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Nah’ is Maya for ‘mother’.
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Taat is Maya for ‘father’.
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Bwai is Kriol for ‘boy’.
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Spring Chicken is slang for ‘young girl’.
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Caldo is a clear chicken soup which may include some vegetables.
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Escabeche: Belizean Escabeche is a soup made from chicken, onion, and spices, and eaten with corn tortillas. It is not to be confused with the escabeche of other countries.
[←41]
Mopan: The Mopan Maya originally inhabited parts of Central Belize and the Peten in Guatemala. In the 1600’s, some were converted to Catholicism by the Spanish while others resisted. Many were struck by white man diseases such as small pox and all were driven out of Belize by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1886, the modern Mopan began migrating back to Southern Belize from the village of San Luis in the Southern Peten, Guatemala, escaping forced labor and taxation and searching for a place with fertile soils and clean rivers. These Mopan first settled near present day Pueblo Viejo, and eventually founded the modern village of San Antonio in the Toledo District which continues to be the largest Mopan settlement in Southern Belize.
There are between three and four thousand Mopan speakers in Guatemala and six to eight thousand in Belize. Because of the language differences, and the mixing of the two cultures, most Maya in Toledo, Belize, are trilingual in Ke’kchi, Mopan, and English. Many Maya also understand Spanish.
[←42]
Ke’kchi: The Ke’kchi Maya are originally from the Verapaz region of Guatemala. They migrated to Belize in the late 1800’s after losing their land and freedom to German coffee growers.
The Ke’kchi settled in the lowland areas along rivers and streams, forming small isolated villages throughout Toledo. Because of their isolation, the Ke’kchi have become the most self-reliant ethnic group in Belize. They are also peaceful people known for their cooperative practices in farming and cultural development.
While over 30 distinctly Ke’kchi communities exist in Toledo, over the years the Ke’kchi Maya has mixed with the Mopan communities. The largest village of Ke’kchi Maya is San Pedro Columbia.
[←43]
Spence bag is a ‘condom’.
[←44]
Ki-bix is Mopan Maya for Cowfoot Vine, Bauhinia herrerae (Britt. & Rose) Standl. & Steyerm. Another name is Pata de Vaca (Spanish). It is a woody vine growing up to 50 meters long and the leaves are shaped like a cow’s hoof giving rise to the common name. It is an old remedy for birth control used by Maya women.
[←45]
Ix Chel or Ixchel is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine in ancient Maya culture. Ix Chel is also referred to as the ‘mother of deities’ and is ‘goddess of the moon, and water’. She is also the ‘goddess of making children’ and the ‘goddess of medicine’.
In the past, Ix Chel was sometimes assumed to be identical to the Classic Maya moon goddess because of the moon’s association with fertility and procreation. However, iconographically, such an equation is questionable since what is considered the Classic Maya moon goddess, identifiable through her crescent, is always represented as a fertile young woman. On the other hand, the waning moon is often called “Our Grandmother” and, not inconceivably, Ix Chel may have represented this particular lunar phase associated with the diminishing fertility and eventual dryness of old age. Her codical attribute of an inverted jar could then refer to the jar of waning moon being emptied. However this may be, the moon cycle, taken alone, is of obvious importance to the work of the midwife. The maid, mother, and grandmother equations of the three basic phases of the moon seem to be quite common among cultures around the world.
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Pikni is Kriol for ‘child’ or ‘children’.
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Pusilhá: The site of Pusilhá is located in the Toledo District of Belize in the town of San Benito Poite. Being situated between the Poite and Pusilhá rivers that run east and west may have had an impact of why this Maya urban complex was built there. The site is also located favorably between the Caribbean to the east and the Maya Mountains to the north. Pusilhá was also situated in the region for the flow of goods and ideas from the central lowlands and southeastern periphery located in Honduras. With the major Maya urban sites of the central lowlands at Caracol and Tikal and the southern lowland site of Copan, Pusilhá was possibly a major transfer point for economic activates in the whole of the lowland region. The site of Pusilhá has the one representation of bridge construction that has survived to modern time.
[←48]
Rio Blanco is Spanish for ‘White River’.
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2IC refers to the Second in Command.
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Punta Gorda is the only ‘town’ in the Toledo District and is on the shoreline of the Gulf of Honduras which becomes the Caribbean Sea. It is often called PG.
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Fok is Kriol for ‘fock (English), fuck (USA)’.
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Man-bwai is Kriol for a full-grown young man. (Usually used disparagingly.)
[←53]
Kriol (Creole), the language, was born from contact of primarily English-speaking colonial masters and slaves who spoke a variety of West African languages; Belize Kriol consists of vocabulary that is primarily English-based, and a grammatical system that follows West African patterns. The definition from Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri.
Gyal is Kriol for ‘girl’.
Kriol (Creole), the people, is an ethnic group traditionally found in countries that were previously British colonies. They are people born of European or African descent, or a mixture of both. Today, in Belize, the term refers to anyone with a mixture of African and any other ancestry.
