Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan

9

The machete is the large knife which the Indian men of Yucatan invariably carry with them.

10

The arroba is the Spanish measure of twenty-five pounds.

11

We have been unable to find the meaning of the word güero.

12

Calabaza is the Spanish for pumpkin; but the Mexican pumpkin is different from that raised in our latitudes.

13

Jicama seems to be a local word not in the dictionary.

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.

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."

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).

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."

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.

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.

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.

21

Himis is Imix, the name of the first day of the twenty-day month of the Maya calendar.

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."