Champa
Spanish Transcription
Es tierra muy fértil de mantenimientos y ganado mayor e muy sana, en sà la gente que tiene no es muncha son de color baza e gentiles. Visten como los moros de esta ysla de Luzon y desde el prinçipio hasta agora no han que- brantado ninguna de sus constumbres antiguas. En este reino no hay moneda ni plaza a donde se venda cosa alguna e para haber de comprar lo que se tiene menester truecan mantenimientos por mantas y otras cosas que hacen al pro- pósito entrambas partes del que compra y el que vende y asà se negoçia aun- que sea en tratos de mayor quantÃa. Esta gente no come ninguna cosa guisada sino cruda o podrida y para desistir o dijerir estas comidas son grandes bebe- dores de agua ardiente fortÃsima y bébenla muy poco a poco y munchas veces y no tienen por afrenta caer de beber muncha, mas antes quando los grandes y el rey han de consultar algún negoçio de ymportancia comen primero todos juntos y beben a discreçión y después de terminar lo que se ha de hacer del negoçio y se cumple infaliblemente. La justicia de esta gente es extraña porque no escriben para cosa alguna sino conforme a su parecer y quando la cosa es grave con dos testigos lo averiguan. Sus juramentos son de fuego y aceite hirviendo. Y los culpados a la muerte se ejecuta en ellos con grandÃsima cruel- dad la sentencia, a unos condenan a morir debajo de pies de eleffantes, otros a açotes, otros teniéndolos penando dos o tres dÃas sacándole bocados y par- tes de su cuerpo con tenazas o cortándolas hasta que muere y por cosas muy leves y ordinarias les cortan pies
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/303v/ y manos, braços u orejas y con esto satisfacen la culpa de qualquiera delito, y no con açotes, ni dineros ni prisiones. En este reino por la razón dicha se concluyen luego los negocios de ympro- viso y los jueces de estas causas son el rey y los que gobiernan la tierra que son quatro manderines. Nadie puede andar calzado sino sólo el rey, ni puede ser casado con más de dos mujeres. El rey y los principales de este reino nin- guno de ellos deja de tener su oficio y todos lo usan por su contento. Tienen el año repartido en seis fiestas, la primera que hacen es que todos los más de sus vasallos le pagan tributo en esta primera fiesta de lo que poseen vase el rey a un campo y allà se juntan todos estos tributos y ellos da luego por las ánimas de sus difuntos de limosna y hace grandes obsequias y honras en memoria dellos alzando un arigue que es como una biga por memoria cada año. Este arigue está hueco por de dentro y allà le meten sus vestidos para que se vista y al pie del arigue ponen grandes comidas hechas a su uso y luego suben a caballo en unos animales que llaman carabaos que son propiamente búfanos de Ytalia y en algunos caballos que tienen y corren munchas carreras en ellos y en los carabaos y tienen por bizarrÃa y honra salir descalabrados al cabo de esta fiesta y asà el que más caÃdas ha dado sale más honrado; en estas fiestas están dos meses. La segunda fiesta es que dura otro tanto tiempo como ésta y gástanla sólo en cantar
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/304/ de manera que no se ha de hacer otra cosa ni dejar de cantar por cosa ninguna y esto salvo a hora de comer. Esta fiesta se hace en la plaça donde el rey vive a donde comen espléndidamente, a las noches hacen comedias representando las constumbres, rictos y trajes de otras tierras veci- nas suyas. Tienen libertad las mujeres en estas fiestas de qualquier estado que sean de que no les sea pedida quenta de sus personas en tres dÃas si no que hagan lo que quisieren dellas. Tercera fiesta es que se van a la orilla del mar y allà están otros dos meses pescando y el rey es el primero que echa su red a la mar y luego los principales tras él y asà por su orden los demás, en esto se huelgan todo este tiempo trayendo pescado para todo el año echándolo en sus tinajas con muy poca sal y de esta manera lo comen podrido y esto tienen por gran regalo y quando fresco lo parten muy menudo y con jengibre verde y pimienta revuelta lo comen y su vino de arroz muy fuerte encima y con este mantenimiento andan muy recios y rebustos. Quando el rey se vuelve a la çiu- dad se ordenan luminarias de noche y de dÃa con algunas comedias y comidas en público que hace el rey, ésta quando vuelve el rey es la quarta fiesta que tienen. La quinta es que va el rey a caza de elefantes que en esta tierra hay mun- chos llevando consigo los grandes y principales de su reino y en sus elefantes hembras y con quinient[os] o seiscientos yndios con sus
