170. A Guatemalan Sacred Bundle Author(s): E. Michael Mendelson Reviewed work(s): Source: Man, Vol. 58 (Aug., 1958), pp.

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PLATEJ

MAN, AUGUST, I958

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A GUATEMALAN
E. MICHAEL

SACRED
by
MENDELSON,

BUNDLE*

M.A., PH.D.

LondonSchoolof Economics PoliticalScience and

17

17

The religious ritual of Santiago Atitlan, a

TzutuhilMaya village in the Solola Depart-

ment of the Southern GuatemalanHighlands, takes place, almost exclusively, in its ten cofradias. These are small chapelswithin each of which the cult of one saint is celebratedby a body of religious officialsrankedin hierarchical as orderwith an alcalde their leader. These officialsare men climbing the politico-religious ladderof office by means of 'services' rendered to the village in one or more of the COFRADES' BENCH and cofradias in the Municipality. Broadly speaking, a man serves alternately,year by year, in each of the two hierarchiesuntil, having rendereda certainnumber of services, COFRADES'TABLE he emerges as a principal,an adviser to the religious head of the village and to the mayor. In any given year, each cofradia locatedin the house of its alcalde is who is responsible O > F >' to the head of the village for the performanceof the saint's ritualin that year. The next year, the cofradia paraphernalia moves on to another alcalde's house and a different set of 9WA cofrades. Public ritual is performed by the cofrades repas resentativesof the principales and the Municipality on the saint'sday(fiesta)with prayers,drinking and feastingin the A and cofradia processionsof the saint'sstatueor statuesto and from the church. Private ritual for specific individuals or FIG. I. PLAN OF COFRADIA SAN JUAN families is conducted in the major cofradias the year all round by native priests (ajkun,i.e. prayer-makers,healers and diviners)who have no place within the public politicoLJ |11 rehgious hierarchies. are Although cofradias often claimed to be equal in rank, the observer soon discovers that some of them are more important than others: ritual is celebratedmore often and more abundantly, ajkunvisit more frequently, extra officials stay with the cofradia a permanentbasisas it moves on from alcalde alcalde to year afteryear. In the case of cofradias Santa Cruz and San Juan, this added importance is associatedwith the presenceof two cult figures: the Maximon doll and the San Martin bundle respectively. These two cult figures differin many ways from the ordinarywooden saint statue. I hope to show that they are in fact contemporary versions of ancient Maya divinities which have found a place for themselves as saints at the heart of the San cofradia system. This article is devoted to cofradia Juan FIG. 2. HORNS OF DEER COSTUMES ON TABLE B and its sacredbundle the San Martin.' San Cofradia Juan (see fig. i), though at first sight similar to any other, containsvarious extrafeaturesof interest.The holding a Bible surmounted by a lamb. There is also a ceiling trellis is not only hung with various tropical leaves little Virgin in a painted box (G) (PlateJc). Two wooden and fruit but also with some I2 or 13 stuffed raccoons cases(H and I) placed one on each side of the altarare rarely opened. One of them contains the San Martin bundle (H). (Plateja). On a shelf just below the ceiling (A) are disposed some 3o older stuffed animals. mostly raccoons. and odd SanJuan celebratestwo mainfiestas,that of San Cofradia * With Plate J and two text figures Juan on 24 June and that of San Martin on i i November.
w

pieces of animal skins. A table (B) bears several complete deer skins,some with skullsand horns attached,and two or threejaguar skins (fig. 2). Under the table lies an ancient two-tongued wooden drum (C) featuredonly in cofradias of majorritualimportance(SantaCruz, San Antonio, Santiago and Concepcion) (Plate Jb). The altar table bears three statuesof SanJuan(D, E, F), the largest(D) and smallest(F)

