l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



Those who had carnal intercourse with relatives, within the degrees above 

 proscribed, both sufifered death. 



He who spoke libidinously with a married woman, or who made improper 

 signs to her, was banished and his property confiscated. 



Whoever had commerce with a strange slave (one not his own ?) was himself 

 reduced to slavery, unless pardoned by the high priest for services in war. 



Whoever wounded another, if the wound were serious, suffered death therefor. 



Whoever violated a virgin was sacrificed. 



Whoever lied was severely whipped ; and if it were in any matter concerning 

 war, he was enslaved. 



Those of the people who were not soldiers cultivated the plantations of the 

 cazique, pontiff and priests ; and also gave a part of their own crops for the 

 support of the warriors. 



This is what I have been able to gather concerning the manners and custom of 

 this people. 



Near this place, is a high rocky hill from which flow two streams of water, 

 close to each other, one hot and the other cold. Here too is found an abundance 

 of spices, which the Indians use in their drink and food ; and an earth which 

 resembles copperas, and which it must be judging from its effects. With this 

 they make a dye. 



From here to the borders of the province of Chiquimula de la Sierra, the 

 country is for the most part high, of good temperature, abounding in pasturage, 

 and adapted for the support of cattle, and the cultivation of all kinds of grains. 



In the portion of this province which lies in the direction of Gracios a Dios in 

 Honduras, are the Chontal Indians. While there, complaint was made to me 

 against a cazique of a place called Gotera, who since the time of his paganism 

 had had his private member split open, as was the custom anciently, among the 

 most valiant. In 1563, certain idolatrous Indians of another village called Cezori, 

 got together in a neighboring forest where one of them performed the same 

 operation; and afterwards they circumcised four boys of twelve years of age, 

 in the Jewish manner, offering the blood to an idol of stone of a cylindrical form, 

 with a double visage and many eyes, called Icelaca. They say that he is the 

 god which knows the present and the past, and sees all things. Both his faces 

 were anointed with blood, and they sacrificed to him deer, fowls, rabbits, peppers, 

 and other things which they used in ancient times. 



Torqtiemada (1723, lib. 3, cap. 41, vol. i, p. 330) has recorded 

 a Lenca myth which, he says, was told him by the old people. Ac- 

 cording to them, 200 years before this time, there came to Cerquin 

 (Lehmann states, 1920, vol. 2, p. 636, that this was probably Corquin 

 in the Department of Gracias, Honduras), a lady, white as a Castilian, 

 whose name was Comicahual, meaning " jaguar that flies ", so named 

 because she was very wise and versed in supernatural arts. These 

 Indians held the jaguar in high esteem. She made her abode in 

 Calcoquin, which was the most fertile land in the province. Here 

 there were stone " lions " which they worshiped, and a large three- 

 pointed stone which had on each point three grotesque faces. Some 

 said that Comicahual carried it there through the air and by its virtue 



