Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/123

 The god of poetry was called Ah-Kin-Xox. (The priest who says foolish or frivolous things).

With the exception of singing and poetry the arts and sciences were personified as females.

The Spanish historians tell us that the Mayas had remarkable memories and were in the habit of reciting ancient fables; the Christian fathers did everything in their power to make them forget such folk-lore. To effect their purpose more rapidly they made free use of the lash and obliged the victims to learn all sorts of stories connected with the Romish church. This, of course, was after the fathers had learned the Maya language; it must be remembered that the conquest of Yucatan occupied several years.

Among those who knew the ancient fables there were some very clever actors who personated the characters portrayed in such stories.

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the books were on scientific subjects, Landa makes the following confession, as if he were rather proud of the deed. "We found a great number of their books, but because there was nothing in them that had not some superstition and falsehood of the Devil,