From Mayan Folklore
Once upon a time a young man started out from home to earn some money. After travelling some time, he came to a hut where there lived a giant with his three daughters. The young man was very attracted by the youngest daughter, and determined to stay there if he could. Accordingly he asked permission of the giant. The giant consented on condition that the young man completed certain tasks that he would set him.
“I have always,” said the giant, “had a keen desire to take my bath immediately on getting out of bed instead of having to go all the way down to the lake. Tonight you will bring the lake up to the hut, so that when I get up in the morning I can sit on my bed and dangle my feet in its water. Here is a basket in which you can fetch the water.” The young man was entirely nonplussed, but he decided to consult his sweetheart, the giant’s youngest daughter, whose name was Rosalie. Rosalie told him to go to sleep and not to worry, that she would see to the transfer of the lake. That night when the rest of the household slept, Rosalie went down to the lake, and with her skirt she swept up the water to her father’s bedside.
When the giant awoke, he was very surprised to find the water lapping the leg posts of his bed. Taking a large pot, he threw it into a very deep river, and bid his daughter’s suitor bring it forth. The young man dived in many times, but failed to locate the pot at such a great depth. Then Rosalie came to his rescue. They arranged to go together that night, and Rosalie would dive in. The boy was to call her name when she was at the bottom, otherwise she would be unable to rise again to the surface. This they did, and the following morning the giant found the pot once more in the house.
The next task that the giant set the young man was to make a milpa of a hundred mecates, clear the forest, burn, sow, and at midnight of the same day bring him a load of corn on the cob from the same milpa. The young man set to work at daybreak, but by sunset he had achieved practically nothing. Then Rosalie stretched out her skirt, and promptly all the forest was felled. By magic too she dried the bush, burnt it, sowed the corn, caused it to grow, and gathered the young maize cobs, so that her lover was able at midnight to take the cobs to her father. The giant was now thoroughly annoyed, and consulted with his wife how they could get the best of the presumptuous youth. They decided to give him a trial of horsemanship.
They arranged that the woman should turn herself into a mare, the giant would become the saddle and stirrups, and Rosalie should be turned into the bridle. Rosalie, however, overheard this conversation and warned her lover, bidding him not to spare the mare and the saddle, but to treat carefully the bridle.
Next morning the giant bid the young man go out into the savanna, where he would find a mare already saddled. He was to mount her and bring her back to the house. Meanwhile the giant and his wife and Rosalie took a short cut through the forest, and by the time the young man arrived they had already converted themselves into the mare and its saddle. The boy who had armed himself with a good stout cudgel, jumped onto the mare’s back and before the mare had a chance to buck, he began to belabor her as hard as he could. The mare, or the old lady, whichever one cares to call her, was so benumbed by the shower of blows that the youth rained on her that she was quite incapable of making any attempt to throw her rider. After a few minutes she sank exhausted to the ground.
The boy returned to the hut, where a little later he was joined by the exhausted and belabored giant and his wife.
The boy had not completed his four tasks, but the giant, going back on his bargain, told him that there were yet other tasks to perform. That night Rosalie and her lover decided to run away, as the giant and his wife would still be suffering from the effects of the thrashing they had received. When all were asleep, Rosalie took a needle, a grain of salt, and a grain of saskab (white earth), and spitting on the floor, stole softly out of the house to meet her lover outside.
At daybreak the giant called to Rosalie to get up. “It’s all right, Tata, I’m getting up, I’m dressing my hair,” replied the spittle, which Rosalie had spat on the floor. The spittle spoke with the voice of Rosalie, so the giant suspected nothing. A little later the giant again called to Rosalie to know if she were not yet dressed. Again the spittle replied that she was dressing her hair. The old lady, however, was suspicious and, going into Rosalie’s room, discovered the trick that had been played on them. By this time the spittle was almost dry and could only reply to her in a whisper.
Then the giant set out in pursuit of the fleeing couple. As the giant was rapidly overtaking them, Rosalie turned herself into an orange tree, and the youth disguised himself as an old man. When the giant reached the spot, he asked the old man is he had seen the fleeing couple.
“No,” replied the youth in his disguise of old man, “but refresh yourself by eating some of these oranges.” The giant did so, and promptly lost all desire to pursue farther the fleeing couple, as the oranges were magical. He returned to his hut and explained to his wife that he was unable to overtake them.
