Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/253

 Rh these sources I have gathered what I here present, arranging and studying the facts they give, with the aid of several dictionaries of the tongue in my possession.

These Mayas, as the natives called themselves, were converted at the epoch of the conquest (about 1550) to Christianity in that summary way which the Spaniards delighted in. If they would not be baptized they were hanged or drowned; and, once baptized, they were flogged if they did not attend mass, and burned if they slid back to idol-worship. They were kept in the densest ignorance, for fear they should learn enough to doubt. Their alleged Christianity was therefore their ancient heathenism under a new name, and brought neither spiritual enlightenment nor intellectual progress. As a recent and able historian of Yucatan has said, "the only difference was that the natives were changed from pagan idolaters to Christian idolaters."

To this day the belief in sorcerers, witchcraft, and magic is as strong as it ever was, and in various instances the very same rites are observed as those which we know from early authors obtained before the conquest.

The diviner is called h'men, a male personal form of the verb men, to understand, to do. He is the one who knows, and who accomplishes. His main instrument is the zaztun, "the clear stone" (zaz, clear, transparent; tun, stone). This is a quartz crystal or other translucent stone, which has been duly sanctified by burning before it gum copal as an incense, and by the solemn recital of certain magic formulas in an archaic dialect passed down from the wise ancients. It is thus endowed with the power of reflecting the past and future, and the soothsayer gazes into its clear depths and sees where lost articles may be recovered, learns what is happening to the absent, and by whose witchery sickness and disaster have come upon those who call in his skill. There is scarcely a village in Yucatan without one of these wondrous stones.

These wise men have also great influence over the growing crops,