Acantun

Acantuns are ritual stone shafts placed at the four corners of a Yucatec Maya village. When night fell, four Balams (Jaguars) were said to arrive and sit on the idols to keep guard over the village.

References

Brinton, Daniel G. (1882). American Hero-Myths: A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent (Project Gutenberg EBook #11029, online reproduction). Philadelphia: H.C. Watts and Co. OCLC 2461981.
Freidel, David A.; Linda Schele (2000). "Kingship in the late preclassic Maya Lowlands: the instruments and places of ritual power". In Michael E. Smith and Marilyn A. Masson (eds.). The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 422–440. ISBN 0-631-21115-2. OCLC 59423537.
Markman, Roberta H.; Peter T. Markman (1992). The Flayed God: the Mesoamerican Mythological Tradition; Sacred Texts and Images from pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-250528-9. OCLC 25507756.