HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS IN THE

MAYA LOWLANDS

J. Eric S. Thompson

A good part of this material has been published

(Thompson, 1970: 185-86; 1971 :42-43), each citation covering
only part of the subject. As interested persons are unlikely to
consult the latter paper and as new information is available,
the data are here presented as a whole.
Archaeological evidence of a mushroom cult in the Maya
lowlands is scant. Pottery mushrooms have been found at the
Tabascan sites of El Bellote, Classic Maya, and at Isla and
Ceiba, in asseciation with proto-Classic pottery (Borhegyi
1961; 1963). Because of their proximity to El Bellote, we
may infer that the latter sites were Maya. All three fall within
former territory of the Putun (Chontal) Maya and lie close to
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, present-day region of the narcotic
mushroom and Ololiuhqui (Ipomoea violacea) variant. A stone
mushroom, labelled merely "Tabasco," is in the
Villahermosa museum.
As for the rest of the peninsula, a stone representation of
a mushroom comes from Morales, a site said to be in Belize,
but which I cannot locate. Perhaps it lies on the west bank of
the Rio Hondo, in Quintana Roo (Gann, 1911: 87 and pl.
xix). The possible cap of another mushroom stone was found
in a cave near Mayapan (Stromsvik, 1956:466). Altar de
Sacrificios has yielded pottery mushrooms (Borhegyi,
1963:330).
Colonial and modern sources, including manuscripts of
yerbateros and Ritual of the Bacabs (Roys, 1931; 1966), say
nothing of hallucinatory drugs in Yucatan, nor is there any
pertinent entry in Maya vocabularies. In fact, neither the
climate nor the altitude of Yucatan would appear propitious
for the cultivation of mushrooms with narcotic properties. At
least, that eaten by the Mixe grows only at high altitudes
(Ravicz, 1961:74). Presumably, mushrooms eaten in Yucatan
296 TLALOCAN
would have been brought in dry, and no doubt that trade ended
with the Spanish conquest. Both the corymbosa and violacea
varieties of ololiuhqui grow in Yucatan (Stanley, 1945:456,
458). The first is called xTabentun in Yucatec. The flowers
produce a mead much appreciated in Yucatan; the second is
named Y axce 'lil, with the meaning "associated with malaria"
(yaxceel).
In view of the widespread use of plants with hallucinatory
properties in Mexico, it is hard to believe that the Peninsula of
Yucatan should have been free of such vices or pleasures,
particularly as the ololiuhquis grow there. Nevertheless, one
must bear in mind our ignorance of mushroom cults until
Johnson and Weitlaner brought them to our attention and
Miller made his investigations. Furthermore, colonial sources
for the low land Maya are meager compared with central
Mexico.
Notwithstanding those handicaps, there are, I am
reasonably satisfied, indirect references to the use of
hallucinatory drugs in Yucatan. To set them in their cultural
context, a brief review of some present-day practices in
southern Mexico is called for, bearing in mind that we are not
dealing with a single uniform cult, but local variations perhaps
arising from contacts with local folk practices in the field of
divination.

