Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan

He instinctively hates the superiority of the white race, and even of the mestizos, to whom institutions both of long ago and of the present day, customs, greater civilization, and above all the allotment of land, give so many advantages. His almost irresistible inclination carries him into isolation, almost exile, in order to escape from the torment of seeing them and from social duties. He retires where the land is free, where he can till his field wherever he pleases. This accounts for the often very small settlements of perhaps only a couple of families in the thickets of the forests, provided they find a spring or at least a watering place, even though they might have to travel a considerable distance to provide themselves. But even those who live in larger settlements, in towns of white people, will invariably select the most retired spots in streets in the outskirts (far away from the center of the town) where to build their huts.

This isolation in the big forests is the principal cause of his becoming more and more brutish, and it grows with the facility which those same isolated places afford him to satisfy the one and only desire he has acquired – drunkenness. It is there he finds balché and wild honey to brew his pitarrilla. And there are ever some of his own race or mestizos who bring him liquor in exchange for the little corn he may have stored. He gives this up with an improvidence which seems innate, though perhaps we might attribute it to ignorance.

The Indian never sees the crucifix or a simple cross or the image of some saint displayed anywhere, without going to kneel before it in reverent devotion, nor does he ever meet a priest without raising his hat or hurrying to his side to kiss his hand. He spends half of his earnings in devotional offerings which in the end degenerate into perfect orgies of religious fervor. And yet, in spite of all that, he does not feel the slightest scruple to take as concubines his sisters or even his own daughters.

He does not profess half as much love and devotion to God as he shows toward the images of Saint Anthony of Padua or to the crucifix, both of which are the only ornaments he has in his little hut. He enters a church without bowing to the Holy Sacrament on the main altar, but he goes and kneels before the cross or before Saint Anthony or Saint Francis of Paula, or to any other image to which miracles are ascribed, no matter how poorly executed or how defective such an image might be. On rising from his prostrate position, he bends over to kiss the altar, to touch its board with his cheeks or forehead, then touches the image itself, if such is possible, at least with a twig of some aromatic herb or a flower which he carries home as a relic, paying it the utmost reverence. In addition to this he offers a certain amount of money for candles which he lights before the image of his saint at certain times; he pays for a determinate number of "Salve Reginas" to be sung either in the church or during street processions for his sake, and he offers prayers for the souls of departed relatives.

He believes that the souls of the departed return to earth, and he therefore marks with chalk the road from the cemetery to their former abode, that they may not get lost.

He has just as deep-rooted a belief in witches and elves, and he is in very great fear of witchcraft. It is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea that there are men who especially dedicate themselves to inflict this dreadful art on others.

He fears and respects at the same time an ideal being whom he calls Balám and who, so he says, is the lord of the fields. They all are therefore convinced that these fields cannot be tilled without danger even to their lives if they do not offer him sacrifices before beginning work, such as horchata de maiz (orgeat), which they call sacá; a stew made of corn and turkey, which they call kool; the tortilla with beans, called bulihuah; pitarrilla, and fumes of copal which they use instead of incense. It may safely be stated, therefore, that they adore him like God, but they are always careful that the white people do not see or notice this sacrificial offering for fear of being considered as idolators.

Alux they call certain apparitions which they believe to exist in the ancient ruins and on the hills, and they say that as soon as it grows dark in the evening these apparitions or ghosts commence to walk around the houses, throwing stones, whistling to the dogs and lashing them when they get near them, which leaves the poor beasts with a cough that kills them. They pretend that these ghosts can run with great speed, as well backward as forward; that they do not terrify those who look at them. They are wont to enter into the houses to annoy and tease people who are abed in their hammocks, not letting them sleep. They assure us that on ranches where sugar-cane is grown, and just as soon as the grinding machine for the cane is set up, they will go and turn it or they will drive on the horse attached to it, to make it trot around. They say these apparitions are of the size of a little Indian boy of four or five, and that they appear naked, with only a little hat on their heads. This belief is the cause of incalculable loss to antiquarians on account of the almost daily destruction of articles found in the ruins. The Indians will destroy without pity or regard, notwithstanding they may be offered a good price for them, all the images in clay and other objects found on the hills or in subterranean passages, because they are convinced that these objects are the ones that become alive at night and come out to walk around. They attribute to the alux or to their influence, all the diseases they have, as they consider their touch malignant. They say that if these apparitions find anyone asleep they will pass their hands over his face so lightly that the sleeper does not even feel it, but this causes him a fever which incapacitates him for a long time.

