. Bulletin. Ethnology. 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 calabashe
. Bulletin. Ethnology. 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 '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
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1901
