YUCATAN

BEFORE AND AFTER THE CONQUEST

BY

 

FRIAR DIEGO DE LANDA

SEC. I. DESCRIPTION OF YUCATAN. VARIETY OF SEASONS.

Yucatan is not an island, nor a point entering the sea, as some thought, but mainland. This error came about from the fact that the sea goes from Cape Cotoche along the Ascension passage to the Golfo Dulce on the one side, and on the other side facing Mexico, by the Desconocida before coming to Campeche, and then forming the lagoons by Puerto Real and Dos Bocas.

The land is very flat and clear of mountains, so that it is not seen from ships until they come very close; with the exception that between Campeche and Champotón there are some low ranges and a headland that is called Los Diablos.

As one comes from Veracruz toward Cape Cotoch, one finds himself at less than 20 degrees, and at the mouth of Puerto Real it is more than 23; from one point to the other it should be over a hundred and thirty leagues, direct road. The coast is low-lying, so that large ships must stay at some distance from the shore.

The coast is very full of rocks and rough points that wear the ships’ cables badly; there is however much mud, so that even if ships go ashore they lose few people.

The tides run high, especially in the Bay of Campeche, and the sea often leaves, at some places, half a league exposed; as a result there are left in the seaweed and mud and pools many small fish that serve the people for their food.

A small range crosses Yucatan from one corner to the other starting near Champotón and running to the town of Salamanca in the opposite angle. This range divides Yucatan into two parts, of which that to the south toward Lacandón and Taiza1 is uninhabited for lack of water, except when it rains. The northern part is inhabited.

This land is very hot and the sun burns fiercely, although there are fresh breezes like those from the northeast and east, which are frequent, together with an evening breeze from the sea. People live long in the country, and men of a hundred and forty years have been known.

The winter begins with St. Francis day,² and lasts until the end of March; during this time the north winds prevail and cause severe colds and catarrh from the insufficient clothing the people wear. The end of January and February bring a short hot spell, when it does not rain except at the change of the moon. The rains come on from April until through September, during which time the crops are sown and mature despite the constant rain. There is also sown a certain kind of maize at St. Francis, which is harvested early.

SEC. II. ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME OF THIS PROVINCE. ITS SITUATION.

This province is called in the language of the Indians Ulumil cuz yetel ceh, meaning the land of the turkey and the deer.’ It is also called Petén, meaning island,’ an error arising from the gulfs and bays we have spoken of.3

When Francisco Hernández de Córdoba came to this country and landed at the point he called Cape Cotoch, he met certain Indian fisherfolk whom he asked what country this was, and who answered Cotoch, which means our houses, our homeland,’ for which reason he gave that name to the cape. When he then by signs asked them how the land was theirs, they replied Ci uthan, meaning they say it,’ ⁴ and from that the Spaniards gave the name Yucatan. This was learned from one of the early conquerors, Blas Hernández, who came here with the admiral on the first occasion.

In the southern part of Yucatan are the rivers of Taiza (Tah-Itzá) and the mountains of Lacandón, and between the south and west lies the province of Chiapas; to pass thither one must cross four streams that descend from the mountains and unite with others to form the San Pedro y San Pablo river discovered by Grijalva in Tabasco. To the west lie Xicalango and Tabasco, one and the same province.

Between this province of Tabasco and Yucatan there are two sea mouths breaking the coast; the largest of these forms a vast lagoon, while the other is of less extent. The sea enters these mouths with such fury as to create a great lake abounding in fish of all kinds, and so full of islets that the Indians put signs on the trees to mark the way going or coming by boat from Tabasco to Yucatan. These islands with their shores and sandy beaches have so great a variety of seafowl as to be a matter of wonder and beauty; there is an infinite amount of game: deer, hare, the wild pigs of that country, and monkeys as well, which are not found in Yucatan. The number of iguanas is astonishing. On one island is a town called Tixchel.

To the north is the island of Cuba, with Havana facing at a distance of 60 leagues; somewhat further on is a small island belonging to Cuba, which they call Isla de Pinos. At the east lies Honduras, between which and Yucatan is a great arm of the sea that Grijalva called Ascension Bay; this is filled with islets on which many boats are wrecked, especially those in the trade between Yucatan and Honduras. Fifteen years ago a ship laden with many people and goods foundered, and all were drowned save one Majuelas and four others, who seized hold of a great piece of wood from the ship, and thus went three or four days without reaching any of the islets until their strength gave out and all sank except Majuelas. He came out half dead and recovered himself eating snails and shellfish; then from the islet he reached the mainland on a balsa or raft which he made as best he could out of branches. Having come to land, and while hunting for food, he came upon a crab that bit off his thumb at the first joint, and caused him intense pain. Thence he set out through difficult bush to try to reach Salamanca, and when night came he climbed a tree from which he saw a great tiger waylay and kill a deer; then when morning came he ate what the tiger had left.

In front of Yucatan, somewhat below Cape Cotoch, lies Cuzmil (Cozumel), across a 5 -league channel where the sea runs with a strong current between the mainland and the island. Cozumel is an island fifteen leagues long by five wide. The Indians are few in number, and of the same language and customs as those of Yucatan. It lies at the 20th degree of latitude. Thirteen leagues below Point Cotoch is the Isla de las Mugeres, 2 leagues off the coast opposite Ekab.

Photo by Maler

ISLA DE LAS MUGERES

SEC. III. CAPTIVITY OF GERONIMO DE AGUILAR. EXPEDITION OF HERNANDEZ DE CORDOBA AND GRIJALVA TO YUCATAN.

It is said that the first Spaniards to come to Yucatan were Gerónimo de Aguilar, a native of Ecija, and his companions. These, in 1511, upon the break-up at Darien resulting from the dissensions between Diego de Nicueza and Vasco Núñez de Balboa, followed Valdivia on his voyage in a caravel to San Domingo, to give account to the admiral and the governor, and to bring 20,000 ducats of the king’s. On the way to Jamaica the caravel grounded on the shoals known as the Viboras, where it was lost with all but twenty men. These went with Valdivia in a boat without sails, and only some poor oars and no provisions, and were at sea for thirteen days. After nearly half of them had died of hunger, the rest reached the coast of Yucatan at a province called that of the Maya, whence the language of Yucatan is known as Mayat‘an, meaning the Maya speech.’

These poor fellows fell into the hands of a bad cacique, who sacrificed Valdivia and four others to their idols, and served them in a feast to the people. Aguilar and Guerrero and five or six others he saved to fatten. These broke their prison and came to another chief who was an enemy of the first, and more merciful; he made them his slaves, and his successor treated them with much kindness. However, all died of grief, save only Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero. Of these Aguilar was a good Christian and had a breviary, by which he kept count of the feast days and finally escaped on the arrival of the Marquis Hernando Cortés, in 1519.

Guerrero learned the language and went to Chectemal (Chetumal), which is Salamanca de Yucatan. Here he was received by a chief named Nachan Can, who placed in his charge his military affairs; in these he did well and conquered his master’s enemies many times. He taught the Indians to fight, showing them how to make barricades and bastions. In this way, and by living as an Indian, he gained a great reputation and married a woman of high quality, by whom he had children, and he made no attempt to escape with Aguilar. He decorated his body, let his hair grow, pierced his ears to wear rings like the Indians, and is believed to have become an idolater like them.

During Lent of 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba sailed from Cuba with three ships to procure slaves for the mines, as the population of Cuba. was diminishing.5 Others say he sailed to discover new lands. Taking Alaminos as a pilot he landed on Isla de las Mugeres, to which he gave this name because of the idols he found there, of the goddesses of the country, Aixchel, Ixchebeliax, Ixhunié, Ixhunieta, vestured from the girdle down, and having the breasts covered after the manner of the Indians. The building was of stone, such as to astonish them; and they found certain objects of gold, which they took. Arriving at Cape Cotoch they directed their course to the Bay of Campeche, where they disembarked on Lazarus Sunday, whence they called the place Lazaro. They were well received by the chief and the Indians marveled at seeing the Spaniards, touching their beards and persons.

At Campeche they found a building in the sea near to the land, all square and in steps, on the top of which was an idol with two fierce animals devouring his flanks; also a great thick serpent swallowing a lion; the animals were covered with the blood of sacrifices. At Campeche they learned of a large town nearby, which was Champotón; landing there they found a chief named Moch-Covoh, a warlike man who called his people together against the Spaniards. Francisco Hernández was much disturbed seeing in this what must happen; but not to show a less spirit he put his men in order and had the artillery fired from the ships. The Indians however, notwithstanding the strange sound, smoke and fire of the guns, attacked with great cries; the Spaniards resisted, inflicting severe wounds and killing many. Nevertheless the chief so inspired his people that they forced the Spaniards to retire, killing twenty, wounding fifty, and taking alive two whom they afterwards sacrificed. Francisco Hernández came off with thirty-three wounds, and thus returned downcast to Cuba, where he reported that the land was good and rich, because of the gold he found on the Isla die las Mugeres.

These stories moved Diego Velásquez, governor of Cuba, as well as many others, so that he sent his nephew Juan de Grijalva with four ships and 200 men. With him went Francisco de Montejo, to whom one ship belonged, the expedition sailing on the 1st of May, 1518.

They took with them the same Alaminos as pilot, and landed on the island of Cozumel, from which the pilot descried the coast of Yucatan which with Francisco Hernández he had previously coasted along, on the right hand going south. Desiring to see whether it was an island, they turned left and followed by the bay they called Ascension, because of entering it on that day. Then turning back they followed the whole coast until they reached Champotón for the second time; landing here for water, one man was killed and fifty wounded, among them Grijalva, who received two arrows and lost a tooth and a half. In this maner they departed and named the harbor the Puerto de Mala Pelea. On this voyage they discovered New Spain, Pánuco and Tabasco, where they stayed for Five months, and also tried to make a landing at Champotón. This the Indians resisted with such spirit as to come out close to the ships in their canoes, in order to shoot their arrows. So they made sail and departed.

When Grijalva returned from his voyage of discovery and trade in Tabasco and Ulúa, the great captain Hernando Cortés was in Cuba; and he on the news of such a country and such riches, conceived the desire of seeing it, and even of acquiring it for God, for his king, for himself, and for his friends.

SEC. IV. EXPEDITION OF CORTES TO COZUMEL. LETTER TO AGUILAR AND HIS FRIENDS.

Hernando Cortés sailed from Cuba with eleven ships, the largest being of 100 tons burden, placing in them eleven captains, and himself being one of these. He took along 500 men, some horses, and goods for barter, having Francisco de Montejo as a captain and Alaminos as chief pilot of the armada. On the admiral’s ship he set a banner of white and blue in honor of Our Lady, whose image, together with the cross, he always placed wherever he destroyed idols. On the banner was a red cross surrounded by a legend reading: Amici sequamur crucem, et si habuerimus fidem, in hoc signo vinceinus.

With this fleet and no further equipment he set sail and arrived at Cozumel with ten ships, one becoming separated in a storm; he however recovered it later on the coast. They arrived at Cozumel on the north, where they found fine buildings of stone for the idols, and a fine town; but the inhabitants seeing so great a fleet and the soldiers disembarking, all fled to the woods.

On reaching the town the Spaniards sacked it and lodged themselves. Seeking through the woods for the natives they came on the chief’s wife and children. Through an Indian interpreter named Melchior, who had been with Francisco Hernández and Grijalva, they learned it was the chief’s wife, to whom and the children Cortés gave presents and caused them to send for the chief. Him on his arrival he treated very well, gave him some small grifts and returned to him his wife and children, with all the things that had been taken in the town; and begged him to have the Indians return to their houses, saying that when they came everything that had been taken away from them would be restored. When they were thus restored, he preached to them the vanity of idols, and persuaded them to adore the cross; this he placed in their temples with an image of Our Lady, and therewith public idolatry ceased.

Here Cortés learned that there were bearded men six days away, in the power of a chief, and persuaded the Indians to send a messenger to summon them. With difficulty he found one that would go, because of the fear they had of the chief of the bearded men. He then wrote this letter: :

Noble sirs: I left Cuba with a fleet of eleven ships and 500 Spaniards, and laid up at Cozumel, whence I write this letter. Those of the island have assured me that there are in the country five or six men with beards and resembling us in all things. They are unable to give or tell me other indications, but from these I conjecture and hold certain that you are Spaniards. I and these gentlemen who go with me to settle and discover these lands urge that within six days from receiving this you come to us, without making further delay or excuse. If you shall come we will make due acknowledgment, and reward the good offices which this armada shall receive from you. I send a brigantine that you may come in it, and two boats for safety.

The Indians took this letter wrapped in their hair, and gave it to Aguilar. But the Indians delaying beyond the time appointed, those on the ships believed them killed, and returned to the port of Cozumel. Cortés then seeing that neither the Indians nor the bearded men returned, set sail the next day. On that day, however, a ship sprung a leak and it was necessary to return to port. While the repairs were being made Aguilar, having received the letter, crossed the channel between Yucatan and Cozumel in a canoe; when those of the fleet seeing him approach went to see who it was, Aguilar asked whether they were Christians. When they answered Yes, and Spaniards, he wept for joy and falling on his knees gave thanks to God. He then asked the Spaniards if it was Wednesday.

