The Enchanted Ulupa Lagoon
The Lenca people believed that from the confines of the volcano of San Miguel, a huge flying serpent came from its first eruption. On that day, the place was full of magma and ashes, and the serpent went to take refuge in the enchanted Ulupa Lagoon (figure 1).
Figure 1. The Ulupa lagoon. ¹
The Ulupa Lagoon, in the Lenca language, meant: “place of the eels.” It used to look more or less circular, and apparently, it had deep waters. However, it had a unique peculiarity, from there was born a drainage stream that led its excesses to the right bank of the Río Grande de San Miguel River.
The lagoon was about 5 km north of the Jocotal Lagoon, in the south or right band, and about 2 km away from the ancient road that joined the extinct populations of Xiriualtique and Elenuayquin, and shortly before reaching the prehistoric lava flows that were thrown the aforementioned volcanic towards the SE, in the direction of the San Juan Lagoon, whose last rebound cuts today The Litoral Highway.
The lagoon was tiny. It had a perimeter of “a stone’s throw,” according to the testimony of Brother Antonio of Ciudad Real. The presumed author of “Brief and True Relationship.” He was a Franciscan chronicle that told the story of Father Commissar Friar Alonso Poncé, for those parts, in 1586. The lagoon was arranged in the manner of a sea or pond of pure and crystalline waters and was the scene of the slow legend of the Sa-isis-isis yu-uueue-nana or “the 400 dancing boys”. The legend recalls the similar Nawat of the CJentzon-toíochün or “the 400 rabbits” as well as the quiche of the Omuch qaholab or “the 400 boys” who integrated the constellation of the Piéyades.
Many black iguanas and crappies and other fish were born in that source, but none of these animals were touched by the Indians nor scarcely dared to set a blanket nearby. The Indians believed that those animals were men from ancient times. Some of them swallowed that one day four hundred boys danced around the lagoon, accompanied by an old man who played a larnboriiejo. However, they finished so tired and angry about dancing so much that they agreed unanimously to throw themselves in that lagoon and drown.
This action was so insane because everyone was tied with a long rope; therefore, nobody could escape. Someone brought the long rope from his house, and they did not stop until everyone was tied. Then the first angry boy jumped, and then the other until there was only one who repented, untied, and set himself free.
Furthermore, this cowardly deserter was the one who brought the ominous news to the people of Xiriualtique of the end of all these boys and who “pretended that all (his friends) became fish or black iguanas. For this reason, they said that no they fished (or hunted) there.”
The four hundred young Lenca dancers gave rise to the constellations called: Tzurlágua, Astillejos, Pleiades, or Seven-Sheeps, these were unique names employed by them. The Ulupa Estate and the Plain of the Death were cut by the impetuous stream of igneous rocks that were expelled by the volcano of San Miguel between the 21st and the 23rd of September 1787. However, neither the Ulupa Lagoon nor was this limnological site undermined by the eruptive phenomena of July 18, 1819.
In these times, the Teshcal encompassed “about three leagues from its opening to the vicinity of the lagoon of the Ulupa Estate; and about a quarter of a league-wide”; the lava intercepted or shredded the remote road between Usulután and San Miguel and the traffickers had to go around, increasing a league of road, until they passed between the Ulupa Lagoon and the top of the badlands.
The eruption of the San Miguel Volcano on July 23, 1844, buried the Ulupa Lagoon completely with its lava flows. An eyewitness confirmed these events: the Milanese historian Lic. José Antonio Cevallos. He wrote in his 1st volume of “Recuerdos Salvadoreños” (Ed. 1892) the following: “The lava of 1844, formed their corners by the southwest part of the volcano (of San Miguel) extending to considerable distances until blinding the Ulupa Lagoon, and much stretch of the road that went from the city of San Miguel to the one of Usulután.”
