Popol Vuh: Part III

PART III: Chapter 1

Here, then is the beginning of when it was decided to make man, and when what must enter into the flesh of man was sought.

And the Forefathers, the Creators and Makers, who were called Tepeu and Gucumatz said: "The time of dawn has come, let the work be finished, and let those who are to nourish and sustain us appear, the noble sons, the civilized vassals; let man appear, humanity, on the face of the earth." Thus they spoke.

They assembled, came together and held council in the darkness and in the night; then they sought and discussed, and here they reflected and thought. In this way their decisions came dearly to light and they found and discovered what must enter into the flesh of man.

It was just before the sun, the moon, and the stars appeared over the Creators and Makers.

From Paxil, from Cayalá, 1 as they were called, came the yellow ears of corn and the white ears of corn.

These are the names of the animals which brought the food: 2 yac (the mountain cat), utiú (the coyote), quel (a small parrot), and hoh (the crow). These four animals gave tidings of the yellow ears of corn and the white ears of corn, they told them that they should go to Paxil and they showed them the road to Paxil. 3

And thus they found the food, and this was what went into the flesh of created man, the made man; this was his blood; of this the blood of man was made. So the corn entered [into the formation of man] by the work of the Forefathers.

And in this way they were filled with joy, because they had found a beautiful land, full of pleasures, abundant in ears of yellow corn and ears of white corn, and abundant also in pataxte and cacao, 4 and in innumerable zapotes, anonas, jocotes, nantzes, matasanos, and honey. 5 There was an abundance of delicious food in those villages called Paxil and Cayalá. There were foods of every kind, small and large foods, small plants and large plants.

The animals showed them the road. And then grinding the yellow corn and the white corn, Xmucané made nine drinks, and from this food came the strength and the flesh, and with it they created the muscles and the strength of man. This the Forefathers did, Tepeu and Gucumatz, as they were called.

After that they began to talk about the creation and the making of our first mother and father; of yellow corn and of white corn they made their flesh; of corn-meal dough they made the arms and the legs of man. Only dough of corn meal went into the flesh of our first fathers, the four men, who were created.

Footnotes

105:1 p. 225 Paxil means separation, spreading of the waters, inundation. Cayalá, derived from cay, "rotten," may also be interpreted as putrid matter in the water. These legendary places which gave to the Middle American people the native fruits which are the base of their subsistence and economic development, were found, in the opinion of Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the region of Tabasco, where the Usumacinta River, after watering northern Guatemala, divides into various branches and overflows this entire region during the period when the rivers rise. This phenomenon is similar in its cause and effects to the inundations by the Nile, that spread the fertile sediment which produces the rich harvests of Egypt. Bancroft believed that Paxil and Cayalá were in the region of Palenque and the Usumacinta. Both opinions would have some foundation, if it were possible to establish the location of these mythological places, for that was, without doubt, the region which was inhabited for some time by the Guatemalan tribes in their wanderings toward the lands of the south.

105:2 Echá, "food," "nourishment." In the case of man, echá is the cooked and ground corn which was the common food of the American Indian, and which the Quiché thought, logically, had been used to fashion the first men.

105:3 "Which was the paradise," Ximénez adds in his first version, of their own harvest. The Cakchiquel Manuscript says that, when the Creator and the Maker made man, they had nothing with which to feed him until they found corn in Paxil, fighting for it with two animals, the coyote and the crow, who knew where it was raised. The coyote was killed in the middle of the cornfield. From the dough of the corn, mixed with the blood of the snake, the flesh of man was made. The Mexican legend tells of the discovery of corn in a similar way. According to the Códice Chimalpopoca, Azcatl, the ant, told Quetzalcoatl that there was corn in Tonacatepetl (mountain of our subsistence). Quetzalcoatl immediately changed himself into a black ant and went with Azcatl, entered that place, and brought the corn to Tamoanchán.

105:4 Cacau in Maya and Quiché, a well-known plant of tropical America. A variety of cacao, Theobroma bicolor, called pec in Quiché, commonly known under the Mexican name pataxte.

105:5 p. 225 Tulul, zapote, mamey in Yucatán, Lucuma mammosa. The anona is well known by this name and also as chirimoya, the Quiché name is cavex. The jocote, a name derived from the Náhuatl xocotl, Spondias purpurea, L., is the quinom of the Quiché and Cakchiquel. The nantze, so called in Náhuatl, Byrsonima crassifolia, is the tapal in the languages of Guatemala. The matasano, ahaché in these languages, Casimiroa edulis, Llave, and Lex., completes the list of those fruits which abound in the hot and temperate lands of Guatemala.
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III. Chapter 2

THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE FIRST men who were created and formed: the first man was Balam-Quitzé, the second, Balam-Acab, the third, Mahucutah, and the fourth was Iqui-Balam. 1

These are the names of our first mothers and fathers. 2

It is said that they only were made and formed, they had no mother, they had no father. They were only called men. 3 They were not born of woman, nor were they begotten by the Creator nor by the Maker, nor by the Forefathers. 4 Only by a miracle, by means of incantation were they created and made by the Creator, the Maker, the Forefathers, 5 Tepeu and Gucumatz. And as they had the appearance of men, they were men; they talked, conversed, saw and heard, walked, grasped things; they were good and handsome men, and their figure was the figure of a man.

They were endowed with intelligence; they saw and instantly they could see far, they succeeded in seeing, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world. When they looked, instantly they saw all around them, and they contemplated in turn the arch of heaven and the round face of the earth.

The things hidden [in the distance] they saw all, without first having to move; at once they saw the world, and so, too, from where they were, they saw it.

Great was their wisdom; their sight reached to the forests, the rocks, the lakes, the seas, the mountains, and the valleys. In truth, they were admirable men. Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.

Then the Creator and the Maker asked them: "What do you think of your condition? Do you not see? Do you not hear? Are not your speech and manner of walking good? Look, then! Contemplate the world, look [and see] if the mountains and the valleys appear! Try, then, to see!" they said to [the four first men].

And immediately they [the four first men] began to see all that was in the world. Then they gave thanks to the Creator and the Maker: "We really give you thanks, two and three times! 6 We have been created, we have been given a mouth and a face, we speak, we hear, we think, and walk; we feel perfectly, and we know what is far and what is near. We also see the large and the small in the sky and on earth. We give you thanks, then, for having created us, oh, Creator and Maker! for having given us being, oh, our grandmother! oh, our grandfather!" they said, giving thanks for their creation and formation.

They were able to know all, and they examined the four comers, the four points of the arch of the sky and the round face of the earth.

But the Creator and the Maker did not hear this with pleasure. "It is not well what our creatures, our works say; they know all, the large and the small," they said. And so the Forefathers held counsel again. "What shall we do with them now? Let their sight reach only to that which is near; let them see only a little of the face of the earth! It is not well what they say. Perchance, are they not by nature simple creatures of our making? Must they also be gods? And if they do not reproduce and multiply when it will dawn, when the sun rises? And what if they do not multiply?" 7 So they spoke.