The Spaniards took him all naked as he was to Cortés, who clothed him and treated him with much affection; and Aguilar related there 6 his peril and labors, and the death of his companions, and how it was impossible to send word to Guerrero in so short a time, he being more than eighty leagues away.

Aguilar having told his story, and being an excellent interpreter, Cortés renewed the preaching of the adoration of the cross, and put the idols out of the temples; and they say that this preaching by Cortés made such an impression on those of Cuzco ⁷ that they came out to the shore saying to the Spaniards who passed: Maria, Maria, Cortés, Cortés.”

Cortés departed thence, touched Campeche in passing, but did not make a stop until he reached Tabasco. Here among other presents and Indian women which those of Tabasco gave to him was one who was afterwards called Marina. She was from Xalisco, a daughter of noble parents, stolen when small and sold in Tabasco, and later sold in Xicalango and Champotón, where she learned the language of Yucatan. By this she was able to understand Aguilar, and thus God provided Cortés with good and faithful interpreters, through whom he acquired knowledge and intimacy with Mexican matters. With these Marina was well posted, having mingled with Indian merchants and leading people, who spoke of them daily.

SEC. V. PROVINCES OF YUCATAN. ITS PRINCIPAL ANCIENT STRUCTURES,

Some old men of Yucatan say that they have heard from their ancestors that this country was peopled by a certain race who came from the East, whom God delivered by opening for them twelve roads through the sea. If this is true, all the inhabitants of the Indies must be of Jewish descent because, the straits of Magellan having been passed, they must have spread over more than 2000 leagues of territory now governed by Spain.

The language of this country is all one, a fact which aided greatly in its conversion, although along the coasts there are differences in words and accents. Those living on the coast are thus more polished in their behavior and language; and the women cover their breasts, which those further inland do not.

The country is divided into provinces subject to the nearest Spanish settlement. The province of Chectemal and Bak-halal is subject to Salamanca,. The provinces of Ekab, of Cochuah and of Cupul are subject to Valladolid. Those of Ahkin-Chel and of Izamal, of Sututa, of Hocabaihumun, of Tutuxiu, of Cehpech, and of Chakan, are attached to the city of Mérida; Camol (Canul), Campech, Champutun and Tixchel are assigned to San Francisco de Campeche.

There are in Yucatan many edifices of great beauty, this being the most outstanding of all things discovered in the Indies; they are all built of stone finely ornamented, though there is no metal found in the country for this cutting. These buildings are very close to each other and are temples, the reason for there being so many lying in the frequent changes of the population, and the fact that in each town they erected a temple, out of the abundance of stone and lime, and of a certain white earth excellent for buildings.

These edifices are not the work of other peoples, but of the Indians them-selves, as appears by stone figures of men, unclothed but with the middle covered by certain long fillets which in their language are called ex, together with other devices worn by the Indians.

While the author of this work was in that country, there was found in a building that had been demolished a large urn with three handles, painted on the outside with silvered colors, and containing the ashes of a cremated body, together with some pieces of the arms and legs, of an unbelievable size, and with three fine beads or counters of the kind the Indians use for money. At Izamal there were eleven or twelve of these buildings in all, with no memory of their builders; on the site of one of these, at the instance of the Indians, there was established the monastery of San Antonio, in the year 1550.

Photo by George Onkicy Totten

THE CENOTE OF SACRIFICE AT CHICHEN JTZA

The next most important edifices are those of Tikoch and of Chichén Itzá, which will be described later. Chichén Itzá is finely situated ten leagues from Izamal and eleven from Valladolid, and they tell that it was ruled by three lords, brothers that came to the country from the West. These were very devout, built very handsome temples, and lived unmarried and most honorably. One of them either died or went away, whereupon the others conducted themselves unjustly and wantonly, for which they were put to death. Later on we shall describe the decorations of the main edifice, also telling of the well into which they cast men alive as a sacrifice; and also other precious objects. It is over seven stages down to the water, over a hundred feet across and marvelously cut in the living rock. The water appears green, which they say is caused by the trees that surround it.

SEC. VI. CUCULCAN. FOUNDATION OF MAYAPAN.

The opinion of the Indians is that with the Itzás who settled Chichén Itzá there ruled a great lord named Cuculcán, as an evidence of which the principal building is called Cuculcán.

THE PYRAMID OF KUKULCAN

As restored by the Mexican Government, under the direction of Don Eduardo Martinez

 

They say that he came from the West, but are not agreed as to whether he came before or after the Itzás, or with them. They say that he was well disposed, that he had no wife or children, and that after his return he was regarded in Mexico as one of their gods, and called Cezalcohuati [Quetzalcóatl]. In Yucatan also he was reverenced as a god, because of his great services to the state, as appeared in the order which he established in Yucatan after the death of the chiefs, to settle the discord caused in the land by their deaths.

MAYAPAN

This Cuculcán, having entered into an agreement with the native lords of the country, undertook the founding of another city wherein he and they might live, and to which all matters and business should be brought. To this end he chose a fine site eight leagues further inland from where Mérida now lies, and some fifteen or sixteen from the sea. They surrounded the place with a very broad wall of dry stone some eighth of a league in extent, leaving only two narrow doorways; the wall itself was low. In the middle of the enclosure they built their temples, calling the largest Cuculcán, the same as at Chichén Itzá. They built another circular temple, different from all others in the country, and with four entrances; also many others about them, connected one with the other. Within the enclosure they built houses for the lords alone, among whom the country was divided, assigning villages to each according to the antiquity of their lineage and their personal qualifications. Cuculcán did not call the city after himself, as was done by the Ah-Itzaes at Chichén Itzá (which means the Well of the Ah-Itzaes ’ ) , but called it Mayapán, meaning the Standard of the Mayas,’ the language of the country being known as Maya. The Indians of today call it Ich-pa, meaning ‘Within the Fortifications.’

After Catherwood

ROUND TOWER AT MAYAPAN

Cuculcán lived for some years in this city with the chiefs, and then leaving them in full peace and amity returned by the same road to Mexico. On the way he stopped at Champotón, and there in memorial of himself and his departure he erected in the sea, at a good stone’s throw from the shore, a fine edifice similar to those at Chichén Itzá. Thus did Cuculcán leave a perpetual memory in Yucatan.

CARACOL AT CHICHEN ITZA

As uncovered under the care of the Carnegie Institution of Washington

SEC. VII. GOVERNMENT, PRIESTHOOD, SCIENCES, LETTERS AND BOOKS IN YUCATAN.

On the departure of Cuculcán the chiefs agreed that for the permanence of the state the house of the Cocoms should exercise the chief authority, it being the oldest and richest, or perhaps because its head was at that time a man of greater power. This done, they ordained that within the enclosure there should only be temples and residences of the chiefs, and of the High Priest; that they should build outside the walls dwellings where each of them might keep some serving people, and whither the people from the villages might come whenever they had business at the city. In these houses each one placed his mayordomo, who bore as his sign of authority a short thick baton, and who was called the Caluac. This officer held supervision over the villages and those in charge of them, to whom he sent advices as to the things needed in the chief’s establishment, as birds, maize, honey, salt, fish, game, clothing and other things. The Caluac always attended in the chief’s house, seeing what was needed and providing it promptly, his house standing as the office of his chief.

 

It was the custom to hunt out the crippled and the blind in the villages, and give them their necessities. The chiefs appointed the governors and, if worthy, confirmed their offices to their sons. They enjoined upon them good treatment of the common people, the peace of the community, and that all should be diligent in their own support and that of the lords.

Upon all the lords rested the duty of honoring, visiting and entertaining Cocom, accompanying and making festivals for him, and of repairing to him in difficult affairs. They lived in peace with each other, and with much diversion according to their custom, in the way of dances, feasts and hunting.

The people of Yucatan were as attentive to matters of religion as of government, and had a High Priest whom they called Ahkin May, or also Ahaucan May, meaning the Priest May, or the High Priest May. He was held in great reverence by the chiefs, and had no allotment of Indians for himself, the chiefs making presents to him in addition to the offerings, and all the local priests sending him contributions. He was succeeded in office by his sons or nearest kin. In him lay the key to their sciences, to which they most devoted themselves, giving counsel to the chiefs and answering their inquiries. With the matter of sacrifices he rarely took part, except on great festivals or business of much moment. He and his disciples appointed the priests for the towns, examining them in their sciences and ceremonies; put in their charge the affairs of their office, and the setting of a good example to the people; he provided their books and sent them forth. They in turn attended to the service of the temples, teaching their sciences and writing books upon them.

They taught the sons of the other priests, and the second sons of the chiefs, who were brought to them very young for this purpose, if they found them inclined toward this office.

The sciences which they taught were the reckoning of the years, months and days, the festivals and ceremonies, the administration of their sacraments, the omens of the days, their methods of divination and prophecies, events, remedies for sicknesses, antiquities, and the art of reading and writing by their letters and the characters wherewith they wrote, and by pictures that illustrated the writings.

 

They wrote their books on a long sheet doubled in folds, which was then enclosed between two boards finely ornamented; the writing was on one side and the other, according to the folds. The paper they made from the roots of a tree, and gave it a white finish excellent for writing upon. Some of the principal lords were learned in these sciences, from interest, and for the greater esteem they enjoyed thereby; yet they did not make use of them in public.

* The text figure shows the general arrangement of the texts in both the Dresden and Madrid codices; that in the Paris codex and on the monuments was quite different.

Here, in section, or tzolkin 64 of the Dresden, we see the figure of Itzamná in four different activities, in each accompanied by one of the four major food animals, the turkey, iguana, fish and deer. Above each are four glyphs, the first identical save for the subfix clement in the fourth column; this may be taken as an introductory to an invocation, or chanting rhythm, such as actually found in one of our most important Maya manuscripts, the Ritual of the Bacabs. The four glyphs across in the second line represent the North, West, South and East. In the next position we see the head as of a ‘lord,’ wearing a ceremonial banded headdress, preceded by the known signs for the four colors attached to the four Directions: White, Black, Yellow, Red. In the bottom row the repeated glyph of ltzamná, accepted as such from its constant occurrence above his figure as shown here.

Finally, since the composition of the original codex of which the existing Dresden codex ’ is rather clearly a copy, is to be placed from its own internal evidence as relating to the moon and eclipse calculation finally worked out probably at Copan, about the year 750 A. D., the uncertainties involved in any effort to read this in the modern forms of Yucatecan Maya (or other), are just about as great as should one ignorant of historical English try to treat the text of Beowulf as if it showed the spoken English of today.

SEC. XIII. ARRIVAL OF THE TUTUL-XIUS AND THE ALLIANCE THEY MADE WITH THE LORDS OF MAYAPAN. TYRANNY OF COCOM, THE RUIN OF HIS POWER AND OF THE CITY OF MAYAPAN.

The Indians relate that there came into Yucatan from the south many tribes with their chiefs, and it seems they came from Chiapas, although this the Indians do not know; but the author so conjectures from the many words and verbal constructions that are the same in Chiapas and in Yucatan, and from the extensive indications of sites that have been abandoned. They say that these tribes wandered forty years through the wilderness of Yucatan, having in that time no water except from the rains; that at the end of that time they reached the Sierra that lies about opposite the city of Mayapán, ten leagues distant. Here they began to settle and erect many fine edifices in many places; that the inhabitants of Mayapán held most friendly relations with them, and were pleased that they worked the land as if they were native to it. In this manner the people of the Tutul-xius subjected themselves to the laws of Mayapán, they intermarried, and thus the lord Xiu of the Tutul-xius came to find himself held in great esteem by all.8

Photo by Maler

EIGHTH CENTURY STONE RESIDENCE IN THE SIERRA DISICT

These tribes lived in such peace that they had no conflicts and used neither arms nor bows, even for the hunt, although now today they are excellent archers. They only used snares and traps, with which they took much game. They also had a certain art of throwing darts by the aid of a stick as thick as three fingers, hollowed out for a third of the way, and six palms long; with this and cords they threw with force and accuracy.⁹

They had laws against delinquents which they executed rigorously; such as against an adulterer, whom they turned over to the injured party that he might either put him to death by throwing a great stone down upon his head, or he might forgive him if he chose. For the adulteress there was no penalty save the infamy, which was a very serious thing with them. One who ravished a maiden was stoned to death, and they relate a case of a chief of the Tutul-xiu who, having a brother accused of this crime, had him stoned and afterwards covered with a great heap of rocks. They also say that before the foundation of the city they had another law providing the punishment of adulterers by drawing out the intestines through the navel.

The governing Cocom began to covet riches, and to that end negotiated with the garrison kept by the kings of Mexico in Tabasco and Xicalango, that he would put the city in their charge. In this way he introduced the Mexicans into Mayapán, oppressed the poor, and made slaves of many. The chiefs would have slain him but for fear of the Mexicans. The lord of the Tutul-xiu never gave his consent to this. Then those of Yucatan, seeing themselves so fixed, learned from the Mexicans the art of arms, and thus became masters of the bow and arrow, of the lance, the axe, the buckler, and strong cuirasses made of quilted cotton, ¹⁰ together with other implements of war. Soon they no longer stood in awe of nor feared the Mexicans, but rather held them of slight moment. In this situation several years passed.

