The End of the World Club

by J; P Voelkel

  JAGUAR STONES (bahlamtuuno’ob): A literary invention of the Jaguar Stones trilogy. Along with the five (fictional) sacred pyramids, these five stone carvings are said to embody the five pillars of ancient Maya society: agriculture, astronomy, creativity, military prowess, and kingship. As far as we know, no such stones ever existed—nor did the Maya ever relax their warlike ways enough to forge an equal alliance of five great cities.

  JUNGLE/RAINFOREST: All tropical rainforests are jungles, but not all jungle is rainforest. A tropical rainforest receives at least 80 inches of rain per year. It is home to at least 50 percent of the species on Earth and more kinds of trees than any other area. The tops of the tallest trees form a canopy of leaves about 100 to 150 feet above the ground, while the smaller trees form one or two lower canopies. Between them, these canopies block most of the light from reaching the ground. As a result, little grows on the forest floor, making it relatively easy to walk through a tropical rainforest. If the canopy is destroyed, by nature or by humans, a tangle of dense fast-growing greenery springs up in the sunlight. This is jungle. Its growth provides shade for the rainforest species to reseed and grow tall enough to block out the light once more. This cycle can take one hundred years to complete.

  K’AWIIL (caw wheel): A god of lightning and patron of lineage, kingship, and aristocracy. He has a reptilian face, with a smoking mirror emerging from his forehead and a long snout bursting into flames. Also known as Bolon Tzakab.

  DIEGO DE LANDA (1524–1579): The overzealous Franciscan friar who tried to wipe out Maya culture by burning their CODICES and thousands of religious artworks in the square at Mani on July 12, 1549. Even the conquistadors thought he’d gone too far and sent him back to Spain to stand trial. Ironically, the treatise he wrote in his defense, Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (1565), is now our best reference source on the ancient Maya. Landa was absolved by the Council of the Indies and returned to the New World as the bishop of Yucatán.

  LORDS OF DEATH: In Maya mythology, the underworld (XIBALBA) is ruled by twelve Lords of Death: One Death, Seven Death, Scab Stripper, Blood Gatherer, Wing, Demon of Pus, Demon of Jaundice, Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, Demon of Filth, Demon of Woe, and Packstrap. The Lords of Death delight in human suffering. It’s their job to inflict sickness, pain, starvation, fear, and death on the citizens of MIDDLEWORLD. Fortunately, they’re usually far too busy gambling and playing childish pranks on each other to get much work done.

  MAYA: Most historians agree that Maya civilization began on the Yucatán peninsula sometime before 1500 BCE. It entered its Classic Period around 250 CE, when the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government and established a series of kingdoms across what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Each of these kingdoms was an independent city-state, with its own ceremonial center, urban areas, and farming community. Building on the accomplishments of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems, and hieroglyphic writing. Although most famous for their soaring pyramids and palaces (built without metal tools, wheels, or beasts of burden), they were also skilled farmers, weavers, and potters, and they established extensive trade networks. The Maya saw no boundaries between heaven and earth, life and death, sleep and wakefulness. They believed that human blood was the oil that kept the wheels of the cosmos turning. Many of their rituals involved bloodletting or human sacrifice, but never on the scale practiced by the Aztecs. Wracked by overpopulation, drought, and soil erosion, Maya power began to decline around 800 CE, when the southern cities were abandoned. By the time the Spanish arrived, only a few kingdoms still thrived, and most Maya had gone back to farming their family plots. Today, there are still six million Maya living in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.

  MAYAN: The family of thirty-one different languages spoken by Maya groups in Central America.

  MESOAMERICA: Literally meaning “between the Americas,” Mesoamerica is the name archaeologists and anthropologists use to describe a region that extends south and east from central Mexico to include parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It was home to various pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Maya (from 1500 BCE), the Olmec (1200–400 BCE), and the Aztecs (1250–1521). (The Incas of Peru in South America date from 1200 to 1533.)

  MIDDLEWORLD: Like the Vikings, the Egyptians, and other ancient cultures, the Maya believed that humankind inhabited a middle world between heaven and hell. The Maya middle world (yok’ol kab) was sandwiched between the nine dark and watery layers of XIBALBA and the thirteen leafy layers of the heavens (ka’anal naah).