I2I

No. I70

MAN

AUGUST,I958

The latter appearsto be the more importantsince it is also celebratedby cofradias Antonio and San Nicolas, both San of whose altarsbear statues(not bundles) of San Martin on San his horse. Cofradias Juan and San Antonio are in many ways related: they sharewith cofradia Santiago the honour of extra details in the transferof power ceremonies at the end of the year and both little SanJuan (F) and his corresponding little San Antonio take the lead in all processions to of saintsfrom any cofradia and from the church. In addition to this, a certainDance of San Martin is performed on seven major fiestas in cofradiaSan Juan: San Juan, San Martin, Santiago, Holy Week, All Saints, Corpus Christi and (probably)New Year. Thus, while most cofradias limit themselvesto one fiesta, SanJuan is busy all the year round. San Martin is the only Atiteco cult figure present in more than one cofradia; is also found in two private houses, he San called cofradias extension, cofradia Martin Particular by (which has a second bundle) and one other which has a small statue. It remainsto be said that cofradia Juan has San an extra, permanent official, the nabeysil.Like the dresser of the Maximon doll (telinel)in cofradia SantaCruz, he is an ajkunand wields greatpower in the village as an intercessor. He is responsiblefor the Dance of San Martin and should remain unmarriedand chastefor as long as he holds office. He should also have a special 'power' (nuwal)or 'feeling for the job' (sentido)without which 'he would not be strong enough to lift the bundle.'2 The Dance of San Martin is the most esoteric item of Atiteco ritual:no village Ladino, however old a residentor otherwise versed in Indian customs, seemed to know of it and most younger Indianinformantshad only the woolliest notions about it. I now describeit as I witnessed it during fiesta San Martin, I952. On the evening of io November, the cofradia was full of cofrades, members of the alcalde's family and visiting ajkun.A marimba team played behind table B. On the altar table, in front of the statues, lay a rectangularbundle, some 24 by I2 inches, covered in red cloth, slit horizontally along the top. On the narrow slit lay five flat rectangularcakes of hardened corn meal. On the bundle's left lay a small apron of disintegratingcloth with little wooden, colonial-style angel faces sewn onto it. At II.30 p.m. the nabeysil gave the signalfor proceedings to begin. Four young men seized the skinson table B. Two put on deer (masat) costumes,composed of a head-to-anklelength back piece bearing the skull and horns decorated with a criss-crosspattern of green and red cotton ribbons and a square waist-to-knee apron front piece, tied with string to the shoulders of the back piece and held primly in both handsby the 'deer' while dancing.The two 'tigers' wore back pieces only and each carried a stuffed (bajlam) squirrel in his hand. The marimba played and the four dancersmoved in circles, hopping from foot to foot and swaying from side to side, occasionally whirling round in one spot, the 'tigers' emitting long whistles and sharpcries and pawing the backs of the 'deer' with the squirrels.Four times the group knelt abruptly, one behind the other, and crossedthemselves,thus salutingthe four cardinaldirections at three-to-four-minute intervals in the dance. They then went into the courtyard,performed again, returned,kissed
122

table B and lit a candle in front of the drum, took off the costumes and danced again, this time saluting eight directions.3 All the while, one individual said to be the leading 'tiger' and 'very wise in the dance' swung an incenseburnerover and aroundthem. This man, with one assistant, now repeatedthe dance as the 'deer,' and, in the courtyard, a real battle was enacted, the 'deer' striking with his horns with teeth and paws. Eventually the and the 'tiger' assistant 'deer' died, climbed onto the 'tiger's' back and was carried Costumes were taken off and the leader into the cofradia. danced once again alone, more leisurely, with knees flexed and legs passingalternatelyin front of each other, armsheld outstretched,palms held straight and facing inwards. orderedthe doors and windows At midnight, the nabeysil of the cofradia be shut, approachedthe altar and knelt to before the bundle. From under the corncakeshe extracted a short beige shirt covered with designs resembling conventionalized tongues of flame. This he put on while lit candles were distributedamong the now silent assistants. With much deliberation,he then dancedin a similarfashion to the 'tiger' leader, motioning people out of the way, his eyes shut as if in a trance.After dancing to the four corners of the room, he stopped with his back to table B, leaning slightly againstit, arms outstretchedsideways, legs crossed at the shins, head lolling on the right shoulder, face (conanguished, as if crucistantly wiped by attendantcofrades) fied.4 One by one, cofrades first, his public knelt before him, crossing themselves and kissing his belly, hands and feet. One man kissed the belly as altarsare kissed: centre point, began beating point to the left, point to the right. A cofrade silent during the kissing, now the drum and the marimba, then kissed each altarsaint while joined in. The assistance the nabeysilwent back to the bundle, took off the shirt, crossed himself to the four directions, took out another shirt and repeatedthe whole performance. I never witnessed the 'crucified' position again, though on other occasions I saw the same dance performed with the nabeysilcarrying the corncakes or the whole bundle. Usually the dance is performed about three times perfiesta, as close to noon or midnight as faulty watches and general drunkennessallow. The deer and tiger dances usually precede it and these dancers,said by some to be ajkunin trainto ing, also precede the cofrades church when they inform San Juan on his altar there that they have taken him in charge for a year (PlateJd). On one of my last evenings in Atitlan, I saw the nabeysil,very drunk and reluctant to dance, drop the bundle. After a moment of dead silence all presentrushed to the altar,knelt and prayed frantically. and the 'deer' was then held up by the alcalde The nabeysil until the dance was over. Whether the fact that the nabeysil had recently asked the principales-in vain-to relieve him of his 'burden' had anything to do with this episode or not remainsproblematical. Despite the very confused state of Atiteco beliefs, some enquiry is now needed into the meaning of this Dance of San Martin. I must first recall the Indian belief in dueiios, the supernatural owners of the various aspectsof Nature, a belief which has blended quite satisfactorily,in the cofradia system, with the Roman Catholic belief in patron saints.