"Let us check a little their desires, because it is not well what we see. Must they perchance be the equals of ourselves, their Makers, who can, see afar, who know all and see all?"

Thus spoke the Heart of Heaven, Huracán, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxa-Caculhá, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, Xpiyacoc, Xmucané, the Creator and the Maker. Thus they spoke, and immediately they changed the nature of their works, of their creatures.

Then the Heart of Heaven blew mist into their eyes, which clouded their sight as. when a mirror is breathed upon. Their eyes were covered and they could see only what was close, only that was clear to them.

In this way the wisdom and all the knowledge of the four men, the origin and beginning 8 [of the Quiché race], were destroyed.

In this way were created and formed our grandfathers, our fathers, by the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth.

Footnotes

109:1 p. 226 Ximénez explains the significance of these names as follows: Balam-Quitzé means jaguar of sweet laughter, or much laughter, or fatal laughter, like poison. Balam-Acab, jaguar of the night. Mahucutah, not brushed. Iqui-Balam, jaguar of moon or of chile, black jaguar, in Maya. The god of the people of Yucatán was worshiped under the name of "Ek-Balam or Eque-balam, black jaguar." (Relaciones de Yucatán, II, 53). It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find the true origin of these names. Ximénez' explanation has been generally accepted, although it is not entirely satisfactory. It must be noted that balam also has the meaning of "sorcerer, "and that the ancient Quiché, who believed in sorcery and incantations, saw their first fathers as sorcerers and wizards.

109:2 Meaning the forefathers, the ancestors. In the next chapter the author begins to call them mothers, in the same generic sense.

109:3 Xa utuquel achih. They had no family name. They had no ancestors. They were the beginning of the human race.

109:4 Rumal ri Ahtzac, Ahbit, ri Alom, Qaholom.

109:5 Rumal ri Tzacol, Bitol, Alom, Qaholom.

109:6 Chi camul camo, oxmul camo. Like the expression "a thousand and one times" in modern languages.

109:7 Que quiritahic, "they multiply"; qui iaric, as it is in the original, literally, "they bear many," "they propagate," are synonyms, derived from the adverb of quantity qui, "many." Like multos, multiplicare in Latin.

109:8 U xe u ticaribal.

III. Chapter 3

Then their wives had being, and their women were made. God himself made them carefully. 1 And so, during sleep, they came, truly beautiful, their women, at the side of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.

There were their women when they awakened, and instantly their hearts were filled with joy because of their wives.

Here are the names of their wives: Cahá-Paluna was the name of the wife of Balam-Quitzé; Chomihá was the wife of Balam-Acab; Tzununihá, the wife of Mahucutah; and Caquixahá was the name of the wife of Iqui-Balam. These are the names of their wives, who were distinguished women. 2

They conceived the men, of the small tribes and of the large tribes, and were the origin of us; the people of Quiché.

There were many priests and sacrificers; there were not only four, but those four were the Forefathers 3 of us, the people of the Quiché.

The names of each one were different when they multiplied there in the East, and there were many names of the people: Tepeu, Olomán, Cohah, Quenech, Ahau, as they called those men there in the East, where they multiplied. 4

The beginning is known, too, of those of Tamub and those of Ilocab who came together from there in the East. 5

Balam-Quitzé was the grandfather and the father of the nine great houses of the Cavec; Balam-Acab was the grandfather and father of the nine great houses of the Nimhaib; Mahucutah, the grandfather and father of the four great houses of Ahau-Quiché.

Three groups of families existed; but they did not forget the name of their grandfather and father, those who propagated and multiplied there in the East.

The Tamub and Ilocab also came, and thirteen branches of peoples, the thirteen of Tecpán, and those of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, those from Tziquinahá, and the Zacahá and the Lamaq, Cumatz, Tuhalhá, Uchabahá, those of Chumilahá, those of Quibahá, of Batenabá, Acul-Vinac, Balamihá, the Canchahel, and Balam-Colob. 6

These are only the principal tribes, the branches of the people which we mention; only of the principal ones shall we speak. Many others came from each group of the people, but we shall not write their names. They also multiplied there in the East.

Many men were made and in the darkness they multiplied. Neither the sun nor the light had yet been made when they multiplied. All lived together, they existed in great number and walked there in the East.

Nevertheless, they did not sustain nor maintain [their God]; they only raised their faces to the sky, and they did not know why they had come so far as they did.

There they were then, in great number, the black men and the white men, men of many classes, men of many tongues, that it was wonderful to hear them. 7

There are generations in the world, there are country people, whose faces we do not see, who have no homes, they only wander through the small and large woodlands, like crazy people. So it is said scornfully of the people of the wood. So they said there, where they saw the rising of the sun.

The speech of all was the same. They did not invoke wood nor stone, 8 and they remembered the word of the Creator and the Maker, the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth.

in this manner they spoke, while they thought about the coming of the dawn. 9 And they raised their prayers, those worshipers of the word [of God], loving, obedient. and fearful, raising their faces to the sky when they asked for daughters and sons:

"Oh thou, Tzacol, Bitol! 10 Look at us, hear us! Do not leave us, do not forsake us, oh, God, who art in heaven and on earth, Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth! Give us our descendants, our succession, as long as the sun shall move and there shall be light. Let it dawn; let the day come! Give us many good roads, flat roads! May the people have peace, much peace, and may they be happy; and give us good life and useful existence! 11 Oh, thou Huracán, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxá-Caculhá, Chipi-Nanauac, Raxá-Nanauac, Voc, Hunahpú, Tepeu, Gucumatz, Alom, Qaholom, Xpiyacoc, Xmucané, grandmother of the sun, grandmother of the light, let there be dawn, and let the light come!" 12

Thus they spoke while they saw and invoked the coming of the sun, the arrival of day; and at the same time that they saw the rising of the sun, they contemplated the [paragraph continues] Morning Star, the Great Star, which comes ahead of the sun, that lights up the arch of the sky and the surface of the earth, and illuminates the steps of the men who had been created and made.

Footnotes

113:1 p. 226 Xavi Cabahuil x-naohin chic. Naohin means to make something carefully.

113:2 Ximénez (Historia . . . de Chiapa y Guatemala, I, 35) interprets these names as follows: Cahá-Paluna, standing water (vertical) falling from above; Chomiha, p. 227 beautiful, chosen water; Tzununihá, water of hummingbirds; Caquixahá, water of the macaw. The Título de los Señores de Totonicapán gives the names of the wives of those Quiché heroes with some differences: "The wife of Balam-Quitzé was called Zaka-Paluma, the wife of Balam-Agab was Tzununi-há; that of Mahucutah, Cakixa-ha; Iqui-Balam was single."

113:3 Ri qui chuch oh quiche vinac, literally "the mothers of us, the Quiché." Chuch, "mothers," here has the generic meaning, as the word "fathers" has in Spanish, and both are understood as the forefathers.

