520 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
Box 14.2 Gage’s Account of a Little TraditionThe following account is from a famous seventeenth-century English traveler and Catholic mis-
sionary, Thomas Gage, who lived and ministered as a parish priest in highland Guatemala around- The extract given here (originally published in 1648) records a bizarre set of events that
surrounded his pious ministry to a dying Maya Indian named Juan Gómez:
They told me that the report went that Juan Gómez was the chief wizard of all the wizards
and witches in the town, and that commonly he was wont to be changed into the shape of
a lion, and so to walk about the mountains. That he was ever a deadly enemy to one Se-
bastián López, an ancient Indian and head of another tribe, and that two days before they
had met in the mountain, Gómez in the shape of a lion and López in the shape of a tiger,
and that they had fought must cruelly till Gómez, who was the older and weaker, was tired,
much bit and bruised, and died of it. And further, that I might be assured of this truth, they
told me that López was in prison for it, and that two tribes were striving about it, and that
the tribe and kindred of Gómez demanded from López and his tribe and kindred satisfac-
tion, and a great sum of money, or else threatened to make the case known unto the Span-
ish power and authority....
This struck me to the very heart, to think that I should live among such people, who
were spending all they could get by their work and labor upon the church, saints, and in of-
ferings, and yet were so privy to the counsels of Satan. It grieved me that the world I
preached unto them did no more good, and I resolved from that time forward to spend
most of my endeavors against Satan’s subtlety, and to shew them more than I had done the
great danger to the souls of these who had made any compact with the Devil. I hoped that
I might make them abandon and abjure his works, and close with Christ by faith....
Whilst I was thus musing, there came unto me at least twenty of the chiefest of the
town with the two majors, jurats and all the officers of justice, who desired me to forbear that
day the burying of Juan Gómez, for that they had resolved to call a crown officer to view his
corpse and examine his death, lest they all should be troubled for him, and he be exhumed.
I made as if I knew nothing, but enquired of them the reason. Then they related to me how
there were witnesses in the town who saw a lion and a tiger fighting, and presently lost the
sight of the beasts, and saw Juan Gómez and Sebastián López much about the same time
parting one from another, and that immediately Juan Gómez came home bruised to his
bed, whence he never rose again, and that he declared upon his deathbed unto some of
his friends that Sebastián López had killed him. For this reason they had López in safe
custody....
The crown officer was sent for and came that night and searched Gómez’ body. I was
present with him, and found it all bruised, scratched, and in many places bitten and sore
wounded. Many evidences and suspicions were brought in against López by the Indians of
the town, especially by Gómez’ friends, whereupon he was carried away to Guatemala [City],
and there again was tried by the same witnesses, and not much denying the fact himself,
was there hanged. And though Gómez’ grave was opened in the church, he was not buried
in it, but in another made ready for him in a ditch.... (Gage 1958:275–277)From an examination of this text, it is evident that Thomas Gage witnessed the tragic af-
termath of what, in the view of the Indian community, had been a supernatural battle between
the animal soul companions of two powerful shamans. The “lion” and the “tiger” (perhaps a
careless English reference to the puma and the jaguar, which are native to Guatemala) were the
co-essences of Gómez and López, and hence, their battle in the woods involved both their bod-
ies and the bodies of their human counterparts. Gage’s narrative leads us to believe that neither
he nor the crown officials fully understood what was going on, though all parties, in the end,
ironically concurred in believing that López was guilty as accused.