XBALANQUES MARRIAGE

A dramatic moment in the story of Sun and Moon, as staged by Qeqchi attendants of a course given in Tucur, Alta Verapaz (photo R. van Akkeren)

XBALANQUES MARRIAGE A Commentary on the Qeqchi Myth of Sun and Moon

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P. F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 20 oktober 2010 klokke 15 uur

door

Hyacinthus Edwinus Maria Braakhuis geboren te Haarlem in 1952

Promotiecommissie Promotoren: Overige leden: Prof. Dr. J. Oosten Prof. Dr. W. van Beek, Universiteit Tilburg Prof. Dr. N. Grube, Universiteit Bonn Dr. F. Jara Gmez, Universiteit Utrecht Dr. J. Jansen

Cover design: Bruno Braakhuis Printing: Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede

To the memory of Carlos Roberto Coy Oxom

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CONTENTS

Contents Acknowledgement General Introduction 1. Introduction to the Qeqchi Sun and Moon Myth Main Sources Tale Structure Main Actors The Hero The Older Brother The Old Adoptive Mother The Father-in-Law The Maiden The Maidens Second Husband 2. The Early Life of Sun and His Brother The Old Adoptive Mother and the Age of Cannibalism Cannibalistic Appropriation of Children Adoption and Denial of Ancestry The Tapir Connection The Voracious Partner Killing the Partner The Myth Mirrored: An Adultery Tale Confronting and Subduing Old Woman Sexual Antagonism Warlike Antagonism Destinies of the Meat Cannibalisms Confinement

vi x 1 21 21 24 26

41 43

50

59

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3. Sixteenth-century Sacrificial and Cannibalistic Motifs in the Adoption Episode Kidnapping Babies: Child Sacrifices Eating the Tapir Lover: A War Ritual Guarding the Trophy Tree: Headhunting Eating Old Adoptive Mother: Cannibalism by Trickery

75 76 80 85 88

4. Hummingbird as a War Lord and Mountain Mover 93 Xbalanque 93 Pre-Spanish War God Xbalanque Demonized Oyew Achi 97 Quiche Uinac in the Rabinal Achi Kaqchikel and Tzutujil Intruders in the Quiche Uinac Dances The Quiche Uinac in the Poqomchi MaMuun Dance Oyew Achi (Quiche Uinac) in Folklore Fierce Warrior and Hummingbird Tales Compared 108 5. Hummingbird as a Marriage Candidate The Meaning of the Hummingbird Transformation Petitioning and Bridal Service General Features Bridal Service in Hummingbird Myth Hummingbird Myth in Petitioners Speech Bridal Capture General Features Bridal Capture in Hummingbird Myth Syncretism: The Blanca Flor Tales Blanca Flors Generative Powers Bridal Service and Peonage 6. Transformations of Woman: Game, Fowl, and Honey Bees From Prospective Human Wife to Animal Wife Hunting for a Partner Male Role: Courting the Game Female Roles: Seducing and Welcoming the Game The Owner of the Game as a Father-in-Law 110 111 116

132

139

149 149 155

163

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The Taboo on Adultery Sexual Regeneration of the Bones Role Reversal: The Grandfather among the Deer The Owner of the Game as an Adversary Transference of the Deers Fertility: Qeqchi Hummingbird Myth 7. Transformations of Woman: Harmful Animals Origin of Menstruation Terrestrial and Aquatic Filth Lunar Cycle and Menstrual Cycle Rhetoric of Soul Loss: Looking for the Blood The Crisis of Gestation Empowering Snakes and Insects Herbal Substitutions The Curing Ritual of a Serpent Master Sorcery and Intrusive Magic Biters and Destroyers Fever Vessels Another Pregnancy The Lust of Creation and the Origin of Disease 8. Transformations of Woman: Maize Seeds Hummingbird Myth as a Maize Mountain Myth The Storage Chambers of the Earth Between War and Alliance: A Perspective from Cobn The Status of the Tale The Role of the Mountains The Expanded Maize Mountain Myth of Cobn The Parallel Gift of the Mountain The Farmers Marriage to the Soil and the Maize Human Procreation and Agricultural Ritual The Watchful Parents-in-Law Repentance: A Ritual Theme Parallelism of Hunting and Maize Cultivation 9. Transformations of Woman: The Immutable Wife Restoring Immortality to Mankind

169 172 174 184 185

192 197 199 201 203 206

212 215 215 216 224

234

242 246 246

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Regenerating the Gophers The Death God as an Owner of Animals Founding an Immortal Patrilineage Nuxi as a Caretaker of Souls The Violet Hummingbird: Final Comparisons 10. The Older Brother as a Renouncer of Woman Xulab and the Origin of the Hunt Xulab and the Initiation into the Hunt Xulab as a Lord of the Woods The Lord of the Woods as a Tutor Modalities of the Hunt: Elder and Younger Brother 11. Moons Love Affairs Moons Adultery with the Older Brother Ritual Harmony Disrupted Moons Bathing Place Moons Water Jar Moons Alliance with the Vultures The Vultures as the Original Owners of Fire The Vultures as Assistants to the Devil The Vulture Lord and the New Sun General Conclusions References Cited Appendices App. A: Synopsis of the Qeqchi Sun and Moon Myth App. B: Synopses of Hummingbird Myths App. C: Agriculture and Rain in the Tapir Episode App. D: The Old Adoptive Mother: Aztec Parallels App. E: The Spelling of Mayan Words English and Dutch Summaries Curriculum Vitae 249

256 261 265 266 271

279 286 287

294

308 316 368 368 392 406 413 418 420 431

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Like the myth it is based on, this dissertation evolved over many years. A first version resulted from my work as a research assistant from 1990 to 1995. In the hospitable surroundings of the Institute for Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University, my good friend Rob de Ridder had the ungrateful task of keeping me on the right track. The resulting text, despite its unmanageable proportions, still missed data that I felt were necessary for the interpretation of the core episode of the myth. After a hiatus during which I took up language teaching, I began to publish articles based on the work completed at Utrecht. My inspiration to resume work on the dissertation came from trips to the Alta Verapaz in 2003 and in 2005. During my first trip I was kindly received by Dr. Mario de la Cruz Torres, the author of several intriguing studies of traditional Qeqchi culture, and guided around the Senah plantation of his family. Visits to the Dominican Centro Ak Kutan in Cobn, an unexpected friendship with an elderly Qeqchi catechist, as well as the excellent Qeqchi language lessons of my teacher, Rigoberto Baq Qaal, strengthened my resolve to finish the dissertation. Reorganizing and rewriting a thesis so many years after its inception, and while not being fully a part of academic life, is certainly a challenge, and I doubt if I would have succeeded without the intellectual and moral support of a number of good friends. Discussions with Ruud van Akkeren and Roswitha Manning, both anthropologists expert in Mayan culture, kept the fire burning. Ruud in particular was my lifeline to Guatemala. Addie Johnson and Michael J. Watkins showed extraordinary readiness to help. Their intellectual rigour and sensitivity to shades of meaning were a great example to me. What flows in the text, probably stems from them. I had the good luck of finding a congenial supervisor in the person of Jarich Oosten, whose cautious approach to the data and incisive comments I soon learned to value. His tenaciousness enabled me to transform a voluminous exposition into a doctoral dissertation. Wouter van Beek, who already in my period at the Anthropological Institute in Utrecht had shown a lively interest in my research subject, shared his great knowledge of myth and ritual with me and encouraged me by his kindness. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my great debt to the person who introduced me to Mesoamerican ethnohistory and the Nahuatl language, served as supervisor for the first version of this dissertation, and most importantly, gave me the vivid and never forgotten experience of being able to penetrate the marrow of an archaic culture and think and feel within its categories, Rudolf van Zantwijk. I consider myself privileged to have been one of his students.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

This thesis presents a comparative study of a myth, originally called the Legend of Sun and Moon, that stems from the Qeqchis, a Mayan population living in Guatemala and Belize. The main protagonist of the tale is what has been called a culture hero (Thompson 1970: 355), a character whose daring transforms the world by introducing new and indispensable elements. The Legends hero displays, at the same time, a trickster-like deceit. Although even in its earliest version, the myth dates back only to the turn of the twentieth century (1909), many of its themes and motifs reach back into the pre-Spanish past. It is an important myth, if only for its detail and complexity. Mainly because its principal actors finally change into Sun, Moon, and Venus, it has been called a creation myth (Thompson), which assigns it to the same class as the Aztec myth of the Fifth Sun (made famous through the so-called Calendar Stone), and, more importantly perhaps, puts it on a par with the Twin myth of the 16th-century Kiches (part of the Popol Vuh), whose protagonists also change into Sun and Moon. In the introduction to a recent narratological and grammatical analysis of the Qeqchi myth (and its core episode in particular), it has been suggested that the text, in its 1909 redaction, is for the Qeqchi what the Popol Vuh is for the Quiche, or Genesis for Judeo-Christians an ur-text and so warrants not only careful analysis, but multiple analyses (Kockelman 2007: 309). The use of the term ur-text may be debatable, but the quotation justly underlines the texts importance as the earliest testimony of Qeqchi oral tradition. A key issue in the present thesis is the relation between the Qeqchi myth and the Twin myth of the Popol Vuh, which is the only extensive Mayan myth known from the early colonial period, and which has demonstrable roots in the Classic period of Mayan culture. Whereas the Twin myth has been the object of a long series of scholarly editions and commentaries, the Sun and Moon myth of the Qeqchis has for various reasons drawn relatively little attention. Notably, as a written document, the Kiche myth is the product of a literate elite still situated within the tradition of pre-Spanish high culture, whereas the Qeqchi myth was not reported until the early twentieth century, and is usually regarded as a peasant folk tale. Moreover, the Qeqchi myth is sometimes taken as

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derivative of and thus also, theoretically, reducible to the Kiche Twin myth (e.g., Graulich 1987: 155-159; 1997b: 157, 174-175). The case for a derivative nature of the Qeqchi myth may have been fostered by the use in its older variants of Xbalanque for its hero, since this is also the name of one of the Kiche Hero Twins. In the course of this study, I will argue for the significance of the Qeqchi hero myth as representative of a distinctive tradition existing side by side with the Kiche Twin myth. This thesis builds on previous work (Braakhuis 1987, 2001, 2005, 2009a), and constitutes the first extended commentary on the Legend of Sun and Moon in its entirety. Apart from being a contribution to the study of Mesoamerican mythology, and of culture heroes in particular, the pivotal role played by the myths female actors will be of particular value for those interested in the gender ideology of Mesoamerican societies (cf. Joyce 2001). Also, some chapters are relevant to anthropological discussions of the conceptualization of animals in what harking back to Tylor have been called animistic cultures (cf. Viveiros de Castro 1998, Pedersen 2001), while other chapters trace the myths relation to curing and black sorcery, and thereby relate both to medical anthropology, and to the study of dark shamans a field recently invigorated by Amazonian studies (cf. Whitehead and Wright 2004). Since this investigation concerns a myth that is a treasure of traditional Qeqchi culture a culture now transformed to a considerable degree it could prove of value to those most directly concerned: Mayan scholars and investigators, and also Qeqchis and other Mayas interested in their own roots. The transcultural communication sought is necessary despite its pitfalls. Anthropological discourse should accommodate a small but significant new class of western-educated, Maya-speaking Guatemalans who strongly identify with their own people. The emancipatory Maya Movement, known as Maya revivalism, Maya revitalization movement, among other names, is sustained by the National Academy of Mayan Languages (founded in 1986). It is also supported by a network of local Mayan agencies that capitalize on considerable international aid and anthropological attention to organize workshops, courses, and conferences (see Fischer and McKenna Brown 1996, Warren 1998). Core issues are the promotion of education in the vernacular (e.g., Garzn et al. 1998), the correction of a distorted national historiography, and the redefining of the relation between ancestral ritualism and Christianity. It also seeks to stem

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the tide of acculturation by promoting a cultural reconstruction and preserving a traditional Mayan culture impoverished by an extended period of state terror. The movements main representatives hold a variety of viewpoints, but in general they serve as eloquent yet critical Mayan interlocutors, and often take exception to past anthropology. Admittedly, there is a marked asymmetry in the exchange of data and scholarly ideas, and a preponderance of western scholarly decision-making with regard to what is, or is not, relevant and representative of the state of the art. The difference in viewpoints has found its way into the identity debate. In particular, it has been noted (Fischer and McKenna Brown 1996: 3) that, as Maya scholars have turned to essentialism, North American and European academics have begun to reject this traditional analytic style, striving instead for more fluid paradigms that focus attention on the ambiguity and the many layers of contested meanings that underlie cultural data and its collection. This observation is to the point, even though essentialism (the search for what is essentially Mayan) is only a specific instance of a generalizing discourse that, as such, is hardly restricted to Mayan scholars. No less importantly, within the dynamic culture area of Mesoamerica, Mayan identity has always been negotiated. Infused with ideals of self-definition and self-determination (see Warren 1998: 18-21, 160-162), Mayan scholars often resist what they perceive as a hegemonic imposition of western categories, as for example the word god to describe powerful non-human agencies (e.g., Montejo 2005: 47-49). The assignment by an outsider of a particular meaning to a traditional Mayan tale may be taken as a claim to a superior sort of understanding, and thus as unacceptable intellectual appropriation. Given the strongly politicized environment in which the Maya Movement of necessity operates, tensions between Mayan and non-Mayan intellectuals are probably unavoidable. They need not, however, preclude a mutually beneficial scholarly exchange. The position taken by Mayan intellectuals (modern urban Mayan scholars, professionals and activists) is in some sense ambiguous. Their critical attitude derives in part from their tendency to view themselves as the spokesmen and defenders of traditional Mayan culture. In search of a new Mayan identity, some of them have turned to the lessons of the elders of the mountain villages and their Maya ways of knowing (Montejo 2005: 139-157). The elders, however, sometimes referred to as traditionalists, primarily define themselves in terms of their ritual activities. Their definition of Mayanness is thus a pragmatic one, not readily interpreted in terms of the urban life of Mayan

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intellectuals. For a Qeqchi traditionalist, for example, the cult of the mountain spirits as expressed in the sacrificial rites (mayejak) and the pilgrimages to the Thirteen Tzuultaqa, or sacred mountains constitute the core of his identity. As one of these elders argued (in Preuss 2000: 14): Many say that we are polytheistic because we believe in different gods, for example, in the mountains. Nevertheless, we are not polytheistic, but it is just that we respect and venerate all that God has created, and in this case we are in constant communication with the mountains, because the mountains exist. They are tall and they see us from there, and our daily activities, all that we do, they are seeing our lives. Thus, for that reason we always maintain communication with them. It is a definition of Mayan identity like this, so hard to incorporate into a modern way of living, which as will soon become clear constitutes the background of the oral traditions that will here be investigated. In writing this thesis, I have taken account of recent Qeqchi publications and have been guided by an awareness of the crucial importance of native exegeses the participants points of view and of the inevitable limitations of explanations imposed from the outside. In some respects, this thesis relates to important issues of contemporary Mayan activism. Although in the Maya Movement, a certain preponderance of the Kiche and Kaqchikel Mayas is noticeable, the idea of a pan-Mayan identity could be taken to imply that, the advantages of an indigenous lingua franca notwithstanding, no language group should hold precedence over any other (cf. Warren 1998: 5859). The myth treated here, and its central episode in particular, is exemplary in this respect, since it occurs in different renderings all over the Mayan area, and unlike the Popol Vuh cannot be considered the intellectual property of a single group. Another issue is the sacredness of the earth and its products, a recurrent theme in contemporary Mayan self-representations (e.g., Warren 1998: 152-153, Montejo 2005: 67-68). In this regard, the Qeqchi myth, together with its other Mayan versions, provides access to a complex way of thinking about mans relation to the earth that transcends the simplistic discourse about Mother Earth and Mother Nature that sometimes occurs within the Maya Movement (e.g., Montejo 2005: 153; Raxche Rodrguez Guajn, in Fischer and McKenna 1996: 76). It is likely that ideas similar to

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those underlying the Qeqchi myth were once an integral part of pre-Hispanic Kiche culture, too, even though they are not treated by the Popol Vuh. Map: The Qeqchi Heartland

Before setting out the main lines of this study and considering some matters of methodology, I will attempt a sketch of Qeqchi culture and history.1 Qeqchi is both the name of an indigenous language and an ethnic designation. As a language, it belongs to the eastern, Kiche branch of Mayan languages (Kiche proper being also the language of the Popol Vuh). The more than half a million Qeqchi speakers (estimates tend to vary considerably) are widely spread over the adjacent Guatemalan departments of the Alta Verapaz, Izabal and the Petn, as well as the southern Toledo district of Belize (formerly British Honduras). The Qeqchi heartland is the rugged Alta Verapaz, an area
1

For the following paragraphs, I have chiefly drawn upon Wilson (1995), Siebers (1996), and Kahn (2006), as well as on the encyclopedic articles by an anonymous contributor to the Handbook of Middle American Indians (in Vogt ed., 1969: 237-243) and by Schackt (2001: 48-50).

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measuring up to ninety kilometers north to south by a hundred and forty east to west, and occupying approximately one-twelfth of the Guatemalan territory. The Qeqchis living here constitute the bulk of the population. To the south lies the smaller department of the Baja Verapaz, with Kiche-speaking Rabinal as one its main towns. Until 1877, the Alta and Baja Verapaz together constituted the Verapaz department. In the southern part of the Alta Verapaz as well as in the Baja Verapaz, various communities speak Poqomchi, a language related to Kiche and Qeqchi. To the north, the mountainous Alta Verapaz gives way to the Petn lowlands, which until the tenth century were occupied by indigenous kingdoms in which still another Mayan language (related to present-day Chol and Chorti) was spoken. From early days, the provincial capital of the Alta Verapaz, Cobn, has a sizeable Qeqchi-speaking population represented in a variety of professions outside agriculture. One of the Qeqchi tales to be studied here was collected and written down by a Cobn headmaster, Tiburcio Caal. Bilingual Qeqchi speakers nowadays play a role in national life. For the greater part, however, the Qeqchis are maize cultivators like their ancestors, living in hamlets and small towns (the latter numbering fifteen in the Alta Verapaz alone). Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth belongs to an ancient culture that, particularly over the last three decades, has undergone rapid and significant transformations. Little is known about the Qeqchi people and their history prior to the Spanish conquest. The Verapaz in its entirety, including Qeqchi, Poqomchi, and Achi Mayas, was known as Tezulutlan. As early as 1530, the Kiche and Kaqchikel kingdoms of the Central Highlands had been conquered (although the pacification took more time), but the Qeqchi-speaking chiefdoms of the northern mountain regions were still holding out. On the instigation of Bartolom de las Casas, the region was put under the tutelage of the Dominican Order (1537), and was pacified by Dominican missionaries instead of the military hence the name Verapaz True Peace that the Spanish King bestowed upon the region. In 1543, the most powerful Qeqchi leader, Aj Pop Batz (or Matalbatz), accepted baptism, and in this and the following year, the three settlements that were to constitute the core of the Qeqchi area, namely Cobn, Chamelco, and Carch, were founded. The friars effort to concentrate a population that ranged over the mountains into a few towns was only partially successful. Both within and beyond the Verapaz, Chol-speaking Mayas were still offering resistance. Once subdued, they were settled in

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Qeqchi-speaking places, notably Cahabn, Lanquin, and Cobn. For about three centuries, the Dominican Order succeeded in preventing secular encroachment on their domain, while at the same time controlling labor for small-scale plantations and industries and collecting tribute in the name of the Spanish king. Therefore, although the local Mesoamerican religion had to accommodate to Catholicism, the Alta Verapaz retained a strong indigenous, Mayan character. This situation of protection persisted until the nineteenth century. In 1821, Spain lost control over Guatemala, which, about twenty years later, became an independent state. The Dominican Order lost its jurisdiction over the Verapaz. For the Qeqchi population, the advent of economic liberalism (1871) with the presidency of Barrios was a major turning-point. The Dominicans were expelled and new legislation, backed up by coercion and brutal force, put indigenous communal landholdings and Qeqchi labor at the disposal of the coffee plantations that were being established, principally by German immigrants. In 1877, forced labor was reintroduced; in 1894, debt peonage was legalized. The nineteenth century saw various Qeqchi revolts, and the beginning of Qeqchi migration into the Petn and what was then British Honduras. In part, the early Qeqchi migration into the latter region was an escape from the Guatemalan forced labor laws; for another part, Qeqchi laborers were brought in to work on a local German plantation. Emigration, especially into the Petn department, has continued until the present. In 1943, anti-Nazi policies resulted in the expropriation of Germanowned plantations in the Alta Verapaz; the landholdings were partly converted into cooperatives supervised by the national government. At the national level, a military coup the following year brought hope to many, but it also signaled the beginning of a long period of social instability and violence. Between 1945 and 1954, reform-minded presidents tried to introduce social and agrarian change, but ethnic conflict and violence increased. In 1954, the reform policies were reversed in the wake of another military coup. From 1960 until the reinstatement of civilian rule in 1985, there was a slow rise of guerrilla warfare and of ruthless counterinsurgency policies that, in the early 1980s, assumed the dimensions of genocide and ethnocide. Not until 1996 was a peace treaty between the national government and the guerrilla organizations signed and this period of violence formally ended. The Alta Verapaz, particularly its western half, was greatly affected by the violence. State terror led to the assassination of hundreds of Qeqchi

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leaders (especially Roman Catholic catechists), destruction of about a hundred hamlets, and large-scale flight from the land to the wooded mountains. New communities under strict supervision of the army were established, and their inhabitants brainwashed in a deliberate attempt to eradicate any sense of cultural and ethnic identity. The polarizing strategy of the army caused enduring rifts and divisions within the indigenous population. Moreover, the geographical displacements brought about a general cultural dislocation (Wilson). One consequence was a partial suspension and lasting degradation of agricultural ritual, particularly at community level.2 Among Qeqchis with some formal education, the horrors of the 1980s fueled a strong revivalist trend, fostered chiefly by catechists at the service of the Cobn diocese. Wilson has shown how their re-invention of tradition focused on Mountain-Valley (Tzuultaqa), the collective representation of the landscape and paramount agricultural deity. Qeqchi peasants had sometimes conceived Mountain-Valley as having the outward appearance of a German plantation owner. Conscious of this, the army had presented itself as the true Mountain-Valley, against whom every resistance was bound to fail. Now, educated Qeqchis reclaimed this ancestral icon of native power. The image of this deity in traditional Qeqchi culture and its role in narrative will figure importantly in this thesis. Ethnic identity remained an issue of great urgency after the 1996 peace treaty. The local branch of the National Academy of Mayan Languages promotes the production of dictionaries, grammars, and school books in Qeqchi, and legislation now allows school education in the vernacular. There are various projects for salvaging ancestral traditions and the results published in Qeqchi. The idea of being Qeqchi, rather than belonging to a specific, Qeqchi-speaking community, is thus receiving strong incentives. In this context, it deserves mention that an adaptation of not only the Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth (Cu Cab 2003), but also the Popol Vuh (Baq Qaal 1995), a text originally written in another Mayan language, has recently been made available to the Qeqchi-reading public. Whereas only relatively recently could it be argued that a Mayan awareness did not exist among the Qeqchis (Siebers

A recent treatment of this period from the viewpoint of the victims will be found in Alfonso Huets Nos salv la sagrada selva: La memoria de Veinte Comunidades Qeqchies que sobrevivieron al Genocidio (Coban: ADICI Wakliiqo, 2008).

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1996: 58), such an argument could hardly be made today, even though the awareness is probably restricted to a relatively small educated elite. The traditional way of life of the Qeqchis inhabiting the mountains is still in many respects similar to that of other highland Mayan peoples, and some of its salient features should be outlined here. One should be aware, however, that there is considerable local variation (see especially Siebers 1996), and that change has accelerated since the upheavals of the eighties. Qeqchi homesteads are usually well spaced, even when grouped in a hamlet. Some of the homesteads and hamlets are established on coffee or cardamom plantations, their inhabitants (formerly referred to as mozos colonos, resident laborers) living like peons in nearly complete dependence on their owners, and holding only small pieces of land in usufruct. Some of the myths earlier versions stem from such a semi-feudal context. Other Qeqchis live on the land of the cooperatives that originated when plantations were confiscated. Most peasants rent their land; some are smallholders. There is a certain amount of cash cropping, but many have to migrate to the plantations to supplement their income. Spread over the Alta Verapaz are townships (such as Santa Mara Cahabn, San Juan Chamelco, San Pedro Carch) in which one finds Qeqchi traders, and in which a small number of Ladinos also make their homes. Mayan peasant households are generally headed by a father and the eldest son, whereas the youngest son is likely to succeed the father as the owner of the house. The land of a neolocal Qeqchi family is often inherited from the husbands parents (Siebers 1996: 54). The land is worked on a fallow-rotational base, with maize and beans as the principal crops. Turkeys, chicken, and pigs are commonly raised, but cattle (only known since the Spanish conquest) are rare, especially in the Alta Verapaz itself. The diet is sometimes supplemented by the hunting of deer, where they can still be found, and of smaller mammals. The role of the hunt in narrative is, however, particularly in the Sun and Moon myth, ideological rather than reflective of its actual economic importance. With regard to the social structure of the Qeqchi community, kinship networks (bilateral, with a patrilineal bias) have limited significance, and lineages with corporate features are non-existent. This may have been different in the past. Exogamous lineages and clans with distinct social functions have been argued to have existed in ancient Yucatan, among the Tzotziles and Tzeltales of Chiapas, and also in the pre-Spanish Kiche kingdom (see Gillespie 2000 and Watanabe 2004). However this may once have been, many

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traditional Qeqchi communities are nowadays structured by a double hierarchy of communal and religious offices, the latter chiefly existing within the brotherhoods responsible for the cult of the saints, first of all the villages patron saint, and rotating amongst the households. Those who passed through the highest ranks constitute the influential group of elders. A number of publications of varying scope have been devoted to Qeqchi culture and society, but anthropological coverage has on the whole been limited and uneven. This is especially true for the Alta Verapaz. Isolated aspects of the early-twentieth century culture of the Alta Verapaz Qeqchis have been described in articles written by a German geographer-explorer and member of a planter family (K. Sapper) and by the dominant German plantation owner of the entire region (E. Dieseldorff). Much later, an amateur historian (Estrada Monroy) devoted two books to Qeqchi culture, one (1979) a collection of historical documents, or paraphrases thereof, the other (1990) an amalgam of folklore, customs, prayer, and myth, and a medical doctor and local politician (Cruz Torres) collected and published a series of Qeqchi tales, including an important variant of the myth concerning us here. There are a few books of a more anthropological nature that afford insight into traditional Qeqchi culture and worldview. They cover only the last decades of the twentieth century; several of them were written from a pastoral perspective by Catholic priests. The most important and original of these was by the Jesuit priest, C. R. Cabarrs (1975), who did fieldwork among the Alta Verapaz Qeqchis in the early 1970s in an effort to come to grips with the moral dimension of their worldview (cosmovisin). Whereas the book contains rather abstract discussions of general themes (such as the concepts of guilt and sorcery), it also frequently descends to the micro-level, which is so indispensable for interpreting myth. In a separately published chapter of his theological thesis, the Dominican Parra Novo (1993) reported on the customary practices of Cahabn. And two books similar to Parra Novos in their rather old-fashioned design were published by the Salesian priest, L. Pacheco (1984, 1988). Only one book relevant to the aim of this study entirely belongs to modern (rather than post-modern) anthropological discourse: Maya Resurgence in Guatemala, by the British social anthropologist, R. Wilson. Based on fieldwork carried out in the years 1987-1991, it has become a standard work on Qeqchi culture. With a focus on the changes brought about by the

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period of violence and their consequences for Qeqchi identity, the book includes chapters setting out and discussing the concepts governing agricultural and healing ritual, as well as an insightful analysis of the changing conceptualization of the mountains (the tzuultaqas). By contrast, the authors treatment of the Sun and Moon myth (1995: 104-105) is disappointingly short, and vitiated by a one-sided view of the tale as a cosmogonic myth: The hero and his wife are exclusively treated as celestial bodies within the narrow context of an agricultural ritual, while the deeper significance of their interactions with the Tzuultaqa is not discussed.3 With regard to the traditional culture of the north-eastern, Belizean Qeqchis, one of the main sources for the Qeqchi myth studied here is to be found in a comprehensive, factual 1930 monograph on the Mayas of southern and central British Honduras (now Belize), written by the British archaeologist and ethnohistorian, J.E.S. Thompson. The book pays considerable attention to oral tradition and focuses on two Yucatec Mayan and Mopan Mayan villages, one of which (San Antonio) included a significant number of Guatemalan Qeqchi immigrants, who probably brought the myth of Sun and Moon with them. The American anthropologist and activist, Liza Grandia, recently (2004) published a small collection of Qeqchi tales from southern Belize, including variants of Sun and Moon myth, that shows how much can still be gained by cooperating with local communities, even in times of increasing globalization.4 My approach to mythology can be characterized as eclectic (on eclecticism in anthropology, see Rapport and Overing 2007: 278-283). I do not commit to the assumptions of any specific school of thought. Thus, rather than

Two other anthropological works should be mentioned. Sieberss (1996) valuable systematic investigation into the different degrees of modernization in Guatemalan Qeqchi communities includes a treatment of several broad groups of customary practices, but does not add significantly to already existing knowledge of Qeqchi ritual. Kahns recent (2006) monograph on the Qeqchis of Livingston, Guatemala, while containing a useful historical account and some interesting discussions, is obfuscated by post-modernist jargon. 4 Other major publications on the Belize Qeqchis focus on social structure, in particular the cargo system and religious diversification (Schackt 1983), and on land use and agriculture (Wilk 1991).

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determined by a single conceptual framework, my choice of concepts often depends on the issue at hand. The study of Mesoamerican mythology has been influenced by many schools of thought. Apart from earlier schools that focused on deities narrowly defined as personifications of natural phenomena (Preuss, Seler) and that are ancestral to present-day ethnoastronomical interpretations of myth (Milbrath, Schele, Aveni), these include: formalist, narrative syntax (Colby); Lvi-Straussian structuralism (Mayn); a much more restricted and sociologically oriented structuralism (Van Zantwijk); the phenomenology of Eliade (Lpez Austin); and a more functionalist approach (Taggart). To this list might be added the esoteric, neo-shamanist currents represented by Prechtel and, lately, Barbara Tedlock. My own approach, while fitting within the weakly-defined field of symbolic anthropology, makes use of certain elementary structuralist notions, though hardly of Lvi-Straussian rules of transformation (from one myth or mythological complex into another). It is also functionalist in the broad sense that the myths under scrutiny are assumed to have a message that is somehow relevant to the ongoing concerns of social life, whether expressed in ritual forms or not. The present thesis is first of all a comparative analysis of texts based on an inventory of existing versions of a Qeqchi hero myth in its various episodes. These tales have often been published in Spanish or English renderings, which means that they are likely to have lost shades of meaning, or even part of their message. The other data used in this study are heterogeneous, and include ritual texts such as incantations and prayers, dance scripts, all sorts of ethnographical observations, as well as data taken from historical documents from the sixteenth century. Three major problems in interpretation have been the absence of detailed early ethnographies; the lack of information regarding narrative contexts (perhaps implying that telling the tale was not restricted to special occasions); and the dearth of explicit native exegesis in the sources for the tale. Research in the field, whether by Qeqchi investigators or others, may yet help resolve some of these problems, but for the time being they engender the risk of reducing the richness and complexity of the tales and their interpretive possibilities by the imposition of analytical categories of questionable relevance. To obviate this risk and to obtain a realistic idea of the possible meanings of the mythological events for the participants at any given moment, two main heuristic approaches have been adopted.

13
First, the episodes of Qeqchi myth will not only be compared with parallel episodes among other Mayan and, occasionally, non-Mayan peoples, but will also be situated within a wider range of tales. In each case, the new narrative environment thus constituted affords fresh possibilities of interpretation. Examples of this procedure are the various sorts of cannibal and adultery tales to be discussed in the second and third chapters, the legendary tales about the Fierce Warrior together with the syncretic bridal service tales in the fourth and fifth chapters, the hunting tales in the sixth chapter, and the tales about the lord of the forest in the tenth chapter. Second, an effort will be made to find connections between the mythological themes at hand and ritual practices, particularly in the fields of (pre-Spanish) cannibalism, curing, courtship and marriage, hunting, maize cultivation, and, to a lesser extent, initiation. In this way, I attempt to do what according to Mary Douglas (1967: 65) is a vital part of the anthropologists task, namely to understand enough of the background of the myth to be able to construct its range of reference for its native hearers. This is not really very different from what symbolic anthropology and Geertzian thick description were shortly thereafter trying to put into practice. The two heuristic approaches outlined above entail comparisons in space and time, and make use of early colonial sources on the Qeqchis, other Mayan groups, as well as Aztecs and Pipiles. Such comparisons can be justified in various ways, geographically as well as historically. Geographically, the Qeqchis belong to the same culture area as the other Mayas and as the Aztecs, an area baptized Mesoamerica by P. Kirchhoff (1943). Kirchhoff, who was the first to define this cultural area, resorted to a mixture of traits taken from the fields of archaeology (e.g., ball game courts) and ethnology (e.g., the divinatory calendar). Belonging to the Mesoamerican culture area is not just a matter of sharing isolated features, however, but more importantly, of using basic concepts and following trains of thought that are sufficiently similar to permit cultural translation in an area characterized by a great diversity of local expressions. The concept of a Mesoamerican culture area, as it is commonly held nowadays, is akin to the view of Indonesia as a field of anthropological study, a field in which the constituent cultures are considered to be interconnected by structural transformations (Josselin de Jong 1980; cf. Lpez Austin 1993: 12-15, on Mesoamerica). Apart from constituting one culture area, contemporary Mesoamerican cultures, insofar as they can still be called traditional, often show a remarkable

14
continuity over time, despite the drastic changes that have occurred during the centuries following the Spanish conquest, and despite selective adaptations of native religion and mythology to Christianity. This continuity (always in varying degrees, and in specific areas) is not a romantic fiction. Understood as a dynamic process of reaffirmation, selection, and adjustment, rather than as a more or less automatic transmission, the concept of continuity informs much of modern scholarship regarding present-day indigenous cultures of Mexico and Guatemala. With respect to oral tradition, widespread contemporary tales (such as those of the origin of sun and moon and the provenance of the maize seeds) are but variants of those found in early colonial sources (see Lpez Austin 1993: 16-20). Even the name of the early-20th century hero of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth can, as noted above, be traced back to the 16th century. This same continuity, in general worldview as well as on more specific points, made it possible to use contemporary Mesoamerican tales, rituals, and concepts to reach even further back in time, and decode parts of pre-Spanish pictorial manuscripts (see for example Loo 1987, 1989).5 For the above reasons, Mesoamerican tales from different periods may in principle legitimately be compared; and, wherever their cohesion with more recent material appears to justify doing so, my interpretive arguments shall include data from early written sources. As a prelude to an analysis of the Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, consideration should be given to the important issue of myths relation to reality (in its social, historical, and ritual dimensions) and to the choice of descriptive categories. Basically, myth is here viewed as a model, or mental structure, with a high degree of autonomy, and which, in the narrative process, is continually searching for new expressions, yet continues to exist without important modifications as long as it serves its narrators and their public in penetrating experienced reality more deeply than would be possible with normal discourse. For this same reason, the most important mythological genre of Tzotzil oral tradition is called true ancient narrative (batz antivo kop; emphasis added) (Gossen 1974: 140ff, 298ff). Instead of reflecting social reality directly, myth rather operates dialectically. If, for example, the tale stages sexual interactions

For methodological reasons, comparisons involving Mayan and Mesoamerican iconography have been excluded from this thesis, thus largely precluding an extension of the argument to the pre-Hispanic period.

15
with animals, this is very likely to stand in a marked contrast to the taboo on bestiality governing actual behavior; yet, through this very contrast, it can evoke an ideology according to which the hunt is eroticized. Myth infringes upon the normal order of things by putting before ones eyes excessive, or even impossible behavioral modes; often, such excesses occurring in a mythical past turn out to be creative, in that they give origin to new phenomena. In Mesoamerican hero myths, this finds expression in the murderous behavior of the heroes aged adoptive mother which, in many tales, leads to the origin of the steam bath. It is also evident in the excessive behavior of the Qeqchi heros older brother, which induces the origin of wild animals, and in the behavior of his father-in-law, which leads to the establishment of curative ritual. In the interpretation of the Qeqchi myth, historical analogies will play a certain role, as will be especially apparent in the Chapters Three and Four. This poses the question of the relation between myth and history. Just as myth does not intend to reflect social reality, it is not reducible to historical discourse if for no other reason than because it is usually told without the primary intent of rendering historical events. This point notwithstanding, mythological narratives will at times contain historical references, and a given pattern of mythical events may lend itself to a historical reading by the cultures participants. As an example, sixteenth-century tales connected to Mixcoatl (the father of Quetzalcoatl) that picture him as a nomadic deity of the hunt and that draw upon stereotypical hunting tales, appear to have some basis in historical processes through which peripheral populations of the northwest (the so-called Chichimecs) rose to importance in Central Mexico (see Davies 1987: 423-440). Indigenous sources stereotypically cast these peoples in the mold of bands of migrating hunter-gatherers, or savage tribes, penetrating into established realms, and eventually marrying-in and assimilating.6 In reality, the Chichimec invasions may in some respects have been comparable to those of the migrating Germanic tribes assimilating within the Roman Empire, or of Attilas Huns in Central Europe.7

On the role of the Chichimecs in early-Mexican legend and the imagery connected to them, see Len-Portilla (1967) and Zantwijk (1985: 37ff, and 1992). The unassimilated peoples living in the far North were more specifically designated as Teochichimecah true Chichimecs. 7 R.A.M. van Zantwijk kindly called my attention to these historical parallels.

16
The early history of the Kiche ancestors, as described in the Popol Vuh, invokes an imagery similar to those of the indigenous sources just mentioned. It may, therefore, be significant that the hero of the Mayan myth to be discussed in this thesis is another hunter penetrating into foreign territory, and one who (as will be shown later) can bear the name of a pre-Spanish war deity (Xbalanque), or assume an ancient military title (Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior), a title associated with the expansion of the Kiche kingdom into other polities. However, such instances should not be taken to imply that it is history that shapes the tale. Rather, history tends to be cast in the mold of certain myths, which is the main reason why (as will appear on various places in this thesis) topics from the myth of Sun and Moon recur in Mesoamerican historical narratives.8 The relation between myth and ritual is a classic and long-standing problem of religious anthropology, from Tylor and Frazer up to Burkert and Ren Girard. The forms that ritual can take are manifold, ranging from highly formalistic and apparently meaningless arrangements to mimetic performances directly expressive of mythical events. Wherever a connection with myth is plausible, ritual can, perhaps, be reasonably assumed to imply its own particular interpretation of the myth. Considering that the rituals themselves also tend to attract and accumulate diverse interpretations, the connection should be made with considerable caution. It will be shown that in several ritual (or ritualized) contexts, references are made to the actions of the Qeqchi hero, or his Mayan counterparts elsewhere, whereas, conversely, certain narrative moments will be suggested to refer to ritual actions. Due to the dearth of knowledge of the traditional Qeqchi society of the past, some intended connections are probably no longer discernible. At times, I offer my speculative thoughts about the possible implications of narrative and ritual events, a considered view being more conducive to scholarly discussion than silence. An example of this is a pre-Spanish Kaqchikel ritual arguably giving expression to an episode that the Qeqchi hero myth shares with those of the Chortis and Pipiles.

A possible ethnohistorical dimension of the Qeqchi myth has been explored elsewhere (Akkeren 2000); in this thesis, reconstructions of ancient history will only marginally be touched upon.

17
The transition from a mythological discourse of a particular culture to the culture of academic discourse inevitably poses the problem of translation and the choice of descriptive categories. In the arguments to be presented here, the actors of a given myth will at times be referred to as gods or deities, terms that usually are not translations of a native word, but that have their usefulness within our own intellectual tradition. There is no ready equivalent of the category god in Qeqchi: Bible translations use Dios or Qajaw Our Father instead, and in Mayan narratives such terms as owners (Sp. dueos; Qeqchi aj eechal) or even saints (the Mopan Sun hero is called Santo Kin) are more common. Although god does translate into other Mayan languages (such as Kiche and Yucatec), the semantic reach of such Mayan terms is likely to be more in line with that of Aztec teotl than with that of deity in its traditional Western usage. It has been suggested (Monaghan 2000: 27) that the Mesoamerican notion of deity should be viewed as being pantheistic rather than polytheistic, meaning that deities are like the emanations of a central life force that can easily merge and separate. In using certain terms, the precedence of structure over its constituent elements in generating meaning must be respected, and undue identifications between elements precluded. At times, a deity will, perhaps, be stated to personify the earth or some force of nature. This is a way of speaking, common enough in Mesoamericanist scholarship, which should not be misunderstood. The same holds true for a predication like god of X (which I have generally tried to avoid). Such terms should not be taken as implying a one-to-one relationship between the deity and the phenomenon concerned (even less any vision of a fixed pantheon), nor should any further qualification of a deity be assumed to reflect an essentialist assumption of homogeneity. Often, personification' is equivalent to being the person-like transformation of something that in principle could assume an indefinite number of shapes. More generally, when I state that A represents (or is representative of) B say, the earth then I usually intend to indicate that A and B are intimately connected rather than identical. As with deities, animals often have a considerable semantic complexity, and the above remarks apply equally to their predication. In Qeqchi myth, many episodes have their characteristic animals. If, within the framework of a specific episode, I were to highlight a certain aspect of the tapir by calling it a phallic animal, this should not preclude entirely different connotations in other contexts.

18
Similarly, in comparing mythological characters from different tales, a formula such as A is the counterpart of B, or A corresponds to B, is intended, not to imply full identity, but rather to establish comparability. The characters concerned are assumed to occupy comparable structural positions within a narrative frame and to share a number of basic qualities (say, of age or social function) without being identical. The purpose of such comparisons may be that of assessing the degree of variability within a given narrative structure. With these preliminaries in mind, we may now turn to the Qeqchi tale of Sun and Moon itself. The tale owes its restricted familiarity to J.E.S. Thompson (1898-1975), the leading figure of Mayan studies well into the 1960s. As already stated, in 1930, he published one of the myths most important variants, to which he returned in two studies, respectively nine and forty years later. His 1939 study, The Moon Goddess in Middle America, is an analysis of the various functions of the Qeqchi myths main female protagonist, functions in the loose sense of spheres of action (such as sex and procreation, water and earth, weaving), which include connections with various animals. These functions of the Qeqchi Moon Goddess are compared to those of goddesses chiefly stemming from Yucatec, Lacandon, and Kiche Mayan groups, as well as from the Aztecs. Several of the specific parallels indicated are now outdated, but Thompsons conclusion that the Qeqchi goddess has not only Tlazolteotl, but also the love goddess Xochiquetzal for an Aztec counterpart is still relevant. Much later, in his 1970 essay entitled Maya Creation Myths (a chapter of his book Maya History and Religion), Thompson embedded his favorite tale in a wider context of Mesoamerican myths, focusing on episodes and narrative motifs rather than on the protagonists functions. Of the studys forty pages or so, by far the largest part is devoted to tales dealing with the creation and destruction of worlds and the discovery of maize; the remainder concerns Qeqchi myth, while summarizing parallel episodes among other Mayan and Mesoamerican (especially Oaxacan) groups. The Popol Vuh Twin myth is relatively unimportant here, except for the fact that its heroes end up by becoming sun and moon. In a final commentary (final also in the sense that Thompson died five years after the books appearance, without having returned to the issue), a series of dominant motifs in the tales are signaled and briefly discussed. The degree of abstraction in Thompsons discussion is meager, and many urgent questions are left unasked.

19
The tales narrative motifs and the functions of its main characters are, of course, important, and they will receive due attention in the following pages. But the focus of the present comparative analysis of Qeqchi hero myth is on what, compared to other Mayan and Mesoamerican Sun and Moon myths, stands out as the tales most salient characteristic: Rather than as siblings or as a son and his mother, Sun and Moon are staged as marriage partners, with a pivotal role being assigned to the father-in-law and to a bridal capture that in other versions gives way to an extended bridal service. The tales overriding concern is apparently the establishment of alliance. This notion of alliance appears to include nature, since the heros wife is changed into certain animals before becoming the moon. One might therefore question whether the Qeqchi tale can be called a creation myth, that is, a cosmogonic narrative; for if these designations are to make sense, they should refer to the intention with which the tale is being told and possibly also to certain formal qualities of the text. It is, in any case, noteworthy that the solar and lunar transformations of the protagonists are absent from the Kaqchikel version mentioned by Thompson, as from most other versions to be discussed here, which rather suggests that these specific transformations are secondary relative to the main thrust of the tale. The myth thus appears to focus on what is a key metaphor in Mayan and Mesoamerican thinking about the relation of man to the world surrounding him, a metaphor that can be generalized to such diverse things as the marriage of the shaman to the female spirit initiating him (Tedlock 1992: 48-49); the diviner to his divining crystals (ibid.), or to the calendar (Nachtigall 1978: 251252); the musician to his instrument (Navarrete Pellicer 2001: 71-76); and the farmer to his chopper (Monaghan 1996: 60) or, as shall be discussed in more detail in one of the following chapters, to the soil. The alliance theme is at its most prominent in the main episode of the Qeqchi Legend of Sun and Moon, an episode that represents a tale type equally found among other Mayan groups. I refer to this tale type as Hummingbird myth, the hummingbird being the shape assumed by its principal actor in approaching the woman he is courting. This actor is typically a deer hunter and, as Thompson has remarked, the motif of the deer and the deer hunt recurs in all episodes of the Qeqchi Legend. An important question will therefore be the extent to which the hunt is portrayed from the predominant perspective of alliance. The thesis is organized into eleven chapters. Chapter One introduces the Qeqchi narrative by way of its structure, sources, and principal actors. Chapter

20
Two analyzes the initial episode, dubbed Deception and Death of Old Woman by Thompson. This part of the tale draws an image of alliance that is the antithesis of the alliance of Sun and Moon itself. It describes the love affair of the heros aged adoptive mother, cast in terms of cannibalism and sexual consummation, and its brutal ending. In Chapter Three, the discussion of some of the cannibalism-related topics present in the initial episode is extended to the pre-Spanish period, with consideration of specific ritual and narrative connections. Whereas Thompson tends to present cannibalism as just one of several formal motifs, the argument here fully takes into account the highly sensitive and controversial nature of the cannibalism theme, which directly touches upon our conception of the Other. Chapters Four and Five introduce the Hummingbird myths. They document two contrastive approaches to the hero found in narrative tradition, with the hero being viewed either as a military adventurer or as a marriage candidate. The chapters provide a sociological sketch of the two principal marriage arrangements found in the Hummingbird tales and they analyze their narrative modulations. The main versions of Hummingbird myth are successively treated in Chapters Six through to Nine. They are focused on the various transformations of the heros wife resulting from her mating with the hero; on the social meanings of these transformations; and on their distinctive ritual connections. Chapters Six and Seven offer an interpretation of the principal Qeqchi version itself. The final two chapters consider the remaining episodes. Chapter Ten deals with the Qeqchi episode that focuses on the heros older brother, and more particularly on a deity connected to the hunt called Xulab. The theme of alliance remains important, but it now assumes the negative form of the older brothers failed marriage. The chapter also considers the significance of the distinction between the older and younger brothers and its possible relevance to the organization of the Legend as a whole. Chapter Eleven concludes the exposition of the Qeqchi Legend of Sun and Moon. The final part, culminating in the transformation of the hero and his wife into Sun and Moon, focuses on the heros wife and deals with the menaces to alliance, or, formulated more neutrally, with certain shifts in alliance that turn out to have highly specific consequences.

21

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE QEQCHI SUN AND MOON MYTH

As is indicated by the sheer number of its variants (appendix A lists about twenty of them), the Qeqchi myth of Sun and Moon is popular in the Qeqchi areas: the Alta Verapaz homeland, Belize, and settlements in the Petn. It consists of a series of episodes, some of which are sometimes told as separate tales. This is particularly the case with the Hummingbird episode, which relates the abduction of a daughter of the earth god by a man transformed into a hummingbird. The variants can be grouped into a small number of versions that are defined in terms of their constituent themes, such as adoption (in the narratives first episode), disease and healing, the hunt, and maize agriculture. Main Sources Among my sources, the Thompson and Cruz Torres tales stand out for their completeness (they include all of the episodes listed below) and amount of detail. But perhaps even more important is the variant recorded in 1909 by Paul ( Pablo) Wirsing from Halicar, Alta Verapaz, and published by Quirn (1966, 1967), which constitutes the earliest known modern source and the most extensive one to include the original Qeqchi text. The adoption episode is absent from the published text, but occasional references in Haeserijns Qeqchi dictionary (1979) suggest that it formed part of Wirsings original text. As Quirn states (1967: 175), the Kekch used in this translation is classical and without mystifications; it contains certain words which, for being seldom used, have almost been forgotten by the very natives. The noted absence of mystifications (which I take to mean esoteric language) should probably be understood by way of contrast with the allusive and elaborate style of ritual and shamanic texts and prayers; yet, as we shall see, the myth precisely serves to underpin such mystifications.9

This will especially become apparent when discussing the ceremonial language of asking for a bride (Chapter Five) and the chant of a healing ritual (Chapter Seven).

22
Together with two other relatively early sources, those of E.P. Dieseldorff (1926), a German plantation owner, and W. Drck (in Termer 1930), the Wirsing text stems from the context of the German-owned coffee plantations in the Alta Verapaz of Guatemala.10 The stern German regime, initiated around 1860, was fostered by the ruthlessly modernizing administration of Rufino Barrios (1873 1885), and by the 1930s exercised virtually complete control over the entire Alta Verapaz. The indigenous population was reduced to a state approaching serfdom (see Wilk and Mac Chapin 1992: 159-161). In view of the semi-colonial relations prevalent in the Alta Verapaz and the inhibitions at work in the interaction of Germans and Qeqchis, it is important to make two points concerning the texts reliability. First, Wirsings informant, a Qeqchi flutist and drummer, told the tale for the pleasure of his fellow plantation workers, and, still using the vernacular, dictated it to Wirsing only afterwards.11 Second, Wirsing had a thorough command of the native language, and strongly identified with the Qeqchis to the point of adopting their customs (cf. Quirn 1966: 175; Estrada 1990: 107 and 107 n. 182). The second important variant is that collected by Thompson in Belize. In his ethnography, Thompson (1930: 135) refers to the two variants published by Gordon in 1915, which he later assumed to stem from Burkitt (1970: 343), but which as recent research by Elin Danien has shown (Danien 2005: 6-7) were in fact collected by Mary Owen. Yet, it is not to the Owen variants that his own tale shows greatest affinity, but to the even earlier Wirsing tale that surfaces only in Thompsons later publications. A close comparison of the English text of Thompson and the Qeqchi text of Wirsing shows that many passages are nearly identical. Discarding the possibilities that the Wirsing text has served Thompson as the base for his own 1930 exposition, or that Thompson has happened to come upon the very informant who dictated Wirsings text twenty years before, the most likely assumption is that narrative had settled into a relatively stable form. For that same reason, the text of the 1986

10 11

Kockelman (2007: 308) states that the myth was told on Wirsings own plantation. It is curious to observe that the Wirsing variant contains no reference to music, whereas in other variants, the hero is staged both as a dancer and as a ritual musician at the 'court' of the King of Vultures (see the Synopsis in Appendix A).

23
Schackt variant from Crique Sarco, Belize, still remains fairly close to the Thompson one. The text of the Thompson myth is from San Antonio, Toledo district, southern Belize. The village was founded in 1883 by Mopan Mayan refugees from San Lus Petn (where the Ulrichs collected their variant), a settlement that already included Qeqchi immigrants. Once founded, San Antonio also took up a number of Qeqchis. Qeqchi immigrants in southern Belize came mainly from Cahabn, some others from Carch, and a few from Cobn (Thompson 1930: 36-40). The text is a composite of tales told by four informants: two Qeqchis by birth, one of Qeqchi descent (though speaking Mopan), and a fourth (who probably also spoke Mopan) having what Thompson deemed to be Qeqchi features. Thompson (1930: 136) stated that the four versions show on the whole a marked uniformity. Thus, even though the various episodes (or incidents) were also told as independent stories (id.: 138139), the four versions seem to have had more or less the same ordering of the episodes. However, the redacting process of the composite text remains opaque, notwithstanding Thompsons indication of the main points of divergence (id.: 135-140). In 1970, Thompson returned to the myth he collected early in his career. The Qeqchi sources he excerpted for his overview of Qeqchi myth in his book Maya History and Religion in the comparative chapter on Maya Creation Myths (1970: 342-369) are those of Wirsing (through the intermediary of E. McDougall), Owen (signed by Gordon and wrongly assumed by Thompson to derive from Burkitt), E.P. Dieseldorff, and Goubaud, in addition to the narrative he published himself. Equal in importance to the Thompson and Wirsing variants, the Cruz Torres variant from the plantation Rubelpec in the municipality of Senah, Alta Verapaz, is part of a collection of Qeqchi tales (1965) published by an Alta Verapaz folklorist (and later medical doctor, provincial representative, and ambassador) steeped in traditional Qeqchi culture. Although the publication takes the form of a shoddy booklet with a nave and discursive style characteristic of certain Guatemalan costumbrista novels and contains illustrations rather befitting a second-rate childrens book, there are enough reasons for believing that the Sun and Moon myth is reliable. Usually they do not know it [the myth] completely and add many passages according to the season they happen to be in [segn la poca que est pasando]. The recompilation took much of my time, I tried to complete it as well as I could.

24
Without any doubt there must be passages which have disappeared already (1965: 341). The text explains obscure points in other variants,12 and is most complete on one essential point, namely the origin of disease. Other publications of Mario de la Cruz Torres have also proven to be valuable, and shall be cited in due course. Tale Structure The narrative material can be divided into episodes, or semantic units of discourse defined by a specific arrangement of actors and a distinctive focus or theme. These episodes are as follows: A. Destiny of the Hero. B. Adoption by an Old Woman. C. Marriage of the Older Brother. D. Encounter with the Mother. E. Abduction of the Mountain Gods Daughter. F. Wifes Adultery with the Elder Brother. G. Wifes Elopement and Marriage with the Devil. H. Installation of Sun and Moon. The narrative appears to have included other episodes as well, two of which are mentioned by Estrada Monroy (1990: 140): (a) The voyage of Balamke to look at his sowings and the intrigues of the girl-friends of Kana Po ; (b) The origin of the female servants and of the Patrn of Kana Po. I shall now first sketch the bare outlines of each of the eight episodes (all present in the 1930 Thompson variant) and briefly comment on their position within Mesoamerican narrative tradition.13 A. The first episode is really a preamble. The hero is appointed to become the successor of a previous Sun.

12

E.g., the stone fountain in which Sun empties the thirteen jars (Owen) and the lizard running between Xkitzas legs (Thompson). 13 A synopsis of the Qeqchi myth in its entirety will be found in Appendix A. It will give the reader an easy access to the mythological material discussed and a grasp of the existing variation, thus enabling him to make his own judgments about the choices made in the course of the various arguments.

25
B. The first true episode relates the birth of the two brothers, the separation from their mother, and the adoption by an old woman who later starts to deprive them of their food, which she gives to her lover. Both adoptive parents are killed. C. The Older Brother marries, but favors his animals over his wife. The marriage falls apart, and the Older Brother rejoins his escaping animals. D. The Younger Brother sets out to find a wife, but first meets his mother. His mother wants him to stay, but he takes leave of her.14 E. The hero (the Younger Brother) assumes the shape of a hummingbird, and abducts the daughter of the god of Mountain and Valley. The woman is killed by her father, changed into snakes and insects, but recovers her original shape. In some variants she is then transformed into the moon, just as her husband is transformed into the sun.15 In other variants (see G), this transformation is postponed. F. Moon commits adultery with her brother-in-law. Both are punished. G. Moon flees to the vultures and marries their king (the Devil). The hero defeats the king and regains his wife. In the main variants, the hero and his wife are then transformed into sun and moon. H. The final episode takes the form of an epilogue. At first, Sun and Moon cannot move, and Moons light is too bright. These shortcomings are remedied. It goes almost without saying, that most of the above episodes show similarities to other Mesoamerican narratives. Such parallels, when relevant, will be discussed in due course; here a brief mentioning must suffice. The notion of a previous sun is particularly prominent in Aztec mythology, as well as, in a more restricted form, in contemporary Chiapas Maya mythology. The illegitimate (or, at least, peculiar) birth of the brothers, their adoption, the struggle with their old adoptive mother, and the heros encounter with the lost mother recur in some form in other hero myths as well, both within and beyond the Mayan area. This is less commonly the case with the heros marriage in

14 15

This brief episode will be discussed together with the preceding one in Chapter Ten. Kockelman (2007: 337-338 and table 6) suggests that events within this episode have been distributed over exactly twenty days, an important structural number. This suggestion would, however, seem to be insufficiently supported by temporal markers within the narrative text, and to disregard the distinction between a text written to be read and one recording an oral performance.

26
Qeqchi myth and its main Mayan versions; however, important tales do exist in which an ancestor marries the daughter(s) of a deity, usually one connected to the soil and the rain. As will be noted, some of these marriage tales are clearly syncretic (Blanca Flor). Within Mesoamerica, the adultery episode and the expedition to the town of the vultures seem to be represented only in Qeqchi myth. In the final sections of the narrative, the actions of the hero and his wife become much more restricted: They have changed into as yet defective astral bodies, and insofar as they still act, the actions serve only to correct existing deficiencies. Here, Mesoamerican narratives offer many variations, depending in part on the precise agnatic relationship assumed to exist between sun and moon. The episode of the heros transformation into a hummingbird and his abduction of a daughter of the mountain deity is often told as a separate tale. In his Mayan Creation Myths mentioned above, Thompson included several versions current among other Mayan groups. These various Hummingbird tales, their coherence, and their distinctive messages will form a large part of this study.16 Main Actors To facilitate the discussion of the various episodes, which will entail comparisons with myths of other Mayan and non-Mayan peoples, as well as for ease of reference, the main actors of Qeqchi myth will first be considered in their order of appearance: the principal hero, his elder brother, his old adoptive mother, his prospective father-in-law, his bride and wife, and his wifes second husband (with whom his wife elopes). These actors coincide with the roles to be played, which are assigned to specific characters. As has been explained in the general introduction, the qualification of these characters as gods, goddesses, or deities does not reflect an essentialist stance. It tends to qualify the characters so denoted as potential objects of cultic behavior.

16

In Appendices A and B, the variants of Hummingbird myth have been listed and the main versions summarized. The abbreviations of author names between parentheses as used in this chapter refer to Appendix A.

27

The Hero The term hero will be used here both in the sense of (a) culture heroes, i.e., intermediaries who help to make natural products available and useful for mankind, and who introduce important features of civilized life, and (b) war heroes and monster slayers, who defy Earth Owners and fight the representatives of primordial cannibalism, the god of black sorcery, snakes and eagles, etc. Unlike the Popol Vuh, which couples Xbalanque to Hunahpu, Qeqchi myth has only one true male hero, originally called Xbalanque. It starts as a tale about the feats of Xbalanque and his elder brother, but after its initial episodes, only Xbalanque remains. Xbalanques brother is then replaced by a wife, and instead of Xbalanque and a male companion (Hunahpu or the Elder Brother), we are left with Xbalanque and a female companion. The predominant hero brother of Qeqchi myth is either called (Lord) Balam Que (Wirsing, in Quirn) and Xbalamk (E.P. Dieseldorff), or (Lord) Sacqu (Wirsing), with its parallel in Mopan (Lord) Kin Sun (Thompson, Verbeeck). Transposed to modern spelling, Saqe, that is, Sakqe (meaning Benevolent [or Shining] Sun), alternates with (X)Balamqe the qe element, with its basic meaning of day, sun, being common to both names. (The alternative would be to take the final syllable as ke cold, but this makes little sense).17 (X)Balamqe is a name dating from the Classic Period. In early colonial sources it is spelled Exbalanquen (as in Fuentes y Guzmn and Las Casas) or Xbalanque (as in the Popol Vuh).18 There are good reasons to put trust in the sources that give Xbalamqe (as it will be spelled in this section) as the name of the Qeqchi hero. Neither Wirsing nor E.P. Dieseldorff has a reputation for playing loose with data. If the intention had been to cast the Qeqchi myth of Sun and Moon as a rival to the Popol Vuh, there would have been no point in using the name Xbalamqe in narrative fragments unconnected to the Sun and Moon myth (see Chapter Four), or in transmitting the anecdote
17

Haeserijn gives under ke (old spelling): propitious time, divination; aj ke diviner; ninke feast. Sake sun is a separate entry, as is que cold. In Chapter Seven, the name xbalamke will recur in the context of an early-twentieth century Qeqchi curing ritual. 18 The initial sound which in Qeqchi need not be present probably stems from yax precious, since in Classic Mayan, a hieroglyphic element of this meaning precedes the pictogram of the hero.

28
about a Qeqchi plantation worker who, on being accused of the theft of a tobacco pipe, pointed to the sun and swore an oath on Xbalamqe (Dieseldorff 1926: 35).19 In addition to these considerations, the name (X)balamqe itself appears to be Qeqchi rather than Kiche, since the last element qe (sun, daytime) would require kih in Kiche. Balam can mean jaguar, as in cambolay baalam (Haeserijn 1979: 71 s.v. bolay); but in Qeqchi, the word commonly used for jaguar is hix. 20 These words for jaguar can be combined, however, as in sakbalam hix (id.: s.v. tigre). Moreover, Wirsing says about Xbalamqe: The nocturnal Sun goes like a jaguar towards the East (quoted by Haeserijn, 1979 s.v. balamke). Dieseldorff (1926: 35), however, emphatically states that, in Kekchi, the middlemost sound [of the name Xbalamk] refers to the puma, but to the jaguar in other Mayan dialects, and suggests a contrast between the jaguar as a nocturnal, and the puma as a diurnal hunter. A puma interpretation cannot be derived from the term balam alone, since puma is normally kaqkoj. However, a complementary opposition of jaguar and puma, and formerly also of jaguar and puma war leaders, is part of Mayan culture (Braakhuis 1987: 247-248; cf. Milbrath 1999: 95-96), and might conceivably have served to distinguish the nocturnal and diurnal aspects of the hero. Within the jaguar puma opposition, the puma (as well as the puma war leader) is sometimes considered to be the more powerful (Braakhuis ibid.); among the Qeqchis, the animal is also referred to as xyucwail xul venerable father of the game (Haeserijn 1979: 448 s.v. len).21 Alternatively, Xbalamqe (and perhaps, balam jaguar as well) could be derived from the Qeqchi stem bal-, meaning to hide, as in, for instance, xbalam be side of the road where one can hide (Haeserijn 1979). Balamqe would then signify Hidden Sun, in meaningful contrast to Sakqe Shining Sun. In that case, the War Twin of the Popol Vuh, Xbalanque, might correspond to the Moon conceivably the Full Moon, or Nocturnal Sun,

19

It is tempting to assume that the belief in Xbalamqes triumph over the Underworld, prevalent in pre-Hispanic times, may still have informed this utterance. 20 Cf.: sacbolay hix, cambolay hix, caki hix (Haeserijn s.v. tigre, jaguar). The fourteenth day is everywhere among the Mayas called (H)ix, only the Qeqchis having preserved the word as a common denomination of the jaguar (Thompson 1966: 82). 21 The pumas title seems to imply a hierarchy of masters and guardians of the game not unlike that of the Honduran Tolupan-Jicaques (Chapman).

29
considered to be male by present-day Kiches (B. Tedlock 1992: 183-184)22 and Hunahpu to the Sun. It may well be significant, however, that the Popol Vuh is not more specific on this issue. The beginning of a new era, rather than the origin of two celestial bodies, seems to be the key point. The name Xbalamqe is the principal name of the hero in colonial sources that refer to the Verapaz, as well as in the texts collected earlier in the 20th century by P.Wirsing and E.P. Dieseldorff. Yet, even in these last two sources, the name is inextricably linked to Sakqe, the heros name in the short Drck variant and in later sources. This linkage becomes apparent from various places in the Wirsing text. Thus, (a) in the abduction episode: (i) When the hero has disappeared in the depths of the water, it is stated that, The sun (sacqu) was extinguished, darkness descended over the surface of the earth, and (ii) when Xbalamqe has created Woman and ascended into the sky, cavu Balam Que changes to cavu Sac Que; and (b) in the adultery episode, (iii) when the hinds of the brocket are left unprotected and are burnt by Xbalamqe, it is stated that, Very white (sacsac) was the speculum of the brocket which sun (que) and daylight had left, and (iv) when the black feathers of the vulture are burnt by Xbalamqe, it is stated, that [They] remained very white (sacsac) due to the solar burn (catm sacqu). In contrast to the Popol Vuh, Xbalamqe is not the future Moon who accompanies the future Sun (Hunahpu), or vice versa, but rather the Sun of below, which changes into the Sun of above. In the above quotations (nos. a-ii and b), Xbalamqe is at times equated with Sakqe in anticipation of his ascent; conversely, Sakqe may have become Xbalamqe in anticipation of his descent. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that, although the solar association of Xbalamqe runs through the entire tale, it is merely the narrative plots outcome. In the Hummingbird episode, the hero first appears on the scene as a hunter whose hunting dogs are sometimes said to be jaguar and puma (Curley Garca 1980: 86), and who is thus hinted to be a war leader. Although my primary concern is Qeqchi myth in its more recent forms, together with its parallels among other Mayan groups, it should be noted that in the 16th-century Alta Verapaz, Xbalamqe (henceforth to be rendered as Xbalanque) was a war god. Since his name still occurs in certain tales from the beginning of the 20th

22

For the Zoques of Chiapas (Bez-Jorge 1983: 388), too, the strong moon is associated with the masculine, just as the tender moon is associated with the feminine.

30
century, we are invited to consider contemporary Qeqchi myth, at least partially, from a war perspective, too.23 The Older Brother The Qeqchi hero is not only a son, adoptive son, son-in-law, husband, and (at least in principle) a father, but also a brother. The hero and his elder brother cooperate in the Old Adoptive Mother episode as if they were Twins; in a later episode, the elder brothers adultery opposes him to the hero, and leads to his transformation and disappearance from the tale. In three variants, the elder brother is the one who is to become the rain deity, i.e., Choc(l) Cloud; two of these variants (Wirsing and Cruz Torres) are from the Qeqchi Alta Verapaz heartland. The Thompson variant, however, substitutes a deity of wild nature and the hunt associated with the Morning Star, Xulab, for the rain deity, and connects a tale that is specific to Xulab to the main tale of the younger brother, Sun; this variant is from Belize, and comes from a mixed Mopan-Qeqchi area. The two brothers are contrasted with the true children of their adoptive mother. In comparable tales of the Tzutujil Mayas (to be discussed in the next chapter), the two hero brothers are Sun and Moon rather than Sun and Venus, or Sun and Rain, and they have many true brothers associated with different natural phenomena. The Old Adoptive Mother The Old Adoptive Mother dominates the myths first episode (given only by a few sources), which I intend to argue is about the prehistory of the hunt and of war. She is called either Xkitza (Thompson) or Shan Ni (Cruz Torres), shan (xan) probably corresponding to xaan or xaan old woman.24 There is no evidence outside of the myth concerning the name Xkitza; about Shan Ni, we have only the tantalizing tidbit that she was of great significance

23

It has repeatedly been noted that among the more recent Qeqchis, the sun appears to be a relatively unimportant deity. Assuming that Sun has not in another sense become a hidden Sun, and somehow been syncretized, there could be a historical reason to this phenomenon: With the establishment of Spanish power, the formation and extension of indigenous political territories by means of warfare came to a stand-still. 24 Alternatively, xan(il) is defined as the dried rushes or palm-leaves that serve to thatch a house (Haeserijn).

31
to the curers [brujos y curanderos], because when they cure a patient suffering from Fright [susto], or from disease caused by Fright, it is her they invoke (Cruz Torres 1965: 372). A comparison with the Old Adoptive Mother of Oaxaca Sun and Moon myth suggests some connection with the patroness of the steam bath and of curing (see Chapter Two, Cannibalisms Confinement). The possibility is worth considering that the name Xkitza derives from the name of a mountain in the Alta Verapaz that is called either Kitzan (Thompson 1930: 59, 141) or Itzam, the softly-modeled mountain range to the north of Lanqun, which the Kekchi Indians call Xan Itzam or Can Itzam, and where the Cancuen River rises (Dieseldorff 1926: 21). Various Qeqchi tales show that mythological actors can be projected onto the mountainous landscape. Although every mountain has a male and a female aspect, Itzam the old one (Cruz Torres 1965: 282) is considered to be the only female deity among the ideal-typical number of thirteen great mountains (Cruz Torres 1967: 282; Schackt 1984: 20).25 Thus, if a mountain deity is conceived to be married, he is likely to have Itzam for a spouse.26 In the Adoption (Tapir Lover) episode (Cruz Torres), the name of the old womans lover, Chisjal, may be that of another mountain,27 for he visits the Old Adoptive Mother in the shape of a glowing coal [flying] very high, like the fireball transformations (nahuallis) of Xan Itzams husbands.28 I will now further develop my hypothesis of a relation

25

The name (Xan) Itzam is intriguing. Already in the early Pokoman dictionaries of Zuiga and Morn, Itzam occurs as the name of a deity. It is, however, combined with another name, and written as a single term: IxchelItzam, or Xchelitzam (Miles 1957: 748). Ixchel is the name of the aged Yucatec goddess (a grandmother) of midwifery and curing (cf.Taube about the aged Goddess O, 1992: 105; Manning 1993: 174-175); to the Lacandons, she is the creator goddess in her birth-giving capacity (Tozzer 1907: 95). The composite name Xchelitzam could suggest that in the rugged Alta Verapaz, Grandmother Ix Chel was connected to the one female mountain, Old Woman Itzam. 26 According to some, the mountain Xucaneb has procreated the other mountains of the area with Xan Itzam (Carlson and Eachus 1978: 42; Dieseldorff 1926: 21). Cana Itzam is the mother of the other twelve mountains (Cruz Torres 1965: 358). Alternatively, Xan Itzam is said to be married to the male mountain Cojaj (Coha) (Thompson 1930: 59), Lord of the Pocol Mountains to the north of those surrounding Xucaneb (Dieseldorff 1926: 21); or to Xecabioc near Xelaj (Haeserijn, s.v. itzam); Siete Orejas towards the Pacific Coast (Burkitt 1918: 283 n. 1; cf. Thompson 1970: 273); or to Siyab (Siab/Sillab) in the area of Lanqun and Cajabn (Curley Garca 1980: 93-94). 27 Cf. Cruz Torres 1965: 104, mountain Chijaal. 28 When Xucaneb visits Xan Itzam, he assumes the shape of a fireball (Estrada 1990: 298). In the maize version, mountain Siyab visits Xan Itzam in this form (Curley

32
between the Old Adoptive Mother and Itzam Mountain. The correspondences involve the related notions of hunting, cannibalism, animal transformation, and warfare. (1) Xkitza is connected to the hunt, in that she receives the meat of the game hunted by her adoptive children, and has a game animal (a tapir) for a lover. Xan Itzam is strongly associated with the hunt: In the case of a hunter, if he is to mention any of the mountains according to the site where the ritual [for asking permission to hunt] takes place, the most common [...] are Cojaj and Cana Itzam (Cruz Torres 1967: 282).29 And like Xkitza, Xan Itzam is dangerous. In a Belize tale, her brother Cojaj warns a hunter: This old lady does not have any patience with anybody (Schackt 1986: 181). (2) Xkitza is a cannibal who attempts to devour her adoptive sons, and is made to eat the meat of her slaughtered lover, before she is slaughtered and eaten herself. Xan Itzam is also a cannibal. In the tale from Belize just referred to (Schackt 1986: 180), she intends to cook a maize farmer who had hunted on her preserves, and to add his meat to maize previously ground and roasted, i.e., to convert him into maize tamales.30 Also, tradition has it that she used to eat people until dissuaded from that distressing habit by her far-off husband [Siete Orejas Mountain] (Thompson 1970: 273). (3) Xkitza has the ability to assume the form of an animal. Specifically, she changes to a beast of prey to avenge herself on the hero brothers. Xan Itzam nurses such transformers: For a child to grow into a fighter in possession of a powerful animal companion it should be put for some days in the cave of Xan Itzam and be suckled by her (Cruz Torres 1967: 281; Cabarrs 1979: 51; cf. Thompson 1930: 153-154). As babies, the hero brothers of Qeqchi myth had

Garca); and Xan Ni is visited by a lover resembling una brasa incandescente y altsima (Cruz Torres 1965: 22). Sending off meteors (estrellas fugaces) to other mountains is said to be a normal way of communication for Mountain-Valley (Carlson/Eachus 1978: 42). In Chajul (Ixil), all mountain deities are believed to visit each other in the shape of fireballs (Polanco 1991: 112). 29 Like any mountain deity, Xan Itzam is the Owner of the animals in her resort, but it appears that her relation to the game and the hunt is a special one. In one story from Belize, she occurs as Kitzan in her male aspect and is thereby made into the fourth, most powerful Grandfather, instructing a poor hunter in proper ritual petitioning (Thompson 1930: 141). 30 The motif of the meat tamales will be shown (Chapter Two) to be characteristic of the folklore surrounding the Old Adoptive Mother.

33
been adopted by Xkitza as if she were their true mother, and it is during their stay with her that they learned to transform themselves into animals and to wage war (Cruz Torres). (4) In the next chapters, I will argue that Xkitzas associations with hunting, slaughter, cannibalism, and jaguar transformation are sometimes expressive of warfare. Xan Itzam, for her part, is distinctly warlike. In a tale about the Qeqchis fighting for the liberty of the Alta Verapaz, she is a true war goddess, fighting with her loom sticks (Cruz Torres 1965: 99-106); in the Senah myth of the opening of the Maize Mountain, it is Xan Itzam who instigates Thunderstorm to turn his violence against the resisting stronghold (id.: 91). A final, more tenuous correspondence concerns the death of Xkitza. She is killed, and parts of her body together with her cloth are buried. In the burying of her cloth, an idea of vegetal rebirth could conceivably be implied, for in Mesoamerica the female cloth can be a symbol for the vegetal texture of the earth (e.g., Braakhuis 1990: 128). Concerning the mountain Xan Itzam, it is said that formerly she died every seven years and with her died all creation, coming to life again after a short interval (Thompson 1930: 59). This short statement suggests Xan Itzam to be intimately bound up with the life of the earth, and with its cycle of death and rebirth. In short, there are several strands of evidence supportive of a hypothesis connecting the mythological character Xkitza and the one female mountain Xan Itzam. Though tenuous, they are suggestive and will occasionally find expression in what follows. The Father-in-Law The heros father-in-law is called a mam old man, ancestor, grandfather (Wirsing, Bcaro), Tzul-takaj mountain-valley (Wirsing, Dieseldorff, Wilson), and King (King, Wilson). He is also called Tactani (Thompson) and Cagu Aatn (Cruz Torres) Our Lord Aatn. Whereas, in late variants, this paternal figure is called King, mam old man is already in itself a way to refer to the King, as among the Quichs (PV 8378; Rabinal Achi, passim). In rendering dynastic progression, the Popol Vuh uses mam - qahav Paternal Grandfather - Father in the same sense (PV 8367-8368). On the other hand, the Grandfathers name, Tzul-takaj MountainValley, can refer not only to the ancestral land (tzulul-takaal, Haeserijn 1979:

34
346), but also to its rulers. In Kaqchikel and Kiche, highland languages related to Qeqchi, tzuultaqa (the modern spelling of this name) corresponds to juyubtaqaj; and in Alonsos dictionary of early colonial Kaqchikel (fol. 207, in Breton 1994: 389, 418), one finds ah huyu ah tacah defined as provincial de una provincia, whereas in the Rabinal Achi (fols. 10, 14, in Breton 1994: 59), ajaw kiche j[u]yub ajaw kiche taqaj is the king of the Kiche land. The maidens father, said to live in a mountain (TH) or a cave (WR), thus appears to be none other than the Grandfather of the Land, that is, the King ruling over his mountains and valleys. As we shall presently see, he is strongly connected to the realms predominant mountain. It has been noted, however, that this symbol of an authority equally respected and feared, has been constructed out of pre-Columbian, colonial, and postcolonial experiences (Wilson 1995: 58). Consequently, the Tzuultaqas have become assimilated to the German landowners who became masters of the Alta Verapaz in the nineteenth century, and some of whose descendants continue to run plantations. Tzuultaqa (as I will spell the name henceforth) is the paramount figure of the Qeqchi worldview. Wilson (1995: 50-53) variously refers to him as an earth god, tellurian deity, and, most often, mountain spirit. He is both the owner of a specific mountain, and its personification: The mountain is also the physical body of a tzuultaqa (Wilson 1995: 53), and is thus imagined as a living, sentient person. As Grandfather Earth (Mundo), i.e. the mountain and all that belongs to it, he is ipso facto the primary Owner of life. Vicariously represented by the King or his representatives in the past, he owns the maize crops, the animals within in his mountain recesses (fishes, hunting animals, but also snakes), and mankind itself. The powers of more specialized Owners are subsumed in his. He warrants the moral life of the community, instructs its leaders (Carlson and Eachus 1978: 43), often through dreams, and if necessary applies sanctions.31 Tactani recurs as the fathers name in Ixil and Kaqchikel versions of the Hummingbird episode, preceded by the reverential Ma-.32 Although I have

31

For the various aspects of Tzuultaqa, cf. Sapper 1897: 271 -272, 281-282; Dieseldorff 1926: 16-17 and passim; Schackt 1984: 18-23; Thompson 1930: 59 ff, and 1970: 272-276; and Wilson 1995: 51ff. 32 In Tzutujil-speaking Santiago Atitln, the name seems to recur in Rey Matekateni, one of twelve manifestations of Martn, the general Earth Owner or Mundo (Mendelson 1965: 89).

35
found neither a Qeqchi meaning for this name nor an eponymous mountain, it is certainly suggestive that matactani is defined by an early colonial Kaqchikel dictionary (Smailus 1989) as vallena, i.e. whale, whereas the Tesoro of Ximnez (1985: 377), which encompasses Kaqchikel, Kiche, and Tzutujil, lists matactam(i) as el peje espada o ballena, i.e. swordfish or whale.33 In the sense of ballena, colonial Kaqchikel matactani corresponds to Yucatec itzam cab ain (Cordemex Dictionary), mentioned in a cosmological passage of the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys 1965: 101, MS p. 44 C). Tactani, the alternative name of the Grandfather (or Mountain-Valley), thus seems to refer once more to the crust of the earth, which in Mesoamerica was traditionally imagined as the back of a large fish, a crocodile, a turtle, or even a toad. Aatn, a name used by the Cruz Torres variant, could be a Qeqchi form of the Spanish Adn (see Cruz Torres 1972: 394 ff). The Thompson variant of Sun and Moon myth (1930: 119) is preceded by a fragment that casts the old grandfather, Adam, as the father of the First and defective Sun. When a messenger draws his attention to the problems caused by his son, Adam suggests one of the two adoptive sons of the old grandmother, Xkitza, as a successor. The boys powers are tested and proven to be entirely satisfactory. This connection between Adam and the New Sun may have influenced the substitution of Aatn for Tactani. For a more differentiated picture of Tzuultaqa and his realm, the Qeqchi representation of the mountains should now be considered in more detail. In a curing text to be considered in Chapter Seven, Tzuultaqa Mountain-Valley is alternatingly invoked as One and Thirteen. Conceived as One, as in most of the variants of Sun and Moon myth, Tzuultaqa is a central and predominant earthly power; conceived as Thirteen, it is the completeness and totality of the landscape that is expressed.34 Of the thirteen

33

In the Kiche version of Vicos Theologia Indorum (1605), one reads in the first chapter: Completed was the creation of the crocodile [ain], completed was the creation of the matactani-fish by him, i.e., by God (Zimmermann and Riese 1980: 613). 34 If thirteen mountains are listed, one should also take into account that these thirteen superior deities have minor representatives in each community; at times, they [the minor representatives] bear the same name, but commonly, they acquire another one (Cruz Torres 1967: 282). Thus, everything depends on where one lives, in the core area, or removed from it.

36
mountains, one can again be singled out as paramount, though the choice of mountain can vary from one region to another. This is most clearly seen in certain versions of Qeqchi maize mythology (see Chapter Eight), where the dominant mountain is either Xucaneb the highest mountain of the Alta Verapaz or Siyab, depending on whether one lives in the core area of Cobn or in the eastern area of Cahabn and Lanqun. This supreme mountain, whether Xucaneb or Siyab, commands the others, especially the four directional mountains with their lightnings. These four directional mountains may also serve to represent the entire mountain landscape, although the choice of these mountains seems again to vary across regions. Moreover, even where there is agreement on the choice of the four mountains, there may be disagreement on the one designated as paramount. For example, in southern Belize, lying well to the north-east of the Qeqchi core area, the four directional mountains (or Mams) are said to be Yaluk, Coha, Itzan/Kitzan, and Xucaneb, and one finds that either Yaluk or Itzam/Kitzan (conceived in its male aspect) is considered to be the dominant one, with mighty Xucaneb receding to a secondary position (cf. Thompson 1930: 59 and 140-141).35 As is suggested by the tale about the theft of Xucanebs daughter, which is a version of the Qeqchi maize myth (see Chapter Eight), these mountains can represent different mythological entities. One is thus faced with a ritual topography that recalls the ancient Mixtec system preserved in the Vienna Codex, while being connected to varying mythological roles. In this case, however, the ritual topography is no longer mapped calendrically as well, and complicated by geographical shifts.36 At the same time, these mountains,
35

The location of three of the four directional mountains is given by Schackt (1984: 26 n. 1) as follows: Xucaneb close to San Juan Chamelco; Coha (or Cojaj) not far from San Pedro Carcha (Dieseldorff 1926 p. 21: Lord of the Pocol heights, to the north of Carcha); Itzam between Cahabn and Lanquin (Dieseldorff 1926 p. 21: to the north of Lanquin). According to Thompson (1930: 59), the directions are: Xucaneb - N, Coha S, Itzam - E, Yaluk - W. Indeed, Itzam is easternmost. The real location of Xucaneb and Coha respective of each other is just the reverse, Coha being to the north of Xucaneb. The explanation may lie in the fact that during the cold season, Coha substitutes for the absent Mam Xucaneb (Dieseldorff 1926: 21). Coha is the lord of the seas (and conceivably, connected to the sea by way of the Cahabn river). Yaluks location is unknown; conceivably, it might be the mountain Yalihux in the Carcha district (id.: 22). 36 In this, the Qeqchis are not alone among the Mayas; the ethnographic material concerning Tzotziles and Mames shows a similar ritual and mythological specialization of mountains.

37
represented in myth as powerful characters, interact as if together, they represent a complex of shifting political alliances. The mountains are closely associated with a series of meteorological phenomena, which are ascribed either to specialized mountain deities, or to Tzuultaqa as an all-encompassing concept. The meteorological cycle is born of an interaction among these phenomena. Cast this way, this cycle seems to imply an equation of sleep with the cold season and diminished precipitation, of awakening with the onset of the rainy season, and of frantic activity (feasting) with the full heat of the rainy season (see also Appendix C, Agriculture and Rain in the Tapir Episode).The dramatic effects associated with the mountains are as follows. (1) Subterranean rumblings. The explosive rumblings from the earth heard at the beginning of the rainy season, in June and July, signify that the Mam is angered because his bed has got wet (Dieseldorff 1926: 28, 1922: 51). According to Dieseldorff, the Mam represents a distinct, and frightening figure. In contrast, the 16th-century Pokoman dictionary of Zuiga (in Miles 1957: 749) defines the subterranean rumblings (trueno gordo [...] de bajo de la tierra) as the Mam who dreams and though not without reservations identifies this Mam as the Mountain Xucaneb. The Mam is stated to possess a very powerful blowgun (Haeserijn 1979: 219 s.v. Mam);37 in Sun and Moon myth, a blowgun (sometimes of giant proportions) is also a salient feature of the Tzuultaqa. (2) Thunder and lightning. Thunder (Kaaq) is visualized as an angry old man living everywhere in the mountains. Lightning is the effect of sunlight reflected by the silvery scales of a large fish (xrepom caak flashing of Thunder; Haeserijn 1979 s.v. repoc), which provokes the irritation of Old Thunder and makes him roar, causing the earth to tremble and rain to fall; then, the old man falls asleep (Gordon 1915: 108).38 Alternatively, lightning is called the tongue of Thunder (rak caak; Haeserijn s.v. ak) an image shared with

37

According to Haeserijn, the Qeqchis view certain minerals found in the earth as the stone projectiles of the Mams blowing-gun (xnak puub Mam). These same stones (ru na3 ru pub cakola hay; Coto 1983: 479 s.v. relmpago) were ascribed to lightning by the Kaqchikeles. 38 Thunder god angered by fish, cf. the Chorti rain deities (Workers) punishing an aquatic serpent, or Chicchan, with lightning (Wisdom 1940: 396); the female Chicchan is partly fish (id.: 393).

38
Gulf Coast peoples, who add that the tongue had once been cut from the throat of an alligator (cf. Braakhuis 2009b: 14). The association of Tzuultaqa and Thunder is particularly strong; according to Burkitt (1918: 285 n. 1), the mountain deities are equally referred to as Thunders. A thunderstorm is explained as strife among the Tzuultaqas (Dieseldorff 1926: 17), and lightning is produced when the Tzuultaqas strike a tree with their stone axes (Sapper 1897: 282). Similarly, the four directional mountain deities (Mams) referred to above split the Maize Mountain with their lightning bolts. In Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, Thunder (or, once, a volcano replacing Thunder) is usually a distinct figure hurling his lightning on bequest of Mountain-Valley. However, this is not always the case. Thus, in one variant (DR), the angry Mountain-Valley personally hurls his lightning bolt. (3) Rain. The rain-bringing clouds are personified in Choc(l) Cloud. His tears are rain drops; from his clouds, the rivers originate (CT). In one version of the myth (TH), Choc(l) under the name of his Yucatec counterpart, Chac substitutes for Old Thunder as an ally to the Mountain-Valley. In Belize, the four Mams, including Xucaneb, are said to shake themselves in June and thereby cause the rain (Thompson 1930: 59). (4) Floods. Floods are a sign that the Tzultaqas hold their feasts in the interior of the earth (Sapper 1897: 282). In sum, although Tzuultaqa is a Sammelfigur (collective image) for all mountains, and can assume the aspects of more specialized mountain-related deities, Qeqchi myth has set apart as a single figure Mountain-Valley (Tzuultaqa / Ma-Tactani), and usually distinguishes the Old Thunder (Kaaq) and the rain god (Chocl) as separate entities. The Maiden The marriageable girl, who is to play a pivotal role in all but the first episode of the myth, lives in the house of Tzuultaqa, loosely called her father. She bears the name of her father, Matactin or Matactani, with or without the feminine prefix: Xtactani (TH) or Ma-tactin (O-b). In the versions of Hummingbird myth as a whole, both among the Qeqchis and elsewhere, her connection to the earth is amply borne out by the transformation of her mortal remains into all sorts of animals, desirable

39
and undesirable, and into the maize.39 Whereas the father is intimately associated with the mountains and valleys, and is believed to guard their treasures in his caves, the daughter appears to be a manifestation of these treasures on the earths surface. In Qeqchi myth, the daughter of Tzuultaqa is usually transformed into the moon, the aged mountain spirit thus becoming father to the moon. This transformation is anticipated in that the name Xtactani alternates with Kana Po Lady Moon, or Li Po The Moon. In most versions, the lunar transformation is relegated to the very end of the narrative. The influence of the phases of the moon upon growth is a well-established Mesoamerican concept. Although, in this respect, the lunar transformation of Tzuultaqas daughter concurs with her association with animal and crop fertility, it also parallels her husbands transformation into the sun, which can be read as a metaphor for political supremacy. Once the daughter of Mountain-Valley has been definitively transformed into the moon, she enters upon her cycle of aging and rejuvenation. Then she can also be referred to as grandmother Po, and be imagined as playing with her grandchildren (Haeserijn 1979 s.v. se). In Sun and Moon myth, Xtactani entertains successive relations with a deer, Xbalanque, Chocl, Xulab, and the Evil One. While this appears to illustrate the sexual looseness and infidelity traditionally ascribed to the moon goddess, to take such a view is to risk reducing the goddesss relationships with various important deities to mere anecdotes. I will suggest that her infidelity demonstrates primarily the erotic attraction exercised by a nubile woman whose fertility is sought after by a series of non-human agencies. Thompson (1939) signaled parallels between Xtactani and the Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal, and these have a bearing on the status of the Qeqchi myth within Mesoamerica, as well as on its historic reach. For all that we know and notwithstanding Thompsons argument to the contrary Xochiquetzal was not a moon goddess.40 However, as noted above, Xtactanis celestial
39

I have refrained from using the term earth goddess. Although terms like earth deity or tellurian deity reflect common scholarly usage, a generalized earth aspect is usually not expressly formulated by contemporary hero myths; instead, one finds more specific attributions. 40 The main reason forwarded by Thompson for considering Xochiquetzal a lunar goddess is her marriage to Piltzintecuhtli, whom he conceives to be a solar deity, and assumes to be identical with Ppizlimtec, an ancient Yucatec Hummingbird hero (1939: 129, cf. 138, 140-141). See also Chapter Five, section The Meaning of the Hummingbird Transformation.

40
transformation stands side by side with other transformations of a terrestrial nature. Xochiquetzal will play an important role in the arguments relating to the role of Hummingbirds wife in the hunt. The Maidens Second Husband The concluding episode of the myth introduces the maidens husbandto-be, with whom she has children. The prospective husbands role is played by the Devil, or King of the vultures. The Devil is referred to as Ma-us or Mausajcuink (Cruz Torres), meaning Not-good (Man), or Evil One. As will be discussed in the final chapter, Ma-us is the equivalent of Ahmo-cuali Notgood, the god of evil sorcery among the Nahuas living in the Sierra del Norte of the state of Puebla, Mexico. Alternatively, the Evil One is called Aj Tz The Enemy (Wirsing), and is invoked in rituals of black sorcery. The Evil One is comparable to the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca, who was the god of sorcery as well as The Enemy to both sides (Yaotl Necoc).

41

CHAPTER 2

THE EARLY LIFE OF SUN AND HIS BROTHER The Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth as a whole belongs to the ancient world of hunting, and is focused on the acquisition of meat. The myths first episode more specifically concerns cannibalism. Two elementary themes are eating meat and being eaten as meat, not only directly, but also in a metaphorical, sexual sense. Briefly, the story runs as follows (see also the synopsis in Appendix A):41 While still babies, Sun (Lord Kin) and his brother (either Xulab or the rain deity, Chocl) are found and adopted by an old woman (called Xkitza or Shan Ni), and they grow up in her household. When they hunt for deer and carry the meat home, Old Adoptive Mother42 feeds the meat to her sexual partner, rather than to her adoptive children. In retaliation, the brothers kill and butcher the voracious intruder and feed his penis to the old woman as if it were a piece of venison. She then tries to hunt them down, but is killed, butchered, and eaten herself. Although the Old Adoptive Mother (best known as Xkitza) is the key to the entire episode, nearly everything we know about her is in the tale itself.43 Moreover, we have no native Qeqchi exegesis of the tale, and little or no information regarding the setting in which the tale was told; its telling does not seem to have been restricted to specific contexts. Previous scholarly commentaries are exceptionally few and rather inconclusive. Thompson (1970: 357-359) called attention to versions of the Qeqchi myth told among various ethnic groups of Oaxaca. These relate how the old woman is imprisoned and burnt in a steam bath to become the goddess of midwifery. He offered no
41

By comparison with the Hummingbird episode making up the myths main part, the extant Qeqchi sources for the adoption episode are more restricted, even though the possibilities for comparison within Mesoamerica are vast. I shall make use of texts provided by Cruz Torres, Freeze, Goubaud, Grandia, and Thompson (see Appendix A). 42 Wherever there is a previous adoption within a group (version) of coherent variants, I will use the term Old Adoptive Mother. In such cases, I assume the word grandmother to denote an age class rather than a kinship category. 43 The exception being Cruz Torress (1965: 372) tantalizing bit of information that to the curers, Shan Ni was important since she could cure Fright (susto), i.e., soul loss.

42
interpretations, however, perhaps because the theme of cannibalism, very noticeable in the Qeqchi version, is quite contrary to the image of Maya culture he cherished. The main existing interpretation of the antagonism between the two heroes and their aged adoptive mother is that of Graulich, who casts the antagonism as an opposition of allochthons and autochthons. This opposition has heuristic value for the historical approach to Aztec myths, but Graulich extends it to not only the Twin myth of the Popol Vuh, but also, briefly and aprioristically, to this episode of the Qeqchi tale of Sun and Moon.44 Although I believe Graulichs explanatory model to be too narrow, this is not do deny the existence of parallels between certain episodes of Qeqchi myth and passages in ancient indigenous historiography, as both this and the following three chapters will show. To explore the features of the Qeqchi episode without the constraints of any specific model, the episode will be placed in a wider comparative framework, one broad enough to encompass pre-Spanish antecedents. An effort has been made to discern certain common denominators and tendencies in the passages of other Mesoamerican hero myths that deal with the conflict between the hero (or heroes) and their Old Adoptive Mother.45 In the first instance, such tendencies appear to converge on the female actors possessiveness, cannibalistically, sexually, and in the field of parenthood. Another, perhaps less essentialist way to view the Mesoamerican Old Adoptive Mother would be to take her various roles as specific realizations (or transformations) of the theme of the appropriation of meat/flesh in the areas of adoption, midwifery, sex, cannibalism, hunting, and war. As regards the Qeqchi Old Adoptive Mother, there is a cognitive dimension to the old woman s behavior as well, in that she

44

Graulich (1997b: 174-175) views the figure of the Old Adoptive Mother (Xkitza) as being analogous to the Aztec female demon, Itzpapalotl, whom he elsewhere characterizes thus (1988: 98): Itzpapalotl is the Earth, the nativism that wants to devour the victorious migrants, that attempts to deprive them of their ardor, prevent them from reaching their goal, and in that way obstruct the appearance of the sun. Torres Cisneross characterization of the Old Adoptive Mother of Mixe Sun and Moon myth (2001: 249; cf. also 242, 256) echoes Graulichs description of Itzpapalotl. 45 These are chiefly the myths of Kumix (Cume), from the Chorti Mayas; the Jaguar Slayer (Ohoroxtotil), Tzotzil Mayas; the rain deities, Pipil Nahuas; Sun and Moon, Oaxacan groups; Sun and Moon, Puebla Nahuas; Morning and Evening Star, Coras; maize hero (Chicomexochitl, Dhipaak, etc.), Gulf Coast; and other, more legendary and local heroes (such as Ez, Tepoztecatl, Xigu, Fane Kantsini).

43
is suggested to confound certain elementary concepts, such as meat and flesh, or eating and intercourse. The possible connection of the episode with specific sacrificial and cannibalistic practices of the early 16th century will be considered in the next chapter.46 The Old Adoptive Mother and the Age of Cannibalism The Old Adoptive Mother, her animal lover, the children she has with the animal lover, and her adoptive children (the foundlings) together constitute the mythical image of a human society surrounded by a world of talking birds and silent deer. The setting is a primeval world specifically, the world before the First Sunrise. The Thompson tale (1930: 119) has a sort of preamble, stemming from one of Thompsonss four informants, that sketches an archaic cycle of solar ages of seven years, each age being concluded by flood and darkness. One of the Old Adoptive Mothers foundlings is to become a stronger, and more constant sun. Cruz Torress narration (1965: 21) begins with the words: The world was still dark. In Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth, the triumph over this powerful woman is usually followed by the First Sunrise. The preamble of the Thompson tale may lead one to think that the same should be the case in Qeqchi myth. It is a characteristic of Qeqchi myth, however, that the First Sunrise is postponed until not only this ancient Grandmother, but also an ancient Grandfather has been outwitted. Since the Old Adoptive Mother (or Grandmother) of Mesoamerican hero myth is the primary representative of a primeval population, various notions both positive and negative, and not always mutually consistent concerning this first age tend to coalesce around her.47 In Qeqchi myth, the old woman has sons of her own, but no daughters to marry off, and the sons have no wives. Alliance and affinity play a very restricted role in this household.

46

In the anthropological literature, it is not uncommon to find the Old Adoptive Mother connected to an important Aztec goddess, Cihuacoatl. A systematic comparison will be found in Appendix D. 47 On the positive side, she can, for example, be credited with the invention of cookery (Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 47).

