An Annotated Translation of a Colonial Yucatec Manuscript:
On Religious and Cosmological Topics by a Native Author

(The Questions that the Emperor Hadrian asked the Infante Epitus)

Endnotes #1-64

1. Yucatec scribes included in the books of Chilam Balam of Mani, Chan Cah and Kaua the story of the Maiden Teodora, another example of medieval wisdom literature which follows a similar pattern, with a female slave outwitting a group of wise men. Some of the same riddles appear in both stories. On the Maiden Teodora tale, see Parker 1996. David Bolles has also done extensive, unpublished work on this topic.

2. Text VIII in L’Enfant Sage (Suchier 1910: 364-391). See also Severin (1985: 25-30) and Bizarri (1995).

3. The Crombergers of Seville (Griffin 1988: 124). "The Inquisitorial ban on this sort of work was applied remarkably rapidly even in far-flung parts of the New World." note 108. Oddly, la Historia de la doncella Teodora escaped censure until 1755.

4. The Chilam Balam of Chumayel includes a series of riddles known as the language of zuyua. In his translation, Ralph Roys labels this riddle series "The Interrogation of the Chiefs," and suggests that knowledge of the riddles determined eligibility for leadership. According to Munro Edmonson, the riddles provided a script for ritual drama to celebrate baktun endings. (Edmonson and Bricker 1985:51). Brian Stross also discusses the "secret and perhaps priestly" language of zuyua and its origins (1983: 150-164). Allan Burns, however, argues that the zuyua riddle set forms part of a narrative, rather than a script for ritual, and that the riddles mock authority figures, rather than providing entry to their ranks (Burns 1991:35-40). For colonial era riddles in Nahuatl, see The Florentine Codex, book 6, chapter 43 (Dibble and Anderson 1969:237-240).

5. That is, of royal blood, but not heir to the throne.

6. The translation is mine. A/E (lines 1-21).

7. patri acha: the scribe has glottalized ch in the loan word written patriarcha in the Castilian version of Las preguntas que el emperador Adriano hizo al infante Epitus (A/E line 26). Note also l for r in helusaleme in this line, a typical error for a speaker of Yucatec Maya, a language which lacks the letter r. On hypercorrection, see Table 22.2 in The Maya World (Restall 1997). The ms. is full of such spellings, providing evidence of native authorship.

8. chun thanob: spokesmen. A/E: unos cavalleros (line 30).

9. I have numbered the questions in the ms. to facilitate comparison with the numbered questions in A/E.

10. cux ol: CMM, juizio, prudencia, discreción. It seems to represent a natural prudence, sometimes attributed to animals as well as man. See p.137 of this ms., where man is exhorted to observe the behavior of the four-footed beasts and the winged creatures whose cux ol guides them to flee harm, as man should flee worldly wisdom. In the answer to question 10, animals are distinguished from humans, who have u natob = yt. u cuxyolobe. It is not clear whether the Maya author intends to suggest here that animals lack both these attributes; A/E denies animals entendimiento and razon.

11. The Maya text omits the following related question: 3. Y los cavalleros le dixeron: Parece nos que soys sabidor. - El infante les respondio: Aquel es sabido que a si mismo castiga (lines 40-43.)

12. A/E: segun que agora oyreys. The Maya verb utzcin suggests a more active role than hearing. Rather the story becomes a script for the recitation of knowledge.

13. The ms. omits the following question: 8. Infante, quantos son los cielos? The answer involves seven heavens, nine orders of angels, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. The ms. treats the eleven heavens at length in pages 178-189.

14. A/E, the highest heaven is named as el cielo empireo (line 85).

15. Luzbel appears as an alternate name for Lucifer in sixteenth century Spanish texts written in Mexico. See for example Coloquio Cuarto in Coloquios espirituales y sacramentales, Tomo I (Gonzalez de Eslava :143). A/E omits this name for Lucifer. There may be a pun intended with the Yucatac lu(b)s, to fell or bring down.

16. The Maya version skips A/E lines 101-103: Y no podia aver cuenta delos que cayeron, hasta que el señor dios dixo: ’Sursum corda’, y en diziendo esto el señor dios, luego cessaron de caer y enel estado que los tomo, ay estan oy dia. "There could be no count of those who fell, until the lord God said, ’Sursum corda’ (Latin: Arise hearts) and then they ceased to fall in the place that they were and are today."

17. A/E: E los officios d’estos diablos son engañar a los hombres eneste mundo (lines 105-106).

18. The motivation for the fallen angels’ animosity towards men, these lines refer to "the popular medieval belief that God had originally created man to fill up the depopulated ranks of Paradise caused by the expulsion of the fallen angels." See The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World (Phelan 1970:72).

19. Literally, co-measured him, made him equal.

20. A difficult passage to translate smoothly from Maya to English, it parallels A/E lines 127-13: Ca el hombre es y fue mas complido que todas las otras cosas que dios crio, ca d’ellas han spiritu y cuerpo, y no entendimiento ni razon segun que el hombre, assi como son bestias y animalias y aves; y ay otras cosas que dios crio que han cuerpo y no han spiritu ni razon, assi como el sol y la luna y las estrellas y los arboles y las yervas y las otras semejantes cosas, assi que el hombre es mas complido qe todas las cosas.

21. A/E specifies the place of man’s creation: en el val de Ebron (line 134-5).

22. Bob Howren analyzed this as ti ca nail ti eva with ti as an appositive marker.

23. U pachicob ?

24. con con: CMM, poco de prisa.

25. A/E, question 14. The order of this question and the one that follows is reversed in the Maya ms.

26. tab yan kin means literally, where is the sun?

