POPUL VUH

The Text
 

This is the beginning of the Ancient Word, here is this place called Quiche.
Here we shall inscribe, we shall implant the Ancient Word, the potential and source for everything done in the citadel of Quiche, in the nation of Quiche people.
And here we shall take up the demonstration, revelation, and account of how things were put in shadow and brought to light
by the Maker, Modeler, named Bearer, Begetter,
                          Hunahpu Possum, Hunahpu Coyote,
                               Great White Peccary, Tapir,
                                Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
                           Heart of the Lake, Heart of the Sea
                             Maker of the Blue-Green Plate,
                             Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl,

As they are called, also named, also described as
                                 the midwife, matchmaker
                                named Xpiyacc, Xmucane,
                                    defender, protector,
                          twice a midwife, twice a matchmaker,

as is said in the words of Quiche. They accounted for everything, and did it, too as enlightened beings, in enlightened words. We shall write about this now amide the preaching of God, in Christendom now. We shall bring it out because
there is no longer a place to see it, a Council Book
 a place to see "The Light That Came From Across the Sea"
  the account of "Our Place in the Shadows,"
                           a place to see :"The Dawn of Life."

There is the original book and ancient writing, but he who reads and ponders it
hides his face. It take a long performance and account to complete the
emergence of all the sky-earth"
                         the fourfold siding, fourfold cornering,
                                measuring, fourfold staking,
                           halving the cord,stretching the cord
                                   inthe sky, on the earth,
                              the four sides, the four corners,

as it is said,
                                  by the Maker, Modeler,
                           mother-father of life, of humankind
                              giver of breath, giver of heart,
                          bearer, upbringer in the light that lasts
                     of those born in the light, begotten in the light;
                   worrier, knower of everything, whatever there is:
                                     sky-earth, lake-sea.

Here is the Account:
Now it still ripples, now it still murmurs, ripples, it still sighs, still hums and it is
empty under the sky.
Here follow the first words, the first eloquence:
There is no yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow
canyon, meadow, forests. Only the sky alone is up there; the face of the earth is
not clear. Only the sea alone is pooled under all the sky; there is nothing
whatever gathered together. It is at rest, not a single thing stirs. It is held back,
kept at rest under the sky.
Whatever there is that might be is simple not there: only the pooled water, only
the calm sea, only it alone is pooled.
Whatever might be is simply not there: only murmurs, ripples, in the dark, in
the night. Only the Maker, Modeler alone, Sovereign Plumed Serpent, the
Bearers, Begetters are in the water, a glittering light. They are there, they are
enclosed in quetzal feathers, in blue-green.
Thus the name "Plumed Serpent." They are great knowers, greater thinkers in
their very being.
And of course there is the sky, and there is also the Heart of Sky. This is the
name of the god, as it is spoken.
And then came his word, he came here to the Sovereign Plumed Serpent, and
they talked, then they thought, then they worried. They agreed with each other,
they joined their words, their thoughts. Then it was clear, then they reached
accord in the light, and then humanity was clear, when they conceived the
growth, the generation of trees of bushes and the growth of life, of humankind,
in the blackness, in the early dawn, all because of the Heart of Sky, named
Hurricane. Thunderbolt Hurricane comes first, the second is Newborn
Thunderbolt, and the third is Raw Thunderbolt.
So there were three of them, as Heart of Sky, who came to the Sovereign
Plumed Serpent, when the dawn of life was conceived:
"How should it be sown, how should it dawn? Who is to be the provider,
nurturer?"
"Let it be this way, think about it: this water should be removed, emptied out
for the formation of the earth's own plate and platform, then comes the sowing,
the dawning of the sky-earth. But there will be no high days and no bright
praise for our work, our design, until the rise of the human work, the human
design," they said.
And then the earth arose because of them, it was simply their word that brought
it forth. For the forming of the earth they said "Earth." It arose suddenly, just
like a cloud, like a mist, now forming, unfolding. Then the mountains were
separated from the water, all at once the great mountains came forth. By their
genius alone, by their cutting edge alone they carried out the conception of the
mountain-plain, whose face grew install groves of cypress and pine.
And the Plumed Serpent was pleased with this:
"It was good that you came, Heart of Sky, Hurricane, and Newborn
Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt. Our work, our design will turn out well, " they
said.
And the earth was formed first, the mountain-plain. The channels of water were
separated; their branches wound their ways among the mountains. The waters
were divided when the great mountains appeared.
Such was the formation of the earth when it was brought forth by the Heart of
Sky, Heart of Earth, as they are called, since they were the first to think of it.
The sky was set apart, and the earth was set apart in the midst of the waters.
Such was their plane when they thought, when they worried about the
completion of their work.
Now they planned the animals of the mountains, all the guardians of the forests,
creatures of the mountains: the deer, birds, pumas, jaguars, serpents,
rattlesnakes, yellowbites, guardians of the bushes.
A Bearer, Begetter speaks:
"Why this pointless humming? Why should there merely be rustling beneath the
trees and bushes?"
"Indeed- they had better have guardians," the other replied. As soon as they
thought it and said it, deer and birds came forth.
And then they gave out homes to the deer and birds:
"You, the deer: sleep along the rivers, in the canyons. Be here in the meadows,
in the thickets, in the forests, multiply yourselves. You will stand and walk on
all fours," they were told.
So then they established the nests of the birds, small and great:
"You, precious birds: your nests, your houses in the trees, in the bushes.
Multiply three, scatter there, in the branches or trees, or the branches of bushes.
" This the deer and birds were told.
When this deed had been done, all of them had received a place to sleep and a
place to stay, so it is that the nests of the animals are on the earth, given by the
Bearer, Begetter. Now the arrangement of the deer and birds was complete.

And then the deer and birds were told by the Maker, Modeler, Bearer, Begetter:
"Talk, speak out. Don't moan, don't cry out. Please talk, each to each, within
each kind, within each groups." This they were told: the deer, birds, puma,
jaguar, serpents.
"Name now our names, praise us. We are your mother, we are your father.
Speak now:
                                          "Huricane,
                        Newborn Thunderbolt,Raw Thunderbolt,
                               Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth,
                                      Maker, Modeler,
                                     Bearer, Begetter,"

speak, pray to us, keep our days," they were told. But it didn't turn out that they
spoke like people: they squawked, they chattered, they howled. It wasn't
apparent what language they spoke; each one gave a different cry. When the
Maker, Modeler heard this:
"It hasn't turned out well, they haven't spoken," they said among themselves. "It
hasn't turned out that our names have been named. Since were are their mason
and sculptor this will not do," the Bearers and Begetters said among
themselves. So they told them:
"You will simply have to be transformed. Since it hasn't turned out well and you
haven't spoken, we have changed our word:
"What you feed on, what you eat, the places where you sleep and the places
where you stay, whatever is yours will remain in the canyons, the forests.
Although it turned out that our days were not kept, nor did you pray to us, there
may yet be strength in the keeper of days, the giver of praise whom we have
yet to make. Just accept your service, just let your flesh be eaten.
"So be it, this must be your service," they were told when they were
instructed-the animals, small and great on the face of the earth.
And then they wanted to test their timing again, they wanted to experiment
again, and they wanted to prepare for the keeping of days again. They had not
heard their speech among the animals, it did not come to fruition, and it was not
complete.
And so their flesh was brought low, they served, they were eaten, they were
killed-all the animals on the face of the earth.

Again there comes an experiment with the human work, the human design, by
the Maker, Modeler, Bearer, Begetter:
"It must simply be tried again. The time for the planting and dawning is nearing.
For this we must make a provider and nurturer. How else can we be involved
and remembered on the face of the earth? We have already make our first try at
our work and design, but it turned out that they didn't keep our days, nor did
they glorify us.
"So now let's try to make a giver of praise, giver of respect, provider, nurturer,"
the said.
So then comes the building and working with earth and mud. They made a
body, but it didn't look good to them. It was separating, crumbling, loosening,
softening, disintegrating, and dissolving. Its head wouldn't turn, either. Its face
was lopsided, its face was twisted. it couldn't look around. It talked at first, but
senselessly. It was quickly dissolved in the water.
"It won't last" the mason and sculptor said then.
"It seems to be dwindling away, so let it just dwindle. It can't walk and it can't
multiply, so let it be merely a thought." they said.
So then they dismantled, again they brought down their work and design. And
they talked:
"What is there for us to make that would turn out well, that would succeed in
keeping our days and praying to us?" they said. Then they planned again:
"We'll tell Xpiyacoc, Xmucane, Hunahpu Possum, Hunahpu Coyote to try a
counting of days, a counting of lots,:" the mason and sculptor said to
themselves. Then they invoked Xpiyacoc, Xmucane.

Then comes the naming of those who are the midmost seers: The Grandmother
of Day, Grandmother of Light as the Maker, Modeler called them. These are
name of Xpiyacoc and Xmucane.
When Hurricane had spoken with the Sovereign Plumed Serpent they involved
the daykeepers, divers, the midmost seers.
"There is yet to indicate, yet to discovered how we are to model a person,
construct a person again, a provider, nurturer, so that we are called upon and
we are recognized: our recompense is in words:

                                   Midwife, matchmaker,
                            our grandmother, our grandfather,
                                    Xpiyacoc,Xmucane,
                     let there be planting, let there be the dawning
                  of our invocation, our sustenance, our recognition
                         by the human work, the human design,
                           the human figure, the human mass.

So be it, fulfill your names:
                          Hunahpu Possum , Hunahpu Coyote,
                         Bearer twice over, Begetter twice over
                                Great Peccary, Great Tapir,
                                      lapidary, jeweler,
                                      sawer, carpenter,
                             Maker of the Blue-Green Plate,
                             Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl,
                            incense maker, master craftsman,
                      Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light.

You have been called upon because of our work , our design. Run your hands
over the kernels of corn, over the seeds of the coral tree, just get it done, just let
come out whether we should carve and gouge a mouth, a face in wood," they
told the day keepers.
And then comes the borrowing, the counting of days, the hand is moved over
the corn kernels, over the coral seeds, the days, the lots:
Then they spook to them, one of them a grandmother, the other a grandfather.
This is the grandfather, this is the master of the coral seeds, Xpiyacoc is his
name.
And this is the grandmother, the daykeeper, diviner who stands behind others:
Xmucane is her name.
And they say as they set out the days:
                      "Just let it be found, just let it be discovered,
                                 say it our ear is listening,
                              may you talk, may you speak,
                    just find the wood for the carving and sculpting
                                  by the builder, sculptor.
                         Is this to be the provider, the nurturer
                       when it comes to the planting, the dawning
                            You corn kernels, you coral seeds,
                                     you days, you lots:
                        may you succeed, may you be accurate,"

they say to the corn kernels, coral seeds, days, lots. "Have shame, you up there,
Heart of Sky, attempt no deception before the mouth and face of Sovereign
Plumed Serpent" they say. Then they speak straight to the point:
It is well that there be your manikins, woodcarvings, talking speaking, there on
the face of the earth.
"So be it," they reply. The moment they spoke it was done; the manikins,
woodcarvings, human in looks and human in speech.
This was the peopling of the earth:
They came into being, they multiplied, they had daughters, they had sons, these
manikins, woodcarvings. But there was nothing in their hearts and nothing in
their minds, no memory of their mason and builder. They just went and walked
wherever they wanted. Now they did not remember the Heart of Sky.
And so they fell, just an experiment and just a cutout for humankind. They
were talking at first but their faces were dry. They were not yet developed in
the legs and arms. They had no blood, no lymph. They had no sweat, no fat.
Their complexions were dry, their faces were crusty. They flailed their legs and
arms, their bodies were deformed.
And so they accomplished nothing before the Maker, Modeler who gave them
birth, gave them heart. They became the first numerous people her on the earth.

Again there comes a humiliation, destruction, and demolition. The manikins,
woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A
great food was made, it came down on the heads of the manikins,
woodcarvings.
A man's body was carved from the wood of the coral tree by the Maker,
Modeler. And as for the woman, the Maker, Modeler needed the pith of reeds
for the woman's body. They were not competent, nor did they speak before the
builder and sculptor who made them and brought them forth, and so were
killed, done in by a flood.
There came a rain of resin from the sky.
There came the one named Gouger of Faces: he gouged out their eyeballs.
There came Sudden Bloodletter: he snapped off their heads.
There came Crunching Jaguar: he ate their flesh.
There came Tearing Jaguar: he tore them open.
The were pounded down to the bones and tendons, smashed and pulverized
even to the bones. Their faces were smashed because they were incompetent
before their mother and their father., the Heart of Sky, named Hurricane. The
earth was blackened because of this: the black rainstorm began, rain all day,
and rain all night. Into their houses came the animals, small and big. Their faces
were crushed by things of wood and stone. Everything spoke: their waters jars,
their tortilla griddles, their plates, their cooking pots, their dogs, their grinding
stone, each and everything crushed their faces. Their dogs and turkeys told
them:
"You caused us pain, you ate us, but now it is you whom we shall eat.:" And
this said the grinding stone" "We were undone because of you
                                   Every day, every day,
                   in the dark, in the dawn, forever, because of you.

This was the service we gave you at first, when you were still people, but today
you will learn of our power. We shall pound and we shall grind your flesh.,"
their grinding stones told them.
And this is what their dogs said, when they spoke in their turn:
"Why is it you can't seem to give us our food? We just watch and you just keep
us down, and you throw us around. You keep and stick ready when you eat,
just so you can hit us. We don't talk, so we've received nothing from you. How
could you not have known.? You did know that we were wasting away there
behind you.
"So this very day you will taste the teeth in your mouths. We shall eat your".
And the dogs crushed their faces.
"And then their tortilla griddles and cooking pots spoke to them in turn:
"Pain! That's all you've done for us. Our mouths are sooty, our faces are sooty.
By setting us on the fire all the time, you burn us. Since we felt no pain, you try
it. We shall burn you," all their cooking pots said, burning their faces.
The stones, their hearthstones were shooting out, coming right out of the fire,
going for their heads causing them pain. Now they ran for it, helter-skelter.
They want to climb up on the house, but they fall as the houses collapse.
They want to climb the trees, but they're thrown off by the trees.
They want to get inside caves, but the caves slam shut into their faces.
Such was the scattering of the human work, the human design. The people were
ground down, overthrown. The mouths and faces of all of them were destroyed
and crushed. And it used to be said that the monkeys in the forests today are a
sign of this.
They were left as a sign because wood alone was used for their flesh by the
builder and sculptor. So this is why monkeys look like people, they are a sign of
a previous human design, mere manikins mere woodcarvings.

