Tz'ite'

Conforme al lingüista k'iche' Sam Colop (2008: 36n34), tz'ite' es un "frijol rojo que es fruto del árbol de pito. Este árbol, como bieen dice Recinos (1953: 92), era utilizado y tal vez lo siga siendo en algunos lugares, 'para formar cercos'. Su fruto se sigue usando para ceremoniales de adivinación."

Anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: 82n104) explains that tz'ite' "is the bright-red beanlike seed of the coral tree (Spanish: palo de pito tree; Erythrina corallodendron). The seeds are used in divination ceremonies. Just as in the Popol Vuh manuscript, modern Quiché aj q'ij priests may use maize kernels or tz'ite seeds for such divinations. Tz'ite seeds are often referred to metaphorically as maize as well (Schultze-Jena 1954, 84; B. Tedlock 1982, 84)." Earlier in the text, he explained these divination ceremonies after translating the K'iche' term q'ijixik as "dayification." This term, he writes, "refers to a divinatory ceremony in which a handful of tz'ite beans or grains of maize (cf. 573-574) are cast and then interpreted by a sequential counting of the days of the Quiché ritual calendar. Thus the outcome of the creation is to be ritually determined through a divinatory 'counting of days.' This practice was apparently widespread in ancient Mesoamerica. The Codex Borbonicus from Central Mexico depicts two aged deities casting seeds of maize or tz'ite in a divinatory ceremony (folio 21). Calendar divination is still a common practice among the highland Maya" (79n95).

Image credit: A.L. de MacVean, "Erythrina berterona," Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Guatemala).