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An Annotated Translation of a Colonial Yucatec Manuscript:
On Religious and Cosmological Topics by a Native Author
(The Descendants of Adam)
Endnotes #173-179
- i.e. Spaniards.
- "Ah Mex Cuc, literally whiskered squirrel, is said to have had the surname Chan and to have been one of the four greatest men of the Maya." (Roys 1933:69, note 5). According to the story in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel, it was Ah Mex Cuc who threw Hunac Ceel into the cenote at Chichen Itzá as his offering to the gods. When Hunac Ceel returned from the cenote to declare the prophecy, he was elevated to the status of ruler by Ah Mex Cuc (see "The Rise of Hunac Ceel to Power"). According to Roys, "it is specifically stated that these men came from Mexico, and that they ruled in Yucatan for a long time." The period of their arrival is not recorded here, but we find the statement elsewhere that the Maya had been subject to certain Mexicans six hundred years prior to the Spanish Conquest (Roys 1933:147, note 5). In our text, the people of Ah Mex Cuc are contrasted with Maya people in a way that makes foreign origin plausible.
- A repetition of the "dust to dust" Ash Wednesday refrain.
- I think the idea here is that even the angels have a body of sorts, but the soul has no body whatsoever.
- groria for gloria.
- This passage with its two imperatives, "See this," suggests the use of a visual aid, perhaps a painting of heaven and hell.
- A reference to the xot kin, the Day of Judgment, whose signs are described by the author on p. 101-106.
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