This was when there was just a trace of early dawn on the face of the earth.
There was no sun. There was one who magnified himself: Seven Macaw is his
name. The sky-earth was already there, but the face of the sun-moon was
clouded over. Even so, it is said that his light provided a sign for the people who
were flooded. He was like a genius to them.
"I am great. My place is now higher than
 

Here is the beginning of the defeat and destruction of the day of Seven Macaw
by the two boys, the first named Hunahpu and the second named Xbalanque.
Being gods, the two of them saw evil in his attempt at self-magnification before
the Heart of Sky. So the boys talked:
"It is no good without life, without people here on the face of the earth."
"Well then, lets take a shot. We could kill him while he's at his meal. We could
make him ill, then put an end to his riches, his jade, his metal, his jewels, his
gems, the source of his brilliance. Everyone might do as he does, but it should
not come to be that fiery splendor is merely a matter of metal. So be it, " said
the boys, each one with a blowgun on his shoulder, the two of them together.

And this Seven Macaw has two sons: the first of these is Zipacna and the
second is the Earthquake. And Chimalmat is the name of their mother, the wife
of Seven Macaw.
And this is Zipacna, this is the one to build up the great mountains: Fire Mouth,
Hanuhpu, Cave by the Water, Xcanul, Macamob, Haliznab, as the names of the
mountains that were there at the dawn are spoken. They wre brought forth by
Zipacna in a single night.
And now this the Earthquake. The mountains are moved by him; the
mountains, small and great, are softened by him. The sons of Seven Macaw did
this just as a means of self-magnification.
"Here am I: I am the sun," said Seven Macaw.
"Here am I: I am the maker of the earth," said Zipacna.
"As for me, I bring down the sky. I make an avalanche of all the earth, " said
Earthquake. The sons of Seven Macaw are alike and like him: they got their
greatness from their farther.
And the two boys saw evil in this, since our first mother and father could not
yet be made. Therefore deaths and disappearances were planned by the two
boys.

And here is the shooting of Seven Macaw by the two boys. We shall explain the
defeat of each one of those who engage in self-magnification This is the great
tree of Seven Macaw, a nance, and this is the food of Seven Macaw. In order to
eat the fruit of the nance he goes up the tree every day. Since Hunahpu and
Xbalanque have seen where he feeds, they are now hiding beneath the tree of
Seven Macaw, they are keeping quiet here, the two boys are in the leaves of the
tree.
And when Seven Macaw arrived, perching over his meal, the nance, it was then
that he was shot by Hanahpu. The blowgun shot went right to his jaw, breaking
his mouth. Then he went up over the tree and fell flat on the ground. Suddenly
Hunahpu appeared, running. He set out to grab him, but actually it was the arm
of Hunahpu that was seized by Seven Macaw. He yanked it straight back, he
bent it back at the shoulder. Then Seven Macaw tore it right out of Hunahpu.
Even so, the boys did well as the first round was not their defeat by Seven
Macaw
And when Seven Macaw had taken the arm of Hunahpu he went home.
Holding his jaw very carefully, he arrived home.
"What have you got there?" Chimalmat said, the wife of Seven Macaw.
"What is it but those two tricksters! They've shot me, they dislocated my jaw.
All my teeth are loose, and now they ache. But once what I've got is over the
fire - hanging there, dangling over the fire - then they can just come and get it.
They're nothing but tricksters!" said Seven Macaw, then he hung up the arm of
Hanahpu.
Meanwhile Hanahpu and Xbalanque were thinking. And then they involked a
grandfather, a truly white-haired grandfather and a grandmother, a truly humble
grandmother - bent over elderly people. Great White Peccary is the name of the
grandfather and Great White Tapir is the name of the grandmother. The boys
said to the grandmother and grandfather:
"Please travel with us when we go to get our arm from Seven Macaw, we'll just
follow right behind you. You"ll tell him:
"Forgive our children who travel with us. Their mother and father are dead, and
so they follow along behind us. Perhaps we should give them away since all we
do pull worms out of teeth." So we'll seem like children to Seven Macaw, even
though we're giveing you the instructions," the two boys told them.
"Very well," they replied.
After that they approached the place where Seven Macaw was in front of his
home. When the grandmother and grandfather passed by, the two boys were
romping along behind them. When they passed below the lord's house, Seven
Macaw was yelling loudly because of his teeth. And when Seven Macaw say
the grandfather and grandmother travelling with them:
"Where are headed, our grandfather?" said the lord.
"We're just making our living, your lordship," they replied.
"Why are you working for a living? Aren't those your children traveling with
you?"
"No they are our grandchildren, your lordship," they replied. They are our
grandchildren, our descendants, but it is nevertheless we who take pity on
them. The bit of food they get is the portion we give them, your lordship,"
replied the grandmother and grandfather. Since the lord is overwhelmed by the
pain in his teeth it is with great effort that he says:
"I implore you, please take pity on me! What sweets can you make, what
poisons can you cure?" said the lord.
"We just pull worms out of teeth, and we just cure eyes. We also set bones,
your lordship," said they.
"Very well, please cure my teeth. They really ache, every day. It's horrible! I
get no sleep because of them. They just shot me, those two tricksters! Ever
since it started I haven't eaten because of it. Therefore take pity on me! My
teeth are loose now."
"Very well, your lordship. It's a worm, gnawing at the bone. It's merely a matter
of putting in a replacement and taking out the teeth sir."
"But perhaps it is not good for my teeth to come out - since I am, after all, a
lord. My finery is my teeth, and my eyes."
"But then we'll put in a replacement. Ground bone will be put back in". And
they held up a bag holding not bone but white corn.
"Very well. Yank them out! Give me some relief!" the lordship said.
And when the teeth of Seven Macaw came out, it was only white corn that
went in as a replacement for them. His face fell at once, he no longer looked
like a lord. The last of his teeth came out, the jewels that had stood out from his
mouth were gone.
And then the eyes of Seven Macaw were cured. When his eyes were trimmed
back the last of his metal came out. Still he felt no pain; he just looked on while
the last of his greatness left him. It was just as Hunahpu and Xbalanque had
intended.
And when Seven Macaw died., Hanuhpu got back his arm. Chamlmat, the wife
of Seven Macaw, also died of despair.
Such was the loss of the riches of Seven Macaw, only the doctors got the
jewels, and gems that had made him arrogant on the face of the earth. The
gemnius of the grandmother, the genius of the grandfather did its work when
they took back the ar. It was implanted and the join healed. Just as they wished
the death of Seven Macaw, so they brought it about. They saw evil in his
self-magnification.
After this the two boys went on again. What they did was simply obeying the
word of the Heart of Sky.

And here are the deeds of Zipacna, the first son of Seven Macaw.
"I am the maker of mountains," says Zipacna.
And this is Zipacna, bathing on the shore. Then the Four Hundred Boys passed
by dragging a log, a post for their hut. The Four Hundred BOys were walking
long, having cut a great tree for the lintel of their hut.
And then Zipacna went theere, he came to where the Four Hundred Boys were:
"What are you doing, boys?" "It;s just this log. We can't lift it up to carry it
home."
"I'll carry it. Where does it go? What do you want it for?"
"It is just a lintel for our hut."
"Very well," he replied.
And then he pulled it, or rather carried it right on up to the entrance of the hut
of the Four Hundred Boys.
"You could just stay with us. Do you have a mother and a father?"
"Not any more," he replied.
"We'd like some help tomorrow in cutting another one of our logs, a post for
our hut."
"Good," he replied.
After that the Four Hundred Boys shared their thoughts.
"About his fellow, what should we do with him?"
"We should kill him, because what he does is dangerous to us. He lifted that log
all by himself. Let's dig a big hole for him, and then we'll throw him down the
hole. We'll say to him:
"Why are you spilling dirt into the holle? And when he is wedged down in the
hole we'll wham a big log down behind him. Then he should die in the hole,"
said this boy.
And when they had dog a hole, one that went deep, they called for Zipacna:
"We're asking you to please go on digging out the dirt. We can't go on," he was
told.
"Very well," he replied.
Then he began digging the hole. But the only hole he dug was for his own
salvation. He realized that he was to be killed, so he dug a separate hole to one
side, he dug a second hole for safety.
"How far is it?" the Four Hundred Boys called down to him.
"I'm digging fast. When I call up to you, the diging will be finished." said
Zipacana, from down in the hole. But he's not digging at the bottom of the hole,
his own grave, rather , he is digging the hole for his own salvation.
After that, when Zipacna called out, he had gone to safety in his own hole.
Then he called out: "Come here, take the dirt, the fill from the hole. It's been
dug. I've really gone down deep! Can't you hear my call? As for you call, it just
echoes echoes down here. It sounds to me as if you were on another lvel, or
two levels away," said Zipacna from his hole.
Meanwhile, a big log is being dragged along by the boys.
And then they threw the log down in the hole.
"Isn't he there?" He doesn't speak."
"Let's keep on listening. He should cry out when he dies," they said among
themselves. They're just whispering, to the places where they have hidden
themselves, each on of them, after throwing down the log.
And then he did speak. He gave a signle cry. He called out when the log fell to
the bottom.
"Right on! He been killed."

Very good. We've done him in, he's dead."
"What if he had gone on with his deeds, his works? He would have made
himself first among us and taken our place." they said. Now they enjoyed
themselves.
"Let's make our sweet drink! Three days will pass and after three days let's
drink to dedicate our hut - we, the Four Hundred Boys!" they said. " And
tomorrow we'll see, and on the day after tomorrow we'll see whether or not ants
come from the ground when he's stinking and rotting. After that our hearts will
be content when we drink our seet drin." they said. But Zipacna was listening
from the hole when the boys specified "they day after tomorrow."
And on the second day, when the ants collected, they wer running, swarming.
Having taken their pickings under the log.They were everywhere, carrying hair
in their mouths and carrying the nails of Zipacna. When the boys saw this:
"He's finished, that trickster! Look here how the ants have stripped him, how
they've swarmed. Everywhere they carry hair in their mouths.His nails you can
see. We've done it!" they said among themselves.
But this Zipacna is still alive. He just hair off his head and chews off his nails to
give them to the ants.
And so the Four Hundred Boys thought he had died.
After that, their sweet drink was ready on the third day, and then all the boys
drank of it, and once they were drunk, all four hundred of those boys were not
feeling a athing.
As they slept, the whole hut was brought down on top of them by Zipacna. All
of the boys were completely flattened. Not even one or two were saved from
among all the Four Hundred Boys. They were killed by Zipacna, the son of
Seven Macaw.
Such was the death of those Four Hundred Boys. And it used to be said that
they becaame a constellation, named Hundred after them, but perhaps not.
And this is where we shall explain the defeat of Zipacna by the two boys,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

Now this is the defeat and death of Zipacna, when he was beaten by the two
boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
It's mere fish and crabs that Zipacna looks for in the waters but he's eating
every day, going around looking for his food by day and lifting up mountains by
night.
Next comes the counterfeiting of a great crab by Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And they used bromelia flowers, picked from the bromelias of the forests.
These becomes the forearms of the crab, and where they opened were the
claws. They used a flagstone for the back of the crab, which clattered.
After that they put the shell beneath an overhang, at the foot of a great
mountain. Meauan is the name of the mountain where the defeat took place.
After that, when the boys came along, they found Zipacna by the water.
"Where are you going?" Zipacna was asked.
"I am not going anywhere. I am looking for my food.", Zipacna replied.
"What's your food?"
"Just fish and crabs, but there aren't any that I can find. It's been two days since
I stopped getting meals. By now I can't stand the hunger," Zipacan told
Hunahpu and Zbalanque.
"There is that crab that is down in the canyon. A really big crab! Perhaps you
might manage to eat her. We were just getting bitten. We wanted to catch her,
but we got scared by her. If she hasn't gone away you could catch her." said
Hunahpu and Zbalanque.
"Take pity on me, please come pointer out." said Zibanca.
"We don't want to, but you go ahead. You can't miss her. Just follow the river,
and you go staright on over there below a great mountain. She's clattering there
at the bottom of the canyon. Just head on over there," said Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.

" Won't you please take pity on me? What if she can't be found? If yhou come
along I'll show you a place where there are plenty of birds. Please come shoot
them. I know where they are." The boys consented. He walked ahead of them
"What if you can't catch the crab? Just as we had to turnback so will you. Not
only didn't we eat her, but all at once she was biting us. We are entering face
down now but we had to enter on our back. So you should enter on your back
as well."
"Very well," Zipacna replied. Now Zipacna had company as he went. The
walked to the bottom of the canyon.
The crab was on her side, her shell gleaming red.
"Very good!" Zipacna is happy now. He wishes she was already in his mouth.
She will cure his hunger. He wants to eat her. He went in face down but the
crab moved to get on top on him he backed out.
"You didn't reach her?"
"No. She was just getting on top. I just barely missed her. I will enter on my
back."
So he entered on his back. He entered all the way, only his kneecaps were
showing now! He gave a last sigh and was still. Down on him the brothers
moved the mountain. Zipacana turned to stone.
So the brothers defeated Zipacna. He was the second to magnify himself, and
nwo we shall speak what is spoken of another brother.

And the third to magnify himself is the second son of Seven Macaw, named
Earthquake.
"I am the breaker of mountains," he said. Hurricane spoke to Hunahpu and
Xbalanque:
"The second son of Seven Macaw is another one who should be defeated. This
is my word because they are trying to surpass the sun. They are surpassing the
sun in size and in wieght and it should not be that way. Lure this Earthquake
into settling down over there in the east."
"Very well, your lordship. Three is more to be done. What we see is no good.
Isn't it a question of your position and your status, Heart of Sky?"
Earthquake pressed on. Just by lightly tapping his foot on the ground he
instantly demolishes the mountains, great and small.
He met up with the two boys. "Where are you going?" they asked Earthquake.
"I am not going anywhere. I just scatter the mountains, and I break them in the
course of the days. So where are do you come from? I do not know your faces.
What are your names?:
"We have no names. We just hunt and trap in the mountains. We're just
orphans, we have nothing to call our own. We're just making our way among
the moutains small and great. And there is one great mountain we saw that just
growing right up into the sky. It is just swelling up, rising above all the othrs.
And there were not even one or two birds to be found. Could you destroy such
a mount?"
"It can not be true you saw such a mountain. Where is it? You would see me
knock it down. Where did you see it?"
"Well over there in the east."
"Good. Lead the way."
"Not so. You take the middle. Stay here between us. One of us at your left, the
other at your right. We have blowguns, if there are birds we will shoot them. "
And this is the way they shoot. They do not use shot. They just blow at the
birds. And the birds fell out of the trees and the sky. Earthquake was amazed."
And then the boys made fire with a drill, and roasted the birds over the fire.
One of the birds they covered with gypsum.
"This is the one we'll give him when he is hungry and smells our roasting birds.
In earth we cook them, in earth will be his grave so that the great maker and
modeler shall have a sowing and a dawning."
"As we roast the human heart will desire the meat as Earthquake will desire it.".
Then they roasted the birds and cooked them until they were brown, dripping
with fat that oozed from the backs of the birds, an overwhelming fragrant
aroma.
With this smell, Earthquake is hungry, his mouth fills with saliva, he gulps it
and slurps it as the fragrance of the cooking birds surrounds him. So he asks:
"What are you eating? I smell a truly delicious aroma! Please give me a little
bit, " he said. And when they gave a a bird to Earthquake he was good as
defeated.
After he had finished off the bird, they went on until they arrived in the east,
where the great mountain ws.
Meanwhile Earthquake had lost the strength in his legs and arms. He couldn't
go on because of the earth that coated the bird he had eaten. So now there was
nothing he could do to the mountain. He never recovered. He was destroyed.
The two boys bound him. His hands were bound behind him, his ankles to his
wrists.
After that they buried him in the earth.
Such is the defeat of Earthquake. It's Hunahpu and Xbalanque yet again. Their
deeds on the face of the earth are countless.
And now we shall explain the birth of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
 

And now we shall name the name of the father of Hanuhpu and Xbalanque.
Let's drink to him, and let's just drink to the telling and accounting of the
begetting of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. We shall tell just half of it, just a part of
the account of the father. Here follows the account:
These are the names: One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, as they are called.
And these are their parents: Xpiyacoc, Xmucane. In the blackness, in the night,
One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu were born to Xpiyacoc and Xmucane.
And this One Hunahpu had two children, and the two were sons, the firstborn
named One Monkey and the second named One Artisan.
And this is the name of the their mother: she is called Xbaquiyalo, the wife of
One Hunahpu. As for Seven Hunahpu, he has no wife. He's just a partner and
just secondary; he just remains a boy.