44

Cannibalistic Appropriation of Children More emphatically than most other Mesoamerican hero myths, the first episode of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth is about cannibalism. Not only is its Old Adoptive Mother (Xkitza or Shan Ni) made to eat the meat of her lover, she also reacts as a cannibal by planning to slaughter her adoptive children and eat their flesh cooked in maize wraps (tamales) and is herself finally eaten by her sons. A recent Qeqchi variant from Belize (Grandia n.d.: 14) says about the Old Adoptive Mother and her children: They are the Chool Winq of former days (aaneb chool winq chaq junxil kutan), the Chool Winq (or Chol People) being a race of cannibals with singular powers of animal transformation (especially into jaguars) and living in the woods as savages. They represent the unbaptized Chol-speaking Mayas with whom the converted Qeqchis interacted, both peacefully and otherwise, during the centuries following the Spanish conquest (Schackt 2004). In other Mesoamerican hero myths, the Old Adoptive Mother is, often from their very beginning, called by names suggestive of cannibalism. For example, an episode of Pipil hero myth, which will be discussed in due course and that is close to the Qeqchi episode, features an Adoptive Mother called Tantputz (Hartmann 1907:146) or Tantepuslamat (e.g., Campbell n.d.: 898), meaning Iron-toothed Old Woman.48 The name corresponds to Tepusilam Old Iron Lady among the Nahuas of Durango (K. Preuss 1982: 87), and also to Jantepusi Ilama (loosely rendered as Vieja de hierro) in early colonial Coapanaguastla, Chiapas (Ruz 1985: 258).49 Alternatively, she is identified as a tzitzimitl, a type of cannibalistic demon inherited from the Aztec past that was associated both with the dangers of the primordial darkness prevailing before the first sunrise, and with eschatological darkness. This tzitzimitl was characterized by teeth like metal bars (Burkhart 1989: 55, from a sermon by Sahagn; for a detailed discussion,

48

These names derive from tentli tooth, tepuztli copper, iron, bronze, metal in general, and ilama old woman (Simon s.v.). Iron became known only after the Spanish conquest. 49 Among the 17th-century Zoques of Chiapas (Aramoni 1992: 92), Jantepusi Ilama was still venerated in a cave, especially by male and female curers. The Qeqchi goddess, Shan Ni, also said to live in a cave, was important to curers as well (Cruz Torres).

45
see Klein 2000).50 The Old Adoptive Mother of the maize hero, for example, generally identified as a cannibal, is called Tsitsimiilamaj Old Woman Tzitzimitl among the Gulf Coast Nahuas (Gonzlez Cruz 1984: 206), or Tsitsimat among the Gulf Coast Popolucas (Elson 1947: 195), which again corresponds to the Tzitzimita Old Adoptive Mother of the Chorti Mayan hero (Dary 1986: 266; Hull 2003: 221-222). In Gulf Coast maize hero myth, this highly ambiguous woman is explicitly stated to belong, together with her daughter (the heros mother), to a stage of endo-cannibalism: In their generation, they ate each other (Segre 1990: 324). The Mayas have specific traditions about this endo-cannibalistic era, of which a Mam tale (Hostnig and Mller 1993:21) provides a concise model (cf. also Gossen 1974: 331, 342, 346 for the Tzotziles): The primeval beings lived on their own offspring. They produced children only so as to slaughter and eat them, sparing two specimens from each new generation to reproduce incestuously. The very act of copulating and of sexual reproduction was thus permeated by the idea of slaughter, and a pregnant belly was a belly full of meat. The cannibalism of various Old Adoptive Mother characters is specifically connected to very young children of other people. Thereby, the endo-cannibalistic infanticide of the Mam and Tzotzil tales seems to have given way to an exo-cannibalistic one (although it might also be assumed that the old woman still considers all human children to be hers). The Grandmother of the Huaxtec maize hero, Thipak, for instance, assumes the shape of an eagle to kidnap children, which she fattens and devours.51 Alternatively, she offers her services as a babysitter (Alcorn 1984: 166): Like the Old Adoptive Mother of the Chorti hero, Kumix (Fought 1985: 141-144), she thereby acquires newborn children to fill her belly. Their Tepehua counterpart (Williams Garcia 1972: 112) turns the children entrusted to her care into meat tamales which she subsequently shares with the unsuspecting mother. A different procedure is followed by the Old Adoptive Mother of the Yucatec hero, Ez: She sells water in exchange for children, which she then feeds to a large snake (cf. Gutirrez Estvez 1988: 71; Helfrich 1973: 63, 128).
50 51

See Appendic D for a comparison with Aztec data. In Mazatec Sun and Moon myth (Boege 1986: 66), the eagle, although not explicitly identified with the Old Adoptive Mother, continues to be described as a kidnapper and devourer of children.

46
The same atavistic predilection comes to the fore with similar aged female characters. The Pipil Old Adoptive Mother, Tlentepusilam, shares her name with the ancient Zoque goddess, Jantepusi Ilama, who is associated with child sacrifice in a cave (Olivier 2005: 250, quoting Aramoni). On the feast where she is to perish, her Durango Nahua representative, Tepusilam, is first treated to a small child (Preuss 1982: 87). Saku the old woman who acts as a midwife to the Cora Venus hero (see next section) is cannibalistic (Preuss 1912: 274) to the point of kidnapping and eating babies (id.: 372). In kidnapping babies, the midwife goddess, Saku, is like the aged Orphan Parent, the main Tzutujil Mayan goddess of midwifery, who keeps piles of stolen children at her grieving side (Prechtel 2004: 133). The Old Adoptive Mother of the Grandia variant of Qeqchi myth (n.d.: 14) seems to be such an orphan parent, in that following the statement that she raised Sun, we are told: But from many places, she has twelve small children, just orphans () there is also Lord Sun, different are the names of these children.52 Whether these data betray the same cannibalistic intention or represent a more subdued variant, remains uncertain. The Chorti and Tepehua babysitting stories, noted above, are sometimes told in such a way as to refer to the mythical relations between the Old Adoptive Mother, her adoptive sons, and her true sons that is, to the world before the First Sunrise. One of the Chorti mothers visited by the demon uses the very expedient of the Chorti hero, Kumix, to avoid being devoured: She wraps up a stone pestle to represent her child so that the old woman breaks her teeth on it (Fought 1985: 142). One of the otherwise stereotypical Tepehua horror stories (Williams Garca 1972: 112) is followed by the ogres imprisonment in a steam bath and the transformation of her ashes into stinging insects, thus broadly replicating the structure of Oaxacan and Gulf Coast hero myth. The motif of the tamale (steamed or boiled maize dough in a leaf wrapper) holding human meat can be traced through several historical eras, but it never separates completely from endo-cannibalistic practices: First, the era before the First Sunrise in which the endo-cannibalistic ancestors ate tamales stuffed with the meat of their own children (Gossen 1974: 346, T183); second, the era of the pseudo endo-

52

Aban nabaleb sa xnaajeb, kablaju eb li xkokal yal xneba () wan ajwi li qawa saqe, jalanq jalanqeb li xkaba li kokaleb aan.

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cannibalistic Old Adoptive Mother who tried to eat tamales stuffed with the meat of her adoptive children, and then, having herself been converted into tamale stuffing, was eaten by her own sons; and finally, the contemporary era in which the spook of the Old Adoptive Mother converts young mothers babies into meat tamales, and, sharing them with the mothers, makes the latter endo-cannibalistically eat their own children. Given that endo-cannibalistic reproduction was incestuous, the Old Adoptive Mother might even be suspected of denying the existence of marital affinity and alliance. Adoption and Denial of Ancestry At the beginning of his life, the protagonist of Mesoamerican hero myth usually is separated from his parents and then found and adopted. Several of these adoption stories show a certain mutual coherence in that they stress the excessive behavior of the old woman on finding the child, or children. Particularly in cases like those of Chorti and Qeqchi myth, the adoption by the aged woman character could be regarded as a transformation of the specific kind of cannibalism reviewed above. Already at the very moment of the heros birth, a cannibalistic old woman sometimes intervenes. In Cora Venus hero myth (Preuss 1912: 149-151), the old goddess Saku approaches the ailing mother of the future Morning Star, cuts the umbilical cord with her sharp nails,53 and throws the baby into the waters of life (referring here to the Western Ocean). In a more recent variant (Bentez III 1973: 555ff), Sakus dangerous, aggressive nature stands out: The old hag first kills the father, tears the womb of the birthing mother apart with her claws, pulls the child out, and throws it into a river, from whence it is rescued by a benevolent heron (a rain goddess). Saku appears to be acting as a fearsome representative of the midwives in that she delivers the baby and induces its aquatic re-birth. In most other cases, however, it is this very sort of goddess that serves as the heros adoptive mother. The baby, sometimes in the embryonic shape of an egg, is recovered from the water of a river or a well, and adopted by a

53

Long, sharp nails (three-inch thumbnails that were sharpened like little claw blades) for cutting the umbilical cords characterized the Tzutujil midwives of the past (Prechtel 2004: 128).

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cannibalistic old woman.54 Especially in the Oaxacan versions of Sun and Moon myth, this Old Adoptive Mother typically ends up as the goddess of the steam bath who is also the patroness of the midwives. From this perspective, the stereotypical catching of the baby from the water (or from a box carried by the water) becomes a metaphor for the principal work of the midwife herself.55 But in other cases, such as that of Qeqchi myth, the old cannibal woman remains unchanged to the very end. In Qeqchi myth, the heros mother had been unmarried when she gave birth to him, and fearing the wrath of her father, had hidden him in a box close to a stream where he had been found by the old woman, Xkitza (Thompson 1930: 125). This box had probably been carried by the stream; in a Zapotec Sun and Moon myth (Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 47-48), the babies are similarly recovered from a box, one which is now explicitly stated to have been washed ashore by the ocean. Another, quite recent Belizean Qeqchi variant (Grandia n.d.: 14) stresses the old womans elation: I got a present (wan jun lin matan), a formula echoed in maize hero myth (Elson 1947: 196): We found our laughter, our luck. This luck is the unexpected present of a baby to a woman past menopausal age. In several cases, the adoption following upon the childs retrieval from the waters of birth is carried to extremes. The old woman suggests to her partner that she actually gave birth to the foundlings, and, in acting this out theatrically, seems to be equally set on convincing herself of this.56 In these extreme adoptions, a strong possessiveness and, implicitly, a jealousy of younger women appears to be at work. This sort of envy has been reported for the Zapotecs (Sault 1990: 80), where the possessiveness of older women towards new-born children is such that it makes young mothers constantly fear the effects of evil eye on their babies health. The phenomenon is probably a more general one. It
54

For a fuller discussion of aquatic birth and adoption scenes in hero myths, see Braakhuis 1990 and 2009b. 55 The motif is equally suggestive of the ritual interactions between the midwife and the water goddess that in Aztec society took place at birth (Sahagn Book 6) and turned on the theme of aquatic re-birth. Saku demonstrates this in her own way. 56 The figure of the pregnant old woman is not restricted to myth. It is also the subject of an 18th-century Nahua farce (Bricker 1973: 194; cf. Hunt 1977: 84-86): A stooped old woman, entirely behaving as if she were pregnant, craves for the thick, white juice of the agave (a traditional metaphor for semen) so as not to have a miscarriage. The well-known association of pulque with warlike fury seems to be involved.

49
also characterizes the most powerful of the thirteen goddesses of childbirth and midwifery recognized by the traditional Tzutujil Mayas of Santiago Atitlan. This Orphan Parent (already mentioned above) is in the habit of kidnapping children, since, being barren, she is extraordinarily jealous of all things female on the earth who do have young or give birth (Prechtel 2004: 133). This divine envy of maternal fertility and its concomitant possessiveness is echoed in hero myth. As soon as she has discovered the children at the edge of a river, the Zapotec Old Adoptive Mother significantly called Childless One (Parsons 1936: 324 n. 26) cries out to her husband (Speck 1998: 176): Come with my palm girdle, come with my cloth girdle, because my children have been born, the girdles serving to keep air from entering the womb of a new mother. Even more drastic imagery is used in a Trique version (Hollenbach 1977: 129, 141): Harboring the Twins in her skirt (huipil), the Old Adoptive Mother smears her thighs with the red sap of the crimsonberry, so as to suggest to her husband the blood of delivery. In Oaxaca, the Old Adoptive Mother usually ends up as the goddess of the steam bath. That is not always the case, however, and scenes like the justmentioned ones are not restricted to Oaxaca. In a Chorti version (Prez Martnez 1996: 46), the child hero is first murdered by the Older Brothers (comparable to the true sons of the Qeqchi Old Adoptive Mother), pounded to pieces, and thrown into a river,57 where he is reborn. The Old Adoptive Mother (called Ketchuh), believing she hears the bloody foam on the water crying, takes it to be her own fetus (my baby just fell), and happily retrieves it. The Chorti idiom my baby just fell refers to miscarriage or abortion.58 The Chorti Old Adoptive Mother episode is, on the whole, very close to the Qeqchi one. As is already suggested by scenes like the above, a denial of the foundlings ancestry is characteristic of the various adoption episodes. When

57

Hull informed me that two folks have told it to me where the Ciguanaba [the old woman] does it, and he comes back to life supernaturally as a baby boy and then she adopts him (pers.comm. 21-9-2005). 58 The relevant passage runs as follows: De repente ella escuch que alguien lloraba en la espuma del rio y corriendo se fue a juntar con la mano y dijo: este puede ser aborto mio (Prez Martnez 1996: 46), these last words rendering the Chorti expression my baby just fell [intaka kaxi nichurkab]. The idiom was kindly explained to me by Kerry Hull.

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the children are growing up, they are usually told nothing of their real progenitors, and are led to believe that their adoptive mother was their birth mother. Tales about the local hero of Tepoztlan (Gonzlez Casanova 1928: 1819) further elaborate this motif. After her husband has recovered the child from a box in a river, the old woman behaves exactly like a young woman who just brought forth a child: She takes the foundling with her to bed and starts to suckle it. The family pours in to congratulate her and she enters the steam bath as mothers do upon delivery. The motif is an ancient one, having already been put to use in a legendary tale about the founder of the Aztec dynasty, Acamapichtli (cf. Zantwijk 1985: 99-101). Acamapichtlis wife, Ilancueitl Old Womans Skirt, is considerably older than her husband. In variants of the tale, her status ranges from wet nurse and foster mother the usual roles of the mythical Old Adoptive Mother to Acamapichtlis aunt or even his mother. She turns out to be barren. All the children born to the noblewomen of the town wards (calpollis), however, are made to lie between her legs as if they were her own, and each time, she is congratulated by everybody as though she had given birth to a new descendant. In other legends of local heroes, the theme of a fictitious motherhood is further developed. In Yucatan, the poor and infertile Old Adoptive Mother of the dwarfish Indian King, Ez, walks about begging for alms and is given a token of fertility in the form of an egg (Gutirrez Estvez 1988: 105). Alternatively, she simply comes upon an egg and, after some time, hears a baby crying (Redfield and Villa 1934: 335). The sequel to this inverts the Tepoztlan version: Instead of the neighbors pouring in to congratulate the new mother, the old woman goes and visits all her neighbors one by one to find and congratulate the young mother. She is taken as insane. Finally she discovers the child, Ez, in a corner of her own room, and adopts it. The Tapir Connection In Qeqchi myth, as in its counterparts elsewhere, the Old Adoptive Mother has a partner with whom she had children. To define this partners identity and function in Qeqchi myth and in parallel tales will be the principal aim of this section. As a rule, the children are male; there are no daughters and no daughters-in-law. A fragment from a Qeqchi variant preserved in Haeserijns lexicographical material (1979: 325) has twelve brothers eating the meat of their mother. These are Old Adoptive Mothers natural sons, twelve

51
being a symbolic number which seems to indicate the totality of an autochthonous population, and which stands in opposition to the twelve orphans adopted by the old woman (Grandia n.d.). Together, the couple and their sons represent a closed system that excludes the foundlings by tricking them out of their food. The imagery used is that of cannibalism in its sexual and culinary modalities. The Voracious Partner In Qeqchi myth, the Old Adoptive Mother has a partner who is her lover; only in one Belizean variant (Grandia n.d.: 15) is he stated to be her husband. Although the lover remains silent and distant (living in the mountains), his presence is predominant. The boys bring home bags full of birds (Freeze) or loads of venison (Goubaud), but instead of being fed with it, it all goes to the lover.59 In Qeqchi myth (and also in Pipil myth, see SchultzeJena 1935: 29), the Old Adoptive Mother smears the fat of the meat on the boys mouths and under their nails while they are asleep to make them believe that they have already eaten. While omitting this specific deceit, other Mesoamerican hero myths draw a similar portrait of the partner. Three examples make the point: In Mixe myth (Torres 2001: 242), the grandfather doesnt work, he is lazy and has the twins do the work for him; in Zapotec Sun and Moon myth, the partner eats thirteen times a day (Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 47), a sort of tribute of thirteen baskets of tortillas and thirteen jars of food being carried to him each day (Parsons 1936: 324); and in maize hero myth (Elson 1947: 196), the Old Adoptive Mother even had to stop her partner from immediately devouring the egg-shaped embryo of the hero himself, arguing that their cannibalistic meal should be postponed until the child had grown. In each case, the partner is an unmistakable caricature of parasitism and greed. The lovers voracity is simultaneously a sexual one, since in exchange for the meat, he gives the Old Adoptive Mother carnal pleasure, that is,

59

Kiches (and probably Tzutujiles as well) are also familiar with this parasitical figure (e.g., Petrich and Ochoa 2001a: 27-29), but they seem to have re-interpreted him as the brother of the heroes, who is finally made to climb a tree, and changed into a monkey (he thus corresponds to the third brother who, in variants of the Thompson narrative, remained loyal to Xkitza).

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metaphorically, he eats or feeds her.60 A Mazatec Sun and Moon tale (Inchastegui 1977: 28) clearly plays on the double meaning of feeding that is implied: The lady did not bring this gentleman his food, but went for something else, because she went on all fours with her skirt tucked up and said to that person: Come here, my heart! Come here, my love! I have already brought you something to eat. Here is your food . The unrestrained, unscrupulous voracity of Old Adoptive Mothers partner who appears to be devoid of human speech is presented as that of an animal to be summarily executed. In a Popoluca variant of maize hero myth, the partner is a fat serpent (Elson 1947: 198), whereas in Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth, he is usually said, or least intimated, to be a deer. In Thompsons Belizean version of Qeqchi myth, some informants identified the partner as a tapir (Thompson 1930: 120), a large, solitary and nocturnal herbivore.61 This ethnographic fact has long remained an uncorroborated and therefore somewhat dubious curiosity. Recently, however, Liza Grandia (2004: 5-7) published another Qeqchi variant from Belize showing the same substitution. Moreover, the tapir lover recurs in the myth of the Chorti hero, Kumix (Fought 1989: 464), and is also present in Chiapas, as for example in a Moch Mayan version of the episode documented by Perla Petrich (in Mondragn et al. 1995: 37).62 Conclusive evidence for the stereotypical role assigned to the tapir in the southeastern part of Mesoamerica comes from another story from Chiapas, this time of the Chol Mayas (Prez Chacn 1988: 335-341). In this cautionary tale, a married woman fulfills the role of the tapir gigolo of Qeqchi, Chorti, and

60

Speaking about the Pipil version, Schultze Jena (1935: 19) gave a more delicate formulation: Der Riese tritt in ein unsauberes Verhltnis zur Pflegemutter der Knaben (The giant enters upon an inappropriate relationship with the adoptive mother of the lads). 61 One passage in particular indeed suggests a heavy animal: About sunset they heard the earth trembling. It was the noise of the monster coming out of the hill where he lived (Thompson 1930: 121). According to the Tzeltales of Golonton, the tapir, when alarmed, stamps the earth with his feet, and thereby announces earthquakes (Navarrete 1987: 242). 62 The Moch text is in Maya but uses the loanword danta for the tapir. Stemming from a border area with Guatemala, the Moch (or Mototzintlec) tale fuses the well-known Chiapas and northwestern Guatemala myth of Sun and his jealous Elder Brethren with the tapir-killing of the two hero brothers.

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Moch myth by continually accepting gifts of game in exchange for sex, until she dies and, in the underworld, is actually changed into a tapir.63 Instead of a tapir, a huge monster (Thompson 1930:120) can assume the role of Old Adoptive Mothers gigolo.64 Otherwise, he is the mountain (Grandia 2004), or the devil, with horns and a broad mouth (Cruz Torres 1965: 22), rather like the devils of the syncretic devil dances (who often personify vices, such as Greed). This devil looked like a glowing coal [flying] very high i.e., he was the transformation of a sorcerer (the poslob of the Tzotziles). In the Freeze variant (1976: 25), he is an old man (mama) who, at the storys conclusion, is identified as li mam, the Mam,65 a term which the translator rendered as the devil. Given his interchangeability with the devil, also apparent from the Cruz Torres text, the Mam is likely to be the so-called evil Mam, a savage deity opposed to human procreation and associated with cataclysms demanding many human lives, as well as with cannibalism (Dieseldorff 1922: 50, 1926: 28; Villacorta Vidarre 1970: 3; cf. Thompson 1970: 297-299).66 Following Wirsing (in Haeserijn 1979: 219), this Mam can equally denote the tapir. Like the other lovers, the Mam is killed in a pit full of sharp stakes, which according to Sahagn (1979: 622, Bk.11 Ch. 1) was, as early as the 16th century, the way to catch a tapir.67 As an antithesis of sociality, Old Adoptive Mothers tapir partner plays a role, in one variant or another, throughout much of tropical Central and South America. Loveland (1976: 71), for instance, writing about the Ramas of

63

The circumstance that the gluttonous tapir gigolo is continually being fed with all sorts of meat may be connected to the fact that some Qeqchis call the tapir the beast of all seven edible kinds of flesh (Atran and Medin 2008: 93), echoing in this the informants of Sahagn (1979: 622, Bk. 11 Ch. 1), according to whom the tapir (tlacaxolotl) had the meat and the taste thereof of all animals, of birds, and even of human beings. In the Thompson variant, the herbivorous tapir lover actually eats birds. 64 The very similar Pipil episode has a giant with swollen lips (tmak i tenshpal, Schultze-Jena 1935: 28-29). 65 pero xkam chik li mama. Ut aan nekexyeh naq aan li mam. Unlike other Mayan languages, mam in Qeqchi appears to be used only for the great-grandchild, and does not mean grandfather. 66 As a male personification of the all-devouring earth, this Mam is like Cabracan in the Popol Vuh (lines 1491ff), or like Tolkom in the Annals of the Kaqchikeles (Recinos and Goetz 1974: 72-75; Maxwell and Hill 2006: 94-95). 67 In Appendix C, Agriculture and Rain in the Tapir Episode, other aspects of this character are considered.

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Nicaragua, states that the tapir is associated with nature, asociality, aculturality, and disorder, and represents a symbol of unrestrained sexuality and predation on the crops (id.: 77), the tapir affine here being a parasitical intruder into the gardens of his human brothers-in-law. In many tales of the Desana Tukanos of Colombia (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1985: 113), the tapir is a wily and distrustful creature, quite unwilling to make any sort of deal with an outsider and jealously watching over his womenfolk. Tapir is described as a glutton, an egoist loath to share his property. With regard to the unrestrained sexuality and the monopolizing of women, the fleshy tapir (in this case, the Central-American Tapirus bairdi) has the largest penis-to-body ratio of all mammals; zoo guardians have occasionally watched the excited animal stumble over its own penis. Killing the Partner When, in the Qeqchi tales, the hero brothers realize that they are being deprived of their meat, and have found out the culprit, they lure him into a pitfall. Qeqchi myth clearly describes the lover as an animal; but the possibility of a metaphorical meaning is suggested by the fact that a pitfall with sharp stakes, covered with branches and leaves, was used to kill not only large mammals, but also hostile warriors, as the Kakchiqueles regularly did against the Spaniards (Asselbergs 2004: 123 and figs. 21, 22). In the next chapter, this point will be further considered. In versions from Oaxaca (and, to a lesser extent, also the Gulf Coast), the motive for the killing is the discovery that the so-called (grand)father is in reality an animal taking their food. Again, however, the discovery of (grand)fathers animal nature does not preclude a metaphorical intention: It may be his unrestrained, greedy behavior that makes him an animal and marks him as game. Given that the tapir and the deer are game animals, the old woman, in her sexual relationship, is making common cause with animals whose destiny it is to be killed, confounding meat and flesh. Through a travesty, the heroes of a Puebla Nahua Sun and Moon tale (Barlow 1962: 57) modify this undesirable, enduring relationship into the transitory one of a once-common hunting ritual (for this, see Chapter Six): The junior, lunar brother (generally classified as female) puts on the clothes of his mother, attracts the game animal, and takes hold of its hands; the senior, solar brother draws near and cuts the deers throat

55
an act that, while recalling the action of the bat in maize hero myth, is also suggestive of killing a domestic animal. In other cases, the killing of Old Adoptive Mothers partner refers, in a last instance, to that of human enemies. In a Mazatec version of Sun and Moon myth, the Twins victim is a black sorcerer (corresponding to the devil in certain Qeqchi variants), the very one who killed their father, and whose deer shape is but one of his potential transformations (Bentez III 1973: 112). The heroes victim can also be referred to metaphorically as a deer ex post facto, after he has been slaughtered (e.g., Pipil, Campbell 1985: 909; Mixe, Hoogshagen 1971: 342). In another case, he is a giant (or Sesimite) living in a mountain, and can be killed only in an armed confrontation (Dary 1986: 300; cf. Pipil, Schultze Jena).68 In the maize hero myth of the Gulf Coast, Old Adoptive Mothers partner is usually not stated to be an animal (or a lover). His killing can be staged in such a way that it evokes a human sacrifice: Once the pseudo-fathers cannibalistic intentions have become manifest, the hero orders a bat to cut his throat. In pre-Spanish times, the bat symbolized sacrifice by decapitation.69 Falsely assuming that it is her child who has finally been slaughtered, the Old Adoptive Mother delights in drinking her partners blood trickling down from the loft (e.g., Elson 1947: 200; Law 1957: 351; Gonzlez Cruz 1984: 217).70 After the killing, the tapir or deer victim is slaughtered. The heroes take out the heart (Zapotec, Parsons 1936: 325; Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 50) and liver (Chatino, Cortes Serrano 1979: 49), and sever the testicles (Mixe, Miller 1956: 90; Qeqchi, Grandia 2004: 6) and penis (Qeqchi, Thompson 1930: 121; Pipil, Schultze Jena 1935: 29). The meat is prepared and served to the Old Adoptive Mother. The son of the Old Adoptive Mother and her lover joins in and eats from the meat of his father (Goubaud); both mother and son like the taste. The Qeqchi, Pipil, and Mixe heroes roast the genitals and pretend they came from a deer they had shot (but not been allowed to eat),

68

The fact that in Chorti and in Pipil hero myth (Schultze Jena 1935: 27) the old womans lover is a male tzitzimitl, can bring to mind the tzitzimitl costume of one of the two Aztec supreme military commanders, the tlacochcalcatl (cf. Davies 1987: 161). 69 The bat is shown as a sacrificer in several Mexican codices (see Blaffer 1972: 57-60). In the Popol Vuh (lines 3971-3972), it is also a bat that decapitates Hunahpu. 70 The well-known concept of deities drinking the blood of sacrificial animals thus receives a distinctly cannibalistic twist.

56
whereupon the Old Woman consumes the choice morsels (Thompson 1930: 121; Schultze Jena 1935: 29-30; Miller 1956: 90). In spite of the considerable variation, the tale of the Old Adoptive Mother and her animal lover is in essential respects reminiscent of a myth from North Americas North-west coast, which, as Lvi-Strauss (1971: 148) notes, constantly plays on the ambiguity of the notion of eating [consommation]. The old woman involved la grand-mre libertine is as fond of intercourse with her neighbor as with any other meat. Lvi-Strauss (id.: 148-149) illustrates this lack of discrimination by a scene from a Chinook tale, in which, following a hunt, the hero and his grandmother are seen to carry the meat home: Grandmother only wanted to carry the hind part, on which, as soon as she was alone, she seated herself in order to copulate. The heros indignant reaction, That is meant to be eaten, not to be married!, could equally have been that of the Qeqchi heroes on witnessing their adoptive mother mating with a tapir. The Chinook tale, however, takes another step: The grandmother expresses her desire to have intercourse with the hero, too, who responds with an ambiguous, I am hungry. There are hints of a similar extension in some of the Mesoamerican versions that will be considered under the heading Confronting and Subduing the Old Woman. First, however, the moral dimension of what could otherwise seem to be a somewhat scurrilous episode should be considered in greater depth. The Myth Mirrored: An Adultery Tale The mythological tale of sexual voracity and castration we have just been considering must have held a particular fascination, for, as Robert Laughlin (1977: 288) has noted, it is divested of its mythological trappings still widely spread among the Qeqchis and other Mayas as a cautionary tale about female adultery.71 Laughlin (id.: 278-287) published an elaborate Tzotzil variant of this cautionary tale from Zinacantn, the particular relevance of which resides in its setting, that of the deer hunt.72 Briefly, a man hunting for

71

For references, see Laughlin 1977: 288. For a Qeqchi variant of this story, see Cabarrs 1979: 160-162. 72 A Tzotzil variant from Chenalh (Guiteras) has the same setting. The importance of the motif of the deer hunt in this tale type is also shown by a Chorti variant (Fought

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deer finds he is unable to make the kill. The deer make fun of him and, in a variant from Chenalh (Guiteras 1961: 261), his hunting dogs refuse to go after the game. The reason is that in the meantime, back at home, the mother of his children is feeding meat to another man in return for sex. When the hunter has avenged himself by severing his rivals penis, and thereby killing him, he puts the penis in his bag as a sort of talisman, and finds that the deer are again willing to surrender themselves. A stag another rival is killed and castrated like his wifes lover. Back home, he feeds the stags penis to the two eldest children, who had shared in the meat given to the lover and were thus implicated in their mothers crime. His rivals member, roasted and strongly seasoned (salted, in the Guiteras variant), is fed to the adulterous wife as if it were venison. As a result, she starts to drink water but is unable to stop, until finally, her belly explodes. This specific ending seems to correspond to the old womans drowning (that is, a death provoked by an excess of water) in the Goubaud variant of the Qeqchi episode, but it is reflected more closely by a Pipil version (Schultze Jena 1935: 31). In this latter rendering, the roasted penis is too tough to eat, and has to be roasted again. The boys advise their adoptive mother to add salt. Apparently as a consequence of having eaten the salty penis, the old woman orders her adoptive children rain deities in this case to haul water. Although she is not stated to drink the water, she evacuates water in the course of a playful rain-making contest (see next section).73 Referring to the protagonist of the Zinacantec tale, Laughlin justly observed (1977: 288) that the mans failure as a hunter is mysteriously linked to his failure as a husband. The nature of this failure as a husband is made abundantly clear in a Chorti variant (Fought 1972: 251). The husband never demonstrates anger, and is consequently humiliated by his wife: They say that his hand was pressed down on the griddle by his wifeand he made tortillas, and when the lover arrived to sleep with his wife, he [the husband] was

1972: 252), in which it suddenly crops up when the dried penis is to be presented to the adulterous woman. 73 In conjunction with the drowning and the bursting belly full of water, this waterhauling and urination could be taken to mean that the Old Adoptive Mother can also function as a pluvial goddess (cf. Torres Cisneros 244 n. 323); see Appendix C, Agriculture and Rain in the Tapir Episode.

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ordered to lie on the floor of the house. As a result of his lack of courage, the husband in the Tzotzil tale is not only humiliated by his wife, but also ridiculed by the deer. In Chapter Six, the parallelism and moral equivalence between the alliance of the hunter with his human father-in-law and the alliance with the otherworldly Owner of the game will be discussed. From this moral equivalence springs the hunting taboo on adultery that was violated by the hunters wife, a taboo that has, as a corollary, the husbands responsibility for his wifes behavior, a responsibility that the husband of the tale evidently failed to meet. The initial female predominance over the male in various adultery tales has a parallel in the first episode of Qeqchi myth. Assuming that the Qeqchi version of this episode is the prototype of the Tzotzil cautionary tale, it could be hypothesized that a married woman satisfying her sexual drive without restriction and feeding her lovers instead of tending to the needs of her children was originally considered to represent the mythical adoptive mother. On this hypothesis, her associate, the asocial lover who accepted meat, in both senses, from his mistress while brutally taking it away from the hunter and his children became identified with the insatiable, egocentric, cannibalistic tapir set on monopolizing all female meat. Reference has already been made to a version of the cautionary tale current amongst the Choles, in which the adulterous wife is finally changed into a tapir, too, and thus put on a par with the lover of the corresponding myth. Such a reading of the myth bridges the distance between the Mayas and the Sharanahuas of Amazonia. With regard to one of their more important myths, Janet Siskind (1973: 104) writes: The central theme describes a loveaffair between a tapir and a woman. The husband eventually discovers his wife and her tapir-lover, kills the tapir, and, in many versions, forces his wife to eat or copulate with the tapirs penis after which she dies. In real life, a hunter returning empty-handed from the forest is likely to be mocked by the women with such expressions as, Theres no meat, lets eat penises (id.: 105). They thereby threaten to leave a bad hunter for what Siskind calls a tapir-lover, i.e., a successful rival who will be able to fill his women with his meat, in both senses of the term. Thus, when Laughlin (1977: 288) laments that unfortunately we cannot even guess the religious significance that this tale [the episode of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth] might have had, it could be countered that its referents are sociological rather than religious.

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Confronting and Subduing Old Woman The genital preoccupation of the adultery tales, arising from what is basically a contest between male antagonists, is paralleled in the antagonism between Old Woman and the heroes. Time and again this antagonism is expressed in images of sexual eating that, whether playful or violent, always betray a latent aggression. These images could be regarded as capturing the imagery of primeval endo-cannibalism in a contentious sexual mode: They ate each other. The latent cannibalistic aggression of Old Womans desire becomes explicit in tales that treat her as a jaguar or coyote woman, and that transpose her sexual aggression to the sphere of warfare. The same aggression leads to her being slaughtered and consumed in a cannibal feast or else burnt in a steam bath. A brief consideration of the notion of feasting will serve to bring out the general moral dimension of the tapir episode. In the final section of this chapter, it will be hypothesized that the alternative transformation of Old Adoptive Mother into a goddess of the steam bath amounts to a decisive transformation of her cannibalism. Sexual Antagonism The hidden aggressiveness of Old Stepmothers cannibalistic sexual appetite would appear to be reflected in the Qeqchi heroes countermeasure, evocative of the atrocities of war: feeding her with her lovers penis. The traumatic event of having been led to eat her own lover adds to Old Adoptive Mothers craving for maternal fertility and to her sexual preoccupation with her tapir partner another, and dynamic motive: her sexual vengefulness. Here, the tale of the Popoloca hero, Xi-gu, is revealing. According to some Popolocas (Jcklein 1974: 279, cf. 277), it was this heros slaying of her deer husband and his subsequent violation of the old woman herself that caused Old Adoptive Mother to change into a demonic Female Ensnarer (Nahuatl matlaccihuatl, Yucatec xtabay), and that provoked her henceforth to seduce young deer hunters, make love to them, and madden or kill them.74 The Chorti Old
Among the Cuicatecs (Hunt 1977: 102-105), for example, this female demon makes her lovers pregnant of excrement and has them deliver their inedible offspring themselves.
74

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Adoptive Mother (Dary 1986: 266; Hull 2003: 221-222; Prez Martnez 1996: 46) can change into the same sort of demon (the siguanaba), as can the cannibalistic old woman corresponding to the Old Adoptive Mother among the southern Tepehuas of Durango, the Chul (Hobgood 1970: 407).75 After the castration of her lover, the tale remains focused on the genital organs, playing on the imminent threat of castration. Old Adoptive Mother is now squarely set on killing her adoptive children. In Qeqchi (Thompson 1930: 122) as well as in Chorti myth (Dary 1986: 266), she sharpens her sprouting claws alternatively, her fangs (Girard 1966: 276) at the edge of the water. The Qeqchi brothers send a lizard to find out what is going on, and the creature ran between the old womans feet, thereby angering her. This, at least, is how J.E.S. Thompson (1930: 122) presents the Qeqchi incident, which, as it stands, is pointless. It gains meaning only from a sexual perspective. Grandia (n.d.: 17) has the brothers instruct a certain lizard, pakmal, to frighten Old Woman by putting itself on her leg. Pakmaal is defined as camalen (Sedat 1955: 118); and according to Cruz Torres (1978: 119), it refers to the cutete a lizard (Corytophanes cristatus) that is indeed similar to a chameleon, but with the crest of the much larger iguana of the Thompson variant. Talking about this cutete, Cruz Torres (1978: 119) tells us that the native uses this small animal to conquer a nice girl; they collect and use it as a talisman for attracting women.76 Even if occasionally another lizard species may be substituted,77 the use of the cutete in love magic can explain what happens next in the Cruz Torres rendering of the episode. While the old hag (Shan Ni) is sitting on her heels, she feels the lizards head brushing past her
75

An anecdotic Huave story (Ramrez Castaneda 1987: 194) about a mad old woman playing with a dildo modeled from beeswax, and talking to it as if it were her living lover, may relate to this transformation of the Old Adoptive Mother. 76 The lizard is a traditional Mesoamerican symbol for the genitals. For the Huaxteca Otomis (Galinier 1990: 637), it is a symbol of the vagina, while in a number of ancient Mexican corporeal almanacs, it is associated with the penis (Hill Boone 2007: 110). But for the sexual innuendo, the lizard (or iguana) episode is also present in one of the Pipil variants (Campbell 1985: 910). 77 In his own tale, Cruz Torres (1965: 27) has a seelemay, a lizard with a head adorned by a skin protuberance shaped like a crest (id.: 371), a description that might again refer to the cutete. A Chorti rendering of the same episode, as part of the Kumix hero myth, substitutes a long spined horned lizard (Phrynosoma asio), with its armor of large keeled ventral scales, for the cutete (Kerry Hull, presentation on the 12th European Maya Conference, Geneva 2007).

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clitoris. Angrily, she throws a stone at the animals head, the shredded skin of which is treated by the brothers who transform it into the lizards crest. Since the lizard is a sexual agent of the brothers, the episodes message appears to be crudely virile, meaning: You, woman, want to eat us? We shall eat you instead!78 That the brothers subsequently substitute a bunch of bananas for their sleeping bodies (Cruz Torres 1965: 28; Grandia n.d.) needs no further comment. In Chorti hero myth, it is the stone cylinder for grinding the maize that can serve as a substitute (Dary 1986: 300), with Old Woman breaking her terrible teeth on the stone when she tries to bite the hero. Taking the pestle as a male symbol and the grinding stone as a female one,79 her action would come close at castration, mirroring the eating of her lovers roasted member. In Mesoamerican hero myths, and particularly in Sun and Moon myth, the underlying themes of cannibalism and sexual hunger give rise to other, strongly sexualized images that oppose the goddess menacing mouth and vagina to the invincible virility of the heroes. When the Old Adoptive Mother of Qeqchi myth, Xkitza, is on the point of being killed, she has the answer to the concluding question in a riddle contest entirely consisting of alternating, gendered metaphors (Thompson 1930: 123). The riddles turn on the physical characteristics and role division of the sexes and use the metaphors listed in Table 1.

78

The brothers use of the crested lizard as a sexual agent stands in marked contrast to Suns use of a hummingbird as a sexual agent in the main other episode of the myth. 79 Old Adoptive Mothers counterpart in Tzutujil myth, Batzbal, is closely associated with the grinding stone, an archetypical image of the female sexual organs (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 177), and expressive of the vagina dentata; the pestle is consequently a phallic symbol.

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Table 1: Riddle Contest RESPONDENT: WRONG ANSWER80 water liana RESPONDENT: CORRECT ANSWER Xkitza: penis Sun: female urine Xkitza: spindle and whorl Sun: throwingtop (hurled) Sun: three hearthstones and griddle Sun: arrow (shot)

QUESTIONER

RIDDLE stick from which water flows water flowing between two hills moving object sounding trump trump three hills with something flat on top object flying in a curve

Sun Xkitza

Sun

Xkitza

Sun

Old Adoptive Mother fails to answer the last riddle: What is it that goes into the air, travels along, and drops down again? The answer is given by actually shooting Old Adoptive Mother with an arrow. Since the arrow is that of a hunting hero, the reference seems to be to the role of sexuality within the hunt. Given the gendered context, the execution is probably intended to demonstrate the brothers superior, phallic power. A phallic value of the arrow is also suggested by the parallel Pipil version (Campbell 1985: 910; cf. Schultze Jena 1935: 31). By having the antagonists act out another of the Qeqchi riddles, the Pipil version converts the Qeqchi riddle game (and more particularly its first two questions) into what to all intents and purposes should be called a pissing contest: The one with the most powerful squirt lives, and the Old Woman dies.

80

The wrong answers are not always spelled out in the text, as in the second and fourth examples. Xkitza gives the wrong answer in the third example and gives no answer in the final example.

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The male urine jet has been substituted for the phallic arrow, as befits the rain deity status of the youthful heroes of the Pipil tale. In Trique Twin myths (Hollenbach 1977: 143-144, cf.131-132), the Old Adoptive Mother (Grandmother Caaj) seeks refuge in the house of the Twins and is given a strong soporific. Her deep slumber makes it is too late to catch up with the Twins in their celestial ascent. During her sleep, she is cruelly violated: One of the Twins has a knife fastened to his penis, the other a pestle for crushing peppers.81 As in the lizard episode of the Qeqchi myth, the old womans sexual voracity (which occasionally gives rise to the vagina dentata motif)82 may form the background. This voracity is entirely explicit in the Popoluca episode mentioned above, in which the Old Adoptive Mother turns into a seductive demon (a Female Ensnarer) upon being violated by the hero Xi-gu. In the Trique episode, the sexual abuse results in profuse bleeding. Although this bleeding probably constitutes a multilayered symbol (see the next section), it can be viewed as a brutal parody of the Old Adoptive Mothers desire to become a mother, a status that would naturally bring menstrual bleeding.83 In a Mixe version of the episode (Loo 1987: 142), the lunar brother, who loves all women, sleeps with an old woman who had sought refuge in the Twins house 84 and cuts off her pubic hairs with two stones. When she tries to get hold of the Twins in their celestial ascent, she fails and in desperation throws her own pubic hairs into the sky, where they turn into the Pleiades. When, in the maize hero myth of the Isthmian Popolucas and Nahuas (Mnch 1983: 166), the Old Adoptive Mother is finally burnt in the fields, attention is once more drawn towards her genitals. The hero sows the ashes from her vulva, and from the earth thus fertilized, calabashes and a species of
81 82

The grinding stone is traditionally associated with the female genitals. In a Zoque tale (Bez-Jorge 1988: 291ff), the cannibalistic earth goddess, Piowachwe, frightens her lover with her toothed vagina, and, despised, retires into a volcano. Piowachwe used to demand child sacrifices (299), and once kidnapped and killed a baby. Bez-Jorge (1988: 321) identifies her with Cihuacoatl Quilaztli and with Coatlicue. See also Appendix D. 83 In view of the womans age, it seems strange that her violation would signify as Van der Loo (1987: 147-150) assumes the origin of menstruation and thus, of female fertility. Another meaning is, in any case, explicit: The violation provokes the goddess to curse Suns progeny (mankind), and thereby introduces suffering (in a general sense) into the world (Hollenbach 1977: 144, 170). 84 In this Mixe version, the Old Adoptive Mother and the present old woman occur consecutively; in other versions, they are not distinguished (Loo 1987: 149).

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cucumber (chayote, Sechium edule) sprout. The Tzutujiles (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 178) and Kaqchikeles share this tradition, but situate the event inside a steam bath. According to the Kaqchikeles of San Antonio Palop (Redfield 1946: 254), the Twins burnt their grandparents there. Next, in the anus of the grandmother they put a cane, and they cut off her vulva [] They planted her vulva and up came the guisguil [Sechium edule, EB] which has this form.85 Once the plant has grown, the old woman is desperate, for now everywhere in the world I shall see my body [probably flesh sensu stricto, EB] and I shall be ashamed. Thus, apart from the agricultural and fertility symbolism involved, the episode also carries an element of humiliation. Warlike Antagonism In various Sun and Moon myths from Oaxaca, the cannibalistic and covertly sexual aggressiveness of the Old Adoptive Mother assumes, from the moment her partner has been killed, a form more reminiscent of open warfare by pre-Spanish jaguar and eagle warriors. In hunting down the Twins, the old woman may now seek the help of certain animals that are sometimes presented as kin, such as a snake godfather (Zapotec, Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 58-59), a bicephalic eagle aunt (Cuicatec, Molinari et al. 1977: 58-59), and a jaguar uncle (id.). Like the snake, the bicephalic eagle can recur in a later episode of the tale as a demonic kidnapper and man-eater; it is sometimes stated to be especially intent on hunting down young children (e.g., Mazatec, Boege 1986: 66). It has already been noted that the Grandmother of Huaxtec maize hero myth can change into an eagle in order to devour children. Therefore, as Torres Cisneros (2001: 246) has suggested, the eagle and snake antagonists should probably be considered as transformations of the Old Adoptive Mother in her tzitzimitl (or Cihuacoatl) aspect.86 They are akin to the

85

The identification is a common one, e.g. Qeqchi chima guisquil, rgano sexual femenino (Sam Juarez et al. 1997: 68). 86 In Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth, the lights of sun and moon were taken from the defeated representatives of the cannibalistic age: a bicephalic eagle (Chinantec, Weitlaner 1952: 171), the deer lover (Cuicatec, Molinari et al. 1977: 56), or, more commonly, a giant snake. Since all of these animals can refer to the Old Adoptive Mother, the balls of light can also be stated originally to have been in the latters possession (Mazatec, Inchastegui 1977: 27; cf. Bentez III 1973: 116).

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jaguar and coyote manifestations of Old Adoptive Mothers counterpart among the Tzotziles and Tzeltales, in their tale of the Jaguar Slayer. Instead of invoking the help of her eagle or jaguar familiars, the Old Adoptive Mother can also transform herself into a beast of prey (probably a jaguar) and attempt to kill the heroes in their sleep. She is deceived, and plunges her claws and fangs into dummies substituted for their bodies, while the brothers watch from the rafters. The Chorti rendering of this incident has her break her teeth by biting a stone dummy, viz., a grinding platform (metate) for processing maize kernels (Girard 1966: 276), or the stone cylinder (pestle) that goes with it (Dary 1986: 300). Finally, the old woman is defeated and killed. This episode, including the stone-biting, is characteristic of hero tales that may also include accounts of legendary wars, such as the tale of Fane Kantsini, the Indian King of the Oaxaca Chontales (Barabas and Bartolom 2000: 231). The conflict between the Old Adoptive Mother and the hero could thereby be viewed as symbolic of historic conflicts between established and invading powers (see Chapter Three, Cannibalism by Trickery). In a myth known from the Tzotziles (Guiteras 1961: 182-183, 262), the heroic confrontation with the Old Woman is on a par with the ordeal the hero must undergo in his encounter with the jaguars.87 In the distant past, there were many jaguars that ate the people () They had their seats. The jaguars would come out when they smelled people (id.: 182). The hero (Ohoroxtotil God the Father) exposes himself to the danger of being devoured by having the jaguars sit on a circle of stone seats and lying down in their midst; through his powerful magic, the jaguars are stuck to their seats and can thus be killed. In some sources (Guiteras 1961: ibid.; Gossen 1974: 326; Arias 1990: 27-33), this episode which often occurs as a separate tale is paralleled by one in which the hero stays in the home of the Old Woman. The primeval threat of the jaguars is now explicitly treated as a counterpart to the cannibalism of an aged goddess that narrators identify with the jaguar (Navarrete 1966: 424) or the wolf-like coyote (Gossen 1974: 326), two animals that traditionally go together. The old woman lures travellers into her house or cave to devour them when they sleep.88 One of her names is given by Guiteras as Kuxbakmeel, which, read as
87

In this case, the hero is not an adoptive son, but a refugee in the goddesss house. The Tzotzil Jaguar Slayer myth is more amply discussed in Braakhuis 2009a. 88 The deceit inherent in her offer of hospitality also comes to the fore in the babysitting practice of the Huaxtec Grandmother of the maize hero.

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Jkuxbakmeel, means Old Woman Bone-cruncher.89 The emphasis on her terrible teeth already betrays her closeness to the Chiapanec Nahua goddess, Jantepusi Ilama Iron-toothed Old Woman,90 and also to her Pipil namesake, Tentepusilama. Before her onslaught, the goddess files her teeth with a sharp stone (Guiteras 1961: 183), as in Chorti hero myth (Girard 1966: 276; Dary 1986: 266) and maize hero myth (Elson 1947: 198-199); in the Qeqchi variants, she files her nails, although in the Goubaud variant (1949: 128) two sharpened knives are substituted. In Qeqchi myth, the hero brothers watch from the rafters their doubles, consisting of banana bunches, wooden trunks, and calabashes. In the corresponding episode of Chorti myth, the double has become a stony grinding platform or its stone cylinder; and in Tzotzil-Tzeltal variants of the Jaguar Slayer episode, the grinding platform is replaced by rocks, including basalt (from which the metate is sometimes made), or by a hearth stone (for a head).91 These stones are symbols of destruction. Since there is an obvious metaphorical connection between extremely hard teeth for crushing bones and basaltic grinding platforms or grinding cylinders for crushing kernels, the hero is turning a destructive female instrument against its user. When she tries to bite the stone, the goddess breaks her menacing fangs. In other renderings of the tale, the stone double is an object into which the hero transforms himself (Guiteras 1961: 183; Navarrete 1966: 424).92 Transformed into a grinding platform, the hero crushes his opponents teeth as if they were maize kernels or as if he were breaking the very stone cylinder that goes with the platform; or transformed into this stone cylinder, he again crushes her teeth. Transformations

89

Kuxbakmeel: A word translated as Mother of toothache, according to Guiteras (1961: 337). The Tzotzil variant of Arias (1990: 30-31) gives Jkuxbakmeel and translates as I have done. Following Laughlins Tzotzil dictionary (1975), meel is old woman. Kux is (1) crunch, gnaw (bones), e.g. jkux-bak bone-eater (dog), and (2) painful, e.g. kux-hol headache. The goddesss Tzeltal counterpart is called Hkux Hol Meel Headache Woman (Stross 1978: 19-20), but probably, in view of the agentive,Old Woman Head-cruncher. 90 Jantepusi Ilama appears to have had a precursor in a guardian figure that manifested itself as a coyote (Aramoni 1992: 92). 91 Basalt, Arias 1990: 31-32; rocks, Laughlin 1977: 146-147, Tale 41; hearthstone, in Laughlin 1977: 147, quoting Gossen. 92 The stone transformation is on a par with a fire ball transformation (Stross1978: 20).

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of this sort represent feats of sorcery traditionally ascribed to Mesoamerican warriors, and may well lie behind the more static images of Qeqchi myth. A seemingly incongruous detail of a Tzeltal variant of the tale deserves mention: The cannibalistic old goddess is viewed as a distant ancestress (?antiwo hmam hme?chuntike) whose teeth started to ache: We are copying [our ancestors] nowadays in that our teeth ache. () In the olden days our teeth were very strong. We could eat bones with our teeth [a reference to the goddesss name, EB]. Our teeth didnt break (Stross 1978: 20). Thus, the storyteller not only sympathizes with the tales hero, but also identifies with what could be called the Jaguar Grandmother, representative of an earlier age. This ambiguity also comes to the fore in Chorti myth, when the hero, having just broken the teeth of his cannibalistic pseudo-mother, takes leave by thanking her for the gift of his life (Dary 1986: 301). Given the value placed on her powerful bite and her role as an adoptive mother in related hero narratives, the goddess should perhaps be connected to certain goddesses of specific mountains who adopt male children upon birth and nurse them with their milk, thereby conveying the gifts of animal transformation and invincibility as warriors. It is said that, originally, all members of the Qeqchi community went to the cave of such a mountain goddess to be nursed by her (Cabarrs 1979: 51), just as the babies of the first Aztec calpollis were nursed by that other old woman, Ilancueitl. Amongst the mountain nurses is Xan Old Lady Itzam (Thompson 1930: 153-154; Cruz Torres 1967: 28), also called Kitzan (Thompson 1930: 59, cf. 141).93 As we saw in Chapter One, a case can be made for identifying this warlike Qeqchi mountain goddess with the Qeqchi Old Adoptive Mother, Xkitza. Destinies of the Meat The destinies of the Old Adoptive Mother vary, and the possible meanings of this characters particular ending in Qeqchi myth will be the concern of this and the following section. In Chorti and Pipil hero myth, Old Adoptive Mothers death is (at least in the tales at my disposal) not mentioned. In various other hero myths, however, Old Adoptive Mother dies, or is
93

In San Juan Chamelco oral tradition, the local hero Aj Pop Batz is said to be a direct descendant of Qana Iitzam (Adams 2001: 219). See also Chapter 4, section Oyew Achi in Folklore.

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transformed, through the effect of fire. Typically, in Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth, she absorbs the poison of stinging insects, enters a steam bath, is burnt or suffocated and transformed into the goddess of midwifery; in maize hero myth, she is, inversely, burnt on the field or in the steam bath and transformed into stinging insects that is, into other blood-drinkers. And in Qeqchi myth, she is again transformed by fire: She becomes cooked or roasted meat, and this in the context of what Thompson, rather casually, calls a party. Old Adoptive Mothers fate in Qeqchi myth is emblematic of the destiny of the body in the era of cannibalism. The motif of the preparation of meat tamales so intimately tied up with Old Adoptive Mothers predilection for baby meat recurs, but with the roles reversed. Her adoptive children chop up her flesh, cook it, and serve it to her close kin as venison. In the Cruz Torres tale, the hero brothers cut off the head and breasts of Shan Ni, and put them in a pot on the fire; the remainder of the body is wrapped in tamales and placed on top of the head and breasts. The peculiar sound of a certain bird leads the three sons of Old Adoptive Mother to believe that their mother, wheezing from exhaustion, is at the well to haul water and will not be back in time for the meal. While eating from the meat of their mother, a dove warns them with its call: Chib-chib-n chiu-chiu-s Mama meat-meat, from it eat-eat. The sons, alarmed, find the cooked head and breasts, whereupon they change into owls, hawks, and gophers to flee the place of their crime, the transformation being a consequence of their transgression. Thompsons main text (1930: 123) has Xkitza buried, but the cannibalistic cookery recurs in a variant (id.: 137) that has the heroes themselves taste from the broth with Old Adoptive Mothers head in it. This is inconsistent with the rest of the plot and seems to confound the two hero brothers with their cannibalistic step-brethren. In the Grandia (n.d.) variant, the preparation of the meat tamales (tibel wa) runs through the entire story, and the horrifying discovery of the head at the bottom of the cooking pot recurs; but in this case, it is the husband who had already been buried in the pitfall who now seems to return to eat the tamales stuffed with his wifes flesh. Haeserijns dictionary (1979: 325 s.v. tioc) refers to yet another variant of this episode, probably taken from Wirsings lexicographical materials. A bird

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again warns the sons, now twelve in number,94 with the call: Xintiu-in-na I ate my mother.95 In the Goubaud variant, from the goddesss failed attack on the hero brothers onwards, the story unfolds with, as a sinister counterpoint, another repeated bird call: Has died, has died. Old Adoptive Mother throws herself into a well near where the brothers had in the meantime established themselves, and drowns. Her head and cloth are buried, and her arms and legs and ribs roasted. The brothers carry the meat to the house of Old Adoptive Mother's son as if it were venison, and organize a cannibalistic feast: They threw a party, they danced seemingly to celebrate their arrival in their new home, in reality because they had done with the grandmother. The killing and the festive, incestuous eating of the aged cannibal goddess to the accompaniment of ominous bird calls is by no means restricted to the Qeqchis. The goddesss counterpart among the Nahuas of Durango, called Tepusilam, is treated in similar fashion (Preuss 1982: 87-91 [cf. 1998: 350-351], 91-111). She used to eat children and her own kin (one gets the impression that she considered everybody as kin), and for the purpose of undoing her, her kinsmen invited her to a feast. When she had been made drunk and had fallen unconscious, she was burnt and made into a stew as if she were venison, and fed to her husband. Again, there is a bird warning: You ate your wife. When the husband sung an incantation over one of her remaining bones, she started to roar inside the earth. Then she became alive again and resurrected, determined to avenge herself and devour her kin. This concluding passage is important, in that is shows that the killing and eating of the goddess does not necessarily imply that her end is really final. In portraying Old Adoptive Mother as a cannibal, I have already mentioned the role of the aged goddess, Saku, in Cora Morning Star myth. In a variant of this tale (Bentez III 1973: 554-559), she is tracked down by the hero (Htzikan, the Morning Star) because she had, before his birth, killed and eaten his father. In the last of a series of contests, the hero allows himself to be

94

Old Adoptive Mothers sons were later punished and transformed (Cruz Torres), like the twelve sons of the Panajachel Grandmother of the Steam bath (Tax 1951: 2541, T7). Compare also the twelve sons of the Verapaz midwife goddess, Xchel, most of whom were punished as well (Las Casas 1967: 505, Bk. III Ch. CCXXXV). 95 At least in the Qeqchi tales, the running commentary by the birds appears to be connected to the fact that the two heroes are initially youthful bird hunters.

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repeatedly thrown into her cooking pot, but each time miraculously reappears;96 finally, the roles are reversed, and the cannibal goddess is cooked into a stew. Her husband tastes from the broth, until he is warned by a crow calling rujracu, ruj-racu he is eating his wife. These tales about sons eating their parents, husbands eating their wives, and wives eating their husbands, all appear to allude to the prehistoric stage in which it was still normal that people ate each other, and in which an incestuous human procreation only served the production of meat. In such a situation, the meat of the game has no real purpose, whereas the tenor of the myth is precisely to establish such a purpose, and to make the meat the four deer and three brockets (Goubaud) carried home in vain by the hero brothers serve human conviviality. It is probably for the same reason that the festive sharing of food occupies such a central place in the cannibal stories above. In most cases, the Old Adoptive Mother is boiled or roasted in preparation for a banquet. In historical parallels of this episode (see Chapter Three), there is an even stronger focus on feasting. Furthermore, the Zapotec motif of thirteen baskets of tortillas carried to the lover reminds one of the baskets of tortillas that, in the villages of the Mixteca Alta, are carried to the sponsor of a feast by his kindred (Monaghan 1990: 759). In the Grandia Qeqchi variant, the motif of meat wrapped in tamales is conspicuous, meat tamales being a dish typical of festive occasions (the same motif plays a conspicuous role in the folklore surrounding the Old Adoptive Mother). There are two aspects of the Mesoamerican feast that may be recalled here. A feast generally implies sharing of food and drink. Meat is important, preferably of venison and other game. In the case of the head of a household, the quarry should first of all feed the households members, so as to serve its existence and procreation, and then also the neighbors; in the case of a larger community, the same rule of communitas prevails. On a community level, feasting also implies reciprocity. The guests of a feast will themselves take turn as hosts in future feasts. It appears to be significant that the tortilla baskets mentioned above constitute a basic element in the gift exchanges of a fiesta network (Monaghan 1990: 761).

96

This is another wide-spread cannibalistic motif. In a similar way, the Huaxtec maize hero allows himself to be cooked by his Grandmother, miraculously changing the prehistoric nixtamal into maize nixtamal (Alcorn 1984: 392).

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The behavior of the Old Adoptive Mother and her partner sharply contrasts with the ideals of communality and reciprocity expressed through the celebration of a feast. The old woman the grand-mre libertine (LviStrauss) had not been distributing the meat of the game, either to affirm kinship ties with her adoptive children, or to sustain a wider social network, but had been using it for her own relief instead, to buy sexual services. Her tapir lover had remained a solitary figure. Rather than joining the family to share their food, he ate in the mountains, alone, consuming enormous quantities of food without ever reciprocating. Once killed, the tapir body remained in the pit and the two boys did not partake from its meat. This last circumstance can also serve to highlight the mythological destiny of the tapir lover as a negative image of the quarry. Anticipating the discussion of the ideology of the hunt in Chapter Six (section Welcoming the Game Husband), the entrance of a quarry particularly that of a deer into the home of the hunter is traditionally a festive occasion. The animal guest, adorned with flower garlands, is invited to share the food with the family before finally becoming food himself, so as to be shared by others. By contrast, the tapir quarry has been stripped of any social personhood. In a negative mode, therefore, the episode of the Old Adoptive Mother and her tapir lover appears to clarify the codes of sociability proper of the hunting life. These codes are not only those governing consumption and sexual consummation. Through the killing and slaughtering of the tapir lover and his mistress, both representing extreme cases of unsociability, the fundamental notions of sharing and reciprocating are dramatically instituted, and put before ones eyes as inviolable laws. Cannibalisms Confinement In the preceding sections, the Old Adoptive Mother of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth has repeatedly been compared with her counterpart in Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth. There remains the question of why, despite their many and detailed similarities, the two myths conclude so differently. There appear to be two main tale types, depending on the female protagonists ultimate fate. In the first type, she is eaten and plays no further role in the myth. In the second one, she is eventually imprisoned inside the steam bath, where her spirit resides thereafter as the goddess of medicine and midwifery. It may be noted, however, that this distinction, represented by Xkitza and the Oaxacan steam bath goddess

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respectively, is hardly rigid.97 Even an outspoken tzitzimitl (female demon) or Tepusilam type can, under certain circumstances, become a steam bath goddess. Variants of maize hero myth (e.g., Segre 1990: 325-326) have the aged tzitzimitl end up in a steam bath, rather than being burnt in a field. Another case in point is the Sun and Moon tale as it is current amongst the Tzutujiles, Kaqchikeles and Quichs.98 Here, Sun and Moon belong to a wider group of brothers living with their grandmother. One Tzutujil variant in particular (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 174 and 183 n. 10) resembles Qeqchi myth in that the third, and youngest brother (corresponding to the third brother in the Thompson variant, the one who did not want to kill Xkitza) is also the grandmothers lover, and is here again castrated.99 The grandmother herself (Batzbal Threadmaker, Spindle), associated with witchcraft, death, and the grinding stone (id.: 177), is finally killed in a steam bath.100 Perhaps the most illuminating examples of a Xkitza type ending up as a steam bath goddess are the Tzotzil and Tzeltal tales concerning the Tzotzil jaguar goddess, Kuxbakmeel Old Mother Bone-cruncher. Her mythological role, as we have seen, parallels that of Xkitza in Qeqchi myth. In a Tzotzil variant from Chamula (Gossen 1974: 326), the goddess is burnt inside the steam bath, which turns into a mouthless cave.101 In another tale, the hero arrives at the house of the goddess and is immediately given the steam bath for a sleeping quarter: We shall build a nice fire inside (Guiteras 1972: 183) a fire intended to burn the hero. Small wonder that, in still another variant (Stross

97

Here, as elsewhere, I refer to two types of goddesses, as resulting from their divergent fates; however, it should be kept in mind that this distinction is an artificial one not necessarily reflecting the conceptions of the narrators. 98 Redfield 1946: 252-254; Orellana 1975: 854-855 (nearly identical to Butler, in Shaw 1971: 239); Preuss 2006: 74-75 (youngest brother changed into monkey). 99 This third, and youngest brother becomes the Lord of the Hills, echoing the mountain lover in one of the Grandia Qeqchi variants. A Kiche tale (Petrich and Ochoa 2001a: 27-29), too, assigns an oppressive brother to the Sun and Moon brothers who devours all the meat they gave to their grandmother; he is made to climb a tree and is changed into a monkey. 100 The ulterior motive for this killing may have been that she had undone the magic of her sons hoes, thus forcing them to relate to the earth and to work it. See also Appendix C (Agriculture and Rain) and Appendix D (section Agricultural Labor). 101 As a matter of fact, within the municipal territory of Tzotzil Chamula, there are two small caves called Steam bath Cave (pus [should probably be pur] chen), the first of which is believed to belong to the ancestors (Groark 1997: 23 n. 22).

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1978: 19-21), the hero is instead assigned the kitchen (a separate structure, like the steam bath). The murderous steam bath with its glowing stones and the cannibalistic kitchen with its three hot stones appear to be transformations of each other, like the curative steam bath and the non-cannibalistic kitchen. This suggests that the two fates of Old Adoptive Mother are but alternative effects of the forces that process and recycle the human body: The energies of water and fire active in cooking meat are also those active in curing the human flesh, servicing in one case the cannibalistic kitchen and in the other the steam bath. Old Adoptive Mothers craving for human meat appears to represent a terrifying energy that can be remolded into an equally formidable power of healing and rebirth. Her final imprisonment and transformation can then be viewed as not only the domestication of primeval cannibalism but also its socialization. Entering and becoming one with the womb of the steam bath102 implies the realization of Old Adoptive Mothers most ardent desire: She becomes a sort of mother, not by appropriating the children engendered by others, but by bearing and delivering them herself. In terms of the cannibalistic kitchen, she is now no longer obliged to eat her children in order to get pregnant; instead, her children will enter her belly without coercion, so as to be cooked there into ripeness, and finally re-birthed. Within the framework of this thesis, these explanations for the divergent endings of otherwise remarkably similar episodes must remain tentative. The key similarities and contrasts between the two Old Adoptive Mothers of Qeqchi Sun hero myth and of Oaxaca Twin myth have been summarized in Table 2 below.

102

For a discussion of the steam bath as a womb and the imagery associated with it, see the important study of Kevin Groark (1997, especially pp. 20-27) about the role of the steam bath in Highland Mayan ethnomedicine.

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Table 2: Two Types of Old Adoptive Mother QEQCHI SUN HERO MYTH (ORIGINAL CANNIBALISM) OAM slaughtered and boiled or roasted cannibalistic kitchen human meat in belly stolen babies devoured aborted fetus (of human mother) human meat boiled and roasted no delivery CORRELATIONS deranged sexuality / incestuous procreation / obstructing procreation intercourse as meat production
OAM=Old Adoptive Mother

OAXACA SUN AND MOON MYTH (TRANSFORMED CANNIBALISM) OAM imprisoned and suffocated or burnt curative steam bath human flesh in steam bath interior freely given babies temporarily adopted growing fetus (of human mother) patients cooked by steam delivery CORRELATIONS ordered sexuality / fostering procreation intercourse as procreation

The spirit of the steam bath goddess has been described as irritable and very jealous (Moedano 1977: 15). This is of particular interest, because it suggests that, even in her new role, an envy of pregnant human women is still smoldering. This irritable disposition of the reformed goddess is reminiscent of the barren Tzutujil midwife goddess, who (as we have already seen) has been stated to be extraordinarily jealous of all things female on the earth who do have young or give birth (Prechtel 2004: 133), and seems to refer us back to the Trique adoption scene, in which the aged woman smears her thighs with the surrogate of the birth blood of a fertile mother.103
103

Given the importance of the steam bath goddess to the midwives, it should also be noted that the Tzutujil midwife goddesses receiving the new-born child are very much feared and can, under circumstances, kill the mother (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 179).

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CHAPTER 3

SIXTEENTH-CENTURY SACRIFICIAL AND CANNIBALISTIC MOTIFS IN THE ADOPTION EPISODE

The figure of the old cannibal woman is not confined to Mesoamerica, but also occurs in the traditions of South America (e.g., the Mama Huaca of the Quechuas), the North-western part of North America (e.g., the Grizzly Woman of the Chinook, Dzonoqua of the Kwakiutl),104 as well as in traditions beyond the New World. The sacrificial and cannibalistic acts of these archetypal old women should in principle be treated as collective phantasies, rather than as descriptions of real events. On the other hand, human sacrifice, and also, albeit to a far lesser extent, anthropophagy, once were realities within the Mesoamerican culture area. It may be asked, therefore, in what way, and to what extent, the narrative topics of the Mesoamerican Old Adoptive Mother mythology may once have related to these historical realities and their expressions in contemporaneous tales. More particularly, the possibility will be considered that the narrative motifs of the kidnapping and eating of children, as well as of the eating of the tapir, were once associated with specific ritual practices. Furthermore, it will be argued that the historical motifs of headhunting and trophy tree can still be recognized in a version of the adoption episode stemming from the Pipiles. Often, however, it is difficult to distinguish discourse from actual practice. In the case of the mythical consumption of Old Adoptive Mothers meat, this cannibalistic act can be shown to be a particular instance of a topic in 16th-century Nahua historical narrative, one that has been aptly termed cannibalism by trickery. Human sacrifice and cannibalism are controversial issues, and cannibalism is by far the most sensitive of these. It does not seem to have been common among the Mayas. While acknowledging the existence of a native tradition of human sacrifice, the ethno-historian of the Yucatec Mayas, Grant

104

Various representatives of the old cannibal woman from Americas North-west coast have been discussed by Lvi-Strauss under the heading La grand-mre libertine, in LHomme Nu (1971: 143-159).

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Jones, states about possible Mayan cannibalism, particularly among the 17thcentury Itzas105 (1998: 334): To my knowledge there is no incontrovertible evidence for it. Accusations of cannibalism were nearly always made by enemies, detractors, or conquerors and appear in most cases to serve as a means of decrying that groups savagery and inhumanity. Despite admissions that members of the Itza ruling nobility did practice the consumption of human flesh, we must remember that no interrogated Itza admitted to doing so himself. Klaus Helfrich (1973: 159-165) thoroughly investigated the matter of Mayan human sacrifice and cannibalism and reached a similar conclusion. He found that the early colonial Spanish sources on these issues are frequently contradictory and that in native sources the issue is hardly ever brought up. Even Yucatec inquisitional reports dealing with child sacrifice, based on confessions made under torture, make no allegations of cannibalism. Nonetheless, within Mesoamerica as a whole, ritual cannibalism was not unknown, and is generally accepted to have been practiced by the Aztecs. With regard to the Mayas, there is a specific description of ritual cannibalism by Landa (1941: 120) in his treatise on the culture of the Yucatec Mayas, and the practice is referred to in various statements of the Dominican priest Las Casas concerning the Highland Mayas, particularly those of the Baja and Alta Verapaz (quoted in Helfrich 1973: 163). Las Casas, it might be noted, was a man intent on defending indigenous culture rather than on fabricating excuses for military conquest. A tentative conclusion that could be drawn for the pre-Spanish Maya of the contact period is that, if ritual cannibalism did occur, it was rare. However this may be, the cannibalistic motifs characteristic of the first episode of Qeqchi myth can be seen as an extreme form of the alimentary idiom that also informs the Mesoamerican pacts between humans and deities and that is broadly used to describe a stronger person dominating a weaker (Monaghan 2000: 39). Kidnapping Babies: Child Sacrifices In oral tradition, the topic of child-hunting and child-eating is commonly associated with the cannibalistic demon (tzitzimitl) who plays the

105

The Itzas constituted the last Mayan petty state to be conquered (1698); it was centered around a lake in the forested southern part of the Yucatan peninsula.

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role of Old Adoptive Mother in hero myth, and who, according to the Huaxtecs, could transform herself into a child-eating eagle. Commenting on an episode in Chinantec Sun and Moon myth in which an eagle kidnapping and devouring children is killed by the heroes, and on analogous Mazatec tales, Eckart Boege (1988: 111, 121-124) suggested that the eagle kidnapper is an image for an outside world conceived as menacing (el afuera amenazador), and that it gives expression to an historical experience of being conquered, exploited, and eaten: A cannibalistic oral phantasy for characterizing domination or nonalliance (una fantasa oral canibalesca para caracterizar el poder o la no alianza, id.: 124).106 This interpretation would apply with equal force to the image of the Old Adoptive Mother in hero myth. Interestingly, some tales radically change perspective and attribute the eagle-kidnapping to the hero instead of to the Old Adoptive Mother. In the legendary tale of the Chontal hero, Fane Kantsini (Barabas and Bartolom 2000: 232), the Old Adoptive Mother was thwarted by the hero when she tried to eat him. The hero went on to defeat his adversaries and established himself as a king, but problems arose with a Zapotec town: Therefore, Fane Kantsini decided to eradicate this community. To that end he changed into an eagle and went to rob young children in the hostile community. Thus, the eagletransformation of the Huaxtec Old Adoptive Mother and the kidnapping of children are here attributed to the very hero who defeated the Old Adoptive Mother, and the latter thereby stands out as a mythological projection of practices traditionally associated with war and subjugation. This being so, it remains possible that these metaphors of domination, and of kidnapping and child-eating in particular, may once have corresponded to the practice of child sacrifice. Mesoamerican child sacrifices which continue to be attested archaeologically were customarily directed to the rain deities. In the case of the Aztecs, infants (nios de teta) are reported to have been bought from their mothers, sacrificed to the rain deities, and according to Sahagn (1979: 98-100) cooked and eaten afterwards. In pre-Hispanic Yucatan, child sacrifices were often performed at the large water holes, or cenotes, where the rain deities were believed to dwell (Helfrich 1973: 63; cf. Clendinnen 1987: 224 n. 16). The case of the early colonial Yucatec Mayas (which does not

106

The metaphor of eating and being eaten is also dominant in black sorcery, see Chapter Seven (Biters and Destroyers).

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involve anthropophagy) is more uncertain. It rests for the most part on a largescale, multi-year inquisitional investigation by the Franciscans begun in the year 1562. The investigation resulted in many confessions of child sacrifice (Helfrich 1973: 63-68; cf. Tozzer 1941: 117 n. 535), but the political circumstances that occasioned the investigations, as well as the general application of torture, call into question the validity of the confessions, notwithstanding their often remarkable detail (Helfrich 1973: 25-26; Clendinnen 1987: 89ff, 165-189). While some competent researchers, such as Tozzer (1941), appear to accept them as valid,107 Clendinnen (1987: 165-169), who systematically studied the original records, is more cautious. She concedes (id.: 181-182), however, that some human killings persisted into the post-conquest period, including the reported presentation by one lord to another of six small children for ritual killing. On the assumption that the Old Adoptive Mothers predilection for eating babies could tell of a former custom of child sacrifice, the mythological stories should be reviewed and certain parallels be pointed out. The baby found and adopted by the Old Adoptive Mother (see Chapter 2, section Adoption and Denial of Ancestry) is as a rule illegitimate. Its father is unknown (e.g., Thompson 1930) and so, in the absence of a male provider, the child cannot be fed and is rejected (Mnch 1983: 163). It is a sort of orphan, who, in a variant of Qeqchi myth (Grandia n.d.), is on a par with twelve other orphans. According to the inquisition reports, illegitimacy and orphanage had been among the very circumstances qualifying a child to become a sacrificial victim (Helfrich 1973: 64-66). Sometimes, such a child was raised to be sacrificed later (id.: 67), a circumstance that recurs in Popoluca maize hero myth (Elson 1947: 196): When the old woman shows the foundling to her partner, a fat serpent, the latter wants to eat the infant, and is admonished to wait until later. Following the inquisitional reports, sacrificial children were commonly bought and sold (Helfrich 1973: 65-66). As Helfrich (id.: 63) has pointed out, this practice seems to be reflected in a Yucatec tale popularly known as the Dwarf of Uxmal, already referred to in discussing the adoption theme in hero myth. Its protagonist, Ez, is a local hero born from an egg (like the maize hero and several heroes from Oaxaca), adopted by an old woman, and raised by her to defy an oppressive king and become the Indian King (an ending
107

See Tozzer 1941: 115 n. 533; 117 n. 535; 80-81 n. 344.

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corresponding to the heros solar transformation in Qeqchi myth). After burial, this Old Adoptive Mother was popularly believed to reside in a sinkhole inside Yucatans karstic crust and to sell water in exchange for infants, which she fed to a large snake. While mythological snakes play an important role in ethnometeorology and are believed to cause rain as well as drought,108 they can also become part of the imagery of domination. As Helfrich comments (1973: 63), the snake [in the tale of Ez] reminds one of the terrifying snake deity Hapai-can, which in times of great drought devoured many sacrificial children in Chichen Itz. According to some of the Books of Chilam Balam, these children were demanded in tribute from lesser towns (id.: 128). In the great well of Chichen Itza, skeletal remains of a significant number of children have indeed been found (id.: 63). The anthropophagous, fat snake partner of the Old Adoptive Mother mentioned in Popoluca myth should perhaps be compared to the Hapaican snake. Finally, there is reason to return to the eagle woman. Apart from the possibility of buying sacrificial children, there reportedly existed an institutionalized practice of kidnapping children and of raising them for sacrifice (Helfrich 1973: 68; also Clendinnen 1987: 90). That is precisely what the Huaxtec Old Adoptive Mother (the Kolenak) is stated to have done when she still ruled the world: Seated on the central pillar of the sky, she descended in the shape of an eagle to claim a first-born offered to her (Alcorn 1984: 82) and to kill and eat other children. She also engaged in fattening up children before eating them in a public ceremony (id.: 166). To conclude, the various parallels identified above give some support to the theory that the kidnappings and killings attributed to the Old Adoptive Mother may once have had a connection to pre-Spanish sacrificial practices. Doubts must remain, however. Perhaps more important than an interpretation in terms of historical reminiscences merged with the corresponding images of mythical discourse, is the fact that the terrifying forays of the female demon (tzitzimitl) are a narrative topic that can give expression to the more general experience of being dominated and eaten by more powerful groups.

108

In Yucatan, for example, one such a serpent embodies the drought and heat of the canicula (Jong 1999: 156-160). See also Appendix C.

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Eating the Tapir Lover: A War Ritual The killing and castration of the tapir lover constitutes another topic that may once have related to a specific sacrificial practice. In the preceding chapter, it has been argued that in Mayan as well as in Central and South-American traditions, the tapir is often viewed as an embodiment of greed, threatening the crucial distribution of food and of women that is constitutive of social cohesion. In the 16th-century Yucatec kingdom of Mani, the pachyderm was apparently viewed as the paradigm of an enemy: The Indians considered it an act of great bravery to kill them [the tapirs], and the skin or parts of it lasted as a memorial down to the great-grandsons (Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 203). In the 20th century, the Lacandons still associated the tapir with weapons, particularly the spearthrower.109 The exaggerated virility attributed to the tapir is typical of the way the Mayas tend to caricature foreign invaders. For instance, the Fierce Warrior (Oyew Achi) the legendary intruder of the Guatemalan Highlands who constantly tries to lay hands on the riches and the women of his enemies (see Chapter Four) is endowed with giant testicles (Cook 1983: 140, 142).110 This represents a long-standing tradition in the Mayan area, for in the same manner, the Mayan kings of the Classic Period had their captives depicted with greatly exaggerated genitals (Houston, Stuart, and Taube 2006: fig. 6.9b, pp. 202ff).111 The final hunting down of the tapir by the hero brothers is tantamount to warfare. When the Old Adoptive Mothers partner is a deer, the two hunters (one of whom, in the Thompson variant of Qeqchi myth, is the deity of the hunt himself) can be seen to play the same role as that other hunting deity, Mixcoatl (also called Camaxtli). On Mixcoatls feast in the Aztec month of

109

In Lacandon dream interpretation, a spear-thrower (chilitux) foretells seeing a tapir, and a gun or firearm (tson) represents a tapirs teeth (Bruce 1979: 306 s.v. tapir / tsimin). The erection of a tapir easily evokes the image of a rising spear-thrower. 110 In this, Oyew Achi is not unlike certain heroes from the distant past, the imprints of whose giant genitals were left in stone (e.g., Khler 1977: 61 line 789 and n. 57; Gossen 1974: 345: Penises were very large and heavy in those days). 111 More generally, the historical Mayas seem to have been preoccupied with male procreative power. There was, for instance, a general practice of publicly drawing blood from the male member. For the Kaqchikeles, Coto (1983: 289 s.v. idolatrar) mentions that the incinerated testicles (compaones) of a deceased war captain were worked into his idol, probably an ancestral statue.

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Quecholli, captives were sacrificed as if they were deer and deer were sacrificed as if they were captives, the hunters then being rewarded as if they had made captives (Sahagn 1979: 141-142, Bk. 2 Ch. 33; Durn 1971: 455-456; cf. Graulich 1997a: 439).112 Thus, to call the enemy a deer and represent him as such is to identify him as game to be killed and butchered. The same holds true for the tapir, and as we have already seen, both the tapir and his human counterparts were caught in pitfalls filled with sharp stakes.113 The butchering of the mythological deer or tapir lover leads to cannibalism, with variants of Qeqchi myth (just as tales from Mixes and Pipiles) focusing on the presentation of the slain enemys genitals to the Old Adoptive Mother.114 From an entry in Cotos Spanish-Kaqchikel dictionary (1983: 502-503 s.v. sacrificar), compiled around the middle of the seventeenth century, it could be inferred that this same act once prefigured a crucial part of the rituals following upon war:115 And the aforementioned Father Varea says that when the ancients had sacrificed a man and if he belonged to those captured in war dismembered him, they took apart the genital member and testicles of that victim, and fed them to an old woman whom they considered a prophetess. And they asked her to implore their idol, or Qabuvil, to give them more captives. And then they set up a great banquet and ate the one they had sacrificed.116

112

The codices, as well as the San Bartolo murals, show that at times, human heart sacrifice was performed on deer, as well as on other animals (C. Nuttall 44, C. Madrid 42a1). 113 The leader of the 1761 Yucatec Maya rebellion, Jacinto Uc (better known as Canek), followed a very similar reasoning. He told his followers to kill all their pigs, which were judged to have Spanish souls: The sacrifice of these animals would permit the Mayas to kill the Spaniards (Patch 2003: 50). 114 The theme of castration is also known from Mayan folklore. A separate act of the Chorti Baile de los Gigantes (Girard 1949 I: 379) was devoted to the hero (Gavite, i.e., David) castrating his adversary, the Black Giant (Golillo, i.e., Goliath); amidst general rejoicing, spectators were being chased and menaced with the same treatment. Only in a later scene was Goliath finally killed and decapitated. 115 In a discussion of the power of sorceresses such as Cihuacoatl Quilaztli, Brinton (1894: 34-35) already quoted this passage. 116 In this dissertation, quotes from the Spanish or German have been translated by the present author, unless stated otherwise. My translations from the Qeqchi carry the tag (my trans.).

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This description has to stand by itself, since it is not corroborated by other reports. It should be emphasized, however, that Father De Coto was a very competent lexicographer, not given to private phantasies; his dictionary is particularly rich in all sorts of sound and detailed ethnographic information. Father Varea, the author of a Spanish-Kakchiquel dictionary frequently quoted by Coto, spoke the Kakchiquel language fluently (Acua, in Coto 1983: xxxix ff). 117 There is thus no particular reason to assume that the information contained in the passage was invented, or terribly misrepresented. The anthropophagy concluding the ritual accords with Las Casass descriptions of such acts in the Guatemalan Highlands (cf. Helfrich 1973: 163), the great banquet being more particularly reminiscent of the contemporaneous Aztec custom of consuming part of the meat of a sacrificed prisoner in a ritual meal. Of course, ritual is not reducible to myth, and it is only occasionally expressive of it. But as I will argue, there is a distinct possibility that this particular sacrificial ritual is informed by a mythical paradigm just as the captive sacrifices performed on the platform of the main temple of Tenochtitlan were informed by the Aztec myth of Huitzilopochtli killing and dismembering his hostile sister, Coyolxauhqui (e.g., Clendinnen 1991: 199-200). One more thing should be taken into consideration, however. Referring to the ancients (los antiguos) that is, the unbaptized ancestors the quoted passage is cast in the language of realistic description; yet, what comes closest to it is precisely the mythical episode with which we are here concerned. Therefore, another way of viewing Vareas statement is that it does not correspond to reality, but merely relates what was traditionally ascribed to the ancestors, just as the Tzotziles ascribed terrible teeth to their own predecessors, bone-crushing teeth comparable to those of the aged goddess, Mother BoneCruncher. Viewed in such a way, the ritual behavior ascribed to the ancestors may have been modeled after that of the actors of the myth under discussion, with no basis in real life. The status of the ritual cannot be decided here. Nonetheless, the resemblance of the ancestral Kaqchikel ritual to the killing of the tapir and its aftermath in Qeqchi myth including the context of a cannibalistic feast is sufficiently strong to warrant brief consideration of some of its implications.

117

In the first years of the 17th century, Varea worked as a priest in the south-eastern Guatemalan region of Zapotitlan (Acua 1983: xxxix).

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From the passage in Cotos dictionary quoted above, Guilhem Olivier (2005: 252-253) concluded that the rite reflects a castrating concept of the Earth goddess (personified by the aged prophetess), such as it is known from the Zoques, Otomis, and Huicholes (id.: 2004: 470). I believe one should be more specific and interpret the Kaqchikel ritual with reference to the mythological episode as it is known from the Qeqchis (and also Chortis). In such a heuristic framework, the so-called prophetess would have assumed the role of the Old Adoptive Mother, and the captured warrior (or war chief) that of her tapir lover.118 Contrary to what Olivier implies, it is clear that it is not the goddess who castrates the captive warrior, but her adoptive children. With regard to the relation of the Qeqchi hero brothers and the warrior class, it is important to recall that in some of the earlier Qeqchi variants (Wirsing, in Quirn 1966, 1967; Dieseldorff 1926: 4-5), the name of the main twin brother is Xbalanque. As will be set out in more detail in Chapter Four, Xbalanque had been a widely venerated god of war at the time of the Spanish conquest. Not only did the potency and effectiveness of the weapons depend on him, he was also, according to Las Casas, the very one credited with the introduction of human sacrifice. Indeed, in the Popol Vuh he is characterized as the great sacrificer who completely dismembers his own Twin brother, Hunahpu. But whereas Hunahpu was restored to life, the dismembered tapir is distributed and eaten, and thus becomes a prototypical sacrificial victim. Within the mythological material directly related to the Qeqchi tapir episode, there are two parallels that can strengthen the proposed connection of the Kaqchikel war ritual to the myth. Firstly, the old prophetess is made to ask for more captives. In the Tzotzil adultery tale discussed in the preceding chapter (section The Myth Mirrored), acquiring new captives, in this case deer, was precisely the effect of having fed the lovers genitals to the adulterous wife. The deer hunt, often a metaphor for warfare, had come to a standstill because the hunter had lost control over his wife and thereby also over what Laughlin has called the mischievous deer. The hunt could successfully be resumed only

118

The Kaqchikel tapir may well have been the prototypical Kaqchikel captive, Tolkom (in Maxwell and Hill 2006: 93ff). The latter, said to make the hill tremble, is called the son of the mud that quivers (Recinos and Goetz), or child of mud, of muck (Maxwell and Hill), a description that would not be unfitting for a tapir. Once sacrificed, his body parts were thrown into a lake.

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when this control had been violently restored.119 In Laughlins elaborate Tzotzil version, the severed penis of the intrusive lover corresponding to that of the tapir lover in myth is used by the tales protagonist as a sort of talisman.120 It enables him to shoot the deer that initially had been mocking him for his lack of manliness, so that his hunt finally succeeds. Secondly, ritually presenting the old prophetess (who, as I argue, may have impersonated the Old Adoptive Mother) with the genitals of a tapir war captain at each new capture, has a parallel in the Chatino custom of ritually presenting their Old Adoptive Mother (Mac-Kuts, the goddess of the steam bath) with the liver of a deer121 at each new childbirth. This liver appears to represent that of her slaughtered deer lover: The liver that was eaten by the old woman is the food that the generations serve her, at each new birth within the family (Moedano 1977: 19-20, quoting Pedro Carrasco; cf. Corts Serrano 1979: 53).122 If offering the lovers liver has the purpose of promoting new births, offering the lovers penis may have the purpose of promoting new captives.

119

A Chorti story about another henpecked husband (Fought 1972: 220-225) elaborates this point. The husbands unmanliness is cured by a brew containing the venom of ants and scorpions, venoms which had to be collected on Thursdays known as Holtxan days. The meaning of the word is stated to be obscure. Aggressive manliness seems to be implied, however. Girard (1949: 330) explains the Chorti term holchan as a deadly method of black sorcery using ones own semen as a magical expedient. Holchan is also a term for a pre-Spanish war-chief (ancient Qeqchi holchan, see Freeze 1975: 44; ancient Yucatec holcan, see Landa); and both the Chortis and the Qeqchis used the word to denote a mans transformation into an animal (Cruz Torres 1967: 281), particularly a serpent (Girard 1949: 330). 120 In Rama myth, the dried testicles of an intrusive tapir lover who had been killed and castrated, are similarly put to use as a talisman: They can bring luck in fishing (Loveland 1976: 79 and n. 6). 121 The liver was, for the ancient Nahuas at least, the seat of passion and sexual desire (Lpez Austin 1980: 210). It was perhaps for that reason that, when the Durango Nahua Tepusilam was burnt, her liver jumped away first, into the water (Preuss 1982: 87). 122 This parallel also shines through in one of the Mixe variants of the Sun and Moon tale (Miller 1956: 90), wherein the cooked testicles of the slaughtered deer partner are presented to the old woman as the liver of a deer.

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Guarding the Trophy Tree: Headhunting A consideration of her role in Pipil mythology suggests that, besides the Kaqchikel war ritual, there was another connection between the Old Adoptive Mother and the ritual aftermath of the killing of war prisoners. In the adoption episode of Pipil hero myth (e.g., Schultze Jena 1935: 27-31), she is the Old Adoptive Mother of rain children, called tepeua scatterers (id.: 60ff): a group of brothers of whom the youngest is Nanahuatzin (Campbell). Nanahuatzin is also the name of the principal rain deity (the old thunder god)123 among the Gulf Coast Nahuas. Although the Pipil episode contains elements that specifically refer to rain production, it stays remarkably close to its Qeqchi counterpart. The substitution of rain deities for Sun and his brother becomes less unusual if one considers that in important Qeqchi variants, Suns brother is (or rather, becomes) the rain deity, Chocl. In Chorti myth, the hero himself (Kumix) is called angel, a word that normally refers to a rain deity; and according to Hull (2003: 223), the actors in this legend [] are also the principal figures in rain production. The Old Adoptive Mother of the rain children is the witch124 Tanteputz (Hartmann 1907: 146), or, more fully, Tantepuslamat Iron-toothed Old Woman (Campbell 1985: 898 line 45 ff). In the early 16th century, this last name specifically denoted a witch who could change herself into a flying fireball (Olivier 2005),125 the same belligerent transformation taken by Shan Nis lover in Qeqchi myth (Cruz Torres), and by the Jaguar Slayer in his struggle with Tantepuslamats Tzotzil representative, Kuxbakmeel Mother

123

In the course of the year, this Old Thunder is again reborn as a child (Alcorn 1984: 58-59), putting him on a par with the Pipil rain boys. 124 In this thesis, the usual distinction between witch and black sorcerer is followed, the one referring to a person with an innate drive to do harm, the other to a person doing harm by magical manipulation. 125 As Olivier (2005) has pointed out, a Nahua gloss in the Mixtec Codex Nuttall (page 76) gives Tlantepuzillamatl as the name of a fire serpent showing claws and knives which is called yahui in Mixtec, a word with the general meaning of transforming witch. More specifically, yahui refers to witches transformed into flying fireballs. Particularly the female fireball witches are still believed to suck the blood of newborn children (Jansen 1982: 149).

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Bone-Cruncher.126 Tantepuslamats uncanny powers of war are well illustrated by the fact that her Chiapanec Nahua counterpart, Jantepusi Ilama, was credited with the destruction of the entire town of Copanaguastlan (Ruz 1985: 258). In one Pipil variant of the present mythological episode, the Irontoothed Old Woman does not catch the babies from the water, but from a calabash tree (Campbell 1985: 908). She plucks a gourd (wahkal) from the tree and takes it to her house, where the fruit ripens and finally bursts open to give birth to the hero children, the rain deity Nanahuatzin and his brothers. In two other variants (Hartmann 1907: 146; Schultze Jena 1935: 27), she does not witness the birth herself, but adopts the children immediately afterwards.127 Thereafter, the tale stays very close to the Qeqchi myth, and develops along by now familiar lines, including the killing of Tantepuslamats lover (here a giant demonized as a sesimite, i.e., tzitzimitl), who is metaphorically equated with a deer. This calabash tree (huacal tree, Crescentia cujete) has, in all three variants, a witch tale attached to it, of which decapitation is the main theme. The tree had sprouted from the desiccated head of Tantepuslamats daughter (Campbell 1985: 908; Hartmann 1907: 146), this daughter being another demon woman128 showing warlike behavior: She could decapitate herself, and have her severed head hunt for human victims.129 The head attached itself to the body of the victim and killed it, the first victim exemplified by the tale being the husband, the next one the prototypical captive, a deer. When the witch was finally defeated, her head came off from the deers body and sprouted into a tree with head-like fruits, or calabashes. Save for the tales conclusion, this is the Pipil version of a nahualistic witch tale also current among Mayan groups (e.g., Laughlin 1977: 301-305, Tale 82) and that, as such, has its own problems of

126

Mixtec yahui corresponds to poslob (poxlon, patzlan) in Tzotzil, also defined as tzihuitzin (xihuitzin) comet (Brinton 1894: 20; Guiteras 1972: 292-293). 127 Unlike Hartmann and Campbell, Schultze Jena (1935: 27) makes Tantepuslamat into the mother of a man who had been preyed upon by a female witch (the mans own wife). 128 In a variant of maize hero myth (Segre 1990: 324), too, both the mother and the mothers mother are cannibals. 129 According to Schultze Jena (1935: 23), the limbs would come off as well. The demon appears to demonstrate on her own body the cannibalistic butchering of a human victim.

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interpretation.130 The question here, however, is why such a tale should have been used to introduce the Pipil version of the Qeqchi myth of Sun and his brother(s). I believe that the most likely answer is to be found in the predominant motifs of decapitation, manhunt, and defeat, which made the story particularly apt to serve as an origin tale of the trophy tree. Also known to the Aztecs (Miller and Taube 1993: 176 s.v. tzompantli), the trophy tree has deep historical roots in Highland Guatemala and the easternmost Mesoamerican areas. Before the Spanish invasion, the Nahuas (Pipiles) of southern Guatemala and El Salvador, together with the Nahuas (Nicaraos) of southern Nicaragua, used to live in small, warlike states and chiefdoms. Human sacrifice (Fowler 1989: 241-246) and cannibalism (id.: 246248) were prominent features of their ritual life. Sacrifices of war captives were specifically performed for the goddess Itzcueye Owner of the Obsidian Skirt (Fowler 1989: 244, cf. 233), obsidian being the stone used for weapons and sacrificial knives.131 The name is suggestive of the female demon (tzitzimitl) who, armed with a bow, functions as the Old Adoptive Mother in ZoquePopoluca maize hero myth (Blanco 2006: 69): Her skirt cuts as if she were carrying a hatchet, when she walks it can destroy weeds and brushes. The Nicaraos and probably the Pipiles as well had the custom of suspending the severed heads of their war prisoners in small trees surrounding the precincts of their chiefs (Fowler 1989: 243, 245, quoting Martyr dAnghera and Oviedo). In the Popol Vuh, a trophy tree turns into a calabash tree once the head of a sacrificial victim has been suspended in it. Since various versions of Pipil myth make the Old Adoptive Mother into the mother of the female demon whose head changed into the calabash tree, and since the calabash tree can justly be called a trophy tree (cf. Miller and Taube 1993: 176), the Old Adoptive Mother could consequently be considered the (grand)mother of the trophy tree. When, in the Popol Vuh (PV lines 2169-2182), such a tree is stated to be

130

One of the themes of the nahualistic tale seems to be that of male predominance over women vs. female predominance over men: Whereas, in the Tzotzil adultery tale, the husband restores control over his wife by killing her, in the present tale, it is the wife who, by an innate drive, kills her husband. 131 Following Nicholson (1971: 421), Itzcueye is another name for the female demon, Itzpapalotl, and belongs to the same group of female deities of which Cihuacoatl, Toci, and Ilamatecuhtli were also a part. For Cihuacoatl, see Appendix D.

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desiccated and to receive new life through the suspension of a trophy head, the need for headhunting becomes apparent.132 Eating Old Adoptive Mother: Cannibalism by Trickery Once the Old Adoptive Mother has been killed, the hero brothers boil her meat in a cooking pot, and invite her natural sons or, in one variant, her husband to a banquet to eat from the stew and meat tamales. The sons are horrified by the discovery of the head and breasts lying at the bottom of the pot. Among the early 16th-century Mayas, the head belonged to those parts of a sacrificial victim traditionally set apart for the highest priests and officials (Helfrich 1973: 163). Historicized versions of the plot recur in several early colonial, indigenous sources, with the meat typically being from someone belonging to the eaters in-group, the outcome usually being war and the subjection of the eaters. Barry Isaac (working within the critical tradition initiated by Arenss The Man-Eating Myth) has analyzed various accounts of this type given by the Nahua historians Tezozomoc, Chimalpahin, Muoz Camargo, and Durn. The context is that of Aztec military expansion; those duped by what Isaac calls cannibalism by trickery are resisting local leaders (the rulers of Xochimilco, Tlatelolco, and a Tlaxcalan war chief respectively). In the case of the Xochimilcans (Isaac 2005: 2), when they began to eat, it [the stew] was very tasty, and, continuing with their meal, they then found in their bowls heads like those of children, [and] human hands and feet, and [human] guts. Shocked and frightened, the Xochimilcas began to shout, saying I have told you, Lords, how bad and perverse these Mexicas are, that with these very things and others they subdued the Azcapotzalca Tepanecas and Coyoacan, with these lies and

132

There is basic agreement between Pipil hero myth and Kiche Twin myth in that the hero children, albeit in various ways, stem from a trophy tree. In both cases, the mothers, variously connected to this tree, could be viewed as war demons representative of the Underworld, whether through decapitation, or the spilling of blood (in the case of Xquic).