AUGUST, I958

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of While San Antonio is duenio domestic animals, SanJuan looks after the wild ones which are 'of God': their skin can be sold and their flesh eaten, but their bones must 'go back to the hills whence they came.' Hence the raccoons and skins brought in by successfulhuntersin thanksgiving. The deeper one pries into Atiteco beliefs, the more duenioships are found to drift from the control of ordinary cofradia saintsinto the hands of San Martin until one finds who act as subservient him defined as head of all the duenios 'angels' at his royal command. In this context he is always called Rey San Martin, the King. It is believed that only at noon and midnight can the bundle be safely opened: otherwise all the winds would break out of it and 'wreak havoc in the world'; in any case, doors and windows are shut during openings and the bottom shirt in the bundle, being the most 'powerful,' is never brought out.5 When the Martinemerges at these times 'he must walk about over the hills and volcanos and all the Departmentsto give his orders to his angels,' 'the houses of the angelsbeing in the hills and valleys and clouds where they work and give the plantsand words, the food and the rain.'6 The dance, in the nabeysil's is 'a kind of confession, not of sins, but for the asking of beans and corn since we Atitecos are poor people'; seed before the San corn, indeed, is often blessedin the cofradia Martin box. One ajkun,Baltazar,had evolved a systematic set of beliefs about San Martin in which cross-fertilization between old Maya and Catholic beliefs was very evident, particularlyin the use of the numbers I2 and I3 derived both from Maya calendricday numbersand the I2 Apostles of plus Christ.For him San Martinwas the ' duenio the whole world, older than any other saint and father to them all; each village might have its Martin, but it is also true that never in all my travels have I seen a bundle like ours and the thereforeit is true that Atitlan is remeshushjap, navel of the rain and remeshush ulewu, the navel of the earth, the centre of the world.' 7 He also held that among the hosts of heavenly beings there were I2 principalMartins, I2 Marias and I2 Angels. Though this seemed to have arisen from a spontaneousstylistic trick of ajkun'sprayers-citing a basic name, then making a long list by repeatingit with secondary names attached-he did produce lists for me of this heterogeneous' company of the holy world': a mixed crew of Catholic angels and archangels,saints, Maya calendric day names, wind names, ritual-object personifications(lit. god-candle, god-incense, etc.), personages from SpanishIndian festival dances-kings, soldiers and devils-and (I shall come back to this later) certain human beings who The Mariasappear turned out to be dead Atiteco nabeysil.8 to be subordinatedto the angel-faced cloth, kept in box I, which representsYashper (Maria Ana or Maria Isabel), 'a very old woman of ancient times, crippled and bent but still powerful who opens the path for children' and is prayed to by the iyom,the midwives, female equivalentsto the male ajkun. Some informants called the cloth a representation of the 'insides of a woman' (las tripas). Sick children are sometimes clothed in little red and green shirtscontainedin box I and cradledin the box for a while by ajkuncalledin by theirfamily. The associationof human, animal and vegetal fertility and wellbeing which is so
I23

