Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan Part 4

1882

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

In the several volumes of this work Bancroft has a.s.sembled 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 ma.n.u.script notes of several other persons, notably those of Carl Hermann Berendt.

CARRILLO Y ANCONA, CRESCENCIO. Historia de Welinna. Leyenda Yucateca. Segunda edicion, Merida, 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 Archaeology_, vol. III, no. 2.

1905

REJoN GARCiA, MANUEL. Supersticiones y leyendas Mayas. Merida, 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] _f.a.gina_--_faena_, manual labor.

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

[6] _Milpa cana_, literally cane field.

[7] An _almud_ is a dry measure equivalent to twelve English bushels.

There seems to be an error in the quant.i.ty 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 _guero_.

[12] _Calabaza_ is the Spanish for pumpkin; but the Mexican pumpkin is different from that raised in our lat.i.tudes.

[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 _kukbil_, 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 Ponce 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 cacique. 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. Icona is _Itzamna_, chief of the beneficent G.o.ds, 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 cacique 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 G.o.d of the cacao planters, hence, as cacao-beans were the medium of exchange, the G.o.d of merchants, as here related. It is difficult to understand the confusion by which this G.o.d 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 G.o.d of Death, or G.o.d of Evil. Brinton believes that "these words mean the Undoer, or Spoiler, apparently a euphemism to avoid p.r.o.nouncing 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ds 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 a.s.signed a particular color and a certain year and day in the calendar."