[←54]
Etzelal Iq’ is the name used for Mozon in the Sisimito Series. Etzelal (noun) is Maya for ‘evil’, ‘wickedness’, ‘badness’. Iq’ is Maya for ‘wind’. Mozon is an evil wind and it comes in short, sudden gusts. People can be affected. They fall down and begin to tremble violently; they may also vomit, faint, or get a high fever which, fortunately, can be cured by a bush doctor (curandero).
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Ox Witz Ha (Place of Three Hills) is the ancient name of Caracol. It is the main Maya city used in the Sisimito Series.
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Tóolok is Maya for ‘lizard’. Eutimio Chiac calls his penis Tóolok.
[←57]
Football is ‘soccer’, not the American game.
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Goama is Kriol for ‘hangover’. The Spanish word goma is used mainly in Central America.
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Mixba’al is Maya for ‘nothing’.
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Fokin is Kriol for the curse word ‘fucking’. Other variations are foka for ‘fucker’, ma-dafok for ‘mother-fuck’, madafoka for ‘mother-fucker’.
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Pikaado is Kriol for ‘path or trail’.
[←62]
A’kl (Ke’kchi Maya), Cecropia peltata L. is also known as the trumpet tree (English), guaruma, warumo (Spanish), cho-otz (Mopan Maya), po-hór (Ke’kchi Maya). The dried, powdered, leaves are used by chicleros and bushmasters as a smoking tobacco.
[←63]
Pixoy is the Maya name for the bay cedar tree, Guazuma ulmifolia. Bay cedar is a scruffy-looking tree which produces copious dry, black, pod-like fruits (2-3 cm) which are covered in rough spikes. These fruits have a strong honey scent, and children like to eat them. However, they have a constipating effect when consumed in large quantities. This led to the bay cedar’s engaging Kriol names such as kaak batam (cork bottom wood), stuck-up-da-butt-nut, and plugabutt. (Trees of Belize - Kate Harris.)
[←64]
Waha leaf is a large paddle-shaped waxy leaf that resembles a plantain or banana leaf. It is a heliconia plant, Helico
nia rostrata. The variety which has a white underside can be used to wrap meat and cook it, while the other varieties are poisonous. It grows in the wild and is sometimes called a ‘prayer plant’, or wail plaantin which is Kriol for ‘wild plantain’.
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Sha-an is the Maya name for the bayleaf palm, Sabal mauritiiformis (syn S. morrisiana). In Kriol, it is called boataan.
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Paap is Maya for the Brown Jay, Cyanocorax morio. It is also called ‘Piam Piam’ because of its noisy warning call, and Urraca Pea.
[←67]
Chirimia (sometimes chirisuya in Peru) is a Spanish term for a type of oboe. The chirimia is a member of the ‘shawm’ family of double-reed instruments, introduced to Central and South America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Spanish clergy.
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Pas is a shortened form of the name Pascascio.
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Kinich Ahau is the Maya sun god. Chiac often refers to the god simply as Kinich.
[←70]
Cot is Maya for the White Hawk, Leucopternis albicollis, also called Aguililla Blanca.
[←71]
Kuts is Maya for the Ocellated Turkey, Agriocharis ocellata, also called Guajolote, and Ucutz Ilchican. Belize is one of the last places in the world where it exists.
[←72]
The Roseate Spoonbill, Ajaia ajaja, is also known as Ibis Espátula.
[←73]
Ix-oop is Maya for the Scarlet Macaw, Ara macao. It is also known as Guacamaya Roja, Moo, and Ah-K’ota.
[←74]
In Sisimito I - Ox Witz Ha, Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! was the chant of the spectators at the ballgame in Ox Witz Ha.
[←75]
Copal, Protium copai, is one of the sacred trees of the ancient Maya who used the resin or sap, known as pom, for ceremonial incense in prayer and to ward off witchcraft, evil spirits, and the ‘evil eye’. Naba is the bark of the tree.
[←76]
Tutz or manaca are the Maya names for the cohune palm, Orbigyna cohune.
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Pussy flower is Clitoria ternatea.
[←78]
Ek-chi-chan, or Ok-pich in Mopan Maya, is Maiden Hair Fern, Adiantum tenerum Sw. It is also known as black stick in English, helecho and palo negro in Spanish. The ancient Maya used this plant to decorate ceremonial alters. Today, the Maya believe that growing this plant around the house brings good luck.
[←79]
Itzamná, (pronounced Eetz-am-nah), is the name of an upper god and creator deity thought to be residing in the sky. He is the founder of the Maya culture and taught his people to grow maize and cacao, as well as writing, calendars, and medicine. He is also mentioned as the father of the Bacabs and is connected to Kinich Ahau and Hunab Ku.
