Chapter II: Part 2

Sentiments of gratitude do not last long. However, we must in this case always except those who were reared in the homes of white people. With few exceptions (when perhaps poor methods or little care in their education, or perchance bad example and ill-treatment dominated), these Indian girls are virtuous, assiduous, disinterested, and very well-disposed toward all the different branches of service and ready to learn whatever they are taught. They are modest, and are fond of dressing themselves nicely and decently. They are so affectionate, true, and grateful, that many a time they grow old in the service of one family, and if this family meets with misfortune and perhaps becomes impoverished, they will go to work outside to help support them, of which I could mention many cases. Just the opposite happens with the men, who, although they were educated in a white family from early childhood, and many a time with the same care as the white children, the cases are rare that they do not gradually drift apart, become estranged, give themselves up to vice, and finally forget their benefactors entirely.

DRESS

The ordinary costume of the men consists of a shirt of white cotton like ours, worn outside the white drawers of the same material, which are wide and reach to the calf of the leg; a belt, white or in colors, is worn around the waist under the shirt; a kerchief; a straw hat, and sandals consisting of only soles which are adjusted to the foot by cords of agave fiber, complete his costume. While at work in the field they take all their clothes off and wear only a loin-cloth, which they call _huit_, consisting of a piece of cotton cloth fastened around the hips, the points passing between the thighs to be fastened to the belt below the navel. From this belt hangs the sheathed machete on the left side.

When they go out, the Indian women wear on their heads either a piece of cotton cloth of about half a yard in width by two and a half yards in length, the ends of which hang down the back, or else they tie a red kerchief around the head, a very bright red being their favorite color. A _hipil_ of cotton is fashioned like a wide sacque-coat, with an opening in the center to put the head through, fitting around the neck, having openings on the two sides for the arms. This _hipil_ reaches to about the calf of the leg, falling on a skirt or petticoat, also of white cotton, three or four fingers longer. It is fastened around the waist under the _hipil_, which falls loosely over it. The hem of both the skirt and the _hipil_ are very often roughly embroidered in blue or red thread. For traveling they wear sandals like the men.

LANGUAGE

The Indians of Yucatan speak the Maya language, though somewhat adulterated through contact with Spanish. Several Spanish expressions have gradually crept into their idiom, especially in cities and principal towns where the Indians are in almost constant intercourse with whites and mestizos. Many among them can speak Spanish perfectly well, but as a rule they avoid it, and will answer in Maya to those who speak Spanish to them.

STATURE, PHYSIOGNOMY, COLOR

Generally speaking, the Indians of Yucatan are of about the same stature as all intertropical races, of a round face, straight black hair, rather coarse, not very pronounced eyebrows, very little beard or none at all, a low narrow forehead, black and expressive eyes, a somewhat flat nose, small but outstanding ears, protruding cheekbones, a regular mouth with thin lips and beautiful teeth, a stout neck, broad chest and shoulders, arms, thighs, and limbs of robust and muscular build. Their hands and feet are small, and the toes of their feet stand closer together than the heels. They have no hair on their bodies except on the head. Their color is a copper-brown, darkened through constant exposure to the sun, especially as they go about almost totally naked. The color of the women is therefore much lighter, and this is also the case with such men as have been reared from childhood in homes of the white people. Among the women there are some very pretty ones, slender in form, with an airy but graceful carriage, and a very sweet voice; but the hard work to which they are subjected from early childhood causes them to lose their beauty at an early age. There are also some truly fine types among the men.

SAVAGE TRIBES

Of real savage tribes there are none in Yucatan. After the greater part of the peninsula, cities as well as villages, had been reconquered from the possession of the Indians who had taken them during their insurrection in 1847, which was general, the most tenacious and unruly ones among them settled in the eastern part of the peninsula, where they have built several towns, the principal one being Chan-Santacruz. From these fastnessess they frequently sally forth to attack and even to raze our absolutely defenseless villages. These attacks cause frightful suffering not only to members of other tribes and races, without regard to sex or age, but they are at times even greater among those of their own race, who at one time or another have either absolutely refused to join their ranks, or, after following their lead for some time, have deserted, and returned to live in peace among the white people.

Another and by far the most numerous band of those rebellious Indians went to settle in the south of the peninsula, and by virtue of the treaty they celebrated with General Vega have given up all hostilities, although they remain in complete independence of national as well as of state authorities, and in peaceful business intercourse with this city (Mérida), and also with Campeche and other points in close proximity to their abodes. Colonel Juan Sanchez Navarro drew a map, which he presented, together with his report, before the government of Yucatan on April 12 of the present year, on which map he gives an approximate idea of the localities on the peninsula still occupied by rebellious Indians who maintain a hostile attitude and those who have agreed to peaceful intercourse. The first mentioned he calls the eastern group, and the last named the southern one.

