Lexical Issues

The term for “ancestors,” ko-mam k-icham, is in itself interesting; it is a compound noun formed by the juxtaposition of two possessed kin terms, mam “father,” and icham “uncle/nephew” (father’s brother, mother’s brother, and reciprocal, sibling’s son; Hopkins 2012a). This metonymic union of two opposing categories implies the immediately inclusive superior category, in this case, “male ancestors,” including both direct and collateral relatives. Note that the corresponding term for ancestors in Ch’ol is lak tyatyña’älob, “our father-mothers” based on tyaty-ña’ “father-mother.”

It is notable that the Rabbit is treated distinctly from the other animals mentioned. Chuj has a set of “noun classifiers” that function both as determinatives and as pronouns (Hopkins 1967a, 2012b; see the appendix). Here, Rabbit is honored with the marker for “male (human),” winh, while the other protagonists are demoted to nok’, “animal”: winh konejo, nok’ koyote, although the narrator occasionally mixes the noun classifiers up and says nok’ konejo or winh koyote. The early protagonist Ram carries the special animal-class designation for horn-bearing mammals, ch’ak: ch’ak kalnel. Curiously—or perhaps another indication of the foreign origin of the story—the protagonists take Spanish loanword names konejo, koyote, and kalnel (from conejo, coyote, and carnero). Rabbit is never called by his native name, chich. Coyote appears first as native okes, but the narrator later switches to introduced koyote. There is no native equivalent for the name of the introduced mammal kalnel.

Overview

The episodes of the narration consist of a descriptive passage and a dialogue, terminating in a closing event. This pattern repeats three times before transiting to the following episode (not reported here). The text opens with an evidentiality statement.

Opening: There is a story.

Evidentiality: Our ancestors told it.

First Event

Background: The Ram is introduced, then the Coyote.

Dialogue: Coyote asks if Ram has seen his friend Rabbit. Ram responds that he is over by that boulder. Coyote says he’ll go there.

Closing: Coyote leaves.

Second Event

Background: Coyote finds Rabbit pushing on a boulder shrouded by swirling clouds.

Dialogue: Coyote hails Rabbit. Rabbit tells him his story. Coyote responds he will help.

Closing: Rabbit leaves, and Coyote stays, thinking he is holding up the rock.

Third (Peak) Event

Background: Coyote lets go of the rock, which doesn’t fall. He has been tricked.

Dialogue: Coyote swears vengeance on Rabbit (in coupleted lines).

Closing: Coyote leaves.

The peak event of this episode is marked as such by the structure of the dialogue (or monologue). Coyote speaks in parallel statements, a couplet followed by a triplet. (Note that the verb Coyote uses to voice his suspicions is the Spanish loanword joder.)

The story continues through a number of such episodes, all with similar structures: Coyote comes up on Rabbit in a situation that is described, they engage in conversation, and Rabbit tricks Coyote and escapes; Coyote follows swearing vengeance. After the rock outcrop incident, Coyote comes upon Rabbit seated on a stump in a clearing, eating a potato, which he shares with Coyote. Coyote asks where he got it, and Rabbit informs him that we all have them, hanging between our legs. Coyote sees that that is the case, and asks how he can get them out of their container. The way to get them is to sit down on the stump and smash them with a rock, says Rabbit, and he departs while Coyote is raising a large rock to smash his testicles. Coyote comes upon Rabbit staring at the reflection of the moon in a stream, Rabbit tells him it is a cheese that can be had only if Coyote drinks the water it lies beneath; while Rabbit escapes, Coyote drinks so much water he swells up and bursts. Coyote comes upon Rabbit in a garden where the farmer has set out a tar baby to catch marauders, Rabbit tricks Coyote into attacking the tar baby, and escapes while Coyote is stuck to the tar. In the final episode in this telling, Rabbit tricks Coyote into falling into a farmer’s trap and departs.

A somewhat different version of the Coyote and Rabbit story has found its way to the neighboring Kanjobalan language Jacaltec (Grinevald 1978). A priest annoyed that Rabbit has taken a bite out of his watermelon sets a “tar baby” trap—a wax cross—and snares the villain. Before he can return with a hot wire to run up Rabbit’s anus, Coyote appears and is tricked into getting stuck. Rabbit escapes and Coyote pays the penalty. Rabbit then tricks Coyote with the “falling” rock, followed by the cheese in the water and finally the fruit-between-the-legs, in this case, the seeds of the coyol tree. Unlike the Chuj story, Coyote’s attempt to extract the seeds proves fatal.

It is notable that these episodes have the classic structure of the “short con,” as described by David Maurer (1940) in The Big Con. In the short con, the swindler takes the victim for an immediate reward, whatever he has with him; in the “big con,” the victim is sent off to bring back even more goodies. In both, the con man sets up a situation that attracts the attention of the potential victim. He then “tells him the tale” (in this case that the boulder is about to fall and kill them). The victim falls for it, and the con man “takes the touch,” receives his reward (here, escape). The con man must somehow “cool out” the victim and escape (in this case convincing the coyote to stay holding up the boulder). The con man moves on to another victim. In this extended tale, Rabbit fools the same victim, Coyote, over and over again.