They are great thinkers and great is their knowledge. They are the midmost
seers, here on the face of the earth. There is only good in their being and their
birthright. They taught skills to One Monkey and One Artisan, the sons of One
Hunahpu. One Monkey and One Artisan became flautists, singers and writers,
carvers, jewelers, metalworkers as well.
And as for One and Seven Hanuhpu, all they did was throw dice and play ball
every day. They would play each other in pairs, the four of them together.
When they gathered in the ball court for entertainment a falcon would come to
watch them, the messenger of Hurricane, Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw
Thunderbolt. And for this falcon it wasn't far to the earth here, nor was it far to
Xibalba; he could get back to the sky, to Hurricane, in an instant.
The four ball players remained here on the face of the earth after the mother of
One Monkey and One Artisan had died. Since it was on the road to Xibalba that
they played, they were heard by One Death and Seven Death, the lords of
Xibalba.
"What is happening on the face of the earth? They're just stomping and
shouting. They should be summoned to play ball here. We will defeat them,
since we simply no deference from them. They show no respect, no do they
have any shame. They are running right over us!" said all of Xibalba, when they
all shared their thoughts, the ones name One and Seven Death heard. They are
great lawgivers.
And these are the lords over everything, each lord with a commission and
domain assigned by the One and Seven Deaths.
There are lords named House Corner and Blood Gatherer And this is their
commission: to draw blood from people.
Next are the lordships of Pus Master and Jaundice Master. And this is their
domain: to make people swell up, to make pus come out of their legs, to make
their faces yellow, to cause jaundice. Such is the domain of Puss Master and
Jaundice Master.
Next are the lords Bone Scepter and Skull Scepter, the staff bearers of Xibalba,
their staffs are just bones. And this is their staff bearing: to reduce people to
bones, right down to the bones and the skull, until they die from emaciation and
edema. This is the commission of the ones called Bone Scepter and Skull
Scepter.
Next are the lords named Trash Master and Stab Master. This is their
commission: to catch up with people whenever they have filth or grime in the
doorway of the house, the patio of the house. Then they're stuck, they're just
punctured until they crawl on the ground, then die. And this is the domain of
Trash Master and Stab Master, as they are called.
Next are the lords named Wing and Packstrap. This is their domain: that people
should die in the road, just 'sudden death' as it is called. Blood comes to the
mouth, then there is death from vomiting blood. So to each of them his burden,
the load on his shoulders to strike the people on the neck and chest. Then there
is death in the road, and then they just go on causing suffering, whether one is
coming or going. And this is the domain of Wing and Packstrap.
Such is those who shared their thoughts when they were piqued and driven by
One and Seven Hunahpu. What Xibalba desired was the gaming equipment of
One and Seven Hunahpu: their kilts, their yokes their arm guards, their
panaches and headbands, the costumes of One and Seven Hunahpu.
And this is where we shall continue telling of their trip to Xibalba. One Monkey
and One Artisan, the sons of One Hunahpu, stayed behind. Their mother
died-and what is more they were to be defeated by Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And now for the messengers of One and Seven Death: "You Military Keepers
of the Mat, summon One and Seven Hunahpu. Tell them:
"They must come,:" the lords say. "Would that they come to play ball with us
here, then we could have some excitement with them. We are truly amazed at
them. Therefore they must come," say the lords, " and they should bring their
playthings, their yokes and arm guards along with their rubber ball."
And the messengers are owls: Shooting Owl, One legged Owl, Macaw Owl,
Skull Owl.
There is Shooting Owl like a point piercing.
There is One-legged Owl, he has wings.
There is Macaw Owl, with his red back
There is also Skull Owl, with only a head and wings.
These are the four messengers, Military Keepers of the Mat in rank.
And when they come out of Xibalba they arrived quickly, alighting above the
ball court where One and Seven Hunahpu were playing, at the ball court called
Great Abyss at Carchah. The owls arriving in a flurry over the ball court, now
repeat the request of the lords of Xibalba.
"Very well we shall come with you. But we will tell our mother." they replied.
When they went to their house, they spoke to their mother, their father had
died.
"We are going, dear mother, even though we've just arrived. The messengers of
the lord have come to get us. We will leave our rubber ball behind here, until
we return, then we'll put it in play again." They went and put the ball tied up
under the roof of the house.
They told One Monkey and One Artisan. "As for you, just play and just sing,
write and carve to warm our house to warm the heart of your grandmother."
Their grandmother Xmuane sobbed, she had to weep.
We are going, we are not dying. Don't be sad, " said One and Seven Hunahpu,
then they left.
After that One and Seven Hunahpu left, guided down the road by the
messengers.
And then they descended the road to Xibalba, going down a steep cliff, and
they descended until they came out where the rapids cut through, the rotting
canyon narrows named Neck Canyon. They passed through there, then they
passed on to the River of Churning Spikes. They passed through countless
spikes but they were not stabbed.
And then they came to water yet again, to blood. Blood River they crossed but
did not drink. They came to a river, but a river filled with pus. Still they were
not defeated but passed over again.
And then they came to the Crossroads, but here they were unsure
Red Road was one and Black Road another.
White Road was one and yellow Road another.
"I am the one you are taking. I am the lord's road," said the road. This was the
Road of Xibalba.
And then they came to the council place of the lords of Xibalba, and they were
unsure again there. The ones seated first there are just manikins, just
woodcarvings dressed up by Xibalba. And they great first ones:
"Morning, One Death " they said to the manikin, "Morning Seven Death" they
said to the woodcarving.
The lords of Xibalba shouted out with laughter over this. All the lords just
shouted with laughter because of this joke. In their hearts they had beaten One
and Seven Hunahpu. They laughed on until One and Seven Death spoke:
"It is good that you have come. Tomorrow you must put your yokes and arm
guards into action."
"Sit here on our bench." The bench was a red hot rock.
So now they were burned on the bench. They jumped about on the bench but
they got no relief. They got up fast, having burned their butts. At this the
Xibalbans laughed again. They began to shriek with laughter, the laughter rose
up like a serpent in their very cores, all the lords of Xibalba laughed themselves
right down to their blood and bones.
"Just go in the house. Your torch and cigars will be brought to your sleeping
quarters, the boys were told.
After that they came to the Dark House. They Xibalbans shared their thoughts
"Let us just sacrifice them tomorrow. It can only turn out to be quick death,
they will die because of our ball, White Dagger, a round knife, covered with
bone to make it smooth.
And One and Seven Hunahpu went inside Dark House. And then their torch
was brought, only one torch, already lit, sent by One and Seven Death, along
with a cigar for each of them, already lit. When these were brought to One and
Seven Hunahpu they were cowering in the dark. When the bearer of the torch
and cigars each already lit arrived he said to them:
"Be sure to return this torch and these cigars in the morning just as they look
now. They must be returned intact. " The boys could not decide how that can
be done so they finished the cigars and the torch that had been brought to them.
Xibalba is packed with tests, heaps and piles of tests.
This is the first one: The Dark House. This is the second one: Rattling House,
heavy with cold inside, whistling with drafts, clattering with hail. A deep chill
comes inside here.
And the third: Jaguar House, with jaguars alone inside jostling one another,
crowding together, with gnashing their teeth, scratching around, locked up
inside Jaguar House.
Bat House is the name of the fourth test, with bats alone inside the house,
squeaking, shrieking, darting through the house. The bats are shut inside, they
can not get out.
And the fifth is named Razor House, with blades alone inside. The blades are
moving back and forth, ripping and slashing through the house.
These are the first tests of Xibalba, but One and Seven Hunahpu never entered
into any but the first.
And when One and Seven Hanuhpu went back before One and Seven Death,
they were asked:
"Where are my cigars? What of my torch? They were brought to you last
night."
We finished them your lordship."
"Very well. This very day, your day is finished, you will die, you will disappear
and we shall break you apart. Here you will hide you faces as you are to be
sacrificed." said One and Seven Death.
And then they were sacrificed and buried. They were buried at the Place of
Ball Game Sacrifice, as it is called. The head of One Hunahpu was cut off, only
his body was buried with his younger brother.
"Put his head in the fork of the tree, the tree bore fruit. It never bore fruit
before, but now it did with the head of One Hunahpu put into the fork of it.
This is the calabash tree, or the "head of One Hunahpu".
And then One and Seven Death were amazed at the fruit of the tree. The fruit
grows out of everywhere and it isn't clear where the head of One Hunahpu is:
now look it looks just the way the calabashes look. All the Xibalbans see this
when they come to look.
The state of the tree loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at
the same time the head of One Hunahpu was put into the fork of that tree.
"No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go beneath the tree," they said.
They restricted themselves, all of Xibalba held back.
It isn't clear which is the head of One Hunahpu now it is exactly the same as the
fruit of the tree. A maiden heard about it and here we shall tell of her arrival.
Here is the account of a maiden, the daughter of a lord named Blood Gatherer.
And this is when a maiden heard of it, the daughter of a lord, her name was
Blood Woman.
And when her father heard of the fruit of the tree and how it came about, he
retold it to his daughter. And she was amazed at the account:
I am not acquainted with that tree. Is it's fruit sweet?"
Next she went all alone and arrived where the tree stood. It stood at the Place
of Ball Game Sacrifice.
"What is the fruit of this tree? The fruit should not be wasted. I shall pick one."
said the maiden.
The bone in the fork of the tree spook.
"Why do you want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree. Surely
you don't want it."
"I do want it."
Very well, stretch out your right hand here so I can see it."
She stretched out her right hand, up to where it was in front of the bone.
The bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely on the hand of the maiden.
She looked at her hand right away, but her hand was not wet.
"It is a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle. This my head, has nothing
on it, just bone. It is the same with the head of a great lord, it is just the flesh
around the bone that make you think he something other than a skull. When he
dies people are frightened by his bones. After his death his sons are like his
saliva, his spittle, whether it be the son of a lord, or the son of a craftsman, or
an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on. Neither dimmed nor
destroyed is the face of a lord, a warrior, a craftsman, an orator. Rather he will
leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you.
Now go up there on the face of the earth, you will not die. Keep the word. So
be it." said the head of One and Seven Hunahpu, for they were of one mind
when they did this deed.
This was the word of Hurricane, Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt had
given them. In this way by the time the maiden returned to her home, she had
been given many more instructions. Right away something came into her belly,
from the saliva alone, and this was the generation of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And when the maiden got home and six months had passed, she was found out
by her father, Blood Gatherer.

And after the maiden was noticed by her father, when she was now with child,
all the lords then shared their thoughts - One and Seven Death along with Blood
Gatherer.
"This daughter of mine is with child lords. It is just a bastard Blood Gatherer
said when he joined the lords.
"Very well, get her to open her mouth. If she doesn't tell then sacrifice her. Go
far away and sacrifice her."
"Very well your lordships." And then he questioned his daughter.
"Who is responsible for the child in your belly, my daughter?" he asked.
"No man whose face I have known." she replied.
"Very well. It really is a bastard you carry! Take her away for sacrifice, you
Military Keepers of the Mat. Bring back her heart in a bowl, so the lords can
take it in their hands this very day."
The owls, the four of them, left carrying the bowl. When they left they took the
maiden by the hand, bring along the White Dagger, the instrument of sacrifice.
"It would not turn out well if you sacrificed me, messengers, because it is not a
bastard that's in my belly. What is in my belly generated all by itself when I
went to marvel at the head of One Hunahpu which is there at the Place of Ball
Game Sacrifice. So please stop, do not do your sacrifice messengers,." said the
maiden. Then the messengers talked:
"What shall we use in place of her heart?"
"Bring back her heart. The lords will take it in their hands. They will satisfy
themselves it is her heart. They will make themselves familiar with its
composition. Hurry, bring it back in a bowl, put her heart in the bow. This is
what we have been told, so what else shall we deliver in the bowl? What we
want is that you shall not die without your heart" said the messengers.
"My heart must not be theirs nor will your homes be here. Nor will you simply
force people to die but hereafter what will be truly yours will be the true bearer
of bastards. And hereafter, as for One and Seven Death, only blood, only
nodules of sap will be theirs. So be it that these things are presented before
them, and not that hearts are burned before them. So be it this the fruit of a
tree, said the maiden. And it was red tree sap she went out to gather in the
bowl.
After it congealed, the substitute for her heart became round. When the sap of
the croton tree was tapped, tree sap like blood became the substitute for her
blood. When she rolled the blood around inside there, the sap of the croton
tree, it formed a surface like blood, glistening red now, round inside the bowl.
When the tree was cut open by the maiden, the sap is what she called blood.
"So you have been blessed with he face of the earth. It shall be yours," she told
the owls.
"Very well maiden. We will show you the way up there. You just walk on
ahead. We have to deliver this duplicate of your heart before the lords,:" said
the messengers.
And when they came before the lords they were all watching closely.
Has it turned out well? said One Death.
"It turned out well," said the messengers.
"So I will look," said One Death, and when he lifted it up with his fingers, its
surface was soaked with gore, its surface glistened red like blood.
"Good. Stir up the fire, put it over the fire," said One Death.
After that they dried it over the fire, and the Xibalbans savored the aroma.
They all ended up standing here, they leaned over it intently. The found the
smoke of the blood to be truly sweet!
And while they stayed at their cooking, the owls went to show the maiden the
way out. They sent her up through a hole to the earth, and then the guides
returned below.
In this way the lords of Xibalba were defeated by a maiden; all of them were
blinded.
And here, where the mother of One Monkey and One Artisan lived, was where
the woman named Blood Woman arrived.
And when the Blood Woman came to the mother of One Monkey and One
Artisan, her children were still in her belly, but it was not very long before the
birth of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And when the woman came to the grandmother, the woman said to the
grandmother:
"I have come , mother, madam. I'm your daughter in law and I'm your child
mother and madam, " she said when she came before the grandmother.
"Where do you come from? As for my lastborn children didn't they die in
Xibalba? And these two remain as their sign and their word: One Monkey and
One Artisan are their names. So if you have come to see my children, get out of
here!" the maiden was told by the grandmother.
"Even so, I really am your daughter in law. I am already his, I belong to One
Hunahpu. What I carry is his. One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu are alive they
are not dead. They have merely made way for the light to show itself, madam
mother in law, as you will see when you look at the faces of what I carry," the
grandmother was told.
And One Monkey and One Artisan have been keeping their grandmother
entertained, they play and sing, all work is at writing and carving, every day,
and this cheers the heart of their grandmother.
And then the grandmother said:
"I don't want you, no thanks, my daughter in law. It is just a bastard in your
bellow, you trickster! These children of mine who are named by you are dead,"
said the grandmother.
"Truly, what I say to you is so!"
"Very well, my daughter in law, I hear you. So get going, get their food so they
can eat. Go pick a big netful of corn, then come back, since you already my
daughter in law, as I understand it." the maiden was told.
"Very well," the maiden replied.
After that, she went to the garden; One Monkey and One Artisan had a garden.
The maiden followed the path they had cleared and arrived there in the garden,
but there was only one clump, there was no other plant, no second or third.
That one clump had borne its ears. So then the maiden's heart stopped:
"It looks like I am a sinner, a debtor! Where will I get the netful of food she
asked for? she said. And then the guardians of food were called upon by her:
                        "Come thee, rise up, come thee, standup:
                           Generous Woman, Harvest Woman,
                           Cacao Woman, Cornmeal Woman,
              thous guardian of the food of One Monkey, One Artisan,"

