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top because the king left. He went to Mexico City.
That's how the place, here, lost.
As in "The Priest and the Bell," batz'i yox, "bright green,'' is
associated with treasure.
Xun's opening and closing details of the Indian king legend
agree with Romin's, but the theft of the ring is excluded. The
attempt of the San Cristobal lords to measure their wealth
against the Indian king's is a new feature, which is placed in
another context in a tale related by Xun 7Akov (T33).
When Xun concludes "Zinacantan, here, would be sitting on
top today and the Ladinos would be face up," he is speaking
with the perspective of a man who has witnessed seventy-odd
years of exploitation by the Ladinos. He recalls that, when he
was a young man in the time of Porfirio Diaz, Indians who were
arrested for disturbing the peace were conscripted and sent off
to the army. He himself was given a gun and put in charge of a
group of Chamulan prisoners with orders to shoot anyone
attempting escape. Xun 7Akov, too, remembers how Indians
who had been cut up in drunken disputes were sent as cannon
fodder to the front lines. He also recalls that, when Indians
arrived in San Cristobal before 7 a.m., they were forced to
sweep the square. If they were discovered in the town after 2
p.m., they were seized by the police and made to serve as
There is a story from the time of The Bird about a
Chamulan. The time of The Bird was long ago. I had
been engaged to my wife. The Bird, then, was a
priest. The Chamulans worshipped. The priest
brought them together.
Two or three hundred Chamulans met to worship.
The priest was The Bird himself. He wasn't a real
priest—he was a real devil!
Then things got out of hand. The priest got wrong
ideas.
Now there were three hundred Chamulans who
started a fight, a revolution. They met to kill their
countrymen. They went to Ixtapa. Seven hundred
went to Ixtapa. Seven hundred went there to Ixtapa.
The Ladinos there were afraid. There are Ladinos in
Ixtapa. [The Chamulans] seized the cattle. The Chamulans,
hah! They had lots of lassos, the bastards. If
the owners didn't want to talk to them, the Chamulans,
The Bird, would kill them, shoot them, hang
them on the spot.
So then the priest fled. The government was
trying to kill him.
You see, the Bird's followers gathered together
and kept on [fighting]. Even we were afraid they
would come to kill us. Ooh, but there was plenty of
fear, Holy Mar .... They killed many of their
countrymen. They threw them in the water. They
killed women and men, e—very one. They ate the
cattle. They went to 7Ach' Jtek-lum [New Town]
XUN VASKIS
The Bird
T116
cha7al 7ich'ay 7o li balamil Ii7e.
107
porters. Chep Xantis remembers his grandfather and his mother
telling how Indians had to sell their wares at the prices Ladinos
demanded. Whenever a Ladino flourished his gun, the Indians
would drop their packs and run because Ladinos were known to
shoot down Indians without provocation. The first tales that
Romin Teratol gave me explained why Ladinos were ill-mannered
and rich.
But times have been changing: conscription, curfews, and
naked assaults are distant memories. It is probably expressing
the general view of Zinacantecs that the Indians' lot
has improved because of the agrarian movement in the 1940s,
the increased ability of Indians to defend themselves in Spanish,
and the efforts of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista to "civilize"
the Indian. For over a decade Ladinos have been concerned that
the Indians are getting ahead and leaving them behind, or, as
Xun Vaskis would say, leaving them "face up." With considerable
skill the Zinacantec politicians are manipulating their increased
contact with the Ladino legal and administrative
structures to preserve and advance traditional Indian values (see
Collier, 1973). See also Til, T31, T33, T64, T166, and their
notes.
Bweno, 7o jun rason ta pajarotike, yu7un jun
jchamu7, ta pajarotike che7e, mas vo7ne, jmakoj to
7ox kajnil, 7a li Pajaroe che7e, 7a li 7o jtottik pale,
7ispas resal i jchamu7e, ja7 7istzob i jtottik pale.
Bweno, 7a li jchamu7e che7e, 7istzob sba chib
7oxib syen, spas resal.
Bweno, 7a li palee, mero Pajaro mu mero paleuk
stuk, mero pukuj!
7Ora, sok 7une, pwes, 7isok sjol li palee.
7Ora, li jchamu7e che7e son tres syen to 7issa7
pletu, revolusyon ta smil xchi7il 7istzob sba, 7ibat ta
Nibak syete syento 7ibat ta Nibake, vukub syento bat
ta Nibak te yo7e, 7ixi7 li larino yo7e, 7o larino ta
Nibake, 7istzakik vakax, "7a li jchamu7e che7e, je7,
jun riata, kavron, mi xak'an mu sk'oponbe yajvale,
j-7ech'el chmilvan, chak' bala chjok'anvan 7a li
jchamu7e, Pajaro.
Bweno, 7iday, i pale 7une 7ijatav, sk'an 7ox chmile
yu7un govyerno.
Bweno, k'usi 7une, stzob sba, spas segir ta j-mek i
Pajaroe, 7asta vo7otikotik Iixi7otikotik xtal
smilotikotik, jii, pero 7ep xi7el Maria Santi ... 7a li
xchi7ile che7e, 7ep 7ismil st'ub ta vo7 7antz vinik
7ismil skoto—1, 7a li vakaxe tzti7, 7ay ta 7Ach'
Jtek-lum ta Chapiyae, 7ay, 7ep 7isti7 vakax yo7e,
pero jchamu7 7un.