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tricks. Let us do our best against them: Prepare and equip yourselves, Lords of Xochimilco, as the time has come.133 With regard to the heads like those of children, the cult to the rain deities brought with it the sacrifice and eating of children; the hands and feet traditionally belonged to the parts of the sacrificial victim set apart for the nobles and the priests (Sahagn, in Helfrich 1973: 163). In the case of the ruler of Tlatelolco, his ambassadors had tried to form a coalition against the Aztecs, but were captured, killed, and cooked: Moquihuix and various other Tlatelolcas [dignitaries] were invited to a banquet so that they would come and eat their own ambassadors, not knowing that these had been killed by the Tenochcas. In the case of another humiliated enemy, the captive Tlaxcalan war chief, Tlahuicole (Isaac 2005: 4), they [the Aztecs, EB] made for him great festivities, dances, and banquets, and in these banquets they made for him, it is said that they fed him a shameful thing that is seldom told his wifes genitals cooked in a soup. In a retelling by Durn of the trickery wrought upon the Xochimilcans, the suggestion of realism has diminished, and the cannibalistic event has acquired an almost visionary quality. The guests were terrified by what Isaac (2004: 2) calls the mysterious transubstantiation of their dinner into a pottage of recognizable human parts, and were told by soothsayers that it was an ill omen for it meant the destruction of the city [of Xochimilco, EB] and the death of many.134 With regard to Tlahuicole, Isaac (2005: 4) observes that two other indigenous historians relating the fate of the Tlaxcalan warrior completely omit the cannibalistic feasting. Thus, one gets the strong impression that events

133

It so happens that the patron deity of Xochimilco was Cihuacoatl (Durn 1971: 210), a goddess comparable to Xkitza (see Appendix D). 134 Here, one is reminded of the destruction of Copanaguastla by Jantepusi Ilama, the same goddess who plays the role of Old Adoptive Mother in Pipil myth (see next section).

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involving some sort of deceit were cast in the mold of a mythological tale of the type concerning us here; and this, of course, raises the further question (which need not now be answered) of whether, on these occasions, any cannibalism took place at all.135 Still another example of cannibalism by trickery can be found in the chronicles of a state rivaling that of the Aztecs, the Tarascan or Purpecha kingdom (Craine and Reindorp 1970: 132-142). The context is that of the invading Chichimecs led by Tariacuri, the founder of the Tarascan state. The ruler of Tariara, called Zurumban, tries to create a war coalition against the invaders. His ambassador is found out by Tariacuris men, shot on a deer hunt, and sacrificed. The body is handled like a quarry: It is cooked and cut up, and carefully chosen parts are sent as a present to those involved in the developing coalition. The recipients of this human deer meat are informed that it was from a sacrificial slave. At Zurumbans court, all the principals and the ladies gathered in the patio and they brought the meat out and placed it before Zurumbanand everyone ate (id.: 141). When the deceit is discovered, Zurumban stayed in the patio vomiting, and his women put their hands in their mouths trying to vomit the meat, but they could not because it was already settled in their stomachs and intestines (id.: 142), almost as if they had eaten their own flesh and blood. The result is, once more, open warfare.

135

Michel Graulich (2005: 332ff), an authority on Aztec ritual, recently reviewed the material regarding Aztec exocannibalism and reached conclusions contradicting Arenss negationist position.

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Table 3: Cannibalism by Trickery CANNIBALISTIC EATERS MYTH Natural Sons of Old Adoptive Mother and Tapir (or husband) the lords of Xochimilco the ruler of Tlatelolco and his lords HISTORY the war captain of Tlaxcala the ruler of Tariaran and his allies HUMAN MEAT Old Adoptive Mother the lords own people? the rulers four ambassadors the captains Tlaxcalan wife (her genitals) the rulers ambassador

Common to the stories above is a contrast between allochthons and autochthons. The allochthons are the invading Chichimecs, stereotypically imagined as nomadic deer hunters: The Aztecs and the Tarascans in the formative phase of their states, with their leaders corresponding in myth to Sun, or Xbalanque, and his brother (particularly the hunting deity Xulab of the Thompson variant). The autochthons are the rulers and other lords of established states, whose role corresponds to that of the sons of Old Adoptive Mother and of her deer or tapir lover (see Table 3). To the rulers, the native earth is the mother who gave origin to them, and who fed them. The killing of Shan Ni with a sacrificial knife (Cruz Torres) seems to be replicated in the sacrificial killing of her representative, the ambassador of the Tariaran kingdom.136 The result of the killing and eating of the persons cast in the role of the Old Adoptive Mother is a flare-up of hostilities. Although this intensification of warfare may relate to the transformation of Shan Nis sons into birds of prey (owl and hawk), it appears to be much more dramatically expressed by the tale
136

Like the king Zurumban, the ambassador (called Naca) was a priest of the preeminent goddess Xaratanga. In view of the latters patronage over the steam bath (cf. Moedano 1977: 9), there is a possibility that Xaratanga corresponds to the Old Adoptive Mother. On the other hand, the ambassadors equation with a deer also invites comparison with the tapir lover.

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about the eating of Tepusilam, the aged Durango Nahua goddess: When she returned to life, it was with murderous energy and a fierce determination to kill all who had deceived her. And yet, in each of the above histories, the outcome was the subjection of the existing kingdoms and their representatives.

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CHAPTER 4

HUMMINGBIRD AS A WAR LORD AND MOUNTAIN MOVER Two contrasting views of the Qeqchi hero are inherent in the myth of Sun and Moon. In defeating his Old Adoptive Mother, the tapir, and his step-brothers, the Qeqchi hero played the role of a warrior. Following the adoption episode, however, the focus switches to love and courtship, the heros transformation into a hummingbird being emblematic for this. This episode of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth represents a tale type, here referred to as Mayan Hummingbird myth, that is found among several Maya peoples. The lovers in these tales are typically war lords, whose feats are the subject of another class of tales discussed below. The hero of Hummingbird myth may bear such names as Xbalanque and Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior, which have a certain notoriety in oral tradition. These names locate Hummingbird myths within a wider framework of tales about violent intruders whose domestication by the local population generally meets with only partial success. The difficult transition of war to alliance that is the concern of Hummingbird myth is also discernible in the mix of hostility and accommodation characteristic of formal courtship procedures everywhere among the Mayas. This and the following chapter provide a background for a detailed analysis of versions of Hummingbird myth treated in Chapters Six through Nine. These four chapters will investigate the type of alliance finally reached by Hummingbird. Xbalanque Xbalanque, the hero of Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, carries an ancient name already existing in the Classic Period (200-900 AD) and attested in early colonial sources. These sources picture Xbalanque as a war god and military leader, roles that are key to an understanding of his ambiguous role in early 20th-century Qeqchi folklore and also in Qeqchi Hummingbird myth.

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Pre-Spanish War God As mentioned above, in the Alta Verapaz of the 16th century, Xbalanque was a god of war. In a largely ignored passage of his Recordacin Florida, Fuentes y Guzmn (1969 I: 76 77, Bk. I Ch. CVI [insert]) tells us that rituals were held for this god during the thirty days preceding a campaign to ensure victory. In case of defeat, Xbalanques pardon was sought and the old weapons were smashed, because they displeased their god Exbalanqun, because they had sinned and were cursed, and they made other ones that should be blameless and pleasing to their god. As a war god, Xbalanque was at the same time a god of human sacrifice. Prisoners of war were sacrificed to him (Fuentes y Guzmn 1932-1933 III: 60); indeed, it was he who introduced human sacrifice (Las Casas 1967 I: 650, Bk. III Ch. CXXIV). Xbalanques status as war god explains his role in a myth transmitted with utmost brevity by Las Casas (ibid.). It has Xbalanque (Exbalanquen) descend into a cave near Cobn, which, guarded by Xucaneb Mountain, is in the heart of the Qeqchi territory. From there, together with his band of warriors, he invaded the Underworld and conquered its Lords. The King of the Underworld implored the hero not to draw him into the light of day, whereupon the conqueror Exbalanquen, with much anger, gave him a kick, saying: Turn back, and yours be all that is putrid, wasted, and hideous.137 In another passage, Las Casas (1967 I: 506, Bk. III Ch. CCXXXV) adds that the hero sealed the entrance to the Underworld with a heavy boulder. Whereas the Alta Verapaz myth has only one hero, the Popol Vuh version of the war against the Underworld adds a second, called Hunahpu. In this tale, set within the framework of a ball game, Xbalanque repeatedly betrays his nature of a sacrificer, albeit with sinister playfulness. He violently smashes the pumpkin head of his partner Hunahpu (PV 4109 ff) and butchers him more thoroughly than any of the enemies have done: He severs not only the arms and legs, but also the head, and in addition tears out the heart (PV 4440-4450). Both heroes had been asked by the Lords of the Underworld to sacrifice each other, but the god who loves human sacrifice is the one who complies. Hunahpu, on the other hand, is continually cast as victim: Before being butchered by

137

Vulvete, y sea para t todo lo putrido, desechado, y hidiondo.

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Xbalanque, a bird demon (Vucub-Caquix) tears off his arm (PV 990-1000) and a killer bat bites off his head (PV 3971). Yet, Xbalanque also comes to the rescue of his weaker comrade. After cutting Hunahpu to pieces, he reassembles him; and it is only with Xbalanques help that Hunahpu succeeds in retrieving his arm and head after they had been torn asunder by the bird demon and the killer bat. The bond between the dominant Xbalanque and the naive Hunahpu is, in its ambivalence, characteristic of several contemporary war-hero brothers (cf. Pickands 1986). The relation between Xbalanque and his protg Hunahpu is replicated in that prevailing between Xbalanque, now acting as a psychopomp, and a dead king: Upon the death of the Southern Pokoman ruler, nocturnal sacrifices were brought to Xbalanque, so that he might accompany the dead king into the Underworld (Fuentes y Guzmn 1932 I: 266), presumably as a military escort. Xbalanque Demonized The Thompson version of Qeqchi myth has a preamble in which the Sun, or Xbalanque, while still preparing for his final task, made a tour of the skies and suggested to his father that the present mountains and valleys be created (Thompson 1930: 119). Often, as among the Mames of Chimaltenango (Wagley 1949: 51), Christ, or the Christianized Sun, is stated to have actually formed the landscape, and then to have dimmed the Moon. In the context of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, however, forming the landscape is not a mere act of divine creativity. In all likelihood, Thompson's informants were familiar with those stories telling of times when mountains could still be removed and stolen, since darkness reigned and the dawn of a new Sun had not yet fixed them into the landmarks and barriers of a steadfast realm. The mountains so brutally removed were alive, and the stories to follow address the relationship between specific mountains and the peoples of the territories they define (cf. Nahua altepetl water-mountain, i.e., a localized community). Two isolated Qeqchi stories appear to relate to this epoch, in that they make Xbalanque into an invader displacing mountains. A short tale, using highly dramatic images, has Xbalanque surprising Xucaneb in his sleep, tying him up, and attempting to carry him off on his back (Dieseldorff 1926: 21). Only by stiffening his legs could Xucaneb hold out against Xbalanque. The legs of the resisting Lord of the Earth molded the landscape and gave origin to the Xucaneb mountain range, running from San Juan Chamelco to Senah.

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Xucanebs feet may have reached to the location of Puklum Mountain in the Qeqchi maize myth (see Chapter Eight) his principal counselor and found support there. In order to prevent a recurrence of the event, Xucaneb appointed neighboring Iloman Mountain as his personal guardian. The same source (Dieseldorff 1926: 21) adds a similar tale, which has Xbalanque the sun deity inclined to all sorts of jokes surprising the sleeping volcano Xacobyuk and successfully removing him from his location to the west of Cobn (leaving only a valley there) towards Quetzaltenango, an important Kiche town (Xelaj), which lies at the end of a diagonal line extending from Lake Izabal over Rabinal to the far south-west. Far from being a joke, this second story forces us to reconsider the role of Xbalanque. The incident is still known in neighboring Poqomchi territory, among the inhabitants of San Cristbal Verapaz, but with the significant difference that here, the one who removed the mountain towards Quetzaltenango is called Sipacna (Polanco 1991: 111), rather than Xbalanque Sipakna being a demon also known from the ancient Kiche Twin myth. Sipacna surprised Skabyook (Xacobyuk) in his sleep, and when this mountain deity awoke at his new location, he could not return since it was already past dawn. There remained only Skabyooks sandal, in the shape of the smaller mountain Pan Xot. Another attempt to kidnap a sleeping mountain backfired when its neighbor sounded the alarm and the besieged mountain, now awake, threw Sipakna out. The incident is analogous to Xbalanques attempt to abduct Xucaneb and the latters installation of a mountain guardian. For their part, the Cubulco Achis ascribe the removal and relocation of Santa Mara volcano, a mountain near Quetzaltenango, to Sipac. More generally, they claim that all great volcanoes now situated far to the south-west of their territory have been stolen from their Mountain-Valley by the demonic invader (Neuenswander and Shaw, in Shaw 1971: 48). Among the Qeqchis, Xacobyuk (or Xucubyuk) mountain appears in stories about riches (Cruz Torres 1967: 282).138 According to the San Cristbal Verapaz Poqomchis (Polanco), if they wouldn't have taken the mountain [Xkabyook] away, those of San Cristbal would live like those of Quetzaltenango, they would keep sheep and make ponchos. To the south, not

138

Viewed as a lord, Xacobyuk took the initiative to open the Maize Mountain of the Senah area, together with mountain Cojaj (Cruz Torres 1965: 85 ff).

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far removed from Rabinal, the Cubulco Achis (Neuenswander and Shaw, in Shaw 1971: 46-47) view Sipac as a demon carrying off the fertile lands to the coastal plantations to sell them for just one bun. Sipac is a devourer of maize and is defeated by making him break his teeth on maize kernels mixed with stones, or by being imprisoned under a rock by the three Achi Maize goddesses themselves (id.: 48-51). This last stratagem, of course, is the very one used by Xbalanque and Hunahpu to bring Sipacna under control.139 Similarly, a story from the Tzutujiles of Lake Atitlan (Orellana 1975: 854-855) opposes the Sun and Moon Twins to Sipac, viewed as an anonymous younger brother, and has him suffer the same fate of being imprisoned under a rock. The above comparisons underscore the significance of perspective. A war god, or a war lord in his wake, is liable to be demonized as a foreign intruder and land-robber (or whatever else the goals of his aggression were) and cast in the role of Sipac(na). The aggressed have their own defenders: the divine representatives of the threatened maize fields, or warlike saints belonging to their community. But the data are more specific. The removal towards Quetzaltenango of Xucubyuc, a mountain equally important to Qeqchis and Poqomchis, would make Xbalanque into an ally, or even representative, of the Kiches, and thus make his role coincide with that of Xbalanque of the Popol Vuh. In the case of Xucaneb the predominant Mountain-Valley of the Qeqchi core area military invasion failed; and the Hummingbird myths that have Xbalanque for their protagonist suggest that another strategy (now involving love magic) had to be tried out. But even after his bridal capture, flight, and celestial ascent, the ruling Sun, Xbalanque, was obliged to reconnoiter at day-break, and to keep watch for the vengefulness of the aged and traumatized Qeqchi King (Estrada Monroy 1990: 141 n. 197). Oyew Achi In Ixil myth, the role of Hummingbird is played not by a pre-Spanish war god, but by a war captain, viz. Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior. This is one among several Kiche military titles including the term achi(h) (cf. Carmack 1973: 327
139

In the Popol Vuh, Sipakna is the son of a primeval would-be Sun, Vucub-Caquix. Whereas Vucub-Caquix is undone by toothache, and has his silver teeth replaced by white maize-kernels, the Sipakna of the Cubulco Achis is defeated by maize-kernels mixed with white stones that make his teeth ache.

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n. 118; Carmack 1977: 8). The Poqomchi Hummingbird myth from Santa Cruz Verapaz replaces it by Quiche Uinac Kiche Man. But whether as Fierce Warrior or Kiche Man, the actor assumes the same two roles as Xbalanque: that of an intruding war captain and of a marriage candidate. These roles also suggest a comparison between the Hummingbird myth and the Rabinal Achi Strong Man of Rabinal, the pre-Spanish Highland Mayan dance drama that is now to be discussed before reviewing the other Fierce Warrior tales. Quiche Uinac in the Rabinal Achi In the Rabinal Achi, a dance drama that continues to be staged by certain Rabinal families, the designations Oyew Achi and Quiche Uinac refer to the male antagonists. The dramas text has been expertly edited, translated, and commented upon by the French scholar, A. Breton (1994), with whose views I generally concur.140 In a publication that appeared a few years after that of Bretons, a many-stranded and dense ethnohistorical argument was presented by another of the dance dramas leading experts, Van Akkeren (2000: 232ff, 311-312, 410-431). It seeks to establish the Hummingbird myth as the plays ancient core, while suggesting that it stemmed from the Qeqchis originally inhabiting the Rabinal valley. A discussion of these theses is beyond the scope of this study. For the present exposition, it will be sufficient to show the affinity between the plot of the myth and that of the play, since that can explain why the term oyew achi should occur in both. There are three main figures in the play. King Hob-Toh Five-Water of the town Kaqyuq, the ancient Rabinal capital and navel of the world, directs the action. Enshrined in his palace, he is the Mam Grandfather of the juyubtaqaj mountain-valley, i.e., the realm. The main dialogues are given to the two opposing war captains (qalel), both being referred to as Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior throughout the play (cf. Breton 1994: 342-343). One Fierce Warrior is the Kings son and war captain (qalel), known as both Rabinal Achi and Cavuq Rabinal. The other Fierce Warrior is the invader, the Quiche Uinac Kiche Man, also known by his clan name, Cavec Quiche. He specifically bears the title Lord of the foreigners from Cunen and Chajul, two towns that appear to be Ixil allies under Kiche command. The Ixil tales collected by

140

The line references are to the Breton edition.

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Colby and Palomino come from Chajul, and the Quiche Uinacs very title led Colby to suggest that Hummingbirds name oyew achi is a Kiche one (1981: 310 n. 7; cf. Palomino 1972: 15). 141 It would make the Grandfather of Ixil myth the likely representative of the Ixiles themselves; and another variant from Chajul (Klssmann) simply calls him Our Father (Kubaal). The plays cast of characters provides information that cannot be gleaned from the dialogues themselves. A crucial role falls to the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga (i.e., Feathers), the Precious Gems (u chuch quq u chuch raxon, ri yamanim xtecoh), who is stated to be the wife of the Rabinal Achi (and thus, the King's daughter-in-law) and to have come from another land. On the one hand, nu quq nu raxon my quetzal (feather), my cotinga (feather) is a metaphor for a nubile girl (Breton 1994: 53-55, quoting Varea),142 and the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga Feathers could thus be viewed as a source of young women that can be married off. On the other hand, the title Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga is suggestive of the jewel and feather tributes given to the King as a token of submission (cf. PV 8320 ff) and kept in his treasure house for redistribution. Viewed this way, the valuables received as tribute appear to be on a par with the women received from abroad, as well as any daughters they might beget. Both the tributes and the nubile women represent riches that can serve as gifts for meritorious warriors and allies.143 One potential ally is the Fierce Warrior of the Kiche king. The Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga is essentially a pawn in power politics, and remains mute. The cast of characters tells us that the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga is from Carch in the Qeqchi region. Her presence at the court has been suggested to refer to an alliance that made the Qeqchi town of Cobn once dominating the Rabinal area (Akkeren 2000: 76-77, 255)144 into the preferred

141

On the other hand, Colbys theory (1981: 310 n. 7) that the myth itself was borrowed from the Kiches is not very probable, considering its wide spread and variation among Mayan groups far-removed from each other, not to mention the non-Mayan versions. 142 The role of the girl as well as her metaphorical name recall Xochiquetzal Flowery Quetzal (Feather). 143 Cf. Breton (1994: 257 n. 193): The figure of the Mother of the Quetzal Mother of the Green Feathers is the emblem of alliance [] The woman and the objects of which she is the possessor [] are of the same nature [consubstantiels]. 144 In a Sipakna tale from Rabinal (Valey and Valey, in Akkeren 2000: 255-256), the demon tried to remove and sell the communitys mountains, but was thwarted in his

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brother-in-law of Rabinal (Breton 1994: 54-55 and nn. 53, 57). The King of Rabinal shall attempt to create a similar bond with the Kiches. Significantly, it is a female slave of the Rabinal Achi, clothed in Cobn fashion (id.: 56), who is then to introduce the Kiche Man to the King's Jaguar Warriors and to the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga. The play consists of four acts, with each act consisting of a single dialogue: Act I, Rabinal Achi and Quiche Uinac; Act II, Hob-Toh and Rabinal Achi; Act III, Rabinal Achi and Quiche Uinac; and Act IV, Hob-Toh and Quiche Uinac. Throughout the play, the two Fierce Warriors (Rabinal Achi and Quiche Uinac) do most of the talking. In the first, and by far the longest act (lines 45-1351), the background of the Rabinal - Kiche war is set out in extensive dialogues between the Rabinal Achi and his captive, the Fierce Warrior of the Kiches. It focuses on the treachery of the Kiches, who had attempted to manipulate the Poqom enemies of Rabinal. In the short second act (lines 1353-1662), the King announces to the Rabinal Achi that he shall offer the Quiche Uinac a peace-treaty. In the even shorter third act (lines 1664-1828), the Quiche Uinac is introduced to the King and he rejects the peace proposal. In the final act (lines 1830-2598), elements of the peace-treaty are transformed into symbols of death, and the prisoner is sacrificed. For an understanding of Ixil Hummingbird myth and parallel myths, the second act and its transformation in the fourth act are key. As early as the end of the first act (1220 ff), the Quiche Uinac suggested that he might be accepted as an ally to serve (patan) his Rabinal brothers, and be left free to return to his own homeland. The aged king, however, now proposes his submission by way of his incorporation into the very kinship structure of the polity. The Fierce Warrior is urged to become not just an elder - younger brother (atz - chaq), but affinal kin to the kings lineage, son-in-law, brother-in-law (hiaxel baluquixel), which would allow him thence to join (molah) the group of the twelve military lineage-chiefs of Eagles and Jaguars (the elder and younger brothers) and be seated on a silver throne as their thirteenth member (lines 1486 ff). To become affinal kin is to accept a woman from the hands of the dominant group and concomitant obligations, and this is expressed next in three

designs by a woman from Cobn representative of the regions original Qeqchi inhabitants.

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highly ritualized ways. Firstly, Oyew Achi is invited to taste from twelve drinks (lines 1512 ff), that is to ally himself to his twelve brothers-in-law with twelve quia - matul licors - poisonous [or hallucinogenic] drinks. In Ximnezs Tesoro (1985: 485), quia is given as pulque, poison, and matul as poison; according to the Relacin de Santiago Atitln (in Garza 1990: 159), matul more specifically refers to the hallucinogenic Datura (Nahuatl tlapatl). It is not unlikely that the reference to the sweet drink, or pulque implies the lunar pulque-vessel and the associated complex of war, captive sacrifice, and cannibalism (cf. Taube 1993: 2). The hallucinogenic drinks offered to the Quiche Uinac are referred to by a somewhat obscure compound, Ixtatzunun (line 1514), with tzunun meaning hummingbird, and ixta deriving, perhaps, from ixtan little girl.145 This might imply that the Fierce Warrior is to be equated with an intrusive Hummingbird, and it would not contravene Mayan tradition if the drinks themselves were a metaphor for the gift of a young woman.146 Following this offer of the twelve drinks, the focus inevitably shifts to the female sphere; for the Quiche Uinac is now being presented with the double warp and its food, the food consisting of the single woof (laqan u-qin koxaj u-wa) of the queen-mothers loom (lines 1525 ff). This metaphor quite probably expresses the weaving of the web of alliance.147 Finally and decisively, the captive warrior is presented with the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga, a royal gift, since quetzals were inviolable birds whose feathers could only be
Ixtan la muchacha pequea (Ximnez 1985: 335); Ixtah, one of the women seducing Tohil in his bath (Popol Vuh), the seductive role being fulfilled by the sweet drinks in the Rabinal Achi; Ixtaz, the variant found in the Ttulo de los Seores de Totonicapn. A Nahua derivation seems less likely; iztac white and iztlactli saliva, poison have been considered (Breton 1994: 254-255). Tzunun (Edm. Dict.) hummingbird / tzunun (ibid.) stair, ladder, lance; tzunuc (Xim. Dict.) la lanza, la punta, el gorrin. In a recent translation of the Rabinal Achi, D. Tedlock (2003: 100, cf. 306) opted for Quick Hummingbird. 146 This is specifically suggested by the metaphorical language in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, where all sorts of tributes are compared to women brought before the king, a white calabash cup filled with atole being called a mans daughter (Roys 1967: 97, MS p. 40 C), and Mayan wine (i.e., balche) her fresh blood (id.: 95, MS p. 36 C). 147 It seems relevant that in his 17th-century Kiche dictionary, Ximnez (1985: 93) defines batz (i.e., batz) as the thread and the weddings, and that in Kiche divination, the mnemonics of the day Batz establish a connection between the ideas of spinning and marrying (Tedlock 1992: 116-117).
145

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collected by express permission of the local Qeqchi and Poqomchi overlords (Feldman 1985: 90). He is urged to try her for the first time (sawoq) and to stroke her hairs (mesesej);148 for perhaps the Fierce One has arrived to become a son-in-law, a brother-in-law (lines1531 ff). In the fourth act, the Quiche Uinac refuses to become a son-in-law to the King and stoically accepts his sacrificial death (lines 2086 ff). He merely borrows the three gifts, so as to signal his imminent sacrificial death, and then returns them. Being fierce, he is warned to destroy (lines 2266-2267, cf. line 456) neither the Queens warp and weft (suggestive of the affinal network) nor the Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga (Feathers), the woman who is the emblematical figure of alliance (Breton 1994: 53). From would-be brothers-inlaw, the twelve warriors revert to devourers: They become sacrificers.149 The rejected kinship is thereby liable to change into the transcendent kinship assumed, by a Mexican tradition that may well have been shared by the Guatemalan Highland Mayas, to exist between a prisoner-of-war and the one who kills, slaughters, and eats him. Kaqchikel and Tzutujil Intruders in the Quiche Uinac Dances The staging of such war plays, or dance dramas, as the Rabinal Achi was common in the warring kingdoms of Guatemala, with the antagonist of one play sometimes becoming the protagonist of another. The Quiche Uinac, for example, plays the role of the antagonist in the Rabinal Achi war play, but is the protagonist of several other war plays bearing his name. Thus, one Quiche Uinac play staged a war between the Fierce Warrior of the formidable Kiche conqueror, Quicab stereotypically represented as an aged Grandfather and the son of the Kaqchikel king of Tecpan-Guatemala (Ximnezs Historia, quoted in Acua 1975: 138-139). Another Quiche Uinac staged a war between the Kiche and Tzutujil kingdoms, opposing the war-leader of the Kiche king to the king of the Tzutujiles (Acua 1975: 144). As recorded by Fuentes y
148

In the Breton translation: It may be that the Fierce One, the Warrior, will use her for the first time (sawoq), will conduct her (mesesej) (1535-1537). The parallel passage (2340-2341) replaces mesesej by jikikej, which Breton renders as drag along. In both cases, I have opted for an alternative translation equally supported by Breton's lexical material. 149 In Yucatec terms taken from Landa (Tozzer 1941: 112-113): The nacom war chief becomes a nacom human sacrificer.

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Guzmn (1969 II: 20-21; cf. Orellana 1984: 43-44), the Tzutujil king and his friend (a representative of the Ilocab Kiche) kidnapped a daughter and a niece of the Cavec Kiche king, Balam Acam. Thereupon the Kiche king sent his Lord Lieutenant, Mahucutaj, with an army into Tzutujil territory. According to Fuentes y Guzmn, the Ajtziquinajay (the Tzutujil king) was a violent man who did not restrain his passions, in which case he would clearly deserve the epithet Fierce Warrior.150 The first Tzutujil settlement conquered by the Kiche commander, Mahucutaj, was Palop (now San Antonio Palop) on the eastern shores of Lake Atitln. It was retaken by the next Tzutujil king and then again conquered by the Kaqchikel allies of the Kiches. Whereas in the Rabinal Achi, a king vainly seeks to resolve the antagonism by offering a bride to the captured enemy, the Kaqchikeles and Tzutujiles in actuality intermarried as they had probably done before the war broke out (Orellana 1984: 46-47)151 and the Kaqchikel king inaugurated in 1521 had a Kaqchikel father and a Tzutujil mother. Later, however, the two polities again waged war. Two Hummingbird myths (to be presented and discussed in more detail in Chapter Five) stem from communities on the north-eastern border of Lake Atitlan. From Panajachel comes a tale relating the bridal capture of the Kings two daughters; a variant that has two daughters but concentrates on one, while staging an aborted bridal service, is from San Antonio Palop. Since they were told in Kaqchikel, i.e., the language of the allies of the Kiche King whose two daughters were abducted, it is tempting to assume that the tales (1) take the perspective of the wronged group, and cast Hummingbird in the role of the undesirable Tzutujil suitor; (2) account for the later relations between the two ethnic groups. The myth thus lends itself to ethnohistorical interpretation: The recurring Kaqchikel invasions into the territory of the autochthonous Tzutujil population, and the strained relations between the two groups, in which periods of intermarriage alternated with war (war being but a continuation of affinal policies by other means), and in which intermarriage is likely to have been (at least to some extent) affected by mistrust and hostility.

150

Acua (1975: 144-145) suspects that Fuentes y Guzmn modelled the plot after European chivalry tales, a view that would seem to be slightly ethnocentric. 151 The Kiche king (Balam Acam) and the antagonistic Tzutujil king, for example, were nephews (Fuentes y Guzmn 1969 II: 20).

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The Quiche Uinac in the Poqomchi MaMuun Dance Another dance connected to Hummingbird myth is a Quiche Uinac dance that is still performed in the town of Santa Cruz Verapaz, which is in the Poqomchi-speaking area and not far removed from Cobn (see Garca Escobar 2005: 1-16). It is based on the abduction motif central to Hummingbird myth as well as to the Fuentes y Guzmn account mentioned in the previous section. The dance-drama requires six performers: the abductor, Quich Winak;152 the abducted girl (Guarchaj);153 her aged father, MaMuun, and his wife; and two parrot warriors. The plot is simple: The girl is abducted by the Quich Winak, but the parents, guided by parrots, retrieve her, and kill and sacrifice the abductor. According to the elderly Poqomchi lady who presently owns the dance costumes (id.: 12), an aged couple inhabiting a cave and living from the hunt returns home to find that their daughter has disappeared. In vain they search for her in the mountains. The MaMuun dance comes into being when two parrots suddenly present themselves, and, offering their assistance, start to dance, turning and turning around while loudly invoking the mountains (i.e., the mountain spirits). Another variant of the dance tale (id.: 4) resembles more a folk tale, in that it demonizes the abductor by calling him a savage bogey of the mountains, specifically a Jicaque sorcerer or a Cholquink, in line with the role of Oyew Achi in contemporary folklore (see below). Significantly, these dance tales can all be viewed as adaptations of a Hummingbird myth told in the same municipality of Santa Cruz Verapaz. In this myth (Bcaro Moraga 1991: 70-71), the two parrots are two hawks, and the aged, cave-dwelling deer hunter MaMuun a powerful Grandfather in pursuit of the fleeing Quich Winak. Quich Winak entrusts his girl to a man from Rabinal before finally changing into the sun (see also next chapter, Bridal Capture, and Chapter Eight). According to various Santa Cruz informants, the intrusive Quich Winak of the MaMuun dance himself originated from Rabinal (Garca Escobar 2005: 6).

152 153

The names spelling is Garca Escobars. Guarchaj appears to refer to Carch, which the Rabinal Achi gives as the place of origin of the woman offered to the Quiche Uinac. Nowadays, San Pedro Carch is Qeqchi-speaking.

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Oyew Achi (Quiche Uinac) in Folklore The Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior of the Kiche King still figures in recent tales distinct from Hummingbird myth, as Alain Breton in his edition of the Rabinal Achi (1994: 18 19) has not failed to notice.154 It is important to realize that even though feared and kept at a distance, the Fierce Warrior is admired for his power. Indeed, his legendary route is still taken by traditionalist Momostecan pilgrims travelling to Lake Atitlan (Cook 1983: 145). The Kiche Man meets the standard of the aggressive Mesoamerican war-hero and Weltbeweger (World Mover). He would be an enemy worthy of a true son-in-law or, as in the Rabinal Achi dance drama, of a temporary and ritual son-in-law, ready to be killed and, perhaps, eaten and thereby converted into ones own flesh and blood. The origins of many Mesoamerican heroes (orphanage, adoption by an Old Adoptive Mother figure) are also those of Xbalanque in Qeqchi myth. Furthermore, the hero is typically credited with the formation of the landscape, the construction of churches, bridges, etc., and on his voyages he leaves the imprints of his body in stone.155 In the same way, the Fierce Warrior is said to have molded the flat world created by the supreme deity (Our Lord) into mountains and valleys, and thereby to have introduced the suffering of the travelers (Weisshaar and Hostnig 1995: 33). Other features of the Mesoamerican hero are especially noticeable in a tale from Momostenango (Cook 1983: 141, 145): The wandering Fierce Warrior attempts to construct a bridge, builds a church, and the imprints of his knees and impressive testicles are still sought out by Momostecan pilgrims. The removal of a mountain representing agricultural riches is another feat typical of the Mesoamerican war hero. In the Leyenda de los Soles (Lehmann 1974: 339), Quetzalcoatl attempts to carry off the Maize Mountain, which proves too heavy

154

See also Breton 1994: 335 n. 6, 343 n. 13; and Arnauld and Breton 1992: 288-291, with a correlation of narrative motifs common to the Rabinal Achi dance drama and Cubulco-Tres Cruces Yew Achi tales. 155 Examples of such heroic stone imprints are those of Xi-gu (Jcklein 1974: 294), Kondoy (Miller 1956: 107), and Quetzalcoatl (Sahagn 1979: 202, Bk.III Ch.XIII).

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for him; and as we shall now see, not only Xbalanque, but the Fierce Warrior too, is credited with the same sort of endeavor.156 It is not so much the legendary power figure, however, but the obtrusive would-be ally who should hold our attention. Although demonized in various ways,157 the Fierce Warrior of the stories to follow is first and foremost a Mountain Mover who invading foreign territory so as to kidnap and devour its children is intent on winning the women of its patron saints, either by seducing them or in exchange for service or a bridal price. Finally defeated by the ancestral patron of the besieged community, he withholds the prosperity that, historically and ideologically, can be granted only by the Grandfather of the predominant state that the Fierce Warrior represents. The Achi Mayas of Cubulco provide a historical setting to their Fierce Warrior tale (Shaw and Neuenswander 1966: 15 and 15 n. 2; id., in Shaw 1971: 55-56). Cubulco was formerly located at the boundary with the Kiche conquest state, close to where the petty kingdom of Rabinal had been defeated by the Kiches. The Kiche king of Quetzaltenango, called Yew Achi, invaded the territory of Cubulco, kidnapped and devoured the children (i.e., the subjects) in his caves,158 and payed for them with oranges, passion fruit, everything. Since the defender of Cubulco, Saint Paul, was a man of great age, he placed his people under the protection of the king of nearby Rabinal, Santiago (Saint James). In that way, Santiago became the patron here in Cubulco (Shaw 1971: 55).159 Then, the Fierce Warrior offered Santiago gold and riches in exchange for his children, but Santiago refused, and killed the

156

In stories from San Juan Chamelco, several features of the Mesoamerican hero are ascribed to the Aj Pop Batz (Adams 2001: 218-219), a figure who at the time of the Dominican entry into the Alta Verapaz was the most powerful Qeqchi leader. 157 In the Cubulco Achi tale (Shaw and Neuenswander 1971: 55), Oyew Achi is all red and naked except for the peacock (i.e., turkey) feathers around head and waist. Redness often refers to anger and sexual heat. Both Qeqchis and Chortis associate the turkey with territorial fighting. 158 The caves show him to be associated with the wilderness, not unlike the savage Qeqchi cholwinq Chol men. 159 Breton (1994: 330) has established that until recently, the statue of Cubulcos Santiago used to be bathed at the very Bathing-Place where Rabinals King Hob-Toj had once been kidnapped by the Quiche Uinac, close to the former Cubulco head town of Tres Cruces.

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intruder. As a consequence, riches are withheld by the resurrected Fierce Warrior and flow to Quetzaltenango instead of Cubulco.160 The same sort of tale is told in Kiche Momostenango (Cook 1983: 140-141). Since the emphasis, however, is now clearly on extorting the tribute of a woman (what he really desires are women, especially the saints or the Virgins), and thus on the theme of a forced alliance, the Fierce Warriors large, bestial testicles (bestial in that they are compared to those of a billy-goat) come into view.161 Yegua Achi comes to the defender of Momostenango, again Santiago, and offers him maize, fertile lands, cattle, and a church in exchange for the Virgin. Santiago rejects the proposal and keeps the Virgin for himself. The invader reacts by carrying volcanoes to Momostenango in order to bury its central Paklom hill. However, he is defeated, and Momostenango is stricken with the curse of poverty. The warrior continues his campaign and in exchange for another virgin, attempts to construct a bridge in one night, aided by wild animals. He is surprised by daybreak and forced to give up. Finally, in Esquipulas, he builds the church and manages to seduce the virgins of its patron saints, only to be killed by the latter. The first part of this Momostenango tale is also told from the perspective of bridal service (Tedlock 1983: 317-320). Again, the Fierce Warrior arrives and offers Santiago fertile lands in exchange for a woman, in this case his daughter, Saint Isabel. This exchange is explicitly presented as the token of an unequal alliance. The father demands proof: If that is what you really want, that I should join up with you, then go down and get me one backpack load of bananas from the coast. Then, when you come back, Ill give you that girl, Isabel (emphasis added). On his way back, the Fierce Warrior finds his load changed into Santa Mara volcano, which is stated to face the coast and thus turn its back on the people of Santiago (id.: 119). The volcano is located near Quetzaltenango, and separated from Santiago Momostenango by Guatemala's central massif. In this way, the Fierce Warrior is removed from

160

Very similar Yew Achi tales are told in the hamlet of Tres Cruces, part of the same municipality of Cubulco, with the basic objective of legitimizing the presence in that place of the Aj Cubul, who had come there in defense of the people of Rabinal and, taking the latters place, settled down in the surroundings (Arnauld and Breton 1992: 290). 161 He is thus like those miraculously virile kidnappers of women feared and demonized by the Chiapas Mayas, the Blackmen.

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Santiagos territory and kept at bay by a formidable bulwark. Santiagos war magic prompts him to boast that he is the fiercest one and moreover that even his girls are fierce because, when they are wooed, they just turn their backs. Just as when he was asked to construct a bridge in one night, the obtrusive suitor has been given an impossible bridal task to fulfill.162 It has already been noted that another Fierce Warrior intent on marrying a girl, Xbalanque, behaved like the Mountain Mover, Sipac(na). The Fierce Warriors resemblance to Sipacna has not gone unnoticed (Cook 1983: 141), and it was precisely the corresponding Popol Vuh tale about Sipakna that caused D. Tedlocks informant (A. Iloj) to remark, this Zipacna who was backpacking mountains: hes just like Yewaachi (Tedlock 1983: 317), and that elicited his story about the Fierce Warrior.163 Fierce Warrior and Hummingbird Tales Compared The historicizing Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior dance dramas most importantly, the Rabinal Achi and the related folk tales concern conflicts similar to those in the Hummingbird myths. The most obvious basic category of the Rabinal Achi is the huyubal taqajal Mountain-Valley, which Qeqchi Hummingbird myth personifies as an otherworldly father-in-law and king. The dance drama represents the King as a mam Old Man, Grandfather whose seclusion and ritual immobility in the worlds navel (Breton) stands in marked contrast to the untiring, extroverted activity of his son, the Fierce Warrior. In Qeqchi myth, the earths riches are associated with the daughter of the Tzuultaqaj, whereas in the Fierce Warrior tales they tend to be represented by female saints. These treasures can be acquired only by force or under threat of force: The woman is offered in marriage to a prospective husband who can be controlled (Rabinal Achi), her father is put under pressure to concede her in

162

There may be a play here on the ancient custom of carrying the bride on the back to the home of the bridegrooms family. It appears as though the bananas, carried on the back of the Fierce Warrior to his future father-in-law, should be exchanged for a woman to be carried in the reverse direction, towards her father-in-law. 163 For the Cubulco Achis, too, Oyew Achi is like Sipakna: He could pass under the earth the way we do through water (Shaw and Neuenswander 1971: 55).

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exchange for other riches (Momostenango tale), or she is kidnapped (as in the history of Tzutujil - Kaqchikel, and of Poqomchi - Achi relations). The Rabinal Achi pursuing and capturing the Fierce Warrior corresponds to the Lightning Captain pursuing that other Fierce Warrior, Hummingbird. Indeed, the alternative designation of the Rabinal Achi warrior, Cavuq Rabinal, also occurs as Cauk Rabinal in the Brasseur text (Breton 1994: 158); given that it may, as Breton assumes, refer to a military clan or lineage, it is tempting to understand this name as a functional designation, viz. Lightning of Rabinal (caoq, Ximnez; qavok / kaok, Edmonson; cf. PV 7877). Further, in the Rabinal Achi (line 1365), the war captain is stated to represent the Kings anger, and in the Qeqchi and Ixil Hummingbird myths, either a Lightning captain is sent on his way by the angered Grandfather of the Land or else lightning is viewed as an immediate manifestation of Grandfather's anger. Both sorts of narrative (the Fierce Warrior and the Hummingbird tales) oppose two kingdoms and two strategies. The invader attempts to procure the enemys women without being subordinated to the kingdoms Father-in-law and distributor of its women, who, for his part, wants to control both his women and his sons-in-law. In the Rabinal Achi play, the warrior, although made captive, still considers the possibility of first serving (or paying tribute to) the King, and then to be left free to return to his own land. Contemporary Fierce Warrior tales of oral history sometimes translate this service as bridal service; but the intruders sexual greed and his intention to acquire a woman on his own terms inevitably make the bridal service an abortive one. In Hummingbird myth, the Fierce Warrior steers a similar course. Again he is made captive: In his hummingbird transformation, he is shot by the King, and a bridal service follows. As in the Rabinal Achi, the warriors naive hope that, after this service, he shall be free to leave (RA lines 1220ff) comes to nothing. In the case of bridal capture, he would theoretically be in a position to enter upon negotiations; but the King is not inclined to negotiate. Therefore, instead of being ritually married to the Kingdoms Mother of Quetzal and Cotinga and allowed to make an edifying spectacle of his sacrificial death, the would-be son-in-law of Hummingbird myth, together with the abducted woman, suffers in many tales a complete defeat. In the womans case, however, this defeat (her destruction) is also a transformation and that is where Hummingbird myth acquires a distinctive character of its own.

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CHAPTER 5

HUMMINGBIRD AS A MARRIAGE CANDIDATE

The Hummingbird tales properly speaking focus on courtship and marriage rather than warfare. They vary in three main respects: the modality of the elopement (flight after bridal service or immediate bridal capture), the nature of the female transformation (into certain animals or something else), and the subsequent residence, and associated status, of the abductor (underworld, surface of the earth, or sky). In Ixil, Tzutujil, Kiche and Kaqchikel versions, the hero (called Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior in the Ixil versions) woos the daughter of King Mataqtani and enters upon bridal service before resorting to elopement. Lightning intervenes, and the woman is fragmented and transformed into various animals. The hero stays on earth. In the Lacandon version, there is again bridal service and elopement, but the hero fails to get his woman beyond the reach of his father-in-law (the death god). As a consequence, there is no fragmentation and no transformation. Instead of reaching the sky, or staying on earth, the hero ends up in the underworld. In a brief Kaqchikel tale, the hero (called Hummingbird) sleeps with the King's two daughters and then abducts them. Lightning intervenes, and the girls are fragmented and transformed into honey-producing bees. The hero stays on earth.164 In the Qeqchi myth, the hero (called (X)balanke or Sakke) abducts the daughter of King Matactani immediately upon sleeping with her. Lightning intervenes, and she is fragmented and transformed into harmful creatures, but then resumes human form before becoming the Moon. The hero ascends as the Sun. Finally, in a version current both among the Qeqchis and the neighboring Poqomchis, the King's daughter is immediately abducted. She is

164

This brief and very syncretic version (Tax 1951: no. 26) would probably have to be considered an abbreviated bridal service tale.

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not fragmented by lightning, however, but stored like the maize into which she is finally transformed. Only in the Poqomchi variant from Santa Cruz Verapaz does the abductor (Quiche Uinac Kiche Warrior) finally rule the sky as the Sun, just as in the main Qeqchi myth. The most extensive and also most atypical variant (Burkitt) of this last version is explicitly told as a semi-historical tale of war and alliance centering on Xucaneb Mountain conceived as a king. It will be considered here in considerable detail. The following sections discuss the modalities of bridal service and bridal capture. For both modalities, a general sketch of Mayan courtship is followed by a detailed treatment of the relevant mythological episodes. It should be emphasized that the mythical killing of Hummingbirds wife, the imposition of an interminable bridal service, and the murderous assaults of the father-inlaw all represent extreme reactions that, as such, are hardly representative of social reality. In the final analysis, the mythical discourse of the Hummingbird tales goes beyond social reality to pursue its own explanatory aims. The Meaning of the Hummingbird Transformation The transformation of the hero into a hummingbird, of itself, aptly expresses the transition from a threatening Fierce Warrior to a marriage candidate and the blending of war and alliance in courtship procedures. On the one hand, the hummingbird is often viewed as a warrior (see Hunt 1977: 6667): A man who wishes to engage in a fight is believed to gain agility and quicksightedness by eating a hummingbirds heart beforehand (Laughlin 1975: 105 s.v. 'unun). More particularly, the bird can represent the ancestral warrior. Among the Tzotziles, for example, the hummingbird is the primary representative of the ancestors in their continual fight against evil sorcerers and their transformations, opposing daylight to darkness (Guiteras 1961: 263, cf. 292-293).165 On the other hand, in the interaction of the sexes, the hummingbird serves as a love charm for suitors: A hummingbird may be wrapped in green
165

The Aztecs, for their part, believed the souls of dead warriors to accompany the Sun on its ascent to the zenith, whence they swarmed out like hummingbirds, and to be changed into hummingbirds after the completion of a four-year cycle (Seler IV 1961: 65).

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ribbon and carried wherever one goes to talk to ones prospective mistress because the hummingbird is credited with the power of softening a girls heart when she is spoken to (Laughlin 1975: 105). Hummingbird love magic was, and still is, widespread, and could be used in ways both socially acceptable and unacceptable. Generally, in Mexico, a male hummingbird served the women, a female one the men (Quezada 1984: 101, 105). Women used to carry the charm on some part of their body with an erotic connotation, such as the breasts, or else in their clothes (Quezada 1984: 101-102). However, there were also more dynamic ways to achieve the desired result, as in the case of the male servant who, wishing to avenge himself for ill-treatment from a young woman, spread the dust of a pulverized, dried hummingbird over her clothes to make her sexually dependent on him (id.: 104). In Yucatan, hummingbird love magic is recognizable in a text for curing nicte tancas flower (i.e., erotic) seizure of the 18th-century Ritual of the Bacabs (Roys 1965: 11/76, MS pp. 30-31), which describes the seizures origin as the birth of the aphrodisiacal avocado (ix on), of the plumeria flower (ix nicte), and of the hummingbird plumeria (dzunun nicte).166 In a contemporary Yucatec Mayan tale from Izamal (Montolu Villar 1990: 81-88) describing a case of erotic seizure, these three elements (italicized below) recur. The tale, which shows a superficial resemblance to Qeqchi Hummingbird myth precisely because of the love magic implied in it, is about three brothers looking for a wife. Two return with their women to the parental home; the third is less fortunate and continues his search until he comes upon a young woman catching fish at the beach. It is a moonless night. They walk together until they arrive at a tree with white, odoriferous flowers, identified by Montolu as plumeria flowers. There, they fall asleep. Suddenly, a hummingbird appears near the tree. The girl desires the bird for a mascot, and asks the boy to shoot it. He succeeds in capturing just two of its feathers, which the girl puts under her cloth. They continue their walk until they arrive at an avocado tree. They pluck and eat the avocados, and take a rest. The heat rises, they bathe, a thunderstorm rises, and on returning to the beach, the lovesick couple discover a pit filled with stones

166

Nicte means both flower in general and plumeria flower.

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and sticks,167 and with all sorts of venomous creatures beneath. The creatures escape, giving origin to plague and disease.168 As this example shows, hummingbird love magic is translatable into different sorts of tales. The hummingbird transformation episode of Qeqchi myth and its versions elsewhere is but one visualization of love magic, one that fits within a political context of war and alliance. Consequently, the tendency to identify the hummingbird with the sun (e.g., Thompson 1939: 129, 141, 1970: 313; Hunt 1977: 68-69) is not always appropriate. This equation would give undue precedence to one class of hummingbird tales (the type investigated in the present study), and within that class, to just one or two versions thereof (usually the Qeqchi tale). Simply put, the Sun can be a hummingbird, but a hummingbird is not always the Sun. What is important is that the bird embodies the combined energies of conquest, courtship, and lovemaking, while the flowers from which it sips appear to represent a girl the flower being a common metaphor for a desirable woman,169 and as we shall see, more particularly for a nubile woman in ritual petitioners speech. By changing into a hummingbird, the Fierce Warrior manifests and magically acts upon his desire to conquer a woman. But it is characteristic for the Hummingbird tales that this nahualistic male love magic only works because it acquires an antagonistic complement in an act of female love magic. The hummingbird is usually spotted by the young woman, who (as in the Izamal tale) asks someone to shoot it for her. She thus acquires a love charm a male bird being used for female love magic and, by putting the stunned hummingbird in her clothing, shows her readiness to let the magic do its work for her. Paradoxically, however, by acquiring the love charm she already found her lover. The earliest extant reference to the hummingbird as a love bird courting the flowers can be found in early colonial Yucatec collections of esoteric lore, the so-called Books of Chilam Balam. The Book of Chilam Balam of
167

Cf. Motul Dictionary (in Roys 1967: 99 n. 5): u che u tunich stick and stone defined as punishment, viz. death and pestilence. 168 The tales conclusion is probably related to what occasioned its telling, a conversation about the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of Izamal, and protectress against epidemic diseases. 169 This includes the courtesan, addressed in colonial Kaqchikel by specific flower names: a certain composite colored flower (ziqahan) and a flower (muc) used in preparing chocolate beverages (see Coto1983 s.v. muger; cf. Smailus 1989: 552 s.v. muc and 697 s.v. ziqahan ).

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Chumayel, in a text describing ominous events during a particular twenty-year period (katun 11 Ahau), has a Flower Lord (nicte ahau) transform himself into a hummingbird and descend to the flowers to suck their honey. Rather than with the sun deity, Hummingbird and flowers are here identified with deities associated with lovemaking and feasting. Whereas the hummingbird is viewed as a manifestation of a god of dance and music (Ppizlimtec, alternatively called Ah Kin Xocbiltun) corresponding to the Aztec deity Xochipilli Flower Prince (Thompson 1970: 313) the flowers themselves are associated with an Aztec goddess, Macuil-Xochitl Five-Flower, who embodies the attraction of a nubile woman. The text, cast in elusive, metaphorical language, runs as follows (Roys 1967: 104-105, MS p. 46 C): Then there sprang up the five-leaved flower, the five drooping [petals], the cacao [with grains like] a row of teeth, the ix-chabiltok, the little flower, Ix Macuil Xuchit, the flower with a brightly colored tip, the laurel flower, and the limping flower. After these flowers sprang up, there were the vendors of fragrant odors, there was the mother of the flowers. Then there sprang up the bouquet of the priest, the bouquet of the ruler, the bouquet of the captain; this was what the flower-king bore when he descended and nothing else, they say. It was not bread that he bore. Then it was that the flower sprang up, wide open, to introduce the sin of Bolon-ti-ku.170 [] Then descended Ppizlimtec to take the flower; he took the figure of a humming-bird with green plumage on its breast,171 when he descended. Then he sucked the honey from the flower with nine petals. Then the five-petaled flower took him for her husband. Thereupon the heart of the flower came forth to set itself in motion.172 Four-fold was the plate of the flower, and Ah Kin Xocbiltun was set in the center.173
170

Bolon-ti-ku, (the) nine gods, as opposed to the thirteen gods, these two usually being interpreted as referring to the gods of the underworld and the sky. 171 The text has yax bac dzunun. Royss translation of yax bac with green plumage on its breast seems debatable. The Ritual of the Bacabs (e.g. Arzpalo 1987: 434, fols. 231-237) includes a curing ritual for yax bac tancas, apparently a problem with the bones, in which the pairs yax bac - yax tzootz (yax bone - hair) and yax olom - yax kik (yax coagulated blood - blood fluid) appear to refer metonymically to the patient. 172 Possibly referring to a dance. 173 Royss translation is on most points supported by the synoptic translation of Alfredo Barrera Vsquez and Silvia Rendn (1972: 88-89), which takes into account parallel passages in other Chilam Balam books .

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The katun 11 Ahau text as a whole (MS pp. 42C-48C) evokes the restoration of the cosmological order that occurred after the destruction of the world, and the mating described by the text seems to be part of it. In addition to being an episode in a mythological tale, the passage quoted above can be viewed as an extended metaphor referring to the marriage between a foreigner and a native woman, a marriage in which magical coercion may have played its part. In this respect, the notion of sin is suggestive. According to the text, sin is provoked by the opening of the flower. Moreover, it seems that the mating itself was also viewed negatively, since it is probably the descent of the hummingbird which is meant by the descent of the sin of the mat a few lines further on. This descent had for a result: The flower was his mat, the flower was his chair. In the Chumayel manuscript, the notion of flowers (nicteob), when referring to sexuality, tends to be a negative one (cf. Roys 1967: 104 n. 15). It is repeatedly used to denote the carnal sin attributed to the Mexican conqueror, Nacxit Xuchit (Xuchit meaning Flower) and his followers (e.g., MS pp. 20 C, 107 C). Furthermore, in the Chilam Balam of Mani, the king of Mayapan, Hunac Ceel allied to the Mexicans is stated to have used black flower magic174 to coerce a political opponent into abducting the bride of another ruler, with disastrous political results (Roys 1962: 80, cf. Craine and Reindorp 1979: 127).175 One cannot be certain if the hummingbird was meant to refer to a specific historical person, but it is noteworthy that the text from which the quoted passage was taken is interspersed with allusions to conflict over political legitimacy. On the pages immediately preceding and following the hummingbird fragment (MS pp. 45 C, 47 C), there are references to a katun 3 Ahau, when purges were held to remove those of dubious descent (the sons of whores) from their positions of power (see MS pp. 28C-42C). In sum, hummingbird magic, like flower magic generally, appears to have been fraught with danger. And this is dramatically illustrated by the Hummingbird tales.

174

Royss English translation refers to the 13-cluster plumeria flower, probably rendering oxlahun-tzuc nicte (cf. Ritual of the Bacabs MS p. 62, Roys 1965: 163: Ix Canlahun-tzuc-nicte) . 175 The abduction motif has already been considered in connection with Oyew Achi and Quiche Uinac.

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Petitioning and Bridal Service The Hummingbird tales include various features of traditional courtship, courtship procedures that seek to defuse the tensions between the two groups involved. These ceremonial procedures are often suggestive of a latent hostility between the bride-givers and bride-takers. Such hostility need not always exist in reality, in which case the courtship procedures may be seen as serving merely a preemptive function. Nonetheless, courtship procedures serve to mark the conflict between independence and subordination that is carried to such dramatic extremes in the Hummingbird tales. And as we shall see, Hummingbird myth may serve as a sort of charter in petitioning for the bride. General Features On the whole, traditional Mayan adolescents had little occasion to converse freely with each other.176 A boy might have spied upon a girl going to a well or assisting at the market or a public festivity, but usually he would not have been entirely free to talk to her. Where attitudes were more lenient (as in the Ixil community of Chajul) a sort of betrothal could develop during which, soon enough, the matter of the bridal price was likely to be brought up by the girl (Palomino 1972: 78). Whatever the degree of freedom, the boy should sooner or later have put the matter into the hands of his family, foremost, his own parents. Marriage was contracted by the representatives of patrilineal groups rather than by individuals acting alone. In pre-Spanish aristocracy, it was considered shameful for the suitor or his father to directly approach the girl or her father; instead, embassies mediated. For the commoners, the approach was more direct (Landa 1941: 101; cf. Miles 1957: 760-763). Both traditions survived until the recent past: Either representatives (community elders or relatives) were employed, or the fathersin-law conducted the negotiations directly. In either case, if the bride could be said, with some overstatement, to be sold by her family to the patrilineal group of her father-in-law, buying was not made easy. Marriage suitors met with
176

Although, in remote corners, the descriptions given here might still be valid, the world of costumbre is now quickly disappearing; therefore, I have here used the past tense.

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harsh initial refusal; in a protracted series of visits, the boys father was expected to offer bridal payments, consisting mainly of food and drink; and commonly, bridal service was required from the prospective son-in-law. The following, more detailed sketch is based largely on Jane F. Colliers excellent description of the entire courtship procedure in the Tzotzil community of Zinacantn and on the comparisons she draws with marriage procedures elsewhere among the Mayas. I pay particular attention to aspects that are relevant to the dramatic development of Hummingbird myth, especially those with emotive content. Collier (1968: 193) has noted that in Zinacantn courtship is pervaded by an atmosphere of mistrust between the two parties and a fear of being shamed. There is no reason to suppose that in this regard, Zinacantn is exceptional. The hostility between the two groups is at first unmistakable. Should the girls father get wind of the schemes of the other group, he is likely to absent himself. Therefore, the house of the father-in-law is first spied upon for some time as if it were the stronghold of an enemy, and then, at night, the girls father is distracted by some ruse or other, and the petitioners together with the boy force their way into his house (Collier 1968: 150-151). Even where such trickery and violence are not used, as in Oxchuc, the girls father makes a great show of his anger at the intrusion, and throws the suitors out (id.: 187). Small wonder that generally, as a next step, the petitioners elaborately excuse themselves for having violated the sanctity of his ancestral hearth. Their aim is at first considered hostile, since it amounts to plucking a precious flower (Qeqchi li loklaj uutzuuj) that thrives by virtue of the ancestors (Estrada Monroy 1990: 159).177 The petitioners offer food and drink to show their concern for the health and life of the girl as well as for her family. If the girls group feels uncomfortable, the reverse is no less true. In the Kiche town of Chichicastenango, the suitors father may engage, before negotiations are opened, in certain ceremonies for his son against the parents of the girl, so that they will be induced to give up the daughter (Bunzel 1967: 110). Upon their first visit, the petitioners make it explicit that they have fallen into the trap which they [the ancestors of their own group] have set for them, namely the girl and her home (id.: 115-116). Apparently, the image is taken

177

Significantly, uutzuuj is defined as flor (cortada para adornar) and contrasted with atzum flor en la mata (Haeserijn 1979: 360 s.v. uutzuuj).

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from the sphere of the hunt, with the wife of the hunter as an erotic trap for the stags, or with the doe as a trap for the hunter (see Chapter Six). In Zinacantn, the boys group penetrates into the sacred precinct and the petitioners kneel in front of the father, while the girl remains apart and silent. From this point, it is hard for the father to refuse engagement in the courtship procedures. The boy subsequently comes in and acknowledges the girls father as his own, calling him by a term otherwise used for divinities (Tot Kahval [My] Lord Father). After a drinking bout, he sees his parents-in-law to their beds as a true son would do (Collier 1967: 152-153). Once the negotiations and the accompanying gifts have their desired effects, a period of bridal service and uxorilocal residence is often inserted to test the capabilities of the young man as a hard-working husband and compliant son-in-law. Timing and duration vary considerably, from a few days to months or even years. The pre-conquest Yucatec bridal service occurred after the marriage celebration, when the couple slept together for the first time. The groom had to live in the house of his father-in-law for several years (Landa 1941: 101 and n.). Among the Southern Lacandons (Boremanse 1998: 115), there existed permanent uxorilocality: The wife-taker stayed with, and worked for, his wifes parents until they died. Among the Northern Lacandons, arrangements were less stringent; the bridal service was not very demanding, and was concluded by the ceremonial offering of firewood to the wifes parents (Boremanse 1998: 109). In Zinacantn, the first, forceful entering of the house is followed by a total of about fifteen days of bridal service in addition to gifts in food and drink (Collier 1968: 160). About a year and a half later, a second, more formal and elaborate entering of the house follows. This one serves to conclude the agreement and it is celebrated as a feast. A month of protracted bridal service in the father-in-laws house follows. Preparations are then made for a marriage ceremony in the Catholic church (id.: 165-166). In Chenalh, another Tzotzil town, the celebration of the final agreement between the patrilineal groups is followed by a period of twenty days of strictly observed bridal service; only upon its conclusion is the couple permitted to speak to each other and sleep together. There follows a complete year of uxorilocal residence as in Tzotzil Chanal (Collier 1968: 187-188) now accompanied by less demanding bridal service (Guiteras 1961: 128-129). Throughout the Guatemalan Highlands, the courtship procedures are much as in Zinacantn and the other Tzotzil communities. A few examples make the point. Around 1970, there were among the Ixiles of Chajul (Palomino

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1972: 65-68) three traditional courtship options: (1) The fathers-in-law secretly arranged the marriage, (2) the boy and the girl made their personal choice, and (3) the boy and the girl eloped. In each case, however, the bride price had subsequently to be negotiated through an Elder, often in a series of three or four nocturnal visits (the petitions) to the father-in-laws house (id.: 85-89). Palomino grimly observed that, on listening to these conversations, when they reached their highest pitch, one got the impression of finding oneself in a heated discussion of various politically antagonistic groups, or in the midst of a street fight between two city gangs (1972: 88). On the third visit, known as The night in which the doors get opened (86), or on a following visit, the wedding was celebrated and the bridal price paid. Only when the wedding had been concluded was the sexual taboo lifted from the couple. Among the Jacaltecas, the boys parents used to conduct negotiations in an extended series of twelve visits. Upon the last visit, the boy and his friends carried enormous loads of wood into the house of the father-in-law, symbolizing the betrothal. Subsequently, when the parents of the girl are reluctant to have her leave the house, or the young man is not in a position to support her, the young man comes to live with them and work for them. Then they pay for the wedding, and he is bound to them for a number of years. This arrangement is called alip, a term used for various kinds of cooperative work (La Farge and Beyers 1931: 87; cf. Wagley 1949: 39-40). This sort of arrangement will be further discussed in the bridal capture section. At the final visit of the boys parents to their in-laws in Kiche Chichicastenango (Bunzel 1967: 116), firewood was again carried along. The firewood, together with aromatic bathing herbs and medicinal herbs, is now, however, explicitly stated to be for the steam bath, which was to assuage the grief of the parents whose daughter was about to be taken away. A similar role of the steam bath will recur in Ixil Hummingbird myth. The price paid by the groom may have been high, but the bride also faced challenges. The ties to her fathers group were largely severed. In Chichicastenango, her inheritance rights on the paternal land were curtailed when she left her fathers home, with precedence being conceded to her brothers. Only if she stayed with her father, or if the father had no sons, could she inherit (Bunzel 1967: 18). Just as the boy had to stay for an often considerable period in the home of his father-in-law, so the girl had to live after marriage in the foreign and skeptical surroundings of another patrilineal group, closely supervised by her mother-in-law and the wives of her husbands elder

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brethren (Bunzel 1967: 18). The boys father ruled over his extended family as a patriarch, demanding unswerving obedience. In short, the ideal of independent residence was not quickly realized. Bridal Service in Hummingbird Myth178 The bridal service tales have a very restricted cast of characters: Suitor, girl, and her father, that is, the protagonists future father-in-law (rarely with his consort),179 with the suitors father (M) or mother (TT, XP) sometimes being added. The girls father is Ma-Taqtani, the deity who, to the Qeqchis, is the supreme Mountain-Valley. It is probably in this same sense that Ma-Taqtani's alternative designation, Kubaal Our Father (K), should be understood. Being a general honorific bestowed on the most important deities, in Ixil prayer Our Father occurs in combination with King World (the Rey Mundo of so many Mayan texts) and King Mountain (Lincoln 1942: 123), though it can equally denote his four grandees, the year-bearing Alcaldes del Mundo inhabiting their sacred mountains (ibid.: 109).180 The Ixil and Palop Kaqchikel variants betray the tensions inhering in traditional Mayan courtship set out in the preceding section. In the Colby and Redfield variants, the boy acts alone, like the orphan he effectively is in Qeqchi myth; in the Tzutujil variant, his father is stated to have died. He therefore assumes the roles of his own father and of his groups petitioners. The boy petitions the girls father, who denies him access to the girl (C, K). Alternatively, the boys father is active behind the scenes, and it is he who proposes and is rebuked (M). It is important to note that in the Ixil tales, the boy is explicitly identified as the Fierce Warrior. Viewed historically, this would imply that the anonymous father of the warlike Hummingbird is a Kiche King, just as the Rabinal Achi is the son of King Hob-Toj Five-Water, and as the Quiche Uinac is a son to the paired rulers Teken Toj - Teken Tijax.
178

The references in this section are to the sources listed in Appendix B, section Transformation into Animals. The number following the abbreviation of the authors name refers to the page(s). 179 For conveniences sake, I will call the intended or future father-in-law simply father-in-law. 180 Not inconceivably, Our Father is meant to refer to the heart of the Ixil world, Huyl mountain near Chajul (cf. Lincoln 1942: 112-114). There,el Seor de Chajul appeared, and there, a king existed called Rey Oyev (Tzunum) (Paz Prez 1994: 17).

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The paternal figures, set in opposition by the myth, would consequently be Grandfathers of antagonistic realms.181 However, with such few Ixil tales at hand, it remains unclear whether such a consistent viewpoint still dominates. We have seen how, among the Zinacantn Tzotziles, the house of the father-in-law is spied upon for some time as if it were the stronghold of an enemy; then, at night, the girls father is taken off guard by some trick and the petitioners together with the boy force their way into his house the petitioners being designated as hpukuhtavaneh, intruding were-animals. This is precisely what is suggested by the Maxwell variant: The tick, flea, and firefly act as a sort of petitioners who, in their nahual transformations, are harassing the father to give up his daughter. They spy on the girls fathers house and enter it by trickery. The fire-fly in particular suggests a nocturnal surprise attack of the sort just described, and it is he who appears to have achieved success: Mataqtani exclaims, they found us, to which Hummingbirds father responds, [you] better give us the girl now (M).182 In the other variants, the same tick (or louse) and flea, or else a Commission of fleas,183 are spying in the bedroom of the daughter and her lover. As is the case in Zinacantn, once the girls father has been taken by surprise, his freedom to refuse courtship procedures has been diminished. Yet, the Ixil father and his son decide upon a further stratagem (M): Once the firefly entered and petitioned, the boy is now to change into a hummingbird and enter the house of the old man himself. This, of course, strongly contrasts with acceptable procedure; it signals the intervention of the predominant metaphor for coercion through love magic. The hummingbird sucks the flower. As has been noted, the precious flower is a rather obvious metaphor for the nubile daughter in petitioners speech; its applicability to the Grandfathers daughter is one of the features that aligns this character with the Aztec goddess, Xochiquetzal Precious Flower. Taken by itself, the Grandfathers shooting of the hummingbird could, at first sight, suggest an act of counter-sorcery resulting from the hostility and distrust of the group he represents; and in two variants (K,

181 182

I shall at times refer to the girls father as the Grandfather. In Maxwell's free rendering: Theyve found us. Ill have to give up the girl (1980: 65). 183 This investigative commission seems to be connected to a place (the daughters bedroom?) humoristically called Santos Pulgatorios (Palomino 1972: 134 line 195), instead of Purgatorios (pulga being a flea).

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SCHA), he indeed intends to kill the bird. Usually, however, the myth explains the shooting by the young womans desire for a pet, that is, by reference to an act of female love magic complementing her suitors transformative love magic. As a result of the shooting, the suitor now seems, in the words of the Kiche petitioners of Chichicastenango, to have fallen into the trap. The next passage visualizes another petitioner metaphor. Just as in Qeqchi myth, the woman puts the wounded or stunned hummingbird inside a weaving basket, or under her blouse, and reproduces it in her very weaving. Fierce, savage, and representative of a kin-group initially conceived as hostile, the bird seems to become domesticated into a reliable ally. The imagery is in keeping with declarations of the Chichicastenango mediators: For thus indeed we have come to see her, the [female] watcher and listener, the womans skirt, the womans blouse within this house, while her father begs for more time, for perhaps she has not yet finished weaving her clothing (Bunzel 1967: 116). In the Rabinal Achi, the double warp and single woof of the queen-mothers loom, offered to the Fierce Warrior, have already been suggested to symbolize the fabric of affinal kinship. Remarkably (and perhaps ironically, in view of the old mans mistrust of the hummingbird), various tales have the woman weave the motif of a hummingbird into a piece of clothing intended for her father, rather than into her own skirt. The bird is then taken to bed by the girl, where he resumes a human form and sleeps with her. The hero thus violates a taboo and offends the fatherin-law, since he has not yet proven capable through bridal service of fulfilling the tasks that will be set for him or of sustaining his bride and future progeny, nor has he paid any bridal price yet. In short, he behaves as one would expect a Fierce Warrior governed by his passions to behave. The father, for his part, wishes to uphold the taboo, and the same emissaries who, in the Maxwell variant, preyed on him as petitioners of a sort for the other and hostile party, now prey on the couple on his behalf. Two hairs are brought forward as evidence of the taboos violation. The general atmosphere of mistrust has given rise to images associated with evil sorcery, in which hairs, fingernails, and alike regularly feature (e.g., Thompson 1930: 74).184 In real life, the case might now be brought before judicial authorities; however, the royal Grandfather,

184

These are also the elements referred to in the rhetoric of curing Fright (see Chapter Seven).

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personifying the Mundo, represents the supreme judicial instance himself (see Chapter One, The Father-in-Law). Seeing his daughters desire, the father now willy-nilly agrees upon bridal service.185 The tasks he sets are entirely customary. The four main tasks found in the bridal service tales and their manners of completion are as follows: Gathering firewood. As we have seen, bringing firewood to the fatherin-laws house is a symbolic act initiating or (as among the Northern Lacandons) concluding the bridal service period. The wood serves to maintain the hearth of the house and the fire of the steam bath, that is the health and fertility of a family about to part with its daughter. In the Kaqchikel (R), Kiche (TT), and Tzutujil (XP) tales, the hero mistakes firewood for antlers (and in the Kaqchikel text, also for the horns of goats and cows), and is ordered to restore these to the animals from whence they came. The vernacular texts in Kiche (TT 28) and Tzutujil (XP 155) may shed some light on this mistake, in that the word uka[a] is not only the name of a particular firewood tree (Palo de Jiote, or perhaps the madroo or Texas madrone), but also means antlers or horns.186 The misunderstanding would seem to signal the intrusive Hummingbirds failure to appreciate the niceties of the local language. Nonetheless, given that Hummingbirds wife is finally to be changed into deer and other animals, there may also be a ritual meaning to the severing of the deer antlers. One possibility is the obligation of the hunters periodically to restore the antlers of the quarries to their Owner for regeneration (see Chapter Six), the Owner being the Father-in-law (Mataqtani). To obtain the firewood, Hummingbird, in the Palop Kaqchikel tale (R 329), is instructed by his fiance to go with her father to fetch a pair of sandals (caites) and to bury them at the foot of a tree; this will make the tree fall. But he forgets to return the sandals, and they disappear into the ground. This greatly disturbs his fiance: Now you have spoilt the world, because the gopher (taltuza) has entered. Too bad that you have given a bad example in the world. Sandals of moleskin the mole usually referring to the gopher also characterize Mountain-Valley among the Mayas of San Antonio, Belize
185

In his overview of Hummingbird myth, Thompson (1970: 366) did not summarize the bridal tasks, since he considered them as being outside the theme. 186 The same word play also works in Kaqchikel: ukwa che palo de cuernos and k-ikwa ri wakx cuernos de vacas (Petrich and Ochoa 2001b: 23-24).

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(Thompson 1930: 58, 142)187. The Kiche tale (TT) replaces the tree-felling of the gopher sandals by an incantation. In an Ixil myth (CC 182), Hummingbird is to bring dry firewood for the steam bath he has just built for his Father-in-law:188 Maria told him to leave his machete on the peak of a mountain where there were large stones and then go to sleep.When he awoke he had dry wood. Laying out a maize field. Cultivating the maize can entail the separate tasks of chopping down the trees, burning the stubs and shrubs, sowing, and guarding the maize harvest. Hummingbirds fiance orders him to leave six choppers in the middle of the field, and she creates the ant laborers needed for clearing it (CC).189 In the Tzutujil tale (XP), the fiance is not mentioned, but ants are again clearing the field. When it comes to the sowing, the fiance of the Kiche tale (TT) assures Hummingbird that the nawal [spirit] of the mountain will take care of the maize seeds he has sown. The growth is miraculous. The vernacular text itself does not use the term nawal, but mentions (TT 31) ri juyub taqaj the mountain-valley (i.e., the cooperative Earth, which here does not seem to be identified with the Father-in-law) as the agent. In the Tzutujil tale, the fiance and her sister have been omitted. The boy throws maize seeds into the center of the field and plants stakes with red cloths in the four corners, and these turn into chili plants. The key point is that he has to kneel and pray to effect this miracle (XP 154), a ritual act which is likely again to involve the spirit of the mountain. In the Kiche tale (TT), the father-in-law tries in vain to kill Hummingbird while he is burning the field and guarding the maize. When the maize is ripening, Hummingbird is ordered to guard it by sitting on the roof of the storehouse he himself had constructed. The father-in-law sends a twoheaded eagle to kill and devour him, but Hummingbird is warned by his fiance, puts a turkey on his head, and survives unscathed. The key to this episode might

187

In the story concerned (Thompson 1930: 142), the Earth Owner (Mam) plays the role of an owner of animals. 188 Mataqtani is considered a king, and the association of king and steam bath seems to have been an intimate one. In the dynastical listings of the Kiche royal Houses, the name Venerable Steam Bath, Qo-Tuja, recurs through various generations and up to the Spanish Conquest (Popol Vuh). 189 These choppers are to do the work by themselves, a motif which, in another type of tale, leads over to the killing of a Grandmother in the steam bath.

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lie in the use of the monstrous bird as a motif on the wedding skirt of a bride, such as it is known from the Ixiles of Chajul (Palomino 1972: 91 n. 33): There, it represents the kot, a gigantic, man-eating, bicephalic eagle.190 The image may emphasize the inviolable character of a bride guarded and protected by an otherworldly father.191 Building a house. The hair of the fiance turns either into trees that enable Hummingbird to build the house (P) or into straw for thatching (M). Her breast milk sprinkled on the ground (or sown, CC) makes the vines and grasses needed for the construction grow (M). Strands of her hair are used as vines to tie the beams together, and today, the vines still belong to her (K). When cattle are needed for transporting the wood, Marikita seeks out saints who can help (such as San Antonio [i.e., Saint Anthony the Abbot]), and Hummingbird is instructed to remain and pray (P 137). In this last Ixil variant (P), the house is to have twelve doors. The twelve doors are not only reminiscent of the twelve apostles, but also of the twelve warriors of the Rabinal King who offered to become the brothers-in-law of the captive Fierce Warrior in the Rabinal Achi.192 Bringing food. When, in the Ixtahuacan Kiche text, the firewood has been carried to the steam bath, a strange passage occurs, one that is also found in the Palop Kaqchikel variant. On leaving the steam bath, the father-in-law vomits. Following instructions of his fiance, Hummingbird catches the vomit in a calabash and puts it into small holes on the river bank. In the Kaqchikel text (R 346), the steam bath plays no role. The daughter administers her father an emetic (su atolito) and recovers the seeds from the vomit (bola). When Hummingbird sows the seeds on the river bank, fruits (pacayas del ahuacate) and also, apparently, maize ears sprout. The Kiche text (TT) has a different plant sprout from the vomit, namely, the boxnay (boxney), a root eaten in times
190

The huipil with the bicephalic eagle stands in contrast to the huipil with the hummingbird woven by the earth gods daughter. The Father-in-laws bicephalic eagle recalls the eagle transformation of the Chontal king, Fane Kansini, as well as that of the Huaxtec Old Adoptive Mother. 191 Similarly, the Veracruz Nahuas of Amatlan de los Reyes, Veracruz, used a purple wedding skirt called tecuancueitl puma skirt (enagua de len) (Reyes Garca, in Weitlaner-Johnson 1976: 56). 192 In Thompsons Qeqchi myth, Matactanis house has thirteen rooms (see Synopsis, Appendix A). In different ways, twelve and thirteen seem to symbolize the totality of the Earth.

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of food scarcity. In this way, Hummingbird is able to complete his task of bringing food to his father-in-law. And therefore, the Kiche text adds (TT 30), this boxnay is known as vomit of the mountain [uxaoj juyub].193 As usual, the anonymous father-in-law of the Kiche tale appears to be the mountain deity. This review of Hummingbirds principal bridal tasks allows some general conclusions. There is a marked imbalance between Hummingbird and his prospective bride. Hummingbird the Fierce Warrior and semi-historical intruder finds himself on unfamiliar ground, and consequently, tends to do silly things, such as severing deer antlers when he is to bring firewood and letting gophers spoil the world. The reason for these and similar mistakes appears to be that Hummingbird is uninitiated in the mysteries of the earth into which he has penetrated. In contrast, his fiance is the autochthonous daughter of the local Earth Owner. The earths workings hold no mysteries for her: Her very body (in particular her hairs and breast milk) represents its powers of growth. The tales outcome only confirms this. Thus, just as her hair became straw and trees and her breast milk trees and vines,194 so too did her bones and veins finally become transformed into wild animals. To the contrasts of allochthonous with autochthonous and uninitiated with initiated underlying the tales, another contrast explicitly formulated in some texts (P, XP) should probably be added, that between poor and rich. We will return to this important point when considering the Blanca Flor tales. In the Lacandon Hummingbird tale, Hummingbirds position is quite different. In this case, Hummingbird had already been initiated into the alien world of his fiance (that of the dead) by a powerful kinsman of his father-inlaw. This kinsman guides him throughout. Apparently as a consequence of this initiation, there is no need to test the hero, and his bridal tasks (such as clearing a maize field, sweeping the house, making balche beer) are straightforward and require no assistance from his fiance. Their description (Boremanse 1986: 8889, 297) is brief and tells nothing of the nature of his prospective bride. There is no reference to the father-in-laws reaction but, as in the other tales discussed here, he has no intention of letting his daughter go. Since his daughters body is
193

The Rabinal bridal myth of Our Beloved Maiden (Akkeren 2002 and next section) makes a very similar use of botanical images. 194 In certain Hummingbird bridal capture tales still to be discussed, her teeth become maize kernels.

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already a skeleton, there is no reduction to bones and subsequent transformation to end the tale; she simply fails to leave the paternal home. (Hummingbirds role in Lacandon myth will be discussed in more detail in Chapter Nine.) The attitudes that other tales ascribe to the Father-in-law upon the bridal services completion vary somewhat. In the Kaqchikel variant, he is moved by the relentless labor of his son-in-law overlooking the decisive contribution of his own daughter because: I ask something of you, and you comply; therefore, you shall not make any costumbre [ritual petitioning and bridal payments] now: the work you did suffices. Already you have won my daughter (R 350). He asks no further bridal payments and gives his benediction to seal the marriage. He apparently expects them to stay, for now, the Hummingbird looked for another way to carry his woman off, and the woman declares: I dont like it any longer to be with my father (R 352/354). However, the woman knows her father shall call them back with his blowgun (probably a shamanic attribute) as also happens in Qeqchi myth. The expression call back is significant, since it suggests that the father-in-law is not so much bent on eliminating his son-in-law and his now-legitimate wife, as he is on keeping them in his own territory. In the Ixil and Kiche variants, the antagonism is much more marked. One Ixil variant in particular (P 22-24) puts heavy emphasis on the couples continual transgression of the sexual taboo (even in the midst of a bridal service conceived as a punitive sanction of these very transgressions) and on Mataqtanis resolve to eliminate the culprits and save his honor. And yet, when an enormous maize field has successfully been sown, he decides to let them stay as his workers, just as in the Kaqchikel tale. Other Ixil variants, however, convert some of the sanctions (Palomino) into outright attempts at murder. The Ixil tales also give a fatal twist to the function of the steam bath in courtship and marriage. In one Ixil variant (CC), the Father-in-law hypocritically invites the couple to take the first bath in the just completed building, a bath that normally would aid the birthing process (in this case producing the old mans grandchildren) and promote the health of the mother. In other Ixil variants (K, M, P), it is the father who is made to enter the steam bath first. There is a very practical reason for this: In Ixil elopement practice, when the night for the flight has been set, the ixwa.k [girl] awaits the favorable moment, which traditionally is said to be the moment her parents enter the temascal [steam bath] for taking a bath (Palomino 1972: 69).

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The steam bath is sealed off, and the old man nearly suffocates.195 The sabotaged blowgun in the Kaqchikel tale has the same effect. Upon recuperation, the father-in-law turns very fierce (spe kon qano rojowal se fu muy bravo): Poor me, I ask for justice; it is better that my daughter dies (R 358/360).196 Consequently, Lightnings are now mobilized to attack and destroy. A King ordering the murder of his own daughter by his Lightning war captains is but the ultimate consequence of the predominance of the interests of the group over those of the individual, and particularly those of a marriageable woman, who is expected to respect the rules of interaction between kin-based groups. Herein lies a decisive difference with most of the semi-historical Fierce Warrior tales considered in the previous chapter: In these Hummingbird tales, the woman is not just an object of desire, but someone who acts in an unexpected way that threatens to subvert the rules of the game as conceived by the head of her patrilineage. Nonetheless, the woman is finally reduced to bones, or rather expressed with ritual formality to bones and veins,197 thereby rendering visual a phrase used by Kaqchikel petitioners in addressing the prospective father-in-law: We court your bones, your blood vessels [i.e., your daughter] (King, in Shaw 1971: 84). In a Kaqchikel version (T), Lightnings heat reduces her to ashes that are blown away by the wind, as if to mock another phrase from the Kaqchikel speech just quoted: Dont give it [i.e., our petition] to the wind, the north wind. The daughter of the Earth does not recover her human form. By the same token, the Fierce Warrior of the semi-historical folktales who had been trying to kidnap and abuse the women of the kingdom, now finds himself back in the woods as a hunter of animals. The unfortunate intruder appears to
195

The Father-in-laws suffocation in the steam bath runs parallel to that of the grandmother of the Twins and her consort in a Kaqchikel tale from San Antonio Palop (Redfield 1946: 252-254; cf. Orellana 1975: 854-855). In the Colby tale, the Ixil fiance had been assisting Hummingbird by making the hoes work for him, and her father slowly came to realize this. In the Palop tale, the heroes hoes had fiercely been slashing down the vegetation, until their suspicious grandmother neutralized their magic (cf. PV lines 2909 ff). 196 The formula asking for justice can imply invoking the ancestral powers to mete out punishment, especially diseases, to wrongdoers (cf. Bunzel 1967: 294-296), and here constitutes something of a paradox, since ancestral justice is primarily embodied in Mountain-Valley himself. 197 As se fue a mirar el hueso canuto de Catarina y sus venas (Palomino 1972: 143 lines 511-512).

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have been reduced to that legendary early stage during which the semi-savage ancestors had to eke out a living by hunting for what the Popol Vuh calls the children of hornets, wasps, and beehives (PV lines 6269ff). Hummingbird Myth in Petitioners Speech From the anthropological literature, the occasion or occasions for the telling of a Hummingbird tale are usually unclear, as are the expectations and reactions of the audience. But there are important exceptions. In the Ixil area, the Hummingbird bridal service myth used to be formally recited, in the vernacular, during ritual visits (pedidos petitionings) to the father-in-laws house for asking the hand of his daughter. The recital thus connected local family history to the broader history of the mountains and valleys where the Fierce Warrior once walked. One of these recitals was registered by Aquiles Palomino during his 1971 research into matrimonial patterns among the Ixiles of Chajul. Its Spanish translation gives the impression of being quite literal (1972: 129-149). The recital was performed by the head of the suitors delegation, an Elder (Mama), on the second of a series of visits. This occurred before the decisive entry into the house, which might take place only on the third or fourth visit (Palomino 1972: 85, 148 n. 20). The dates for the visits were determined by the indigenous calendar, and are included in the recitals text. The ritual occasion brings about a considerable change in the character of the mythological text, rendering it elusive and more difficult to read. The text is replete with ritual couplets (Garibays difrasismos) and triplets that time and again coalesce into new combinations, as well as with mystical names. Moreover, it is interrupted by prayer-like passages of a markedly syncretic character and by references to sacred places. To give some idea of the ritual couplets, any important person is referred to as his foot, his hand, his presence as his right (hand), his left (hand), and a divine person as his God[hood], his Saint[hood]. A word is often doubled, modified first by white and then by red (e.g., white blowpipe, red blowpipe, Palomino 1972: 133, line 147). In a similar vein, the daughter of Mataqtani is referred to as his [i.e., Hummingbirds] flower, his sacrament, or called by the mystical names of Marikita Alelusia Alintoma Malenchina (line 339), the last one of which

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might contain an allusion to the legendary Malinche the indigenous and very helpful wife of that Spanish Fierce Warrior, Corts.198 Aside from the young woman, the tales characters are her father (Mataqtani), the suitor (King Hummingbird, King Man, King Warrior [Rey Gorrin, Rey Hombre, Rey Achi]), with a minor role for Hummingbirds grandmother, the guardian of Marikitas bones. In addition to her alreadymentioned names, Marikita is called Eve as well as Maria Mundo (lines 178, 245), the latter being a tell-tale title, since the Mundo or World is everywhere among the Mayas used to refer to the divine Earth. On one occasion (line 455), Marikita refers to her father as my Father King, King World, King Paa,199 my Mountain my Valley, thus showing her fathers identity with the Mataqtani of the Qeqchis, another Tzuultaqa Mountain-Valley. Aquiles Palomino finds the reason for the myths recital in its pragmatic purpose (1972: 24), which consists in reminding the audience of the prescriptions and values that should regulate the conduct of young men and women. It seems obvious, however, that this cannot be a sufficient explanation, since a long sermon (such as one of the Ixil Elders actually gave at a wedding, see Palomino 1972: 91-92) would also have done the work, and being unimpeded by esoteric allusions, perhaps more effectively so. Instead, the otherworldly character of the tale should be fully appreciated. The reciting Elder himself tells us he is the successor of King Hummingbird (line 43), thus taking the heros place in the petitioning. Consequently, the father-in-law hidden in his house finds himself invested with the dignity of Mountain-Valley hidden in his cave: the divine Earth itself, not only the source of all riches as embodied in his daughter but also the warrant of morality. It is in this transcendent perspective, evoked and enhanced by ceremonious language, that the moral force of the recital resides. However and this might be misleading the Mayas do not idealize their Mountain-Valley, but picture him quite realistically, as a violent player in the game of life, and subject to such vicissitudes of history as the invasion of a Fierce Warrior.

198

The name once given to Hummingbird, King Magdalena (line 58), seems to contain an allusion to a female figure (Mara Magdalena) on one line with Malinche. 199 Perhaps pao fabric, textile, occurring as a metaphor for clouds in a Tzotzil curing text (Khler 1977: 38 n. 32), is meant; or the reference could be to some attribute of the Hummingbird dance..

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Just as the tale of the Fierce Warrior of Rabinal was (and still is) regularly executed as a dance drama, so the tale of the Fierce Warrior of Chajul apparently was staged in the Hummingbird Dance (Tz[]unun), the most autochthonous of the dances practiced in Chajul (Palomino 1972: 139 n. 14). Its first staging is explained in the Hummingbird recital: It was organized by Marikita to assuage her fathers anger at Hummingbirds successful accomplishment of the first bridal task. Hummingbird himself invited him to come and watch, and received this answer (lines 393-401): Ah, damn! How dare you! Leave it, my son. I dont know why, nor why I am so angry. Perhaps you have a right to her foot and hand!! I am going to put on a gallant white costume, a gallant red costume. [] Perhaps I will be happyI am going to shout!, thus spoke his godhood his sainthood, his foot, his hand. So he rested, and as it is, so remained his Son, and so the dance remained in the world. Being the script for what was probably the most important dance of Chajul, the social reach of Hummingbird myth apparently extends beyond the families establishing a marital alliance to embrace the entire community. This is so because the relationship between bride-taking and bride-giving families replicates that between the Fierce Warrior representative of the outside world and the Mountain-Valley overseeing the own community.200 The custom of reading aloud a bridal myth as an exemplum in the course of petitioning procedures appears to have been widespread. In the less accessible hamlets of Rabinal, the tale of Our Beloved Maiden(Qachu kilaj qapoj) is still recited inside the father-in-laws house during the decisive Petitioning (Tzonoj), which takes the place of a wedding ceremony (Akkeren 2002). It is told, first by the representative (abogado) of the bride-taking party, then retold by the representative of the bride-giving party. The tales initial situation is not unlike that of Hummingbird myth: A young woman is kept locked up by her jealous father, called Our Celestial Father, who then turns
200

What seems to be the same Chajul dance, the Dance of the Bird Cages, is said by some to have been devised by Hummingbird to divert Mataqtanis attention and create an opportunity for making love to Marikita (Yurchenco 2006: 87-88). What the dance actually stages is the killing of the intrusive Oyeb (the Fierce Warrior) at the hands of Mataqtani (id.: 88-89).

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angry at her violation of the rules of alliance. However, the tale soon steers another course. Since the girl has become pregnant through the gift of an apple, her angry father orders her death. She is, however, spared by the executioners and flees. On her way to Jerusalem, wealthy people give her impossible tasks to fulfill in exchange for shelter, and animals come to her rescue. Once across the sea, she rejects a group of rich suitors in favor of a humble man with a flowering staff (Saint Joseph). She then crosses the desert. The trees that give her shade come to fruition as soon as she leaves; finally, her son (Christ) is born. As Van Akkeren notes, the tales first episode is a variant of the Xquic episode of the Popol Vuh (albeit with remarkably sophisticated plant symbolism). The other episodes, however, betray a strong influence of Spanish narrative traditions concerning the Virgin Mary. Indeed, this aspect sets the Rabinal bridal myth apart: Much more than in the Chajul bridal myth, the female protagonist is focal. Instead of a male bridal service, we find another sort of service that could be taken as alluding to a poor fiances future in the home of a wealthy mother-in-law. Indeed, the constant tension between the two sides of the alliance seems to have given way to another contrast, that between the poor and humble, and the rich and pretentious. The difference in economic status, which also forms the background of the bridal service in Ixil Hummingbird myth, has become a major concern. Bridal Capture The Qeqchi myth, together with a few other Hummingbird tales, includes no bridal service, but instead has Hummingbird magically enter a foreign house to capture the daughter. In the preceding section on Bridal Service, the arrangement of the marriage and the types of bridal tasks assigned to the groom was given most of the attention. But it was also noted that in the relevant Hummingbird tales, the bridal service ends with elopement. Whereas bridal service has the suitor not only showing good will but also paying, at least in part, for his bride with the work of his hands, bridal capture or elopement (here used synonymously) is a drastic, but traditional way to forestall or shake off the burden of bridal service. The factors responsible for adopting this strategy are now to be considered in some detail.

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General Features The key factor in deciding for elopement is the suitors obligatory residence at the father-in-laws home that is, the parental home of his prospective bride (uxorilocality) which plays such an important role in the bridal service versions of Hummingbird myth. The circumstances leading to uxorilocality clearly come to the fore in case studies carried out in communities around Lake Atitlan. In the case of Santiago Atitlan, Gross and Kendall (1983: 201-228) found that uxorilocality occurs in about one third of the connubia; among the Mayas in general, its frequency is estimated rarely to fall below 20 percent (id.: 205). In Santiago, it is not a normal stage in the procedure leading up to marriage (as among the Tzotziles). Instead, it is the path taken by orphans and sons of poor families, as among the Jacaltecas. Not surprisingly, more prosperous families have a clear preference for poor and unassuming sons-inlaw. As used to be the case in another village of Lake Atitlan (San Pedro La Laguna), uxorilocality in Santiago probably was supposed to be followed by the far more desirable virilocal or neolocal residence (cf. Paul and Paul 1963: 137). The parents with whom the newly-weds reside (whether viri- or uxorilocally) have the obligations of assisting in setting up an independent household and of giving some land in usufruct (Gross and Kendall 1983: 207-208). Especially if the last-born child is a daughter, however, the girls parents make an express attempt to get the couple to reside with them permanently, so as to have a female care-taker and a male laborer to provide for their needs in old age. Since it runs counter to the prevalent patrilineal ideology and entails an inferior position, a young man usually considers uxorilocality to be highly undesirable. He is no longer living on his parents ancestral lands; the grounds on which he lives will be inherited not by him, but by his wife and children; and under some circumstances, his children can even gain a kind of ascendancy over their father (Gross and Kendall 1983: 221). Once the woman obtains her inheritance, the husband is in a position of a tenant in respect to his wife's property, and as a result, he tends to eschew tilling her lands (id.: 220). Understandably, uxorilocality is often rife with tension. As an example, Gross and Kendall (id.: 219) quote the case of a young groom who awoke one morning with his father-in-laws hands around his throat screaming that the sonin-law was too arrogant and should get out.

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A traditional escape from such entanglements is elopement, even though, from the bride givers perspective, this is tantamount to stealing the bride. In Santiago Atitlan, marriage negotiations involving an uxorilocal arrangement can be protracted, especially if the parties are of relatively equal status, and induce growing resistance. Then, the suitor may resort to elopement as an institutionalized way out of the stalemate (Gross and Kendall 1983: 218), with the consent of his parents who will have to pay the fine. Among the Chuj Mayas (Maxwell 1996: 72), bridal capture is even described as a second major marriage mechanism, after payment of the bridal price and bridal service. The candidate is especially likely to try this if he cannot afford a bride price, if he suspects her family will not receive his familys visits, or if the girl seems reluctant to wed. The fugitive couple hide in a cabin in the hills; with his girl safely locked in, the captor can return to negotiate a marriage with a much stronger hand. At times, if no arrangement can be reached, the de facto unions continue. Bridal capture was also a traditional option among the Ixiles of Chajul (Palomino 1972: 68-69, 82). The fugitive couple sought lodging with the boys friends, the boys family stepped in, an Elder was contacted, and bride price negotiations and petitioning were started. For the Tzutujiles of San Pedro La Laguna (Paul and Paul 1963: 138-140), elopement took place at the initiative of the boy and girl themselves, apparently with previous consent of the boys parents who would have to receive the fugitives and pay the fines. A load of firewood delivered by the son-in-law to his wifes parents frequently marked the resumption of friendly relations (id.: 140), delivering firewood otherwise being typical of the beginning of uxorilocal bridal service (id.: 138). From the above, it appears that the dramatic move of bridal capture was either an interruption of marriage negotiations or a premeditated way of bridal acquisition. Either way, it was usually to be followed by negotiations so as to normalize the situation. Just which course of action was chosen by a suitor seems largely to have been a matter of socio-economic circumstances. Characteristically, some informants attribute the origin of elopement in San Pedro to a certain couple in the 1890s who feared to approach the girl's irascible father (Paul and Paul 1963: 138 n. 11). Although it could almost appear to have been taken directly from Hummingbird myth, this story has another background. In the 1890s, the corporate community gradually began to give way to a community of private land-owners supported by legal titles, and the need to conserve family capital made it difficult to pursue the costly procedures of formal petitioning (id.: 145). Consequently, the father-in-laws

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ritual role on receiving petitioners (corresponding to his mythical role vis--vis the hero and his fiance) became less and less acceptable. Bridal Capture in Hummingbird Myth The Fierce Warrior of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, Xbalanque, is emphatically stated to be unwilling to make use of marriage negotiators (Thompson 1930: 126). He wants to win the girl all by himself. By deliberately rejecting existing social networks, he hardly enhances his trustworthiness in the eyes of the group he is approaching; and his sudden descent from the skies, where he rules over his territories like the Sun (Wilson), is no less suggestive of aggressive intentions. Consequently, he is rightly treated as a Fierce Warrior, set on kidnapping and seducing women. The daughter of the Grandfather of the Land mocks him by washing him away with the lime water (nixtamal) in which raw maize kernels had been soaking, thus putting him to shame. Significantly, for the Totonacs, lime water is a liquid refuse comparable to excrement and urine (Ichon 1969: 131). There is reason to assume that this use of nixtamal constitutes a Mesoamerican motif expressive of an extremely unequal relationship between bride-givers and bride-takers. It is also at the heart of one of the few extended legendary passages in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (Kirchhoff et al. 1989: 152-156), which otherwise is made up mainly of exhaustive listings of ethnic groups, their divisions and leaders, and the towns they have conquered. On their trek from the Cave of Origins, the Tolteca-Chichimecas have entered the territory of the Olmeca-Xicalancas with its capital, Cholollan. There, they live apart in a state of serfdom and not unlike the poor marriage candidates considered above are forced to carry water and firewood for their masters. Moreover, they are the object of malicious mockery: They threw nixtamal water in their faces; they scratched their legs with feather quills; they cut arrows and set up reeds in their backs [or anuses] (par. 129). From a parallel passage (par. 147), it becomes clear that it was the Olmeca-Xicalanca women who threw the nixtamal water. The passage culminates with the victims exclaiming: Are we perhaps dogs?!201
Horcasitas (1988: 208) finds an allusion here to the post-diluvial origin of mankind by the mating of a man with a humanized bitch, a myth found among the Huicholes, Tlapanecs, and Totonacs, and in view of their name especially applicable to the
201

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The Tolteca-Chichimecas decide to take possession of the town, Cholollan. Their stratagem involves inviting the Olmeca-Xicalancas to a feast. Apparently, war dances are to be held, and for this, the weapons of the guests are to be borrowed; but instead of good, new weapons, the Tolteca-Chichimecas ask for only your wasted weapons that are lying somewhere in the nixtamal water (par. 152),202 that is, weapons that had been abused along with the suffering, allochthonous servants themselves. These weapons are assembled, painted, and repairedand there a lacuna in the text brings the story to a halt. However, since the Tolteca-Chichimecas had asked themselves: Shall we be eaten, or shall the shield and weapon of the Olmecs eat the OlmecaXicalancas? (par. 148), there is reason to suspect that weakness finally turned into strength, and vice versa especially so, since the Mocker, Tezcatlepoca, had prompted the strategy. In any case, the Olmeca-Xicalancas are ousted and haughty Cholollan is taken. In the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, the Tolteca-Chichimecas penetrated as hunters and warriors into a foreign territory, where they appear to have become incorporated and subordinated as humble marriage candidates not yet fully legitimized as sons-in-law. Qeqchi myth develops along similar lines. Its Fierce Warrior is a hostile intruder a hunter accompanied by jaguar and puma dogs (Curley) who, as we have seen, shook the mountains of the Qeqchi Grandfather. But when Xbalanque tries to become a son-in-law, he is treated much as would be a poor and powerless marriage candidate.203 I suspect that the female lime water magically destroys the power of his phallic arrows, one of which had also shown him the way to his future wife (Cruz Torres). In
Chichimecs (chichi meaning dog). In its Huichol rendering, the skin of the bitch is burnt away and her naked flesh soothed with nixtamal water. Since in this case, nixtamal water obviously carries a positive connotation, and the female, not the male is affected by it, I can find no meaningful parallel here. 202 Zan yehuatl yn ma cana uetztoc nextamallayotitlan amotlauizoltzin slo aquellas insignias viejas que estn tiradas por ah, donde arrojan el agua de nixtamal (Hist.TCH. 1989: 156). Horcasitas translation (all we want are your old weapons, lest your new ones be spoiled with the nixtamal water, 1988: 208) does not seem to be correct. 203 It seems strange that a Poqomchi version (Mayers 1958: 3) initially stages him as an old man (rejeb). In a 17th-century Pokom dictionary, one finds: Rihib: something old; said of plants, trees, animals and men. You are grown to stalks, said of a mature man who ought to have been married long since (Zuiga, in Miles 1957: 763). Perhaps the idea is that nobody had been willing to give Hummingbird a wife, or that he could not afford to pay for his bride.