said the maiden.
And then she took hold of the silk, the bunch of silk at the top of the ear. She
pulled it straight out, she didn't pick the ear, and the ear reproduced itself to
make food for the net. It filled the big net.
And then the maiden went back to the grandmother. The animals carried her
net. When she got back she went to the pack frame in the corner of the house,
so it would look to the grandmother as if she had arrived with a load.
And then, when the grandmother saw the food, a big netful:
"Where did that food of yours come from? You've leveled the place! I'm gong
to see if you have brought back our whole garden!" cried the grandmother.
And then she went off, she went to look at the garden, but the one clump was
still there, and the place where the net had been put at the foot of it was still
obvious.
And the grandmother came back in a hurry, and she got back home, and she
said to the maiden:
"The sign is still there. You really are my daughter in law! I'll have to keep
watching what you do. These grandchildren of mine are already showing
genius," the maiden was told.
Now this is where we shall speak of the birth of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And this is their birth, we shall tell of it here.
Then it came to the day of their birth, and the maiden named Blood Woman
gave birth. The grandmother was not present when they were born as they were
born suddenly.
Tow of them were born, named Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They were born in
the mountains, and then they came into the house. They were not sleeping:
"Throw them out of here! They're really loudmouths!" said the grandmother.
After that, when they put them on an anthill they slept soundly there. And
when they removed them from there they put them in brambles next.
And this is what One Monkey and One Artisan wanted: that they should die on
the anthill and died in the brambles. One Monkey and One Artisan wanted this
because they were rowdy and jealous. They did not allow their younger
brothers in the house at first, as if they did not even know them, but even as
they flourished in the mountains.
And One Monkey and One Artisan were great flautists and singers, and they
grew up going through great suffering and pain. It had cost them suffering to
become great knowers. Through it all they became flautists, singers, and
writers, and carvers. They did everything well. They simply knew it when they
were born, they simply had genius. And they were the successors of their
fathers who had gone to Xibalba and were killed.
Since One Monkey and One Artisan were great knowers, in their hearts they
already realized everything when their younger brothers came into being, but
they did not reveal their insights because of their jealousy. The anger in their
hearts came down on their own heads; no great harm was done to the babies.
They were decoyed by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who merely went out shooting
every day. These two got no love from their grandmother, or from One Monkey
and One Artisan. They were not given their meals, the meals prepared for One
Monkey and One Artisan had already eaten them before they got back home.
But Hunahpu and Xbalanque are not turning red with anger, rather just let it go,
even though they know their proper place, which they see as clear as day. So
they bring birds when they arrive each day, and One Monkey and One Artisan
eat them. Nothing whatsoever is given to Hunahpu and Xbalanque, either one
of them. All One Monkey and One Artisan do is play and sing.
Then Hunahpu and Xbalanque arrive one day but without bring their birds, so
the grandmother turned red:
"What is you reason for not bring birds?" Hunahpu and Xbalanque were asked.
"There are some, our dear grandmother, but they are hung up in a tree, and we
can not get them back dear grandmother. We would like our elder brothers to
go with us to please go get the birds down, " they said.
"Very well. We will go with at dawn," the elder brothers replied.
The two young brothers gathered their thoughts on how to bring about the fall
of One Monkey and One Artisan:
"We will turn their very being around with our words. So be it, since they have
caused us great suffering. They wished we might disappear to die, we their
younger brothers. Just as they wished us to be slaves here, so we shall defeat
them here. We shall simply make a sign of it." they said to one another.
And then they went there beneath a tree, the kind named yellowwood, together
with their elder brothers. When they got there they started shooting. There were
countless birds up in the tree, chittering, and the elder brothers were amazed
when they saw the birds. And not one of the birds fell from the tree.
"Those birds of ours do not fall down. Just thrown them down," they told their
elder brothers.
V
"Very well." And then the elder brothers climbed the tree and the tree began to
grow, its trunk got thicker.
After that, they wanted to get down, but now One Monkey and One Artisan
couldn't make it down from the tree. So they said, from up in the tree:
"How can we grab hold? You our younger brothers, take pity on us! Now this
tree looks frightening to us, dear younger brothers," they said from up in the
tree. Then Hunahpu and Xbalanque told them:
"Undo your pants, tie them around your hips, with the long end trailing like a
tail behind you, and then you will be better able to move."
"All right."
And then they left the ends of their pants trailing, and all at once these became
tails. Now they looked like monkeys.
After that they went along in the trees of the mountains small and great. They
went through the forests, now howling, now keeping quiet in the branches of
the trees.
Such was the defeat of One Monkey and One Artisan by Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
And when they got home they said, when they came to their grandmother and
mother:
"Our dear grandmother, something has happened to our elder brothers. They
have become shameless, they are like animals now."
"If you have done something to your elder brothers, you have knocked me
down and stood me on my head. Please don't do anything to your elder
brothers, my dear grandchildren," the grandmother said to Hunahpu and
Xbalanque. And they told their grandmother:
"Don't be sad, our dear grandmother. You will see the faces of our elder
brothers again. They will come but this will be a test for you our dear
grandmother. Will you please not laugh while we test their destiny? they asked.
And then they began playing. They played "Hunahpu Monkey."
And then they sang, they played, they drummed. When they took up their
flutes and drums, their grandmother sat down with them, then they played, they
sounded out the tune, the song that go its name then. "Hunahpu Monkey" is the
name of the tune.
And then One Monkey and One Artisan came back, dancing when they arrived.
And then when the grandmother looked it was their faces she saw. Then she
laughed, the grandmother could not hold back her laughter, so they just left
right away, our of her sight again, they went up and away in to the forest.
"Why are you doing that, our dear grandmother? We will only try four times,
only three times are left. We will call them withall. flute, with song. Please hold
back your laughter. We will try again." said Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Next they played, then the monkeys came back, dancing again. They arrived
again in the middle of the patio of the house. As before they did what was
delightful, as before they tempted their grandmother to laugh. As before their
grandmother laughed. The monkeys looked truly ridiculous, with the skinny
little things below their bellies and their tails wiggling in front of their breasts.
When they came back the grandmother had to laugh at them, and so they went
back into the mountains.
"Why are you dong that, our dear grandmother? Even so we will try a third
time now. " said Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Again they played, again they came dancing, but their grandmother held back
her laughter. Then they climbed up here, Cutting right across the building, with
thin red lips, with faces blank, puckering their lips, wiping their mouths and
faces, suddenly scratching themselves. And when the grandmother saw that She
burst out laughing again and again the monkeys ran into the forest.
"Our dear grandmother, we will try one more time."
So for the fourth time the called on the flute, but the elder brothers did not
come back from the forest.
"We tried our dear grandmother. They came at first, and we have tried calling
them again. Do not be sad. We are here- we your grandchildren. Just love our
mother dear grandmother. Our elder brothers will be remembered. So be it.
They shall be called One Monkey and One Artisan," said Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
So they were prayed to by the flautists and singers among the ancient people,
and the writers and carvers prayed to them. IN ancient times they turned into
animals, they became monkeys, because they were jealous and abused their
younger brothers. Just as they wished their younger brothers to be slaves, so
they themselves became slaves. One Monkey and One Artisan were lost then,
they became animals, and this is now their place forever.
Even so, they were flautists and singers, they did great things while they lived
with their grandmother.

And now they began to act before their grandmother and mother. First they
made a garden:
"We will do some gardening, our dear grandmother and mother," they said.
"Don't worry. We are here we are your grandchildren, we are the successors of
our elder brothers," said Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
And then they took up their axe, their mattock, their hoe, and each of them
went off with a blowgun on his shoulder. They left the house having instructed
their grandmother to give them their food:
"At midday, bring our food, dear grandmother," they said.
"Very well my dear grandchildren," said their grandmother.
After that they went to their gardening. They simply stuck their mattock in the
ground, and the mattock cultivated the ground.
And it was not only the mattock that cultivated, but also the axe. In the same
way, they stuck it in the trunk of a tree; in the same ways, it cut into the tree by
itself, felling, scattering, felling all the trees and bushes, now leveling, mowing
down the trees.
Just the one axe did it, and the mattock, breaking up thick masses of vegetation,
countless stalks and brambles. Just one mattock was doing it, breaking up
countless things, just clearing off whole mountains, small and great.
And then they gave instructions to the creature named the mourning dove.
They sat on a big stump, and Hunahpu and Xbalanque said:
"Just watch for our grandmother bringing our food. Cry out right away when
she comes, and then we will grab the mattock and the axe."
"very well," said the mourning dove.
All this time the gardening is being done by two implements, the brothers are
shooting.
And as soon as the dove cries out they come running, one of them pulling the
mattock and the other grabbing the hoe, and they are tying up their hair.
One of them deliberately rubs dirt on his hands, he dirties his face as well, so he
is just like a real gardener.
And as for the other one, he deliberately dumps wood chips on his head so he is
like a real woodcutter.
Once their grandmother has seen them eat, later they get home.
"We are ready for bed our dear grandmother." they say when they arrive.
Deliberately they massage and stretch their legs, their arms in front of their
grandmother.
When they went on the second day and arrived at the garden, it had all grown
up high again. Every tree and bush, every stalk and bramble had put itself back
together again.
"What is happening?" they said.
The animals small and great,: puma, jaguar, deer, rabbit, fox, coyote, peccary,
coati, small birds, and large birds. They are the ones who did it, they did it in
just one night.
So the brothers started the garden all over again. Just as before, the ground
worked itself, along with the woodcutting.
The brothers shared their thoughts as the garden was cleared again.
"We will simply have to keep watch over our garden. Then whatever may be
happening here we will find out about it." Then they went back home.
"How could we have lost the garden in one night, our dear grandmother? Our
garden was tall thickets and groves all over again when we got there awhile
ago." they said. " So we will go keep watch because what is happening to us is
no good. " they said.
They went back to the clearing.
They took cover. From their well hidden spot they saw all the animals gathered
together each sat on its haunches all the animals small and large.
They came in the middle of the night, and when they were all seated, here is
what they said:
                                Arise, come together ,trees
                               Arise, come together, bushes.
Then the animals moved beneath the trees and then they came nearer, and then
they showed their faces.
The first of those were the puma and jaguar. The boys leaped at them, but the
animals eluded them. When the deer and rabbit came near, the boys only could
grab their tails, which broke off in the hands, leaving those tails still attached
shortened. But the fox, coyote and peccary, coati avoided the boys. All the
animals stood in front of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

So there was a fire in the brother's hearts because they could not catch the
animals. One more animal came, the last one now, jumping as he came, then
they cut him off. In their net they caught the rat.
The grabbed him and squeezed him behind the head. They tried to choke him,
they burned his tail over a fire, which left no hair on the tail. The choked him
till his eyes got red. The rat cried out.
" I will not die by your hand! Gardening is not your job, but there is something
that is," said the rat.
"What is that? Go ahead and name it."
"Will you let me go then? My word is in my belly, and after I name it for you
,you will give me my morsel of food," said the rat.
"We will give you food, so name it." "Very well. It is something that belonged
to your fathers, named One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, who died in Xibalba.
What remains is their gaming equipment. They left it up under the roof of the
house: their kilts, their arm guards, their rubber ball. But your grandmother
doesn't take these down in front of you, because these are the cause of your
father's deaths.
"This sounds like the truth!" the boys cried.
There was great joy in their hearts when they got word of the rubber ball. When
the rat had named it they gave the rat the food, his food of corn kernels, squash
seeds, chili, beans, pataxte, cacao. These are the rat's food.
"If anything of yours is stored or gets wasted then gnaw away." they told the
rat.
What will your grandmother say if she sees me?" asked the rat.
"Don't be fainthearted. We are here. We know what our grandmother needs to
be told. We will set you up under the corner of the roof right away. When that
is taken care of you will go straight to where the things were left, and we will
look up there under the roof." they told the rat.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque made their plans overnight and arrived right at noon,
and it was not obvious that they had a rat with them when they arrived. One of
them went right inside the house when he reached it, while the other went to
the corner of the house, quickly setting up the rat. And they asked their
grandmother for their meal.
"We want chili sauce in our stew, dear grandmother," they said.
She ground chili for their stew. A bowl of broth was set out in front of them, but
they were fooling the their grandmother and mother. They had emptied the
water jar:
"We are really parched. Bring us a drink!" they told their grandmother
They were not really hungry but they made an appearance of eating.
They saw the rat reflected in their chili sauce. Here was the rat loosening the
ball that had been left in the peak of the roof When they saw him in the chili
sauce they sent a mosquito. He went to the water, he punctured the side of the
grandmother's jar. The water gushed out from the side of the jar. She tried but
she could not stop it before the water ran out.
"What has our grandmother done? We are choking for lack of water. Our
throats are parched." they told their mother, and they sent her to help the
grandmother.
The rat cut the ball loose. It dropped from beneath the roof, along with the
yokes, arm guards, kilts. These were taken away. They hid them in the road to
the ball court.
They went to join their grandmother and mother at the water both of whom
could not stop the water flowing from the jar.
They boys arrived with their blowguns. When they arrived at the water:
"What is happening. We got weary so we came," they said.
"Look at the side of my jar!" cried the grandmother. The boys stopped it up.
They came back together ahead of their grandmother.

