Evening star., 1937-10-30
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

A week-long Halloween is observed
among the descendants of the ancient
Mayas. builders of one of the worlds
greatest civilizations, who still remain
IN Guatemala.
The details of this strange festival OF
the dead have been gathered by DR..
Robert Redfield, ethnologist OF the Car
negie Institution of Washington.
On October 81 and November the
souls of the dead supposedly return to
the earth for an annual visit and de-
mart again a week later. On these days
food is set out for them and they are
invited to eat. The festival is known
as the dinner of the souls" 1t is
domestic ritual in which each family
recalls and propitiates its own departed
members.
Preparations begin on October 80. The
food and flowers to be used in the festi-
val are gathered and made ready. At
midnight. when the souls are supposed
to begin to arrive, the people Of the
household get up and arrange the table.
1t is decorated with blossoms of the silk
cotton tree or flowers of st. Juan"
Bunches of these flowers are fastened
in the doorway, as invitations to the
souls to enter.
On the table are placed chocolate,
bread and several lighted candles. After
appropriate prayers all present eat of
this food and 1.-The souls of the dead
have been given breakfast" Later the
same sort of preparations are gone
through for their dinner. The following
day is the festival of ninoh kuhanal
nucuch pixanob, the day of the great
dinner of the souls. The day after the
people 60 to the cemetery carrying the
candle ends that have been used in the
ceremony These they light and set on
the graves, where also are placed the
flowers with which the tables have been
decorated. Later in the week is the
time for taking from the graves the
bones of relatives who died two or three
years before, to make room for new
interments.
Souls of the very bad, according to
the Maya mythology, go directly to met
nal, which is the home of the demons
and lies directly beneath the earth. All
sourcerers go there because they have
made pact with the devil and sold him
their souls. Suicides go straight to met
nal. Therefore, it is the common practice
to bury them face downward so that they
will be started in the right direction.
Some sinful souls are turned into frogs
and condemned to live as such for many
years. shut up in stones or in trees,
until some one releases them. Some are
transformed into the whirlwinds that
quicken the fires at the time of the
annual burning of the fields. One who
dies leaving money buried without tell
ing anybody about it. cannot go to Hea-
ven until, on some Holy Cross Day, he
communicates the hiding place to some
body on earth. Those who die with ur,-
paid debts may be changed into deer
or turkeys. The creditor then may
encounter the animal in the woods, shoot
it, and recover his money by selling the
meat.
After long periods all souls return to
earth again, reincarnated in newborn
children. If a child is born with teeth,
much hair or unusually clear or alert
ewes, it is because it has been born
with the soul of one who has lived on
earth before. The same is said oil a
person whose hair turns prematurey
gray. The time of death, In the Maya
belief, is one of struggle. the soul seek
ing to leave and Jet remain. ana the