strong in all Maya ritual is thus consecratedin cofradia San Juan.9 During one dance of San Martin, some cofrades, usually impervious to such matters,pointed out to me that thunder could be heard and that rain could be expected. The true nature of this performanceas a rain-making ritual appears nowhere more clearly than in accountsof the deeds of dead nabeysilsaid to have lived some 50 to 70 years before my visit. 'In those days, whenever the village needed rain, Santiago, SanJuan and San Antonio were clothed in green " cloaks of rain." The bundle was brought out and various tricks were performed such as lifting the cofradia table into the air by going up to it and making as if to bite it. Then there were processionswhich brought on the rain. There was also another custom after the rain to ask for the sun back and at this point red cloaks were worn by the saints.' The colours of these capes suggest a meaning for the red and green antler ribbons of the deer dancers,the shirts in the Yashperbox and the similarly coloured procession stretchersfound all over this area of Guatemala.Today in Atitlan, a rain-makingceremony is performed by the main ajkunat the mid point of five officialsowing-of-corn dates on fiesta San Felipe (5 February),but I found no trace of a sun ceremony. The respectivepositions of the SanJuan and San Martin fiestas in the ritual calendar do suggest the possibility of some kind of equinoctial ritual having existed in the past, but more research is needed on this point. Finally, there is a set of Atiteco legends about a family of ancestors(variouslydescribedas six to I2 brothersand six to I2 sisters, six married and six unmarried brothers, I2 brothersand their wives) whose exploits are situated'in the beginning of the world.' These tales contain items manifestly as old as the Popol Vuh and the Anales de Solola mixed with referencesto biblical lore and to wars between Atitlan and Antigua which might have taken place just before the Conquest or in fairly early colonial times.Io One informant gave a list of ancestors, some of whom relist appearedin the ajkun's of dueiios: many of the surnames were identical, thus confirming some sort of relationship between some or all of the ancestors.At one point in these tales, the brothersare locked up in an Antigua prison after killing an enormous Negro with the aid of a double-headed hawk, the klavikoj,familiar spirit to San Martin. Their sistersor wives make and bring to them the shirts of San Martin. Putting them on, the brothersarousea great storm which destroys Antigua and sets them free, an event witnessed by all the tigers in the land gathered on a mountain top, i.e., presumably, the familiar spirits of ajkun and magicians. I will elaborate one interesting fact below, namely that a similar adventurebefell the most famous of the more recent ajkun, Francisco Sojuel, and led to the creation of the second bundle in cofradiaSan Martin Particular. A few remarks of a historical nature, however inconclusive, remainto be made. The shirtsseem to me to require some explanation beyond the Atiteco version of their origin. The flame design on them resemblesso closely the pattern on the conventionalizedfleece (actuallycamel hair,

No. 170

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but to the Indian fleece) worn by statues of St. John the Baptist that we may take them to be copies of the fleece. Perhaps the Indians, upon hearing early sermons on the Baptist living in the desert and preceding the Christ, at some moment associatedJuan and Martin with the old gods and the undomesticatedaspectsof Nature. Why, on the other hand, should the nabeysil wear the shirts?Various items of the San Martin cult taken together suggest to me that this might be connected with the ancient custom of wearing sacrificedhuman skins by priests of Xipe Totec, the flayed god. There are references in the literature to dancesnot unlike the deer and tiger dance-though featuring other animals as well-taking place as late as I620 around Mazatenango, a town closely linked by trade with Atitlan and also, I suspect,by-religion:many of the 'angels' of San Martin are patrons of villages in the Mazatenango areas.J. E. S. Thompson feels that these dances are 'almost certainly' associatedwith Xipe Totec.II Furtherback still, the Popol Vuhgives the deerskinas a symbol of a major god Tohil, associatedwith rain, thunder and human sacrifice. Tohil was the god of Balam-Quitze, first of the Quiche ancestors (of which there were four, the last, in some accounts, unmarried), who, upon dying, left to his sons a 'bundle of majesty' as a 'symbol 6f his being': ' "This is a remembrancewhich I leave for you. This shall be your power. I take my leave filled with sorrow," he added. Then he left the symbol of his being, the Pizom-Gagal,as it was called, whose form was invisible becauseit was wrapped up and could not be unwrapped; the seam did not show because it was not seen when they wrapped it up.' In a note on the bundle, A. Recinos refers to other such among neighbouring Maya tribesas well as to Torquemada'smention of a Mexican Indian bundle 'made of the mantles of the dead gods.' Now it is clear from precolumbian data that some relation was thought to exist in ancient Maya ritual between a god, his sacrificial victim (human, or animalsubstitute)and the priestwho impersonatedthe god, especiallywhen wearing the victim's skin. Clearly too, we have an equation in modern Atitlan between the dead and nabeysil the gods in the form of San Martin angels. Can we also claim to have an equation between the living nabeysiland a victim whose sole surviving symbols would be the murdered 'deer' of the deer and tiger dance and the shirt-or skin-of the Dance of San Martin? Though at no stage was the nabeysilever said to be San Martin, the ritual taken together with the belief in the great dueino's emergence at noon and midnight certainly suggests an impersonation on his part. In this connexion, a note by Tozzer, quoting Roys, is of great interest: 'Roys points out that Crucifixion was associated with the worship of the rain gods and the cenote cult and that ... one of the first missionariesreported that the Cross was adored as a god of water and rain.'I3Early nativisticmovements among the Maya featuredcrucifixions of children and adults as part of the rain ceremonies, a fact which may afford a clue to the origin of the 'crucified' position in the San Martin Dance though one other observer, Dr. Borhegyi, suggested a search for Franciscan influenceshere: the notions of crucifixion and sacrificeare
IX

