QUICHE
604
QUICHUA
Pacific Ocean, is not the least. Las Casas accused
Quevedo of having violated a trust, accumulated
wealth, and neglected the Indians; but Las Casas
was frequently unjust in his condemnations. It is im-
possible to determine how much truth or untruth his
charges contain. Quevedo returned to Spain (1518)
and presented two memorials to King Charles. One
was against Pedrarias, and the other advocated re-
stricting the powers of all governors in the New World
for the better protection of the natives. When these
documents were sho^s-n to Las Casas, he offered to
countersign them. Quevedo declared that all the
aborigines of America, as far as he had observed them,
appeared to be a race of men whom it would be
impossible to instruct or improve unless they were
collected in villages or missions and kept under con-
tinual supervision. In this he was right, as all sub-
sequent experience has shown. Bishop Quevedo soon
fell sick and died at Barcelona.
Boldin de la Real Academia de la Historia, XX (Madrid. 1S92); Habold, Epitome Aiinalium Minorum (Rome, 1663); Bancroft, Central America. I (San Francisco, 1890); Dorro, Las Casas (St. Louis. Mo., 1902) ; Maguano, S(. Frarms and the Franciscans (New York, 1S67).
Zephtein Engelhabdt.
Quiche (Utlateca), the principal aboriginal tribe or nation of Guatemala. They belong to the great Mayan hnguistic stock (see ^iAY.\ Indi-INs), as do also their neighbours in the same state, the Cakchi- quel, Pokonchi, and Tzutnhil, the four dialects con- stituting but one language. The Quiche occupied north-central Guatemala, including the present dis- tricts of Quiche, Totonicapan, and a part of Quezal- tenango. Like those of the other Mayan tribes, their traditions pointed to a northern or north-eastern origin, and their fairly authentic history went back to about A. D. 700. (Maya history seems fairly authentic as far back as the second century.) They were subju- gated by Pedro de Alvarado about 1525, with even more than the customari" atrocities, and rapidly declined under the system of slaverj- and hea\'y tribute imposed, notwithstanding the warnings of the pope and the humane laws promulgated by the Spanish monarch, at the instance of Las Casas. Even before the conquest was complete the Dominican Fathers Pontaz and de Torres had taken up their residence among the Quiche and begun the work of Christianization. In 1530 Father Francisco Marroquin (d. 1563) arrived from Spain to organize the Church in Guatemala, and in 1533 was confirmed as bishop. He gave special atten- tion to the Indians and their languages, becoming par- ticularly proficient in the Quiche, into which language he translated the catechism. On his appeal Father Las Casas (1536) established at Santiago a convent of Dominicans for the conversion of the natives. They were reinforced two }-ears later by Fathers Zambrano and Dardon, of the Order of Mercy {Merced), who established a convent of that order in the same city. Under these two orders, working in harmony together with the Franciscans, who entered the field in 1541, the conversion of the Indians was gradually effected, the new converts being gathered into towns for their better government and instruction. The entire tribe is long since Christian, although many of the ancient rites and beliefs persist in daily life. Their present number is near 1.50.000.
In agricultural habit, architecture, literary method and productiveness, religious ceremonial, and general culture, the ancient Quiche resembled theMaya. with onlv minor differences. In their genesis myth (as recorded in the "Popol Vuh"). the earth was brought into form bv Gugumatz, the Plumed Serpent (equiv- alent to the Quetznlevatt of the Aztec), who finally created four men and four women, who became the ancestors of the race, a.ssigning to each pair at the same time a special tutelary god, whose first duty it was to pro(l\ice fire and light, to clear the world
of evil monsters and to institute ceremonies and
sacrifices.
The "Popol Vuh", or "National Book", the great literary monument of the Quiche, is a compendium of their ancient traditions handed down from before the conquest. The present version, evidently a copy from an older record, was written in the Quiche lan- guage by one of the tribe, apparently shortly after the conquest. It was first brought to attention through a Spanish translation by the Dominican Father Fran- cisco Ximenez (c. 1725). In 1861 a more correct French translation, with the original text, was published in Paris by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. Of the workBrinton says: "This ma^'well be considered one of the most valuable monuments of ancient American literature and its substantial authenticity cannot be doubted."
B.AXCROFT, A'a^ire Race^ [of the Pacific Slates], vol. II: Cinlized Xatioiis (San Francisco, 1S82); III: Myths and Languages (San Francisco, 1886); Idem, Hist. Central America (3 vols.. San Francisco, 1SS6-87) ; Br-asseub de Bourbouhg, Nations cirilis6es du Me^que et de V Amerique centrale (4 vols., Paris, 1857); Idem, Coll. de documents dans les langues indigenes, includizig Popol Vuh (4 vols.. Paris, 1861-68); S.ahagun, Historia general de Xuera Espaiia (Mexico, 1829); Squier, Central America (New York. 1S53) ; Ximenez. Origen de las Indios de Guatemala in Popol Vuh, ed. Schebzer (Vienna, 1857).
Jaues Mooxey.
Quichua Indians, formerly the dominant people of the Empire of Peru, and still the largest homogeneous body of Indians in existence, constituting the bulk of the rural population of Peru and Ecuador. The name — written also Qquichua. Quechua, Kechua — most probably signifies those who "speak correctly", as distinguished from tribes from alien stock. The nu- merous tribes or small nations comprising the Qui- chuan linguistic stock occupied a territorj- nearly
Quichua Types
conterminous \%-ith that of the empire at its greatest
extent, but reaching out somewhat beyond its borders
on the north, and extending on the south, \\-ith inter-
ruptions, to about Coquimbo, Chile, at 30° S. lat.
The Inca seem to have had their original territory
somewhere between Paucartambo and Cuzco. The
Quichua proper, living south from Cuzco. were among
their earliest conquests. Of the cognate tribes the
principal were the Huancavilca, Manta, Cara, Caiiari,
and Qiiitu (Ecuador); the Lamano, Rucana, and
Quichua proper (Peni), the latter about Cuzco and the
upper Apurimac in central Peru, all of a high stage of
civilization; the cognate Malaba and other small
tribes above Esmeraldas. on the Ecuador-Colombia
frontier, remained unconquercd and uncivilized. Of
the nations or tribes conquered and incorporated by
the empire, but of aUen stock, the principal were the
Aymard tribes, on the Peru-Bolivia border; the
Vunca tribes, on the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil
to below Truxillo; and the Calchaqui, in north-west
Argentina. The .\yniard were probably the direct
originators and inspirers of the Quichua civilization,
and still preser\-e their separate identity and language
to the number of over half a million souls of pure or
