_ (or Ah Kin Chel) in which Itzamal
was located.
17. _Zotuta_, of the Cocoms.
18. _Mani_, of the Xius.
19. _Cochuah_ (or Cochva, or Cocola), the principal
town of which was Ichmul.

As No. 15, the Peten district, was not conquered by the Spaniards until
1697, it was doubtless not included in the list drawn up by Herrera's
authority, so that the above would correspond with his statement.

Each of these provinces was ruled by a hereditary chief, who was called
_batab_, or _batabil uinic_ (_uinic_=man). He sometimes bore two names,
the first being that of his mother, the second of his father, as _Can
Ek_, in which _Can_ was from the maternal, _Ek_ from the paternal line.
The surname (_kaba_) descended through the male. It was called _hach
kaba_, the true name, or _hool kaba_, the head name. Much attention was
paid to preserving the genealogy, and the word for "of noble birth" was
_ah kaba_, "he who has a name."

Each village of a province was organized under a ruler, who was styled
_halach uinic_, the true or real man. Frequently he was a junior member
of the reigning family. He was assisted by a second in command, termed
_ah kulel_, as a lieutenant, and various subordinate officials, whose
duties will be explained in the notes to Nakuk Pech's narrative.

Personal tenure of land did not exist. The town lands were divided out
annually among the members of the community, as their wants required,
the consumption of each adult being calculated at twenty loads (of a
man) of maize each year, this being the staple food.[27-1]

Sec. 5. _Grammatical Observations._

Compared with many American languages, the Maya is simple in
construction. It is analytic rather than synthetic; most of its roots
are monosyllables or dissyllables, and the order of their arrangement is
very similar to that in English. It has been observed that foreigners,
coming to Yucatan, ignorant of both Spanish and Maya, acquire a
conversational knowledge of the latter more readily than of the
former.[28-1]

An examination of the language explains this. Neither nouns nor
adjectives undergo any change for gender, number or case. Before animate
nouns the gender may be indicated by the prefixes _ah_ and _ix_,
equivalent to the English _he_ and _she_ in such expressions as
_he-bear_, _she-bear_. The plural particle is _ob_, which can be
suffixed to animate nouns, but is in fact the third person plural of the
personal pronoun.

The conj