When the Mayan ancestors arrived in El Salvador from South America in about 8700 BCE they quickly were captured by a remnant of Northamerican hunters who took them captive to the Corinto cave. In spite of the hunters being much taller than the Mayan ancestors the Maya were able to escape towards the confluence of the Torola and Lempa Rivers to a place now called Jardín (Garden) in the municipality of San Juán de Edén. When the hunters found them their only escape was to submerge themselves in the Lempa River. They found out the hunters were afraid of water, which is why they named them Xibalbha ("those afraid of water"). That is the only thing that saved the Maya then and again over the hundreds of years that they lived next to the Xibalbans. The Xibalbans most likely called themselves the Manik.
Later the Mayan ancestors discovered wild tobacco at Tecapa volcano, enjoying it for both spiritual and personal use. The Manik heard about the tobacco and took over, most likely by force, Tecapa volcano and the Laguna de Alegria. The Mayan ancestors were forced to find an island home where they would be safe and moved to Isla Tigre, in the Gulf of Fonseca, in about 8600 BCE. After about 400 years the Maya, having learned how to cultivate tobacco, were ready to fulfill their destiny as agriculturalists and promoters of human development. They moved to four island homes - Olomega, Tehuacan, Teopan, and Teotipa - where they remained safe from "those afraid of water" as long as they stayed on the islands.
But 700 years after the first encounter with the hunters, the Maya were outgrowing their four islands. Any time they ventured out to hunt, to visit each other, or to do anything beyond the islands they were harassed, attacked, or killed. The Maya realized that the Manik were the primary barrier to their progress.
But the Maya had a major problem - the Manik were much taller and stronger, had better weapons, and lived in two fortified citadels - a cave (Corinto) and inside a volcanic crater (Tecapa). A strictly military campaign would never work. The first Mayan leader to attempt to defeat the Manik was Hunahpu, a generic reference meaning leader. In the Popol Vuh he is referred to as 1 Hunahpu, 7 Hunahpu, where 7 Hunahpu is a code for a date. One Hunahpu tried a shamanistic approach instead of military - that is by superior use of astronomy he might undermine the shamanistic authority of the Manik leader, perhaps convincing all the Manik underlords to respect Mayan authority or at least not attack the Maya.
The Manik's likely use of astronomy was to predict the night of the full moon each month. Hunahpu and the Maya studied each planet for patterns that they might use to predict movements - risings, settings, retrogrades, directs - and therefore demonstrate their superior astronomy. They already had a 20-day week and had a 260 day cycle (tzolk'in), likely because it is the length of time between a pregnant woman's first missed period and the birth of a child. A child was believed to be conceived and born on the same day in the 260-day cycle.
Only one planet was found to have a pattern based on 20 or 260 days by the Maya and that was Mars. It has an orbit (synodic period) of 799.94 days, almost exactly three of the 260 day cycles or tzolk'ins. The Maya surely noticed that Mars always rose within the same 20-day period of the tzolk'in and always set within a different 20-day period. But risings and settings are close the horizon where there are often clouds. Mars tended to turn retrograde when it was nearly directly up in the sky one hour after sunset. Over several generations the Maya learned that when Mars was near the Milky Way - and straight up an hour after sunset - it turned retrograde earlier in the tzolk'in than when it was in other parts of the sky. Even more, every 30 to 50 years Mars would turn retrograde one day sooner in the tzolk'in than it ever had before. (This is because the 799.94 day synodic period is slightly less than three tzolk'ins.) After several generations of observing and tracking Mars and passing the method and the day counts on to successive generations, 1 Hunahpu was ready to take his trick to the Manik - to predict the night on which Mars would turn backward in the sky.
The Xibalbhans knew about the Mayan's advanced astronomy and they were jealous and desired to play games (astronomy) with the Maya:
What Xibalba desired was the gaming equipment of One and Seven Hunahpu: their kilts, their yokes, their arm guards, their panaches and headbands, the costumes of One and Seven Hunahpu. "They must come," the (Xibalba) lords say to you. "Would that they might come to play ball with us here." - Popol Vuh, D. Tedlock translation, rev. ed., pg 93.
This is a key passage where the key words remained in Ch'orti' rather than evolving into Quiche over the years like the more mundane parts. Let's look at each one to understand the meaning in Ch'orti'. The last two will get translated when we get to the Hunahpu and "Ixbalanque" story:
Gaming equipment: Etz'ab'al. Ehtz' - study; tz'ahbah - shine. "Study of shining" which we would call astronomy. As they did so often, one syllable ends with the same consonant as the beginning of the next.
