Antonio García Cubas

“ Witchcraft enjoys such wide popularity among Indian women that there is hardly one among them who cannot relate one and even many cases of the black art in her family. To their minds superstition and credulity go hand in hand, and if one tells them of some strange occurrence ascribed to enchantment, they believe it as readily and as firmly as if it had happened to themselves or as if they had witnessed it. ”

“ He instinctively hates the superiority of the white race, and even of the mestizos, to whom institutions both of long ago and of the present day, customs, greater civilization, and above all the allotment of land, give so many advantages. His almost irresistible inclination carries him into isolation, almost exile, in order to escape from the torment of seeing them and from social duties. He retires where the land is free, where he can till his field wherever he pleases. ”

“ The character of the Indians of Yucatan is such that, were they to be judged only by their customs and their habits, we would have to qualify them as stupid and devoid of reason. It seems indifferent to them to be in the shade or exposed to rain or to the scorching rays of the sun, even though they could avoid it. [144] It does not matter to them whether they go dressed or naked. They never try to obtain commodities they see other races enjoy, even though the trouble or sacrifice it would cost to get them might be but small. ”

“ Under such circumstances marital fidelity on the part of the women is not, nor can it be, very deep-rooted, and frequently her seducers triumph over her virtue. However, if the husband surprises them and the woman succeeds in escaping him, he denounces her to the next court of justice and demands that she be given a certain number of blows. She invariably receives them quite resignedly, and after the ordeal returns peacefully to her domestic duties. If the woman is the offended one, she also goes before the judge and demands that her rival be treated to the same punishment. ”

“ There are no laws that fix the boundaries of the immense stretches of waste-land within our country, nor a careful study of climate, geology, and production. There is not, to [200] my knowledge, any report establishing the best methods of making all our territory productive either through sales or the renting of all lands that cannot be tilled by their original owners. Our own elements, as we have tried to demonstrate in this article, are either heterogeneous or too scarce and insufficient to accomplish the task of carrying the nation onward on the road of aggrandizement. ”

“ The love of the parents for their children, of the children for their parents, and [146] between husband and wife, is barely lukewarm, and not at all passionate, if we are to judge from their absolute lack of signs of sympathy, pity, or condolence. They contemplate dry-eyed and rather indifferently the suffering of their nearest, and even their demise, without allowing this to change their demeanor or letting it interfere in the least with their general customs of life. ”

“ In the evening, by the light of the home fire or in the pale light of a tropical moon, she sews or mends his clothes and hers and those of her children. Whenever the husband leaves home to go on a [183] journey to some neighboring town or hacienda, the wife has to follow him; she is never allowed, however, to walk by his side, but behind, in his footsteps so to speak. If this husband gets drunk, which occurs rather frequently, and he should fall by the roadside, it is the wife's duty to remain by his side and take care of him until he is able to continue on his way. ”

“ The woman who finds herself pregnant works until the very last moment before the child is born, and resumes her tasks immediately afterward, as soon as the baby is attended to. They leave their children so much to themselves, and give them so little care, that they are forever creeping around on the floor in all the mire and dirt, and always completely naked. A diaper and a tiny hipil are all they get for the first few days of their life. Around wrists and ankles they occasionally will tie tiny cords made of blue cotton to protect them, so they say, from epilepsy. ”

“ If one meets them in the fields or lies in wait for them over the walls of unmortared stones, they hide immediately, apparently to run away from the presence of a wayfarer, notwithstanding they are all exceedingly curious, and the love of gossip is one of their main characteristics. They are tender-hearted and desirous of pleasing, but rather in an uncouth manner, in keeping with what little education they have received. Anyone who asks them something in the name of God is welcome to their compassion and to whatever they can afford to give. ”

“ In order to rest or to chat with their companions they hardly ever sit down: they squat, it being quite indifferent to them that they do it in a sun that scorches them when they might perhaps have shade two steps from where they are. ”

“ If the girl is not to continue living with her parents, she returns there, nevertheless, and remains for eight days, after which time the godparents come to get her and turn her over to her husband.
The husband is the recipient of all the attention and care of his wife. She sews, she washes, and she grinds the corn and makes the tortillas, the pozole, the atole, and all the rest of his food with her own hands. She does all the work of her household; she has to prepare his bath when he comes home from work in the evening. ”

“ They all are therefore convinced that these fields cannot be tilled without danger even to their lives if they do not offer him sacrifices before beginning work, such as horchata de maiz (orgeat) , which they call sacá; a stew made of corn and turkey, which they call kool; the tortilla with beans, called bulihuah; pitarrilla, and fumes of copal which they use instead of incense. It may safely be stated, therefore, that they adore him like God, but they are always careful that the white people do not see or notice this sacrificial offering for fear of being considered as idolators. ”

“ Sentiments of gratitude do not last long. However, we must in this case always except those who were reared in the homes of white people. With few exceptions (when perhaps poor methods or little care in their education, or perchance bad example and ill-treatment dominated) , these Indian girls are virtuous, assiduous, disinterested, and very well-disposed toward all the different branches of service and ready to learn whatever they are taught. They are modest, and are fond of dressing themselves nicely and decently. ”

“ They have no hair on their bodies except on the head. Their color is a copper-brown, darkened through constant exposure to the sun, especially as they go about almost totally naked. The color of the women is therefore much lighter, and this is also the case with such men as have been reared from childhood in homes of the white people. Among the women there are some very pretty ones, slender in form, with an airy but graceful carriage, and a very sweet voice; but the hard work to which they are subjected from early childhood causes them to lose their beauty at an early age. ”

