A skilled hunter burned copal and prayed to the Mam to ensure success, while his ignorant friend struggled. Intrigued, the friend trespassed on the skilled hunter’s grounds, losing his dog and cursing the Mam. Summoned before Mam rulers, he faced judgment but was spared due to his ignorance. Enlightened, he received game and learned to honor the Mam for future hunting success.
Source
Ethnology of the Mayas of
Southern and Central British Honduras
by John Eric Thompson
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropological Series, Pub.274, Vol.17.2
Chicago, 1930
► Themes of the story
Divine Intervention: The Mam, as spiritual entities, directly influence the hunter’s success, demonstrating the gods’ involvement in mortal affairs.
Trials and Tribulations: The ignorant hunter faces challenges due to his lack of knowledge, including losing his dog and being summoned by the Mam, underscoring the trials stemming from unawareness.
Forbidden Knowledge: The story touches on the pursuit of hidden truths, as the ignorant hunter learns about the rituals necessary for successful hunting, previously unknown to him.
► From the same Region or People
Once there were two friends. One always shot a great deal of game when he went out to the bush, but he did this because he knew how to burn copal and pray to the Mam before he started out. The other was ignorant of the offering and prayer that must be made. Consequently he shot little game.
One day the two friends went out shooting together. The first, as usual, burned his copal, and consequently they shot plenty of game. The man was impressed with the abundance of animals in the country over which his friend shot. Another day, he thought he would try his friend’s hunting ground.
► Continue reading…
After hunting some time without success his dog ran under some stones and got lost. The man was vexed and began to curse the Mam, because they gave him no game and caused his dog to be lost. As he was cursing, a small boy suddenly appeared to him.
“My master sent me to summon you to him,” the boy said; and the man was vexed and replied, “I don’t know who your master is, and I don’t care, and further I’m not going.”
The boy repeated that the man must go to his master, but the man again refused.
“My master is Mam. Shut your eyes, as I am going to take you to him.”
The man at first didn’t want to do so, but the boy made him. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the Mam’s home, and his dog was tied to the door. The Mam asked him why he had come to hunt game there on land where he had no right, and further had cursed him. The man replied that he had come there, because his friend always seemed to find plenty of game there.
“That is true,” replied the Mam. “But your friend buys his animals from me. Look!” And the Mam showed him a big mass of copal, perhaps a hundred pounds in weight. Then the Mam, whose name is Yaluk, sent to summon the other two junior Mams, whose names are Xucaneb and Coha. When they arrived, they sent a messenger to summon the chief Mam, whose name is Kitzan. Kitzan didn’t want to go. They sent for him a second time, and he told the messenger to tell the other Mams that he was very busy. However, on being summoned the third time he went to the council. Yaluk, pointing at the man, explained how he had come to hunt there without burning copal, and then had proceeded to curse him.
“We don’t know him,” he added. “And we think we should eat him.”
Kitzan answered, “You do not know this man, but I know him. He is very poor, and he is ignorant of our ways.”
Then Kitzan talked for the man and explained that his friend got plenty of game, because he burned copal and because he was known to the Mam, who ruled over that territory. Kitzan gave orders to let him go and to give him two peccary. The boy took the man back to where he had found him. The man, opening his eyes, went on a little and shot two peccary. From that time onwards he always went to his old hunting grounds, where he was known to Kitzan.
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