SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 64

THE MAYA INDIANS OF SOUTHERN YUCATAN
AND NORTHERN BRITISH HONDURAS

BY

THOMAS W. F. GANN

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1918

[LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL]

Washington, D. C., November 4, 1916.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the manuscript of a memoir entitled "The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras," by Thomas W. F. Gann, and to recommend its publication as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

Very respectfully,

F. W. Hodge,

Ethnologist-in-Charge.

Hon. Charles D. Walcott,

Secretary, Smithsonian Institution.

[CONTENTS]

Part 1. Customs, Ceremonies, and Mode of Life
Page
Introduction[13]
Habitat[14]
Personal characteristics[15]
Dress[18]
Industrial activities[20]
Agriculture[20]
Procuring food; cooking[21]
Hunting[23]
Fishing[25]
Construction of houses and furniture[26]
Pottery making[28]
Boat building[28]
Spinning and weaving[29]
Minor industries[30]
Tobacco curing[30]
Basket and mat weaving[30]
Social characteristics[32]
Villages[32]
Marriage and children[32]
Drunkenness[34]
Chiefs[35]
Diseases and medicines[36]
Games[39]
Religion[40]

Part 2. Mound Excavation in the Eastern Maya Area
Introduction[49]
Classification of the mounds[49]
Ancient inhabitants of the region[51]
Physical appearance[51]
Dress[52]
Weapons[52]
Houses[53]
Arts[53]
Musical instruments[54]
Food[55]
Spinning and weaving[55]
Games[56]
Religion[56]
Chronology[58]
Description of mounds[59]
Mound No. 1[59]
Mound No. 2[63]
Mound No. 3[65]
Mound No. 4[67]
Mound No. 5[70]
Mound No. 5 A[72]
Mound No. 6[74]
Mound No. 6 A[78]
Mound No. 7[79]
Mound No. 8[80]
Mound No. 9[83]
Mound No. 10[86]
Mound No. 11[90]
Mound No. 12[92]
Mound No. 13[99]
Mound No. 14[99]
Mound No. 15[103]
Mound No. 16[105]
Mound No. 17[109]
Mound No. 18[111]
Mound No. 19[112]
Mound No. 20[112]
Mound No. 21[114]
Mound No. 22[115]
Mound No. 23[116]
Mound No. 24[118]
Mound No. 25[120]
Mound No. 26[123]
Mound No. 27[124]
Mound No. 28[124]
Mound No. 29[125]
Mound No. 30[125]
Mound No. 31[128]
Mound No. 32[129]
Mound No. 33[130]
Mound No. 34[132]
Mound No. 35[133]
Mound No. 36[134]
Mound No. 37[134]
Mound No. 38[134]
Mound No. 39[135]
Mound No. 40[136]
Mound No. 41[137]
Two painted stucco faces from Uxmal[140]
Authorities cited[143]
Index[145]

[ILLUSTRATIONS]

PLATES
Page
1.Group of Santa Cruz Indians[18]
2.Maya girls fishing[26]
3.Fish drying on one of the cays off the coast of Yucatan[26]
4.Maya Indian houses. a. Leaf-thatched house, b. Indian house on Rio Hondo[26]
5.Maya woman, 105 years old, spinning cotton[29]
6.Maya loom[29]
7.Sketch map of British Honduras, with adjacent parts of Yucatan and Guatemala, indicating the positions of mounds excavated[59]
8.Figurines of warriors from Mound No. 1[60]
9.Figurines from Mound No. 1[60]
10.a. Section through earthwork inclosing circular space, Santa Rita. b. Section of wall through Santa Rita[70]
11.Egg-shaped vase from Mound No. 5[70]
12.Metates and brazos from Mound No. 6[75]
13.a. Small pottery seal. b. Bowl in which skull was found, c. Skull[75]
14.Skull and bones from Mound No. 8[80]
15.Stone objects from Mound No. 10[88]
16.a. Model of jadeite bivalve shell, b. Light-green jadeite mask, c. Ax head, or celt. d. Terra-cotta cylinder[91]
17.Painted basin and cover from Mound No. 16[105]
18.Pottery from Mound No. 16[107]
19.a. Decoration on vase shown in figure [60]. b. Decoration of vessel from Mound No. 17[110]
20.Incense burner from Mound No. 24[119]
21.a. Small vase decorated with human head. b. Human bones from Mound No. 29[125]
22.Painted clay figurine from Mound No. 33[131]
23.Pottery vase from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]
24.Pottery vase from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]
25.Pottery vase from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]
26.Pottery cylinder from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]
27.Pottery cylinder from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]
28.Pottery cylinder from Yalloch, Guatemala[142]

