Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan

By Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar

The abuses and superstitions in which those Indians of Yucatan believe and the abuses which they cherish are mostly inherited from their forebears, and are as numerous as they are varied in kind. I am including in this report all I was able to investigate, so that they may enable the curates to disapprove them publicly, and in their sermons to reprimand the Indians on account of them.

They believe in dreams which they try to interpret to suit the occasion.

On hearing the cawing (or cackle) of a bird they call kipxosi, they interpret it to mean poor success to whatever enterprise they are engaged in at the time. They consider it as a bad omen or foreboding, as the Spaniards do with the female fox or the cuckoo.

If, while the Indian is traveling, he stumbles over a big stone among a pile which had been dug up to build or level a road, he venerates it by placing on the top of it a little twig, brushing his knees with another one in order not to get tired. This is a tradition of his forefathers.

If he happens to be traveling near sunset, and he fears that he will arrive late or even at night at the village he is bound for, he will drive a stone into the first tree he finds, believing that this will retard the setting of the sun. Another superstition to the same effect is the pulling out of some of his eyelashes and blowing them toward the sun. These are superstitions that came down to him by tradition from his forebears.

During lunar eclipses they still believe in the tradition of their forefathers to make their dogs howl or cry by pinching them either in the body or ears, or else they will beat on boards, benches, and doors. They say that the moon is dying, or that it is being bitten by a certain kind of ant which they call xubab. Once, while at the village of Yalcobá, I heard great noises during an eclipse of the moon which occurred that night, and in my sermon the next day I tried to make them understand the cause of the eclipse in their own language, according to the interpretation from the Philosopher: "The lunar eclipse is the interposing of the earth between the sun and the moon with the sun on top and the moon in the shadow." With an orange to represent the sphere of Sacrobosco, and two lit candles on either side, I explained to them plainly and at sight what an eclipse really was. They seemed astonished, and quite happy and smiling, cured of their ignorance and that of their forefathers. I gave orders to their chieftain (caçique) that he should punish in the future all those who made a noise on such occasions.

They also call certain old Indian shamans when a woman is in labor, and, with words of their former idolatry, he will enchant her and hear her confession. They do the same with some other patients. I could not find out all about this, for which I am very sorry.

There are some Indian medicine-men who, with similar enchantment, are supposed to cure the bites or stings of snakes, especially of the rattlesnakes, of which there are a great many here. The victims of such bites are sometimes delirious, and often the flesh around the wound will decay until they die. The remedy the wizards give them, according to what I heard, is to make them eat human excrement or drink the juice of lemons, or else they will take a domestic fowl and place its beak on the wound, and have it suck in this way the poison of the snakebite. The hen or chicken will of course die, and they immediately replace it by another live one, and repeat that until all the poison is absorbed.

When they build new houses, which occurs every ten or twelve years, they will not inhabit nor even enter them unless the old wizard has been brought even from a distance of one, two, or three leagues to bless it or consecrate it with his stupid enchantment. This, however, I have only heard, and I am now sorry never to have recorded it personally.

They are fortune-tellers, and they perform this feat with a heap of grained corn, counting always two and two grains, and if it comes out in even numbers, the fortune-teller will continue counting one, two, or three times over until it comes out uneven, bearing all the while in mind the main facts or reason for which he had been called on to tell the fortune, vera gratia. Once a girl ran away from home, and her mother, like any true Indian woman would have done in a similar case, immediately called one of those fortune-tellers, who drew lots on all the different roads until the fortune told of or pointed to a certain road the girl had taken and where she would be found. They sent out to look for her and found her in the village to which that road led. I punished that wizard, who was a native of a village at one league from Valladolid, and while I examined him with patience and slowly, I found that all the words he used in that so-called fortune-telling, while he counted the grains of corn, were no more than "Odd or even, odd or even" (huylan nones, caylan pares). He could not even tell me whether those words were meant as an invocation to Satan. In fact, he seemed not to know what they meant, for this particular wizard was a very great simpleton, almost imbecile.

