A pleasant air of prosperity pervades the settlement of Coban. Fortunately the touch of modern European influence has in no way lessened the attractiveness of the native surroundings, and for the first time we found comfort united with picturesqueness under the lovely skies of these tropical highlands.
The cottages of the natives stand apart from one another in gardens of flowering shrubs, fruit-trees, and rose-bushes, many of them half-buried in the thick foliage of coffee-trees, and they form a pleasant setting for the central group of public buildings and the substantial, comfortable, and characteristically southern houses of the well-to-do planters and merchants. Although the Indian cottages are mostly of the wattle-and-thatch order, there are not wanting stone-built and red-tiled dwelling-houses amongst them; and there is also an intermediate form of house peculiar to the neighbourhood of Coban in which the walls are made of “chute,” the roughly-squared trunks of tree-ferns, set close together in the ground and slightly tapering towards the top. Unlike timber, these fern-posts are entirely unaffected by moisture, so that, although the butt-end of the post is embedded in the ever-damp soil, it will last for centuries, and chutes from an old house will sell just as well as new ones.
The more imposing houses afford shelter both to the head of a family and the family saint—for every well-to-do Indian affords himself a saint, whether in the form of a framed print or a sculptured effigy made in Europe or imitated in the country by the clever native carvers in orange-wood. The decoration of the saint’s altar on festal occasions is attended to by the women of the family and their female friends, and they often display wonderful if eccentric taste, using chiefly flowers—and amongst these the gorgeous spikes of Bromelias and Musæ play a prominent part—or fruits, either singly or strung in garlands. They shape curious figures in soft clay and clothe them with variegated petals, or build stiff porches of cane and cover them with green and purple Canna-leaves. If the occasion is one of especial rejoicing money will be spent, some going to the priest to pay for masses, but far the larger amount finding its way to the aguardiente shop. Such private celebrations are, however, not of frequent occurrence, and more generally the functions are limited to keeping the “novena,” or nine-days’ vigil, before the saint’s day, which may be described as a daily prayer-meeting, where if refreshments are offered by the hosts they include only “atol” and “batido” and such-like harmless preparations to the exclusion of stronger drinks.
The history of a family settlement is usually somewhat as follows:—A married Indian will build for himself a rancho of wattle, chute, or stone, according to his wealth or position, and as his family and needs increase will add to it not additional rooms, but separate ranchos one after the other, until, in patriarchal fashion, he lives surrounded by his married sons (rarely more than two in number) and their children, who work and care for him with a devotion that, if filial, is certainly utterly undemonstrative. The parent couple always keep the best house and share it with the favoured saint. When death has at last removed both the old people the heir takes possession of the property and very speedily gets rid of his brothers and their belongings, who then have to find new houses for themselves.
THE CHURCH.
The township of Coban is divided into eleven “barrios” or wards, each named after a different saint; and in the old days, when the Indians were still under priestly management, each “barrio” had its religious community, the membership of which conferred a certain distinction and was confined to Indians of wealth and family. These communities were called “cofradias,” and became of great local importance; they owned lands, built houses dedicated to the saint whose name they bore, and in course of time accumulated small funds of money, which they loaned out to members at the trifling interest of about fifty per cent. It was looked on as an honour to hold one of these loans, because the interest went towards defraying the expenses on the festal day of the saint; and as each Cofradia thought its own saint far superior to all others, it naturally regarded its feast day as the most important day in the whole year. The ceremonies began with early mass in the Great Church, where the worshippers had hung the walls with numerous cages containing pet mocking-birds and pito-reales, who joined their voices to the hymns of praise which rose through an atmosphere dim and heavy with the smoke of many candles and the mixed fragrance of liquidambar incense and pine-needles. When the service was over, a pompous and solemn procession was formed to conduct the saint from the church (which was his usual place of abode) to the gorgeously adorned cofradia-house, where the whole day was spent in rites that strongly smacked of ante-Christian times. The saint’s house was transformed into a gay palace by the erection of “Sarabandas,” high framework affairs, brilliant with decorations of leaves and fruits. There would be music, not only by the strolling marimba player, who inevitably turns up at all fairs and festivals, but by an orchestra of harp, violin, guitar, and guitarilla, for the Indians of the Vera Paz are a musical people, and they played original Indian tunes to which the traditional dances, the “deer and hounds,” the “monkey-dance,” “death-dance,” or the “Moros and Christianos,” were performed with becoming gravity by untiring young bucks, whilst inside the house, before the saint, the “zon” would be solemnly gone through by the elders.
My informant on these points had often been present at such meetings, and tells me that the courteous invitation to walk in and join the revels was always extended to a passing foreigner. The proceedings are described as characteristically Indian, crowded in the first place, and smelly; then, as the spirits of the partakers rose with the effects of frequent nips of aguardiente and abundant food cooked to their taste with liberal seasonings of garlic, onions, achiote, and chili, they would gradually grow more and more noisy and uproarious; but however lively they might get in the course of the day they would never turn quarrelsome, and, if anything, the tipsy Indian would be more amiable and more communicative than the same man when sober.
A COBANERA.