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

Exemplos. Sacados de la sagrada escritura =
Examples Taken from the Sacred Scripture

Endnotes #74-114

74. mehen: CMM, hijo varón respecto del padre, literally, a son, but used here figuratively.

75. ppicil cuch tah: CMM, llevar o traer algo por sobre cargo.

76. This ejemplo bears some resemblance to one included in Libro de los exenplos de a.b.c., a collection of popular tales compiled by Clemente Sánchez de Vercial in the fifteenth century. See the ejemplo titled Onus super onus ponere erit mortem aquiere in The Book of Tales by A.B.C. (Keller, et al. 1992:218).

El Demonio = no uence = sino al que. se quiere = dexar = vencer =
The Devil Does Not Conquer, Except for He who Wishes to Let Himself Be Conquered

77. For the story of Ciprian and St. Justina, see The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (Ryan and Ripperer 1969:571-5). The version here, translated into Yucatec, is simplified and abbreviated, leaving out lurid details of the devil’s attempt on the virgin’s chastity.

78. Portions of this material are illegible. I have relied on David Bolles’ transcription of parallel material in Coronel’s Discursos predicables to supply missing elements.

79. The line in Coronel reads, habla yalah a christianoil. My reading seems to make better sense with the following lines.

El Demonio = teme la cruz =
The Devil Fears the Cross

80. The story of St. Christopher’s search for the greatest lord on earth also appears in The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (Ryan and Ripperer 1969: 377-9).

81. That is, crossed himself.

82. Note inconsistent spelling of Christopher’s name.

83. For this line Coronel gives, tilic a uocol ichticil kijx ich ticil tuniche.

Como castiga Dios a los que no cumplen los testamentos. ====
How God Punishes those who do not Fulfill (final) Testaments

84. In spite of this claim, I have found this ejemplo not in The Golden Legend, the most popular medieval book of the lives of the saints, but in The Book of Tales by A.B.C. See Mortuorum legata qui cicius sunt solvenda, which the authors translate, "Just debts of dead men must be paid: on those who fail will pain be laid." (Keller, et.al. 1992:200).

85. In The Book of Tales, the dying man is a knight who asks his relative to sell his horse and give the proceeds to the poor for the good of his soul.

Como son grandes. lays penas del purga^torotorio
How the Pains of Purgatory are Great

86. The scribe has had trouble with the word purgatorio, first misspelling the final syllables, above, and then correcting his mistake below the line.

87. ta uay might also mean, in your room.

88. sasameto is marked with a tilde above the first a to indicate a missing n.

89. The Coronel version of this ejemplo ends here, omitting the final line describing the sufferings of purgatory as unendurable.

Como hemos de tener fortaresa = y obediençia = en la Rey de Dios ===
How we should have Strength and Obedience in the Law of God

90. The scribe has had trouble with the letter l in this line of Spanish, substituting the letter r in the words fortalesa and ley. While Yucatec does not include the letter r, some Maya languages do include it. Confusion between the two letters is not limited to Spanish loan words. Note the Yucatec word for the horned owl, tunculuchu, which appears as tun cruch hu on the penultimate line of ms. p.119.

91. chul: CMM, flauta, chirimía, o corneta y tañerla. Note that the scribe has glottalized the initial consonant, while the dictionary author does not.

92. The story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol, and the punishment in the fiery furnace for those who refuse to worship it, appears in the book of Daniel, chapter 3.

93. ciyhi, CMM, cihil: dezir.

94. In Coronel’s Discursos predicables, this line appears as ti ma eli u mexob .y. u tzotzelob (196v). While this does not change the meaning, it eliminates the reiteration of the x sound, perhaps making it less eloquent to a Maya audience.

95. There are several illegible words in this line which do not appear in the Coronel version, which reads, ylexto hibici yantabal tumen Dios, himac alcunic yoltie.

Contra los que encubren sus pecados = al confesor
Against those who Hide their Sins from their Confessor

96. Note Spanish loan word, confesar, to confess. Because it is uninflected, I suspect it is used here as a noun.

97. Coronel: chacancun.

98. Coronel: sanctoil.

99. Coronel: hetez ten.

100. Coronel gives, incorrectly, yetaile.

101. Coronel: chacanhal.

102. The phrase, hunsuthij u satal lae, is missing from Coronel.

Como emos - de ser fuerte en la Ley de Dios
How We Must be Strong in the Law of God

103. Originally from the deutero-canonical book of Machabees, according to the Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, "the account of the glorious martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother has been adopted into the liturgy of the Church" (Steinmueller et.al. 1955:655). Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a ruthless persecutor of the Jews. His attempt to eradicate the Jewish religion led to a rising of the people under Mathathias and his sons, the Machabees.

104. Coronel: ca achac v numulob ti ya.

105. ti sukin bae is missing from Coronel.

106. The words y numsicex ti ya loe are missing in Coronel.

Como emos de ^guardar. castidad =
How We Should Maintain Chastity

107. This story appears in Genesis, chapter 39. Joseph, bought by Potiphar, the captain of Pharoah’s guard, becomes overseer of the household. Here it seems unusual, and perhaps unorthodox, to refer to an Old Testament character as a saint.

108. This phrase should read yocol ku, his faith in God.

Como persiguen los Demonios a los castos -
How the Demons Pursue the Chaste

109. The author pairs the Maya term, halach uinic, with its Spanish equivalent, Obispo.

110. Pages are missing from the manuscript at this point. I supply the end of the ejemplo from the parallel material in Coronel’s Discursos predicables.

111. cuman ti cuch obispo, el provisor o vicario del obispo. Vicario, juez eclesiástico. While the terms provisor and vicario have various meanings, this seems to fit the context.

112. While this translation makes sense, a woman cook should be ix tzenul.

Como vive el hombre, asi muere
As Man Lives, So He Dies

113. Only the last lines of this ejemplo appear in the text. The beginning is supplied from Coronel’s Discursos predicables (201v-202r).

114. The portion of the story included in the text begins at this point.

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