In the beginning of this century the Spanish authorities in Mexico ordered an inquiry to be made regarding the condition of the Yucatan Indians, and directions were given to ascertain whether they still maintained any of the superstitious usages followed before the conquest. There was a Report made by the curate of Yaxcabá which was considered to be especially deserving of mention, because he had been in charge of a large parish and had lived for many years among his Indians, and was known to be well acquainted with their language and habits. One of the superstitions that he reported is remarkable from its having evident analogies with one of the methods adopted by the medicine men in curing the sick amongst the Dakotas in North America. It will be seen by his account of the custom of divining through the medium of a crystal, that ignorant human nature in Yucatan, as in many other parts of the world, seeks to learn the future by similar methods.
The curate, in his reply to one of the questions put to him, stated as follows[95]:—“Amongst the common masses of the Indians there are many superstitions. In the first fifteen years that I held this curacy they told me much, but after making examples upon the delinquents by punishing them with floggings and penances in accordance with superior commands, it is now fully fifteen years that all is done in silence, and it is only from time to time that there is any sign.
“The most frequent divination is by means of a piece of crystal which they call zaztun. This is a clear and transparent stone, by which they say that occult things are seen and the causes of sickness. What I have been able to understand in this matter is that they have had some one who, by a compact with the demon, has divined by the means of the said zaztun: but the more ordinary way is that those that use it are certain cheating impostors who by this means gain credit amongst themselves and are consulted and are well treated so that they have idle lives, and with their artifices and cunning make the simple and ignorant believe that they have divined what they have secretly managed. I will take this example which is frequent: they make the sick man believe that by the means of the zaztun they have known that some malevolent person has bewitched him, and in order to discover the wizard or evil doer it is necessary to watch three nights and make preparation of ardent spirits or pitarilla, provisions and lighted candles; during these three nights they enjoy themselves and eat and drink till they are satisfied. When the others are not observing or asleep they bury inside the house or near it a small figure of black wax having a thorn run into the part corresponding to that where the sick person feels the most pain. Finally when all are awake they commence to make their operations with the zaztun and go straight to the spot where they buried the little figure, they take it out within sight of everybody and make them believe that this was the witchcraft. They then apply for the cure any herbs that they can find and if sometimes by chance the sick person gets cured they gain much credit amongst the ignorant.”
A most extraordinary account was given by the curate of Yaxcabá, of a religious or superstitious ceremony which at a certain season of the year was performed by the Indians of his parish in the beginning of this century. They erected near the village a rudely constructed table upon which was placed a turkey. When the ceremony commenced, the Indian who acted as the priest poured into the beak of the turkey a small quantity of pitarilla. He then killed the bird and gave it to his assistants at the table, who carried it away to season it and prepare it for being eaten. Large tortillas were also prepared and when everything was ready the turkey and tortillas were placed upon the table together with several jars of pitarilla. “Then,” stated the cura, “the sacerdote commences to incense them with copal.”... “And then taking some of the pitarilla upon a hissop he sprinkles it towards the four winds invoking the four Pahahtunes who are the gods and custodians of the rains. Then approaching the table he raises on high one of the jars, and offers it to the mouths of the surrounding people, who are kneeling. The function concludes by all eating and drinking to their satisfaction.”
Near a hamlet a few leagues from Uxmal, I observed a group of Indians performing ceremonies similar to those described by the curate of Yaxcabá, and I then formed the opinion that they were imitating what they had seen in the Spanish churches. It may, however, be possible that these native observances have some relation to practices that may have been customary amongst the natives before the conquest. Near Jacaltenango, amongst the hills of the Sierra Madre, ceremonies and sacrifices were still, at certain periods of the year, performed by the Mams; turkeys were killed, and special and peculiar rites were customary. In Yucatan it was found necessary in the sixteenth century to enforce regulations, preventing the caciques from convening meetings of the natives which were held for the purpose of maintaining the ancient worship of their gods. These meetings usually took place in secret, and the services and superstitious propitiations were taught or performed by men who were the descendants of the priests or caciques.
The tendency of the Indians to have religious rites performed in their houses or in huts set apart for the purpose, and their custom of having these ceremonies conducted by one or more men selected from among themselves to act as priests, or “sacerdotes,” is noticeable throughout Guatemala, Yucatan and Chiapas.
Before leaving Abalá I visited a large and deep cenote or well. It was one of those natural caverns the Indians of Yucatan were accustomed to use for their supply of water, and which presumably mark the sites of the ancient centres of population. It was chiefly fed by the waters penetrating through the surrounding calcareous limestone formation. As it was late in the dry season of the year, the waters were low and the natives were engaged in going up and down the steps cut into and around the sides of the cavern. The work of filling their jars was laborious, as the depth to which they had to descend was nearly one hundred feet.
After examining this natural well, I returned to the cabildo, where I found that everything was ready and the muleteers were waiting for me. We started without delay. At night we stopped at what appeared to be a farmhouse. The muleteers unloaded the mules and found places to sleep in an outer shed. I unrolled my hammock and secured it to the rafters outside the dwelling of the young proprietress, and found protection from the dew under the overhanging thatch. From this exposed position I watched for several hours the clear star-light, regretting that this was the last time that I should lead this free and wandering life; for on the next day we were to be in Merida. At daybreak we continued our journey and arrived in the capital of Yucatan shortly before noon and halted in the market place.
My travelling companions then left me and I remained a solitary stranger amongst a crowd of busy Indians. I was told that there was no hotel, but that possibly I might get a room in an old disused convent which was being altered for the purpose of receiving guests. I rode up to the gate and there saw a Spaniard who informed me that he had lately bought a portion of the ruins, and was re-arranging the interior sufficiently to enable him to keep an inn. He had a room at my disposal and assured me that he would be pleased if I would occupy it. This room had been a nun’s cell, the door of which opened into the quadrangle.
I found that I was quartered within the Convent of the Conceptionistas, which after the suppression of the monastic orders had been abandoned. Thus, by a strange series of events, I had come from the ruined Indian “nunnery” at Uxmal to the ruined Spanish nunnery at Merida. The cells and the quadrangle of the Conceptionistas reminded me of the interior of the “Casa de las Monjas.”