They also believe in the existence of the Xtabay, the Huahuapach, and the Xbolontharoch bokolhahoch. The first of these apparitions or ghosts may be seen, according to them, in the most isolated spots of a village or settlement in the shape of a woman dressed as a mestizo, combing her beautiful hair with the fruit of a plant they call xaché xtabay. She runs away as soon as anyone approaches. She quickens or retards her flight, either disappearing or allowing the one who pursues her to reach her side. This latter is the case if the one who pursues her is some amorous fellow who thinks her to be a beautiful maiden. But as soon as he reaches and embraces her, he finds that he holds in his arms a bundle filled with thorns, with legs as thin as those of a turkey, and this gives him such a terrible shock that he has fainting spells and high delirious fevers. The Huahuapach is a giant who may be seen at midnight in certain streets, and he is so tall that an ordinary man barely reaches to his knees. He amuses himself by blocking the traffic, opening his limbs and placing one foot on either side of the street. Should anyone inadvertently try to pass between his feet, he quickly brings his legs together and so closely presses the throat of the poor victim that he finally chokes him. The two other specters or ghosts confine themselves to repeating during the night the noises that have been prevalent in the daytime, and especially the noise made by the spindle-wheel the women use. The other one makes a subterranean noise which sounds like the chocolate-churner, but both these noises terrorize those who hear them.

There is no end of superstitions among the general mass of the Indians, and the most customary form of fortune-telling is performed by means of a piece of a certain crystal which they call zaztun, which means a clear and transparent stone, and this enables them to see hidden things and also to divine the cause of maladies. Those who arrogate to themselves the title of a diviner are freely consulted, and they receive presents and live a very easy and carefree life. By means of their tricks and great cunning they make the simple and ignorant Indians believe, when they are ill and go to consult them, that through the zaztun they (the sorcerers) have discovered that some ill-intentioned enemy has bewitched them, and that in order to discover the malicious spell, they will have to wake for three nights with an abundant provision of pitarrilla, and aguardiente, food, and lighted candles. Of course, during these three nights they give themselves up to high living and immoderate drinking. While the others, their patients if we may so call them, are sleeping, or off their guard, they bury within the house or in its immediate vicinity a little wax figure pierced by a thorn through that part of the body where the complaint of their patient lies. When everybody is awake after the last night of vigil, they start certain ceremonies with the zaztun, and finally they go to the spot where they had buried the figure and take it out within sight of everyone, making them believe that that was the witchery. Then they start their treatment of the patient with the first and any herbs they can find, and if by mere chance these cure the ailment, they have naturally made for themselves a great reputation among the ignorant.

They also perform a "healing" incantation by offering certain prayers in which they mention the diseases and the different winds to the influence of which they attribute them. They will repeat the Lord's prayer over their patient, the Ave Maria, and the Creed, and sometimes also the prayer to Saint Anthony which is included in the Mexican prayer-book. On other occasions they will resort to the kex, which means exchange, and consists in hanging around the house of their patient certain food and drink for the Yuncimil, or Lord of Death, and they believe that by so doing they are able to save, for the time being, the life of the patient by barter.

To prevent bees from abandoning the hives and to make them bring home ample honey, and also that their owners may be free from sickness, they will hang in the beehives chocolate cups with sacá or horchata of corn.

They also perform the misa milpera (mass on the cornfield), which they call tich, which means offering or sacrifice, and which is celebrated in the following manner: On a barbecue or roast made with little sticks of equal length they place a turkey, and the one who officiates as priest opens the bird's beak and pours pitarrilla down its throat. Then they kill it, and the assistants carry it off to season it. In the meantime they have been cooking in the earth some large loaves of corn-bread which they call canlahuntaz, which is made of fourteen tortillas or broken bread filled with beans. When all is well flavored and cooked, they place it on the barbecue with several cups filled with pitarrilla. Now again the one acting the part of priest begins to incense it with copal, invoking the Holy Trinity; he repeats the Creed, and, taking some pitarrilla with a holy-water sprinkler, he flings it to the four winds, invoking the four Pahahtunes, lords or custodians of rain. He then returns to the table, and, raising one of the jicaras aloft while those surrounding him kneel, he places the jicara to each one's mouth for a sip. The feast then proceeds and terminates by general eating and drinking, most of all by the one who "officiated," who furthermore takes home with him a goodly supply. They say that the red Pahahtun, who is seated in the east, is Saint Dominick (Santo Domingo); the white one in the north is Saint Gabriel; the black one in the west is Saint James; the yellow Pahahtun, said to be female and called by them Xanleox, is seated in the south, and is Mary Magdalen.

They very readily take their new-born babies to the baptismal font, and they never refuse to bury their dead in the cemetery.