not, in any case, far apart.I4 Finally, though I obtained job nothing on a possible relation between the nabeysil's and his shrivelled leg and arm during my stay, it is interesting to find in Sahagun the following comments on disease and the rain gods (Tlalocs): 'The various diseases for which they made promises to the Tlalocs were the gout ... also contractions of tendons in any part of the body ... or contractions of any member, limbs or arms,
or for paralysis.... They also said that if anyone suffered

from a shrivelledhand or foot ... all this happenedto him because the Tlalocs were angry with him.' I5 Could there have been, in modern Atitlan, a survivalof the idea that the rain priest's assumption of his office coincides with some kind of expiation or 'confession' of sin? Comparative research in other Tzutuhil villages and among the neighbouring Quiche and Cakchiquel would probably yield further material on these difficult points. Ruth Bunzel is worth quoting on Chichicastenango:'The vegetative aspectof the earthis worshipped under the name of Diego Martin, a name arbitrarilychosen when the first missionariesforbade the use of the names of the ancient gods. By verbal analogy he is identified with San Martin, of who thereby has become dueino the earth, and his day (ii November) is observed with ceremonies at mountain shrines.... The other saint who figures prominently in agriculturalritual is Santiago. Here, as in Spain, he is the patron of horses, who tramples on the corn. As destroyer of the milpahe is vaguely identified with Jurakan,the god of the tempest, who has been baptized under the name of Manuel Lorenzo.' In view of persistentrumours of rivalry between Atitlan and Chichicastenango,it is interesting to note that the destructive aspect of the wind is associated with the patron of Atitlan. SanJuan, in Chichicastenango, 'is identified with the forces of destiny that rule men's lives.' i6 He is apparentlythe giver of the familiarspirit and of the 'suerte' or fate of each individual, and each child must be presented to him at birth. Similar ideas exist in Atitlan, some of them, as I have shown, associatedwith the ritual complex. Juan-Martin-Yashper In conclusion, a word should be said about the place of the San Martin cult in Atiteco religion as a whole. However many items of Catholic belief may by now have entered into the cult, it does remain that part of the whole which most closely corresponds to what we know of ancient Maya religious life. The fact, already mentioned, that the most famous of the relatively recent nabeysil San Martin Particular after borrowing a created cofradia shirt from the main bundle when imprisoned by some enemies of his-the shirt helped him through its rain and sun power to escapefrom a deluge and a fire-, as well as the general similarity of behaviour and destiny ascribedto all nabeysil,prompts me to suggest a hypothesis regarding their role in Atiteco history. Some beliefs as old as any obtainable in the Maya area have both reacted upon and been influenced by the deeds of certainnative priestsof the turn of the century. The older the informant, the more clearly he sees an equation beancestors and a long line of tween the deeds of dueinos, nabeysilwho have come to the rescue in Atitlan's time of