Kilts: Tz'u'm. Tz'uhr - skinned hide. I partially agree with Tedlock although I think the hides were displayed as trophies as much as they were worn.
Yoke: B'ate. Bah - a body, being, spirit; te' - tree, stick. "Tree being" which is referring to the Milky Way. A key astronomical observation was the movement of Mars into the Milky Way when it was time for Mars to turn retrograde.
Arm guard: Pach'q'ab'. Pahch' - falling trap, deadfall; k'abah - come to an end. Falling death trap. This refers to the whole in the roof of the Corinto cave. Like many phrases this one has multiple meanings: Kahp means "cutting" so it could be "cutting falling trap" and k'ahbu means "remember, recollect, survive another". We will see with Hunahpu and "Xbalanque" that this is an important meaning - "to recollect the deathfall."
Mars only turns retrograde close to the Milky Way every 15 years (21 tzolk'in cycles), so after waiting years for the right moment, 1 Hunahpu and his contingent traveled by canoe from Teotipa to the Lempa River, most likely down to the Torola River, then up the Torola as far as canoes would go and then hiked from there to Corinto. The Popol Vuh says they passed Puj River (Rapids River, a reference to the Sumpul) and the Kik River (Rumble River, mostly likely the Torola).
They arrived at Corinto. Corinto cave is a rock shelter that is like a mushroom cap. There is a cap of rock that is about 12 meters tall and about two kilometers in diameter. On the north and south sides of the rock cap the stone has eroded away to form two rock shelters. There is one place where one can climb up onto the rock cap above the caves. It was up on top of the rock cap that the astronomical contests took place. Much later the Maya would model their ball courts on the description of this rock cap.
Perhaps during the day before the nightly astronomy, each side showed off their skins, putting on the skins of the various animals. Next the Manik shaman showed off their astronomy, predicting when the moon would become full. Each night the parties would go above the cave to the rock cap to look at the moon and Mars. It was like being on a different level of the world. The moon turned full just on the night that the Manik shaman predicted.
"This ball of theirs [the Xibalbans] is just a spherical knife. White Dagger is the name of the ball, the ball of Xibalba." - Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 96.
White Dagger is saqi toq'. Saqi has a double meaning, it means "white" but also "to hunt". Toq' comes from tokar or "cloud". This tells us that they had to hunt for the moon in the clouds to determine if it was full. The reference to a sphere and ball makes it clear that the white object they were hunting for was the moon.
Next it was the Mayans' turn. Mars slowly approached the Milky Way. The Mars contest was considered the fifth test and called the Razor House. The Razor test referred both to the back-and-forth motion of Mars but also to the back-and-forth sharp rock walls of the hole that connected the roof of the cave to the ground-level.
"And the fifth [test] is named Razor House, with blades alone inside. The blades are moving back and forth, ripping, slashing through the house." - Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 97.
One Hunahpu predicted the Mars backward motion but he was wrong. What I imagine happened is that Mars turned retrograde very near the center of the Milky Way. One Hunahpu predicted it would turn retrograde one day before the previous earliest date in the tzolk'in (7th day of B'ajram week). But Mars turned retrograde on the 5th day of B'ajram week, one night before 1 Hunahpu predicted and the Manik laughed.
This would place the date of 1 Hunahpu's bad prediction and subsequent death on Nov 21, 7,913 BCE. The 7 Hunahpu date place marker in this story tells us that these events took place during the 126 year period in the Mars retrograde calendar between the 7th day of B'ajram week (7960 BCE) and the 1st day of B'ajram week (7834 BCE).
In the Popol Vuh we see Mars represented by a torch and cigar. Two cigars were given to the Maya and they were told to keep them for two nights but they consumed it the first night. In other words the Maya had said Mars would not be put out (turn backward) until the second night but it was put out (turned backward) the first night.
"'They [the Maya] must be sure to return them [the cigars] in the morning - not finished, but just as they look now. They must return them intact,' the lords say to you," they were told, and they were defeated. They finished the torch and they finished the cigars that had been brought to them. - Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 96-97.
Further evidence that this is referring to Mars is the word translated here as torch: Chaj. This seems to come from chak which means red object.
As punishment 1 Hunahpu was forced to jump through the hole. No one ever survived the hole - a zig-zag rock-lined drop of 12 meters from the rock cap down to the rocky ground. Here too, 1 Hunahpu tried to out-smart the Manik. If he could bounce off the walls he might make it down alive. His entourage watched his fall. He didn't make it. His body was ripped apart and he was beheaded.