COMPARATIVE MA1ERIAL
Miller (1956:37, 219; 1966:322) relates that the Mixe
shaman, when under the influence of teonanacatl, hallucinatory
mushrooms, makes divinations with the aid of duendes which
appear to him in the shape of an "adult" couple of small
stature (65-7 5 em.) "as though they were a boy and a girl"
(un chamaco y una chamaca). They are likewise described as
dwarfs ( enanos). It is clear that these are personifications of
the mushrooms. One informant says the eater sees visions of
snakes; another gives a different version, namely that the
mushrooms punish anyone who shows them disrespect by
sending them visions of jaguars and snakes. When the
mushroom speaks through an eater, the latter's voice changes.
For another part of the Mixe area somewhat different
manifestations are reported (Hoogshagen, 1959). A boy who
ate mushrooms saw snakes of all sizes crawling around and
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 297
over his body. For another informant the roof poles of the hut
seemed to become snakes and, descending, to surround the
mushroom eater.
According to an ancient tradition of the N ahuatl-speaking
people of Amatlan de los Reyes, near Cordoba, Veracruz, the
creatures who appear to one under the influence of teonanacatl
are little men, tlakatatsitsin; they are personifications of the
mushroom, and, according to the author's commentary, they
are infants who died unbaptised; they are "blue lightnings"
and residents of Tlalocan (Reyes, 1970).
Among the Mazatec, figures seen under the influence of
teonanacatl take the shapes of the Lord of the Mountain, the
apostles or even Christ. Elsewhere, an old man or snakes (A.
Villa in the introduction to Miller 1956).
One other feature may have significance: At Amatlan de
los Reyes the mushrooms are deposited in a red jicara and red
flowers are placed over them. Among the Mixtec the candles
on the altar are red and white and of the seven flowers, four
are rose-colored, three are white (Ravicz, 1961:80).
The Mixtec also believe that when the mushroom talks to
the eater, one must not look at the spot from which the voice
comes. If a person does so, he will go mad (Ravicz,
1961:77n).
There are archaeological parallels for the associations of
beings in human and animal form with the mushrooms. Stone
mushrooms from Late Formative onward found in the
highlands of Guatemala often have the stems supported or
replaced by carvings in the round representing old or young
men, women, monkeys, jaguars or pumas, birds, pisotes,
rabbits or deer and frogs or toads (Borhegyi, 1961).
Hobgoblins, sometimes in association with small animals,
are particularly common at the non-Maya sites at Santa Lucia
Cotzumalhuapa and Palo Verde, on the Guatemalan Pacific
slope. A number of mushroom stones, dominantly of the
tripod type, but all without effigies, have been found at the
Cotzumalhuapa sites, a type apparently contemporaneous with
much of the local sculpture (Thompson, 1948; Parsons,
1967-69, 2:79).
NARCOTIC TRANCES AND HOBGOBLINS IN YUCATAN
A passage in the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin (pp.
298 TLALOCAN
13-14) repeated almost in the same words in the Chi/am Balam
of Mani (Codice Perez, p. 65) almost surely treats of
narcotic-induced trances in Yucatan. I have made a fresh
translation largely dependent on that by Roys (1954:6-7), but
with a crucial emendment in that Roys failed to realize that in
the context maax is to be translated as duende or hobgoblin.
Apparently, taking it to be the interrogative "who?", he
rendered it as "a certain one." Maax is normally spider
monkey, but it also signifies hobgoblin: Duende, ah maax,
San Francisco dictionary; Dz'utu max, duende, Motul
dictionary; Duende de cassa [sic], dz'utumax, Vienna
dictionary.
The passage deals with obtaining the prophecy for the
katun, in Maya eyes of supreme importance, by the chi/an or
prophet. Chi/an, defined in the Motul dictionary as interpreter
and to serve as intermediary, means in the Yucatec dialect of
Lake Peten lying or laid down, past participle of chital, to lie
down, acostarse (Schumann, 1971). This was surely once
chi/tal ( l tends to disappear before t ) . In Yucatec chital is a
variant of cheltal, to lie down (Beltran de Santa Rosa,
1859: 119). Thus chi/an corresponds to chelan, past participle
of cheltal, to lie down laid down or stretched out. Pretty
clearly the original meaning of chi/an was one stretched out or
lying down, and referred to the manner that person received
the prophecy, as described below. It must, therefore have
been a common practice.
After describing how various priests and prophets
assembled to receive the prophecy, the passage continues:
Then they gathered at the house of the Ah
Nacom Balam, the chi/an. Then was the message
above the house of the chi/an; then was the
interpreting of the words of counsel given to them.
Then was given to them the hidden message, but
they did not understand it because of the reciting
of the speech by the chi/an because he is mouth to
ground. He does not move, he does not rise from
where he is, within the small room, within the
house, as long as the duende speaks above the
rafters [?] of the house because he was crossways
