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158 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY NUMBER 23
find the house closed. The husband opened the door.
There the two of them were, the other [man] on top
of his sister-in-law.
And the husband wanted to kill them. They turned
into birds. They flew away. They left by the eaves.
They went outside. When they went into the woods
[one] said, "Bellyache."
The other answered, "Sister-in-law, bellyache."
They flew in the trees. The two of them went and
called in the trees.
This tale explains the origin of the names of the red-billed
pigeon, k'us tzukutin or k'us tzukut mut. K'ux means pain. When
the x is followed by tz, its shape could change in rapid speech to
s. Tzukut means belly. Mut or "bird" is very similar to mu7,
"sister-in-law."' Actually the names imitate the pigeon's call.
A similar version of this tale is told in Chamula. When a man
discovered his wife sleeping with his younger brother, he
attacked them with a machete. They turned into birds and flew
to the woods. His wife became a red-billed pigeon and his
brother a white-tipped dove (Gossen, T22).
A Cakchiquel tale from Guatemala relates an illicit affair
between a boy and his sister-in-law. When discovered, the girl
71 ta 7ox sk'an smil li vinike, 7ispas sbaik ta mut,
7ivil ech'el, 7ilok' ta nuk' na, 7ilok' ta pana 7une.
K'al 7ibat ta te7tike, 7iyal, "K'us tzukutin."
7Itak'av li yan, "Jmu7 k'us tzukutin." Chvil ta
te7tik, 7ay ta x7ok' ta te7tik ta xcha7-va7alik xa.
dies and the boy turns into a roadrunner (Bucaro Moraga,
1959:47).
In Belize Thompson recorded a tale of the Sun, whose elder
brother, Venus, has an affair with his wife, the Moon. The Sun
feeds them a chili tamale. They drink quantities of water, until
the Moon begs a buzzard to carry her off. The Sun, enlisting the
aid of a blowfly, finally discovers her hideaway and brings her
back (J. E. Thompson, 1930: 129-130). Although the episodes
recall many Zinacantec plots, it seems doubtful that this Kekchi
tale is related historically.
For a poetic rendering of "Bellyache" see Merwin, 1972. See
also T62.