One Hunahpu's head was placed at the crossroads for all the see, perhaps at a place now called Calavera, Skull in English, which would have been on the path to the Torola River. (In Ch'orti' Calavera would mean "carrying the throat" - more evidence this is the spot.) Eventually the Maya sneaked back to the head and planted a squash seed in the skull. The squash grew and haunted the Xibalbhans each time they passed by. This also indicates when squash was first cultivated - about 7913 BCE.
As was custom the hosts would clean the body of the dead and bury them, even if it was their enemy. Soon everyone noticed that 1 Hunahpu's corpse had an erect penis. This must have happened due to the adrenaline of the contest and the jump through the hole. Perhaps a post-puberty girl was in charge of cleaning the body. In any case the Popol Vuh says a girl was present at the body in the dark of night.
"She went all alone and arrived where the tree stood. It stood at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice: 'What? Well! What's the fruit of this tree? Shouldn't this tree bear something sweet? They shouldn't die, they shouldn't be wasted. Should I pick one?' said the maiden." - Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 98.
Here the Popol Vuh uses a euphemisms to describe the penis - a bone. The bone spoke to the girl - I understand this to mean that it moved. The bone spit on the girl's hand. This is a reference to semen present on the penis, which can happen under certain excited conditions at death. Another scenario is possible but what seems to have happened was the girl touched the semen on the penis and then put her fingers inside herself. In any case, this girl who had not had sexual relations according to the Popol Vuh, became impregnated from the corpse of 1 Hunahpu.
The girl's name was Xkik' - x or ix meaning feminine and kik' which comes from kirik which means thunder or rumble. Earlier the Popol Vuh referenced the Kik' River or Rumble River. So Xkik' is "Girl from Rumble". This would be the Torola River, which comes within a few kilometers of the Corinto cave and joins the Lempa River at San Juán de Edén.
Soon the pregnant girl was rejected by the Manik people and she walked across the length of El Salvador to Teotipa at Lago Güija to appeal to the Maya to take her in. It took some time to gain confidence of people but eventually she did. Her bloodline - half Maya, half Manik - was likely valued because it was 1 Hunahpu's from the time of his death. It was probably a taller and lighter-skinned bloodline.
It was soon after 1 Hunahpu's death, within 60 years, that I believe that the Lago Guija flood and tzuhnami occurred, killing nearly everyone at Teotipa. One of the survivors was one of carriers of the special bloodline, if not Xkik' herself. The survivors went to Teopan and after a few generations moved back to Lago Guija, this time to Igualtepec.
The harassment and repression of the Maya by the Xibalbhans only got worse. Once, sometime after 7834 BCE, one Maya or a group of Maya were captured, taken to Corinto Cave and burned alive over an open flame. The Mayan women convinced the Xibalbhans to dump the bones and ashes in a river where they just came back to life. This tells us of the beginning of the Mayan belief in reincarnation.
After a few generations of building population back up and monitoring and refining predictions of the Mars retrograde motion, the Maya were ready to take on the Manik again.
This time the Maya had both a shamanistic and a military strategy. The shamanistic strategy was again to predict the retrograde of Mars, which I believe was used at Corinto cave, along with a trick learned through dreams. There was also a military strategy, one of the ants and mosquitos, which I believe was used at Tecapa volcano. For that they would need the entire community - not only of Igualtepec but also the other three islands as well.
The Maya were ready for the Mars prediction - they had been studying this for generations. By predicting when Mars moved backward they would show shamanistic prowess over the Manik, undermining the authority of the Manik leader and weakening the resolve of the hunter warriors.
For many nights the Manik and Mayan shamans would gather on top of the Corinto cave where the stars are very visible. Like before the Manik shaman correctly predicted the night of the full moon. Now it was the Maya's turn. Mars was slowing in the sky as it neared the Milky Way. The Maya knew from its position that it was a normal clicking backward in the 260-day tzolk'in, just one day before the last time this had happened about 30 years before. The Maya were right and for this the Manik leader-shaman would have to take his life by jumping through the hole in the cap-stone.
But here the Maya played a trick. Instead of having the hunter leader jump, the Mayan leader - generically called Hunahpu - insisted on jumping through the hole himself. The Popol Vuh states that Ixbalamque was also present but I believe that this is a long-count period marker not a person. I think this refers to Inte Balam, or 1 Bajram, which was Nov. 24, 7834 BCE in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar, although I think the convention was to refer to 1 Bajram as a period, in this case from 7834 BCE to 7629 BCE, until the 7th day of the next period, Imix. These events would have taken place between those dates.
Hunahpu had the help of the ancestors, specifically 1 Hunahpu who was killed about 100 years before. We know this from two of the pieces of "equipment" that Hunahpu carried - yachwach and wachsot.
