65. When Morning Came
I. WHY DID IT DAWN?
When Jesus was born, it was dark in the stable. Many came together and began looking for him.
It was dark, very dark. And why did it dawn? He was appearing. It was dawning. He was appearing beautifully; he was shining as he came. But he appeared down there, and they said, here is where he is. There he came, rising. They all saw him. Many had gathered, and they all saw him. Behold it was dawning, it was dawning, it was dawning until it dawned completely.
Mexico
(Nahua)
II. THAT WAS THE PRINCIPAL DAY
Our Lord was born now.
So the next day, they saw the man who wouldn’t lend his house, crying, “Oh, I thought it was a beggar who spent the night,” he said the next morning.
They saw now that it was Our Lord. With priests and bishops they went to look, to watch them celebrate a wonderful fiesta on the principal day, Christmas. So it’s called Christmas. You see, when morning came they had a fiesta. The Christ Child was born already by morning time. When morning came the baby was already born. But he wasn’t a human being. He was Our Lord.
Then when they saw him, they held a wonderful fiesta, when morning came. There was music and everything. Yes, indeed! Now that was the principal day, Christmas. It’s been just the same ever since, just like it is now.
Mexico (Tzotzil Maya) / Manvel K’obyox
66. Three Kings
When Jesus was born three kings came to visit him and adore him. One was an American, the other was a Mexican, the last was an Indian.
When they arrived, all three knelt and worshipped the child Jesus. Then each gave Jesus a present. The American king gave money. The Mexican king gave Jesus some swaddling clothes. And the Indian king, who was very poor, had nothing to give, so he danced before Jesus.
Then Jesus told them he would grant each a gift and asked what they wanted. The American king said he wanted to be smart and have power. And Jesus granted his wish. For that reason Americans are powerful.
When he asked the Mexican king what he wanted, he said he wished to believe in the saints and pray. And for that reason Mexicans believe in the saints and pray.
Lastly Jesus asked the Indian king what he wanted, and the Indian king said he was very poor and humble and would take whatever Jesus would let him have. So Jesus gave him seeds of corn and wheat and melons and other fruits. And that’s why Indians have to work always to live.
New
Mexico
(Isleta)
67. The Christ Child as Trickster
Time passed and the child Jesus was growing. One day when he was about four years old he disappeared from the virgin mother’s poor little hut. No one knew where he had gone. They hunted and couldn’t find him. They looked everywhere. Suddenly he spoke up and said to the virgin mother, “Ha! Where do you think I’ve been? The whole time you were looking for me I was right at your side.”
Not long after that, the little boy’s father got a contract to build a house. It was work he needed, so the virgin mother could buy food for the family. While he was working on the house, he opened a sack of cement. He hadn’t mixed it yet when the child poured out the water and let it run over the cement. “You little devil, look what you’ve done,” said Joseph. “You’ve ruined the cement.”
But when the father turned his back for a moment, the child fixed it, and the cement was dry again, exactly as it had been before.
Another time, when the house that Joseph was building was partly finished, they invited him to come in and eat. They called the little boy, too. “Come on, child. Come eat.” Now, in the yard there were a dozen chicks, and the child decided to bring these with him. He killed them all and came into the house with the chicks wrapped in his poncho. When he dumped them out on the floor, the people cried, “Look what you’ve done, you little devil! You’ll have to pay for these.”
He just stood there laughing. Then he said, “All right, throw them out. I’ll pay you for them.”
He went back outside and gathered them into a heap. While the people on the inside were having their dinner, the chicks on the outside were coming back to life. The little boy put them into his poncho again and brought them back into the house. The chicks were peeping.
“Hail Mary! A miracle!” they said. But the child Jesus just laughed.
After the meal he went back out again. While his father was taking measurements for the upper stories of the house, he picked up a saw and cut all the beams into bits and pieces. “You little devil, what have you done? All those beams were cut to length and ready to be nailed. Now what will I do? I don’t have the money to replace them. Here I am working to make myself poor!”
Then the child picked up the bits and pieces and made the beams whole again.
Ecuador
(Quichua)
68. Christ Saved by the Firefly
When Jesus Christ was a prisoner, they thought he was smoking in jail. They thought they saw the end of his lighted cigar. But it was not he, it was the firefly, and Jesus Christ had already fled.
Cakchiquel
Maya
(Guatemala)
/
Matias
Sicajan
69. Christ Betrayed by Snails
He came to a river and crossed over. But as he was crossing the river, he stepped on freshwater snails. When the ones who were chasing him reached the river’s edge and could not see which way he had gone, they questioned the snails. The snails replied, “Don’t you see that he has trampled on us and turned us over?”
