Part 35 (1/2)

Espanto was terror, caused by witnessing something frightening. Not just an ordinary tragedy like the death of a loved one; usually it was something in the supernatural sphere, in the form of a ghost or other apparition. It was said that those who have seen Night Ax, the headless specter who stuffs heads in the hole in his chest, and Camazotz, the huge, blood-thirsty bat from the southern region who swoops down and rips people apart with enormous teeth and claws, suffer from espanto for the rest of their lives. People who had the infliction often are unable to eat and end up wasting away until they die.

There was more discussion between the Healer and the cacique on the way to the woman's hut, but I followed too far behind to hear. When we got to the hut, the woman came out and greeted the a.s.sembly. After the proper introductions, to which I deliberately kept out of the center, everyone sat on logs and tobacco was pa.s.sed around.

A haze of smoke rose from the six people as they smoked their pipes. The woman puffed as much smoke from her pipe as any of the men.

She was a widow of about forty, a short, stocky india who had spent a lifetime working the fields, making tortillas, and nursing babes. She told the Healer that her husband had been dead for a year. This was her second husband, the one before having fathered her three children, two boys and a girl. One boy and the girl had died from the peste and the surviving boy was married, had a family, and lived in the village. The woman married the now-deceased second husband about five years ago. Their relations.h.i.+p had been a stormy one. ”He was infected by Tlazolteotl,” she told the Healer.

I recognized the name of the G.o.ddess. Tlazolteotl was the Aztec Venus, a G.o.ddess of love.

”He gave much blood to Tlazolteotl,” she said, ”and the G.o.ddess rewarded him with the strength of many men in his lovemaking. He made constant demands on me for ahuilnema.” She dabbed tears in her eyes. ”I did it so often that soon I could not sit down to roll tortillas. It was not decent. Even in the daylight, he would come home early from the fields and demand that he put his tepuli in my tipili.”

The Healer and the a.s.sembled old men murmured their sympathy for the woman's plight. I wondered what the problem was now that he was dead. But she soon enlightened us.

”He died last year and for a few months I had peace. But now he has come back.”

I had been scratching meaningless designs into the dirt, but she suddenly had my attention.

”He comes to me in the middle of the night, takes my blanket off, and removes my nightclothes. While I lay naked, he takes off his clothes and gets on the bed with me. I try to keep him away from me, but he forces my legs apart.”

She showed the old men how the ghost of her husband forced her legs apart, pus.h.i.+ng at the inside of her thighs with her hands while her legs trembled and tried to resist the pressure. The old men as a group mouthed aaayyyyo as her legs finally split apart enough for her husband's pene to slip in. All eyes were on the area between her legs that she had exposed to get across her point.

”He comes to me not once a night but at least three or four times!”

A gasp of astonishment rose from the old men. Even I gasped. Three or four times a night! The continuous nocturnal struggles that the old woman went through showed on her face-dark circles under tired eyes.

”I cannot eat and my body is wasting away!” she wailed.

The old men confirmed excitedly that the woman was indeed wasting away.

”She was twice this size,” the cacique said, ”a woman of good proportion, who could work all day in the fields and still make tortillas.”

The Healer asked her more questions about the apparition that raped her at night, going into minute detail about how he looked, the expression on his face, what he wore, and how his body felt to her.

”Like a fish,” the woman said, ”his tepuli feels cold and wet, slippery like a fish, when he slips it in my tipili-” She shuddered as if she could feel the cold fish inside of her, and we all shuddered with her.

After questioning her, the Healer got up and walked away from the hut, moving along the edge of a set of trees near a maize field. Birds flew in and out of the trees. His own gentle twittering was carried back to us on a breeze.

We all remained squatted by the woman as the Healer walked among the trees. Everyone had an ear c.o.c.ked in the Healer's direction, quietly straining to hear what insight the Healer gained from birds. I, too, listened to the songs and chatters of the birds, but gained no wisdom about the woman's problem.

Finally the Healer came back to share what he had divined.

”It is not the dead husband who visits you at night,” he told the woman, as we listened eagerly. ”Tlazolteotl has created a shadow image of the husband, and it is this shadow that comes at night.” He held up his hand to shut off the woman's excited response that the ghost was solid. ”The shadow is a reflection of your husband. He looks and feels like him, but he is a mirror image created with Tlazolteotl's personal smoking mirror.”

The Healer slipped out his own smoking mirror, and the woman and men drew back from it in fear and awe.

”We must burn her hut,” the cacique said, ”to rid her of this fiend. He must hide in a dark corner and come out at night to have his pleasure with her.”

The Healer clicked his tongue. ”No, it would do no good to burn the hut-not unless the woman was in it. The shadow fiend is inside of her!”