Chon'ndá vee

Chon'ndá vee — literally 'the woman of the dragging water', and known regionally as Chjoon Ndave, Shondá ve', Na Lisa, Na Isabel or simply Chjoon — is the Mazatec female owner of water, counterpart to the earth-lord Chikón Tokoxo. The widely told Huautla narrative makes her a water-maiden, daughter of the gods, who is bound by marriage into Chikón Tokoxo's family on the sacred hill; cast out by a jealous mother-in-law, she flees as a thin crawling sheet of water across the sierra, pronouncing the name of every spring, river and settlement she passes, and so author of the region's sacred toponymy — elders map dozens, even more than a hundred, of Huautla's water-sources to her flight. The twenty-day Chan-maje period, 'the time of the great thunder', is associated with her in the Mazatec agricultural calendar. Whether named as Chikón Tokoxo's wife or his daughter-in-law varies by version, but in all she is reckoned a power over water as great as his over the earth.

Domains

• springs and rivers
• naming of places
• rain and storm

Powers

• to name the springs, rivers and towns of the Mazatec country
• to own and command the flowing water of the springs and rivers
• to multiply ears of maize by a touch

Epithets

• Chjoon ndá veeFlorence H. Cowan, 'La mujer del agua arrastradora: un texto mazateco', Tlalocan 4, no. 2 (1963): 144-147: 'the woman of the dragging water' (secondary)
• Na LisaEckart Boege, Los mazatecos ante la nación (Siglo XXI, 1988): regional by-name of the female water-owner, also Na Isabel and Chjoon (secondary)

Relations

• consort of: Chikón TokoxoChon'ndá vee belongs to Chikón Tokoxo's household and is paired with him as the female owner of the water; in the 'Chikón Tokoxo se casa' version she is his bride Isabel, in the calendar version his daughter-in-law. In every telling a jealous mother-in-law drives her out and she becomes the wandering water that names the land.Mitos y Leyendas Mexicanas, 'Chikón Tokoxo se casa' (mito mazateco) (secondary); Celeste Kristal Flores Cuevas & Cleotilde Hernández Suárez, 'El calendario agrícola mazateco y los dueños del agua: Chikón Tokoxo y Chon'ndá vee', Agua y Territorio 27 (2025): 83-96 (secondary)

Sources

• Chon'ndá vee (Chjoon Ndave / Na Lisa / Na Isabel / Chjoon), 'the woman of the dragging water', is the Mazatec female owner of springs and rivers who, married into Chikón Tokoxo's household and driven out by a jealous mother-in-law, names the waters and places of the Huautla country.: Florence H. Cowan, 'La mujer del agua arrastradora: un texto mazateco', Tlalocan 4, no. 2 (1963): 144-147 (secondary); Celeste Kristal Flores Cuevas & Cleotilde Hernández Suárez, 'El calendario agrícola mazateco y los dueños del agua: Chikón Tokoxo y Chon'ndá vee', Agua y Territorio 27 (2025): 83-96 (secondary); Eckart Boege, Los mazatecos ante la nación (Siglo XXI, 1988) (secondary)