Happy now, they went to play ball at the court. They swept out the court of
their fathers.
The noise of their game was heard by the lords Xibalba:
"Who has begun a game again, over our heads?" Don't they have any shame,
stomping around this way? Didn't One and Seven Hunahpu die trying our
patience? Deliver another summons," One and Seven Death said.
"Tell to them to come. We summon them to play a game with us in seven
days." the lords told the messengers.
The messengers came along a wide roadway, the road to the house of the boys,
which actually ended at the house, so that the messengers came directly to their
grandmother. The boys were playing ball in the court far from the house.
"They are to come before the lords of Xibalba. In seven days a game will take
place," Xmucane was told.
"Very well. The will go when the day comes messengers," said the
grandmother.
So now the grandmothers heart was broken.
"How can I send for my grandchildren? Isn't it really Xibalba, just as it was
when the messengers came long ago, when their fathers went to die?" said the
grandmother, sobbing at home by herself.
After that, a louse fell on her elbow, moving around in fit and starts.
"Little one, perhaps you might like to take my message to where my
grandchildren play in the ball court." The louse takes the message, that
messenger has come to your grandmother, that messenger said that you are to
come to Xibalba in seven days to play ball. " Off went the louse in fits and
starts. On the road was a boy named Tamazul, the toad.
"Where are you going?" said the toad to the louse.
"My word is contained in my belly. I am going to the two boys," said the louse
to Tamazul.
"But I notice you are not very fast. Wouldn't you like me to swallow you? You
will arrive fast as I will hop quickly over to them." "Fine" said the louse. The
louse was swallowed up by the toad who sauntered towards the boys.
The toad met a big snake named Zaquicaz:
"Where are you going, Tamazul?" the toad was asked by Zaquicaz." "I am a
messenger. My word is in my belly." "I notice you are not fast. Listen to me. I
can slither very fast. Let me swallow you up, and I shall go right away to the
boys."
The toad was swallowed by Zaquicaz.
So the snake was running as he went, then the snake was met from overhead by
a laughing falcon, a large bird. The snake was swallowed up by the falcon, and
then he arrived above the court. When hawks get their food, they eat snakes in
the mountains.
And when the falcon arrived at the ball court he alighted on the rim of it.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque saw the falcon.
The falcon cried out: "Wakk-ko! Wak-ko!".
"Get our blowguns" one said to the other.
They shot the falcon right in his eye. Wobbling, he fell down and they went
there to grab him, when he said to them:
"My word is contained in my belly. It is a message for you. But heal my eye
first, then I shall name it." said the falcon.
They took a bit of gum off the surface of the ball, then they put it on the eye of
the falcon. "Sorrel gum" was their name for it. As soon as it was treated by
them the vision of the eye became good again.
"So name it," they said to the falcon, and then he vomited a big snake.
"Speak up," they said to the snake.
"Yes," he said, then he vomited the toad.

What is your errand? Tell it!" they said to the toad.
"The word is contained in my belly," the toad said, and then he tried to throw
up, but there was no vomit, just drool. He was trying but there was no vomit.
After that, he had to be kicked by the boys.
"You trickster!" he was told, then they kicked him in the rear, and they crushed
the bones of his rear end with their feet. When he tried again, he sort of spit.
And then they pried the toad's mouth open. The searched his mouth, and the
louse had simply stuck in the toad's teeth, it was right there in his mouth. He
hadn't actually swallowed it.
The poor toad became meat for the snake.
"Tell it," the louse was told next, so then he named his word:
"Boys your grandmother says: 'Summon them. A message has come for them
from Xibalba, from One and Seven Death:' "In seven days they are to come
here before us. We will play ball. Their gaming equipment must come along,
rubber balls, yokes, arm guards and kilts. This will make for some excitement
here," says the lords, says your grandmother."
"This is the truth!" cried the boys. When they heard they left at once and got to
their grandmother, but they went there only to give their grandmother
instructions.
"We re on our way, dear grandmother. We are just giving you instructions. So
here is the sign of our word. We'll leave it with you. Each of us will plant and
ear of corn. We will plant them in the center of our house. When the corn dries
up, this will be a sign of our deaths."
"Perhaps they died" you will say when it dries up. And when the sprouting
comes, you will say:
"Perhaps they live," you will say our dear grandmother and mother. From now
on this is the sign of our word. We're leaving it with you." they said then they
left.
Hanuhpu planted one and Xbalanque planted another. They planted right there
in the house: neither in the mountains nor where the earth is damp, but where
the earth is dry, in the middle of the inside of their house. They left them
planted there, and went off, each with his own blowgun.

They went down to Xibalba, quickly going down the face of a cliff, and they
crossed over the bottom of a canyon with rapids. They passed right through the
birds - the ones called throng birds - and they crossed the Pus River and Blood
River, intended as traps by Xibalba. They did not step in but crossed them on
their blowguns. They went on over the Crossroads. But they knew about the
roads of Xibalba: Black Road, White Road, Red Road, Green Road.
And there they summoned that creature named the mosquito. Having heard that
he is a spy, they send him ahead.
"Bite them one by one. First bite the first one seated there, then bite every last
one of them, and it will be yours alone to suck the blood of people on the
roads," the mosquito was told.
"Very well," said the mosquito. He took the Black Road and stopped at the two
manikins, the woodcarvings that were seated first. They were all dressed up,
and he bit the first of them. It did not speak, so he bit again. When he bit the
one sited second, again it did not speak, and then he bit the third one, the one
seated third being One Death himself.
"Yeow!" said the One as he was bitten.
"What is it?"
"Something has bitten me."
"Yeow!" said the one seated fourth.
"What is it, Seven Death?" said the One Death.
"Something has bitten me."
"Ow, Ow" said the next.
"What, House Corner?" Seven Death said to him.
"Something has bitten me." "Ouch!" "What is it Blood Gatherer" said House
Corner to him. "Something has bitten me." Each in turn was bitten, in the order
they are seated: after Blood Gather it was Pus Master, then Jaundice Master,
Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, Wing, Packstrap, Bloody Teeth, Bloody Claws
and so on, each naming the next until everyone had named the one below them.
"
The mosquito returned to Hunahpu and Xbalanque and told them all it had
heard in the very order they had heard it.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque came before the Xibalbans and said:
"Bid the lords good day," one of the lords, who was a deceiver said, "These
aren't lords, these are manikins. woodcarvings," they said as they came up.
Then they turned to the others after the manikins and bid them good morning"
  Good morning, One Death, Seven Death, House Corner, Blood Gatherer, Pus
     Master, Jaundice Master , Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, Wing, Packstrap,
                              Bloody Teeth, Bloody Claws. "
"Sit here," they were told, and the hot slab of stone was pointed to.
"This bench is not for us! It is just a stone slab for cooking," said Hannah and
Xbalanque. They were not fooled.
"Very well. Just get in the house." They entered the Dark House, the first test of
Xibalba, and all the Xibalbans thought the boys were good as defeated.
First they entered Dark House.
The messenger came with the torch and the two lit cigars. " You must return
them to the lords intact, the torch and the cigars."
"Very well, " they said. They did not burn the torch, but used the feathers of a
macaw to simulate the flames. They used two fireflies to make it look as if the
cigars were burning all night."
The next morning when the lords looked at the torch, it was not consumed.
When they looked at the cigars, they were not consumed.
"What is this? " they asked themselves. "Who are these people? Who begot
them, where did they come from? They are doing us no good, our hearts are
heavy because we have not fooled them. They are different in looks, and
different in their very being."
When all the lords were gathered, One and Seven Deaths asked them, "Where
might you have come from?"
"We don't know." said the boys.
"Let us play ball them," said the lords.
"Good," said the boys.
"Here is our ball," said the lords.
" No thanks, here is ours, " replied the boys.
"No, we must use ours, " said the Xibalbans.
"Fine." said the boys.
" It is a decorated ball."
"No, it is a skull." said the boys.
"No it is not," said the Xibalbans.
The Xibalba sent the ball towards the boys, who stopped it with Hunahpu's
yoke.
Then while everyone watched, the White Dagger came out of the ball, and
twisted and clattering all over the floor of the court.
"What is this?" said the boys. "Death is the only thing you want of us. You
summoned us, and you try now to kill us. Play fair you we will just leave. You
are bad hosts."
"Alright. Don't go. We can still play ball put we will use yours in the play."
"Very well," they said and this time their rubber ball was dropped into play.
"What shall the prize be?" asked the Xibalbans.
"It is yours for the asking" was all the boys said.
"We will take four bowls of flowers when we win," said the Xibalbans.
"What kind of flowers," asked the boys.
"One bowl of red petals, one bowl of white petals, one bowl of yellow petals,
and one bowl of whole flowers," said the Xibalbans.
The boys were equal to the Xibalbans in their strength and made many plays,
since they only had very good thoughts. Then the boys gave themselves up in
defeat, and the Xibalbans were glad when they were defeated.
"We have done well. We have beaten them on the first try," said the Xibalbans.

"Before the night is over you must hand over our flowers and our prize, " the
boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque were told by Xibalba.
"So we are playing ball at night," they said when they accepted their charge.
And after that, the boys entered the Razor House, the second test of Xibalba.
It was intended to kill them. But they did not die. They spoke to the knives
then. They instructed them:
"This is yours: the flesh of all the animals," they told the knives, and they no
longer moved, rather each and every knife put down its point.
So the boys stayed overnight in Razor House. During the night they summoned
all the ants:
                        Cutting ants, conquering ants, come now,
       all of you fetch all of them for us: flowers in bloom, prizes for lords."
"Very well," they said onto the ants. The ants went to get the flowers, the
plantings of One and Seven Death, who had already given instructions to the
guardians of the flowers of Xibalba:
"Please watch our flowers? Do not let them get stolen. As we have defeated
those boys, they will come looking for the prize they owe us? Do not sleep
tonight."
"Very well," they replied, but the guardians of the plants. But all night they
went from branch to branch, from tree to tree singing the same song:
                            Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will!
The two of them are the guards of the garden, the garden of the One and Seven
Deaths, but they don't notice the ants stealing the flowers, swarming over them,
climbing the trees, cutting them off and carting them away, for the guards are
yawning so much singing their songs that they never notice the nibbling at their
own tails and wings while the flowers rain down into the four bowls.
"They must bring our prizes right now," said the Xibalbans as the night came to
a close.
And the boys appeared with four bowls filled with flowers, and each lord had a
pained expression on their face.
With this the Xibalbans were defeated. The ants had sent mere ants; in just one
night the ants had taken the flowers and put them in the bowls.
The Xibalbans looked sick, they paled at the sight of the flowers.
After that they summoned the flower guards:
"How id you allow our flowers to get stolen? These are our flowers." "We were
singing and yawning all the night long, and did not notice although our feathers
are worse for it." "The lords split the guardians mouths wide open, their
payment for the theft they had allowed of what was under their guard.
So now the ball was dropped, another game began, and this time they played to
a tie. When they finished the game it was agreed that they would play at dawn
again. And they were sent to the next house.
And now they entered Cold House. There are countless drafts, thick falling hail
inside the house, the home of cold. They diminished the cold right away by
shutting it out. The cold dissipated because of the boys. They did not die, but
were alive when it dawned.
So, although Xibalba had wanted them to die there, they did not and were alive
when it dawned.
"Why haven't they died?" said the rulers of Xibalba. Again they were amazed
by the feats of the boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
So next they entered Jaguar House, the jaguar packed home:
"Do not eat us. Here is something that is more fun to have than us.
With that the boys scattered bones before the animals.
The jaguars wrestled over the bones.
"They have worried the bones. They have eaten their very fill. " said the boys.
To the despair of the guards, the next morning, the boys came out of Jaguar
House.
"What sort of people are they? Where did they come from?" said all the
Xibalbans.
So next they entered the midst of the fire, a house of fire with only fire alone
inside. They were not burned by it, just toasted, just simmered, so they were
comfortable when it dawned. So although the Xibalbans expected them to be
quickly killed in there, the boys were not. The Xibalbans lost heart.
Now they were put inside Bat House, with bats alone inside the house, snatch
bats, monstrous bats, their teeth like knives, the instruments of death. To come
before these is to be finished off at once.
When they were inside they just slept in their blowguns; they were not bitten by
the bats. But this is where their cleverness was shown in its entirety.
For much of the night the bats were making noise:
                                       Squeak, Squeak
they say.
and then they quiet down, no longer squeaking, no longer moving.
"Hunahpu, can you see how long it is till dawn?"
"Perhaps I should look to see how long it is."
So he tried to look out of the muzzle of the blowgun to see the dawn.
A snatch bat was taken off Hanuhpu's body still in the blow gun.
"What is going on? Is it dawn?" said Xbalanque. No longer did Hunahpu move.
For a while Xbalanque despaired, "Ah, we have given it all up!". The head of
Hanuhpu went rolling into the court of the Xibalbans and they rejoiced at the
sight.
Xbalanque summoned all the animals: coati, peccary, all the animals, small and
great. It was at night, still night time when he asked them for their food:
"Each of you bring your foods here to me."
"There is the one who brought his rotten wood."
"Here is the one who brought leaves.
"Here is the one who brought stones.
"Here is the one who brought earth.
All though the night, the animals came with their food, until the last one, the
coati, brought a squash, bumping it along with his snout as he came.
And Xbalanque carved eyes into it, the thinker of the sky gave the brains, this
from the Heart of Sky,. Hurricane, who came down came into the Bat House.
Carefully worked was the face so that it came out well. It strengths was not the
same as the head, but it was handsome and it could speak just the same."
Now the dawn began, when the possum said, "Make the streaks.".
And Hurricane, took the streaks from the sky, and made it dark again. And
people even now say that Possum is making streaks when they see the early red
and blue in the sky.
"Is it not good?" this simulated head of Hunahpu was asked.
"Very good indeed," he replied. His head was if it had every bone, it had
become like his real head.
"Do not play the ball yourself. You just make lots of threats, while I will be the
one to take all the action," Xbalanque told him. After that, he gave instructions
to a rabbit:
"You place is there above the court, on top. Stay there in the oaks. " Xbalanque
told the rabbit. "When the ball comes to you, then take off while I get to work,"
the rabbit was told, while the sky was still dark.
After that when it dawned both of them looked just as well as ever.
When the ball was dropped in the court, it was the head of Hunahpu that rolled
over the court:
                               We have won! You are done!
                                  Give up! You have lost.

