Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology

• Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology
• About
• Get help in the History Group

Ah Puch

Ah Puch America
The Maya god of death. He was portrayed as a skeleton or a bloated corpse, adorned with bells. As Hunhau the chief of demons, he presided over the ninth and lowest of the underworlds, the horrible mitnal. In modern folklore he survives as Yum Cimil, ‘lord of death’, prowling the houses of the sick in his endless search for prey. The Maya have always had a great fear of death, unlike their more warlike neighbours, and the Spanish conquerors were amazed at the over whelming grief and sorrow expressed by the bereaved. It was the custom during the day for them to weep in silence; and at night, when the earth duplicated the darkness of Hunhau's realm, they raised loud and awful cries, unbearable alike for passers-by or those living near.

The bodies of the humble were buried under the floors of their houses or behind them: their mouths were invariably filled with ground maize, and jade beads placed in their hands as money. The...

[The entire page is 210 words long]

Oxford University Press Titles

• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
• The Oxford Dictionary of Economics
• The Oxford Companion to American Literature
• The Oxford Companion to American Military History
• The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
• The Oxford Companion to English Literature
• The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
• The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
• The Oxford Dictionary of Plays
• The Oxford Dictionary of Art
• Oxford Dictionary of Sociology
• Oxford Dictionary of World History
• Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology