170. A Guatemalan Sacred BundleAuthor(s): E. Michael MendelsonReviewed work(s):Source: Man, Vol. 58 (Aug., 1958), pp. 121-126Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2796271 .Accessed: 15/09/2012 14:47

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PLATE J MAN, AUGUST, I958

(a) m (b)

. 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

e ~ ~ ~~~ e d a iede n ie ac i n hecopon of Sa Juanh

WAR~~~~~~~~~~~(4

;E f~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tge holds a stfe squirre in his hand

COFRADIA~(a SANge JUacons ntero rl

Phtgrps E. M Mendlsr.) The bnlitefcudot b hograpediie Sfas wuans avialand altoosae ctloed a n nirght.

_ i; 2 Z ; Z; (d) A day-time deer and tiger dance in the compound of San Juan. The~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4i rsi- \ T_ .S { ff tr iger holds a sufdsure nhshns

, i12v~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~......

O ~ ~ ~ ORDASNJA

Photoraphs E. M Menelson The utid7 itsf coud notbe potogrFhed iricerio ash ws avalabl and ll dors ar cloed da and ight

A GUATEMALAN SACRED BUNDLE*

by

E. MICHAEL MENDELSON, M.A., PH.D.

London School of Economics and Political Science

17 The religious ritual of Santiago Atitlan, a 17 Tzutuhil Maya village in the Solola Depart- ment of the Southern Guatemalan Highlands, takes place, almost exclusively, in its ten cofradias. These are small chapels within each of which the cult of one saint is cele- brated by a body of religious officials ranked in hierarchical order with an alcalde as their leader. These officials are men climbing the politico-religious ladder of office by means of 'services' rendered to the village in one or more of the cofradias and in the Municipality. Broadly speaking, a man serves alternately, year by year, in each of the two hier- archies until, having rendered a certain number of services, he emerges as a principal, an adviser to the religious head of the village and to the mayor. In any given year, each cofradia is located in the house of its alcalde who is responsible to the head of the village for the performance of the saint's ritual in that year. The next year, the cofradia paraphernalia moves on to another alcalde's house and a different set of cofrades. Public ritual is performed by the cofrades as rep- resentatives of the principales and the Municipality on the saint's day(fiesta) with prayers, drinking and feasting in the cofradia and processions of the saint's statue or statues to and from the church. Private ritual for specific individuals or families is conducted in the major cofradias all the year round by native priests (ajkun, i.e. prayer-makers, healers and diviners) who have no place within the public politico- rehgious hierarchies.

Although cofradias are often claimed to be equal in rank, the observer soon discovers that some of them are more important than others: ritual is celebrated more often and more abundantly, ajkun visit more frequently, extra offi- cials stay with the cofradia on a permanent basis as it moves from alcalde to alcalde year after year. In the case of cofradias Santa Cruz and San Juan, this added importance is asso- ciated with the presence of two cult figures: the Maximon doll and the San Martin bundle respectively. These two cult figures differ in many ways from the ordinary wooden saint statue. I hope to show that they are in fact contem- porary versions of ancient Maya divinities which have found a place for themselves as saints at the heart of the cofradia system. This article is devoted to cofradia San Juan and its sacred bundle the San Martin.'

Cofradia San Juan (see fig. i), though at first sight similar to any other, contains various extra features of interest. The ceiling trellis is not only hung with various tropical leaves and fruit but also with some I2 or 13 stuffed raccoons (Plateja). On a shelf just below the ceiling (A) are disposed some 3o older stuffed animals. mostly raccoons. and odd

pieces of animal skins. A table (B) bears several complete deer skins, some with skulls and horns attached, and two or three jaguar skins (fig. 2). Under the table lies an ancient two-tongued wooden drum (C) featured only in cofradias of major ritual importance (Santa Cruz, San Antonio, Santiago and Concepcion) (Plate Jb). The altar table bears three statues of SanJuan (D, E, F), the largest (D) and smallest (F)

COFRADES' BENCH

COFRADES' TABLE

O > >' F

A 9W

- w

LJ |11

A

FIG. I. PLAN OF COFRADIA SAN JUAN

FIG. 2. HORNS OF DEER COSTUMES ON TABLE B

holding a Bible surmounted by a lamb. There is also a little Virgin in a painted box (G) (Plate Jc). Two wooden cases (H and I) placed one on each side of the altar are rarely opened. One of them contains the San Martin bundle (H).