above the rafters [?] of the house.
Then will begin the declaring to the priests
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 299
assembled in the house of the chilan of the message
which came to them. They did not know who was
speaking to them. Then they said ''True god,
Great Snake Father." Those were their words.
Then they turned their faces down to the earth.
Then, as they lay listening, they heard the message
of that Chilam Balam, the great priest.
It is a fair assumption that the above describes the chilan
in a narcotic-induced trance and in the role of a ventriloquist,
speaking the prophecy imparted by the maax, the duende. For
that reason and because the chilan spoke with his mouth to the
ground, the words were slurred and not well understood by the
audience.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARALLELS
The non-Maya archaeological site of Santa Lucia
Cotzumalhuapa, on the Pacific slope of Guatemala, supplies
archaeological parallels for the above ceremony. There, two
stone reliefs depict hobgoblins - one a death figure, the other
an equally small creature, half human half deer - talking to a
human figure reclining on the ground who holds out a hand to
them. The death figure points with his index finger in a
somewhat threatening way at the recumbent figure; the deer
hobgoblin holds what might be a heart or a cacao pod (the,
latter symbolized the former in Mexican metaphorical
phraseology). These are illustrated by Thompson (1948, fig.
3d, e ) and Parsons (1967-69, vol. 2, pl. 42 a, b) As already
noted, the Santa Lucia sites have yielded other representations
of hobgoblins as well as many stone reliefs of mushrooms.
Furthermore, both archaeological and ethnological
investigations link various animals with the mushroom cult
(Borhegyi, 1961).
ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF HOBGOBLINS
Four scenes depict confrontations between dwarfs and
rulers. On a painted capstone from Sacnicte, Yucatan
(Kutscher, 1972; Thompson, 1973) a hunchback dwarf, on the
left, wearing a barkcloth (?) headdress roughly like a harp
with high point to rear, has his left hand clenched but with
index finger pointing upward at the personage; right arm and
fingers, both slightly flexed, extend earthward.
300 TLALOCAN
On a vase from Yaloch (Gordon and Mason, 1925-43,
Pis. 17, 18) a chubby dwarf in precisely the same attitude
(left index finger pointing at the personage; right hand
extended earthward) faces a ruler with mouth wide open
(shouting or in surprise?) The dwarf may have a flower with
stem attached to his headdress (see Gann, 1918, Pl. 27).
A Tepeu 2 sherd from U axactun (Smith, 1955, fig. 2 b )
pictures a dwarf with grotesque features looking aggressively
(?) at a richly clad personage. The dwarf may be hunchbacked
(details are not clear). His left hand extends forward at 459
below horizontal with fingers pointed downwards; his right
hand rests on his stomach. The damaged headdress seems
reminiscent of that of the Sacnicte humpback. Headband,
loincloth and wristlet are black.
On the Santa Rita murals (Gann, 1900, .Pl. xxx) a deity
or god impersonator holds aloft a tied container of uncertain
material on which is seated a dwarf, pale blue and wearing a
pointed helmet rather like that of Norman knights. His left
arm is bent at the elbow so that the forearm is raised. The
hand is clenched with index finger pointing upward, an
attitude similar to those of the dwarfs on the Cotzumalhuapa
monument, the Yaloch vase and the Sacnicte capstone.
Conceivably he is humpbacked. A stalk terminating in a
trilobal flower issues from his back or arm.
On Stela 10, Xultun (Morley, 1937-38, Pl. 80) the ruler
holds before him on the palm of his outstretched hand a small
animal, apparently a jaguar or puma, with left paw extended
toward the ruler and with what may be a stalk ending in a
flower emerging from his stomach. An uncertain element -
Morley calls it a flower, but that is a dubious identification -
emerges from the mouth. The ruler holds in the crook of his
left arm a manikin who faces towards him. The creature's
fierce features are not human. He has what seems to be a
snarling mouth and the "dundreary" whiskers which·
characterize the jaguar god of Number 7. The round eye
indicates an animal origin, and strengthens the suggested
jaguar identification. What might be a sort of flowered vine
rises from before the mouth. The stela is very late
(10.3.0.0.0.). Stela 29, Calakmul, may also show a dwarf.
Each of the three known monuments of Palo Verde, a
non-Maya site of the Pacific slope culturally related to Santa
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 301
Lucia Cotzumalhuapa, depict a personage holding aloft a
creature. One of these is a death manikin, the other two are
seemingly a conventionalized snake and perhaps a jaguar (note
spots on body) (Thompson, 1948, fig. 6a-c ) .
Associations are loose. In four cases the manikin points
a finger at the personage. The creature may have human or
animal features, if the former, he may be humpbacked. He
may face the human personage, be held by him aloft or in the
palm of his hand or be tucked under the personage's arm.
What appears to be a flowering plant may issue from his
mouth or body.