113:4 It is possible to recognize among these names that of Tepeu, which in other places in this book is applied to the Yaquis, Yaqui-Tepeu, one of the tribes of Toltec origin who emigrated together with the Quiché. The people of Olomán, who are the Olmeca, Olmeca-xicalanca, who lived at the south of Veracruz, may be identified as those with whom the Quiché were likewise intimately united.

113:5 Copichoch, Cochochlam, Mahquinalon, and Ahcanabil were the chiefs of the tribe of Tamub whose names are found in the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán and in the Historia Quiché de D. Juan de Torres, an unpublished manuscript which also describes the succession of these chiefs. Brasseur de Bourbourg (Popol Vuh, p. cclxi) makes known the names of the chiefs of the tribe of Ilocab, which he took from another manuscript, the Título de los Señores de Sacapulas, which was in his possession. These names, which also appear in the Título de Totonicapán, are as follows: Chi-Ya-Toh, Chi-Ya-Tziquin, Xol-Chi-Tum, Xol-Chi-Ramag, and Chi-Pel-Camuhel.

113:6 These thirteen tribes of Tecpán, which the Título de Totonicapán calls Vukamag Tecpam, are the Pocomam and Poconchi tribes, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg. The tribe of Rabinal was established in the interior of the present Republic of Guatemala, and its descendants still form an important center of Quiché population. The Cakchiquel constituted a strong and numerous kingdom, a rival of the Quiché Kingdom, which had as its capital, Iximché (native name of the tree now called bread-nut or ramón in Spanish).The Mexicans called Iximché Tecpán-Quauhtemállan, from which comes the present name of Guatemala. The tribe of Tziquinahá took as its capital the city of Atitlán, and occupied the western part of the territory surrounding the lake of this same name. Zacahá is the present Salcaja, close to the modern city of Quetzaltenango. Lamac, Cumatz, Tuhalhá, and Uchabahá were on the outskirts of Sacapulas, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg. It has not been possible to identify the rest of the tribes. That of Balamihá may be the tribe which established itself in the place now called Balamyá, in the department of Chimaltenango.

113:7 p. 228 In the original this paragraph reads as follows: Ta x-qohe pa qui chiri queca vinac, zaqui vinac, qui vachibal vinac, qui u chabal vinac, cay u xiquin. Brasseur de Bourbourg changed the meaning of qui, "much," for quiy, "sweet," and says in his translation that "sweet was the appearance of those peoples, sweet the language of those peoples." Qui vachibal vinac means literally "men of many forms, aspects, or appearances." Qui u chabal vinac, "many were the tongues of the men." Evidently the author was trying to give the idea of the multitude of different people, strange to each other, blacks and whites, that is, of light skin and of dark skin, and of the many different tongues which were in the East. The Quiché, however, maintained their ethnic unity and their common tongue in the midst of this Babylon, as is seen farther on. Ximénez translates the end of the paragraph saying "there were many languages and of two ears," which lacks meaning. In his second version (Historia . . . de Chiapas y Guatemala, I, 36) he tries to explain the sentence and says "that they hear and understand each other through the diversity of languages." Cay, cab, or caíb is the number "2," but the first form, which is the one used in the text also means to see or hear with wonder, and this is probably the idea which it means to express here.

113:8 That is, the idols.

113:9 "They were only waiting for the sunrise" is Ximénez' interpretation.

113:10 Creator and Maker.

113:11 Utzilah qazlem, vinaquirem ta puch coh a ya vi.

113:12 The Quiché pantheon appears complete in this paragraph with the addition of the two new names, Voc and the large and small Nanauac. The first, Voc or vac, the hawk, was the messenger of Huracán who came to be present at the ball game of Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú, according to the account in a previous chapter of the Quiché book. Nanauac, the Omniscient, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg is the same person who, with the name Nanahuatl (the disfigured), appears in the Códice Chimalpopoca.

III. Chapter 4

Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam said, "Let us await the break of day." So said those great wise men, the enlightened men, the priests and sacrificers. This they said.

Our first mothers and fathers did not yet have wood nor stones to keep; 1 but their hearts were tired of waiting for the sun. Already all the tribes and the Yaqui people, 2 the priests and sacrificers, were very many.

"Let us go, let us go to search and see if our [tribal] symbols are in safety; if we can find what we must burn before them. 3 For being as we are, there is no one who watches for us," said Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.

And having heard of a city, they went there.

Now then, the name of the place where Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam and those of Tamub and Ilocab went was Tulán-Zuivá, Vucub-Pec, Vucub-Ziván. 4 This was the name of the city where they went to receive their gods.

So, then, all arrived at Tulán. It was impossible to count the men who arrived; there were very many and they walked in an orderly way.

Then was the appearance of their gods; first those of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. Who were filled with joy: "At last we have found that for which we searched!" they said.

And the first that appeared was Tohil, as this god was called, and Balam-Quitzé put him on his back, in his chest. 5 Instantly the god called Avilix appeared, and Balam-Acab carried him. The god called Hacavitz was carried by Mahucutah; and Iqui-Balam carried the one called Nicahtacah. 6

And together with the people of the Quiché, they also received those of Tamub. And in the same way Tohil was the name of the god of the Tamub who received the grandfather and father of the Lords of Tamub, whom we know today.

In the third place were those of Ilocab. Tohil was also the name of the god who was received by the grandfathers and the fathers of the lords, whom we also know today.

In this way, the three Quiché [families] were given their names and they did not separate, because they had a god of the same name, Tohil of the Quiché, Tohil of the Tamub and [Tohil] of the Ilocab; one only was the name of the god, 7 and therefore the three Quiché [families] did not separate.

Great indeed was the virtue of the three, Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz.

Then all the people arrived, those from Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, those from Tziquinahá, and the people who now are called the Yaqui. And there it was that the speech of the tribes changed; their tongues became different. They could no longer understand each other clearly after arriving at Tulán. There also they separated, there were some who had to go to the East, 8 but many came here.

And their clothing was only the skins of animals; they had no good clothes to put on, the skins of animals were their only dress. They were poor, they possessed nothing, but they had the nature of extraordinary men.

When they arrived at Tulán-Zuivá, Vucub-Pec, Vucub-Zivan, the old traditions say that they had traveled far in order to arrive there.

Footnotes

116:1 p. 228 Which means idols.

116:2 Yaqui-Vinac, ahqixb, ahcahb, the Mexicans, the ancient Tolteca, the Náhuatl tribe, which united with the Maya of the south, were the origin of the Indian nations of Guatemala. The author calls the Yaquis the priests and sacrificers, and these same names are given in various places to the Quiché chiefs, Balam-Quitzé and his companions. In describing the death of these chiefs, the text designates them in this way: "the chiefs and sacrificers, so called." Cf. end of Chap. 5, Part IV.

116:3 p. 229 Chi ca ric ri coh tzihón ta chuvach, evidently they searched for the incense to burn before the gods.

