44 



BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 64 



and two on top of it; a large calabash of siJcil and one of water were 

 also placed on the altar and a jar of halche (a drink made of fermented 

 honey in which is soaked the bark of a tree) beneath it. Beneath the 

 suspended calabashes was placed a small table containing piles of 

 tortillas and calabashes of masa and water. In carrying out this 

 ceremony it is essential that everything used in it be perfectly fresh 

 and new; the leaves, sticks, bejuco, and jabin must be freshly cut, 

 and the masa, siJcil, halcJie, and even the calabashes must be freshly 

 made. The masa was taken from the large to the small shed, where 



the priest and several 

 wBift.Mp.MUB'vm-MllirWAl male members of the 

 family sat around it. 

 After flattening out a 

 small ball of the masa 

 the priest placed it on 

 a square of plantain 

 leaves and poured 

 over it a little sikil 

 (a thin paste made of 

 ground pumpkin seed 

 an d water) . Then the 

 next man flattened out 

 a piece of masa, which 

 he placed over the 

 siJcil, and the process 

 was continued until a 

 cake was formed con- 

 taining 5 to 13 alter- 

 nating layers of masa 

 and siMl. On top of 

 each cake, as it was 

 completed, the priest 

 traced with his fore- 

 finger a cross sur- 

 rounded w^ith holes ; 

 these were first partly 

 filled with halcJie, which was allowed to soak into the cake, after 

 which they were filled completely with silcil, whereupon the whole 

 cake was carefully tied up in plantain leaf, with an outer cover- 

 ing of palm leaf (fig. 12). These cakes are known as tutiua; their 

 number is generally gauged by the number of participants in the 

 ceremony. When siHl is not available, a paste of gromid black 

 beans is used; in this case the cakes are known as huliua (Maya 

 hul, "bean"; ua, "bread"). The priest next made a deep 

 depression in a ball of masa about the size of a tennis ball, which he 

 filled with, siTcil, covering it with the masa, so as to leave a ball of 



Fig. 12.— Priest tracing cross on cake and filling it in w ith sikil. 



