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already a buzzard. He never found food. Every day
he went to bed hungry. The buzzard who was now a
man returned. He arrived at the house. "Are you
there, wife?" he said.
"I'm here," she said.
"Ah, I'm hungry," he said.
"Eat!" said the woman. "What stinks so?" asked
the woman.
"I don't know what it is. Do you notice something?
I don't notice anything at all!" The buzzard
man went to work, but [he did] a lot of work. In just
two or three days he had cleared a lot of trees. It was
just the same every day.
"What is it that stinks so?" she asked.
The man spoke. "It's true I'm not your husband.
I'm a buzzard. Your husband is so lazy he asked me
for my clothes. He took them and left," said the
buzzard man. The former husband arrived. He was
flapping about outside next to the house, picking up
soft corn kernels. He was waiting for his wife to
come out and take a shit. Then he would go eat it. Or
if his successor came out to take a shit [he would eat
it]. He couldn't get his food by himself. "That is your
husband there. He turned into a buzzard," said the
successor.
"Ah!" she said. She hadn't known that it was her
husband. She beat him off. She broke his legs with a
stick. He fled to the roof. He wanted to go inside, but
there was nothing he could do now. There he died.
He died of hunger. That's how he died.
The tale of the Buzzard Man appears to be a New World
creation. In Mexico it has been reported from the Yaquis
(Giddings, 1959:27), the Tlapanecs (Lemley, 1949:81-82), the
Mixtecs (Dyk, 1959:115-123), and the Tzotzil of Chamula (Gossen,
T25, T50) and Chenalho (Guiteras-Holmes, 1961:204). It
also occurs in Guatemala among the Mam (Applebaum,
1967:79-80), Cakchiquel (Schoembs, 1905:221-222, Tax, 1950,
T7), Aguacatec (Shaw, 1972:71-72), and Tzutujil (Rosales,
1945:802).
The buzzard's attempt to dissuade the lazy man from changing
his way of life is expressed in nearly identical words in the Yaqui
version: "The life of a buzzard is very hard. There are days
when there is nothing to eat. Buzzard food is not a sure thing."
(Giddings, loc. cit.).
Buzzard's instructions to the man to locate his food by the
rising fumes is given also in San Pedro la Laguna (Rosales, loc.
cit.).
There is some variation in the tell-tale characteristics of the
buzzard in man's guise. He hops (Giddings, loc. cit.), has hairy
legs (Gossen, T25), or has feathers on his knees (Gossen, T50),
doesn't wash, but only drinks his water, and refuses chili
(Bricker, T24), or neglects to eat his tortillas (Applebaum, loc.
cit.), but mostly he stinks (Giddings, loc. cit.; Lemley, loc. cit.;
Rosales, loc. cit.; Shaw, loc. cit; and Tax, loc. cit.). He may
ROMIN TERATOL 51
mi ja7uk 7o bu sta sve7el vi7nal chvay ju-jun k'ak'al,
7isut ti vinike, 7ik'ot ta na, ti xulem to 7oxe. "Mi
H7ote, 7antz?" xi la.
"Li7one," xi.
"7A, chive7!" xi la.
"Ve7an!" xi la ti 7antze. "K'usi van taj tol tzije?"
xi la ti 7antze.
"Mu jna7 k'usi, mi 7u k'usi chava7i, mu k'u chka7i
vo7on a7a!" Chk'ot ta 7abtel, ti vinike xuleme, pero
7ep yabtel, ta chib 7oxib no 7ox k'ak'al, 7ep xa
sbojbil 7osil ja7 la yech ju-jun k'ak'al.
"K'usi taj tol tzije?" xi la.
7Iyal la ti vinik 7une. "Melel ka7uktik a7a mu xa
vo7nikon 7amalalon, vo7one xulemon, yu7un toj
ch'aj lamalale, lisk'anbe li jk'u7e, ja7 yich'oj 7ibat,"
xi la ti vinik xulem 7une. Ta la xk'ot ti smalal to 7oxe,
te la xpochlajet ta pana xxokon na ta la stam ssat
panin, ja7 to la tzmala, mi lok' tza7anuk ti yajnile, ja7
to chbat slo7be, mi lok' tza7anuk ti sk'exole, mu sta
sve7el ta stuk. "Ja7 me 7amalal Ie7 7une, 7ipas me ta
xulem 7un," xi la ti k'exolile.
"7A!" xi la. Mu to 7ox la sna7, mi ja7 smalal, ta la
smaj ech'el, ta la sk'asbe yakan ta te7, ta la xjatav ta
jol na, yo7onuk la 7ochuk ta yut na pero mu xa k'u
xcha71e, te 7icham, ta vi7nal 7icham 7o, ja7 yech
7ilaj 7o.
protest that his foul odor is caused by hard work (Rosales, loc.
cit.) or that he was the unlucky target of a bird overhead
(Lemley, loc. cit.).
The fate of the man who elected to fly lazy circles in the sky is
not always the same. He may be chased off by his wife (Tax, loc.
cit.), become too weak to fly (Giddings, loc. cit.), or be forced to
eat his wife's excrement (Bricker, loc. cit.). He may return home
only to have his wife toss boiling water on him, forever scalding
his head red (Gossen, loc. cit.), or he may plummet fatally into a
garbage fire (Rosales, loc. cit.). In the Tlapanec version he is
allowed to resume his human shape, but on condition that he
feed the buzzard good meat (Lemley, loc. cit.). Among the
Aguacatec the buzzard allows him to return to his former
condition, but only if he keeps his three-day adventure a secret.
Unable to resist telling his wife, he dies soon after (Shaw, loc.
cit.).
The moral of the Protestant ethic is given a final twist in the
Mam story—after the loafer is restored to his human shape his
wife gives birth to a child begotten by the buzzard. While his
own children neglected him, his stepson cares for him faithfully.
So, today, the Indians are condemned to work in the sun, and the
Ladinos, offspring of the buzzard, work in the shade! (Applebaum,
loc. cit.). See also T42, T69, their notes, and T48.