From Mayan Folklore
(Notes: The Chacs are a group of Mayan gods responsible for producing the rains. Mahanamatz, also known as Sisimito, are hostile creatures similar to the big foot of North America.)
A man once went out to get some wax from a hive to make candles for a ceremony he was going to celebrate. He found a tree with a hive in it and climbed up, after first placing a leaf on the ground at the base of the tree to receive the honey and wax when it dropped down. As he was getting the honey, a Mahanamatz came along and asked the man to give him some honey. The man thought the Mahanamatz was a human, and told him to take the honey if he liked, but to leave all the wax as he wanted it for a ceremony.
When he climbed down from the tree, he found that the Mahanamatz had eaten all the honey and the wax, too, which he had thrown down. The man was very annoyed and asked the Mahanamatz why he had eaten the wax as well. However, the Mahanamatz offered to show him another tree where plenty more wax could be obtained. They walked off through the forest, and on the way the man noticed that his companion’s big toe was turned backward, and by that he knew that he was a Mahanamatz, and was very frightened. They came to a large ceiba (yaste). The Mahanamatz told the man to climb up into the tree, which he did, but as soon as he began to cut the tree to get at the hive, the tree began to grow taller and taller. The man was unable to climb down. Then the Mahanamatz laughed, saying that in three days he would return to eat him. And then he went away. Later a small deer (yuk), passed by.
“Small deer, help me,” cried the man. “Help me to climb out of this tall tree.”
“Why should I help you,” replied the deer, “since you killed all my uncles and family?” And he went away.
A little later a peccary passed by. The man asked his help, but was again refused on the same grounds. Next a wild boar was asked for his aid and also refused. At last just before the Mahanamatz was going to return to eat him, a coati or pisote (chiic, tsiik) came along. The coati agreed to help him to get down from the tree, provided the man would give him as payment two milpas of new corn. The man agreed and the coati went away to fetch his comrades, returning later with a large number of them. By catching hold of each other’s tails with their front paws, they made a living chain which reached from the man down to the ground. Then they told the man to climb down over them, but to take care not to put his weight on any of the pregnant females. When the man had nearly reached the ground, he put his eight on a female and she fell to the ground, breaking the living rope.
The chief coati was very vexed and told the others to put the man back once more at the top of the tree. But the man heard it and jumped to the ground. The man led the coatis to the milpa of Chac, the rain god. As he was going along, the Maganamatz came running after him in pursuit, and the coatis, giving him one of their incisor teeth, hid him in the hollow trunk of a tree. There the Maganamatz found him and put out his tongue to get him, but the man plunged the incisor tooth into the tongue, nailing it to the tree trunk, and fled on. He ran on till he came to three fences which he jumped over and arrived at the house of Chac. The Chac was playing on his musical bow (tinkan, or pastse). A few moments later the Mahanamatz, who had wrenched his tongue free, arrived at Chac’s house in pursuit.
“Give me this man as food, or I will eat you,” he roared at Chac.
However, Chac called the jaguar and puma, and they caught the Mahanamatz and tore him to pieces.
Chac told the man that he could stay there as his servant. One day Chac sent him to pull up chicam (jicama), telling him in no case to look underneath the root. The man went out and started to pull up the jicamas. After a time he felt curious to know what there could be underneath the root that Chac forbid him to look. Accordingly he looked underneath the next root he pulled up, and there below he saw the world and right underneath him his brother and his wife. They appeared so near that the man decided to make a rope and let himself down to earth. Accordingly he made himself a long rope and tying one end round the trunk of a tree and the other round his waist began to let himself down. But the rope, although it was long, did not reach to within miles of the earth, and the man found himself there unable to climb up again. The wind swayed him about at the end of the rope, and he was very frightened. Later Chac, noticing that he had not returned, went out to look for him. Finding him hanging there on the end of the rope ‘twixt heaven and earth, he hauled him up and gave him a severe scolding.
Another day Chac sent the man to fetch some pawpaws (put), telling him on no account to cut down any except those that were small. The man went away and, seeing a small pawpaw tree, decided that the fruit was not large enough. Consequently he cut down the largest pawpaw he could see. The tree fell on him, growing as it fell, and he was unable to get out from under it. There some hours later Chac found him and again scolded him. Chac told the man that if her wanted any tortillas to ask the metate for them, but under no circumstances to ask for more than one. One day the man was hungry and went to the metate and asked for a number of tortillas. Enormous tortillas rained down upon him and buried him under their mass. Chac extracted him after again scolding him. One day Chac told him to clean the house, the table and the qaantse (wooden benches), as he was going to make a feast and was expecting guests. The man thoroughly cleaned the house, but returning later found many frogs (muts) seated on the benches. Annoyed that they had come in to dirty the place after he had cleaned it, he began to drive them out with his broom. Later Chac inquired if the guests and the musicians had arrived, as it was past the time for the feast.
The man answered, “No, no guests have arrived yet. The only thing was that a big crowd of frogs came into the house just after I got it all clean and tidy.”
“Well,” said Chac, “those were my musicians and guests.”
The man thought that he would like to play at being Chac, so he watched how Chac dressed himself when he went out to do his work. One night when Chac was asleep, he took his clothes, his windbag and water-calabash (tsu), his axe and his drum. Then he went out and let loose the winds. The winds went screeching off, and the man, who had not the strength of Chac, could not shut them up again. A terrific storm rushed down upon the world. Then he took the calabash to make rain. Now, by puring out four fingers of water, Chac used to cause a heavy rain. The man upset the whole calabash, and torrents of rain poured down on the earth, He began to beat on the drum, which causes the thunder, but when he tried to stop it, he couldn’t. In his effort to stop the thunder the rain and the winds, the man fell into the sea. When Chac woke up, there were no signs of his clothes and his instruments, and the man had disappeared too. He went to one of the other Chacs, for they are very numerous, and borrowed his clothes and his windbag and went out to stop the rain, and put the winds back in their bag and stop the beating of the drum. When he had controlled the storm, he went out in search of the man. At last he found him broken into may pieces; for the black wind, which is the biggest of all the winds, had utterly smashed him. Nine times Chac made passes over the body and revived him. When they got back to Chac’s home, he told the man that he could not stay there any longer, as he was always getting into trouble. He gave him a calabash full of honey and a bag of black wax, which would always replenish themselves. Then he took him back to earth.
“If you want to come and see me again here is the trail, but you must not bring anyone with you,” Chac told him on parting.
The man promised, and then returned home to his wife. His wife was very anxious to know where he had been, but he told her that he had been to visit his grandfather. She also became curious about the never-ending supply of honey and wax. One day the man decided to visit Chac, but he told his wife that he was going to visit his grandfather. She asked him to take her with him, but he refused. Accordingly, when he went off, his wife, who suspected him, followed him secretly. When the man arrived at Chac’s house, the god said to him, “Why do you bring somebody with you?” But the man said that he had come alone. “But I know you are not alone,” Chac replied, and at that that moment the man’s wife, who had been following him, arrived. Chac, who was very vexed, started to question her.
“What have you there?” he asked, pointing at her hair. “Hair,” the woman replied. Chac asked her the games of all the parts of her body from head to her waist. Each time the woman answered correctly. The Chac asked her what she called her genital organs. As the woman was about to reply, there came a great wind, which swept the woman and her husband off into space.
Source:
Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British Honduras, J. Eric Thompson, 1930
Kotharian Lightning 