TEXT FIGURES
1.Map showing Yucatan, Campeche, British Honduras, and part of Guatemala[14]
2.Gold earrings made and worn by the Santa Cruz Indians[19]
3.Cross of tancasche bark worn by children[19]
4.Powder horn and measure of bamboo used by the Indians[23]
5.Watertight box for caps, matches, or tinder, with corncob stopper[23]
6.Whistle for attracting deer by imitating their call[24]
7.Indian carrying load of bejuco, a liana used as rope in house building[26]
8.Domestic altar[27]
9.Stonelike substance used to prevent fingers from sticking while spinning[29]
10.Calabash with liana base used in spinning[30]
11.Chichanha Indian priest in front of altar at Cha chac ceremony[43]
12.Priest tracing cross on cake and filling it in with sikil[44]
13.Sacrificing a turkey at the Cha chac ceremony[45]
14.Plan of Santa Rita mounds[59]
15.Figurine from Mound No. 1[60]
16.Figurines from Mound No. 1[61]
17.Unpainted object from Mound No. 1[62]
18.Clay alligator found in Mound No. 2[64]
19.Objects from Mound No. 4[68]
20.Pottery vessels from Mound No. 4[69]
21.Objects found in Mound No. 5[71]
22.Diagram of Mound No. 6[74]
23.Diagram of trenches in Mound No. 6[76]
24.Bowls, vases, and dishes found in Mound No. 6[77]
25.a. Skull. b. Limestone foundation. c. Excavation. d. Grooved flag in situ. e. Projecting lip[78]
26.Circular openings leading into natural cavity[80]
27.Ground plan of chultun[82]
28.Ground plan of Mound No. 9[84]
29.Wall construction of Mound No. 9[84]
30.Details of Mound No. 9[85]
31.Obsidian object and pottery vase from Mound No. 10[87]
32.Obsidian arrowhead from Mound No. 10[89]
33.Flint object from Mound No. 10[89]
34.Obsidian object from Mound No. 10[90]
35.Inscription on mask, plate [16], b.[91]
36.Inscription on ax head, plate [16], c.[92]
37.Flint spearheads[94]
38.Flint objects[94]
39.Devices scratched on stucco in aboriginal building[95]
40.Eccentrically shaped implements found at summit of mound[96]
41.Flint object found at base of stela[96]
42.Flint object found at base of stela[96]
43.Flints found in ruins at Naranjo[97]
44.Objects from Benque Viejo[98]
45.Obsidian objects found in a mound near Benque Viejo[99]
46.Flint object from Seven Hills[100]
47.Horseshoe-shaped flint object found near San Antonio[100]
48.Figure from River Thames, near London[101]
49.Flint objects from Tennessee[102]
50.Flint objects from Italy[103]
51.Small cup-shaped vase from Mound No. 15[104]
52.Objects from Mound No. 15[104]
53.Conventionalized representation of bird on vessel shown in plate [17][106]
54.Decoration on vessel shown in plate [17][106]
55.Perforated beads found in Mound No. 16[107]
56.Jadeite beads found in Mound No. 16[107]
57.a. Circular shell disks from Mound No. 16. b. Greenstone ear plugs from Mound No. 17[108]
58.Obsidian disk inserted in tooth of skeleton found in Mound No. 17[109]
59.Bird carrying a fish outlined on shallow plaque found in Mound No. 17[110]
60.Cylindrical pottery vase found in Mound No. 17[110]
61.Larger pottery vase found in Mound No. 17[111]
62.Coiled plumed serpent painted on plaque found in Mound No. 17[111]
63.Pottery vase found in Mound No. 18[112]
64.Glyph outlined on outer surface of rim of vase shown in figure [63][112]
65.Torso, head, and headdress from Mound No. 20[113]
66.Fragment of pillar found in Mound No. 20[113]
67.Another view of incense burner shown in plate [20][119]
68.Incense burner decorated with crude clay figurine from Mound No. 25[120]
69.Crude clay figurine found in Mound No. 25[121]
70.Crude clay figurine found in Mound No. 25[122]
71.Small pottery vases found in Mound No. 26[123]
72.Red pottery vase found in Mound No. 27[124]
73.Pottery vessels found in Mound No. 31[128]
74.Chocolate pot found in Mound No. 31[128]
75.Pottery vessels found in Mound No. 32[129]
76.Head cut from limestone found in Mound No. 32[130]
77.Greenstone mask found in Mound No. 32[130]
78.Soapstone lamp found in Mound No. 33[131]
79.Rough pottery vessel found in Mound No. 33[132]
80.Objects found in Mound No. 34[132]
81.Figure in diving position on small vase[133]
82.Design incised on femur of deer found in Mound No. 39[135]
83.Copper object found in Mound No. 39[136]
84.Ruins found in Mound No. 40[137]