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/304v/ redes de mecates que son de cuerdas de bejuco y cercan el monte donde ellos andan y entran las hembras en el lugar donde andan los elefantes bravos los quales se van tras ellas hasta entrarse en un pequeño lugar que para esto tienen cercado y muy fuerte y allà los tienen presos algunos dÃas hasta que se amansan. De esta manera cogen grande cantidad aunque matan munchos dellos por aprovechar- se de los colmillos de marfil. La postrera fiesta que hacen es una caza de tigue- res y antes que vayan a cazarlos se hacen grandes comidas y bebidas porque dicen que con esta fiesta y alegrÃa que ellos toman bajan los tigueres a comer los búfanos que tienen amarrados en ciertos puestos en un árbol a éstos ponen centinelas para que quando los tigueres bajen a comer vengan a dar aviso al rey y esto se hace con muncho cuidado y en el punto que le viene el aviso está el rey aprestado con muncha cantidad de yndios y redes y hace con ellos lo que con los elefantes cercándolos una vez y allà los mata. Es constumbre de estos yndios que en el ynter que andan haciendo esta caza despacha el rey y su mujer cien yndios o más por esos caminos con mandato expreso de que no se vuelvan sin que traigan dos vaços de oro que les dan llenos de hiel de gen-te la qual ha de ser de su misma naçión y no de otra; y ellos lo cumplen como se les manda no perdonando a ninguna persona que hallen sea chica o
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/305/ grande como ellos la puedan coger por los caminos y luego lo amarran a un árbol y allà le sacan la hiel y en su lugar le meten en la herida un poco de çaca- te que es la yerba de estas tierras. Hecho esto vienen al rey y él trae veinte o treinta tigueres y estos matan en la çiudad echándolos a búfanos y matándolos con azagayas. Esto se hace en una plaça hecha al propósito para esto en ésta se junta toda la gente de la tierra a verlos, al cabo de todo esto sale el rey y su mujer a una ribera que tienen en la ciudad muy linda encima de sus elefantes y allà se bañan y lavan con esta hiel de gente y dicen que con esto se lavan de sus culpas y pecados y viven con este engaño. Tienen por dioses a sus prin- cipales y antepasados a los quales piden todo lo que han menester. Tienen otra constumbre ynventada por el mismo demonio y es que quando se mue- re alguna persona principal quémanla y antes de ello está ocho u diez dÃas el cuerpo hasta que se le hace el aparato conveniente a su estado quémanlo en el campo y en muriendo que muere prenden a todos los criados y familiares de este que muere y guárdanlos hasta el mismo dÃa que queman el cuerpo del amo u de la ama y allà los echan vivos con él, llevando consigo todas las cosas con que acá le servÃan para que en el otro mundo le sirvan porque este enga- ño tienen, entre los demás echánlos todos en una gran hoguera o corral de fuego que tienen para este efecto que son entre ellos sus sepulcros y entierros. otra constumbre guardan de
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​/305v/ harto trabajo para las mujeres y es que quando el marido muere queman a la mujer con él y por el consiguiente todos los criados del y della, esta ley dicen se hizo porque las mujeres no diesen yerba a sus maridos porque hay grandÃsimos hechizos y bellaquerÃas en esta tierras y grande aparejo en el conocimiento de las yerbas que tienen que es muncho de las quales se aprovechan para estos efectos. Dicen que sabiendo la mujer que no ha de vivir más de lo que viviere su marido que procurará su vida y regalo y no se atreverá a matalle como dicho tengo con yerba. otras munchas cosas guardan pero por evitar prolijidad no se escriben por ser éstas las principales de que se tiene notiçia y que ellos guardan entre sÃ
Luis Barandica Martínez. El Códice Boxer. Edición moderna de un manuscrito del siglo XVI. 2019.
English Translation
This is a land very fertile in food and livestock, and most healthy, though its people are few; they are olive-skinned and they are heathens. They dress like the Moros of this island of Luzon, and from the beginning to the present day they have broken with none of their ancient customs. There is no coinage or silver to sell anything with, and in order to buy what they need they trade food for piece goods and other items they make for the purpose of buying and selling with each other. And they trade in this way even when trading on a large scale. These people do not eat anything cooked, but only raw or rotting. And in order to pass and digest these foods, they drink great quantities of very strong spirits, which they drink a little at a time, but very frequently, considering it no disgrace to fall down from drinking too much. On the contrary, when the nobil- ity and the king have to discuss an important issue, first they all dine together and drink as much as they wish6 and then decide what to do about the matter, and then carry that decision out without fail. The justice of this people is peculiar, for nothing whatever is a crime unless they think it is. And when the crime is serious, they investigate it with two witnesses. Their oaths are made with fire and boiling oil, and sentencing is carried out with great cruelty on those condemned to death. Some are sentenced to be trampled to death by elephants; others are flogged to death; others are tortured for two or three days, during which time bits and pieces are cut out of their bodies with pincers until they die. And for very trifling and everyday offences, they cut off
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[303v] their feet, hands, arms and ears, punishing all offences in this way, and not with flogging, fines or imprisonment. This is why all dealings in this kingdom are concluded suddenly, and the judges of these trials are the king and those who govern the land, which are four mandarins.