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sum, Xbalanque finds himself symbolically reduced to a state of serfdom, a stalemate from which only the use of love magic can save him. The ensuing bridal capture provokes what amounts to a war (with the war captain cast as a rain deity) that leaves the reckless bridal capturer with a dead woman. The invader is obliged to resort to petitioning. It is only by being recognized as a son-in-law to the Grandfather of the Land, that the abductors dead woman can regain life: He went to the Thirteen Mountains and Thirteen Valleys to petition for [rogar por] his beloved (Cruz Torres). However, the Qeqchi Grandfather of the Land (the Mountains and Valleys of War, or the Provincias de Guerra which had become the Spanish Verapaz provinces) had been traumatized by the Fierce Warriors invasion and afflicted by the diseases he had caused. Therefore, he remains basically hostile. According to some renditions (briefly referred to in Estrada Monroy 1990: 141 n. 197), Sun first reconnoiters the land with his beams of light to ensure that Mountain-Valley is not lying in ambush, ready to take Kana Po with him into the sky. The protective daylight comes first, and Moon reflects the light of her husband only when the coast is clear. Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth is cast largely in terms of the deer hunt, but, as shall be explained presently, the tale can also be told in terms of agriculture, particularly maize cultivation. An overview of the variants at my disposal together with a detailed treatment of their implications will be found in Chapter Eight; here, I intend to consider the maize version only in the perspective of bridal capture. In either case, a human woman is transformed into a non-human woman. But instead of enclosing a fragmented woman in jars and leaving her in the custody of a guardian, the Fierce Warrior who initially bears comparison to the Sipak(na) and impertinent maize robber type of the tales discussed in Chapter Four leaves an unfragmented woman in the custody of an ally who encloses her in a mountain. One of these maize tales, a Poqomchi Hummingbird myth from Santa Cruz Verapaz (Bcaro Moraga), lends itself particularly well to a historical reading in terms of war and alliance.204 It has the Quiche Uinac for a protagonist, a war captain who, being the representative of the Kiche conquest state, is, just as in Qeqchi myth, identified with the victorious Sun. The Quiche Uinac descends on a mam Grandfather of the Land who, in this
204

See also the Synopsis of the maize version in Appendix B.

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particular case, is probably to be understood as the Poqomchi King. The Quiche Uinac captures the Kings daughter, retreats, and constructs Kiche mountain fortresses to control Poqomchi territory. The King and his two Hawks (i.e., principal war captains) are shaken off. Then, the hero marries the Poqomchi princess off to an ally from Rabinal, instructing the ally to imprison her in one of the mountain fortresses constructed in between Poqomchi and Rabinal territories. When Rabinal complies, the woman changes into the Maize Mother, that is, the sowing-seed. To save the life of his subjects, the Poqomchi King has to send his Lightning Captains to set her free. What we may have here, is a Poqomchi perspective on the conflicts set out in the Rabinal Achi, one that turns on the ambiguous role of the Poqom. And just as the Rabinal King offered a Qeqchi princess from Carchah to the Quiche Uinac to weave the Kingdoms affinal network, so the representative of the Kiche King seems to have offered a Poqomchi princess to the man from Rabinal (i.e., the Rabinal Achi). But the available data are thin, and the suggestion must remain speculative. From the viewpoint of a King who lost his daughter, the bridal capture remains a hostile procedure tantamount to kidnapping. Certain variants of the maize version, however, present a situation not unlike that reported from the Chuj Mayas, where the fugitive couple hide in a cabin in the hills until the captor, with his girl safely locked up, returns to the womans father to negotiate a marriage. In these variants (Mayers, Schumann), it is the abductor himself who imprisons the abducted woman in a mountain cave. He cohabits with her and makes her pregnant; and this signals the necessity of establishing an affinal tie to the King. The woman urges her husband to approach her father; but at the very moment he leaves his mountain retreat as a marriage candidate, the mountain encloses the woman, and a situation similar to that in the Quiche Uinac Hummingbird myth is thus reached. Even more emphatically than Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth and the Poqomchi tale from Santa Cruz Verapaz, an early Qeqchi variant of the Maize Mother tale published by Burkitt (1918) takes the perspective of the Qeqchi king identified with the predominant mountain, Xucaneb. This King presides over a council consisting of dignitaries with their own domains (i.e., mountains), such as it indeed existed in pre-Spanish times. The narrator has shrewdly construed the tale by doubling some of its key roles: The abducted daughter is assigned a double who is the Maize Mother, and the bridal capturer becoming a son-in-law is assigned a double who is a son-in-law

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becoming a hostile kidnapper. The political argument appears to be that bridal capture and war should be transformed into affinity and peace, and that a denial of affinity can only mean war. When the Kings daughter is enclosed in the abductors mountain, the King twice sends his Jaguars and Pumas, to no avail. He is forced to send a female marriage broker and to persuade the abductor to become his son-in-law. But at the very moment the abductor returns to his father-in-law, the latters daughter is imprisoned in the mountain of the rejected other son-in-law. Once more, a hostile mountain is to be attacked. Syncretism: The Blanca Flor Tales Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, and even more its Ixil, Kiche, and Kaqchikel versions, have all been influenced by Ladino oral tradition, or rather, have sometimes expressed their messages through this medium. Although various Ladino tale types can come into play here, whether alone or together, it is the tale of Blanca Flor that has made the biggest impression. Blanca Flor shares her name with the princess of the chivalrous medieval legend (who is better known, perhaps, as Blancheflour).205 However, the folktales included under the heading of Blanca Flor evince a structure quite different from the medieval legend and correspond to Tale Type 313, The Girl as Helper in the Heros Flight, in Aarne-Thompsons Types of the Folktale (see Taggart 1997: 173). Leaving aside the tales initial part (which explains why the hero should have left for the realm of a foreign king) and the final part (the hero temporarily losing his bride through magical amnesia), I will here focus on the stay with the otherworldly father and the impossible tasks he demands of his young visitor. Blanca Flors Generative Powers In Mexico and Guatemala as in Spain, the central part of the Blanca Flor tale usually conforms to a particular pattern (cf. Taggart 1997: 173; Dary 1986:

According to the medieval tale, a Christian mother and her daughter are held captive by a Moorish King. In her prime youth, the daughter falls in love with the Kings son. The Moorish King reacts by selling her to another, and distant King, who imprisons her in a tower. The prince, Floris Flower, sets out on a quest for his beloved White Flower, and frees her by defeating her guardian in a game of chess. He marries her, and converts to her creed.

205

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235; Laughlin 1977: 80). The hero enters the household of a foreign King, who is often the Devil. He is given a series of impossible tasks, the first of which entails the killing of one of the Devils own daughters. The hero wins her allegiance, and she helps him to accomplish what is being asked of him. After he has completed many of his tasks, the Devil decides to give his daughter to this efficient servant, and the next tasks thus become true bridal tasks. However, since the Devil comes to realize that his daughter is deceiving him, the final tasks also become outright attempts to murder the couple, forcing them to flee. During the flight, Blancaflor throws away her female attributes (such as comb, soap, and mirror) which change into obstacles on the road, the final obstacle often being a lake or a sea. The fugitives themselves assume various transformative shapes so as to mislead the Devil; these typically include a church dedicated to the Virgin together with its priest. In each case, it is the Devils shrewd wife who points out her husbands mistakes. But the lovers escape. The variants of this tale told in Nahua mountain communities of Northern Puebla (Taggart 1983: 224-228, Tale nos.17, 18; 1997: 196ff) not only give a strongly agrarian character to the bridal tasks, but also emphasize Blancaflors generative powers and her love for her ant helpers. We have already met these ant helpers in one of the Ixil Hummingbird tales. The anthropologist and folklorist, James Taggart (1997: 221), has pointed out Blanca Flors resemblance to the female character found in many tales of a more indigenous nature, a character he calls Lightning Bolt Woman: A young, seductive earth goddess who often assumes the shape of a serpent and who brings riches to those she favors (cf. Taggart 1983: 138-139, 142-152). A convincing demonstration of Taggarts thesis can be found in a version of the Blanca Flor tale type told by the Totonacs of Tepango de Rodrguez, Northern Puebla (Avila Soriano 1990: 246-249), where the young woman (who remains anonymous) turns into a serpent, specifically a boa constrictor, and glides through the wild vegetation to prepare a maize field for her fiance. Apparently, the Blanca Flor tale could influence indigenous tales by serving as a vehicle for traditional indigenous concepts (such as serpent transformation) and concerns (such as those of alliance). This is as true for the Mayas as it is for the Nahuas, and Blanca Flors role could as well be played by the Mayan daughter of the mountain as by the Nahua Lightning Bolt Woman. Suggestive of an interaction between the Ladino and Mayan oral traditions concerned are Hummingbird myths with a long series of impossible bridal tasks

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(Kaqchikel of Palop, Kiche of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan); with bridal tasks with murderous intent (Santa Maria Ixtahuacan, Ixil of Chajul); and with the socalled magical flight episode (Kaqchikel of Panajachel and Santa Maria Ixtahuacan).206 In these syncretic tales, it is only the tales conclusion that is radically different, showing a conception of Blanca Flor different from the one commonly found in Ladino renderings. The Blanca Flor influence is also recognizable in lesser elements. In the Kaqchikel story from Panajachel (Tax), the Ma-Taktani of the Palop variant is replaced by the Devil. In the same story, the daughters assume the shape of white lilies, suggestive of the Catholic Virgin; in Ixil myth, the daughter is called with the Spanish name of Mara or Margarita. In the Blancaflor tale, the Devil keeps his daughter locked up with seven keys (Dary 1986: 232); in many variants of Qeqchi myth, Tactani is suggested to inhabit a palace with a series of rooms (like the house which Hummingbird is to build for his father-in-law), where his daughter is locked up with as many keys. The speaking saliva left by the couple on fleeing (Dary 1986: 233, 352, Tax 1951: 2550) recurs in the slightly expanded Estrada Monroy edition of the Qeqchi Wirsing variant. The shrewd wife of the magical flight episode seems to be present in some Qeqchi variants (Drck), when Mountain-Valleys wife hands him his mirror or his blowgun; in the Panajachel tale, only the father-in-laws suspicious wife is able to recognize the fugitives in their various transformations. In addition to these syncretic names, motifs, and characters, one sometimes notices the use of magical formulas savoring of European fairy tales.207 It should be emphasized that Hummingbird myth constitutes only a specific class of the indigenous bridal tales that are patterned to some degree on the Blanca Flor tale type, tales that in turn are but parts of a still wider, sophisticated discourse about the many modalities of establishing or manipulating affinal ties to an Earth Owner. Consider for example three of the tales collected by Tax (1951) among the Kaqchikeles of Panajachel, all, as it appears, from the same narrator. One (no.26) is a Hummingbird myth with its

206

The magical flight is equally noticeable in otherwise very indigenous myths, such as the Zapotec Sun and Moon myth (Parsons 1936: 326; Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1969: 58-60). 207 Vengan mariposas de oro, mariposas de plata (kixojo kut qana pepe saqa pepe), and: Levntate Palo Jiote de oro, Palo Jiote de plata (katwalija kut qana uka saqa uka) (Ixtahuacan Kiche, Ajpacaja Sohom 2004: 32/28).

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implied love magic, followed by the capture of the two daughters of the Devil, the magical flight, and the attack, first by lightning, then by a wind dispersing the daughters ashes, which thereupon change to bees. This tale is paralleled by one (no. 28) about a lazy bird-hunter208 who finds bathing doves that turn out to be daughters of the Devil. Since they do not enter his bird traps, another bridal capture follows, with in its wake again the magical flight and the persecution by the devils cronies in this case winds, the last one of whom takes the woman away from the unhappy bird-hunter. She is neither destroyed nor transformed. The third tale (no. 20) substitutes a bridal service in disguise for the bridal capture and thus approaches the Blanca Flor model more closely. Another lazy bird-hunter aims carelessly and wounds the birds of the Mountain (the Devil), thus violating an important hunting taboo. He is taken to the mountain to carry out tasks that are really sanctions. He succeeds only with the help of the Devils daughter; next comes the magical flight, and the Devil sends his lightnings to kill which is where the text breaks off. Confronted with narrative variations like these, one can only wonder at the relative stability of Qeqchi Hummingbird myth. The tale type of Blanca Flor is widespread in Mesoamerica, both among Ladino and Indian groups. In the indigenous bridal service tales, the Devil's daughter may be called Blanca Flor, but she can also assume another name, or just remain anonymous.209 The rich Devil and father of Blanca Flor can still be viewed as the ogre of many Ladino renderings (e.g., Thompson 1930: 167ff); often, however, he has the same, ambivalent status as the fathers-in-law of Hummingbird myth. When he is viewed as a foreign King (Gossen 1974: 303304, Sexton 1992), he is essentially the Rey Mundo, Mundo (World) usually referring to the Earth. Thus, the father-in-law is also called the Dueo del Cerro Owner of the Mountain (Tax no. 20), the Chaneco (Garca de Leon), or Lightning and his avatar, a snake (Taggart 1983: 128, 138). More specifically,

208

In Qeqchi myth, contrarily, the boys are hunting for birds with their blowguns and traps, but laziness is not a theme. If bird becomes a metaphor for woman, the blowgun almost inevitably acquires a phallic connotation. 209 Blanca Flor: Dary 1986: 232-234, 352-353; Garcia de Len 1976: 90-94; Knab 1983: 488ff; Mnch 1983: 163); Taggart 1983: 224-228. Other name, Rosalie: Thompson 1930: 167-172, 175-178, Mara or Margarita: Ixil myth. Anonymous: Avila Soriano 1990: 246-249; Sexton 1992: 17-23; Taggart 1983: 117-135; Tax 1951: 2550 (Tale 20), 2556 (Tale 28). Compare also Miller 1956: 179-182 (Tale 33).

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he is a boa constrictor embodying wealth stemming from the earth (Avila Soriano); and consequently, the daughter can be a large snake or boa herself (Avila S., Totonac; cf. Taggart, Nahua, Huitzilan Version 1,Yaonahuac Version 2; and Miller, Mixe, Tale 33). In his ophidian form, the supreme Father-in-law recurs in various Mesoamerican initiation tales. Whatever the specifics, the bridal task of cultivating a maize-field in one day is rarely absent. As has already been noted in the discussion of Hummingbird bridal service tales, the daughter manifests herself as a generative power on a par with that of her father, and in this type of tales, especially one relevant to agriculture. In the Totonac Blanca Flor tale, she burns the field by slithering through the shrubs in the form of a boa constrictor (Avila Soriano). For the one she has come to love, this nubile woman can perform miracles of regeneration, which are often expressed through the metaphor of weaving. In this context, the image of the chopper (machete) is instructive. Mixtec farmers liken their wives to their choppers, since both wives and choppers eventually produce food and life for their children (Monaghan 1996: 60). The bridal service tales, however, which describe the way in which the cooperation of the sexes came about, suspend the male perspective inherent in the Mixtec metaphor, and replace the female chopper by the volitional action of the batten, expressive of the autonomous female drive to produce food and children. Whereas the batten, or chopper of the loom (machete de telar), destroys the texture of the wild vegetation (Garca de Leon 1976: 91), the skirt which the woman is about to weave (i.e., the loom threads) is stretched out between the remaining trees and thickets as a cleared maize-field (Thompson 1930: 168); her hairs are identified with maize tufts that, placed at the four corners of the field (i.e., adorning the four corners of her weaving) produce the maize (Sexton 1992). The notion of useful vegetation as the weaving and clothing of the earth can be extended to the animals living in this texture. For example, in a Kaqchikel Hummingbird myth (Redfield), the daughter of the Earth Owner rewards a King Fisher by weaving his feathers. A bridal task that sometimes follows sowing and harvesting, and in which the bridal service then reaches its climax, clearly reveals the heros subordination: Bringing forth, in the course of just one day, a child in the likeness of the Father-in-law. In the Tzutujil Blanca Flor tale (Sexton), the anonymous daughter instructs her lover to catch a fish; a big wave leaves it on the sea-shore a possible metaphor for birth-giving and when the fish is laid between the lovers in the childbed, it changes into a baby that already has teeth.

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Significantly, the admiring father-in-law declares: The child is going to have my name (Sexton 1992: 21), i.e., to be his namesake and substitute.210 In other words, the mam grandchild who has just been delivered will in time replace a mam grandfather who in this case is also the supreme Grandfather of the Land. This same concept probably underlies a Mixe variant (Miller 1956: 181-182) in which the father-in-law behaves much as a mother-in-law, happily swaddling the child as if it were his own. We shall see in another chapter how, in Lacandon Hummingbird myth, this bridal task acquires a very specific function. Once the woman seizes a chance to flee, her accessories are transformed into features of the landscape, destined to keep her father and especially her shrewd mother at bay. But this landscape is now being readied for human use, and it is perhaps for this reason that at this point a Jacaltec variant (Stratmeyer, in Shaw 1971: 129-131) reaffirms the daughters new destiny. Instead of changing herself into a Marian church and her husband into its priest, she becomes a maize-stalk and her husband a farmer working his field. To the indigenous mind, these alternative transformations would largely coincide, since a farmer not only participates in collective agrarian rituals (in which the various Virgins play their role), but also performs costumbre rituals himself. In terms of the bridal tales, the purpose of these rituals is twofold: to have his bare fields clothed with the texture of the fruits and crops, and to be allowed to keep these fruits of his marriage and live by them (see Chapter Eight, The Farmers Marriage to the Soil and the Maize). Bridal Service and Peonage Returning to the fundamental preconditions of bridal acquisition, it are the balance of payments, debt and acquittal, and thus the economic situation of the suitor, that stand out. If a suitor is from a rich family, he could in principle afford to pay the bridal price. But in the tales of concern here such is not normally the case. Rather, the suitor tends to be staged as a poor man who will have to either find other means of paying or else enter into the service of his father-in-law and accept a burdensome bridal service. Indeed, with respect to a father-in-law who owns all the land, the image of the poor suitor is particularly

210

Nah. tocayo namesake, Ixil tuko (cf. Nachtigall 1978: 200-204, 238).

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apt. In a hierarchical perspective, human wealth is, in the final instance, seen to derive from the primordial wealth of the Earth, which is jealously guarded by an Owner to whom man is in principle nothing but a poor servant.211 As the tales demonstrate, the suitor indeed sets out as a servant forced to do bridal service. The father-in-law sets him tasks that, being impossible, could be extended forever. Consequently, the suitor would, to all intents and purposes, end up as a peon. In the real world, a father-in-law might well value a son-in-law with means of his own and with useful social connections; but the myth appears to be seeking the extremes, making the social distance between the father-in-law and the suitor as wide as possible. The menace of being converted into a mere servant is prominent not only in the bridal service tales, but equally in the more encompassing collection of bridal acquisition tales. Already in Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, we came upon the nixtamal (lime water) incident with its implication of reduction to slavery, specifically enslavement by a wealthy group of bride-givers. This dire lesson was not lost upon the poor deer hunter Xbalanque, who resorted to love magic and bridal capture rather than considering bridal service. In the Panajachel Blanca Flor tale discussed above, the devils daughter instructed the hero who, with her help, had successfully completed his tasks that he should not accept money from her father, for doing so would mean remaining imprisoned in the mountain. In a similar vein, a Nahua tale from the northern Sierra de Puebla (Taggart 1983: 119-120, cf. 123-124) emphatically warns that a poor man, if he can choose his own reward for a service done to the Earth Owner (such as rescuing or healing his animals), should never accept a woman from his hands directly: Soon youll arrive there and youll find my sisters very attractive. Theyll invite you to eat, but if you accept youll stay there forever. My father will offer you a plot of land, an axe, a hoe, a machete, or a tumpline for a reward. But dont accept any of these things, or youll stay forever working with them. [] Dont be attracted to my sisters. My father will invite you to eat, but tell him youre not hungry because if you eat youll stay there forever.

211

This is also illustrated by those persons who have asked the Earth for riches. After their death, they are made to pay for these riches, and are reduced to slavery.

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In other words, accepting a woman as compensation implies agreeing to become the tenant, or even peon, of the father-in-law, and moreover not for a fixed period of time (as would be normal), but without a set limit. This is also what the Palomino variant of Ixil Hummingbird myth explicitly formulates (1972: 23): When Rey Achi has accomplished the herculean task of sowing an enormous maize field, Mataqtani decides not to kill the intruder who ravished his daughter, provided the latter accepts his offer to stay with him as his son-inlaw and to work for him. This menacing development rests upon two stereotypical features of the bridal tales: the poverty of the suitor and the exclusive concentration on the daughters rather than the sons of the father-in-law. The explanation of this mythological development is to be sought in the institution of permanent uxorilocality, which comes into play whenever a poor man desires to marry the daughter of a rich father-in-law without sons (cf. Nachtigall 1978: 238);212 for in the absence of sons the patriarchs land-holdings cannot be patrilineally inherited. Instead of his sons and sons sons, his daughters sons should take his place. As a consequence, the daughter remains a prisoner of her fathers patrilineage and her lover should be made to stay: He should be absorbed by the group of his in-laws, and in a sense, be adopted. In Mixtec, this reversal of the normal situation, which puts the suitor in such an undesirable position of dependency, is neatly captured by the expression: The bride buys the groom (Monaghan 1996: 76-77 n. 11). It implies that through his wife, the suitors male children will inherit the father-in-laws property.213 Therefore, in the myth, the patriarch is overwhelmed by joy once his servant has fulfilled the bridal task of generating a child with his daughter: For now, there is a substitute who can inherit his lands, while the son-in-law is there merely to labor until a son who in a sense is not his own, but rather the patriarchs heir, can take his place. But then the father-in-law comes to realize that his daughter has interpreted her buying of the groom in a highly undesirable way and effectively does the work for her suitor, thus enabling him to pay off his debt
212

The Ixil case described by Nachtigall assumes the male head of the household already to have died, thus accentuating the temporary matrilineal inheritance through the widow (who inherits her husbands possessions) and her daughter. 213 In Acxotla del Monte, Tlaxcala, this co-resident son-in-law is sometimes jokingly referred to as nuero male daughter-in-law (Robichaux 1997: 156).

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and abduct her. In a sense, she is thereby serving the interests of a patrilineage other than that of her father. If she has given her father a grandson, it is only to give her suitor a son. Thus, the strained, radically uxorilocal solution, which makes a peon of the son-in-law, is subverted, and, in a wider perspective, an opening is created through which the benefits of the earth could reach mankind. The above considerations may have affected the way the Blanca Flor and Hummingbird tales were understood by a 19th or 20th-century audience of poor Mayan tenants and laborers. It will be recalled that various Qeqchi Hummingbird tales were told on some of the German-owned plantations that had gradually engulfed the mountains of the Alta Verapaz, dispossessing the indigenous communities in the process. Thompson (1930: 67) noted as early as the late1920s that the Qeqchis of southern British Honduras believed in spooks that had the body of a mare and the head of a German coffee planter.214 But a more fundamental comparison was made as well: Even in the 1980s, Qeqchi elders still imagined the Mountain-Valley deities as blond, and sometimes cannibalistic, German landowners (Wilson 1995: 57-58). Both the Tzuultaqa and the landowners are called patrn boss, an equation also made by other Mayan groups (Wilson 1995: 58). For Qeqchis consciously identifying themselves as Catholics, this perspective is sometimes adjusted: God the Father is then viewed as an absentee landlord and patrn, while the Tzuultaqa is assigned the role of the latters mayordomo, overseeing the work of the laborers on the finca (Kahn 2006: 57-58).215 Against such a background, Hummingbirds bridal service, consisting of an interminable series of heavy and, indeed, impossible tasks, is apt to have been understood as a metaphor for the debt peonage in which the audience found itself entrapped.216 Qeqchi mozos colonos must, therefore, have rejoiced in the daring and cunning (naleb) with which their hero managed to circumvent this servitude, and in the writhing of a powerful landowner who had just swallowed a load of pepper from his sabotaged blowgun. This specific interpretation of the Qeqchi Hummingbird as a symbol of resistance against

214

These landowners seem to have acted in the shape of were-animals, not unlike the way-spooks of the distant pre-Spanish Mayan kings 215 In Chapter Ten, we shall find an analogous relationship between Xulab as an absentee cattle farmer and the Mountain-Valley deities as his overseers. 216 It will be recalled that debt peonage had been legalized in 1894, fifteen years before the oldest variant of the tale was told to Wirsing.

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plantation servitude is further supported by the fact that the bosss violent coughing is stated to have introduced lung diseases into the mountains (Wirsing) diseases that all too often infected a plantation owners malnourished laborers. Whereas, from this perspective, the Qeqchi hero could appear to have broken with the plantation system by abducting his wife, a historicized bridal service tale current among the Mames of Chimaltenango, in northwestern Guatemala, veers the other way (Watanabe 1992: 67). It has the protagonists father arrange a durable marriage of his son with the daughter of the Mountain: The bride brought with her seeds for coffee trees, and Chimaltecos say this is why the first coffee plantations began on the Pacific coast near Tajumulco [Mountain]. The contrast could hardly be stronger. It finds its explanation in the fact that in this case, the protagonist was not a Maya, but the son of the very man who virtually reduced the Highland Mayas to servitude, President Rufino Barrios.

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CHAPTER 6

TRANSFORMATIONS OF WOMAN: GAME, FOWL, AND HONEY BEES

The Hummingbird tales stereotypically receive their impetus from love magic, signaling a blending of war into alliance, and symbolized by the invaders transformation into a hummingbird. In this chapter, I shall argue that in the Hummingbird bridal service tales, the outcome of the initial love magic is the sexual attraction operative during the hunt and, in the case of the domesticated bees, continuing afterwards.217 In the Hummingbird myths generally, the hunt strongly comes to the fore, while the figure of the otherworldly father-in-law looms large. In the Ixil and related versions, the daughter of Mountain-Valley is finally transformed into deer and other game, including wild bees; in the Lacandon Hummingbird myth, the hunt for gophers paradoxically leads to the procreation of gophers. In several Hummingbird myths, the hero is responsible for the white-tailed deers distinctive features, such as their hooves, antlers, and speculum. In the Qeqchi version, finally, the hero is a deer hunter who, at various moments, assimilates himself to the deer, and woos a woman who interacts with them in various ways. In the course of this chapter, I will try to find coherence in these motifs by considering what appears to be an ancient Mesoamerican conception of the hunt. From Prospective Human Wife to Animal Wife Essential elements of a hunting ideology extant over the entire Mesoamerican area are the close association (and often, in dreams, the interchangeability) of women and game, and the regeneration of the bones. These two elements are also characteristic of the Hummingbird bridal service tales to be discussed. In the Ixil Hummingbird myth published by the Colbies
217

In so far as they treat of love and procreation rather than war and conquest, these flowery tales overlap with the sphere of the Aztec deity Xochiquetzal and of her male counterpart, Xochipilli Flower Lord (or Chicome-Xochitl), whose equivalent Mayan name (nicte ahau) denotes the Hummingbird character in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel.

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(CC 180-183, cf. M 60-66),218 the Father-in-laws lightning bolt struck his daughter, Maria Markaoo, and there was nothing but the bones of Maria left. Crying, Oyew Achi collects the bones of his beloved in a handkerchief and with the bones instead of a wife, returns to his family: He visits an aunt and stores the bones in an urn for regeneration.219 The aunt is instructed not to touch the urn, and Oyew Achi leaves for some days. In the meantime, the bones come back to life, and the accompanying noise causes the aunt to open the urn: The bones turned into animals which jumped out of the urn and ran in all directions. When the man returned, he cried, because there was no trace of his bride. But then a woodpecker,singing like a person, showed him the way: The woodpecker hammered at a tree and caused some bees to come out. Thats your wife, said the woodpecker. Oyew Achi asked the bee, Is it really you? The bee answered that it was and upbraided him for abandoning the urn. If the aunt had not interfered Maria would have returned to life in her original form. Now she was a bee and she also was the wild pig, and her body had turned into the rabbit and deer as well. She [the transformed woman] asked Oyew Achi to call all of them [her animal transformations]. So he called her bones. They came, all the animals: deer, rabbits, wild pigs, birds, and bees. The man asked, Are you all my wife? They all answered yes. Among the animal transformations of the bride are not only large mammals that are (or used to be) hunted, but also pigeons and doves (M, T), common avian transformations of the daughters of the Earth in syncretic tales. Depending on the variant, other birds may come into focus. The Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan Kiche tale (TT) has a single, indeterminate, and beautiful bird escape from the jar, which some Santiago Atitlan Tzutujil renderings specify as

218

The references in this section are to the sources listed in Appendix B, Transformation into Animals. The number following the abbreviation of the authors name refers to the page(s). 219 The container with the bones is alternatively described as an urn (Colby and Colby), a ptish botija or large cooking pot (Prechtel) the same word used by some Qeqchi variants an apaste or kaswel cazuela (Tepaz Tuy), and a cajn or box (Palomino). In the Palomino Ixil recital (1972: 144), after the escape of the animals from the box (cajn), there is an enigmatic statement: The grandmother opened the box (cofre) and filled it with cotton bajo su cola (emphasis added).

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wild forest fowl, such as the ocellated turkey (Agriocharis ocellata; Prechtel 2001: 107),220 or the horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus; id.: 65). In his own idiosyncratic, ornate re-telling of the Tzutujil tale, Prechtel informs us that previously, Hummingbird had wrapped each shred of flesh in the particular leaf from the tree or plant under which it had been thrown (id.: 52-53) and carried the load home. The author then amply describes the final wrapping of the thirteen body parts of the woman in the leaves of thirteen specifically named herbs (perhaps aromatic ones for the curing of meat) and their deposition in a large cooking-pot (id.: 57-58). This part of the tale may well be authentic, apparently comparing the gestation of the womans remains to food-processing (even though no fire is involved), while modulating the same episode in its Qeqchi rendition (see next chapter). If we are to believe Prechtel, the final transformation into an ocellated turkey relates to the customary ritual sacrifice, dismemberment, and distribution of specific parts of the bird over various districts towards the end of the dry season, to usher in the season of growth (id.: 100). A hunt for an ocellated turkey preceding the onset of the rains would constitute a parallel to the bee hunt preceding Holy Week.221 In the Colby (CC) tale, the last animal to be spotted, but the first to be recognized as the bride, is the bee, and more particularly, according to another Ixil variant (Maxwell 1980: 65 n. 13), a highly prized variety of honeybee (called qan us). This parallels the Qeqchi version, where the true wife (the Moon in this case) is only discovered when all other transformations have already left their containers the last-discovered transformation apparently being the most precious one. A Kaqchikel rendering of the tale focuses exclusively on the bees, leaving aside the origin of the game animals (Redfield 1946, San Antonio Palop; summarized in Thompson 1970: 365-366). According to the Kaqchikel informant (R 292), the tale explains how the bees came to be, for if the woman had not opened the jar that was left in her [house],
220

The wild turkey (pavo) is sometimes replaced by a peacock (pavo real), a domesticated exotic. 221 Together with a co-author (Carlsen, Tarn), Prechtel who lived for many years among the Tzutujiles and married a Tzutujil woman published various oft-quoted scholarly articles based on his knowledge of Tzutujil culture, before finally turning into a neo-shamanist teacher of humanity. Consequently, his recent publications (including the one referred to here) can only be used with great caution, since having left the world of academic discourse, the author is no longer wont to state his sources and argue his interpretations.

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the queen bee would not have got out; as she did open the jar, part of the bees got out, and ever since there have been both bees of the house and bees of the woods. Apparently, some of the bees left the urn, and turned wild; others remained in the urn to become the domesticated bees. At the tales conclusion, Hummingbird declares to the woman responsible for the untimely opening of the container: I take my jar with me. Thats alright, father, take it. Hummingbird said, Well, my wife died now, and I will give an example for my wife, there will be a feast, a Holy Week, and the woman, her work, is useful for the sake of God [se sirve a la cuenta de Dios], because the woman died, but she did not die, because her bones were transformed into animals that produce honey for the feast, and the bees produce wax and the candles are used for the sake [para la cuenta] of God. Hummingbird thus appears to have carried the urn containing the remaining, domesticated bees with him, implying the bees transfer to the domestic compound.222 This domestic compound is not necessarily located on the grounds of San Antonio Palop itself, for the tale concludes with Hummingbirds lament: God knows where I shall go and live. In another part of his field notes, Redfield (1944: 64) informs us about local bee-keeping: In San Antonio there are two or three people only who have bee hives. In the old days, nobody had bee hives. They used to hunt the wild bees for the honey; they used to get wild honey before Holy Week. It is a little watery, and has not as good a flavor as that of the house bee. The situation described by Redfield seems to suggest that since Hummingbird took the domesticated bees with him, San Antonio Palop remained poor and was left with wild bees only. In an Ixil variant (M 66), a focus on the destitute is apparent from Hummingbirds words, directed to his wife who had changed into a wild honeybee and was living in a hollow tree: He spoke to her, but she replied, I cant come with you, because I am no longer myself. So be it, he replied. But dont show
222

Especially in the case of the bees, the buzzing container, or jar, in which the bones of the nubile Earth had been stored to regenerate, can prefigure the womb-like container where the honeybees are traditionally kept.

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yourself to the rich people, because they will only want more sweets. Just show yourself to the poor people, and they will take care of you. In the Ixil petitioners recital of the myth (Palomino 1972: 144), it is the womans Father, Padre Junto, i.e., Mataqtani himself, who first assuages Marikitas fears that she might be transformed into a wasp a well justified fear, as Qeqchi myth shows. Mataqtani then instructs his daughter to follow the woodpecker to a hollow tree, proclaiming: You will be for the poor []. They will suck your Foot, they will suck your Hand. Somehow, these poor would seem to include Oyew Achi and taking into account the context of petitioning all those seeking a bee wife. In this same Ixil variant (P 24), the womans bones are contrasted with her eyes: From her [Marikitas] bones the deer and the other animals came forth, and from her eyes the bees. Eyes and bees somehow belong together. The reference to the eyes is not unambiguous, since it could refer to the eyes themselves or to their bony sockets. Since lightning destroyed Marikitas flesh, her eyeballs can hardly have survived. That may imply that eyes refers to the eye sockets, which consequently seem to be compared to cavities in which bees originated. On the other hand, we have to assume that inside these cavities the chambers are to be found where the bees produce their honey; therefore, both the eye sockets and the jelly-like, as well as honey-like, eyeballs inside can in principle be implied. The same association between eyes, bees and honey is made by Yucatec beekeepers, in tales that again, as does Ixil myth, emphasize the bee queens commiseration with the poor and weak (Zwaal 1993: 25-27; Jong 1999: 265-266). An example is the tale about a dedicated young beekeeper who didnt wish to share the hives with his two brothers, and who was therefore blinded by the bees (Zwaal 1993: 26): the queen of the bees came and said to the brothers that they had to look for a comb. After the comb was found they had to put it in the eyes of the boy. Then his eyes were covered by a cloth. After eight days the cells came out and the young bees started to make new eyes. So the boy could see again and the three brothers went on cultivating together. This queen bee is the Xunan kab Lady Bee, the most important of the indigenous, non-stinging honey bees (Melipona beechii). She also figures in

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what could be considered a truncated version of the beekeepers Hummingbird myth, reported recently from Quintana Roo (Jong 1999: 145). While almost completely suppressing the role of the girls father, it has a frustrated marriage candidate finally take possession of the daughter: Once there was a gentleman, a prince. He fancied Xunan kab. He asked if he could marry her and they [probably the girls parents, EB] told him he could. But there was no house where they could live [and consummate their marriage]. Again and again the man came to visit herbut eventually he could bear it no longer and, during one of those visits, he violated Xunan kab. She flew away. She fled to the forest. Ever since, we have had to search for her in the forest and take her home with us. The conclusion of this story suggests that the bee hunt, which here implies a process of domestication, should be viewed as bringing home the bride, replicating in this respect the search of Hummingbird for his transformed wife; and I shall argue that with certain modifications, the same holds true for the other versions of Hummingbird myth. It is perhaps appropriate to pause here to reconsider the situation in which Hummingbird finds himself. In keeping with his attitude during bridal service, this intruder into unknown territory continues to be ignorant and nave. Consequently, all variants end on a note of deception. Oyew Achi is very unhappy with an outcome he does not really understand. The only thing he can think of is to protect a bride who is about to retire into the forest: Then to the deer he said he would give shoes because she was so unfortunate, having to run from dogs [] For the rabbit he put hair on her feet so the scent of her feet would not stay on the road. That way the dogs would not be able to smell her so easily (CC 182-183). To all appearances, and without knowing it, in courting the bones and blood vessels of his prospective Father-in-law, Hummingbird had already been courting animals, and although he now appears to be protecting his wife against the hunters, one could also argue that in so doing, he is really confirming her new destiny as game. Redfields Kaqchikel informant insisted that the entire story was an ejemplo set in ancient times (R 292); and, as will become more apparent in the next sections, the most general lesson to be drawn from the story may well be that a woman one is courting, can under certain circumstances represent the game, whereas the animals one is seeing, may represent ones bride. Perhaps Hummingbirds bride had to become

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animals for animals to be recognized as brides. This brings us to the ideology of the hunt, or rather, to one of the traditional ways of viewing the hunt. Hunting for a Partner The relation between Hummingbird and his animal wife appears to reflect a widespread Mesoamerican hunting ideology in which human personhood and identity are attributed to game that is treated as potential affinal kin. The game is commonly imagined as a family, or as a group of families living together in a village. During the actual hunt, however, the game (whether individually, or collectively) is in many cases considered female with respect to the hunter, and male with respect to the hunters wife. In such a way, the pursuit of the game becomes comparable to human courtship (which, as has been set out in Chapter Five, often includes elements of hostility and trickery). Since this affinal concept of the hunt has received little attention in the existing literature at least insofar as Mesoamerica is concerned it will be treated in detail below, in a juxtaposition of tales, dreams, and rituals, and with due reference to Hummingbird myth223. Three points need to be emphasized. Firstly, alliance with the game is not an aim in itself; the alliance serves the acquisition of food, and is in principle temporary and needs to be renewed for each hunt. Only in exceptional cases (possibly involving shamans) is an actual marriage assumed to have been concluded. When the hunt is acted out as an erotic dramatic performance, it remains to be explored if the imaginary establishment of an affinal relationship with the game is not sometimes to be understood as a form of deceit, whether on the part of the hunters, or on that of the game. Secondly, the game animals, while being conceived of as possible marriage partners, remain animals, and bestiality is out of order. Thirdly, it cannot always be assumed beforehand that the specific model provided by a given myth is also guiding the hunter in the actual practice of the hunt. Much is still unclear about the ideas governing the hunt and its aftermath. Next to nothing is known, for example, about the possible extension of kinship notions to the preparation and consumption of the meat. A rare exception is the Lacandon initiation custom of adding to the childs

223

The following sections are an adaptation and enlargement of my article The Way of All Flesh (Braakhuis 2001).

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surnames the species name of the animal that, shot and prepared by the parents, is eaten by the child together with its ritual sponsor (Boremanse 1998: 87-88).224 Furthermore, in the world of the hunters, the soul or spirit of the game animal is usually assigned an important role. Although this spiritual dimension can also be demonstrated for southeastern Mesoamerica, the evidence is sparse.225 Male Role: Courting the Game As an introduction to the ethnographic evidence to follow, one may first consider a story from the Mayas of the former British Honduras that has been entitled The Deer Folk (Thompson 1930: 173-175). Set in the context of garden hunting, it is about a boy who longs for a wife, and finds a beautiful doe standing in the middle of his maize field. As he looks at it, it turns into a girl. He decides to marry her, but the does human transformation turns out to be unstable, and a visit to the prospective in-laws ends up in disaster. Urged on by the unreliable deer woman, the bucks attack him,226 and hunting dogs must come to the boys rescue. The tales dream-like, shifting images appear to illustrate the belief found among the Ixiles, that a bachelor dreaming he got hold of a deer will get a woman (Paz Prez 1994: 31). In Northwestern Mesoamerica, among the Coras, a similar concept of alliance is theatrically acted out in the deer-playing ritual (Coyle 2001: 68-72). Visiting women (prospective brides) are hunted down with lassoes while defending themselves with antlers, and are finally corralled onto the dancing ground. In their struggle, the women are assisted by one or more bucks, thus opposing the deer folk as a whole to the hunters. In such a way, acquiring a woman from a foreign group is quite consciously staged as the capture and domestication of a wild and resisting doe.227 When, in Mesoamerica, intermediaries between the groups
224

For this custom, a close parallel exists among the Ach hunters of eastern Paraguay (Edeb 1994: 13). 225 The tale of Nuxi (Boremanse 1986: 82) mentions spectral game animals whose souls were later to be reincorporated. Outside the Mayan area, the Pipiles (Schultze Jena 1935: 37) assumed the deer to have tonalli souls which were also to be reincorporated. 226 The aggressive deer in-laws surrounding the tree were in all likelihood sent by the Zip, a deer with magic powers protecting the other deer (cf. Ruholl 1995: 157-160). 227 One of the tales about the local hero of Tepoztlan (Mller, in Jcklein 1974: 281) appears to allude to such a deer-playing ritual. It relates how the heros Chichimec father wooed his mother (the daughter of the King of Tepoztlan) by transforming her into a doe, shooting her with an arrow, and finally mounting her.

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entering upon alliance are involved, the same sort of images are liable to recur. In the rhetoric of the Kiche Mayas (Ajpacaj Tm 2001: 12, 30, 120-130), for example, the marriage petitioners metaphorically play the role of hunters armed with lassoes and accompanied by dogs, while foraying into the mountains of the deer folk, that is, the prospective in-laws. If the hunt is thus a Mesoamerican metaphor for establishing human alliance, the reverse is no less true: Human alliance serves as a metaphor for what happens during the hunt. Over a large part of the world, hunting for game is experienced as if it were a hunt for women. This is as true for traditional reindeer hunters in Canada (e.g., Tanner 1979: 125, 136-138), as it is for many Amerindian groups in Central and South America, and Mesoamerica is no exception in this. Inverting the Ixil dream interpretation mentioned above, the Mixes of Oaxaca, for example, believe that to dream of embracing a woman or spirit lover means the hunter will surely obtain deer (Lipp 1991: 45). Especially traditional Lacandon culture brings abundant testimony to this way of thinking, since in their semi-nomadic existence, hunting used to play a pivotal role. Lacandon men believe that a lovely woman appearing in a dream presages game. Thus, if in a dream you kiss a womans mouth, you will soon taste meat (Bruce 1979: 237 s.v. tsuutsik), and a womans vagina represents an animal (id.: 149 s.v. -e[-el]).228 The purpose of premonitory dreaming is to establish a framework of alliance with the game; there is a feeling that without such dreams, there is no good sense in beginning the hunt (e.g., Wisdom 1940: 72 n. 15). This alliance is specifically a marital one. To the Lacandons, dreaming of courtship, a bride, or a wedding foretells hunting or stalking game (Bruce 1979: 234-235 s.v. tsiotik desire, want).229 In the same way, a Tolupan hunter of Central Honduras who dreamt he was caressing the breasts of a woman from the other moiety declared: The next day I went to court the deer (Chapman 1992: 78).230 To assure the

228

The association extends to the preparation of the meat: A womans thigh (u chakbkel chuplal) represents the cutting of solid red meat (Bruce 1979: 301). 229 See also under tsoy ilik love: If in your dreams you love a woman, you will see beautiful game (Bruce 1979: 232) and kaatik lak propose, petition a bride: You are about to see a beautiful animal (id.: 178). Unfortunately, the author only investigated the male point of view (id.: 232). 230 The Tzutujil hunter, too, assumes affinal ties when he ritually addresses the deer as sister-in-law (Prechtel 1998: 153).

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courtships success, love magic is needed. The Cuna hunter of Panama, for example, bathes in a herbal perfume and, as a result, becomes fragrantly attractive to animals, who fall in love with him and approach him, enabling him to kill them (Sherzer 1983: 115). Initiating or establishing a marriage alliance is a matter not to be taken lightly. Therefore, in traditional Lacandon culture, obscenities or chaotic speech (klx tan) in a dream foretell seeing animal tracks while hunting, but the tracks will lead nowhere. Also, anything indecent (phsutal) foretells an animal running away game which will escape the hunter (Bruce 1979: 302, cf. 318). The same negative result is to be expected when the hunter dreams he asks for a girls hand, and is refused: It means he will see game and it will escape (Bruce 1975: 27). With reference to the Hummingbird myth, dreaming of making love to a woman representing the game could possibly mean reestablishing contact with the lost daughter of the Earth Owner (in the latters role of Owner of the Game), and winning her favor. The conception of the hunt as a temporary alliance extends into northern South America. It is particularly prominent among the Desana Tukanos of Amazonian Columbia. According to Reichel Dolmatoff (1974: 225), the hunt is practically a courtship and a sexual act, an event that must be prepared for with great care and in accordance with the strictest norms. The verb to hunt is [...] to make love to the animals. The manifest idea is that of sexually exciting the game so that it will draw near and allow itself to be killed. [...] The game animals are like coquettes, the informant says. Indeed, to kill is to cohabit (ibid.). The domestication of wild bees, too, can be understood as bringing home a bride from a foreign household, in keeping with the conclusion of the Quintana Roo tale discussed above, about a prince courting and violating the Xunan kab Lady Bee, who thereupon fled into the woods: Ever since then, we have had to search for her in the forest and take her home with us. Beekeepers from Quintana Roo tell about their stingless honey bees (together referred to as Xunan Cab), that it often happens that they fall in love with the beekeeper. Therefore they are very jealous and do not like other women, especially [not] the wife of the beekeeper (Zwaal 1993: 44; cf. Jong 1999: 243-

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245).231 The bride-seeking bee-hunter has thus become a beekeeper with two wives. By comparison to the deer and other game wives, the honeybee is a closer approximation to the human wife in that she is brought home alive, feeds the husband with whom she lives, and always returns to him. This may be the main reason why the Hummingbird bridal service tales appear to give a privileged status to this particular transformation. Female Roles: Seducing and Welcoming the Game In various ways, the hunters wife can assist her husband in his pursuit of the game. Thompson (1930: 89-90), for example, describes ritual behavior of the Belizean Mopan Mayas in which the hunters wives walk around a sleeping hog while burning copal, with the intention of calming down the game outside, in the woods.232 However, the wifes role could also be informed by the idea of an alliance with the animals. Seducing the Game. In Mesoamerica, the woman plays a vital part in the strategy of courting the game. The hunter uses his wife as bait, or, to be more precise, he promises a woman to another group, that of the deer folk. First, however, the game is to surrender and give up its own women, whereby the hunter acquires an animal wife and prospective sisters-in-law. When the Tolupan hunter dreams that his wife is taking a bath with another man, this means she will succeed in attracting the deer (Chapman 1992: 78). The Kaqchikeles of San Antonio Palop appear to have put this into practice, for we are told that there, the wife of this leader [of the deer drive] had to bathe in the lake before the hunt, so the deer would go toward the lake to be shot (Redfield 1946: 54).233 It will presently be shown that the erotic role played by women in hunting is part of an ancient Mesoamerican tradition.

231

That a beekeeper is also, inversely, emotionally committed to the bee wife he had brought home, is suggested by observations made among the Chontal Mayas (Vsquez and Sols 1992: 358): The beekeeper shows tender love for his bees and great affliction when they happen to die in the process of harvesting the honey. 232 Thompson here uses the Frazerian term sympathetic magic. 233 The information from Palop does not stand entirely by itself in Mayan ethnography. In a very similar way, the prospective Ixil priest (or prayermaker) is imagined to be seduced by a nude woman, bathing in a river, who represents the calendar (Nachtigall 1978: 251-252). The stratagem could also be used in an overtly hostile manner. In the legendary part of the Popol Vuh, the enemies send their daughters to Tohils Bathing-

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Whereas Hummingbird myth focuses on the hunters courting of the bees and the deer, explaining it by an unsuccessful effort to restore the bones of his wife to their original shape, 16th-century Nahua hunting rituals as well as a contemporary myth connected to it take the opposite, and complementary perspective. The hunters wife is to act as if she desires to convert the wild bees into her husbands, and to attract the deer conceived of as her originally human partner. The Aztec rituals for catching bees, deer, fish, and scorpions, as recorded by Ruz de Alarcn (in Coe and Whittaker 1982), all center around the love magic worked by the hunters wife, who is equated with that personification of female seductiveness and nubility, Xochiquetzal. When the bee hunter, for example, intruding into the territory of the bees with the axe in his hand, declares: Let no one be afraid of me. I shall take them [the bees] to see my elder sister Xochiquetzal, Ruz de Alarcn comments that perhaps the wife of the one who makes the said spell is meant, and it seems that he praises his wifes beauty to the bees to entice them to go and live with her (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 128, Tract II Ch. 7). Xochiquetzal is thus like a precious flower offered to the bees in marriage, whereas the bees seem to be invited to become the bee hunters brothers-in-law. The 16th-century bee hunt text ends on the same note as the conclusion of the Kaqchikel myth about the origin of the bees from 20th-century Palop: Because they [the wild bees] fashion wax which will burn before our Lord God, they are loved, and held in high respect (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 128). It is noteworthy that the implied affinal ties between the hunter representative of a wife-giving group and the bees have been historicized. The bee-hunters axe is called red Chichimec, whereas the wild male bees are denoted as inhabitants of Tollantzinco, Tollantzinco being according to Sahagn (1979: 595, 613, Bk. 10 Ch. 29) the first settlement of the invading Toltecs, whose invasions apparently evoked the image of swarming bees establishing new colonies. One is reminded of the Oyew Achi tales234 and the semi-historical references in certain Hummingbird tales (see Chapters Four and Five), but also of the hunting deity Mixcoatl as a representative of the Chichimecs.
place in order to undo the three ancestral deities of the Kiche (Tedlock 1996: 167168; cf. Edmonson 1971: 194ff). 234 Compare also Bretons interpretation (1994: 363-368) of the bee hunt as a model for the war against the Uxab Poqomab, as mentioned in the Rabinal Achi dance drama.

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Welcoming the Game Husband. The ancient Nahua rituals for hunting deer with nooses and with bow and arrow (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 131ff, Tract II Ch.8-9) involve a series of deities, one of whom is again Xochiquetzal.235 The texts more specifically refer to the parents of Cinteotl (or Xochipilli), viz. Xochiquetzal and Piltzintecuhtli. Piltzintecuhtli (the name given to the deer) appears to have left his wife, and on the pattern of the bee hunt, Xochiquetzal is once more to exercise her powers of attraction now not to acquire a new husband, however, but to bring a former husband back home. The hunter himself plays the part of the orphan, who is like a son to Xochiquetzal. He declares: At last I shall carry my father Chicome-Xochitl Piltzinteuctli; I have come to seize him, I shall carry him. Already she awaits him expectantly, my mother Xochiquetzal (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 145,Tract II Ch. 9).236 For this dramatization of the deer hunt, the mythology of the contemporary Nahuas and their neighbors along the Gulf Coast provides a background (for references, see Braakhuis 1990 and 2009b; Lpez Austin 1992). Its hero is a maize god and culture hero corresponding to the Aztec deity Xochipilli (the son of Piltzintecuhtli and Xochiquetzal), and often bearing the same calendrical name as his father, viz. Chicome-Xochitl; like the hunter of the Aztec ritual, he is a kind of orphan. Significantly, in one variant, the initial encounter of the heros mother with her partner is staged as if it were a dream about acquiring the meat of the game: She meets a handsome young man on the trail back from the spring and as they are parting, he promises to see her again. When she turns to look at him, she sees a beautiful deer bounding away (Sandstrom 2005: 47). This already presages the tales outcome (Sandstrom and Gmez 2004: 346), which has the hero retrieving his fathers bones, only to see, in the same moment, a deer arising and running away. Before this happens, however, the role of the domestic woman (Xochiquetzal) in the home-bringing of the deer, as we find it in the Ruz de Alarcn text quoted above, has in most variants of the tale already been instituted. This will be set out presently.

235

Thompson (1939: 136) noted that in Tlaxcala, the feast of the god of the deer hunters, Mixcoatl-Camaxtli, also included a celebration of Xochiquetzal. 236 Amongst the other deities involved are the Macuiltonallehqueh, that is, the pleasure gods, and again the erotic background of the hunt transpires. The fingers of the hunter throwing a net over the deer (already caught in the noose) are personified as female deities, and, more specifically, as seductive women (the Macuiltonallehqueh) adorning the male quarry with flowery bands (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 138-139).

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In search of the maize, the father of the maize hero had disappeared into the realm of the rain and lightning deities, where he was killed. Since the mother cannot feed her child, she drowns it. The child is reborn, however, and, once grown up, rejoins his mother. Together, they plan to bring the lost father back home: The sons task is to retrieve the paternal bones, regenerate them, and bring the father home, while the mothers task is akin to the female task of attracting the other sex, and hence, also, the game: When the hero approaches either supporting his father, or carrying the paternal body on his back she is to welcome her husband joyously. Instead, however, she weeps as if she saw a corpse, and her husbands transformation is interrupted: He dies again, and falls apart into bones, or regenerates as a deer instead of a human being.237 The hero destines the deer-father to be hunted forever. From this, one may draw the conclusion that it is the deer substitute that shall henceforth be coming home again, now carried on the back as a quarry, which is precisely what the Ruz de Alarcn passage appears to be alluding to. In a general sense, the mythical episode appears to provide a rationale for the ceremonial reception of the quarry and the hospitality extended to this desired guest, as practiced by various Mesoamerican groups. As is only to be expected, these receptions bring into play alliance symbolism. Chorti Mayan women, for example, ritually welcome the quarries carried home by the hunters by giving a mans hat to the doe, and respectfully putting a womans shawl on the stag (Wisdom 1940: 73, cf. 73 n. 16). More directly, among the Guerrero Tlapanecs (Dehouve 2008: 17), the hunters daughter welcomes the stag, whereas the son welcomes the doe. The reason that some versions give for the inappropriate welcoming of the husband (e.g., Nahua, Gonzlez Cruz and Anguiano 1984: 223-225; Popoluca, Mnch 1985: 167-168) fits seamlessly within this interpretive framework. The hero instructs a lizard to go ahead of him and tell the woman to laugh at her husbands arrival, but this first lizard is relieved by another one who instead makes her believe that she should weep. A Tlapanec custom (Dehouve 2008: 16) elucidates this sub-plot: Before carrying the quarry on his shoulder to his homestead, a hunter customarily sends a little boy ahead to inform his wife that she should prepare herself for receiving the guest. The

237

In its basic features, the Tarascans shared this origin myth of the deer (Chronicles of Michoacan; cf. Graulich 1987: 183-184).

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role of such a ceremonial messenger is apparently played by the lizard in the tale; and in order for the long-awaited guest to become a metaphor for the precious deer quarry, this lizard should be cast as a liar. When the home-bringing episode is retold by the Totonacs of Ozomatlan as part of a narrative about the hero Nine-Wind (Stresser-Pan 2009: 435-437), there is again a switch to the alternative, complementary mode of the hunt-as-alliance: It is no longer the father who is carried home and changed into a deer, but the mother. What both versions have in common, though, is the fact that the hero brings the parental figure that is to become the deer back from the realm of the rain and lightning deities; in the second tale, the mother has even joined the Lord of Lightning as a consort. In Mesoamerica, the deer are often assigned to this deity, and it is not rare to find him in the role of Owner of the Game.238 The Owner of the Game as a Father-in-Law Returning now to Hummingbird bridal service myth, its outcome demonstrates that the otherworldly Father-in-law can also be the Owner, or Master, of the Game. The same is likely to apply to the Father-in-law of Qeqchi bridal capture myth, the Tzuuultaqa. It is true that in that version, the daughter is changed into a category of animals that is not normally hunted; but the Tzuultaqa also occurs as an Owner of the Game in Qeqchi tales in which a deviant hunter is summoned into a mountain and admonished to respect the rules of the hunt (e.g., Tovar 1999: 143-145). Inversely, it will be shown that the figure of the Owner of the Game the subject of a whole class of Mesoamerican hunting tales, usually with a moralistic tenor (for an overview, see Haekel 1959) is, at least in some contexts, viewed as a Father-in-law. Whether or not the Owner be imagined as a Father-in-law, however, the notions of exchange and contract are heavily emphasized. In the hunting tales that feature the Owner of the Game, there is always a contractual relationship involved between Owner and hunter. It can take the form of a pact, in which case the hunter enters into the Owners service after death to tend to the needs
238

Among various Mesoamerican groups, the Owner of the Game is identical with the lightning deity (e.g., Mixe, Lipp 1991: 30, 37; Nahua, Taggart 1983: 126). Nahua tales relate encounters between hunters and Lightnings daughters, or earth mothers (Taggart 1983: 126 -135).

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of the game in exchange for consistent luck in hunting (e.g., La Farge II and Beyers 1931: 132). This obligatory work could, hypothetically, be viewed as a postponed bridal service. There is also an analogy between bridal payments and the ritual payments offered to the Owner immediately previous to the hunt and continued afterwards a hunt that itself is subject to severe restrictions and surrounded by taboos relating to the selling of the meat, overhunting, and unnecessarily wounding the game, thus spilling its blood. But it is the hunting taboo on adultery that most closely approaches the marriage contract model. The Taboo on Adultery Human sexual behavior is often directed towards the desired alliance with the animals by a temporary suspension of intimacy between the hunter and his wife239 and, without exception, by a strong taboo on adultery. In tales serving to uphold this taboo,240 alliance terminology is not often used. Nonetheless, the Owners strong dislike of human adultery is what one would also expect of a Father-in-law, since it directly touches upon the maintenance of the rules of alliance. In Mesoamerican tales that take the viewpoint of the Owner, it is especially adultery on the part of the hunters wife that is treated as a breach of contract. Stereotypically, she gives to her lovers the meat that her husband had brought home, is summoned by the Owner, and is severely punished, sometimes together with a husband who has proven to be unable to control (or, perhaps, satisfy) his wife. Customs like the one of the Chortis mentioned above suggest that just as the hunter is thought to be allied to the female game, so his wife is allied to the male game, her husbands brothers-in-law. In the adultery tales, she has shown by her unashamed behavior that to her, these affines (who, after all, gave up their lives) had been no more than casual lovers. A way of explaining the taboo on adultery would be to see adultery as a violation of the procreationist ideology shared by the two families in alliance, an alliance that should promote the fertility of both. The human woman should cooperate with her husband and sexually attract the stags; the stags will then give themselves up
239

According to Mixtec hunters, the smell of the hunters wife still sticking to his body would make the animals flee (Esther Katz, in Dehouve 2008: 20). 240 E.g., Prez Chacn 1988: 335-341; Meer 1990: 171, 172-173; Bartolom 1979: 32; Hasler 1969: 12-13 (Tale A.15); Mnch 1983: 287-288; Laughlin 1977: 278-288.

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and indirectly enable her to become a mother. If she breaks the rules by behaving promiscuously, her husbands otherworldly father-in-law knows no mercy and as happens in a Oaxacan Tlapanec tale (Loo 1989: 38-39) may even allow his stag sons to violate her (using their antlers) as if she were a mere prostitute. Sexual Regeneration of the Bones The Owner of the Game is also responsible for regenerating his children, the game animals. In this respect, animal bones have a vital role to play. Everywhere in Mesoamerica, hunters preserve and cure the bones of the game to deposit them periodically in special hunting shrines in the mountains (often in caves), thereby ritually restoring them to their Owner for regeneration (see Brown 2005: 137-138, 140-141).241 In a version of the Chicome-Xochitl myth already mentioned (Sandstrom and Gmez 2004: 346), the hero (here accompanied by his twin sister) went to search for the bones of his father, only to observe a deer rising from the spot where they were buried, a sudden regeneration that could suggest that the fathers resting-place had been a hunting shrine. Under the cloak of an origin myth, a Pipil tale from Izalco, El Salvador (Schultze Jena 1935: 48-51, Text VIII), sets out the workings of these shrines. A boy descends into the mountain of the Owner of the Earth to discover that there, all the bones and feathers of animals and birds are being kept. When the old man strikes a stone, the bones and feathers change into girls preparing food. The boy is given bones and feathers of each species to take with him. Back on the surface of the earth, one of these bones turns into a girl instructing him. On the boys request, the other bones and feathers are transformed into wild animals and birds. And so came into existence what we now see flying, and also those who go about in the mountains on all fours. 242

241

In my article The Way of All Flesh (2005: 394-395, 396) I already mentioned these deposition rituals. Browns study of archaeological hunting shrines and associated customs appeared at about the same time. 242 The Pipil myth received some comment from Lpez Austin (1988: 315-328), who used it mainly to argue a speculative theory concerning Mesoamerican cosmogonic concepts.

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The hunt is part of a cycle in which the body is reduced to bones and bones are regenerated as bodies.243 This comes strongly to the fore in the mythology of Sun and his Elder Brethren current in the northwestern Guatemalan Highlands (LaFarge 1947: 50-57, cf. Montejo and Campbell 1993: 99-103). In these tales, part of a deer is shot down from the moon, and eaten; when Sun sows the deer bones in a prototypical hunting shrine (for this identification, see Brown 2005: 140), the bones reincarnate as deer and rabbit and all sorts of mammals that, though hitherto tended like domestic animals, finally escape to become game. The relation prevailing here between Sun and the moon, both of whom are connected to the origin of the game, is analogous to that between the Qeqchi Sun and Moon characters. It is, however, in the other Hummingbird myths reviewed here that the hunting shrines with their slumbering bones reappear. Acting like a prototypical hunter, the hero collects the bones of his wife and, in what appears to be a reference to similar deposition rituals (cf. Brown 2005: 141), wraps them in a cloth. After the bones have been stored in a container that is the functional analogue of a ritual fauna cache (Brown) deposited within a hunting shrine, they are again clothed with flesh. These bones are carriers of life. When Hummingbird called the bones of his wife (as the Colby Ixil myth mystically puts it), creatures that had regenerated from these bones responded. Calling the bones, then, amounts to a plea for new animals, directed at their Owner. It gives an unexpected meaning to the phrase in petitioners speech directed at the father-in-law and referring to his daughter: We court your bones, your blood-vessels. The womb-like container is suggestive of pregnancy. Yet, even though various Hummingbird tales explicitly mention Hummingbird sleeping with his fiance (during the bridal service, or even before), this pregnancy in effigy does not appear to have been caused by his seed. Under certain conditions, however, the hunter does enter the cycle of the regeneration of the bones as an active engenderer. In many Mesoamerican stories, the hunter meets an attractive young woman (often while she is bathing) who turns out to be an animal, usually a doe. She leads the hunter into the cave of her father, the Owner, where the hunter is reprimanded because of a flaw in the fulfillment of his contractual obligations. Not uncommonly, the hunter is then made to cure the

243

In the case of the bee-hunt, old combs might conceivably substitute for the bones and receive the same ritual treatment.

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animals he has wounded and whose blood he has spilled (e.g., Thompson 1930: 141; Reyes Garca and Christensen 1976: 77 ff). The Lacandons, however, also tell hunting stories in which an ancestral hunter is obliged not only to redress his behavior and cure the animals, but also to engender new animals with the Owners daughter (Boremanse 1986: 229-231, cf. 227-228; Rtsch 1984: 177180, cf. 180-182). This can entail his marriage to the animal woman. (These tales will be revisited in the chapter on Lacandon Hummingbird myth.) The Lacandon hunting stories about regenerating the game are paralleled by another tale from the (now extinct) Pipiles of Izalco, El Salvador (Schultze Jena 1935: 34-40, Text VII). It differs from the preceding tales in that the mating with the Owners daughter is now intended as a final settlement, since the Owner has decided to introduce the hunter to agriculture, and thus to keep his deer safe from further killings.244 The text lays great emphasis on the fact that, through his sexual service, the hunter is to restore life to the deer bones. These bones lying in the Owners cave had apparently been ritually deposited by hunters in a hunting shrine. The Owner addresses the hunter thus (Schultze Jena 1935: 37): Are you the man who killed my children? Just come here, see what you have done! Look, here are their bones! I had not thought they would ever return to life again and now it becomes true! I say, they are about to come to life: This very day I will give you one of my daughters, so that you may restore to me all of my children killed by you. First [...] its the turn of this bone, that one you killed first and so forth until you will have finished restoring all the spirits [tunal] of my children! This brings us to the climax of the burial-rites which began when the skulls, antlers, and other bony parts of the quarry were dried to be left in the
244

This motive is apparently widespread. In a Nahua story from S. Miguel Acuexcomac, Puebla, a nomadic deer hunter and invader is made sedentary by the local Owner of the Deer, and for the same reason (Fagetti 1998: 58-59). The transition from deer-hunting to agriculture can also, however, be occasioned by a hunter doing a spontaneous service to the Earth Owner, and receiving sowing seeds in reward (see Bartolom 1979: 27). In a Chol story (Cruz Guzmn, in Spero 1987: 135-139), farmers whose maize is dying receive the spirit of the maize and abundant rain from the Owner, in exchange for the promise that they shall no longer make his deer suffer by only wounding them.

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mountains or, as among the Lacandons (Boremanse 1986: 102), buried at the foot of a tree. They were then collected into the funerary chamber of the Owner of the Deer an unmistakable image for a hunting shrine which is now about to be transformed into a delivery room. The Pipil text states that the regeneration of the bones, through sexual heat, is the revivification of the deers tonallis (Pipil tunal), or souls (in this case the full number of twenty, since the settlement is to be a definite one). This regeneration within a sort of funerary chamber has a parallel in human burial rites. The Aztecs specifically denoted the rite of making an effigy of someone who had died, and more particularly of encapsulating his tonalli-bearing remains (the incinerated bones together with the hairs and nails), by the verb (te)tonaltia bring sacrifices for someone who died (Simon 1963: 650), but rendered more accurately by Lpez Austin (1980: 367-368) as give tonalli to the deceased with tonalli to be taken in its full complexity of soul, heat, power of growth, and birth sign (cf. also Gonzlez Torres 1975: 40). The task of regenerating the bones by mating with what one might call a Game Mother is only a specific instance of kin-based absorption by the game. The Huichol myth of the hunting deity, Marrakuarr, for example, has two deer women capturing the hunter, feeding him herbs and grasses, and finally making him live with them and their mother. As a result, the hunter is transformed into a stag (e.g., Bentez II 1971: 222-224).245 On passing the threshold of the Owners cave to face the slumbering bones and regenerate them, the hunter enters an underworld, is completely absorbed by the foreign group constituted by the animals, and is assumed by his kin to have died. The Lacandon hunter, for example, not only mates with his game-woman (a peccary), but marries her and enters into the service of his animal affines as a curer. Only when his peccary wife is accidentally killed during the hunt by a brother who had become a stranger to the former hunter, does the latter return to the earth, where he soon dies from grief.

245

The concept of absorption by the game has found expression in tales from both Americas. A surprisingly close parallel for the Huichol episode can be found among the Guajiros of Colombia (Perrin 1987: 31-39), but similar tales are known from the southeastern United States as well (Swanton 1929: 91, cf. 126). The opposite idea, of having deer women live in a human community, is also explored (Swanton 1929: 193), as it is in the Belizean Deer Folk tale (see section Courting the Game).

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It may be noted that the Lacandon hunter regenerates not only the animals he himself killed, but also those killed by others. This may hold for the Pipil hunter as well, since he represents, in a single person, a complete transition from hunting to agriculture. When the Lacandon hunter subsequently becomes a professional curer to his affines, he takes upon himself a task that would otherwise have had to be carried out by his fellow hunters, that is, by those who had wounded the deer without killing it. In paying for the faults of others, the life-restoring hunter of these tales effectively becomes their representative.246 Intermediaries between the hunters and the Owner of the Game are known to exist in Mesoamerica, as among the Nahuas of the Huaxteca (Reyes Garca 1960: 37-38) and the Yaquis living far to the Northwest, and are likely to have existed throughout Central America. The punakpanes of the Tolupans of Honduras, for example, were shamans who visited the Masters of Animals, conversed with them, and as a consequence could send deer to the hunters (Chapman 1992: 250). The Yaqui case is particularly relevant. Yaqui hunters wishing to ascertain the success of their hunt could approach a man seemingly living in celibacy and often sleeping alone in the woods. He could command animals, and his permission was sought by hunters who wished to kill deer easily (Beals 1945: 12). Like the Lacandon hunter, this uncanny figure was a son-in-law to the Owner: A special emissary in the shape of a small deer had once approached him,247 offered herself in marriage, and made him into her husband. Role Reversal: The Grandfather among the Deer The idea of a marriage alliance governing the hunt rests on the axiom of two parallel social groups primarily intent on fostering their own fertility (game animals being often imagined to have a social life modeled after that of human beings, and to be living in villages). In this framework, the exchanges of the hunt can be viewed ideally to represent a system of checks and balances: The human women seducing deer men are counterbalanced by the Owners deer
246

Once dead, this intermediary may conceivably have returned to the Owners cave to assume the role of an intercessor invoked in the hunters expiatory rituals. 247 This small deer may be identical with the small deer, carrying a honeycomb between the horns, that talks to the hunter, and can give him hunting success (Beals 1945: 13).

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women seducing human hunters, and accordingly, human hunters courting the Owners deer women would require the counterbalance of deer men courting human women.248 What one finds instead is an old man sexually harassing human women whom he seems to perceive as does: the Grandfather among (or on) the Deer (Mam pa Kiej) of the Guatemalan deer dance. There are indications that this old man represents (or originally represented) the Owner himself, taking the place of younger deer men.249 The pattern of events is usually the same (Paret-Limardo 1963: 13-17). Because of his particular skill in setting nooses, the Grandfathers assistance is invoked by hunters (e.g., Mace 1970: 56; Janssens and Van Akkeren 2003: 6465).250 Though married, the old man has a marked liking for young women. In one of the Rabinal deer dances (Janssens and Van Akkeren 2003: 122-123), for instance, his title of Deer Hunter at the Foot of the Valley is jokingly changed to Molester of Women in the River. In exchange for ensnaring the deer, the lustful Grandfather is to be allowed to interfere with the women watching the play, to caress their breasts, and so on (e.g., Thompson 1930: 103; Sexton 1992: 64). One Tzutujil account in particular (Sexton 1992: 58-64) strongly suggests that if the Grandfather assists the hunters in finding their women, he in turn views the human women surrounding the spectacle (and conceptually living in the mountains) as does that he ardently desires to marry and fertilize:251 Then the old man says, [...] now Im going to kill the animals that are better known as the deer. Then the old fellow enters again

248

The sort of changes of perspective implied by these interactions have been analyzed from a cognitive point of view by Viveiros de Castro (1998). 249 By itself, the notion of Owners of specific natural domains, and of demons seducing human women and reproducing their species with them, is wide-spread, both among the Mayas and among other Central American Indians (such as the Tolupan and Misquito); it sometimes serves to explain specific disease symptoms in women. What is of concern here, however, is the strategic aspect of sexual conquest and its coexistence with contractual relationships. 250 These hunters are sometimes suggested to have been at fault in the fulfillment of their contractual obligations (e.g., Mace 1970: 56, accusation of adultery; 61, weapons useless and trodden upon by animals). The kidnapping of a woman by the Tzutujil Grandfather is probably connected to this (cf. Sexton 1992: 64). 251 In this respect, the Tzutujil Grandfather among the Deer is not unlike that other, much more strongly sexualized Tzutujil Grandfather, Maximn.

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to kill the deer, and he mixes again among the people, looking for concealed deer (Sexton 1996: 63). There is one thingwhen the old man goes to look for the animals among the people, the women hide or retreat and shout a lot when the old man approaches them, because the old fellow is very naughty. He puts his cane between the skirts of the women, feels the breasts of the seoritas [...] (id.: 64). Moreover, together with the shot deer, a pretty woman may be carried off as another quarry. This Mayan Grandfather on the Deer has his counterparts elsewhere in Mesoamerica (cf. Bricker 1973: 201-211), most recognizably in the lewd Old Men performers of the Yaquis and Mayos of distant northwestern Mexico, Sonora, and Arizona, which were once the northernmost Chichimec territories. The Yaqui Old Men in particular used to stage a mock deer hunt of the Tzutujil type just mentioned (Spicer 1940: 196). Their varied roles also made them imitate all sorts of animals, but more importantly, it often took the form of a parody of human sexual behavior and of a general licentiousness vis--vis the spectators. Apparently, these Old Men (or paskola) characters were to represent the procreative urge of the game, while their high age reflected that of the Owner by whom they had previously been initiated (Crumrine 1977: 98; cf. Beals 1945: 127).252 Considering the above, it is tempting to assume that the Mayan Grandfather on the Deer represents an aspect of the Owner of the Game not expressed by the usual moralistic hunting stories.253 More specifically, his association with the noose of a trap recalls an ancient Yucatec deity invoked by
252

The paskola dancers had been initiated in a cave full of animals, either by being embraced and licked off by a large snake (Beals), or by meeting an old man who seems to be identical the text is not entirely clear with the Old Man of the Forest (Crumrine). 253 As such, the Grandfather among the Deer shows a certain resemblance to the Desana Tukano Owner of the Game (Reichel Dolmatoff 1974: 80-85, 131-132), whose dominant feature is his sexual prowess and concomitant jealousy of human procreative power. He should like to possess all females, whether animal or human. In addition to procreating the game with his animal women inside what Reichel Dolmatoff calls his uterine storehouses, the Desana Owner violates human women and multiplies the game with them; his daughter seduces young hunters with the same result. At the same time, the Owner assists the hunters in their hunting forays.

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the hunters, Ah Tabay Ensnarer (Landa 1941: 155); ensnaring the game could serve as a metaphor for ensnaring persons of the other gender, and hence, for mating, as well.254 The Owner of the Game as an Adversary Hummingbird myths, particularly the bridal service versions, can be situated within the wider group of moralizing hunting tales (ejemplos examples) demonstrating the hunters dependence on an Owner for getting his game. Within this group, the contractual relationship with the Owner of Animals and the associated idea of affinity can not only give way to open conflict, but can also lead to the Owners demise. Mataqtanis temporary defeat by the sabotaged blowgun (in Qeqchi myth) and the sealed-off steam bath (in Ixil myth) is carried to further extremes by certain hunting tales that do not offer the usual picture of an Owner of Animals sitting ceremoniously on his armadillo bench while reproaching the hunter for disregarding his ordinances and mistreating his (the old mans) children. Boot (1989: 36-37), for instance, presented (in a discussion of Classic Mayan hunting scenes) an intriguing story from Nicaragua, communicated to him by Wolfgang Haberland, and probably stemming from one of the countrys three Amerindian groups. In this story, a hunter wounds a deer and follows its bloody trail high up the slopes of a mountain. There, the deer is seen to enter a house. When he opened the door, the hunter saw a young woman. Asking where the deer had gone, he just saw the door at the back of the house shut. He went to the door, opened it, and saw a badly wounded man struggling onto a bed. As he wondered where the deer had gone, the young woman answered: You shot the Lord of the Deer. Thereupon the hunter left. The conclusion of the Nicaraguan tale is strangely inconsequential, for although matters can hardly have rested here, the intentions, nor the reactions or fates of the hunter and the deer folk are disclosed. Fortunately, what appears to be the same story is also known from Chiapas. As it is told among
254

This is also suggested by the names of those demonic seducers of Belize and Yucatan, the male Tabay and the female Xtabay (Howard 1975: 44-45).

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the Tzotzil Mayas (Xiln Gmez 1997: 167-169), the events fall into a familiar pattern. The hunter who wounded the Owner in his deer transformation had been killing the game without restraint. He had not only ridiculed the Owners warnings, but explicitly and bluntly refused to recognize his overlordship: The animals dont have an Owner. Such an independent attitude, of course, amounts to rebellion, and the adventurer is duly punished by death. This degenerate character is set off against two fellow hunters who assist the wounded deer in reaching its cave, where it recovers and, assuming a human form, manifests itself as the Owner.255 The hunters fall to their knees and win the Owners favor; they later decide to give up hunting altogether.256 Whereas this Tzotzil tale still remains within the boundaries of the moralistic exemplum genre, a Chuj version (Maxwell 2001: 15-17) entirely moves away from it by converting the same refusal to recognize the Owners overlordship into a formal trial of strength: The Owner with his lightning weapon confronts the defiant hunter with his gun, is severely wounded, and loses the contest.257 The changing attitude of the hunter probably correlates with the demonization of the Mountain-Valley deity noticed by various scholars, a process in which the Owner can acquire the traits of hated Ladino property owners (e.g., Watanabe 1992: 77-78; Wagley 1949: 55ff). The Chuj type of hunting tale can also shed some light on what has always been an isolated, anecdotal fact from Yucatec hunting lore: The shooting of the powerful deer guardian, the cervine Zip, by the hunter. That killing constitutes an exceptional feat of counter-magic with serious consequences, since the deer holding the funeral wake for the Zip are without defense and can all be slain (Redfield and

255

The killing without restraint would appear to be the decisive point. The tale is otherwise similar to a Mam story (Wagley 1949: 57), in which a hunter who had not respected the sexual taboo and wounded a deer, finds a wounded child on his way declaring: I am the deer you shot, and which then turns out to be the Owner. The hunter is taken inside the mountain, reprimanded, returns home to make sacrifices, and abjures deer hunting. 256 This outcome is also found in the Pipil tale discussed above, about the hunter who killed too many deer; the Owner finally introduced him to agriculture. 257 Part of various hero myths is a trial of strength between a major deity and a (divine or semi-divine) representative of mankind. Examples are Qeqchi myth (Hummingbird vs. Old Adoptive Mother ), Gulf Coast maize hero myth (maize hero vs. lightning deities), and the Popol Vuh (Twins vs. death gods).

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Villa 1934: 118). The idea of the hunt as an effort at alliance has here been given up for what amounts to merciless warfare. The ambiguity inherent in the hunt, oscillating between war and alliance, made it particularly useful as a symbol, and it is quite probable that, for this reason, the hunt has always been a vital part of Mesoamerican ideology. The Aztecs, for example, were familiar with ancient myths connected to the Chichimec hunting deity, Mixcoatl, in which war and alliance stand in a transformative relationship (Lehmann 1974: 358-359, 363-365; cf. Graulich 1987: 170-178, 345). Deer pursued by two primeval hunters turn into dangerously seductive women ready to kill their excited pursuers, whereas other women are hunted down as if they were does. One of the latter women the main representative of the conquered territory confronts her enemy, removes her clothes and exposes herself to the phallic spears of the hunting deity.258 Thus, the confrontation takes the form of foreplay to the sexual act that follows: The woman is thrown to the ground and impregnated to become the mother of a king, Quetzalcoatl. This view of the hunt as a sexual contest continues to inform basic myths from Northwestern Mexico. In the Huichol myth of Marrakuarr (Bentez II 1971: 222) already referred to, for example, a doe catches the hunting deitys arrow (just as the deer woman shot at by Mixcoatl caught one of his spears), changes into a woman, and, together with her sister, captures the hunter.259 Transference of the Deers Fertility: Qeqchi Hummingbird myth About the Qeqchi narrative, Thompson (1970: 369) commented: In Suns courtship of moon and subsequent life, the deer plays many roles. These are so varied and intimate that they suggest some now lost religious notions on the relationship of deer to the moon and sun. The observation is important, but its phrasing slightly off the mark. Particularly in the Qeqchi Hummingbird episode, the myths protagonists do not appear to relate to the deer in a way

258

Mixcoatl throws four spears at her; the fourth spear passed between her thighs (ihuan ce imet<tz>tzallan in quiz ging zwischen ihren Schenkeln hindurch; Lehmann 1974: 365). 259 Another example of continuity is a Northern Tepehuano myth (Bentez V 1980: 94), in which Morning Star is reduced to Evening Star for having slept with a deer woman after the hunt.

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predicated upon their astronomical transformations, and the lost religious notions can be argued actually to be traditional concepts guiding the hunt. The paired ideas of sexual competition and sexual exchange with the game animals strongly come to the fore here. In one version in particular, the hero and the deer seem to be presented, not just as the hunter and the hunted, but rather as sexual rivals, trying to win over the same woman, representative of the fertility of animals and maize. The myth was collected from Civij (municipality of Purul, Baja Verapaz) and San Juan Chamelco, Alta Verapaz (Schumann 1988: 213).260 It opens with the following scene: A girl was walking close to her house when she met a deer. At first, she was frightened, but the deer followed her, and since she saw that he was not afraid of her, she drew nearer, and they stuck together. Seeing that the girl was at ease, the deer persuaded her to let him have sexual relations with her, but a hunter witnessed her from a distance, and when the girl went away, the hunter took the opportunity to approach the deer and kill it. The scene can be taken as a prefiguration of the later female hunting role: The woman has to attract the stags so as to enable her husband to shoot them. The initial fright of the girl could suggest that she is not used to the advances of the deer and that these lie outside her normal domain. However, in the same variant the girl turns out to be identical with Mountain-Valleys daughter who, in other versions, is transformed into the game. Excluding, therefore, the fright as an element due to an interference with a later human hunting practice that is only being prefigured here, the story seems to present the woman as a daughter of Mountain-Valley in the latters quality of an Owner of Animals. A fragmentary Tzeltal account provides a comparable story. It has been put forward by Thompson (1970: 370) as an instance of the relation prevailing between the Qeqchi Moon Goddess and the deer, and is found included together with other ethnographic material in an indigenista novel by C.A. Castro, Los Hombres Verdaderos (1959: 19-20). It runs as follows:

260

Since it entails a transition from the hunt to maize cultivation, it shall be discussed together with its subsequent episodes in Chapter Eight.

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My eldest brother, my bankil, says that our forefathers told the story of the deer and the woman; that the animal wanted to approach her and lifted up her skirt, her tsek. It is for this reason, for having put its head under her cloth, that it changes its antlers as each year passes: The heat of the woman burnt them! Again, a deer takes the initiative for a sexual relation, and is sanctioned. This will be repeated when, later on in the myth, the deer are asked to mold the womans lost genitals, and are punished for their excessive enthusiasm. Each time, a disjunction is brought about. The emphasis seems to be on the idea of separating the woman from the world of the deer and of nature to which she originally belonged. The female heat could conceivably refer to sexual excitement, but might also represent a more general energetic concept. In any case, it is clear that the womans primary referent is now, not the wife of the hunter putting to use a hunting strategy, but a deity with the power to put an end to the rut. It has been observed that when a bucks antlers drop, he usually becomes less belligerent. The breeding season has tired him (Rue 1989: 106). Of course, if this woman can make the antlers drop, one might assume that she can also make them grow, and that, if she can put an end to the rut, she can also provoke it. It appears likely that the woman of the Tzeltal fragment belongs either to an Owner of the Deer, or to that more general Owner, represented by Mountain-Valley in Qeqchi myth. The deer killed by the hero is specified by various sources as a brocket deer (yuk, Mazama americana) rather than as a white-tailed deer (kej, Odocoileus virginianus), the other Mesoamerican deer species; and it is under the skin of another brocket that the hero will later hide in order to attract the vultures. The brocket is sometimes called a goat (cabro) because of its two short, spike-like antlers and small size. Although the two deer species could be contrasted in various ways (the brocket is, for instance, much more solitary), we do not know which contrast favored the narrators choice. Nonetheless, it seems relevant that the brocket is relatively defenseless, and the favorite prey of jaguar and puma (cf. Alvarez 1991: 119-120). Qeqchi myth has the hunter shoulder this deer and parade it in wide circles around Mountain-Valleys homestead, an action intended to impress the young woman by conveying a false impression of abundance of game and thus, of a great hunt. In the Schumann variant, the hunter appears to carry a deer of flesh and blood, but in the other variants, the quarrys hide has been sewed into a dummy that I suggest could be a magical instrument for ensuring a good hunt. The

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ethnographical literature on the Mayas is not very helpful here (Mayan hunting practices being generally underreported);261 however, among the Chuj Mayas, the skins of animals killed with rifles (to which apparently a special power was ascribed)262 were stuffed, and the resulting dummies were preserved and prayed to (Williams, in Shaw 1971: 101 n. 3).263 Moreover, hidden inside the dummy of the Qeqchi tale, there appear to have been tobacco seeds amongst the leaves and pine needles, tobacco being a powerful herb used in all sorts of magic. The preparation of a magical deer dummy would be in keeping with the preparation of deer hoofs to ensure good hunting among the Itza Mayas (Hofling 1991: 154159), and also with the cutting, drying, and tailoring of a sexual rivals penis into a talisman to the same effect (as in the Zinacantec Tzotzil adultery tale discussed in Chapter Two). However, this use of what would appear to be a magical implement is presented by the tale as an elaborate deceit a trick of no avail against the Owner of the Game and his daughter who do not appear to have been recognized as such by Hummingbird (which reminds one of Hummingbirds ignorance in the bridal service tales). The hunter slithers in the lime water poured on his path, the dummy bursts, and the hero is put ashame. According to the Cruz Torres rendition, he returns later to retrieve the skin, again suggestive of its great value. A message implied in this brief episode could be that hunting magic can produce an abundance of game only if it has first been validated by establishing a relationship with the Owner and his daughter. For an understanding of the message of the myth, however, the crucial point is that the Qeqchi hunter, in the Schumann variant, has now taken the place of the stag as a lover to the Maiden. A substitution of a hunter for a stag also occurs in the Pipil hunting tale discussed above (Schultze Jena 1935: 3440) wherein a hunter initially meets a girl now explicitly stated to be the transformation of a doe and penetrates into the mountain of the Mountain-

261

Characteristically, in the recent three-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures (2001), one looks in vain for an article about the hunt. 262 The rifle is considered to have a spirit like the cross (Shaw 1971: 101 n. 3). This might be connected to the crossed bullets needed for killing the Zip deer (Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934: 118; Villa Rojas 1978: 295). In Quintana Roo, the brocket deer has its own Zip (Ruholl 1995: 154). 263 Outside the Mayan area, the Huicholes had artful imitations of deer for assuring success in the hunt (Hell 1988: 85).

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Valley deity and Owner of the Deer. There, the hunter takes the place of the stag, and copulates with the doe girl in order to engender the deer with her, or rather, to create them anew. From the perspective of the hunter, however, the meaning of the substitution is otherwise. The killing of the stag constitutes a first breaking point to be followed by the destruction of the Maiden herself leading to the transformation of the deer woman into a human woman. The myth operates a transition from the world of the deer with its invading hunters to the world of man, conceived as a hunter, with its invading deer. The purpose of Qeqchi myth can be brought into relief by pursuing the comparison with the Pipil (and also Lacandon) tales. Whereas the Pipil hunter together with the Owners daughter engenders the deer, the Qeqchi episode cuts off such a development. The copulation of the Pipil hunter and the young woman is not only licensed, but even ordered by the Mountain-Valley; the copulation of the Qeqchi hunter with his woman, however, is out of their own initiative, and not approved of afterwards by the Owner of the Game. Hummingbird (Sun) prefigures the husband who needs a permanent woman (Moon) of his own; therefore, the couple has to leave the earth gods realm the domain of the wild, of the deer, and of the Maiden as a deer goddess before gestation has even begun, and flees towards the world of man. In most Qeqchi variants,264 Hummingbirds wife ultimately becomes the celestial, lunar ancestress of human beings, rather than a terrestrial deerrabbit or honeybee wife. This notwithstanding, as a lunar fertility goddess, she is bound to remain closely associated with the procreation of the game. Not only is it a stag that will conduct her into the sky (O 121), but, in Mam and Qanjobal hero myth (Peck and Sywulka 1966: 193-194; Montejo and Campbell 1993: 100-101), a deer is believed to inhabit the moon, like the rabbit elsewhere.265 At the present stage of the tales development, however, the womans womb remains closed after her restoration. To gain access to the source of human fertility, the hunter finds himself obliged to return to the deer, and by the same token, to establish some sort of exchange with them; for he is
264

References to the Qeqchi myth are to the sources listed in Appendix A. The number following the abbreviation of the authors name refers to the page(s). 265 When shot by the hero, a leg of this lunar deer falls to the earth; from its bones, the wild animals take their origin. Save for the initial shooting of the lunar deer, this tale, in its Santa Eulalia Qanjobal rendering, is also given by LaFarge (1947: 50-53).

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now about to incur a debt that will not easily be repaid. In one rendition (C/EA 154, cf. 397), an intermediary informs the hunter: Your wife still wants that you speak with the deer; that deer should step over your wife and thereby she will become your companion. Characteristically, it is again the woman who, in this tale, is directing the decisive transition, in line with her behavior in the Hummingbird bridal service tales discussed previously. Wild stags, temporarily domesticated by what had been their wild mistress, are to definitively domesticate her vagina. As a result of the exchange, a stag emissary arrives and jumps over the woman three times, thereby transforming her into a true, full-grown human being. In most other variants, however, the small brocket deer (yuk) and the larger whitetailed deer (keh) are invited to cover the woman and to mold her small and large labia with their hoofs, in order that her husband, the hunter, may subsequently penetrate her. Usually, the small and shy brocket is treading only lightly in the womans abdomen, whereas the white-tailed deer is aggressively running towards the female, making a deep imprint, as if it violently wished to possess her (CT 43-44). Again, there is the suggestion of an underlying antagonism between the hunter and a dominant stag. Instead of using the hoof of a living stag, the hero can also slit the womb of his wife with an antler (WL 143). The use of the antler as an instrument for bestowing fertility could suggest a ritual, perhaps for opening the breeding season of the deer, in which case the hero would again have seized a prerogative of the stags, by using phallic antlers for initiating human procreation. Viewed from Hummingbirds perspective, the paradox of having the woman made ready for human intercourse by wild stags has the function of proclaiming a decisive reversal of fortunes, and the ultimate predominance of the heroic hunter over his Father-in-law: Instead of the Father-in-law ordering the hunter to assume the role of a stag and to mate with his daughter so as to procreate deer in his dark subterranean world, it is now the rejected son-in-law and hunter who orders the stags to mate with his wife, so as to pave the way for the procreation of human beings in the beautiful light of day on earth.

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Once the uterus has been opened, like the alluring smell266 of many wild flowers its fragrance came forth (my transl.).267 The sweetness of the flowers holds a promise of honey and fertility.268 It further elaborates the motif of the hummingbird sucking nectar from the tobacco flowers, or, in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, mating with flower goddesses that include a female Macuil-Xochitl. Indeed, the flowery, sexual attractiveness exercised during the hunt by Xochiquetzal and her Mayan counterpart now becomes entirely explicit.269 But there may be more to this passage of Qeqchi myth. The deer treading the female abdomen as if it were the soil, and the odor of flowers emanating from the uterus, suggest a homology of body and landscape. In Mayan shamanic discourse, the human body is referred to as earth (lum) in Yucatan (Jong 1999: 306) and as mountain-valley (juyub-taqaj) in the Kiche highlands (D. Tedlock 1996: 227; cf. B. Tedlock 1996: 223, 263), corresponding to Qeqchi tzuul-taqa.270 In such a view, the uterus of the daughter of Mountain-Valley being opened up here is metaphorically a cave, and more particularly, a Cave of Origins another body-metaphor, and one of long standing in Mesoamerica.271

266

Alluring smell translates tzununquil, modern spelling sununkil. According to Haeserijn (1979: 311 s.v.), sununquil is odorous and xsuununquil (possessed noun) lure. 267 Chan quile atzum ix tzununquil qui l ix vuoc (WR), changed by Estrada Monroy to: Chan chan li quila atzum li xsununquil, qui qui xel ixcuokx. The spelling of the final word is wavering: Ix vuoc fragancia (WR, in Quirn), ixcuokx espuma (EM), ix woqx froth, spray (Kockelman). Haeserijn (1979) distinguishes cwoc (booc, uooc) vaho, aroma from cwokx espuma, which, in the standardized spelling of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas (Sam et al. 1997), becomes: book vaho, vapor, aroma and woqx burbuja, espuma. 268 Considering that the Yucatec bee-keepers of the past used an antler to castrate the beehive and puncture the honey combs (Motul, Barrera 1980: 26 s.v. bak), an analogy could be construed with cutting the womb and freeing its flower aroma. 269 This passage provides direct evidence for the connection that Thompson (1939: 138140) sought to establish between the Qeqchi Moon Goddess and the flower as an erotical symbol. For an example, Thompson could only point to the lust goddess Tlazolteotl depicted with a flower sprouting from her vagina (e.g., C. Borgia 74). 270 It has already been noted that inversely, the mountain can be assimilated to the human body (cf. also Wilson 1995: 53, the cave as a womb). 271 In Ruz de Alarcns Treatise, body cavities are assimilated to the Aztec cave of origins, Chicomoztoc Seven Caves (Tract VII Ch. 9-10, pp. 245-249; Tract VII Ch.1415, pp. 256-257; Tract VII Ch. 26-27, pp. 285-290).

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Passing the entrance of this cave is like passing a threshold. If one pursues the analogy with the Cave of Origins, then leaving the uterus where the mystery of regeneration is located, is like leaving the Owners caves where the deer are procreated. Passing the threshold of the cave is like being captured as a resisting fawn by the midwife, the first human being the child meets. What was originally a fawn, but on passing the threshold became human, is now, as in progressive rites of initiation, to be definitively domesticated and irreversibly to become a human being. The southern Lacandons used to talk about the birth of a human being in comparable terms (Boremanse 1998: 80). About the young mother it was said: She caught a possum, while the mother would explain to her other children (jokingly perhaps): I cut off its tail and nose, and its head became round. In short, taking the Pipil and Lacandon tales as a point of departure, I propose the following model. There is an intermediate stage in the transformation of the Maiden into the prototypical human woman: By way of her pseudo-copulation with two stags, a deer woman copulating with the hunter and giving birth to fawns, is transformed into a human woman copulating with the hunter and giving birth to human children. However, this development is a dialectical one, in that the preceding stage is not entirely lost, but acquires another, more encompassing meaning. The circumstances of the creation of the vagina already point this way. Hummingbird is stated to have made the girl lie down in a narrow defile between two hills (TH 129), or, in the earliest variant, in between the mountains on the valleys floor (WR 186).272 Reading this metaphorically, there is a double message. On the one hand, there is the suggestion that the female genitals to be created replicate the shape of the landscape. On the other hand, it appears that within the dualistic concept of the Tzuultaqa MountainValley, the daughter primarily represents the Valley constituent. Therefore, although now being transformed into the prototypical woman, the female protagonist remains conceptually linked to the fertility of the earth, its entrances, and the deer treading it. Indeed, if the resemblance of the vagina to the hoof imprint of the deer is recognized (as if in recognition of the Lacandon rule of dream interpretation that a womans vagina represents an animal), the reverse can also be true: The hunter, following the trail of the deer through the
272

Quixyocob a P sa ix yanc tzuul chiru tac.

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mountains and into the valleys, is being guided by erotic signs leading him conceptually to his wives, the does. In reality, however, given that female and male imprints are hard to distinguish (Rue 1989: 45-46), the erotic signs will lead him to deer of both sexes. The mythological explanation of the origin of the human vagina should be understood from the basic fact that the myth, at this stage, still remains within the world of the hunt. The Maize Mountain has not yet been opened and the man made of deer meat273 has not yet been succeeded by the man made of maize. Therefore, the pseudo-copulation with the two stags is not intended to make one entirely forget the womans original and true copulation with the stags in the wilds that had been interrupted by the hunter but to the contrary, should evoke and ritually reinstate it. The use of deer hoofs and antlers in the myth to open up a female is suggestive of hunting rituals in which these objects are manipulated as talismans to ensure the availability and fertility of the game. Their handling appears to rest on the idea that the hunter continuously switching between the areas of the tame and the wild is to take the place of the deer (represented by his mythological stag rival) as a husband to the game. Since in the myth, the game womans transformation (her regeneration and resexualization) is made to occur outside the cave and beyond the reach of the hunters Father-in-law, the transformation is one into a human spouse. The continuation of the play of attraction, which is now being directed by the hunter, is already implied in the very wording of the passage describing the origin of the vagina. The uterus, on being opened, drenches the whole atmosphere with an odor of wild flowers. This odor is denoted by a word (tzununquil) which also has another meaning intimately bound up with it, that of material or means to hunt something, i.e., a lure (Haeserijn 1979 s.v. suununquil). In this last sense, it appears to correspond to the awkward su atractivo de mujer that recurs in Cruz Torres's rendering of the passage (CT 4344). Consequently, when the large stag (quej) instead of the brocket in most other variants plants its foot too lightly in the womb of the fertility goddess

273

Reference has already been made to the Lacandon initiatory custom of giving a child the species surname of the first wild animal whose meat he had ritually consumed (Boremanse 1998: 87-88).

