Get Flash !
 Dolphin Discovery,  Experience the action and feel the emotion of swimming with dolphins in the ocean

CHAPTER IV

Damian Barrera and his companion were extremely exhausted.

How many hours had gone by since the encounter with the máasewáal?

- Let's stop a minute to rest, he told his companions- lets gather some dry branches to roast a piece of the wild pig-.

- We have to keep up our strength because if we don't we won't be able to go on. Besides l think we're out of danger for the moment. Anyway we'll have our weapons ready-

A few moments later, on the coals, on a grill of green branches, the wild pig was roasting. They ate it as it cooked.

Damian- said Miguel - we have to rest. If we don't, we'll never make it. Besides, the companions of that damned Indian are going to reach us, they're going to do it sooner or later, and if they want to kill us they will. So let's rest like we should it would be better. -

-Ok Miguel, but one of us will stand guard while the others sleep. If they kill us it won't be like dogs. I'll take the second watch call me in an hour. -

Carlos and Miguel slept soundly while Damian struggled with the stupor produced by fatigue, heat, and the food. He covered his watch, thinking about what the meeting with the chief of Chuum- Poom, Kitak would be like, that is if they made it to him. He remembered his father. As in a dream, he imagined the scene that his father told about so many times. The hand to hand fighting, sword against machete, the badly wounded Indian that his father picked up rather than kill, his convalescence in prison his freedom on the promise to work in the hacienda and finally when he let him go back to his people.

How many years ago was that? 30 or 40? He could not he exact. He took out of a soft-skin bag, among some gold coins; it was a carved earring of those that the southerners used. He examined it carefully. He should give it to Ki'tuk personally, or to his son if he wasn't alive. His father had told him how careful he should be with him.That earring was his salvation, also the salvation of his friends.

That's what he hoped. A few instants later, a noise in the brush startled him. He didn't have time to pick up his rifle. A máasewaál aimed his weapon at him while others surrounded the group.

Damian didn't make the slightest movement, showing a calm he didn't feel; he spoke to his sleeping companions.

Carlos- Miguel- he said in Maya intentionally, - wake up, we have company.

The two woke up startled, controlling themselves they got up slowly.

Damian said to them in Spanish- Don't try to take your weapons because they will fill us with bullets and chop us up- turning to the máasewáalo'ob- he said.

We want to go to Chuum-Poom. We are acquaintances of the leader Ki' tuk, he spoke calmly with certain authority to impress them.

I have a message to deliver to him personally. I am asking you to take me to him. I will reward you for your services.

After a pause the answer was- Who are you to dare to come here? Don' t you know that this territory is ours and no white man can penetrate our lands? This will cost you.

Damian interrupted energetically- " We didn’t come to fight. We came to see Ki'tuk and if you don't lead us to him you will awake his anger.

Another pause and the máasewaál answered. -" Chuum-Poom is six leagues from here,"- said the "báatab" of Tok'tuunich, it was he who spoke.

It doesn't matter; we will rest today and make the journey tomorrow- Damian answered.

The "Báatab" of Tok'tuunich moved a way with some of his men, and after a few seconds of exchanging words, he returned.

Ok- he said to Damian-but if you have lied to us, I would kill you myself with my machete-.

Without saying another word, he turned his back while his men picked up the weapons of the three ts'uulo'ob.

The night seemed endless. They slept fitfully under the vigilance of the máasewáalo'ob.

The next day, in the early morning, they left for Chuum-Poom. It was a long and tiring journey in permanent silence.

From the out-skirts of the village, the Indians came out of the yards, the children ran along side the small column of men until they came to the house of the chief. They stopped at the door.

Damian observed the construction built in front of the plaza where a couple of armed young men stood guard. That must be the church, the house of the talking cross of "Chuum-Poom.

Although Barrera feared this moment since he left Valladolid, a surprising calm invaded him, and his serene attitude gave his companions confidence. What was happening in the minds of those Indians and of his people? -In one more moment he would know his fate- the security of an inaccessible refuge in the jungle or death by machete or the banderillas. A chill ran through his being at this last thought. A few minutes later they were in front of the chief's house. While they waited for the chief to come out he glanced at the rough faces and aggressive looks of his captors. Everyone in town was at the main square in front of the house and the murmur of their conversations came vaguely to his ears. A máasewaál of enviable complexion opened a path through the multitude followed by two or three of the elders. It was the hour of sun going down to the horizon.