This Cocom was the first who made slaves; but out of this evil came the use of arms to defend themselves, that they might not all become slaves. Among the successors of the Cocom dynasty was another one, very haughty and an imitator of Cocom, who made another alliance with the Tabascans, placing more Mexicans within the city, and began to act the tyrant and to enslave the common people. The chiefs then attached themselves to the party of Tutul-xiu, a man patriotic like his ancestors, and they plotted to kill Cocom. This they did, killing at the same time all of his sons save one who was absent; they sacked his dwelling and possessed themselves of all his property, his stores of cacao and other fruits, saying that thus they repaid themselves what had been stolen from them. The struggles between the Cocoms, who claimed that they had been unjustly expelled, and the Xius, went on to such an extent that after having been established in this city for more than five hundred years, they abandoned and left it desolate, each going to his own country.

SEC. IX. CHRONOLOGICAL MONUMENTS OF YUCATAN. FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF SOTUTA. ORIGIN OF THE CHELS. THE THREE PRINCIPAL KINGDOMS OF YUCATAN.

According to the reckoning of the Indians it has been 120 years since the abandonment of Mayapán. On the site of that city are to be found seven or eight stones each ten feet in height, round on one side, well carved and bearing several lines of the characters they use, so worn away by the water as to be unreadable, although they are thought to be a monument of the foundation and destruction of the city. There are others like them at Zilán, a town on the coast, except that they are taller.11 The natives being asked what they were, answered that it was the custom to set up one of these stones every twenty years, that being the number by which they reckon their periods. This however seems to be without warrant, for in that event there must have been many others; besides that there are none of them in any other places than Mayapán and Zilán.

The most important thing that the chiefs who stripped Mayapán took away to their own countries were the books of their sciences, for they were always very subject to the counsels of their priests, for which reason there are so many temples in those provinces.

That son of Cocom who had escaped death through being away on a trading expedition to the Ulúa country, which is beyond the city of Salamanca, on hearing of his father’s death and the destruction of the city, returned in haste and gathered his relatives and vassals; they settled in a site which he called Tibulon, meaning ‘we have been played with.’ ¹² They built many other towns in those forests, and many families have sprung from these Cocoms. The province where this chief ruled was called Sututa.

The lords of Mayapán took no vengeance on those Mexicans who gave aid to Cocom, seeing that they had been influenced by the governor of the country, and since they were strangers. They therefore left them undisturbed, granting them leave to settle in a place apart, or else to leave the country; in staying, however, they were not to intermarry with the natives, but only among themselves. These decided to remain in Yucatan and not return to the lagoons and mosquitos of Tabasco, and so settled in the province of Canul, which was assigned them, and where they remained until the second Spanish wars.

They say that among the twelve priests of Mayapán was one of great wisdom who had an only daughter, whom he had married to a young nobleman named Ah-Chel. This one had sons who were called the same as their father, according to the custom of the country. They say that this priest predicted the fall of the city to his son-in-law; they tell that on the broad part of his arm the old priest inscribed certain characters of great import in their estimation. With this distinction conferred on him he went to the coast and established a settlement at Tikoch, a great number of people following him. Thus arose the renowned families of the Chels, who peopled the most famous province of Yucatan, which they named after themselves the province of Ahkin-Chel. Here was Izamal, where the Chels resided; and they multiplied in Yucatan until the coming of the admiral Montejo.

Between these great princely houses of the Cocoms, Xius and Chels there was a constant feud and enmity, which still continues even though they have become Christians. The Cocoms call the Xius strangers and traitors, murdering their natural lord and plundering his possessions. The Xius say they are as good as the others, as ancient and as noble; that they were not traitors but liberators, having slain a tyrant. The Chel said that he was as good as the others in lineage, being the descendant of the most renowned priest in Mayapán; that as to himself he was greater than they, because he had known how to make himself as much a lord as they were. The quarrel extended even to their food supply, for the Chel, living on the coast, would not give fish or salt to the Cocom, making him go a long distance for it; and the Cocom would not permit the Chel to take any game or fruits.

SEC. X. VARIOUS CALAMITIES FELT IN YUCATAN IN THE PERIOD BEFORE THE CONQUEST BY THE SPANIARDS: HURRICANE, WARS, ETC.

These tribes enjoyed more than twenty years of abundance and health, and they multiplied so that the whole country seemed like a town. At that time they erected temples in great number, as is today seen everywhere; in going through the forests there can be seen in the groves the sites of houses and buildings marvelously worked.

Succeeding this prosperity, there came on one winter night at about six in the evening a storm that grew into a hurricane of the four winds. The storm blew down all the high trees, causing great slaughter of all kinds of game; it overthrew the high houses, which being thatched and having fires within for the cold, took fire and burned great numbers of the people, while those who escaped were crushed by the timbers.

The hurricane lasted until the next day at noon, and they found that those who lived in small houses had escaped, as well as the newly married couples, whose custom it was to live for a few years in cabins in front of their fathers or fathers-in-law. The land thus then lost the name it had borne, that of the turkeys and the deer,” and was left so treeless that those of today look as if planted together and thus all grown of one size. To look at the country from heights it looks as if all trimmed with a pair of shears.

Those who escaped aroused themselves to building and cultivating the land, and multiplied greatly during fifteen years of health and abundance, the last year being the most fertile of all. Then as they were about to begin gathering the crops there came an epidemic of pestilencial fevers that lasted for twenty-four hours; then on its abating the bodies of those attacked swelled and broke out full of maggoty sores, so that from this pestilence many people died and most of the crops remained ungathered.

After the passing of the pestilence they had sixteen other good years, wherein they renewed their passions and feuds to the end that 150,000 men were killed in battle. With this slaughter they ceased and made peace, and rested for twenty years. After that there came again a pestilence, with great pustules that rotted the body, fetid in odor, and so that the members fell in pieces within four or five days.

Since this last plague more than fifty years have now passed, the mortality of the wars was twenty years prior, the pestilence of the swelling was sixteen years before the wars, and twenty-two or twenty-three after the destruction of the city of Mayapán. Thus, according to this count, it has been 125 years since its overthrow, within which the people of this country have passed through the calamities described, besides many others after the Spaniards began to enter, both by wars and other afflictions sent by God; so that it is a marvel there is any of the population left, small as it is.

SEC. XI. PROPHECIES OF THE COMING OF THE SPANIARDS. HISTORY OF FRANCISCO DE MONTEJO, FIRST ADMIRAL OF YUCATAN.

As the Mexican people had signs and prophecies of the coming of the Spaniards and the end of their power and religion, so also did those of Yucatan some years before they were conquered by Admiral Montejo. In the district of Mani, in the province of Tutul-xiu, an Indian named Ah-cambal, filling the office of Chilán,13 that is one who has charge of giving out the responses of the demon, told publicly that they would soon be ruled by a foreign race who would preach a God and the virtue of a wood which in their tongue he called vahom-ché, meaning a tree lifted up, of great power against the demons.

The successor of the Cocoms, called Don Juan Cocom after he became a Christian, was a man of great reputation and very learned in matters and affairs of the country, very wise and well informed. He was on familiar terms with the author of this book, Fray Diego de Landa, recounting to him many ancient things, and showing him a book which had belonged to his grandfather, the son of the Cocom whom they killed in Mayapán. In this was painted a deer, and his grandfather had told him that when there should come into the land large deer (for so they called the cows), the worship of the gods would cease; and this had been fulfilled, because the Spaniards brought along large cows.

The admiral Francisco de Montejo was a native of Salamanca, and came to the Indies after the settling of the city of San Domingo, in the Island of Española, after having lived for a time in Sevilla, where he left an infant son whom he had there. He came to the island of Cuba, where he gained a livelihood and made many friends by his fine qualities, among these being Diego Velásquez the governor of the island, and Hernando Cortés. The governor having determined to send his nephew Juan de Grijalva to redeem the territory of Yucatan and to discover new lands, after the news brought by Francisco Hernández de Córdova of how rich the land was, he decided to have Montejo go with Grijalva. He being wealthy supplied one of the ships and much provisioning, and was thus one of the second party of Spaniards that discovered Yucatan; having seen the coast of Yucatan he resolved to enrich himself there instead of in Cuba.

 

Learning the determination of Hernando Cortés, he followed him with his person and fortune, Cortés giving him command of a ship and making him its captain. In Yucatan they then met Gerónimo de Aguilar, from whom Montejo acquired knowledge of the language of the country and its matters. Cortés having landed in New Spain began at once to make settlements, calling the first town Vera Cruz, after the blazon of his banner. Montejo was appointed as one of the royal alcaldes of the town, acquitting himself discreetly, and being so publicly named by Cortés when he returned from the trip he made around the coast. For this he was sent to Spain as one of the Procurators of the state of New Spain, that he might convey to the King his fifths, together with a relation of the countries discovered, and the things about taking place there.

 

When Francisco de Montejo arrived at the Court of Castile, Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, was president of the Council of the Indies, and he was wrongly informed to Cortés’ prejudice, by Diego Velásquez, the governor of Cuba, who claimed likewise the governorship of New Spain. The majority of the Council thinking that Cortés seemed to be asking money of the King instead of sending it, and Montejo finding that on account of the absence of the Emperor in Flanders the affair went ill, he persevered for seven years from the time he left the Indies (which was in 1519), until he re-embarked in 1526. By his perseverance he challenged the president and Pope Adrian who was regent for the kingdom, and talked with the Emperor to the effect that he gave his approval and disposed of the affairs of Cortés as justice required.

SEC. XII. MONTEJO. SAILS FOR YUCATAN AND TAKES POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY. THE CHELS CEDE TO HIM THE SITE OF CHICHEN ITZA. THE INDIANS FORCE HIM TO LEAVE.

During the time that Montejo was at Court he got for himself the conquest of Yucatan, although he might have had other things, and received the title of Admiral. He then went to Sevilla, and took with him a nephew thirteen years of age, bearing his own name. He also found his son, twenty-eight years of age, and took him along. He arranged a marriage with a rich widow of Sevilla, and was thus able to gather 500 men whom he embarked in three ships; setting sail he made port at Cozumel, an island of Yucatan. The Indians there did not oppose him, having been made friendly by the Spaniards under Cortés. There he learned many words of their language, and how to make himself understood by them, after which he sailed to Yucatan. Here he took possession, one of his Ensigns saying, banner in hand: In the name of God I take possession of this land for God and the King of Castile.”

In this way he sailed down the coast, which was then well populated, until he landed at Conil, a town of the coast; the Indians were alarmed at seeing so many horses and men, and sent word to all the country of what was happening, watching the purpose of the Spaniards.

The Indians of the province of Chicaca [Chuaca] came to visit the admiral in peace and were well received; among them came a man of great strength who, taking a cutlass from a young negro who bore it, tried to kill the admiral with it. The latter defended himself and the Spaniards came up and stopped the trouble; but they learned that it was necessary to proceed on their guard.

The admiral sought to learn what was the largest city and found it to be Tikoh [Tikoch], a city of the Chels, situated on the coast further down along the course the Spaniards were taking. The Indians thinking they were on their way to leave the country, were not aroused, nor did they oppose their march. In this way they came to Tikoch, and found it a much larger and finer city than they had supposed. It was fortunate that the chiefs of that country were not the Covohes of Champotón, who were always braver than the Chels. The latter with their priesthood, which still exists today, were not as haughty as the others, and hence allowed the admiral to make a settlement for his people, giving him the site of Chichén Itzá for the purpose, an excellent place seven leagues away. From this position he set out to the conquest of the country, a task rendered easy by the non-resistance of the people of Ahkin-Chel, and the assistance of those of Tutul-xiu, by reason whereof the others offered little resistance.

In this way the admiral asked for men to build at Chichén Itzá, and in a short time he built a town, making the houses of wood and the roofs of certain palms and long grass used by the Indians. They say the smallest allotment contained 2000 or 3000 Indians. He also began to fix rules for the natives touching their services to the city, although he was moderate in his demands upon the Indians, and kept his plans hidden for the time.

SEC. XIII. MONTEJO LEAVES YUCATAN WITH ALL HIS PEOPLE AND RETURNS TO MEXICO. HlS SON, FRANCISCO DE MONTEJO, AFTERWARDS PACIFIES YUCATAN.

The Admiral Montejo did not carry out his settlement as he planned ….. of one who has enemies,14 because it was quite far from the sea for entry from and departure for Mexico, and for receiving goods from Spain. The Indians feeling it a hardship to serve strangers where they had been the lords, began to be hostile on all sides, although he defended himself with his horses and men, and killed many. Nevertheless the Indians grew stronger every day, so that he found provisions failing, and at last one night he left the city, leaving a dog tied to the clapper of a bell, near some bread just out of his reach. The day preceding he had harassed the Indians by skirmishes that they might not follow. The dog in trying to reach the bread kept the bell ringing, keeping the Indians uncertain and expecting an attack. When they discovered the ruse, they were furious at what had been played on them, and sought to pursue the Spaniards in all directions, but not knowing what road they had taken. The party that followed in the direction they had gone caught up with the Spaniards, making a great hue and cry as if in a chase of fugitives. Six of the horsemen waited for them in the open and ran many of them down; one of the Indians seized hold of a horse by the leg, and stayed him as if he were a sheep. The Spaniards came to Zilán [Dzilán], a beautiful place, whose chief was a youth of the Chels, and had become a Christian and a friend of the Spaniards; he treated them well. This was near Tikoch, which with all the other towns of that region was under the sway of the Chels; here they remained some months in safety.

