Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan

Comal. Nahuan comalli, clay griddle.

Hipil. Nahuan huipilli, a woman's chemise.

Huahuapach, ua ua pach. According to Brinton (op. cit.) it means giant crab.

Huit, uith. Loin-cloth.

Jicara. Nahuan xicalli, corrupted into jicara, a calabash.

Kex. To barter or change; also used as a name for ex votos placed on altars.

Kipxosi, kipchoh, cipchoh. "A diviner bird among the Indians."

Kool. A dish prepared by cooking corn with chicken.

Mecapal. Nahuan mecapalli, leathern band used over the forehead for carrying burdens.

Mecate. Nahuan mecatl, rope or cord made of maguey fiber.

Metate. Nahuan metatl, a stone on which corn is ground.

Milpa. Nahuan milli, cultivated land; pan, a postposition.

Mitote. Nahuan mitotli, a dance.

Moloch. Brush-wood or kindling.

Pahatun, pah ah tun. The four pa ah tunes, the lords of rains, are, according to Brinton, "identical with the winds, and the four cardinal points from which they blow… The name pahatun is of difficult derivation, but it probably means 'stone, or pillar, set up or erected.'"

Pib. An underground oven.

Pochat tancab. According to the author of this report the phrase has the same signification as buhul: the offering made to a girl by a prospective bridegroom.

The words seem to be: poc, to wash or rub; hat, numerical termination serving to count split-wood; tancab, outside the house, or in the patio.

Pozole. Nahuan pozolatl, or poçol atl, a drink of cooked corn.

Sacá, zacá. Orgeat of corn; from za, corn gruel; cá, or caa, duplicative particle.

Sintun, zintun. A heated stone for heating water for bathing purposes. From zin, to haul, girdle or encircle; tun, stone.

Taukul, tunkul. A wooden drum.

Tich. A mass celebrated in planted fields. See Brinton, op. cit.

Xaché xtabay. According to the author, the name of a plant. The first word, xaché, is evidently xach or xachah, to comb. Xtabay may be x-, a prefix, indicating feminine gender; tabal, to deceive.

Xanleox, x'kanleox. From x-, prefix denoting feminine gender; kan, yellow; lox, to strike with the closed fist. Brinton simply gives "yellow goddess" as the equivalent.

Xbolonthahroch bokolhahoch, X bolon thoroch bokol (or bookol) h'otoch. From x-, prefix denoting feminine gender; bolon, nine; thoroch, sound of a spindle revolving in its shaft. Brinton says, "The name therefore signifies 'the female imp who magnifies the sound of the spindle." Bokol or bookol, to stir; h or ah, to indicate the rough breathing which in Maya denotes the masculine gender.

Xhantumbú, xkantumbub, or xkantun bub. A small plant used for medicinal purposes.

Xtabay. See etymology under xaché xtabay.

Xulab. Spelled by Sanchez de Aguilar xubab. An ant which attacks beehives.

Yuncimil, Yumcimil. The God of Death; from yum, universal father or lord; cimil, death.

Zaztun. A quartz crystal; from zaz, clear; tun, stone.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1845

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

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

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

This report is dated Mexico, December 30, 1843.

1846

Carrillo, Estanislao. Papeles sueltos de P. Carrillo. Fantasmas. Registro Yucateco, tomo IV, pp. 103-106.

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

Hernandez, Juan José. Costumbres de las Indias de Yucatan. Registro Yucateco, Mérida, tomo III, pp. 290, 298.

This report is dated Mérida, April 24, 1846.

1865

Carrillo, Crescencio. Estudio historico sobre la raza indigena de Yucatan. Vera Cruz, 1865, 26 pp.

1882

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The native races of the Pacific states. 5 volumes, San Francisco.

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

1883

Brinton, Daniel G. The Folk-lore of Yucatan. Folk-Lore Journal, London, vol. 1, part viii, pp. 1-13.

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

Carrillo y Ancona, Crescencio. Historia de Welinna. Leyenda Yucateca. Segunda edición, Mérida, 52 pp.

The first edition was printed in 1862.

1895

Brinton, Daniel G. A Primer of Mayan hieroglyphs. Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Series in Philology, Literature, and Archæology, vol. III, no. 2.

1905

Rejón García, Manuel. Supersticiones y leyendas Mayas. Mérida, 1905.

1

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

2

Fotuto is a musical instrument used by the Carib Indians and also by the negroes of the Antilles.

3

Luneros are Monday-workers.

4

Fagina—faena, manual labor.

5

Milpa roza is, literally, field cleared of underbrush and ready for planting.

6

Milpa caña, literally cane field.

7

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

8

The author here seems to have confused the meaning of the word mitote (see glossary). In Yucatan the instrument he describes is called tunkul..

9

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

10

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

11

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

12

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

13

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

14

Tzomes, according to Sanchez de Aguilar, is the name applied to hairless dogs. The common appellation is kúkbil, or kikbil. Tzom in Maya means a horn, also a proboscis. The word tzomes is close to tzimin, pl. tzimines, the name of the tapir, which has an elongate snout. Alonzo Poncé who was in Yucatan in 1588, speaks of tapirs being called by the natives tzimines, and further states that they call horses by the same name, a definition to be found in the Maya dictionary of Pio Perez.

15

The names to which we call attention in notes 15 to 22 represent, with a single exception, in misspelled form, well-known Mayan deities. It is interesting to note the early influence of the Spaniards on the religious beliefs of the Maya, as evidenced by the interpretation given to Father Hernandez by the old caçique. There is a curious mixture of old and new in the account. Dr Seler has identified the various deities spoken of, and a description of their attributes will be found in Brinton's Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphs. Içona is Itzamna, chief of the beneficent gods, the personification of the East. According to Brinton the name means "the dew or moisture of the morning." Brinton writes, "He was said to have been the creator of men, animals, and plants, and was the founder of the culture of the Mayas. He was the first priest of their religion, and invented writing and books."

16

According to Brinton the Bacabs, or Chacs, were the offspring of Itzamna and his consort Ix-Chel (spoken of by the caçique as Hischen).

17

Chibirias is identified by Seler as Ix-chebel-yax, who, according to Brinton, was "the inventress of painting and of colored designs on woven stuffs."

18

Echuac is Ek Chua, said by Landa to be the god of the cacao planters, hence, as cacao-beans were the medium of exchange, the god of merchants, as here related. It is difficult to understand the confusion by which this god has been interwoven in Christian beliefs as the Holy Ghost.

19

Eopuco has been interpreted by Seler as Ah uoh puc, or Ah-puch, the God of Death, or God of Evil. Brinton believes that "these words mean the Undoer, or Spoiler, apparently a euphemism to avoid pronouncing a name of evil omen." In modern Maya he is plain Yum cimil, lord of death.

20

Cocolcan is Cuculcan, or Kukulcan, the same as the Nahuan Quetzalcoatl. Kukulcan was the feathered or winged serpent god, a deity of culture and kindliness.

21

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

22

Hischen is Ix-Chel, the consort of Itzamna. Brinton states that the word means "rainbow," and that the goddess was also known as Ix Kan Leom, "the spider-web" which catches the dew of the morning. Her children, according to Brinton, the Bacabs or Chacs were "four mighty brethren, who were the gods of the four cardinal points, of the winds which blow from them, of the rains these bring, of the thunder and the lightning, and consequently of agriculture, the harvests, and food supply. Their position in the ritual was of the first importance. To each were assigned a particular color and a certain year and day in the calendar."