116:4 This passage of the Popol Vuh is very interesting as proof of the common origin of the Quiché and the other peoples of Guatemala, and of the tribes which established themselves in ancient times in various parts of Mexico and Yucatán. Tulán-Zuivá, the Cave of Tulán, Vucub-Pec, Seven Caves, and Vucub-Ziván, Seven Ravines, are the Quiché names of the place to which Mexican tradition gives the name of Chicomoztoc, which in Náhuatl also means Seven Caves. In the Manuscript of Sahagún from the Academia de la Historia these words are found: "Our fathers had news that from Chicomoztoc they had come, as they themselves said, the seven tribes who proceeded from there, born there." (Cf. Seler, Los Cantares de los dioses, in Sahagún, Historia General, 1938 ed., V, 84.) According to Maya tradition, the name of the cradle of the human race is similar to that which was given by the Quiché, Holtún Çuuyva, the Zuivá Cave, according to the Books of Chilan Balam. Although it has not been possible to locate exactly the site of ancient Tulán of the caves or ravines, the common tradition preserved in Mexico and Guatemala gives all the people of this vast region an origin which, although purely legendary, marks the beginning of their historical evolution. The ancient chronicles of Guatemala are remarkable in this sense, for the clarity with which they show the movement of the tribes from their place of reunion to the places where they finally settled and reached the state of civilization in which the Spaniards found them in the early XVIth century.

116:5 U coc, in this case is the chest or wooden frame which the Indians bear on their backs and in which they carry their products, or burdens, from one place to another. The common name in Guatemala is cacaxte, taken, like many others, from the Mexicans.

116:6 Tohil gets his name from toh, "rain," according to Ximénez. The people of Rabinal called him Huntoh, 1 Toh, which is a day of the calendar. Farther on, the author writes that Tohil and Quetzalcoatl were the same being. The Cakchiquel Manuscript calls Tohohil the principal god of the Quiché. There is no satisfactory etymology for the names of Avilix and Hacavitz. Nicahtacah, literally "in the middle of the plain," does not appear again in the narration, probably because Iqui-Balam had a very secondary part, and did not leave descendants. Explaining the origin of the name Tohohil, the Cakchiquel Manuscript says that when the tribes were in the region of the Laguna de Términos, before going southward into the mountains of Guatemala, the Quiché said: Xaqui tohoh quihilil xibe chi cah, or "thus like it thundered and resounded in the sky," and adds, "in truth in the sky is our p. 230 salvation. Thus they said and for that reason they were called those of Tohohil." The name Tohil, is, in effect, associated with the idea of rain and thunder, as stated at the beginning of this note.

116:7 Xahun u bi u cabauil, in the original.

116:8 To Yucatán.

III. Chapter 5

And they did not have fire. Only the people of Tohil had it. He was the god of the tribes which first created fire. It is not known how it was made, because it was already burning when Balam-Quitzé and Balam-Acab saw it.

"Ah, we have no fire yet! We shall die of cold," they said. Then Tohil said to them: "Do not worry! Yours shall be the lost fire which is talked of. Yours shall be what is spoken of as lost fire," Tohil said to them.

"Really? Oh, God, our support, our maintenance, thou, our God!" they said, returning thanks.

And Tohil answered: "Very well, certainly I am your God; so shall it be! I am your Lord; so let it be!" Thus it was told to the priests and sacrificers by Tohil. And in this manner the tribes received fire and they were joyful because of it.

Instantly a great shower began to fall when the fire of the tribes was burning. Much hail fell on all the tribes and the fire was put out because of it, and again the fire was extinguished.

Then Balam-Quitzé and Balam-Acab again asked Tohil for fire. "Oh, Tohil, we are truly dying of cold!" they said to Tohil.

"Very well, do not worry," Tohil answered, and instantly he made fire, turning about in his shoe. 1

Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were at once happy and immediately they became warm.

Now, the fire of the peoples [of Vucamag] had also gone out and they were dying of cold. immediately they came to ask Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam for fire. They could no longer bear the cold nor the ice; they were shivering and their teeth were chattering; they were numb; their legs and hands shook and they could not hold anything in them, when they came.

"We are not ashamed to come before you, to beg for a little of your fire," they said. But they were not well received. 2 And then the tribes were very sad.

"The speech of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam is different! Oh! We have given up our speech! What have we done? We are lost. How were we deceived? We had only one speech when we arrived there at Tulán; we were created and educated in the same way. It is not good what we have done," said all the tribes under the trees, under the vines.

Then a man came before Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam and [this man], who was a messenger of Xibalba, spoke thus: "This is, in truth, your God; this is your support; this is, furthermore, the representation, the memory of your Creator and Maker. Do not give your fire to the tribes until they present offerings to Tohil. It is not necessary that they give anything to you. 3 Ask Tohil what they should give when they come to receive fire," said the man from Xibalba. He had wings like the wings of a bat. 4 "I am sent by your Creator, your Maker," said the man of Xibalba.

They were filled with joy then, and Tohil, Avilix, and [paragraph continues] Hacavitz were also gladdened when the man from Xibalba spoke, who disappeared instantly from their presence. 5

But the tribes did not perish when they came, although they were dying of cold. 6 There was much hail, black rain and mist, and indescribable cold.

All the tribes were trembling and shivering with cold when they came where Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were. Their hearts were greatly troubled and their mouths and eyes were sad.

In a moment the beggars 7 came before Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam and said: "Will you not have pity on us, we only ask a little of your fire? Perchance, were we not [once] together and reunited? Did we not have the same home and one country when we were created, when we were made? Have mercy, then, on us!" they said.

"What will you give us so that we shall have mercy on you?" they were asked.

"Well, then, we shall give you money," the tribes answered.

"We do not want money," said Balam-Quitzé and Balam-Acab.

"And what do you want?" [asked the tribes].

"We shall ask now" [said Balam-Quitzé].

"Very well, "said the tribes.

"We shall ask Tohil and then we shall tell you," they answered.

"What must the tribes give, oh, Tohil! who have come to ask for your fire?" said Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.

"Well! Are they willing to give their waist and their armpits? 8 Do they want me to embrace them? For if they do not want to do that, neither shall I give them fire," answered Tohil.

"Tell them that this shall come later, that they do not have to come now to give me their waist and their armpits. This is what Tohil orders us to tell you, you will say." This was the answer to Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.

Then they took Tohil's message. "Very well, we shall join you and we shall embrace him," they [the people] said when they heard and were told the message from Tohil. And they did not delay in acting. "Good," they said, "but may it be soon!" And immediately they received the fire. Then they became warm.

Footnotes

120:1 p. 230 X-u bac uloc chupan u xahab. I give the Ximénez version. The expression undoubtedly refers to the primitive way of making fire by means of a stick which the Indians twirled rapidly in a hole in another stick. According to the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán, Balam-Quitzé and his companions were "beginning to rub wood and stones, those who first made fire." The tribes of Vucamag only succeeded in having the Quiché give them "a little" of their fire by offering them their daughters.

