Religion
The Indians, who are extremely superstitious, believe that the air is full of pishan, or souls of the dead. They imagine that these souls are at liberty at all times to return to earth, and that at certain seasons they are compelled to do so. They are regarded as being capable of enjoying the spirit, though not the substance, of food or drink provided for them. Some of these pishan the Indians believe to be friendly and some inimical to mortals. They believe also in spirits, usually mischievous or harmful, known as xtabai, who often take the form of beautiful women, though they have never been human. The natives will whisper a message into the ear of a corpse with the certainty of having it conveyed to a friend or relative in the next world. They firmly believe that the clay images of the gods upon incense burners, at one time found in considerable numbers in forests which had been uncut since the days of their ancestors, live, walk about, and dance at certain seasons. Another belief held by the Indians is that the images of Christian saints are endowed at times with life and perform acts desired by their devotees. A celebrated wooden image, supposed to represent San Bernardo, was credited with considerable powers in this respect, and when an Indian wanted rain for his milpa, the return of an errant wife, or any similar blessing, he would come and pray to the image to obtain it for him. On one occasion an Indian came asking the saint to aid him in the recovery of pigs which he had lost, and on returning to his village found that the pigs had arrived home before him. Next day he returned with the intention of making an offering to the saint, and incidentally to the owner of the house where the image was kept. He found the poor Santo with torn clothes and many burs sticking all over him. On inquiring how this happened he was informed that the saint had been out in the bush hunting for pigs, a quest which had given him a great deal of trouble before he could find and drive them home, and that when he got back he was tired out, his clothes torn by thorns, and covered with burs—an explanation with which the Indian was perfectly satisfied.
The men are very unwilling to dig either in ancient mounds or ruins, as they are afraid of being haunted by the pishan of those whose remains they may disturb; and nothing will induce them to go into caves or burial chambers in mounds. Many curious superstitions hang about the ruins found throughout the country. I was assured by an Indian at Benque Viejo that he had gone on one occasion to the ruins situated near the village, and seeing a pigeon seated on a tree, raised his gun to shoot it; before he could do so, however, the pigeon turned into a cock, and this almost immediately into an eagle, which flew at him, driving him away. There is another superstition about these ruins to the effect that when the first settlers came to Benque Viejo they wished to build the village near the ruins, where the land is very good for growing corn, but were repeatedly driven off by a little old man with a long gray beard. At last, giving up the idea, they contented themselves with the present site for the village.
For many years, between the expulsion of the Yucatecans from Bacalar by the Indians and the conquest of the latter by the Mexican troops, some 12 years ago, no Catholic priests were permitted to visit the Santa Cruz country. The Indians, however, appointed priests from among themselves, who carried out, so far as can be ascertained from those of their number who left the territory and settled in British Honduras, a sort of travesty of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church freely interspersed with many of those of their ancient religion, which had survived. The headquarters of this religious cult was the capital, where it centered around what was known as the "Santa Cruz," a plain wooden cross, 2 to 3 feet high, which had probably been removed from some church after the expulsion of the Spaniards. This cross was supposed to be gifted with the power of speech (a belief arising no doubt from the exercise of ventriloquial powers by one of the priests), and acted as a sort of oracle, to whom all matters of importance—civil, military, and religious—were submitted for decision. It need hardly be said that the cross never failed to return an answer to all these questions, in entire conformity with the wishes of the chief.[2]
The Indians here under consideration occupy an intermediate position between the civilized Maya of northern Yucatan, who have lost nearly all tradition and traces of their former civilization, and the Lacandones of the Usumasintla Valley, who have probably changed but little in their customs and religious observances since the conquest. Nominally they are Christians, but the longer one lives among them, and the better one gets to know them, the more he realizes that their Christianity is to a great extent merely a thin veneer, and that fundamentally their religious conceptions and even their ritual and ceremonies are survivals—degenerate, much changed, and with most of their significance lost—but still survivals of those of their ancestors of pre-Columbian days. To Christianity, not as a separate religion, but as a graft on that which they already practiced, they seem to have taken kindly from the first; and at the present day, as will be seen, the sun god, the rain god, St. Laurence, and Santa Clara may all be invoked in the same prayer, while the Cross is substituted in most of the ceremonies for the images of the old gods, though many of the latter are called on by name. The four principal religious ceremonies of the Indians are, as might be supposed, closely associated with agriculture, especially with the corn crop. The first of these ceremonies takes place at the cutting of the bush in which the corn plantation is to be made, the second at the planting of the corn, the third during its ripening, and the fourth at harvest time. Of these the third, known as the Cha chac, which takes place during the ripening of the corn, and whose object is to secure sufficient rain for that purpose, is by far the most important, and it alone will be described, as it embraces the offerings and ritual of all the other ceremonies.
