Marine otter

wow!

It is very like the teui, the small teui dog; small and smooth, shiny. It has small, pointed ears, just like a small dog. It is black, like rubber; smooth, slippery, very smooth, long-tailed. And its tail is provided with a hand at the end; just like a human hand is the point of its tail. And its hands are like a raccoon’s hands or like a monkey’s hands. It lives, it is a dweller in watery caverns, in watery depths. And if anyone arrives there at its entrance, or there in the water where it is, it then grabs him there. It is said that it sinks him, it plunges him into the water; it carries him to its home, it introduces him to the depths; so its tail goes holding him, so it goes seizing him. And when it grabs one, so that no one will fall upon it, so that there be fear, it then stirs the water; a tempest spreads; water is tossed up; it foams; it reaches far up; it overflows; large drops form; the foam spreads. And the fish, the xoxouilin, the amilotl, and the frogs all emerge. The fish scatter; the frogs, the big frogs go jumping. The drowned one disappears forever. But sometimes the auitzotl or the tlilcoatl raises him to the surface. The one it has drowned no longer has his eyes, his teeth, and his nails; it has taken them all from him. But his body is completely unblemished, his skin uninjured. Only his body comes out slippery-wet; as if one had pounded it with a stone; as if it had inflicted small bruises. And no single other person used to come to take what was there, the drowned one. The priests, the guardians of the gods, took personal charge. It is said that they were clean; for that reason they themselves took hold of him. For thus were they deluded: they said this drowned one went there to heaven, the place named Tlalocan. There the Tlaloc gods sent him. Hence they accorded the dead one much honor as they took him. They bore him away upon a litter to bury him at Ayauhcalco. They went blowing their flutes for him; they built him a covering of reeds. But if someone were to dare to try to take the drowned one—perhaps someone of vicious life—it is said that [the auitzotl] would also carry him off there; or else a great ailment called the gout would there seize him. And it was said that the drowned one was good of heart, wherefore they bore him to Tlalocan: or he had cherished a precious green stone, wherefore, it was said, the Tlalocs were angered. For it was said also that precious green stones were their bodies, or their spirits. So for this reason he had been drowned. Yet it was said also that he had gone there to Tlalocan, whither he had been summoned. So once again it was a joy for his kinfolk. They said, “His son hath received favor, for he is gone there to Tlalocan.” And these, it was said, would become rich; they gained as reward maize, amaranth, chía, etc. But still behold in what manner they were befuddled. It was said that if one had been drowned, the same would yet also befall still others of his kinfolk. Either they would also be drowned, or a thunder-bolt would strike them, so that they would also go there to heaven, the place called Tlalocan. Hence they were careful not to bathe much. And the villainy of this little animal! When no one fell into its hands, when it drowned no one, then it drove the fish, the xoxouilin, the amilotl, the frogs up to the surface. The frogs scattered; they went jumping. And indeed some of the fish, the white fish, cast themselves on dry land. Also the tlilcoatl did the same. And he who possessed a net seemed to become covetous. Thereupon he saw the fish; he fished, he fished contentedly. Then he continued placing the fish in the fold of his cape. This was just the little beast’s way of hunting people. Thereupon the water foamed over one; thus one there died, drowned, perished. There it became his memorial—the whirlpool, the torrent. And behold still another example of the trickery, the method of hunting people, of the auitzotl. When it was annoyed—had caught no one, had drowned none of us commoners—then was heard as if a small child wept. And he who heard it thought perhaps a child wept, perhaps a baby, perhaps an abandoned one. Moved by this, he went there to look for it. So there he fell into the hands of the auitzotl; there it drowned him. He who only saw it, who did nothing to it, the one [the auitzotl] did not drown, took it as an omen of evil; it was Tlaloc; it was said it was the priest. Then they commanded the little old woman to leave it there where she had gone to take it. They told the little old woman she had done evil. She said, “In some way it will destroy me. I took only one; I have damaged its spirit; I have taken its power. It drowns people; there are drownings.”