HOBGOBLINS IN FOLK-LORE
The Dominican Fray Agustin Cano tells of the treatment
meted out to some Chol Maya sent by the Spaniards to treat
with the Peten Maya of Tayasal. The latter "did not kill
them, but gave them a thorough beating and immediately
practised their witchcraft and frauds (brujerias y embelecos),
threatening them with some little wooden boys ( muchachitos
de palo), in which doubtlessly they had pacts with the devil
(Ximenez, 1929 - 71, bk. 5, ch. 73).
Sanchez de Aguilar ( 1893-80-81) one of the first
Yucatan-born Spaniards to enter the priesthood, describes the
visitation in 1560 to Spanish and mestizo families in
Valladolid of a duende. His aunt, annoyed by its malicious
pranks, slapped the duende, leaving it with a face more scarlet
than cochineal. The creature, appearing only in completely
dark rooms, foretold future events in the voice of a parrot.
Some of its activities were of a kind normally attributed to a
poltergeist.
Twenty years after the Spanish conquest of Yucatan there
was a mere handful of whites in the east of the peninsula.
Hobgoblins, of course, are a firm feature of Old-World
beliefs. Here, I suggest, we are dealing with a mixture of
Spanish and Maya ideas, but the scarlet face, the parrot.:.like
voice and perhaps the ability to foretell events were Maya
beliefs transmitted to the new ruling class by household
servants. The emphasis .on the deep scarlet face is of
particular interest - note that Sanchez de Aguilar's aunt could
hardly have observed that feature in the dark - in view of the
matter which follows and because we have already come upon
302 TLALOCAN
the importance of red in the mushroom eating at Amatlan de
los Reyes, in which "the little men" play a dominant part.
A 260-day almanac on Dresden codex page & may treat
of the taking of the prophecy by the chilan (Thompson,
1972:42-43). In both scenes a god impersonator or god strides
toward a temple in one of which is a diminutive figure of the
enigmatic God C, in the other is set the kaz, evil, glyph
(Thompson Catalogue no. 648), which can be personified as a
hobgoblin generally with death symbols (e.g. Dresden 1& ) .
We are reminded of the death hobgoblin who points a
minatory finger at the recumbent figure on the' Santa Lucia
Cotzumalhuapa figure.
The opening glyph in the text accompanying each picture
is a compound not found elsewhere. It comprises the affix
chac, red, above a fist with death symbols (Gl. 669), to
which I had previously assigned the phonetic value lah. In
addition there is a variable prefix and the lunar postfix 181 , a
verbal auxiliary, for which I have suggested the value action
or act (kal); it converts nouns to verbs.
The chac prefix and main sign would read chaclah. The
term chactun lah is defined in the Motul dictionary as colored
bright red with a face like a flamingo or a Flemish person
(colorado vermejo, de rostro como flamenco). Other colors
are similarly compounded: kan is yellow; kantun lah uinic is
a man with face turned yellow by some disease. Tun is used
here as an intensifier, and presumably can be omitted to give
chaclah, as the glyphic elements translate; lah in the
compound signifies "all." The whole would read "made red
all over.''
The second glyph, the subject, a head with God C 's
headdress and closed eye, a death symbol, certainly refers to
the diminutive representation of God C (probably a general
symbol for a god). Read with the first glyph, it informs us
that this being has become red. faced, reminding us of the
scarlet-fac:ed duende of Valladolid.
That this almanac treats of divination under the influence
of hallucinatory drugs is conjectural, but there is a fair-to-good
chance that that interpretation is correct. I toyed with the idea
that gods burning co pal to manikin figures, death opossum and
birds (two owls) might be related to the above Dresden scenes
(see Codex Fejervary-Mayer 33b-34b; Cospi 12-13) but that
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 303
idea seems to be negatived by similar pictures on Borgia 49b
and 52b, for those are clearly in a world-directional context.
All the same, there may be something to the idea, for animals
are closely involved in narcotic mushroom rites.
Another class of reddish-faced duendes exist, although
here we cannot be certain whether their redness is an outcome
of their origin or whether they have merged with duendes
because of their color. These are called alux (ah lux?) or kat,
term for clay, natural or fired, and by extension, clay vessels.
They are incense burners which come to life and lurk around
ruins, particularly at night. They are about 30 em. tall, look
like small children and are mischievous. For the last reason a
Maya will smash any incense burner he chances to find, to the
