All the indications point to a comparatively late penetration of the
Maya into the region southwest of the Usumacinta. Nevertheless some of them had
established themselves there prior to the fifth decade of the seventeenth
century. About this time authorization to pacify the pagan Indians of Manche
and Lacandon was given to a certain Diego de Vera Ordóñez de Villaquirán, who
named the region El Próspero. Although he did little to carry out this
ambitious scheme, he succeeded in subjecting a settlement of Indians called
Nohaa (“great water”) on a lake. A Dominican friar from Chiapas made little
progress in Christianizing the people, since they spoke only Yucatecan Maya,
but subsequently Franciscan missionaries came from Yucatan and lived among them
for a time. Nohaa is described as being 15 or 18 leagues from Tenosique on the
other side of the river. Later the Barrios expedition to Dolores came to a
deserted site called Próspero 12 leagues east of Ocosingo. We are told that it
was so named because formerly Villaquirán had established his headquarters
there. Nohaa, however was evidently farther to the east, since the accounts of
the Barrios expedition do not mention a lake, and Cogolludo tells us that the
town was more accessible from the Usamacinta valley than from Chiaspas.
The missionaries reported that the people of Nohaa were monogamous.
From what little we know of their religious organization, it somewhat resembled
that of the Maya (Yucatecan Maya). A priest had charge of their idols. He was
assisted in his ceremonies by an ah kulel, or deputy, and an ah kayom,
which means singer or chanter. A daughter of one of these men prepared the
sacred breadstuffs, and no other woman was present at the sacrifices. Human
sacrifice was practiced, accompanied by excision of the heart and ceremonial
cannibalism. The victims were only foreigners and not their own people, so we
infer that they sometimes made war on their neighbors. In cases of adultery the
priest acted as judge and took part in the execution of convicted persons. We
know nothing of the function of the chief. (France V. Scholes and Ralph L.
Roys, The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan Tixchel: A Contribution to the History
and Ethnography of the Yucatan Peninsula [Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Publication no. 560; Washington, D. C.: Carnegie Institution of
Washington, 1948], 45-46)