“You are an old fool,” answered the old lady. “The orange tree was Rosalie.” For she, too, was gifted with magical powers.
Again the giant set out in pursuit. When the giant was once more on the point of overtaking them, Rosalie turned the horse on which they were riding into a church, her lover into the sacristan and herself into an image of the Virgin. When the giant reached the spot, he asked the sacristan if he had seen anything of the missing pair. “Hush!” replied the youth in his guise of sacristan, “you must not talk here, the priest is just going to sing mass. Come in and see the beautiful Virgin we have inside.”
The giant then went inside to view the statue of the Virgin, with the result that he lost all interest in the pursuit, and returning once again to his hut, explained to his wife how after seeing the beautiful virgin he had no further desire to capture his daughter and her abductor.
“You double fool,” cried the old lady, “the Virgin was Rosalie. You are too half-witted to be of any use. I’ll catch them.” There-upon the old lady set out to overtake them. Rosalie and the youth travelled as fast as they could, but the old lady went faster and gradually overtook them. When she was almost within reaching distance, Rosalie cried out to her lover, “We can’t fool her, we’ll have to use the needle.”
Stooping down, she planted the needle in the ground, and immediately an enormous thicket grew up. For the moment they were out of danger. As the old lady laboriously cut her way through the thicket, the lovers fled on. At last the old lady got clear of the thicket. Once more she set forth in pursuit, gradually overtaking the couple. When once more her mother had nearly reached them, Rosalie threw down the grain of saskab. Immediately a great mountain reared itself aloft. Once more the lovers fled away, as the old lady pantingly toiled toward its summit, then slowly down the far side.
At last she was clear of the mountain and once more catching up on the fleeing lovers. Just as she was on the point of reaching them, Rosalie threw down the grain of salt, and immediately an enormous sea was formed behind them. Rosalie became a sardine, her lover a shark, and the horse a crocodile. The old lady waded into the water, trying to catch the sardine, but the shark drove her off.
“All right,” cried the old lady, trembling with vexation and disappointment, “I bid you remain here in the water seven years.”
At the end of the seven years they were able to come out of the sea, and they returned to the town where dwelt the parents of the youth. Rosalie, however, could not enter the town because she had not been baptized. Accordingly, she sent her lover into the town, bidding him return with half a bottle of holy water, and on no account was he to embrace his grandparents; for in that case he would straight away forget his Rosalie.
The young man reached his home and greeted his grandparents, but he would not permit them to embrace him, much to their consternation. Feeling tired, he resolved to rest awhile before returning to Rosalie with the holy water. Soon he was fast asleep, whereupon his grandmother, bending over him, softly kissed him. Consequently when he awoke, he had no longer any recollection of Rosalie.
For days Rosalie waited outside the town for the return of her lover. At last one morning, seeing a small boy playing on the edge of the town, she summoned him, and persuaded him to fetch her some holy water. The boy did so, upon which Rosalie bathed herself in it and entered the town. There she heard that her lover was on the point of marrying another girl at the behest of his grandparents.
Rosalie proceeded to the home of her former lover, but he failed to recognize her. However, she summoned in having the marriage postponed three days. Then she prepared a great feast, to which she invited all the elders of the town as well as her former lover. In the center of the table she placed two dolls she had made. One was in the image of her lover, the other had her features.
The guest arrived and sat down to the feast. In the middle of the festival Rosalie suddenly pulled out a lash, and proceeded to lash the doll in the form of her former lover.
“Don’t you remember how you had to fetch the water with the empty basket,” she cried, and “whang” sung the lash. But as the lash struck the doll, the man cried out with pain. Again Rosalie addressed the doll.
“Don’t you remember the pot at the bottom of the river, and how I brought it up for you?”
Again the whip sung through the air as it descended on the doll’s back. Again the young man gave a shriek of pain. Still the memory of his former love for Rosalie was lost.
“Don’t you remember the milpa you had to make, and the corn on the cob I prepared for you?” Rosalie asked the doll.
“Whang,” sung the whip, as once more it descended on the doll’s back. Once more the youth cried out in agony as he felt the blow that had been given the doll in his likeness. Rosalie then asked the doll if it remembered the seven years in the sea. The whip fell once more on the doll’s back. Again the youth cried out with pain; then the memory of the past returned to him, and forgetting his bride to be, with a cry of joy he threw himself into Rosalie’s arms.
Source:
Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British Honduras, J. Eric Thompson, 1930
Kotharian Lightning 