Originally published by Alyscamps Press, Paris/Tragara Press, London, 1997. Rpt. 2017, Alyscamps Press, Paris. The now rare Demons and Spirits can be had from publishers in the UK.
I quote Sawyer-Lauçanno in his introduction to this collection.
“The incantatory poems collected in this little volume are oral narratives of the Chol Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. They were collected in the 1950s by researchers at the Instituto Linguistico de Verano, mainly as an aid for linguists studying the comparative phonetics and dialects of the various Maya tribes, of which Chol Mayan forms a small subgroup. To this end, no commentary on content, belief system or even form was provided. Indeed, the only textual notes, aside from literal (nearly unreadable) renderings of the Chol texts, were a glossary, and phonetic and orthographic remarks. And yet, buried beneath the linguistic apparatus, were texts of power and beauty, chants and tales and poems of a world in which demons lurk, where magic is an everyday occurrence, where superstition is a driving force in the tight-knit Maya community.“
Chol Maya is spoken largely in Chiapas, as is Zoque, the latter being of an unrelated language family but spoken in the same region and that which the final essay in this section, on How to be a Good Savage, presents to us. Chol Maya is not so endangered as some other Mayan dialects—at least according to a 2011 MIT News article1 on the subject. However, while I might quibble with the word “superstition” above, what is interesting, with the arrival of conquistadores and the continued presence and efforts efforts of missionaries—secular as well as religious—is the clash, the psychic as well as spiritual (if one can call it that) impact of colonialism. Conquistadores, historic and contemporary, don’t seem to let up in their the efforts to colonize the minds of those whose territories and communities they have stolen, attacked, and so on. Chol Maya has held up rather well, given the fate of other indigenous languages in the Americas.
I must also point out that Chol Maya, as noted by Sawyer—Lauçanno, has a rich oral tradition and one not yet not committed to writing when Sawyer—Lauçanno encountered these poems. That is, the Chol had orature, orally an equivalent to what others have in, and call, literature. As Sawyer—Lauçanno concludes
…these are powerful poem-chants, incantatory revelations, magical texts. Here spirits wander at will, the forest is alive with daemonic shapeshifters. In reading these poems, one enters a world where the supernatural is natural, a world where just about anything can happen. And does.2
For a taste of these poems, we include “The Old Woman and her Demon”, with the Chol Maya as transcribed from work “collected in the 1950s by researchers at the Instituto Linguistico de Verano, mainly as an aid for linguists studying the comparative phonetics and dialects of the various Maya…”3 groups.
Kome Xiba Abi Iways Jinis X’ixiky
Cha’an, jinni año’z ba xibajlels, mi yalobs.
Pero, ti wajali, an, abis juntikilg x’ixik tig wajalig.
Che’, ti yorajlel mi yilang pañimile
yalobila jinig x’ixik an chuki mi’ mel jini x’ixik.
Mu’, abi i pam pass numele ir ch’ich’elg jinig x’ixik.
Pero cha’an abi and is xibajlel,
jini, x’ixikg. Jini abi cha’ang mi’, pams pas,
numel, is ch’ich’elg jini x’ixik kome, xiba,
abi iWays jinis x’ixiky. Tsa’,
abiz tili iyorajlels tsa’s chami,
jinig x’ixikg. Tsa’, abi is k’eleyob is wute jinni.
X’ixikg, k’uxbil,
abi, miz yalob. Tsa’, abi is laj,
k’uxles is chiking is ni’ jini
x’ixik ti xiba, mi yalob.
An kabal, jiniz año,
bas is xibajlely tig wajalig yalob.
The Old Woman and Her Demon
It was something she did
about the time her child was born.
Something then that let the demon in.
It was long ago they say.
They say too that everywhere
she went she opened her veins
so that everyone could see
her flowing blood. Some say she had two spirits,
one was hers, the other her demon’s.
When she died they came to look at her.
She had holes for eyes, holes for ears,
one great gaping hole where her nose had been.
Her demon had been feasting, they say.
She was not the only one.
Long ago many had demons, they say.
Chol Maya is not considered an endangered language. However, according to the Oxford Research Encylopedias‘ section on Linguistics on Mayan languages, “It is unequivocally the case that all Mayan languages are threatened in the sense that some children in some communities are no longer learning to speak the language.” 4
— Bronwyn Mills
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