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This tale of Br'er Rabbit was first told to me by Manvel after
he had recounted his memories of the Revolution. When I
remarked that General Pineda had been very clever, Manvel
agreed, but added, "Now I will tell you about someone who was
really clever!"
Throughout Mexico and Guatemala the stick-fast motif is
followed by a series of tricks played on a gullible animal. Many
of these episodes have also been recorded among the Pueblo
Indians of the Southwest (Foster, 1945b:230). It appears that the
rabbit-coyote cycle, so omnipresent in the New World, adopted
many Old World elements. Foster has pinpointed the distribution
of twelve frequently linked elements, eight of which occur
in Zinacantan. Of these eight, only the sapote (or prickly pear)
episode seems limited to the New World (Foster, 230-235).
In Middle American tales the Tar Baby is made of wax,
though two examples from the Mazatec-Chinantec area of Oaxaca
describe the doll as a wax Negro (Johnson, 1940:215). The
Our Lord, you see, he died on the cross. On the
third day he revived. When he came to life he
worked forty days here in Zinacantan Center, here
on the earth. He made the trees. He planted the corn
fields. He planted everything there is, animals and
everything. He made birds, cows, sheep, horses,
birds, chickens, whatever. He made everything.
Now he planted two apple trees. "Well what can
we do? But who will come to look after the apples?"
said Our Lord, "I guess I'll make a lump of mud. I'll
make a person, I'll make one out of mud," he said.
He made one. He blew on it three times. He blew
on it. The mud turned into a person.
"But I'm still going to do something else. I'll make
a woman so there'll be two," he said. So he made
the woman. He made a lump of mud. He molded it,
too, into a person. He blew on it the same way. It
turned into a woman.
Now he gave the man a name. He thought up the
woman's name—Adam, and the woman—Eve. He
named them a long time ago.
"You will watch this here. I am planting apples
here. Then you will look after them," he said. "Care
for them, don't steal them!" he said.
But you see, they stole the apples. Adam ate one.
[The apple] didn't go down; it stayed [right] here in
his throat. Apple it's called. It stayed there.
"As for you, you're no good. You steal too
much," said Our Lord. When he said that, they
MANVEL K'OBYOX 327
Adam and Eve
T54
clear favorite for trickster is Rabbit, and for dupe, Coyote. The
first scene is usually set in a melon patch, but Rabbit's fouling of
the melons is peculiar to Guatemala (Recinos, 1918, Tl; Teletor,
1955:147-151).
The bogus wedding and Rabbit's protestation that he is too
small are standard elements, as is Coyote's red hot poker
treatment. Even Rabbit's mocking name for poor, unfortunate
Coyote is not original to Zinacantan (Boas, 1912:204-214; Radin,
1929, Til; Robe, 1971, T3).
The moon and sapote episodes are standard, too, though
prickly pears are frequently substituted for sapotes in Oaxaca
and to the north.
I am unaware of any other version linking the final cowboy
episode to the rabbit-coyote cycle, but in Spain, Fox similarly
tricks Wolf into being carried off by a cow. (A. M. Espinosa,
1967, 3:272-276). See also T20, T21, T50, T90, T166, and their
notes.
7A li kajvaltike, che7e, 7icham ta kruse, ta yoxibal
k'ak'al 7ikuxe, 7a li, 7ikuxe, 7a li cha7-vinik la k'ak'al
7i7abtej H7 ta Jtek-lum H7 ta balamile, 7ismeltzan la
7a li te7e, 7istz'un chobtik, 7istz'un 7a li k'usuk no
7ox skotole, chonetik, k'utikuke, 7ismeltzan mut, li
vakaxe, li chije, li ka7e, li mutetike, li kaxlan,
k'utikuke, 7ismeltzan skotol 7un.
7Ora, 7istz'un la cha7-petz mansana 7ur_. "Bweno
k'usi ta jnoptik pero bu xtal buch'u chchabi li
mansanae?" xi la li kajvaltik 7une. "Ta jmeltzan kik
junuk 7ach'el, ta jmeltzan kik junuk 7a li jun
krixchano, jlok'ta kik junuk ta 7ach'ele," xi la.
Bweno, 7ismeltzan la, 7ixvuch'ta 7oxib bwelta,
7ixvuch'ta, pas ta krixchano li 7ach'el 7une.
Bweno, "Pero Ie7e 7u k'usi syempre ta jnop, ta
jmeltzan junuk 7antz yo7 xkom cha7-vo7e," xi la
7un. Ja7 yech 7ismeltzan 7a li 7antze, 7ismeltzan jun
7ach'el, 7ispat noxtok, skwenta krixchano 7un, ja7
yech 7ixvuch'ta, pas ta 7antz 7un.
Bweno, 76ra 7iyak'be la sbi 7a li vinik 7une,
7isnopbe sbi 7a li 7antz 7une, 7Adan 7i 7Eva li 7antz
7une, 7isbi7in li mas 7antivo 7une.
Bweno, "7A Ii7e, te xak'elik Ii7 ta jtz'un komel te
xachabiik 7a li mantzanae," xi la 7un. "Chabiik mu
xavelk'anik!" xi la 7un.
Bu, 7iyelk'anik la li mansana 7une, 7islo7 la, muk'
xa xjelav ja7 la Ii7e 7ikom ta snuk' 7une, mansana sbi
7un, kom 7un.
Bweno, "Li vo7ote che7e mu xatun toyol
cha7elk'aj," xi 7a li kajvaltik 7une. K'alal ti 7iyil ti