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for fear that it might get stuck (DD 5, WR 186), 274 its reluctance is justified by the original procreative function of the deer woman, which has now changed to one of luring the main deer rival of her human husband into an odoriferous, sexual trap so that he can be shot. On the other hand, according to another variant (DR 492), it seems that the large stag did not less, but more than it was required to do, and made an attempt to emulate the excited stag of the Schumann version. According to the Drck variant, the small brocket deer made a first and unsuccessful attempt, and therefore, the hero set the larger, white-tailed deer to the task. While omitting a description of its execution (perhaps for reasons of prudishness on Drcks part), the short text adds instead: And on leaving together, they [the hero and his wife] beat up the deer.275 In order to withhold stags of all sorts, human or animal, from future transgressions,276 the female power of attraction should not be allowed to intoxicate and make suitors run wild, but should be tamed. Therefore, the delirious and thus, dangerous, effect of the pseudo-copulation is mitigated by having a rat urinate in the newly-created vagina, with the result that since then, sexual pleasure has been followed by revulsion (TH).277 A frog then follows the rats example (CT), and this provides an explanation why women urinate so often a urination that could moreover suggest rainfall, since the frog is an animal of the rain deity, and the female moon a bringer of rain.278
274

Wirsing, as published by Quirn (1966: 186): Xin xin qui pab, ma re tilc, tocbal roc chi sa (Poco a poco lo ejecut para no causar dao), a faulty rendering and translation corrected by Estrada Monroy (1990: 138-139) to: Xiu xiu nak quixpaab, mare tilk, tokbal rok chi sa ([El venado] tena miedo de aceptar, porque pensaba que se trabara, se le poda quebrar la pata adentro; the same in Kockelman 2007: 381). 275 Ut naj xco-eb chi bc s cibbal, xextic li quej (Und als sie nun zu zweit loszogen, verprgelten sie das Reh). The third verb (-tic) would nowadays be spelled yeq, from yeq(ok) (Sam et al. 1997: 429). 276 A variant which seems largely a composition of various known tales, but also contains some details not found elsewhere (Bcaro Moraga 1999: 237), has a deviant reading which again makes Sun and deer rivals: La Luna dio al venado la fragancia de las flores y esto molest mucho a xbalanke porque senta celos de l y entonces tom el almizcle (sustancia odorfera) del ratn para untarselo al venado. 277 Rutting stags are attracted instead by the urine secreted by the doe (Rue 1989: 315, 331). 278 For the frog provoking rain, see also Chapter Eleven (section Moons Bathing Place). Urination as rainfall is implied in a Pipil rain hero myth discussed in Chapter Two.

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CHAPTER 7

TRANSFORMATIONS OF WOMAN: HARMFUL ANIMALS In Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, after the killing of the Maiden and the gathering of her remains, her blood changes into snakes and insects, before she finally becomes the moon. This is a very different outcome from that described in the other Hummingbird myths, wherein her remains become game animals, birds, and honey bees. As has been set out in previous chapters, the relationship of man to the earth and its bounty can be modeled on an affinal relationship, and it could even, especially in the bridal service versions, imply a permanent state of being a suitor to the earth. In this way, the game woman is destined to be sought after by the hunters, the bee woman by the beekeepers, and also (as we shall see in the next chapter) the maize woman by the farmers. Such a manner of viewing the relationship between man and the products of the earth suggests that the snake and insect woman, too, should be important to the members of a specific social group. Taking the lead from an observation by Pablo Wirsing (in Thompson 1939: 143) that Kekchi shamans recite the legend of the sun and moon when effecting cures, I intend to demonstrate that the principal concern of the Qeqchi episode is disease and curing, and that both are inextricably entwined with disease-casting and sorcery.279 J.E.S. Thompson, who otherwise emphasized the myths importance, harbored some doubts as to whether what he called the Pandoras Box episode (the untimely opening of the jars leading to the escape of disease agents), represented a truly indigenous tradition (1970: 370). It will be shown that the episode is entirely consistent with traditional Mayan and Mesoamerican ways of thought and attendant imagery. To this end, and in addition to the Qeqchi tales of Thompson, Wirsing, and Cruz Torres, I

279

I regret not having been able to consult two unpublished theses: James S. Bosters Kekchi Maya Disease Concepts and Curing Practices in British Honduras (B.A. Honors Thesis, Harvard University, Dept. of Anthropology, 1973), and John Bringhursts Folk Healing Practices and Beliefs of the Kekchi Indians (independent Study Project Thesis, University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, 1986).

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will make use of important additional information gleaned from lesser known variants.280 Origin of Menstruation The theme of disease makes its first unmistakable appearance in the myth when the deer hunter elopes with the daughter of a powerful old man called Tzuultaqa Mountain-Valley. The invading warrior (Sun; Xbalanque in the earliest texts) takes a woman without having paid for her in the form of bridal service. Using his magical mirror, the infuriated king locates the couple, and with a blowgun, attempts to suck them back. Mirror and blowgun serve to characterize Mountain-Valleys role here as a shamanic one. The mirror is commonly used to locate objects intruded into the body (e.g., Redfield and Villa 1934: 140, 170, 175; Hanks 1990: 340). The blowgun is defined by Cruz Torres as a jicbil puub sucking tube (CT 35, cf. CT 362), an instrument, that is, used in various Mesoamerican regions, that serves to remove harmful objects from the body (e.g., Ichon 1969: 224). Other Qeqchi sources are in agreement: He almost spent his power in sucking them back (WR),281 he began to draw back his daughter with his blowgun (C/EA).282 This could imply that, within a mountainous landscape viewed as a human body, the hero and his wife are treated as disease agents, and the Old Man representing this landscape tries to remove them. However, in using the sucking tube and mirror, MountainValley is affected by the pepper put inside the tube and the red dye smeared on the mirror by the hero. In this way, eye sore, whooping cough (jic, CT 38),283
280

This chapter is an adaptation and enlargement of my article Xbalanques Canoe (Braakhuis 2005). References to the Qeqchi myth are to the sources listed in Appendix A. The number following the abbreviation of the authors name refers to the page(s). 281 Qui ix choy raj ix metzu re ix tzobbal eb riqun. Tzoboc chupar, sorber (Haeserijn 1979 s.v. tzob), therefore: para succionarles (Quirn), and not: to blow them with it (Kockelman 2007: 365). 282 In one variant (O-a), however, the tube is an unmistakable blowgun containing a pellet, and it is the pellet, rather than the usual lightning, that hits the woman. Even in this case, however, an analogy with shamanic behavior may be discerned. Among the Huaxtec Mayas, for example, evil is blown from a reed tube (a sort of blowgun) (Alcorn 1984: 179). 283 In the Cruz Torres as in the Carlson/Eachus variant, there is a play on (in modern spelling) jiq whooping cough and jiqok swallow, inhale heavily.Wirsing nor Thompson mentions the whooping cough, but Owen does.

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and also, in some variants, toothache (A 23), originated. This conversion of a cure into its opposite is a prelude to the pursuit that now begins and that results in the couple fleeing towards the sea (palau, also lake) and hiding in a turtle, crab, or armadillo.284 Unlike other Hummingbird tales, the Qeqchi version assigns a specific, negative quality to the water of lake and sea, connecting it to the female disease (as menstruation is commonly referred to among the Mayas). Terrestrial and Aquatic Filth In the sea, not far from the shore, the lightning of Mountain-Valley strikes the carapace of the crab (TH 128, CT 39) that serves to protect his daughter, and destroys it. Sun sees the water dyed with the blood of Xtactani (TH 128). Her blood spattered down on the water of the sea, and all of her blood painted the water of the sea red (CT 39). Alternatively, Mountain-Valleys daughter hides in an armadillo carapace that is struck by lightning on the shore of a lake.285 Subsequently, her blood descended over the water (WR 182). Dragonflies collect the blood and take it to the hero, who puts it in jars. By running in circles over the surface of the water, lizards gather the blood for the dragonflies to scoop up (CT 39). Blood is the central element of this part of the myth, rather than the shreds of flesh that may also be mentioned.286 By comparison, versions of this myth dealing with the origin of game do not focus on the womans blood, but on her bones (see previous chapter). In the case of the maize woman, her origins are apparently so close to human origins that no violent fragmentation and no

284

Having the fleeing couple hide in a turtle, crab, or armadillo could be a reference to imprisoning disease agents in such containers as a conch (Ritual of the Bacabs MS pp. 166, 170, Roys 1965: 56-57) or a cistern (Hanks 1990: 348). 285 The armadillo, a great burrower, is a terrestrial animal; when in the water, it does not swim, but goes to the bottom and continues its way there until it has reached the other side of the river or brook (Alvarez del Toro 1991: 46). Estrada Monroy (1990: 244 n. 303) compares the armadillo sheltering the future moon goddess to the armadillo basket of the Qeqchi midwife containing her implements, particularly those for treating the umbilical cord. 286 The first Owen variant (Gordon 1915: 117) is rather exceptional in omitting any mention of the blood; it concentrates instead on the reconstitution of the flesh by a school of small fishes, a task which the Avila variant (1977: 24), again unusually, assigns to the dragonflies.

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bloodshed occur at all. Instead, in a Poqomchi tale, red flowers are strewn into the sea to deceive the pursuing Mountain-Valley (Bucaro Moraga 1991: 70). The heavy emphasis on spilled blood in the Qeqchi tales clearly needs an explanation. Since it is only in these tales that the Maiden becomes the Moon, the first possibility that comes to mind is the strong association existing between the Moon and the menses,287 both commonly referred to by the same word (Qeqchi po, Sam Jurez et al. 1997: 260), the menses being more particularly known as moon sickness (Qeqchi yajel re po; id. 425).288 The hypothesis that the myth refers to the origin of menstruation is confirmed, at least in part, by a little known variant of the episode included in a study of Qeqchi ideas concerning tooth decay (Avila 1977). Here, the primordial Moon had apparently found no hiding place at all, and received the full blow of her fathers lightning strike. The dragonflies now gather her body, and it is Sun himself who recovers her blood from the earth: The dragonfly only found remains of the body, gathered these and handed them to the sun, and therefore the dragonfly is standing in the air. But the sun had not found the blood and began to search for it. He had to root up seven layers of earth and finally he found it, and therefore it remained in the earth [por eso en la tierra qued] that women should see menstruation each month. The woman starts menstruating at the age of thirteen or fourteen years. That was in those times, but nowadays they start at the age of fifteen (Avila 1977: 24). It may be noted that this fragmentary tale was told by a farmer, not by a woman. Given that the blood of Moon, or Mountain-Valleys daughter, signifies

287

In a review of Cruz Torress Rubelpec, Etta Becker-Donner already recognized the theme of menstruation in the episode of Moon's destruction (1976: 126). Later, Kockelman (2007: 339) followed suit. 288 Also in view of the fact that Spanish flor flower can denote menstrual bleeding (cf. Paul 1974: 298), the delicate Poqomchi image of the red flowers strewn into the sea would appear to be a veiled allusion to the origin of menstruation. One could also think of a Totonac myth (Ichon 1969: 95, cf. 56-57), according to which menstruation originated when the jealous Moon brother removed Suns flower offerings from an altar and threw them on the ground.

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menstrual blood when it is absorbed into the earth,289 the hypothesis that the lunar blood coloring the sea in the other variants refers to menstruation acquires additional strength. A recent bilingual compilation of variants, put together by a Qeqchi author (Cu Cab 2003), appears to refer to a tale that could confirm the above hypothesis. In this composite narrative, clearly deriving in part from the Cruz Torres variant, the hero asks the dragonflies to collect the lunar blood from the sea, explaining to them that (contrary to what really happened) Moon came to wash her clothes and hurt herself (xchal chi puchuk ut xtoch rib), and that because of the lost blood, she is about to die. Washing clothes (puchuk) is a euphemism for menstruation (Haeserijn 1979: 265 s.v. puch), as is confirmed by the narrator a few lines further on. Unfortunately, the variant (or the informant concerned) from which the passage appears to have been taken remains unidentifiable, since no references are provided. I shall continue to argue the analogous, aquatic origin of menstruation in more detail, by concentrating on the female quality that often in Mesoamerica is assigned to bodies of water, including lakes and the sea (both covered by Qeqchi palau). In referring to the blood and particles of Moons body floating on the water, the Wirsing variant (Quirn 1966: 183) uses an uncommon Qeqchi term, viz. mul ha aquatic filth, which Kockelman (2007: 371) translates as flotsam. This suggestive term has a Nahua equivalent that, significantly, belongs to the vocabulary of curing rituals. Nahua shamans on the Gulf Coast recognize a water filth wind (apantlasole ejecatl), a disease agent found in the filthy scum that forms on the surface of water (Sandstrom and Effrein 1986: 94). That this scum should at least in the context of Qeqchi myth be interpreted as a sign of menstruation is implicit in the indigenous conception of sea and lake (palau) among neighbors of the Qeqchis, the Pipiles of Izalco, El Salvador. These Pipiles justify their belief in Moons predominance over the sea, not by referring to tidal movements, but in the following way: Because it is apparent that it [the sea] gets indisposed just as women do: On its shores it excretes blood and foam (Schultze Jena 1935: 79)

289

The absorption by seven layers of earth could suggest a special place of retreat for menstruating women, on the shore of a river or a lake, such as it existed for birth-giving women (Estrada Monroy 1979b: 150-151).

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that is, what both Qeqchis and Gulf Coast Nahuas call aquatic filth.290 Also relevant is the case of the Lencas of western Honduras, who extend the view of menstrual waters to other terrestrial waters as well: There are also lakes the waters of which are attributed the property of changing into blood and even to have periods similar to the menstrual cycles of women (Rivas 1994: 52). These cosmographic body metaphors for lakes and the sea derive from two basic assumptions. On the one hand, they reflect the Mesoamerican concept of the earth as a living body, the soil being the flesh, the rocks its bones, and the water its blood (see Sandstrom 1991: 238). On the other hand, particularly in the Mayan area, lakes are usually seen as female, and intimately associated indeed, identified with the moon goddess (Thompson 1970: 244; Milbrath 1999: 33). Having lakes menstruate, or produce aquatic filth, is a logical consequence of such identifications.291 In a broader perspective, the way Mesoamerican Sun and Moon myth explains the origin of menstruation can be seen to vary according to Moons gender. On the one hand, if Moon is considered to be male, as among the Tarascans, the Chatinos of Oaxaca, the Totonacs, and the Huaxtecs, then there is little sense in the dramatic Qeqchi scenario that operates the origin of menstruation directly on the body of Moon. Instead, Moon is made into a womanizer, whose first visit to a woman initiates menstrual bleeding (cf. Loo 1987: 146-148).292 This difference notwithstanding, a structural affinity with the Qeqchi episode can persist, as in a Huaxtec version (Stresser-Pan 2008: 362363), which replaces the lightning hitting the woman of Sun by Suns arrow hitting the woman of Moon. On the other hand, if the Moon is female, then the

290

The image of red aquatic filth floating on the water may conceivably have been inspired by the occurrence of toxic water bloom (or red tide) caused by phytoplankton. 291 The red sea (or lake) is akin to what the Aztecs called Cihuatlalpan, the western Region of Women, i.e., those who had died in the child-bed. The Gulf Coast Totonacs of El Tajin still see the West as a great lake full of blood, stemming from those who died in childbirth (Kasburg 1992: 170 n. 152), and where the souls of deceased midwives dwell (170). Therefore, Bassie-Sweet (2008: 185) views the lost blood of Moon as birth blood. Such an identification presupposes, however, the existence of the menstrual cycle. 292 Qeqchi myth contradicts Van der Loos assertion (1987: 148, 150) that the mythological origin of the menstrual cycle requires a masculine Moon.

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fact that, once enclosed in jars, her menstrual blood changes to living creatures (snakes and insects) is consonant with an apparently widespread view of conception. According to this theory, pregnancy implies the accumulation of menstrual blood: The fetus grows due to the nourishment from the mothers menstrual blood which is retained for that purpose (Guiteras Holmes 1961: 103, Tzotziles; cf. Paul 1974: 294, Tzutujiles). Lunar Cycle and Menstrual Cycle The origin of menstrual bleeding in Moons destruction and reduction to blood is a necessary prelude to the periodicity of menstruation so closely connected to the lunar cycle. However, even though the goddess is commonly denoted as the Moon (li Po) throughout, it should be borne in mind that the lunar cycle has, at this point of the myth, not yet been instituted, the goddess not yet having risen into the sky; interpreting the myth in terms of lunar astronomy thus requires due reserve. Nonetheless, some possibilities merit to be explored. The annihilation of the primordial Moon, the spreading reddish color of the blood, and the sudden onset of darkness, are all suggestive of a lunar eclipse, an event that invariably occurs during the full moon. It is curious that a solar eclipse appears to occur at the same time, as Sun dives away in his turtle carapace; as noted by the Wirsing text (WR 182), when Sun hid in the depths of the lake the sunlight disappeared, and darkness descended on the world. The muteness (U 177) and lameness (UU, also DR 492) of the regenerated child Moon could also be interpreted as being due to a lunar eclipse.293 More generally, the eclipsed Moon is seen by the Mayas as a frightening portent of sickness and of the resulting mass death.294 These implications of a lunar eclipse are borne out in the remainder of the myth. The water jars, gourds, and ritual ceramic bottles in which the menstrual blood of the eclipsed Moon is collected295 are likely to derive from the common

293

For the Quichs (Tedlock 1992: 184), a childs muteness or lameness is the result of the mother having been exposed to a lunar eclipse. For the childs limbs being affected by a lunar eclipse, cf. also Reina (1966: 239, Pokoman) and Nash (1970: 201, 203, Tzeltal). 294 E.g., Bunzel 1967: 428; Tedlock 1992: 184; Nash 1970: 201, 203. 295 The sources include the following terms: Cc (water jar; WR 183); tinaja (water jar; O 121); su (tecomate; DR 491); putix (WR 184, for the 13th jar; CT 40-43, for every

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Mesoamerican metaphor of the rain-bringing moon, that of a water jar cyclically filled and emptied. This is especially clear in the Cruz Torres variant (1965: 43), where the thirteenth jar is expressly identified with the aquatic Moon: When this jar is opened, the nude lunar woman it contains is found to be squatting in the water.296 The phases of the Moon, which are seen by the Mayas as the changing tilt of a lunar jar, are connected to rainfall as well as to the menstrual cycle. The Chortis, for example, believe that woman is full during the Full Moon phase and then, analogous to her patron, she pours out her contents in the menstrual flow, and after that she remains dry for the remainder of the month (Girard 1948: 80). Menstruation would thus coincide with the waning moon, and dryness could in principle be visualized as the empty jar of the reborn moon. In most variants of Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, the blood is collected and stored in thirteen jars for thirteen days. Since we have no native exegesis for these numbers, one might hypothesize that the thirteen jars represent a series of thirteen consecutive manifestations of the waning moon, that is, of the inclined lunar jar signaling the outpour of menstrual blood. However, the moment for menstruation is sometimes postponed until the conjunction of moon and sun. The Mopan Mayas associate this new-moon phase with a general predominance of wetness, menstruation included (Fink 1987: 403). According to some Tzotziles, the Moon herself menstruates during this phase (Milbrath 1999: 32); consequently, among the Tzotziles of Larranzar, the majority of women are believed to menstruate during new moon, and the period of new moon is considered especially unfavorable with regard to accidents resulting in injuries, since during this period, bleeding is very copious and cicatrizing [healing] very slow (Holland 1978: 78). From the above, one might conclude that the thirteen jars with menstrual blood gestating for thirteen days refer to the second half of the lunar cycle, from waning moon to new moon. The temporal position of the thirteenth jar, however, remains ambiguous; it would rather seem to belong to the waxing moon, and in one source, the woman reborn from it is represented by a crescent
jar). The word putix is defined as a ritual bottle with a narrow neck (Haeserijn 1979 s.v.) and apparently derives from Spanish botija. 296 In another episode, dealing with Moons liaison with the rain deity, the empty water jar left on the rivers shore signals, and its emptiness symbolizes, Moons disappearance to the sky of the vultures (see Chapter Eleven).

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(MC 132). All in all, it is hard to decide if a correlation between the thirteen jars and a series of thirteen moons, or moon phases, is relevant to the myths interpretation. Yet we do know with certainty that thirteen is recurrent in all sorts of curing and disease-casting rituals. Rhetoric of Soul Loss: Looking for the Blood Blood is one of the core concepts of traditional healers. In the context of cures for the overall debility, and especially pallor, caused by soul loss, or fright (susto), one comes upon expressions such as my blood is frightened (naxicwac in quiquel, Haeserijn 1979 s.v. xiuac), that is, actively struck by fright illness. This expression is to be understood in the context of the diagnostic practice of taking the pulse, in which the blood is interrogated and asked many specific questions concerning the whereabouts of the lost shadow, or soul (Cabarrs 1979: 66). In another, more significant, formulation, the task of the healer in recovering the lost shadow is stated to be to look for the blood and collect the bones, the hairs (Cabarrs 1979: 47). Here, elements traditionally believed to be the recipients of materialized souls297 have been transferred to the landscape, which is also the situation presented by Qeqchi myth when the blood and bones of Mountain-Valleys daughter were dispersed over sea and land. Fright illness results from a break of the moral code guarded by the Tzuultaqa Mountain-Valley. The angered Mountain-Valley is often held responsible for accidents occurring in rivers, wells, or ravines that lead up to soul loss (Cabarrs 1979: 48) and, in the discourse of healing, for the stumbling and resulting fragmentation that appear to go with it. Furthermore, the Qeqchis are likely to have known the concept of lightning fright familiar to Chortis (Wisdom 1940: 337) and Poqomames (Reina 1966: 239), lightning being the main instrument of Tzuultaqas castigating power (Sapper 1897: 282; Carlson and Eachus 1978: 42, 44). One can understand, therefore, that a mere

297

The blood, bones, and hairs that denote the lost soul or shadow of a patient recur in a curing text of the Ritual of the Bacabs (Arzpalo Marn 1987: fol. 231) as yax bac yax tzotz - yax olom - yax kik yax bone - hair - coagulated blood liquid blood. Yax bak is defined by the Cordemex dictionary (Barrera Vsquez 1980) as descolorado, hinchado, enfermizo. See also Lpez Austin on the tonalli soul (1980: 223 ff; 241-243, hairs as recipients of tonalli).

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mentioning of the word tzuul (mountain) suffices to denote the spirit loss in which a whimsical Mountain grabs the blood and plays with it (Wilson 1995: 147-148).298 Returning to the episode at hand, through the action of MountainValley, the daughter condemned for having betrayed her father is struck by lightning, and her blood and body particles are dispersed in the sea. Within the framework sketched above, Qeqchi healers could easily have interpreted this as an extreme case of fright. Among the defects of the Maiden reborn in the last of the thirteen jars is the muteness (U 177) that also characterizes fright (although its meaning probably extends beyond that); but more importantly, the task of the dragonflies (tulux) or, in the Avila variant, of the hero himself is strikingly similar to that of the healer restoring the lost soul by looking for blood and collecting bones and hairs. Strong support for this interpretation comes from a still practiced Cahabn ritual for restoring the soul (Parra Novo 1997: 138-139), wherein the dragonfly is called upon to assist in recovering and reintegrating the lost soul, or shadow (muhel): I invoke you, holy Hill, holy Valley! From the spot where you [i.e., the lost shadow, EB] have fallen, from the stones, on the trees, under the depths of the waters. I have put you there, little creature (dragonfly, PN), so that you may call his shadow (xmuhel, PN) and recover it. I ask you, please go and bring his power! Come, X, arise in this moment, in this very moment! Come, come, I want you to come (the pulse is taken, PN), one holy blood, one holy water, one holy bone. Your veins, your arteries, I want to know what happened to you. Let us recover your shadow! I will reintegrate it, so that there is once more one single body, united, whole. Moreover, from a recent interview with a Qeqchi shamanic curer (ilonel) describing traditional healing practices (in Cuz 2001: 19), it would appear that the dragonflies here explicitly mentioned by the interviewee are among an entire army of quick and aggressive little fliers operating as assistants

298

Here, Tzuul would appear to refer to the seizure rilom [i]tzuul seen by the Mountain (cf. Cabarrs 1979: 66, 71; Haeserijn 1979: 169 s.v. ilom).

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to the curer. Talking about the names of the Thirteen Tzultaqas to be mentioned in sacrifice or in healing, the curer states: Those that have the power to cure, those are the ones we, the sacrificers, call. In such a way there are the thirteen wild bees, thirteen dragonflies, thirteen hummingbirds, those are the ones that are invoked over the patient and the one suffering of fright [li xiwajenaq]. (My trans.) 299 And in another section of the book (id.: 59, cf. also 72), what would appear to be the same curer reiterates: We call the sacred Tzuultaqas for the patient, the three Tzuultaqas. We must mention the thirteen wild bees, the thirteen dragonflies, the thirteen hummingbirds, these are invoked over the patient, these lift up the patient when the sacrifice is brought.300 (My trans.) This further confirms the reading of the mythical event proposed here, and accords with the fact that in the principal variants, the Qeqchi hero commands not one, but a number of dragonflies to scoop up the blood of his lost wife. Apparently, the shamanic curer could summon many more specialized assistants, since the variants also mention small agile lizards and insects that walk on the water, and small fishes.301 Velocity, numerosity, and size

299

Aaneb li wankeb xwankil chi kirtasink, aaneb li naqaboq laao laj mayejanel. Jokan naq wankeb li oxlaju chi saqkaw, oxlajuchi tuulux, oxlajuchi tzunun, aaneb li nakeboqmank sa xbeeneb li yaj ut li xiwajenaq. Saqkaw is given by Haeserijn as abeja silvestre (1979: 294 s.v. sakcau). 300 Aaneb li loqlaj tzuultaqa naqaboqeb chi rix li yaj, li oxibeb chi tzuutaqa. Qayehaq, li oxlaju chi saqkaw, li oxlaju chi tuulux, li oxlaju chi tzunun, aaneb aan li nakeaatinamank sa xbeeneb li yaj, aaneb aan nakewanklesink re li yaj naq yo li mayejak. For wanklesink read waklesink. 301 While the relationship of the curer to the thirteen dragonflies, wild bees, and hummingbirds may have had a permanent character, the concept of shamanic animal assistance is a broader one. Boremanse (1991: 289), for instance, in analyzing Lacandon therapeutic incantations, mentions the invocation of the symbolic assistance of wild bees for curing a wound; in another Lacandon text (id.: 290), eight different birds are called upon to suck the vomit of a patient.

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proportional to the fragments to be searched for are some of the factors that may have contributed to the choice of the assistants.302 It would appear that there is still another side to this animal collaboration. In Mesoamerica, curers often invoke certain stars and constellations. Among the Totonacs, for example, the curers have their own Reed Tube Star (or Sucking-tube Star), just as the diviners have their Divining Crystals Star (Ichon 1969: 100), whereas Mixe curers acknowledge the Star of the Sea as a tutelary spirit (Lipp 1991: 150). A related shamanic enlistment of the sky is suggested by one of the earlier Qeqchi variants (O-a 117). Fishes spontaneously collect the tiny fragments of Moon and by holding each others tails, weave a mat. Next, the great shiny mat swam under the girl and gave a big jump up to the sky [] they stuck her up in the sky and were hurrying home when they lost their way and had to stay up there too. Any clear night if you look up at the sky you can see them, for they form the great white streak [the milky way]. Although this variants overall narrative tone has a sentimental quality more savoring of American childrens tales than of traditional Qeqchi myth, there is also in view of Owens serious intentions as a tale collector (see Danien 2005: 6-7) no reason to doubt its derivation from a Qeqchi source. What we have here, then, is less an origin myth of the Milky Way, than a description of a vital aspect of shamanic curing. In collecting Moons remains, the fishes do the same thing as the other assistants of the hero; and if, moved by compassion, they here seem to act on their own account, this is well suited to demonstrate the Milky Ways favorable predisposition and, thus, susceptibility to shamanic invocation.303 The same Owen variant gives unusual prominence to the construction and positioning of Tzuultaqas giant blowgun, the mouth of which rested on

302

It also deserves mentioning that both hummingbird and dragonfly can stand still in the air. 303 With good reason, this variant stresses the benevolence and compassion of the fishes, since in other variants (WR, TH), they behave cannibalistically. The cannibalistic fishes should, perhaps, be associated with the dark rift in the Milky Way. Kiche shamans pay considerable attention to the moons changing path across this cleft, which they call road of Xibalba (Tedlock 1992: 191, cf. 181).

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the top of the highest mountain in the land (O-a 116). Also in view of the particular importance of star lore in traditional Qeqchi culture,304 it is tempting to assume an allusion here to a Blowgun (or, perhaps, Sucking-tube) asterism, observed in a specific position over the horizon. Healers are also potential black sorcerers, an ambivalence that seems to hold for the dragonflies as well. Haeserijn (1979: 333), who made use of notes by Wirsing, defines ma-tulux as the persons who changed themselves into their nahuals, dragonflies, in order to collect the blood of Moon. Notwithstanding the honorific ma, the nahual transformation suggests sorcerers. The Wirsing variant (WR 183) uses the word ah tulun instead of matulux and translates it first as dragonflies and then, more appropriately, as sorcerers (brujos), the usual form of which would be ah tul[anel] (Sam Jurez e.a. 1997 s.v.). Dragonflies would, indeed, appear to be suitable shapes for powerful healers as well as for black sorcerers.305 With an uncanny power of aerial motion and a proclivity for territorial fighting, they are among the most effective predators of the insect realm.306 Again, the same ambivalence also appears to characterize other shamanic assistants, such as the fishes that started to devour the remains of the lost wife instead of saving them. In any case, it seems reasonable to conclude from the above that, in recruiting dragonflies to make his wife whole again, the hero is in fact acting as a healer treating soul loss.

304

Among the Qeqchis, not only had each individual his own moon and star (pochahim), or destiny (Haeserijn 1979: 128 s.v. chahim), but each species of game animal had its own star (or perhaps, moon and star), too (cf. Cuz 2001: 34-35). See also Chapter Ten. 305 As sorcerers collecting unclean blood, the dragonflies would be akin to Cuchumaquic Blood-gatherer, one of the Kiche Lords of the Underworld. In collecting and drinking blood spilt through injury and disease, this figure is, in recent lore, on a par with the Evil One and his helpers among the Qeqchis (cf. D. Tedlock 1996: 338; Cruz Torres 1965: 151-161). 306 Given that the fishes that collected Moons particles from the red sea became the Milky Way, it is not unlikely that the dragonflies had an astronomical correlate as well. The Lacandons, for their part, distinguished a Red Dragonfly star and identified it with Betelgeuse (Milbrath 1999: 39). Along this same line, the turtle might well correspond to stars in Gemini or Orion.

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The Crisis of Gestation Following the collection of the blood and the storing of the jars, a mysterious process of gestation sets in. The sounds signaling the conclusion of this process cause great panic to the jars custodians. In a Qeqchi variant from Belize, the process seems to be equated with decomposition: When one of the containers is opened prematurely, it is noted that inside there is a frog covered in thousands of flies and the frog is rotten (K 33). In Prechtels re-telling of Tzutujil Hummingbird myth (2001: 61-63), the womans flesh inside the large cooking pot (ptix) undergoes a serial transformation that Qeqchi myth has divided over thirteen jars (putixes). From the books glossary (id.: 138), it appears that one of the womans fleeting transformations is the Qan t Yellowmouth, that is, the bushmaster, or fer-de-lance: Said by some storytellers to be one of the animals the Tall Girl [Hummingbirds bride, EB] turned into as she changed from one animal to the next in the pot. In an Ixil variant of Hummingbird myth (Palomino 1972: 144-145, lines 566, 613), Marikita fears her own transformation into a wasp or a whirlwind. Apparently, a terrible and unpredictable Verwandlungszauber (transformational witchcraft) is going on. In the Tzutujil tale, as in another Ixil tale dealing with the origin of game (Colby and Colby 1981: 182), the untimely opening of the container is presented as a fatal interruption of a process that would otherwise have resulted in a return of the woman to her original, human form. Clearly, the husband should not have left the jar. In most Qeqchi variants, too, the hero is absent for the period of gestation. The reasons for this absence are usually not made explicit. The one exception is the Cruz Torres variant (CT 40), according to which the hero, having stored the remains of his wife, went to the thirteen mountains and thirteen valleys to plead for his beloved, and to use all his abilities in this.307 Immediately before opening the thirteenth jar, the lords of the thirteen mountains and valleys are again invoked: May your powers and mine make my beloved reappear in the thirteenth jar (CT 42).

307

Se fue a los trece cerros y trece valles a rogar por su amada, y a hacer sus habilidades.

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This last invocation, in particular, includes an appeal that strongly parallels the sort of cooperation between the powerful mountains and the curer that is sought in ritual incantations such as the following (Burkitt 1902: 447448): A green hill, a green valley! [One Blue-green Hill-Valley!] a little of thy might, a little of thy power, shall I borrow. And a few lines further: Thirteen hills, thirteen valleys! Thence cometh thy poison [may, also tobacco and medicinal herbs], thy poison [id.], over a mighty sea; I blow in thy mouth [i.e., of the patient], I blow in thy face, with thirteen hills, with thirteen valleys, with potent blood, with potent lymph. Although Mountain-Valley is called Cagua Aatn in the Cruz Torres variant (corresponding to Tactani in the Thompson variant), he is called, more broadly, Tzuultaqa Mountain-Valley in the earlier Wirsing and E.P. Dieseldorff variants. In the curing text quoted above, Mountain-Valley is alternately regarded as one and as manifold. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that the hero is in fact invoking Mountain-Valley when he ritually addresses the lords of the Thirteen Mountains and Valleys while opening the thirteenth jar. The previous visit (or visits) of the hero to the thirteen mountains and thirteen valleys apparently served the purpose of establishing the conditions for a successful cure: That of reaching a truce and establishing cooperation with his angered father-in-law. Such an agreement is also sought in the parallel myth about the origin of the maize woman shared by Poqomchis and Qeqchis. There, the heros absence during the pregnancy of his wife (a true pregnancy, in this case) is explained by his desire to notify his father-in-law of the impending birth, and to make peace with him (Schumann 1988: 214). Alternatively, however, we might assume that because the hero has fled to another territory, he could well be invoking the Tzuultaqa of that territory. In this case, the snakes and insects could be seen as the punishment meted out by the first, hostile Tzuultaqa, and the restored woman as the blessing of a different, benevolent Tzuultaqa.

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Empowering Snakes and Insects Prior to the opening of the thirteenth jar, mentioned above, an important episode of the myth occurs in which the other containers are opened. Their contents are revealed to be a variety of small, almost invariably poisonous creatures, including, foremost, snakes and insects, but also worms, lizards, spiders, scorpions, and toads. The extant variants of the episode show several differences in the manner of introduction of these creatures to the earth. In some of the variants, the opening of the jars is preceded by specific preparations. In a short variant from the early years of the 20th century (O-b 121), the hero orders masons to construct a fountain for emptying the water jars. The much later Cruz Torres tale (CT 40) makes clear why the contents of the jars require such a containment. In this variant, the fountain is a wooden canoe filled with water and crushed tobacco leaves, and by being immersed in this liquid, the creatures from the jars receive their poisons. The other main difference in the sources concerns the treatment of the creatures once they have emerged. In most cases, including the Wirsing and Thompson variants, they are viewed as pests, which, being inherently poisonous and dangerous, are to be immediately thrown into the sea, but instead escape (DD 185, TH 129). Before this, there had been none of these pests (Thompson). In contrast, the Rubelpec variant (CT 40-42) has the hero purposely set the creatures free, after having given them their proper dosages of poison. The Cruz Torres tale is important because it addresses the relation of tobacco to animal poison and the origin of the latter, whereas the other variants take the toxicity for granted. I shall argue that the heros action can best be understood as fitting within the system of disease and shamanic curing.308

308

Following Khlers systematic treatment of the issue (1990: 261-271), what is loosely called Mesoamerican shamanism coincides with classic Siberian shamanism in the following main points: soul loss and perils of the soul of the patient; a sacred geography of celestial and infra-terrestrial layers centered on an axis; the assistance of animal companions; shamanic warfare; and dream vocation. Not clearly represented ethnographically is the ecstasy during which the shaman sends his soul on a quest to the beyond (on the issue of Mayan shamanism, see also Tedlock 1992: 46-53 and Lipp 2001: 107-108, 115).

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That it is the hero rather than a demon who empowers the creatures is at first sight enigmatic. Here, it may be relevant that the Wirsing and E.P. Dieseldorff variants call the hero Xbalanque. As early as the 17th century, Fuentes y Guzmn (1969: 76-77, Bk. 1 Ch. 6 [insert]) described Xbalanque as a god imbuing arrows and spears with war power. Qeqchi myth seems to have extended this patronage to include the stings of what I shall generically call snakes and insects, animals that are of great importance to curers and sorcerers alike. Another and more important reason for the heros involvement in the release of the snakes and insects is that together notwithstanding their frightening aspect these creatures represent the body of the heros lost wife, the nubile Earth. The snakes and insects born from the menstrual blood in the jars are, in this respect, nothing but transformations of the game animals and bees that are regenerated from the female bones contained in the jar of Ixil Hummingbird myth animals that, when questioned by the hero, proclaimed themselves to be his wife (Colby and Colby 1981: 182). Just as the Ixil hero gave the deer their hooves and the rabbits hair on their feet for masking their scent, thus enabling them to escape from the hunters (ibid.), the Qeqchi hero kindly provides the snakes with their own means of defense, namely the precise amount of poison they need: I will give you your defense, it will stay in your fang (CT 41), and in similar ways, every other creature is addressed and admonished. The most immediate reason why this poison should stem from tobacco is that in Qeqchi, the word for tobacco, may, happens to have the additional meanings of pain and poison. In the myth, through may the creatures received their may, and through may their may can be undone again. For Mayas generally, tobacco is also the main apotropaic substance (cf. Thompson 1970: 103-123; Robicsek 1978: 11-43), the juice of tobacco being a close approximation of what their viscous poison is to certain animals.309 Like is thus, at least in this case, cured with like. Treatment with tobacco and tobacco juice, substances recognized as poisons, belongs to the standard procedures of healing.
309

This can explain the paradox that, at times, the curer seems to imitate a serpent spitting venom. A Tzotzil shaman, for example, is stated to spit tobacco juice to a serpent (Laughlin 1975: 241 s.v. moy); a Chorti curer sprays tobacco-impregnated saliva onto the patients body with a hissing sound through his teeth (Wisdom 1940: 349).

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With regard to the canoe in the Cruz Torres episode, its use as a trough for preparing chewing tobacco (pilico) with its magical properties has been noted in Tzeltal Cancuc (Guiteras Holmes 1992: 61). Among the Lacandons, the canoe was used for preparing alcoholic beverages. To strengthen such a brew, tobacco could be added (Gage 1969: 225), as well as poisonous creatures such as wasps (Rtsch 1985: 63-69) and even toads (Gage 1969: 225). The Qeqchi myth is unusual in that it turns this practice around: Rather than having the creatures invigorate the brew, it has the brew invigorate the creatures. Hummingbirds care for his transformed wife casts him in the role of unwitting helper to his father-in-law by providing Mountain-Valley with the animals, specifically the snakes and insects, that he needs to carry out his verdicts and bring disease over offenders (snakes, Sapper 1897: 282; insects and snakes, Carlson and Eachus 1978: 42, 44). Here, as in other Hummingbird myths, the very excessiveness of Tzuultaqas reaction signalled a creative act ultimately leading to the origin of animals. However, in a moral sense, Mountain-Valleys daughters fragmentation by lightning can also be viewed as a primordial punishment, from which several other punishments took their origin. The first of these is the punishment of the female disease, menstruation; through this affliction, a whole class of other punishments, the agents of disease, is unleashed. Fortunately, owing to the tobacco juice prepared in the heros canoe, the poisons of these creatures are of such a nature as to be susceptible to treatment. Herbal Substitutions The idea that the antidote to poison is inherent in its origin can be expressed in various ways, as the gradation of the containers contents in the E. P. Dieseldorff variant clearly shows (DD 5). The first four containers hold variously-colored bees (probably of the aggressive, undomesticated sort), the next ones contain wasps and hornets, but then, before the restored goddess is discovered in the twelfth and (in this variant) last container, two of the containers turn out to hold two species of medicinal herbs.310 Thus, in the end,

310

The two herbs concerned, tzoloj-quen (Bidens warszewicziana) and ruj-max (Sanicula mexicana), are used against swellings of the glands, usually resulting from

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the poison is replaced by its herb and, according to Haeserijns Qeqchi dictionary (1979: 221), both can be called by the same name, may. As a consequence, the restored goddess comes to symbolize the healing effects of medicinal herbs that can be viewed as an alternative form of her body.311 In short, the invocations of the hero not only result in the cure and restoration of his wife, but in a cure for mankind as a whole. The existence of a variant with a mix of poisonous beasts and medicinal herbs leaves open the possibility that a variant exists in which the jars contain only herbs. The existence of such a variant is suggested by stereotypical incantations, such as the following one from a Tzotzil bone-setter: Thirteen devils [pukuj], thirteen swellings, thirteen fractures, thirteen resins of pine, thirteen resins of vine, thirteen medicines, thirteen junctures, thirteen curings! (Holland 1978: 178-179). Similarly, in the Ritual of the Bacabs, disease symptoms are countered with thirteen jars full of hailstones, against fever (Roys 1965: 180, MS pp. 139-140), or with thirteen jars filled with the blood, that is, vegetal juice, of trees and bushes, to replace the affected blood of the patient (Arzpalo Marn1987: fols. 227-229).312 A sequel to the canoe episode, provided by an informant commenting upon a Mopan version of the myth, indeed comes close to such a substitution of herbs: The Sun God told the man [the guardian of the jars] to watch what each animal ate and then tell him, for, whatever plant each animal eats is the medicine to be used by herb healers to treat anyone bitten by the animal (U 179 n. 6). Both among the Qeqchi and among the Yucatec Mayas, one notes that the herb curing a disease is often named after the animal causing it. That herbal medicine is indeed a central concern of the Qeqchi version of Hummingbird myth is nowhere more apparent than in the conclusion of the Rubelpec tale (CT 67-68). In this variant, after the escape of the hero and his wife from the town of the vultures and their celestial ascent and concomitant
infection due to an injury of the feet, against itching eczema, and for purifying the blood(Dieseldorff 1926: 5). This last, more general application is most related to the episode treated here. 311 It has been argued (Chapter Five) that the flower from which Hummingbird initially sips symbolizes the woman he is wooing; this flower is, in the principal variants, a medicinal tobacco flower. 312 This text from the Ritual of the Bacabs is found only in the Arzpalo Marn edition (1987). Since I disagree with Arzpalo Marns approach of translation, I depend here on my own translation.

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transmutation, Sun and Moon can neither speak nor move. Following the logic of disease and healing, this stagnation is apparently diagnosed as a sort of paralysis. Curers great and small congregate, apply herbal and incense cures and collect their fees, all to no avail. But then, the chief curer, Cosmas (i.e., the Catholic patron of physicians, companion to Damian), arrives. This unusual entrance is paralleled in a traditional Cahabn prayer for restoring the shadow in which Cosmas is the first one to be addressed (Cabarrs 1979: 47; cf. Parra Novo 1997: 134). In the myth, Cosmas succeeds in restoring health to the celestial bodies by having them smell the fragrance of the flowers of certain trees and lianas, thereby releasing them from their paralysis. The perspective of healing clearly dominates over that of war and human sacrifice.313 Rather than sacrificial blood, as in the Mexican tradition, the scent of flowers performs the miracle of starting the Sun on his orbit. The Curing Ritual of a Serpent Master Pablo Wirsings observation that the Qeqchi myth was recited during curing rituals should, in all likelihood, be taken to mean that relevant passages were brought forward as the occasion demanded. A curing text containing such a reference has been recorded by Burkitt (1902: 447-448). The words are for curing snake poisoning, an important part of the task of the healer, who is therefore often called aj kanti (serpent master; Cabarrs 1979: 66). The incantation can be broken down into four segments: (1) the healer states his position and intention; (2) mentions the origin of the disease; (3) borrows the healing power of Mountain-Valley, Tzuultaqa; and (4) proceeds to his healing action. Let us first consider the two initial sections (Burkitt 1902: 447): Son of mine is the small bolay[-snake] and the great bolay[snake], I have power [k!i], I have poison [may]; I am thy mother, I am thy father, to quench thy fires, to extinguish thy fires, to annul thy power and thy poison.

313

In Aztec creation myth (Sahagn, Leyenda de los Soles), the sun refuses to move, and demands human hearts and blood.

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Where wast thou begotten, were wast thou born?314 Under the white sea, the blue[-green] sea. Where gottest thou thy little power [k!i], thy little poison [may]? In the canoe of the demon of the cold [xbalam ke]. The bolay mentioned in the first section is among the snakes born from the containers, and includes the black icbolay (O 121, CT 41, WR 184) and the red chacbolay (CT 41), of which the former is the more poisonous. In Qeqchi, bolay appears to be the generic name for venomous, viper-like snakes from the Crotalidae family, such as the fer-de-lance (Bothrops atrox) and the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus).315 With these ferocious snakes as ropes, the hammock of the Tzuultaqa is tied to its poles; the snakes are also sent off to bring death to serious offenders (Sapper 1897: 282). The fire of the snakes probably refers to the spreading pain of the poisoned blood and to fever. For icbolay poisoning, the corresponding herbs are icbolay keen (icbolay-herb), icbolay caam (icbolay-liana; Haeserijn 1979), and these may have been among the herbs that, according to the Mopan variant discussed in the previous section, were originally prescribed by the hero upon opening the containers. The mythological origin of snakes appears to occupy an important place in the snake handlers mind. In one of Cruz Torress ethnographical sketches, for example, a serpent master taming a menacing icbolay addresses it as ralal lish quiquel li poo, or daughter of the blood of the Moon (Cruz Torres 1965: 333; cf. 309-310, in a context of black sorcery). The second section of the Burkitt incantation is another example of the value the myth must once have had as a frame of reference for serpent masters. It is of particular interest, because it directly refers to the canoe of Xbalanque, thus confirming the authenticity of the episode as rendered by Cruz Torres and, in a watered-down form, by Owen.316 Burkitt, however, does not appear to have recognized xbalamke as a name (the Popol Vuh not yet having attained its present renown) and, by interpreting its constituent elements, arrived at the misleading translation the demon of the cold. Since the curer also mentions the sea as the
314

Bar! xat sia, bar! xat yola? According to Burkitt (1902: 449-450), sia presupposes a female progenitor and could also be rendered as conceived. 315 In Yucatec (Barrera1980 s.v.), bolay refers to devouring animals such as the jaguar. 316 Owen, in Gordon 1915. Thompson (1970: 343) ascribed the Gordon 1915 tales to Robert Burkitt; Elin Danien (2005), however, found out that the real source was Mary Owen, a friend of Gordons.

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origin of the snakes and the canoe as the place where these received their defenses, there is basic agreement between the ritual text and the myth. Burkitts text (1902: 447-448) now repeats part of the first section (I am thy mother, I am thy father,...), and then proceeds: A green hill, a green valley! [One Blue-green Hill, One Bluegreen Valley!] a little of thy might [k!i], a little of thy power [k!i], shall I borrow. Thirteen potent water courses! to quench the fires of thee, to quench the fires of thine, in the holy day, in the holy timeof-light, that I cast out thy power [k!i] and thy poison [may]. Thirteen hills, thirteen valleys! Thence cometh thy poison [may], thy poison [may], over a mighty sea; I blow in thy mouth, I blow in thy face, with thirteen hills, with thirteen valleys, with potent blood, with potent lymph. Finally, the actual fulfillment of the task set in the initial section is announced: I quench thy fires, I extinguish thy fires, I annihilate thy power and thy poison. One Blue-green Mountain-Valley is coupled to the twice repeated word, ki (might, or power), and Thirteen Mountain-Valley to the twice repeated word, may (poison). Since power and poison are also claimed by the shaman in the first section of the text, this repetition shows his alignment with the powers of the mountains. At this point in the healing procedure, however, the couplet could equally be rendered as abundance and medicine, which would clarify the purpose of the text.317 Burkitt comments: The thirteen hills enter into the doctor, and with their magical fluids of life [blood and lymph, EB] he breathes on the sickness and annihilates it (id.: 450). Since there is no cure without the consent of Tzuultaqa (Mountain-Valley), Xbalanque, too, had to appeal to his authority before opening the Thirteen Jars.

317

Burkitts rendering of the stereotypical couplet k!i may as power poison seems open to debate. Both Haeserijn (1979) and Sam Jurez et al. (1997) render ki (formerly spelled qui) as growth, abundance, whereas may has the opposed meanings of poison and (following Haeserijn) medicine. Furthermore, in some ritual texts (Burkitt 1902: 443; Cabarrs 1979: 66), ki (abundance) is replaced by ki (sweetness). In every case, however, the reference is to some powerful agency.

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Sorcery and Intrusive Magic Normally, a Qeqchi curer (ilonel/banonel), or serpent master (aj kanti), is also a sorcerer (ah tul[anel]), able to practice counter-sorcery in any form, defensively or aggressively (Cabarrs 1979: 66-67). In fact, the words for ensorcelling are stated to be the first thing taught to apprentice healers (Parra Novo 1997: 124-125).318 The Qeqchi shaman thus has two complementary roles, and he is likely to petition Tzuultaqa in both (Cabarrs 1979: 70). A sorcerer conjuring the powers of death, for instance, can, in the same breath, invoke Tzuultaqa to assist in punishing the prospective victim and making him sick (Burkitt 1902: 445). The evil creatures set free by Xbalanque are summoned for this purpose. The sorcerer calls on the powers of disease and death to mobilize not just snakes, but all animals snakes, toads, ants that have poison: Let all their poisons [may] collect themselves! (Burkitt 1902: 445). These creatures can, of course, work from without; but even more threatening is their devastating action from within. Biters and Destroyers In the Wirsing text (WR 184), the evil creatures are called aj tionel - aj sachonel (biters - destroyers), terms with a strong connotation of black, or destructive sorcery (re li sachoc tlac, Cabarrs 1979: 65). Indeed, with the formula tin tiw a t!xot!x ain I [shall] bite this earth! (Burkitt 1902: 445), the sorcerer acts as a biter himself.319 The equating of black magic with what amounts to cannibalism is not restricted to the Qeqchis. A term for the black sorcerer among the Tzotziles of Chenalh is tibal (biter, devourer; Guiteras Holmes 1961: 219), which corresponds to Yucatec ah chibal (one who bites or

318

Thompson remarked about the sorcerers (pulya or disease throwers) of southern Belize that throughout the area, even in the Maya-speaking village of San Antonio [where Thompson's variant of the myth was recorded] they are Kekchis (1930: 68). For a large part, these Qeqchis came from Cahabn (35-36), which up until recent times had a reputation for sorcery (Cabarrs 1979: 62; cf. Cruz Torres 1967: 281). 319 Burkitt (446) comments that here the speaker gets down and bites the ground. In the context of a black sorcery ritual, the expressive act of biting the ground (or earth) is likely to be a demonstration of the act of biting a human victim, with earth used as a metaphor for body.

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stings), a term repeatedly used in the Ritual of the Bacabs to refer to insects that cause disease. Many Mayan groups believe that evil sorcerers can either enlist, or convert themselves into, certain animals (wayob) in order to attack and kill the protective animal companions and devour the associated souls of the members of the community, who thereby fall ill and die. Alternatively, the person who loses his soul (chulel) becomes like meat (tibol) to the devourer (tibal; Guiteras Holmes 1961: 219-220). Thus, within a context of black sorcery, the enemy is attacked and devoured by the parallel action of animal doubles and evil creatures (cf. Hermitte 1970: 110-111). In the Cruz Torres variant (CT 40-42), the poison (may) applied by the hero is material: It is made to enter the teeth of snakes, the sting of the scorpion, the skin of the toad, the legs of the flies, and so forth. This does not imply, however, that these creatures always cause disease directly, or that the diseases are only those that modern medicine would predict. The main means by which sorcerers transmit disease is magical intrusion, either into food or directly into the body. The intruding animals are of the same sort as those born from the first twelve of the thirteen jars. For the Tzotziles of Chenalh, for example, Guiteras Holmes lists various sorts of poisonous snakes, ants, wasps, scorpions, and, secondarily, armadillos, frogs, toads, and rats.320 In Chenalh, Thirteen is a name for diseases caused by intrusion because thirteen is the number of items put by magic into the victims body (viz. the animals just mentioned, plus a prickly grass; Guiteras 1961: 135).321 The use of thirteen objects in intrusion magic seems to have been widespread. For example, an early 18th-century Kaqchikel curer specialized in undoing black sorcery is reported to have performed a cure in which tadpoles, toads, and beetles together with inanimate objects such as strands of corn silk and cords were extracted from the patients intestines and orifices. The creatures and objects, numbering thirteen in all, were subsequently burnt (Hill 1992: 103-105; cf. Wisdom 1940: 350-351). The parallel of these practices to the thirteen jars and the various classes of animals they contain is clear, and this makes the reappearance of the restored woman in the thirteenth jar all the more dramatic.
320

Guiteras Holmes1961: 135; cf. Hermitte 1970: 110; and Nuez de la Vega, in Brinton 1894: 19. 321 One might have expected the number nine here, but Guiteras is emphatic. In Chenalh, thirteen also refers to poisonous snakes (1961: 293), and to manifestations of evil sorcery generally (223, 227).

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Worms and flies in particular are feared as transmitters of disease, directed by the action of evil sorcerers. Indeed, the future sorcerer (Z[utuhil], aj its, Sp., brujo) comes into the world with worms or flies clutched in the fist (Paul 1975: 708). In Yucatan, the flies are among the pets of the evil sorcerer, a term reminding one of the affectionate treatment of the snakes and insects by the Qeqchi hero. They spoil the food of a victim with their eggs (Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934: 178). Among the Tzotziles, the blow-flies belong to the agents of sorcery directed against hostile communities and damage their livestock with worms (Laughlin 1977: 60-63; Holland 1978: 142). The concept is widespread. Among the Chortis, Ah Yacax Fly King of Hell, is invoked by evil sorcerers to send worms and flies into the nasal cavities of their victims (Wisdom 1940: 405 and n. 52, cf. 341). In several Qeqchi variants, worms (DD 184, O-b 121) and caterpillars (TH 129) are mentioned among the evil offspring of the Maiden. Consistent with the presence of caterpillars in the containers, Wilson (WL 328) includes butterflies among the creatures born from her blood. Amongst other evil creatures, Tzotzil black sorcerers invoke butterflies to cast disease (Holland 1978: 250 ff). Conversely, one finds a Yucatec curer from Dzitas who makes a butterfly leave a swollen navel, and then burns it. In another case, worms, butterflies, insects, and a snake leave the swollen abdomen of a seemingly pregnant woman (Redfield and Park 1940: 76-77). With regard to the crickets in the containers (WL 328), these may rather refer to the locusts, or grasshoppers, with which they are often confused. Locusts, as well as the rats mentioned by Mayn among the creatures in the jars, are mainly agricultural evils that can damage or even devastate the fields. Locusts are among the weapons of the black sorcerer (e.g., Gossen 1974: 269, Tale 29). Thompson reports an invasion of locusts and the service held in the church of San Antonio, Belize, on that occasion: Thirteen of them [the locusts] are caught in a milpa and taken to the church, where, shut up in a receptacle, they are placed on the altar. Four black beeswax candles are lit, and a service is held. After the service the thirteen locusts are returned to the milpa from which they were taken (Thompson 1930: 52). The black beeswax candles are a clear indication that this ritual represents black counter-sorcery through which the

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entire locust swarm is to be returned to the ones who sent them.322 The formula used on the occasion is equally applied to rats (ibid.). In the Thompson (TH 129) and Wirsing variants (WR 185), the jars holding the biters and destroyers are, once opened, handed to a man who is to throw them into the lake or sea.323 These containers are like the gourds or other containers holding the evils extracted by a curer, which are inevitably to be discarded somewhere outside the area of human habitation. If they are not discarded, the contagion will spread everywhere. In most variants, this is precisely what happens: The man charged with casting out the biters succumbs to curiosity and opens the jars.324 Fever Vessels Not only the biters and destroyers themselves belong to the sphere of shamanic warfare, the jars in which, according to Qeqchi myth, they originated, and which so terrified their guardians, have similar associations. The receptacle containing thirteen crickets mentioned above is probably a case in point. A Chamula Tzotzil tale is more explicit, in that it has a sorcerer putting worms, bats and smoke in a pot and locating it alongside a road; passing by the spot, the intended victims were contaminated by the pots contents (Gossen 1974: 269, Text 29). The stratagem is similar to an incident from the early wars of the Kiches, in which the wives of the tribal leaders uncovered four jars filled with stinging hornets, wasps, and snakes, so as to bring a decisive defeat

322

Thompson (1930: 52) somewhat navely commented: Presumably, this is done so that they may carry the message to their fellow locusts. 323 Disposal in the sea was a common procedure. The worm responsible for toothache, for example, was thrown out into the sea and tied to aquatic plants by a crab (Gordon 1915: 112), or imprisoned in a conch (Ritual of the Bacabs, in Roys 1965: MS pp. 166, 170). 324 A very similar disposal episode is part of Gulf Coast maize hero myth. There, the ashes of the cannibalistic Old Adoptive Mother, on being unpacked, are converted into various sorts of evil creatures, usually insects (e.g., Ichon 1969: 259), but at times including snakes and other creeping animals (e.g., Elson 1947: 202-203). In Oaxacan Sun and Moon myth, it is the ashes of a man-eating animal, rather than those of the old woman herself, which are to be cast out but change into biting insects (e.g., Mixe, Lipp 1992: 75-76).

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over the Seven Tribes325 the four jars of the Kiche ancestresses being reminiscent of the four jars with bees in the 1926 Dieseldorff variant of Qeqchi Hummingbird myth (DD 5). The use of the jar as a sort of biological weapon is not restricted to Mesoamerica, and particularly its symbolism among the Desana Tukanos of Colombia can help us to bring the meaning of the jars in Qeqchi myth into sharper focus. In discussing the banishing of disease agents, Reichel-Dolmatoff (1977: 95) describes the throwing of a vessel resembling a jar for holding intoxicating beverages, but filled with mosquitoes. This vessel is considered to be female, and the author argues that the practice of using it as a weapon should be understood in the context of exogamic marital relations: A vessel full of disease is a well-known metaphor among the Desana and, generally, represents a forbidden marriage-partner. Sometimes it is said of an evil pay [shaman] that he will hide such a vessel near a maloca [communal house] or the landing place of an enemy, who then will be stung by mosquitoes. By analogy with the Tukano fever vessel, the womb-like jars of poisonous snakes and insects in Qeqchi myth could be taken to symbolize Mountain-Valleys refusal to make the female womb of his daughter available for marriage and human procreation: Through his anger, another forbidden female marriage partner is transformed into a vessel full of disease, and misalliance becomes the origin of death. Another Pregnancy The theme of equipping black sorcerers for casting disease, inherent in the birth and empowerment of biters and destroyers, is further elaborated upon in the mythical episode of Moons abduction by the black vultures and her subsequent cohabitation with their king. This king is called by an evasive term for the Devil, Ma-us-ajcuink (Not-good Man; CT 55ff, WR 72ff). For some, he can assume the shape of a king vulture (TH 130). In all likelihood, Ma-us is a god of evil sorcery. In the myth, he is also called Aj Tza (WR 75), a common term for the devil, which Burkitt renders as The Enemy (1902: 446). As such, this figure is invoked in rituals of black sorcery (Burkitt 1902: 445). Moreover, Ma-us Not-Good has a namesake

325

Ttulo de Totonicapn fols. 11v-12v, in Carmack and Mondloch (1983: 179 and corresponding notes); cf. Chonay and Goetz (1974: 173-174).

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among the Nahuas of the northern mountains of Puebla, namely Ahmo-cualli Not-Good, who is represented by owls and vultures. This deity is invoked by shape-shifting sorcerers and sends mortal diseases to his victims (Signorini and Lupo 1989: 143-145). Mopan variants (U 178, V 52) have explicitly drawn the obvious consequence from Moons cohabitation with the Evil One: her pregnancy. Sun violently causes her to abort by kicking her belly, and the goddess gives birth, either to young vultures (V) or to snakes, toads, lizards, and scorpions (U). In the latter case, the original biters and destroyers have thus reappeared, but now exclusively as the offspring of an evil sorcerer and only to be immediately killed off.326 There is a similarity between the goddesss pregnancy and the pseudopregnancy of the bewitched Yucatec woman from Dzitas noted earlier, whose swollen belly held snakes and insects. A Tzotzil example from Chenalh (Guiteras Holmes 1961: 254) connects pseudo-pregnancy directly to cohabitation with a sorcerer. A woman suffering from pains in the abdomen and with difficulties in defecating has frightening dreams in which a baby appears who then turns into a man with whom she copulates. Her husband tells her that it is Tentacin, responsible for the maladies, Temptation being one of the many aspects of the Evil One. In a similar vein, a Yucatec sorcerer asks a client about his prospective victim: Do you want me to make her shit snakes? [...] Do you want me to make her give birth to a gopher? (Burns 1983: 136). The line separating pseudo-pregnancy from true pregnancy is not always a sharp one: If a pregnant girl or woman denies having had sexual intercourse, it is thought by many Pedranos that the pregnancy was caused by evil sorcery (Guiteras 1961: 102), and abortion is induced by a healer (id.: 105). Conversely, women may bewitch men. When a man dreams about women soliciting men on the marketplace to make them marry them, this signifies danger to the soul, for we know that woman is illness (id.: 271). One way to deal with such sorcery stories would be to take sexual intrusion resulting from cohabitation with a (generally female) victim as a specific form of generation of disease by object intrusion. In any case, the obvious interaction with European witch beliefs concerning succubus and
326

Among the Tzeltales, when the power to work evil came from the devil, sorcery was illegitimate, and the sorcerers were liable to be killed. It was said that such evildoers descended from a woman seduced by the devil (Nash 1973: 221; cf. Holland 1978: 133).

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incubus should not deceive us into considering these stories to be extraneous to native ways of thought. To the contrary, they are firmly bound to traditional indigenous perceptions about the relations between the sexes, the nature of woman, and the role that sexuality can play in connecting human to non-human worlds. The Lust of Creation and the Origin of Disease The twofold origin of disease in Qeqchi-Mopan Hummingbird myth is basically a sexual one, since either it is the indirect consequence of an illicit cohabitation of Hummingbird and his fiance that, upon discovery, prompts the fatal flight, or it is the direct result of an even less desirable cohabitation with Not-Good. Although this specific myth about the origin of poison and disease does not seem to occur among other groups, it shares its basic notion of a sexual origin of disease agents with the most important early colonial collection of Mayan curing rituals, the Ritual of the Bacabs (Roys 1965; cf. Arzpalo Marn 1987). This manuscript, written in Yucatec, opens with a series of eleven rituals for tancas (MS pp. 1-90), a term usually referring to seizures and epileptic fits. Whatever the specific name of the tancas, in each case the actual disease agents mentioned are snakes, lizards, wasps, and ants. The next series of six rituals (MS pp. 90-115) mainly concerns kak (fire, fever, inflammation), a term specifically referring to skin diseases. Again, the symptoms are all caused by the same sort of small animals. Accordingly, more recent names for kak diseases largely refer to snakes, wasps, and similar creatures (Roys 1931, in Thompson 1972: 50). In Qeqchi myth and in the Ritual of the Bacabs, these disease agents are the ultimate outcome of sexual transgression. In Qeqchi myth, an illegitimate sexual union, brought about by love magic, precedes the birth of disease. The resulting pregnancy takes the form of gestation in womb-like containers, with the husband playing a ritual role; menstrual blood is viewed as the origin of disease. In the Ritual of the Bacabs, the evil creatures appear to be a direct result of negatively valued sexual lust.327 Thus, in the context of the
327

Mara Montolu Villar (1990) made an attempt to link the Qeqchi myth to the Ritual of the Bacabs by way of a folktale from Izamal, Yucatan, while emphasizing the notion of sexual transgression leading to the origin of disease. It has already been noted (in Chapter Five) that, apart from its conclusion, the Izamal tale is a faithful narrative

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origin of the disease or rather, its agents (as on MS pp. 171-172) one time and again comes upon expressions such as u col chab u col akab (with its variants, cool and coil), rendered by Roys as lust (or lewdness) of [male] creation and [female] darkness (1965: xv).328 In most cases, these expressions are used either to refer to the disease agents or to address them. Roys (1965: xii) further notes that the shaman recounts its [the diseases] parentage often only on the mothers side. If a father is mentioned at all, he is in most cases called by what would seem to be a title of the upper god in his punitive aspect (cf. Roys 1965: xvii). On the other hand, for the mother or, more often, mothers there is a staggering array of female names and titles, their occurrence depending on the sort of affliction. It is primarily on the female side that the specificity of the disease is being established. With regard to the etiology of disease, both the specific notion of intrusion (of snakes into the belly, wasps into the head, worms into the teeth) and the more general one of bite or sting (chibal) are prevalent. As in the Qeqchi myth, the idea of poisoning is implied in both cases. Terms for heat or power with the primary implication of poison and a secondary one of medicine are common (kinam, cabil, dzacal). In addition to this, the diseaseagent is stated to receive its poison from a deity. It falls in a certain direction, at the place of the deity, and there vomits, licks blood or froth, and takes its poison (e.g., MS pp. 7-8, 66-67). The viscous poison (cabil) in particular was believed to stick to the back of spiders and creeping creatures (Motul dictionary, in Barrera Vsquez 1980: 278 s.v. kab), a belief that harmonizes well with the way they received their poison in the Cruz Torres tale. Moreover, at the beginning of a short incantation for the cure of a spider bite, one finds an etiology (MS p. 157) closely approximating the canoe scene itself: Three days were you apart in the trough [or canoe, chemil] of the earth. Ah Uuc-ti-cab [Lord Seven-Earth]; then, how [thus], you took the viscous poison of your back. Considering the fact that, in the Cruz Torres variant, the poison came from tobacco juice, making its cure with tobacco possible, it is instructive to compare the canoe of Uuc-ti-cab, filled with poison, to another
expression of the Plumeria seizure described in the Ritual of the Bacabs (MS pp. 3031, in Roys 1965: 11, 76). 328 Three pairings are recurrent: kin - akab (day night), chab - sihil (creation birth), and chab - akab (creation night). It should be noted that kin - u (sun moon) is nowhere found to substitute for one of these pairs.

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canoe filled with tobacco juice mentioned in a cure for asthma (MS pp. 6482).329 The word used is again chem(il), meaning both canoe and trough. The disease agent gets its poison by falling to various places in the east, the last of which is a canoe (MS pp. 66-67). It remains virulent until it arrives, at the end of a ritual circuit, at the canoe in the south (MS p. 80): Then he entered to the front of the trough [or canoe], its front. For four days he would drink the juice of the red tobacco, the white tobacco, the black tobacco. Then he would be asleep; then he would be curled up. Finally, the marginal area of the seashore where the evil creatures are born from their containers and where they should have been cast back into the sea is also found in the Ritual of the Bacabs. In this case, the shores of sea and lagoon are repeatedly mentioned as the place where disease agents fall down to cause damage.330 From these, and from the other parallels just reviewed (to which the thirteen ritual jars mentioned under Herbal Substitutes also belong), it seems safe to conclude that Qeqchi myth, especially in its Cruz Torres rendering, offers a variation on themes and motifs already present in early Yucatec curing rituals. Indeed, its specific configuration of these elements is arguably the most important mythological expression of Mayan ethnomedical lore to have survived.

329

For an insightful discussion of the asthma ritual, see Rtsch and Kayum Maax (1986: 137ff). 330 The beach is mentioned, in the Roys edition (1965), on MS pp. 37, 38 (tarantulafever); 54, 60 (wasp-seizure); 64-85 (asthma); 109, 112, 113 (red ulcers); 118 (snakepulsation in the abdomen); 131 (snakes and worms in the abdomen); and 140 (wasppoisoning).

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CHAPTER 8

TRANSFORMATIONS OF WOMAN: MAIZE SEEDS

The alliance with the daughter of the mountain is a precondition for the existence of the man made of meat, and the same holds true in the case of the latters complement, the man made of maize. The daughter of Tzuultaqa who in the bridal service versions where she is usually changed into animals assisted Hummingbird in cultivating the maize is, in some bridal capture versions, changed into the maize herself. In an Ixil Hummingbird tale (Yurchenco 2006: 87-88), the maiden contains in her belly the kernel that, fertilized by Hummingbird, gives origin to the maize upon her destruction by her father; in the tales considered below, however, the Mesoamerican concept of the mountain as a maize granary is paramount. Applying the same reasoning as in the other versions, I shall argue that the relation between Hummingbird and his maize wife prefigures that between the maize farmer and the sowing seeds. Hummingbird Myth as a Maize Mountain Myth The Qeqchi Sun and Moon legend as set out by Thompson is preceded by the story of the Former Sun(s) and concluded by the ascent of Sun, Moon, and Venus into the sky. The epic tale of origins is incomplete, however, since at that time, mankind had no maize or other agricultural plants. They and the animals lived on fruits and the roots they found in the forest. However, there was maize in the world. It was hidden under a great rock (Thompson 1930: 132). When the discovery of the maize treasure had been made, and the rock had been split by lightning deities, the maize seeds became available to mankind and to the associated maize-eating animals. The Pipil myth of the rain brothers (Schultze-Jena) has its heroes first defeat the Old Adoptive Mother and her lover, and then open the Maize Mountain and introduce agriculture. The sequence in the Popol Vuh is identical (and, indeed, may have served Thompson as a model for his presentation): Once the Twins have ascended into the sky after having made the earth inhabitable by defeating the predominant powers of disease and death, the tale of the discovery of the maize and the splitting of the

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Maize Mountain is told. The tale of the opening of the Maize Mountain belongs to a wider Mesoamerican tradition; in its Aztec rendition according to the Annals of Cuauhtitlan, it involves both a deity who is to become the sun (Nanahuatzin) and the hero Quetzalcoatl transformed into an ant. Most of the variants of the Maize Mountain myth do not ask how the maize seeds became imprisoned in the mountain. However, Qeqchis and Poqomchis have raised and answered this crucial question by making Hummingbird responsible for it. In this more complete rendition of the Maize Mountain myth, the first part constitutes another version of Hummingbird myth.331 The Storage Chambers of the Earth The Qeqchi Hummingbird, or Sun, not only has a role to play in the areas of hunting and curing, he is also vitally important to agriculture. Suns agricultural role already transpires in the main version of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth. In the adultery episode, Sun is pictured as a farmer sowing his maize field, an activity ritually requiring absolute peace and harmony; instead, his wife, Moon, is having an affair with his elder brother (see Chapter Eleven). Moreover, among the harmful creatures that escaped from the twelve jars, there were (in the Wilson variant) also agricultural evils, such as crickets (locusts) and rats. In the Qeqchi Hummingbird tale to be considered first (Cuz 2001: 3134), the roles of Sun and Moon are similar to those in all other Hummingbird myths discussed so far. The tale was collected in the framework of a project on Mayan spirituality organized by the Qeqchi branch of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, for which interviews with traditional Mayan farmers and their wives were conducted. On their flight, the hero and his wife cross a large expanse of water without being harmed, and follow the course of a river. Next, Hummingbird magically constructs a rock house, i.e. a cave, and urges his wife, Lady Moon, to enter it:

331

References to the sources will be found in Appendix B. The abbreviated name of the author is followed by the page number(s).

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the woman, Lady Moon, is already pregnant. [] The moment came that they arrived in the desert.332 They took a rest, the man [Saqe Sun] came, and whistled [kixxuyba] to the rocks, xuy xuy xuy he said. Thereupon he started to construct a rock house, he left a small peeping hole in it. When that had succeeded, the man said to the young woman, Now you shall stay here. You only [?kinaawisa] , said she. That is not what you have told me, she said to him. No, I shall see to you, I shall love you, the man said to her. Oh! no, that is not true. It doesnt matter, because it is necessary for you to take care of our children. You shall give them whatever they need. When they want the seed of the red maize, the white maize, the yellow maize, you will give it to them. Because that is your work, that you will be staying here. You will give them their food and drink, so that the food of all that is ours will not stop and finish, of our great-grandchildren and of our animals. In such a way our grandfathers and grandmothers have worked the holy Mountain-Valley. (My trans.) One may note the quarreling, which traditionally characterizes the relationship between Sun and Moon. Nonetheless, the tales intention is serious. Apparently, the Moon the first woman to bear children is treated as the first ancestress of mankind, of our children and of our grandfathers and grandmothers. At the same time, the meaning of her pregnancy is ambiguous. If it seems that she is pregnant of human children, one should also consider that during the period of ritual abstention surrounding the first sowing, the maize is the pregnant woman who is going to give birth (Hatse and De Ceuster 2001a: 54). The cave created by her husband, Sun, is thus first of all intended as a house of birth, and then, also, as a storehouse for the maize seeds. The role assigned to Moon, dispensing the maize seeds, manifests the vital importance of the phases of the Moon for sowing and the subsequent development of the plants. To this point, we have been dealing with a tale that at only one point shows a sign of the context in which it was produced. When, during their flight from the girls father, Sun and Moon had to cross a water, Sun first talked to

332

The significance of this desert (chaqichoch dry earth) is unclear. The motif could stem from the popular story of Mary and Josephs flight into Egypt (compare Chapter Five, Hummingbird Myth in Petitioners Speech) and also, perhaps, serve to symbolize the dry season and the dry seeds.

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three turtles. Then, Moon entered the carapace of one of these, so that the three turtles, they bear the earth on their heads [aaneb nakebiton li ruuchichoch], so that we use in our prayer the expression tzaqol bitool [roughly, one whose turn it is to carry on the head]. It is probable that here, the names of two of the creator deities in the Popol Vuh have been reinterpreted. As it happens, the book containing the tale is introduced by a prayer, taken from the Popol Vuh and translated into Qeqchi, which starts with the invocation: You, Our Lord Tzaqol, Bitol! The Hummingbird tale quoted above has a sequel. Regarding the directive, You will give them their food and drink, so that the food of all that is ours will not stop and finish, the narrator counters certain voices of doubt: It has been said that the holy maize is depleted, but that is not true, and continues: There still is [maize] where the sun goes up, where the sun goes under, where the wind goes up, where the wind goes under,333 through the holy Moon, the holy Sun, when they went around the world, when they gave its name to each of the holy storehouses [kuulebaal] of the seed, in this way: [1] Our Father Kawoq-Kaaq [Thunder]. Where the Sun goes up, that is, the house of the red corn ear. [2] Imox. Ququmatz-Tepeyak. Where the wind goes up, that is, the house of the white corn ear. [3] Aqabal. Qeq [Black]. Aakab [Dark]-Chijolom. Where the sun goes under, that is, the house of the black corn ear. [4] Qaniil. Paxiil-Tibelej. Where the wind goes under, that is, the house of the yellow corn ear. These four are called Jwalchan. (My transl.) Normally, the colors of the maize are said to originate through the heat of the lightnings opening up the Maize Mountain, but since in the present tale there is no lightning, the existence of variously colored maize ears is explained by reference to solar positions visible at the horizon.334 In the passage above, the yellow maize is associated with Paxiil-Tibelej, i.e. Paxiil-Flesh. Paxiil is the
333

In Burkitts The Hill and the Corn (1920: 199 n. 11), one finds the expression between the sun and the wind (saxyanq li saqe jowi li iq); Burkitt interprets it here as between the rising sun, and a wind probably blowing from the south. 334 Not unexpectedly, the ears of four colors can also be personified by four maidens, as shown by a story from San Pedro Soloma, beyond the Qeqchi region (R. Montejo, in Navarrete 2000: 58-59).

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traditional name for the Maize Mountain, mentioned not only in the Popol Vuh, but also in many tales from other ethnic groups (Miles 1960; Navarrete 2000); the addition of Flesh renders it virtually synonymous with the Nahua name for the Maize Mountain, Tonacatepetl Mountain of Our Flesh. The classification according to the four directional colors is unusual in that they are associated with four days of the 260-day calendar (Kawoq, Imox, Aqabal, Qaniil). Although popular within the Maya Movement, this calendar is no longer in use among the traditional Qeqchis. The day names stem from Guatemalas dominant Mayan group, the Kiches (who still use the 260-day calendar), and are in part provided with Qeqchi translations. Since the Popol Vuh creator deities, Ququmatz and Tepeyak, are also mentioned, this part of the text betrays a syncretism of Kiche and Qeqchi notions.335 The final part of the tale (C 34) expands the fourfold classification while focusing on the mountains as resting places for Sun and Moon during their travels: When Our Father Sun together with Lady Moon went around the world, they first went to where the sun goes up to rest on Kaqi Pek [Red Rock]. Second, they went to where the wind goes up to rest on Tepeyak. Third, they went to rest where the sun goes under on Xjolom Pek. Fourth, they went to rest on the Jwalchan. There they left the holy maize. Happily they left the holy maize, happily each of them was in the holy Mountain-Valley, on the holy rocks. (My trans.) A short parallel passage (Cuz 2002: 19) adds a fifth mountain, simply called the Middle (li Xyi). Taking everything together, the cavernous storehouse of the maize seeds where Hummingbird left his wife is placed within a fourfold classification of mountains and their associated maize ears, together representing the holy (loqlaj) landscape, or Tzuultaqa which is also the name of the aged father of Moon. This landscape is clearly analogous to the maize field in the ritual of the first deposition of the seeds: The seeds are planted in the center of the field, where the altar is, and in its four corners

335

It cannot be entirely excluded that this part of the text has to some extent been influenced by staff members of the Spirituality Project.

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(Knoke 1981: 143 ff; Wilson 1995: 102; Hatse and De Ceuster 2001b: 106ff).336 I believe that the present version of Sun and Moon myth goes a long way in resolving Wilsons perplexity at finding (1995: 103-106) that in the justmentioned ritual, called taking possession of the maize field (chapok kal),337Father Sun and Mother Moon were among the first deities to be invoked. The Sun is otherwise absent from rituals pertaining to the land; the Moon represents women, who are generally excluded from ritual sowings. According to the tale, however, this primeval couple, in defiance of the patriarchal and fearsome Tzuultaqa, took possession of the world, conceived as a maize field. In so doing they were able to assist their progeny, mankind, in its cultivation. The woman in the cave recurs in a brief and much more syncretic Qeqchi tale told by a man from the Alta Verapaz living in El Estor (MR/B 125), in which the Moon guarding the maize seeds has become a princess with very white maize teeth, born on a night when the moon was full. One morning while she was taking a bath, she heard a voice say to her, Follow those footsteps that you see and you will meet a very special man. The tracks led her to the entrance of a cave. Inside she met the man that the voice had told her about and she stayed with him for some time. One day she found out that there was a famine in her land because numerous mice had eaten all the corn seeds. The princess returned to her father who said to her, Go and look for corn seeds because the children and old people are going to die of hunger. The princess began to walk and walk. One night she went to sleep and when she awoke, she was in her lovers cave. She cried and told the man about what was happening in her town. He said to her, Return to your village and tell the men to work the earth. Afterwards, take out your teeth and plant them. She did as he instructed and the milpas grew and grew and produced grains of white corn. Now there was no more hunger and nobody died because of the lack of food. Each time that you see corn, think of the princess who planted her teeth to save lives in her village.
336

There would appear to be an analogy with taking possession of a territory in the parallel rites of the hunters and warriors, with arrows substituting for digging-sticks. In Huaxtec narrative, for example, the mythical demarcation of the first maize field occurs when the maize hero shoots an arrow towards each of the fields four corners (Alcorn 1984: 341). 337 For some reason, Wilson opted for the awkward translation grab crop.

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Although Hummingbird and his love magic are absent, the El Estor tale can still be considered a variant of Hummingbird myth, albeit an atypical one. By comparison with our first tale, the cave constructed by Hummingbird has become the lovers cave, and Hummingbirds instruction to give the farmers (being his own children) their sowing seed has become a more general instruction to tell the men to work the earth, and then to plant his wifes teeth, or maize kernels, for them. Moreover, the womans father, left behind in the first tale, is still present and acting in the background. The princess returns to him, and this return motif equally characterizes the Hummingbird variants to be discussed presently. First, however, it may be worth demonstrating the similarity of the El Estor tale to the Hummingbird myth by comparing it to another origin tale of the maize, one that does not belong to the Hummingbird group. In a Kiche tale from Cantel (Weisshaar and Hostnig 1995: 4-7), God sent a young woman with a yellow skin to the earth. Having first been courted by a lazy man called The Dreamer whom she rejected, she then felt that someone called her to the mountain, where she entered a cave. On her own request, she was ritually killed there. Later, a brave young man called The Whistler (Ajxub) passed the cave, entered, and saw a maize stalk, which told him: Bring me to your house and sow me in the earth. [] I will be your flesh and your bones. You only have to thank God when you eat me. The bringing home of the bride turned into a joyous procession in which the whole community participated, with the young maize stalk high above the heads on a litter the procession being in fact the feast of Cantels own Virgin. Again, the notion of a marriage to the maize is put forward, first in the courtship of the Dreamer, then in the invitation to the parallel figure of the Whistler to take the maize woman to his home. Various motifs of the El Estor tale recur: The father (or rather, God the Father), the dream-like voice directing the woman to the cave, her transplantation to a community, and the sowing of (parts of) her body. At the same time, the correspondence to the present episode in the Hummingbird tales, with its strong emphasis on the affinal tie to the Tzuultaqa, has notably diminished. In the final three Hummingbird tales, the woman, protected by the turtle carapace, has not been hurt by Lightning, and the couple continues its voyage. According to Schumanns composite Qeqchi Hummingbird tale (SCH 214), from Purula (Baja Verapaz) and Chamelco (Alta Verapaz):

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For days they kept fleeing, until they came to a cave. There the three of them [including the turtle, EB] entered and she had relations with the man, and when she was already certain that she was expecting a child, she asked the man to go to her home and to convince her father that he should forgive them and that then they would return to live with him. A Poqomchi variant from San Cristbal Verapaz (Mayers 1958: 6) is in agreement: [] the baby began to form. Lets go they said. Lets go now with our father said the girl. Okay, he said and they came and found a rock cliff [tzakrep] or a stone house [pet abaj]. I will inform your father first, he said. Okay, she said. However, while Hummingbird was on his way to restore the relation with the Grandfather of his child, the cave started to close itself, and the woman and the turtle stayed within. Afterwards only a cliff remained and no one could see that there was a cave in that place. The woman stayed in the cave forever changed into maize (SCH); or: The girl stayed in the rock place [pan abaj] from then on. She turned into corn (M). Having explained how the maize came to be in the mountain, the tales proceed to set out the tale of the opening of the Maize Mountain. The details of this episode lie largely outside the scope of this study (for a recent discussion, see Navarrete 2000), except for one point: The relation of the Maize Womans father to the upper god ordering the opening of the Maize Mountain. The Schumann variant distinguishes between the father of the girl and Dios, the Mayers variant between the father of the girl (rajaw i xukun, actually the girls lord or master), and Our Father (Kajaw), who is also the Our Father of the Lords Prayer. These differences may be due to the imperfect integration of Hummingbird myth and Maize Mountain myth; the oldest variant, that of Tiburcio Caal, calls both figures by the same name, that of a specific Tzuultaqa: Xucaneb Mountain. Finally, the Santa Cruz Verapaz Poqomchi variant (BM) presents a complication of the plot by introducing another male character. The fugitives continue to be pursued once they have crossed the sea. They construct stone walls on three mountains to hold up the angry Grandfather. These mountains

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Don Juan, Don Paxil, and Don Pablo are all considered to be (probably in a metaphorical sense) fathers of the maize (BM 71 n. 13); they seem to take the place of the four resting-places of Sun and Moon mentioned in the Qeqchi tale we started with, all these mountains serving as store-houses for the maize seed, with Paxiil occurring in both tales. When the old man is halted by these obstacles, he orders two hawks to continue the pursuit, but to no avail: When Kiche Winak had left the mountains behind, he arrived at the house of a man from Rabinal, to whom he gave the girl in charge for seven years,338 instructing him to deposit her afterwards in a cave situated in these mountains and to leave three candles of twenty-five pesos each for her to have light. Then Kiche Winak ascended into the sky and changed into the Sun. The Rabinal man accomplished his duty. He sought a cave the entrance of which had a small opening and there he left the girl. Once inside the cave, she changed into the maize and for a long time, nobody knew that in this place there existed such a cereal. The three candles are likely to reflect agricultural ritual related to sowing, as appears from information gathered by Wilson (1995: 94). He was told that during the planting vigil, the seeds are being born. They must have light for this because the seed cannot be born in the darkness; and therefore, a candle is inserted in the basket with maize seeds on the house altar. The three candles left in the cave alternate with the turtle carrier that according to the Schumann variant was taken into the cave. This single turtle carrier corresponds to the three turtle carriers of the Cuz variant. Since the traditional Qeqchis pay much attention to the nocturnal sky, it is not impossible that these three turtles refer to a constellation of three stars signaling sowing time,339 Turtle being such a Mayan constellation. The three candles could equally symbolize a

Seven is the number of the Earth. There are seven maize seeds in one sowing-hole, seven tonal patterns of the music for the maize, seven tamales for the assisting sowers (Knoke 1981: 145-148); esoteric lore pertaining to the Earth should be kept secret for seven years (Cabarrs 1979: 51); etc. 339 In San Juan Chamelco (Knoke 1981: 144), the ritual proceedings on the day of sowing start when one of the three main stars of dawn is in a certain position; whether these stars belong to one and the same constellation, remains unclear. Another possibility would be the three stars in Orion (see Milbrath 1999: 266-268).

338

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constellation. These considerations notwithstanding, the meaning of the turtle, a recurring element in the Poqomchi tales, remains obscure.340 In the above five tales, a progressive transformation of the kidnapped cave woman into the maize is notable. In the first tale, she is the Moon dispensing maize seeds; in the second tale, she already evinces maize teeth; while in the last three tales, she completely changes into the maize. Hummingbird has been courting a woman generally representing the helpfulness and fertility of the earth, which can manifest itself in animals as well as in plants, especially the maize. As will be shown in another section, this relationship betrays a significant analogy with that between the farmer and the earth and maize. Between War and Alliance: A Perspective from Cobn The theft of the Maize Mother followed by the opening of the Maize Mountain is also the subject of an intriguing tale first published, for philological purposes, by Robert Burkitt (1918, 1920) under the title The Hills and the Corn. A Legend of the Kekch Indians of Guatemala Put in Writing by the Late Tiburtius Kal and Others. The text is in Qeqchi, reliably translated into English and annotated by Burkitt.341 Apart from the fact that it represents the oldest example of the tale type under discussion, its interest also resides in the strong exposition of the myths political dimension, already encountered in the Poqomchi narrative about the Fierce Warrior, Quiche Uinaq, given by Bcaro Moraga. Since the tale is in some respects idiosyncratic, however, it should not be approached uncritically.342
340

In a Tamahu variant (M-b 92), for example, the oriole takes a turtle with it into a tree to find out the whereabouts of the two fugitives; in another Tamahu variant (M-b 93), when they wished to pay their debt to the turtle they cracked open his shell. And he went into his house of rock [his cave]. And he was told that he would never again come out of his house of rock [cave]. 341 The tale has later been republished in Spanish by Lola Villacorta Vidarre (1949) and, in part, by Quirn (1974), who also gives the Qeqchi text. There are minor disagreements between Burkitts and Quirns vernacular texts, but these do not affect the tales intelligibility. I have based myself on the Burkitt 1920 edition. In spelling the actors names, I have largely followed Quirn. 342 Bassie-Sweet (2008: 181-193) accepts the tale at face value and, without argument, takes it to be the original model for the bridal capture version of Qeqchi Hummingbird myth. She even refers to the latters characters by the names of the various mountain

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The Status of the Tale The Hills and the Corn is not a verbatim record, but a composite text resulting from an editorial process, and some doubt has been cast on its overall authenticity. According to Burkitt (1920: 184), 343 it happened that two of the men that I got hold of, one of them a Cobn man, and the other a Carch man, each knew something of this tale it was a tale I had heard something of before and I got each man to write out for me what he knew. The two writings, when they were done, of course were not alike. And it turned out that one of the two men, the Cobn man, not only wrote much better than the other, but knew much more of the story. At the same time that other man, who knew less of the story, knew an interesting part of it that the Cobn man didnt know. What I did then, I had the Cobn man read the other mans story, and incorporate the other mans story with his own. Some paragraphs of his own were dropped, and new paragraphs were added. The important point made here is that both men gave their versions of an existing story that, in the light of the tales that I have already reviewed, must have been part of oral tradition. Equally important is the role played by the principal writer, Tiburcio Caal. Tiburcio Caal (1854-1918), whom Dieseldorff (1926: 16) somewhat misleadingly called a cacique or local political boss, was the chief man the father ov the town, az they say among the Koban Indians (Burkitt 1920: 185). In fact, Cobn had long been a town with many Qeqchi-speaking residents, and Caal was preeminent among them. From Eduardo Portocarreros booklet about the history of Cobn (1919: 109-112), we learn that he was far from being a nave man.344 He had been an Infantry Lieutenant, director of an evening school, Cofrade Principal of Cobns most important confraternity, Third Alcalde and Juez de Paz. In 1899, he had played a decisive role in an equitable distribution of land among Qeqchi peasants. Burkitt briefly and sympathetically sketches the portrait of a cultivated man of letters who had

actors of The Hills and the Corn. This unfortunate procedure reflects her overall tendency to conflate distinct myths. 343 In the quotation, I have not adopted the idiosyncratic English spelling devised by Burkitt. 344 The point needs emphasizing, since Burkitt (1920: 196 n. 1), in a rather patronizing tone, wrote: In the belief of Tiburtius and the Indians, ov course, the tale iz a true tale.

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made a hobby ov reading and riting in Indian. He had even invented an alfabet for Indians. Portocarrero adds that among Caals papers were found a Qeqchi vocabulary, very complete and full of learned observations, a treatise on indigenous mythology, and yet another one, very imaginative [fantstico] and very poetical, which he entitles Love affairs of the Mountains and the latters Wars [Amoros de los Cerros y Guerras de los mismos]. The last-mentioned manuscript is very likely a version of Burkitts published text, or else, quite possibly, the Burkitt text was extracted from it (Burkitt writes that Caal had promised to come forward with other fairy tales). From the above, it is in any case clear that Tiburcio Caal had a strong and serious interest in native culture and oral tradition, and built upon an existing folk tale. The narrative resulting from the interaction of Caal with his co-writer from Carch has been criticized by Carlos Navarrete (2000: 75, 81) on the basis of a Spanish translation by Lola Villacorta Vidarre as a semi-literary construct, in which only the part dealing with the opening of the Maize Mountain could be considered authentic (in the sense of belonging to a longstanding peasant oral tradition). It is not hard to counter most of Navarretes objections. Some relate to style and plot. The style of the Qeqchi text is not particularly literary, and even if it were, the content could still be authentic, as the Cruz Torres variant of Sun and Moon myth shows in its own way. The notion of a kidnapping out of love may seem to be a theatrical, operatic motif, but it is also present in most Hummingbird myths and reflects an aspect of traditional Mayan bridal capture practice. The fact that instead of Owners of mountains, we meet named mountains speaking and acting like persons is as will be explained presently entirely within Qeqchi (and Mesoamerican) tradition. Nonetheless, there remains one argument that is more difficult to counter: There is no apparent logic in Xucanebs decision to store his maize with the suitor of his daughter, at the very moment his daughter has been kidnapped by another lover. It may be noted that this very shortcoming also renders it unlikely that the cultivated Caal made the story up, and intended to write something acceptable for an educated Ladino public. But more importantly, as I shall argue, it is this very lack of narrative logic that calls our attention to the tales structure and to the message it implies. Although it is at present impossible to penetrate the process whereby it came into being, The Hills and the Corn, put together by two knowledgeable Qeqchi men, originated at a time when traditional indigenous culture was still much more

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intact than it is now. The choice is between rejecting the tale altogether or taking it as an interesting specimen of Qeqchi narrative tradition that in principle should be discussed on a par with the other tales in this chapter. I have opted for the second alternative. The Role of the Mountains The actors of the myth are all existing mountains behaving like persons. This is a general feature of Highland Mayan oral tradition and is especially characteristic of Qeqchi tales. The mountains are living (yoyo). They have the quality of wiinqilal, or personhood, a concept that applies only to mountains and people (Wilson 1995: 53). The tale of the opening of the Maize Mountain aptly demonstrates this. In a Qeqchi variant from Rubelpec (Cruz Torres 1965: 85-97), a whole array of deities representing existing mountains is mobilized to free the maize, amongst them Qana Itzam. The place where one lives influences the choice of the mountains. Thus, within the same tale type, the Maize Mountain is represented by Rubelpec mountain in the Cruz Torres tale (1965: 85-97), but by Sac Lech Mountain in the Tiburcio Caal tale (only Sac Lech, however, being personified). The deity cleaving the Maize Mountain is Chichil Mountain in the tale from Rubelpec, Yaluk Mountain in the Belize tale given by Thompson (1930: 132-135), and Puclum Mountain in the Tiburcio Caal tale. At the same time, the mythological character represented by Chichil, Yaluk, and Puclum remains basically the same (an old, decrepit, but powerful man). The central character of the Tiburcio Caal tale is the overlord of the Earth the role of the Tzuultaqa of the principal Qeqchi version of Hummingbird myth embodied in the highest mountain of the Alta Verapaz, Xucaneb Mountain, which overlooks Cobn from the south-east. There appear to have circulated in the Alta Verapaz quite a number of stories that modulated the plot of the Caal tale and substituted other mountains for Xucaneb. One such story, dating back to 1937 and stemming from the plantation Semococh in the Cahabn area (Curley Garca 1980: 93-97), relates the kidnapping of the daughter of Sillab (Siyab) Mountain and of his wife, Itzam Mountain, by the

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deity of black sorcery (Ma-us), followed by her retrieval in exchange for the maize.345 The actors in the Tiburcio Caal tale have all been geographically projected onto the Xucaneb mountain range running from S. Juan Chamelco to Senah, to the south-east of Cobn (Burkitt 1920: 196 n. 3), in the direction of the basin of the Polochic river where Puklum Mountain is situated (Cruz Torres 1967: 282). The main and significant exception is Sac Lech mountain, which lies in the opposite direction, to the north-west of Cobn (Burkitt 1920: 202 n. 6); and the three lightning gods called Chitsec, which attack and open up Sac Lech Mountain, would appear to refer to the Chisec Mountains just to the north of the Saclech mountain range (cf. Sapper 1936: Karte I; Aguilar 1988 [1841]: 38). Particularly relevant to the authenticity question is that not only Xucaneb Mountain, but also Quix Mes Mountain (the abductor of Xucanebs daughter) was, in the 1980s, still invoked in asking permission for sowing the maize (Wilson 1995: 102); while Puclum mountain was, decades after the death of Tiburcio Caal, still considered the true god of the abundance of the maize (Cruz Torres 1972: 303). The Expanded Maize Mountain Myth of Cobn The Tiburcio Caal narration combines the tale of the kidnapping of the daughter of the Tzuultaqa with the Maize Mountain tale through a twofold integrative mechanism. Firstly, the mountains over which the seeds from the Maize Mountain are finally distributed, are already assigned a role in the first part of the tale, namely as the counselors (taktxi)346 of Xucaneb. Chief amongst these is the oldest, Ma Puclum, the mountain deity that is to open the Maize Mountain in the tales second part. Caal gives a rich description of this figure: wily [deceiver, aj balac], sick [yaj], dropsical [swollen, puch], senile [mam], his back bent by age [hump-backed, cupcu].347 Secondly, the kidnapped

345

In this case, the maize reaches mankind through the intermediary of a toad penetrating into the maize cave (see also Curley Garca 1971: 79-85). 346 The word seems to be used mainly in the pejorative sense of bad counselor (cf. Haeserijn 1979 s.v. tacchi, Sam et al. 1997 s.v. takchi). 347 The Huaxtec Mayas describe their corresponding figure, Muxi, in much the same way (Alcorn 1984: 59).

