THE LAST CUPULS

Damian Barrera stopped suddenly, instinctively putting his right index finger on the trigger of his '30 - 30', his companions two steps behind him stopped, staring down the path, more or less mecate ahead.

Alert and surprised, they watched an Indian coming out of a side path carrying a wild pig in his 'mecapal'

When the máasewaál sensed the presence of the three 'ts´uulo´ob, he was paralyzed in surprise for an instant, which seemed like forever. The expectation was mutual until Damian reacted, slowly advancing toward the unmoving Indian, who was looking at him without any expression.

'Don’t be alarmed' - he spoke in the Maya language when he saw the máasewa´al´s expression change slightly.

'We won’t hurt you' - a slight pause to see an answer and he went on - we’re lost and we only want to know where we are going.

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Silvano Ek, the 'máasewáal', slowly recovering from his surprise, didn’t answer. It had been a long time since he had seen a ts´uulo´ob, longer than he could remember.

In that moment, he was thinking of his home, of his wife who the night before had back pains, he was worried that the birth would be early, although according to her, it wouldn’t be until the moon was full.

He was sorry that he had come to the ' milpa'.

That was what he was thinking about when he was surprised by the presence of the ts´uulo´ob. His surprise turned to fear when he saw the nearest, of them touch the trigger of his carbine.

He was defenseless; his shotgun wasn’t loaded. When Damian Barrera lowered the barrel of the ' 30 - 30 ' toward the ground, Silvano relaxed a little; the words in Maya relaxed him even more; he tried to put his ideas in order before answering. Who were they? What were they doing in these parts so far from their towns? The farthest that the ts´uulo´ob ever ventured was to X-ho´otsúuk to sell their merchandise... but these men were many ' leagues ' from there. What were they doing? .

No ' Ts'uul' had never set foot in his town, and these men, he thought, wouldn’t either.

This is the road to Chuun-x- ya'axche and Chuun-oon, answered Silvano, measuring his words precisely-if you are going to Chuun-oon, you have to go south on a side path a quarter of a league ahead, if you want to go to Chuun-x- ya'axche, you should head toward the east and walk several leagues, Chuum-Poom is farther toward the coast.

Well-answered Barrera- where are you from? Silvano answered - from Chum-yaxché. Barrera was leery. When the Indian was talking, he watched him carefully trying to sense some sign in him that would reveal whether he was lying. He didn’t sense anything and relaxed.

Carlos- he said speaking in Spanish to his companion immediately behind him- we will have to walk a lot to get to this town to the east,' What do you think? ...And you Miguel? - He said to his other companion.

We have no choice- answered Carlos- Chuum-Poom is too far, I think. I have been told that it is close to the coast, to Tulu´um. Chum-yaxché must be on this side - at least three or four leagues closer than Chuum-Poom.

You’re right, Carlos- agreed Miguel entering the conversation, - we are worn out, and we don't have any supplies; we won’t make it to the coast. Lets take advantage of this Indian; let him take us to his town and let God decide, maybe when they see that we didn’t kill this guy they wont hurt us.

Silvano listened to the conversation in Spanish without understanding what they were saying. He watched their gestures trying to guess their thoughts. He imagined what they were saying by the names Tulu´um, Chuun-oon, Chuum-Poom and Chum-yaxché. What were they talking about? Would he be able to trick them? If they continued south, they would arrive at his town, Tok'tuunich. He noticed that he was still carrying the wild pig on his shoulder, he let it slip to the side. The movement called the three white men’s attention to him. He put his shotgun on top of the animal.

Look "friend" - said Damian Barrera in Maya- we want to go to the coast, to Chuum-Poom or Tulu´um, but we’re very tired. We’ve been in the woods almost five days; take us to your town and we will pay you well, if they sell us a few supplies, we’ll go on our way without bothering you anymore. What do you say?

Silvano understood right away that they didn’t trust him.

If he went with them, they would discover his trick and they would kill him for sure. His mind worked dizzily.

Damian and his companions were expecting an answer.

Ok- answered the máasewáal, trying to look calm,-I’m going to my 'milpa' is 10 mecates from here.

Damian knew it was a lie. The Indian was trying to escape from them.

I’ll go with you- he said imperatively. Silvano Ek got a little pale. He had been discovered.