I24

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need, which leaves a very thin dividing line between the human and the divine in one sector of Atiteco world view. Today unusual or eccentric individuals are still granted miraculous powers and the Indians are constantly on the look-out for suchcharacters, despitemany younger people's assurancesto the contrary. Even I, after participating in certain rituals, was ominously referred to as the son of Francisco Sojuel. I suggest that the San Martin beliefs, if we may-however arbitrarily-isolate them for a moment from the others, representa survival of a cyclical view of history in which both problems and those who solve them recur in a similar fashion time after time. Similar but not identical since circumstancesare bound to change, these problems always involve a mechanism of salvation based, in the last resort, on the original model of the rain priest's salvation of natural abundance through his own special 'power' or 'destiny.' I have tried to show elsewhere that this Maya or 'native' view of hlistory conflictwith other can views, associated with Ibero-Catholic culture, in which history is seen as a straight line involving a succession of discreteevents. This conflict may expressitself in terms of a third view, which sharesin the first in that it is repetitive, but alsoin the secondin that repetitionis here overwhelmed by historicalcircumstance,by a 'death of the world' which has robbed modern men of their magic and whose origin I have suggested locating in the Conquest's traumaticintroduction to 400 years of acculturation.I7 another place,i8 In I have tried to tie these three views to three cults: that of the 'native' San Martin, that of the CatholicJesucristoand that of the dualistic Maximon. I have also wondered whether the fundamentalAtiteco crisis in the coming together of the two religions did not occur when a the6ry of sin brought about by disorderedsexual relationsand expiated by the consequentfertilizationof Nature clashedwith another theory of sin similarly incurred but only expiable through a divine moral law at odds with any heathen theory of salvation through fertility.
Notes
IThis materialis extractedfrom 'Religion and World View in

5 I give one version of an Atiteco story on the origin of thunder and lightning: 'Accordingto the ancients,the angelshave the right to visit women or wives every fifteendays.Therewas one angelwho disobeyedthis order and was tempted by a woman into seeing her in the intervals.One day after committing such a sin, he saw in a took off his angelicclothes,lay down field the tree of the fruitkushin, his angelic arms and climbed the tree. While he was eating there

SantiagoAtitlan,'MicrofilmCollectionof Mss. on AmericanIndian Cultural Anthropology, No. 52, University of Chicago Library, I957 (herecalledLong Text, L.T.), and a shorterPh.D. thesisof the same name in the same Library.In 'Les Mayas des hautes terres,' No. ii5, Paris, I956, I have offered some reasonsfor the Critique, peculiarposition of Atiteco 'native' deities within the cofradias; to the north of Atitlan, their worship usually takes place in the hills
outside the village. See L.T., pp. I59-6I.

startedsuckingblood with its tail. The angel screamedfor help. A merchantfrom Chicacao. . . was told by the angel to put on the clothes, take the arms and shoot the snake. The merchant was foolish, but finally did this and out of the weapon came a great lightning and the snake fell to pieces but the angel also died and turned black. At this point, the merchantwas lifted into a great cloud, and this, sincehe did not know how to drive it, went at great speed towards the sea, with terrific rain which lifted houses and changedthe courseof rivers.The king of the angels, alerted,called his angels from their resting places in the hills and told them to catchthe cloud beforeit fell into the sea, otherwisethe world would be destroyed.They finally caught cloud and merchantand brought them to the king. The king told the merchanthe would beat him, but the merchantaccusedthe angel. Whereuponthe angel who was alive againwas beatentoo.' Cf. L.T., p. 476, for analysisof Biblical and and Maya overtones,also TheKing,the Traitor theCross(note I8 below). One informanttold me that thunderwas causedby angels agitating their ornamentsin the sky. On the shirts,see L.T., p. 5i6. 6 Note here that Martin is the patron of Cerro de Oro (Hill of Gold), a dependencyof Atitlan'sin which much treasureis said to are be hidden and the hill dueflos thought to rule and hold fiestas. There is a belief among the old in 'about three or four or six huge volcanos, situatedin some other state or part of the world which, at noon or midnight, become the resting place for the throne of heaven.' Are these the four Bacabsof the old religion which 'stood points to hold up the sky' ? (D. E. Thompson, op. cit., at the cardinal p. 8). Philadelphia,I894, p. 46, who 7 Cf. D. G. Brinton, Nagualism, with the refersto a Quiche god U-q'ux Uleuh,whom he assimilates Aztec cave god Oztoteotland the god of the heart of the mountain the On Tepeyollotl. p. 5o he writes: 'Tepeololtec, Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of the Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualisticpower.' Can the closed-door policy of the nabeysilever have been related to cave ritual? In view of the link between Maximon (Mam) and Martin,to be discussedin a forthcoming paper (Maximon and Martin are both usually kept hidden), see J. E. S. Thompson: Maya Hierobundles Washington,I950, p. I33f., for linksbetweenMam glyphic Writing, and other gods of the centre of the earth and fire: Tepeyollotl, of etc. Xiuhtecutli, Given Maximon's duenio-ship sexual affairs,it is as interestingto find Brinton,p. 54, giving Huehueteotl the oldest of gods and governor of sexual relations,another of whose names is Xiuhtecutli. 8 For a century-oldreferenceto one such Martin, duenlo wind of north of Atitlan, see K. Scherzer,Vienna, and hills in Ixtahuacan, (translated Istlavacan' i856, reprintedas 'Los Indiosde Sta. Catarina Vol. de e AntropologiaHistoria Guatemala, VI, Part2 by E. Schaeffer), see For completelists and interpretations L.T., pp. 452-62, 47I-8. of s' 9 In Holy Week, some 'racc takeplacebetweenbearers statues Note of SantaMariaanda SanJuan'Carajo.'S. K. Lothrop,'Further IndianNotes, Vol. VI, Part i, on IndianCeremoniesin Guatemala,' Heye Foundation,New York, I929, refersto a custom,remembered but not carriedout in my time, of imprisoningthe statuesto prevent the repetitionof an affairindulged in by these two on the night of the Crucifixion.D. E. Thompson, op. cit., p. 7, refersto the Maya of of association Mariawith the Moon goddess,patroness childbirth and weaving, whose infidelity to the sun in mythical times had led indicatedthat In to her attributeof licentiousness. my time, an ajkun Sky-San Jose had created the world by copulating with EarthSantaMaria. New R. Bunzel, Chichicastenango, York, I952, p. iii, refersto
(I954), p. I9.