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woman is put in parallel to the confiscated maize, in a way that calls for closer scrutiny. The resulting tale differs from the composite Hummingbird myths in that the opening of the Maize Mountain does not make the maize available to mankind, but only to animals. Briefly, the story runs as follows. Xucanebs daughter, Suj Quim, has been promised to Sac Lech, her principal marriage suitor (aj tzaam). Suj Quim, however, allows herself to be abducted by another suitor, Quix Mes (Thorn Broom).348 On discovering, one morning, that his daughter had been kidnapped, Xucaneb flew into a rage and immediately summoned his six349 named counselors, the most important of these being the aged and decrepit Puclum. Puclum advises the king to send his dogs, that is, jaguar and puma evidently, his warriors into the territory of his neighbors to search for the abductor. The warriors, however, are captured by Quix Mes and sent back without the daughter. Xucaneb now decides to store his maize with his future son-in-law. His messengers, a gull (or tern)350 and a hawk, carry the proposal to Sac Lech and return with his consent. Xucaneb gathers all his animals and has them transport his maize. The animals shall run free in the woods and are to be fed with the maize seeds hidden in one of the fiancs stone repositories (xkuulebaal pek), or caves. Then, Xucaneb sends another military expedition, headed by his younger brother, Little Xucaneb351, into the territory of Quix Mes, again to no avail. The third and final attempt, however, succeeds. The reversal is brought about by Abaas:

348

Kix Mes Thorn Broom (Burkitt 1920: 200 n. 7); Alix Mes (Burkitt 1918: 281 n. 2) has apparently been misspelled. Quirn omits the glottal stop and spells Quix Mes. 349 Quirn left out one of these counselors. 350 Scissor tail (tijereta), aj calamj HQ / ajxalamj RB, a sea gull whose arrival signals the onset of the rainy season and thus, the first maize sowings (Burkitt 1918: 281 n. 3). 351 Wilson (1990: 73, 79) gives Saq-Tziknel (White Clitoris/Penis/Bird), Christian name S. Vicente, as Xucanebs Younger Brother. This mountain is situated opposite Xucaneb, on the other side of the highland valley which forms the Qeqchi heartland.

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And this wize [aj nawal]352 old woman, the wife ov Master Puklm, made herself ready, and threw herself with a rush on Thorn broom [Quix Mes]. And Thorn broom at once surenderd. Nothing else was he able to say, excepting to beg [xtsaamankl] ov the old woman that she herself would bring them in [ta oksnq eb re] before the great hil Shukanep. So the smart old woman did. And Shukaneps heart waz set at rest when he saw that hiz lost dauter came near to him [lit. at his side]. He forgave Thorn broom who stole her. He recognized him az a good son in law [hibej]. Abaas is like a female marriage negotiator, and the two Qeqchi verbs for beg and bring in are associated with bride petitioning and house entering ceremonies respectively (see Haeserijn 1979 s.v. ocsiinc and tzaam). Quix Mes returns together with the abducted daughter. Xucaneb now dissolves the marriage arrangement with Sac Lech in favor of the repentant abductor, who thus becomes his official son-in-law. On learning that he has been betrayed and unjustly deprived of his prospective bride who in the meantime has married Sac Lech keeps the maize supplies for himself. He hides the maize in one of his caves and denies the animals of Xucaneb their maize-food. Hawk and gull (or tern) bring the disastrous news to Xucaneb. A general famine sets in. This is the point where the tale becomes another variant of the opening of the Maize Mountain. The fox (or mountain cat, yak) discovers the maize cave on encountering leave-cutting ants (tsenek) carrying away the seeds. By spying on the fox (or mountain cat), the other animals discover his secret. They inform Xucaneb of the whereabouts of his maize seeds, and three young bachelors mountains or thunder gods (chitsek) are ordered to cleave the rock with their lightnings. However, only the aged and married fourth thunder god, Puclum, succeeds. Amidst great rejoicing, the animals carry the maize back to Xucaneb, who has it stored in a magnificent room.353 The five varieties of the maize are distributed among the five counselors as feed for their animals. In addition, the animal carriers (probably

352

The direct derivation from nawink know is not quite certain. By itself, nawal could also refer to transformative magic (see Sam et al. 1991 s.v.); aj nawal would then be a transformer. 353 This passage parallels descriptions of the joyous arrival of the harvested maize (e.g., Bunzel 1952: 51).

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five-toed animals) are put under the supervision of the principal counselor, Puclum. The Parallel Gift of the Mountain The narrative as a whole evinces an underlying parallel structure. The elopement of the daughter has a parallel in the untying of Xucanebs animals: While the abducted daughter is out of reach in the mountain territory of Quix Mes, towards the south-east, her fathers animals literally run loose (hitho untied), that is outside their caves or corrals, in the mountain territory of Sac Lech, towards the north-west. There, they are fed with the maize. When Xucanebs daughter is brought back into the custody of her father, her fathers animals and maize return, too. The three military expeditions into the realm of Quix Mes (south-east) are paralleled by the three approaches to Sac Lech (north-west). The warrior scouts, the army headed by Little Xucaneb, and the onrush of the aged woman Abaas match the animal scouts, the attack of the three Lightning Captains, and the decisive attack by the aged husband of Abaas, viz. Ma Puclum. Within the symmetries of the tale, a pivotal role falls to the aged couple, Abaas and Puclum. Abaas liberates Xucanebs daughter from her kidnappers mountain while restoring the proper situation for marriage negotiations. On the other hand, her husband, Puclum, liberates the Mother of the Maize from the other mountain and, leading Xucanebs animals in procession, conducts the Mother of the Maize to a magnificent room in her fathers mountain. This magnificent room probably describes another cave serving as a central storage chamber for the maize seeds. The main symmetry, however, is that between Xucanebs daughter and his maize seeds. As soon as he learns that his daughter has been kidnapped, Xucaneb puts his maize seeds in the hands of his prospective son-in-law, Sac Lech. These maize seeds (iyaj) are the five kinds of the Maize Mother (li oob paay chi xna ixim),354 a customary name for the variously-colored sowing seeds of the maize among the Qeqchis (Burkitt 1920: 204 n. 3; cf. Haeserijn 1979 s.v. na). Xucanebs move hardly motivated by the narrative logic of the plot (as Navarrete justly noted) is comparable to what happens in the Curley

354

Quirn gives ix ixim female maize.

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Garca tale355 briefly mentioned above (1980: 96): The kidnapped daughter of Sillab Mountain is ransomed with her fathers maize harvest, or, to put it differently, her value appears to be convertible into maize seeds.356 Both moves can be explained by the double nature of Tzuultaqas daughter. A comparison with what could be called the Coffee Mother strengthens the idea that Xucanebs daughter and the maize belong together. As noted in a previous chapter, the Mames of Chimaltenango (Watanabe 1992: 67) affirm that the first coffee seeds came to mankind as a marriage gift of Guatemalas tallest volcano, Tajumulco (Rosnaa in Mam), situated about fifty kilometers due south of Paxil Mountain (in the San Marcos department). The first coffee trees came from Rosnaa when Rufino Barrios, the nineteenthcentury president and Liberal reformer of Guatemala, arranged for his son to marry the daughter of this witz [mountain]. The bride brought with her seeds for coffee trees, and Chimaltecos say this is why the first coffee plantations in Guatemala began on the Pacific coast near Tajumulco. Although the Barrios administration led to confiscation of native landholdings on a grand scale, this short mythological statement clearly inverts the perspective: It is the Great Mountain, i.e. the indigenous Owner of the land, who through his daughter brought wealth to Barrios and his plantation owners, and thus, obligated them. To revert now to the Tiburcio Caal tale, the young woman, Suj Quim, has not been paid for by her abductor, and probably for that reason there is no marriage gift consisting of maize seeds. Since the gift of a woman representing the earths productivity and the marriage gift of the sowing seeds are not only metaphorically connected, but can be viewed as standing in a transformative relation, it is as if the daughters powers of vegetative regeneration have been severed from her a severance dramatically staged as the sudden transfer of the Seed Mother to the womans legitimate fianc. It would be in line with this way of viewing things if, on his return to his Father-in-law and his marriage to Suj Quim, the repentant abductor would see his wife regain her status as the Mother of the Maize Seeds. Such a sequel would also help explain why, as mentioned earlier, the mountain deity Quix Mes (the mythological abductor) is still invoked in the rituals immediately preceding sowing. The expected
355 356

The original teller of the tale is stated to be Luis Gkaan. Although I accept the overall authenticity of the Curley Garca tale, details such as the names of some of the principal actors and some of the characteristics ascribed to the latter seem less reliable.

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merging does in fact occur in the Hummingbird tales of Mayers and Schumann, with the character corresponding to Suj Quim (the daughter who went along with Quix Mes and then returned to her Father) being effectively fused with the imprisoned Mother of the Maize Seeds: At the very moment Hummingbird repents and leaves for his father-in-law to restore relations, the abducted woman changes into the maize. As a result of this transformation, however, the woman is simultaneously imprisoned by the Maize Mountain, and this brings another dimension of the myth to the fore. The Tiburcio Caal tale suggests that the imprisonment of Hummingbirds wife through what appears to be the volitional action of the Maize Mountain could derive from that mountains rancor against a former Father-in-law. This amounts to a political reading of the expanded Maize Mountain tales, in that the Maize Mountain becomes the stronghold of a former son-in-law and ally turned enemy. A political perspective also underlies the Mam explanatory tale just mentioned, and clearly informs the Bcaro Moraga Poqomchi variant. Its Hummingbird is a Fierce Warrior who unlike Quix Mes is unrepentant, stays independent of the Poqomchi xajal mama, leaves the maize seeds (and thus, agricultural work) to others, and manages to become the ruling Sun controlling all mountains.357 In this tale, the Maize Mountain is part of an intrigue between the Kiche invader and an ally from Rabinal who seems to be rewarded with the gift of a kidnapped woman representing the maize of the subdued Poqomchi population. These ethnohistorical complications aside, the question must finally be asked why mankind should be absent from the Tiburcio Caal tale. In most other Maize Mountain tales, including our present version of Hummingbird myth, the animals are the first to discover the maize, and receive their share, but they serve only as intermediaries to mankind. The aged deity opening the Maize Mountain (Yaluk, Chichil, San Pablo,358 corresponding to Puclum in the Caal tale) subsequently introduces mankind to maize cultivation. The Caal tale, however, remains enclosed in a self-sufficient world of mountain deities for whom the maize, though of obvious importance, has the only function of
357

In the Chiapas Maya myth about Sun and his elder brothers, the hero does not reach the stage of sowing his maize field, and similarly exchanges the earth for the sky. 358 San Pablo is the corresponding figure in a variant from El Estor (Preuss 1993: 121125), told by a man originating from Cabonicto, A.V. The smallest of thirteen mountain deities, San Pablo is stereotypically described as being sick and anemic.

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feeding their animal subjects. It is especially here that the tale, in moving away from folk tradition, seems to betray some artificiality. There might, however, be a hidden lesson in the state of affairs described by the Caal tale. Perhaps man is to take the initiative and transform himself into a reliable son-in-law if he is to bridge the abyss to the Other World and acquire the maize. Indeed, by amending the Tiburcio Caal tale, contemporary Qeqchis seem to have taken a step in this direction. Thus, as it was recently retold (Wilson 1995: 99), the story continues with the Mayas winning Xukanebs favor through petitions and sacrifices. In his cave, Xukaneb then gave five types of corn to the Mayas.359 The Farmers Marriage to the Soil and the Maize We have seen that the daughter of Mountain-Valley is transformed into sowing seeds called Mother of the Maize, and that, in the context of sowing, the maize is viewed as a pregnant woman. The choice of the female gender for the maize in the present version of Hummingbird myth has important implications. Within the Mesoamerican culture area, there have always existed various options. Of course, according to the Popol Vuh, the first human beings were made from maize dough, and many customs reflect the idea that man and maize share a common nature. For the Qeqchis, for example, Wilson (1995: 123-124, 129-130) has shown the pervasive analogy between the complex of imprint diseases (awas) among human beings and that among the maize plants.360 The maize, however, is gendered. Historically, among the Aztecs, there were male maize deities (Cinteotl, Xochipilli) as well as female maize

359

Wilson (1995: 332 n. 3) states that a variant of this story was also recorded by Burkitt (1918). This is probably putting it the wrong way. Since in Wilsons summary of the tale (1995: 99), the Caal mountain names are virtually unchanged, and also in view of the modern category of the Mayas occurring in it, I suspect that the Caal text has again been brought into circulation, and is thus becoming what one might call a reactivated variant. 360 The basic idea of awas disease is that the sudden repulsion felt by a pregnant woman for some fruit or animal leads to her unborn childs partial assimilation to this repulsive object, which becomes visible in pimples etc. In an analogous way, breaking a food taboo related to planting can lead to a partial and undesirable assimilation of the maizeto-be-born to features of the forbidden food. The Mixtecs have a similar complex (see Monaghan 1995: 116).

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deities (Xilonen, Chicome-Coatl, Xochiquetzal), paralleled, among the presentday Nahuas living along the Gulf Coast, by Chicome-Xochitl and his twin sister, Macuil-Xochitl (Sandstrom 1991: 245). Up to the Spanish conquest, Mayan maize deities were usually imagined to be male (insofar as iconographical sources have the same validity for all social strata); and among the contemporary western Highland Mayas, the spirit of the maize representing the archetypal Maize Mountain, Paxil, can still assume a male gender (male Paxil, see Rodrguez Rouanet 1971: 175-176, 178-179). Already in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys 1967: 130, MS p. 70 C), however, one finds a cooked ear of green corn metaphorically equated with and eroticized as the girl with the watery teeth: A very beautiful maiden [] fragrant is her odor and her hair is twisted into a tuft.361 Speaking generally, the contemporary Mayas think of the maize deity as being female. As a consequence of this, the farmer could, in principle, view the maize as a marriage partner. The deceptive change of an eloping girl into a maize stalk and of her lover into a farmer working around her, noted in Chapter Five (Blanca Flor section), would thus far from being a mere anecdote reveal a profound aspect of Mayan alliance ideology. The maize cobs would consequently have to be viewed as the farmers children, as much as those of his otherworldly wife.362 However, rather than establishing a complete identity between the heros otherworldly wife and the maize, our mythical paradigm treats the maize as the transformation one amongst various others of a woman more generally connected to the mountains and their productivity. It is this transformative concept that, as will be presently seen, appears to determine the farmers relationship with the crops and the soil.

361

In the same way, other women are to be understood as squashes and jcama roots. The metaphors are part of a collection of questions and answers similar to those of the metaphorical language of Zuyua, knowledge of which was compulsory for local chiefs, and was periodically examined. Therefore, the idea of a maize woman appears to go back at least to the early 16th century. 362 Whether the farmers marriage to the maize is only an extended metaphor, or implies a spiritual marriage with the soul of the maize woman, is a question that cannot here be answered. Related to this is the difficult question as to the compatibility of the farmers two marriages (those with his human wife and with his otherworldly wife).

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Human Procreation and Agricultural Ritual The concept of the farmers marriage to the soil comes to the fore in a variety of ways, not all necessarily consistent, and either alternating or coalescing with that of the farmers marriage to the maize. About the traditional Qeqchis, Cabarrs (1979: 42) states emphatically: But if permission is needed to impregnate the earth, the same holds true for using a woman. There exists an intimate parallelism between woman and the earth. Wilson (1995: 129) uses very similar words. The same concept of a marriage to the earth is noticeable among the Tzutujiles (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 173): A farmer kissing successively his maize, beans, a woodpile, and the earth of his compound, subsequently explained, I have just kissed my four wives. In myth, these four wives would correspond to the polyvalent daughter of the Tzuultaqa. They can be contacted in dreams. Dreaming of having three or four wives, means buying land (Ixil, Paz Prez 1994: 31); dreaming of a beautiful woman foretells a good maize harvest (San Lucas Toliman; Woods, in BassieSweet 2008: 23). The marriages offspring are the maize ears. When his maize has been harvested and stored, a Qeqchi farmer gratefully declares: My babies have come [xchal lin culaal], the spirit of my ears of corn has entered the granary (Carter 1969: 103).363 As a consequence of this alliance ideology, human and crop fertility are being ritually intertwined, and human sexuality becomes relevant to agriculture, that is, to the interaction with the holy Earth. When, in May, the leaves of the milpa were to be cut, a Mam farmer first had to bring in a female relative of his: She had to be carrying her baby [on her back] so as to be able to cut the leaves; for if this woman wasnt bearing her baby when she came to cut the leaves, then neither would the milpa be able to bear [corncobs] (Hart 2005: 134). Among the Qeqchis, sexual abstinence appears to be generally required preceding and during sowing: The man is married to the land during the planting, so the woman must be rejected and the marital union temporarily

363

In line with this, when the husband or his wife dream they hear a child crying in the maize field, this means that maize kernels and their spirit have been left in the field (Pacheco 1984: 153-154).

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denied (Wilson 1995: 66).364 Not surprisingly, then, the planting stick is equated with the phallus, and the seed hole with the vagina (Wilson 1995: 111). During this period of abstinence, the maize is the pregnant woman who is going to give birth (Hatse and De Ceuster 2001a: 54). Since the requirement of sexual abstinence regards the regular sexual life of the married couple, it would not necessarily exclude a performance of the sexual act in a strictly ritual context. It has indeed been reported (in Dow and Kemper 1996: 227) that, before planting his crops each year, the farmer and his wife perform a fertility ritual. They simulate intercourse in three corners of their dwelling and then consummate the act in the fourth corner.365 This fourfold ritual is not only homologous to the successive sowings of the seeds in the four corners of the field, but even more so to the Sun Hero and his lunar wifes tour of the world discussed in a previous section, when the couple gave names to the mountain storehouses of the seeds and took rest there, finally to arrive at the fourth storehouse, the eponymous Maize Mountain (Paxil) itself. The Poqomchi variant from Santa Cruz Verapaz equally mentions four mountains: Having crossed three secondary maize mountains, the couple finally arrives in the true Maize Mountain, there to consummate the sexual act. Thus, the ritual space of the house seems to replicate that of the world, and for a brief interval, the farmer acts out Hummingbirds role. If the sowers wife is having an extra-marital affair during sowing time, it is considered a sacrilege; it is equated with the sower breaking the taboo on intercourse with his wife, and leads to seeds that do not germinate (Wilson 1995: 65-66). As Wilson noted (1995: 129), sowing the maize requires a ritual state of harmony and equilibrium (kalkabil). In this context, the quintessential equilibrium is that between husband and wife, mythologically represented by Sun and Moon (or, in the context of agriculture, the Maize Moon, i.e., the lunar Mother of the Maize Seeds); when it is broken by Moons adultery, Sun does not take action until it is sowing time (see Chapter Ten).

364

The conceptualization of the dual-gendered Tzuultaqa as father and daughter would have made Wilsons analysis of sowing ritual more convincing. More particularly, it would probably have made him refrain from stating that the female earth does not have any conceptual distinction from the individual mountains (1995: 66). 365 The quotation is from an unsigned encyclopedia article on Qeqchi culture probably written by a researcher of the Human Relations Area Files of Yale University (cf. Levinson 1996: xv).

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At another stage of the maize cycle, abstinence apparently again had to give way to a ritualized sexual act. Clearly referring to Hummingbirds mating with his wife in the cave of what was about to become the storage chamber of the maize seeds, Otto Schumann (1988: 217) observed: Among the Qeqchis, the myth is openly related to the sexual act, to such a degree that, until recently, they believed that in order to obtain a good harvest, it was necessary to perform the sexual act in the milpa [maize field] when the maize was already coming into ear.366 Assuming that the developing, wet ears correspond to a growing fetus, this act seems to reflect the once common belief that a man should continue sexual intercourse during his wifes pregnancy in order to feed the growing child with his semen (Lpez Austin 1980: 338). The Watchful Parents-in-Law One consequence of the farmer experiencing the soil and its products as his wife and the maize crops as their common children is that the parents of this woman (among the Qeqchis usually, though not always, represented by the male Tzuultaqa alone) become of paramount importance to him, since they continue to watch over their daughters. This is illustrated by numerous Tzotzil tales about the mistreated maize wife,367 tales not unlike the Lightning-bolt Woman tales of the Sierra Nahuas (Taggart).368 Briefly, a man does a service to an earth god or to Lightning (Chauk), is awarded one of his daughters (Xob, the Mother of the Maize [Guiteras 1961: 191-193]), and has human children with her. His wife proves to be an inexhaustible supply of maize; the cobs she plucks from the four corners of the field magically multiply (Gossen 1974: 287). However, since the farmer is lazy and dislikes agriculture (i.e., caring for his maize woman), he starts to beat his wife, the blood from her nose giving origin to the red maize, her tears to the white maize (id.: 267). She returns to her otherworldly father, while continuing to take care of her human children. This is
366

A detail of the Qeqchi ritual preceding sowing may relate to this. In the vigil held for the maize seeds lying in their basket, a lit candle representing the Sun is inserted and the seeds are stated to be born subsequently (Wilson 1990: 115, 126). 367 Gossen 1974: 267 (Tale 25), 287 (Tale 65), 311 (Tale 112), 341 (Tale 173); Guiteras 1961: 191-193; Laughlin 1975: 165-170 (Tale 72), 238-247 (Tale 78); Prez Conde et al. 1983: 125-157. 368 In fact as in some of the Taggart tales the Tzotzil woman can assume the shape of a serpent or revert to it (Laughlin 1975: 238ff, Tale 78).

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one of the basic Mesoamerican narratives, as well known by the far-off Huicholes (cf. Hell 1988: 107ff) as by the Mayas. It is sometimes modified in such a way that the identity of spouse and maize is broken up and replaced by a parallelism (e.g., Puebla Nahua; Johansson 1994: 249-251): The husband receives his bride and his maize seeds from the father-in-law separately, just as, upon marrying the daughter of the Mountain, President Barrioss son acquired the coffee seeds. Again, however, the wife leaves her husband, whose laziness had caused a disastrous maize harvest, and returns to her father.369 The farmers marital alliance with the earth is thus a general Mesoamerican theme that can be stated either directly or obliquely. John Monaghan has elaborated this theme for the Mixtecs of Santiago Nuyoo, and his conclusions confirm the general picture drawn up in this chapter. His characterization of the maize would apply with equal force to Hummingbirds wife: What is most significant about the corn plant is its identification with a young, desirable, and marriageable woman (Monaghan 1995: 112). The act of sowing is sexualized, and the [maize] plant bears (niso) the ear of corn like a mother bears a child (id.: 115). Moreover, there are striking parallels between the marriage negotiations carried on between households and the praying for corn in the house of the Rain. When a man goes to a house of Rain to pray and make sacrifice, he requests that the uun savi [the rain deities, EB] feed him, by providing him with the rain necessary for plants to grow and the corn to sustain himself. [] We can liken this to the speeches made during marriage negotiations, where it is quite common for the suitor or his spokesman to refer to his potential in-laws household as the place from which my tortillas will come, the place from which my water will come (id.: 112). This affinal model is systematically extended to the relationship between the farmer and his maize wife (id.: 113-117). And again, as among the Mayas, if the maize is mistreated, she is taken back by her parents (here the rain deities), or she returns out of her own to the parental home; and if a man disrespects the alliance by having illicit affairs, his corn field will not produce.

369

Although the identity of the father is not explicitly stated in the Nahua tale, he is clearly the original possessor of the original, yellow maize; the tale goes on to explain the origin of the various other colors of the maize.

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Repentance: A Ritual Theme The alliance binding the farmer to the Mountain leads to a recurrent theme in the Hummingbird maize tales, that of guilt towards the wronged Father-in-law. The Qeqchi concept of guilt (maak) has been treated by Cabarrs (1979: 35-57), a Jesuit priest, who emphasizes the necessity of compliance with the many ritual rules of conduct governing the traffic with the all-powerful Owners (the mountain spirits as well as Dios), and the occurrence of disease as a manifestation of having transgressed such prescriptions. The picture sketched by Cabarrs is that of a rather mechanical, rigid, and also oppressive moral system. A rather more differentiated picture emerges from a consideration of such notions as negotiation, persuasion, and repentance that permeate the myths under discussion. One may recall that in the Schumann variant, the abducted daughter of the Earth had relations with the man, and when she was already certain that she was expecting a child, she asked the man to go to her home and to convince her father that he should forgive them [emphasis added] and that then they would return to live with him. In Mayers Poqomchi variant, there was the same attitude once the baby began to form: Lets go now with our father said the girl. Okay, he said and they came and found a rock cliff or a stone house. I will inform your father first, he said. Okay, she said. In the Tiburcio Caal tale, the abductor, confronted with the wrath of Tzuultaqa and his female emissary, was left speechless: Nothing else was he able to say, excepting to beg of the old woman that she herself would bring them in before the great hill Xucaneb. So the smart old woman did. And Xucanebs heart was set at rest when he saw that his lost daughter came near to him. He forgave Thorn broom [Quix mes] who stole her [emphasis added]. He recognized him as a good sonin-law. Here, the moralizing tendency of the above tales becomes entirely overt. It would appear that only the repentant abductor has a right to the bride; and when Quix Mes is still invoked in sowing rituals, this is probably due to the repentance, which removed the wrath of his Father-in-law, the powerful mountain Xucaneb. Such obligatory repentance has found its way into prayer and apparently into the rituals surrounding sowing. The teller of the Mayers tale (M 6) inserted the following explanation at the point where the Tzuultaqa, undone by the sabotage of his blowgun and the diseases cast on him, gives up his pursuit:

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Because of this, the girl who ran away gave her name as a remembrance [ehtalil], so that every day at mealtime [kawa], you ask pardon [of sin, cuy-tak amahc] of Our Father. Only in this way they began to say Our Father in heaven and the Santa Mara. Doubtlessly, the reference to the Lords Prayer is especially to the lines give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, to be recited because your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6, 8-12, King James version).370 The Santa Mara, on the other hand, probably stands for the Hail Mary, on from the point where the praying community joins in: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners [...]. In the farmers understanding of these lines, Holy Mary seems to refer to Mountain-Valleys repentant daughter. The Hail Marys spoken before the meal are also part of the Qeqchi rituals preceding sowing (Wilson 1995: 97). Not surprisingly, however, the feelings of guilt are most poignant during the meal following upon sowing. Wilson (1995: 112) has given us a singular description: The atmosphere at the planting feast is especially heavy and pregnant. The men are silent and eat shyly, as if embarrassed or guilty. This sentiment is not overtly or verbally expressed but is, rather, an emotion I intuited. [...] It is difficult to describe the unstated but dense and pervasive atmosphere of contrition and remorse in the planting meal. Neither a daily meal nor a festive feast is characterized by such heavy feelings of shame. Wilson believes that the guilt may derive from a feeling that the men have just had sex with the earth and fertilized it, and have now returned to their wives and the household. Certain data (see below) suggest, however, that it may also stem from an awareness that the maize woman had once been abducted from the Tzuultaqa, shamelessly impregnated, and hidden in a rock house by Sun, whence the maize was received by the farmers. Finally we turn to Mam territory, in the far north-western mountains of Guatemala where the archetypal Maize Mountain (Paxil or Paxa) is situated (Miles (1960: 430-436), to find similar feelings of remorse. To the Mames of Colotenango, the Maize Mountain is identified with a goddess, Mother Paxil (Valladares 1957: 239 ff). Isolated shreds of information suggest that ideas about the origin of the maize seeds similar to those of the Verapaz Mayas were

370

In Matthew, the context of the Lords Prayer is the Sermon on the Mount, a locality which may have some relevance for the way traditional Mayas understand the message.

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held: When the world was born long ago, maize was born in Paxa; and the cave gave the maize (id.: 433). The ethnopsychologist Valladares (id.: 260, 294) has emphasized the feelings of guilt (or sin) towards the Maize Mother, springing from the primeval theft of the maize seeds and the concomitant necessity of asking pardon from Mother Paxil in the rites of agricultural custom. The theft was carried out by the animals, but instigated by the ancestors. What is notably missing in Valladaress representation (which, on the whole, is rather thin when it comes to oral tradition) is the figure of MountainValley looming large behind the maize goddess; and it is quite possible that the Mames also knew about Hummingbird, the person who once introduced the Maize Mother into her mountainous home. Parallelism of Hunting and Maize Cultivation What is by and large the same myth (or tale with the same overall structure and general message) can be used to describe either the origin of the hunt after a bridal service including agricultural tasks, or the origin of maize cultivation after scenes of hunting. The variants of Cuz, Schumann, and Mayers initially present the abductor as a hunter. The myth presupposes that animals and the hunt are already in existence, whereas the maize has not yet been originated and cultivated. In the Schumann tale, the woman eloping with the hunter is originally a deer woman, copulating with a stag in a prototypical hunting scene. It is first of all in the person of the woman that the transition from the hunt to maize cultivation is enacted, since from a deer woman, she becomes a maize woman. This difference in outcome leads to certain changes in the pattern of the tale. The daughter is abducted, but lightning does not penetrate the waters to hit the woman hidden in the turtle, and consequently, the woman is not being reduced to blood and bones. Where the female blood should be, red flowers strewn by the fugitives are floating in the waters (BM 70). With this image, the Poqomchi myth from Santa Cruz Verapaz explicitly reacts on the version as we know it from the Qeqchis. It has the effect of neutralizing the poisonous quality of the blood which in the shamanistic Qeqchi version leads to the origin of evil creatures and disease. The theme of bloody annihilation and disease as a punishment is suppressed (or rather, transformed) in this tale about the life-giving substance par excellence. Since instead of charred bones, it is the

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womans living flesh that becomes maize, the shared nature of the maize and the human body is once more confirmed. Considering the tale as a whole, one wonders why the maize version should not have followed the game version in using the same narrative structure, which would have been an easy thing to realize. Taking the hunting version as a model, and recalling that the womans teeth are sometimes sown like maize kernels (MR/B), the maize version could have run like this: First, the fleeing woman is hit by lightning, with only her teeth remaining (on a par with her hairs in a Kiche variant of the hunting version); then, the teeth are collected and stored in a jar;371 and finally, from the jar, a young and shiny Maize Woman steps forward. In schema (upper row: hypothetical sequence, below: actual sequence): Lightning destruction Teeth Storage jar Maize womanNo lightning violence No lightning destructionWoman Cave Maize kernels Lightning violence That one does not find the upper sequence is a clear indication that the maize version of Hummingbird myth indeed represents a fusion with the Maize Mountain myth, a tale that requires no personified, wet maize plant for an outcome, but dry maize kernels.372 As a result, the lightnings recur after the womans transformation; they are no longer directed against her person, but against the mountain imprisoning her. This is a welcome effect of the altered tale structure, since lightning (together with the rains caused by it) is meant to serve the prosperity and growth of the maize, as the Gulf Coast Nahua myth of Chicome-Xochitl so eloquently demonstrates (Braakhuis 2009b). Moreover, the narrative development now requires farmers to appear on the stage as recipients of the maize stored in the mountain, farmers who should emulate Hummingbird by marrying the Maize Mother and giving her children. Such a continuation

371

Such a jar would be especially meaningful since dry maize seeds are actually stored in jars, as in San Juan Chamelco (Navarrete 2000: 44). 372 It should nonetheless be noted that at least one Hummingbird tale (Ixil, Yurchenco 2006: 87-88) has the daughter killed by her father (in an unspecified manner) and changed into maize plants.

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was left implicit in the hunting version of the tale, where Hummingbirds successors have no role to play in the story. On the whole, however, hunting and agriculture are subsistence modalities conceived of in remarkably similar ways, as the following examples can show.373 Sexual abstention preceding sowing and hunting, both imagined as sexual activities, is common. Adultery is just as taboo in the alliance with the Owner of the Game as it is in the alliance with the Owner of the Maize Seeds (Wilson 1995: 65-66; cf. Dehouve 2008: 11).374 Parallel to this, a woman seen in a dream can represent the game to be hunted or the maize to be harvested, the actual dream interpretation depending on the mental focus of the dreamer and the activity he has in mind. Dreaming of an encounter with a crying or wounded child appeals to ones sense of responsibility towards the maize or the game family. Dehouve (2008: 25-27) recently pointed out that among the Nahuas of the Huasteca, the harvested maize is ritually welcomed in the same way as the quarry carried home by the hunter, with flower garlands and offerings of food and drink. More detailed information regarding Mayan practices would probably lead to a similar conclusion. In hunting as in agriculture, the moon occupies a central role, connected either to the game (rabbit and deer as visible in the celestial body) or to the maize (inhabiting the Maize Mountain). In the imagery of the tales, the fleshless bones of the Game Woman would have the bare cobs (olotes) of the Maize Woman for their agricultural equivalent. A custom of the Tlapanecs of Guerrero (Dehouve 2008: 23) brings out the parallelism more clearly. There, the olotes are effectively deposited in the same rocky cavity dedicated to the Lord of the Game where, in a separate compartment, the bones of the game are stored.375 The opposites of the hunting shrine filled with bones and bare cobs are, on the one side, the cave filled with regenerated animals of Qanjobal myth, and on the other side, the storage house of the maize seeds of Qeqchi myth, corresponding to the Maize
373

While being realized to varying degrees, this parallelism which has been analyzed in detail for the Huicholes (Hell 1988: 103-153) appears to be a general Mesoamerican one. 374 In view of those tales where the Owner of the Game hands seeds to a ci-devant hunter, both Owners are, at least at times, conceived as functional manifestations of the same power. 375 In Chapter Six, a Pipil tale was already discussed in which the Owner of the Game, living in a ritual ossuary, turns out to have power over agriculture as well. See also the references to similar tales given there.

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Mountain where the daughter of Mountain-Valley gave birth to the maize. In these comparisons, the important difference remains that, whereas the Game Womans bones regenerate as animals, the Maize Woman of the Hummingbird tales is never reduced to bones, that is, to the equivalents of empty cobs: The agricultural power of regeneration does not appear to be invested in the empty cobs, but in the sowing seeds. Returning the empty cobs to the Owner would seem to be only a precondition for the sowing seed to acquire its germinating power, a power that, in the case of animal bones, is likely to be thought of as located in the bones marrow.376 In the agricultural and hunting versions alike, the sexual aspect of Hummingbirds relationship with the nubile daughter of Mountain-Valley receives emphasis. In this respect, the copulation within the storage house of the maize seeds is specifically comparable to the Pipil copulation within a hunting shrine full of bones, and thus also to the Lacandon Hummingbirds copulation with the daughter of the death god (see next chapter). Secondary motifs are also rendered parallel. Even the handkerchief in which Hummingbird wraps the collected bones of his wife recurs in the cloth in which, according to a Mam tale from Colotenango (Rodrguez Rouanet 1971: 179), the collected maize kernels received from Juan Paxel (the Owner of the Maize Mountain) are wrapped. There is also the woodpecker. Just as he helps to open the tree with the queen bee and to liberate Lady Bee, he is instrumental in opening the mountain with the maize and in freeing the Maize Mother.

376

Attention should also be given to possible parallels in the treatment of the soul of the food. Not only the quarries, with their tonallis, but also the maize ears have souls (Qeqchi muel, muheel); killing the quarry and harvesting the maize seem to make these souls escape. All maize souls should finally enter the granary (Carter 1969: 103; Pacheco 1984: 152).

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CHAPTER 9

TRANSFORMATIONS OF WOMAN: THE IMMUTABLE WIFE

The Lacandon version is probably the most radical of all Hummingbird myths. The woman courted by the Lacandon Hummingbird is no longer the regenerative earth, but rather the dying and decaying earth; not its principle of regeneration (bones being reinvested with flesh), but its principle of decomposition (the body being reduced to bones); and it is not maize, or game, but human immortality that is at stake. The woman can be referred to simply as u tial Kisin, the daughter of the death god, Kisin, or else X-Baak, which would appear to mean either small girl or (in accordance with her naked skull) Bone Woman.377 Since the latter name would indeed be appropriate, I will use it here, in alternation with Gopher Woman. Hummingbird himself is called Nuxi,378 or the Gopher Trapper. He is the Ancestor (nukuch uinik), the one who returned from the Underworld. The basic tale of reference here will be the first variant presented by Boremanse (1986: 78-96), stemming from the Northern Lacandons. Boremanses notes provide a valuable running commentary to the tales (cf. also Boremanse 1998: 90ff, 112). In this chapter, the focus will rest on the role of the hunt and on Hummingbirds role with respect to his wife and father-in-law. Along the way, the tales relation to the other versions will be explored.379 Restoring Immortality to Mankind The transformation of Hummingbirds wife into game animals initiates a cyclical process: When she is reduced to bones, her bones change into deer and rabbit, deer and rabbit are reduced to bones, and these bones are regenerated to deer and rabbit in the home of the Owner of the Game. This
377

Cf. Cordemex: ix bak, xbaak nia; bak(el) hueso; ah bak animal muy flaco en los huesos, ah bak uinik hombre as flaco. 378 Only Bruce (1974) spells a final glottal stop (Nuxi). 379 References are to the sources listed in Appendix B. The abbreviated authors name is followed by the page number(s).

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cycle of transformations can be conceived in two ways: as a transcendence of death, with bones being endlessly infused with life; or as a recurrence of death, with Hummingbirds wife endlessly failing to regain her human form and becoming instead game animals destined to die. This second viewpoint has succinctly been expressed in a Totonac formula (Ichon 1969: 76) regarding the father of the maize hero who had been transformed into a deer: The deer is a dead. With respect to this cycle, the Lacandon version of Hummingbird myth is to be situated after the initial transformation of the bones into game animals for, already at its very outset, we find Hummingbird hunting for game. This game is not, however, deer, as in the predominant Qeqchi version, but large, rat-like moles, the gophers. The regeneration of these gophers is the tales immediate subject; parallel to this, however, there is another issue: the regeneration of human beings and the acquisition of immortality. In Lacandon Hummingbird myth, events are directed by two deities, Sukunkyum Elder Brother of Our Lord, who is the guardian of the Underworld, and Kisin, the originator of death. I will first bring together the basic data about what could be called Nuxis adoptive father, Sukunkyum. As the subterranean counterpart of the celestial creator god (Hachakyum Our True Lord),380 Elder Brother has no evil disposition towards mankind. Yet, the dead disappear into his subterranean world to be passed on to Kisin; and probably for that reason, the Southern Lacandons assert that he once ate human flesh, and therefore could not ascend into the upper world of his Younger Brother (BO 271-272). Tainted with death, this ambivalent figure was isolated, with his incense burner being housed in a separate structure, outside the temple of the gods (Tozzer 1907: 116; cf. Villa Rojas 1968: 98).381 His association with death has also been expressed in terms of kinship: Elder Brother once gave his sister in marriage to the death god, Kisin (S 50; cf. Cline 1944: 111). Therefore, Kisin and Sukunkyum call each other mam and hachil fathers-in-law united by marriage(Sp. consuegros; cf. Boremanse 1986: 96 n. 34).

380

Since Sukunkyum is alternatively called Itsanachaac (Bruce 1974: 364) and the caretaker of the underworld is once called Itsana (Tozzer 1907: 96), both brothers appear to be aspects of the pre-Spanish Yucatec creator god, Itzamna. 381 At Pelja, Sukunkyum's structure consists of a bower (Sp. enramada) made of poles and lianas (Villa Rojas 1968: 98), probably representing a cave.

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According to myth, Sukunkyums role vis--vis the dead has changed over time (Boremanse 1986: 71-73). Formerly, he did not hand over the souls of the dead to Kisin. The souls were not annihilated by Kisin, or reduced by fire into his cattle, or made to work for the rain deity (Mensbk). Instead, on the fourth day, Sukunkyum made the soul re-enter the body: The deceased left the hammock in his burial pit and rejoined his family. However, because the rain deity complained that he no longer received workers, the upper god, Hachakyum, took away Sukunkyums full powers of resuscitation. It appears, however, that Sukunkyum could not reconcile himself to this new situation. In the tale of Nuxi, he is directing events with the explicit intention of acquiring immortality for his children, mankind. Therefore, one is led to view the ancestor, Nuxi, as Sukunkyums instrument for re-instituting the original situation of immortality, which is to be firmly established on a foundation of affinal ties. By comparison with Ixil Hummingbird myth, the Lacandon version replaces Hummingbirds father (who schemed with his son to penetrate into the house of the Earth) with the primordial father of mankind in his subterranean aspect.382 Elder Brother (Sukunkyum) considers Nuxi as his own creature and true son (cf. Boremanse 1986: 95 n. 10). At the same time, this role of adoptive son considerably reduces the autonomy of the hero. In marked contrast to Qeqchi myth, it is Sukunkyum, rather than the hero himself, who either borrows for his son the feather garb of a hummingbird (BO 296) more specifically, of the Violet Sabrewing (Campylopterus hemileucurus) or who gives him an old, violet-colored tunic383 that changes into its feather garb on being donned (BO 86 and 95 n. 24).384 Like the souls of the dead, Nuxi enters the Underworld, where he first visits Sukunkyum, and then is handed over to Kisin. In this case, however, being handed over to Kisin acquires the meaning of being married off to the
382

In other Mayan hero myths (Kiche, Qeqchi, Tzotzil, and Chol), the father figure is dead and consigned to the Underworld. These deceased Fathers represent the buried ancestors. Whereas Sukunkyum is carrying the Sun through the Underworld, the same task is allotted by the Chenalh Tzotziles to the Father-Mothers, i.e. the ancestors (Guiteras 1961: 268). 383 The fact that the cloth, a tunic, is worn out, suggests the rotten tunic of a long-buried dead, elsewhere in the tale referred to as one whose tunic has completely decayed (BO 302). This ties up with Nuxis role as an intermediary to the dead (see further on). 384 The violet color (yaax in Lacandon Maya) is stated (Boremanse 1986: 96 n. 29) to have the power of keeping Kisin at a distance.

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daughter of Kisin. Kisin, who had received a woman from Sukunkyum, is thus to give up his own daughter in exchange.385 As Boremanse has pointed out (1986: 95-96 nn. 21, 34; 1989:78-79), the intertwining of the patrilines of the two main gods of the Underworld, Sukunkyum (preservation of life) and Kisin (destruction of life), is also evidenced by the fact that whereas Nuxi is to perform bridal service for Kisin, Bone Woman is to do something similar for Sukunkyums wife. Nuxi is to become wild but refuses the wild food (such as maggots and worms) of Kisin; inversely, Bone Woman is to become tame, but only unwillingly accepts the lessons of her mother-in-law for making raw food cooked, and for performing other domesticating activities. However, Sukunkyums strategy ultimately fails (BR 274): If the two could have escaped together, there would have been no death. If the two could have escaped together, Kisin would not burn the souls of the human beings. Kisin does not burn his own kin [Kisin ma u tokik u mam]. Kisin tells the souls of the human beings, You are not of my kin! The souls burn. Kisin burns the souls. Regenerating the Gophers In Lacandon Hummingbird myth, the central mysteries of death have been cast in terms of the hunt and of domesticating animals. On the one hand, the souls of the dead game walk through the woods of the Underworld like spectral animals; they can no longer be shot. On the other hand, the souls of the living human beings are visualized in the Underworld as game to be shot by Kisin, specifically as spider monkeys. Like Lacandons generally (Soustelle 1935: 337), the death god has a strong taste for the meat of these animals. When he shoots and kills a spider monkey, its human counterpart dies (Boremanse 1986: 82, 95 n. 16).386 Parallel to this, wild human animals are continually being domesticated: Sinful souls are transformed by Kisins fire into his cattle

385

The two deities are hachil to each other. Indeed, Kisin might call Nuxi, too, his hachil, since the term equally applies to a son-in-law. 386 This generic relationship between humans (as it seems, irrespective of their onen) and spider monkeys recalls the individual relationship existing between a human being and his animal counterpart; it seems to be without parallel elsewhere.

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(mules and cows) and poultry (chickens). The human hunt for gophers has been used to frame this tableau of the realm of the dead. The Death God as an Owner of Animals Once the last gopher on earth has been trapped, Nuxi loses his way and meets an attractive young woman, the daughter of Kisin. She is the mother of the gophers; she intends to engender a new generation of gophers with him. Indeed, when she lures Nuxi into the earth, she seems gopher-like herself: She moved aside the cover of her hole [u mak u hool].387 Her head disappeared into the earth [kuchi tu hool oki luum] (BR 227). When Nuxi has slept with her, her father is satisfied (Bruce) which would be quite unusual, if it were not for the fact that he can now assume that his gophers will be restored to him. The various commentators of the myth of Nuxi (Bruce, Boremanse 1986, 1989, McGee) have silently passed over the fact that the tale of Nuxi has been cast in the mold of those Lacandon hunting stories in which a hunter, disrespectful of the hunting prescriptions, is led to the home of the Lord of the Animals to mate with his daughter and thereby restore the game.388 Two of these stories will serve to underscore this correspondence. The first (Boremanse 1986: 227-228) is about a hunter who killed a huge number of spider monkeys, just for fun: He didnt even eat the meat. The monkeys kidnap him, and bring him before the Lord of the monkeys,389 who tells him: All the ones you have killed, you will have to reproduce them. For two years he is made to remain among the monkeys; he marries a monkey woman for whom he collects wild fruits. Once left free, he dies within one moon. The second story (Boremanse 1986: 229-231; cf. Rtsch 1984: 178) is about a man who hunted for peccaries in a cruel way and was brought before the Lord of the peccaries. He was made to heal the wounds he had inflicted and then was offered one of the Lords daughters in marriage. He stayed among them for almost two years, and received a peccary wife he liked very much. One day,
387 388

Bruce translates su tapa su hoyo (la puerta de la cueva). In his 1989 article on the transition of Nature to Culture in Lacandon tales, Boremanse included a discussion of the tale of Nuxi as well as a comparison of various Lacandon tales about human-animal affiliation. He did not, however, include the tale of Nuxi in his schema of these affiliations (Boremanse 1989: 97; cf.1998: 121ff). 389 Unlike the Tzuultaqa and other Owners of the game, the Owners of these stories are specific to the species (cf. Boremanse 1998: 126 n. 24).

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his peccary wife is killed by a hunter; he returns to his village, where the peccary meat is being roasted. He refuses the meat, and dies of sadness within three days.390 Superficially, Nuxis behavior is like that of the hunter for spider monkeys. Even though hunting down all gophers is a formidable task (the ratlike creature multiplying rapidly and being difficult to catch), Nuxi places a trap wherever he sees a gopher hill (BO 78).391 However, the hunter for spider monkeys despised the delicious meat of the game he killed, whereas Nuxis behavior is quite the opposite. His savage and exclusive appetite for gopher meat is a motif that (among other explanations) could be taken to signal his desire to become one with the gophers, to absorb them, and to acquire children of gopher flesh. The strategy pursued by Sukunkyum is, however, to make Nuxi a father not of gophers, but of human beings. Consequently, the usual plot of this type of hunting stories is extended, and assimilated to Hummingbird myth: Having recreated the gophers, the hunter intends to domesticate his wild woman, acquire affinal rights over her, carry her home alive, and produce human children with her thus realizing an immortal human progeny. When this turns out to be impossible, the usual ending of this type of hunting stories recurs. The Gopher Trapper falls ill and agonizes, longing for his gopher wife like the unhappy husband of the peccary wife: But he was not concerned about dying: he wanted very much to return and see the daughter of Kisin (Bruce, in McGee 1990: 107). Little attention has been given to Nuxis preference for the gopher or rather, the giant pocket gopher (Orthogeomys sp.)392 over other game. This gopher, although edible, is usually valued negatively. The animal is very

390

In similar stories discussed in Chapter Six, the re-creation of the game was seen as a regeneration of the bones. The Lacandons used to bury the bones of the game under trees, as it seems not for periodical, but only for eschatological regeneration by the celestial creator deity, Hachakyum (Boremanse 1986: 102); in the meantime, the animal souls (visible as spectral animals) continued to live in the Underworld (id.: 82). 391 On hunting gophers with special traps, see Rtsch and Probst 1985. 392 The Lacandon word (bah) has loosely been rendered as mole, i.e. topo (Bruce), taupe in French (Boremanse), synonymous with Spanish tuza. However, bah usually (and also in other Mayan languages) refers to the rat-like giant pocket gopher, or taltuza (cf. also Rtsch and Probst 1985). Therefore, I have replaced Bruces Trampeador de topos and McGees Mole Trapper by Gopher Trapper.

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harmful to the crops. The way the regenerated gophers are set out in the northern variant four pairs at the four directional points follows a familiar model, the pairs of gophers being analogous to the seed holes in the four corners of a maize field and to the mountain repositories of maize seeds at the four corners of the earth. The opposition between the life-giving seeds and the gopher as a destroyer of the seeds has already been noted. The gophers preference for darkness over daylight further connects him to the underworld as well as to black sorcery. In the discussion of the role of black sorcery in Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, we have already met a sorcerer asking a client: Do you want me to make her shit snakes? Do you want me to make her give birth to a gopher? (Burns 1983: 136). In view of the tales plot, however, two associations appear to have been dominant. On the one hand, in Lacandon dream symbolism, the gopher signals impending burial (Bruce 1979: 132), a gopher hill resembling a burial mound. On the other hand, the burrowing gophers also create a labyrinthine underworld from where the roots of vegetative as well as human life are cut off.393 Therefore, when Nuxis savage appetite leads him not just to kill a huge number of gophers but to exterminate them altogether, this is likely to have the metaphorical meaning of undoing the Underworld and forever removing human burial mounds from the earth.394 Undoing the Underworld is precisely the thrust of the tale, which is about acquiring immortality; but the metaphorical quality of the gopher hunt also shows the insoluble paradox inherent in buying immortality by first regenerating the gophers and thus re-creating the world of the dead.
393

In Otomi myths, a town of evil sorcerers appears under the name of masubi (Gopher Place) (Galinier 1990: 595). 394 Bruce (1971: 115-116) has it that according to the general legends of the Mayan area, the moles are the transformations of the men from a former generation, that of the men made from mud. In Vucub-Caquix, the Kiche Twins defeated the main representative of a former creation, and Bruce therefore suggests that Nuxis work parallels that of the Twins. According to the Tzutujiles of Lake Atitlan (Sexton 1992: 95-96), those members of a generation of men that had been disrespectful of the maize and beans, and had fled into the earth, were transformed into taltuzas, since then the enemies of the rest of mankind and its crops; but as far as I know, this view of the gophers origin is not generally held among the Mayas, and in any case, rather implies a punishment of evil elder brothers. With regard to the Lacandons, it is not so much a former human generation (in principle created by Hachakyum) that should be eradicated, but the descendants of Kisin.

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The gopher is also present in Kaqchikel Hummingbird myth and is again viewed negatively, but its function within the tale structure is quite different. The sandals of the Kaqchikel Father-in-law, Mataqtani, were gophers. When Hummingbird let them escape and burrow themselves into the earth, his wife reproached him for having spoilt the world. In the Kaqchikel version, Hummingbirds wife personified first and foremost the earths fertility and its willingness to cooperate . She therefore did not wish the gophers to undermine the soil and create a sort of underworld. In sharp contrast, Lacandon Hummingbird myth focuses precisely on the subterranean aspect of Hummingbirds wife and on her fondness for the decaying human flesh in the burial pit. Therefore, the Lacandon Hummingbird no longer accidentally spoils the world by regenerating the gophers, but is encouraged to do so intentionally. Founding an Immortal Patrilineage Just before finalizing the arrangements for leaving the Underworld, Sukunkyum who had been directing events all along explained to Nuxi: All moles [gophers] fell into your traps. Now, your first children will be moles. Afterwards, your children will no longer be moles. At once his children were born. There were eight moles (BR 271). According to a variant summarized by Georgette Soustelle (S 50), Nuxi had a child with his underworldly wife,395 and Sukunkyum transformed this child into four pairs of moles, and set the animals out in the four directions. In such a way, the consequence of the uxorilocality from which Hummingbird and his wife attempted to escape in the non-Lacandon versions becomes visible. Apparently, the children produced in the Underworld are bound to be wild gophers (just as their mother had been intimated to be gopherlike), and are appropriated by the patrilineage of Kisin. In order also to acquire children from his wife who would no longer be gophers, Nuxi should first transfer Bone Woman to the realm of mankind, and thus decisively domesticate her. If the heros effort had been successful, the relationship between human beings and animals would be at issue. On the one hand, there would have been the gopher children, and on the other, the human children. All of these children

395

G. Soustelle (1961: 50 n. 18) probably missed a reference to Kisins daughter, and wrongly assumes the ancestor to have been accompanied into the Underworld by a son.

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would have the same parents, but not the same locality: Some would be living in the Underworld, with their grandfather, and others on earth, in their fathers household. A relation of consanguineal kinship between human beings and animals is also what characterizes a not entirely transparent Lacandon system of social classification, which assigned the name of a specific wild animal to the members of a localized patrilineal group. Describing Lacandon society around the turn of the 20th century, Tozzer (1904: 41-42) wrote: The native speaks of the animal names noted above as in-yonen, my relative, so that there seems to be a close bond between all the people bearing the same name and the animal itself.396 Onen is related to older Yucatec onel, by which individual consanguineal relatives were denoted, especially distant ones; ones onel should not be married. 397 Boremanse (1998: 101-104), who, in the early 1970s, made a thorough study of Lacandon kinship, roughly renders the Lacandon term onen by the functional designation patrilineage. There were many onen names, although it is unlikely that the various lists given by a number of authors are exhaustive; Gopher (Ba) has in any case not been reported. In part of the Lacandon territory, however, the onen system had been reduced to two patrinames only, Spider Monkey (Maax) and White-lipped Peccary (Keken), with the main deities but not Kisin being assigned to these onen as well (Soustelle 1935: 338-340; Bruce 1974: 19-34).398 The onen animals were not just patronyms but, in the collective imagination, had a life of their own. In the myth about the origin of the onen animals (Boremanse 1986: 33-34), the upper god (Hachakyum) and Kisin are both creating human beings. Hachakyum successfully molds his creatures, onen after onen, but those of Kisin fail, and are transformed by Hachakyum into animals, with the words: Here are the eponymous animals of my creatures
396

This did not imply special taboos. Asked how he could eat a kinsman, a Lacandon man eating a spider monkey cheerfully answered: Yes, he is my kinsman, but I eat him nonetheless (Soustelle 1935: 337). 397 Cordemex Dictionary s.v. onel: pariente en consanguinidad; el tal parentesco, parentesco muy lejano o de slo nombre (Motul M-E). Pariente transversal (Motul EM; San Francisco). Parentesco algo apartado de consanguinidad; onel kabalil [probably consanguineous only by name] parentesco de muy atrs o desviado (Vienna). Onelbil keban pecado de incesto. 398 Similar animal patronyms have been reported from the Choles and Tzeltales of around 1900 (HMAI 7, in Vogt ed., 1969: 236).

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lineages, whereupon the animals retire into the woods and become wild. Thus, any member of, say, the onen group White-lipped Peccary (Keken) could, with some justification, consider a wild peccary in the woods his co-essence. It was especially in dream-life that the otherwise distant animal relative drew near. Usually, albeit not invariably, dreaming of an animal with a counterpart in an onen group, or of one of this animals body parts, is to dream of a member of the corresponding kin-group and of his body parts, and vice versa (Bruce 1979: 131 s.v. bk meat; cf. McGee 1990: 30-31). In dreams, the animals that are to be married present themselves to the hunter as desirable women. Thus, if a man hunts for a white-lipped peccary (keken), this metaphorically corresponds to a marriage-proposal to a woman who would, in real life, belong to the corresponding patrilineage. This appears to be reflected in stories (Boremanse 1986: 229; Rtsch 1984: 178) in which a hunter is made to cure a wounded peccary woman, and to compensate the Owner for his losses by marrying a peccary woman and give her children: This peccary woman is addressed as Koh by her father (the Owner), which is one of the two personal names of women belonging to a Peccary patrilineage (Soustelle 1935: 333;399 Boremanse 1998: 45). The model seems to have been that of a parallel society of animals living in villages similar to those of the Lacandons themselves, and organized along the same lines.400 From this perspective, one can only wonder if Kisins daughter, representing her fathers patrilineage, should not be considered the ancestral mother of a hypothetical Gopher (Ba) onen.401 If Nuxis expedition had succeeded, his human children in the upper world, on earth, would have had to call the gopher children their brothers or sisters: their distant relatives. It is only one step further to assume that the onen system itself may have had its

399

Soustelle refers to what he calls the phratrie Karsiya, which coincides with what he calls the clan Keken. 400 The concept of a society of animals also comes to the fore in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys 1965: 129, MS p. 70 C). In the language of Zuyua, or, the Cave of Origins, the Mexican Agouti (haleu, paca) and the Spotted Agouti (tzub) are called the first batab / ah-kulel / hmen, the Peccary (citame) the first hmen, suggestive of the foundation of politically organized kin-groups. 401 Nuxi, the Ancestor himself, at least, was sometimes assigned a place in the onen kinship system. Among the northern Lacandons, he appears to have been known as Kin Kobo (Soustelle 1935: 339), Kin being a common name given to the first-born, and Kobo a ceremonial name coinciding with the Keken White-lipped Peccary lineage.

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roots in the alliance concept governing the hunt, so that an ancestor with, say, peccary children became the founder of a Peccary patrilineage. Nuxi as a Caretaker of Souls The final sections of the Hummingbird myths, reviewed in the preceding chapters, define the roles of Hummingbirds successors in relation to the domain of Hummingbirds otherworldly wife. Now the final episode of Nuxis tale will be examined to see if the same holds true for Lacandon Hummingbird myth. Initially, characteristic elements of hunting tales come to the fore, since the underworld left by the Gopher Trapper is the realm of Kisin as an Owner of the game. Then, however, the tale takes up the thread of the quest for the eternal life, and it is in the context of this theme that an answer to our question is likely to be found. The return of Nuxi to the world of the living is one of a hunter returning home. The hero is guided by a margay (Felis weidii), a small, but large-eyed wild cat, who turns out to know everything about the private life of Nuxis wife, and he tells Nuxi that she has left him and has remarried. The encounter with the margay may be less fortuitous, and also less innocent, then the narrators long-winded explanations about the chickens coveted by the wild cat could suggest. The animal has a counterpart among the Popolucas, where in the mountains, there is a cat (belonging to the chaneques [Owners] and impossible to kill) that informs about female infidelity. When the hunter hears about this, he should return home, because his life is at risk (Godnez and Vzquez 2003: 330), no doubt because adultery always provokes the Owners wrath. Finally, the Gopher Trapper rejoins the wife he had left behind on earth. It is significant that in the southern variant, the woman initially takes Nuxi for the specter of her husband, for specters are usually met during the four or five days of the burial rites (Boremanse 1986: 72 n. 2; McGee 1990:118). Following instructions from Sukunkyum, Nuxi had taken from the Underworld a flower plucked from Kisins pubis (BO 89).402 Alternatively, in the southern variant,

402

Ethnobotanically, this flower may well have gone under a name like Kisins Pubis, just as in a Kiche Hummingbird tale seeds gleaned from the Father-in-laws vomit belonged to a plant actually called Vomit of the Mountain.

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Nuxi had received from Sukunkyum small, arrow-like objects, but without arrow heads. Whether with the flower or the small arrows, Nuxi descends into the burial pits of the deceased, reassembles their skeletons, and resuscitates them. The flower is held under the skulls nasal cavity, apparently to make the dead smell its odor; in a similar way, the smell of the flower of the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) had the power to cure the sick and the dying (Boremanse 1986: 283, 287 n. 1).403 The flower of immortality recurs in tales of other Mayan groups. In a tale from the Peten Itza (Hofling 1991: 166-185), for instance, a grieving widower descends into the grave of his wife to rub her corpse with it, and resuscitate her.404 Touching the flower is anathema to the women of Nuxi's household (since male implements should generally not be touched by females) and Nuxi warns that breaking the taboo will cause his death. However, his wife violates the taboo and makes the flower lose its power. The outcome is the death of all those involved: The resuscitated are again reduced to corpses, their savior Nuxi soon follows them into the grave, and in the southern variant his wife (probably together with her second husband) is brutally killed.405 As a result of the violation of the taboo and the irreversible loss of the flower, Nuxi himself burned with fever, and died. He once more descended into the Underworld he himself had helped re-create by spoiling the world with his father-in-laws gophers. Unlike all other dead, however, Nuxi is not passed on to Kisin and hence to the rain god, Mensbk, but stays to live with his father, Sukunkyum (BO 94). In the southern variant (BO 293), Nuxi,

403

Similarly, in Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, the chief curers made Sun and Moon move again after their paralysis by having them smell certain flowers. Taube (2004: 6974) has recently commented upon the importance of the scent of flowers as a Mayan symbol for the soul and for the remote ancestors, who are believed to live in a sunlit paradise where they feed on the aroma of flowers. 404 In a Belizean tale recorded by Smailus (1975: 89-91), a flower of immortality is plucked at the borders of a lagoon to be crossed on the back of a dog. Spanish and Mayan narrative traditions may have coalesced in some of these tales about the flower of immortality. 405 Nuxis two women fulfill contrastive roles, the underworldly wife being cast as a potential source of life, the earthly wife as a source of death. Ideally, their roles should probably concur. Comparable contrasts crop up in some of the bridal tales of the Blanca Flor type, with the human wife endangering the pact with the other world (the Nahua Tlalocan), a pact sometimes symbolized by a golden ring (e.g., Taggart 1983: 126130; Reyes and Christensen 1974: 77-91).

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initially, had already been following Bone Woman into the Underworld in the belief that she knows where my house is. In fact, he arrived at the house that was to become his final home, that of Sukunkyum. Nuxis final stay with Sukunkyum may imply a permanent role as an intermediary to the living. This possibility is perhaps better appreciated by placing Nuxis role in a broader context. Nuxi is plainly acting as an extremely powerful healer who, besides arranging the bones into a skeleton, must be assumed to have also called back the soul from the Underworld, since otherwise he could not have resurrected the dead. In so doing, Nuxi appears to be reinstituting the preceding epoch in which the dead were resurrected in the Underworld by Sukunkyum on the fourth day following burial. The neighboring Tzotziles of Chenalh (Guiteras Holmes 1961: 186188), as well as the Choles, have similar traditions about death and its curing. In Chenalh, Nuxis role is played by Sun and the role of the dead by Suns father. Suns resuscitation of the dead is identified with shamanic curing, that is, with the reincorporation of the lost soul into the body; and as in the Lacandon case, this curing of the dead is contrasted with the situation in a previous epoch, wherein the dead returned from the Underworld without the help of curers. Sun, after changing his elder brethren into animals, tries to revive the bones of his long-dead father. Although he succeeds in this, his mother (assimilated to the Virgin Mary) weeps instead of laughing, and his father disappears. It is the Virgin's fault that we must die (187).406 Twice did God revive his father [after his first effort]. She again wept, therefore our children must die. Before that a person only died for three days, and came to life again. The dead were not buried. People only waited, the people only went to the Katibak [the Underworld where the death god burns the bones of the deceased] to pay for their sin, and would return as before. That is why those who know how to blow, those who know how to pray, bring back the soul. He who becomes ill dies and is brought back to life. Illness was called mahbenal [being struck by the powers, either good or evil]. People came forth from the caves [where their souls were held imprisoned]. The gods, all of the gods,
406

As in the myth of Nuxi, woman is made responsible for the loss of immortality; on this point, traditional Mayas and Christians seem to have agreed.

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were rezadores [faith healers]; they would blow three times. The God is the healer, the ilol [clairvoyant curer] (Guiteras Holmes 1961: 188). The Choles relate a very similar story (Whittaker and Warkentin 1965: 46-49).407 Our Holy Mother, Moon, has four evil sons and a fifth who is Sun. Our Holy Father has died and his bones lie haphazardly in a coffin, until someone (he who loved the bones, apparently Sun) starts to reassemble the skeleton. On seeing the skeleton, Moon starts to cry, and the bones of the god broke apart again; the god came to a complete end.408 The theme of the aborted resuscitation of the father (the first ancestor to die definitively) antedates the arrival of the Spaniards, as both the Popol Vuh and the Gulf Coast myth of the maize hero (see Chapter Six, Welcoming the Game Husband) demonstrate. The key point suggested by these two tales, however, is that Nuxis work may have served as a model for those Lacandons acting as shamanic curers. If Nuxi re-institutes the immortality of a previous epoch by curing the dead, he is effectively acting as a substitute for Sukunkyum; and as will now be argued, it may even be that already in the times of immortality, he had a role to play. In a tale describing this prehistorical situation (Boremanse 1986: 71-72), the resurrected dead returns home while carrying two smoking incense burners to the temple, declaring: I have returned. I put here the incense burners of our lords Itzanachaak and Nuxi Kak.409 Itzanachaak is another name for Sukunkyum, Nuxi could in principle refer to various ancestors or divinities, and kak means fire. The text explains: The Elder Brother of Our Father had resuscitated that man and given him these incense burners [of the two deities] for venerating them. Therefore his body had not decayed, Sukunkyum had awakened him by returning his soul to him (Boremanse 1986: 71). Lord Nuxis epitheton Kak Fire may refer to the burial fires that play such an important role in protecting the dead (McGee 1990: 116-118). A brazier holding glowing charcoal is placed under the hammock of the deceased to keep
407

The short Chol text is not at all points entirely clear. Its colloquial style makes abundant use of pronouns, the referents of which are not easy to make out, and may partially lie outside the text itself. 408 In a shorter variant, this tale is also known from Chamula (Pozas 1977 II: 231). 409 Boremanse orthographically distinguishes Nouchi (=Nuxi) from Nouxi Kak, although in French, both names are pronounced in the same way. Bruce (1974: 361) assumes both figures to be basically the same.

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his body warm; the next day, when the corpse has been lowered into the burial pit, the ashes of the charcoal are spread over the grave mound to prevent maggots from infesting the burial; and a fire is built next to the grave for the wandering soul to warm itself. Although Nuxi is not a name exclusive to one person, it is nonetheless tempting to conclude from this tale that the ancestral hero Nuxi is either identical with, or has been modeled after, the deity Nuxi Kak who is mentioned together with Itzanachaak / Sukunkyum and venerated in a context of awakening the dead. The ancestral hero Nuxi had been adopted as a son by Sukunkyum and had assisted Sukunkyum in the quest for immortality; was initiated by him into the mysteries of death; had cured the dead, and upon his own definitive death was again received by Sukunkyum. However this may be, it seems plausible that the ancestor Nuxi continued to live in the subterranean house of Sukunkyum in order to serve as an intermediary to the living, and especially perhaps, to those acting as shamanic curers. This role as an intermediary comes more unambiguously to the fore in another of the Lacandon stories published by Boremanse (1986: 97101).410 Here, Nuxi emphatically called the one who swept the house of Kisin assumes the same sort of role Sukunkyum played with respect to Nuxi. He accompanies a disconsolate widower into the Underworld to help him meet his wife. Nuxi has the widower wash his cloth, clean it with chalk and pepper, and haul firewood for Sukunkyum the very tasks Sukunkyum had given to Nuxi (id.: 81, 85). Nuxi then leads the widower to Kisin. The wife turns out to have been an adulteress and to have been transformed by Kisins fire into one of his domestic animals. For the Tzotziles, this same widower is an important ancestor, the Living Man (Kuxul Winik);411 back on earth, he acted like Nuxi in transmitting his knowledge about the Underworld to his fellow human beings.412 Thus, Sukunkyum is to Nuxi what Nuxi is to the Living Man. In this
410

Although on various places, the text of this story refers explicitly to the Gopher Trapper, the author (Boremanse 1986: 101 n. 1) also, somewhat confusingly, states that the narrators are not very precise on this subject (of Nuxi conducting the widower to Kisin). 411 Kuxul Winik, see Guiteras Holmes 1961: 258-260 (Chenalh). Important Tzotzil and Tzeltal ancestors are often distinguished by winik epithets signaling specific legendary feats (see Braakhuis 2009a: 146 nn. 21, 22). 412 Transmitting knowledge about the dead, see Stross 1977: 12 (Tenejapa). Same tale type, Chol: Prez Chacn 1988: 335-341. In one, rather idiosyncratic version already

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disconsolate husband, Nuxi may also have recognized his own fate as an eternal lover to his underworldly wife. More importantly, Nuxi himself, who returned to Sukunkyum after his death and could not be claimed by Kisin, could justly be considered the eternal Living Man of the Lacandons. The Violet Hummingbird: Final Comparisons The Lacandon tale, though idiosyncratic, is in some respects close to the predominant Qeqchi Hummingbird myth. The resemblance would be more apparent had Nuxis strategy succeeded, for then there would be a twofold outcome, just as in Qeqchi myth. On the one hand, there would be the gophers, creatures on a par with the evil creatures regenerated from the lunar blood, a correspondence which becomes even stronger when one considers that among the latter creatures, there were also rats. In a later episode, these same creatures were born from the womb of the Maiden herself, just as the gophers were born from Bone Woman. On the other hand, had this Mother of Gophers also become a Mother of Humans, the outcome would have been the origin of a generation of human beings corresponding to those descending from the lunar ancestress of mankind, but no longer mortal. Unlike other Hummingbird myths, the tale of the Violet Sabrewing has its male protagonist end up in the Underworld. Nuxi, the Father of Gophers, is not transformed into the Sun, as occurs in Qeqchi and Poqomchi myth, nor is he in any way identified with it (the fact that he initially followed the descending Sun into the Underworld hardly constituting proof to the contrary). It is difficult to find a justification for the assertion made by Boremanse (1989: 77-78) with which J.E.S. Thompson appears to have concurred413 that the Lacandon Hummingbird and his subterranean wife represent Sun and Moon; it seems ultimately to rest on the unfounded assumption that hummingbird love magic necessarily implies an equation of hummingbird and sun (see Chapter Five). Instead, it is here argued that the solar transformation of Hummingbird correlates with political dominance and with independence in respect to the
referred to (Hofling 1991: 166-185), the Underworld is represented by the grave and a mouse presents the widower with the flower of immortality. 413 Thompsons overview of Sun and Moon myths was published in 1970 and did not include the myth of Nuxi; but in 1974, he communicated his opinion about the Lacandon myth to Boremanse (1986: 78 n. 59).

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authochthonous Owner of the Earth; only under certain circumstances may a solar character be attributed to Hummingbird. A unique feature of the Lacandon version is that the otherworldly Father-in-law is not the deity associated with the Earth and its products, that is, Mountain-Valley. Admittedly, among the Qeqchis, Mountain-Valley is also the deity guarding the moral order and meting out punishment. In these respects, he corresponds to Sukunkyum and, to a much lesser extent, to Kisin; but the shift in focus signalled by the choice of Kisin is no less remarkable for that. Of course, in the lowlands of Chiapas and the Petn inhabited by the Lacandons, there are no mountains, but in a material sense the fertility of the earth and the reproduction of the game would appear to have been as important to the Lacandons as to any other Mayan group.414 Among the factors responsible for the focus on Kisin may have been the small number of Lacandons, their high mortality, and their insecurity amidst increasing encroachments on their territories, all circumstances that could have conveyed a special urgency on the management of the relationship with the subterranean deities connected to disease and death. Directly related to the shift of emphasis occurring in Lacandon Hummingbird myth is the fact that in the end, Gopher Woman (or Bone Woman) does not change into game, maize, or other useful things.415 If she has an enduring value, it is an indirect one, connected to Hummingbirds eventual role: She is his contact with the world of his Father-in-law, the realm of the dying and of the dead where the souls go. Considering that in the other versions, the outcome of the tale establishes a functional relationship between the successors of Hummingbird and the earth conceived as a woman, the same is likely to be the case in the Lacandon situation. Nuxi acted like a curer with specialized instruments and, after his final retreat into the Underworld, as a conductor of souls. As I have already suggested, he may have served as an intermediary to those Lacandons (or informal Lacandon leaders) who had to deal with the dying and the dead and with human beings exposed to the perils

414

Nonetheless, in the collections of tales published by Bruce and Boremanse, the deities of the soil and its fertility are hardly represented at all. 415 As a Bone Woman, she could in principle embody the reproductive vitality (sometimes identified with the marrow) inherent in bones, but this is nowhere brought up by the myth.

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of the soul.416 Table 4 shows the relation of Lacandon Hummingbird myth to the other versions. Table 4: Hummingbirds Myths Compared
MALE PROTAGONIST REDUCTION OF BRIDE TRANSFORMATION OF BRIDE TRANSFORMATION OF HERO ASSOCIATED GROUP COSMOLOGIC PLANE

Saqe / Xbalanque

blood

snake-insect moon

none sun none sun

herbal curers and sorcerers conquerors farmers conquerors hunters beekeepers

earth sky earth sky earth

Saqe / Kiche Winaq Oyew Achi bones

maize seeds

deer-rabbit honey bees

none

Nuxi

(already bones)

none

none

caretakers of the dying and the dead

underworld

In this schema, associated group is the functional group related to, and professionally interested in, the specific transformation of the daughter of the Tzuultaqa; cosmologic plane is where the male protagonist finally ends up.

Finally, given that the Lacandon version of Hummingbird myth involves a descent into the Underworld and a confrontation with deities of disease and death, its relation to the Twin myth in the Popol Vuh warrants comment. Starting from the axiom that the Lacandon tale had necessarily to be a version of the pre-Spanish Kiche origin myth, Bruce (1968: 122ff, 1971: 111131) made an unsuccessful attempt to reduce its actors to those of the Kiche tale; I have elsewhere argued that his comparative approach is flawed (Braakhuis 1978: 364-366). It is undeniably true that Hummingbirds role in
416

The 20th-century Lacandons, being basically egalitarian, and living in only a few small, dispersed settlements, had no room for true specialists (see Boremanse 1998: xix).

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Qeqchi myth is played by a hero sometimes called Xbalanque, a character corresponding in the Popol Vuh to the War Twin who assists Hunahpu in his trials. In another early source, we find the pre-Spanish War Twin accompanying the soul of the dead Pokoman king (prefigured by Hunahpu) into the Underworld, a role not entirely unlike that of Nuxi as a conductor of the Living Man.417 However, these points of contact between the myth of Nuxi and the Popol Vuh should not be allowed to obscure the dissimilarity between the two myths in structure and content. The Twin myth is about the ball game, war, and sacrifice, and alliance is a mere side-effect: The short-lived relation between Blood Woman and the decapitated father of the Twins focuses on the warrelated symbolism of the calabash tree. The Twins themselves do not descend out of love for an Underworld woman, and show no interest at all in the fate of the dead. Indeed, the souls of the dead and their tribulations are absent from the Kiche tale.

417

The description of Xibalba given by Las Casas (1967: 506, Bk.III Ch. CCXXXV) could reinforce this particular correspondence between Nuxi and Xbalanque. Focusing on the unbearable heat and the drink consisting of pus, it is akin to the way the Underworld is depicted among the Lacandons and the Tzotzil-Tzeltales. In contrast to this, however, the Popol Vuh Twin myth hardly pays any attention to food and drink.

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CHAPTER 10

THE OLDER BROTHER AS A RENOUNCER OF WOMAN In the Thompson variant of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, the courtship and marriage of Hummingbird is contrasted with the marriage of Hummingbirds Older Brother that precedes it. The relationship between older and younger brother that here comes to the fore is an important one in Mayan culture generally, and the following statement about the Yucatec Mayas has validity for other Mayan groups as well: Among brothers, age ranking is especially significant, with the younger normatively being obedient to the elder and avoiding all criticism of him (Hanks 1990: 104). Qeqchi oral tradition has different deities fulfill the Older Brother role. In the Thompson narrative, the Older Brother is a hunting deity called Xulab (1930: 120), whereas in other versions (Cruz Torres 1965; Wirsing, in Dieseldorff 1966), he is a rain deity, viz. Chocl Cloud.418 Xulab has received scholarly attention mainly because of his final transformation into the Morning Star and his possible connection to the Venus tables in the Dresden Codex. Here, I shall discuss him first and foremost as a deity of the hunt and of wild nature. On a par with his solar Younger Brother, the Older Brother is a hunter, at first only for birds, later for deer and other game. Given the fact that the hunt itself was commonly conceived as a courtship, and thus presupposed a readiness to marry the animals on the part of the hunter, it seems paradoxical that the Older Brother is emphatically stated to dislike marriage. Although this dislike can be attributed both to Xulab (Thompson 1930: 124) and to Chocl (Cruz Torres 1965: 33), it is only in the case of the former that the Older Brothers inclinations towards celibacy become the leading motive of an explanatory myth setting out the break-up of his marriage and the origin of the hunt.

418

This does not exhaust the combinatory possibilities. In a recent Belizean variant of the first episode (Grandia 2004: 5-7), told as an independent tale about the catching of the tapir lover, the two heroes are Morning Star, i.e. Xulab, and Thunder (a name corresponding to Kaaq in Qeqchi).

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This chapter (i) introduces the tale, with particular attention to some of its idiosyncrasies and contradictions; (ii) elucidates Xulabs position in regard to marriage and sexuality and solves the apparent paradox of his unwillingness to marry; and (iii) sets out what appear to have been the reasons for the insertion of the Xulab myth into the Thompson Sun and Moon narrative as a whole.419 Xulab and the Origin of the Hunt With an interval of more than half a century, two detailed versions of the Qeqchi myth explaining the origin of the hunt have been recorded in Belize, more specifically, its southern Toledo district (Thompson 1930: 123125; Schackt 1986: 176-179; cf. Milbrath 1999: 34-35). Both versions are basically autonomous tales about the origin of the game animals. The Schackt version is presented as such, whereas the Thompson version has been integrated, albeit imperfectly, into a wider narrative: The Older Brother should marry, since the shared household of the brothers is after the killing of their adoptive mother in need of a female cook. However, once the woman has married in, the younger brother is no longer heard of. The two tales are centered on a hunting deity who also represents the most important star for the hunters: The Red Star (Kaq chahim), i.e., Venus during its Morning Star phase. The Schackt version uses this name throughout, whereas the Thompson version calls its hunting deity Xulab, a name that does not appear to be Qeqchi, but which already in early 18th-century Cholti could refer to a star, probably the Morning Star.420 Although the tale could thus be called an astral myth, and has

419 420

As usual, Thompson 1930 will be shortened to TH. Thompsons version was recorded in San Antonio, in the Mopan-speaking area. Morphologically, the name Xulab appears to be Yucatec (including Mopan and Lacandon) or Cholti, rather than Qeqchi. In Yucatec, -xul- is a verbal stem meaning to terminate (Cordemex). Yucatec xulab can refer to the leaf-cutting ants to which lunar eclipses were ascribed (Redfield/Villa 1934: 206), or to certain destructive ground wasps (Hanks 1990: 355). Lacandon xulab destroyer is one of the names of the Morning Star (Bruce 1974: 108, 358-359), tying up to an entry in Morns vocabulary of middle-colonial Cholti (see Boot 2004), including the language spoken in Dolores de Lacandn, viz. xulab star (cf. Thompson 1938: 600). In Qeqchi, on the other hand, xul means wild animal, xulibc hunting, and xulab does not appear to be known although Thompson (1970: 250, cf. 1966: 218) suggested Keeper of Wild Animals, a suggestion unlikely to be confirmed. A true Qeqchi name for Xulab may have been As

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received attention from this angle (e.g., Thompson 1966: 218; Closs 1979; Milbrath 1999), its focus is unmistakably the origin of the hunt. The secondary, instrumental role of the astronomical sphere becomes even clearer if one takes into account Cruz Torres s important ethnographical gloss (1965: 356) that, for Qeqchi hunters, not only the game generally, but specific species of game animals as well had their own red star,421 to which the hunters used to pray in the hours before dawn. Specialized guardians of the game (such as those known from the Lacandons), each associated with a star, may possibly have been the actual recipients of the hunters prayers. The myth compares the prehistoric situation with the present one through a series of elementary contrasts: (1) tame animals - wild animals, (2) meat directly handed out - game first to be hunted down, (3) animals held in enclosures - animals freely roaming about in the woods. As I will explain shortly, a fourth contrast should probably be added: (4) Xulab Owner of animals - Xulab hunter for game. In briefly summarizing the tale, I will follow the thread of the Thompson version (1930: 123-125). Originally, Xulab tended to his tame animals and fed them with his maize. Those in need of meat just came to him and asked for it. However, Xulabs wife got discontented because of his continuous absence during the day and his late arrival in the dark, and wanted to see what her husband was like. When his wife (instigated by another person) threw light on his face, she burst into laughter on seeing his big beard, and Xulab got infuriated. He jumped up, and with him, all his animals jumped up, too, and broke out of their fences, to disappear into the woods.422 Lord

Sun, defined as the Older Brother (as) of the sun god, Xbalanque (Wirsing, in Haeserijn 1979: 310 s.v. sun). 421 What is usually translated as star (Qeqchi chahim) could in principle also refer to constellations and planets (see Milbrath 1999: 37, Tedlock 1992: 180). Following a remark by Thompson (1930: 64), a red star would seem to refer to any star (or constellation) first rising above the eastern horizon, or, if more stars are appearing at the same time, to the most conspicuous of these. 422 It would appear that mythologically, discontinuous sounds from a womans mouth have the effect of making animals run wild. In Tzeltal myth (Slocum 1965: 15-16), the convulsive laughter of Suns grandmother makes the tails of the animals she is holding in her hand come off, whereupon the animals escape into the woods. In Totonac myth (Ichon 1969: 108-110), the Owner of Animals (John the Baptist) creates animals which, tame, assist him in sowing his maize-field, until his wife gives a sharp cry which makes the animals turn wild, devour the sowing seed, and disappear into the woods.

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Xulab ran out to catch them (TH 124). When he tried to withhold them by violently grabbing their tails, the tails came off. Finally, Xulab went away. In the matter of the escape of the animals, the Schackt version gives an interesting twist to the story, in that the deity does not grab the tails of the animals so as to hold them back, but, to the contrary, so as to launch them into the air: All the animals (were swung by their tails and) thrown away like stones (Schackt 1986: 178).423 I shall have more to say about this scene. There is another, and more important difference between the two versions. Whereas Thompson describes Xulab as an original owner of tame animals, the Schackt version presents the deity from the very outset as a great and savage hunter for wild animals who always goes about in blood-stained clothes. As far as these blood-stained clothes are concerned, one must assume that, on a par with Red Star, Xulab also killed and butchered his animals, since he handed out their meat to those in need of it; but in converting its protagonist into a sanguinary hunter for wild animals, the Schackt version runs counter to the logic of the tale as an origin myth by introducing an anachronism. The very fact that the hunting deity finally catapults his animals into the woods would appear to presuppose an initial situation in which they were corralled, like that described by the Thompson version. By the same token, the Great Hunter belongs to the present epoch, with free-roaming animals, rather than to the preceding, prehistoric one. Xulabs desperate hunt after his animals once they had run off appears to have acquired a permanent character in the Schackt version, making him into a perennial hunter. The hunting deitys two activities tending to the animals and setting them free from their corrals which the tale, for the purpose of the mythological argument, has dramatically pitted against each other, are held together in the wide-spread Mesoamerican concept of the Mountain as an Owner of the game. The mountain deity keeps his animals in corrals and fincas deep inside his mountains, and every now and then releases them on behalf of the hunters when duly petitioned (e.g., Qeqchi, Schackt 1986: 60, Kahn 2006: 52; Tzotzil, Khler 2006). It is to these deities (known in Qeqchi and in

423

Within the wider narrative, this divergent view has its analogy in the origin of snakes and insects, i.e., poisonous creatures (see Chapter Seven): According to some, the poisonous creatures just escaped, whereas according to others, they were set free.

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Belizean Mopan as Mountain-Valley)424 that Xulab, in the Thompson version, relegates his initial work of tending to the needs of the animals in their pens. The mountain deities are also, however, to release the game into the woods for the hunters to pursue.425 The Mountain-Valley deities are thus to do on a regular basis what, according to the Schackt version, the angry hunting deity had only theatrically done on being unmasked by his wife. The idea of a powerful Mountain-Valley deity being subservient to the Morning Star is unusual; in fact, in some of the pre-hunting invocations given by Thompson (1930: 88-89), both deities appear to be invoked on an equal basis, and in one Thompson tale (1930: 143-144), the primordial gift of fishes to mankind, and thus, the origin of fishcatching, is ascribed to the mountain deities alone.426 As is only to be expected, parts of the myth while remaining focused on the hunt invite an astronomical interpretation. The light thrown on Xulabs darkened face, making him for the first time visible, also appears to announce his role as an astral body.427 The shock provoked by it, which results in the escape of his animals and their consequent transformation into game, dramatically illustrates what is said of Nohoch Ich Large Eye, one of Xulabs appellations as the Morning Star: When Ah Nohoch Ich rises, his children [i.e., his animals] rise too (Thompson 1930: 63). That the deity, in the Schackt version, is presented as a great hunter the Red Star spattered with the blood of the game coincides with the way the Morning Star, angrily rising after a
424

Thompson (1930: 57ff) often makes use of the term Mam (or Mams in the plural) to refer to these mountain deities, from Yucatec mam grandfather. The corresponding Qeqchi term would be mama. 425 The delegation of authority to the mountain deities takes the rhetorical form of a sort of Mosaic Law promulgated by Xulab on taking leave (my law is this, those people who dont comply with this law will get no game, TH 125). Although proclamations constitute a traditional literary genre (one occurs towards the end of the Popol Vuh Twin myth), the notion of law used here is rather unusual. 426 If Xulab can be viewed as a primordial Owner of animals, he differs from the regular Owners (or Masters) of the Game in various respects. A fundamental difference is that to the latter, marriage is vitally important; their own daughters play an important role in the procreation of the game, and they see to it that the killing of their animals only serves to sustain the family of the hunter. 427 Seven sticks of pitch pine were lighted to make Xulabs face appear (TH 124). The number is suggestive of ritual arrangements, and the sticks may have been used in the pre-dawn sacrifice of the hunters. By analogy with the Weaving Sticks constellation of the Triques (Hollenbach 1977: 131), a possible reference to a Qeqchi constellation is also worth considering.

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period of invisibility, is depicted in pre-Spanish books. In the Mayan Dresden Codex (46-50), different manifestations of the deity (again called Red Star) direct their spears against both animals and humans; in Mexican codices, the Morning Star (or Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli) has been assimilated to the hunting deity, Mixcoatl,428 representative of the ancestral Chichimec hunters. Without much reason, Thompson (1930: 63, 139) takes Xulab as the Mayan counterpart to the legendary Quetzalcoatl, who (in written sources) was also identified with the Morning Star; Quetzalcoatl was considered Mixcoatls son and successor.429 In the Schackt variant, the act of launching the animals into the air is also suggestive of astronomical meaning. The first one so handled is the gibnut (i.e., the agouti or tepezcuintle, Agouti paca). In view of the fact that the agouti had its own red star to which the hunters would pray and sacrifice (Cruz Torres 1965: 356), one of the reasons for its being launched may have been to signal the game animals celestial counterpart and its stationing. The next one to suffer the same treatment is the peccary, an asterism (Kitam Peccary) to the Lacandons (Bruce 1974: 107), and known as such as early as Classical times (see Milbrath 1999: 268-269).430 By comparison, the Thompson version seems to be more earth-bound.431

428

This has often been pointed out, beginning with Seler. For Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in the Borgia group, see Spranz 1964: 412. 429 Quetzalcoatls beard, mentioned by Thompson (1930: 139), was equally characteristic of ancestral hunters belonging to Mixcoatls entourage, witness the frescoes of the Mixtec Mitla palace (Seler 1961 IV: 90, Abb. 64). There, two bearded hunters (perhaps the Mixco Xiuhnel and Mimich) have been assimilated to Mixcoatl. With regard to Quetzalcoatls ugliness, also mentioned by Thompson (1930: 139), this stems from contexts alien to the figure of Xulab. It refers to Quetzalcoatls monstrously swollen face, a delusion produced by an ensorcelled mirror (Lehmann 1974: 80-82, and notes); or it specifically refers to his nose, with blotches on it, and somewhat wasted (Durn 1971: 58). 430 In the same way, in a Tzeltal tale about the Sun and Moon Brothers (Becquelin 1980: 135), the Moon brother grasps a mischievous rabbit by its tail and throws it into the air, the tail again coming off. The astronomical implication becomes clear in a Tzeltal variant (Slocum 1965: 15-17), wherein it is another Moon (the brothers grandmother) who grasps the rabbits tail, and looses the animal. When she manages to retrieve the rabbit, she takes it with her into the sky. 431 It cannot be entirely excluded that Xulab, although transformed into the Red Star, was believed to return regularly to the earth. When instituting the pre-dawn ritual of the hunters, the deity declared that it had to be carried out when I am at home, meaning before I rise high above the horizon (Thompson 1930: 125). It may also be significant

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This origin myth of the game, with all its possible celestial reverberations, ends by Xulab going away and leaving this world, after having sworn, in the Schackt tale, that those not able to hunt in particular the women shall eat no meat, only its condiment, chili pepper. In this respect, the Thompson version (1930: 124) is more radical, with the malediction becoming a formal and general abjuration: I wont have anything more to do with women. Therefore, Xulabs desperate pursuit of the escaping animals into the woods is at the same time a definitive running away from the world of women. Within the wider framework of the Thompson narrative, this renouncement of women is preceded by the Older Brothers declared unwillingness to enter upon marriage. It was for that reason that his younger brother, the Sun hero, had had to push him into it, and this mistaken intervention led to the marriages final disintegration. Taking the Thompson narrative as a whole, Older Brothers choice for the celibate status and Suns intervention act as a device to integrate the origin myth of the hunt into the main tale of the solar hunter. Consequently, it is only after the tale of the Sun hero and his celestial transformation has been told that Xulab is finally stated to ascend into the sky and become the Red Star of the hunters. But the theme of Xulabs renouncement of women is, as I will argue, much more than a mere literary device. It intrinsically belongs to the make-up and social function of the hunting deity. Xulab and the Initiation into the Hunt The theme of the renouncement of woman is not restricted to the figure of Xulab, but recurs in the context of the initiation into the hunt by the Yucatec deities of the woods. In important respects, Xulab corresponds to these deities associated with the wild animals and vegetation. Xulab as a Lord of the Woods The Lord or Guardian of the Woods sometimes shows a clear exterior resemblance to Xulab. In some places, a distinction is made between a Lord and

that the Schackt version does not end with the celestial transformation of its protagonist: Being called Red Star already, the latter is seen to be hunting on earth.

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a Guardian of the Woods, but one can easily take the place of the other. Among the contemporary Quintana Roo Mayas (Gnther 1995: 137-138), the Lord of the Woods (Yum Kx) appears to be the superior guardian of the game, overseeing the work of the Guardians of the Woods (Ah Canan Kxoob). These Guardians are also called Jaguar Persons (Ah Blamoob) powerful guardians being commonly compared to, or even identified with, jaguars (cf. Redfield and Villa 1934: 113-114). Among the northern Lacandons (Boremanse 1986: 333), the Lord of the Woods himself can assume the shape of a jaguar, and the Guardian of the Woods (Kanan Kax), or Venerable Lord Jaguar (Yuntsil Balam), can also be viewed as the principal lord and protector of the animals (Rtsch and Probst 1985: 240). This supreme Guardian is described (ibid.) as a cave-dwelling deity wearing a jaguar pelt mantle and sporting a large beard, who, significantly, lives without a woman. He thus resembles Xulab.432 The Lord of the Woods can also be conceived as a cattle-owner. For the Yucatec-speaking Mayas of San Romn, for example, on the Ro Hondo in northern Belize, the Lord of the Woods (Yumi Kaax) was both the god of the hunt and the owner of all animals. In the same way as Xulab kept his animals in pens, this Lord of the Woods owned a hacienda, the corral of which enclosed an immense number of cattle and mules.433 Whereas the animals of Xulab, although domesticated, are still those of the woods, the animals of this Lord of the Woods are presented as if they were inherently domesticated. An element of taming, and thus of active domestication remains, however: He [the Lord of the Woods] drew near to one of the most fiery of the mules, slapped its side and it forthwith became as tame as a lamb (Muntsch 1943: 33). The cattle and mules are likely to be be only a metaphor for wild animals kept like tame ones

432

Xulabs role as a Lord or Guardian of the Woods could explain Venus ancient Yucatec title of Wasp Star (Xux Ek, Cordemex Dictionary), since generally, wasps are like the arrows and javelins of the game animals and their guardians, sanctioning offenses of the hunters: The deer-like Zip acts through his wasps (Redfield and Villa 1934: 118), and the protector of the game, Yuntsil Balam, is surrounded by a dangerous xux tancas, or wasp aire (Rtsch and Probst 1985: 240-242). In Oaxacan Twin myth, the role of the wasps, punishing the Old Woman who had viciously been kicking the carcass of a deer, is much the same. The wasps stings also invite comparison with the deadly spears of the Morning Star at heliacal rise. 433 In principle, Xulabs beard could have been modelled after those of 19th-century (or earlier) hacendados; however, wearing a beard has clear pre-Spanish antecedents, and possesses symbolic values of its own.

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by their Owner. In Quintana Roo, wild animals (baalcheeoob) are called the domestic animals (lakoob) of their Owners (Rabeler 1995: 150, 152 n. 13), and the guardians of these domestic animals have the task of periodically (following a ritual request of the hunters) letting the animals out of their corrals to retreat into the forest, and thereby to reassume their wild status and become game (Gnther 1995: 137-138). It thus seems that the combination of Xulab (as an Owner of Animals) and the Mountain-Valley deities (as his Guardians) has been modeled after the Lord of the Woods and the Guardians working for him, thereby putting the interior of the mountains on a par with a corral.434 The complement to Xulabs role as a Lord of the Woods has to do with the wild vegetation. Once his animals have run off and left their tails in his hands, the hunting deity wipes his blood-stained hands on the black nightshade (ichaj, Solanum nigrum), which Schackt (1986: 178) notes is a wild herb that invades burned milpas and which can be eaten. Alternatively, he smears the blood of the game on the wild, but edible, plants xchay (chaya, Jatropha acantifolia, eaten like spinach) and xchayuk (xchay yuk brockets chaya?), and by repeating this action on tree trunks (probably left over after burning the milpa) creates edible fungi (xikinche tree ears). This Lord Xulab did, so that the people might have more to eat to replace the tame animals that were no more (TH 125). In these cases, Xulab, as a god of wild nature, created wild plants that, upon invading the cultivated area of the maize field, could make it revert to forest. Although Xulab is thus primarily a god of wild vegetation, he is also associated with the opposite pole, and particularly with the maize. The maize field is taken from the forest and grows from its soil. Therefore, it is understood still to depend on its deities (Thompson 1930: 107). It is probably for this reason that Xulab is believed somehow to influence the growth of the crops, especially the maize (Thompson 1930: 125), and that, under his name of Red Star, he is still (together with Sun and Moon) being invoked before sowing the maize (Wilson 1995: 102). In his myth, Xulab originally had his own maize field, but it served only to provide fodder for his animals.435 The deity of wild
434

It is a common Mayan idea that Owners of wild animals and game keep their cattle in corrals inside the mountain. In an analogous way, the Tzotzil ancestors hold all animal spirit companions in mountain corrals. 435 This is the same situation as that prevailing in the prehistoric world of interacting mountains described in the Tiburcio Caal maize myth (see Chapter Eight).

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nature feeding his animals with maize would appear to allude to the right of certain wild animals to a share of the maize growing in the milpa, a right connected to the myth of the discovery of the Maize Mountain.436 This right which is to be respected by the farmer and thus entails a certain obligation on his part would only need to be exercised, however, after the animals escape from Xulabs corrals and Xulabs disappearance into the woods. The Lord of the Woods as a Tutor The motif of the renouncement of woman turns up once more within the juxtaposition of field and forest discussed above. Among the Yucatec-speaking Mayas of Belize (Thompson 1930: 173) and Quintana Roo (Tozzer 1907: 161162; Villa Rojas 1978: 291), the Lord of the Woods should be pacified and fed whenever the wild vegetation is slashed and burnt for laying out a maize field. Otherwise, the maize will not flourish. A story from the Corozal district of Belize (Thompson 1930: 173) makes it clear that the lords of the forest (i.e., the Yumil Qaxob, cf. p. 108), should they not receive their indemnity, are bound to retaliate. It runs as follows. A farmer insistently neglected his ritual duties towards the Lords of the Woods, provoking them into kidnapping his son. Taking him to their home in the depth of the forest, they brought him up amongst themselves. Once grown up, the young man was sent back on the express condition that he abjure women. However, disregarding the sexual taboo imposed upon him, he wooed a girl. On their marriage night he had just shut the door of his hut when he heard a series of long low whistles (such as hunters use among themselves). The Lords of the Forest had arrived to carry him off for good. And there the story ends. From another report, from the northern districts of Belize (Muntsch 1943: 33-34), it appears that the Lords of the Forest take over the farmers role as a father and instructor so as to initiate his son into the secrets of the hunt: Those who have been released from the captivity of Yumi Kaax also glory in the possession of wonderful powers. They can tame the fiercest animals and easily catch deer and other game.437

436

Elsewhere (e.g., Schumann 1988: 215), the wild animals right to a share in the maize is presented as a prerogative deriving from their role in the discovery of the maize. 437 Other, minor spirits of the woods may also kidnap children or young men and keep them for several years so as to initiate them into their secrets. The Yucatec goblins

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It is not clear if kidnappings like these were always occasioned by a father failing to heed a pact with the Lord of the Woods. In San Romn, for example, in northern Belize, it is common report among the Indians that Yumi Kaax steals children and young persons, some of whom return, while others fail to do so (Muntsch 1943: 33). At times, calling upon an indigenous priest and presenting a ritual gift to the deity seems to suffice to see the children return (ibid.). What may have been the ulterior motive of the Lord of the Woods for kidnapping children comes to the fore in an elaborate version from the Northern Lacandons (Boremanse 1986: 169-175), which I suggest can be read as a sort of exegesis of Xulabs (or, as the Schackt version calls him, Red Stars) failed marriage and subsequent renouncement of woman.438 The Lacandon Lord of the Forest longs for male company. Being fond of adolescent boys, he kidnaps two of them. The boys are adopted and as in the reports above instructed in hunting magic, including secret formulas and songs.439 They learn how to make their arrows penetrate their prey and magically return to their hands. They are also trained in catching poisonous serpents for the purpose of removing their teeth and rendering them harmless. This they do by enticing the serpents, spitting on the end of a stick and holding it out to them. The Lord of the Forest is a savage who eats the meat of his game raw; blood stains are all over his cave dwelling. The superfluity of the kitchen-fire greatly reduces his need for a woman; although his spouse is present, she takes no active part and remains invisible. For several years, the two boys share the life of their patron.440 On
(aluxob), for example, are reported to do so for the purpose of teaching the chosen ones the art of herbal curing (Preuss 2005: 51, 56). The motif of the renouncement of woman, however, appears to be specific to the Lord of the Woods. 438 Boremanse (1986: 175 n. 1) first signaled the motif of abduction shared by Thompsons Belize and the Lacandon variants, but did not enter upon a discussion of the tales initiatory aspects. 439 The idea of an erotical bond uniting hunters and hunting deity is wide-spread. In distant Amazonia, the Tukano Desana shaman, in his efforts to propitiate the Owner of animals, describes the hunters as feminine elements, sexual objects for Va-Mahs [the hunting deity] who thus falls in love with them and tries to caress them (ReichelDolmatoff 1974: 223-224). The intimacy established in such a way is not meant to go much beyond this. 440 In stories about hunters summoned by the Owner of Animals (or the Mountain), the hunters forced stay in the Other World seems, to the hunter, to have been only for days; on returning home, however, he discovers that to his familiars, the days had been years. Therefore, the years of learning with the Guardian could, in ordinary reality, well represent a much more restricted period of initiation.

