Tzotzil Maya

(map)

Long ago, the people were very evil. They would kill and eat their fat babies. Our Lord sent a rain of boiling water to punish them. They built boxes of stone on the back side of Sisil Vitz (Cecilia Mountain), but the water flowed underground and passed through, and they died there. All those people died then.

Robert M. Laughlin, Of Cabbages and Kings: Tales from Zinacantan, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 23 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977), 330-331.

The hot water flood is also said to account for the creation of soil, [Gossen, 329] and it is associated with the creation of mountains and valleys [Gossen, 336; see also 328].

The first people had no houses and ate only grass and wild fruit. Our Father lived on earth with his mother, but he looked just like the other people. The people had no church and made no fiestas, so Our Father became angry and destroyed them with a hot water flood.

Gary H. Gossen, Chamulas in the World of the Sun (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 336; see also 321.

There were floods long ago. The water flowed away down sinkholes, which are holes made in the ground by the staff of Ohoroxtotil, God. There were many rainbows, and a bird carried a piece of straw to show that the waters were lowering. Some people survived in a box that floated. They turned into monkeys because they ate charcoal when they ran out of food.

The flood (pulel) was brought about by people's sinning. Because they crucified Christ, the flood came. Only one man and one woman survived. They married and had children, whose brothers and sisters married, and that is how the population regrew.

G. Guiteras-Holmes, Perils of the Soul: The World View of a Tzotzil Indian (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1961), 156-157, 187.

An animal, the popchon, stopped the sinkhole which drained the waters, causing a flood which inundated San Miguel, Santa Marta, and Magdalena. The souls of the people called upon the soul of maize, the X'ob, to lead them to safety, but she could not. The x'ob of San Pedro, the x'ob of San Miguel, and the x'ob of Santa Marta were helpless. Only the x'ob of Magdalena could help. She danced and sang for the popchon, so that he finally turned his head. Then she cut off his head with her tsutsun tak'in. The path was opened again for the water, and it drained away.

G. Guiteras-Holmes, Perils of the Soul: The World View of a Tzotzil Indian (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1961), 216.