[KEY TO PRONUNCIATION OF MAYA WORDS]

Vowels and consonants are pronounced as in Spanish, with the following exceptions:
ǩk explosive
Kordinary palatal k
Xsh as in shut
TŠch explosive
Ɔts
Ailike i in confide
ttt explosive

[THE MAYA INDIANS OF SOUTHERN YUCATAN AND
NORTHERN BRITISH HONDURAS]

By Thomas W. F. Gann

[PART 1. CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES, AND MODE OF LIFE]

[INTRODUCTION]

The southern and eastern parts of Yucatan, from Tuluum in the north to the Rio Hondo in the south, are occupied to-day by two tribes of Maya Indians, the Santa Cruz and Icaichè or Chichanha. The number of Santa Cruz was estimated by Sapper in 1895 at about 8,000 to 10,000, but at the present day has probably been reduced to about 5,000. The Icaichè, the number of whom he estimated at 500, and is given by the Guia de Yucatan in 1900 as 803, now comprise not more than 200. This decrease is due to the policy of extermination carried out among the Santa Cruz for years by the Mexican Government, and the consequent emigration of many of the Indians to British Honduras, Guatemala, and northern Yucatan. The northern and western parts of British Honduras contain between 5,000 and 6,000 Indians; those in the north are partly indigenous and partly immigrants drawn from Yucatecan tribes who have left their homes after various political disturbances, especially after the occupancy of their towns of Bacalar and Santa Cruz by the Mexican Government. The Indians of the western part of the colony are also partly indigenous, but for the greater part Itzas, who have come in from Peten in Guatemala.

The objects shown in figures [16], [17], [18], [19], [21], [31], [35], [36], [47], [51], [52], [55], [56], [57], [59], [62], [63], [64], [65], [69], [70], [76], and [77], and in plates [8], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18a], and [19] are in the Liverpool Museum; those shown in figures [15], [40], and [41] and in plate 9 are in the British Museum; those shown in figure [45] and in plates [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], and [28] are in the Bristol Museum; and those shown in figures [67] and [68] and in plates [20], [21], and [22] are in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

[HABITAT]

Fig. 1.—Map showing Yucatan, Campeche, British Honduras, and part of Guatemala. The area dealt with is shaded.

The northern-part of British Honduras, between the Rio Hondo and the Rio Nuevo, consists of an almost level plain, having an area of nearly 1,000 square miles. The soil is a vegetal humus; varying from a few inches to several feet in depth, the average depth being about 2 feet; beneath this is a stratum of marly limestone, outcrops of which are found in many places. The southern part of Yucatan, which, unlike the northern part, is comparatively well watered, is also flat, though a few small hills are found along the northern bank of the Rio Hondo, commencing about 50 miles from its mouth (fig. [1]). Most of the land along the rivers is swampy, producing only reeds, coarse grasses, and mangrove trees. Beyond the swamp country are found "cuhun ridges," consisting of river valleys or depressions in the surface which have become filled with alluvium brought down by the rivers from the interior, forming an exceedingly rich soil suitable for the cultivation of maize and nearly every tropical product. It is upon these "cuhun ridges" that most of the mounds and other relics of the ancient inhabitants are found and that nearly all the villages of the modern Indians are built. Large tracts of what is known as "pine ridge" are scattered throughout this area; these are level or slightly undulating plains covered with gravel and coarse sand—exceedingly poor soil, producing only wiry grass, yellow pines, and small pimento palms. On these "pine ridges" Indian mounds are hardly ever found, nor do the Indians of to-day build villages upon them except in rare instances and for special local reasons. With the exception of the extreme northern part, nearly the whole of this area is well watered by rivers and streams, while scattered throughout it are numerous lagoons and lakes, the largest of which is the Bacalar Lagoon.

[PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS]

The manners, customs, religious conceptions, and daily life of all these Indians are very similar, though among the Indians of British Honduras, who come more closely in contact with outside influences, old customs are dying out, and old ideas and methods are being superseded by new. The language of the tribes here considered, with slight local dialectical variations, is the same; all are of the same physical type; in fact, there can be little doubt that they are the direct descendants of those Maya who occupied the peninsula of Yucatan at the time of the conquest. Physically, though short they are robust and well proportioned. The men average 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 3 inches in height, the women about 2 inches less. The skin varies in color from almost white to dark bronze. The hair of both sexes is long, straight, coarse, black, and luxuriant on the head, where it extends very low over the forehead, but is almost entirely absent from other parts of the body. The women usually wear their hair hanging down the back in two plaits. Their faces are round and full, with rather high cheek bones; the skull is highly brachicephalic in type. The following indices were taken from a small number of Santa Cruz Indians, mostly males of middle age:

Maximum length of headcm.17.52
Maximum breadth of headcm.15.44
Cephalic index88.11
Facial heightcm.11.68
Maximum bi-zygomatic breadthcm.12.84
Facial index84.40
Nasal heightcm.5.13
Nasal breadthcm.3.55
Nasal index69.80

The eyes are large and dark brown, the ears small and closely applied to the head, the nose rather broad, and the jaw prognathous. The mouth is fairly large and the teeth excellent, though toward middle age they become greatly worn down in many individuals from eating corn cake impregnated with grit from the stone metate, and from the same cause they are frequently much incrusted with tartar. The figure in both sexes is short and broad. The long bones and the extremities are small and delicate. Both men and women are, however, capable of considerable and prolonged exertion. The former can carry loads of 150 pounds for 20 miles in the macapal (tab), a netted bag which is slung over the back and held up by a band passing round the forehead, while the latter can work for hours at a time grinding corn on the metate without apparent fatigue. Many of the younger women would be considered very good looking, measured by the most exacting standard, though they reach maturity at an early age, and deteriorate in appearance very rapidly after marriage, the face becoming wrinkled and the figure squat and shapeless. In walking the men bend the body forward from the hips, keep the eyes fixed upon the ground, and turn the toes in, habits acquired from carrying the macapal on all occasions. So accustomed have they become to this contrivance that many of them, when starting on a journey of even a couple of miles, rather than go unloaded, prefer to weight the macapal with a few stones as a counterpoise to the habitual forward inclination of their bodies above the hips. Children begin carrying small macapals at a very early age, and it is probably to this habit and not, as Landa suggests, to the custom among the women of carrying their children astride the hip that the prevalence of bowlegs (kūlba ōk) among the Indians is due. These people have a peculiar and indescribable odor, rather pleasant than otherwise; it is not affected by washing or exercise, is much stronger in some individuals than in others, and is perceptible in both sexes and at all ages. The women are, on the whole, both physically and mentally superior to the men, and when dressed in gala costume for a "baile" with spotlessly clean, beautifully embroidered garments, all the gold ornaments they possess or can borrow, and often a coronet of fire beetles, looking like small electric lamps in their hair, they present a very attractive picture. They are polite and hospitable, though rather shy with strangers; indeed in the remoter villages they often rush into the bush and hide themselves at the approach of anyone not known to them, especially if the men are away working in the milpas. They are very fond of gossip and readily appreciate a joke, especially one of a practical nature, though till one gets to know them fairly well they appear dull and phlegmatic. When quarreling among themselves both women and girls use the most disgusting and obscene language, improvising as they go along, with remarkable quick-wittedness, not binding themselves down to any conventional oaths or forms of invective, but pouring out a stream of vituperation and obscenity to meet each case, which strikes with unerring fidelity the weak points in the habits, morals, ancestry, and personal appearance of their opponents. The young girls are as bad as, if not worse than, the older women, for whom they seem to have no respect. They are extremely clean in their persons, and wash frequently, though with regard to their homes they are not nearly so particular as hens, dogs, pigs, and children roll about together promiscuously on the floor, and fleas, lice, and jiggers abound only too frequently. The description given by Landa (chap. XXXII, p. 192) of the Indian women at the time of the conquest applies equally well to their descendants of the present day:

Emborachavanse también ellas con los combites, aunque por si, como comian por si, y no se emborachavan tanto como los hombres.... Son avisadas y corteses y conversables, con que se entienden, y a maravilla bien partidas. Tienen poco secreto y no son tan limpias en sus personas ni en sus cosas con quanto se lavan como los ermiños.