No one can wear shoes except the king, nor can a man be married to more than two women. The king and the all the leading men of this kingdom retain their offices in perpetuity, using them for their own gratification. They divide the year into six festivals. The first of these is consists of all their vassals paying him tribute of what they possess. The king goes to a field, and there all these tributes are gathered together and then alms are given to the souls of their dead, and great obsequies and honors are performed in their memory by raising an arigue, which is like a beam, in memory of them. Every year this beam is hollow on the inside, and there the put their clothes so it can get dressed. And at the foot of the arigue they put huge meals made in their fashion. And then they mount some animals called carabaos, which are exactly like Italian buffaloes; they also mount some horses they have and run many races on them and on the carabaos. And they consider themselves daring and noble if by the end of these celebrations their heads are split open, and thus in the end he who takes the most spills is the most honored. These celebrations last two months. The second festival lasts as long as the first one, during which they spend the entire time
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[304r] chanting; they can do nothing else, nor can they cease their singing for anything except to eat. This festival takes place in the square where the king lives, where they dine sumptuously. In the evenings they per- forms plays in which they portray the customs, rituals and apparel of neighboring peoples. During these festivities the women from any social standing are exempt from answering for their actions for three days, during which time they may do as they please. The third festival is that they go to the seashore and spend another two months fishing. And the king is the first to throw his net into the sea, followed by the leading men, and then the rest in their order. This is how they celebrate all of this time, catching enough fish for the whole year, storing it in clay jars with a little bit of salt thrown in. And they eat it rotten in this way, considering it a delicacy. And when it is fresh, they cut it up in little pieces and eat it mixed with with green ginger and pepper, topped with their very strong rice wine. And this food keeps them very strong and robust. On the king’s return journey to the city, lamps burn day and night, with plays and public races held by the king. This festival, held upon the return of the king, is their fourth festival. The fifth one is that the king goes on an elephant hunt, of which there are many in this land, taking with him the great and leading men of his kingdom, riding their female elephants, accompanied by 500 or 600 Indians with their hemp nets, which are made from rattan cords. And
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[304v] they surround the jungle where the elephants live. And the females enter the place where the wild elephants are, which follow the females all the way into a small area that has been firmly fenced off, and there they keep them for several days until they are tamed. This is how they capture a great number of them, though many are killed for their ivory tusks. The last festival they celebrate is a tiger hunt. And before going off to hunt them, they hold great feasts and revels, for they say that their feasting and revelry attract the tigers, which come to eat the buffalo that have been tied to trees in several places. They place watchmen over them so that when the tigers come to feed they can run and report it to the king, and they do this very cautiously. And as soon as the king is notified he prepares himself with a great number of Indians and nets, and he does with them as he does with the elephants, surrounding them suddenly and killing them. It is the custom with these Indians during the time of this hunt for the king and his wife to send 100 Indians or more out on the roads with explicit orders to not return without two gold vessels full of human bile, which must be taken from people of their own nation, and not from any other. And they obey as they are commanded, sparing no one they meet up with on the roads,
[305r] be they highborn or low. And after tying them to a tree, they remove their gall and stuff a little zacate, which is the grass of these lands, into the wound from which it was taken. This done, they return to the king. And he takes 20 or 30 tigers and kills them in the city, throwing them to the buffaloes and killing them with javelins. This is done in a square created precisely for this purpose, in where all the people are assembled to watch. When all this is over, the king and his wife ride their elephants to a very beautiful river bank which they have in the city where they bathe and wash with the human gall; they say that with this they cleanse themselves of their sins and faults, and they live in this delusion.
They believe their leading people and ancestors are gods, whom they ask to fill all their needs. They have another custom invented by the devil himself, which is that when an important man dies, they burn him, but before doing so his body lies in state for eight or ten days until the preparations can be made that are appropriate to his status. They burn him in the countryside. And after he dies, all of the household servants belonging to the deceased are taken and held until the day their master’s or mistress’s corpse is to be burned, and they are thrown alive onto the fire, along with everything that they served them with in this life so that in the next life they can serve them. This is one of several delusions they suffer from. They throw them all onto a great bonfire or firepit that they have for this purpose, which serves as their tombs and graves.
Another custom they follow
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[305v] which is a supreme torment for the women is that when their husbands die they burn his wife with him, together with all of his and her servants. They claim this law was adopted to prevent wives from administering poison to their husbands, for all kinds of witchcraft and wickedness are prevalent in these lands, and skill in herbal lore—many herbs are used for this purpose. They say that if the wife knows that she will not live any longer than her husband, she will make sure he lives a long and happy life and will not dare poison him to death, as I have explained. They have many other customs, but they will not be written here to avoid prolixity, since these are the main ones that have come to our attention and which they follow.