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CHAPTER III

Since its foundation, Tok'tuunich had not changed and in two generations, scarcely a few gardens augmented around the first ones.

In the center of the town, around the cenote there was a small square; which covered more or less ten "mecates. The cenote was the only water source to the entire population; it was extremely beautiful since a part of the root vault had fallen in to permit all the beauty of the cavity to be appreciated.

There were several stalactites of different shapes and sizes hanging from the vault. In the late afternoon, the rays of the sun lighted it indirectly; drawing capricious effects on the opposite wall. The water was clean and crystal clear and number of fish could be seen from the edge. It had been protected by a stone wall whose parts had been glued together with resin as firm as the solid rock. For two generations the Eks and the rest of the group who founded the village cleaned their yards, weeded their streets, planted their gardens, and raised their domestic animals in the most complete isolation. In each yard, there were generally two or three thatched roof huts with mud walls capriciously distributed, with the biggest or main one at the edge of the yard, in front of the street. This was used as a living room and bedroom. The second generally smaller was used as a kitchen and the third was used as storage to put up the corn harvest. In all the yards there were pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs and occasionally domesticated animals like "kitam" the "k’ulub" the " baack" the "kaambul, the "killí" and others. Some yards had rustic fences to pen in the pigs or hen houses of sticks and palms to protect the animals from the "chomac " or the "ooch".

In all of them, near the main house, in the " ka’anche"in kinds of rustic planter made of palm and dirt, a meter or a meter and a half in height, they cultivated mainly citanther, chile peppers, epazote, oregano and yerbabuena.

For two generations, they slashed and burned to make their milpas and the population grew until it doubled its number.

Their fertile soil provided harvests, which, if they were not abundant, were at least sufficient to support their simple life- style.

So they multiplied and lived in peace and tranquility with their brothers, who had formed, just like them, small villages in the heart of the eastern jungle. No white man had ever stepped in their village and many of them had never seen even one in their lives.

The news of those three ts'uulo'ob coming near; flew like dust in the village. As the fist-full of men left the main square to go after them the old men revived the oral tradition, telling many things that had been forgotten: the struggles, the escapes, pains, and unsatisfied hates in that blood bath between the ts'uulo'ob and máasewaálo'ob.

That night, Silvano, like the others, around the heat of the hearth fire told his friends and family about his encounter with those white men. Most of them accepted his version. Everyone coincided that it was a miracle that they hadn't killed him. While the murmur of the conversation prolonged into the wee hours of the morning, in the interior of the hut, the newborn clung to his mother's breast as the people clung to the land of their ancestors.

Jacinto was the fourth child of Maria Cohuó, except that only one of her daughters survived and now was six years old. Her other children had died, one at birth, and the other in the first year of life of some sickness. It had been more than three years since Maria had gotten pregnant. She had been afraid of not being able to have more children when she got pregnant with Jacinto. From the first she wanted in to be a boy - because who would help her husband in his labors in the milpa when the years passed? Besides she knew that he desired a son because he was the last of the Eks of Tok'tuunich. Maria fervently gave thanks to God as her painful breasts nourished her newborn baby.

Main Page                           Chapter 4  ''The Capture''

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