A man ventures into the forest with a deceitful friend to gather honey, facing betrayal and blindness after trading his eyes for food and water. Abandoned, he gains restored sight from the Lord of the Bees and stumbles upon a magical ceiba tree. After acquiring wealth, he lures his treacherous friend to the tree, where the man is discovered by tabais and meets a fatal end.
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
Cunning and Deception: The protagonist’s compadre deceives him, leading to his blindness and abandonment.
Revenge and Justice: The protagonist’s deceitful compadre meets a fatal end, serving as retribution for his earlier betrayal.
Moral Lessons: The tale imparts lessons about the consequences of greed, betrayal, and the virtues of resilience and seeking help from unexpected sources.
► From the same Region or People
A man once wanted to go out into the forest and get some honey from a hive of wild bees. He asked his compadre to go with him, but the compadre said he had no food, but agreed to go when the first man said he would take food for both of them. At midday the man was feeling hungry and suggested to his friend who had the food that they should eat, but the other said no. Later the man was very hungry and again asked for food, but his friend refused. A bit later he was famished, and again demanded food. The first man agreed to give it to him on condition that he was allowed to take out one of his eyes. The man was so hungry that he agreed and his friend, taking out one of his eyes, gave him food.
► Continue reading…
Later he became very thirsty and asked for water. His friend would only give him water if he was allowed to take out the other eye. The man finally agreed and lost his second eye in return for the water. His friend told him to wait there for him, and went away, returning no more. The man waited and waited, and eventually, realizing that his friend would not return, he started to stumble along through the forest. At last he reached a tree, where, from the noise of the humming of the angry bees, he knew that men had recently been there and destroyed the hive to get at the honey. There he waited resting on a fallen treetrunk. After nightfall the Lord of the Bees arrived. He called out to the bees, “I will cure all those who have broken wings or legs, who have been crushed or who have lost their eyes.”
All the wounded bees came to him, and he cured them. The man heard all this and, groping his way to the Lord of the Bees, asked him to cure his sight too. The Lord of the Bees agreed and restored to him his sight. However, although he could now see again, he was still lost in the forest. Next night he climbed a tree close to a big ceiba tree. In the night he heard the voices of the tabais talking among themselves inside the ceiba. Now the tabais are always seeking mischief, and they were planning among themselves what damage they could do to mankind. One was saying how he was going to the village to spy at the people in their huts. Another was going to cause a man to make love to his comadre. Listening, the man learned how to open the ceiba, and after the tabais had gone away he went inside and found money, clothes, and other riches. He took some and went home. Some of the material he sent as a present to his bad compadre, who had gouged out his eyes. His bad friend asked him where he had got such fine stuff, and asked the man to take him to the ceiba. The man agreed, and taking his bad friend to the place left him there. Just before night the bad compadre climbed up into a tree, and listening he learned from the tabais the secret of how to get into the ceiba. When they had gone, he entered the ceiba and took all the material he wanted. Unfortunately for him he forgot how to get out, and so he hid inside. The tabais came back from their errands of evil.
“It is very hot inside and there is a sweet smell,” said the youngest tabai.
They looked around and found the man and beat him till he died.
* * *
Another version of the same story omits any mention of the bees. The tabais are three in number, and they tell what evil they have done during the day. The first says, “I have destroyed a fine milpa. If the owner only knew he could restore the corn by strewing it with ceiba leaves.”
The second says, “I have dammed a river, so the people in the village will suffer thirst. If they only knew, there is one stone that is the key-stone. Removing that the water will flow again.”
The third says, “I caused a man to take out the eyes of his compadre. If the sufferer only knew he could get back his sight by rubbing the sockets with the leaves of the ceiba.”
Next morning the man takes ceiba leaves and regains his sight. The rest of the story is the same as in the version given above except that the man undoes the work of the tabais by restoring the milpa and river. No name survives in San Antonio at the present time for the Lord of the Bees. However, in Yucatan they are worshipped under the name Ucananxuxob.
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Dreamtime Whispers 