Hunahpu shouted, "Punt the head as a ball".
Xibalba sent off the ball and Xbalanque stopped it with his yoke and struck it
into the oaks where the rabbit grabbed it and ran off into the woods. The
Xibalbans cried out and everyone of them took after the rabbit.
Fast was the rabbit, and round the tree he rushed into the court, over to
Xbalanque, who took the head, and pulled the squash from the body of
Hunahpu and put his head on it instead. Then he put the squash on the court.
"Come back!" cried out the boys. "We have found the ball. Come back now.
We are ready to play again."
Then both sides began again, and they made equal plays on both sides.
The squash was punted by Xbalanque. The squash was wearing out. It fell apart
on the court.
"Where did that come from?" cried the Xibalbans
With this the lords of Xibalba were defeated by Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
There was great danger faced, but they did not die from all the things that were
done to them.
And now for the epitaph, the death of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They did not
die from the tests of Xibalba, or the vicious animals that inhabit Xibalba.
The midmost seers, like reader, knowers Xulu, Pacam by name was summoned
by the boys.
"Death is inevitable. The lords of Xibalba are thinking how to overcome us, and
when we die they will come to question you how to keep us dead. Here is what
you can say:
" ' Shall we dump their bones in the canyon?' they shall ask of you. ' Perhaps
not you shall say, they may come back to life again,' you shall say.
'Perhaps we can hang them in a tree they will say.', but you shall tell them, ' you
shall see their faces,' so they will ask you:
'Shall we dump their bones in the river?' and you shall say, ' This is a good death
for them, for their bones will grind on stone, just as corn is refined into flour, so:
                                  'Spill them into the river,
                             sprinkle them on the water's way
                         among the mountains, small and great,'
you will say, and then you will carry out the instructions we name for you" said
Hunahpu and Xbalanque. When they gave these instructions they already knew
they would die.
The Xibalbans have a great stone oven. They cook sweet drink in it, opened it
to a great width. After opening it, the lords One and Seven Deaths tell their
messengers. "Bring the boys, so they can see the treat we have cooked up for
them."
And off the messengers went. Back they came with Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
There the Xibalbans tried to force them to play a game.
"Here, let us jump over our drink four times, clear across, one of us after the
other boys, " they were told by One Death.
"You can not fool us. We know what our death will be." And each of the boys
faced each other, clasped their hands, and then plunged head first into the oven.
And there they died together, and now all the Xibalbans were happy, raising
their shouts, raising their cheers.
"We have beaten them. They did give up easily."
After that they summoned Xulu and Pacam, who kept their word: the bones
went into the river. Once the Xibalbans had done the divinations, the bones
were ground and spilled into the river, but they did not go far, they sank to the
bottom, and they became handsome boys; they looked the same as before.
And on the fifth day they reappeared. They were seen in the water by the
people. The two of them looked like channel catfish when their faces were seen
by Xibalba. And having germinated in the waters, they appeared the day after
that as two vagabonds, with rags before and rags behind, and rags all over too.
They seemed unrefined when they were examined by Xibalba: they acted
different now.
They danced the Dance of the PoorWill, the Dance of the Weasel, the Dance
of the Armadillos.
They danced Swallowing Swords, and Walking On Stilts.
They performed many miracles now. They would set fire to a house, and as it
was burning, suddenly bring it back. Now Xibalba was full of admiration for the
boys.
Next they would sacrifice themselves, one of them dying for the other,
stretched out as if in death. First they would kill themselves, but then they
would suddenly look alive again. The Xibalbans could only admire what they
did.
The news of their dances came to the ears of the lord, One and Seven Death.
They said:
"Who are these two vagabonds? Are they really such a delight? Their dancing
so pretty? They do everything, so have them come to us, and entertain us," said
the lords to messengers.
"We are too ashamed, we two vagabonds, " they told the messengers, "we are
too poorly dressed to appear before the lords, we would look like mere dancers
to them. What would we say to our fellow vagabonds? There are others we
wish to dance with today, to liven up things with us so we cannot also do that
with the lords."
Even so, they were beseeched and ordered, and so through troubles, through
torments, they walked slowly, and then the messengers came back to keep them
on track to the lords." And they came to the lords. Feigning great humility,
they bowed their heads all the way to the ground when they arrived. The
brought themselves low, doubled over, flattened out, down to the rags to the
tatters. They really abased themselves.
So then they were asked what their mountain and tribe were, and they were
also asked about their mother and father.
"We have never know lord. We do not know the identity of our mother and our
father. We must have been small when they died," was all they said. They did
not give any names.
"Then entertain us. What do you want for payment?" they were asked.
"We do not want anything. We are afraid." they told the lord.
"Do not be afraid. Do not be ashamed. Just dance this way, sacrifice yourself,
and set fire to my house. Act all the things you know. We want to be
entertained. This is our heart's desire, the reason you had to be sent for, dear
vagabonds. We shall give you payment," they were promised.
So they began their songs and dances. The spectators crowded the floor, and
they danced everything: the Weasel, the Poorwill, the Armadillo. The lord said
to them:
"Sacrifice my dog, then bring him back to life again."
So they said:
                               When they scarified the dog
                                 he then came back to life.
                              And that dog was really happy
                                when he came back to life.
                            Back and forth he wagged his tail
                                when he came back to life.
The lord said to them:
"Set my house on fire," and so then they set fire to the home of the lord. The
house was packed with all the lords, but they were not burned. They quickly
fixed it up again, lest the house of One Death be consumed all at once, and all
the lords were amazed, and they went on dancing this way. They were
overjoyed.
Then the lord said:
"Kill a person,! Make a sacrifice without death!"
Then they took hold of a human sacrifice.
And they held up a human heart on high.
And they showed its roundness to the lords.
And now One and Seven Death admired it, and now that person was brought
back to life. His heart was overjoyed when he came back to life, and the lords
were amazed.
"Sacrifice yourselves. Let us see it! That is the dance we really want to see.
So they sacrificed themselves.
And so Hunahpu, one by one, his legs and his arms were spread wide. His head
came off, rolled far away outside. His heart, dug out, was smothered in a leaf,
and all the Xibalbans went crazy at the sight.
Xbalanque danced, and he said, "Get up," and Hunahpu came back to life. The
two of them were overjoyed at this, the likewise the lords rejoiced, as if they
were doing it themselves. One and Seven Death were as glad at heart as if they
themselves were doing the dance.
And then the hearts of the lords were filled with longing, with yearning for the
dance of Hunahpu and Xbalanque so then One and Seven Death said:
Do it to us! Sacrifice us!" they said "Sacrifice both of us!" said One and Seven
Death to Hanuhpu and Xbalanque.
"Very well. We are not death, you should come back. We wish to make you
happy, along with the vassals of your domain."
So the ruler of Xibalba, One Death was sacrificed first. Then Seven Death. And
they did not come back to life.
The Xibalbans were getting up to leave, having seen the heart sacrifice there for
the true purpose: to destroy them.
The boys defeated the rulers of Xibalba through self-transformation. The
vassals of the lord fled through the great canyon, in one single mass they filled
up the deep abyss, like ants they tumbled down he canyon.
And then they named their names, before all of Xibalba.
"Listen, we shall name our names, and we shall also name the names of our
fathers for you. Here we are: we are Hunahpu and Xbalanque by name. And
these are our fathers, the ones you killed. One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu by
name. And we are to clear the torments and troubles of our fathers. And so we
have suffered all the troubles you have caused us. And so we are putting an end
to all of you. We are going to kill you. No one can save you now. "
All the Xibalbans got down on the ground and cried out:
"Take pity on us, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. It is true that we wronged your
fathers, the ones you name. They are buried at the Place of Ball Game
Sacrifices. "
"Here is our word. All of you Xibalbans listen, because of this your day and
your descendants will not be great. Moreover the gifts you receive will no
longer be great, but reduced to nodules of sap. There will be no cleanly blotted
blood for you, just griddles, just gourds, brittle things broken into pieces.
Further, you will only feed on creatures of the meadow and clearings. None of
those who are born in the light, begotten in the light will be yours. Only the
worthless will yield themselves up before you. These will be the guilty, the
violent, the wretched, the afflicted. Whenever the blame is clear, that is where
you will come in, rather than just making sudden attacks on people in general.
And you will hear petitions over sap," all the Xibalbans were told.
Such was the beginning of their disappearance and the denial of their worship.
                         Their ancient day was not a great one,
                       these ancient people only wanted conflict,
                        their ancient names are not really divine,
                       but fearful is the ancient evil of their faces.

                      They are makers of enemies, users of owls,
                        they are inciters to wrongs and violence,
                          they are masters of hidden intentions
                                 they are black and white,
                       masters of stupidity, masters of perplexity.

Such was the loss of their greatness and brilliance. This was accomplished by
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

And this is their grandmother, crying and calling out in front of the corn ears
they left planted. Corn plants grew, then dried up.
And this was when they were burned in the oven; then the corn plants grew
again.
When their grandmother burned something, she burned copal before the corn as
a memorial to them. There was happiness in their grandmother's heart the
second time the corn plants sprouted. Then the ears were deified by their
grandmother, and she gave them names: Middle of the House, Middle of the
Harvest, Living Corn, Earthen Floor became their names.
Then she named the ears Middle of the House, Middle of th4e Earth because
they had planted them right in the middle of their home.
She further named them Earthen Floor, Living Corn since the corn ears were
placed above an earthen floor.
She named them Living Corn because the corn plants had grown again. So they
were named by Xmucane. They had been left behind, planted by Hunahpu and
Xbalanque, simply as a way for their grandmother to remember them.
And the first to die, a long time before, had been their fathers, One Hunahpu
and Seven Hunahpu. And they saw the face of their father again, there in
Xibalba. Their father spoke to them again when they had defeated the
Xibalbans.

And they put their father back together again. They put Seven Hunahpu back
together. They went to the Court of Ball Sacrifices to put him together. He had
wanted his face to become just as it was, but when he was asked to name
everything, he found the name of the mouth, nose and eyes of his face, there
was very little else to be said. Although his mouth could not name the names of
each of his former parts, he had spoken again.
"You will be prayed to here," his sons told him, and his heart was comforted.
"You will be the first resort, and you will be the first to have your day kept by
those who will be born in the light, begotten in the light. Your name will not be
lost. So be it." they told their father when they comforted this heart.
"We merely cleared your death of all the losses, the pains the suffering that was
inflicted on you."
Then the boys ascended into the middle of the light, and they ascended straight
into the sky, one being the sun, one being the moon. The Four Hundred Boys of
Zipacna came with them. They came with them as their stars in the sky. When
the day comes, when the night comes the two Hunahpu and Xbalanque, one or
the other is always present.
 

the mountain today, and it became their citadel. So the god Hacauitz remained
there, and Mahucutah stayed with his god. This was the second god to be
hidden. It was on a bare mountain that Hacauitz was hidden.
Jaguar Quitze arrived in the great forest there. The mountain is called Patohil
today. Masses of jaguars, rattlesnakes, yellowbites were there in the forest
where Tohil was hidden by the penitents and sacrificers.
So all was done, and they waited for the dawn on top of the mountain named
Hacauitz.
Also a short distance away was the god of the Tams, together with the Ilocs.
Tam Tribe is the name of the place where the god sat at the dawn. Net Weave
River is the name of the place where dawn came for the Ilocs. The god of the
Ilocs was just a short distance away.
Also there were all the Rabinals. Cakchiquels, those of the Bird House all the
tribes, great and small. In unity they stopped there, and in unity they had their
dawning there. In unity they waited there for the rising of the great star named
daybringer.
It will rise before the sun everyone said.
There was no sleep, no rest for them. They cried with their hearts and their
guts, there at the dawning, and the clearing, and they looked badly. Great
sorrow, great anguish came over them, their pain marked them. They stayed
that way.
"Coming here has not been pleasant for us. IF we could only see the bird of the
sun! What have we done? We all had one identity, one mountain, but we sent
ourselves into exile," they said among themselves. They talked about sorrow,
about anguish, about crying and wailing, since their hearts had not been set to
rest by the dawn."
The gods in the canyons, on the mountain, in the forest, just out in the
bromelias, on the hanging mosses, not yet set on pedestals, they felt calm. At
first, Tohil, Xuilix and Hacauitz actually spoke. The greatness of their day and
the greatness of their great of spirit set them above all the other tribal gods.
Their genius was manifold and their ways were manifold, their strategies
manifold. They were chilling, frightening in the hearts of the tribes. The tribes
were calmed by Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar.
Their hearts did not yet harbor ill will towards the gods who had been taken up
and carried away when they all came from Tulan Zuyua there in the east, and
who were now in the forest.
These were the dawning places: Patohil, Pauilux, and Hacauitz, as they are
called today. And this is where our grandfather, our fathers had their sowing,
their dawning.
This is what we shall explain next: the dawning and showing of the sun moon
and stars.

And here is the dawning and showing of the sun, moon and stars. Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar were overjoyed when they
saw the daybringer. It came up first. It looked brilliant when it came up, since it
was ahead of the sun.
After that they unwrapped their copal incense which came from the east, and
there was triumph in their hearts when they unwrapped it. They gave their
heartfelt thanks of three kinds at once:
Mixtam Copal is the name of the copal brought by Jaguar Quitze.
Cauiztan Copal is the name of the copal brought by Jaguar Night.
Godly Copal was brought by Mahucutah.
The three of them had their copal, and this is what they burned as they incensed
the direction of the rising sun. They were crying out sweetly as they shook their
burning copal, the precious copal.
After that they cried because they had yet to see and yet to witness the birth of
the sun.
And then, when the sun came up, the animals, small and great were happy.
They all came up from the rivers and canyons they waited on all the mountain
peaks. Together they looked toward the place where the sun came out.
So then the puma and jaguar cried out, but the first to cry out was bird, the
parrot by name. All the animals were truly happy. The eagle, the white vulture,
small birds, great birds spread their wings, and the penitents and sacrificers
knelt down. They were overjoyed together with the penitents and sacrificers of
the Tams, and the Ilocs.
And the Rabinals, Cakchiquels, those of the Bird House
And the Sweatbath House, Talk House, Quiba House, those of the Yoke House.
And the Yaqui Sovereign - however many tribes there may be today. There
were countless people, but there was just one dawn for all tribes.
And then the sun dried out the face of the earth. The sun was like a person
when he revealed himself. His face was hot, so he dried out the face of the
earth. Before the sun came up it was soggy, and the face of the earth was
muddy before the sun came up. And when the sun had risen just a short
distance he was like a person, and his heat was unbearable. Since he revealed
himself only when he was born, it is only reflection that now remains. As they
said:
"The sun that we see is not the real sun."
All at once, Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were turned to stone, along with the
idols of the puma, jaguar, rattlesnake yellowbite that the White Sparkstriker
took with him into the trees. Everywhere all of them became stone when the
sun, moon and stars appeared. Perhaps we would have no relief from the
voracious animals today, the puma jaguar, rattlesnake, yellow bite- perhaps it
would not even be our day today, if the original animals had not turned to stone
by the sun when he was born.
There was great happiness in the hearts of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. They were overjoyed when it dawned. The
people on the mountain of Hacauitz were were not yet numerous, just a few
were there. Their dawning was there and they burned copal there, incensing the
direction of the rising sun. They came from there: it is their own mountain, their
own plain. Those named Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True
Jaguar came from there, and they began their increase on that mountain.
And that became their citadel, since they were there when the sun, moon and
stars appeared, when it dawned and cleared on the face of the earth, over
everything under the sky.

