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42 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY NUMBER 23
Then she got the boy drunk. The woman got the
[young] woman and her husband drunk.
They got drunk. They slept now, lying curled up.
That daughter-in-law of hers slept now. Just the old
lady was there.
The old lady didn't fall asleep. She sat there
listening for the woman's child to come out, it seems.
But it wasn't a baby, not a real baby. It was a
hornworm. The woman had a hornworm.
The old lady heard that the hornworm was making
kissing sounds. It was nursing.
Then quickly she went to block off the hornworm's
path. The hornworm didn't go [back] in
now. It was caught. There were two hornworms.
The red hornworm she threw out. The white one
she stuck [back] in.
Now when the woman woke up she was fine. She
awoke.
Now the time passed.
Then her child was born.
Then she had many children. She was the one
who had had a red hornworm. Everybody has just
one hornworm apiece, even men, they say. And each
has his hornworm.
Here, as in many other tales, I have translated me7el as "old
lady," but the term signifies a woman of the older generation, in
her thirties or older.
When this cure is administered, a peeled green banana is
inserted in the woman's vagina temporarily to prevent the
worm's reentry.
In Chenalho it is believed that "a woman who is content with
her husband has little white worms in her vagina, while a
nymphomaniac has little red worms" (Guiteras-Holmes,
1961:130). Sexual license is associated by the Huichol with a kind
There was a man, too, who arrived, they say, at
work every day, at his work.
It reached midday and he knew that he had no
children, no one to come and call him.
Something came to call out, but he didn't know
what it was. It was lying on top of a stump. "Tortor
beebee, papa!" said the thing that was calling there.
"What's that?" said the man when he finished the
row. "Eh, who knows what it is. Maybe it's some
kind of animal," he said. The next row finished, the
very same thing.
"Tortor beebee, papa!" it said.
"But what is that? What sonofabitching animal? I
guess I'll go see if it's an animal or what. Maybe it's a
devil. Maybe I'll die now," said the man. And he
went to look. He discovered a hornworm lying on
Tortor Beebee, Papa!
T106
7Entonse, 7isyakubtas la ti kreme, 7isyakubtas la ti
smalale ti 7antze.
Bweno, 7iyakub 7un, butajtik xa chvayik xa,
chvay xa taj yalibe, jun xa me7el te.
Bweno, 7a ti me7el 7une, muk' bu x7och svayel, te
chotol ya7yoj k'u 7ora xlok' ti yol ti 7antz ya7el
7une, pero ma7uk 7unen, ma7uk batz'i 7unen, buluk'
sat, 7oy la sbuluk' sat ti ti 7antze.
Bweno, 7iya7i la ti me7el 7une, ke te la sbutz'lajet
ta schu7un ti buluk' sate.
7Ora, j-likel la ba smakbe sbe ti buluk' sat 7une,
muk' la x7och xa ti buluk' sat 7une, te stzakoj 7ikom,
cha7-kot buluk' sat, 7a ti, 7a ti tzajal buluk' sate, ja7
7isch'ay, 7a ti sake ja7 7istik' ochel.
7Ora, lek 7ijulav ti 7antz 7une, 7iyul sch'ulel 7un.
7Ora 7ibat k'ak'al yech.
7Entonse, 7i7ayan yol 7un.
7Ora, 7ep 7ibat yol 7un, ja7 ti 7oy ti tzajal buluk'
sat yu7une, ke skotol krixchano yu7un no 7ox 7oy
ju-kot buluk' sat yu7unik, 7ak' 7o mi vinikuk la xiik,
7i 7oy la ju-kot buluk' sat.
of white grub. The Aztecs laid the blame on a grey grub that
subsists on the roots and stalks of corn plants (Furst and
Nahmad, 1972:64-65).
The hornworm is the caterpillar of the hummingbird moth
that can easily be mistaken for a hummingbird as it darts from
flower to flower sipping nectar. Erotic associations extend also
to hummingbirds themselves. A sure way to soften a girl's heart
is secretly to carry to the trysting place a hummingbird wrapped
in green or blue ribbon.
7Oy la yech noxtok jun vinik chk'ot ta 7abtel
ju-jun k'ak'al ta yabtel.
Bweno, sta ti 7ol k'ak'al 7une, 7i sna7oj ti ch'abal
xch'amale, muk' buch'u xk'ot 7ik'onuk.
Bweno, 7oy la k'ot 7ok'uk pero mu sna7 k'usi ta
sba jun chuman te7 te la kajal. "7A la papa7 cheche7
tata7!" xi la ti k'usi te ch7ok' 7une.
"K'usi taje?" xi la k'alal 7ikajtzaj yabtel ti vinike.
"7Ej, jna7tik k'usi, te nan k'usi chonal," xi la. 7Otro
jmuyel yabtel ja7 no la yech 7iyal.
"7A la papa7 cheche7 tata7!" xi la 7un.
"Pero k'usi taje che7e, k'usi puta chonal, chba jk'el
kik mi chon mi k'usi taje, pukuj nan yu7un nan
chicham xa," xi la ti vinike. 71 ba la sk'el 7un, buluk'
sat la te kajal j-kot sta ta chuman te7 7un. "7A