distress of Maya students.
Their faces are the color .of kat, but as they are incense
burners that means the color of fired clay, that is with a
reddish hue. Nevertheless, I doubt if this class of duendes has
anything to do with hallucinatory drugs.
Whether the various items, archaeological, colonial and
modem, outlined above cohere or are merely a jumble of
unrelated elements is the major problem.
The description of the taking of the katun prophecy in the
Chilam Balam of Tizimin hints very strongly indeed at a rite
involving hallucinatory drugs. The intervention of the maax,
the great awe in which he was held, his prophetic abilities,
the ventriloquism, the lack of movement during the ceremony,
the averting of eyes are reminiscent of mushroom-eating rites
in present-day Oaxaca.
The Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa reliefs with a
death-manikin pointing menacingly at a· recumbent figure and a
small anthropomorphic deer figure in the same relationship to
another recumbent figure obviously fit the above pattern,
especially when we recollect the importance of a mushroom
cult in that area demonstrated by stone mushrooms in
archaeological contexts.
The next step takes us farther from reasonably evident
connections with hallucinatory drugs. Minatory hobgoblins,
reminiscent in their attitudes of the Cotzumalhuapa reliefs,
raise a pointing finger at standing personages who show no
signs of being under the influence of drugs. These are on the
Santa Rita murals, the Yaloch vase and the Sacnicte capstone.
304 TLALOCAN
In the first case the ruler holds aloft the hobgoblin; in the
second case the hobgoblin stands before the ruler. Next, we
have rulers or priests who hold aloft manikins, of human or
animal form, who do not have a minatory aspect (Palo Verde
and Stela 10 Xultun). In the second case the ruler tucks a
manikin under his arm as though he were a naughty child.
In all these cases the rites directly involve members of the
nobility or high priesthood. Clearly these are not folk
practices of peasants.
If the Dresden pages are correctly identified, they treat of
positions in the 260-day almanac suitable for consultation with
manikin creatures, reminding us that the Mixe mushroom rites
are in some way geared to the 260-day count of the Mixe in
Miller's opinion.
The incidents involving Sanchez de Aguilar's aunt and
also beliefs concerning the alux fall rather in the category of
folk-lore. Yet there are features which link them to "state"
practices. The parrot voice of the first case seems to parallel
the muffled, semi-unintelligible speech of the chi/an and the
changed voice of the Mixe mushroom eater, when the
mushroom speaks through him.
The scarlet face of the Valladolid duende may connect
with ceremonies in Dresden codex and perhaps even with the
red elements in the Amatlan de Los Reyes and Mixtec
mushroom rites, but that is a weak point.
The hobgoblins in animal Uaguar?) and perhaps divine
Uaguar god of number 7) shape on the Xultun stela echo the
animal and snake creatures of Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa and
Palo Verde (there held aloft as at Xultun) and animals carved
on stone mushrooms, and they in turn are perhaps re-echoed in
the jaguars and snakes which manifest themselves in
mushroom-eating rites in Oaxaca.
The apparent association of hobgoblins with flowers is
worth noting, although the latter are clearly not the trumpet
blooms of ololiuhqui-producing vines.
It is strange that although the two main producers of
ololiuhqui seeds grow in Yucatan, there is not a word about
their utilization for divinatory purposes, past or present. The
close commercial relations throughout Middle America would,
one supposes, have spread the peculiar qualities of those seeds
everywhere they grow. Could it be that the ruling class was
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 305
able to confine the use of narcotics for divination to the higher
ranks of priests? If so, such knowledge would have died with
the extinction of that class. Had only nanacatl been thus
employed, the closing by the Spanish conquest of old trade
routes (notably the Putun sea voyagings) would speedily have
ended consumption and then knowledge of that drug.
Like the psalmist, "I do not exercise myself in great
matters which are too high for me,'' but I would underline
the importance of these hobgoblins in their ancient contexts.
Rulers permitted publication of scenes in which dwarfs or
hobgoblins - surely not comparable to the hunchbacks at
Moctezuma's court - confront, indeed, appear to threaten
them. That these were maax with prophetic messages is a
good possibility. To such alone would be permitted Lese
majeste.
As always, more facts are needed to confirm or quash
speculation.

