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

(Exposición del Pater Noster)

Endnotes #1-67

1. This is the final line of a missing portion of the Exposición del Pater noster which explains the importance of being in the proper state to pray. The missing section appears in Coronel’s Discursos predicables from 155v. - 159r.

2. The date 1576 has proved misleading in terms of the physical age of this manuscript, although it seems accurate in terms of its contents. The date appears to have been added after the fact, squeezed in below the heading, and partially obscured by blotting or water damage. According to David Szewczyk, an expert on Mesoamerican manuscripts who works with the Philadelphia Rare Book and Manuscript Company, this copy dates from between 1760 and 1780, judging from orthographic conventions and watermarks.

3. cooh: CMM, león de esta tierra. The puma of Yucatán, Felis concolor mayensis.

4. See DMM cihil than: bahi ciac u thane, como si dijera.

5. The author also uses Dzalpach in his version of the line "Lead us not into temptation," chanix a uilab ca lubul = ti tumtahil = Dzalpach = (ms.p. 304).

6. I am reading ppatal as paatal: CMM, hazer, formarse, concluirse y effectuarse.

7. kax na: CMM, atar o hazer casas paxiças. kax na nech ua ti domingo? Por ventura has atado casa en domingo?

8. This passage may refer to traditional rites performed by builders and carvers of wood and stone before beginning their work.

9. Coronel has ta uol.

10. The letter n is written in above, changing ca, two, to can, four. The author seems unsure of his count. Kneeling, crossing yourself, and giving thanks to God are all to be considered parts of step one evidently, even though they are three actions. Coronel gives ca tzuc.

11. An interesting use of ku rather than Dios.

12. Supplied from Coronel text.

13. An interesting mention of the role of the speech writer, used as a metaphor to describe the role of Christ when asked by His disciples how they should pray to God.

14. Coronel includes another line here: he cabin payalchinacexe bai bin avalicex ti Dioslae? Cayum &c. Belatun.

15. Supplied from Coronel; later sections of the exposition of the Lord’s Prayer are captioned in the ms.

16. binil is repeated three times in the text, I assume as a mistake.

17. I am reading this phrase as poochil U thanob.

18. This is the Peter who later denied knowing Christ. The foot-washing occurs in John 13:5-11.

19. See I Corinthians 12:12-13, which includes the lines, "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit". The next line of the Maya text seems to derive from I Corinthians 11:3, "But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ."

20. This section also is uncaptioned in the ms.

21. ma chanchan: DMM, lo mismo que chanchan, cosa pequeña.

22. The DMM uses the same sentence as an example. ich ticil ya u mal kin toon: con trabajo y miseria pasamos la vida.

23. Notice misspelling of gloria.

24. I am assuming this should be çiDzbeix.

25. Probably a reference to the Proverbios, "a collection of sententiae erroneously ascribed to Seneca, which had been translated and glossed by Pedro Díaz de Toledo" (Griffin 1988:18). Cromberger inventories include three editions during the sixteenth-century, suggesting continued popularity for the book (253).

26. etkalhal ?: venir justa assi una cosa en otra.

27. Here the author pairs a verb based on Latin, sanctocinabac, with the Maya verb, cilichcunabac.

28. ah canan tanam en.  tanam: CMM, carnero o oveja; nombre nuevo. Presumably, the word for sheep would have been new to the author of the ms. as well.

29. The scribe seems to have had trouble with the word ysrael, which is written ysrlaez, with the final letter overwritten with an l.

30. This is an interesting scribal error. The author evidently wrote ti ximbalbil yokol kak, meaning to walk on fire, with the syllable nab written in above as afterthought, turning the word for fire into the word kaknab, meaning the ocean. Landa describes the Maya firewalking ceremony in his Relación de las cosas de Yucatan (Tozzer 1941:148-9). The scribe seems to have thought first of firewalking as an example of a divine gift, rather than of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea.

31. See DMM: ma kanan u payalchi ah kebanob tu uich Dios: no es preciosa la oración de los pecadores a los ojos de Dios.

32. ?Illegible. In Coronel, the word is chicil; David Bolles reads the word here as chijbal.

33. bax = bayx.

34. Note misspelling of the Spanish word escuela.

35. See Isaiah 65:20, "for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed."

36. Note the author’s difficulty with the Spanish word escuela.

37. This passage, and the preceding one, suggest that the text is aimed at older youths who will be teachers themselves.

38. The story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon appears in I Kings, chapter 10.

39. A very similar version of the queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon appears also in 2 Chronicles, chapter 9. See lines 5-7: "And she said to the king, ’The report was true which I heard in my own land of your affairs and your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report which I heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!’" Solomon was said to have 700 wives and 300 concubines (I Kings, 11:3) so the Franciscans may have encountered a problem in exalting him as a model of perfection while trying to stamp out polygamy.

40. I am reading yayan u beel as payan u beel.

41. See Isaiah 28:20, "For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it."

42. Perhaps a reference to Revelations 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me."

43. Job 13:24, "Why dost thou hide thy face, and count me as thy enemy?"

44. DMM: má hah, lo mismo que hah, cosa necessaria.

45. See Matthew 16:24-5, "Then Jesus told his disciples, ’If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’"

46. Matthew 26:39, "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as though wilt."

47. Job 1:21, "And he said, ’Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’"

48. I assume that the phrase toon con in one con, with its repetition of forms of the second person plural pronoun, is for emphasis.

49. Illegible word in the text, which evidently does not appear in the parallel Coronel material.

50. tijalbil, DMM, yan ua a uoclic tijalbil? has por ventura hurtado lo ageno?

51. See Luke 12:22-31.

52. Note the scribe’s difficulty with spelling.

53. alab oltzil: CMM, cosa provechosa.

54. haues generally means make an end to, but haues ppax means to pardon debt. I am assuming the author has this sort of meaning in mind.

55. tumile =  tu yumile, Coronel.

56. This story appears in Matthew 18: 23-35, where the lord forgives the debt of his servant, who then refuses to forgive a debt owed him by one of his fellows. This injustice leads to judgment and punishment. The Maya version truncates the story.

57. Portions of this page are illegible. I have supplied the missing material from Coronel’s Discursos predicables.

58. The scribe seems to have had trouble with this word, which is overwritten.

59. Here is the end of the story from Matthew 18: 23-25.

60. pax = ppax, Coronel.

61. Illegible.

62. The story of Shimei appears in 2 Samuel 16: 5-12.

63. ti tumtahil Dzalpach coerced testing or oppressive trials. Dzalpach: CMM, hazer fuerza o violencia, constreñir o oprimir y la tal fuerza o violencia.

64. In the text, the letter a is marked with the curved line above that represents a following letter n.

65. tume has a line over the e to represent the final n.

66. See Judges 7:3, "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home."

67. Perhaps a reference to 1 Timothy 4:10, "For this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."

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