The women are very industrious, rising usually at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning to prepare the day's supply of tortillas or corn cake. During the day they prepare tobacco (kutz) and make cigarettes; gather cotton (taman), which they spin (kuch), weave (sakal), and embroider for garments; weave mats of palm leaf and baskets (xush) of a variety of liana (ak); make pottery (ul), and cotton and henequen cord, of which they construct hammocks (ǩan). In addition to these tasks they do the family cooking and washing, look after the children, and help their husbands to attend to the animals. Till late at night the women may be seen spinning, embroidering, and hammock-making by the light of a native candle or a small earthenware cuhoon-nut oil lamp, meanwhile laughing and chatting gayly over the latest village scandal, the older ones smoking cigarettes, while the men squat about on their low wooden stools outside the house gravely discussing the weather, the milpas, the hunting, or the iniquities of the Alcalde. Among the Indian women of British Honduras the old customs are rapidly dying out; spinning and weaving are no longer practiced, pottery making has been rendered unnecessary by the introduction of cheap iron cooking pots and earthenware, candles have given place to mineral oil lamps, and even the metate is being rapidly superseded by small American hand mills for grinding the corn. The men's time is divided between agriculture, hunting, fishing, and boat and house building, though at times they undertake tasks usually left to the women, as mat and basket making, and even spinning and weaving. The Indians of British Honduras who live near settlements do light work for the rancheros and woodcutters; they have the reputation of being improvident and lazy, and of leaving their work as soon as they have acquired sufficient money for their immediate needs, and this is to some extent true, as the Indian always wants to invest his cash in something which will give an immediate return in pleasure or amusement. The men are silent, though not sullen, very intelligent in all matters which concern their own daily life, but singularly incurious as to anything going on outside of this. They are civil, obliging, and good-tempered, and make excellent servants, when they can be got to work, but appear to be for the most part utterly lacking in ambition or in any desire to accumulate wealth with which to acquire comforts and luxuries not enjoyed by their neighbors. It happens occasionally that an individual does perforce acquire wealth, as in the case of the head chief of the Icaichè Indians, who was paid a salary by the Mexican Government to keep his people quiet, and royalties on chicle cut on his lands by various contractors. He accumulated a considerable sum, all in gold coin, which he stored in a large demijohn and hid in the bush. At his death, as no one knew the place where the demijohn was buried, the money was permanently lost. They are remarkably skillful at finding their way in the bush by the shortest route from point to point, possessing a faculty in this respect which amounts almost to an instinct; they are skillful also at following the tracks of men and animals in the bush by means of very slight indications, as broken twigs and disturbed leaves, imperceptible to an ordinary individual. The men are very stoical in bearing pain. I have removed both arms at the shoulder joints, with no other surgical instrument than a long butcher's knife, and no anesthetic except several drinks of rum, for an Indian, crushed between the rollers of a native sugar mill, without his uttering a single complaint. The Indians are undoubtedly cruel, but not wantonly so, as the shocking acts of cruelty reported as being perpetrated by them from time to time are usually by way of reprisal for similar or worse acts on the part of the Mexicans. Before the rising of the Indians in 1848, they were throughout this part of Yucatan practically in a state of slavery, and were often treated by their Spanish masters with the utmost barbarity. As an instance of this it is recorded of a well-known merchant of Bacalar that he was in the habit of burying his Indian servants in the ground to the neck, with their heads shaved, exposed to the hot sun; their heads were then smeared with molasses and the victims were left to the ants; and this punishment was inflicted for no very serious offense. It is hardly to be wondered at that such treatment left in the Indians' hearts an undying hatred for their masters which, when in their turn they gained the ascendancy, found vent in acts of the most horrible cruelty—flogging, burning, mutilation, and even crucifixion.