And there began their song named "The Blame Is Ours". They sang out the
lament of their very hearts and guts. In their song they say:
                                             "Alas!
                                 Were were lost at Tulan!
                                  We shattered ourselves!
                            We left our elder brothers behind!
                                    Our younger brother!
              Where did they see the sun? Where must they be staying,
                              Now that the dawn has come?"
They were speaking of the penitents and the sacrificers who were the Yaqui
people.
"Even though Tohil is his name, he is the same god of the Yaqui people, whose
god is named Yolcuat and Quitzalcuat. When we divided, there at Tulan, at
Zuyua, they left with us, and they shared our identity when we came away."
they said to themselves remembering their faraway brothers, elder and younger,
the Yaqui people whose dawn was there in the place named Mexico today.
And again there were also the Fishkeeper people. They stayed there in the east;
Sovereign Oloman is their name.
"We left them behind." It was a great weight on their hearts up there on
Hacauitz. The Tams and Ilocs did likewise except that they were in the forest.
The Tam Tribe is the name of the place where the sun dawned for the penitents
and sacrificers of the Tams, with their god, named likewise Tohil. There was
just one name for the god in all the three divisions of the Quiche people.
Again, the name of the god of the Rabinals was nearly the same, "One Toh" is
the way the name of the god of the Rabinals is spoken. They say it that way,
but it is meant to be in agreement with the Quiches and their language.
And the language has differentiated in the case of the Cakchiquels, since their
god has a different name when they came away from Tulan Zuyua. Calm Snake
is the name of the god of the Bat House, and they speak a different language
today. Along with their god, the lineages took their names; they are called
Keeper of the Bat Mat and Keeper of the Dancer Mat. Like their god, their
language was differentiated on account of a stone. when they came from Tulan
in the darkness. All the tribes were sown and came to light in unity, and each
division was allocated a name for it's god.
And now we shall tell about their stay and their sojourn there on the mountain.
The four were together, the ones named Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar Their hearts cried out to Tohil, Auilix and
Hacauitz, who were now amid the bromelias and hanging mosses.

And here they burn their copal, and here also is the origin of the masking of
Tohil.
And when they went before Tohil and Auilix, they went to visit them and keep
their day. Now they gave thanks before them for the dawning, and now they
bowed down before their stones, there in the forest. Now it was only a
manifestation of his genius that spoke when the penitents and sacrificers came
before Tohil, and what they brought and burned was not great. All the burned
before their gods was resin, just bits of pitchy bark along with marigolds.
And when Tohil spoke now it was only his genius. When the gods taught
procedures to the penitents and sacrificers they said this on speaking.
"This very place has become our mountain, our plain. Now that we are yours,
our day and our birth have become great because all the people are yours, all
the tribes. And since we are still your companions, even in your citadel, we
shall give you procedures:
"Do not reveal us to the tribes when they search for us. They are truly
numerous now, so don't let us be hunted down, but rather gives the creatures of
the grasses and grains to us, such as female deer and female birds. Please come
give us a little of their blood, take pity on us. And leave the pelts of the deer
apart, save them. These are for disguises, for deception. They will become deer
costumes, and also they will serve as our surrogates before the tribes. When
you are asked:
"Where is Tohil?" they will say, and you will display the deer costumes before
them, and with revealing ourselves. There is still more for you to do. You will
become great in your very being. Defeat all the tribes. They must bring blood
and lymph before us. They must come to embrace us. They belong to us
already." said Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz. They had a youthful appearance
when they saw them when they came to burn offerings before them.
So then began the hunting of the young of all the birds and deer; they were
taken in the hunt by the penitents and sacrificers.
And when they got hold of the birds and fawns, they would then go to anoint
the mouth of the stone of Tohil or Auilix with the blood of the deer or bird. And
the gods drank the bloody drink. The stone would speak at once when the
penitents and sacrificers arrived, when they went to make their burnt offerings.
They did the very same thing before the deerskins" they burned resin, and they
also burned marigold and yarrow. There was a deerskin for each one of the
gods, which was displayed there on the mountain.
They did not occupy their houses during the day, but just walked in the
mountains. And this was their food: the larva of the yellow jacket, the larva of
the wasp, the larva of the bee, which they hunted. And yet there was anything
else good to eat or good to drink. It was not obvious how to get to their houses,
nor was it obvious where their wives stayed.
As for Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, it was not
obvious where they were. When they saw the people of the tribes passing by on
the roads, that was when they would get up on the mountain peaks, just crying
out with the cry of the coyote and the cry of the fox. And they would make the
cries of the puma and jaguar, whenever they saw the tribes out walking in
numbers. The tribes were saying:
"It is just a coyote crying out, it is just a fox."
It is just a puma, it is just a jaguar."
In the minds of all the tribes, it was as if humans were not involved. They did it
just as a way of decoying the tribes, that was what their hearts desired. They
did so that the tribes would not get really frightened just yet; that was what they
intended when they cried out with the cry of the puma and the cry of the
jaguar. And then when they saw just one or two people out walking they
planned to overwhelm them.
Each say, when they came back to their houses and wives, they would bring the
same things: yellow jacket larvae, wasp larvae, and bee larvae, and give them to
their wives, each day. And when they went before Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz,
they thought to themselves:
"They are Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz, yet we only give them blood of deer and
birds, we only draw cords through our ears and elbows when we ask for our
strength and our manhood from Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz. Who will take care
of the death of the tribes? Maybe we should just kill them one by one?"
When they went before Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz they drew cords through
their ears and elbows in front of the gods. They spilled their blood, they poured
gourdfuls into the mouths of the stones. And stones became like a boy when
they arrived, happy once again over the blood.
And then came a further sign as to what the penitents and sacrificers should do:
"You must win many victories. Your right to do this came from Tulan, when
you brought us here." Then the matter of sacrificing and offering up the heart
was set forth, at the place called Staggering, and the blood that would result
from it, the rainstorm of blood, also became a gift for Tohil, along with Auilix
and Hacauitz.
Now here begins the abduction of the people of the tribes by Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar Night, Mahucutah and True Jaguar.
And then came the killing of the trees. This is how they died. It was not
obvious when they took them away.
After that they went to cut them open before Tohil and Auilix.
After that when they had offered the blood, the skull would be placed in the
road. They would roll it out on the road. So the tribes would say:
"A jaguar has been eating," was all that was said, because their tracks were like
a jaguar's tracks when they did their deed. They did not reveal themselves.
Many people were abducted.
It was actually a long time before the tribes came to their senses:
"If it is Tohil and Auilix who are after us, we have only to search for the
penitents and sacrificers. We will follow their tracks to wherever their houses
are," said the tribes when they shared their thoughts among themselves.
After that, they began following the tracks of the penitents and sacrificers, but
they were not clear. They only saw the tracks of the deer, the tracks of the
jaguar. The tracks were not clear. Nothing was clear. Where they began the
tracks were merely those of animals. It was if the tracks were there for the sole
purpose of leading them astray.
It would get cloudy.
It would get dark and rainy.
It would get muddy too.
It would get misty and drizzly.
It was all the tribes could do to see in front of them, and their search would
simply make them weary at heart. Then they would give up.
Because Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were great in their very beings, they did
this for a long time, there on the mountain. They did their killing on the
frontiers of the tribes when the abductions began; they singled them out, and
cut them down. They would seize the people of the tribes in the roads, cutting
them open before Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz.
Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz had the appearance of three boys when they went
out walking; these were simply the spirit familiars of the stones. There was a
river. They would bathe there on the bank, just as a way of revealing
themselves, and this gave the place its name. The name of the river came to be
Tohil's Bath, and the tribes saw them there many times. They would vanish the
moment they were seen by the tribes.
Then the news spread as to the whereabouts of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah and True Jaguar, and this is when the tribes realized how they were
being killed.

First the tribes tried to plan the defeat of Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz. All the
penitents and sacrificers of the tribes spoke to each other. They roused and
summoned one another, all of them. Not even one or two divisions were left
out. They all converged and presented themselves. They shared their thoughts.
As they questioned one another they said
"What would assure the defeat of the Cauecs, the Quiche people? Our vassals
have met their deaths because of them. Is it not clear that our people have been
lost because of them? What if they finish us off with these abductions?"
"Let it be this way: if the fiery splendor of Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz is so great
then let this Tohil become our god! Let him be captured! Don't let them defeat
us completely! Don't we constitute a multitude of people? And as for the
Cauecs, there aren't as many of them, " they said when all of them had
assembled. Then the Fishkeepers spoke to the tribes saying:
"Who could be bathing every day at the river bank? If it is Tohil, Auilix and
Hacauitz, then we can defeat them. Let the defeat of the penitents and
sacrificers begin right there!" said the Fishkeepers, speaking further they said:
"Let this be our means for defeating them, since they present the appearance of
adolescent boys at the river, let two maidens go there. Let them be in full
blossom, maidens who radiate preciousness, so they will be desirable," they
said.
The others replied: " We shall find such maidens." And then they searched
among their daughters. Then they gave the maidens instructions:
"You must go, our dear daughters. Go wash clothes at the river, and if you
should see three boys, undress yourselves in front of them. And if their hearts
should desire you, you will titillate them. When they say to you:
"We are coming after you," then you say:
"Yes."
Then they will ask, "Where do you come from? Whose daughters are you?"
You shall answer them thusly:
"We are the daughters of lords, so show us respect."
If they truly like your faces you must give themselves up to them, else we will
have to kill you when you come back to us. If you give us a sign that they came
after you, then that will be proof," said the lords instructing the maidens, Utah,
and Xpuch.
And they sent the two of them, named Xtah and Xpuch, over tot he place
where Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz bathed. All the tribes knew of this.
And when they went off. They were dressed up, looking truly beautiful. They
were carrying what looked like their wash when they went off. Now the lords
were pleased over having sent their two daughters there.
And when they arrived at the river, t hey began to wash. They both undressed.
They were on the rocks, on their hands and knees when Tohil, Auilix and
Hacauitz came along. They got to the bank of the river and barely glanced at
the two maidens washing there, the maidens now scared. They did not go after
the two maidens. The questions began:
"Where do you come from? The two maidens were asked. "What do you intend
by coming here, to the bank of our river?
"We were sent here by the lords, so we came. They told us, go see the faces of
Tohil and the others, and speak to them. Also you must show us a sign as to
whether you really saw their faces. Go!, that is what we were told. "
This is what the tribes had intended, that the maidens be violated by the spirit
familiars of Tohil and the others. Then Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz spoke to the
two maidens, Xtah and Xpuch.
"Good. Let a sign of our word go with you. But you must wait for it, then give it
directly to the lords," the maidens were told.
Tohil and the others plotted with the penitents and sacrificers. Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar Night and Mahucutah were told:
"You must draw figures on three cloaks. Inscribe them with the signs of our
being. They are for the tribes; they will go back with maidens who are washing.
Give them to the maidens."
After that they drew the image for all three of them.. Jaguar drew first, his
image was that of the Jaguar. He drew it on his cloak.
And as for Jaguar Night he drew the image of an eagle on his cloak.
Mahucutah drew the figures of swarms of yellow jackets, swarms of wasps on
his cloak. Then the figures were complete, they had drawn all three of them, the
three fold figures.
After that, when Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night and Mahucutah went to give the
cloaks to those who were named Xtah and Xpuch, they said to them:
"Here is the proof of your word. When you came before the lords, you will say:
' Tohil spoke to us, and here are the signs,' and you will give the lords the cloaks
to try on.".
And so the maidens went back, taking the figured cloaks.
And when they arrived the lords were happy the moment they spotted what
they asked for hanging from the arms of the maidens.
"Did you see the face of Tohil?" they were asked.
"See it before you that we did.", said Xtah and Xpuch.
"Very good. You have brought back some sort of sign. Is not that so?" said the
lords, since there seemed to be signs of their sin or so thought the lords. So
when they shown the figured cloaks by the maidens, one with a jaguar, one
with an eagle, and one with yellow jackets and wasps drawn on the inside, on
the smooth surface, they knew.
The lords loved the way the cloaks looked. They costumed themselves. The
jaguar did not do anything.
When another lord tried on the cloak with the eagle it just felt good to him.
Another lord put on the one that had yellow jackets and wasps painted inside.
And then he started getting stung by the yellow jackets and wasps. He could not
endure it. He could not stand the stings of the insects. That lord yelled his
mouth off over the insects. Mahucutah's figures inside the cloak looked like a
mere drawing, but it could sting.
The maidens were reprimanded: "How did you get these things you brought
back? Where did you go to get them you tricksters!" the maidens were told
when they were reprimanded.
The maidens Xtah and Xpuch continued to think of them as temptresses and to
bark shins, cause great pain.
Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night and Mahucutah were not defeated as they were
people of genius.
But all the tribes plotted again:
"How are we going to beat them. They are truly great," they said to each other
when they shared their thoughts.
"Even so, we will invade them and kill them. Let us fit ourselves out with
weapons and shields. Are we not a multitude? There will not even be one or
two of them left," they said to each other.
There were masses of killers, once the killers of all the tribes joined together.
Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, they were on the
mountain. They were not a numerous people then; their numbers were not
equal to the numbers of the other tribes. There were just a few of them on the
mountain, their fortress, they sat together when they learned that all the tribes
were gathering to bring death to them all.
And here is the joining together of all the tribes, all decked out now with
weapons and shields. Their metal ornaments were countless, they looked
beautiful, all the lords, all the men. In truth, they were just making talk, all of
them. In truth, they would become slaves.
"Since there is a Tohil, and since he is a god, let us celebrate his day, or make
him our prize!" they said among themselves.
But Tohil already knew about it, and Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night and
Mahucutah already knew about it. They had heard about it while it was being
plotted, since they were neither asleep nor resting.
So then all the lance bearing warriors of tribes got up at night. They set off, but
they never arrived. They just fell asleep on the way, all those warriors.
So they were defeated again by Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night and Mahucutah,
since every last one of them fell asleep in the road. Now they could not feel a
thing. A multitude slept, all of them. And that is when things got started. Their
eyebrows were plucked out, along with their bears.
And then the metal was undone from their cloaks, along with their headdresses.
As they slept, their necklaces came off. The necks of their staffs were taken
next. So they suffered a loss of face, the plucking signified the greatness of the
Quiche.
When the tribes woke up. When they reached for their headdresses, long with
the necks of their staffs. There was no longer any metal.
"How could it have been taken from us? Who could have plucked us? Where
did they come from? Our metal has all been stolen!" the warriors cried out.
"Perhaps it those tricksters who have been abducting people. Let us not get
frightened by them. Let us enter their very citadel! That is the only way we will
ever see our metal and make it ours again." said all the tribes.
The hearts of the penitents and sacrificers were contents, on the mountain, but
even so Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar were making
great plans.
And then Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar had a plan.
They made a fence at the edge of their citadel. They made a palisade of planks
and stakes around their citadel.
Next they made manikins, as if they had made people.
Next they lined the manikins up on the parapet. They were even equipped with
weapons and shields. Headdresses were included, with metal on top, and cloaks
as well. But they were mere manikins, mere woodcarvings. They used the metal
that belonged to the tribes, which they had gone to get in the road. This is what
they used to decorate the manikins. They surrounded the citadel.
They asked Tohil about their plan.
"What if we die, what if we are defeated?" They spoke straight from their
hearts before Tohil." They spoke straight from their hearts before Tohil.
"Do not grieve. I am here. And here is what you will use on them. Do not be
afraid." Then the matter of the yellow jackets and wasps was set out.
And when they had gone to get these insects and come back with them, they
put them inside four large gourds, which were placed all around the citadel. The
yellow jackets and wasps were shut inside the gourds.
And they were spied upon and watched from hiding, their citadel was studied
by scouts of the tribes.
"There are not many of them," they said, but when they came to look at it, it
was only the manikins. The woodcarvings with weapons and shields in their
hands. They looked like people, like real killers when the tribes saw them.
The tribes were happy when they saw there were not many of them. The tribes
themselves were in crowds. There were countless people, warriors and killers,
the assassins of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, and Mahucutah, who were there
on the mountain called Hacauitz. This is where they were when they were
invaded. Here we shall tell about it.
 

