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Peter won more money. "So what, I can't win,"
said the devil. Peter went on. He walked along. He
met a lot of muleteers on the road.
"Ah, here comes Peter!" said the muleteers. "Poor
Peter, now he'll die here for sure!" said the muleteers.
"This one's a real bad robber," they said. They
caught Peter and stuck him in a burlap bag. They
tied it up tight with lassos. "Well, now he'll spend
the night here. Tomorrow we'll go throw him in the
river," they said. Peter spent the night there. The
next day he woke up when the sun rose. The
muleteers hadn't arrived.
"Oh, what can I do?" he said. Peter looked for his
razor. There were lassos there. He put [the food] in
his own place [in the bag]. He tied it up tight.
Well, Peter fled. He went to the other side of the
river. The muleteers arrived. "Poor Peter, he's going
now," said the muleteers. They picked [the bag] up
and went to chuck it in the river. They reached the
river. Just dishes came out. "Poor dinner, it's gone
now," said the muleteers. "That bastard, Peter, he's
scrammed," they said.
"Hurray!" said Peter from far away.
"Well, what can you do?" said the muleteers.
That's how it ends.
ROMIN TERATOL
This account of the merry pranks of the Indian counterpart to
Till Eulenspiegel conforms quite closely to the Spanish model,
usually known as Pedro Ordemales (A. M. Espinosa,
1967:T163-T165). Many of the episodes can be traced at least to
the beginning of the seventeenth century, to the picaresque
Spanish novel El Subtil Cordobis Pedro de Urdemalas by Alonso
Jeronimo de Salas Barbadillo. From New Mexico to Guatemala,
Pedro plays these same tricks over and over (A. M. Espinosa,
1914a:l 19-124; Gamio, 1922:290, 314; Mason, 1914:168-171;
Parsons, 1932a, T14; Pittman, 1945:10-17; Recinos, 1918:474—
478; Robe, 1970, T114, T122, T132; Rosales, 1945:883;
Tax, 1950, T106; Wheeler, 1943, T148-T151). The only unusual
feature of Romin's version is the needle episode, but even this
occurs in a Puerto Rican tale of Juan Bobo, who mistakes the
baby's breathing spot for a tumor (Mason, 146). The deliberate
confusion as to what Pedro's boss told him to get back home was
once probably a play on words, since lost in translation. Indeed
this occurs in a tale from Teotihuacan, in which Pedro is told to
bring a digging stick and a shovel. Instead he urges his bosses'
wife and daughter to submit to him. When they protest, he calls
to his boss, "Aren't I right—both of them?" To which his boss
nods "Yes!" and the deed is done (Gamio, 1922:314). Pedro's
escape, by substituting the muleteers' food for himself, seems to
Bweno, 7ispas kanal mas tak'in ti Pegro 7une.
"Pasensia mu xa xu7 ku7un," xi la ti dyablo 7une.
7Ibat la ti Pegroe, 7ixanav la ech'el, 7isnup la ta be
7ep 7arieroetik.
"7A H7 xtal li Pegroe," xi la ti 7arieroetike. "Povre
Pegro, 76ra si H7 ta xlaje!" xi la ti 7arieroetike.
"Batz'i j7elek' Ii7e," xi la. 7Istzakik la, 7istik'ik la ta
brin, ti Pegroe, 7ispech'ik lek ta riataetik. "Bweno,
lavie Ii7 chvaye 7ok'ob chba jtentik ta mar," xi la. Te
vay ti Pegro 7une, ta yok'omal sakub 7osil, 7ilok' la
k'ak'al, muk' bu xk'ot ti 7arieroetike.
"Je pero k'u ta jnop?" xi la. Ti Pegroe 7issa7 la
snavaxax 7isjat la ti brine, 7ilok' la, 7istzob la skotol
ve7eletik, te la riataetik, 7iyak' la komel ta sk'exol,
7ispech' komel lek.
Bweno, ti Pegroe jatav 7ibat ta j-jech mar, 7ik'ot
7arieroetik. "Povre Pegro chbat 7un," xi la ti
7arieroetike. 7Istamik ech'el, ba xch'ayik ta mar,
7ik'ot ta mar, naka traste 7ilok'. "Povre ve7elil 7ibat
xa 7un," xi la ti 7arieroetike. "Kavron Pegro
7ijatav," xi la.
"Ke viva!" xi la ti Pegroe. Nom xa 7ox.
"Bweno, pasensia," xi ti 7arieroetike. Laj 7o yech
7un.
be a typical Zinacantec touch. In Mitla (Parsons, T14) and
Guatemala (Recinos, 477) he fills the sack with lassos. The
Aguacatec, who know their hero by the name of Pedro Tecomate,
have him substitute a doll made of the muleteers' food and
lassos (Shaw, 1972:69-71). Among the Tepecanos he entices a
goatherd in the sack (Mason, 1914:170). In New Mexico he lures
the bosses' wife into it (A. M. Espinosa, 120).
Some months before Romin told me "The Adventures of
Peter" he had recounted the tale to B. N. Colby in Spanish
following the identical plot, but with slightly greater detail.
Colby chooses this epic to illustrate the social situation in the
highlands of Chiapas where Indians at least until very recently
have been submissive and nonretaliatory despite centuries of
exploitation at the hands of the Ladinos. Ladino power and
prestige is envied while Ladino personality is condemned.
Peter's agressive behavior, argues Colby, must be viewed in the
light of "the effectiveness with which the Ladinos have kept
Indians under control since the time of the conquest" (Colby,
1966:42). In fact the catharsis that Petul provides his Zinacantec
audience must be very similar to that which Till Eulenspiegel
provided the German peasants living under the yoke of the
burghers and nobility in the Fifteenth century and beyond. See
also T171.
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