"Were I a little louse, I'd go
In your puffed and plaited hair;
With you all your toil I'd share;
This lazy fellow loves you so."
The _carángano_ is the name of a species of louse, and the _cojines_
are the little pads or cushions which women wear in their hair.
In this dialect several satirical and political songs have been
composed, and, indeed, the licentiate Geronimo Perez, of Masaya, is
stated to have printed in it a political pamphlet, which I regret
not to have been able to obtain.
Such is the jargon in which the _Güegüence_ is written, and although
this medley of tongues can claim no position of dignity in the
hierarchy of languages, it has its own peculiar points of interest,
as illustrating the laws of the degradation--which is but another
term for the evolution and progress--of human speech. To understand
its origin and position as a literary effort, we must review the
development of scenic representations in that part of the New World.
§ 2. _The Bailes, or Dramatic Dances of Nicaragua._
The historian, Fernandez de Oviedo, who was in Nicaragua in 1529,
gives a long account of the dramatic representations, or rites,
accompanied by songs, dances and masked actors, which he witnessed
among the natives of both Nahuatl and Mangue lineage in that
province. They took place at stated seasons, and at certain epochs
in the year. The name which he gives as that by which they were
locally known is _mitote_, which is the Aztec _mitotl_, a dance. He
himself calls them _areytos_, a Haytian word from the Arawack
_aririn_, to sing, and _bailes_, which is Spanish, from a classical
root, and means dances.
One which he saw at Tecoatega, at that time a Nahuatl village, was
celebrated at the close of the cacao harvest and in honor of the god
of that plant. It offered a curious symbolism, which makes us keenly
regret the absence of a full explanation by some learned native. In
the centre of the village square a straight pole was set up about
forty feet in height. On its summit was placed the image of the god,
brilliantly colored, in a sitting position. Around the top of the
pole a stout grass rope was tightly wound, its two free ends passing
over a wooden platform.
When the ceremony began, about seventy men appeared, some dressed as
women, some with masks and head-dresses of feathers, and all painted
skillfully on the naked flesh to imitate handsome costumes. They
danced in pairs, and sang in chorus certain songs, to the sound of
the sacred drums. After about half an hour, two boys, who had been
attached to the free ends of the rope, threw themselves from the
platform into the air, in such a manner that they turned round and
round the pole, unwinding the rope, and thus gradually descended
toward the ground. One boy held in one hand a bow, in the other,
some arrows; his companion held in one hand a fan or plume of
feathers, in the other a mirror, such as the natives made of
polished obsidian. As they descended, which, says the narrator,
required about as long a time as one might repeat the Creed five or
six times, the dancers ceased their song, and only the players on
the instruments, some ten or a dozen in number, continued their
noise. But, just as the boys, by the increasing length of the
unwound cord, touched the soil, all present set up a great shout,
and the festival ceased.[25] The cut which I have inserted is taken
from Oviedo's history, and represents the performance.
[Illustration: ANCIENT DANCE IN NICARAGUA.]
To one familiar with Nahuatl symbolism, the meaning of this ceremony
is, in a general way, obvious. The seated divinity on the summit of
the pole represents the god of fertility throned in the heavens. The
two boys are the messengers he sends to earth; the arrows refer to
the lightnings which he hurls below; the feather fan typifies the
breezes and the birds; the mirror, the waters and rains. After the
mortals have prayed in chants, for a certain season, the god sends
his messengers; men wait in suspense their arrival, whether it shall
be for good or for ill hap; and as they reach the earth, a shout of
joy is raised, for the food has ripened and been gathered in, and
the harvest-home is ended.
In the same century the traveler Giralamo Benzoni, who visited
Nicaragua about 1540, was much impressed with the native dances. At
certain ones, as many as three or four thousand Indians assembled,
some dancing, others playing on drums, while others, who formed the
chorus, carried on the singing. The dancers displayed great agility,
and practiced a large variety of figures. They were ornamented with
feathers and plumes, and strings of shells were attached to their
arms and legs.[26]
The Mangues of Chiapas, or the Chapanecs, near relatives, as we have
seen, of the Mangues of Nicaragua, were famous in the days of Thomas
Gage, the English priest, who traveled through Mexico and Nicaragua
about 1630,[27] for their dexterity in games and the elaborate
scenery of their dramatic representations. "As for acting of
Plays," he says, "this is a common part of their solemn Pastimes."
This passion for scenic performances was by no means peculiar to
these tribes. It extended throughout almost the whole of the Red
Race, and there are many relics of it which have survived. The older
authors refer to it frequently, and the early missionaries, finding
that they could not extinguish it, sought to turn it to good account
by substituting for the native plays, which were idolatrous or
licentious, moral and instructive pieces. They encouraged the more
intelligent natives and half-breeds to prepare such, and they were
acted in connection with church festivals.
But it would be an error to suppose that these attempts succeeded
completely in abolishing the older forms, or quenched entirely the
tribal historical character of these ceremonies. Even within our own
generation the contrary of this has been recognized by close
observers. Thus the _cura_ of Jutiapa, a town in Guatemala, Don Jose
Antonio Urrutia, wrote, in 1856: "In most of the Indian towns the
custom is still general of preserving a knowledge of great events in
their history by means of representations, called _bailes_ (dances),
which are, in fact, dances in the public squares, on the days or
evenings of great solemnities. It is most interesting for one who
understands something of the language to participate in these
_bailes_, as he can thereby obtain some knowledge of the most remote
traditions and events in the history of the Indians."[28]
Confining our attention to the limits of Nicaragua, we find that the
different _bailes_ represented there within the memory of persons
still living may be arranged in five different classes:--