Escala de Alvarado

Concerning the tale’s time aspects, the period of time in which the events occur is not mentioned explicitly. The story begins “early one day” when a man goes to work with his sons and some day laborers to clear a field in the forest (lines 23-39). The adverb “one day” alludes to any day. The adjective “early” settles a more precise moment of that unspecified day, but confirms, moreover, that the protagonist is the typical exemplary man, who goes out to work at an early hour, as honorable and industrious peasants do. The man cannot be accused of laziness, which is one of the most negative qualities that may be ascribed to a Nahua, both in narrative and in real life. The storyteller wants to make sure that his main character is not to be blamed for the negative things that will happen to him later in the tale, as would be the case if he were lazy. The man’s dedication is enhanced when it is stated that he “cleared, cleared, and cleared” (line 37). Reduplication of verbs is the chief compositional principle used to indicate the event’s long duration in oral tradition (Gray 1971). In Nahua oral tradition, the verb’s threefold repetition also denotes the accomplishment of a task that took a while (Toumi 1984:35). The peasant’s working spirit is further expressed through the fact that he was happy about having begun the work that day (line 50- 52); soon afterward, this is contrasted with the sadness he felt when the forest had risen (lines 65-74). Observations about his love of work are made throughout the tale’s first part.

As all Nahua peasants do, the protagonist comes home that first afternoon and looks for day laborers to help him the following day (lines 53-56). That next day he discovers that during his absence the trees have grown again. Being an exemplary Nahua, he is saddened --not angry or disconcerted--, and wonders how this could have happened (line 65-89). He not only starts doing the work over again, but he cuts down the trees into even smaller pieces than the previous day. The second day passes as the first (lines 90-108). The third morning, the trees are upright again. The man almost wants to give up the job, but he convinces himself to cut the forest for the third time (lines 109- 136). Three is the number that in Nahua thought connotes an act’s completion, the reaching of a limit, and the course within a space in its totality (Toumi 1984:35). Having worked in vain for two days, the man does not want to see his third day’s work undone. That night, he stays in the forest to find out who is raising the clearing (lines 157-163).

It is the crucial moment at midnight, the potential end of a period, when the man hears the noise of the forest rising bit by bit (line 164-176). Extraordinary acts occur at nighttime, when dark and harmful forces become effective and try to disrupt the established order. The devil works at these hours, and acts of sorcery and witchcraft are especially potent then. Encounters between Nahuas and beings from other spaces often take place

during the night. Midnight is thus an adequate time for the raising of the clearing and for the dialogue between the hare and the peasant. The raising of the clearing signifies an inversion of the existing order, an exceptional event that must have been provoked at a particularly significant time of day. Similarly, a conversation between an animal (the hare) and a person (the peasant) calls for a specific temporal framework. It is during the disruptive, nocturnal part of the day that an obviously anomalous course of action (a hare warning mankind) can be expected. Only at this point of time may the hare inform the peasant about a pending disaster, that is, about a coming disruption.

The conversation also constitutes one of the elements that, by contrast, separates today’s world from the previous one(s). In former days it seemed to be altogether normal for a person to communicate with animals. Nahuas give credence to the idea that people had the faculty to understand animals and freely interact with them whenever they wanted to do so. Currently -- some say immediately after the flood-- man has lost this highly appreciated faculty. By talking to the peasant, the hare is associated with this ancient temporal setting.

After the nightly conversation, the peasant decides to build the canoe following the hare’s indications. The hare had told him not much time was left before it would start to rain, but did not give a specific time limit (line 267). The exact number of days or months that pass before the canoe is finished is not mentioned and does not seem relevant to the narrator. Yet, Don Pancho attests the man had only just concluded the work when the rain started (line 294-296).

The hare had told the peasant the rains would last long: “It shall begin to rain, rain, rain, rain” (line 245). And, indeed, “it began to rain, rain, rain and rain” (line 296). With reduplication of the verb marking an action’s continuance, the more than threefold repetition hints at the rains’ extremely lengthy interval. The hare employs an exact numeral as well: the rains would continue for forty days (line 274). After having suggested only vague time lapses, this precise count of the days is deemed meaningful[142]. This number, corresponding with the story in Genesis, suggests the rains’ lengthy duration and, by doing so, alludes to the event’s extraordinary circumstances. It seems to have acquired symbolic significance in Nahua society, as there are anecdotes about a lengthy rainy period of forty days in the Northern Gulf area, in the mid-80s, in which a ceaseless rain drowned the maize plants in the month of September. The numeral is confirmed by other Nahuas and has clearly replaced former counts. Other published Nahua versions of the flood tale cite the same number (Seis versiones.... 1982:8-19; 49-64; Stiles 1978:11-12; Stiles Maya and Castillo 1985:22-25; Taggart 1983:192-194). The

Legend of the Suns describes the people drowning in one single day, after which the world was inundated for fifty-two years, the Aztec equivalent of a time cycle[143]. Only in a version registered by Gómez Martínez (1999:18-22) is this number respected; Nahuas of Chicontepec, Veracruz, remember the deluge lasted fifty-two days.

After this last temporal indication, the narrator hardly gives any more specific time markers. We do not know how many days, months or even years the man had to live with his family and the villagers in the canoe before the craft reached heaven. We ignore how long they floated near heaven until the waters began to subside, or how long it took before the canoe reached ground again. Since the narrator cites the survivors’ arrival on earth and their discovery of the dead animals in one sentence (lines 335-340), and mentions the animals being eaten right afterwards (lines 341-343), one assumes the peasant began making a fire directly after having touched dry land, yet there is nothing to confirm this assumption. One also presupposes that God must have smelled the smoke instantaneously or slightly after it had gone up to heaven, because it is said it irritated Him the moment he saw it (lines 345- 355). Though it is not indicated, He might have sent the first angel at once. Also, there is no information on the number of hours or days God waited in vain for his angel to come back, and when the procedure repeats itself with the second angel, there are no specific time markers either. However, the third angel is sent back and flies without delay to report on its findings (lines 400-401). The angel’s swiftness stresses its obedience towards God and emphasizes its virtue as a loyal servant. Once he knows how matters stand, God takes steps immediately (lines 416-434).

It appears, once more, that it is important to sketch out the event’s sequence, rather than its precise duration. In the tale, when there are specific manifestations of time duration (such as the three days of work, the nightly conversation, forty days of rain, or the third angel’s immediate return), these seem to have a symbolic meaning, rather than the purpose of giving exact time-spans. Whereas some of these are common forms used in tale telling in general, and others are borrowed from the Genesis tale, their significance can at times be understood only if one has some knowledge of Nahua time principles. The temporal setting and story time weave time aspects with different origins into a new, coherent whole.