Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 44
unless, as he supposes, the few words gathered by Sapper belong to it.
These, so far as they go, seem to confirm tlie historical evidence that
the language was very closely related to, if not identical with, Maya
proper, Pimentel and Orozco y Berra give Mopan as a synonym
of Choi. Stoll assigns to them a considerable area in northern Guatemala
in the form of a belt across the state between the Choi and Itza areas
as laid down by him. Sapper gives as the area of his "Maya of San
Luis" (which he identifies as the Mopan) a small belt extending across
the southern extremity of British Honduras, and westward beyond the
border of Guatemala, including San Luis. Stoll says (2 : 94) that the
Mopanas had on the south the Choles, on the east and north the
Itzas, and on the west the Lacandones. As his map is limited to
Guatemala it docs not extend the area into British Honduras.
Alaguilac
Although this language is now extinct, the evidence presented by
Doctor Brinton in a paper read before the American Philosophical
Society, November 4, 1887, proves beyond doubt that it belonged to
the Nahuatlan family and was closely related to, if not identical
with, the Pipil dialect spoken in the territory adjoining. According
to this evidence the area throughout which it was spoken was sub-
stantially the same as that laid down by Stoll—namely, in the
eastern part of Guatemala, on the Rio Motagua, It included the
pueblos San Cristobal Acasaguastlan, Chimalapan, Usumatlan, and
Tecolutan, and, as Doctor Brinton states, also San Agustin. The
data thus matle known since Stoll's work was published require a
slight modification of the boundaries given this tribe by him. Doc-
tor Brinton says Cliorti was spoken in the adjoining area, but Stoll
surrounds the southern half by the detached Pipil area, and the
northern half by the Choi area.
Pipil
As is well known, this language belongs to the Nahuatlan stock
and is closely related to Aztec, being, in fact, but a dialect of that
language.
The early habitat of the tribe as determined by Stoll and Sapper
agrees so closely with that given by Squier (4: 348) and Juarros (l:ii,81),
and the relation of the tribes as found by Alvarado in 1524, that it is
necessary to describe here only their situation as set forth by the first
two authorities. They were located in two separate areas. The
larger territory lay chiefly along the Pacific coast in southeastern
Guatemala, from the meridian of Escuintla eastward into Salvador
to the lower southward stretch of the Lempa river. This terri-
tory was intercepted, however, by that of the Xinca tribe and by a
colony of the Lencan stock, being thus divided into two parts, one in