Juan Siis, a boy living with his grandmother, yearned for rich food prepared for priests. A supernatural encounter led him to the Chich, who nursed him for three days, granting him the power to transform into a jaguar. Initially helping his village, he became ferocious, devouring livestock and even his grandmother. Living in the forest, he hunted for hunters and outwitted cannibalistic Cheils, ensuring his companions’ safety.
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
Trickster: Juan Siis uses cunning to outsmart the cannibalistic Cheils, protecting his companions.
Conflict with Nature: As a jaguar, Juan Siis embodies the wild, creating tension between his human origins and animal instincts.
Forbidden Knowledge: Juan’s desire for the priests’ rich food leads him to acquire hidden, transformative abilities.
► From the same Region or People
There was a boy who used to live with his grandmother. He used to go out to cut firewood close to the church, where he would smell the rich food that was being prepared for the priest. He wanted to taste it, and kept muttering to himself, “I wish I could eat that nice food.”
One day the messenger of the Mam appeared to him and asked him why he was always muttering to himself. The boy explained that he wanted to eat all that fine food, whereupon the messenger told him to shut his eyes. When he opened them again, he was in the room of Chich (Tsits).
► Continue reading…
The Chichs are the wives of the Mams, and they are full-breasted. The Chich asked him his trouble, and when the boy explained, she told him that he must suckle at her breast for three days. The boy did so, and at the end of the three days Chich told him to throw himself on the ground. He did so and immediately turned into a jaguar. When he threw himself down again, he turned back into a boy. The Chich said to him, “Now you can get all the food you want,” and sent him back to the world. The boy’s name was Juan Siis, which is a Kekchi word meaning “coati.” That evening his grandmother cooked him food, but he said he did not want to eat cooked food, only raw meat. He told his grandmother he was going to play, and throwing himself on the ground, he turned into a jaguar. His grandmother was very frightened and called all the neighbors, but when they arrived, Juan Siis had already turned back into a boy. He began to catch and eat fowls, hogs, etc., and then, becoming more ferocious, ate up his own grandmother. After that he went away to live in the forest. One day in the forest he met three men. They told him that they were out hunting, but could find nothing. Juan Siis told them he would kill meat for them, and bid them follow him. At sunset they built a camp, and after dark Juan Siis went out hunting. Just before dawn the hunters heard the roar of the jaguar and Juan Siis reappeared in camp with several peccary. Next day he said to the hunters, “Let us go and visit my friends, the Cheils.”
The hunters did not want to go. “They are bad men,” they said. “They will eat us.” Juan Siis promised that no harm would befall them. They arrived at the home of the Cheils and entering sat down. The children of the Cheils were playing round, and scratching the bare legs of the hunters, they drew blood. The Cheils, smelling the blood, wanted to eat them. They asked Juan Siis to give them the hunters to eat, but the jaguar man refused them. Again they asked for the hunters. Juan Siis said, “I will give them to you, but you must beat me in play first of all.”
There was a large gombolimbo tree (tsikqa) close by. Juan Siis climbed up the tree to the first big branch, and then dived head down to the ground unscathed. He said to the Cheils, “You must do that too if you want my friends.”
At last one Cheil climbed up in the tree, but diving down broke his neck, and the rest were afraid to try the trick. Juan Siis next jumped over twelve hills (caves). “Now you must do that if you want those men,” he said. None of the Cheils could jump that far. Juan Siis told the three hunters to go away and take the peccary he had hunted with them.
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Dreamtime Whispers 