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reaching marriageable age, however, the young men free themselves from the exclusively male sphere of their savage instructor and manage to escape. Weeping, their teacher searches for them, but in vain: The boys never return. Therefore, the Lord of the Forest took back what he had taught them, the arrow spell, and that against serpents. Once back home, the ancients forgot them (173).441 In the Thompson story (really an ejemplo) about the farmer whose son was kidnapped, the young mans marriage brought about a breach of trust with his savage teachers from the forest. In the present Lacandon story, it seems to be the simple fact of reaching marriageable age, with its awakening of the young mens desire for human women, which, when acted upon, ultimately brings about the loss of secret hunting knowledge. Hunting magic can apparently flourish only within an exclusive all-male sphere. But the phenomenon is a more general one: Hunting weapons should be kept free from female contamination (e.g., Muntsch 1943: 34-35), and the hunters body should not carry the smell of his wife lest the animals flee (Katz, in Dehouve 2008: 20). Similar ideas are already present in 16th-century Mesoamerican sources. The Aztec hunting deity, Camaxtli, for example (another name for Mixcoatl), lost the deer spirit that made him invincible on giving in to a woman (Olmos, in Garibay 1965: 37, Ch. 8 par. 82-83), and the three ancestral deities of the Kiches were enviously observed to have power and glory only because they never see women (Totonicapan Title fol. 12v, in Carmack and Mondloch 1983: 89, 180). In the case of the Lacandon Lord of the Forest, one may plausibly hypothesize that women once captured by their hunters, or, inversely, once the latter have been trapped by them represent a threat because they will eventually tame their husbands, breaking the bond of semen and blood which united them in a male brotherhood with their tutor, and making them settle down to slash the deitys wild vegetation and become farmers. Reverting to the Lacandon tale: The frustrated love of the Lord of the Forest for the young hunters makes him homicidal and cannibalistic. Yet, as the continuation of the story shows (Boremanse 1986: 173-174), there remains an element of what could be called homoeroticism, but should, perhaps, rather be
441

A much simpler Lacandon tale (Bruce 1974: 216-223) again focuses on the taboo on relations with women. Knn Kax is taking three ancestors to his home. Two of them dont heed the deitys warning, and give in to seductive Xtabay Female Ensnarers; one stays with the Guardian, and reaches the latters house.

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viewed as the consequence of a fixation on phallic power. In case of a renewed encounter, the unfaithful beloved had to display great virility: He should either tickle the powerful man and, treating him rather like a woman, undo his cannibalistic excitement,442 or, contrarily, lay down for dead while maintaining a staunch erection. The phallic preoccupation of the savage hunting deity will inevitably lead him to the conclusion that someone had been killed like a quarry: When the Lord of the Forest saw him with his penis completely rigid, he declared: He is dead, pierced by a piece of wood! He looked at the ancestor who had his mouth wide open and the eyes closed, took hold of the latters member and examined it, manipulated it, slapped itwhack! whack! ...The penis was as hard as ever. Then he exclaimed: Poor thing! A sharp pole pierced your body!443 Masturbation here becomes comparable to handling a spear or a javelin. The overtly sexual symbolism of the pole ties in with the snake-catching stick with saliva on its head, from which it could be inferred that within the exclusively male sphere of Lacandon hunting groups, arrows and javelins were similarly conceived to be loaded with phallic power.444 The boys adoption by the Lord of the Forest which in this tale had not been provoked by a ritual omission on their fathers part and their seclusion in the wilderness can have reflected the initiation of young boys or adolescents into their adult roles. Among the northern Lacandons, this initiation takes the place of a rite of passage that elsewhere is performed at a much earlier age (Lacandon mek-chur, Yucatec hetz-mek, cf. Davis 1978: 265-267; Boremanse 1998: 81-85). In the tale above, the Lord of the Forest, in his role as

442

Since the Lord of the Forest turned into an ogre, he has now apparently become comparable to the grim Savage Man (Salvaje). Making this wild man laugh (especially through dance and music), and so undoing him, is a motif in stories about the forest (see Brinton 1890: 176, on the Yucatec Che Uinic Man of the Woods; Hasler 1969: 25, on the Oaxacan Mazatec Wild Man). 443 This scene with an ithyphallic victim invites comparison with Classical Mayan representations of ithyphallic captives (see Houston, Stuart, and Taube 2006: 210ff). 444 This concept of phallic weapons, already plausible by itself, could be further argued. In Chapter Three, the Lacandon equation of the tapir penis with a spear-thrower was noted, and in Chapter Ten, that of Mixcoatls penis with a spear.

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a hunting deity, appears to have taken the place of the human ritual instructor, or embracer (meekul), in the Lacandon initiation ritual. Even though boys should also become farmers, their standing as hunters was apparently paramount: The search for the wood for bows and arrows, together with their subsequent manufacture and the instruction in their use, appears to have been at the heart of the ritual (Davis 1978: 316ff). Appropriately, the Guardian of the Woods (Knn Kx) was the first to receive the offering of bows and arrows (Boremanse 1998: 83-84), and in the seating order of the participants in the ritual, the initiate sat opposite this deitys burner (Davis 1978: 334). The tale above thus may give us a background to Lacandon male initiation rites (which would probably also have included the learning of magical spells). It is in line with this interpretation that it is precisely on reaching marriageable age that the tales two young men leave the initiatory sphere of the wilds, of male bonding, and of homoeroticism.445 If, as seems quite likely, the initiation into the hunt also existed in preSpanish times, then Xulabs myth being about how the hunt originated and especially his theatrical fleeing away from women, may well have served as one of its central narratives and as a model for a temporary retreat of the male novices (in Yucatan living together in the young mens house) into the undomesticated sphere of the wilderness. Xulabs stance with respect to human women during the hunt may not have been very different from his stance with respect of deer women, in that both were to be kept at a distance. In view of his function as a violent Morning Star, on a par with the Chichimec hunting deity Mixcoatl-Camaxtli, it is perhaps significant that in Northern Tepehuano myth (Bentez V 1980: 94) the Morning Star hunter was degraded to an Evening Star for having slept with a deer woman following a hunt.446 The hunting deitys phallic power should remain strictly
445

(Pseudo-)homoerotic relationships such as that existing between the elder Guardian of the Forest and his adolescent boys have a long history in Mayan culture. In describing the Verapaz provinces, for example, Las Casas (1967 II: 522, Bk. 3 Ch. 239) mentions sexual relationships, with a juridical status approaching that of marriage, between unmarried young men and boys; he also hints at a mythological role model for such arrangements. In the context of religious instruction in the temples, similar relationships prevailed (Casas 1967 II: 515, Bk. 3 Ch. 237). 446 The text summarizes the myth in a few lines, and only mentions the mating with the deer woman as an infringement upon the state of ritual purity required during, and apparently also immediately after, the hunt.

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subordinated to the purpose of killing the game, and not be abused for actually making love to deer women. Xulab, living in a transitional area between the dwelling-places of humans and animals, may in a final instance be viewed as a grim guardian of the border separating the two worlds. Modalities of the Hunt: Elder and Younger Brother Having discussed the myth of the origin of the game and its implications, we should now reconsider it as a constituent part of the Thompson version of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth. I will attempt to show that the inclusion of the origin myth of the game pertaining to the Older Brother helps to establish and clarify distinctions that are vital to the role that the Younger Brother, Sun, has to play within the myth as a whole. In this respect, the contrast of older brother younger brother assumes the function of a general structuring principle, a phenomenon that has also been noted for Tzotzil culture (Vogt 1969: 238-245). There, the terms for older brother (bankilal) and younger brother (itsinal) underscore relative status in a variety of contexts within and beyond kinship.447 Conceptually, Older Brother refers to the world of the woods, as opposed to that of villages and fields, and to an unchanging mythical prehistory, rather than to the present. To the traditional Mayas, the forest could be a source of knowledge, but often, its negative aspect as a prehistoric world of darkness, entangled plants and bushes, and the menacing lustfulness of demons, receives emphasis, set off against the orderliness of the areas of human habitation (Hanks 1990: 306-307; Taube 2003). These more negative aspects of the wild seem to have found expression in the way the narrators present Xulab. Xulab seeks the dark, since light would disclose his ugliness, manifested by a big beard covering his entire face (TH 124)448 or by a face full of warts (Schackt 1986: 177). These features appear to connect him to the world of wild animals, rather than to civilized humanity. Xulab is in one group with other men of the woods, such as the cheil and the chol wink, the latter being the caricatures of
447

Some of the examples given by Vogt concern seating and drinking order, positions within the religious cargo system, and the ranking of shamans, mountains, waterholes, and ritual paraphernalia. 448 Already in 16th-century Yucatan (Landa 1941: 88), a beard was considered undesirable, and measures were taken to prevent its growth.

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the former barbarous Chol Mayas, now relegated to a prehistoric way of life in woods and caves. Indeed, Xulab may originally have been considered such a savage Chol man (his very name probably being a Chol loan word). If his ugliness betrays that he represents the unattractive wilderness, it is also directly connected to his unattractiveness to women and to the resulting dissolution of his marriage. Formulated positively: It seems to predestine him for male fraternizing within hunting groups, and for representing their phallic sphere. As an Older Brother, Xulab can be considered prehistoric. In Mayan mythology generally, Suns Older Brothers represent the distant past, and are somehow connected to the origin of game. In Chiapas Mayan Sun myth, for example (Slocum, in Thompson 1970: 361-363; cf. Becquelin Monod 1980: 133ff), the Older Brothers are Former Suns and bee hunters, who are finally transformed into wild animals by their Younger Brother, the New Sun. In Northwestern Guatemalan myth (e.g., Qanjobal, LaFarge 1947: 50-53; Jacaltec, Montejo and Campbell 1993: 100-102), the Older Brothers are savage hunters who eat their meat raw and make Suns tame animals escape from their corral, or cave, and thus turn wild.449 The general connection of the Older Brother (or Brothers) to the origin of the game is likely to have influenced the choice of Xulab, rather than Chocl, for this role in Qeqchi myth.450 The tale of Xulab and the origin of the game is preceded by the tale of the two brothers, Xulab and Sun, acting together in the setting of a prehistoric world of cannibalism, dominated by the figure of the Old Adoptive Mother. The choice for Xulab to play the Older Brother role perfectly fits in a tale about the provision of meat, since in his own myth, Xulab is indeed the great meat provider, either handing out the meat of tame animals (Thompson) or hunting for the meat of animals already turned wild (Schackt). Initially, Sun participates in this prehistoric world. He and his Older Brother are continually outside (Freeze), in the woods, leading a hunting life. Therefore, not only Xulab, but also Lord Kin (Sun) is stated to have sported a great beard during this time

449

The motif of the Older Brothers jealousy, however, so prominent in these versions, is absent in Qeqchi myth. 450 In terms of the hunt, the option for the alternative Elder Brother, Chocl, could, however, have its own logic. Although Xulab appears to be the obvious choice, the rain deity is, in a Mesoamerican tradition, closely connected to the deer as well. He sometimes functions as an alternative Owner of the game (e.g., Lipp 1991: 30), and rides on a deer (e.g., Laughlin 1975: 111).

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(TH 124, cf. 139), a beard that appears to characterize the Sun hero (or Xbalanque) as a savage hunting deity on a par with the Older Brother with whom he is living. The first hunting forays of Sun and his Older Brother bear comparison to the forays of the two Lacandon boys practicing the art of hunting under the tutelage of the Lord of the Forest. This was a time of learning magical transformations, of inventing traps, and of practicing hunting magic of the sort taught by the Lacandon Lord of the Woods: With their magical arrows and javelins, they did not take aim, they just launched them in the air and by their magic, these found the animals and killed them (Cruz Torres 1965: 21), not unlike the magical hoes of the Kiche Twins within the sphere of agriculture. It was also a period of overcoming female dominance (a motif which came to the fore in the analysis of the boys conflict with their Old Adoptive Mother), another wide-spread theme of male initiation into adulthood. Once the cavedwelling Stepmother and her animal lover have been killed and this first period of learning has come to an end, the elder of the two boys has reached marriageable age. Grudgingly, he accepts the fetters of marriage. Sun is intimated to live for some time in the household of his Older Brother and the latters wife. The parallel to the Lacandon initiatory story above seems clear, with Sun corresponding to one of the adolescent boys, Xulab to the Guardian of the Woods, and Xulabs wife to the shadowy wife of the Lacandon Guardian.451 However, the advent of woman destroys the initial solidarity of Elder and Younger Brother, and lays open a fundamental opposition between the two brothers. As a result, the Older Brother disappears into the woods for good, searching for his animals, whereas the Younger Brother takes leave of the woods in search of a woman. By initially refusing to marry, the Older Brother had already shown his willingness to exclude himself from the social networks of sedentary life and the domestic sphere. His younger brother urged him to take a woman so as to have a female cook for their household, but Xulab, as another Guardian of the Woods, tended towards the raw rather than the cooked. Once married, Xulab spends all his love on the proto-hunters to whom he distributes meat, rather than on his wife. By exposing his Older Brother to the
451

If we view the first episode as an initiatory period, then the fact that, according to one of Thompsons four informants, Sun was only an adoptive brother of Xulab (Thompson 1930: 136), could be interpreted as referring to the relationship between novice and tutor.

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tensions of married life, the Sun hero creates the preconditions for the tame animals conversion into wild animals. In so doing, he also paves the way for his own role as a deer hunter and lover of game animals conceived as female. Xulabs actions thus serve as a counterpoint to the main line of what almost amounts to a treatise on the modalities of the hunt. Xulab returns to the woods in pursuit of his animals, whereas his Younger Brother opts for a life outside the wilderness and becomes a maize farmer (see next chapter, section Ritual Harmony Disrupted). Xulab is the elder, prehistoric, savage brother and absolute hunter, while Sun is the succeeding younger, historicized, humanized brother and domesticated hunter. In Xulabs case, phallic power and procreation are subordinated to the act of killing, and woman is renounced; in the case of his brother, phallic power and killing are subordinated to procreation, and the overriding theme is therefore the search for a woman. In the strongest possible of contrasts, Xulabs renouncement of women is set off against his younger brothers exertions to have the vagina created. A value judgment tends to be attached to these contrasts: The Older Brother is dull, the Younger Brother intelligent. This is openly expressed in the tapir-catching episode of the Thompson variant (TH 120-121), where Lord Kin respecting the precedence of the older brother repeatedly asks Xulab for his advice, only to receive the answer: I dont know. He then reacts despairingly: O you are very stupid.452 Characteristically in view of the importance that stars once held in traditional Qeqchi culture Sun and Moon myth makes a concluding statement in astronomical terms. The nocturnal hunter whose impetuous rise frees him from the fetters of marriage and simultaneously frees his animals from their domestic seclusion, acquires a celestial counterpart in Xulab, the Morning Star hunter whose rise signals the awakening of the game.453 A suggestive contrast could be construed between a Xulab whose marriage seems never to have been consummated and who is ridiculed by his wife for his
452

Even though, in another Qeqchi variant collected by Freeze (1976: 23-25), the narrator could not tell who was the elder, and who the younger brother, the dullintelligent contrast reappears: Exposed to acute peril, one of the brothers is unconcerned and falls asleep, while the other one is watchful and stays awake. 453 The connection between the Lord of the Forest and the Red Star recalls that between the Female Ensnarer (another denizen of the wilderness) and the female Moon, as recognized by the Oaxaca Chontales: It is said that she [the spook, EB] was the moons companion who stayed on earth when the moon went up to the sky (Carrasco 1960: 110).

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unattractiveness, and the extreme manliness of Xulab at the very moment of being transformed into the Morning Star, the Terminator whose spears are feared by everybody. Inevitably, the oppositions signaled above also simplify matters, particularly as regards the contrast prehistory - hunt and present era agriculture; for although the Mayas had a concept of historical development through certain stages, they also knew that hunt and agriculture remain as contemporaneous options. Moreover, the oppositions are context-bound, and cannot be taken as being all metaphorically related and therefore interchangeable. With these provisos, Table 5 highlights important contrasts explicitly or implicitly governing the Qeqchi narrative. Table 5: The Two Hero Brothers Contrasted OLDER BROTHER Morning Star (Xulab) prehistory dullness ugliness raw meat wild plants and fungi maize field for animals renouncement of woman all-male companionship phallic power and killing YOUNGER BROTHER Sun (Saqe / Xbalanqe) present era intelligence beauty prepared meat cultivated plants maize field for humans alliance with woman male-female companionship sexual procreation (creation of the vagina)

In the Thompson narrative, the Older Brothers refusal of marriage is followed by the narrative of the Younger Brothers search for a wife, and by what amounts to the institution of marriage. In between, there is an intriguing transitional episode found only in the Thompson variant (TH 125), one that

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invites a final consideration of the contrast between the two brothers, this time from a perspective of individual development. The Older Brother essentially remains what he was in the myths first episode, a celibate hunter. Once he has disappeared from the scene, Lord Kin, too, wandered away, travelling far. When he came to a large mountain, he hurled his blowgun at it, and crawled through the tube of the gun. Eventually he arrived at the house of his mother. In several hero myths, the encounter with the lost mother represents a significant moment, particularly in the maize myth of the Gulf Coast peoples (for an overview and references, see Lpez Austin 1992) and the Chorti myth of the culture hero Kumix (Girard 1966, Fought 1989). There, the encounter follows upon the defeat of the Old Adoptive Mother, and leads to a search for the remains of the father and to a struggle with the powers responsible for his death (represented in maize hero myth by the gods of thunder and lightning, and in Chorti hero myth by the so-called Bronze King). The hero reveals his true nature to his mother, and, in maize hero myth, sometimes assigns her a cultic role (e.g., Williams Garca 1972: 86, 92). Then, she puts him on the track to his fathers grave. In sharp contrast to this, the mother of Qeqchi myth does not recognize her son, the son does not self-consciously reveal himself to her, or assign her a function, and the fate of the father is not discussed. Since the Older Brother tale is in all likelihood an insert, the encounter with the mother may originally have followed directly on the adoption episode (as in the comparable narratives just mentioned) and may have introduced a narrative line about the search for the lost father. With the material at hand, this possibility cannot be verified; one can only signal the ingenious way in which the episode has been adapted to the main concern of the Thompson narrative. The mother invites the unknown visitor to share her sleeping place with her.454 The hero reacts indignantly, and his mother obviously now recognizing him as her son makes amends by offering to find him a bride; but the hero refuses to make himself dependent again and leaves to find a bride all by himself.

454

In the Chorti variant told by Anastasio de Len (Girard 1966: 276), a hummingbird transported the hero to his mother, and his mother was nude. In this context, it is worth noting that because of the Mesoamerican rule of ultimogeniture, the youngest son usually takes the place of the deceased father as the owner of the parental home (Robichaux 1997: 157-166).

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The opposition of Older and Younger Brother thus intersects with the opposition of young men and their mothers and wives. In varying ways, both the adoptive mother and the true mother represent the menace of domination and loss of freedom. In the case of the Younger Brother, the adoption by an aged pseudo-mother representative of primeval incestuous reproduction threatens to recur as an incestuous bond with the true mother, in flagrant contradiction of the tales thrust, namely exogamous alliance. At the same time, the phallic imagery played off against the Old Adoptive Mothers sexual voracity would allow for a similar understanding of the mountains penetration by the heros blowgun, with its owner passing through it like a pellet.455 Exogamous alliance carries other risks: Once Hummingbird has forced his way into the quarters of his fiance, he is immediately reduced to being her pet, and is imprisoned in her weaving basket. In this developmental perspective, the nocturnal transformation of the hummingbird back into a man is the decisive turn of the entire narrative construction: He showed his manhood (Wirsing).456

455

The intimate relation of the hero and his blowgun is put to different use by the Popol Vuh (lines 3935ff): The Twins imprisoned in the House of Bats sleep inside their blowguns, and are protected by them. 456 Tuctu cojyin cavua Balam Que qui cut ix vuinquilal. Read quicut (show) for quicut (throw, inject). Vuinquilal could also be rendered as personhood, but the erotic context makes manhood an apposite alternative.

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CHAPTER 11 MOONS LOVE AFFAIRS The Qeqchi hero myth is about a young man on a quest for a woman, but at the same time it becomes the myth of Sun and Moon. This is not self-evident, since the relation between Sun and Moon can be envisaged in quite different ways, such as one between a boy and his mother or grandmother (Chiapas and North-western Guatemala), or between two siblings, whether of the same (Popol Vuh), or of the opposite gender (Oaxaca). In Qeqchi myth, the relationship between Sun and Moon represents the prototype of a human marriage. It is about the initial acquisition of female human fertility, but it includes the quarrels between husband and wife and also the wifes adultery. Each time, these disturbances turn out to have special effects: The quarrels lead to eclipses, and the adulteries appear to function in such a way that through a temporary alliance, they activate the lunar powers of the heros wife in specific spheres, such as that of rainmaking and black sorcery. The wider ramifications of a love affair appear to be also illustrated by the young womans premarital alliance with the deer. The narrative is concluded with two interrelated episodes, the second of which has been embedded in the ancient tale of Suns voyage to the town of the vultures. Moon entertains an adulterous relation with her brother-in-law, a role played by Suns Older Brother Xulab (Thompson) in the Mopan tradition and by the rain deity Chocl Cloud (Wirsing, Cruz Torres, King) in what appears to be the tradition of the Qeqchi heartland. Minor variants (Mayn, Ulrich) mention only in general terms Suns jealousy and wife beatings, which lead to the narratives final episode: Moons alliance with the king of the vultures, whose defeat by the hero is immediately followed by the celestial ascent of Sun and Moon.457 Taken together, these two episodes are plainly part of an ancient Mesoamerican tradition (cf. also Thompson 1939: 135-136, 142-143). Already

457

References are to the sources in Appendix A. The abbreviated authors name is followed by the page number(s).

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in Aztec sources from the early colonial period, one finds brief references to tales involving the same or very similar actors that offer close parallels to the Qeqchi myth. In his Historia de Tlaxcala, Muoz Camargo (1978: 155) writes about Xochiquetzal, the Aztec counterpart of the young Qeqchi goddess: They say that she was the wife of the god Tlaloc, god of the waters,458 and that Tezcatlipuca stole her from him, and that he took her to the nine heavens and converted her into the goddess of benevolence [diosa del bien querer], an unusual epithet suggesting that she may have become a patron of prostitutes, which, according to various sources, was indeed one of her functions.459 Like the chief of the vultures in the Qeqchi myth, Tezcatlipoca is the god of black sorcery, and an early Aztec source states that he deceived the first woman who sinned by assuming the shape of a vulture (Cdice Vaticano Latino 3738, in Olivier 2004: 209). A 17th-century black sorcery ritual (Ruz de Alarcn 1982: 109-111, Tract II-2) tells of a sorcerer, identified as Tezcatlipoca, taking away Xochiquetzal and transporting her, not to the nine heavens, but to the nine underworlds, to abuse her there. Moons Adultery with the Older Brother Adultery is a feature of traditional Mayan life that already drew the attention of early colonial writers. Among the 16th-century Pokomes, for instance, after marriage, relations between husband and wife were strained by lovers and adultery in spite of severe penalties if the involved couple were caught or denounced (Miles 1957: 764). For the Yucatec Mayas, Landa emphasized the jealousy with which the husbands guarded their wives, who were submitted to all sorts of restrictions (1944: 100, 127). In the traditional Mayan community of more recent times, where brothers, both married and unmarried, often lived together in the paternal compound, accusations of adultery could easily attach to the husbands brother. In the Tzeltal village of Oxchuc, for example, the relations between spouses were saturated with

458

Accordingly, Torquemada (1975, Bk. 10 Ch. 31) has Xochiquetzal as a water goddess. 459 For references, see Seler 1960 II: 1033. In the context of the hunt, we already met Xochiquetzal as a seductress; in the legend of Tollans fall, Xochiquetzal is the name of a prostitute introduced into Topiltzins quarters in order to ruin his reputation (Durn 1971: 68).

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conflicts caused by accusations of adultery, especially between the brothers of the husband and the wife (Nash 1973: 203). In nearby Cancuc, the rule prevailed that a wife never looks at her husbands brother, nor does she address him or glance at him (Guiteras 1992: 166). Although I have no direct data regarding the traditional Qeqchi Mayas, there is no reason to assume that they are fundamentally different in this regard from other Mayan groups. The rivalry and jealousy between brothers over women is also a theme in Mayan tales (which, needless to say, cannot always be assumed to give an undistorted view of social reality). In a Yucatec sorcery tale about the cave of Calcehtok (Abreu Gmez 1985: 100-101), for instance, the older brother kills the deer double of his younger brother in order to become the lover of the latters mistress; and a Chamula Tzotzil tale (Gossen 1974: 311, Tale 111) has a wronged husband kill his younger brother and transform both lovers into certain birds. Ritual Harmony Disrupted During Suns absence, his wife commits adultery with his older brother. Sun punishes his wife by beating her (WR), or he magically causes a fight between the lovers (TH, CT). As a result, Moon flees from her husband and falls into the claws of the king of the vultures. In the Cruz Torres variant, the affair begins when Sun is out hunting; he realizes what is happening, but appears to hesitate, and it is not until sowing time before he takes action. Hunting and sowing would seem to correlate here with the dry season and the rainy season, the affair with Chocl obviously relating to the latter period. As has been noted earlier (Chapter Eight), an adulterous affair of the sowers wife jeopardizes the germination of the maize, for the wife is intimately connected to the land; instead, there ought to be a ritual state of harmony (kalkabil). In the Wirsing text (WR 71, 76), this ritual harmony here understood as a balance between male and female is explicitly stated to reign before Moons adultery (calcab lacloqueb in harmony they were together), and to be reinstored upon Moons return to her husband (aran calcab lacloqueb chi junelic there [in the sky] they were in harmony forever). In the meantime, the disharmony caused by Moon threatens the first sowings of Sun. Sun leaves for his maize field and promises to bring the lovers the customary leftovers (xeel) of the ritual meal of the sowers. The wife of the sower has a definite right to a share, and is likely to demand it on the return of her husband

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because, as Wilson remarks (and in the present context, rather ironically), it carries the happiness of the planting home to the family (1995: 112). These symbols of planting bliss and conviviality are now turned into instruments of punishment. According to Cruz Torres, Sun visits a crossroads generally associated with black sorcery where turkey cocks are fighting. Turkeys have a strong reputation for being quarrelsome, especially over women, as is nicely illustrated by the following Chorti story (Fought 1972: 171ff). The first turkey ever to get married became drunk at his wedding party. He and his wife started to shout at each other, then everybody started shouting at each other. With a head turned blood-red, the tom turkey accused his guests of being sexually interested in his wife, and shouting turned into a fight. In Sun and Moon myth, the hero removes the potent gall bladders from the turkey cocks (CT), kneads them into maize wraps (tamales), and cooks them. As a result of the consumption of the ensorcelled food, a terrible quarrel breaks out between the lovers.460 The Thompson variant pays much attention to the preparation of the tamales. After taking the gall from the turkey, the Sun hero visits the hut of an old woman in order to obtain ground chile pepper and annatto, a red dye prepared from the seeds of a tree (Bixa orellana). She kneads the ingredients into a red-colored tamale, and Sun cooks it by heating it in his armpit.461 Chile pepper was traditionally used to punish female sexual transgression,462 and its heat is repeatedly connected to that of the sun.463 Perhaps one even has to recognize in the steaming, red-colored, and peppered maize tamale an image of Sun himself. Instead of describing the disruptive effects of the turkey gall, the
460

For the Aztecs, the turkey was a transformation of Tezcatlipoca (Olivier 2004: 210), the arch-sorcerer whom Sahagn (1979: 32, Bk. 1 Ch. 3) calls the Sower of Discord. Through the turkey cocks, the rain deity (corresponding to Tlaloc) loses his woman to the King of Vultures (corresponding to Tezcatlipoca). 461 In Tzotzil tradition (Gossen 1974: 339, Tale 169), Suns armpit, removed from his body, becomes a maize plant (ritually referred to as sun beam). 462 In ancient Yucatan, the eyes of an adolescent girl guilty of unchaste behavior, as well as another part of her body, were rubbed with pepper (Landa 1944: 127). In a cruel Chamulan Tzotzil story, the husband of an overheated woman puts chile on the radish with which she masturbates, and the woman died amid hollers and screams (Gossen 1974: 312, Tale 113). 463 In a Chamula Tzotzil tale (Gossen 1974: 327, Tale 143), chile plants originate from the bleeding feet of a Sun fleeing the demons that pursue him; in the first episode of Qeqchi myth, Sun used chile pepper to cast disease on his pursuer.

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Thompson tale immediately jumps to the physical results of the pepper: choking to death, and vomiting what, according to the Senah tale, had been desecrated by the eaters previous break of ritual harmony: the maize. The present episode, in its Thompson rendering, casts Xulab in the role of the adulterer. In the wider framework of the Thompson narrative, Xulab has his own myth, in which he is a renouncer of women; his erotic involvement here thus appears to run counter to the logic of the Thompson narrative, expounded in the previous chapter. A rationale might be sought in the fact that Xulab, as a deity of the woods and their animals, can also protect the maize field from predation; but this motive is not recognizable in the Thompson tale, nor would it fully resolve the contradiction.464 In contrast, a satisfactory motive is given in the variants that replace Xulab by Chocl Cloud. Not only is Chocls love affair explicitly juxtaposed with his initial unwillingness to marry (CT 47), thereby showing the strength of his infatuation, his affair is also, as will be set out presently, intimately related to his functioning as a rain deity. Moons Bathing Place In his discussion of the aquatic functions of the Mayan moon goddess, Thompson (1970: 244-245) paid no attention to the cohabitation of Lady Moon with Chocl, even though elsewhere in the same book, he summarized the Wirsing variant of the present adultery episode (id.: 367);465 nor did Susan Milbrath in her later, detailed overview of the moon goddesss aquatic functions (1999: 29, 33) refer to it. It will be shown that as a consequence of Chocls substitution for Xulab, the entire episode gets imbued with pluvial symbolism. Already in the Thompson variant, in which Chocl is absent, an aquatic motif shows up: They drank all the water that was in the house, but could not get the horrible taste [of the pepper] out of their mouths. Xtactani took the

464

Other conceivable motives would be the propagation of wild animals, or, perhaps, some celestial event involving Venus and the moon, but again, these ideas are not further supported by the tale. 465 This omission is also notable in Thompsons comparative overview, The Moon Goddess in Middle America. Although discussing the aquatic side of the Mesoamerican moon goddess, Thompson (1939: 143-144) did not connect it to the present episode of Qeqchi myth (the corresponding space in his Table 1 is left blank). Of course, in Thompsons Belizean variant, Chocl gives way to Xulab; but the Wirsing variant is already among Thompsons 1939 references.

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water jar, and went down to the bank of the river to get more (TH 129-130). This motif of a terrible, unquenchable thirst characterizes the outcome of many cautionary tales about illicit sexual heat and adultery (see Chapter Two) closely connected to Old Adoptive Mothers adultery in the myths first episode. When the Older Brother is Chocl, however, this same aquatic motif acquires a fuller significance. In Kings much later Belizean rendering (K 34), the adultery takes place in the house of Chocl, a reference casual only in appearance, since the house of Chocl is likely to be a source of water: a well where water can be drawn, a place (such as a cave) where the rains come from, or, perhaps, a mountain shrine or other cultic place. Therefore, it is not the Sun hero who enters this house to bring the ensorcelled maize cake, but a creature of the rain deity himself, namely a frog. King mentions the resulting quarrel, but only the Rubelpec variant provides important additional details. Having eaten from the ensorcelled tamale with turkey gall, Chocl starts to shout angrily at his mistress: Go and fetch water! (CT 49). The goddess refuses, but finally gives in. When she does not reappear, the brothers go and look for her, but all they can find is an empty jar lying on the rivers bank. Whereas Xulab appears to resign himself to his fate, Chocl in the Cruz Torres variant is invalidated by the loss of his beloved. Weeping, he rages through the skies in search of his woman. His tears give origin to the rain. Thus, the antagonism of Sun and Rain is exacerbated. As in other hero myths, it is resolved in a contest,466 here the buluc (or, in the modern spelling, buluk) game. A sort of halma using dice, it is often played by the Qeqchis on the eve of sowing the maize field, the aim being to advance on a straight path laid out with maize kernels. Buluk is close to buluq, a verb meaning to fill a jar with water, to immerse (Sam et al. 1997 s.v.),467 and it may well be that this meaning has favored the choice of the game to be played, since the outcome is that Chocl plunges down into a ravine, where his tears continue to flow and thereby create rivers. From these ravines, the rain-bringing clouds arise and this gives the rain god his name, since Chocl means Cloud.

466

The antagonism between the Gulf Coast maize hero and the rain deities is similarly played out in a series of contests. 467 Cf. Haeserijn 1979: 75 s.v. buul: buuluc jugar juego de azar, and s.v. bul: buluc sumergir [algo].

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In the earliest variant, the house of Chocl (King) gives way to Moons bathing place (WR 71). Xbalanque observes Chocls comings and goings there and warns him to stay away from his wife; but the affair continues. In a fit of jealousy and anger, he starts to kick his wife seated in her bathing place (ratinebal). As a result of the quarrel, her place [is] tilting, all her bathing water was poured out over the world, causing everywhere a great inundation.468 Lady Moon wept bitterly, she took her jar to fetch water in compensation for the water that had been spilled, down at the river. Understanding bathing place (ratinebal) as wash trough (Sp. batea), as Thompson (1970: 367) does (possibly on the authority of Wirsing), and her place as the location of this trough, clarifies the first line of the above passage. The bath(water) of Lady Po (ratiil Kana Po) is defined by Haeserijn (1979 s.v. atiil) as a sudden downpour and glossed as an allusion to the legend of Moon, when she turned over her bath water on being beaten by Kaakwa Sake. Thus, what at first sight seems to be a terrestrial scene, could also be located in the skies from where the rains come. For the 17th-century Kaqchikeles (Coto 1983: 61 s.v. baarse), the expression Sun, or Moon, is bathing (tan tatin 3ih, iq) indicated the presence of a halo around the celestial bodies. The present-day Chortis still conceive these halos as watery troughs or basins the very bathing place or wash trough mentioned above that signal impending rainstorms (Hull 2003: 176/196). The complex meteorological observations of the Tzutujiles of Santiago Atitlan (neighbors of the Kaqchikeles) both confirm, and extend the symbolism: A moon tilted over Chumil volcano and turning red signifies rain [will come] soon; she is bathing in the ocean. The moon picks up water, pours it over her body, whence it falls to earth again. [] Both the sun and moon bathe; a ring around either signifies rain. Another image has the moon sending the first water up into the sky for evaporation and being also the lady of stored water, as in the house water pot (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 176). Thus, a meteorological perspective is clearly inherent in the story. The Maiden is cohabiting with Chocl in his house, or she is in her own bathing
468

Salcusinquil ix naj, chijunil ratil qui joy chi ru-chi-choch, yobanquil chamal buut yalacabat r.

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place, and her jar left on the river bank is apparently a rain implement. The adultery with the rain god amounts to a transfer of the Maiden to the pluvial sphere, so as to make her productive as a mother of rain. Moons Water Jar The jar, which plays such a conspicuous role in the denouement of the affair with Chocl, is apt to probe more deeply into the meaning of this episode. In daily practice, every woman hauls water and carries it home, a task which can consume a large part of her working hours. In symbolic terms, a well or a river is the home of the aquatic deities, and drawing and carrying water can become imbued with aquatic symbolism. Qeqchi myth plays with the interaction between woman and the water, while giving it an erotic interpretation. If the water, personified by Cloud, attracts Suns wife, the inverse is also true, with Suns wife attracting Cloud. Rain originates in consequence of Clouds loss of his mistress, and Cloud thus becomes a rain god and dispenser of rain only by virtue of her enduring attraction.469 The rain gods longing for the lost Moon is what, according to the tale, starts the pluvial cycle. Whereas the water to be drawn belongs to the rain god, the water jar becomes identified with the belly of the goddess who attracts the water. This identification is a well-documented fact noticeable both among Aztecs and Mayas; it is connected especially to the lunar aspect of the Maiden. In some way, the daily rhythm of hauling water is felt to be comparable to the periodicity of the Moon. For the Chortis, for instance, the visible, full moon is a jar full of water, and turning the jar (the waning moon) brings rain (Girard 1969: 148-149). The Kiche Achs view the lunar crescent lying on its side (xotolik) as a jar letting out its water, symbolizing the rainy season. The full jar is seen as the Moon's belly, pregnant with water: In the dry season, her belly is already big [...] There is rain in her belly. In the rainy season, her belly is flat, and the Mother is lying on her side (Neuenswander 1981: 146-147).470

469

Not only Chocl is stated to be weepingly searching for his woman, but the same is said of the Ixil Hummingbird lost among the trees (Colby and Colby 1981: 182), and also, in the short Sahaguntine Song of Xochiquetzal (Garibay 1958: 109), of Piltzintecuhtli. Since the woman is needed in different spheres, separation seems to become inevitable. 470 Sa ik, nim chik u pam [...] o hab chupam. Alah, chutin u pam, xotol i Nan.

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Whereas the dry season is seen as the pregnancy of the Moon, the rainy season is equated with delivery (alah deliver). In the context of Qeqchi myth, such a pregnancy would have resulted from Moons cohabitation with the rain god. Thus, she is potentially a mother of rain (connected to waning Moon), just as she is a mother of poison and a mother of herbal medicine by virtue of the evacuation of her menstrual blood (connected to waning and New Moon). The jar left on the bank of the river in the Rubelpec variant (CT 59, also U 177) is empty. In terms, not of seasonal succession, but of the phases of the lunar month, the empty jar signifies the invisible moon at conjunction (or New Moon) to the Chortis (Girard 1969: 148-149). The Yucatec expression Moon has gone to her well (benel u tu cheen, Motul) indicates the waning Moon at the point of disappearance (cf. Thompson 1966: 236). It would appear that in the well, the Moon is to refill her jar, subsequently to carry it to the nocturnal sky. That would mean that in descending, she reenters the earthly realm associated with the fertility of animals and plants as well as with terrestrial water; in ascending with her replenished jar, she assumes a celestial aspect reflecting the sphere she has just left. Therefore, the Classic Mayas visualized the Moon as a young woman seated in a crescent virtually indistinguishable from a well, and made her into the divine patron of the month Cheen Well. Moons Alliance with the Vultures After her involvement with the rain god and the ensuing inundations, Suns wife disappears from the scene to refill her jar, a jar soon found discarded on the river bank. This ominous portent signals Moons abduction by the vultures. The Rubelpec variant here furnishes an interesting definition of the vulture who kidnapped her: The adulteress was carried off by the angel who had eaten human flesh (CT 59). This formula apparently refers to the birdemissary who, rather than reporting to the Survivor, devoured the bodies of those drowned in the Deluge and was thereupon transformed into a vulture (Ulrich, in Shaw 1971: 181 and 182 n. 7; cf. Horcasitas 1988: 194-203, 212215). That could mean that the catastrophic inundations caused by Moons quarrels with Sun and Chocl are suggested to have caused drownings and

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thereby to have attracted the vultures.471 It is equally relevant, however, that eating human flesh can describe the activity of black sorcerers. Though the black vulture could, at least to the Yucatec Mayas, be a sign of impending rains,472 this symbolism is not brought into play by Qeqchi myth. To the contrary, the water symbolism connected to the Moon now recedes in favor of the fire symbolism connected to the vultures and the Sun. Instead of being refilled and carried to the sky, Moons empty jar remains discarded on the bank, fixing attention on an evil portent that leads over into the present episode, in which Cloud is succeeded by the chief of the vultures.473 The Vultures as the Original Owners of Fire To retrieve his kidnapped wife, Sun is to enter the realm of Mausajcuink, either a high and white town inhabited by vultures, or a deep and dark ravine called [X]balba Place of Fright. The town (amaq [tenamit]) of the vultures is an instance of the idea that animals live in a parallel world, inhabiting villages of their own under their own chiefs; and since here the chief is the head of the community of the vultures, he is stated to live in a big white house made of white guano droppings (TH 130, WR 75). In the same vein, a Chorti story (Fought 1972: 174-183) presents the buzzards actually ?usih zopilotes (Prez Martnez et al. 1996: 241 s.v.usij) as the first masons, with white knees and lime on their aprons. Seated on a branch, a vulture benevolently demonstrates the process of making lime (i.e., excrement). As Benson has suggested (1996: 309-310), vultures turn the vile into something white that glistens in the sun () they are associated not only with death but with transformation of the dead. Making lime involves burning limestone, and,

471

One is also reminded of the primeval cycles of floodings (aquatic eclipses) and new Suns mentioned in the preamble of the Thompson myth. 472 In the Dresden Codex (38b1), the black vulture figures as a rain bringer in the rain deity almanacs. The birds black color may relate to the Lacandon notion of rain powder, or soot (sabak). 473 The successive disappearances of Moon and Sun to the realm of the vultures represent, at least metaphorically, their eclipse, but it is doubtful if traditional eclipse symbolism is involved. Among various Mayan groups, real eclipses are conceived as a direct result of marital quarrels between Sun and Moon (Thompson 1970: 235, cf. 1966: 231; Milbrath 1999: 26), or, alternatively, as damage done by certain hawk-like birds of prey (chohchohotro, Guiteras 1961: 334) but not, as it would appear, by vultures.

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as will presently be shown, the motifs of fire, firewood, and burning receive strong emphasis in this episode. The Qeqchi tale involves various vulture species. The vulture kidnapping Suns wife is described as either a black vulture (Coragyps atratus), or as a black vulture with a red head (malkaan widow), i.e., the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). According to Thompson and Cruz Torres, the same vulture carries off both the heros wife and, later, the hero himself. Wirsing seemingly makes a distinction between the mam sosol very large vulture carrying off Suns wife, and the xyuvail sosol father of the vultures carrying off Sun himself, but he is probably referring to the same species: The Father of the vultures (xyucwail sosol) is defined by Haeserijn (1979: 307 s.v. sosol) as the condor not the Californian or Andean condor, that is, but the King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa), the largest vulture species of Central America. As it appears from the Wirsing text, it is only by transporting the hot Sun hero, that the black vulture carrying the Sun turned into a white vulture with some black parts and feet, a description more or less fitting the King Vulture.474 Wirsing distinguishes the King Vulture from his master, the Devil, but some of Thompsons informants (1930: 130, cf. 136) made no such distinction and described the Devil and chief of the vultures as a King Vulture himself. The portentous image of the empty lunar jar, taken from the female sphere, now gives way to an equally ominous image, belonging to the male sphere of the hunt. To retrieve his wife, Sun borrows the skin of a brocket deer (alternatively, a leather sack filled with blood, K), turns it inside out, thus exposing the bloody inside, hides under it, and invites flies to lay their eggs or excrements (cot) in it. The flesh of the hero is thus assimilated to carrion: He turned himself into a dead goat [cabro, for brocket deer]. He smelled terrible (U 177-178).475 Considering the vital importance of the woman for the alliance with the game, and of the reign of harmony between husband and wife for acquiring the blessing of the games master and thereby edible meat, the assimilation of the hunter to a decomposing brocket appears to symbolize his utter failure. Yet, perhaps for this very reason, the game animal which, in earlier episodes, had already been instrumental in the hunters effort to acquire a wife
474

The bird carrying off Sun is also described as a snow-white buzzard with a red head (Ulrich), a combination not found in reality, and probably corresponding to a turkey vulture burnt white by the solar heat. 475 The dividing line between deceit and transformative magic is thin here.

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and to restore her fertility, now again cooperates by lending the unfortunate hunter its skin. By holding on to one of the vultures that just alighted, the hero has himself transported to the place where his wife had gone. In various ways, the theme of fire can be shown to belong to this episodes ancient core. By three times using the qualifier sacsac very white, the earliest variant already calls attention to the effects of heat. This occurs when Suns heat burns the hinds of the brocket deer;476 when the lime-made houses of the vultures are signaled; and when the feathers of Suns vulture carrier are burnt (WR 73, 75). As with the initial tapir lover episode, the final episode of the Qeqchi myth constitutes a variation of a tale with a considerable spread in South-America and which, as Lvi-Strauss has shown (1964: 149-152; see also Benson 1996: 314ff), turns on the acquisition of fire (usually, but not always, the kitchen fire). Versions to the north of this area (from the Guyanas upwards) have modified the plot, in that the theme of the theft of fire is absent from it and replaced by the capture of a vulture daughter whose vigilance is overcome by the hero assuming the aspect of carrion (id. 150). The Qeqchi myth appears to occupy an intermediate position, since it includes both the capture of a vulture woman, in this case the heros own wife allied to the vultures, and the theme of the acquisition of fire. A Kamaiura Xing version (Villas Boas 1973: 89 93) provides a good example of the South-American fire theme, especially so since it substitutes the daylight for the kitchen fire. It starts with a terrible darkness; the only light is that of the fireflies. Hunger reigns, since the absence of true fire precludes the preparation of food, whether from the hunt or from agriculture. The Sun and Moon brothers stuff a tapir with rotten manioc, wrap up some of the maggots infesting the corpse, and send the flies off with the parcel so as to attract the vultures. These arrive and start to pick at the carcass; the King Vulture lands last of all, Sun grabs his feet, and is transported to his village. There, he succeeds in getting the daylight, in the ritual shape of dancing ornaments consisting of red macaw feathers.477 A second tale from the Kuikuru Xing (Villas Boas 1973: 105-110) replaces the tapir by a deer, while focusing on an exchange of the firefly for true fire rather than for daylight.
476

The Qeqchi word used for the white speculum of the deer, kil, is also used for the round griddle on which the maize bread is cooked (Haeserijn 1979: 274 s.v. quil). 477 The Yucatec Mayas, too, associated the macaw with fire, witness the Izamal deity, Kinich Kakmo Fire Macaw (Thompson 1970: 240).

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The Tupi and Guaran versions of the myth summarized by LviStrauss (1964: 149-152) also share the constitutive elements of the Mayan versions: The king vulture, the carrion of a brocket deer (Fr. chevreuil), the hero who transforms his own body into carrion (approaching the Mopan variant of the Ulrichs), and the post-diluvial acquisition of the fire from the vultures (the deluge paralleling the inundations from Moons bathing place). In addition to these correspondences, the South-American tales have the vultures attempt to cook or roast the rotten meat;478 this theme of preparing rotten meat recurs in the role assigned to Moon, namely cooking for the vultures (K, MC).479 Although Qeqchi myth has modified the archaic tale in such a way that the acquisition of fire is no longer the heros express purpose, the intentionality of the South-American versions is still clearly recognizable in Suns assimilation to firewood and in his final solar transformation in a bonfire lit by the vultures (TH). The firewood episode is a constant narrative element present in all Qeqchi variants, and is apparently intended to acquire a complement in the final bonfire episode, even though this is not always realized. On arriving in Xibalba as carrion, the hero is separated from his vulture carrier, meets a woodcutter, and hides in his load of firewood. Along with the firewood, Sun is transported to the homestead of the King. Firewood is needed for burning lime, but in the Cruz Torres variant, it is destined for celebrating the marriage of the King with the hero's wife (now the vultures cook),480 possibly to feed the kitchen fires. The association of vultures and fire recurs elsewhere in Mesoamerica (e.g., Otomi, Galinier 1990: 596, 598, 628; Durango Nahua, Preuss 1912: 271), although its extent is hard to estimate. The Qeqchis have elaborated it in a particularly dramatic fashion. When Sun has finally managed to free his wife from the hands of the vultures, the vultures set the hut of the re-united couple on fire (Thompson var., 1930: 136-137). The hero seizes a small bush, puts fire to it, and concealed by the smoke ascends into the sky together with his wife.

478

The insistency of the cooking motif might conceivably involve a parallel between flesh exposed to the invisible fire of corruption and of wood exposed to visible fire, both the meat and the wood turning black as a result, and falling apart. 479 The wide-spread tale of the lazy husband who changes roles with a vulture husband equally focuses on the preparation of food. 480 The marriage is to be celebrated in nine days, possibly referring to a novena for the dead.

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Alternatively, the couple throw themselves onto the pyres of Xibalba, wrapped in the aromatic leaves of a plant (the obel, Hoja de Santa Mara) which, not being highly combustible (Cruz Torres 1965: 365), affords some protection, and ascend in large columns of smoke (id.: 63-65).481 The procedure can be interpreted as a culinary one, since the leaves of the obel serve to wrap lancha and zapote fruits to ripen them and give them a pleasant smell (Haeserijn 1979: 241 s.v.).482 Thus, in transforming the bodies of the hero and his wife, the firewood of the vultures no longer fuels corruption by serving the preparation of rotten food (as in some of the South-American versions and probably also in the dubious cookery of Moon),483 but rather serves as a beneficial kitchen fire. The Vultures as Assistants to the Devil In the South-American material used by Lvi-Strauss, an identification of the vultures surrounding the hero with black sorcerers comes to the fore. In a Mbya version from Paraguay (Lvi-Strauss 1964: 149), sorcerers feigning preparation for the resurrection and thus cure of the dead hero, instead prepare to roast and eat his corpse. The hero, however, is not really dead, and he steals the fire contained in their coals. As a punishment for their cannibalistic endeavor, the sorcerers will remain corpse-eating vultures, without respect for the great thing (the corpse), and will never reach the perfect life. The same functional re-interpretation of the vulture the angel who had eaten human flesh (Cruz Torres) is demonstrable in the Qeqchi case. In Qeqchi myth, the King Vulture is usually replaced by the Devil, called Ma-us (Not-good, Evil), Mausajcuink (Evil Man), or Aj Tza (the Enemy). Significantly, the latter name recurs in a black sorcerers spell (Burkitt 1902: 445): In his slumbers might he [the prospective victim] be taken by the

481 482

The final ascent in fire is missing from the Wirsing variant. The reference appears to be to some Piper species such as P. auritum. Hatse and De Ceuster (2001b: 101) tell us that the dried obel (Hoja Santa Mara) is also used in firing the maize field. It is not entirely certain that obel refers to one botanical species only. 483 Since the town of the vultures is called [Xi]balba (Cruz Torres), it may be relevant to note that the Lacandon and Tzotzil death gods preside over an underworld where human bones are used for firewood, in order to prepare meals consisting of rotten things (Boremanse 1986: 88; Laughlin 1975: 28-30, Tale 9, and 395-396, Tale 173).

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Enemy!484 The corresponding figure among the Puebla Nahuas, Ahmo-Cuali (Not-good), is a god of black sorcerers (especially shape-shifting nahuales), and is represented by owls and vultures (Signorini and Lupo 1989: 143-145). Owls and vultures are also the most important shapes of the Tzotzil black sorcerer (Holland 1978: 250ff), and once flanked the statue of the grim Tzeltal deity Hiqal Ahau (Black Lord) in 17th-century Oxchuc (Nuez de la Vega, in Brinton 1894: 21).485 In Qeqchi sorcery, there is a distinct emphasis on feeding the demons the sorcerer wants to enlist in his service, including the offering of pieces of raw meat in the water in which the meat had been washed (Cabarrs 1979: 65). The offering of a dead brocket to the vulturesorcerers, or of a leather bag with the blood of sacrificial fowl, somewhere in the void (sa yamyo) outside the inhabited area fits within this pattern.486 The Devil, Mausajcuink, is doubtlessly to be connected to the persons or personifications of objects liable to do harm, that is, to the persons of darkness (xwi:inqul li qoxyi:n; cf. Carlson and Eachus 1978: 52-62). In any case, Ma-us is not alone: Christ (often the syncretic representative of an indigenous hero) is persecuted on earth by thirteen mausajcuinkes (Cruz Torres 1972: 293). The black, or black-and-red, vultures surrounding the dead deer, and headed by the king vulture, thus correspond to the twelve mausajcuinkes headed by the principal one, as well as to a deity of black sorcery surrounded by his assistant nahuales (shape shifters), while the fire of the vultures corresponds to the hell fire of the devils (although this is not insisted upon). Because of the identification of the king of the vultures with the devil, this episode of Sun and Moon myth has its place among other Qeqchi devil

484

S t xgwar!inik xk!am t ban lAj-tsa.The Enemy (Yaotl) was also one of the names of Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec counterpart to the King of the Vultures. 485 Nowadays, the Blackmen (H?Ikaletik) are among the demons of the Tzotzil Carnival. They are noted for their hypersexuality, their ability to fly, and their habit of living in caves (Bricker 1973: 150), and also for their abductions and abuse of women (Blaffer 1972: 20ff). (The hypersexuality refers to the size of their genitals and to their enormous procreative power.) 486 A man (sometimes Christ) hiding in the decaying corpse of a horse and surrounded by vultures constitutes a narrative topic (cf. Oakes 1969: 140 and Wagley 1949: 52). In Pokoman dream imagery (Reina 1984: 15-16), the dead horse can symbolize the agonizing body of the dreamer, whereas the dreamer himself coincides with his soul, captured by a witch and carried off to the Underworld.

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stories, stories that have been intertwined historically with devil dances and performances. The description of the Evil One in the Thompson variant, a big devil with four eyes and horns, refers directly to the masks of the devil dances. Also the heaviness of the Devils head is rather suggestive of a wooden mask, like that of The One with Thirteen Horns (aj oxlaju xukub),487 popularly known as El Cachudo The Horned One: You [Suns wife] will carry my head, because the horns dont allow me to sleep peacefully (CT 55). In two devil dances from Cobn traditionally staged by indigenous Mayan groups there was a Chief Devil (Diablo Mayor) and a company of minor devils personifying vices such as Lust, Greed, and Dissension (Correa 1955: 94-97), vices which are all quite relevant to the mythical episode at hand. When Thomas Gann (1925: 204-205) once encountered a travelling Qeqchi devil dance group, he learnt that the King of the Devils was determined to conquer the world and its inhabitants, and make them his slaves, while his mother and wife were to introduce dissensions and lust.488 Devil dances were usually rather static affairs with moralizing recitations by each of the dancers. On the other hand, in the loa (praise) performances, there was more drama, with a focus on the satanic seduction of individual persons (often women) by means of riches and the promise of lust (Correa 1955: 89-93).489 The seduction of Suns wife by the vulture emissary of the devil, her abduction to Xibalba (hell), and her subsequent impregnation by its Master has already been shown to belong in a context of satanic seduction (Chapter Seven). The Cruz Torres variant in particular offers a traditional seduction scene, with the black vultures promise of riches and power, and with the womans traditionally encoded consent to the vultures proposal: With her big toe, and with a circular movement, she opened a hole in the sand (1965: 54).490 As yet another correspondence, Moon becomes a wife to the King of the vultures and in the end, her position thus coincides with that of the wife
487

The name is mentioned on a par with Aj Tza in the Burkitt (1902) incantation already referred to (cf. Haeserijn 1979: 374 s.v. xuc). 488 As an anecdote, Gann adds: At this point I reminded the old man [a Qeqchi informant] that there were not supposed to be any women in the Mayan hell, but he only grinned and said [apparently in Mopan, EB], Ah Tat, ma xupal ma metnal [no woman, no hell]. 489 The colours of the devils in the dances and loa performances were red and black (Correa 1955: 90), the same as those of the turkey vultures. 490 The sexual symbolism may have been borrowed from the context of sowing.

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of the King of the Devils in the Qeqchi dancing performance described by Gann. A witch story as retold by Cruz Torres (1965: 151-161, cf. 344) can serve to illustrate the same genre in narrative tradition. The chief devil, Aj Tz, is assisted by twelve others. At night, the twelve congregate in the shadow of a ceiba to fill a calabash with the blood they had collected and which had been spilled in all sorts of accidents; the blood is then drunk as a broth by the chief devil.491 This Qeqchi devil story shares two of its motifs with variants of the myth: the collected blood and the ceiba. The calabash with blood recurs in the King variant as the bag of blood (from turkey, chicken, or dog) in which the hero wrapped himself to attract the black vultures. With regard to the ceiba, or cottonwood tree, the Thompson variant (1930: 130) relates that after a halfway rest on a big cottonwood tree (yaxche) they [Suns wife and the black vulture carrying her] approached the town of the sopilotes [vultures]. The cottonwood tree, or ceiba, is not only the nocturnal meeting-place of the thirteen devils, but also the place where the Devil initiates transforming witches, or nahuales (Pacheco 1988: 144). Clearly, one should better not rest under a ceiba (Haeserijn 1979 s.v. inup). The Mesoamerican connection of the Moon with black sorcery and its deities has received relatively little attention, probably because it tends to be ascribed to Spanish influence. The indisputably pre-Spanish traditions concerning the interactions of Tezcatlipoca (the transformer who can also assume the shape of a vulture) and Xochiquetzal serve as a warning, however, that this matter should not be prejudged. In Chapter Seven, the implications of Moons transformation into snakes and insects for black sorcery have already been traced; it was also noted that these transformations can equally be viewed as the result of a pregnancy caused by Ma-us. A figure comparable to Ma-us in the contemporary Nahua belief of north-western Veracruz (Bez and Gmez 2000: 87-89, 94) is Tlacatecolotl Human Owl (or Man-Owl), a multifacetted deity partly overlapping with Tezcatlipoca, and considered to be the inventor of black sorcery. Associated with the descent of the sun into the underworld, Tlacatecolotl possesses all sorts of riches, is always courting
491

For a similar Chorti story, see Fought 1972: 314-326. It may be noted that the idea of devils collecting blood is an indigenous one: The Qeqchi story almost exactly coincides with present-day Kiche tales about the father of Blood Woman in the Popol Vuh, Cuchumaquic Blood-gatherer (cf. Tedlock 1996: 254, 338).

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women, and notably married a very nice girl called Meetztli (id.: 88), that is, the Moon. Within Mesoamerica, other instances of the moons connection to black sorcery and its patrons are not hard to find. In the Northern Sierra de Puebla, the moon is an ambivalent spirit entity in Nahua thought, connected with fertility and tonantsij [Our Venerable Mother] but also with a terrifying spirit from the underworld called tlahuelilo (a Nahuatl term meaning wrathful one). Often, paper images of fearful disease-causing spirits are cut with horn-like projections that are meant to portray the crescent moon (Sandstrom 1991: 248). For the Otoms, the moon, in its female aspect, evokes sorcery and nocturnal evildoings (Galinier 1990: 539); whereas the fly is a uterine creature that belongs to the female universe of pestilence (id.: 607). The Vulture Lord and the New Sun The Qeqchi and Mopan Sun and Moon myth has a preamble (TH 119) in which every seven years, the sun (a boy) refused to stand the heat anymore. He caused a flood to cool himself and plunged into the water. Then the world was dark and flooded. Because each time, many people drowned, another, stronger sun had to be found, the hero of the narrative. Thompson called his string of mythical episodes The Legend of the Sun, the Moon, and Venus, in analogy to the Aztec Leyenda de los Soles with its succession of world ages or Suns (TH 137), in which the three just-mentioned celestial bodies had an important role to play.492 Much later (1970: 330-373), he came with a grand overview (rather than a synthesis) of Mayan creation myths concerning the world and its succeeding ages, mankind and its discontinuous progress, the maize, and Sun and Moon. The First Sun of the Thompson tale is the son of the first human beings, Adam and Eve; the New Sun is the son of unknown parents. Perhaps one should interpret this contrast as that between Ladino and Mayan rule, a son of unknown

492

The Leyenda de los Soles (a part of the so-called Codex Chimalpopoca) received its title from Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, whose translation appeared in the Biblioteca Nuatl, Vol. 5, Florence 1903. Important later translations are those of Primo Velzquez (1975 [1945]: 119ff.) and Walter Lehmann (1974 [1938]: 322ff). The latters 1906 Latin rendering was already known to Thompson at an early date (as borne out by the References in Thompson 1939).

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parents often becoming, in Mesoamerican tales, an indigenous hero or king. More importantly, however, the preamble implies a historical point of view: The Sun, whether the preceding, or the present one, is not inherently a celestial divinity, but starts as a human being, or rather, as the prototype of a powerful human being. As such, the hero of Qeqchi myth is on a par with legendary heroes like Fane Kantsini, who equally had to overcome an Old Adoptive Mother, and who finally established himself as a king. It has been shown that Lord Kin (Xbalanque) is another Fierce Warrior who succeeded in subverting the king of mountain and valley. At the very moment the hero has shown his ability to restore fertility to his wife, he appears to be ready to become Sun. Therefore, some tales (Owen, Wirsing) situate the protagonists celestial transformation at this point. Becoming Sun appears to be a metaphor for becoming sovereign,493 and domination of the sky a symbol of overlordship. From the sky, everything down below is supervised. You will watch over all that is on the land, the Sun hero was told by God before he actually descended to earth to meet his future wife, and the sun came down to see the land and its animals (WL 327). Some informants interpreted this constant watchfulness as the need to keep the original lord of the land, Mountain-Valley, under control, the father-in-law forever intent on retrieving his daughter, Moon (EM). That nothing can escape the attention of the hero turned Sun has another concomitant as well: When a Qeqchi laborer, unjustly accused of theft, once swore an oath by pointing to the sun, while at the same time invoking the name of Xbalanque (Dieseldorff 1926: 35),494 he acknowledged, by this very act, the solar hero as the ruler who warrants justice. In the variants discussed in this chapter, the actual transformation into Sun and Moon is postponed. The narratives first proceed to show how the quintessential ritual harmony gets lost, and how the fundamental duality of husband and wife fatally loses its complementary character, and becomes antagonistic, before the state of harmony is finally re-introduced by the

493

For the same reason, the name of one of the heroes of the Popol Vuh Twin myth, Hunahpu, corresponds to Ahau in Yucatec: Lord or King; either he, or his Twin (the text is not unequivocal) becomes Sun. In the context of the Kiche document, the Twin myth functions as the foundation myth of the kingdom. 494 Adapted to modern orthography: Naxnaw li Qawa Xbalamqe inka xinbanu Our Lord Xbalanque knows I didnt do it.

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protagonists passing through the fire together. Nonetheless, the narrators do not for a moment forget that the hero is predestined to become the sun, and already possesses the required heat, which among the Tzotziles as among the Qeqchis is at the same time a transcendent quality acquired by the very powerful (Wilson 1995: 135-136): Suns heat whitens everything it touches, be it the hind of the brocket deer, or the feathers of the black vultures. From the perspective of rulership, the king vulture is a logical choice for the main antagonist of the Sun. Being the largest bird, and accustomed to hover at great altitude, the king vulture can dominate the sky like the sun, which in Mesoamerica is repeatedly found associated with the eagle. Outwitting and defeating the vulture king amounts to a theatrical rite of solar renewal, as well as to a renewal of the reign.495 Indeed, it would be hard to find among comparable solar tales a stronger and more radical contrast between Suns status before and after the ultimate reversal of fortunes than that which is offered by Qeqchi myth. The adultery affair forces the myths protagonist to leave his familiar surroundings, and introduces a liminal period of uncertainty and imminent danger. Ominously announced by the discarded water jar, this liminality is dramatically staged by the positioning of the brocket sa yamyo in a disoccupied area, that is, in the void, outside the world of human conviviality. The heros hiding under the skin of a brocket that is subsequently given the aspect of a rotting carcass is paralleled by his hiding in firewood that, on being burnt, will turn black like a corpse in the last stages of decay. The haunting image of Sun in the brocket not only signals the hunters utter failure, but can equally be read as an emblem of the devastating action of black sorcery and its agents. A first turning point is marked by the war dances (the Cortez and the Moros) executed by the hero at the court of the king vulture (TH 136), as well as by his counter-sorcery (which consists in disabling the bite of the sorcerer by causing him a toothache).496 The next, and decisive event is the fire ordeal: It

495

Elsewhere (Braakhuis 1987), I have argued that in Classic Mayan ritual, this antagonism was re-actualized on the 20th day Ahau King, and more particularly on an Ahau day ending a larger vigesimal period, such as a katun. As a day lord, Ahau could iconographically be personified by the Vulture King as well as by the Blowgunner King (or [Hun]ahpu). 496 The topic of the pseudo-curer intent on disabling his patient is also present in the Popol Vuh Twin myth.

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leads to a restoration of celestial harmony, visible and audible in a general, paradisiacal happiness of the birds and all other living creatures (CT). It is first of all the heros solar transformation in a fire whether freely sought (CT) or inflicted upon him (TH 136) that makes the Qeqchi episode comparable to the Leyenda de los Soles, and more particularly, to the episode of the orphan who jumped into a blazing fire in order to become the New Sun of the last (fourth of fifth) world age.497 The Aztec solar myth had a strongly martial character, particularly since eagle and jaguar representatives of the most valiant warriors followed in suit by jumping into the furnace (Lehmann 1974: 344). The war dances executed by the Qeqchi hero who was to suffer the fire ordeal testify to a similar association of fire, war, and solar status.498 Fire rituals have been described for the 16th-century Yucatecs as well as for the contemporary Tzotziles, but what comes closest to the concluding scene of Qeqchi myth is an early colonial description of a Qeqchi theatrical performance (Estrada Monroy 1979: 172-173; cf. Coe 1989: 161-162).499 The piece was staged in the year 1543, at the foundation of San Juan Chamelco, and co-directed by the Dominicans and the famous Qeqchi leader, Juan Matal Batz. According to Estradas description, the plays protagonist was not just Xbalanque the Qeqchi hero who descended to the Underworld in the neighborhood of Cobn but also Hunahpu. The lords of the underworld had already been defeated. In a wooded scenery and surrounded by pyres, the two heroes wearing black masks with horns started to lit a multitude of burners that were there, and in the midst of the dense smoke set fire to the bushes, the trees, and the straw mats. Everything was converted into a great pyre. Hunahp and Xbalanqu, their arms spread crosswise and facing each other, threw themselves onto the pyre, leaving those of Xibalb bewildered, who could find no escape from the flames. Finally, the two heroes re-emerged triumphantly. Later, this theatrical piece was apparently remodeled into a devil dance: The Twins (with their black masks) became the Chief Devil (Diablo Mayor) and Lust (Lujuria), finally to re-emerge as Jesus and the Virgin at the dances

497

An important difference with Qeqchi myth is the fact that the Aztec Sun hero gets company of an unallied, male Moon. 498 In an Aztec interpretation, the singing birds surrounding the ascending New Qeqchi Sun would probably have evoked the souls of dead warriors. 499 I have not been able to consult the facsimile of the original description of the feast to which Estrada (1979: nn. 178 and 180) refers.

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conclusion. Christianizing the play thus seems to have introduced a gender distinction, which may have rested on the transformation of Hunahpu and Xbalanque into sun and moon, but which also made the Christianized play homologous with the concluding episode of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth. As a final remark, the theme of a poor hunter of dubious descent who intrudes into a foreign realm, kidnaps the daughter of a terrestrial king, and, by virtue of losing and retrieving his wife, becomes the first celestial sovereign, is potentially an important paradigm for the foundation of kingship. By comparison with the Aztec myth of the Fifth Sun and the Popol Vuh, the originality of the Qeqchi myth lies in the fact that the New Sun is presented not as a solitary hero, but as the prototypical husband of Moon, and that the new solar age is ushered in by a renewal of their marital alliance. In this respect, the Qeqchi myth seems to continuate a tradition reaching back as far as the time of the Classic Mayan kingdoms, when a pair of royal ancestors could be depicted high above the figure of their descendant (see Taube 2004: 79 and figs. 8, 10b-c), with the male ancestor being seated within a solar cartouche, and the female one within the crescent of the New Moon.

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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS The Qeqchi myth of Sun and Moon consists of a series of episodes that connect with varying degrees of coherence, unified by the presence of the male protagonist, Sun-Xbalanque. With the exception of the adultery episode, the myths general framework is that of the hunt, both in a direct and in a metaphorical sense. The core of the myth is the episode that has the hero change into a hummingbird, a symbol for the blending of war into courtship. The hummingbirds ensuing conversion into a love charm of the kind used by women signals one of the myths salient themes, namely the power of attraction continually exercised by the goddess who is to become the protagonists wife. It results in all sorts of alliances and, in Qeqchi as well as in other Hummingbird myths, serves to connect mankind to the earth in its various manifestations. The love magic episode belongs to a wider Mayan group of Hummingbird tales characterized, in a sociological and historical sense, by an opposition between a hero representative of an intrusive group, and a father-inlaw representative of a sedentary population. As a marauding military invader, the pre-Spanish war god Xbalanque represents the general Guatemalan Highland type of the Fierce Warrior; the mountain spirit Tzuultaqa (Mountain-Valley) a king identified with his territory; and his daughter the potential and bounty of the soil (its fertility as manifested in its game and crops). In Qeqchi myth, after the abduction of the daughter and the heros solar transformation signaling his overlordship, an armed peace prevails between the old terrestrial and the new celestial power. Since the Tzuultaqa is often thought to have the outward appearance of a European plantation owner, the provocation of the powerful mountain spirit by Xbalanque may have been understood by indigenous workers on the late 19th-century plantations of the Alta Verapaz as the challenging of a powerful landlord by a rebellious indigenous leader. Hummingbird tales vary in several respects. One such respect is how the hero acquires his wife, specifically whether through bridal service of bridal capture. Theoretically, the importance of this distinction resides in the legal issue of the father-in-laws compensation for his daughter. The most salient

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difference between the Hummingbird tales, however, is in the nature of the female protagonists transformation. This transformation seems to vary according to the ethnicity of the narrator. It may be the bones, the blood, or the entire body that is transformed. The bones are transformed into wild game animals, with varying emphasis on deer and rabbit, honey bees, or woodland fowl; the blood is transformed into harmful creatures, especially snakes and insects, and into the moon; and the whole body is transformed into the maize. These transformations of Hummingbirds woman are themselves intertransformational, since they all represent the daughter of the mountain spirit. The Lacandon version of Hummingbird myth constitutes a zero option, in that the female transformation is not realized. It is argued that, theoretically, the hero finds himself in the position of a husband vis--vis his transformed wife, and thereby comes to prefigure the social roles of hunter, bee-hunter, and beekeeper; curer and black sorcerer; solar king by right of conquest; and maize farmer. In the Lacandon case, the hero returns to the wife he had had to leave in the underworld, and is likely to have become an intermediary, and perhaps intercessor, to the world of his father-in-law (i.e., the realm of the dead). With the exception of the adultery episode, the common framework of the Qeqchi myth is the deer hunt. The hunt is one of the most neglected aspects of Mesoamerican culture, in regard to both hunting practices and hunting ideology, and the picture drawn up here is therefore only provisional. Mythologically, in Mesoamerica, the game animals (especially the deer) are seen either as consanguineous kin of the hero (his father, mother, or older brothers), or as his affinal kin (his wife and her brothers and sisters). In principle, the hunt sets two social groups, human beings and animals, in opposition, with the figure of the Owner of the Game representing the latter. The concepts of warfare and marriage function as contrasting ideological frames for the hunt, with the seductive offer of alliance situated between the two. Correlated with the polarity of war and marriage are two distinct images of the Owner of the Game, one as a powerful adversary and the other as a father-inlaw. Analogously, the mythical hero can be viewed as a marauding Fierce Warrior or as a son-in-law willing to do bridal service. One way to understand the alliance of the hunt would be to view it as a system of checks and balances, characterized by a reversal of the hunting strategies vis--vis the other party.

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In Hummingbird myth, the urn holding the remains of the heros wife plays a pivotal role. In the hunting version, it is likely to be a symbol for the hunting shrine (Brown), where the bones of the game, restored to the Owner, await regeneration. The change of the heros wifes bones into game animals implicitly renders the hero an anti-hero'. If he is to eat her and thereby gain sustenance, he will be obliged to run after his wife forever and to find a modus vivendi with her father. Although, in Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, the wifes primary transformation is into snakes and insects, rather than into deer and rabbits, her connection to the deer hunt is nonetheless critical. However, her role with respect to the game is quite different from that in Hummingbird myths that do not end with a celestial transformation. Instead of representing the polar opposite of the hunters (that is, the game animals) and of making her husband forever dependent on her father, who is the games Owner, Hummingbirds wife functions as an intermediary at the service of her husband. In doing so, she facilitates two things: first, the transference of fertility to mankind; and second, the alliance with the game animals by virtue of which her children, the men made of deer meat, can survive. The episode of her adultery with her brotherin-law, who is the god of hunting and guardian of the game, is not clearly motivated by the myth but may be related to her intermediary function. Her final transformed state, as the moon, remains expressive of this role, especially given that it is a deer that carries her into the sky. A similar message, wherein all game animals stem from a deer in the moon, appears in Qanjobal myth. Because of the specific nature of the first transformation of its female protagonist Qeqchi Hummingbird myth is, for the most part, best understood from a perspective of disease casting and curing. There are strong indications that the abduction episode concerns the origin of menstruation as a concomitant to the female protagonists final transformation into the moon. The harmful creatures, especially snakes and flies, that are born from the blood of the heros wife thus appear to have originated from menstrual blood. Actually, there is a double origin, since the defensive, poisonous bite of the menstrual creatures represents the heros gift to his transformed wife. In this part of the myth, the hero is cast in the role of a shamanic curer who, with the aid of his animal assistants (some of which represent celestial phenomena), recovers the materialized soul particles of his wife lost through Fright. The canoe filled with tobacco juice, in which he empties the jars with harmful creatures, recurs in a shamanic text for curing snake bites that dates from the time of the earliest

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collected variants of the myth. The harmful creatures from the jars are instrumental in black sorcery, especially by intrusion, and are born a second time from the heros wife, now impregnated by the god of black sorcerers, the Evil One. Finally, the initial immobility of the protagonists celestial transformations is diagnosed as a paralysis and remedied by curers. The theme of the acquisition of meat is treated from another angle in the first episode of the myth, which sets off the consumption of the meat of the game from that of human beings. In some form, this episode could perhaps be inserted in every Mesoamerican hero myth, but the emphasis on the theme of cannibalism is particularly strong in the Qeqchi case. The tale tells of the birth, adoption, and youth of the hero as well as his older brother, while focusing on the brothers interaction with, and eventual disposal of, their aged adoptive mother, her lover, and their biological children. In many Mesoamerican versions of the tale, the aged adoptive mother is conceived of as a demon associated with the kidnapping and eating of babies. This association could be understood as a reference to a mythological, incestuous, and endocannibalistic age, in which carnality and procreation were as yet not distinguished from the production of meat. The transformation of the Old Adoptive Mother into the goddess of the steam bath (in Oaxaca Sun and Moon myth) is here viewed as a socialization of her innate drive to acquire children. Many of the heroes pranks seem to be connected to the Old Adoptive Mothers inability to distinguish flesh and meat, and thus, sex and cannibalism. The sexual connotation of meat is further developed in the interaction of the goddess and her lover, who is represented by a game animal: a deer in Oaxacan versions of the tale, and a tapir in the Mayan versions. The lovers identification as a tapir by one of Thompsons informants finds confirmation in a recent Belizean variant, whereas its former spread is suggested by additional examples from other Mayan groups. The alliance of the Aged Adoptive Mother with the tapir is thus a variant of the alliance of the hunters wife with the game, with the game now representing a forbidden ally. The role of the tapir in the Qeqchi tale is similar to its role in Central and in South American tales, in which the animal is often viewed as a paradigm of egocentrism, greed, and phallic power. In Mayan myth, the tapir more specifically symbolizes an adulterer intruding into a nuclear hunting family, thus hazarding its quintessential relation with the Owner of the game. In a widespread, homologous tale about a married woman

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and her lover, the lover is finally castrated and killed. The killing and slaughtering of the tapir casts the quarry as a defeated enemy, in sharp contrast to the quarry that is brought home as a desired guest and ally. The slaying of both the tapir and his mistress establishes the codes of sociability henceforth to be observed by the hunter and his family. For several of the first episodes crucial moments, parallels have been found with situations involving non-alliance, war, and unequal access to power. An analogy with the legend of Ilancueitl, connected to early Aztec history, raises the possibility that the initial adoption of the hero babies and with it the denial of ancestry by the Old Adoptive Mother could be a useful symbol for the acceptance of a foreign group into a dominant political order. The mythical kidnapping and eating of infants, ascribed to the same character in her aspect of an eagle demon, is equally ascribed to a legendary king, who, in the shape of an eagle, terrorized his rivals. Historically, such forays may have been connected to child kidnappings for sacrificial purposes, reported from 16th-century Yucatan. Parallels like these suggest that, in a situation of non-alliance, cannibalism can function as a root metaphor for subjugation. Consistent with such a view is the Pipil version of the Qeqchi hero myth, wherein the Old Adoptive Mother (called Tlentepusilama) appears to have functioned as a patron of the trophy tree. When power relations reverse, and the eaters are eaten, the myth continues as a source of imagery. The killing of the tapir and the consumption of its member by the Old Adoptive Mother has been argued to have informed the description of a war ritual attributed to the ancestors of the Kaqchikeles, according to which the ancestors slaughtered, castrated, and ate captive war chiefs. The tricking of the heros step-brethren into eating the meat of their mother (the heroes Old Adoptive Mother) is reflected in Aztec semihistorical tales that refer, as in the Ilancueitl case, to the initial phase of the Aztec road to power. The incident at the first encounter between the Qeqchi hero and the daughter of the powerful king Mountain-Valley (in which the hero is humiliated by having lime water thrown at him) has a parallel in another central-Mexican semi-historical tale dealing, once more, with a group in an inferior position. The acquisition-of-meat theme also includes the extreme case of rotten meat, and more specifically, in accord with the dominant perspective of Qeqchi myth, the rotten meat of the game. The image of the hunter assimilated

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to a decomposing brocket deer signals a period of liminality, ushered in by the catastrophic disintegration of the alliance between the hunter and his wife, and by the establishment of a new alliance between the former wife and the king vulture. Mythologically, the liminal period is defined as a deadly inversion of the human hunt, the temporary reign of the vultures, and the ascendency of black sorcery, preceding the final transformation of the protagonists into sun and moon. The episode constitutes a Mayan version of a widespread Amerindian myth about the acquisition of fire from the vultures, which may once have been more widely known in Mesoamerica, judging by occasional references to the vultures as the original owners of fire. The general framework of the hunt is consistent with the choice of a deity of the hunt and the game for the role of Older Brother, both in the vulture episode and in that of the Older Brothers dysfunctional marriage. This deity is identified with the Morning Star, the most important star of the hunters, among other stars that the Qeqchis associate with specific game animals. In several respects, this Older Brother is like the Yucatec (and also Belizean) Lords and Guardians of the Woods, including the sporting of beards and the holding of animals in corrals. The most important similarity, however, resides in the theme of the renouncement of women and marriage, which at least for the Lords of the Woods is associated with the male bonding characteristic of hunter and warrior bands, with initiation into the hunt, and with a focus on phallic imagery. The hunting expeditions of the hero together with his Older Brother should probably be viewed from this perspective. The insertion of an origin myth of the game not only explains why the deity abjured women, but has the additional effect of calling attention to a series of contrasts between Younger and Older Brother, some of which pertain to the culture versus nature distinction. Within Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth, agriculture is a minor theme that comes to the fore mainly in the episode of the Moons adultery with the Older Brother, when Sun is sowing the maize. The affair of Suns wife threatens the required ritual harmony, and thus the outcome of his labor. In this same context, one finds a twofold origin of rain: through the quarrel between husband and wife over the latters affair with her brother-in-law, the rain deity; and through the tears of regret of the punished adulterer. The episode is shown to be directly related to the Moon goddesss general function as a bringer of rain. In other Qeqchi Hummingbird tales, the origin of the maize becomes the main theme.

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Sun puts his wife in the storage house of the maize and instructs her to hand out the seeds upon request; or he instructs a third person to store her in a mountain, where she changes into the Mother of the Maize that is, the sowing seeds. This version, current among the Poqomchis, represents a fusion with the widespread Mesoamerican tale of the opening of the Maize Mountain. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, a prominent representative of the Qeqchi community of Cobn, Tiburcio Caal, put into writing a version of the tale that, though idiosyncratic in certain respects, is evidently based on oral tradition, and is to be valued as such. The maize version of the Hummingbird myth turns out to be in many respects a transformation of the hunting version, with minor motifs preserved and adapted to the predominant perspective. More generally, basic concepts regarding agriculture run parallel to those governing the hunt. Finally, the position of the Qeqchi myth respective of 16th-century, pre-Spanish Mesoamerican mythology should be briefly considered. Thompsons argument for taking the female protagonist of Qeqchi myth as a main counterpart to the Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal would still appear to be essentially valid. The case for Xochiquetzals lunar aspect is weak, but since, within Hummingbird mythology as a whole, the female protagonists lunar transformation is the exception rather than the rule, this does not undermine the main argument. If one widens the comparative data to include the principal versions of Hummingbird myth, the daughter of Mountain-Valley can be seen in essential respects to correspond to Xochiquetzal. They both represent human procreation as well as the flowery power of sexual attraction; seduce wild animals in the hunt; have liaisons with a series of deities, specifically including the rain deity and the god of black sorcery in his vulture manifestation; and are mothers of the maize. In these alliances, it are the various males who determine the distinctiveness of the outcome, whereas the female element remains basically the same. The just-mentioned correspondences strongly suggest that the Qeqchi myth represents an ancient Mesoamerican tradition existing side by side with the tradition represented by the Popol Vuh Twin myth. In this ancient tradition, a specific role is assigned not only to the daughter of Mountain-Valley, but also to Xbalanque. The Qeqchi myth conceives Xbalanque as an adoptive child and younger brother who develops into a Fierce Warrior in search of a woman. In doing so it focuses on the vital

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theme of courtship and the establishment of marital alliance. With this focus, the myth gives expression to mans complicated interaction with the landscape (Wilson) and the powers of fertility that inhabit it. By contrast, the Kiche myth reduces the theme of alliance to an incident in the ascending generation, and exclusively focuses on the subjugation of hostile and destructive forces. Xbalanque is accordingly coupled to another male hero instead of to a woman. In this comparison, there is no need to bring up the question of authenticity: Rather than being derivative, the Qeqchi myth offers a perspective on Xbalanque that complements that of the Kiche myth. And through its emphasis on alliance, solar status, and celestial power, it may have been as relevant to aristocratic elites of the past as it is to the peasant culture of more recent times.

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APPENDIX A SYNOPSIS OF THE QEQCHI SUN AND MOON MYTH

In the following overview of the sources which contain parts of the Qeqchi and Mopan myth of Sun and Moon, the name of the collector (not always the editor) and its abbreviation will be given first. It is followed by the date of publication; the region where the variant was collected; the number of variants in the source; and the episodes presented by the variant(s). An asterisk following the abbreviation of the collector's name indicates the presence of the original Qeqchi text. For this listing of the sources, I make reference only to four episodes: (A) Adoption by the Old Woman, (B) Abduction of the daughter of Mountain-Valley, (C) Adultery of the heros wife with the Older Brother, (D) Elopement of the heros wife with the vultures. Sources According to the date of publication (but with an exception made for the Pablo Wirsing variant), the sources are as follows. 1. WR* = Wirsing 1909 (in Quirn 1966: 175-186 / 1967: 71-76; cf. amended edition in Estrada Monroy 1990: 106 - 141). Finca Yalpemech, Halicar, A.V. [BCD]. 2. O-a/O-b = Owen (in Gordon 1915: 116-121). 500 Alta Verapaz. 2 variants. [B]. 3. DD = Dieseldorff (1926: 4-5). Finca Seact/Carch, AV. [B]. 4. DR* = Drck (in Termer 1930: 490-492). Campur/Colonia Chulac, A.V. [B]. 5. TH = Thompson (1930: 119-140). San Antonio, Belize. 4 variants. [ABCD].

The article of Gordon is not signed. Gordon (1915: 104) states to have received the tales from an anonymous friend in Guatemala. Thompson (1970: 365) refers to Burkitt as the collector and author of the unsigned article, but Danien (2005) has shown that it stems from Owen.

500

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6. CG = Curley Garca 1938/1939 (1980: 86-93). Cahabn, A.V. [BCD]. 7. G = Goubaud (1949: 126-128). San Juan Chamelco, hamlet Salaut, A.V. [A]. 8. CT = Cruz Torres (1965: 21-69). Senah, A.V. (Rubelpec). [ABCD]. 9. C/EA* = Carlson/F. Eachus (in Shaw 1971: 153-155 = 389 - 398). Poptn, Petn. [B]. 10. U = Ulrich and Ulrich (in Shaw 1971: 175-179). Mopan. San Luis, Petn. [BCD]. 11. K-a/K-b = King ([1973]: 31-36). San Antonio, Toledo District, Belize. 2 variants: a) [B], b) [CD]. 12. F* = Freeze (1976: 21-25). Cobn, A.V. [A]. 13. A = Avila (1977: 22-25). Alta Verapaz. [B]. 14. MC = Mayn de Castellanos (1980: 130-133). San Juan Chamelco, A.V. [BCD]. 15. SCHA = Schackt (1986: 172-176). Crique Sarco, Toledo District, Belize. [B]. 16. SCHU = Schumann (1988: 213-215). Civij, Purul/S. Juan Chamelco, A.V. [B]. 17. EM* = Estrada Monroy (1990: 106-141). Alta Verapaz.[B]. 18. WL = Wilson (1990: 163, 361). Alta Verapaz. [B]. 19. V* = Verbeeck (1999). Mopan. Toledo District, Belize. [BCD]. 20. CC* = Cu Cab (2003). Compilation including unreferenced variants not listed above. [ABCD]. 21. GR1/GR2* = Grandia ([1] 2004: 5-7; [2] unpublished text, n.d.:13-20). Crique Sarco, Toledo District, Belize. a) [A], b) [A]. The oldest Qeqchi text is that of Wirsing (1909), first published by H. Quirn (1966), and republished and retranslated, in a slightly amended form, by Estrada Monroy (1990). Its Hummingbird episode (episode B) has recently been re-edited by the ethnolinguist Kockelman (2007: 347-382), the first edition to respect modern criteria of grammatical analysis and spelling, but unfortunately not an edition without flaws. In the above list, the most extensive and detailed texts are those of Wirsing (no. 1), Thompson (no. 5) and Cruz Torres (no. 8); the shortest variant is that of Wilson (no. 18). The Curley Garca variant (no. 6) is an adaptation of the Wirsing variant, but adds some details from native informants; the Schackt variant (no. 15) closely follows the Wirsing and Thompson texts, with some minor variations. The Estrada variant (no. 17) is minimal: It consists of some lines inserted in his translation of the Wirsing text and of a passage, given in a note, at the very end of

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the abduction episode (B). References to what is probably the Wirsing text (otherwise unknown) of episode A are found in Haeserijns Qeqchi dictionary (1979). Synopsis In subdividing the episodes (A to H), my principal concern has been to respect the coherence of the tale while highlighting what appeared to be significant events with a message of their own. The episode of the Elder Brothers marriage subsequent to the killing of the old adoptive mother and her lover is not included here, since it constitutes a separate tale of which the main hero is not intrinsically a part.501 A. Destiny of the Hero Sources: DR=Drck, TH=Thompson, W=Wilson. The hero lives on earth with Old Adoptive Mother during the preceding Sun. He is elected as the next Sun and already given the opportunity to cross the skies; on his suggestion, the present landscape is formed (TH, one informant only). In the Drck variant, the (sur)face of the earth did not yet exist. In the Wilson variant, events begin when the sun came down to see the land and its animals. B. Adoption by an Old Woman Sources: CT = Cruz Torres, F = Freeze, G = Goubaud, GR1 = Grandia 2004, GR2 = Grandia n.d., H = Haeserijn, TH = Thompson. Origins The two hero brothers are Sun and Choc Cloud (CT); Sun and Xulab, the Morning Star (TH); or Lord Thunder and Lord Morning Star (GR1). (Sun is sometimes only a stepbrother, and a younger brother can be added, TH.) The
501

Mary Preuss (1995) gives another synopsis based on nine variants of the Hummingbird and Vulture episodes, some of which she collected herself (but apparently did not publish). Relevant data from Preusss overview (P) have been included in the present synopsis.

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heroes parents are unknown (CT). The parents are dead; the father had been a hunter (G). Sun is illegitimate (TH). The boys lept from a crevice in a mountain (GR1). The mother puts the child in a box in a stream (TH). Adoption The boys are found in a box in a stream and adopted by an old woman (GR2, TH). The two boys live with their grandmother (FR, G, TH), called Xkitza (TH); with their stepmother, Shan Ni (CT); with an old witch (GR1). The old woman raises and nurses Sun together with swine, white-tailed deer, and brockets (GR2). She lives in a cave (CT). The Old Womans Household The three natural sons of Old Adoptive Mother and her lover are part of the household (CT); or the one natural son (the heroes uncle) lives close by (G). In addition to Sun, there are twelve small children, all orphans / poor (yal xneba) (GR2). Time of Learning The two hero-children learnt to nicaragic nahualic [to turn themselves into winds and animals], and to hunt (Cruz Torres 21). The brothers hunt for birds with their blowguns (TH, GR1/2) and traps (F, GR2), or hunt for larger game exclusively deer (G) with traps, arrows, and javelins (CT). They bring the meat to their stepmother. Old Adoptive Mother and her Lover Old Adoptive Mother does not share the meat with her stepchildren, but feeds her partner with it. The partner is her lover (TH, CT; implied by most others), or her husband (GR2). He is old (mam, F; G). He is a tapir (TH, GR1); a mountain (GR2); a large monster (TH); Chishal, the devil, a glowing coal [flying] very high (CT); the Mam (F). The old woman is visited by her lover each night (F, G, TH) and leaves the house to call him forth (CT).

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Old Adoptive Mothers Deceit The boys dont get meat. Old Adoptive Mother only tricks her providers into believing they shared in it. She first causes a profound sleep to the boys: They would be just like dead men (F). Then she cooks the meat (TH). At night, she smears fat on their lips (F, G, TH), or paints their faces with annatto (GR1), and throws the bird bones under their hammock (TH, GR1); and she anoints their finger-nails with the fat (CT, F, G). Discovery of the Deceit One boy announces he is going to watch what happens, but is overcome with sleep; the other, indifferent one manages to stay awake and discovers the truth (F). Alternatively, a bird warns the boys (TH, GR1). In the Goubaud variant, Old Adoptive Mothers true son joins the two boys on the deer hunt (like the third and youngest son in the Thompson variant), is interrogated by them, and makes the lover responsible for the deceit. Having left for their next hunt, the boys make a short return by surprise and find the sleeping lover; this hunt results in four deer and three brockets (G). The Lover Killed On various pseudo-hunting trips, the brothers dig a pitfall; on the last trip, they tell the old woman that they are going to catch fish in a creek (GR1). The pitfall has sharpened sticks at the bottom (F). The boys cover it with small branches and earth (TH); dig three pits with the spines of the wild pacaya (act) and other spines (quixquib spiny pacaya) at the bottom, and cover it with leaves (CT); or lay knives, sherds of bottles, and broken choppers on the lovers path (G). Various birds are to warn the brothers on the lovers approach. The thrush and singing thrush give a false alarm, but the magpie warns in time (TH). The chuluc [chuluq] bird lures the lover into the pit (CT, GR2). Old Adoptive Mother Eats Her Lover The heroes slaughter the lovers body and roast it (only implied in F). Feigning to return from a visit to their uncles trap, they have Old Adoptive Mother put the meat into tamales. They serve these to the woman and her son;

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the taste is much appreciated. Old Adoptive Mother reserves a leg for her lover (G). Alternatively (TH), the lovers penis is cut off and roasted. The boys offer it to their stepmother as a substitute for the birds they had not shot, saying it is a fine fish. The Boys Eat Meat for the First Time The day after the killing of her lover, Old Adoptive Mother offers meat to the boys; one of them refuses. It is not until the next day that both boys eat meat for the first time (F). This concludes the Freeze variant. Old Adoptive Mother Plans to Eat the Heroes When the old woman swallows the fish, birds are mocking her and she grows suspicious (TH). Alternatively(G), a visitor discloses the truth to Old Adoptive Mother; since the heroes trapped her lover, she now sets a trap for the heroes, but their two hunting dogs circumvent it. She starts to make maize wraps, because she intends to kill the boys and put their meat into the wraps and eat the resulting maize tamales (CT, GR). Old Adoptive Mother's Transformation Interrupted Old Adoptive Mother takes her jar and descends to the river (CT, G, TH). The brothers ask a toad (much) to spy on her, but are rebuked (TH). Then they send off a lizard (baat, TH; seelemay, CT; pakmal, GR2). The lizard finds Old Adoptive Mother whetting her nails (on a stone, CT) and mumbling: Make my nails and the bones of my fingers grow (TH), or give me claws (CT). When the lizard saw and heard this, he ran between the old womans feet (TH). Annoyed, Old Adoptive Mother throws a pottery sherd into the back of the lizards head; the brothers sharpen the sherd and turn it into the lizards crest (TH). Alternatively (CT), the lizard returns with his message and then is sent off again to frighten Old Adoptive Mother by passing between her legs while she squats; she throws a stone to his head. The resulting tatters are shaped into a crest by the brothers. Or the lizard is told to creep onto her leg, and again its head is struck (GR2).

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Old Adoptive Mother Caught in the Act The Freeze variant is very short: The grandmother tries to choke one of the boys, and then pretends she was just tickling him. The other variants are more involved. As a precaution, the brothers put dummies in their sleepingplaces: three wooden logs (qaanche) with calabashes for heads (TH, GR1), or two banana bunches (CT, G, GR2). Old Adoptive Mother either takes two sharp knives (G), or she throws herself onto the dummies to slaughter the boys with her claws (TH, CT, GR1/2), and to put their meat into tamales for her and her true sons to eat (CT, GR2). The boys are watching her from the rafters. The Heroes Eliminate a Brother The youngest brother disagrees with the plan of killing Xkitza (TH), or discloses to the old woman that she ate the testicles of her lover (GR1). He is made to climb a tree and is changed into a spider monkey (maax, TH) or a kinkajou (night walker, max) (GR1). Old Adoptive Mother Killed Alternatives: (1) Old Adoptive Mother is immediately killed upon her cannibalistic assault: with a certain knife (CT), or with a stone from the roof (GR2). (2) TH: The hero challenges his stepmother to a riddle contest. When she fails to find an answer, she is shot with an arrow. (3) GR1: The heroes and the old woman try to kill each other with magical winds; the old woman whirls around and crashes down, breaking her head. (4) G: The heroes flee from her house and are adopted by Old Adoptive Mothers son; the old woman rejoins them and mistreats the heroes. Together with their grandmother, the heroes again move, now to a house on the border of a well. In desperation for what she had tried to do to her grandchildren, Old Adoptive Mother jumps into the well. The heroes wait three hours until she has drowned, and haul the body from the well. Destination of Old Adoptive Mother's Body In the Goubaud variant, Old Adoptive Mother's head and cloth are buried; her arms, legs, and ribs, however, are roasted. After a final move, back

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to the house of Old Adoptive Mothers son, the boys celebrate their arrival by serving his mothers meat to their uncle (although the one eating it is not explicitly mentioned). In the Thompson main text, Old Adoptive Mothers corpse is buried, like her head and cloth in the Goubaud one; in a variant, the cannibalistic meal is described. In the Cruz Torres variant, the hero brothers cut off head and breasts of Old Adoptive Mother and put these in a cooking-pot on the fire; on top of that they put tamales with the old womans meat in it. The three brothers start to eat from the meat of their mother. Haeserijn (325) has twelve instead of three brothers. Alternatively (GR2), the old womans husband eats the meat tamales. The head of old woman is discovered in the pot lying beneath the tamales (CT, GR2, TH var.). Flight and Transformation of Old Adoptive Mothers Natural Sons The three natural sons of Old Adoptive Mother and her lover flee the consequence of their crime by transforming themselves into respectively a hawk (cuch), a tecolote, i.e. a large owl (cuarom), and a gopher (ba) (CT). C. Marriage of the Older Brother Sources: SCH=Schackt, TH=Thompson. See Chapter 10. D. Encounter with the Mother Sources: TH=Thompson. The hero travels and comes to a large mountain. He hurled his blowgun at it, and crawled through the tube of the gun. He first arrives at the house of his mother. She does not recognize him, and begs him to stay and sleep with her as her husband. The hero is horrified; he equally refuses his mothers offer to arrange a marriage for him, and leaves. E. Abduction of Mountain-Valleys Daughter (Hummingbird Episode) Sources: A = Avila, C/EA = Carlson/Eachus, CG = Curley Garca, CT = Cruz Torres, DD = Dieseldorff, DR = Drck, EM = Estrada Monroy, K = King, MC = Mayn de Castellanos, Oa/O-b = Owen, SCHA = Schackt, SCHU = Schumann, TH =

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Thompson, U = Ulrich, V=Verbeeck, WL = Wilson, WR = Wirsing. First Encounter with Mountain-Valleys Daughter The hero comes by the house, or cave (CT, WR), of the aged mountain deity, called Mountain-Valley (Tzuultaqa, WR, DD, WL) or king (K, WL), and his (grand)daughter. The wife of Mountain-Valley may also be present (DR, SCHA). Lord Kin decided that this girl should be his wife, but he resolved not to employ any professional match-maker to arrange the affair, but to win the girl by himself; he left for the hunt (TH 126). The Cruz Torres variant replaces the blowgun by an arrow: The hero shoots an arrow, it falls down in the distance, and there frightens the daughter of Mountain-Valley. He decides to win her as a hunter. In other variants, the story opens when the hero goes out hunting and passes by the cave of Mountain-Valley and his daughter (DD, MC, SCHA, WR). He is accompanied by one dog (id.) or by two dogs (CG), viz. a puma (cakcojl, paleta roja) and a jaguar (bob). Although hunting with a blowgun, he carries a goat, i.e. a brocket (C/EA, U). Second Encounter The hero finds and kills a brocket deer (yuc, chiuc, tiuc, antelope, Sp. cabro = goat). Alternatively (SCHU), the order of the two last encounters gets reversed: The hero first witnesses the daughter copulating with a stag and kills it, and then parades in front of the hut with the game on his shoulders. The Trick with the Dummy The hero cannot find a brocket each day (WR), the game is scarce (TH), he had caught nothing at all (SCHA). Therefore, he fills the hide of the brocket, or (SCHA) alternatingly of deer, brocket, peccary, etc.: with ashes (CT), or with ashes, dry pine-needles, and leaves (WR). In the Schumann variant, a filling is not mentioned. With the dummy, he parades in front of the house. The girl exclaims: Look at the blood on him (TH). Suspicion arises, however, and the girl pours the spoils of her maize-boiling (ash-water, lime water) on the hunters path.

