4. Mayas of Yucatan. Herrera makes frequent reference to the "kindred," and in such a manner with regard to the tribes in Mexico, Central and South America as to imply the existence of a body of persons organized on the basis of consanguinity much more numerous than would be found apart from gentes. Thus: "He that killed a free man was to make satisfaction to the children and kindred."[188] It was spoken of the aborigines of Nicaragua, and had it been of the Iroquois, among whom the usage was the same, the term _kindred_ would have been equivalent to _gens_. And again, speaking generally of the Maya Indians of Yucatan, he remarks that "when any satisfaction was to be made for damages, if he who was adjudged to pay was like to be reduced to poverty, the kindred contributed."[189] In this another gentile usage may be recognized. Again, speaking of the Aztecs; "if they were guilty, no favor or kindred could save them from death."[190] One more citation to the same effect may be made, applied to the Florida Indians who were organized in gentes. He observes "that they were extravagantly fond of their children, and cherished them, the parents and kindred lamenting such as died a whole year."[191] The early observers noticed, as a peculiarity of Indian society, that large numbers of persons were bound together by the bond of kin, and therefore the group came to be mentioned as "the kindred." But they did not carry the scrutiny far enough to discover, what was probably the truth, that the kindred formed a gens, and, as such, the unit of their social system.
Herrera remarks further of the Mayas, that "they were wont to observe their pedigrees very much, and therefore thought themselves all related, and were helpful to one another.... They did not marry mothers, or sisters-in-law, _nor any that bore the same name_ as their father, which was looked upon as unlawful."[192] The pedigree of an Indian under their system of consanguinity could have no significance apart from a gens; but leaving this out of view, there was no possible way, under Indian institutions, by which a father and his children could bear the same _name_ except through a gens, which conferred a common gentile name upon all its members. It would also require descent in the male line to bring father and children into the same gens. The statement shows, moreover, that intermarriage in the gens among the Mayas was prohibited. Assuming the correctness of Herrera's words, it is proof conclusive of the existence of gentes among the Mayas, with descent in the male line. Tylor, in his valuable work on the _Early History of Mankind_, which is a repository of widely-drawn and well-digested ethnological information, cites the same fact from another source, with the following remarks: "The analogy of the North American Indian custom is therefore with that of the Australian in making clanship on the female side a bar to marriage, but if we go down further south into Central America, the reverse custom, as in China, makes its appearance. Diego de Landa says of the people of Yucatan, that no one took a wife of his name, on the father's side, for this was a very vile thing among them; but they might marry cousins german on the mother's side."[193]