Cofradia SanJuan celebrates two mainfiestas, that of San Juan on 24 June and that of San Martin on i i November. * With Plate J and two text figures

I2I

No. I70 MAN AUGUST, I958

The latter appears to be the more important since it is also celebrated by cofradias San Antonio and San Nicolas, both of whose altars bear statues (not bundles) of San Martin on his horse. Cofradias San Juan and San Antonio are in many ways related: they share with cofradia Santiago the honour of extra details in the transfer of power ceremonies at the end of the year and both little San Juan (F) and his corres- ponding little San Antonio take the lead in all processions of saints from any cofradia to and from the church. In addi- tion to this, a certain Dance of San Martin is performed on seven major fiestas in cofradia San Juan: San Juan, San Martin, Santiago, Holy Week, All Saints, Corpus Christi and (probably) New Year. Thus, while most cofradias limit themselves to one fiesta, San Juan is busy all the year round. San Martin is the only Atiteco cult figure present in more than one cofradia; he is also found in two private houses, called cofradias by extension, cofradia San Martin Particular (which has a second bundle) and one other which has a small statue. It remains to be said that cofradia San Juan has an extra, permanent official, the nabeysil. Like the dresser of the Maximon doll (telinel) in cofradia Santa Cruz, he is an ajkun and wields great power in the village as an intercessor. He is responsible for the Dance of San Martin and should remain unmarried and chaste for 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 resident or otherwise versed in Indian customs, seemed to know of it and most younger Indian informants had only the woolliest notions about it. I now describe it 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 rectangular bundle, some 24 by I2 inches, covered in red cloth, slit horizontally along the top. On the narrow slit lay five flat rectangular cakes of hardened corn meal. On the bundle's left lay a small apron of disintegrating cloth with little wooden, colonial-style angel faces sewn onto it.

At II.30 p.m. the nabeysil gave the signal for proceedings to begin. Four young men seized the skins on table B. Two put on deer (masat) costumes, composed of a head-to-ankle- length back piece bearing the skull and horns decorated with a criss-cross pattern 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 hands by the 'deer' while dancing. The two 'tigers' (bajlam) wore back pieces only and each carried a stuffed squirrel in his hand. The marimba played and the four dancers moved 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 sharp cries and pawing the backs of the 'deer' with the squirrels. Four times the group knelt abruptly, one behind the other, and crossed themselves, thus saluting the four cardinal directions at three-to-four-minute intervals in the dance. They then went into the courtyard, performed again, returned, kissed

table B and lit a candle in front of the drum, took off the costumes and danced again, this time saluting eight direc- tions.3 All the while, one individual said to be the leading 'tiger' and 'very wise in the dance' swung an incense- burner over and around them. This man, with one assistant, now repeated the dance as the 'deer,' and, in the courtyard, a real battle was enacted, the 'deer' striking with his horns and the 'tiger' assistant with teeth and paws. Eventually the 'deer' died, climbed onto the 'tiger's' back and was carried into the cofradia. Costumes were taken off and the leader danced once again alone, more leisurely, with knees flexed and legs passing alternately in front of each other, arms held outstretched, palms held straight and facing inwards.

At midnight, the nabeysil ordered the doors and windows of the cofradia to be shut, approached the altar and knelt before the bundle. From under the corncakes he extracted a short beige shirt covered with designs resembling con- ventionalized tongues of flame. This he put on while lit candles were distributed among the now silent assistants. With much deliberation, he then danced in a similar fashion 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 against it, arms outstretched sideways, legs crossed at the shins, head lolling on the right shoulder, face (con- stantly wiped by attendant cofrades) anguished, as if cruci- 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 altars are kissed: centre point, point to the left, point to the right. A cofrade began beating the drum and the marimba, silent during the kissing, now joined in. The assistance then kissed each altar saint while the nabeysil went back to the bundle, took off the shirt, crossed himself to the four directions, took out another shirt and repeated the whole performance.