came in the air a huge snake . . . which curled itself around him and

I hope to devote a separatearticleto the Maximon doll. 2 No informantcould give the etymology of this word. It might derivefrom nabeij, path, or a Tzutuhilequivalent(?) of the QuicheCakchi4uel month lists word: nabei, great. J. E. S. Thompson, Ethnologyof the Mayas of Southernand CentralBritish Honduras, Chicago, I930, p. 73, has a child-curingprayerin which the word yabehil, derivedfrom the Spanishttave,meansthe 'key of.' See L.T.,
p. 3I0. 3 No

consistentdirectiolialpatternof salutingwas observed. On this matter, see the ingenious discussionby D. E. Thompson in and Tulane, I954, p. I3. ,Maya Paganism Christianity, 4 Only one informant associatedthis with Christ's death and stressed fact that the right leg shouldbe crossedover the left. He the belonged to cofradia Martin Particular, San whose dancerobserved this pattern.The SanJuan nabeysil inconsistent. was I25

Nos.

I70, I7I

MAN

AUGUST, I958

'two marriedsaints,''called by the name Sta. Esper, guardiansof marriageand the domestic arts, especiallyweaving. They are two female figures who come out only once a year, on Good Friday.' If a wife refusessex relations,these saintsare prayedto (p. II8). On p. 27I, a SantaAna receivescandlesfrom midwives. On the simultaneous fear of and desirefor fertilityin Atitlan, see L.T., pp. 376-84, and my concludingremarkson sin in this article. IO See L.T., pp. 54f. IIJ. E. S. Thompson, The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization, Norman, Oklahoma, I954, p. 257, andE. Chinchilla,'La Danza del Tum-Telecheo Loj-Tum,'AntropologiaHistoria Guatemala, e de Vol. III, Part 2 (i95i). Thomas Gage (Broadway Travellers edition, London, I928, p. 269) writes of dances very similar: 'a kind of hunting out of some wild beast(which formerlyin time of heathenism was to be sacrificed theirgods) to be offeredup unto the saint,' to and 0. La Farge and D. Byers, The YearBearers' People,Tulane, I93 I, p. io5, send us back to Gage in describinga kindred dance 'which came originallyfrom Mazatenango.' I2Popol Vuh,Englishversionby D. Goetz and S. G. Morley from the translationof A. Recinos, Norman, Oklahoma, I950, pp. I75. I92 and 205. 13 A. M. Tozzer,Landa's de Relacion lasCosasde Yucatan, Harvard,
I94I, p. ii6.