120:2 Ma cu habi x-e culaxic.

120:3 M'yv ahauah chi qui ya ch'yve. The verb ahauax, according to Ximénez, means "to be convenient," "to be necessary."

120:4 Qo uxic queheri uxic zotz. I follow Ximénez in his interpretation of this phrase, which he reads Qo u xic queheri u xic zotz. Brasseur de Bourbourg translates it that the form of the messenger was like a bat. The text, however, clearly says that the one who presented himself before Balam-Quitzé and his companions was a man; a man who had wings like those of a vampire.

120:5 The appearance of this "man of Xibalba," demonium loquens eis, or demon of which they spoke, is curious, according to what Ximénez says of him in the original manuscript. Evidently, and in a general sense, Xibalba was for the Quiché the world of ghosts and phantoms. In the present episode the messenger, who comes to advise the priests, presents himself as one sent from the Creator and Maker, but there is reason to suspect his identity.

120:6 Mavi x-mainic ta x-e ul chicut ri amag que utzin rumal teu, as it is in the original.

120:7 E elegom, in the original. Elogom is a substantive derived from the verb "to rob", but here it may be an error in the text of the primitive copy. Brasseur de Bourbourg interprets the word as meaning à la dérobée; other translators render it as meaning "in secret," "desolate." Ximénez translates directly as "the thieves." From the Quiché verb elahic, "to pray, supplicate, humiliate" themselves, the substantive elahom is formed, giving the idea I prefer in this place, and which seems to conform more nearly to the meaning of the passage concerned.

120:8 Ma chi c'ah qui tunic xe qui toloc, xe pu qui mezquel? That is to say, deliver p. 231 up the victims in order that they may be sacrificed, in the Mexican style, by opening their breasts with the flint knife and offering their hearts to the god. The same idea is repeated farther on in more unequivocal terms.

III. Chapter 6

There was nevertheless a tribe who stole the fire in the smoke; 1 and they were from the house of Zotzil. 2 The god of the Cakchiquel was called Chamalcán 3 and he had the form of a bat.

When they passed through the smoke, they went softly and then they seized the fire. The Cakchiquel did not ask for the fire, because they did not want to give themselves up to be overcome, the way that the other tribes had been overcome when they offered their breasts and their armpits so that they would be opened. And this was the opening [of the breasts] about which Tohil had spoken; that they should sacrifice all the tribes before him, that they should tear out their hearts from their breasts.

And this had not yet begun when the taking of power and sovereignty by Balam-Quitzé, Balam.-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam was prophesied by Tohil. 4

There in Tulán-Zuivá, whence they had come, they were accustomed to fast, they observed a perpetual fast while they awaited the coming of dawn and watched for the rising sun.

They took turns at watching the Great Star called Icoquih, 5 which rises first before the sun, when the sun rises, the brilliant Icoquih, which was always before them in the East, when they were there in the place called Tulán-Zuivá, whence came their god.

It was not here, then, where they received their power and sovereignty, but there they subdued and subjected the large and small tribes when they sacrificed them before Tohil, and offered him the blood, the substance, breasts, and sides of all the men.

In Tulán power came instantly to them; great was their wisdom in the darkness and in the night.

Then they came, they pulled up stakes there and left the East. "This is not our home; let us go and see where we should settle," Tohil said then.

In truth, he was accustomed to talk to Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam: "Give thanks before setting out; do what is necessary to bleed your ears, prick your elbows, and make your sacrifices, this shall be your thanks to God."

"Very well, "they said, and took blood from their ears. And they wept in their chants 6 because of their departure from Tulán; their hearts mourned when they left Tulán.

"Pity us! We shall not see the dawn here, when the sun rises and lights the face of the earth," they said at leaving. But they left some people on the road which they followed so that they would keep watch.

Each of the tribes kept getting up to see the star which was the herald of the sun. This sign of the dawn they carried in their hearts when they came from the East, and with the same hope they left there, from that great distance, according to what their songs now say. 7

Footnotes

123:1 p. 231 Xa x-relecah ubic gag pa zib, in the original.

123:2 Zotzilá-ha, the house of the zotziles or bats. Thus the royal house of the Cakchiquel was called, and its king boasted the title of Ahpo-zotzil, King or Lord Bat.

123:3 The present Cakchiquel call a serpent of great size chamalcán.

123:4 Maha chi tihou oc u banic ta x-nicvachixic rumal Tohil u camic puch gagal tepeual cumal ri Balam-Quitzé, etc. In interpreting this sentence, the translators of the Popol Vuh have given the word camic the common meaning of "death," suggested to them, no doubt, by the idea of the human sacrifices of which the previous paragraph speaks. Brasseur de Bourbourg translates this paragraph as follows: On n'avait pas tenté cette pratique, quand fut énigmatiquement proposée par Tohil leur mort dans l'épouvante et la majesté. Nevertheless, the sentence in Quiché is very simple, and it becomes clear by reading camic as the substantive derived from the verb cam, "to take," "to receive." The first sentence of the third paragraph following confirms this interpretation. The verb nicvachin means "to see at a distance." The prophet, augur, sorcerer, or seer is nicvachinel in Quiché. The words gagal, tepeual, signify sovereignty, divine or royal majesty, says the Vocabulario de las lenguas Quiche y Kakchiquel. Tepeual is a word of Náhuatl origin.

123:5 Icoquih, Venus, the precursor of the sun, literally, "who carries the sun on her back" "The star of the aurora," says the Vocabulario de los P. P. Franciscanos, and the Manuscript Yzquin which Fuentes y Guzmán cites calls it Nimá Chumil, "Great Star," which is exact equivalent to the Maya Noh Ek.

123:6 X-oc cut chupan qui bix. Here the verb oc means "to cry."

123:7 Las Casas (Apologética Historia de las Indias, Chap. CLXXIV, p. 459) says that, next to the sun, whom they had as their principal lord, they honored and worshiped the Morning Star "more than any other heavenly or earthly creature, because they believed it as true that their god Quetzalcoatl, when he died, had been changed into that star." And Las Casas adds that each day they waited for it to rise in order to venerate it, offering it incense and shedding their own blood to honor it.

III. Chapter 7

They came at last to the top of a mountain and there all the Quiché people and the tribes were reunited. There they all held council to make their plans. Today this mountain is called Chi-Pixab, 1 this is the name of the mountain.

There they reunited and there they extolled themselves: "I am, I, the people of the Quiché! And thou, Tamub, that shall be thy name." And to those from Ilocab they said: "Thou, Ilocab, this shall be thy name. And these three Quiché [peoples] shall not disappear, our fate is the same," 2 they said when they gave them their names.

Then they gave the Cakchiquel their name: Gagchequeleb 3 was their name. In the same way they named those of Rabinal, which was their name, and they still have it. And also those of Tziquinahá, 4 as they are called today. Those are the names which they gave to each other.