WOMEN

It is quite astounding how in this climate woman in general passes very rapidly from childhood into womanhood, but this development is still more remarkable in the case of the native Indian woman, prompted no doubt by their mode of life and native customs. It is quite usual to see a little Indian girl of three trot daily to the woods with her parents to help cultivate the fields; very often her excursions extend to neighboring villages, and she seems to make those trips of four and even six leagues with the greatest ease, on foot; and after she has reached five or six years, she even carries her little bundle tied on her back.

They also journey day after day out into the fields in search of firewood, small sticks perhaps not thicker than an inch or a little more, which they call moloch. They search for the wood themselves; they cut it and tie it with two reed or rattan rings, so that they can carry it on their backs. Then they go for water in the morning and again in the evening, having to draw it from wells forty and sixty yards deep, in buckets made of tree-bark. After they have reached the age of eleven or twelve years, they always present themselves for this particular errand, as clean as possible. They take great care to be well-washed and their hair carefully combed, almost as if they were going for a pleasure walk or to some meeting. This is particularly the case on the ranches and farms, and in almost all the villages where they have to provide themselves with water from the communal wells.

Between the ages of six and eleven years the little Indian maiden attends, either at the church door or, on big haciendas, in the main building, to the teaching of our Christian religion. She goes there with bare head and with her hair hanging loose over her shoulders.

All a mother teaches her daughters is how to cook, grind the corn, and shape the tortillas; to make atole and pozole; to wash clothes, – and this very poorly, – at all events. Or rather the girls learn all those things by themselves through mere observation and by helping their mothers in their daily tasks. Some mothers, however, will teach them to spin and weave their rough cotton cloth, to sew their garments, and sometimes even to embroider in a very primitive way.

They are usually accompanied by a criada, or housemaid, who is a kind of guardian angel and remains by their side wherever they go. When they meet the man they love, they bow their heads and look down; when speaking of their love, with the big toe of one foot they will draw lines on the ground.

While they are within their homes they wear only a skirt or petticoat of white cotton cloth, which covers them from the waist down to their knees, and in this way they will also present themselves to visitors, unless it is someone absolutely unknown to them, in which case they cross their arms over their breasts to hide them from the stranger. If one meets them in the fields or lies in wait for them over the walls of unmortared stones, they hide immediately, apparently to run away from the presence of a wayfarer, notwithstanding they are all exceedingly curious, and the love of gossip is one of their main characteristics. They are tender-hearted and desirous of pleasing, but rather in an uncouth manner, in keeping with what little education they have received. Anyone who asks them something in the name of God is welcome to their compassion and to whatever they can afford to give.

Their bodily cleanliness almost borders on superstition, for they consider a person who does not wash her body everyday as not quite sane or reasonable. For their daily bath they heat a stone they call sintun in the fire, and when it is well heated they throw it into the water they have prepared for their bath.

It is very seldom that they are happy in their love affairs, because it is generally their parents who choose their husbands. After the choice is once made, the parents of the prospective husband come to ask for the girl's hand, and if accepted they present an offering of two pesetas, which is known under the name of pochat tancab or buhul. One peseta is for the bride-to-be, the other for her mother. From the day following this ceremony the bridegroom-elect has to furnish daily a fagot of firewood to the house of his future parents-in-law. On her wedding day the bride is dressed in a hipil or loose garment over a petticoat or skirt, the border of which is adorned with ribbons of deep purple; while another wide ribbon of the same shade is tied around her hair. Her head is covered with a cloth of white muslin. She also has to wear shoes, a rosary around her neck, earrings and finger-rings with big cheap stones. All this jewelry may be borrowed from someone. Once the religious ceremonies over, they all proceed to the banquet, at which the newly married couple and their godfathers (sponsors) are assigned a prominent place. If the girl is not to continue living with her parents, she returns there, nevertheless, and remains for eight days, after which time the godparents come to get her and turn her over to her husband.

The husband is the recipient of all the attention and care of his wife. She sews, she washes, and she grinds the corn and makes the tortillas, the pozole, the atole, and all the rest of his food with her own hands. She does all the work of her household; she has to prepare his bath when he comes home from work in the evening. These are her daily duties. In the evening, by the light of the home fire or in the pale light of a tropical moon, she sews or mends his clothes and hers and those of her children. Whenever the husband leaves home to go on a journey to some neighboring town or hacienda, the wife has to follow him; she is never allowed, however, to walk by his side, but behind, in his footsteps so to speak. If this husband gets drunk, which occurs rather frequently, and he should fall by the roadside, it is the wife's duty to remain by his side and take care of him until he is able to continue on his way. Neither the scorching sun, nor heavy rains, nor thunderstorms, nor any other danger of the road has power enough to take her away from his side.