In this city of Mérida it is publicly known that there exist several Indian sorceresses (witches), who by using certain words can open a rosebud before it is time for its opening, which is given to the one they wish to attract to their lascivious desire. They let him smell of it, or they place it under his pillow; but should the person who gives it to him smell its perfume, she is said invariably to lose her mind for a long while, calling to the one she expected to inhale it, and in whose name the rose was opened by the witch – a worthy matter which serves as medicine as well as punishment, especially if it hits the double mark. It has also been assured that the Indian women of this city are wont to throw a certain enchantment into the chocolate which is ready for their husbands to drink, and by it they become bewildered. This I only heard however, and I could not vouchsafe its truth.

I will also note here what I saw as a child, and that is that they used to drown in a hole young puppies of a breed of dogs they raise as pets as well as for food. These are a kind of dogs, with but little or no hair at all, which they call tzomes.[14 - Tzomes, according to Sanchez de Aguilar, is the name applied to hairless dogs. The common appellation is kúkbil, or kikbil. Tzom in Maya means a horn, also a proboscis. The word tzomes is close to tzimin, pl. tzimines, the name of the tapir, which has an elongate snout. Alonzo Poncé who was in Yucatan in 1588, speaks of tapirs being called by the natives tzimines, and further states that they call horses by the same name, a definition to be found in the Maya dictionary of Pio Perez.] It is an old Jewish dogma of cosher. See the Apostle, ut abstineant se a suffocatis, etc. – that they abstain from the food of animals dying by smothering or any kind of natural death.

OF THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFSOF THE INDIANS OFYUCATAN IN 1545

Report of Francisco Hernandez

When our people discovered the kingdom of Yucatan they found crosses there, and one cross in particular which was made of stone and mortar, of a height of ten palms, and was erected in the center of a court or enclosure, very prominent and fair, and crowned with battlements; it stands alongside of a sumptuous temple and is very much frequented by a great number of people. This is on the island of Cozumel, which lies near the mainland of Yucatan. It is said that this cross was really adored as the God of Water or Rain; as often as there was a drought they went to sacrifice quail before it, as will be told later. When asked whence or through whom they had first heard of that sign, they replied that a very handsome man had once passed through their country and that he left it with them, that they might always remember him by it. Others, it is said, answered that it was because a man more resplendent than the sun had died on that cross. This is referred to by Peter Martyr in chapter I of his Fourth Decade.

