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erries of trees and the berries of vines, live on them
for the rest of your life! That's why they have turned
into monkeys.
Now those who didn't talk back, those who said
nothing, those who had been children, they were left
as progenitors, since they didn't talk ba—ck. The
man's children didn't answer a single word. They
didn't talk back. They didn't say a single word, but
those who talked back angrily were turned into
monkeys ever since.
Then [the children] were married. He had a wife.
She had a husband. So the people multiplied.
Long ago you don't think there were many who
were left, who escaped. They turned into monkeys.
They went into the woods. They went to live in the
woods. They turned into animals to this day. They
are animals to this day. But those who didn't talk
back to Our Lord, who didn't speak improperly and
didn't make a sou—nd, bowing lo—w there, they
weren't guilty. But those who answered back—
"Go!" was the command. They went. They went to
the woods. That's why it's been like that ever since.
They turned into monkeys. Those who are humans
now, it's because they didn't talk back, just like us.
Tonik's description of the Flood, despite its idiosyncratic
details, shares a number of elements with other Middle American
myths. The biblical theme of dispatching birds to report on
the Firmness of the ground was adapted widely in Middle
America. It has been reported among the Cora, Nahua, Popoluca,
Zapotec, Yucatec, and Tzotzil of Chenalho (Lumholtz,
1902, 2:193-194; Madsen, 1960:125-126; Foster, 1945 a: 235-237;
Parsons, 1936:350-352; M. Redfield, 1937:24; and Guiteras-
Holmes, 1961:157).
Raven's theft of corn from the mountain for man's use is
hinted at in the Popol Vuh (Edmonson, 1971:146). Though
merely one of four animals in that account, Raven takes a central
role in the discovery of corn in myths of the Pokomchi (Mayers,
1958:3-11), Cakchiquel, Ixil, Mam, and Tzutujil (Bu Moraga,
1959:1-7; Miles, 1960:433). In the Huichol afterworld, the
famished spirits finally reach a raven happily gorging and
burping. They plead for a morsel, but are rebuked, "You said I
was a robber ... I won't give you tortillas or anything else,"
exclaims the raven. And so they must continue hungrily on their
way (Furst and Nahmad, 1972:60-61).
Although the transformation of men into monkeys is an almost
universal element of Middle American creation myths, it seems
only in Chiapas that this divine punishment was called down
because of the rudeness of men's response to God's questions
(Gossen, T166). Their complaint, "We lived on vine berries, we
lived on nuts," strikes the same note as the Chilam Balam of
Tizimin, when it bewails the plight of the Mayans after the
Spaniards' arrival—"The people subsisted on trees, they sub-
TONIK NIBAK 259
Io7an li ssat 7ak'e, ja7 7ipanuk sbatel 7osil 7un,
yech'o li pasem 7o ta max 7une.
7Ora, li 7a taj buch'u muk' xtak'av 7une, taj buch'u
mu k'u yal taj 7unetik to 7ox ya7el 7une, ja7 7ikom ta
tz'unubil 7un, k'u ti mu la xtak'a—v, mi j-p'el muk' la
xtak'av 7un, xch'amaltak ti vinik 7une, muk' la
xtak'av 7un, mi j-p'el mu la k'u yal, yan taj buch'u
kapem 7itak'av 7une, ja7 la pasem ta max k'al tana.
Va7i 7un, ja7 to 7iyik' sbaik 7i7ayan yajnil 7i7ayan
smalal ti p'ol 7o li balamil tana 7une, cha7-chop ti
krixchano ya7el 7ich'i 7o ti krixchanoe 7ip'ol 7o ti
krixchano.
7A ti vo7ne che7e yu7 van 7o bu 7ep 7ikom taj
butik 7ikole, ja7 taj 7ipas ta max 7un, bat ta te7tik, ba
ve7uk ta te7tik 7ipas ta chon k'al tana, chon 7o k'al
tana, yan taj buch'u muk' stak'be li kajvaltik 7une,
buch'u mu k'u yan 7iyal 7une, mu xba—k' te
nijajti—k 7une, mu k'u smul, yan taj buch'u
7itak'ave, "Batan!" xi mantal. Bat 7un, 7ibat ta te7tik
7un, yech'o xal ti ja7 yech komem 7o k'al tana pasem
ta max 7une, 7a li buch'u krixchano tana 7une, yu7un
mu xtak'av, ja7 chak k'u cha7al vo7otikotik 7une.
sisted on stones" (Makemson, 1951:47). A Chamulan account of
the Flood describes how the people, when asked how they had
managed to survive, answered angrily that they lived on tubers.
Immediately they were turned into raccoons. And raccoons eat
corn now because once they were people (Gossen, T41).
The ancestral famine food—banana roots, fern roots, wild yam
roots, corn silk, and corn tassels—is the very food that Xun
Vaskis recalls being eaten during the famine that occurred in his
youth (Til8).
Tonik's son, 7Antun, interrupted his mother's account of the
descendants of the survivors of the Flood to tell of an important
incident she had forgotten—the creation of monkeys. Tonik
amplified his remarks and integrated the monkey story with the
destiny of the man's children.
Still another Zinacantec origin myth tells how three brothers,
brave as roosters, came from Mexico City. The oldest settled in
Zinacantan, the second continued on to Ocosingo, and the third
settled in Palenque. They built palaces and hunted deer with bows
and arrows. After they had killed five deer, they held a fiesta,
celebrating with pulque and palm wine. The king of Mexico was
invited to the feast. In gratitude he lent each of the brothers
forty thousand pesos and ten soldiers (Bricker, TI). Tonik never
hints at the Zinacantecs' Mexican origin. Apparently the Zinacantecs
had been long-time residents of the highlands when the
Spaniards arrived, and there is no evidence of their Mexican
origin. Ximenez reported that they were settled in Zinacantan
"before the sun existed" (Ximenez, 1929:360). See also T7, T55,
T96, T161, and their notes.