There they were come together to await the dawn and to watch for the coming of the star, which comes just before the sun, when it is about to rise. "We came from there, but we have separated," they said to each other.

And their hearts were troubled; they were suffering greatly; they did not have food; they did not have sustenance; they only smelled the ends of their staffs and thus they imagined they were eating; but they did not eat when they came. 5

It is not quite clear, however, how they crossed the sea; they crossed to this side, as if there were no sea; they crossed on stones, placed in a row over the sand. For this reason they were called Stones in a Row, Sand Under the Sea, 6 names given to them when they [the tribes] crossed the sea, the waters having parted when they passed.

And their hearts were troubled when they talked together, because they had nothing to eat, only a drink of water and a handful of corn they had. 7

There they were, then, assembled on the mountain called Chi-Pixab. And they had also brought Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Balam-Quitzé and his wife Cahá-Paluna, which was the name of his wife, observed a complete fast. And so did Balam-Acab and his wife, who was called Chomihá; and Mahucutah and his wife, called Tzununihá, also observed a complete fast, and Iqui-Balam. with his wife, called Caquixahá, likewise.

And there were those who fasted in the darkness, and in the night. Great was their sorrow when they were on the mountain, called Chi-Pixab.

Footnotes

125:1 p. 231 "The mandate, or council." Probably it is the same place which the p. 232 Título de los Señores de Totonicapán calls Chi-Quiché. According to this document, the tribes left Tulán Pa Civán (between ravines), crossed the sea, arrived at the edge of a lake where they made huts (houses with roof of straw), but disgusted with the place, they continued on to the place called Chicpach, where they lived, and leaving a stone there as a monument, they continued their wanderings, nourishing themselves with roots. They arrived at another place which they named Chi-Quiché and finally came to a hill which they called Hacavitz-Chipal, "where they settled."

125:2 Xa hunam ca tzih. Tzih has several meanings: word, opinion, history, fate, or destiny.

125:3 Those of the red tree, or of fire.

125:4 The people of Rabinal still preserve their old name. Tziquinahá is the present town of Santiago Atitlán and was the capital of the Zutuhil.

125:5 The Cakchiquel Manuscript describes in similar terms the hardship and hunger suffered by the tribes: "There was nothing to eat . . . everything was lacking, we nourished ourselves With the bark of trees, we only smelled the end of our canes and with this felt satisfied"; xa ca ti ca zec ru xe ca chamey ti cuquer vi ca cux ruma, in the Cakchiquel tongue.

125:6 Cholochic-Abah, Bocotahinac-Zanaieb.

125:7 Hu uq chi qui cumeh ri, xa huma ixim, in the original.

III. Chapter 8
And their gods spoke to them again. Thus Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz spoke to Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam: "Let us go, let us get up, let us not stay here, take us to a secret place! Already dawn draws near. Would it not be a disgrace for you if we were imprisoned by our enemies within these walls where you, the priests and sacrificers. keep us? Put each of us, then. in a safe place," 1 they said when they spoke.

"Very well. We shall go on, we shall go in search of the forests," all answered.

Immediately after, they took up their gods and put them on their backs. In this way they carried Avilix to the ravine called Euabal-Ziván, 2 so named by them, to the large ravine of the forest. now called Pavilix, 3 and there they left him. In this ravine he was left by Balam-Acab.

They were left one by one. The first one left was Hacavitz, he was left on a large red pyramid, 4 on the mountain now called Hacavitz. There they founded their town, there in the place where the god called Hacavitz, was.

In the same way, Mahucutah left his god, who was the second one hidden by them.

Hacavitz was not in the forest, but on a hill cleared of trees, Hacavitz was hidden.

Then Balam-Quitzé came, he came there to the large forest; Balam-Quitzé came to hide Tohil at the hill which is today called Patohil. Then they celebrated the hiding of Tohil in the ravine, in his refuge. A great quantity of snakes, jaguars, vipers, and cantiles 5 were in the forest where they were hidden by the priests and sacrificers.

Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah. and Iqui-Balam were together; together they awaited the dawn, there on the mountain, called Hacavitz.

And a short distance away, was the god of the people of Tamub and of the people of Ilocab. Amac-Tan, 6 the place is called, where the god of the Tamub [people] was, and there dawn came to the tribes. The place where those from Ilocab awaited the dawn was called Amac-Uquincat; 7 there was the god of those of Ilocab, a short distance from the mountain.

There. too, were all the people of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, the Tziquinahá, all the small tribes, and the large tribes. Together they stayed. awaiting the coming of the dawn and the rising of the large star called Icoquih, which rises just before the sun, when it dawns, according to the legend.

There they were together, then, Balam-Quitzé. Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. They did not sleep; they remained standing and great was the anxiety of their hearts and their stomachs for the coming of dawn and the day. There, too, they felt shame; they were overcome with great sorrow, great suffering. and they were oppressed with pain.

They had come that far. "Oh. we have come without joy! If only we could see the rising of the sun! What shall we do now? If we lived in harmony in our country, why did we leave it?" they said to each other, in the midst of their sadness and affliction, and with mournful voices.

They talked, but they could not calm their hearts which were anxious for the coming of the dawn. "The gods are seated in the ravines, in the forests, they are among the air-plants, among the mosses, 8 not even a seat of boards were they given," they said.

First there were Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Great was their glory, their strength, and their power over the gods of all the tribes. Many were their miracles, and countless their journeys, and their pilgrimages in the midst of the cold; and the hearts of the tribes were filled with fear.

But calm were the hearts of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. With respect to them [the gods]. They felt no anxiety in their hearts for the gods whom they had received, and had carried on their backs when they came there from Tulán-Zuivá, from there in the East.

They were there, then, in the forest, now called Zaquiribal, Pa-Tohil, P'Avilix, Pa-Hacavitz. 9

And next came the dawn, and light shone for our grandparents and our parents.

Now we shall tell of the coming of the dawn and the appearance of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Footnotes

129:1 p. 232 Huhun ta cut y ya vi. The verb ya, yac, is used here in the sense of guarding, to have custody, to insure, Diccionario Cakchiquel.

129:2 Ravine of the hiding place.

129:3 In Avilix.

129:4 Hun nima caq ha, a large mound, painted red, an artificial pyramid such as the Indians constructed as a base for their temples. On some of these the red paint is still preserved. They lived for many years in Hacavitz-Chipal, says the Título de Totonicapán. According to Brasseur de Bourbourg, the mountain Hacavitz is one of those which rises to the north of Rabinal three leagues from the Chixoy River. In the Cuchumatan Mountains, to the cast of the Chixoy River, and at an altitude of 5,900 feet, there is the archaeological site of Chipal which might be the ancient Hacavitz-Chipal.

129:5 Canti, a variety of poisonous serpent, Trigonocephalus specialis. The ancient Indians thought that these serpents were minor gods of their mythology.

129:6 The tribe of Tan, Amagtán in the Título de Totonicapán.