Panache (in Tedlock): Yachwach. Hax - a roll, a twist; wayak' - dream. Dream of a twist and roll.
Headband (in Tedlock): Wachsot. Wayak' - dream; soy - bend, arc, arch. Dream of a bend.
Hunahpu had a dream in which 1 Hunahpu the ancestor told him of the bend in the deathtrap hole and how to twist and roll so that he could avoid that rock surface, the razor sharp surface that killed 1 Hunahpu. When Hunahpu jumped through he used arms and legs to bounce from side to side to slow his velocity and he did a special twist and roll in the bend which 1 Hunahpu had revealed to him.
While bruised, at the bottom he pretended to be dead. Then he jumped up and said that he had defeated death. He had power over death and he could bring the Manik hunters back to life as well. The Manik leader went first. He died on the rock walls and his body was moved away at the bottom. Hunahpu assured the Manik that he would bring him back to life. Each hunter jumped through the hole and the same result happened each time. Hunahpu could not bring them back to life. Much later the Maya would design their ball courts with a hoop to symbolize the hole in the Corinto cave cap-stone. The ball going through the hoop representing Hunahpu who cheated death by jumping down the hole. All the Manik at Corinto cave passed away that day. The Xibalbhans lords fell down to earth. Now there were only hunters at Tecapa volcano.
The ants strategy was to mobilize entire communities - the old, women, the children, in addition to the young men - in order to surround the Tecapa Alegria lagoon. Once they had announced their presence they would sing and dance to demonstrate that they had no fear of the tall hunters. Until today Salvadorans still call themselves ants.
"Well don't go boys. We can still play ball. ... What should our prize be?" asked the Xibalbans. ... "We'll just win four bowls of flowers. One bowl of red petals ..."
Now Hunahpu and Xbalanque summoned all the ants:
"Cutting ants, conquering ants, come now,
all of you fetch all of them for us:
flowers in bloom, prizes for lords."
"Very well," they replied. Then all the ants went to get the flowers, the plantings of One and Seven Death. -- Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 121, 123.
The phrase translated as "bowl" of "petals" tells us where they were. Bowl - jutikab' - translates in Ch'orti' as "opening-crater held in mouth", an indicator of a tobacco cigarette and a volcanic crater. Tecapa is the volcano where the Maya found tobacco and modeled the Hakawitz flat pyramid structure after. Soon thereafter the Manik took over Tecapa so they could access tobacco, forcing the Maya to Isla Tigre. Petals - muchij - translates as "mound of the giants", another reference to Tecapa as model for the mound building and a reference to the very tall Manik hunters (ch'i'ih). The last syllable has a double meaning of ch'i' or growth, used to refer to cultivation, since tobacco was the first plant to be cultivated. In addition to surrounding the Manik, the ants came to collect all the tobacco.
Submerged among the ants were the mosquitos - the blow-gunners. Poison was placed in the blow-guns. As the ants announced their presence, surprising the hunters, the mosquitos shot their blow-guns, each one with a different target.
[The mosquito] stopped at the two manikins, or woodcarvings, that were seated first. They were all dressed up, and he bit the first of them, ... he bit the one seated second, ... and then he bit the third one, the one seated third actually being One Death.
"Yeow!" each one said as he was bitten.
"What?" each one replied.
"Ouch!" said One Death.
"What is it, One Death?"
"Something's bitten me."
"It's - ouch! There's something that's bitten me," the one seated fourth said next.
[and so on] - Popol Vuh, rev., pg. 117
Perhaps the hunters ran to get away but stumbled as the poison took effect and the swarm of the ants prevented the hunters from leaving. The hunters were defeated and it seems that all were killed according to the Popol Vuh.
The Maya could finally leave their island homes without concern for being attacked by the hunters. Women, men, and children could work in the fields. New communities could be formed throughout the countryside. Not having a constant enemy represented a major advance in the development of the Maya.
One Hunahpu's death helped the Maya to perfect the Mars retrograde prediction method by recognizing when there would be a two-day skip in the calendar. And One Hunahpu's revelation in a dream to offspring Hunahpu of how to jump down the deathtrap allowed the defeat of Xibalbha. In this way, through teaching the lessons of how to defeat the Manik to future generations and through the "squash" after death, 1 Hunahpu came back to life. One Hunahpu the savior, for whom El Salvador is named. Or rather, the Spanish used that name referring to a Christian story to try to cover up the story of the real Salvadoran savior.
Wonderful!! ... simply wonderful ! .. thanks a lot !
Posted by: Billmart | 02/22/2013 at 03:25 PM