SANTIAGO MENDEZ. Mérida, _October 24th, 1861_.

NOTE BY ANTONIO GARCÍA Y CUBAS

After having written about several groups of aborigines who inhabit the central part of the republic, I wish to extend these notes with the aid of documents in my possession to the Indians of Tabasco and Chiapas.

The customs, habits, and inclinations of all those Indians in general do not, with any certainty, evoke any hope for the improvement of their race and their subsequent utility and usefulness to the nation. The task I have set for myself is a very delicate one, and there may exist a great many people who will attribute to lack of patriotism the frank statement of many defects in our population; but I observe that our nation is not moving toward its aggrandizement with the alacrity and speed which the progressives among the authorities wish to see. Therefore I consider it necessary to study and point out the defects. I do not wish it to appear as if the conceptions expressed in these lines were imputations of my own imagination, and I wish to state, therefore, that whatever is said in this report is extracted from official documents in my possession.

The aborigines living in the towns and villages of the district of Jalpa, and the same may be said of the rest of the Indians of Tabasco, despite their docility, prefer the wild, uncivilized life of the mountains to the advantages of communal life, if by so doing they are able to evade all public responsibilities and duties. They come together only for their religious festivities, and on all such occasions they are given to drunkenness and gluttony to such a degree that they contract very serious diseases which in a great many cases hasten their demise. With very few exceptions they live in complete vagrancy, and they propagate without respecting any degree of blood relationship. They insist on curing their diseases with all sorts of roots and plants, which, however, mostly impair their health, causing great mortality, especially among children. This may be regarded as the principal cause why very few among their number reach the age of fifty years.

The aborigines who inhabit the borders to the river Usumacinta and its tributaries are for the greater part natives of Yucatan, and are like all the rest of their kind, very fond of drinking. The Indians of Tenosique, about forty years ago, were known as very honest and trustworthy, but their intercourse with the rebels and emigrants from Yucatan have demoralized them to a great extent.

These and other defects, with but a few honorable exceptions, are revealed in the documents treating of the Indians of the district of Comitan, state of Chiapas, which, however, I am not going to enumerate, so as to avoid repetitions, and by so doing make this article altogether too long.

All the above mentioned shows the decadence and general degeneration of the aborigines, as compared with the very scant elements of vitality and vigor that might help in the movement toward progress in our republic. The same customs, the same reserve and diffidence which characterized the Indian of colonial days is manifestly still his today under the so-called protective laws of the republic, which barely give him the title of citizen. Yet, as I have stated before, I do not belong to those who despair of his ultimate civilization, and I believe that the most efficacious means of effecting this is by crossing his breed or race by way of colonization, introducing other nations and elements to come in contact with him.

That this efficacious means of stopping the infinite defects which retard, if they do not hinder, the natural progress of our nation, has not been attained, to my idea, lies in the fact that so far no protective laws have existed which, founded on prevision, afford guaranties and procure work for colonists. There are no laws that fix the boundaries of the immense stretches of waste-land within our country, nor a careful study of climate, geology, and production. There is not, to my knowledge, any report establishing the best methods of making all our territory productive either through sales or the renting of all lands that cannot be tilled by their original owners. Our own elements, as we have tried to demonstrate in this article, are either heterogeneous or too scarce and insufficient to accomplish the task of carrying the nation onward on the road of aggrandizement. Hence it is, according to my idea, colonization, and colonization alone, that may serve as the final remedy for our national ills.

If we had today laws such as I have had reference to, we would at this very moment see European colonists arrive continually, attracted by hopes of a splendid future which our fertile soil and our salubrious climate offer to the industrious and enterprising man. Our population would increase daily at the same pace with the United States of Brazil and Buenos Aires, where European immigration forms an element of prosperity.

It remains for our government to fix in the most decisive way the answer to this question in the interest of the future of our country.

ANTONIO GARCÍA Y CUBAS. Mexico, _May 1st, 1870_.

NOTES ON THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE INDIANS OF YUCATAN

INFORME CONTRA IDOLORVM CVLTORES DEL OBÍSPADO DE YVCATAN.

MADRID, 1639

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] 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 BELIEFS OF THE INDIANS OF YUCATAN 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] and that he had created man and all things. The Son's name was _Bacab_,[16] who was born from a maiden who had ever remained a virgin, whose name was _Chibirias_,[17] and who is in heaven with God. The Holy Ghost they called _Echuac_.[18] They say that _Içona_ means the great Father. _Bacab_, who is the son, they say killed _Eopuco_,[19] 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] 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] 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] 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.