Fig. 11.—Chichanha Indian priest in front of altar at Cha chac ceremony.
The day previous to the ceremony the men of the family prepared the pib, an oblong hole in the ground, in which the various corn offerings were to be baked, while during the night the women were busy grinding corn to make masa (a thick paste of ground maize) and pumpkin seeds to make sikil. Very early in the morning of the day of the ceremony the priest with his assistant arrived at the house of the giver. This priest called himself men, but was called by the owner a chac, while the Chichanha priest called himself an ah kin. The Indians chose a site in the midst of a grove of large trees. After clearing away the undergrowth they swept clean a circular space about 25 feet in diameter. In this they proceeded to erect two rude huts, one 12 feet the other 6 feet square; both were thatched with huano leaf, and the floor of the smaller hut was covered with wild plantain leaves. In the center of the larger hut was erected a rough altar 6 by 4 feet and 4 feet 6 inches high, built of sticks bound together with bejuco (fig. [11]). The central part of this altar was covered by an arch of "jabin" branches with the leaves still attached. About a dozen small calabashes in their ring supports (Maya chuyub) were placed on the altar, and three more were hung to a string passing from the side of the shed to a post a few yards away. The masa prepared the previous night was then brought out in four large calabashes, two of these being placed under the altar and two on top of it; a large calabash of sikil and one of water were also placed on the altar and a jar of balchè (a drink made of fermented honey in which is soaked the bark of a tree) beneath it.
Fig. 12.—Priest tracing cross on cake and filling it in with sikil.
Beneath the suspended calabashes was placed a small table containing piles of tortillas and calabashes of masa and water. In carrying out this ceremony it is essential that everything used in it be perfectly fresh and new; the leaves, sticks, bejuco, and jabin must be freshly cut, and the masa, sikil, balchè, and even the calabashes must be freshly made. The masa was taken from the large to the small shed, where the priest and several male members of the family sat around it. After flattening out a small ball of the masa the priest placed it on a square of plantain leaves and poured over it a little sikil (a thin paste made of ground pumpkin seed and water). Then the next man flattened out a piece of masa, which he placed over the sikil, and the process was continued until a cake was formed containing 5 to 13 alternating layers of masa and sikil. On top of each cake, as it was completed, the priest traced with his forefinger a cross surrounded with holes; these were first partly filled with balchè, which was allowed to soak into the cake, after which they were filled completely with sikil, whereupon the whole cake was carefully tied up in plantain leaf, with an outer covering of palm leaf (fig. [12]). These cakes are known as tutiua; their number is generally gauged by the number of participants in the ceremony. When sikil is not available, a paste of ground black beans is used; in this case the cakes are known as buliua (Maya bul, "bean"; ua, "bread"). The priest next made a deep depression in a ball of masa about the size of a tennis ball, which he filled with sikil, covering it with the masa, so as to leave a ball of masa with a core of sikil.
Fig. 13.—Sacrificing a turkey at the Cha chac ceremony.
A number of these balls, known as yokua, were made, each wrapped in plantain leaves. When finished, all of them were wrapped in a large palm leaf and tied into a bundle with split palm-leaf strands. Two more tutiua were next made, and lastly all the masa and sikil left were mixed together with a few ounces of salt. After being well kneaded this mass was divided into two portions, each of which was tied up in plantain and palm leaf coverings. In the meantime some members of the family had filled the pib or oven with firewood, over which they placed a layer of small blocks of stone. The priest next made a bowl of sachà (literally "white water," a drink made from ground corn and water), with which he filled the small calabashes on the altar, as well as the suspended calabashes; these he explained were for the tuyun pishan, or solitary souls. A turkey and four fowls were then placed in front of the altar, alive, while the priest lighted a black wax candle by blowing a piece of glowing wood to a flame; this candle he placed upon the altar. He next took up the turkey, around whose neck the assistant had placed a wreath of jabin leaves, and poured a little balchè down its throat, its legs being held by the assistant (fig. [13]). While doing this the priest murmured the following prayer:
In kubic ti hahnal cichpan colel, ti San Pedro, San Pablo, San Francisco.