The admiral seeing that here they would be unable to receive aid from Spain, and that in case of an uprising by the Indians they would be lost, decided to go to Campeche and Mexico with all his people. From Dzilán to Campeche it was forty-eight leagues, densely populated, so that when he made known his purpose to Namux Chel, the chief of Dzilán, the latter offered to make the road safe and to accompany him. The admiral also arranged with the chief of Yobain, an uncle of him of Dzilán, for the company of his two sons, well disposed youths. Thus with these three youthful cousins, he of Dzilán on horse and the others en croupe, they arrived safely at Campeche and were received there in peace, there taking leave of the Chels who returned to their homes, though the chief of Dzilán died on the way. Thence they departed for Mexico, where Cortés had assigned a quota of Indians to the admiral, notwithstanding his absence.

On arriving at Mexico with his son and nephew, the admiral instituted a search for his wife, Doña Beatrix de Herrera, whom he had married secretly at Sevilla, and a daughter he had had by her, named Beatrix de Mendoza. Some say he refused to recognize her, but Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, intervened and reconciled them. Thereupon the Viceroy sent him as governor of Honduras, where he married his daughter to the licentiate Alonso Maldonado, president of the Audiencia of the Confines; then after some years they removed to Chiapas, and from there he sent his son, duly empowered, to Yucatan, conquering and reducing it to submission.

This Don Francisco, son of the admiral, was brought up at the court of the Catholic king, and was taken along by his father on his return to the Indies for the conquest of Yucatan; whence he went with him to Mexico. The Viceroy and the Marquis Don Hernando Cortés thought well of him, and he went with the Marquis on the trip to California. On his return the Viceroy made him governor of Tabasco and he married a lady named Doña Andrea del Castillo, who had come to Mexico as a young girl with her parents.

SEC. XIV. STATE OF YUCATAN AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE SPANIARDS. DON FRANCISCO, SON OF THE ADMIRAL MONTEJO, RE-ESTABLISHES THE SPANISH RULE IN YUCATAN.

After the departure of the Spaniards from Yucatan, a drought followed in the land, and the corn having been consumed during the wars with the Spaniards they suffered much from famine and were reduced to eating the bark of trees, especially of a certain kind called cumché (kunché), the inside of which is soft and mellow. On account of this famine the Xius of Mani undertook to make a solemn sacrifice to the idols, taking certain male and female slaves to cast into the pool at Chichén Itzá. To do this they had to pass by the town of the Cocom chiefs, their mortal enemies, but thinking that ancient quarrels would be forgotten in such times they sent to ask permission to pass through the country. The Cocoms deceived them with a favorable answer, but having lodged them all together in one great building they set fire to it, and slew those who escaped. From this great wars followed. 15 There was also a plague of locusts for five years, so great that no green thing was left and such a famine ensued that they fell dead on the roads, and when the Spaniards returned they did not recognize the country. However, four good years followed and bettered the situation somewhat.

This Don Francisco set out for Yucatan along the rivers of Tabasco, and entered by the lagoons of Dos Bocas. The first place he touched was Champotón, whose chief Moch-Covoh had received Francisco Hernández and Grijalva so ill. The chief however having died, Don Francisco met no opposition, but was on the contrary supported with his company for two years by the people of the place; during this time he could not advance because of the resistance he encountered. Later he went to Campeche, where he found the inhabitants very friendly, so that with their help and that of the people of Champotón he accomplished the conquest. For their fidelity he promised that the King would reward them, a promise which up to the present time the King has not fulfilled.

Such resistance as he met was not strong enough to prevent Don Francisco from reaching Tiho with his army; here he founded the city of Mérida, and leaving the baggage there he set out to continue the conquest, sending captains in different directions. Don Francisco sent his cousin Francisco, de Montejo to Valladolid to pacify the natives, who had rebelled somewhat, and to settle the city as it now is. In Chectemal [Chetumal] he founded the city of Salamanca [de Bacalar]; Campeche he already had occupied. He established in orderly manner the services of the Indians and the rule of the Spaniards, before the coming of his father the admiral to assume control. The latter on arriving from Chiapas with his wife and household was well received at Campeche, and gave his own name to the city, as San Francisco; and then went on to the city of Mérida.

SEC. XV. CRUELTIES OF THE SPANIARDS TOWARD THE INDIANS. HOW THEY EXCUSED THEMSELVES.

The Indians took the yoke of servitude grievously. The Spaniards held the towns comprising the country well partitioned, but there were some among the Indians who kept stirring them up, and very severe punishments were inflicted in consequence, resulting in the reduction of the population. Several principal men of the province of Cupul they burned alive, and others they hung. Information being laid against the people of Yobain, a town of the Chels, they took the leading men, put them in stocks in a buildings and then set fire to the house, burning them alive with the greatest inhumanity in the world. I, Diego de Landa, say that I saw a great tree near the village upon the branches of which a captain had hung many women, with their infant children hung from their feet. At this town, and another two leagues away called Verey, they hung two Indian women, one a maiden and the other recently married, for no other crime than their beauty, and because of fearing a disturbance among the soldiers on their account; also further to cause the Indians to believe the Spaniards indifferent to their women. The memory of these two is kept both among the Indians and Spaniards on account of their great beauty and the cruelty with which they were killed.

 

The Indians of the provinces of Cochuah and Chetumal rose, and the Spaniards so pacified them that from being the most settled and populous it became the most wretched of the whole country. Unheard-of cruelties were inflicted, cutting off their noses, hands, arms and legs, and the breasts of their women; throwing them into deep water with gourds tied to their feet, thrusting the children with spears because they could not go as fast as their mothers. If some of those who had been put in chains fell sick or could not keep up with the rest, they would cut off their heads among the rest rather than stop to unfasten them. They also kept great numbers of women and men captive in their service, with similar treatment. It is affirmed that Don Francisco de Montejo was not guilty of any of those cruelties nor approved them, but condemned them severely, yet was unable to do more.16

In their defense the Spaniards urge that being so few in numbers they could not have reduced so populous a country save through the fear of such terrible punishments. They offer the example from the history of the passage of the Hebrews to the land of promise, committing great cruelties by the command of God. On the other hand, the Indians were right in defending their liberty and trusting to the valor of their chiefs, and they thought it would so result as against the Spaniards.

 

They tell of a Spanish cross-bowman and an Indian archer, who being both very expert sought to kill each other, but neither could take the other unawares. The Spaniard feigning to be off guard, put one knee to the ground, whereupon the Indian shot an arrow that entered his hand and going up the arm separated the bones from each other. At the same moment the Spaniard shot his cross-bow and struck the Indian in the chest. He, feeling himself mortally wounded, cut a withe like an osier only much longer, and hung himself with it that it might not be said that a Spaniard had killed him. Of such instances of valor there are many.

SEC. XVI. STATE OF THE COUNTRY BEFORE THE CONQUEST. ROYAL DECREE IN FAVOR OF THE INDIANS. HEALTH OF THE ADMIRAL MONTEJO. HIS DESCENDANTS.

Before the Spaniards subdued the country the Indians lived together in well ordered communities; they kept the ground in excellent condition, free from noxious vegetation and planted with fine trees. The habitation was as follows: in the center of the town were the temples, with beautiful plazas, and around the temples stood the houses of the chiefs and the priests, and next those of the leading men. Closest to these came the houses of those who were wealthiest and most esteemed, and at the borders of the town were the houses of the common people. The wells, where they were few, were near the houses of the chiefs; their plantations were set out in the trees for making wine, and sown with cotton, pepper and maize. They lived in these communities for fear of their enemies, lest they be taken in captivity; but after the wars with the Spaniards they dispersed through the forests.

Photo by Eric Thompson

 

Either led on by their evil way or from their bad treatment by the Spaniards, the Indians of Valladolid conspired to slay the Spaniards when they separated to collect the tribute. In one day they killed 17 Spaniards and 400 servants belonging to those they killed and to the others they left alive. Then they sent arms and feet through the whole country in token of what they had done, in order to arouse the rest. These however would not respond, and so the admiral was able to send aid to the Spaniards of Valladolid and to punish the Indians.

The admiral had difficulties with those of Mérida, particularly through the royal decree which deprived the governors of their Indians. An actuary came to Yucatan, took his Indians from the admiral and placed them under the royal protection. After this a Residencia was instituted before the Royal Audience of Mexico, which ordered him before the Royal Council of the Indies in Spain. There he died, full of years and labors, leaving his wife Doña Beatrix richer than himself; also his son Don Francisco de Montejo, married in Yucatan, and his daughter Doña Catalina, married to the licentiate Alonso Maldonado in Honduras, president of the Audience of Honduras and San Domingo in the island of Hispaniola; also Don Juan de Montejo, a Spaniard, and Don Diego, a son by an Indian woman.

Don Francisco, after he turned over the government to his father the admiral, lived in his home as a simple citiezn, so far as public life went, but much honored by all as having conquered, partitioned and ruled the country. He went to Guatemala to close his Residencia and returned to his home. As children he had Don Juan de Montejo, who married Doña Isabel a native of Salamanca, Doña Beatriz de Montejo who married her uncle, his father’s first cousin, and Doña Francisca de Montejo who married Don Carlos de Avellano, a native of Guadalajara. He died after a long sickness, having seen all of his children married.

SEC. XVII. ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH FRANCISCAN FRIARS IN YUCATAN. PROTECTION THEY GAVE TO THE NATIVES. THEIR CONTESTS WITH THE SPANISH MILITARY ELEMENT.

Friar Jacobo de Testera, a Franciscan, came to Yucatan and began to instruct the Indian children. The Spanish soldiery, however, wanted to use the services of the youths to such an extent that it left no time for them to learn the catechism; they also hated the friars for rebuking their evil conduct toward the Indians. As a result of this friar Jacobo returned to Mexico, where he died. Afterwards friar Toribio Motolinia sent two friars from Guatemala, and from Mexico friar Martin de Hojacastro sent other friars, all of whom settled in Campeche and Mérida, with the approval of the admiral and his son Don Francisco, who built them a monastery at Mérida, as has been stated. They undertook to learn the language, which was very difficult. The one who succeeded the best was friar Luis de Villalpando, who commenced to learn it through signs and small stones; he reduced it to a certain form of grammar and wrote a Christian catechism in the language.* But he suffered many hindrances, both on the part of the Spaniards who, being absolute masters, wanted everything directed to their own profit and tributes, as well as on the part of the Indians who wanted to persist in their idolatries and debaucheries. Especially was the labor heavy because of the Indians being scattered through the forests.17

The Spaniards took it ill that the friars built monasteries; they drove the young Indians from their domains that they might not come to catechism, and twice they burned the monastery at Valladolid, which was built of wood and straw, so that it became necessary for the friars to go and live among the Indians. When the Indians of that province rebelled they wrote to the Viceroy Don Antonio that it was through their fondness for the friars; as to this the Viceroy investigated and proved that the friars had not yet come into the province at the time of the uprising. They spied at night on the friars, causing great scandal with the Indians, pried into their lives, and deprived them of the alms given.

In the face of this danger the friars sent one of their people to a very upright judge, Cerrato, president of Guatemala, to whom he made report of what had happened. The latter, seeing the disorder and unchristian conduct of the Spaniards, how they levied all the tribute they possibly could, against the King’s orders, besides requiring personal service for every sort of labor even to the transport of burdens, established a certain scale of taxation, which while enough was still bearable, and by which it was specified what property should belong to the Indian after his tribute to his master was paid, instead of everything belonging absolutely to the Spaniards.

From this they appealed, and from fear of the tax they took from the Indians even more than before. The friars went back to the Audiencia and also sent to Spain, succeeding so far that the Audiencia of Guatemala sent an Auditor, who fixed the land tax and abolished the personal service. Some of them he forced to marry, breaking up the houses full of women they had. This man was the licentiate Tomás López, a native of Tendilla. All this caused a great increase of the animosity against the friars, infamous libels were spread about them, and the men ceased to attend the masses.

This very hatred caused the Indians to feel well toward the friars, seeing the troubles they took disinterestedly, and securing their freedom; so far did this go that they undertook nothing without consulting the friars and getting, their counsel. And all this aroused further envy against the friars on the part of the Spaniards, who declared they did all this to get the government of the Indies in their own hands and themselves enjoy all the things they had deprived the Spaniards of.¹⁸

SEC. XVIII. VICES OF THE INDIANS. STUDIES OF THE FRIARS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY. THEIR TEACHINGS TO THE INDIANS. CONVERSIONS. PUNISHMENTS OF APOSTATES.

The vices of the Indians were idolatry, divorce, public orgies, and the buying and selling of slaves, and because of being kept from these things they came to hate the friars. The ones however who, apart from the Spaniards, were most averse to the friars were the priesthood, as being a class who had lost their office and its emoluments.

The method taken for indoctrinating the Indians was by collecting the small children of the lords and leading men, and establishing them around the monasteries in houses which each town built for the purpose. Here all in each locality were gathered together, and their parents and relatives brought them their food. Then among these children they gathered them in for catechism, from which frequent visiting many asked for baptism, with much devotion. The children then, after being taught, informed the friars of idolatries and orgies; they broke up the idols, even those belonging to their own fathers; they urged the divorced women and any orphans that were enslaved to appeal to the friars. Even when they were threatened by their people they were not deterred, but answered that it was for their honor, since it was for the good of their souls. The admiral and the royal judges always backed up the friars in gathering the Indians to catechism, and in punishing those who returned to their old life. At first the lords gave up their children with ill grace, fearing that they wished to make little slaves of them as the Spaniards had done, so that they gave many young slaves in place of their own children; but when they understood the matter they sent them with good grace. In this way the children made remarkable progress in the schools, and the others in the catechism.

