Fig. 1.—Map showing Yucatan, Campeche, British Honduras, and part of Guatemala. The area dealt with is shaded.
The northern-part of British Honduras, between the Rio Hondo and the Rio Nuevo, consists of an almost level plain, having an area of nearly 1,000 square miles. The soil is a vegetal humus; varying from a few inches to several feet in depth, the average depth being about 2 feet; beneath this is a stratum of marly limestone, outcrops of which are found in many places. The southern part of Yucatan, which, unlike the northern part, is comparatively well watered, is also flat, though a few small hills are found along the northern bank of the Rio Hondo, commencing about 50 miles from its mouth (fig. [1]). Most of the land along the rivers is swampy, producing only reeds, coarse grasses, and mangrove trees. Beyond the swamp country are found "cuhun ridges," consisting of river valleys or depressions in the surface which have become filled with alluvium brought down by the rivers from the interior, forming an exceedingly rich soil suitable for the cultivation of maize and nearly every tropical product. It is upon these "cuhun ridges" that most of the mounds and other relics of the ancient inhabitants are found and that nearly all the villages of the modern Indians are built. Large tracts of what is known as "pine ridge" are scattered throughout this area; these are level or slightly undulating plains covered with gravel and coarse sand—exceedingly poor soil, producing only wiry grass, yellow pines, and small pimento palms. On these "pine ridges" Indian mounds are hardly ever found, nor do the Indians of to-day build villages upon them except in rare instances and for special local reasons. With the exception of the extreme northern part, nearly the whole of this area is well watered by rivers and streams, while scattered throughout it are numerous lagoons and lakes, the largest of which is the Bacalar Lagoon.
[PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS]
The manners, customs, religious conceptions, and daily life of all these Indians are very similar, though among the Indians of British Honduras, who come more closely in contact with outside influences, old customs are dying out, and old ideas and methods are being superseded by new. The language of the tribes here considered, with slight local dialectical variations, is the same; all are of the same physical type; in fact, there can be little doubt that they are the direct descendants of those Maya who occupied the peninsula of Yucatan at the time of the conquest. Physically, though short they are robust and well proportioned. The men average 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 3 inches in height, the women about 2 inches less. The skin varies in color from almost white to dark bronze. The hair of both sexes is long, straight, coarse, black, and luxuriant on the head, where it extends very low over the forehead, but is almost entirely absent from other parts of the body. The women usually wear their hair hanging down the back in two plaits. Their faces are round and full, with rather high cheek bones; the skull is highly brachicephalic in type. The following indices were taken from a small number of Santa Cruz Indians, mostly males of middle age:
| Maximum length of head | cm. | 17.52 |
| Maximum breadth of head | cm. | 15.44 |
| Cephalic index | 88.11 | |
| Facial height | cm. | 11.68 |
| Maximum bi-zygomatic breadth | cm. | 12.84 |
| Facial index | 84.40 | |
| Nasal height | cm. | 5.13 |
| Nasal breadth | cm. | 3.55 |
| Nasal index | 69.80 | |
The eyes are large and dark brown, the ears small and closely applied to the head, the nose rather broad, and the jaw prognathous. The mouth is fairly large and the teeth excellent, though toward middle age they become greatly worn down in many individuals from eating corn cake impregnated with grit from the stone metate, and from the same cause they are frequently much incrusted with tartar. The figure in both sexes is short and broad. The long bones and the extremities are small and delicate. Both men and women are, however, capable of considerable and prolonged exertion. The former can carry loads of 150 pounds for 20 miles in the macapal (tab), a netted bag which is slung over the back and held up by a band passing round the forehead, while the latter can work for hours at a time grinding corn on the metate without apparent fatigue. Many of the younger women would be considered very good looking, measured by the most exacting standard, though they reach maturity at an early age, and deteriorate in appearance very rapidly after marriage, the face becoming wrinkled and the figure squat and shapeless. In walking the men bend the body forward from the hips, keep the eyes fixed upon the ground, and turn the toes in, habits acquired from carrying the macapal on all occasions. So accustomed have they become to this contrivance that many of them, when starting on a journey of even a couple of miles, rather than go unloaded, prefer to weight the macapal with a few stones as a counterpoise to the habitual forward inclination of their bodies above the hips. Children begin carrying small macapals at a very early age, and it is probably to this habit and not, as Landa suggests, to the custom among the women of carrying their children astride the hip that the prevalence of bowlegs (kūlba ōk) among the Indians is due. These people have a peculiar and indescribable odor, rather pleasant than otherwise; it is not affected by washing or exercise, is much stronger in some individuals than in others, and is perceptible in both sexes and at all ages. The women are, on the whole, both physically and mentally superior to the men, and when dressed in gala costume for a "baile" with spotlessly clean, beautifully embroidered garments, all the gold ornaments they possess or can borrow, and often a coronet of fire beetles, looking like small electric lamps in their hair, they present a very attractive picture. They are polite and hospitable, though rather shy with strangers; indeed in the remoter villages they often rush into the bush and hide themselves at the approach of anyone not known to them, especially if the men are away working in the milpas. They are very fond of gossip and readily appreciate a joke, especially one of a practical nature, though till one gets to know them fairly well they appear dull and phlegmatic. When quarreling among themselves both women and girls use the most disgusting and obscene language, improvising as they go along, with remarkable quick-wittedness, not binding themselves down to any conventional oaths or forms of invective, but pouring out a stream of vituperation and obscenity to meet each case, which strikes with unerring fidelity the weak points in the habits, morals, ancestry, and personal appearance of their opponents. The young girls are as bad as, if not worse than, the older women, for whom they seem to have no respect. They are extremely clean in their persons, and wash frequently, though with regard to their homes they are not nearly so particular as hens, dogs, pigs, and children roll about together promiscuously on the floor, and fleas, lice, and jiggers abound only too frequently. The description given by Landa (chap. XXXII, p. 192) of the Indian women at the time of the conquest applies equally well to their descendants of the present day:
Emborachavanse también ellas con los combites, aunque por si, como comian por si, y no se emborachavan tanto como los hombres.... Son avisadas y corteses y conversables, con que se entienden, y a maravilla bien partidas. Tienen poco secreto y no son tan limpias en sus personas ni en sus cosas con quanto se lavan como los ermiños.