Editing Yum Kaax (section)

== Role in Maya culture ==
Pre-Columbian contact, Yum Kaax was considered one of the most important deities in the Maya pantheon and was used to help those who hunted for their food. Tradition farmers would invoke his name and present him with the first fruits of their fields, carved out from the forest,<ref>cf. Thompson 1930: 107-108, 173</ref> so that wild animals and vegetation would not destroy their fields. Hunters far out in the wilderness would sometimes take off their shirt, spread it over four stakes in the ground, and then crawl underneath to try and find deer. This is a ritual to Yum Kaax so that deer become easier to find.<ref>Muntsch 1943: 34</ref>