They learned to read and write in the Indian tongue, forming a grammatical system, so as to study it like the Latin. They found that six of our letters, D, F, G, Q, R, S, were not used or needed at all. Others however they had to double, and some to add, in order to understand the many meanings of some words. Thus pa means to open,’ and ppa, spoken by tightly compressing the lips, means to break’; tan means lime,’ or ashes,’ and tan (t’an) uttered forcibly between the tongue and upper teeth means a word,’ or to speak.’ Apart from having different characters for these things, there was no need for inventing new forms of letters, but only to make use of the Latin ones, common to all.

They also gave orders that they should leave their homes in the forests and gather as formerly in proper settlements, that they might be more easily instructed and not make the fathers so much trouble. For their support they also made contributions at the paschal and other festivals, and also contributed to the churches through two aged Indians, appointed for the purpose. Thus they supplied the needs whenever they went visiting among them, and also adorned the churches.

After the people had been thus instructed in religion, and the youths benefitted as we have said, they were perverted by their priests and chiefs to return to their idolatry; this they did, making sacrifices not only by incense, but also of human blood. Upon this the friars held an Inquisition, calling upon the Alcalde Mayor for aid; they held trials and celebrated an Auto, putting many on scaffolds, capped, shorn and beaten, and some in the penitential robes for a time. Some of the Indians out of grief, and deluded by the devil, hung themselves; but generally they all showed much repentance and readiness to be good Christians.19

SEC. XIX. ARRIVAL OF BISHOP TORAL AND RELEASE OF THE IMPRISONED INDIANS. VOYAGE OF THE PROVINCIAL OF SAN FRANCISCO TO SPAIN TO JUSTIFY THE CONDUCT OF THE FRANCISCANS.

At this point fray Francisco Toral, a Franciscan friar, and a native of Ubeda, who had been for twenty years in Mexico and then come as Bishop of Yucatan, arrived at Campeche. He, giving ear to the charges of the Spaniards and the complaints of the Indians, undid the friars’ work, and ordered the prisoners released. The provincial feeling himself aggrieved thereat, determined to go to Spain, after first lodging complaint in Mexico. He thus arrived at Madrid, where the Council of the Indies censured him severely for having usurped the office of bishop and inquisitor. In defense he asserted the privileges held by his order in those territories by the grant of Pope Adrian, at the instance of the Emperor; as well as the support ordered to be given him by the Royal Audience of the Indies, the same as given to the bishops. These defenses alienated the members of the Council yet more, and they decided to refer him and his papers, as well as those which had been sent by the Bishop, against the friars, to fray Pedro de Bobadilla, Provincial of Castile, to whom the King wrote commanding investigation and the performance of justice. Fray Pedro, being ill, committed the examination of the affair to Fray Pedro de Guzmán, of his own order, a man learned and experienced in inquisitorial matters.

To him, then, were presented the opinions of seven learned persons of the kingdom of Toledo, namely: Don fray Francisco de Medina and fray Francisco Dorantes, of the Franciscan order; master frayle Alonso de la Cruz, an Augustinian friar who had spent thirty years in the Indies; the licentiate Tomás López who had been an Auditor in Guatemala in the New Kingdom, as well as a judge in Yucatan; D. Hurtado, professor of canon law; D. Méndez, professor of the Sacred Scriptures; and D. Martinez, Scotist professor at Alcalá. These declared that the Provincial had acted rightly in the matter of the Auto and other things for the punishment of the Indians. This being reviewed by fray Francisco de Guzmán, he wrote fully upon it to the Provincial, fray Pedro de Bobadilla.

The Indians of Yucatan deserve that the King should favor them for many reasons, and especially for the readiness they have shown in his service. While he was occupied in Flanders the princess Doña Juana his sister, who was then regent of the kingdom, wrote a letter asking the assistance of those in the Indies. This an Auditor of Guatemala bore to Yucatan, and having gathered the chiefs together, he directed a friar to preach upon what they owed to his majesty, and what was asked of them. Having finished his discourse, the Indians rose to their feet and said that they recognized their obligation to God for having given them so noble and Christian a king, and that they were grieved not to live where they might serve him in person; wherefore whatever in their poverty they had that he desired, they placed at his service; and if that did not suffice, they would sell their children and wives.

SEC. XX. CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES OF YUCATAN. OBEDIENCE AND RESPECT OF THE INDIANS FOR THEIR CHIEFS. HEADGEAR AND WEARING OF GARMENTS.

In building their houses their method was to cover them with an excellent thatch they have in abundance, or with the leaves of a palm well adapted to that purpose, the roof being very steep to prevent its raining through. They then run a wall lengthways of the whole house, leaving certain doorways into the half which they call the back of the house, where they have their beds. The other half they whiten with a very fine whitewash, and the chiefs also have beautiful frescos there. This part serves for the reception and lodging of guests, and has no doorway but is open along the whole length of the house. The roof drops very low in front as a protection against sun and rain; also, they say, the better to defend the interior from enemies in case of necessity.

Phono by Eric Thompson

 

The common people build the chiefs’ dwellings at their own expense. The houses having no doors, it is held a grave offense to do any wrong to another’s house; in the back, however, they have a small door for household uses. They sleep on beds made of small rods, covered with mats, and with their mantles of cotton as covering. In the summer they sleep in the front part of the house on the mats, especially the men. Away from the house the entire village sows the fields of the chief, cares for them, and harvests what is required for him and his household; and whenever they hunt and fish, or at the salt gathering time, they always give a part to the chief; in these matters everything is always in common.

If the chief should die his eldest son would succeed him, but the others would always be much respected, favored and held as lords. The leading men, lower than the chief, are favored in all these matters according to who they are, or the favor shown them by the chief. The priests live upon their benefices and offerings. The chiefs govern the town, settling suits, ordering and adjusting the affairs of the commonwealths, doing all through the hands of the leading men. These latter are much honored and obeyed, especially the wealthy, the chiefs visiting them and holding court at their houses fcr the settlement of affairs and business, this being done principally at night.

Whenever the chiefs leave the town they have a great company in attendance, and the same when they leave their houses.

The Indians of Yucatan are people of good physique, tall, robust and of great strength, and commonly are all bow-legged from having in their infancy been carried astride the mother’s hip when they are taken somewhere. It was held as a grace to be cross-eyed, and this was artificially brought about by the mothers, who in infancy suspended a small plaster from the hair down between the eyebrows and reaching the eyes; this constantly binding, they finally became cross-eyed. They also had their heads and foreheads flattened from infancy by their mothers. Their ears were pierced for earrings and much scarified from the sacrifices. They did not grow beards and say that their mothers were used to burn their faces with hot cloths to prevent the growth. Nowaday beards are grown, although they are very rough, like hogs’ bristles.

They allowed their hair to grow like the women; on top they ringed it, making a good tonsure. Thus it grew long below but short on the crown; it was braided and wound around the head, with an end left behind like a queue. All the men used mirrors, and the women not; and to call a man a cuckold they said his wife had put the mirror in his hair behind his head. They bathed a great deal, not troubling to cover themselves before the women, except such as they might do with the hand. They were devoted to perfumes, having bouquets of flowers and odorous plants, arranged with much care and art. They painted their faces and bodies red, disfiguring themselves, though to them it seemed handsome.

Their clothing was a strip of cloth a hand broad that served for breeches and leggings, and which they wrapped several times about the waist, leaving one end hang in front and one behind. These ends were embroidered by their wives with much care and with featherwork. They wore large square mantles, which they threw over the shoulders. They wore sandals of hemp or deerskin tanned dry, and then no other garments.20

SEC. XXI. FOOD AND DRINK OF THE INDIANS OF YUCATAN.

Their principal sustenance is maize, of which they prepare various dishes and drinks; and even drunk as they do it, it serves as their food and drink. The Indian women put the maize to soak the night before in lime and water, and in the morning it is soft and half-cooked, having in the process lost the husk and nib. They next grind it on stones, and when half ground make it into great balls and loads for the use of laborers, travelers and sailors. In that shape it keeps for several months, except for souring. Of this they then take a lump and dissolve it in a vessel or gourd formed by the rind of a fruit that grows on a tree, whereby God has provided them with vessels; out of this they drink the liquor and then eat the rest, it being of excellent taste and very nourishing. From the maize that is more fully ground they take away the milk and thicken it at the fire, making a sort of curd for morning use; and this they drink hot. Upon what is left from the morning they put water for drinking through the day, since they are not accustomed to drink water alone. They also toast the maize and then grind and mix it with water into a very refreshing drink, putting into it a little Indian pepper or cacao.

Out of maize and ground cacao they make a sort of froth that is very delicious, and with which they celebrate their festivals. From the cacao they extract a grease that is much like butter, and from this together with maize they prepare another agreeable and much esteemed drink. Still another is made from the substance of the ground maize, raw, which is also fresh and tasty. They prepare many kinds of bread, good and healthful, except that it is not good to eat when cold; so that the Indian women are kept busy with making it twice a day. They have not learned how to make flour that can be kneaded like wheat flower, and when they do make it as one makes wheat bread, it is good for nothing. They make ragouts of vegetables and venison, and of wild and domestic fowls of which there are plenty, and of fish of which there are plenty. Thus they have good provisions, especially since they are raising Spanish pigs and fowls.

In the mornings they take their hot drink with pepper, as we have said: through the day the cold drinks and in the evening the ragouts. When they have no meat they make their sauces of pepper and vegetables. The men and women do not eat together, but eat apart, on the ground; or if there is much, with a mat for a table. They live well when they have it, and endure hunger equally well when they have not, getting along on very little. After eating they wash their hands and mouth.

SEC. XXII. PAINTING AND TATTOOING OF THE INDIANS. THEIR ORGIES, WINES AND BANQUETS. THEIR COMEDIES, MUSIC AND DANCES.

They tattoo their bodies and are accounted valiant and brave in proportion to its amount, for the process is very painful. In doing it the craftsman first covers the part he wishes with color, and then delicately pierces the pictures in the skin, so that the blood and color leaves the outlines on the body. This they do a little at a time, on account of the pain and because of the disorders that ensue; for the places fester and form matter. But for all this they ridicule those who are not tattooed. They set much store on amiability and the showing of graces and natural accomplishments; today they eat and drink as we do.

FESTIVAL - DRESDEN CODEX

 

The Indians are very dissolute in drinking and becoming intoxicated, and many ills follow their excesses in this way. They kill each other; violate their beds, the poor women thinking they are receiving their own husbands; they treat their own fathers and mothers as if they were in the houses of enemies; they set fire to their houses, and so destroy themselves in their drunkenness. When the carouse is general, and for the sacrifices, all contribute to it; when private, the cost is borne by the entertainer, with the aid of his parents. Their wine they make of honey and water and the root of a certain tree they grow for the pur-CORN pose, and which gives the wine strength and a very disagreeable odor. At their dances and merry-makings they eat seated two by two, or in fours. After the eating the cup-bearers, who have had to remain sober, help themselves from great jars until they are overcome, and their wives have great trouble in getting their drunken husbands home.

FIGURINE
FROM ISLA JAINA

 

They often spend on one banquet all they have made by many days of trading or scheming. They have two methods of making these feasts; the first of these (that of the chiefs and leading men) obliges each guest to return an invitation to his host; to each guest the host must give a roast fowl and cacao and drinks in abundance, and after the banquet it is the custom to present each with a mantle to wear, with a small stand and a cup, as fine as the host can afford. If one of the guests has died, the obligation to give the return invitation lies on his house or parents.

The other kind is between kinsfolk, when they marry their children or celebrate the deeds of their ancestors. This does not have to be returned, except that if a hundred Indians have invited one to a feast, all are invited by him when he makes a feast or marries his children. They think much of friendship and remember these invitations even when separated far from each other. At the banquets the drink is passed by beautiful women, who, after handing the goblet, turn the back until it is emptied.

The Indians have delightful ways of entertainment; particularly they have actors who perform with great skill, to such an extent as that they hire themselves to the Spaniards for nothing other than to observe the jests the Spaniards pass with their servants, their wives, and on themselves over their good or bad serving; all of this they act later with as much art as attentive Spaniards could.

They have small drums which they strike with the hand, and another drum of hollow wood that gives a deep, mournful sound. This they hit with a longish stick at the end of which is a ball of a certain gum that exudes from a tree. They have long, thin trumpets of hollow wood, the end of which is formed of a large twisted gourd. They have another instrument made of a whole tortoise with its shells, from which the flesh has been removed; this they strike with the palm of the hand, giving a mournful, sad sound.

They have whistles of cane and of deer bones, also large conchs and reed flutes; with these instruments they accompany the dancers. Two of their dances are especially virile and worth seeing; one is a game of reeds, whence they call it colomché, the word having that meaning [a palisade of sticks ’]. To perform it they make a large circle of dancers, whom the music accompanies, and in time with which two come into the circle; one of these dances erect, holding a handful of reeds, while the other dances squatting, both keeping time around the circle. The one with the reeds throws them with all his force at the other, who with great skill catches them with a small rod. When all are thrown they return, keeping time, into the circle, and others come out to do the same.