He turned his back scornfully and, followed by Barrera, went into the woods on a path...' What to do?'- He thought. The only thing he could do was to escape at the first opportunity, and run in the brush and risk getting a shot in the back.

What else could he do ? -He was sure they would kill him anyway.

He had tried to trick them. Damian advanced two or three meters behind the máasewaál. ' Wouldn’t he have companions in the milpa ', he thought.

When Silvano jumped to one side of the path and ran as fast as he could, Barrera raised his '30-30', aiming at him, but he didn’t fire. Slowly he lowered the barrel of his rifle and retraced his steps. He had nothing to gain, he thought, in killing this poor devil, he was either scared to death or stupid to risk his life by running like that.

When he came back to the path, Carlos and Miguel were lying on the ground waiting for him. They were surprised to see him alone, where was the Indian? - Before they asked, Damian told them.

That son of a bitch was trying to pull a fast one, I could have killed him like a dog, but what good would that do? We’ll go on take the cut off to the east, and let God decide, but you can be sure that we have a long journey ahead of us before we get to our destination. That is, if this Indian and his friends don’t kill us. I’m sure they’ll be waiting for us. We'd better get going.

The three picked up their gear, and took up the march, with renewed energy in the face of the imminent danger that they would be in if they stayed in this place. They picked up the shotgun to unload it, put it back where it was and took a leg of the wild pig that still lay in the path for supplies. In a few minutes, they were far away from there

Meanwhile the máasewáal ran desperately toward his town to report the presence of the ts´uulo´ob who, at the same time were pushing themselves on their own way.

The three advanced, showing signs of complete exhaustion, but determined to get as fast and as far away as possible from the site of the encounter.

Where would this path take them? To Chum-poom? To Chuun-x- ya'axche? Or to another town unknown to white men, their faces drawn, with several days growth of beard, their eyes irritated from lack of sleep, their expression somewhat indifferent, didn't reveal their greatest fear:-What waited for them in that inhospitable jungle ?

Days before in their native city, the now far away Zací, they had seen many of their companions fall in the cross fire of the guns with which the government forces displaced them in a brief but furious combat where many of them, young boys without any experience with weapons, had tried to resist from the palace, the churches, mansions and improvised trenches.

The movement had failed and the effort to liberate themselves from the tyranny and oppression of the government of General Diaz was aborted

Tears of anger and pain escaped from the eyes of Damian Barrera at the memory of is companions and family fallen in the heat of the battle. The memories passed though his fever brightened mind, from the beginning to the end - when they had to flee precipitately. What would be of their wives and their children? Would the government forces be capable of taking revenge on them and on his aged father? What would be of the others?

When the Indian started his desperate run, trying to escape from the ts'uul, he had the sensation that from his first steps, he would get a bullet in the back. He advanced, desperately zigzagging and stooping down to avoid it. The vines and branches whipped him and scratched his face and arms, but he didn't slow down; not even for one second.

Those first seconds seemed like a century. Soon he knew that he was out of reach of the his oppressors' carbines and stopped, out of breath to listen.- absolute silence- not even the natural noises of the jungle- why hadn't the man shot him ? He had time to get off at least two or three shots? Had he been overconfident? Had he been surprised by Silvano's escape? He couldn't explain these things.

Completely recovered from his run and from the excitement, he turned toward his town, advancing in the brush. He was sure that those strangers had followed the road that he had indicated, and that he could go back to his path; but he did not want to run the risk of another encounter.

He was advancing as fast as the jungle let him with just one thought in mind - to warn the 'báatab', who would certainly order the intruders to be hunted down.

One hour later, Silvano Ek interrupted the silence of the town and ran quickly though the streets to the square where the main house was.

The '' Báatab '' listened to Silvano's excited report while some of his closest allies gathered at the door. When Silvano finished, the chief ordered:

Go home right away, your wife is in labor. You will stay at her side while some of us go out to receive or hunt down these ts'uulo'ob.

I would like to go with you' babbled Silvano.

I understand how you feel, but you family is first, and besides you must be worn out from your run. We will leave on a forced march to see if we can catch them before they get to Chuum-Poom, if that's the road they took.'

In a few seconds the chief's lieutenant had gathered a dozen of Indians armed with rifles and machetes and with provisions for the journey.

Behind them two men would follow with pack mules, carrying everything necessary for a three or four day march. The group left while Silvano turned toward his hut to see his wife. 

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