Part 14 (1/2)

[Footnote 1: The _Diccionario Maya del Convento de Motul_, MS., the only dictionary in which I find the exact word, translates _bacab_ by ”representante, juglar, bufon.” This is no doubt a late meaning taken from the scenic representations of the supposed doings of the G.o.ds in the ritual ceremonies. The proper form of the word is _uacab_ or _vacab_, which the dictionary mentioned renders ”cosa que esta en pie o enhiesta delante de otra.” The change from the initial _v_ to _b_ is quite common, as may be seen by comparing the two letters in Pio Perez's _Diccionario de la Lengua Maya_, e.g. _balak_, the revolution of a wheel, from _ualak_, to turn, to revolve.]

[Footnote 2: The entries in the _Diccionario Maya-Espanol del Convento de Motul_, MS., are as follows:--

”_Chaac_: gigante, hombre de grande estatura.

”_Chaac_: fue un hombre asi grande que enseno la agricultura, al cual tuvieron despues por Dios de los panes, del agua, de los truenos y relampagos. Y asi se dice, _hac chaac_, el rayo: _u lemba chaac_ el relampago; _u pec chaac_, el trueno,” etc.]

[Footnote 3: _Relacion, etc._, p. 255.]

These four Chac or Bacabab were wors.h.i.+ped under the symbol of the cross, the four arms of which represented the four cardinal points. Both in language and religious art, this was regarded as a tree. In the Maya tongue it was called ”the tree of bread,” or ”the tree of life.”[1] The celebrated cross of Palenque is one of its representations, as I believe I was the first to point out, and has now been generally acknowledged to be correct.[2] There was another such cross, about eight feet high, in a temple on the island of Cozumel. This was wors.h.i.+ped as ”the G.o.d of rain,”

or more correctly, as the symbol of the four rain G.o.ds, the Bacabs. In periods of drought offerings were made to it of birds (symbols of the winds) and it was sprinkled with water. ”When this had been done,” adds the historian, ”they felt certain that the rains would promptly fall.”[3]

[Footnote 1: The Maya word is _uahomche_, from _uah_, originally the tortilla or maize cake, now used for bread generally. It is also current in the sense of _life_ (”la vida en cierta manera,” _Diccionario Maya Espanol del Convento de Motul_, MS.). _Che_ is the generic word for tree.

I cannot find any particular tree called _Homche_. _Hom_ was the name applied to a wind instrument, a sort of trumpet. In the _Codex Troano_, Plates xxv, xxvii, x.x.xiv, it is represented in use. The four Bacabs were probably imagined to blow the winds from the four corners of the earth through such instruments. A similar representation is given in the _Codex Borgia.n.u.s_, Plate xiii, in Kingsborough. As the Chac was the G.o.d of bread, _Dios de los panes_, so the cross was the tree of bread.]

[Footnote 2: See the _Myths of the New World_, p. 95 (1st ed., New York, 1868). This explanation has since been adopted by Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. His article is ent.i.tled _Die Amerikanischen Gotter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque_ in the _Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie_, 1879.

Compare also Charles Rau, _The Palenque Tablet_, p. 44 (Was.h.i.+ngton, 1879).]

[Footnote 3: ”Al pie de aquella misma torre estaba un cercado de piedra y cal, muy bien lucido y almenado, en medio del cual habia una cruz de cal tan alta como diez palmos, a la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de la lluvia, porque quando no llovia y habia falta de agua, iban a ella en procesion y muy devotos; ofrescianle codornices sacrificadas por aplacarle la ira y enojo con que ellos tenia o mostraba tener, con la sangre de aquella simple avezica.” Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Conquista de Mejico_, p. 305 (Ed. Paris, 1852).]

Each of the four Bacabs was also called _Acantun_, which means ”a stone set up,” such a stone being erected and painted of the color sacred to the cardinal point that the Bacab represented[1]. Some of these stones are still found among the ruins of Yucatecan cities, and are to this day connected by the natives with reproductive signs[2]. It is probable, however, that actual phallic wors.h.i.+p was not customary in Yucatan. The Bacabs and Itzamna were closely related to ideas of fertility and reproduction, indeed, but it appears to have been especially as G.o.ds of the rains, the harvests, and the food supply generally. The Spanish writers were eager to discover all the depravity possible in the religion of the natives, and they certainly would not have missed such an opportunity for their tirades, had it existed. As it is, the references to it are not many, and not clear.

[Footnote 1: The feasts of the Bacabs Acantun are described in Landa's work. The name he does not explain. I take it to be _acaan_, past participle of _actal_, to erect, and _tun_, stone. But it may have another meaning. The word _acan_ meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicating hydromel the natives manufactured. The G.o.d of this drink also bore the name Acan (”ACAN; el Dios del vino que es Baco,” _Diccionario del Convento de Motul_, MS.). It would be quite appropriate for the Bacabs to be G.o.ds of wine.]

[Footnote 2: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. i, p. 434.]

From what I have now presented we see that Itzamna came from the distant east, beyond the ocean marge; that he was the teacher of arts and agriculture; that he, moreover, as a divinity, ruled the winds and rains, and sent at his will harvests and prosperity. Can we identify him further with that personification of Light which, as we have already seen, was the dominant figure in other American mythologies?