Itzamná, also known as God D, was one of the most important Maya gods. His name in the Mayan language means caiman (alligatorid, crocodilian), lizard or large fish and, in some cases, he appears in codices with the semblance of a caiman. According to Maya mythology, his wife was the goddess Ixchel, the Moon Goddess. Itzamná was considered the creator of the world and the other deities as well as the inventor of writing, and divination. He was often portrayed as a scribe in Classic period vessel scenes. For this reason, he was sometimes depicted as an enthroned king, overseeing minor gods. In Yucatan, during the Postclassic period, Itzamná was also worshiped as the god of medicine. In his human form, Itzamná was portrayed as an old, wise priest with a hooked nose and large square eyes. He was often wearing an elaborate headdress with a beaded mirror on his brow.
The god Itzamná is also connected with the sacred World Tree which, for the Maya, linked together the sky, earth and the underworld known to the Maya as Xibalba. One of the manifestations of Itzamná is the Bird of Heaven, a bird often portrayed standing on top of the World Tree. This bird is usually identified with Vucub Caquix, the mythical monster killed by the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque (One Hunter and Jaguar Deer) in the Popol Vuh.
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Kaskas is Kriol and means to ‘Get along with each other very well’.
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Every year, Belizeans celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Saint George’s Caye on September Tenth. At 1:00 p.m. that afternoon in 1798, the Spaniards and British lined up off St. George’s Cay. The Spaniards stormed through the channel, and at 1:30 engaged the British in a two-hour fight which ended in defeat for the confused Spaniards. This was the final battle between the British and Spaniards over Belize.
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Cuxtal: This is a colorful braided pouch-like cultural bag used by the Maya.
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Úúk is Maya for ‘skirt’.
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Póót is Maya for ‘blouse’.
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Jipijapa, Carludovica palmate: The younger leaves of this plant are used in making Panama hats, while older ones are used in construction of mats, baskets, and thatch roofs. It is not a true palm and has male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers are densely arranged on axillary spadixes that usually have two or more deciduous spathes. This palm is also known as Jippi Joppa, Sabal Mexicana, and, in Belize, is found only in the Toledo District.
The Maya make baskets of different patterns and sizes. They use jipijapa which is boiled then dried and is pure white. Also used is bayal (Ke’kchi) or buyul (Mopan) which is a prickly vine that may grow to thirty feet in length, and tie-tie which is actually a resin collected from sacred tree extractions and is dark brown in color.
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Ixbenil Son is a Sacred Maya song.
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In Sisimito 1 - Ox Witz Ha, because Eutimio used the word ‘fuck’ very often, he was given the name ‘Fuck’ by the Maya citizens of Ox Witz Ha.
[←88]
The “Lady of the Night” orchid, Brassavola nodosa, also known as Dama de la Noche, is a small, tough species of orchid native to Mexico, Belize, the West Indies, Venezuela and Peru. It gets its name due to its citrus and gardenia-like fragrance which begins in the early evening. Its fragrance and whitish-green color combine to attract night-pollinating moths. In Belizean folklore, it is said that the creature Tata Duende’s approach is often heralded by the fragrance of the flower.
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Sa’il-úúk is Maya for ‘underwear’.
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Xwáay Chikoop is the name used for Ole Heg in the Sisimito Series. Xwáay is Maya for ‘witch’ and Chikoop for “vampire bat”. She is a witch who sucks blood and can fly like a bat.
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Hack-k’ek’en Ajchaq’e is the name used for the Waari Massa (Waari is Kriol) in the Sisimito Series. Ajchaq’e is Maya for “owner’ or ‘master’. Hach-k’ek’en is Lacandon Maya for ‘waari’. He is master and protector of the ‘waari’, the White-Lipped Peccary, Tayassu pecari.
[←92]
Xwáay Ok’ol is the name used for La Llorona in the Sisimito Series. Xwáay is Maya for ‘witch’ and Ok’ol is Maya for ‘cry’. She has haunting cries, can float, and can turn into a two-tailed snake. She can also have a glowing light or fire comes from her fingers.
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Xwáay Éek’ is the name used for La Sucia in the Sisimito Series. Xwáay is Maya for ‘witch’. Éek’ is Maya for ‘dirty’. She is a large woman with long, golden hair. She lives near rivers, is mischievous, and enchants men, especially drunks.
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Xtabai is a witch. She hides in the Ceiba tree, also called cotton tree. She can turn into a green snake and uses her tail to stop up men’s nose. She also seizes men and carries them through a well to the Underworld.
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Kechelaj Komon is the name used for the Jungle Folk in the Sisimito Series. These are creatures of the same group like Sisimito (Mahanamatz in Maya.), and Xtabai.
[←96]
Xwáay Mulibal-k’ux’ is the name used for La Sigua in the Sisimito Series. Xwáay is Maya for ‘witch’. Mulibal-k’ux’ is
Maya for ‘ugly’ or ‘nauseating’. She is unbearably ugly. She comes out at nights looking for drunks who she takes away and they return ill. No doctor, or curandero (native healer or shaman), can help the enchanted man.
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Kitam Ajchaq’e is the name used for El Dueno De Los Kekeos (Spanish for ‘Master of the Peccaries’) in the Sisimito Series. Kitam is Maya for ‘peccary’. Ajchaq’e is Maya for ‘owner’ or ‘master’.
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Sisimito II--Xibalba Page 65