I never witnessed the 'crucified' position again, though on other occasions I saw the same dance performed with the nabeysil carrying the corncakes or the whole bundle. Usually the dance is performed about three times per fiesta, as close to noon or midnight as faulty watches and general drunkenness allow. The deer and tiger dances usually pre- cede it and these dancers, said by some to be ajkun in train- ing, also precede the cofrades to church when they inform San Juan on his altar there that they have taken him in charge for a year (Plate Jd). 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 present rushed to the altar, knelt and prayed frantically. The nabeysil was then held up by the alcalde and the 'deer' 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 remains problematical.

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 aspects of Nature, a belief which has blended quite satisfactorily, in the cofradia system, with the Roman Catholic belief in patron saints.

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AUGUST, I958 MAN No. I70

While San Antonio is duenio of domestic animals, San Juan 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 successful hunters in thanksgiving. The deeper one pries into Atiteco beliefs, the more duenio- ships are found to drift from the control of ordinary cofradia saints into the hands of San Martin until one finds him defined as head of all the duenios who act as subservient '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: other- wise 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 Martin emerges at these times 'he must walk about over the hills and volcanos and all the Departments to give his orders to his angels,' 'the houses of the angels being in the hills and valleys and clouds where they work and give the plants and the food and the rain.' 6 The dance, in the nabeysil's words, is 'a kind of confession, not of sins, but for the asking of beans and corn since we Atitecos are poor people'; seed corn, indeed, is often blessed in the cofradia before the San 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, particularly in the use of the numbers I2 and I3 derived both from Maya calendric day numbers and the I2 Apostles plus Christ. For him San Martin was the ' duenio of 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 therefore it is true that Atitlan is remeshushjap, the 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 principal Martins, I2 Marias and I2 Angels. Though this seemed to have arisen from a spontaneous stylistic trick of ajkun's prayers-citing a basic name, then making a long list by repeating it with secon- dary 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 Spanish- Indian festival dances-kings, soldiers and devils-and (I shall come back to this later) certain human beings who turned out to be dead Atiteco nabeysil.8 The Marias appear to be subordinated to the angel-faced cloth, kept in box I, which represents Yashper (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 equivalents to the male ajkun. Some informants called the cloth a rep- resentation of the 'insides of a woman' (las tripas). Sick children are sometimes clothed in little red and green shirts contained in box I and cradled in the box for a while by ajkun called in by their family. The association of human, animal and vegetal fertility and wellbeing which is so

strong in all Maya ritual is thus consecrated in 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 performance as a rain-making ritual appears nowhere more clearly than in accounts of the deeds of dead nabeysil said to have lived some 50 to 70 years before my visit. 'In those days, whenever the village needed rain, Santiago, San Juan 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 processions which 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 Yashper box and the similarly coloured procession stretchers found all over this area of Guatemala. Today in Atitlan, a rain-making ceremony is performed by the main ajkun at the mid point of five official sowing-of-corn dates on fiesta San Felipe (5 February), but I found no trace of a sun ceremony. The respective positions of the San Juan 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 (variously described as six to I2 brothers and six to I2 sisters, six married and six unmarried brothers, I2 brothers and their wives) whose exploits are situated 'in the beginning of the world.' These tales contain items mani- festly as old as the Popol Vuh and the Anales de Solola mixed with references to 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 re- appeared in the ajkun's list 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 brothers are 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 sisters or wives make and bring to them the shirts of San Martin. Putting them on, the brothers arouse a great storm which destroys Antigua and sets them free, an event wit- nessed 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 adventure befell the most famous of the more recent ajkun, Francisco Sojuel, and led to the creation of the second bundle in cofradia San Martin Particular.

