(Troano-Cortesianus MS.)

Agriculture was very important among the Maya, as may be judged from the study of their religion. Maize and cacao constituted the most important of the crops, but beans, yams and other food-plants were also grown. Co-operative labour was employed in the preparation of the fields, for weeding and for sowing, and the burnt weeds were the only manure. Sowing took place at the commencement of the rainy season; the sowers were furnished with a bag containing the grain and a pointed stick with which they made holes in the ground for the reception of the seed. The right-hand figure in the upper portion of Fig. [59] is probably engaged in this occupation. The crop was stored in specially constructed granaries. Maize was set to steep over night in water mixed with lime, and was then pounded on stones and made up into cakes, which lasted a long time and were soaked in water before a meal when they became hard. Various kinds of bread were made, most of which were eaten hot, as they were indigestible when cold. Maize-meal was mixed with water to make a beverage, for water was not usually drunk plain; a drink was also prepared from the roast grain pounded and mixed with cacao and pepper. Much chocolate, prepared as described on p. 155, was consumed, and mead was prepared from honey to which an infusion of a certain root was added. For grinding maize a flat stone, called in Mexico metatl, was used together with an elongated stone rubber, circular or square in section, and often with a marked flattening on the side which was most constantly in use. At the present day the rubbers used in Mexico and in northern Guatemala are heavy, and the ends project beyond the edges of the metatl, so that they can be grasped by the user; in Peten, Alta Vera Paz and south-eastern Guatemala, they are lighter, and shorter than the breadth of the metatl. Rubbers of the first type, however, dating from an early period, have been found in ruins in Alta Vera Paz. Flesh food was not much eaten on ordinary occasions, but was reserved for feasts. The Maya were good hunters, and organized communal drives besides manufacturing various forms of traps, principally springes and deadfalls (Fig. [62]). The deer was the principal quarry, but various animals were domesticated, including turkeys, geese and bees, and fish was considered a great delicacy. For fishing, canoes were employed, of the dug-out variety, and the inhabitants of the lower Usumacinta led a semi-aquatic life. Between Yucatan and Tabasco is a large lagoon, with many small islands, teeming with fish and bird-life; here the navigation is very confusing, but the natives made their way from point to point by the aid of signs which they placed in the trees. Large canoes were constructed for use on the sea, propelled by oars and sails, and one is mentioned as being seen in the neighbourhood of Cape Cotoche large enough for a crew of forty men. In hunting and fishing, when practised in common, a portion of the catch was reserved for the lord and the rest was divided. One principal meal was taken during the day, about an hour before sunset, and the hands and mouth were washed afterwards; the women ate apart from the men. Most ceremonial occasions were marked by a feast, and the Maya were rather given to debauchery. The nobles frequently gave banquets, and the invited guests were supposed to be under the obligation of returning the compliment on some future occasion. Indeed, the debt was considered so binding, that it became transferred to their heirs in the case of their death. On such occasions the wine was handed by women, who turned their backs while the guest drank, and at the end of the festivities each of those present received a mantle as a gift, together with the cup from which he had drunk. Invitations to a wedding-feast, or to a banquet held in commemoration of some ancestor, involved no return invitation. Tobacco-smoking seems to have been practised, since pipes have been found in Guatemala, though only one is known to have been discovered in Honduras. It would seem as if some form of dramatic performance was occasionally given on festive occasions, since Landa speaks of “comedians who gave representations with much grace,” but the principal form of amusement was the dance, of which there were many varieties. A number of musical instruments are shown in the manuscripts (Fig. [63]) and mentioned in the early accounts. These include hollow gongs of wood, sounded with rubber-headed beaters, which could be heard over a distance of two leagues, drums of two types, gongs formed of tortoise-carapaces, beaten with the hand, and rattles and rattle-staves similar to the Mexican chicauaztli. Wind-instruments comprised conches, several forms of trumpet, often with bell-mouths formed of calabashes, bone and reed flutes and whistles. Small bells or rattles of the “hawk-bell” pattern were often worn as ornaments.

Fig. 63.—Priests with musical instruments.

(Dresden MS.)    (After Seler)

As regards games, beans were thrown as dice, but the most interesting amusement was the ball-game, called tlaxtli by the Mexicans, and played in the same manner. In the Popol Vuh the outfit of the ball-player, which the rat discovers for Hunahpu and Xbalanque, is said to consist of “hip-shields, rings, gauntlets, crowns and helmets.” By far the finest example of a tlaxtli-court known is at Chichen Itza, and the semi-religious nature of the game is illustrated by the fact that a temple is attached to it. Before a court could be used it was formally consecrated; at midnight, on a lucky day, two idols, one of the game, the other of the ball, were set up on the lower walls of the court, and certain ceremonies took place, including the blessing of the court itself. Finally the ball was thrown four times as in the game, and the court was then considered consecrated and could be used by the players. The game was played for stakes, such as a bundle of cotton cloths, gold ornaments, or feathers, and a peculiar rule existed in accordance with which the player who was fortunate enough to send the ball through the ring, a feat which was but rarely performed, could claim all the cloaks of the spectators. Now it is an interesting fact that remains of tlaxtli-courts are not found elsewhere in the Maya country except at Chacula and Alta Vera Paz in the west of Guatemala, where they are exactly similar to those in the Zapotec region at Quiengola. Moreover, the ball-court at Chichen Itza belongs to the later buildings, since the temples attached to it are ornamented in Toltec style, the figures do not exhibit head-deformation, and the reliefs include glyphs of a non-Maya character. I think it is fair to assume that the game was not played by the builders of the earlier monuments, but was introduced in later times from Mexico. I believe that the Popol Vuh gives a hint of its introduction. It will be remembered that the heroes Hun Hunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu give offence to the people of Xibalba by playing the game. “Their game is an insult to us,” are the words used, and they are forthwith challenged to a contest. But before they are allowed to engage in competition, they are submitted to a number of tests, a fact which seems to indicate that they were called upon to prove their acquaintance with certain mysteries peculiar to the tribe. Failing in these, they are put to death without being permitted to engage in the game. The idea that certain games are the property of certain tribes is not unfamiliar to students of ethnography, especially in the case of games which possess the ceremonial significance which is so noticeable a feature of tlaxtli. The tests therefore which the lords of Xibalba impose upon the heroes have the object of discovering whether the latter possess the right to play the game which they claim, and it will be remembered that the victory of Hunahpu and Xbalanque is in a sense regarded as the capture of the tlaxtli-game, since they pronounce sentence upon the defeated Xibalbans in the words “Your ball shall not roll again in the ball-game.” Now Xibalba is evidently regarded as an underworld, but the author of the Popol Vuh goes out of his way to explain that the inhabitants are not gods. That being so, one’s thoughts are immediately directed to the Mixtec or Zapotec country as the site of Xibalba, since in this region alone certain localities were definitely pointed out as the openings of the underworld. On the whole I think the evidence suggests that the game found its way into the Maya region after the abandonment of the earlier Maya cities, and as a result of the migrations which the fall of Tulan set on foot. Further, that it reached the Maya by two channels (and perhaps at different times), i.e. Yucatan via Vera Cruz and Tabasco, and north-west Guatemala by way of Oaxaca. The presence of ruins strongly resembling tlaxtli-courts in the Huaxtec territory is, I believe, due to later influence emanating from the Mexican valley. Besides the presence of the court at Chichen Itza, further evidence of the presence of the game in the east is found in the Kakchiquel legends, where a related people living far to the east, and almost certainly to be identified with the Olmec, are called the “Ball-play and fish people.”

PLATE XXIII

By permission of the Peabody Museum