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252 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY NUMBER 23
Old Little Bird as he was called. Old Little Bird, as
he was called, didn't die easily, long ago. It was hard
to kill him. He couldn't be killed. Don't you see, the
old guy was very tricky.
[He was a Chamulan?] Chamu—Ian. Chamulan.
Very tricky. I don't know, I don't know if he was
the second [Little Bird]. I don't know if you knew
Juan Perez Jolote, as they called him. Yes, he was
the second or third probably. I don't know what. But
he was a friend of his. Yes!
As for Old Little Bird, as he was called, he was
the one who always went with spears, with
. . . what's it called? . . . [metal-tipped walking
sticks?] metal-tipped walking sticks, with shotguns,
with knives—wherever he went from house to house
to steal.
[How many years ago could it have been?] Ooh,
God, if it wasn't sev . . . sixty or seventy-five
years. If it was only that, because I don't know
positively how long ago. Because, me, you see, I just
figure it out from hearsay. Because when I was
married, I was married at sixteen years.
Now I lived with my husband for twenty-eight
years, it seems. After twenty-eight years we got
divorced, since he was so jealous. I couldn't chat
with anyone. I couldn't go anywhere. Since everybody,
everybody was my lover, my man [said].
That's why I couldn't say anything anymore, I
couldn't do anything anymore. I couldn't earn
money. Because it always [caused] fights. We didn't
eat. We couldn't live with him, that's why. "Ach,
forget it, My Lord, I won't take pains to live with
that man!" I said. It was surely seventy-four years
ago! If that's all! Because it was long ago. I tell you I
was little. I was little. I just saw what that old guy
took, it seems. Because there was an old man next to
my house, He was as far away as this house here. He
lived that far away.
So we saw what came—what went in [when Little
Bird returned home]. He was scared, too, because
my mother nearly killed him. Yes, because he stole
our land. I had some land—have you seen where
Maryan Jolote's house is? Eh, all of it that reaches to
the edge of the ranch used to be my own land. Stolen
for nothing. He didn't pay a single cent. That was
the tricky Little Bird [Palas]. That used to be his
land.
The thing is, the old man died in the epidemic,
because I was already big at the time of the epidemic.
I was probably the same size as your little girl
[eleven years]. I ground the corn, I patted the
tortillas by myself. I came to San Cristobal by
myself.
In 1960 Tonik stated firmly that she was forty-six years old.
By that reckoning she would have been fifty-seven years of age
The old man died. His old woman died. He had
offspring, as we say. His offspring weren't his own
children. They were the children of his younger
sister's husband. Her daughter was Marta. That
boy—Maryan was that boy's name. They baptised
him. Supposedly he was Mariano Rodriguez, but he
wasn't Mariano Rodriguez! We called him Maryan
Seto.
[When Little Bird and his wife were still alive]
someone arrived, a person arrived to borrow money.
He went to borrow [Little Bird's] money. He went
to set down for [Little Bird] two bottles of cane
liquor.
They longed to enjoy the cane liquor. They drank
it. [Little Bird] sent for that boy of his. They drank.
They got drunk.
The poor old woman did an ugly thing. She
started to pull up her skirt. "Would you be happy
with this compadre?" or whatever it was she said to
the person who went to borrow money. She pulled
up her skirt. She slapped her legs.
So that son of hers lost his temper.
He probably lost no time. And quickly he cut off
her head with an axe. God, cu—rled up tight like
this, the poor old woman died. Like this, like this,
her hands were like this. She was thoroughly cu—t
here [on the neck]. Only the skin was attached here.
As for her hair, Holy Mary! Since, like me, she
hadn't much hair, it was simply stiff with blood. It
was on—I don't know if it was four days later that
she was buried. The house was closed, closed,
closed, but how would we know she was dead? I had
gone by the day after her death. I went to gather
firewood. The house was shut up. I went the next
day. The house was shut up. She had a comadre,
wife of the late . . . he's alive, Rejino who lives in
Sek'emtik. You know him! That's who it is! She saw
her. The door was opened, the door was opened,
then that comadre came to look. "Comadre, comadrita!"
she said to her comadre, since the old woman
was Spanish. Her name was Loxa—Loxa Seto. Rosa
Buluch was her name.
But [her comadre] was completely dead. Her legs
were simply cu—rled up like this. Dead, murdered.
You see how they died. That's what happened to
the Little Bird's wife, indeed! That was the second
Little Bird.
[There were two Little Birds?] Eh, three, four.
The first Little Bird was the one with real Chamulan
flesh. The second was that Juan Perez Jolote. The
third was probably that Old Palas. The fourth was
the other one [Maryan Seto]. Until they all died. But
now they're gone. Go—ne! Died. Yes!
when she recounted her memories of The Little Bird. But she
claims here that she witnessed these events, that occurred