In the fifth heaven above dwell the protecting spirits of the fields and the forests; in the fourth the protectors of animals; in the third the spirits ill-disposed toward men; in the second the lords of the four winds; while in the first above the earth reside the Yumbalamob, for the special protection of Christians. These latter are invisible during the day, but at night they sit beside the crosses reared at the entrances of the pueblos, one for each of the cardinal points, protecting the villagers from the dangers of the forest. With obsidian knives they cut through the wind, and make sounds by which they signal to their comrades stationed at other entrances to the town. Truly, this description answers astonishingly to the Aztec lord of the crossroads, Tezcatlipoca.
Below the earth is Kisin, the earthquake, the evil one, who resents the chill rains sent down by the Yumchakob, and raises a wind to clear the sky. The spirits of suicides dwell here also, and all souls excepting those of war-slain men and women dead of child-birth (which go directly to heaven) are doomed for a time to this underworld realm.
Other diminished deities are Ahkinshok, the owner of the days; the guardians of the bees; the spirit of new fire; Ahkushtal, of birth; Ahmakiq, who locks up the crop-destroying winds; patrons of medicine; and a crowd of workers of ill to men, among them the Shtabai, serpentiform demons who issue from their cavernous abodes and in female form snare men to ruin. Paqok, on the other hand, wanders abroad at night and attacks women. The Yoyolche are also night-walkers; their step is half a league, and they shake the house as they pass.
Tozzer makes the interesting observation that in many cases, where among the Maya is found a class of spirits, the purely heathen Lacandones recognize a single god. Thus, to the Nukuchyumchakob of the Maya corresponds the Lacandone Nohochakyum, who is the Great Father and chief god of their religion, having as his servants the spirits of the east, the constellations, and the thunder. At the end of the world he will wear around his body the serpent Hapikern, who will draw people to him by his breath and slay them. Nohochakyum is one of four brothers, apparently lords of the four quarters. As is usual in such groups, he of the east is pre-eminent. Usukun, one of the brothers, is a cave-dweller, having the earthquake for his servant; he is regarded with dread, and his image is set apart from the other gods. There are a number of other gods and goddesses of the Lacandones, several of which are clearly identifiable as the same as the Maya deities described by Landa and other early writers. As a whole, the pantheon is a humane one; it lacks that quality of terror which makes hideous the congregation of the Aztec deities. Most of the gods, Maya and Lacandone, are kindly-disposed toward men, and doubtless it was this kindliness reflected back which kept the Maya altars relatively free of human blood.
IV. RITES AND SYMBOLS
No region in America appears to have furnished so many or such striking analogies to Christian ritual and symbolism as did the Mayan. It was here, on the island of Cozumel, that the cross was an object of veneration even at the first coming of the Spaniard; and when the rites of the natives were studied by the missionaries, they were found to include many that seemed to be Christian in inspiration. Bishop Landa[89] describes at length the Yucatec baptism, which was designated by a name equivalent, he says, to renascor—"for in the Yucatec tongue zihil means to be reborn"—and which was celebrated in a complex festival, godfather and all. The name of the rite was Em-Ku, or "Descent of God"; and, he adds, "They believe that they receive therefrom a disposition inclined to good conduct and that it guarantees them from all temptations of the devil with respect to temporal things, while by means of this rite and a good life they hope to secure salvation." Sacraments of various sorts, confession of sins, penitence, penance, and pilgrimages to holy shrines were other ritual similarities with Catholic Christianity which could not fail to be impressive and which actually furthered the change of religion with a minimum of friction.
Along with these analogies of ritual there were likenesses of belief: traditions of a deluge, a confusion of tongues, and a dispersion of peoples, as well as reminiscences of legendary teachers of the arts of life and of the truths of religion in which it was not difficult for the eye of faith to discern the missionary labours of Saint Thomas. Las Casas,[90] quoting a certain cleric, Padre Francisco Hernández, tells of a Yucatec trinity: one of their old men, when asked as to their ancient religion, said that "they recognized and believed in God who dwells in heaven, and that this God was Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and that the Father was called Içona, who had created men and all things, that the Son was named Bacab, and that he was born of a virgin called Chibirias, who is in heaven with God; the Holy Spirit they termed Echuac." The son, Bacab, it is added, being scourged and crowned with thorns by one Eopuco, was tied upon a cross with extended arms, where he died; but after three days he arose and ascended into heaven to be with his father. The name Echuac signifies "merchant"; "and good merchandise the Holy Spirit bore to this world, for He filled the earth with gifts and graces so divine and so abundant."
The honesty of this account is no less evident than its distortion, which may have been due as much to the confused reminiscences of the old Indian as to the imaginative expectancy of the Spanish recorder. Bacab and Ekchuah are mentioned by Landa and others, and Las Casas also states that the mother of Chibirias was named Hischen (que nosotros decimos haber sido Sant' Ana), who must surely be the goddess Ixchel, goddess of fecundity, invoked at child-birth. The association of the Bacabs (for there are four of them) with the cross and with heaven is also intelligible, since the Bacabs are genii of the Quarters, where they upheld the skies and guarded the waters, which were symbolized in rites by water-jars with animal or human heads. They are, no doubt, in the Maya region as in Mexico, represented by caryatid and cruciform figures, of which, we may suppose, the celebrated Tablet of the Cross and Tablet of the Foliate Cross at Palenque are examples.
PLATE XXI.