Even the fact that a woman has just been delivered of a child does not serve as an impediment to her going with the husband; she simply carries the new-born baby with her, either in a piece of cloth on her back or else mounted on one of her hips.

If the husband, for one reason or another, is called before a court of justice, he appears accompanied by his wife, simply because it is her duty to go with him and to act as his defender. She does this wonderfully well; she speaks with such warmth and so fluently, with such courage and enthusiasm, absolutely free from her usual bashful shyness, that one cannot help but admire her. And this absolute devotion on her part to the service of her consort does not weaken even with the ill-treatment she receives at his hands in return, for whenever he is intoxicated he treats her to a liberal whipping – he beats her with his bare hands even, or with a stick.

Under such circumstances marital fidelity on the part of the women is not, nor can it be, very deep-rooted, and frequently her seducers triumph over her virtue. However, if the husband surprises them and the woman succeeds in escaping him, he denounces her to the next court of justice and demands that she be given a certain number of blows. She invariably receives them quite resignedly, and after the ordeal returns peacefully to her domestic duties. If the woman is the offended one, she also goes before the judge and demands that her rival be treated to the same punishment. Any sickness that might befall them after this misadventure, they unfailingly attribute to witchcraft instigated by their offenders. Witchcraft enjoys such wide popularity among Indian women that there is hardly one among them who cannot relate one and even many cases of the black art in her family. To their minds superstition and credulity go hand in hand, and if one tells them of some strange occurrence ascribed to enchantment, they believe it as readily and as firmly as if it had happened to themselves or as if they had witnessed it. And if one immediately afterward asks them whether it is day or night, they will answer doubtfully, even after having looked at the sun – so wrapped up in the tale have they become.

They are very fond of dancing and of music, but they do not perform the former either gracefully or freely, nor have they any variety or art in its execution. They have no talent or gift for playing an instrument either. They are wont to sing in their idle moments or even while at work, but sadly and in a monotone.

The woman who finds herself pregnant works until the very last moment before the child is born, and resumes her tasks immediately afterward, as soon as the baby is attended to. They leave their children so much to themselves, and give them so little care, that they are forever creeping around on the floor in all the mire and dirt, and always completely naked. A diaper and a tiny hipil are all they get for the first few days of their life. Around wrists and ankles they occasionally will tie tiny cords made of blue cotton to protect them, so they say, from epilepsy. Those who can afford to do so will hang a little rosary of beads interspersed with wooden honey-berries around their necks and put tiny earrings in their ears.

A pregnant Indian woman will not go outdoors during an eclipse, in order to avoid her child being born with spots or ugly birthmarks on its body; nor do they visit women who have just given birth to a child, because it is their belief that the babies would become ill with pains in their bowels.

As soon as the child is six months old they name a godfather and a godmother for the ceremony of opening the baby's limbs for the first time. To this end they set a table with some kind of pottage, and the godfather makes nine rounds of the table, with the baby placed astride one of his hips, which is the way in which it will be carried thereafter by its mother. Then they place in the child's hands, if it is a girl, a needle, a spindle, and the implements with which they weave their cloth; if it is a boy, he is given a hatchet, a machete, and other implements he is expected to use when grown up. These godparents enjoy the same distinction as those at the christening.

The women do not care about knowing their own age, and they keep track of the age of their children only until they have attained about six or eight years; after that they forget it. Although they grow into young manhood or womanhood very quickly, really old age comes late, except in the appearance of the women, who at the age of thirty-five look like women of forty-five.

Their most common diseases are pleurisy, intermittent fevers, and jaundice, while fits, fainting spells, and hysterics are exceedingly rare.

As a rule the women are abstemious, economical, and very hospitable. They love work, and are fond of raising chickens and turkeys, which they sell in order to enable them to buy what they most need, or else they prepare such fowl for banquets, marriages, christenings, the day of All Souls, or for the novenas which they celebrate for the Holy Cross or the saint of their special devotion. They do not fancy all manner of necessities, nor do they pretend to live on the work of their husbands; rather they work constantly in order to dominate them, and in this they succeed generally, at least to a certain degree. They will upbraid them if they undertake anything without asking their advice. They do not forget offenses they may have received until they are avenged. In their old age they are liable to commit small insignificant thefts, and they especially seem to like to become mendicants, even though they do not need to be. They seem to do this as a kind of compensation for what in their earlier days they may have given to the poor.

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