A few remarks of a historical nature, however incon- clusive, remain to be made. The shirts seem to me to require some explanation beyond the Atiteco version of their origin. The flame design on them resembles so closely the pattern on the conventionalized fleece (actually camel hair,

I23

No. 170 MAN AUGUST, I958

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 associated Juan and Martin with the old gods and the undomesticated aspects of 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 sacrificed human skins by priests of Xipe Totec, the flayed god. There are references in the literature to dances not unlike the deer and tiger dance-though featur- ing 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' associated with Xipe Totec.II Further back still, the Popol Vuh gives the deerskin as a symbol of a major god Tohil, associated with 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 remembrance which 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 because it was wrapped up and could not be unwrapped; the seam did not show be- cause it was not seen when they wrapped it up.' In a note on the bundle, A. Recinos refers to other such among neighbouring Maya tribes as well as to Torquemada's men- tion of a Mexican Indian bundle 'made of the mantles of the dead gods.' IX 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 animal substitute) and the priest who impersonated the god, especially when wearing the victim's skin. Clearly too, we have an equation in modern Atitlan between the dead nabeysil and the gods in the form of San Martin angels. Can we also claim to have an equation between the living nabeysil and 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 nabeysil ever 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 asso- ciated with the worship of the rain gods and the cenote cult and that ... one of the first missionaries reported that the Cross was adored as a god of water and rain.' I3Early nativistic movements among the Maya featured crucifixions 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 influences here: the notions of crucifixion and sacrifice are

not, in any case, far apart.I4 Finally, though I obtained nothing on a possible relation between the nabeysil's job and his shrivelled leg and arm during my stay, it is in- teresting 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 shrivelled hand or foot ... all this happened to him because the Tlalocs were angry with him.' I5 Could there have been, in modern Atitlan, a survival of 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 aspect of the earth is worshipped under the name of Diego Martin, a name arbitrarily chosen when the first missionaries forbade the use of the names of the ancient gods. By verbal analogy he is identified with San Martin, who thereby has become dueino of the earth, and his day (ii November) is observed with ceremonies at mountain shrines.... The other saint who figures prominently in agricultural ritual is Santiago. Here, as in Spain, he is the patron of horses, who tramples on the corn. As destroyer of the milpa he is vaguely identified with Jurakan, the god of the tempest, who has been baptized under the name of Manuel Lorenzo.' In view of persistent rumours 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. San Juan, in Chichicastenango, 'is identified with the forces of destiny that rule men's lives.' i6 He is apparently the giver of the familiar spirit 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, associated with the Juan-Martin-Yashper ritual complex.

In conclusion, a word should be said about the place of the San Martin cult in Atiteco religion as a whole. How- ever 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 created cofradia San Martin Particular after borrowing a shirt from the main bundle when imprisoned by some enemies of his-the shirt helped him through its rain and sun power to escape from a deluge and a fire-, as well as the general similarity of behaviour and destiny ascribed to 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 certain native priests of the turn of the century. The older the informant, the more clearly he sees an equation be- tween the deeds of dueinos, ancestors and a long line of nabeysil who have come to the rescue in Atitlan's time of

I24

AUGUST, I958 MAN No. 170

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 such characters, despite many younger people's assurances to 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, represent a 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 circumstances are 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 can conflict with other views, associated with Ibero-Catholic culture, in which history is seen as a straight line involving a succession of discrete events. This conflict may express itself in terms of a third view, which shares in the first in that it is repetitive, but also in the second in that repetition is here overwhelmed by historical circumstance, 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 traumatic intro- duction to 400 years of acculturation.I7 In another place,i8 I have tried to tie these three views to three cults: that of the 'native' San Martin, that of the Catholic Jesucristo and that of the dualistic Maximon. I have also wondered whether the fundamental Atiteco crisis in the coming to- gether of the two religions did not occur when a the6ry of sin brought about by disordered sexual relations and expi- ated by the consequent fertilization of Nature clashed with 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 material is extracted from 'Religion and World View in Santiago Atitlan,' Microfilm Collection of Mss. on American Indian Cultural Anthropology, No. 52, University of Chicago Library, I957 (here called Long Text, L.T.), and a shorter Ph.D. thesis of the same name in the same Library. In 'Les Mayas des hautes terres,' Critique, No. ii5, Paris, I956, I have offered some reasons for the peculiar position 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.

I hope to devote a separate article to the Maximon doll. 2 No informant could give the etymology of this word. It might

derive from nabeij, path, or a Tzutuhil equivalent (?) of the Quiche- Cakchi4uel month lists word: nabei, great. J. E. S. Thompson, Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British Honduras, Chicago, I930, p. 73, has a child-curing prayer in which the word yabehil, derived from the Spanish ttave, means the 'key of.' See L.T., p. 3I0.