REFERENCES
Beltran de Santa Rosa, P.
1859 Arte del idioma maya y semilexicon yucateco.
Merida.

Borhegyi, S. F. de
1961 Miniature mushroom stones from Guatemala. Amer.
Antiq., 26:498-504.
1963 Precolumbian pottery mushrooms from
Mesoamerica. Amer. Antiq., 28:328-38.

Gann, T. W. F.
1900 Mounds in northern Honduras. Bur. Amer.
Ethnol. Annual Report, 19:655-92. Washington.
1911 Exploration carried on in British Honduras during
1908-9. Liverpool Univ. Annals of Archaeol. and
Anthropol., 4:72-87. Liverpool.
1918 The Maya Indians of southern Yucatan and northern
British Honduras. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Bull. 64.
Washington.

Gordon, G. B. and J. A. Mason

306 TLALOCAN
1925-43 Examples of Maya pottery in the museum and
other collections. 3 vols. Univ. Mus., Philadelphia.

Hoogshagen, S.
1959 Notes on the sacred (narcotic) mushroom from
Coatlim, Oaxaca, Mexico. Okla. Anthropol. Soc.
Bull., 7:71-74. Norman.

Kutscher, G.
1972 Wandmalereien des vorkolombischen Mexiko in
Kopien Walter Lehmanns. Jahrbuch Preussischer
Kulturbesitz, 9:71-120. Berlin.

Miller, W. S.
1956 Cuentos mixes. Instituto Nacional Indigenista.
Mexico.
1966 El tonalamatl mixe y los hongos sagrados. Summa
Anthropologica en homenaje a Roberto J. Weitlaner.
Mexico.

Morley, S. G.
1937-38 The inscriptions of Peten. Carnegie Inst.
Wash., Pub.' 406. 5 vols. Washington.

Parsons, L. A.
1967-69 Bilbao, Guatemala. An archaeological study of
the Pacific coast Cotzumalhuapa region. Milwaukee
Public Mus. Milwaukee.

Ravicz, R.
1961 La mixteca en el estudio comparative del hongo
alucinante. I.N.A.H., Anales, 13:73-92. Mexico.

Reyes, G. L.
1970 Una relaci6n sobre los hongos alucinantes.
Tlalocan, 6:140-45.

Roys, R. L.
1931 The ethno-botany of the Maya. Mid. Amer. Res.
Ser. Tulane Univ. 2 New Orleans.
1954 The Maya katun prophecies of the Books of Chilam
HALLUCINATORY DRUGS AND HOBGOBLINS 307
Balam, Series 1. Carnegie Inst. Washington, Pub.
606, Contrib. 57. Washington.
1966 Ritual of the Bacabs. Norman, Okla.

Sanchez de Aguilar, P.
1892 Informe contra idolorum cultores del Obispado de
Yucatan. Museo Nac. de Mexico Anales, Epoca 1,
6:13-122. Mexico.

Schumann, 0.
1971 Descripci6n estructural del maya itza del Peten,
Guatemala, C .A. Centro de E studios Mayas,
Cuaderno 6. Mexico.

Smith, R. E.
1955 Ceramic sequence at Uaxactun, Guatemala. Mid.
Amer. Res. Ser. Tulane Univ. 20. New Orleans.

Stanley, P. C.
1945 La flora. Enciclopedia Yucatanense, 1:273-523.
Mexico.

Stromsvik, G.
1956 Exploration of the cave of Dzab-na, Tecoh, Yucatan.
Carnegie Inst. Washington, Current Reports, no.
35. Cambridge, Mass.

Thompson, J. E. S.
1948 An archaeological reconnaissance in the
Cotzumalhuapa region, Escuintla, Guatemala.
Carnegie Inst. Washington, Pub. 574, Contrib. 44.
Washington
1970 Maya history and religion. Norman, Okla.
1971 A commentary on the Dresden codex, a Maya
hieroglyphic book. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., Memoir
93. Philadelphia.
1973 The painted capstone at Sacnicte, Yucatan, and two
others at Uxmal. Indiana, 1:59-64. Berlin.

Ximenez, F.
1929-71 Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente de
308 TLALOCAN
Chiapa y Guatemala de Ia Orden de Predicadores. 5
vols. Guatemala.

RESUMEN
No es seguro que haya existido el culto de los bongos
alucinantes en la Peninsula Yucateca en la epoca precolombina.
Si existi6, probablemente la droga era importada, importaci6n
que debe haber terminado con la conquista espanola.
Sabemos, sin embargo, que el ololiuhqui se da en Yucatan.
El autor proporciona datos comparativos sobre el culto de
alucin6genos entre los mixes, nahuas de Veracruz, mazatecos,
mixtecos y de algunas culturas antiguas conocidas por la
arqueologia. Encuentra que las creencias y representaciones
mayas de duendes se pueden coordinar con las alucinaciones
inducidas por las drogas entre estos otros pueblos mesoame-
ricanos y sugiere que el culto de alucin6genos puede haber flo-
recido en la zona maya baja.