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The initiative is either with Mountain-Valley (TH, WR), or, more commonly, with the daughter herself (CT, C/EA, DD, K, MC, SCHA, SCHU, TH, U). The further sequence is always the same. The hero slithers in the water, the dummy bursts, and the contents are exposed (a cloud of ashes rose up, CT). The daughter has a good laugh, and the hero is filled with shame; he temporarily changes into a tree-trunk so as not to roll downhill (SCHU), and runs off. He took his empty skin with him (CT). Casting a Spell on the Daughter In revenge, the hero casts 15 red maize-kernels on the house of Mountain-Valley, his daughter a severe toothache. She has to stop weaving (CT). The Tobacco Plant From the dry contents of the dummy, a tobacco plant has sprung up (TH, WR). In the other variants, the tobacco plant is simply there, growing in front of the house of Mountain-Valley and his daughter. The Hummingbird Transformation The hero borrows the plumage of a hummingbird. The hummingbird is the pap tz[]unun magpie-hummingbird, a large species (O-b, CT); its color is very green-blue (WL), i.e. yax (rax) green or green-blue (Haeserijn). The naked bird is enveloped in cotton (WR, TH) or in a cloth. The hummingbird starts to suck nectar (xquial, A) from the tobaccoflowers: saquil may white tobacco (WR); or from a (tobacco?) plant with yellow flowers (qantzum [qan atzum], WL). The daughter admires the birds colors and desires to have it as a plaything. Thus, the father shoots the bird with the blowgun on the initiative of his daughter (A, CT, DD, K, MC, SCHA, TH, U, WL, WR). As always, Cruz Torres defines the blowgun as a jicbil puub, used to suck something up. The father should not kill the bird, and use a wet pellet instead of a hard one (MC); however, in the King variant, he strikes the bird hard with a stone, or (SCHA) advises to kill it. The bird being a nahual, it makes itself invisible to the father (CT).

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Resuscitation of the Hummingbird Once the daughter experiences attraction to the hummingbird, and the hovering bird touches her cheek, her toothache disappears and she is able to resume her weaving (CT). Alternatively, she is weaving as usual and bends down to collect the stunned hummingbird: As she stooped down, the strap which passed round her waist and held the loom taut[,] slipped, and the loom fell to the ground (TH 127). By feeding the bird with chocolate and maize, she succeeds in reviving it. Apparently, she can now resume her weaving. The daughter puts the stunned hummingbird in a calabash (tol: MC, CT; seel: WR) holding her cotton-threads (K, MC, WR). In the calabash, the bird is restless (WR) or feigns agony (MC), but once put under the womans shirt (WR), on a pile of clothes (DD), or in front of her, over her work (MC), it calms down. Otherwise, she puts the stunned bird at her side and strikes it as she weaves (WL), or is caressed by the bird sitting on her shoulder (O-b). The figure of the bird goes into the weft (CT), together with the events of the day (WR). On entering her sleeping-quarter, she takes the bird with her. The bedroom is the innermost room (U), the innermost of thirteen rooms (TH). The father locks the room or rooms with a number of keys: one (C/EA), three (CT), seven (K), or by implication thirteen (TH). Cohabiting with the girl, the hummingbird becomes a man again. The girl asks if he is really Sun: Yes, its me, when daylight comes I will again make myself into a hummingbird; the girl hides the bird under her pillow (SCHA 173). Precautionary Measures for the Flight The parents went to their work (SCHA). Flight imposes itself. The daughter is full of fear for her fathers wrath and resists; the hero for his part wants to abduct her: You tricked me, now you will have to run away with me (U). Three measures are taken. (1) The father has a magical mirror (lem: C/EA, DR, SCHA, WR; caxln lem glasses, field-glasses: CT; sastn clear stone, crystal: TH). The mirror is smoked black with incense (pom) (WR), smeared with achiote (xayau) (C/EA, CT), or blackened with charcoal (K, SCHA, U). However, the coverage is not complete. (2) The father has a blowgun or a jicbil puub sucking tube (CT, cf. K). The tube is filled with chile powder. (3) The

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hero spits on the ground; the spit is to answer the calls of the father until it has dried up (CT, Estrada insert line 155, U). Effects of the Sabotage By inhaling the pepper, the father becomes stricken with whooping cough (jic) (A, O-b, C/EA, CT, Estrada insert line 182). By putting the achiotecovered mirror (C/EA lem, CT caxln lem glasses) to his eyes, he becomes affected with eye-sore (=be, CT; pink-eye, C/EA). Troubling his head about the way to retrieve his daughter, the father gets affected by toothache (A). However, the uncovered part of the mirror/glasses enables him to locate the fugitives. Mountain-Valley Enlists Thunderstorm Mountain-Valley directly enlists Thunderstorm (Caak [O-b: Kauc] Thunder or Lightning) (C/EA, CT, DD, SCHA, TH, U), or the rain god (Chac, TH, V); or he borrows the lightning from Thunderstorm (K, WL); throws it himself (DR); or else accepts the help spontaneously offered by Thunderstorm (O-b). The Carlson/Eachus variant has Mountain-Valley enlisting a volcano with its lightning tongue, but then has Lightning(/Thunderstorm, Caak) act as an independent entity. Thunderstorm first protests, but then accepts (TH, WR). In the Thompson main text, Thunderstorm is an uncle, as in Wirsing; in a variant, the sons, mother, and uncle of Mountain-Valley refuse, but grandfather Chac accepts (TH 136). Otherwise (MC), the lightning suddenly appears over the sea without any preamble. Thunderstorm wraps himself in a black cloud (chocl, WR), or dresses himself in his black clothes and takes his drum (TH) and axe (TH, WR). Catastrophe on the Sea/Lake The fugitives are fleeing, towards the Glory which is at the foot of the darkness (CT). They travel three days over land and three days over water (CT), crossing the water in a canoe (TH, U). When they see Thunderstorm approach, they attempt to escape by borrowing the carapace of an animal. The hero always hides in a turtle, for the

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woman various possibilities exist: turtle (TH var.), crab (tap/cangrejo, CT; K, SCHA, TH, U), armadillo (A, WR), or no hiding at all (A, O-b, DD). In the Owen-a variant, she is caught under Suns turtle carapace; in the Drck variant, the woman tries to enter the turtle carapace, too, but in vain. The fugitives insert themselves into the carapace and dive or burrow, or else they ride on it (K, U). The hero saves himself, his woman gets struck and fragmented. The first Owen variant (O-a) is anomalous: Sun kidnaps the woman under a turtle, but when the Sun is hit by the pellet of Mountain-Valleys blowgun, the woman falls into the sea. A distinction is made between her blood (O-b, SCHA, TH, WR), her flesh (particles) (A, O-a, TH, U, WR), and her bones (U). These cover the surface of the water, as if it were dirt (mul ha, WR). In the Wirsing variant, the woman hides in the carapace of an armadillo; in the Avila variant, no hiding is mentioned. The woman is either destroyed close to, or above the shore (ix ben ul), while her blood descends on the water (sa ix ben ha) and is gathered by dragon-flies; or, inversely, it is the remains of her body that are gathered by the dragonflies, while her blood penetrates seven layers of earth and is to be routed up by the hero (A). In two cases (A, CC), the blood is expressly identified as menstrual blood. Gathering the Blood The hero either gathers the remains himself (A), or he first calls for the assistance of insects that walk on the water (aj numx swimmers, CC), a certain lizard (toloc, CT), and small fishes (TH: suktan). By running over the water, the lizard gathers the blood (CT). As to the fishes, in the Thompson case they are valued negatively, since they start to eat the flesh and drink the blood; in the Wirsing variant, they are not called upon to assist, but likewise start to eat the flesh.502 In the Owen case (O-a), the fishes, though not called for, are assigned a positive role, forming a sort of mat under the fragments and carrying their catch

502

The Wirsing variant mentions small fishes and aj bulm: tepocates (tadpoles) according to Estrada Monroy (1990: 131 line 237); small sweet water fishes according to Haeserijn (1979: 75 s.v. bulum); aj mulum cat-sharks, if we are to follow Kockelman (2007: 371).

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into the sky, where the fishes become the Milky Way and the fragments become the Moon. The main and in the other variants, the only role, however, is for the dragon-flies ([aj] tulux, CT, TH; tuluxul, C/EA), which appear to be sorcerers (aj tulun, WR). By sticking their abdomens into the water (CT), they catch and transport the blood to a series of containers. The containers are variously described as water jars (O-b, WR: cuc), bottles (C/EA), ribbed ceramic/stoneware bottles (CT: putixes), calabashes (DR), boxes (DD, K, MC, TH: huhul hollow wooden logs, U), and skin bags (C/EA, K). If a number is given, it is usually thirteen (O-b, CT, MC, TH, U, WR), although one also encounters four (TH var.), and four plus eight (DD) / twelve (K). In the Wirsing text, only the thirteenth jar is called putix. In the Curley Garca variant, the thirteen jars are filled in twenty-eight days. Storing the Containers The hero stores the containers in a house on the shore of the water. The host is either an old woman (CG, TH, WR), a man (CT, SCHA, U), or a couple (C/EA, MC). Absence and Return of the Hero In most variants, the hero absents himself for no obvious reason; but according to Cruz Torres, he went to the thirteen mountains and thirteen valleys to plead for (rogar por) his beloved, and to do his usual work [hacer sus habilidades] (CT 40). The hero returns on the third day (DD), after a lapse of seven or eight days (SCHA), ten days (CG), twelve days (K, also twelve containers), thirteen days (O-b, CT, MC, TH, WR, also thirteen containers), or three weeks (C/EA, DR). Untimely Opening of One of the Containers In the meantime, the contents of the jar come to life and terrify the host(s). In two variants, a container is opened untimely: Inside there is a frog covered in thousands of flies and the frog is rotten (K, 33), or a cloud of

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mosquitoes rises, the keeper is stung, jumps into the water, and changes into a frog (V). Preparations for the Opening of the Containers In two variants, the hero does not immediately proceed to open the containers. He first has masons construct a fountain (O-b). Alternatively (CT), the hero makes a canoe, fills it with water, grinds tobacco-leaves to powder, and mixes the tobacco powder with the water.503 Opening the Containers The hero opens all containers but one, or shatters them (DR). Each of these containers turns out to hold a specific animal species, or a class of various specifically mentioned species (DD, CT, SCHA, TH, WR). The species are poisonous, blood-drinking, and destructive. Wirsing divides the creatures successively into four groups: snakes (jar no. 1), lizards (jar no. 2), wasps (jar no. 5), and spiders, scorpions, and worms (other jars), while skipping jars nos. 3 and 4. Dieseldorff divides four colors of bees over the first four containers. In the other sources, there is no apparent classification of the creatures according to the serial number of the container. Taking the Wirsing division as a lead, the following broad classes can be discerned: 1) Snakes: all sources except DD. Worms: O-b, WR. Lizards: CT, K, U, WL, WR. Frogs/toads: CT, DR, K, SCHA, U. Scorpions: CT, K, U, WR. Spiders: U, WR. 2) Wasps: DD (incl. hornets), TH (incl. hornets), WR. Flies: K, TH. Mosquitoes: SCHA, V.

503

Instead of a canoe, CC has bukleb large gourd, cf. Haeserijn (s.v. buc batir): recipiente para batir cacao, huacal muy grande .

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Sand flies: SCHA. Black lice: V. Crickets: WL. Caterpillars: TH, WL (butterfly). 3) Rats (MC). Not unequivocally belonging to the category of harmful creatures are bees (DD) and deer (WL). Contrasting with the harmful creatures are the medicinal herbs encountered in the last two jars (DD). The relative importance assigned to certain categories varies. The snakes constitute the most important class, and sources which do not give real lists, still mention the snakes (C/EA, MC). In Cruz Torres, seven out of twelve containers have snakes. Snakes, frogs and toads make up the short list of the Drck variant. Bees and wasps predominate in the Dieseldorff list, flies and wasps in the Thompson one (four containers with wasps, four with flies). Action of the Hero on the Contents Various possibilities exist. (1) The hero empties the containers into a fountain (O-b), or he immerses the creatures in the tobacco-juice of a canoe, thereby gives them their proper dosage of poison, and sets them free (CT). What each creature eats, is to be the medicine for its poison or bite (U). (2) The hero throws all creatures into the sea, where they turn into aquatic creatures (MC). (3) The hero and his resuscitated wife manage to kill part of the creatures, the rest escapes (U). (4) The hero hands the containers to a man (a woodcutter, Estrada insert line 296) who is to discard them in the sea, but disobeys: the creatures escape (TH, WR). Before this there had been none of these pests (TH 129). (5) The hero orders the old woman who had guarded the jars to throw them into the lake. Instead, the old woman throws them on the shore and shatters them; the creatures escape (CG). The Last Container The woman had not yet reappeared, because she was hiding herself, she did not like Sun as her husband (EM insert, lines 288 - 289). On opening the last container, the heros wife is found inside, or emerges. In the Mayn variant, she is a crescent [medialuna] that revived and disappeared again, as

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the moon is now (132). Otherwise, her completeness, luminescence and whiteness are particularly emphasized (O-b, WR), together with her abundant silky hair (CG). The woman has nonetheless various defects: she is very small (C/EA, U); has no feet (DR) and cannot stand (U); no power of speech (U); and no genitals (all sources which give the corresponding amendment) in this, she is like a frog (pelpel, CT). Origin of the Female Genitals The solution to the problem of the lacking genitals is suggested by the old woman who guarded the containers (TH), or by a man the hero happens to meet (C/EA). In the last case, the man serves as the mouthpiece of the heros wife: Your wife still wants you to speak to the deer. Alternatively, the solution is found by the hero himself (SCHA, WR). It consists in laying the woman down in a narrow defile between two hills (TH), i.e. in a valley (taqa) in between the mountains (tzuul) (WR), and having the brocket (yuc) and the deer (quej; mam quej chief of the deer or large deer, CT) successively cover the woman; they are to mold her small and large labia with their differently-seized hooves. Two sources invert the order and have the large deer try first and then the brocket (DD, K). The first of the two deer is only making a shallow imprint because of its fear that its foot might get stuck (DD, WR). Schackt has the sequence cow (hooves too big) - antelope (hooves too small) - deer. Two sources (C/EA, U) only mention the large deer. Alternatively, the hero slits his wifes abdomen with an antler (WL 163). The hero mates with his wife (TH, WL 163). In order to diminish the sexual attraction of the female genitals and the ensuing male jealousy, a rat (cho) is made to urinate in the vagina (CT, K, TH, WR); next, a frog (amoch) also urinates in the vagina, causing the womans need to urinate more frequently (CT). Ascent into the Sky This is the point where some variants end. The woman is taken into the sky by the hero and there she becomes the Moon, while her husband becomes the Sun. The Wirsing variant has a celestial ascent both on this place and after

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the conclusion of the next episode. The first Owen variant (O-a) ends immediately upon the destruction of the fugitive woman: The fishes carry the female blood over into the sky. In the second Owen variant (O-b), a stag carries the woman reborn in the fountain into the sky. Continued Hostility of Mountain-Valley Sun is always ahead and Moon cannot catch up with him (O-a); since then, the husband goes ahead and his wife follows in suit (EM insert, lines 344 345). This is further explained thus: Balamke surveys the earth and sends his light into the ravines, abysses, mountains and valleys, to make sure that Tzuul Taka is not hiding somewhere, ready to take Kana Po with him into the sky. When he has ascertained that he is not there, he informs Moon, so that she may continue her course in the midst of the nocturnal darkness, while sending his light for her to reflect it (EM n. 197). For this reason, the Sun always comes forth first to reconnoiter, and Moon follows only afterwards (EM var., n. 197). F. Adultery with the Elder Brother Sources: CT = Cruz Torres, K = King, MC = Mayn de Castellanos, TH = Thompson, U = Ulrich, WR = Wirsing. Nature of the Adulterer The adulterer is the elder brother (as, WR) of the hero, either Xulab, the original owner of the animals (TH only), or Choc(l) Cloud, the rain deity (CT, K, WR). Circumstances of the Adultery The hero and his wife rejoin Cloud, who is waiting for them (CT); or they build a house and Xulab comes to live with them (TH). The hero urges his elder brother (Choc, Xulab) to marry, but the brother does not feel the need for a spouse. The elder brother is, however, sexually attracted to his sister-in-law (CT, TH). The actual adultery is occasioned by the heros regular absence. He is off on the hunt (CT, U: with blowgun). The elder brother plays with his sisterin-law, either in his own house (K), or in that of his brother (WR). The hero grows suspicious.

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Punishment of the Adulterers The hero resorts to beating his wife (MC, U) in the bathing-place of his wife (WR) or enters upon a more elaborate procedure (CT, K, TH). The Cruz Torres variant is the most complete one. The hero goes to the crossroads where turkey cocks are fighting and takes the gall (ga) from their chests. He presents the gall to the adulterers shaped like the left-over of the meal concluding collective sowing (sheel). As a result, the lovers start to quarrel. King omits the underlying motive and has the hero borrow a turkey-chest which he wraps into a tamale (maize wrap). A frog brings the gift to the house of Cloud, and again, a quarrel results. Thompson has the hero take the gall of turkey and fowl and bring it to an old woman, who spices it with ground chile and a red dye (anatto) and wraps it in two tamales. The hero cooks the tamales under his armpit. The heat of the tamales makes the lovers choke, weep and vomit. The Adulteress Leaves to Fetch Water Water is spilt in the quarrel, either between the lovers (CT), or between husband and wife (WR); alternatively, water is needed because of thirst (TH). In the Cruz Torres variant, Cloud shouts angrily at his mistress: Go and fetch water! The woman leaves with her jar, but does not return. When the two brothers go and search for her, they only find an empty jar on the shore (as in the Ulrich variant). Cloud rages through the sky in search of her; his tears make the rain fall. In the Mayn variant, the adulterer is not mentioned. The beaten woman descends to a well to fetch water; a certain bird imitates the wheezing (juy-juy) of women carrying a load, and so misleads the husband. When the hero finally searches for her, he cannot find her. In the Wirsing variant, the heros beatings make the bath of his wife turn over, and inundate the earth. Weeping, she descends to the river to fetch new water. She does not return, however, and the hero only finds her footprints. In the Thompson variant, it is the thirst provoked by the hot tamales which makes the woman descend to the river to fetch water.

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A Game of Dice Before going after his wife, the hero plays a game of dice (buluc) with Cloud on a board bridging a ravine. Cloud looses and tumbles down into the ravine. There, his tears turn into a river (CT only). G. Elopement and Marriage with the Devil CT = Cruz Torres, K = King, MC = Mayn de Castellanos, P=Preuss,504 TH = Thompson, U = Ulrich, V=Verbeeck, WR = Wirsing. First Descent of the Vulture The adulteress is weeping on the shore of the water. A carrion-bird alights: a black vulture (chom, TH; John Crow vulture = chom505, K; mam sosol, WR), a black vulture with a red head (maalkaan widow, CT), a white buzzard with a red head (U). The vulture is the angel that had eaten human flesh (CT). Alternatively (U), a young boy who is an angel of the devil comes along, and when the adulteress complains that her husband believes her to be a bad woman, answers : My Father knows all about this (177). The vulture, full of understanding, offers her an escape to the town (amac, WR) of his master. The town is in a deep ravine, called [X]balba (CT), or high on a cliff (TH), with houses whitened by the droppings of the vultures (TH, WR). The master is the King Vulture, a devil with horns (V), a big devil with four eyes and horns (TH), called Mausajcuink Evil Man (CT, WR), Aj Tz The Enemy (WR), or Kisin devil (V). He offers her many riches (CT). She is to become his wife. The woman accepts and is carried off. One stop-over is made on a cotton-tree (TH). Tracing the Adulteress The blue-green flies had already informed the hero of the quarrel; now, they again inform him of the whereabouts of his wife (CT). Otherwise, he is

504 505

Preuss 1995: 33. So defined by Thompson 1930: 35.

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informed by the adulterous Cloud (K), who had already initiated his own search for his mistress in the Cruz Torres variant; or he finds the traces of his wife and the vulture (WR), and suspects where she has gone (TH). The Heros Stratagem The stratagem decided upon is either invented by the hero himself, or suggested to him by the adulterous Cloud (K). In the first case, it consists in borrowing a deer skin, posing as a deer carcass, and attracting the vultures. The deer is again the brocket (CT, TH, U, V, WR). The hero puts his arm between its fore-legs and tears the skin loose starting from the belly; the belly turns white (CT). The naked brocket is wrapped in a cloth, but the hinds are still uncovered and get exposed to the solar heat: they also turn white (TH, WR). The hero turns the bloody inside of the skin out (TH, WR). Next, he orders the flies (MC), more specifically the blue-green flies (rax chia, CT; yax kach, TH; rax-yat, WR) either to put salt on the skin (CT, V), beginning on the hinds, over the anus (CT); or to put on it the stuff [...] that turns into worms (TH), i.e. their eggs (cot, WR), and thus to excrete worms (MC). In one case (MC), the animal is a dog. Alternatively (K), Cloud suggests to the hero that he present the crow with a bag of blood from a dead turkey, chicken or dog; the hero wraps himself in it. Second Descent of the Vulture(s) Informed by the blue-green flies, the widow(er) alights (CT), or animals came after the bloody sack and John Crow [the black vulture] came along to collect all the insects (K). Alternatively, a swarm of vultures comes down and waits for the descent of the Father of the vultures (WR), the one which had carried off the adulteress (TH); or thirteen vultures descend, one after the other, and get caught, the last one being the vulture that transported the woman (V). The Father-vulture starts to feed on the intestines (WR); more specifically, it either sticks its head into the brocket's anus (CT), or it attempts to pluck out the brockets eye (TH). It gets caught and is forced to pull the hero out of the carcass and to carry him to the town of the vultures. Due to the solar heat, the black vulture turns into a white one, except for the legs and the back (WR).

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The Hero Transported as Firewood In the woods close to the town of the vultures, the hero encounters a man cutting firewood (aj s, WR). He inserts himself in his load (CT, TH, V, WR), or is tied to it (MC), and is carried to the town. The firewood is for the marriage of the Evil Man nine days later (CT). Obstinacy of the Adulteress The heros wife lives in the Kings house as his cook (K, MC). The hero goes to the house of the King to retrieve her, but she rebukes him. In order to lure her outside, he performs the Cortez and Moros dances, but his wife prefers to stay inside with her new husband (TH var.). The Hero as a Sorcerer and Curer The adulteress suffers from toothache (K). Alternatively, the hero sends the King himself a severe (red, CT, V) toothache by throwing one (V), seven (TH), thirteen (U), or fifteen (CT) red maize kernels on his thatch. The kernels are perforated (TH, U), or a worm has been inserted in the kernels which are subsequently eaten by the King (MC). The hero transforms himself into an old man with white hair and a large white beard (MC). He starts to play a flute and drum he had found on the rafters of his lodging (TH), a violin (V), violin and marimba (U), or a harp (MC). Thereby, he makes himself known as a curer (MC, U), although he also appears to reinforce the effect of the toothache. Sun advises all the devils family to come together because their father may die (P). Defeat of the King and Repossession of the Wife Ushered in the Kings inner quarters as a curer, he cures the toothache of his wife (K). Alternatively, he negotiates for his wife in exchange for curing the Kings toothache (TH var.). He makes the Devil fall asleep, by blowing three times over him (CT), or cuts his throat (V). Then he invites his wife to come with him (CT, TH, V, WR). She obstinately refuses and consents only after much entreaty (TH); or her arm carrying the heavy head of the Devil has first to be freed (CT).

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Escape from the Town of the Vultures Various alternatives are given. (1) The couple makes two vultures carry them back to the riverbank (TH, U). Back home, Suns wife turns out to be pregnant. When Sun kicked her belly, she began to give birth to vultures (V), or to snakes, toads, lizards, and scorpions (U). They killed them all (U). The celestial ascent is omitted. Alternatively (TH), however, they ascend into the sky together with Xulab, who becomes the Morning Star (TH). (2) Sun puts rats in the house supports; the rats eat the supports and the house falls down on the congregated family of the devil (P). (3) The vultures set the hut of the couple on fire; the hero seizes a small bush, puts fire to it, and concealed by the fire ascends into the sky together with his wife (TH var.). (4) The couple throws itself onto the pyres of Xibalba, wrapped in protective obel leaves, and ascends in large columns of smoke (CT). H. Orbiting Sun and Moon CT = Cruz Torres, TH = Thompson. Curing Sun and Moon Sun and Moon are defective as yet, since they can speak nor move. Many curers congregate, bathing the patients in herbs and smoking them with incense. Only the chief curer, Cosmas, succeeds by having the patients smell the fragrance of the flowers of certain trees and lianas (semem, sacsa). Sun and Moon start on their courses, and 400 birds ascend to become stars. Two song birds make Sun and Moon rise higher in the skies, and together with another bird demarcate their time schedule (CT only). The Mirror in the Sky Lord Kin placed a mirror in the center of the sky, and every morning he used to start out from his home in the east and travel till he got to the center. Then he used to turn back home, but the mirror reflected his light, and it appeared as though he were continuing his journey. When he got home, Xtactani, as the moon, used to walk across the heavens in the same manner (TH 132).

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Dimming the Moon The luminescence of Sun and Moon being equal, a solar day is followed by a lunar day. Moon wishes to bestow night upon mankind. Therefore, Sun gouges out one of Moons eyes (TH).

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APPENDIX B SYNOPSES OF HUMMINGBIRD MYTHS

This appendix contains three synopses of Hummingbird myths: (I) those dealing with the female transformations into animals and (II) into maize seeds, and (III) the Lacandon Hummingbird myth, which has no such transformation. Not included among the synopses is the main Qeqchi version of Hummingbird myth, which will be found among the other Qeqchi episodes listed in Appendix A. I. Female Transformation into Wild Animals Several of the tales below stem from highland communities in the Solol district speaking closely related Mayan languages: Panajachel and San Antonio Palop, on the north-eastern borders of Lake Atitlan; San Pablo de la Laguna; and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan.506 Since it remains so close to the bridal service variants, the bridal capture variant from Panajachel has also been included, inserted between square brackets. The presence of the vernacular text has been indicated by an asterisk. 1. R* = Redfield (1944: 292 370; cf. Thompson 1970: 365 366). Cakchiquel, San Antonio Palop. 2. P = Palomino (1972: 22 24; 129-149 = Apndice A). Ixil, Chajul. 3. M* = Maxwell (1980: 60 66). Ixil, Nebaj.

506

I have left out a Tzutujil Hummingbird bridal capture tale from Santiago Atitlan published as a sort of philosophical fairy tale by Martin Prechtel (2001), an author with considerable inside knowledge of the Tzutujil way of life. Although the story is in some respects close to the Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan bridal service tale, its presentation by Prechtel does not allow a judgment of its overall authenticity. In the chapter about the hunt, certain elements of the tale are discussed that do appear to belong to local oral tradition.

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4. CC = Colby and Colby (1981: 180 183). Ixil, especially Chajul (Colby 1981: 311, Ch.5 n. 8). 5. K = Klssmann (1988, in: Asturias de Barrios 1997: 77 78). Ixil, Chajul. 6. XP* = Xajil Piy (in Petrich and Ochoa 2001b: 148-159). Tzutujil, San Pablo de la Laguna. 7. TT* = Tepaz Tuy (in Ajpacaja Sohom 2004: 26-34, 30-41). Kiche, Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan. 8. [T = Tax (1951: 2554 = Tale no. 26). Cakchiquel, Panajachel.] The Father-in-Law's Household The head of the household is a King (XP) called Mataqtani (P,CC) / Mataktani (R), or Padre Junto (P), i.e., Kubaal Our Father (K). He lives in a dark cave (P). [Referred to as the Devil, he may be accompanied by a shrewd wife (T), as in some Qeqchi variants.] The daughter is called Marikita (P), Maria Markaao (CC), San Maarko (M), or Markao (K). There is a second daughter as well (R, XP; TT: elder daughter).[Two daughters (T).] Refusal of Courtship Procedures If he is not anonymous, the hero is called Oyeb Fierce One (K), Oyew Achi Fierce Warrior (CC, M), Rey Achi (P), or just Tzunun Hummingbird throughout (R) [T]. The father forbids the Fierce Warrior to visit his daughter (CC, K), or rebukes a formal marriage proposal by the Fierce Warriors father (M). The Boys Father Sends Spies The Fierce Warriors father sends off a tick, a flea, and a firefly to spy on the household. There is a short exchange: They found us [You] better give us the girl now (M). Hummingbird Transformation The warriors father advises his son to change into a hummingbird (M), or it is the boy (P) or the couple (K) which decides upon this stratagem. Alternatively (TT), a boy comes upon two sisters doing their washings on the

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shore of a river and changes into a small singing bird; the younger sister invites him to visit her at home. In front of the girls house, the hummingbird (or singing bird) sips from the nectar of a flower and is shot with the father-in-laws blow-gun (M, C, R, TT). [During his pursuit, Grandfather does not recognize the intruders transformation into a hummingbird sucking from two white lilies (T).] Resuscitation of Hummingbird The hummingbird is tended by the daughter. She weaves its image into a shawl (sut) for her father (XP). When Maria asked for the bird to use as a pattern for her weaving, the bird was gathered up in her basket and brought into her room (Colby 180). There, the bird rests on her belly, inside her clothes (M). The couple cohabits. The second daughter joins in the sexual play (R, XP). Informal Courtship Only one source (XP) inserts an informal courtship. The Father-in-Law Sends Spies Once the hero has entered the female quarters, the wily father successively sends a louse and a flea (K) - or a group of flees called the Commission (P)507 - and finally a firefly (CC, M, XP) or a rat (R) to spy upon the couple and verify their sin. The first emissaries only suck blood (K) or get killed (XP); contrarily, they (the Commission) bring proof (P). The firefly duly reports; the rat brings proof consisting of two hairs of the culprits heads (R). Alternatively, the father-in-law discovers the cohabiting couple himself (P, K). [In the Panajachel variant, Hummingbird captures two daughters and flees (T).]

507

Palomino 1972: 135 n. 12.

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Acceptance as a Marriage Candidate Grandfather is desolate, but resigns himself to the apparent desire of his daughter (CC, M, R). He has the couple go to mass and be baptized (CC). Since one of the girls is pregnant of a baby hummingbird, the young father asks for pardon (XP). Bridal Service The intrusive suitor is set to his bridal tasks, all to be accomplished within an impossibly short time. In the Cakchiquel tale (R), these are: gathering firewood, catching sea fish, and collecting pacayas de ahuacate. In the Kiche tale (TT): adorning the entrance to the steam bath, bringing firewood for the steam bath, bringing the father-in-law his breakfast, slashing and burning the wild vegetation, sowing the maize field, and guarding the ripening stalks. In the Ixil tales: constructing a pole-and-thatch house (with many rooms: K, with twelve rooms: P), bringing a field under cultivation, gathering dry firewood for the steam bath in the midst of the rainy season (K only), and (CC only) building the steam bath. Generally, it is only through the daughters assistance that her suitor succeeds. In the Tzutujil tale (XP), however, the suitor acts alone in clearing and sowing a maize field; picking up an immense quantity of grains of rice; and gathering firewood. Different Reactions of the Father-in-Law In the Ixil and Kiche tales, the Father-in-law suspects the intervention of his daughter (K), discovers the lovers plan to flee (AP), or is just terribly envious of the suitor (TT). In one of the Ixil variants (M), the father invites the boy to join him in burning his field (one of the bridal tasks). Making him believe that the field is to be lighted in the centre first, he sets fire to its edges. The hero only escapes by covering himself with mud. In the Kiche tale (TT), the same stratagem is used; the hero escapes by hiding in a well he had made. Next, the father-in-law sends a two-headed eagle to the maize field guarded by the boy; instead of the boy, a turkey gets caught. In the Cakchiquel tale (R), the father is satisfied with the work and gives his daughter to the suitor; in one of the Ixil tales (P), he intends to have them stay with him as his workers. In the

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Tzutujil tale (XP), the two sisters criticize their father for his harshness and ask Hummingbird to kidnap them. The Murderous Sweat Bath The Ixil tales assign a pivotal role to the father-in-laws steam bath. The daughter invites her father to enter the newly-constructed steam bath (CC). However, the old man has the couple enter the steam bath and seals the bath off (CC, P). Or it is the father who enters (M, K); the bath is again sealed off (M). The various captives manage to escape; a mole digs a tunnel for the couple (CC). The Father-in-Law Misled Now that the father-in-laws murderous intentions have become obvious, the couple installs a roadrunner and an owl in their sleeping quarter for substitutes (TT). The birds answer the morning call of the Father-in-law, while the couple flees. Sabotage of the Blowgun and Elopement Although the father-in-law of Cakchiquel myth (R) has consented in the marriage, the suitor decides upon elopement. [The suitor captures the two daughters (T).] The daughter instigates Hummingbird to sabotage her fathers blowgun with smut, chalk, and chile pepper. With the gun, the father-in-law tries to suck them back, and looses consciousness (R). Magical Flight The fleeing couple is persecuted by the Kiche Father-in-law (TT). They assume various misleading shapes: a rock with a zapote shell lying on it, a hog and a dog, a photo picture lying on a table with a man standing in the entrance to the room. Each time, the old man returns to his wife to learn that he has been deceived. In the Tzutujil tale (XP), the two girls hide in the horns of a cow, the boy also enters the animal. [The three fugitives are persecuted by the Grandfather, who does not recognize their successive disguises: First the hero together with the girls become a hummingbird and two white lilies, and then -

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when the abductor has absented himself - the girls become two doves and two stones (T).] The Father-in-Law Enlists Lightning(s) Whether suffocated by his blowgun (R) or by the steam of his steam bath (Ixil var.), or just terribly defeated and deceived (TT), the father-in-law now becomes fierce. He either sends a lightning bolt (K), enlists an Angel (XP) or Saint Gabriel TT) with his lightning bolts, calls upon his 'Captain(s)' (R, M), or variously named Angels (P), i.e., the Lightning(s), or pursues the fugitive couple himself, armed with a lightning bolt (C). [The couple is attacked by Lightning (T).] The Daughter's Destruction and Transformation The boy hides in a blue well and escapes, the girl hides in a crystalline well and is spotted and hit. A hair (or her hair) is all that remains. The hero returns to his parents house and puts the hair under a large, inverted water jar. The mother lifts the jar untimely, and a beautiful bird escapes (TT). Alternatively, a sea turtle is suggested to have evacuated the couple (P).508 The fugitive woman is reduced to bones, which her husband collects in a container. An aunt (C, K) or grandmother (P) guarding the container opens it untimely. In Ixil myth, deer - rabbits, doves - pigeons, and all manner of animals escape, including bees which finally have to be searched for (P, C, K, M). The bees originated from the womans eyes (P). Cakchiquel myth (R) has only bees sally forth: bees of the woods and bees of the house. In the Tzutujil tale (XP), lightning reduces the girls to ashes, which, collected in a jar and guarded by Hummingbirds mother, change into two doves (palamax) on being untimely opened. Hummingbird remains alone, saddened. [Lightning reduces the two daughters to ashes and a Wind transforms them into bees (T).]

508

Y as se fue la blanca tortuja, roja tortuja y as se vino el Padre Junto, Mataqtani. El vino a mirarlo, vino a verlo. Malaya pucha vos, ya se fue el patojo, ya se fue la patoja (Palomino 1972: 142 lines 471-474).

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II. Female Transformation into Maize Eight of the variants below are from the Verapaz. Apart from the idiosyncratic Tiburcio Caal version (Burkitt 1918, 1920), there is an overall uniformity up to the kidnappers crossing of the water (with the exception of the very short, somewhat anomalous El Estor tale). In the sequel, there are considerable differences. The remaining Ixil variant sticks more closely to the animal transformation model. The synopsis includes the following variants (* with Mayan text): 1. TC* = Tiburcio Caal (in Burkitt 1920; first part also in Quirn 1974: 105 - 113). Cobn, A.V. Qeqchi. 2. M = Mayers (1973: 88-94), consisting of M1 from San Cristbal [Verapaz], M2 from Tamahu, and M3 from Tactic (Opening of the Maize Mountain) . M1 and M2 are identical to the first two bilingual tales in Mayers 1958 (3-11). Poqomchi. 3. SCH = Schumann (1988: 213 215). Civija, mun. Purul, B.V., and San Juan Chamelco, A.V. Qeqchi. 4. BM = Bcaro Moraga (1991: 69 72). Santa Cruz Verapaz, A.V. Poqomchi. 5. MR/B = Marn/Bak (1993: 136 145, in Preuss 1993: 125). El Estor, mun. Cabonicto, A.V. Qeqchi. 6. C* = Cuz (2002: 31-34). Qeqchi. 7. Y = Yurchenco (2006: 87-88). Chajul. Ixil. [BM=Bcaro Moraga, C=Cuz, MR/B=Marn/Bak, M1/M2/M3=Mayers, SCH=Schumann, TC=Tiburcio Caal, Y = Yurchenko.] The Household The head of the household is the Poqomchi xajal mam 509 in the Santa Cruz Verapaz variant (BM) or Matagtanic in the Chajul variant (Y). The woman is called Qana Po, the Moon (C), or Marikita (Y); the maize seed is in Marikitas belly. The woman can also appear as a princess with shiny white teeth (MR/B).

509

Xajal could be a geographical name (there is a Xajal river to the North-west, not far from Nebaj in Ixil territory); but compare also Cakchiquel chahal guardian (Smailus), specifically used for the idol guarding the house (Orellana 1984: 97-98).

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[TC: The household is presented as if it were a royal court. The Father-in-law is identified with the predominant mountain of the Alta Verapaz, Xucaneb, surrounded by his counselors and captains, all mountains; the daughter is the hill Suqkim.] Humiliation, Love-magic, Bridal Capture The intruder, although usually anonymous (M1, M/B, SCH), is a hunter called Saqe Sun (C), Hummingbird (Y), or the Quiche Uinac warrior who finally becomes Sun (BM). There is the nixtamal incident (C, M1, SCH), with the fallen hero becoming an old or withered man (rejeb)510 and changing into a tree trunk (M1). Initial seduction scene: The princess denudes herself to take a bath (MR/B). In other variants (C, BM, M1, SCH), this scene is replaced by the stereotypical images for reciprocal love-magic; one variant (BM) substitutes an orange tree for the usual tobacco stalk. Hummingbirds love-making should fertilize the maize seed (Y). The action taken by the maidens father follows the familiar pattern (see synopsis of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth). [TC: Xucaneb awakes to find the room of his daughter empty. The abductor is the lord of the mountain Quix Mes.] Flight and Pursuit The warrior and his woman have to flee for days (SCH). The Father-inlaws blowgun is sabotaged (SCH).511 While crossing the water (M1, SCH), the sea number Thirteen (BM), or lake/sea (palaw, C), they are attacked by Lightning. Hummingbird talks to three turtles (C); the woman hides in a turtle carapace (C, M1, M1, SCH). She escapes destruction; but to mislead the Father-inlaw, red flowers are strewn into the water (BM). They continue, following the river upstream (C). The Quiche Uinac is further pursued by the old man and his two

510

The connotation is unclear to me. In the 18th century (Miles 1957: 763, quoting Zuiga), rijib denoted, besides old men, also old plants and trees, possibly emphasizing dryness. As a verb, rejeb can refer to the waning of the moon (Mayers 1958: 39 line 9). 511 The Schumann rendering of the blowgun sabotage, which states that the father succeeded in getting them out of the turtle carapace and so wounded the man; he [Hummingbird, EB] received various loads in his face, which began to swell (1988: 214), is probably mistaken.

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Hawks; he erects stone walls on three mountains (BM). Alternatively, no mention is made of a war (M/B). In one case (M2), no water is crossed. [TC: Xucaneb sends his Jaguars and Pumas twice into the domain of the abductor, Quix Mes.] The Woman Killed and Transformed In the Ixil variant, a flight is not explicitly mentioned. The woman is killed by her father, and changes into the maize: The maize grew lavishly and in abundance (Y). In the other variants, the transformation is postponed. The Woman Put inside a Mountain By whistling, Sun assembles stones into a stone house, i.e., a cave, and tells his pregnant bride to stay there (C). Hummingbird and his woman seek refuge in a mountain cave (M1, SCH) or within the thirteen doors (M2). The Quiche Uinac leaves the captured woman in the house of a man from Rabinal. He instructs the man to live with her for seven years, and then enclose her in a mountain strategically located in between Poqomchi and Rabinal territory (BM). Alternatively, the woman with the shiny teeth follows someones footsteps and hears a voice directing her to the cave of a very special man, where she remains for some time (M/B). [TC: While the daughter is with her abductor, the mountain Quix Mes, Xucaneb stores his maize with the formal suitor of his daughter, another mountain deity.] The Abductor Triumphant Having put his woman in the hands of another man, the Quiche Uinac now ascends into the sky to become the Sun (BM). The other abductors stay on earth. The Abductor Repentant On hearing that famine reigns in her father's realm, the princess returns to him not to stay there, however, but again to rejoin her partner in his mountain cave and ask him a great service: the permission to return to her father's land (M/1B). The daughter has got pregnant (like Moon in the Cuz variant) and persuades her abductor to go to her father and have their marriage blessed (M1, SCH). [TC: Xucaneb sends a female marriage broker who persuades Quix Mes to

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leave his mountain and come to court together with the daughter.] The Mountain Obstinate The mountain left by the repentant abductor encloses on the King's daughter (M1, SCH). The woman abducted by the Quiche Uinac is enclosed in the mountain by his Rabinal ally (BM). The woman becomes the maize; alternatively, she (the Moon) is not changed into the maize, but is instructed to give the seeds of the maize to those in need of it (C).[TC: When Quix Mes, too, repents and leaves his mountain with the abducted daughter to become the King's official son-inlaw, the mountain of the rejected suitor turns hostile and imprisons the maize.] The Fugitives are Being Searched for First the woodpecker and then the oriole are searching for the fugitives, even before these have reached their mountain refuge. At the thirteen doors, the sound of the making of tortillas was heard (M2). Attack on the Maize Mountain God orders the Maize Mountain split (M1, SCH). Twelve Lightnings attack the Maize Mountain; the smallest, thirteenth one succeeds (BM, M1, M3); or the four directional Lightnings attack, and the fifth, and youngest one succeeds (SCH). They free the maize. [TC: Xucaneb mobilizes his Lightnings. Three young bachelor Lightnings try; the fourth one, an aged and married Lightning, succeeds.]

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III. No Female Transformation The Lacandon variants are remarkably similar, including details,512 which allowed Boremanse (1986) to incorporate the tale transmitted by Bruce (1974) into the two tales collected by himself without noticeable distortion, and with due references given. The main variants are the following ones. 1. S = G. Soustelle (1961: 49 - 50, cf. J. Soustelle 1935: 339). 2. BR* = R.D. Bruce (1974: 224 - 274). A slightly different, and much shorter variant recorded by the same author can be found in McGee (1990: 106-107). 3. BO1/BO2 = D. Boremanse (1986, [1] northern variant: 78-96, [2] southern variant: 293-304). Boremanses northern variant, being the most extensive one, has served as a basis for the following synopsis. Nuxi Exterminates the Gophers Nuxi is a married hunter called Gopher Trapper (h lehi kh bah) and great man (nukuch uinik), i.e., ancestor (BR); or (S) Kin Kobo. Nuxi only eats gophers and places a trap wherever he sees a gopher hill (BO1). Nuxi Follows the Daughter of Kisin into the Underworld Nuxi loses his way and meets an attractive young woman seated under a nantse tree. She is called X-Baak (BO1). Nuxi assumes the shape of a Whitecrowned parrot (Pionus senilis) and throws the trees cherry-like yellow fruits on her head; she takes off her wig and shows her naked skull. He follows her along a path that descends into the earth: the western entrance of the underworld.

An exception is the variant given by Georgette Soustelle. It is less reliable (possibly due to an insufficient knowledge of Lacandon) and omits many essential passages. As an example of this unreliability, G. Soustelle has, contrary to the logic of the tale, K'in Kobo [Nuxi] instead of Xbaake taking off a wig to reveal the naked skull.

512

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Nuxi is Received by Our True Lords Elder Brother and his Wife In Our True Lords Elder Brothers house, he is hidden under a cooking pot to protect him from the visiting children of the death god, Kisin; he is instructed to wash his clothes so as the remove his human smell; and is given Elder Brothers loincloth.[meets Kisin and his daughter, BR] Elder Brother Initiates Nuxi into the Destiny of the Dead Nuxi watches how spectral game passes by (the souls of killed animals); how dogs, chickens, and fleas attack the dead; and how the dead cross the underworld river on a dog. Elder Brother scrutinizes and judges the souls. Nuxi witnesses their punishment by Kisin through fire and cold water and, as a result of this treatment, their transformation into Kisins cattle and poultry. Elder Brothers Wife Humanizes Kisins Daughter Elder Brother summons Kisins daughter (BR). Kisins daughter receives instruction from her mother-in-law: She learns how to prepare food and to weave. Kisins Daughter stays with Elder Brother, learns to eat human food, but turns home after a while. Elder Brother Gives Hummingbird his Feather Cloak Elder Brother gives Nuxi and old, violet garment of his and wings (xik), i.e., a feather cloak (BR); or he persuades the hummingbird to lend its feather cloak (BO2). Nuxi changes into the Violet Sabrewing (Campylopterus hemileucurus), is shot by Kisin, and tamed by Bone Woman; they sleep together. Kisin awakens and vomits; but he is glad that Nuxi has slept with his daughter (BR), and accepts him for a son-in-law. Main Bridal Task The decisive bridal service consists in cutting firewood (really bones) for the hearth of Kisin (BR).

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Nuxi Replaces the Killed Gophers Kisins daughter gives birth to four pairs of gophers (BO1); or he should engender as many gophers as he had killed (BO2). The gophers are to be set out in the four directions there to multiply. Nuxi Performs further Bridal Tasks He cleans the gardens and sweeps the house of his father-in-law. The kisinob or agents of decay change into crawling serpents as the sweeping proceeds (BO2). He also brews honey beer (balche). A Drinking Bout and its Consequences With the beer brewed by Nuxi, a drinking contest between Elder Brother and Kisin is organized. When Kisin is drunk, Nuxi, instructed by Elder Brother, plucks the flower of immortality from the pubic hair of Kisin. Escape and Loss of the Wife Everybody is dead drunk. Nuxi was drunk, too (BO2). Nuxi tries to escape with Kisins daughter. Some of the dust left in Kisins house (the excrement of a cat, BO), enables Kisin to sniff his daughter back. The earth closes itself. Nuxi Returns Home Nuxi is again lost in the woods. He is led home by a small wildcat (margay) and meets his daughters. He is first taken for a specter by his wife (BO2), since it was three years since he left. In the meantime, she has found another man, but she now returns to Nuxi. Nuxi Cures the Dead Nuxi descends into the burial pit, arranges the skeleton, and by holding the flower under their noses, or by using certain small sticks (BO2), Nuxi makes the dead alive.

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Nuxi Dies and Returns to Elder Brother His wife breaks the taboo and touches the flower, Nuxi dies, and returns to his otherworldly wife and to Elder Brother. His earthly wife is made to bury Nuxi, and is then brutally killed (BO2).

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APPENDIX C AGRICULTURE AND RAIN IN THE TAPIR EPISODE There are reasons to reconsider the tapir (or adoption) episode from the perspective of agriculture and rain, more particularly the onset of the rainy season. Specific transpositions of the episode related to these two themes are found not only in hero myths that have a maize deity or rain deities as protagonists, but also in Mesoamerican Sun and Moon myth. Certain elements of Qeqchi Sun and Moon myth may possibly find their explanation here. The hero babies of the initial episodes of several hero myths are usually found in the water, but they can also be encountered in the field. A Huaxtec maize hero myth (Martnez 2000: 150) initially has the old woman working there. Her adoptive motherhood begins when she cuts off a pumpkin (the vines of which could easily evoke umbilical cords), takes it home, slices it, and within discovers a girl, the future mother of the maize hero. This is a variation on the finding of the maize hero himself, lying in the maize field in the shape of an egg (e.g., Garca de Len 1976: 80). Instead of harvesting a pumpkin, her Pipil counterpart (Tlentepusilam) cuts a calabash from a tree and chops it up to release her adoptive children (see Chapter Three, section Guarding the Trophy Tree). The large, fleshy fruits may well pertain to the nature of the foundlings: the maize mother, the maize child, and the rain children.513 When, towards the conclusion of the maize hero myth, the hero sows the ashes from Old Womans vulva, the images of cucumber and calabash recur: From the earth fertilized by the ashes, a species of cucumber (chayote, Sechium edule) and calabash vines sprout (Mnch 1983: 166). This same ending occurs in Kaqchikel and Tzutujil hero myth. As we have seen earlier, the Sun and Moon brothers abstained from working the earth; instead, the work was done by their hoes. This infuriated their grandmother, and she made the hoes stop doing their work.514 Assuming that the grandmother represents a

513

Besides the rain children, the 1907 Hartmann variant also includes the tobacco girl among those born from a tree calabash. 514 The Popol Vuh (PV lines 2909ff) has the same incident with the magical hoes and the undoing of their effects.

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goddess closely connected to the soil and its tillage (see also Appendix D, section Agricultural Labor), the meaning of the episode could be that the Twins not destined for a life of working the soil had refused to enter into a personal relationship with, and become dependent on, the earth. Sun and Moon avenged themselves by burning the old woman in the steam bath, putting a cane (possibly a planting stick) into her anus, and cutting off her vulva. Buried in the earth, the vulva changed into a vine producing the fleshy and wrinkled guisguil cucumber, a surrogate for the maize515 (Redfield 1946: 254; Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 178). The interaction of Old Adoptive Mother and her deer or tapir lover in particular can take on a meaning readily assimilated within an agricultural context. Here, it is important to realize that in Mesoamerica, the deer is associated with the rain deities.516 In a Totonac variant of Sun and Moon myth (Mnch Galindo 1992: 288-289), the Sun and Moon brothers spy on Old Adoptive Mother as she brings food to her lover. They saw how she jumped onto a large white deer and, after frolicking for some time, with another jump, on falling to the ground, on that very moment, a large resplendent lightning fell, with such a noise that it made the earth crack. The deer grandfather is said to have been the transformation of a lightning man (hombre rayo), or rainmaker; and therefore, during a thunderstorm, the lightning appears against the dark sky in the shape of the antlers of a deer. Since the love play apparently made the lightning man discharge, it would appear that lightning is phallic and rain is seminal, both equations being common within Mesoamerica.517 In a parallel Mixe Sun and Moon tale (Loo 1987: 145), the lovers deer carcass is supported by a planting-stick; when the old woman kicks it, the chalk powder

515

As in Huaxtec maize hero myth, the Grandmother is associated with food antedating the maize. It may be because of this association, that young maize ears were put into her anus, rather than into her mouth: She had no use for them. 516 The rain deity can be the Owner of the deer (e.g., Lipp 1991: 30, 37). Among the Tzotziles, thunder and lightning are believed to be off mounted on deer collecting gunpowder for use in the rainy season (Laughlin 1975: 111 s.v. chauk]. 517 E.g., phallic lightning: Taggart 1983: 92, seminal rain: Monaghan 1995: 111, 204.

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springing from the carcass changes into clouds,518 and from this comes the rain and the thunderclap of lightning.519 The old womans violent jumping and kicking could be taken as signaling the onset of the rainy season. In many variants, she kicks a stuffed deer that she believes to be her sleeping partner. The rising of the clouds would then represent the deers awakening. Probably connected to the beginning of the rainy season are the sandals and weaving sticks that she finally throws after the rising Sun and Moon; these are said, in a Trique variant (Hollenbach 1977: 131), to represent Taurus and the Pleiades.520 Since the deer carcass and the steam bath are metaphorically related (Moedano 1977: 19-20, quoting Carrasco), a further implication of the above is that the steam of the steam bath could also be viewed as rain clouds. It has already been noted that the Old Adoptive Mother of the Yucatec hero, Ez, is accompanied by a snake living in a subterranean well whom she feeds children. Called Conhaa Xnuc Old Woman who sells water (Ligorred 1990: 109-110), she gives water in exchange for the children brought by visitors.521 Her counterpart in a Popoluca maize hero myth documented by Elson (1947) also has for a partner a fat snake who likes to eat children, and who again may represent an aquatic force. If we view Qeqchi myth against this background of rain-making and water-selling, it becomes significant that the tapir spends a large part of his life in the mud near the water, or in the water itself. He likes to sink to the bottom of a pool or a river and be among the fishes, even though he is herbivorous (lvarez del Toro, in Navarrete 1987: 241). The Golonton Tzeltal believe that the rains are announced by a tapir stamping the earth (Navarrete 1987: 242). When, in the myth, the tapir trap has been dug, the brothers tell the old woman
518

This chalk powder is thus comparable to the soot (sabak) used by the Lacandon rain deity and to the gunpowder (sibak) of the Tzotzil thunder and lightning deity (Laughlin 1975 s.v. chauk). 519 Where the old woman uses a stick to kick the deer (as in the Van der Loo tale), the stick could (similar to the lightning stick of the Huaxtec Mam) be taken to represent lightning. 520 In a Popoluca maize hero myth, too, the old womans sandals, buried in the hearth, are brought into focus (Elson 1947: 200-201). Also among the Chiapas Mayas, the Pleiades are called Sandals (Milbrath 1999: 38). 521 This snake has been argued to correspond to the Hapai Can known from early sources (Helfrich 1973: 63, 128), but also invites comparison with a giant serpent living in a subterranean cenote and connected to the canicula (cf. Bassie-Sweet 2008: 148; Burns 1983: 244-257; Jong 1999: 156).

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that they have found a creek with lots of fish and [want] to stay overnight in the bush to fish there (Grandia 2004: 6); instead, they go off to kill the tapir in the pitfall. Because the tapir was trapped in his normal habitat, near a creek full of fish, its member is presented to Xkitza, not as a piece of deer meat, but as a fine fish (Thompson). However, considering that the tapirs phallic power is even more strongly marked than that of the Totonac deer-shaped lightning man, the fish may also refer to the tapirs association with rain and rainmaking. Whereas the lovers penis is a fish, the vagina of Xkitzas Pipil counterpart, Tantepusilama, is viewed as a water source, her urine as streaming water. The Old Adoptive Mother herself, in the Goubaud Qeqchi variant, dies by jumping into a deep well (Sp. pozo) where she used to go and fetch water, and where she now drowns. This well could be seen as equivalent to the pool inside the limestone hole where the Yucatec water-selling Conha Xnuc resides.522 The table below summarizes the discussion thus far.

522

The narrator explained her act as a form of suicide out of remorse. Her jumping into a deep well, together with the fact that she was purposely left to drown there, is also, however, reminiscent of the young men and women who, in the 16th century, were lowered into the great karstic hole of Chichen Itza to drown there. In such a way, they became part of the realm of the rain deities, and could ask its rulers specific favors (Helfrich 1973: 125-129).

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Table: Meteorological Transpositions OLD WOMANS PARTNER deer deer cloud powder; first lightning of rainy season; rainmaker eating children eating children PARTNERS ASSOCIATION filled with cloud powder

ETHNIC GROUP Mixe Trique

OLD WOMANS ACTION provokes rain clouds makes Taurus and Pleiades rise provokes lightning and clouds (snakes partner) lives in cave at well; exchanges water for children urinates = makes terrestrial water flow

Totonac Popoluca Yucatec

deer fat snake snake living in a well giant

Pipil

Qeqchi

tapir

lives in or near water; severed penis = caught fish

jumps into deep well where she hauled water

In the Freeze variant of Qeqchi myth, the lover is the Mam, a fact that now also acquires additional significance. The Mam not only is a greatly feared, murderous, and cannibalistic mountain deity, but is specifically associated with such violent natural phenomena as subterranean rumblings and thunderstorms ending in floods. As early as the 16th-century, the dictionaries of Zuiga and Morn (in Miles 1957: 749) attribute to the Mam who dreams, a sound like a distant thunder which he makes under the earth, and which you will hear sometimes coming from the east in San Cristobal.523 After the first heavy rains in June and July, a distant rumbling of the earth (Erdrollen) is interpreted
523

El Mam que suea (dreams); Feldman (1988 s.v. Mam) reads suena (resounds) instead.

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as the hissing and roaring (das Blasen oder Getse) of the Mam, restless and angry because his sleeping place is getting wet (Dieseldorff 1926: 28, cf. 1922: 50). These threatening rumblings, audible at the beginning of the rainy season, are not volcanic or otherwise seismological, but are probably produced by subterranean water movements in the karstic crust.524 Because of his excessive strength, the Mam is envisioned as tied inside the earth (Dieseldorff) or imprisoned in a cave situated far in the East (Villacorta Vidarre 1970: 3); but apparently he is sometimes able to leave this prison. As we shall presently see, the troubled and disturbed sleep of the Mam seems to modulate the sleep and rude awakening of the stuffed Oaxacan deer lover. Dieseldorff (1926: 28) adds, in general terms, an important piece of information: Were the Mam to be informed about a local feast day, he would arrive to devour everybody (Dieseldorff 1926: 28). Villacorta Vidarre (1970: 3), however, focuses on the feast of Saint John the Baptist on June 24th: According to some Qeqchis, the rumblings and shakings of the earth are caused by the Mams anger on being informed (by the newly-arrived dead) that he had missed the feast. These accounts sharpen Taubes argument (1992: 97) that the Qeqchi Mam corresponds to the old thunder god, who, in addition to various local names, is known along the entire Gulf Coast as Saint John the Baptist. Stereotypically, this Old Thunder is to be misinformed about the exact day on which the feast of Saint John the Baptist (his own feast day) falls. If he knew, he would organize a drunken orgy that would cause huge thunderstorms and flood the entire world (Ichon 1969: 112-115; Taggart 1983: 211-212; Williams Garcia 1972: 77). Whereas the Qeqchi Mam is tied and imprisoned in a cave, his Gulf Coast counterpart is pinned down in the middle of the ocean (Ichon 1969: 113) or confined to an island (Taggart 1983: 212-213) to keep the world from drowning. That he is also a cannibal appears from the very words with which he is soothed on being confined: Youll always have meat. The water will bring fish, or drowned animals, or even human beings. You wont

524

Haeserijn (1979: 219) defines the Mam as follows: (1) god of the earth (myth.), tapir (PW); (2) rumblings (not volcanic nor of earthquakes); (3) grandchild (said by the grandfather).

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have to eat tortillas (Taggart 1983: 212). These human beings are the drowned, their souls becoming the Old Thunders workers (Ichon 1969: 114).525 Table (cont.) ETHNIC GROUP Qeqchi OLD WOMANS PARTNERS PARTNER ASSOCIATION the Mam thunderstorm, flooding, subterranean rumblings thunderstorm, flooding, first lightning of rainy season OLD WOMANS ACTION exciting the Mam

Gulf Coast peoples

Old Thunder

Among the Huaxtec Mayas, the Qeqchi Mam corresponds to Mam Mushilam, the Old Thunder, also called Muxi(Alcorn) and Mushik (Hooft and Cerda 2003: 63): The first lightning, initiating the rain cycle, is sent by Mushik (id.: 131). Thus, still assuming that Old Adoptive Mothers sexual interaction with the deer provokes the beginning of the rainy season, the phallic lightning produced by the Totonac deer lover and rainmaker appears to correspond to the lightning with which the Huaxtec Mam opens the rainy season (see Table cont.). In sum, it would appear that by calling him the Mam, the tapir lovers intimidating and destructive, cannibalistic virility, tickled by his aged mistress, could in principle be translated into meteorological terms.

525

This Old Thunder is called Nawewet or Nanawatzin in Nahua (Taggart 1983), the name also given to the youngest rain hero of Pipil myth.

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APPENDIX D THE OLD ADOPTIVE MOTHER: AZTEC PARALLELS

The name given to the Pipil counterpart of the Qeqchi Old Adoptive Mother is Tlantepusilam, which, as Olivier (2005) has shown, refers back to the time of the conquest and the decades following upon it. The historical Tlantepusilam shares important features with Aztec earth goddesses such as Tlaltecuhtli, Cihuacoatl, Toc, Coatlicue, and especially - as Olivier argues (2005: 253-255) Itzpapalotl. If, however, one attempts to match the Old Adoptive Mother (regardless of her ethnic affiliation) with an Aztec earth goddess, then Cihuacoatl stands out among her colleagues. The complex of traits which make up this goddesss character produces the recognizable picture of a cannibalistic adoptive mother who was not only a goddess of war, but also a goddess of midwifery on a par with the goddess of the steam bath.526 War Goddess, Demon, Cannibal As well as being a war woman (yaocihuatl) whose nocturnal wailing and crying was considered an omen of war (yaotetzahuitl), Cihuacoatl527 Quilaztli was an aggressive eagle woman (quauhcihuatl), demon woman (tzitzimicihuatl), and cannibal (tecuani) (Torquemada 1975: 117, Bk.II Ch. II). The Huaxtec Grandmother of the Maize Hero (Alcorn 1984: 166), transformed into a terrorist eagle, unmistakably acts as such a Quauhcihuatl Eagle Woman. Being a female demon (tzitzimitl) and cannibal, Cihuacoatl Quilaztli was believed to have a huge open mouth and ferocious teeth with which she devoured human flesh (Durn 1971: 210). These ferocious teeth - the metallic teeth of a tzitzimitl - also characterize the Pipil Old Adoptive Mother, Tlentepusilama; they are like the teeth of Kuxbakmeel, strong enough to be
526

Here, I will leave out of consideration the homonymous Cihuacoatl Female Associate, the Aztec minister of the interior, and those of his functions related to warfare and human sacrifice; for an exploration of this connection, see Klein 1988. 527 Actually, Torquemada has Cohuacihuatl rather than Cihuacoatl as an alternative name for the eagle transformation of Quilaztli.

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sharpened with a stone. Cihuacoatls nocturnal crying and wailing for human flesh (Sahagn 1979: 33, Bk.I Ch. VI) is perhaps the most spooky aspect of her cannibalistic urge; to appease her, offerings were made consisting of breads shaped like human hands and limbs (Durn 1971: 217). To prompt human sacrifice, she would at times appear on the market place (where sacrificial victims could be bought) with a cradle for carrying a child on her back; when she left the cradle standing somewhere, it was discovered to hold a swaddled sacrificial knife (Sahagn 1979: 33, Bk. 1 Ch. 6): Her child starving for fresh blood, or, an appeal to give her sacrificial captives.528 Adoptive Mother That Cihuacoatl fulfilled the role of an aged Adoptive Mother is evidenced by the birth story of Ce-Acatl, that is, Quetzalcoatl, in the Historia de los Reynos: And when he was born, his mother immediately dies. But the (young) Ce Acatl is raised by Quilaztli, Cihuacoatl. And when he had become a man, he accompanied his father on his conquests. And he proved himself in the war in Xihuacan. There he made prisoners (Lehmann 1974: 365-366; my transl.). Through the intermediary of this war goddess functioning as an adoptive mother, Quetzalcoatl may have became a warrior himself. According to the version in the Histoyre du Mechique, the hero had been born in a place called Nichatlanco, an unclear toponym which has quite plausibly been read as Michatlauco Fish Gorge (Jonghe 1905: 36), a stereotype place for the Old Adoptive Mother to make her first appearance. Midwife of War The two Old Adoptive Mothers types represented by Xkitza (origin of war cannibalism) and the Oaxacan goddess of the steam bath (origin of midwifery) recur in the two Aztec goddesses of midwifery, Cihuacoatl and Toc Yoalticitl. The latter (Toc Our Grandmother), was also the goddess of the steam bath, or Temazcaltec Grandmother of the Steam Bath (Sahagn 1979:

528

When the Trique solar brother violates the Old Adoptive Mother with a sacrificial knife tied to his penis (Hollenbach), this somehow seems to respond to the Aztec tale.

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33, Bk. 1 Ch. 8), since before and after birth giving, a mother used to go into the steam bath every day. Her colleague was the war goddess, Cihuacoatl Quauhcihuatl Eagle Woman Quilaztli. Both goddesses were invoked in the rhetorical dialogues between the mother and the midwife recorded by Sahagn (1979: 374ff , Bk. 6). Ideologically, the mother was deemed to have made a new captive: the child, still tied to the umbilical cord of its captor. Birth giving, with its spasms, cries, sometimes blood loss, and the very real risk of dying, was apparently equated with a battlefield. Just as cannibalistic and sanguinary Old Adoptive Mothers could become goddesses of the steam bath, the Aztec goddess of the steam bath could, inversely, show warlike behavior. The concept of a sanguinary midwifery of war, characteristic of Cihuacoatl, thus comes to embrace Toc Temazcalticitl Physician of the Steambath as well. On the Ochpaniztli feast dedicated to the latter, she - or rather her impersonators - behaved like her alter ego Cihuacoatl: She tasted from sacrificial blood (Graulich 1981: 63), displayed the aggressive behavior of a warrior woman (id.: 65-66), and sported the eagle-attributes of Cihuacoatl, the Eagle Woman (65).529 Perhaps one should connect her escort of ithyphallic Huaxtec warriors (74) with Old Adoptive Mothers mythological tapir lover, with his excessive sexual power.530 Bone Grinder Cihuacoatl Quilaztli is associated with the grinding of human bones. She grinds the bones taken from the underworld by Quetzalcoatl on her metate (Historia de los Reynos, Lehmann 1974: 334, 337). In Tzutujil Sun and Moon myth, the grandmother figure, Batzbal, is symbolically associated with the grinding stone (Tarn and Prechtel 1986: 177); in the Tzotzil Jaguar Slayer myth, the grinding stone of Kuxbakmeel Old Woman Bone Cruncher is implicitly equated with a sacrificial stone.

529

Another act of Ochpaniztli had Tocih standing over a container with chalk powder and white feathers (adornments of sacrificial victims) and uttering war cries (Sahagn 1979: 135-136, Bk. 2 Ch. 30). There might be some connection with the deer dummy filled with chalk powder. 530 In his treatment of Ochpaniztli, Graulich (1981: 74-75) signaled various ritual moments suggestive of sexual intercourse with, and fecundation of, the aged goddess of midwifery.

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Female Ensnarer Cihuacoatl could change into a seductive young woman to madden and kill young men (Mendieta 1973: 56, Bk.II Ch. IX). According to Popoluca hero myth, it was Old Stepmothers desire to avenge herself for the death of her lover and her own violation which led to the same transformation. This female demon is known in Nahuatl as Matlaccihuatl (corresponding to Xtabay in Yucatec) Female Ensnarer.531 The Chorti Old Adoptive Mother is designated with the synonymous siguanaba. Child Eater Characteristically, Cihuacoatls cannibalistic hunger coalesced with a terrible desire for babies. An incident which had Cihuacoatl devouring a small boy in his cradle in Azcapotzalco was apparently considered ominous enough to be included in a concise overview of the reigns of the lords of Tlatelolco (Sahagn 1979: 452, Bk. 8 Ch. 1); it may have been taken to forebode war. The primary victims of the Grandmother transformed into an eagle are again babies (Alcorn 1984: 166). Goddess of the Cradle In connection with the adoption episodes, it is relevant to note that Toci Yoalticitl Nocturnal Midwife was also the goddess of the cradle. Indeed, the cradle was personally addressed as Old One, and conjured not to harm the child it was about to receive (Sahagn 1979: 373-379, 400-401, Bk. 6 Ch.26-27 and 37); in the Tzutujil community of San Pedro la Laguna, it is even thought necessary to whip the childs hammock into obeisance (Paul 1975: 709-710). These ritual precautions refer us directly to the Huaxtec Old Adoptive Mother as a baby-sitter.

531

In an ancient Nahua ritual for hunting deer (Coe and Whittaker 1982: 135), the noose was called Cihuacoatl Cihuatequihu, i.e. Cihuacoatl the Female Taskmaster [or Warrior?]. Again, the war goddess is ensnaring persons and making captives.

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Goddess of Agricultural Labor The imagery of war associated with Cihuacoatl can also be transposed to the field of agriculture, with hoes substituting for obsidian swords and, perhaps, the products of the earth (especially fleshy ones such as calabashes and cucumbers) for parts of human bodies. The song dedicated to Cihuacoatl Quauhcihuatl (Seler 1960: 1048-1058; Garibay 1958: 134-149) makes this transposition entirely explicit by having the goddess work the divine maize field. This refers us directly to the Old Adoptive Mother of Maize Hero myth. The goddess (especially in her quality of patron of midwifery and adoptive mother) often wears the epitheton Quilaztli, with an approximate meaning of instrument for generating edible plants. The key to this epithetons meaning would appear to lie in Sahagns statement (1961: 11, Bk. 1 Ch. 6) that it was Cihuacoatl who gave the digging stick, the tumpline to mankind. If we take this metaphorical expression for burdening people literally, then it makes Cihuacoatl Quilaztli directly comparable to the grandmother of Tzutujil, Cakchiquel, and Kiche Sun and Moon myth. The latter stopped the automatism of the hoes which had effortlessly been slashing the vegetation. Thus, this grandmother had indeed, as literally stated by Sahagn, obliged mankind to handle their agricultural implements themselves, and labor the earth.

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APPENDIX E A NOTE ON THE SPELLING OF MAYAN WORDS There are many Maya languages, eight in Southeastern Mexico and Yucatn, about twenty in Guatemala. Until quite recently, these existed chiefly as spoken languages, with Spanish serving (as it still does) as the lingua franca. The missionaries of early colonial times rendered Maya words in the Spanish spelling, while adopting various conventions for rendering phonemes not occurring in Spanish. Later spelling practices continued to be modeled on the Spanish. They were often idiosyncratic, not to say bewildering, as renderings of the name of the dominant Maya language of Guatemalas Alta Verapaz immediately show: Cacchi = Gkec-chi = Kekchi = Kekchi = Qeqchi. Towards the early 1990s, Maya linguists, united in the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG) and assisted by North-American scholars, devised a now official system that marks a break with Spanish spelling conventions. It is nearly identical with the modern system for rendering Yukatec. The following remarks may give some idea of the pronunciation of Qeqchi words. Like most other Maya languages, Qeqchi makes phonemic distinctions between short and long vowels, between k and q (the latter a consonant pronounced at the back of the mouth), and between normal and glottalized consonants (for example, k and k, the latter a clicking sound). The glottal stop is indicated by an apostrophe. X is pronounced as sh (xul animal), and ch as the ch in child (chool heart, mind). The guttural consonant j is sounded much as a very short gargle and coincides with the Spanish j. The w is, at least in the dominant Cobn dialect, pronounced kw (wa bread), while the y sounds more or less as ch in child (yeqok tread upon).532 In keeping with modern scholarly usage, I have rendered the names of Maya language groups according to the ALMG-system; thus, Qeqchi, not Kekchi, and Kiche, not Quich (or, as an adjective, Quichean), even though

532

Unlike the ALMG, the Summer Institute of Linguistics Spanish-based orthography spells these dialectical pronunciations out (e.g., cuanc for wank to be).

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these apostrophic spellings are unlikely to aid the average reader. The oftrecurring name of the dominant Qeqchi mountain spirit is likewise given a modern spelling: Tzuultaqa. In the case of historical names no longer in use, I have steered another course, since a modern spelling would entail an interpretive choice that can not readily be verified. For the names of the Twin Heroes of the Popol Vuh, I use the Spanish spelling of the Popol Vuh manuscript: Xbalanque and Hunahpu (with the h representing a soft guttural sound). In other cases, I have followed the spelling of the source being referred to or quoted.

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SUMMARY

The subject of this thesis is an extensive myth from the Qeqchi-speaking areas of the Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) and of Belize, the oldest variant of which dates from around 1900. The core of this Qeqchi myth is a tale that treats the alliance between a deer hunter (called Xbalanque in the earliest variants) and the daughter of a mountain deity. The daughter of the mountain deity is kidnapped by Xbalanque, undergoes transformation into snakes and insects, and finally regains her human form before changing into the moon, while her kidnapper changes into the sun. This tale (here called Hummingbird myth) also circulates in various parts of Guatemala and Belize beyond the Qeqchi area. The thesis is intended as a detailed commentary of the entire Qeqchi narrative of Sun and Moon and situates its various episodes within the Mesoamerican narrative tradition. The central theme is marriage alliance, a concept that in certain versions of the myth, and especially of its Hummingbird episode, can be seen as a model for relations between unequal partners, such as hunter and quarry. I argue that the myth can be placed within a Mesoamerican ideology that views the hunt as a metaphor for marriage and marriage as a metaphor for the hunt. Chapter 1 introduces the myth, the central characters and narrative structure. Chapter 2, which treats the first episode of the Qeqchi narrative, presents a dark contrast to the subsequent alliances of Xbalanque with the daughter of the mountain deity and with the game. In this part of the myth, sexual alliance comes to the fore in a primitive and unsocial mode. This negative alliance is symbolized by an aged adoptive mother, a complex character recurring in many hero myths, and by a tapir. Both the old woman and the tapir appropriate the meat of the animals captured by Xbalanque and his brother and both are subsequently killed. The Old Adoptive Mother is cast as a cannibal specialized in young children and is associated with stories about an early epoch when parents produced children only to serve as food. At times she assumes the role of a fearsome midwife; at other times her aggressive cannibalism symbolizes war. On the basis of new data it is argued that the mythological tapir can be viewed as the counterpart of the game. Whereas the game surrenders itself and is carried dead to the homestead of the hunter to be

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received as if it were a living guest, the tapir appropriates everything without reciprocating, and is therefore killed as an enemy. In many areas of the Amerindian tropics, the tapir is viewed as an embodiment of both greed and excessive sexuality. As such, the animal is directly comparable to the male lover who, in a widespread Mayan tale, interferes in a marriage and is fed with the meat hunted by the husband and with the living flesh of the husbands wife, whereupon the husband kills both adulterers. I suggest that the negative alliance of the Old Adoptive Mother and the tapir symbolizes an earlier stage in the development of mankind, but one to which one may still regress. In this early stage, the spheres of procreation and of food acquisition, both vital to the marriage alliance, have not yet been entirely disentangled, and the use of human flesh and of game meat not yet fully separated. Old Adoptive Mothers occasional transformation into the goddess of the steam bath is here viewed as a socialization of her primeval cannibalism. Chapter 3 considers the tapir episode as part of an earlier Mesoamerican tradition. It presents evidence of the tapir episode within early-16th century Mayan and Pipil rituals of war and sacrifice, and notes a connection with Aztec historical traditions. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss two contrasting roles of the deer hunter of the Hummingbird myth. Chapter 4 calls attention to Xbalanques role as an invader and historical war god, corresponding to that of the legendary Fierce Warrior of many highland Mayan tales. The deer hunter of Hummingbird myth is sometimes called by this very title, Fierce Warrior, suggesting that the deer hunt can be seen as a military campaign. However, the purpose of Hummingbird myth is to present the hunt as an alliance. The Fierce Warrior becomes a son-in-law, a role discussed in Chapter 5. At the beginning of the Hummingbird myth, Xbalanque transforms into a hummingbird, a bird used in traditional Mesoamerican love magic, thus signaling a switch from war and pillage to the establishment of alliance. The Hummingbird episodes various versions continue either with a bridal service, in which the marriage candidate has to work for his father-in-law, or, as in the Qeqchi version, with bridal capture. The bridal service is concluded with flight from the realm of the mountain deity and the bridal capture with armed peace. In Chapter 5, the two forms of bridal acquisition (bridal service and bridal capture) are described and related to their mythical depictions. The exposition of bridal service highlights a motif recurring in many Mesoamerican tales, namely the threat of the marriage candidates drastic loss of status and

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autonomy, a threat which the main actor of the Qeqchi myth barely eludes. The chapter concludes by showing how easily the indigenous workers on the Alta Verapaz plantations could have recognized themselves in this mythical escape from an unbending mountain deity. In addition to the mode of bridal acquisition, the versions of the Hummingbird myth show remarkable variation among regions and among Mayan language groups in the destiny of the abducted woman. This variation comes to the fore in what constitutes the nucleus of the dissertation, namely the analysis in Chapters 6 to 9 of the various versions of Hummingbird myth. As shown in these chapters, the woman may or may not suffer a transformation, and if there is a transformation it may take any of a number of forms and may or may not be followed by the womans recovery of her original human form. An extensive analysis of metaphoric language and ritual behavior reveals a correspondence between the nature of the female transformation and specific spheres of human activity. It thus underscores the importance of the hunt as a metaphor for alliance: Just as the hunter views the game as a desirable woman, so the bee-keeper is married to the bees, the farmer to the maize, and the conqueror (symbolized by the sun) to the moon. Within the framework of this marriage model, the mountain deity, being the father of the bride, has a controlling power that only the strongest can resist. Chapter 6 reconstructs an important Mesoamerican hunting ideology and develops the idea of the hunt as marriage. This view of the hunt is most directly represented by those Hummingbird myths in which the hunters wife changes into game. The case of the Qeqchi Hummingbird myth is different, in that the wife does not become game. Instead, her alliance with the deer is made subservient to human procreation, and her alliance with Xbalanque serves as an example of how sexuality and food acquisition should relate to each other if mankind that is, the man made of deer meat is to survive. Chapter 7 demonstrates the decisive importance of the rituals of traditional curers and disease throwers for Qeqchi Hummingbird myth, with Xbalanque cast in these roles and with his wife changing into snakes and insects for use in black magic. Chapter 8 examines the fusion of the Hummingbird myth with the Maize Mountain myth: The hunters wife changes into sowing seeds and is enclosed in a mountain granary. The hunter wooing the game then gives way to the farmer metaphorically married to the maize. Chapter 9 explores the extent to which the unusual case of the Lacandon Hummingbird myth fits within the framework sketched in the preceding paragraph. The alliance between the hunter and his

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wife appears once again to stand for a specific area of human activity, namely the interactions of shamanic curers with the world of the dead. In Qeqchi myth, the theme of alliance also occurs in more negative ways, namely as marriage refusal and marriage failure. This aspect of the myth, analyzed in Chapter 10, concerns an inserted tale about a hunting deity who, in the tapir episode, also plays the role of the heros elder brother. Whereas, following the final breakdown of his unwanted marriage, the hunting deity abjures women and rejoins his escaping animals in the woods, his younger brother begins searching for a woman with whom he can form an enduring bond. Here, another strongly marked contrast with Xbalanques marriage comes to the fore. Analysis shows that the opposition between elder and younger brother can be expressed in a variety of ways, most notably as an interest in men versus an interest in women. Male exclusivism appears to have been characteristic of Mesoamerican hunting deities and is likely connected to the practice of hunting in bands. In any event, a woman has no place in a context of male bonding. Particularly in stories regarding the initiation into hunting magic, the relationships of the hunting deity and his novices is eroticized while their weapons and the killing of the game acquire a corresponding sexual meaning. The marriage alliance with the game thus temporarily recedes into the background. The Qeqchi narrative ends by describing yet another marriage failure, namely the dissolution of the alliance between Xbalanque and the daughter of the mountain deity itself. This theme is the subject of Chapter 11. The dissolution is ascribed to the adultery of the elder brother, a role played by either the hunting deity or the rain deity. (There are some indications that within the Mayan kinship structure, the relation between the wife and her brother-inlaw is viewed as particularly threatening to the integrity of the marriage bond.) The disrupted alliance immediately gives way to another one, in that Xbalanques wife allows herself to be kidnapped by a vulture king connected to black sorcery. The loss of the marital bond is presented as a disturbance of the ritual order, and gives rise to a series of negative images whose dramatic effect derives from the fact that Xbalanque and his wife are on the verge of being changed into sun and moon. The triumph over the black sorcerer and the retrieval of the spouse restore the ritual balance, and the ultimate transformation of the reunited spouses into sun and moon confirms the alliance principle as a life-giving, cosmic force.

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The dissertation concludes with two remarks concerning the roles played by the two principal actors of the Qeqchi narrative. The myth shows the daughter of the mountain deity in a series of mostly transient alliances, the significance of which appears to be that she thereby becomes productive and fertile in the distinct areas symbolized by her male partners, animals as well as deities. This investigation confirms and further develops the correspondence already noted by Thompson between the main female actor of the Qeqchi myth and the Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal, especially in regard of the goddesss similar role in the erotic attraction of the hunt. As regards the main male actor, it is well-known that his name, Xbalanque, is also the name of one of the Twin heroes in the Popol Vuh. Notwithstanding a tendency in Mayanist research to reduce distinct hero myths to bastard forms of this ancient Kiche narrative, it has, in the course of this analysis, become clear that one and the same figure can serve as a principal actor in very different myths. Thus, the war deity Xbalanque can as well be coupled to a female companion in a myth that explores the theme of wars transformation into alliance, as to a male companion in a myth that chiefly addresses the theme of war and subjugation. The interplay of these two basic themes, war and alliance, recurs throughout the dissertation.

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DUTCH SUMMARY / SAMENVATTING

Het onderwerp van dit proefschrift is een omvangrijke mythe uit de Qeqchisprekende gebieden van de Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) en van Belize, waarvan de oudst-bekende variant teruggaat tot omstreeks 1900. De kern van deze Qeqchi-mythe bestaat uit een verhaal dat de verbintenis van een hertenjager (in de oudste varianten Xbalanque genoemd) met de dochter van een berggod tot onderwerp heeft. De dochter van de berggod wordt door Xbalanque ontvoerd, ondergaat een transformatie in slangen en insecten, en hervindt dan haar menselijke vorm alvorens in de maan te veranderen, terwijl haar ontvoerder in de zon verandert. Dit verhaal (hier als Kolibrimythe aangeduid) is ook in delen van Guatemala en Belize die buiten de Qeqchi-gebieden liggen in omloop. Het proefschrift is als een de gehele mythe van Zon en Maan omvattend, gedetailleerd commentaar gedacht en tracht de plaats van de verschillende episodes binnen de Mesoamerikaanse verteltraditie te bepalen. Het centrale thema is de huwelijksverbintenis of alliantie, een begrip dat in bepaalde versies van de mythe, en vooral in de Kolibri-episode, als een model gezien kan worden voor relaties tussen ongelijke partners, zoals jager en wild. Betoogd wordt dat de mythe thuishoort in een Mesoamerikaanse ideologie die de jacht als een metafoor voor het huwelijk en het huwelijk als een metafoor voor de jacht opvat. In hoofdstuk 1 worden de Qeqchi-mythe, de belangrijkste handelende personen en de vertelstructuur gentroduceerd. Hoofdstuk 2 behandelt de eerste episode van de mythe. Hier komt een primitieve en onsociale vorm van de seksuele alliantie naar voren die een duister contrast vormt met de latere allianties van Xbalanque met de dochter van de berggod en met het jachtwild. Deze negatieve verbintenis wordt gesymboliseerd door een bejaarde pleegmoeder een complex karakter dat in veel heldenmythen terugkeert en door een tapir. Beiden eigenen zich het jachtvlees van Xbalanque en diens broer toe en worden vervolgens gedood. De figuur van de bejaarde pleegmoeder wordt gekarakteriseerd als een in jonge kinderen gespecialiseerde menseneetster die in verband staat met verhalen over een oertijd waarin ouders hun kinderen slechts voortbrachten om tot voedsel te dienen. Nu eens vertoont zij trekken van een vervaarlijke vroedvrouw, dan weer wordt haar agressieve kannibalisme

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dienstbaar gemaakt aan de symboliek van de oorlog. Op grond van nieuwe gegevens lijkt het zinvol de tapir als tegenbeeld van het gewone jachtwild te zien. Terwijl het jachtwild zichzelf wegschenkt en, eenmaal gedood en naar het huis van de jager vervoerd, wordt ontvangen als ware het een levende gast, eigent de tapir zichzelf alles toe zonder wederkerigheid en wordt hij daarom gedood als een vijand. Bovendien wordt de tapir op vele plaatsen in tropisch Indiaans Amerika niet alleen als een belichaming van inhaligheid gezien, maar ook van excessieve seksualiteit. In beide hoedanigheden is het dier rechtstreeks vergelijkbaar met de minnaar die, in een bekend Mayaans verhaaltype, inbreekt in een huwelijk om zich te laten voeden zowel met de jachtbuit van de echtgenoot als met het lichaam van de echtgenote zelf, waarna beide overspelplegers door de echtgenoot gedood worden. De interpretatie die hier wordt voorgestaan is dat de negatieve alliantie van oude pleegmoeder en tapir een stadium in de menselijke ontwikkeling vertegenwoordigt dat overwonnen is, maar waarin men niettemin kan terugvallen. In dit oerstadium zijn voortplanting en voedselverwerving wezenlijke doelen van de alliantie nog niet op de juiste wijze begrensd, het gebruik van menselijk vlees (het lichaam) en van jachtvlees nog onvoldoende gescheiden. De soms optredende transformatie van de bejaarde pleegmoeder tot godin van het zweetbad wordt geduid als een socialisering van haar oorspronkelijk kannibalisme. Hoofdstuk 3 beziet de tapirepisode als deel van een oudere Mesoamerikaanse traditie. Betoogd wordt dat verschillende momenten van de tapirepisode terugkeren in krijgs- en offerrituelen van Mayas en Pipiles uit het begin van de zestiende eeuw en in overleveringen van de Azteken. De hoofdstukken 4 en 5 behandelen twee contrasterende rollen van de hertenjager uit de Kolibrimythe. Hoofdstuk 4 vestigt de aandacht op Xbalanques rol als binnendringer in vreemd gebied en historische oorlogsgod, een rol welke overeenkomt met die van de legendarische Woeste Krijger bekend van vele verhalen uit de Mayaanse hooglanden. De hertenjager van de Kolibrimythe draagt soms dezelfde titel van Woeste Krijger, zodat de hertenjacht ook de connotatie van een krijgstocht verkrijgt. Het doel van de Kolibrimythe is echter juist om de jacht als alliantie voor te stellen. De Woeste Krijger wordt daarom een schoonzoon, een rol die in hoofdstuk 5 wordt behandeld. Aan het begin van de Kolibrimythe verandert Xbalanque in een kolibri, een vogeltje dat in de traditionele Mesoamerikaanse liefdesmagie wordt gebruikt. Zo doende signaleert hij een omslag van krijg en plundering naar het

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aanknopen van een alliantie. De versies van de Kolibri-episode geven vervolgens hetzij een bruidsdienst te zien, waarin de huwelijkskandidaat voor zijn schoonvader diensten moet verrichten, of, zoals in het geval van de Qeqchi-versie, een bruidsroof. De bruidsdienst eindigt tenslotte met een vlucht uit het gebied van de berggod en de bruidsroof wordt gevolgd door een gewapende vrede. In hoofdstuk 5 wordt een beeld geschetst van deze twee vormen van bruidsverwerving (bruidsdienst en bruidsroof), steeds in directe samenhang met hun uitbeelding in de mythe. Nadrukkelijk wordt gewezen op het in allerlei verhalen telkens terugkerend motief van de dreiging van drastisch statusverlies en zelfstandigheid in de bruidsdienst, waaraan de hoofdfiguur van de Qeqchimythe juist weet te ontkomen. Het slot van dit hoofdstuk laat zien hoe gemakkelijk deze mythische ontsnapping aan een hardvochtige berggod door de inheemse arbeiders op de plantages van de Alta Verapaz op de eigen situatie betrokken kon worden. Naast het bruidsverwervingsaspect vertonen de versies van de Kolibrimythe een opmerkelijke specialisatie naar regio en Mayaanse taalgroep ten aanzien van de bestemming van de ontvoerde vrouw. Deze variatie komt naar voren in wat de kern van het proefschrift uitmaakt, de analyse van de verschillende versies van de Kolibrimythe in de hoofdstukken 6 tot en met 9. Zoals deze hoofdstukken laten zien, ondergaat de vrouw al dan niet een gedaanteverandering, en als er een gedaanteverandering plaatsvindt, kan deze verschillende vormen aannemen en al dan niet een vervolg krijgen in het hervinden van de menselijke gedaante. Een uitgebreide analyse van beeldspraak en ritueel brengt een overeenstemming aan het licht tussen de aard van de vrouwelijke gedaanteverandering en bepaalde terreinen van menselijke activiteit. Op deze wijze bevestigt de analyse het belang van de jacht als een metafoor voor de alliantie: zoals de jager het wild als een begeerlijke vrouw waarneemt, zo huwt ook de imker met de bijen, de akkerbouwer met de mais, en de zon (die de vorst symboliseert) met de maan (die de vorstin symboliseert). Binnen dit huwelijksmodel bezit de berggod als vader van de bruid een controlerende macht waaraan alleen de allersterksten zich enigszins kunnen onttrekken. In hoofdstuk 6 wordt een belangrijke Mesoamerikaanse ideologie van de jacht gereconstrueerd en het idee van de jacht als huwelijk uitgewerkt. Deze opvatting van de jacht komt het meest onmiddellijk naar voren in die Kolibrimythen waarin de vrouw in het jachtwild verandert. De Qeqchi

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Kolibrimythe wijkt af doordat de vrouw niet in het jachtwild verandert. In plaats daarvan wordt haar alliantie met de herten dienstbaar gemaakt aan de menselijke voortplanting, terwijl haar alliantie met Xbalanque demonstreert hoe seksualiteit en voedselverwerving zich dienen te verhouden wil het mensdom dat is de mens van hertenvlees voortbestaan. In hoofdstuk 7 wordt aangetoond dat voor de invulling van de Qeqchi- mythe de rituelen van de traditionele genezers en ziekteverwekkers van doorslaggevende betekenis zijn geweest. In de mythe neemt Xbalanque hun rol op zich, terwijl zijn vrouw in de slangen en insecten verandert die in de zwarte magie gebruikt worden. In hoofdstuk 8 wordt het versmelten van de Kolibrimythe met de Maisbergmythe onderzocht: de vrouw van de jager verandert in het zaaigoed en wordt opgesloten in een berg die tot voorraadschuur dient. De jager die het wild het hof maakt krijgt als opvolger de akkerbouwer die in overdrachtelijke zin gehuwd is met de mais. In hoofdstuk 9 wordt onderzocht in hoeverre het afwijkende geval van de Lacandoonse Kolibrimythe binnen het in de vorige alinea geschetste kader past. Ook hier lijkt de band tussen de hoofdfiguur en zijn vrouw een afzonderlijk terrein van menselijke werkzaamheid te betreffen, namelijk de interacties van sjamanistische genezers met de wereld van de doden. Vervolgens komt de alliantie ook negatief in de mythe voor, als huwelijksweigering en huwelijksmislukking. Dit aspect van de mythe, geanalyseerd in hoofdstuk 10, betreft een ingelaste vertelling omtrent een jachtgod die al in de tapirepisode als de oudere broer van de held wordt opgevoerd. Terwijl de jachtgod na de definitieve mislukking van zijn opgedrongen huwelijk de vrouwen afzweert om zich te voegen bij zijn ontsnappende en verwilderende dieren in het bos, gaat zijn jongere broer op jacht naar een vrouw om zich definitief met haar te verbinden. Er ontstaat dus opnieuw een sterke contrastwerking met het huwelijk van Xbalanque. De analyse laat zien dat de tegenstelling tussen de oudere en de jongere broer door de mythe op allerlei manieren wordt uitgedrukt, met name als een belangstelling voor mannen tegenover een belangstelling voor vrouwen. Een uitsluitende gerichtheid op mannen lijkt vanouds kenmerkend te zijn voor Mesoamerikaanse jachtgoden en staat waarschijnlijk in verband met het jagen in groepen. In de daarbij behorende sfeer van mannelijke kameraadschap is voor de vrouw geen plaats. Vooral in verhalen betreffende de inwijding in de jachtmagie wordt de verhouding tussen de jachtgod en de inwijdelingen gerotiseerd en ondergaan

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de jachtwapens en het doden van het wild een daarbij passende seksualisering. Daardoor raakt de huwelijksalliantie met het wild tijdelijk op de achtergrond. Tenslotte stelt de Qeqchi-mythe nog een andere huwelijksmislukking aan de orde, namelijk de verbreking van de alliantie tussen Xbalanque en de dochter van de berggod zelf. Dit thema wordt in hoofdstuk 11 behandeld. De breuk wordt toegeschreven aan overspel met de oudere broer, hetzij de jachtgod, hetzij de regengod. (Er zijn aanwijzingen dat binnen de Mayaanse verwantschapsstructuur de betrekking van de echtgenote tot haar zwager bij uitstek als een gevaar voor de integriteit van de huwelijksverbintenis geldt.) Het verbreken van de alliantie leidt onmiddellijk tot het ontstaan van een nieuwe alliantie, doordat Xbalanques vrouw zich laat schaken door een gierenkoning die in verband staat met zwarte toverij. Het verlorengaan van de huwelijksband wordt in eerste instantie gepresenteerd als een verstoring van de rituele orde en uitgedrukt in een reeks negatieve beelden, die hun dramatiek ontlenen aan het feit dat Xbalanque en zijn vrouw de aanstaande zon en maan zijn. De overwinning op de zwarte tovenaar en het hervinden van de echtgenote herstellen de rituele orde, en de uiteindelijke gedaanteverandering van de herenigde echtgenoten in zon en maan bevestigt het alliantieprincipe als levengevende, kosmische kracht. De dissertatie wordt besloten met twee opmerkingen betreffende de rol die de beide hoofdfiguren in de Qeqchi-vertelling spelen. De mythe toont de dochter van de berggod in tal van meest tijdelijke verbintenissen, waarvan de kennelijke zin is dat zij zo productief en vruchtbaar kan worden op de verschillende terreinen die gesymboliseerd worden door haar mannelijke partners, dieren zowel als goden. Het onderzoek bevestigt de reeds door Thompson gesignaleerde overeenkomst tussen de vrouwelijke hoofdfiguur van de Qeqchi-mythe en de Azteekse godin Xochiquetzal en werkt deze nader uit, vooral wat betreft de rol die beiden spelen in de erotische aantrekking tijdens de jacht. Wat tenslotte de mannelijke hoofdfiguur betreft, diens naam, Xbalanque, is zoals bekend ook die van een van de tweelinghelden in de Popol Vuh. Niettegenstaande een neiging binnen het Mayanistisch onderzoek om uiteenlopende heldenmythen te reduceren tot bastaardvormen van deze zestiende-eeuwse Kichemythe, is in de loop van dit onderzoek duidelijk geworden dat een en dezelfde figuur hoofdpersoon kan zijn van uiteenlopende mythen. Aldus kan de oorlogsgod Xbalanque even gemakkelijk gekoppeld worden aan een vrouwelijke metgezel in het kader van een mythe die de overgang van oorlog naar alliantie thematiseert, als aan een mannelijke

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metgezel in het kader van een mythe die zich eerder richt op oorlog en onderwerping. De wisselwerking tussen deze twee elementaire themas, oorlog en alliantie, keert in vele onderdelen van dit proefschrift terug.

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Curriculum Vitae H.E.M. (Edwin) Braakhuis werd geboren op 22 januari 1952 te Haarlem. Hij doorliep het gymnasium Paulinum te Driehuis-Velsen en behaalde daar in 1970 het einddiploma van de alpha-richting. Met onderbrekingen studeerde hij van 1970 tot 1981 culturele anthropologie aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, met bijzondere aandacht voor taalkunde, symbolische anthropologie en de ethnohistorie van Mesoamerika en de Andes. In 1976 maakte hij in Chiapas, Mexico, kennis met de Tzotzil-Mayas in het kader van een veldwerkstage. Van 1990 tot 1994 was hij als onderzoeksassistent (AIO) verbonden aan de Universiteit Utrecht onder begeleiding van Rudolf van Zantwijk. Sedert eind jaren 80 is hij werkzaam als docent Nederlands voor anderstaligen aan het James Boswell Instituut van de Universiteit Utrecht. Hij is lid van de European Association of Mayanists.

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