3 No consistent directiolial pattern of saluting was observed. On this matter, see the ingenious discussion by D. E. Thompson in ,Maya Paganism and Christianity, Tulane, I954, p. I3.

4 Only one informant associated this with Christ's death and stressed the fact that the right leg should be crossed over the left. He belonged to cofradia San Martin Particular, whose dancer observed this pattern. The San Juan nabeysil was inconsistent.

5 I give one version of an Atiteco story on the origin of thunder and lightning: 'According to the ancients, the angels have the right to visit women or wives every fifteen days. There was one angel who disobeyed this order and was tempted by a woman into seeing her in the intervals. One day after committing such a sin, he saw in a field the tree of the fruit kushin, took off his angelic clothes, lay down his angelic arms and climbed the tree. While he was eating there came in the air a huge snake . . . which curled itself around him and started sucking blood with its tail. The angel screamed for help. A merchant from 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 merchant was lifted into a great cloud, and this, since he did not know how to drive it, went at great speed towards the sea, with terrific rain which lifted houses and changed the course of rivers. The king of the angels, alerted, called his angels from their resting places in the hills and told them to catch the cloud before it fell into the sea, otherwise the world would be destroyed. They finally caught cloud and merchant and brought them to the king. The king told the merchant he would beat him, but the merchant accused the angel. Whereupon the angel who was alive again was beaten too.' Cf. L.T., p. 476, for analysis of Biblical and Maya overtones, also The King, the Traitor and the Cross (note I8

below). One informant told me that thunder was caused by angels agi-

tating their ornaments in 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 dependency of Atitlan's in which much treasure is said to be hidden and the hill dueflos are thought to rule and hold fiestas. There is a belief among the old in 'about three or four or six huge volcanos, situated in 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 Bacabs of the old religion which 'stood at the cardinal points to hold up the sky' ? (D. E. Thompson, op. cit., p. 8).

7 Cf. D. G. Brinton, Nagualism, Philadelphia, I894, p. 46, who refers to a Quiche god U-q'ux Uleuh, whom he assimilates with the Aztec cave god Oztoteotl and the god of the heart of the mountain Tepeyollotl. On p. 5o he writes: 'Tepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of the Animals," the trans- formation into which was the test of nagualistic power.' Can the closed-door policy of the nabeysil ever have been related to cave ritual ?

In view of the link between Maximon (Mam) and Martin, to be discussed in a forthcoming paper (Maximon and Martin are both bundles usually kept hidden), see J. E. S. Thompson: Maya Hiero- glyphic Writing, Washington, I950, p. I33f., for links between Mam and other gods of the centre of the earth and fire: Tepeyollotl, Xiuhtecutli, etc. Given Maximon's duenio-ship of sexual affairs, it is interesting to find Brinton, p. 54, giving Huehueteotl as the oldest of gods and governor of sexual relations, another of whose names is Xiuhtecutli.

8 For a century-old reference to one such Martin, duenlo of wind and hills in Ixtahuacan, north of Atitlan, see K. Scherzer, Vienna, i856, reprinted as 'Los Indios de Sta. Catarina Istlavacan' (translated by E. Schaeffer), Antropologia e Historia de Guatemala, Vol. VI, Part 2

(I954), p. I9. For complete lists and interpretations see L.T., pp. 452-62, 47I-8.

9 In Holy Week, some 'racc s' take place between bearers of statues of Santa Maria and a SanJuan 'Carajo.' S. K. Lothrop, 'Further Note on Indian Ceremonies in Guatemala,' Indian Notes, Vol. VI, Part i, Heye Foundation, New York, I929, refers to a custom, remembered but not carried out in my time, of imprisoning the statues to prevent the repetition of an affair indulged in by these two on the night of the Crucifixion. D. E. Thompson, op. cit., p. 7, refers to the Maya association of Maria with the Moon goddess, patroness of childbirth and weaving, whose infidelity to the sun in mythical times had led to her attribute of licentiousness. In my time, an ajkun indicated that Sky-San Jose had created the world by copulating with Earth- Santa Maria.