The silence was broken by the clear firm voice of the báatab who spoke to them in the Maya tongue.

You speak our language-without waiting for an answer he continued -who are you who so fearlessly has come to us? You are the first ts'uulo'ob to set foot here you won't live to tell it. The pitch of his voice did not change at pronouncing the last phrase.

Barrera answered with precision of one who has thought over his words many times.

You are the lord of this village, you must be for the way in which you have spoken-your name is well-know, even to far away Zací where we come escaping from. Let me tell you why.

Barrera told the chief the happenings of the last days, its cause, and its purposes. While he spoke, he observed the reactions and interest of the group.

And if you doubt my word, I would like to show you this- he expressed at the same time that he took from his pants pocket, a pig skin bag from which he took an ear-ring of pure gold, preciously worked.

-My father gave me this and he told me to look for you, wherever you were.

He told me that he was sure that you would let us live until we could return to our people-

Kituk took the jewel and contemplated it attentively. A few seconds of silence and instants of abstraction made the people there understand that his thoughts regressed to whom knows when and where. Seconds that seemed like centuries later, he said to his followers.

- Give food and shelter to these men. We will convoke our counsel later-.

Damian Barrera and his companions were led through the group that silently opened to let them through.

Behind them, the eyes of the báatab showed his abstraction while his companions looked at him. The thoughts of the báatab receded many years back. That night he spoke before the counsel.

" When I was a young boy, I remember very well, my father left the hut telling my mother to gather the few belongings and the animals and to go into the woods walking into the sun. It was scarcely dawn and we got into movement, frightened but without desperation, like we had done so many other times. Soon we were together with the old people, women and children, and in a short time we lost ourselves in the jungle I remember well, I will never forget the group of "ts'uulo'ob" was coming in forced march to our village. In a few minutes, we heard in the distance, to the west, the rifle fire, gun shots that a few minutes later stopped. We were afraid as so many other times we were. And all the women, although nobody said anything, expressed the anguish and the fear of never seeing their men again.

We didn't stop the march until mid -day and after a short rest we went on now with the sun at our backs in the evening we arrived at the shelter, a hut abandoned in the thick. clamps of ramon trees.

The men didn't arrive until late at night many of them with wounds from bullets or bayonets, or swords. Some walking, some in " carts." My father didn't return, and my mother said they saw him fell in the hand to hand fight, but nobody could tell her if he was still alive.

Many moons passed, until one day, when everybody in our town had given him up for dead, my father appeared, skinny and exhausted.

It was a surprise for everybody and a great rejoicing because he was one of the chiefs of the village. My father was the second in command, if the "báatab died, the command would fall to my father.

Everyone was happy and a great feast was prepared to celebrate his return. And hugging his feet, I listened to the story of how he had been saved.

He was picked up wounded and as a prisoner, he was taken to Zací where he stayed while, waiting his fate. The father of this man that you have seen set him free, and in gratitude he left him this earring, symbol of his rank. He told about the combat, and when Ts’uul had my father at his mercy, he didn't finish him off, later that man let him go. The " báatab " asked- Is it just that now we kill the son of that man ?... after some moments of meditation pronounced sentence

-He will live among as, he will live with his companions, the condition will be that they won't be able to leave the village, they will be killed if they try, we can not take any risks, nor can we change our laws-.

That same night Barrera and his companions appeared before the báatab , who explained their situation.

And they were given land and wives to form families and from then on they lived in the village.

Main Page                           Chapter 5  ''Jacinto''

Get Flash !

---

 

 

El Cuyo Yucatán, a new meeting with the nature. . Travelers Guide

 

Concept & Design by

Raúl Mendoza and N'aloy Vargas Cetina.
For further information,  reservations and advertising call (984) 8762234 and (985) 8563178  or fax (985) 8563178 or send an e-mail to: icai@chichen.com.mx

 

This site, Travelers Guide Series and Mayan World see better in Microsoft Explorer.  We highly recommend you install Flash 5.0  ( to see animations ) and  Real Player Basic 8.0 ( to see streaming  videos ).  You can free download them in their respective sites