  MILKY WAY: Seen from earth as a collection of stars against a band of hazy white light, the Milky Way is another name for the galaxy that contains our solar system. Just as the Maya called it “the road to Xibalba,” so dead souls in Celtic followed the Milky Way to the underworld. In Spanish, the Milky Way is sometimes called el camino de Santiago, the road of St. James.

  OBSIDIAN: This black volcanic glass was the closest thing the ancient Maya had to metal. An obsidian blade can be one hundred times sharper than a stainless-steel scalpel, but it is extremely brittle.

  PITZ: The Maya ballgame was the first team sport in recorded history. It had elements of soccer, basketball, and volleyball, but was more difficult than any of them. The aim of the game was to gain ground while keeping the heavy rubber ball in play—using only hips, knees, or elbows. If the ball was knocked through a stone hoop high on the side wall of the ball court (a rare event), it was an automatic victory. The ballgame had great religious significance, and the losers were frequently sacrificed.

  POPOL VUH (po pole voo): The Maya Book of the Dawn of Life, the sacred book of the K’iché (kee chay) Maya who lived (and still live) in the highlands of Guatemala. The title literally means “Book of the Mat” but is usually translated as “Council Book.” The Popol Vuh tells the Maya creation story and explains how the HERO TWINS rescued their father from XIBALBA.

  QUETZAL (kets all): The Maya prized the iridescent blue-green tail feathers of the resplendent quetzal bird for decorating royal headdresses. After the feathers were plucked, the birds would be set free to grow new ones. In ancient times, the penalty for killing a quetzal was death. Today, without such protection, the quetzal is almost extinct.

  SAN XAVIER: A fictional country in Central America based on modern-day Belize.

  SPAIN: In his search for the Yellow Jaguar, Max visits the Spanish provinces of Extremadura in the west, and Galicia in the northwest. The fictional town of Polvoredo in Extremadura is based on Trujillo, birthplace of Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru, and home of the Spanish National Cheese Festival. The Castle of Polvoredo was inspired by the Palacio Moctezuma in nearby Cáceres. The palacio was built for Tecuichpotzin, oldest daughter of the Aztec ruler Montezuma, and her third Spanish husband, a captain in the army of Hernán Cortés. On the way north to Galicia, Max passes by the billboard bulls made famous by the Osborne sherry company. The family seat of Antonio de Landa was inspired by the Pazo de Oca, a country manor outside Santiago sometimes called the Galician Versailles. The Festival of the Near Death Experience takes place every summer in the little village of Santa Marta de Ribarteme, near Pontevedra. The ancient city of Santiago de Compostela, the setting for Lola’s wedding, has been a popular destination for pilgrims for more than a thousand years, ranking with Rome and Jerusalem in medieval times. Its great cathedral houses the botafumeiro (the name means “smoke belcher” in Galician), one of the largest incense censers in the world. It takes eight men to operate the pulley and it still swings giddily on its ropes on special feast days. It is said that when Catherine of Aragon stopped by for mass on her way to England to marry Henry VIII, the botafumeiro flew free of its ropes and crashed through the great stained-glass window. From here, Max and Lola journey to San Andrés—based on the real-life village of San Andrés de Teixido. Legend has it that any Galician who does not come here in his or her lifetime, will return after death as a l
izard or a frog. San Andrés is on the Costa de la Muerte, the Coast of Death, so called because so many ships have been wrecked on its rocks and jagged inlets. Standing guard over this perilous coast is the magnificent lighthouse at Cape Finisterre, thought by the Celts and Romans to be the end of the world. Galicia is a wild and rainy region, famous for its seafood and, in particular, its pulperías or octopus restaurants.

  SPANISH CONQUEST: Lured by tales of gold, thousands of Spaniards sailed to the New World in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, hoping to make their fortunes. Some were peasants, some were the younger sons of nobility who could not inherit the family estate and needed to fund castles of their own. Spain had just emerged from a bitter war against the Moors, so many were out-of-work soldiers. These ruthless and highly motivated fighters knew there were only two possible outcomes to their voyage: conquer or die. Their commanders (who gave one-fifth of their booty to the Spanish crown) organized and financed the expeditions, but the men had to provide their own armor and food. The three most famous commanders were Hernán Cortés, who defeated the Aztecs; Francisco Pizarro, who defeated the Inca; and Pedro de Alvarado, scourge of the Maya. The story of the conquest is as much about superstition and luck, as it is about military strategy. Cannons, muskets, and horses played their part, but the invaders’ most effective weapon were the Old World germs of smallpox and measles that they unwittingly carried with them. The raggle-taggle Spanish armies marveled at the civilizations they encountered, even as they destroyed them. “We have a disease of the heart that can only be cured with gold,” said Cortés to the Aztec ambassador. Most of the conquistadors endured incredible hardships and died in the jungle; only a few returned to Spain with any wealth.