Translation
I offer a repast to the beautiful mistress, to San Pedro, San Pablo, San Francisco.
The turkey and the other fowls were then killed by having their necks wrung, and the carcasses of all five were removed to the house to be prepared by the women. The various bundles of masa and sikil in their leaf coverings were next removed to the pib, where the fire had burned itself out, leaving the hole half full of ashes and red-hot stones. A lining of plantain bark was laid over the stones, upon which the bundles were arranged; over these were placed more hot stones and over the latter palm leaves; lastly, the earth which had been dug from the pib was raked over all. The priest next took a small quantity of the sachà from a calabash, in a jabin leaf, and scattered it on the ground in three directions, meanwhile murmuring this prayer:
Cin kubic ti atepalob, ti noh yum kab yetel uahmetan, atepalob, tiaca tzib nah.
Translation
I offer to the majestic ones, to the great lord, corn cake, great ones. [Tiaca tzib nah is somewhat obscure. The reading, according to Don Juan Martinez, of Merida, should be tia ca Ɔib-nah.]
Afterward the priest repeated the performance with sachà from the calabashes on the altar, and lastly with some from the calabashes of the tuyun pishan. The sachà was then distributed in calabashes to the participants, it being essential that every drop of it be drunk. After a wait of about an hour all proceeded to the pib, which, after it had been sprinkled by the priest with balchè from a small calabash, was opened. The red-hot leaf-wrapped bundles were carried to the small shed, where the coverings were removed, exposing the tutiua and yokua, crisp, brown, and hot. These were placed upon the altar, with the exception of one tutiua, which was tied to the string holding the calabashes of the tuyun pishan. The cakes made from the remainder of the masa and sikil were now crumbled into a large calabash and mixed with another large calabash of kool (a reddish liquid made from water, ground corn, black pepper, and achiote). The two mixtures were stirred with a peeled wand of jabin till they formed a thick paste known as sopas. While the sopas was being made the hearts, heads, and intestines of the fowls were removed to the pib where they were buried, lest some animal by eating them should defile the offering. The cooked and dismembered turkey and other fowls were brought out to the small shed in calabashes; the livers, gizzards, and immature eggs were chopped up fine and well mixed with the sopas. A small calabash full of this mixture was placed with the calabashes of the tuyun pishan, while the rest, in a large calabash, the fowls' claws standing upright in it, was placed upon the altar, together with the dismembered birds wrapped in a clean cotton cloth. The priest next removed some balchè from the jar and filled a calabash, which he placed upon the altar, as he did so murmuring these prayers:
Ea, in cichpan colel kanleoox, yetel bacan tech in cichkelem tat yum San Isidro, ah kolkal, yetel bacan tech yum kankin, culucbalech ti likin, yetel bacan in chanttupchaac, culucbal chumuc caan, ti likin, yetel bacan yum canchaacoob; kin kubic yetel bacan ahooil atepalo chumuc caan, yetel bacan tech in cichkelem tata ahcanan kakabool, yetel bacan tech in cichkelem tata Cakaal Uxmal, yetel bacan tech in cichpan colel Santa Clara, yetel bacan tech in cichkelem tata yum xualakinik, yetel bacan tech in cichpan colel Xhelik, yetel bacan tech in cichkelem tatayum Santo Lorenzo, yetel bacan tech in cichpan colel Guadelupe, yetel bacan tech tun yum Mosonikoob, meyahnaheex ichil cool kat tocah. Cin kubic bacan letie Santo Gracia, utial a nahmateex, yetel bacan tech u nohchi Santo uai yokol cab halibe in yumen sates ten in cipil. Minan a tzul pachkeech letie Santo Pishan, Ooki in mentic letie Santo Promicia.