This seems indicated by his names and t.i.tles. They were many, some of which I have already a.n.a.lyzed. That by which he was best known was _Itzamna_, a word of contested meaning but which contains the same radicals as the words for the morning and the dawn[1], and points to his identification with the grand central fact at the basis of all these mythologies, the welcome advent of the light in the eastern horizon after the gloom of the night.

[Footnote 1: Some have derived Itzamua from _i_, grandson by a son, used only by a female; _zamal_, morning, morrow, from _zam_, before, early, related to _yam_, first, whence also _zamalzam_, the dawn, the aurora; and _na_, mother. Without the accent _na_, means house. Crescencio Carrillo prefers the derivation from _itz_, anything that trickles in drops, as gum from a tree, rain or dew from the sky, milk from teats, and s.e.m.e.n (”leche de amor,” _Dicc. de Motul_, MS.). He says: ”_Itzamna_, esto es, rocio diario, o sustancia cuotidiana del cielo, es el mismo nombre del fundador (de Itzamal).” _Historia Antigua de Yucatan_, p. 145. (Merida, 1881.) This does not explain the last syllable, _na_, which is always strongly accented. It is said that Itzamna spoke of himself only in the words _Itz en caan_, ”I am that which trickles from the sky;” _Itz en muyal_, ”I am that which trickles from the clouds.” This plainly refers to his character as a rain G.o.d. Lizana, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. i, cap. 4. If a compound of _itz, amal, na_, the name, could be translated, ”the milk of the mother of the morning,” or of the dawn, i. e., the dew; while _i, zamal, na_ would be ”son of the mother of the morning.”]

His next most frequent t.i.tle was _Kin-ich-ahau_, which may be translated either, ”Lord of the Sun's Face,” or, ”The Lord, the Eye of the Day.”[1]

As such he was the deity who presided in the Sun's disk and shot forth his scorching rays. There was a temple at Itzamal consecrated to him as _Kin-ich-kak-mo_, ”the Eye of the Day, the Bird of Fire.”[2] In a time of pestilence the people resorted to this temple, and at high noon a sacrifice was spread upon the altar. The moment the sun reached the zenith, a bird of brilliant plumage, but which, in fact, was nothing else than a fiery flame shot from the sun, descended and consumed the offering in the sight of all. At Campeche he had a temple, as _Kin-ich-ahau-haban_, ”the Lord of the Sun's face, the _Hunter_,” where the rites were sanguinary.[3]

[Footnote 1: Cogolludo, who makes a distinction between Kinich-ahau and Itzamna (_Hist. de Yucatan_, Lib. iv, cap. viii), may be corrected by Landa and Buenaventura, whom I have already quoted.]

[Footnote 2: _Kin_, the sun, the day; _ich_, the face, but generally the eye or eyes; _kak_, fire; _mo_, the brilliant plumaged, sacred bird, the ara or guacamaya, the red macaw. This was adopted as the t.i.tle of the ruler of Itzamal, as we learn from the Chronicle of Chichen Itza--”Ho ahau paxci u cah yahau ah Itzmal Kinich Kakmo”--”In the fifth Age the town (of Chichen Itza) was destroyed by King Kinich Kakmo, of Itzamal.” _El Libro de Chilan Balam de Chumayel_, MS.]

[Footnote 3: Cogolludo, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib. iv, cap. viii.]

Another temple at Itzamal was consecrated to him, under one of his names, _Kabil_, He of the Lucky Hand,[1] and the sick were brought there, as it was said that he had cured many by merely touching them. This fane was extremely popular, and to it pilgrimages were made from even such remote regions as Tabasco, Guatemala and Chiapas. To accommodate the pilgrims four paved roads had been constructed, to the North, South, East and West, straight toward the quarters of the four winds.

[Footnote 1: Lizana says: ”Se llama y nombra _Kab-ul_ que quiere decir mano obradora,” and all writers have followed him, although no such meaning can be made out of the name thus written. The proper word is _kabil_, which is defined in the _Diccionario del Convento de Motul_, MS., ”el que tiene buena mano para sembrar, o para poner colmenas, etc.” Landa also gives this orthography, _Relacion_, p. 216.]

--2. _The Culture Hero, Kukulcan._

The second important hero-myth of the Mayas was that about Kukulcan. This is in no way connected with that of Itzamna, and is probably later in date, and less national in character. The first reference to it we also owe to Father Francisco Hernandez, whom I have already quoted, and who reported it to Bishop Las Casas in 1545. His words clearly indicate that we have here to do with a myth relating to the formation of the calendar, an opinion which can likewise be supported from other sources.

The natives affirmed, says Las Casas, that in ancient times there came to that land twenty men, the chief of whom was called ”Cocolcan,” and him they spoke of as the G.o.d of fevers or agues, two of the others as G.o.ds of fis.h.i.+ng, another two as the G.o.ds of farms and fields, another was the thunder G.o.d, etc. They wore flowing robes and sandals on their feet, they had long beards, and their heads were bare. They ordered that the people should confess and fast, and some of the natives fasted on Fridays, because on that day the G.o.d Bacab died; and the name of that day in their language is _himix_, which they especially honor and hold in reverence as the day of the death of Bacab.[1]