Belize
(Kekchi
Maya)
70. Christ Betrayed by the Magpie-jay
Jesus hid under some banana trees. “That’s him, he’s near now,” said the ones who were chasing him. The magpie-jay was there. He was a human once. “Is it Our Lord you’re looking for? He’s here,” said the magpie-jay. “Seize him! He’s here now.” Then they captured Our Lord. They made him carry a cross.
Mexico
(Tzotzil
Maya)
/
Romin
Teratol
71. The Blind Man at the Cross
The soldiers came to take Christ to Calvary. Ah, friends, these thoughts are bitter to the taste.
All the townspeople were gathered together. Said Pilate to the people: “Which of the two who are bound do you want set free? One is named Barabbas, the other is the Son of God, who is surnamed Christ.”
“Free Barabbas!”
Barabbas was freed. Our Lord they took to Calvary, beating him as they went. Five thousand lashes they gave him. Three times he fell, bearing the cross on his back.
Magdalene, Mary Cleopha, and the Pure Virgin saw Jesus there. Deep went their hurt. They asked the soldiers if they could wash Christ for a moment.
He came now almost stinking. Covered with worms, lice, fleas, and every kind of sore. His whole body covered with spit.
“Let us cure his sickness while we bathe him.”
Then they washed him. And after he was clean, they washed his clothes, too.
But when they wiped his face, there on the cloth appeared a picture of Jesus’ face. Now the soldiers were angrier than ever.
“This man has much magic!” they said.
He came to that place where he was to die.
They stripped off his clothes. They divided them amongst the whole town.
They gave him a hammer blow on his chest—even his mother, at this time, far away, was nearly killed with grief. By the blow she knew they were putting her son to death.
They spread out Christ’s arms; to put each one against each arm of the cross.
They nailed him. They stood him up so that he could be seen by all.
He does not die.
At last, they bring soldiers. To shoot him.
Everyone wanted to shoot him, but Christ defended himself. Not one bullet found him.
One man alone had not taken his turn—a blind boy.
“What use is this blind man, he’s only listening to what’s going on, he’s doing nothing,” the soldiers were saying.
The soldiers gave the blind boy a spear. They showed him.
“Here is where you can spear him, right here.”
“
Now,
the spear.”
Pu—sh!
Sun and moon blackened.
The earth shook mightily. Many soldiers, many, fell down, nearly dead.
A drop of Jesus’ blood fell. Fell into the eye of the blind boy. And he saw!
He opened his eyes—Christ.
“Ah, Father of my heart, I did not know it was you,
hombre.
If I could have seen, I could not have done this.”
The blind man was pardoned.
There died Jesus.
Mexico
(Mazatec)
/
Melchor
García
72. The Cricket, the Mole, and the Mouse
Some friends of Jesus came now, Joseph and several others. They were talking about what to do with Jesus now that he was dead.
“He is dead, we had better bury him. We don’t want him to remain here. First, let’s go to the king to see if he can’t be buried.”
And they went to the king to ask if they could lower Christ, so he would not be hanging there, gaped at by all the people.
“Well, good.” The king was even pleased to have him taken down.
“For my part,” says Pilate, “it hurts me, too, but it was the people’s fault. Only because they said so did I do it.”
When the apostles came, the Virgin was at the foot of the cross, weeping and praying. They took a white cloth, a sort of hammock, so that the Virgin could hold him to her, while they were building the coffin. They brought the coffin.
Well, now everything is ready. There is nothing more to do, but take him to the sepulcher. They sealed the coffin.
When they had finished burying him, they placed a great stone there so that he could not leave. And a soldier stood watch so that no one could come to dig him up. Everyone else left. Now all was silence.
Quiet, friends, listen carefully.
A cricket came, singing.
A pro nobi—
pray for us, the poor thing was saying, three times, four times. And this means surely now he is dead, now he cannot be wakened.
But within the sepulcher, where the corpse was, Jesus heard. He answered that he was still not dead.
“I am, I am alive, but I do not know how I am going to get out, because of that rock that is on top.”
The little animal, hearing Christ’s words, fled, calling out: “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.”
And on the way he met a mole.
“See here, where are you going, mole?”
“Why, I’m just walking along here.”
“Look, friend, I went to where the body of Our Lord is. Christ has
not
died. Already he has spoken, but he doesn’t know how to get out, because that stone is very large, and he isn’t able to get out. Couldn’t you dig just where the coffin is? I, as I haven’t enough strength, can’t dig.”
“Sure, why not. Yes, I’m coming.”
He digs, digs, digs above Christ’s coffin.
Now you can almost go on the mole’s road to see the coffin.