I shall refer to another tale or report which is very unusual and new regarding the Indies, and which until now has not been found in any other part of them. As this kingdom, on account of its close proximity to it, comes within the jurisdiction of my bishopric of Chiapa, on one of my visits I disembarked and remained at a very healthy port. I met there a clergyman, good, so it seemed, of mature age and honest, and [one] who knew the language of the natives from having lived there several years. As it was necessary for me to return to my episcopal residence, I nominated him as my vicar, and ordered and entreated him to travel inland and visit the Indians there and preach to them in a certain way in which I instructed him. After a certain number of months (I even believe it was one year), he wrote to me that on his trip he had met a principal lord or chief, and that on inquiring of him concerning his faith and the ancient belief all over his realm, he answered him that they knew and believed in God who was in heaven; that that God was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That the Father is called by them Içona,[15 - The names to which we call attention in notes 15 to 22 represent, with a single exception, in misspelled form, well-known Mayan deities. It is interesting to note the early influence of the Spaniards on the religious beliefs of the Maya, as evidenced by the interpretation given to Father Hernandez by the old caçique. There is a curious mixture of old and new in the account. Dr Seler has identified the various deities spoken of, and a description of their attributes will be found in Brinton's Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphs. Içona is Itzamna, chief of the beneficent gods, the personification of the East. According to Brinton the name means "the dew or moisture of the morning." Brinton writes, "He was said to have been the creator of men, animals, and plants, and was the founder of the culture of the Mayas. He was the first priest of their religion, and invented writing and books."] and that he had created man and all things. The Son's name was Bacab,[16 - According to Brinton the Bacabs, or Chacs, were the offspring of Itzamna and his consort Ix-Chel (spoken of by the caçique as Hischen).] who was born from a maiden who had ever remained a virgin, whose name was Chibirias,[17 - Chibirias is identified by Seler as Ix-chebel-yax, who, according to Brinton, was "the inventress of painting and of colored designs on woven stuffs."] and who is in heaven with God. The Holy Ghost they called Echuac.[18 - Echuac is Ek Chua, said by Landa to be the god of the cacao planters, hence, as cacao-beans were the medium of exchange, the god of merchants, as here related. It is difficult to understand the confusion by which this god has been interwoven in Christian beliefs as the Holy Ghost.] They say that Içona means the great Father. Bacab, who is the son, they say killed Eopuco,[19 - Eopuco has been interpreted by Seler as Ah uoh puc, or Ah-puch, the God of Death, or God of Evil. Brinton believes that "these words mean the Undoer, or Spoiler, apparently a euphemism to avoid pronouncing a name of evil omen." In modern Maya he is plain Yum cimil, lord of death.] and flagellated him, crowning him with a crown of thorns, and placed him with arms extended on a pole, not meaning that he should be nailed to it, but tied (and in order to show him how, the chief extended his own arms), where he finally died. He was dead for three days, but on the third day he returned to life and went up to heaven, and he is there with his Father. After this immediately came Echuac, which is the Holy Ghost, and he filled the earth with all it needs. When asked what Bacab or Bacabab meant, he said it meant the son of the great Father, and that Echuac meant merchant. And very good merchandise did the Holy Ghost bring to this earth, for he filled men with all their faculties, and divine and abundant graces. Chibirias means mother of the Son of the great Father. He added, furthermore, that at a certain time all men would have to die, but he did not seem to know anything of the resurrection of the flesh. When asked how they came to know all these things, the chief replied that the lords taught their sons, and in this manner it descended from one age to another. They also assert that in olden times, long ago, there came to the land twenty men (he gave the names of fifteen of them), but because they were very poorly written, and furthermore as they do not have great importance for this report, I do not copy them. Of the five others the vicar says he could not obtain their names. The principal one was called Cocolcan,[20 - Cocolcan is Cuculcan, or Kukulcan, the same as the Nahuan Quetzalcoatl. Kukulcan was the feathered or winged serpent god, a deity of culture and kindliness.] and they called this one the God of all kinds of fevers. Two of the others are the Gods of fish, still another two the Gods of farms and homesteads [landed properties], still another was the God of Lightning, etc. They all wore long gowns or mantles, and sandals for their feet. They had long beards, and wore nothing to cover their heads. These men ordained that the people should go to confession and should fast, and some people fasted on Fridays because on that day Bacab had died. The name of this day (Friday) is Himis,[21 - Himis is Imix, the name of the first day of the twenty-day month of the Maya calendar.] and they honor it in their devotion on account of the death of Bacab. The chiefs (caçiques) know all the particulars of those things, but the common people believe only in the three persons, Içona and Bacab and Echuac, and in Chibirias, the mother of Bacab, and also [in] the mother of Chibirias called Hischen,[22 - Hischen is Ix-Chel, the consort of Itzamna. Brinton states that the word means "rainbow," and that the goddess was also known as Ix Kan Leom, "the spider-web" which catches the dew of the morning. Her children, according to Brinton, the Bacabs or Chacs were "four mighty brethren, who were the gods of the four cardinal points, of the winds which blow from them, of the rains these bring, of the thunder and the lightning, and consequently of agriculture, the harvests, and food supply. Their position in the ritual was of the first importance. To each were assigned a particular color and a certain year and day in the calendar."] whom we consider to have been Saint Ann. All this above stated is from information I have received in a letter from that reverend father whose name is Francisco Hernandez, and I still have his letter among my papers. He also stated that he took the said chief to a Franciscan friar who lived near there, and that the caçique repeated all he said before the friar, and they remained both greatly surprised at it. If all those things just stated are true, it would seem that that part of the land had been (long ago) informed about our Holy Faith, for in no other part of the Indies have we ever found such news. It is true that in Brazil, which belongs to the Portuguese, it was stated that traces of the wanderings of Saint Thomas the Apostle had been discovered, but such news could not very well fly over through the air, and furthermore it is quite certain that the country and kingdom of Yucatan give us more special and singular cases to ponder over, and of far greater antiquity, if we think of the great, exquisite, and admirable way the most ancient buildings are constructed, also of a certain lettering in queer characters which are not found anywhere else. Finally these are the secrets which only God knows.