Translation
Now my beautiful lady of the yellow-leaf breadnut, as well as you, my handsome father San Isidro, tiller of the earth; as well as you, lord sun, who art seated at the east; as well as you, Chanttupchaac, who art seated in the middle of the heavens, in the east; as well as you, Yumcanchaacoob: I deliver to you, with the majestic servants in the middle of the heavens. As well as you, my handsome father, Ahcanankakabool; as well as you, my handsome father Cakaal Uxmaal; as well as you, my beautiful lady Santa Clara; as well as you, my handsome father Xualakinik; as well as you, my beautiful lady Xhelik; as well as you, my handsome father San Lorenzo; as well as you, my beautiful lady of Guadelupe; as well as you, Lord Mosonicoob, that blows within the milpa when it is burnt. I deliver then to you this Holy Grace, that you may taste it, and because you are the greatest Santos on earth. That is all my master. Pardon my sins; you have not to follow the holy souls, because I have made this holy offering.
Cin Kubic ti nah tatail, ti u cahil San Roque, u cahil Patchacan, ti Chan Sapote.
Translation
I offer you, great father, for your town of San Roque, your town of Patchacan, and Chan Sapote.
The assistant then brought up some burning incense (pom) on a piece of plantain bark, which the priest took, and after waving it about for a short time placed it upon the altar, after which he dipped out a small portion of balchè and scattered it in three directions, murmuring while doing so the following prayer:
Noh Nah ti Uxmal, ti atepaloob Ixcabach Chen Mani, ti Xpanterashan, Chacanchi, Chacantoc, ti Xnocachan, Xcunya, Yaxutzub, Yaxaban, ti atepaloob.
Translation
Great house of Uxmal, of the majestic Ixcabach, Chen Mani, of Xpanterashan, Chacanchi, Chacantoc, of Xnocachan Xcunya, Yaxatzub Yaxaban of the majestic ones.
A small portion of balchè was next passed around to each of the participants, the priest again scattering a little on the ground and repeating the prayer. The calabash, which was now nearly empty, was then removed to the house for the benefit of the women. It was soon brought back by the assistant and refilled from the jar, and the same procedure gone through again. This was repeated till no more balchè remained to be drunk. The priest then scattered some of the sopas in four directions, using one of the fowls' claws to scoop it up from the calabash, after which what remained of the sopas was divided up among the participants, each one being given a calabash in which a fowl's claw was placed for use as a fork. A small quantity of the mixture which remained was taken to the house for use of the women. Lastly the priest removed the tutiua and yokua from the altar, and divided these among the participants, giving each one at the same time a corn-husk cigarette. The ceremony was now finished, and the last act was completely to destroy all the objects used in it, including buildings, altar, calabashes, and chuyubs; this was done by fire.
This Cha chac ceremony as performed by the Santa Cruz and Icaichè Indians bears a strong resemblance to certain ceremonies performed before the conquest, in honor of the Chacs, or Rain gods, and also to ceremonies carried out at the present day by the Lacandon Indians.
The names given to the modern priests were, according to Landa, all in use in his day. The Chacs were four old men chosen to assist the priests.[3] The men was an inferior priest or sorcerer, while the name Ahkin[4] was applied after the conquest, both to their own and to Christian priests by the Maya. Landa also mentions (Chap. XL, p. 260) a fiesta given to the Chacs, in conjunction with other gods, held in one of the plantations, when the offerings were consumed by the people after being first presented to the gods; these offerings consisted of turkeys and other fowls, corn cake, sikil, and posol,[5] all of which are used in the modern Maya Cha chac.
The god Yumcanchacoob (Lord of all the Chacs) of the Santa Cruz probably corresponds to Nohochyumchac (Great Lord Chac) of the Lacandones, as does the Ahcanankakabol (keeper of the woods) of the Santa Cruz, to the Kanancash of the Lacandones, whose name has practically the same significance. A belief in Xtabai, or spirits, and Ikoob, or Wind gods, seems common alike to the Santa Cruz, the Lacandones, and the Indians of Yucatan.