This tale explains the origins of domestic animals and human fortune. The Mam offers a man herds of animals, but due to his poor choices—using weak lianas and failing to secure them—they escape. The Mam teaches him to pray instead. Another man, who ties animals properly, ensures their domestication. Descendants of the first man remain without herds, while those of the second enjoy wealth and animals.
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
Creation: The myth explains how domestic animals came to be and the origins of human fortune.
Origin of Things: It provides an explanation for the existence of domestic animals and the differing fortunes among people.
Cultural Heroes: The two men in the story serve as foundational figures whose actions explain cultural practices and societal structures.
► From the same Region or People
After the sun and moon rose, there was a man on earth, and the Mam wanted to help him. He told him to sit on a bench, but the man sat on the floor. He told him to eat his food on a low bench, but the man took his food and ate it on the floor.
The Mam told him he would give him a tapir so that he could have a herd, and told him to get a rope to tie it. The man, instead of getting a rope, got some tietie (liana), and tied the tapir with that. Needless to say the tapir broke the thin tietie and escaped. Then the Mam said, “I am going to give you peccaries so that you may have a herd of them. Get some rope and tie their feet.”
► Continue reading…
The man again tied them with the thin tietie, and they escaped. Then the Mam told him to get rope to tie the deer, but the man caught it by the tail, and the tail breaking, the deer escaped. That is why the deer now has no tail. Then the Mam said to the man, “Now I can’t help you any more as you have let all the animals escape, but I will teach you how to pray and burn copal to the Morning Star, and then you will always have plenty of game.”
Now there was another man who tied all these different animals well, and that is why there are domestic animals in the world. These were the first men, and all the Indians are descended from them. Some are descended from the first, and have no domestic animals in herds. Others are descended from the second, and they are rich and have herds of animals.
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Dreamtime Whispers 