129:7 The name Uquincat might mean "net of gourds," from uqui, a tree p. 233 which produces a fruit resembling the gourd, and cat, "net." The Título de los Señores de Totonicapán mentions this place under the name of Uquín, and adds that together with the tribes of Tamub and Ilocab there were the thirteen tribes called Vucamag-Tecpán.

129:8 Xa pa ec, xa pa atziac e qo vi. Ec is the Tillandsia Species pluribus, a bromeliaceous plant which lives on trees, as was said before. Atziac is another bromeliaceous plant which also grows on trees, and its thick fibres, similar to gray hair, hang to the ground. Its common name in Guatemala is paxte, derived from the Náhuatl word paxtle. An epiphyte Dendropogon usneoides, incorrectly called moss of Florida and Spanish moss in the southern part of the United States.

129:9 The coming of dawn in the mountains of Tohil, of Avilix, and of Hacavitz. The Título de los Señores de Totonicapán says that when the chiefs of the Quiché nation disappeared, their children found themselves, by a miracle, in the mountains where the gods were, and that since that time these mountains are called Zaquiribal-Tohil, Zaquiribal-Avilix, and Zaquiribal-Hacavitz.

III. Chapter 9

Here, then, is the dawn, and the coming of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were very happy when they saw the Morning Star. It rose first, with shining face, when it came ahead of the sun.

Immediately they unwrapped the incense 1 which they had brought from the East, and which they had planned to burn, and then they untied the three gifts which they had planned to offer.

The incense which Balam-Quitzé brought was called Mixtán-Pom; the incense which Balam-Acab brought was called Cavixtán-Pom; and that which Mahucutah brought was called Cabauil-Pom. 2 The three had their incense and burned it when they began to dance facing toward the East.

They wept for joy as they danced and burned their incense, their precious incense. Then they wept because they did not yet behold nor see the sunrise.

But, then, the sun came up. The small and large animals were happy; and arose from the banks of the river, in the ravines, and on the tops of the mountains, and all turned their eyes to where the sun was rising.

Then the puma and the jaguar roared. But first the bird called Queletzú 3 burst into song. In truth, all the animals were happy, and the eagle, the white vulture; 4 the small birds and the large birds stretched their wings.

The Priests and the sacrificers were kneeling; great was the joy of the priests and sacrificers and of the people of Tamub and Ilocab and the people of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, those from Tziquinahá, and those from Tuhalhá, Uchabahá, Quibahá, from Batená, and the Yaqui Tepeu, all those tribes which exist today. And it was not possible to count the people. The light of dawn fell upon all the tribes at the same time.

Instantly the surface of the earth was dried by the sun. Like a man was the sun when it showed itself, and its face glowed when it dried the surface of the earth.

Before the sun rose, damp and muddy was the surface of the earth, before the sun came up; but then the sun rose, and came up like a man. And its heat was unbearable. 5 It showed itself when it was born and remained fixed [in the sky] like a mirror. Certainly it was not the same sun which we see, it is said in their old tales.

Immediately afterward Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz were turned to stone, together with the deified beings 6 the puma, the jaguar, the snake, the cantil, and the hobgoblin. Their arms became fastened to the trees when the sun, the moon, and the stars appeared. All alike, were changed into stone. Perhaps we should not be living today 7 because of the voracious animals, the puma, the jaguar, the snake, and the cantil, as well as the hobgoblin; perhaps our power would not exist if these first animals had not been turned into stone by the sun.

When the sun arose, the hearts of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were filled with joy. Great was their joy when it dawned. And there were not many men at that place; only a few were there on the mountain Hacavitz. 8 There dawn came to them, there they burned their incense and danced, turning their gaze toward the East, whence they had come. There were their mountains and their valleys, whence had come Balam-Quitzé, [paragraph continues] Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam, as they were called.

But it was here where they multiplied, on the mountain, and this was their town; here they were, too, when the sun, the moon, and the stars appeared, when it dawned and the face of the earth and the whole world was lighted. Here, too, began their song, which they call camucú; 9 they sang it, but only the pain in their hearts and their innermost selves they expressed in their song. "Oh pity us! In Tulán we were lost, we were separated, and there our older and younger brothers stayed. Ah, we have seen the sun! but where are they now, that it has dawned?" so said the priests and the sacrificers of the Yaqui.

Because, in truth, the so-called Tohil is the same god of the Yaqui, the one called Yolcuat-Quitzalcuat. 10

"We became separated there in Tulán, in Zuyva, from there we went out together, and there our race was created when we came," they said to each other.

Then they remembered their older brothers and their younger brothers, the Yaqui, to whom dawn came there in the land which today is called Mexico. Part of the people remained there in the East, those called Tepeu Olimán, who stayed there, they say.

They felt much grief in their hearts, there in Hacavitz; and sad, too, were the people from Tamub and Ilocab, who were also there in the forest called Amac-Tan. 11 where dawn came to the priests and sacrificers of Tamub and to their god, who also was Tohil, because one and the same was the name of the god of the three branches of the Quiché people. And this is also the name of the god of the people of Rabinal, for there is little difference between that and the name of Huntoh, as the god of the people of Rabinal is called; for that reason, it is said, they wanted to make their speech the same as that of the Quiché.

Well, the speech of the Cakchiquel is different, because the name of their god was different when they came from there, from Tulán-Zuyva. Tzotzihá Chimalcan was the name of their god, and today they speak a different tongue; and also from their god the families of Ahpozotzil and Ahpoxa, 12 as they are called, took their names.

The speech of the god was also changed when they were given their god there, in Tulán, near the stone; 13 their speech was changed when they came from Tulán in the darkness. And being together, dawn came to them and the light shone on all the tribes, in the order of the names of the gods of each of the tribes.

Footnotes

134:1 p. 233 The Maya and Quiché Indians give the name Pom to the incense or white aromatic resin which oozes from a tree, and they used it in their religious ceremonies. This resin is commonly known as copal, from the Náhuatl copalli (Protium copal, Engl.).

134:2 These names have a marked Mexican flavor and seem to come from the Aztec tongue. Mixtán-Pom might be the copal, or incense, which they burned to Mictán Ahau, and Caviztán-Pom that which they offered to Cavestán Ahau. Father Guzmán (Compendio de nombres en lengua Cakchiquel) mentions as gods of this tribe, among other minor deities, Mictán Ahau and Cavestán Ahau. The Aztec word Mictlán serves to designate the inferno. Cabauil-Pom is clearly the incense of the Quiché divinity in general, which is expressed with the word Cabauil, probably derived from the Maya Kauil, "god." The variety of incense of the offerings seems to be explained by the fact that the Quiché liked to offer "incense of a certain fragrance" to their gods.

134:3 A climbing bird of the parrot family; quel in Quiché is a kind of parrot or magpie known in Guatemala as the chocoyo.