  XIBALBA (she ball buh): The K’iché Maya name for the underworld, meaning “well of fear.” Only kings and those who died a violent death (battle, sacrifice, or suicide) or women who died in childbirth could look forward to the leafy shade of heaven. All other souls, good or bad, were headed across rivers of scorpions, blood, and pus to Xibalba. Unlike the Christian hell with its fire and brimstone, the Maya underworld was cold and damp—its inhabitants condemned to an eternity of bone-chilling misery and hunger.

  MAYA COSMOS

  This illustration (based on a painted plate from the Late Classic Period) depicts the three realms of the Maya cosmos: the heavens above, Middleworld (the world of humans), and the waters of Xibalba, the underworld. In the heavens, the two-headed Cosmic Monster (or Cosmic Crocodile, as Max calls it) contains the sun, Venus, and the Milky Way. In the middle of it all is the World Tree, which was brought into being by the king during bloodletting rituals. With its upper branches in the heavens and its roots in Xibalba, the World Tree was the doorway to the otherworlds of gods and ancestors. Communication with these spirits took place through the mysterious Vision Serpent. At the top of the World Tree sits Lord Itzamna as the bird of heaven.

  THE MAYA CALENDAR

  The Maya were fascinated by the passage of time and they developed a variety of astonishingly accurate calendars to track the movements of the sun and the stars. The Maya kings and priests used their advanced knowledge of astronomy to plan their rituals, wage their wars, and manage their agricultural cycles.

  The Long Count

  The Long Count counts the days (k’in) since the beginning of this creation. (The Maya believed there were three creations. The first two, when humans were made out of mud and wood respectively, were failures. The third creation, this one, when men were made out of corn, was deemed a success.) According to the Long Count, this third creation began, in our terms, on August 11, 3114 BCE. In the Long Count, the Maya year (tun) was 360 days long. Just as our 10-based counting system marks the decade (10 years) and the century (10 × 10 = 100 years), the Maya’s 20-based counting system marks the k’atun (20 tuns) and the bak’tun, (20 × 20 = 400 tuns).

  The Significance of 2012

  There is no archaeological evidence that the Maya thought the world would judder to an end in December 2012. Quite the reverse—on King Pakal’s tomb in Palenque, the Maya confidently predicted that people would be celebrating the anniversary of his coronation in 4774 CE! However, 12/23/2012 (some say 12/21/2012—the experts are divided) does have special significance in the Maya calendar. It marks the end of the thirteenth bak’tun (a four-hundred-year period with overtones of the mythic Maya creation date) and the beginning of the fourteenth bak’tun. Much like we would celebrate the dawn of a new millennium, the Maya would have marked this milestone with rituals and celebrations. Just as we don’t think the world will end when our desk calendar runs out (we just buy a new calendar), the Maya also expected time cycles to continue like an odometer turning over.

  The Haab

  The Haab is the Maya calendar closest to our own. It tracks the solar year and is made up of 18 months, each consisting of 20 days, plus a 5-day period called the Wayeb to make a total of 365 days. The Wayeb was thought to be a time of uncertainty and bad luck, when the doors between the mortal realm and the underworld were opened and demons roamed the earth.

  The Tzolk’in

  The Tzolk’in was the sacred calendar, used to predict the characteristics of each day, like a daily horoscope. It is made up of 20 day names and 13 numbers, and takes 260 days to go through the full cycle of name-and-number combinations. Each day name has a quality, some good, some bad. For example, Imix (“Crocodile”) is full of complications and problems, and thus bad for journeys or business deals. The number (1–13) determines how strong the characteristic would be. So on 13-Imix, you might want to stay home.