There is another dance in which 800 Indians, or more or less, dance with small flags in a great war measure, among all of them not one being out of time. They are heavy in their dances, since they do not cease dancing for the entire day, food and drink being brought to them. The men do not dance with the women.

The tunkul or Mexican teponaztli; beaten with a rubber-tipped stick it can be heard for five or six miles.

The other cuts show a musical Corn Festival as pictured in the Dresden Codex; a pax or Mexican huehuetl, to be beaten with the flat palms; a clay figurine of a dancer, from Isla Jaina, off the west coast; a deity seated on the earth, blowing a pipe (this and the pax from the Madrid Codex) ; a clay pipe in the form of a lizard.

SEC. XXIII. INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND MONEY. AGRICULTURE AND SEEDS. JUSTICE AND HOSPITALITY.

Among the occupations of the Indians were pottery and wood-working; they made much profit from forming idols of clay and wood, in doing which they fasted much and followed many rites. There were also physicians, or better named, sorcerers, who healed by use of herbs and their superstitious practices. It was so also with all their other occupations.

Their favorite occupation was trading, whereby they brought in salt; also cloths and slaves from Tabasco and Ulúa. In their bartering they used cacao and stone counters which they had for money, and with which they bought slaves and other fine and beautiful stones, such as the chiefs wore as jewels on festal occasions. They had also certain red shells for use as money and jewels for wearing; these they carried in network purses. In their markets they dealt in all the products of the country; they gave credit, borrowed and paid promptly and without usury.

The commonest occupation was agriculture, the raising of maize and the other seeds; these they kept in well-constructed places and in granaries for sale in due time. Their mules and oxen were the people themselves. For each married man and his wife it was their custom to plant a space of 400 feet, which was called hun vinic [one man], a plot measured with a 20-foot rod, 20 in breadth and 20 in length.

The Indians have the excellent custom of helping each other in all their work. At the time of planting, those who have no people of their own to do it join together in bands of twenty, or more or less, and all labor together to complete the labor of each, all duly measured, and do not stop until all is finished. The lands today are in common, and whoever occupies a place first, holds it; they sow in different places, so that if the crop is short in one, another will make it up. When they work the land they do no more than gather the brush and burn it before sowing. From the middle of January to April they care for the land and then plant when the rains come. Then carrying a small sack on the shoulders they make a hole in the ground

The growing plant springs from the head of the god Itzamna. The plant, springing from the earth, withers and is revived. The Corn deity holds forth the growing plant, springing from the sign ik, or Breath, Life. (All the figures shown on this page are from the Madrid Codex, which has chiefly to do with farm ceremonies.)

Itzamná plants the tree in the earth. Itzamná drops the seed in the earth and animals attack it. Worms attack the Corn-god, seated on the earth. Birds of prey feed on the dying Corn-god (note the closed eye).

with a stick, dropping in five or six grains, and covering them with the same stick. When it rains, it is marvelous how they grow. In hunting also, they unite in bands of fifties, or more or less; the flesh of the deer they grill over rods to keep it from spoiling; then when they come back to the town they first make their presents to the chief and then distribute all as between friends. In fishing they do the same.

The Fire-dog, or heat rays from the sun, burns the growth, while the Corn-god, with arms bound, is dying. Next, Itzamná waters the growing maize, denoted by the kan-sign. The hunter ties up the deer.

In making visits the Indians always carry a gift, according to their quality, and the one visited returns the gifts with another. During these visits third persons present speak and listen attentively to those talking, having due regard for their rank; notwithstanding which all use the thou.’ Those of less position must, however, in the course of the conversation, repeat the title or dignity of the one higher in rank. They have the custom of assisting one who delivers a message by responding with a cadence of the voice, a sort of aspirate in the throat, as if to say it is well,’ or be it so.’ The women are brief in what they say, nor do they have the habit of negotiating on their own account, especially if poor; for this the chiefs scoffed at the friars for giving ear to poor and rich without distinction.

For offenses committed by one against another the chief of the town required satisfaction to be made by the town of the aggressor; if this was refused it became the occasion of more trouble. If they were of the same town they laid it before the judge as arbitrator, and he ordered satisfaction given; if the offender lacked the means for this, his parents or friends helped him out. The cases in which they were accustomed to require such amends were in instances of involuntary homicide, the suicide of either husband or wife on the other’s account, the accidental burning of houses, lands of inheritance, hives or granaries. Other offenses committed with malice called for reparation through blood or blows.

The Yucatecans are very generous and hospitable; no one enters their houses without being offered food and drink, what drink they may have during the day, or food in the evening. If they have none, they seek it from a neighbor; if they unite together on the roads, all join in sharing even if they have little for their own need.

SEC. XXIV. METHOD OF COUNTING OF THE YUCATECANS. GENEALOGIES. INHERITANCES AND TUTELAGE OF THE ORPHANS. THE SUCCESSION OF THE CHIEFS.

They count by fives up to twenty, by twenties to a hundred and by hundreds to four hundred; then by 400’s up to 8000. This count is much used in merchandising the cacao. They have other very long counts, extended to infinity, counting twenty times 8000, or 160,000; then they multiply this 160,000 again by twenty, and so on until they reach an uncountable figure. They do all their counting on the ground or a flat surface.21

They make much of knowing the origin of their lineages, especially if they come from one of the houses of Mayapán; this they learn from their priests, it being one of their sciences, and they boast much about one of their lineage who has distinguished himself. The name of the father is transmitted to his sons, but not to his daughters. Both sons and daughters received the name of their father and their mother, the father’s as the proper name, and the mother’s as the given one; thus the son of Chel and Chan was called Na-Chan Chel, meaning the son of so and so. For this the Indians consider all of the same name as related, and treat them accordingly; and thus when they go to a part of the country where they are unknown, and are in need, they make known their names, and if there are any of the same they are received and treated with good will and affection. Thus also no man or woman marries another of the same name, because this was for them a great infamy. Today they use their baptismal names.

Daughters did not inherit equally with their brothers, except as a matter of favor or good will, in which case a part of the whole was given them. The rest was divided equally, except where one had helped more in the accumulation of the property, in which case he received an equivalent before the division. If the children were all daughters, then the cousins or other nearest kin inherited. Where the heir was not of sufficient age to receive the property, they entrusted it to the nearest relative as guardian or tutor, who supplied the mother with what she needed for his bringing up; for it was not their custom to place the property in the mother’s control; or they even took the children from her care where the tutors were the brothers of the deceased. When the heirs reached their majority, the guardians rendered them the property; if this was not done it was held as in great dishonor, and became the cause of violent quarrels. The transfer was made in the presence of the chiefs and leading men, deducting what had been spent for their care; the heirs received nothing of the harvests, or the products of the hives or cacao trees, because of the labor involved in keeping them up.

When the chief died, if he left no sons to succeed him, but left brothers, the eldest or most capable became the ruler; meanwhile the heir was instructed in the customs, the ceremonies and everything he would need to know when he became of age. These brothers, even when the heir came to his position, still controlled affairs through their lives. In the case of there being no brothers of a deceased chief, the priests and leading men chose a man fitted for this position.

SEC. XXV. DIVORCES FREQUENT AMONG THE YUCATECANS. NUPTIAL. CUSTOMS.

In the olden times they married at the age of twenty, but now at that of twelve or thirteen. For this reason they divorce the more easily because they marry without love, and ignorant of married life and the duties of married people; and if their parents could not persuade them to return to their wives, they hunted them another, and others and others. With equal ease men with children left their wives with no anxiety lest another might take them as wives, or that they themselves might later return to them. Nevertheless, they are very jealous, and do not lightly suffer infidelity on their wives’ part; and now that they see that the Spaniards kill their wives for this reason, they are beginning to maltreat and even to kill them. In cases of divorce, small children stayed with their mothers, while the grown-up went with their father and the girls with their mother.

Even though divorce was so common and familiar a thing, the old people and those of better customs condemned it, and there were many who never had but the single wife; nor did they ever marry one bearing their own name on the father’s side, for this was considered a very bad thing. Equally wrong was it held that a man should marry his sister-in-law, the widow of a brother. Neither did they marry their step-mothers, their wives’ sisters, nor their mothers’ sisters, all these being regarded as wrong. But with all other kinsmen on their mothers’ side, even first cousins, it was held legitimate.

The fathers were at great care to seek in good season wives for their sons, of equal rank and condition; and for the men to seek their wives themselves was regarded as undignified, as well as for the parents of the woman to make advances. In these matters they left the preparatory steps in the charge of other persons to care for; these then negotiated, dealt together, discussed the dowry or the settlement (which was not large). This the youth’s father gave to the prospective father-in-law, while the girl’s mother prepared garments for the bride and for the child.

The day of the marriage having arrived, they all gathered at the house of the fiancée’s father, where a repast had been prepared. The guests met with the young couple and their relatives; the priest assured himself that the latter had given the matter all due consideration, gave the young man his wife, if it was settled for him to receive her that night; and after this the banquet took place. From that day the son-in-law remained in his father-in-law’s house for five or six years, working for him; if he failed in this, he was driven from the house, but the mothers arranged always for the wife to supply her husband with his food, as a mark of the marriage.

The marriage of widowers and widows took place without any festival or ceremonies; the man simply went to the woman’s house, was admitted and given to eat, and with this it was a marriage. The result of this was that they separated as easily as they came together. The Yucatecans never took more than a single wife, although in other places they frequently took a number together. At times the parents contracted marriages for their sons even when they were young children, and were regarded as their fathers-in-law until they came of age.

SEC. XXVI. METHOD OF BAPTISM IN YUCATAN; HOW IT WAS CELEBRATED.

Baptism is not found anywhere in the Indies save here in Yucatan, and even with a word meaning to be born anew or a second time, the same as the Latin renascer. Thus in the language of Yucatan sihil means to be born anew,’ or a second time, but only however in composition; thus caput-sihil means to be reborn.22 Its origin we have been unable to learn, but it is some-thing they have always used and for which they have had such devotion that no one fails to receive it; they had such reverence for it that those guilty of sins, or who knew they were about to sin, were obliged to confess to the priest, in order to receive it; and they had such faith in it that in no manner did they ever take it a second time. They believed that in receiving it they acquired a predisposition to good conduct and habits, protection against being harmed by the devils in their earthly affairs, and that through it and living a good life they would attain a beatitude hereafter which, like that of Mahomet, consisted in eating and drinking.

Their custom of preparing for baptism was as follows: the Indian women raised the children to the age of three, placing for the boys a small white plaquet, fastened to the head in the hair of the tonsure; the girls wore a thin cord tied very low about the waist, to which was attached a small shell over the private parts; to remove these two things was regarded among them as a sin and disgraceful, until the time of the baptism, which was given between the ages of three and twelve; until this ceremony was received they did not marry.

Whenever one desired to have his child baptised, he went to the priest and made his wish known to him, who then published this in the town, with the day chosen, which they took care should be of good omen. This being done, the solicitant, being thus charged with giving the fiesta, selected at his discretion some leading man of the town to assist him in the matter. Afterwards they chose four other old and honored men to assist the priest on the day of the ceremony, these being chosen with the priest’s cooperation. In these elections the fathers of all the eligible children took part, for the fiesta was a concern of all; those so chosen were called Chacs. For the three days before the ceremony the parents of the children, as well as the officials, fasted and abstained from their wives.

On the day, all assembled at the house of the one giving the fiesta, and brought all the children who were to be baptized, and placed them in the patio or court of the house, all clean and scattered with fresh leaves; the boys together in a line, and the girls the same, with an aged woman as matron for the girls, and a man in charge of the boys.²³

When this was done the priest proceeded to the purification of the house, expelling the demon. To do this they placed four benches in the four corners of the patio, on which the four chacs seated themselves, with a long cord tied from one to the other, in such fashion as that the children were corraled in the middle, after which those parents who had fasted stepped over the cord, into the circuit. Afterwards, or previously, they placed in the middle another bench on which the priest seated himself, with a brazier and a little ground maize and incense. Then the boys and girls came to him in order, and he put a little of the ground maize and incense into the hand of each, and they threw it into the brazier. When all had done this, they took up the brazier and the cord held by the chacs; they also threw a little wine in a vase and then gave it all to an Indian to carry away from the village, enjoining him not to drink the wine or to look behind him on his return; and in this manner they said that the demon had been exorcised.

After this they swept the patio and took away the leaves that were scattered at the beginning, which were of a tree called sihom, and scattered others of a tree called copó, laying down mats while the priest changed his vestures. He next entered wearing a tunic of red feathers, worked with other varicolored feathers, and with other long feathers pendant from the ends; on his head he wore a sort of miter of the same feathers, while beneath the tunic there hung to the ground strips of cotton like tails. He carried a hyssop made of a short, finely decorated stick, and the tails of certain serpents like rattlesnakes;²⁴ all this with neither more nor less gravity than that of a pope crowning an emperor, and a serenity that was a marvel to behold. The chacs then went to the children and placed on the heads of all white cloths which their mothers had brought for the purpose. They asked of the largest ones whether they had done any bad thing, or obscene conduct, and if any had done so, they confessed them and separated them from the others.