_Xaché xtabay._ According to the author, the name of a plant. The
first word, _xaché_, is evidently _xach_ or _xachah_, to comb.
_Xtabay_ may be _x-_, a prefix, indicating feminine gender;
_tabal_, to deceive.

_Xanleox_, _x'kanleox_. From _x-_, prefix denoting feminine
gender; _kan_, yellow; _lox_, to strike with the closed fist.
Brinton simply gives "yellow goddess" as the equivalent.

_Xbolonthahroch bokolhahoch_, _X bolon thoroch bokol_ (or
_bookol_) _h'otoch_. From _x-_, prefix denoting feminine gender;
_bolon_, nine; _thoroch_, sound of a spindle revolving in its
shaft. Brinton says, "The name therefore signifies 'the female
imp who magnifies the sound of the spindle." _Bokol_ or _bookol_,
to stir; _h_ or _ah_, to indicate the rough breathing which in
Maya denotes the masculine gender.

_Xhantumbú_, _xkantumbub,_ or _xkantun bub_. A small plant used
for medicinal purposes.

_Xtabay._ See etymology under _xaché xtabay_.

_Xulab._ Spelled by Sanchez de Aguilar _xubab_. An ant which
attacks beehives.

_Yuncimil_, _Yumcimil_. The God of Death; from _yum_, universal
father or lord; _cimil_, death.

_Zaztun._ A quartz crystal; from _zaz_, clear; _tun_, stone.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1845

BAEZA, BARTOLOMÉ JOSÉ GRANADO. Los Indios de Yucatan. Informe
dado por el cura de Yaxcabá D. Bartolomé del Granado Baeza, en
contestacion al interrogatorio de 36 preguntas, circulado por el
ministerio de Ultrámar sobre el manejo, vida y costumbres de los
Indios, que acompaño el Illmo. Sr. obispo á la deputacion
provincial. _Registro Yucateco_, Mérida, tomo I, pp. 165-178.

This account was written in Yaxcabá, April 1, 1813. It is one
of the principal sources of information used by Brinton in his
paper, The Folk-lore of Yucatan.

G. C. El Indio Yucateco, carácter, costumbres y condicion de los
Indios de Yucatan. _Registro Yucateco_, Mérida, tomo I, pp.
291-297.

This report is dated Mexico, December 30, 1843.

1846

CARRILLO, ESTANISLAO. Papeles sueltos de P. Carrillo. Fantasmas.
_Registro Yucateco_, tomo IV, pp. 103-106.

The material in this article was used by Brinton in his paper,
op. cit.

HERNANDEZ, JUAN JOSÉ. Costumbres de las Indias de Yucatan.
_Registro Yucateco_, Mérida, tomo III, pp. 290, 298.

This report is dated Mérida, April 24, 1846.

1865

CARRILLO, CRESCENCIO. Estudio historico sobre la raza indigena
de Yucatan. Vera Cruz, 1865, 26 pp.

1882

BANCROFT, HUBERT HOWE. The native races of the Pacific states. 5
volumes, San Francisco.

In the several volumes of this work Bancroft has assembled most
of the early accounts of the manners and customs of the Maya of
Yucatan. He was unaware of the existence of the report by
Mendez which forms the basis of our publication.

1883

BRINTON, DANIEL G. The Folk-lore of Yucatan. _Folk-Lore
Journal_, London, vol. 1, part viii, pp. 1-13.

This study is based largely on the report of Baeza, with
additions from the article of Estanislao Carrillo, and
manuscript notes of several other persons, notably those of
Carl Hermann Berendt.

CARRILLO Y ANCONA, CRESCENCIO. Historia de Welinna. Leyenda
Yucateca. Segunda edición, Mérida, 52 pp.

The first edition was printed in 1862.

1895

BRINTON, DANIEL G. A Primer of Mayan hieroglyphs. _Publications
of the University of Pennsylvania, Series in Philology,
Literature, and Archæology_, vol. III, no. 2.

1905

REJÓN GARCÍA, MANUEL. Supersticiones y leyendas Mayas. Mérida,
1905.

NOTES

[1] For the meaning of this and of other Indian words, consult the glossary.

[2] _Fotuto_ is a musical instrument used by the Carib Indians and also by the negroes of the Antilles.

[3] _Luneros_ are Monday-workers.

[4] _Fagina_--_faena_, manual labor.

[5] _Milpa roza_ is, literally, field cleared of underbrush and ready for planting.

[6] _Milpa caña_, literally cane field.

[7] An _almud_ is a dry measure equivalent to twelve English bushels. There seems to be an error in the quantity here.

[8] The author here seems to have confused the meaning of the word _mitote_ (see glossary). In Yucatan the instrument he describes is called _tunkul_.

[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."