  The Calendar Round

  The Calendar Round brings together the Haab and Tzolk’in calendars. It takes 18,980 days (about 52 years) to work through the 260 Tzolk’in days and the 365 Haab days. The Calendar Round is usually depicted as a series of interlocking cogs and wheels—which, in Jaguar Stones: Middleworld, was the inspiration for the “time machine” in the Temple of Itzamna.

  PIMIENTOS DE PADRÓN

  These are the tiny green peppers eaten by Max, Lola, and the monkeys on their first night in Spain. The peppers were brought back from Mexico by Franciscan monks in the sixteenth century and thrived in the fertile soil of their monastery near Padrón in Galicia. Today they are a popular tapa (snack) all over Spain. Most taste mild and sweet, but about one in twenty peppers is fiery hot. Hence the Galician saying “Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non.” (“The peppers of Padrón, some are hot and some are not.”)

  Ingredients

  Pimientos de Padrón, washed and dried well

  Olive oil

  Sea salt

  Method

  Heat oil in sauté pan until smoking hot.

  Sauté peppers until they blister (around one minute), turning them to cook all sides.

  Remove from pan and drain on paper towel.

  Sprinkle with sea salt and serve immediately.

  Pick up a pepper by its stem, cross your fingers, and bite.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Like little orchids in the rainforest anchored by mighty trees, we’re so grateful for the support of our colleagues, friends, and families, and all the amazing educators, booksellers, and librarians who’ve taught us so much along the way.

  Thank you, gracias, and dyos bo’otik to the many, many people who’ve helped us, especially:

  To our agent, the resplendent Daniel Lazar, at Writers House.

  To our superhumanly hardworking and wonderful team at Egmont USA—especially Elizabeth Law, Mary Albi, Rob Guzman, Saint Nico Medina, Doug Pocock, Alison Weiss, and Katie Halata—for being such clever, funny, patient, encouraging, understanding, inspiring people to work with, and for leading the publishing industry in their commitment to sustainable paper sources.

  To Dr. Marc Zender of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, who added immeasurably to the authentic atmosphere of this book by fact-checking our work while recovering from dengue fever in the ruins of Copan. We like to imagine him working by torchlight, in a hammoc
k, while wearing a pith helmet, and fighting off vampire bats.

  To Virginia Agagnos, Beth Garcia, and Jenny Brod at Goodman Media.

  To Kathryn Hinds for her telepathic editing, Becky Terhune for design, and Cliff Nielsen for a fantastically spooky cover.

  To everyone who helped with our research, especially: in Belize, Geraldo Garcia, Franklin Choco, Karina Martinez, and Hugh Daly; in Guatemala, Jesus Antonio Madrid and José Cordoba; in Mexico, Denis Larsen, Sofi Balam Pat, and Gabino May Couoh in Valladolid, and Oscar Vera Gallegos, Vicente, and Chan Kin in Chiapas. In Spain: the Aalvik-Osuna family and José Manuel Alvarez in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Don Mariano Zamorano, master swordsmith of Toledo, and the Lustau family in Madrid.

  To our multitalented families for allowing us to exploit every one of those talents, especially: Alan, for his excellent advice on drumming, amongst other things; Christy, for blood, sweat, and tears on the lesson plan CD; Nicole, for making the Maya king costume, and Dustin, for wearing it with such panache; Andrea, for her fantastic work on the Web site; Lisa, for proofreading in English and Spanish; Jack, Mary Anne, and Trina, for looking after everyone when we’re not here.

  To our favorite booksellers: Liza Bernard and Penny McConnel at the Norwich Bookstore here in Vermont; the legendary Jill Moore at Square Books Junior in Oxford, Mississippi; Judith Lafitte and Tom Lowenburg at Octavia Books in New Orleans; Carol Chittenden at Eight Cousins and Vicky Uminowicz and family at Titcombs, both on Cape Cod; Emily Grossenbacher at Lemuria Books in Jackson; Brandi Stewart, Stephanie Kilgore, and Eddie Case at Changing Hands in Tempe; Lisa Sharp at Nightbird Books in Lafayette, Arkansas; Heather Herbert at Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pennsylvania; Gussie Lewis at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Summer Dawn Laurie in San Francisco; and Jennifer Stark at Barnes & Noble, New York City.