134:4 Zaccuch, literally a vulture or white buzzard, "white-breasted buzzard," says Father Coto. The one called king buzzard, Gypargus papa, is larger than the ordinary vulture. It is also distinguished by the combination of its black and white feathers.

134:5 p. 234 Ma cu x-chihtahic u qatanal. All the translators have followed the interpretation of Ximénez, who translates these words as: "The heat was not great." Chihtahic, however, means "to bear," "to suffer," and the negative sentence must be understood in the sense that the heat of the sun was unbearable or insufferable. If the heat of the sun had not been intense, it would not have dried the damp and muddy surface of the earth. In the recent edition of the Popol Vuh, Schultze Jena gives the correct translation of this passage in German.

134:6 U cabauilal coh, balam, etc.

134:7 Ma ta oh yacamarinac, "Perhaps we would not be standing." The transformation of the animals into stone, according to Chavero, is a symbol of the change of religion, their abandoning the old animal nature cult for the worship of the heavenly bodies.

134:8 Mana e ta quiá vinac chi qui qoheic, xa e chutin ta x-e qohe chiri chuvi huyub Hacavitz. Ximénez gives a different interpretation to this sentence, as follows: "And the men were not large then, but they were small when they were on the hills of Hacavitz."

134:9 "We see," or "our dove," mucuy in Maya.

134:10 The great civilizer was worshiped as a divinity by the ancient Mexicans, who gave him different names. They called him Ehecatl, or God of the Wind; Yolcuat, or the Rattle Snake; Quetzalcoatl, or serpent covered with green feathers. The last meaning corresponds also to the Maya name Kukulcán, and to the Quiché, Gucumatz. Here the text shows that the Quiché also identified Quetzalcoatl with their own god Tohil. Both were actually rain gods.

134:11 Pa quechelah Amac Dan ubi. This place was already named in Chapter 8 of Part III, as the residence of the tribe of Tamub.

134:12 Tzotzihá, the house of the zotzils or bats, that is to say of the Cakchiquel, who like the Zotzil of Chiapas also had the bat as a symbol. Chimalcán or Chamalcán, as explained in Chapter 6 of Part III was the name of a serpent, a sacred animal among the peoples of Middle America. Ahpozotzil and Ahpoxahil were the names of the king of the Cakchiquel and of his principal assistant and heir. The Spaniards gave the former, who was governing in 1524, the name Sinacán, from the Náhuatl Tzinacán, which also means "bat." Xahil, which may be translated as "dancer," from xah, "to dance," was the name of the second reigning house, and one of its descendants, Francisco Hernandez Arana, wrote the Memorial de Sololá, which contains the history of the Cakchiquel nation.

134:13 Chirih abah. The meaning of these words is vague. However, it becomes p. 235 clearer if one recalls the constant association of the ancient American divinity with stone. The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel says, describing the creation of the world, that God was hidden in the stone when there was neither sky nor earth, and that later he came from the stone and fell into a second stone, and then he declared his divinity (Kuil). The Quiché documents speak of the stone which Nacxit gave to those tribes when they left Tulán, and which "they used for their incantations. "And they add that in Qotuhá or Tzutuhá they also found a stone similar to that which Nacxit gave them, which they, the kings and the people, worshiped. As for the Manuscript of the Cakchiquel, it speaks of the obsidian stone, or Chay Abah to which that nation rendered homage.

III. Chapter 10

And now we shall tell of their stay and abode there on the mountain, where the four called Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were together. Their hearts mourned for Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz, whom they had placed among the air-plants and the moss.

We shall tell now how they made the sacrifices at the foot of the place where they had carried Tohil, when they arrived in the presence of Tohil and Avilix. They went to see them, to greet them, and also to give them thanks for the arrival of the dawn. They were in the thicket 1 amidst the stones, there in the woods. And only by magic art did they speak when the priests and sacrificers came before Tohil. They did not bring great gifts, only resin, the remains of the gum, called noh, and pericón, 2 they burned before their gods.

Then Tohil spoke; only by a miracle he gave counsel to the priests and sacrificers. And they [the gods] spoke and said: "Truly here shall be our mountains and our valleys. We are yours; great shall be our lory and numerous our descendents, through the work of all men. Yours are all the tribes and we, your companions. Care for your town, and we shall give you your learning.

"Do not show us before the tribes when we are angered by the words of their mouths, or because of their conduct. Neither shall you permit us to fall into a snare. Give us, instead, the creatures of the woods and of the fields, and also the female deer, and the female birds. 3 Come and give us a little of your blood, have pity upon us. You may have the skins of the deer 4 and guard us from those whose eyes have deceived us. 5

"So, then, [the skin of] the deer shall be our symbol which you shall show before the tribes. When they ask 'Where is Tohil?' show the deerskin before their eyes. Neither shall you show yourselves. for you shall have other things to do. Great shall be their position; you shall dominate all the tribes; you shall bring your blood and their substance before us, and those who come to embrace us, shall be ours also," thus spoke Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. 6

They had the appearance of youths, when those who came to offer gifts saw them. Then the persecution of the young of the birds and of the deer began, and the fruit of the chase was received by the priests and sacrificers. And when they found the young of the birds and the deer, they went at once to place the blood of the deer and of the birds in the mouths of the stones, that were Tohil and Avilix.

As soon as the blood had been drunk by the gods, the stones spoke, when the priests and the sacrificers came, when they came to bring their offerings. And they did the same before their symbols, burning pericón and holom-ocox. 7

The symbols of each one were there where they had been placed on the top of the mountain. But they [the priests] did not live in their houses by day, but walked over the mountains, and ate only the young horseflies, and the wasps, and the bees which they hunted; they had neither good food nor good drink. And neither were the roads from their homes known, nor did they know where their wives had remained.

Footnotes

137:1 E cu vonovoh, in the dense and thick.

137:2 Xa col xa r'achac noh ruq yiá. Instead of the incense of the East, the Quiché burned a kind of aromatic substance on the altars of their gods: turpentine, or the resin from the pine, which they called col; pom, which is the copalli of Mexico; the gum called noh, which is another resin, according to Ximénez, and the large fan-grass, or hypericum, Tagetes lucida, of the composite family made up of them. According to Sahagún, the Aztecs used the grass called yiauhtli, dried and ground, which burned like incense and which seems to be the same grass which the Quiché called yiá. The gum noh which the text mentions may be the same that the Maya of Yucatán call xnoh, "resin which drips from the pine" or turpentine, according to Roys.

137:3 As has been said in another part, by the word queh, "deer," all quadrupeds are understood.

137:4 Ch'y canah cut r'izmal ri queh. The text probably refers to the skin of the deer covered with hair, which the priests must show to the people instead of the real gods of the Quiché, thus obeying the command of Tohil.

137:5 Ch'y chahih are e ri u mucuvach chi mich canoc, in the original.

137:6 It will be noted here that the three gods spoke together to the tribes.

137:7 "Which is a grass," says Ximénez; literally, head of a mushroom.

Posted by john at March 22, 2006 03:11 PM