The Popol Vuh

PREFACE

THE "Popol Vuh" The Popol Vuh, or "Book of the Mat," is the sacred narrative of the K’iche’ Maya people. The "mat" refers to the woven mats used by royalty, symbolizing the book’s status as a record of authority and community history. 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. Spence is writing in 1908; while French and Spanish versions existed, he considered them insufficient for a modern English-speaking audience. It has been neglected to a certain extent because of the unthinking strictures harsh criticisms or limitations passed upon its authenticity. That other manuscripts exist in Guatemala than the one discovered by Ximenes Francisco Ximénez (1666–1729), a Dominican friar who famously discovered the manuscript in Chichicastenango and created the first transcription and Spanish translation. and transcribed by Scherzer Karl von Scherzer (1821–1903), an Austrian explorer who first published Ximénez's Spanish manuscript in 1857. and Brasseur de Bourbourg Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814–1874), a French priest whose 1861 edition included the K’iche’ text and a French translation, bringing the work to international attention. is probable. So thought Brinton Daniel Garrison Brinton (1837–1899), an influential American ethnologist and archaeologist., and the present writer shares his belief. And ere before 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.
Lewis Spence (1874–1955) was a Scottish historian and folklorist who sought to popularize ancient American myths in the United Kingdom.

July 1908.

Popol Vuh
Ximenes
Scherzer
Brasseur de Bourbourg
Brinton
Lewis Spence
Guatemala
Central America
mythology