Santa Cruz and Quetzaltanango, with their capital at Utatlan, contained in the Popol Vuh. The "Annals" of the Xahila family of the Kakchiquel tribe, whose chief city was Iximché near the modern Tecpan Guatemala. Finally the scattered traditions collected from the natives by such early writers as Landa and Cogolludo. The Yucatec traditions alone can be brought
