and opossums, are kept by the ancestral gods in four corrals inside the "Senior Large Mountain" in the east side of the world. If the animal spirit is let out of its corral by the ancestral gods, the person is in mortal danger and must undergo a lengthy ceremony to round up the chanul and return it to its corral. Only human beings have a wayhel soul. Each town is associated to a sacred mountain. The god Manojel-Tojel created humans by leading them out of the caves of the original hills. According to myth, each one of the patron-gods "installed himself in a hill, by order of the gods of the four corners of the earth". Yahwal Balamil is a god who lives inside the earth. He rides a deer with serpent bridles, and frees the water-filled clouds from inside the earth through caves. He announces himself with the croaking of frogs". Syncretism In the centuries since the Spanish conquest, under the influence of Catholicism, the Tzotzil have come to associate the Sun with God the Father or Jesus Christ and the Moon with the Virgin Mary. They also revere carved wooden or plaster images and pictures of Catholic saints, dressed in a mixture of colonial- Zinacanteco-style dresses. Eponyms The Tzotzil are commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Mexican pit viper, Cerrophidion tzotzilorum. References Further reading Chiapas Ethnic groups in Mexico Indigenous peoples in Mexico Maya mythology and religion Maya peoples Chiapas Highlands pl:Tzeltalowie