With the Ulupa Lagoon gone, the legend of the Sa-iSis-iSis Yu-uéuenána also disappeared; from its edges, the lizard (mer) and the black iguana (mer-tz’oícon) and in its bosom there could no longer exist the guapote (pálul), the catfish (osogé), the pepesca (sháya), the ulumma (orum), the film (cóyum), the eel (úlum), the conga (shíw) and other ichthyological specimens, which abounded in the fauna of the Lenca people.
The lagoon was about 5 km north of the Jocotal Lagoon, in the south or right band, and about 2 km away from the ancient road that joined the extinct populations of Xiriualtique and Elenuayquin, and shortly before reaching the prehistoric lava flows that were thrown the aforementioned volcanic towards the SE, in the direction of the San Juan Lagoon, whose last rebound cuts today The Litoral Highway.
The lagoon was tiny. It had a perimeter of “a stone’s throw,” according to the testimony of Brother Antonio of Ciudad Real. The presumed author of “Brief and True Relationship.” He was a Franciscan chronicle that told the story of Father Commissar Friar Alonso Poncé, for those parts, in 1586. The lagoon was arranged in the manner of a sea or pond of pure and crystalline waters and was the scene of the slow legend of the Sa-isis-isis yu-uueue-nana or “the 400 dancing boys”. The legend recalls the similar Nawat of the CJentzon-toíochün or “the 400 rabbits” as well as the quiche of the Omuch qaholab or “the 400 boys” who integrated the constellation of the Piéyades.
Many black iguanas and crappies and other fish were born in that source, but none of these animals were touched by the Indians nor scarcely dared to set a blanket nearby. The Indians believed that those animals were men from ancient times. Some of them swallowed that one day four hundred boys danced around the lagoon, accompanied by an old man who played a larnboriiejo. However, they finished so tired and angry about dancing so much that they agreed unanimously to throw themselves in that lagoon and drown.
This action was so insane because everyone was tied with a long rope; therefore, nobody could escape. Someone brought the long rope from his house, and they did not stop until everyone was tied. Then the first angry boy jumped, and then the other until there was only one who repented, untied, and set himself free.
Furthermore, this cowardly deserter was the one who brought the ominous news to the people of Xiriualtique of the end of all these boys and who “pretended that all (his friends) became fish or black iguanas. For this reason, they said that no they fished (or hunted) there.”
The four hundred young Lenca dancers gave rise to the constellations called: Tzurlágua, Astillejos, Pleiades, or Seven-Sheeps, these were unique names employed by them. The Ulupa Estate and the Plain of the Death were cut by the impetuous stream of igneous rocks that were expelled by the volcano of San Miguel between the 21st and the 23rd of September 1787. However, neither the Ulupa Lagoon nor was this limnological site undermined by the eruptive phenomena of July 18, 1819.
In these times, the Teshcal encompassed “about three leagues from its opening to the vicinity of the lagoon of the Ulupa Estate; and about a quarter of a league-wide”; the lava intercepted or shredded the remote road between Usulután and San Miguel and the traffickers had to go around, increasing a league of road, until they passed between the Ulupa Lagoon and the top of the badlands.
The eruption of the San Miguel Volcano on July 23, 1844, buried the Ulupa Lagoon completely with its lava flows. An eyewitness confirmed these events: the Milanese historian Lic. José Antonio Cevallos. He wrote in his 1st volume of “Recuerdos Salvadoreños” (Ed. 1892) the following: “The lava of 1844, formed their corners by the southwest part of the volcano (of San Miguel) extending to considerable distances until blinding the Ulupa Lagoon, and much stretch of the road that went from the city of San Miguel to the one of Usulután.”
With the Ulupa Lagoon gone, the legend of the Sa-iSis-iSis Yu-uéuenána also disappeared; from its edges, the lizard (mer) and the black iguana (mer-tz’oícon) and in its bosom there could no longer exist the guapote (pálul), the catfish (osogé), the pepesca (sháya), the ulumma (orum), the film (cóyum), the eel (úlum), the conga (shíw) and other ichthyological specimens, which abounded in the fauna of the Lenca people.
Based on “El Diario de Hoy” from June 19th, 1977.
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