When this was done the priest called on all to be silent and seated, and began to bless the children, with long prayers, and to sanctify them with the hyssop, all with great serenity. After this benediction he seated himself, and the one elected by the parents as director of the fiesta took a bone given him by the priest, went to the children and menaced each one with the bone on the forehead, nine times. After this he wet the bone in a jar of water he carried, and with it anointed them on the forehead, the face, and between the fingers of their hands and the bones of their feet, without saying a word. This liquor was confected out of certain flowers and ground cacao, dissolved

† Suhuy nok, or virgin cloth; as still known in Yucatan.

in virgin water, as they call it, taken from the hollows of trees or of rocks in the forest.

After this unction the priest rose, removed the white cloths from their heads, as well as others they wore suspended from the shoulders containing a few feathers of very beautiful birds and some grains of cacao, all of which were collected by one of the chacs. Then with a stone knife the priest cut away the small bead or counter each had worn fastened to his head. After this the other assistants of the priest brought a bunch of flowers and a pipe such as the Indians smoked; with these they menaced each child nine times, and then gave him the bouquet to smell and the pipe to smoke. After this they gathered the presents brought by the mothers, which were things to eat, and gave these to each child to eat there. Then they brought a fine chalice of wine and quickly offered it to the gods, invoking them with devout prayers to receive this small gift from the children; this chalice they then gave to another officiant called cayom, that he might empty it at a single draught; for him to stop to take breath in this was regarded as something sinful.

When this was over the girls took their leave first, their mothers removing the cord and shell they had worn about the girdle in sign of their chastity; this gave license for them to be married, when such might seem best to their parents. Then the boys took their leave, and the fathers came bearing the heap of mantles they had brought, and gave them with their own hands to the assistants and the officiants. The fiesta then ended with long eating and drinking; and this fiesta was called em-ku, which means the descent of the god.’ The one then who had instituted and borne the cost of the ceremony, in addition to his three previous days of abstinence and fast, was obliged to continue this for yet other nine days; this they did inviolably.

SEC. XXVII. KIND OF CONFESSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS. ABSTINENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF IDOLS. DUTIES OF THE PRIESTS.

The Yucatecans naturally knew when they had done wrong, and they believed that death, disease and torments would come on them because of evildoing and sin, and thus they had the custom of confessing to their priests when such was the case. In this way, when for sickness or other cause they found themselves in danger of death, they made confession of their sin; if they neglected it, their near relatives or friends reminded them of it; thus they publicly confessed their sins to the priest if he was at hand; or if not, then to their parents, women to their husbands, and the men to their wives.

The sins of which they commonly accused themselves were theft, homicide, of the flesh, and false testimony; in this way they considered themselves in safety. Many times, after they had recovered, there were difficulties over the disgrace they had caused, between the husband and wife, or with others who had been the cause thereof.

The men confessed their weaknesses, except those committed with their female slaves, since they held it a man’s right to do with his own property as he wished. Sins of intention they did not confess, yet considered them as evil, and in their counsels and sermons advised against them.

Those widowed did not marry for a year thereafter, nor know one of the other sex for this time; those who infringed this rule were deemed intemperate, and they believed some ill would come on them.

In some of the fasts observed for their fiestas they neither ate meat nor knew their wives. They always fasted when receiving duties in connection with their festivals, and likewise on undertaking duties of the State, which at times lasted as long as three years; those who violated their abstinence were great sinners.

So given were they to their idolatrous practices that in times of necessity even the women and youths and maidens understood it as incumbent on them to burn incense and pray to God that he free them from evil and overcome the demon who was the cause of it.

Even travelers on the roads carried incense with them, and a little plate on which to burn it; and then wherever they arrived at night they erected three small stones, putting a little incense on each, and three flat stones in front of these, on which they burned incense, praying to the god they called Ekchuah 25 that he bring them safely back home; this ceremony they performed every night until their return, unless there were some other who could do this, or even more, on their account.

Ekchuah
ON HIS TRAVELS

The Yucatecans had a great number of temples, sumptuous in their style; besides these temples in common the chiefs, priests and principal men also had their oratories and idols in their houses for their private offerings and prayers. They held Cozumel and the well at Chichén Itzá in as great veneration as we have in our pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome; they visited them to offer gifts, especially at Cozumel, as we do at our holy places; and when they did not visit they sent offerings. When traveling also, and passing an abandoned temple, it was their custom to enter for prayers and burn incense.

So many idols did they have that their gods did not suffice them, there being no animal or reptile of which they did not make images, and these in the form of their gods and goddesses. They had idols of stone (though few in number), others more numerous of wood, but the greatest number of terra cotta. The idols of wood were especially esteemed and reckoned among their inheritances as objects of great value. They had no metal statues, there being no metals in the country. As regards the images, they knew perfectly that they were made by human hands, perishable, and not divine; but they honored them because of what they represented and the ceremonies that had. been performed during their fabrication, especially the wooden ones.

The most idolatrous of them were the priests, the chilánes, the sorcerers, the physicians, the chacs and the nacónes. It was the office of the priests to discourse and teach their sciences, to indicate calamities and the means of remedying them, preaching during the festivals, celebrating the sacrifices and administering their sacraments. The chilánes were charged with giving to all those in the locality the oracles of the demon, and the respect given them was so great that they did not ordinarily leave their houses except borne upon litters carried on the shoulders. The sorcerers and physicians cured by means of bleeding at the part afflicted, casting lots for divination in their work, and other matters. The chacs were four old men, specially elected on occasion to aid the priest in the proper and full celebration of the festivals. There were two of the nacónes; the position of one was permanent and carried little honor, since it was his office to open the breasts of those who were sacrificed; the other was chosen as a general for the wars, who held office for three years, and was held in great honor; he also presided at certain festivals.

SEC. XXVIII. SACRIFICES AND SELF-MORTIFICATIONS, BOTH CRUEL AND OBSCENE, AMONG THE YUCATECANS. HUMAN VICTIMS SLAIN BY ARROWS, AND OTHERS.

At times they sacrificed their own blood, cutting all around the ears in strips which they let remain as a sign. At other times they perforated their cheeks or the lower lip; again they made cuts in parts of the body, or pierced the tongue crossways and passed stalks through, causing extreme pain; again they cut away the superfluous part of the member, leaving the flesh in the form of ears. It was this custom which led the historian of the Indies to say that they practised circumcision.

At other times they practised a filthy and grievous sacrifice, whereby they gathered in the temple, in a line, and each made a pierced hole though the member, across from side to side, and then passed through as great a quantity of cord as they could stand; and thus all together fastened and strung together, they anointed the statue of the demon with the collected blood. The one able to endure the most was considered most valiant, and their sons of tender age began to accustom themselves to this suffering; it is frightful to see how much they were dedicated to this practice.

The women made no similar effusions of blood, although they were very devout. Of every kind of animal obtainable, birds of the sky, animals of the earth, fishes of the sea, they used the blood to anoint the face of the demon; they also gave as presents whatever other thing they had. Of some animals they took out the heart and offered that; others were offered whole, some living, some dead, some raw, some cooked. They also made large offerings of bread and wine, and of all the kinds of food and drink they possessed.

To make these sacrifices in the courts of the temples there were erected certain tall decorated posts; and near the stairway of the temple there was a broad, round pedestal, and in the middle a stone, somewhat slender and four or five palms in height, set up; at the top of the temple stairs there was another similar one.

 

Apart from the festivals which they solemnized by the sacrifices of animals, on occasions of great tribulation or need the priests or chilánes ordained the sacrifice of human beings. For this purpose all contributed, for the purchase of slaves. Some out of devotion gave their young sons. The victims were feted up to the day of the sacrifice, but carefully guarded that they might not run away, or defile themselves by any carnal acts; then while they went from town to town with dances, the priests, the chilánes and the celebrants fasted.

 

When the day of the ceremony arrived, they assembled in the court of the temple; if they were to be pierced with arrows their bodies were stripped and anointed with blue, with a miter on the head. When they arrived before the demon, all the people went through a solemn dance with him around the wooden pillar, all with bows and arrows, and then dancing raised him upon it, tied him, all continuing to dance and look at him. The impure priest, vestured, ascended and whether it was man or woman wounded the victim in the private parts with an arrow, and then descended and anointed the face of the demon with the blood he had drawn; then making a sign to the dancers, they began in order as they passed rapidly, dancing, to shoot an arrow to the victim’s heart, shown by a white mark, and quickly made of his chest a single point, like a hedgehog of arrows.

If his heart was to be taken out, they conducted him with great display and concourse of people, painted blue and wearing his miter, and placed him on the rounded sacrificial stone, after the priest and his officers had anointed the stone with blue and purified the temple to drive away the evil spirit. The chacs then seized the poor victim and swiftly laid him on his back across the stone, and the four took hold of his arms and legs, spreading them out. Then the nacon executioner came, with a flint knife in his hand, and with great skill made an incision between the ribs on the left side, below the nipple; then he plunged in his hand and like a ravenous tiger tore out the living heart, which he laid on a plate and gave to the priest; he then quickly went and anointed the faces of the idols with that fresh blood.

At times they performed this sacrifice on the stone situated on the top step of the temple, and then they threw the dead body rolling down the steps, where it was taken by the attendants, was stripped completely of the skin save only on the hands and feet; then the priest, stripped, clothed himself with this skin and danced with the rest. This was a ceremony with them of great solemnity. The victims sacrificed in this manner were usually buried in the court of the temple; but it occurred on occasions that they ate the flesh, distributing portions to the chiefs and those who succeeded in obtaining a part; the hands, feet and head went to the priests and celebrants; and these sacrificial victims they then regarded as sainted. If they were slaves captured in war, their masters kept the bones,

* The above illustration, after a drawing by Ann Axtell Morris from a wall-painting at Chichén Itzá, is almost exactly reproduced on a repoussé gold piece recovered from the great cenote, in which the incision in the chest is also shown, of which we unfortunately cannot show a reproduction, but which may be seen on display at the Peabody Museum in Cambridge. A further striking similarity is also to be found in the illustration on page 21 of the Gomesta manuscript, apparently a death but not a sacrificial scene, where the man’s body lies tied and prone (not supine) on a table, facing into the head of a serpent which stretches coiled almost as in the above picture. An identity of symbolism (which does not in the least have to indicate either origin or transmission, as a certain school seems to derive everything Maya straight from Egypt because of other similarities) is perhaps somewhat curiously present in the Chinese honorific expression for one’s decease: “He has mounted the dragon,” and invoked the great mystery.

The sacrificial flint knife, with inlaid mosaic handle representing two intertwined serpents, as shown on the next page, was also brought up from the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá. It is reproduced by courtesy of Mr. T. A. Willard, from his Cily of the Sacred Well.

and displayed them in the dances, as a mark of victory. At times they threw the victims alive into the well at Chichén Itzá, believing that they would come forth on the third day, even though they never did see them reappear.

SEC. XXIX. ARMS OF THE YUCATECANS. MILITARY CHIFTAINS. MILITIA AND SOLDIERS. CUSTOMS OF WAR.

They had offensive and defensive arms. The offensive were bows and arrows carried in their quivers, tipped with flints and very sharp fishes’ teeth, which they shot with great skill and force. The bows were of a beautiful yellowish wood, marvelously strong and more straight than curved, with cords of their hemp fibres. The length of the bow is always somewhat less than that of the one who carries it. The arrows are made of reeds that grow in the lagoons, and more than five palms long, in which is fixed a piece of thin wood, very strong, in which again is fastened the flint.

They do not know or use poisons, though from no lack of them. They had hatchets of a certain metal and of this shape, fastened in a handle of wood. These served them both as arms in war, and then at home for working wood. The metal being soft, they gave it an edge by beating with a stone.

They had short lances a man’s height in length, pointed with very hard flint; besides these they had no other arms. For defense they had shields made of split and woven reeds, and covered with deer hide. They wore protective jackets of cotton, quilted in double thicknesses,26 which were very strong. Some of the chiefs and captains wore helmets of wood, but these were not common.

With these arms they went to war, adorned with feathers, and with skins of tigers and lions, when they possessed them. They had two captains, one perpetual and hereditary, the other elected for three years with a great deal of ceremony.

This latter was selected to celebrate the festivals of the month Pax, which falls on the 12th of May; and during a war he commanded the second corps of the army. This captain was called nacon; during these three years he was forbidden to hold converse with women, even with his wife, or to eat met. They held him in great respect, and supplied him with fish and iguanas, which are a sort of edible lizards; during this period he must not become drunk, and the vessels and household articles for his use were kept apart; he was not served by a woman, and mingled little with the townsfolk.

The three years passed as stated. These two captains arranged matters for wars, and put things in their order. In each district there were men chosen as the soldiery, and when the occasion came they presented themselves with their arms; these were called the holcánes, and if there were not enough of them, others were collected; they were then given instructions and divided. Marching led by a lofty banner they set out from the town in complete silence, and then taking their enemies by surprise, fell on them with great cries and fierceness.

On the roads and passages the enemy set defenses manned by archers, barricades of stakes and trees, and more often of stone. After a victory they cut off the jawbones from the dead, and hung them clean of flesh on their arms. In these wars they made great offerings of the spoils, and if they captured some renowned man they promptly sacrificed him, not to leave alive those who could later inflict injury upon them. The rest became captives of war in the power of those who took them.