27. Note the alternation of classifiers, from ppel in the preceding line to piz here.

28. A/E: Lo todo fue fecho luego, empero repartio lo en .vj. dias.

29. A/E: Y el dia de lunes hizo dios el firmamento de las aguas, d’ellas de yuso, d’ellas de suso.

30. See p. 183-4 of the ms. for the place of water in the layers of the heavens.

31. The seven cardinal sins. A/E: sobevia, sacrilegio, homicidio, fornicio, furto, cobdicia, glotonia. The Maya version skips the explanation of Adam’s sins given in the source text. In Coronel, the cardinal sins are listed as: tzicba yetel nonobail, coc zidzil, tzuc achil, lepp olal, baltail yetel calhal, zauinal ti yutzil hunpay, mak olal.

32. A total of 4,205 years and seven hours. A/E: 5,225 years and seven hours.

33. coco: siquiera o a lo menos.

34. Uooh, symbols for speech, letters or characters which include glyphs and the European alphabet.

35. The answer in A/E is simply, Seth, hijo de Adam, with no emphasis on his having performed the task by himself, alone. Was the idea of a single individual creating writing a surprise to the Maya author?

36. A/E: Govierna de los pescados, carrera no cierta, cosa muy maravillosa.

37. In A/E, woman is: Arca de mucho bien y mucho mal, ymagen del hombre, bestia que nunca se farta (lines 257-8). The shift from woman as an image of man, to woman as like cisin, the devil, may reveal Franciscan influence on the text.
    
    Versions of this question about woman’s nature also appear in Maya translations of the Maiden Teodora story included in the books of Chilam Balam of Kaua and Chan Cah, and the Codex Perez. In these texts, woman is U hochbilan uinic, the image of man; no mention is made of the devil. I owe this information to David Bolles, who has done extensive work on the Maya versions of Zuhuy Teodora (see letters of Sept. 16, 1997 and Nov. 17, 1997 and his edited transcripts of the texts).

38. A/E: cosa aborrecida de toda criatura (line 264), suggests that pectzil should be ppectzil.

39. ma yohel, literally, he does not know, seems to be used to mean never here, and in this example from the Motul II : ma yohel kimil: inmortal. tukul ol: cansarse de algo. Strange syntax here. A/E: Infante, qual es la cosa de la qual el hombre no se puede ver harto? (lines 268-269).

40. Following this answer, the word ultima and the letters N.M. have been added in a different hand in the margin of the ms.

41. A/E: Por tres maneras: por deleyte de hablar, o por dezir bien de quien bien quieren, o por dezir mal de quien mal quieren (lines 288-90). The question is out of order in the Maya version, which skips three questions, but then includes two of them after the question about deception. The Castilian text includes two questions here about death (#35 and #36), the Maya text only one (#32).

42. manan u nucule, without an explanation or without order. CMM, inumerables veses. A/E: qual es la cosa mas incierta. The answer: La hora de la muerte.

43. Once again, the Maya author comments on a solitary actor, as he did in the question about Seth’s creation of written speech. In A/E the answer is simply, Nuestro padre Adam.

44. ocol means both to steal and to enter, allowing for a pun: ah ocol is both he who steals and he who enters (first) to paradise.

45. Continues the entering theme from the previous question.

46. A rare reference to the Virgin Mary in this ms.

47. In A/E, not only the heart of man, but the comedimientos are unknowable, except to God and aquellos a quien el hombre los quiere revelar (lines 309-311).

48. This riddle also appears in Chilam Balam versions of the Maiden Teodora story, see Book of the Fourth World (Brotherston 1992: 321-26).

49. A/E: qual es la cosa que hombre tiene en si y no la puede tocar?

50. A/E: Mil y doziento y cinquenta y dos años. The Maya total is 5,402.

51. tuc: CMM, monton de cosas menudas aiuntadas como sal, tierra, piedras. The use of ben, usually a suffix on adjectives, and the method of counting, are interesting in these questions and answers. A/E credits Noah with 500 years when he built the ark.

52. nochcucil: CMM, codo, una medida. The Biblical cubit is also a measure for the length from middle finger to elbow.

53. A/E places the ark’s landing En el monte de Arrachin, que es en Armenia, en una sierra muy alta (lines 381-382).

54. The Maya scribe has used fancy capital letters for the H in Helias and the N in Enoc. Legends of the return of Enoch as a sign of the millennium persist in oral tradition among the Cruzob Maya of Quintana Roo. See Contemporary Yucatec Maya Apocalyptic Prophecy: The Ethnographic and Historical Context (Sullivan 1984: 109-110).

55. xibni may be a miscopying or abbreviation of ximbalnaji, in translation of anduvo, A/E line 420.

56. In A/E Lazarus is identified as hermano de santa Maria Magdalena y de santa Marta. The ms. omits any mention of Saint Martha here, but includes her in the answer to another question about Lazarus (72).

57. See Luke 1:56 for Mary’s visit to her kinswoman, Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.

58. I am assuming the syllable ci has been omitted here through scribal error.

59. Esau in A/E.

60. yalan che = yalan aban: a formulaic expression for living in exile. "This often recurs in the ancient Maya manuscripts, and was evidently a well-known formula, probably the refrain of one of their ancient chants." (Brinton 1969: 125-6, note 6).

61. In A/E,: que sabia a cada uno como en el manjar que queria (lines 356-7). The Maya translation rhymes yohelticob, to know, with yocheelticoob, to serve as food.

62. takin may mean either gold or silver. In A/E, Solomon’s vessels are all of plata (line 541).

63. A/E, simply la gloria del parayso, without specifying that the paradise is on earth.

64. A/E, the man of greatest goodness is el que priva su yra y vence su voluntad (lines 551-2). The answer in the Maya version suggests the influence of an evangelizing priest.

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