GLOSSARY

Alux, h'lox, or more fully h'loxkatob. According to Brinton the meaning is "the strong clay images." He writes in his paper, The Folk-lore of Yucatan, that "the derivation of this word is from kat, which, in the Diccionario Maya-Español del Convento de Motul (MS. of about 1580), is defined as 'la tierra y barro de las olleras,' but which Perez in his modern Maya dictionary translates 'ollas ó figuras de barro'; ob is the plural termination; lox is strong, or the strength of anything; h' or ah, as it is often written, is the rough breathing which in Maya indicates the masculine gender."

Atole. Nahuan atolli, or atlaolli. Corn-meal gruel.

Balám. Tiger or mountain-lion. The word was applied also to a class of priests and to kings as a title of distinction.

Balché. A fermented liquor made from wild honey and the bark of a tree.

Buhul, buuhul. A section of a stick of wood split lengthwise in the middle.

Bulihuah. Tortillas made of corn-meal and beans. From bul or buul, beans; uah, tortilla.

Caçique. Antillean word meaning a lord or chief.

Camote. Nahuan camotl, a kind of sweet-potato.

Canlahuntaz. Large loaves of native bread. From canlahun, fourteen; taz, tiers, or layers.

Comal. Nahuan comalli, clay griddle.

Hipil. Nahuan huipilli, a woman's chemise.

Huahuapach, ua ua pach. According to Brinton (op. cit.) it means giant crab.

Huit, uith. Loin-cloth.

Jicara. Nahuan xicalli, corrupted into jicara, a calabash.

Kex. To barter or change; also used as a name for ex votos placed on altars.

Kipxosi, kipchoh, cipchoh. "A diviner bird among the Indians."

Kool. A dish prepared by cooking corn with chicken.

Mecapal. Nahuan mecapalli, leathern band used over the forehead for carrying burdens.

Mecate. Nahuan mecatl, rope or cord made of maguey fiber.

Metate. Nahuan metatl, a stone on which corn is ground.

Milpa. Nahuan milli, cultivated land; pan, a postposition.

Mitote. Nahuan mitotli, a dance.

Moloch. Brush-wood or kindling.

Pahatun, pah ah tun. The four pa ah tunes, the lords of rains, are, according to Brinton, "identical with the winds, and the four cardinal points from which they blow… The name pahatun is of difficult derivation, but it probably means 'stone, or pillar, set up or erected.'"

Pib. An underground oven.

Pochat tancab. According to the author of this report the phrase has the same signification as buhul: the offering made to a girl by a prospective bridegroom.

The words seem to be: poc, to wash or rub; hat, numerical termination serving to count split-wood; tancab, outside the house, or in the patio.

Pozole. Nahuan pozolatl, or poçol atl, a drink of cooked corn.

Sacá, zacá. Orgeat of corn; from za, corn gruel; cá, or caa, duplicative particle.

Sintun, zintun. A heated stone for heating water for bathing purposes. From zin, to haul, girdle or encircle; tun, stone.

Taukul, tunkul. A wooden drum.

Tich. A mass celebrated in planted fields. See Brinton, op. cit.