664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Xtabai is a wicked, deceitful pliantom, said to haunt the high- 

 ways at night. It appears as a beautiful woman, always combing 

 her luxuriant locks with a plant that the natives call " the comb 

 of Xtabai." This lovely being generally runs away when any 

 one approaches, but, if a lovesick laddie does succeed in clasping 

 her in his arms, she instantly transforms herself into a sack of 

 thorns that rests on two duck's feet. After embracing this prickly 

 arrangement the deluded youth is ill with fever. 



Another much-dreaded nocturnal, unsubstantial individual is 

 Balam, god of agriculture, an old fellow with a long beard, said to 

 walk in the air and whistle as he goes. Should his people fail to 

 make offerings to him, he would vent his spleen by afflicting them 

 with sickness ; therefore, the first fruits of the field are for him. 

 The corn first ripe is scattered upon the ground, and pies, the 

 crust made of corn, are also prepared for the god to enjoy at his 

 leisure. These pies are seasoned with enough red pepper to tor- 

 ment the palate of any number of balams (leopards). One pie is 

 put in each corner of the field, three being sprinkled with a liquor 

 called halclie. The fourth is left without this sauce, possibly for 

 the benefit of any teetotaler friend who may happen to call. 



Balch^ is a liquor made by soaking the bark of a tree thus 

 named in a mixture of honey and water. When fermented and 

 kept some time it is very intoxicating. The Indians use it in all 

 their ancient rites and ceremonies, and the Fans of equatorial 

 Africa make liquor in the same way. 



Catholics in name, the Mayas in fact prefer to render homage 

 to any stone figure that once ornamented the temples of their 

 forefathers. We have seen one, kept in a cavern underground, 

 that served as a personification of Balam, for it represented a 

 man with a long beard, and to it they make offerings of corn. As 

 a work of art the figure is worthy of notice. Its antiquity can 

 not be doubted, similar ones being sculptured on pillars at the 

 entrance of a very ancient castle in the famous ruined city of 

 Chichen. The figure in the cavern is on its knees ; its hands are 

 raised to a level with the head, palms upturned. On its back is a 

 bag containing a cake of corn and beans, the whole cut from one 

 block of stone. This statue is now black, owing to the incense 

 and candles with which its devotees smoke it. Previous to sow- 

 ing grain they place before it a basin of cool beverage made of 

 corn, also lighted wax candles and sweet-smelling copal, implor- 

 ing the god to grant them an abundant harvest. When the crops 

 ripen the finest ears are carried to the smoke-begrimed divinity 

 by men, women, and children, who within the cavern dance and 

 pray all day long, some of their quaint instruments serving as 

 accompaniment to the Christian litanies which they chant with- 

 out having the vaguest idea of their meaning. 