Then some other little animals came to see Christ’s burial place.
A mouse came.
The mouse ran down the mole’s road. With his teeth he gnawed open the coffin.
Jesus awoke and departed.
Again the earth shook with terrible force.
That soldier who was on top of the rock almost died. He was scared enough! He ran away. He said nothing.
Now, on the morning of the fourth day three women also came to Jesus’ sepulcher. One, the mother of Jesus; the two others, family relations.
When Mary saw her son’s tomb, the stone that had been placed there now was floating in the air, and on it was sitting an angel, like a dove.
Mary seeing this: “Why is the stone in the air? Who is on the stone? Why doesn’t it fall?”
After a moment the angel spoke to Mary. “What do you come to see here?”
“Why, I come to see my son’s grave. I come to leave some flowers on the fourth day.” Even as our women do now.
“Well, look, Jesus is still not dead. Already he has left. Jesus can be found now at a certain place. It is best that you go to your house to give the news to the others.”
Mexico
(Mazatec)
/
Melchor
García
73. As If with Wings
Jesus departed through the air, as if with wings. He rose to Heaven. The apostles stood watching him as he rose.
On the forty-seventh day, when Jesus reached Heaven, the twelve apostles rose to Heaven, to govern until this day.
The tale is ended.
Mexico
(Mazatec)
/
Melchor
García
PART SEVEN
74. Slowpoke Slaughtered Four
Once and twice makes thrice upon a time there was a king, and the king had a daughter who solved every riddle that was put to her. No riddle was too difficult.
The time came for the daughter to marry. The king sent out criers to spread the word that whoever brought a riddle the princess couldn’t solve would become her husband and inherit the kingdom; but let her solve it and the suitor would be hanged by the neck until dead.
Since the princess was beautiful and the kingdom enormous, princes, marquises, sages, and professors from all over came courting, and all were strung up at the gallows as the princess guessed their riddles, one after another.
There was a widow living in this kingdom who had a son that had not been spoiled by the ways of the world. People were unkind and called him Juan Bobo. Juan, having heard tell of the king’s proclamation, decided that he, too, would go to the palace with a riddle for the princess. His cautious mother tried to stop him. But Juan Bobo had made up his mind. At last, with a heavy heart, the mother gave her permission.
While he saddled his mare, his mother made cassava cakes for Juan to take with him. Thinking it would be better for her good-hearted son to die peaceably on the road than on the gallows in the great city, she put a dose of poison into the cakes.
Juan Bobo set out. After traveling awhile he got off his mare and lay down to nap under a mango tree. While he slept, the mare found the cassava cakes and ate them all in one gulp. The cakes killed the mare instantly. Then four crows arrived to peck at the corpse, and the crows, too, were killed.
Juan woke up, saw what had happened, and continued his journey on foot after plucking the crows and stringing them around his neck. As he passed through some woods, seven thieves waylaid him and stole the plucked crows. When the thieves ate the crows, they fell over dead.
Juan took one of the thieves’ rifles and continued on, keeping an eye out for something to eat. He saw a squirrel, took aim, but missed. Instead, his shot found a rabbit that happened to be pregnant. He skinned the rabbit, then built a fire to roast it, using some newspapers that were lying nearby.
He went on. He came to a river, and as he crossed the river he looked down from the bridge and saw a dead horse with three crows on it, floating in the water.
At last he reached the palace gates and asked permission to present a riddle to the princess. When they saw him at court, they laughed, and some were stricken with pain, knowing the poor man was about to die. But Juan Bobo, unconcerned, went up to the princess and said to her with great seriousness:
I started out on Slowpoke, and
Slowpoke slaughtered four; when
these had murdered seven more, I
shot at what I thought I saw and
killed what I couldn’t see;
The flesh I ate was not yet born,
though fully cooked with words;
and when I crossed from there to
here, a corpse was carrying
three.
The princess began to think. She had three days to solve the riddle. The first two nights she tried to get the answer by having one of her maids, and then another, go to the room where Juan was staying. The third night the princess herself slipped into Juan’s bedroom. “Let me have your nightgown,” he said, “and also your ring. When morning comes I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
The princess did as she was asked, and when morning came, Juan whispered the answer in her ear.
So the princess explained the riddle before the court and the king sentenced Juan to the gallows. The poor man asked permission to speak. “She didn’t know the answer,” he cried, “until I told her what to say.” The king asked for proof. Juan held up the nightgown and the ring. “Enough!” cried the king, and he gave orders for the wedding to proceed immediately.
The two were married and lived happily from that time on, for Juan Bobo turned out to be cleverer than all the great princes who had passed through the king’s court.
Puerto
Rico