into a subjectsomewhat the andstress importanceof furtherresearch bedevilledby Brinton'sromanticviews on 'nagualists.' J. E. S. Thompson (personalcommunication,20 February,I958) which I had overlooked: 'I cannothelp susoffersan interpretation pecting that the matter of the shirtsmay have nothing to do with of any Xipe ritesbut may be a mixed-up dramatization SanMartin's shirt would then offer of half his cloak to a beggar. The nabeysil's half represent the cloak,eitheras worn by the beggaror by the saint. Perhapsan incident in the saint'slife would account for the crucifixion scene.A connexionbetweenJuanand Martinmight lie in the fact that St.John told his hearersto give away one cloakif they had two. The associationof San Martinwith rain probablyarisesfrom raindeitiesof Yucatan,arenow as his being on horseback, the Chacs, horsemen, and the horse Cortes left at Tayasal was deified as a that the Mazatenangodancedata Chac.'Mr. Thompson also stresses allow no comparisonwith Atitlan's deer dance: the Mazatenango sacrificeof a prisonerof war tied to a people saidtheirsrepresented stake and attackedby jaguarsand eagles as in the Xipe rites. and of My own feelingis thatthe association rain-making sacrifice overrides this interpretationwhich could, however, have been a mask for the continuationof pagan rites. I5 Bandelier's edition, Nashville, I932, pp. 45-7. i6 R. Bunzel, op. cit., pp. 57 and 268. 'The King, the Traitor and the Cross,'Diogenes2I, Chicago, (also Paris, I958, and Buenos Aires, Cologne, Rome, Cairo, forthcoming).
I958
I7 i8

L.T., pp. 494-506 and 5I3.

For the history of Maya nativistic movements, see D. E. Thompson, op. cit., pp. II-22. I have no doubt that some of the Atiteco episodesabout dead nabeysil referto some such movements
I4

A 'PELVIMETER' MEASUREMENTS

FOR ORIENTATION OF THE INNOMINATE

by

AND BONE*

S. R. K. CHOPRA of Department Anatomy,University Birmingham of

171

A conspicuous feature of the innominate bone

The principal featuresof the 'Pelvimeter' are shown in

which results in the plane of the iliac bone being very differentfrom that of the lateralwall of the true pelvis, the 'ischio-pubic' plane. The angle of 'pelvic torsion' can be defined as the angle between the iliac and ischio-pubic planes relative to the axis formed by a straightline joining the mid point between the 'anterior superior spine' and the 'posterior superiorspine' on the iliac crest to the mid point between the 'symphysion' and 'ischial point' on the ischio-pubic ramus.In order to obtain a measureof torsion, it is necessary to orient the bone in a standardway with respect to this axis. Previous techniques for orientation (e.g. L. S. B. Leakey, The StoneAge Racesof Kenya,London (O.U.P.), I935; R. A. Dart, 'Innominate of Fragments Australopithecus Prometheus,' Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop., N.S., Vol. VII (I949), p. 30I) do not permit of this being done, nor do they standardizethe position of the bone from the point of view of linear measurement. A new instrument has therefore been designed and constructed, which allows of the standardizing of measurements regardlessof major differencesin the form of the innominate bone of differentspecies.
* With threetextfigures
I26

is the twist or torsion aroundits long axis

figs. i and2.
Within an outer ring A is an inner ring B which is graduated in degrees. The inner ring rotates in a groove in the outer ring, its movement being controlled by a knob S. An indicator Ia is fixed on to the outer ring so as to mark the reading on the inner ring. Fixed to the inner ring are two adjustablemetal rods, with pointed tips Ri and R2. The blunt end of rod Ri carries a metallic protractor P which moves along an indicator Ib which is attachedto the clamp locking Ri as is shown in figs. I and 2. The whole apparatusis mounted on a squarewooden base. The innominate bone is held in position within the rings by applying the pointed tip of one rod to point M midway between the 'anterior superior spine' and the 'posterior superiorspine' on the iliac crest, and the pointed tip of the other rod to point Mi midway between the 'symphysion' and the 'ischial point' on the ischio-pubic ramus (see figs. 2 and 3). The line between these two bony points defines both the axis of orientation of the bone for purposes of linear measurement, and also the long axis on which it is twisted into its main planes.The bone is held in position by tightening the locking screws (see figs. i and 2). In order to measure the angle between the iliac and