i8 Singing Valleys 



feed her, where we plant our corn, so she will be strong and 

 bring forth strong plants . . ." 



The man agreed that there was wisdom in this. He and the 

 woman thought of ways of pleasing the Earth Mother. They 

 laid offerings of grain and meat on the ground where they 

 planted their corn. They sang songs to it. They danced and 

 made love on it. 



But even with all this ritual, which may have pleased the 

 Earth Mother, for the corn grew and yielded a better harvest 

 than the first crop had produced, the man was not entirely 

 satisfied. "The Mother cannot bring forth young by herself," 

 he reasoned. "She must be quickened by a husband before 

 she can give birth. The husband of the Earth Mother is the 

 Rain. Not the raindrops themselves, but the great body of 

 water in the sky from which the raindrops come." 



And to prove how right he was, he pointed out to the 

 woman how the green grain sprang up after the rainy season, 

 and would not grow at all if planted when the weather was 

 hot and dry. . . . "You see, the Earth Mother does not do it 

 all by herself. She cannot. The great Serpent in the sky that 

 flashes out of the black stormclouds, the one we see sometimes 

 with clouds like feathers about him,* when the trade winds 

 begin to blow, has to do his part. We must include him in our 

 prayers. . . ." 



How simple it was! Mother Earth and the Plumed Serpent 

 who sent the quickening showers; and born of them, for the 

 service of man, their son Ghanan, the Young Green God, who 

 was the maize plant. Sometimes this deity was called Yum 

 Kaax, "Lord of the Harvest Fields." But always he was thought 

 of as youthful and friendly, and closer to human beings than 

 his parents or any of the other deities. In the carvings, Ghanan 

 is the only one of the Mayan gods represented with a human 

 countenance. So far as is known, he himself never demanded 

 of his worshippers any human sacrifices. 



As the centuries passed and civilization advanced, the Maya 



* The sun when drawing water. 