“ This is the entire inventory of the necessaries of life an Indian family of Yucatan needs, and which suffices even to the wealthy ones in the larger towns and principal [165] cities. A great many of them live even without some of the things enumerated. They substitute for corn and vegetables (in case they cannot have them either for not having sown or for having lost the harvest) , fruits, roots, and indigenous plants which grow wild all over their country, and which are edible and nourishing. ”

“ With regard to their marriage customs, there is little else to say except that the daughter-in-law goes to live in the house of her father-in-law, and the son-in-law goes to live with his wife's parents, which is at present the most usual way, because an episcopal edict had to be issued prohibiting the first-mentioned to avoid the very frequent abuses committed on the bride by her father-in-law and brothers-in-law. At a very early age young men marry, without repugnance, women who are much older, widows, and even girls who have children born out of wedlock. ”

“ There is no end of superstitions among the general mass of the Indians, and the most customary form of fortune-telling is performed by means of a piece of a certain crystal which they call zaztun, which means a clear and transparent stone, and this enables them to see hidden things and also to divine the cause of maladies. Those who arrogate to themselves the title of a diviner are freely consulted, and they receive presents and live a very easy and carefree life. ”

“ Shall we still ask why the Yucatecan Indian is so indolent, when he has such few and such modest necessities, all of which are so easy to obtain even in the midst of the forests and at a great distance from any other human habitation? ”

“ The customs, habits, and inclinations of all those Indians in general do not, with any certainty, evoke any hope for the improvement of their race and their subsequent utility and usefulness to the nation. The task I have set for myself is a very delicate one, and there may exist a great many people who will attribute to lack of patriotism the frank statement of many defects in our population ”

“ Of real savage tribes there are none in Yucatan. After the greater part of the peninsula, cities as well as villages, had been reconquered from the possession of the Indians who had taken them during their insurrection in 1847, which was general, the most tenacious and unruly ones among them settled in the eastern part of the peninsula, where they have built several towns, the principal one being Chan-Santacruz. From these fastnessess they frequently sally forth to attack and even to raze our absolutely defenseless villages. ”

“ Even the fact that a woman has just been delivered of a child does not serve as an impediment to her going with the husband; she simply carries the new-born baby with her, either in a piece of cloth on her back or else mounted on one of her hips. ”

“ This kind of punishment did not offend them, if they were informed of the reason why it was meted out to them, nor did they consider it degrading. This characteristic is still noticeable among those who have remained submissive and attached to the white people. It is quite different with those among them who have had to suffer the cruel, atrocious, and protracted martyrdom inflicted by the rebels. They are merciless [159] to those who have fallen and still fall into their power, not only those of other tribes, but even of their own, in case they refuse to follow their tracks. ”

“ Experience, and to a certain extent tradition, are their only guides for telling the different seasons of the year; they have not the slightest remembrance of their ancient calendar system. They are accustomed to hear clocks strike where such exist, but otherwise, simply from the course of the sun, moon, and stars, they are able to regulate the hours of the day and night, more or less. ”

“ When they go out, the Indian women wear on their heads either a piece of cotton cloth of about half a yard in width by two and a half yards in length, the ends of which hang down the back, or else they tie a red kerchief around the head, a very bright red being their favorite color. A hipil of cotton is fashioned like a wide sacque-coat, with an opening in the center to put the head through, fitting around the neck, having openings on the two sides for the arms. ”

“ A pregnant Indian woman will not go outdoors during an eclipse, in order to avoid her child being born with spots or ugly birthmarks on its body; nor do they visit women who have just given birth to [187] a child, because it is their belief that the babies would become ill with pains in their bowels.
As soon as the child is six months old they name a godfather and a godmother for the ceremony of opening the baby's limbs for the first time. ”

“ But as soon as he reaches and embraces her, he finds that he holds in his arms a bundle filled with thorns, with legs as thin as those of a turkey, and this gives him such a terrible shock that he has fainting spells and high delirious fevers. The Huahuapach is a giant who may be seen at midnight in certain streets, and he is so tall that an ordinary man barely reaches to his knees. ”

“ In some villages they are taught to make common pottery, and in places near the coast they are shown how to extract salt, to fish, and seamanship in general. It is very rare that they are taught other arts and crafts or trades, with the exception perhaps in cities or principal towns, where, especially when [149] they have been reared and educated in the households of white people, they may become efficient in the art of quarrying stone, though quite primitively, or they qualify as masons, shoemakers, tailors, muleteers, drivers, and cowboys. ”

“ Generally speaking, the Indians of Yucatan are of about the same stature as all intertropical races, of a round face, straight black hair, rather coarse, not very pronounced eyebrows, very little beard or none at all, a low narrow forehead, black and expressive eyes, a somewhat flat nose, small but outstanding [193] ears, protruding cheekbones, a regular mouth with thin lips and beautiful teeth, a stout neck, broad chest and shoulders, arms, thighs, and limbs of robust and muscular build. Their hands and feet are small, and the toes of their feet stand closer together than the heels. ”

“ The aborigines who inhabit the borders to the river Usumacinta and its tributaries are for the greater part natives of Yucatan, and are like all the rest of their kind, very fond of drinking. The Indians of Tenosique, about forty years ago, were known as very honest and trustworthy, but their intercourse with the rebels and emigrants from Yucatan have demoralized them to a great extent. ”

“ As the climate of the peninsula is so hot that it exhausts our physical strength and energy, as well as reduces the needs of man who can live almost nude and in the open air and feed himself sparingly, we cannot expect that the Indian should be particularly inclined to work. ”