Queen Moo's Talisman: The Fall of the Maya Empire

								

companions, “This represents one of our great men of antiquity.” Then
the young men paid homage to the statue by bending one knee, in a
manner peculiar to those people.
Traditions of their ancestors are not altogether lost among the
natives, as some travelers assert. Many still perform rites and
ceremonies in the depths of forests or in unexplored caverns, in the
darkness of the night, but keep their secrets to themselves,
remembering the tortures inflicted on their fathers by the Spanish
priests to oblige them to forego the religious observances that had
been dear to those of their race for countless generations.
In connection with the song to the rain-gods it may be said that
although the natives of Yucatan are to-day Catholic in name, they
really prefer to render homage to some statue of their forefathers, and
cling tenaciously to a few of their old divinities. Among these may be
mentioned Balam (tiger), guardian of the crops, likewise appealed to as
a rain-god. In a subterranean cavern a few miles from Chicħen, there is
an old image of a man with long beard; this serves as a representation
of Balam, and to it offerings are made. The antiquity of the carving
cannot be doubted, similar ones existing on pillars at the entrance of
a very ancient castle at Chicħen. The figure in the cavern is on its
knees, its hands are raised to a level with its head, palms upturned.
On its back is a bag containing what the natives say is a cake made of
corn and beans. The statue is now black, owing to the incense and
candles with which its devotees frequently smoke it. Previous to the
planting of grain, they place before it a basin of cool beverage made
of corn, also lighted wax candles and sweet-smelling copal, imploring
the god to grant an abundant harvest. When the crops ripen, the finest
ears are carried to the grimy divinity by men, women, and children, who
within the cavern dance and pray all day long, some of their quaint
instruments serving as accompaniment to the Latin litanies which they
chant, without having even the vaguest idea of their meaning.
The sun-dance mentioned in the Preface, is occasionally performed by
Indians in Yucatan at the time of the vernal equinox. Twenty men take
part—corresponding to the number of days in the ancient Maya
month—but ten dress as women, whence it may be inferred that in olden
times the dancers were of both sexes. All their faces are covered with
masks of deer-skin, and each has on his head the inverted half-shell of
a calabash, with turkey feathers standing up through a hole in the
centre. They wear their usual spotless white garments, and sandals.
Those clad as women are ornamented with large bead necklaces,
principally red, in imitation of old Maya coin, and all the dancers
have ear-rings. The hostile Indians[1] still pierce their ears as their
ancestors did; the rank of a chief being indicated by his having a ring
in the left ear only, or in the right, or in both.