These holcánes received no pay except in time of war, and then they were given certain money by the captains, but not much, because it came from their own funds; or if they lacked the needful, the town helped them. The town also supplied their food, which the women prepared for them; this they carried on their backs for the lack of animals, and thus the wars were of short duration. After the war the soldiers harassed the people in the districts greatly, under color of the war, while this lasted, requiring services and gifts; if any of them succeeded in killing some captain or chief he was greatly honored and feted.

SEC. XXX. PENALTIES AND PUNISHMENTS FOR ADULTERERS, HOMICIDES AND THIEVES. EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG MEN. CUSTOM OF FLATTENING THE HEADS OF CHILDREN.

From Mayapán these people retained the custom of punishing adulterers in the following manner. The investigation having been made and the man convicted of adultery, the leading men gathered at the chief’s house and brought the adulterer tied to a piece of wood, delivering him to the husband of the woman. If he pardoned him he went free, if not, he killed him by dropping a large stone on his head, from a height. For the woman a sufficient punishment was the infamy, which was great; and commonly for this he left her.

The penalty for homicide, even when involuntary, was death at the hands of the relatives, unless he paid himself off. A thief had to reimburse the value, and was besides enslaved, however small the theft, which was a reason why they had so many slaves, especially in times of hunger. Because of this the friars made special effort to baptise them, that they might be set at liberty. If the thief was one of the chiefs or leading men, they assembled and having seized him scarified both sides of his face from the beard to the forehead, which constitutes a major dishonor.

The young men respected the elders highly, and took their counsels and sought to pass as mature. The elders said to the younger ones that since they had witnessed more, what they said should be received with credit, so that the youths following this would gain the more respect themselves. So much was the respect given to the elder men that the youths did not mingle with them, except in cases of necessity, such as marriages. Also they visited little among the married people; so that it was the custom to have in each town a large building, whitewashed and open on all sides, where the young men gathered for their pastimes. They played ball, and a certain game with beans like dice, and many others. Here they nearly always slept, all together, until they were married.

And since I have heard it said that in other parts of the Indies they were guilty of unnatural offenses in these houses, I have not learned of their doing this in this country, nor do I believe they did so; this because they say that those addicted to this pestilential vice care nothing for women, as these people did. For it was their habit to bring to these places the public women and make use of them; and it is said that among them the poor creatures who took up this mode of life, although they were paid therein, were so beset by the number of the youths that they were harassed even to death.

They painted their bodies black before marriage, but were not tattooed until after, except slightly. As to other things they always accompanied their fathers, and so became as great idolaters as they; and they helped them much in their labors.

The Indian women raised their children both harshly and wholly naked. Four or five days after the child was born they laid it on a small cot made of rods, face down, with the head between two pieces of wood, one on the occiput and the other on the forehead, tying them tightly, and leaving it suffering for several days until the head, thus squeezed, became permanently flattened, as is their custom. This however caused so great distress and risk for the poor infants that they were at times in danger of death; and the author hereof saw one where the head was pressed back of the ears, which must have been happened to many.

They were brought up entirely naked, but at about four or five years of age they gave them a wrap for sleeping, and strips of cloth to cover themselves as their fathers did; the little girls also began to cover themselves from the girdle down. They suckled much, for the mothers never ceased to give them milk as long as they could, until three or four years old; from this there has resulted so many robust people in the country.

For the first two years they grew up marvelously pretty and fat; after that, due to the constant bathing by their mothers, and the heat of the sun, they became tanned. But during the whole of their childhood they were jolly and lively, always armed with bows and arrows, and playing with each other. Thus they grew up until they began to behave as youths, taking on more importance, and leaving children’s things.

SEC. XXXI. CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS OF THE INDIAN WOMEN.

The Indian women of Yucatan are in general of better build than the Spaniards, larger and well formed. They lack the large haunches of negresses. Those who are beautiful are quite vain of it, and indeed they are not bad looking; they are dark-skinned, caused more by their constant bathing and by the sun, than naturally; they do not powder their faces as our women do, regarding this as immodest. They have a habit of filing their teeth, saw fashion, as a matter of elegance; this is done for them by the old women, using certain stones and water.

They pierce the cartilage of the nose within, to take a stone of amber for adornment. They also pierce the ears for rings, in the manner of their husbands; they tattoo the body from the waist up, leaving the breasts for nursing reasons, the patterns being more delicate and beautiful than those of the men. They bathe constantly, like the men, in cold water, but with little reserve, going stripped into the places where they go for water. They also bathe in hot water, heated by fire; this is however rather for sake of health than cleanliness.

Their custom is to rub themselves with a red ointment, like their husbands; those who can do so add an odoriferous and very sticky gum which I take to be liquidambar, and which they call istahté. This ointment they apply to a sort of briquet like soap, decorated with fancy designs, rubbing it on their breasts, arms and shoulders, until they are very gallant and odorous, as they feel; it lasts a long time without disappearing, according to the quality of the ointment.

They wear the hair very long, which they used to and still do arrange in very fine tresses, parted in two parts, and made use of to build up the coiffure. When the young girls go to be married, their mothers go to such pains in arranging their hair, and use such skill, as that I have seen many with their coiffures as fine as those of the most coquettish Spanish women. The little girls, not grown up, wear theirs in two or four plaits which become them well.

The Indian women of the coast, of the province of Bak-halal and of Campeche, are more modest in their costume; besides the skirt which they wear from the waist down, they cover the breasts with a double mantle fastened below the armpits. As to the others, their sole garment is a long wide sack, open at the sides, reaching to the thighs and there fastened by its own ends; besides this they have only the mantle in which they always sleep, and which when on the road they carry doubled and rolled, and wrapped up.

SEC. XXXII. CHASTITY AND EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN WOMEN OF YUCATAN. THEIR CHIEF QUALITIES AND THEIR HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. THEIR DEVOTION AND THE SPECIAL OBSERVANCES AT THE TIME OF CHILDBIRTH.

The women vaunted themselves as chaste, and with reason, because before they knew our nation they were such to a marvel; of this they have two examples. The captain Alonso López de Avila, father-in-law of the admiral Montejo, captured a handsome and graceful Indian girl during the war at Bacalar. She, in fear of death for her husband, had promised him never to yield herself to another, and for this nothing could persuade her, even the fear of death, to consent to violation; so that they threw her to the dogs.

As for myself, I once received the complaints of a baptized Indian woman, against a baptised man who followed her impetuously for her beauty; after she had repeatedly rejected him, without avail, he came one night in her husband’s absence and when his pleas and offer of gifts remained without effect, attempted force, being a powerful man. For the whole night she fought him off, with such grief to herself as that she came to me; and it had been as she said.

The women were in the habit of turning their shoulders toward the men in passing them, and of turning to the side on the roads; this also they did in giving a man drink, until he had finished it. They taught their daughters the things they knew, and raised them excellently in their mode; they reprimanded them, instructed them and made them work; if they misbehaved they punished them by boxing their ears or slapping their arms. If they raise their eyes they reprove them severely, and put pepper on them, which causes great pain; if they are immodest they whip them, and put pepper on the other part, as a punishment and affront. It is also a grave reproach to tell the young girls they are like women brought up without a mother.

They are very jealous and at times lay hands on those women that have aroused their suspicions; again they are quick to anger and irritation on this score, though in other ways very mild; so that they are wont to pull their husbands’ hair for the least infidelity. They are great workers and good in all the domestic economies, for on them rest the most, and most important, work of alimentation, housekeeping and education of their children, and the payment of the tributes; with all this they bear heavier burdens if it is necessary, working the fields and harvesting the crops. They are great economists, watching at night in what time is left them after their domestic labors, attending the markets to buy and sell their things.

They raise both Spanish and native fowls for sale, and for eating. They raise birds for their pleasure and for the feathers for adornment on their finer clothes; also raising other domestic animals, among these even offering their breast to the deer, which they have so tame that they never run away into the woods, even when they take them there and back, and raise them there.

They help each other mutually in their working and spinning, paying for this work in the same way as do their husbands on their farms; and while at this they ever have their jokes and tell their stories, at times with a bit of grumbling. They hold it disgraceful to look at the men and laugh at them, so this fact alone is enough to cause trouble, and with no other grounds to bring them into disrepute.

The most of their dances they do by themselves, although in some they dance with the men; among these the naual dance, one not very modest. Their fecundity is great, and they bear the children in good time; they are excellent nurses, first because their hot morning drink produces plenty of milk, and again because their constant grinding of the maize without tying up the breasts causes them to grow large and thus to hold a great deal of milk.

Dresden, Bolkin 27

They also become intoxicated in their banquets, which they have among themselves, but not so much as do the men. They desire many children, and she who lacks them invokes their idols with gifts and prayers; and today they pray to God for them. They are prudent and polite, and affable, with those who understand them; also extremely generous. They cannot keep a secret; and they are not as clean and proper in their persons and affairs as they should be, in spite of their washing like the ermines.

They were very devout and pious, rendering many devotions to their idols, burning incense before them, offering gifts of cotton, food and drink; it was also their charge to prepare the offerings of food and drink to be made during the ceremonies; but they did not share the custom of drawing blood for the evil spirits, and never did so. Neither were they allowed to come to the temples at times of the sacrifices, except in a certain festival where certain old women were admitted to take part therein. At the time of accouchement they went to their sorceresses, who made them believe all sorts of lies, and also put under their couch the image of an evil spirit called Ixchel, whom they called the goddess of childbirth.

When the children were born, they bathed them at once, and then when the pain of pressing the foreheads and heads was over, they took them to the priest that he might cast their fate, declare the office the child was to fill, and give him the name he was to retain during his childhood; because they were accustomed to call the children by different names until they were baptised or somewhat grown up; afterwards they dropped these and called themselves. after their fathers until they were married. Then they took the names of both father and mother.

SEC. XXXIII. FUNERALS. BURIALS OF THE PRIESTS. STATUES TO PRESERVE THE ASHES OF THE CHIEFS, AND THE HONORS THEY PAID TO THEM. THEIR BELIEF REGARDING A FUTURE LIFE, WITH REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

This people had a great and excessive fear of death, and this they showed in that in all their services they rendered to their gods were for no other end than that they should give them health and life and their subsistence. But when it came the time to die, it was a thing to see what were the grief and lamentations they displayed for their deceased, and the sadness they felt. They wept during the day in silence, and during the nights with loud and mournful cries that were grievous to hear. For many days they went about

The text figures are from the Dresden codex, and probably show the goddess Ixchel, in the first as goddess of childbirth, or Lucina; in the second she bears the signs of new day,’ spring, renewal time. The wife of Itzamná, in the Maya pantheon she corresponded to Isis.

in deepest mourning. They kept abstinence and fasts for the deceased, especially a husband or wife. They declared it was the devil that had taken them off, because they thought all ills came from him, especially death.

At death they shrouded the body, filled the mouth with ground maize and a drink they call koyem, and with this certain stones they used for money, that food might not be lacking to him in the other life. They buried them in their houses or the vicinity, throwing some of their idols into the grave; if he was a priest they threw in some of his books; if a sorcerer his divining stones and other instruments of his office. They commonly abandoned the house after the funeral, except where many people were living there, in whose company they would lose some of their fear of death.

On the death of a chief or man of position they cremated the bodies and put the ashes in large urns, and built temples over them, as is seen to have been done in the old times in the cases there have been found at Izamal. Today it is found that they put the ashes of great chiefs in hollow clay statues.

The others of the upper classes made statues of wood, left hollow in the occiput, for their fathers; then they burned part of the body and put part of the ashes therein, and stoppered it; then they removed the skin from the occiput and fastened it there, burying the remainder in the usual fashion. These images they kept with much reverence, among their idols. Among the ancient lords of the house of the Cocoms they cut off the heads after death, boiled them so as to remove the flesh; then they sawed away the back part of the skull, leaving the front with the cheeks and teeth, supplying in these half sections of the head the removed flesh by a sort of bitumen, and gave them almost the perfection of what they had been in life. These they kept together with the images, and the ashes, all in the oratorios of their houses among their idols, with great reverence and affection. On all festivals and feast days they put before them offerings of food, that nothing might fail them in the other life, where they believed the souls rested and received their gifts.

These people have always believed in the immortality of the soul, in greater degree than many other nations, even though they were not so civilized; they believed that after death there was another life better than this, which the soul enjoyed after leaving the body. This future life they said was divided into good and evil, into pains and delights. The evil life of suffering they said was for the vicious, and the good and delectable for those whose mode of life had been good. The delights they said they would come into if they had been of good conduct, were by entering a place where nothing would give pain, where there would be abundance of food and delicious drinks, and a refreshing and shady tree they called Yaxché, the Ceiba tree, beneath whose branches and shade they might rest and be in peace forever.

The torments of the evil life which they said awaited the wicked, lay in going to an evil place below the other, and which they called Mitnal, meaning hell, where they were tormented by demons, by great pains of cold and hunger and weariness and sadness. They said there was in this place a chief demon whom all the rest obeyed and whom in their language they called Hunhau; also they said that these good and evil after-lives had no end, because the soul itself had none. They also said, and held as quite certain, that those who had hung themselves went to this paradise; and there were many who in times of lesser troubles, labors or sickness, hung themselves to escape and go to that paradise, to which they were thought to be carried by the goddess of the scaffold whom they called Ixtab. They had no knowledge of the resurrection of the body; neither could they give account of whence had come to them these beliefs in this, their paradise and their hell.

THE BALL. COURT

FROM A MODEL BY GEORGE OAKLEY TOTTEN, JR.