Grammatical Notes

Unlike many other Mayan tales, this narration does not make use of the contrast between incompletive (ongoing) and completive (finished) aspects of the verb. Chol, for instance, uses the former for background information and the latter for the event line (Josserand 2016). Here, the event line is related in noncompletive forms. Quoted dialogue uses all aspects, but the encapsulating text does not. However, the events are shown to have happened in the past by the use of the reportative particle hab’, glossed here “they say” (and reduced to -ab’ or even -b’ in verbal constructions). This particle is used to mark statements that are traditional knowledge, not current events or hearsay but things that happened long ago and are known only from the oral tradition. At the end of the opening evidentiality statement, the past status of the actions to be related is indicated by the adverb peka’, “long ago”:

Ay wal jun yik’ti’ komam kicham chi’ aykanih.

There is a story from our ancestors which remains.

Hab’ yak’ jun tsanh komam kicham chi’ peka’.

They say some of our ancestors gave it [to us] long ago.

The sentences that enclose the reported dialogue are marked with the reportative hab’, -ab’, or -b’). For instance, in the first, long passage, the reportative appears only in the initial sentence (ayab’):

Following the quoted speech by the coyote and introducing the speech of the ram, the reportative appears once again, and again in the closing of the quote (Haxob’ . . . xchab’):

Haxob’ yalan nok’ ch’ak kalnel chi’ t’a nok’ okes chi’, t’a nok’ koyote chi’ . . .

They say that ram spoke to that coyote, to that Coyote . . .

. . . xchab’ nok’ kalnel chi’, t’a nok’ koyote chi’.

. . . said, they say, that Ram to that Coyote.

Coyote responds and leaves, ending the first event. Coyote goes off to find Rabbit, and his greeting is again marked with the reportative particle (yawajab’):

Antonse sk’anb’an, yawajab’ b’at, haxo winh konejo chi’ jun.

Then he asked, he cried out, they say, to that Rabbit, then.

Rabbit is leaning against a rock concealed by swirling clouds, pushing against it with his hands, reportedly (hab’):

La’an chab’il hab’ sk’ab’ jun konejo chi’,

la’an yamjinak jun k’e’en chi’.

Propped by two, they say, hands of Rabbit,

propped was held that rock.

Coyote’s greeting is again marked by the reportative (xchab’):

“Tas tsa k’ulej chi’, konejo,” xchab’ nok’ koyote chi’.

“What are you doing there, Rabbit?” they say said that Coyote.

And when Rabbit has finished his explanation, the reportative appears again (xchab’):

“Sta wyen,” xchab’ nok’ koyote chi’.

“Okay,” they say that Coyote said.

When the coyote discovers he has been tricked, his final speech is again marked as reported (xchab’):

. . . xchab’ winh koyote chi’.

. . . they say Coyote said.

The reportative particle appears throughout the episode to place the events in the distant past, known only from the oral tradition. Thus without employing the completive aspect (something that definitely happened and is finished) the story is marked as an ancient affair.

The use of the reportative instead of the completive aspect may also suggest that these events are not concrete events that took place at specific times (the completive aspect) and not on-going actions in recent or current time (the incompletive aspect), but are timeless mythological events.

Coupleting Marks the Peak Event

The coyote’s monologue that ends the final episode consists of a couplet and a triplet, the “zone of turbulence surrounding the peak” (Longacre 1985):

“Tob’an tonhej tsin yak’ joder winh,

tob’an tonhej tsin yak’ joder winh konejo tik.”

Maybe he’s just screwing me,

maybe this Rabbit is just screwing me.”

Tak olin lajelih.

Tak tekan to, olin mila’.

To olin say hin k’olok.

Perhaps I will finish him.

Perhaps still I will kill him.

Still I will look for my enemy.

Exit Coyote. Curtain down. End of the first act.

Coyote and Rabbit

Narrator: Baltazar Tomás, of Patalcal, San Mateo Ixtatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala

Recorded in San Mateo Ixtatán, May 1, 1965

Chuj Text 26 [CAC 002 R027] (Text IV in Hopkins 1967a)

This transcription covers only the first in a series of episodes; after the rock incident, the rabbit fools the coyote with a series of tricks, including one having to do with a potato (in which the coyote smashes his testicles, having been told that is how to get a tasty potato), one involving the moon’s reflection in water looking like a cheese (in which the coyote drinks an entire river to get at the “cheese” under the water, and explodes), an incident in a cabbage patch (in which the coyote gets stuck to the tar baby), and finally, the coyote is lured into a Ladino’s trap. (Morphological and syntactic analysis in appendix 2.)