asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the effort in Chiapas.
Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire. She and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their hatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled the sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the ceremonies of the mass, which, she herself performed, and stoned to death the priests whom they caught.
Of course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hopeless. It failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, characterized by the utmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her followers were scattered and killed, when the victorious whites had again in their hands all the power and resources of the country, not their most diligent search, nor the temptation of any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria, the heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she escaped to the forest, and was never again heard of.[79]
More
unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priestesses of Guistiupan
and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded Maria in her patriotic endeavors.
Seized by the Spaniards, they met the fate which we can easily imagine,
though the historian has mercifully thrown a veil on its details.[80]
23. Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. C. Squier hear during his travels in Central America, a "sukia woman," as she was called by the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid the ruins of an old Maya temple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and life in her hands.[81] Perhaps his account is somewhat fanciful; it is so, indeed; but it is grounded on the unshaken beliefs and ancient traditions of the natives of those times, and on customs well known to those who reside there.
The late distinguished Americanist, the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, during his long travels in Mexico and Central America, had occasion more than once to come in contact with this trait of the ancient faith of the Nagualists, still alive in their descendants. Among the Zapotecs of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec he saw one of the queens of the mystic fraternity, and he describes her with a warmth which proves that he had not lost his eye for the beautiful.
"She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle; a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra.
"There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it madness, or was it, as those
[79] The long account given by Mr. H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection is a travesty of the situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish sources, of course, utterly out of sympathy with the motives which prompted the native actors. See his History of the Pacific States, Vol. ii, p. 696, sqq. Ordoñes y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a generation of the occurrences, recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true name Bancroft does not give) the real head of the rebellion, "quien ordenaba los ardides del motin; ...de lo que principalmente trataban las leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase ra-tro alguno de que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo." His account is in his unpublished work, Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, written at Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, speaking of their rites, says of them: "Apostando de la fé, profanando los vasos sagrados, y ofreciendo sacrilegos cultos à una indizuela." Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala. Tom. i, p. 17.
[80] Bancroft, ubi suprà, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia Pelaez calls "una india bruja." Memorias para la Historia de Guatemala, Tom. ii. p. 153.
[81] Squier, ubi suprà passim.
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