R. Bunzel, Chichicastenango, New York, I952, p. iii, refers to

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Nos. I70, I7I MAN AUGUST, I958

'two married saints,' 'called by the name Sta. Esper, guardians of marriage and the domestic arts, especially weaving. They are two female figures who come out only once a year, on Good Friday.' If a wife refuses sex relations, these saints are prayed to (p. II8). On p. 27I, a Santa Ana receives candles from midwives.

On the simultaneous fear of and desire for fertility in Atitlan, see L.T., pp. 376-84, and my concluding remarks on 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, and E. Chinchilla, 'La Danza del Tum-Teleche o Loj-Tum,' Antropologia e Historia de Guatemala, 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 formerly in time of heathen- ism was to be sacrificed to their gods) to be offered up unto the saint,' and 0. La Farge and D. Byers, The Year Bearers' People, Tulane, I93 I, p. io5, send us back to Gage in describing a kindred dance 'which came originally from Mazatenango.'

I2Popol Vuh, English version by D. Goetz and S. G. Morley from the translation of A. Recinos, Norman, Oklahoma, I950, pp. I75.

I92 and 205.

13 A. M. Tozzer, Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, Harvard, I94I, p. ii6.

I4 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 episodes about dead nabeysil refer to some such movements

and stress the importance of further research into a subject somewhat bedevilled by Brinton's romantic views on 'nagualists.'

J. E. S. Thompson (personal communication, 20 February, I958) offers an interpretation which I had overlooked: 'I cannot help sus- pecting that the matter of the shirts may have nothing to do with any Xipe rites but may be a mixed-up dramatization of San Martin's offer of half his cloak to a beggar. The nabeysil's shirt would then represent half the cloak, either as worn by the beggar or by the saint. Perhaps an incident in the saint's life would account for the cruci- fixion scene. A connexion between Juan and Martin might lie in the fact that St. John told his hearers to give away one cloak if they had two. The association of San Martin with rain probably arises from his being on horseback, as the Chacs, rain deities of Yucatan, are now horsemen, and the horse Cortes left at Tayasal was deified as a Chac.' Mr. Thompson also stresses that the Mazatenango dance data allow no comparison with Atitlan's deer dance: the Mazatenango people said theirs represented sacrifice of a prisoner of war tied to a stake and attacked by jaguars and eagles as in the Xipe rites.

My own feeling is that the association of rain-making and sacrifice overrides this interpretation which could, however, have been a mask for the continuation of pagan rites.

I5 Bandelier's edition, Nashville, I932, pp. 45-7. i6 R. Bunzel, op. cit., pp. 57 and 268. I7 L.T., pp. 494-506 and 5I3. i8 'The King, the Traitor and the Cross,' Diogenes 2I, Chicago,

I958 (also Paris, I958, and Buenos Aires, Cologne, Rome, Cairo, forthcoming).

A 'PELVIMETER' FOR ORIENTATION AND MEASUREMENTS OF THE INNOMINATE BONE*

by

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

A conspicuous feature of the innominate bone 171 is the twist or torsion around its long axis which results in the plane of the iliac bone being very different from that of the lateral wall 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 straight line joining the mid point between the 'anterior superior spine' and the 'posterior superior spine' on the iliac crest to the mid point between the 'symphysion' and 'ischial point' on the ischio-pubic ramus. In order to obtain a measure of torsion, it is necessary to orient the bone in a standard way with respect to this axis. Previous techniques for orientation (e.g. L. S. B. Leakey, The Stone Age Races of Kenya, London (O.U.P.), I935; R. A. Dart, 'Innominate Fragments of Australopithecus Prometheus,' Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop., N.S., Vol. VII (I949), p. 30I) do not permit of this being done, nor do they standardize the 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 regardless of major differences in the form of the innomi- nate bone of different species.

The principal features of the 'Pelvimeter' are shown in figs. i and 2.

Within an outer ring A is an inner ring B which is gradu- ated 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 adjustable metal 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 attached to the clamp locking Ri as is shown in figs. I and 2. The whole apparatus is mounted on a square wooden 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 superior spine' 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 * With three text figures

I26