As I have shown elsewhere,[[55]] many similar superstitions survive in the folk-lore of Yucatan and Tabasco to-day. But it is not safe to look at such survivals as part of genuine ancient mythology. For instance, the goddess Ix-nuc, or Xnuc, said by Brasseur to have been goddess of the mountains, by Seler, goddess of the earth, and by Schellhas, goddess of water, is in fact not a member of the Maya Pantheon. The name means simply “old woman,” and was first mentioned by an anonymous modern writer in the Registro Yucateco.
The Gods of Evil.—In contrast to the beneficent deities were those who presided over war, disease, death, and the underworld. Distinctively war gods were Uac Lom Chaam, “He whose teeth are six lances,” worshipped anciently at Ti-ho, the present Mérida; Ahulane, “The Archer,” painted holding an arrow, whose shrine was on the island of Cozumel; Pakoc (from paakal, to frighten) and Hex Chun Chan, “The dangerous one,” divinities of the Itzaes; Kak u pacat, “Fire (is) his face,” who is said to have carried in battle a shield of fire; Ah Chuy Kak, “He who works in fire,” that is, for destruction; Ah Cun Can, “The serpent charmer,” also worshipped at Ti-Ho; Hun Pic Tok, “He of 8000 lances,” who had a temple at Chichen Itza.
Chief of all these evil beings was the God of Death. His name is preserved in the first account we have of Yucatecan mythology, that by Father Hernandez, and, according to Father Lara, it was the same among the Tzentals, Maya, Ah-puch, Tzental, Pucugh. These words mean “the Undoer,” or “Spoiler,” apparently a euphemism to avoid pronouncing a name of evil omen.[[56]] In modern Maya he is plain Yum cimil, “lord of death.” He was painted as a skeleton with bare skull, and was then called Chamay Bac, or Zac Chamay Bac, “white teeth and bones.”[[57]]
The spirit (pixan) after death was supposed to go to the Underworld, which was called Mitna, or Metna where presided the god Xibilba or Xabalba, sometimes called Hun Ahau, “the One lord,” for to his realm must all come at last.[[58]] Another name for this Hades was tancucula (perhaps tan kukul, “before the gods,” i. e., where one is judged), which is given by the Dicc. Motul as an “ancient word” (vocablo antiguo). The happy souls then passed to a realm of joy, where they spent their time under the great green tree Yaxche, while those who were condemned sank down to a place of cold and hunger.
The Conflict of the Gods.—Between these two classes of deities—those who make for good and those who make for evil in the life of man—there is, both in the myths and in the picture writings, an eternal conflict.
Fig. 8.—The gods of Life and of Growth plant the tree. Death breaks it in twain. (Photographed from the Cortesian Codex.)
In the Codex Troano, as Dr. Seler remarks, “The god of death appears as the inevitable foil of the god of light and heaven. In whatever action the latter is depicted, the god of death is imitating it, but in such a manner that with him all turns to nought and emptiness. Where the light-god holds the string, in the hands of the death-god it is torn asunder; where the former offers incense, the latter carries the sign of ‘fire’ wherewith to consume it; where the former presents the sign kan, food, the latter lifts an empty vase bearing the signs of drought and death.”
2. The Cosmogony of the Mayas.
We know practically nothing of the cosmogony of the Mayas; but it is instructive in connection with their calendar system to find that, like the Nahuas, they believed in Epochs of the Universe, at the close of each of which there was a general destruction of both gods and men. The early writer, Aguilar, says that he learned from the native books themselves that they recorded three such periodical cataclysms. The first was called Mayacimil, “general death;” the second, Oc na kuchil, “the ravens enter the houses,” that is, the inhabitants were all dead; and the third, Hun yecil, a universal deluge, a term which the Dicc. Motul seems to explain by mentioning a tradition that the water was so high “that its surface was within the distance of one stalk of maguey from the sky!” Another term for this catastrophe was bulcabal, haycabal or haycabil (destruccion, asolamiento y diluvio general con que fué destruido y asolado el mundo. Dicc. Motul).