Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/100

 showers have fallen the grain is dropped into small holes made with a pointed stick by the sower, who, with his foot, spreads over it a little earth.

While sojourning in the deserted city of Chichen Itza, we heard that some of those simple people, living not far from the ruins, had an ancient statue that they worshiped as a divinity. Investigation proved the report true.

The statue is kept in a cave, or rather, mine, that has been formed by digging out zaccab, a white earth used with lime for making mortar. It represents a man with a long beard, kneeling; his arms upraised so that the hands are on a level with the head; the hands themselves spread wide open, palms upward. On the back of the figure there is something that may have represented a musical instrument, but the natives call it buleuah, a cake made of black beans and ground corn. Perhaps it is owing to this fancy that they have made it their god of agriculture. It is not so easy to understand why they call it Zactalah (the blow, or slap of a white man). The Indians, being beardless themselves, perhaps concluded that the statue must be that of a white man; and the uplifted hands may suggest to them a readiness to strike; although the posture is one of adoration. There are several figures like this, sculptured