And these are the ones who were there: Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. They were in unity on the mountain with their
wives and children.
And then all the warriors came, the killers, and it was nothing less than eight
hundred score, or even thirty times eight hundred people who surrounded the
citadel. They were bellowing, bristling with weapons and shields, rending their
mouths with howling and growling, bellowing, yelling whistling through their
hands when they came up below the citadel. But the penitents and sacrificers
had no fear, they enjoyed the spectacle from the parapet of the stockade. They
were lined up with their wives and children. Their hearts were content, since
the tribes were merely making noise.
The tribes climbed up the mountainside, and now they were just a little short of
the edge of the citadel.
And then the gourds were broken open-there being four of them about the
citadel- and the yellow jackets and wasps were like a cloud of smoke when they
poured out of each of the gourds. And the warriors were done in. The insects
landing on their eyes and landing in their noses, in their mouths, their legs their
arms. The insects went after them wherever they were; they overtook them
wherever they were. There were yellow jackets and wasps everywhere. There
were swarms of them. Insects were going after every single person. The yellow
jackets and wasps dazed the tribes. They through away their weapons and
shields away. They were doubling over and falling to the ground, stumbling.
They fell down the mountainside.
And now they could not feel a thing when they were hit with arrows and cut
with axes. Now Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night could even use sticks, even
their wives became killers.
Then the Fishkeepers turned away, all the tribes took off running. The first to
be overtaken were finished off, killed and it was not just a few people who
died. Those who did not die, the chase reached them when the insects caught
up with them. There were no manly deeds for them to do, since they no longer
carried weapons and shields.
Thusly all the tribes were conquered. Now the tribes humbled themselves
before Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night and Mahucutah.
"Show mercy. Do not kill us!" they said.
"Very well. Although you were destined to join the dead, you will be payers of
tribute for as long as there are days and as long as there is light." they were told.
Such was the defeat of all the tribes by our first mother-fathers. It was done
there on the mountain named Hacauitz today. This is where they first began.
They grew, they multiplied, they had daughters, and they had sons on Hacauitz.
They were happy once they had beaten all the tribes, who were defeated there
on the mountain.
In this their hearts were content. They informed their sons that their deaths
were approaching. They wished to settle everything before they died.
Now this is where we shall tell about the death of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, as they are named. Since they knew about their
death and disappearance, they left instructions with their sons. They were not
sickly yet, they wee not gasping for breath, when they left their word with their
sons, named:
Cocaib, firstborn, and Cocauib was the name of the second son of Jaguar
Quitze, the grandfather and father of the Cauecs.
Coacul, was the first son, and Cacutec the second son of Jaguar Night of the
Greathouses.
Coahau was the one son of Mahucutah.
True Jaguar had no son. They were all true penitents and sacrificers and these
are the names of their sons, with whom they left instructions. They were united,
the four of them together. They sang of the pain in their hearts, they cried their
hearts out in their sing "The Blame is Ours" is the name of the song they sang.
The told their sons:
"Our dear sons, we are leaving. We are going back. We have enlightened
words, enlightened advice to leave with you, and with you who have come
from faraway mountains, our dear wives," they told their sons and wives.
"We are going back to our own tribal place. Again it is the time of our Lord
Deer as it is reflected in the sky. We have only to make our return. Our work
has been done, our day has been completed. Since you know this, neither forget
us nor put us aside. Since you know this neither forget us nor put us aside. You
have yet to see your own home and mountain, the place of your beginning.
"Let it be this way, you must go to see the place where we came from, " were
the words the four spoke.
And then Jaguar Quitze left a sign of his being:
"This is for making requests of me. I shall leave it with you. Here is your fiery
splendor. I have completed my instructions, my counsel.", leaving the sign of
his being, the Bundle of Flames. It was not clear just what it was, as it was
wound about with coverings. It was never unwrapped. Its sewing were not clear
as no one had seen it while it was being wrapped.
Such was the death of all four of first grandfathers and fathers. When they
disappeared their sons remained there on the mountain of Hacauitz, their sons
stayed there for awhile. And the tribes, it was now their day to be broken and
downtrodden. They no longer had any splendor to them, though they were still
numerous.
All those on Hacauitz gathered on each day that was for remembrance of their
fathers. For them, the day of the bundle was a great one. They could not
unwrap it; for them it stayed bundled - the Bundle of Flames they called it.
Such was the disappearance and loss of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, the first people to come across the sea, from the
east. They came in ancient times. When they died they were already old. They
had a reputation for penitence and sacrifice.And here now is the beginning of the creation of true humans, and of the
search for the ingredients of the human body. The Bearer, Begetter, the
Makers, Modelers named Sovereign Plumed Serpent:
"The dawn has approached, preparations have been made, and morning has
come for the provider, nurturer, born in the light, begotten in the light. Morning
has come for humankind, for the people of the face of the earth," they said. It
all came together as they went on thinking in the darkness, in the night, as they
searched and sifted, they thought and they wondered."
And here their thoughts came out in clear light. They sought and discovered
what was needed for human flesh. It was only a short while before the sun,
moon and stars were to appear above the Makers and Modelers. Broke Place,
Bitter Water Place is the name: the yellow corn, white corn came from there.
And these are the names of the animals that brought food: fox, coyote, parrot,
crow. There were four animals that brought the news of the ears of yellow corn,
and white corn. They were coming from over there at Broken Place, they
showed the way to the break.
And this was when they found the staple foods.
And these were the ingredients for the flesh of the human work, the human
design, and the water was for the blood. It became human blood, and corn was
also by the Bearer, Begetter.
And so they were happy over the provisions of the good mountain, filled with
sweet things, thick with yellow corn, white corn, and thick with pataxte and
cacao, countless zapotes up the citadel named Broken Place, Bitter Water
Place. All the edible fruits were there: small staples great staples, small plants
great plants. The way was shown by the animals.
And then the yellow corn and white corn were ground, and Xmucane did the
grinding nine times. Corn was used, along with the water she rinsed her hands
with for the creation of grease; it became human fat when it was worked by the
Bearer, Begetter, Sovereign Plumed Serpent:
                the making, the modeling of our first mother - father,
                    with yellow corn, white corn alone for the flesh,
                        food alone for the human legs and arms,
                       for our first fathers, the four human works.

It was staples alone that made up their flesh.
T these are the names of the first people who were made and modeled:
This is the first person, Jaguar Quitze,
The Second, Jaguar Night,
The third: Mahucutah,
The Fourth: True Jaguar.
And these are the names of our first mother-fathers. They were simply made
and modeled, as we have said. They had no mother and no father. We have
named the men by themselves. No woman gave birth to them, nor did the
Builder, Sculptor, Bearer, and Begetter beget them. By sacrifice alone, by
genius alone, they were made, they were modeled by the Maker, Modeler,
Bearer, Begetter, Sovereign Plumed Serpent. And when they came to fruition,
they were human:
They talked and they made words.
They looked and they listened.
They walked, they worked.
They were good people, handsome, with looks of the male kind. Thoughts came
into existence and they gazed, their vision came all at once. Perfectly they saw,
perfectly they knew every thing under the sky, whenever they looked. The
moment they turned around and looked around in the sky, on the earth
everything was seen without obstruction. They did not have to walk before they
could see what was under the sky, they just stayed where they were.
As they looked, their knowledge became intense. Their sight passed though
trees, through rocks, through lakes, through seas, through mountains, through
plants. Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar were truly
gifted people.
And then there were asked by the builder and mason:
"What do you know about your being? Don't you look, don't you listen? Is not
your speech good and your walk? So you must look to see out under the sky.
Do not you see the mountain plain clearly? So try it."
And then they saw everything under the sky perfectly. After that ,they tanked
the Maker, Modeler:
                                          Truly now,
                               double thanks, triple thanks,
                    that we have been formed, we have been given
                                Our mouths and our faces,
                                    we speak, we listen,
                                   we wonder, we move,
                      our knowledge is good, we have understood
                                    what is far and near,
                        and we have seen what is great and small
                                under the sky, on the earth.
                          Thanks to you we have been formed,
                        we have come to be made and modeled,
                           our grandmother, our grandfather,"

they said when they gave thanks for having been made and modeled. They
understood everything perfectly, they sighted the four sides, the four corners in
the sky, on the earth, and this did not sound good to the builder and sculptor:
"What our works and designs have said is no good: they understood too much
"We have understood everything great and small they said, they say,"
And so the Bearer, Begetter took back their knowledge:
"What should we do with them now? Their vision should at least reach nearby,
they should see at least a small part of the face of the earth, but what they're
saying is not good. Are they not merely 'works' and 'designs' in their very
names? Yet they will become as great as gods unless they procreate, proliferate
at the sowing, the dawning, unless they increase."
"So let it be this way: now we will take them apart just a little. What we have
found is not good. Their deeds would become equal to ours, just their
knowledge reaches so far. They see everything," so said
                               the Heart of Sky, Hurricane,
                       Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt,
                                Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
                                      Bearer Begetter,
                                    Xpiyacoc, Xmucane,
                                       Make, Modeler.

And when they changed the nature of the works, the designs it was enough that
they eyes be marred by the Heart of Sky. They were blinded as the face of a
mirror is breathed upon. Their eyes were weakened. Now it was only when they
looked nearby that things were clear.
And such was the loss of the means of understanding, along with the means of
knowing everything such was making, modeling of our first grandfather, our
father, by the Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth.

And then their wives and women came into being. Again, the same gods
thought of it. It was if they were asleep when they received them, truly
beautiful women were there with Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True Jaguar. With their women they became wider awake. Right away they
were happy in the heart again, because of their wives.
Celebrated Seahouse is the name of the wife of Jaguar Quitze.
Prawn House is the name of the wife of Jaguar Night.
Hummingbird House is the name of the wife of Mahucutah.
Macaw House is the name of the wife of True Jaguar.
So these are the names of their wives, who became ladies of rank, giving birth
to the people of the tribes small and great.

And this is our root, who we are the Quiche people. And there came to be a
crowd of penitents and sacrificers. IT was not only four who came into being
then, but there were four mothers for us, the Quiche people. There were
different names for each of the peoples when they multiplied, there in the east.
Their names became numerous: Sovereign Oloman, Cobah, Quenech Ahau, as
the names of the people who were there in the east. They multiplied and it is
known that the Tams and Ilocs began then. They came from the same place, in
the east.
Jaguar Quitze was the grandfather and father of the nine great houses of the
Cauecs.
Jaguar Night was the grandfather and father of the nine great houses of the
GreatHouses.
Mahucutah was the grandfather and father of the four great houses of the Lord
Quiches.
These are three separate lineages. The names of the fathers and grandfathers
are not forgotten. These multiplied and flourished there in the east. But the
Tams and Ilocs also came forth, along with thirteen allied tribes, thirteen
principalities, including
The Rabinals, Cakchiquels, those of the Bird House.
And the White Cornmeals.
And also the Lamcs, Serpents, Sweatbath House, Talk House those of the Star
House.
And those of the Quiba House, those of the Yokes House, Acul people, Jaguar
House, Guardians of the Spoils, Jaguar Ropes.
It is sufficient that we speak of only the largest tribes from among the allied
tribes; we have only noted the largest. Many more came out afterward, each
one a division of that citadel. We have not written their names, but they
multiplied there, from out of the east. There came to be many peoples in the
blackness: they began to abound even before the birth of the sun, and the light.
When they began to abound they were all there together; they stood and
walked in crowds, there in the east.
There was nothing they could offer for sustenance, but even so they lifted their
faces to the sky. They did not know where they were going. The did this for a
long time when they were there in the grasslands, black people, white people of
many faces, people of many languages, uncertain, there at the edge of the sky.
And there were mountain people. They did not show their faces, as they had no
homes. They just traveled the mountains, small and great. "It is as if they were
crazy," it was said. The mountain people were derided. There they watched for
the sunrise, and for all the mountain people there was just one language. They
did not yet pray to wood and stone.
These are the words with which they remembered the Maker, Modeler, and
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth. It was said that these were enough to keep them
mindful of what was in shadow and what was dawning. All they did was ask:
they had reverent words. They were reverent and givers of praise, givers of
respect, lifting their faces to the sky when they made request for their daughters
and sons:
                                            "Wait!
                                thou Maker, thou Modeler,
                                   look at us, listen to us,
                          don't let us fall, don't leave us to die,
                             thou god in the sky, on the earth,
                               Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth,
                                give us our sign, our word,
                     as long as there is day, as long as there is light.
                       When it comes to the sowing, the dawning,
                       it will be a greening road, a greening path?
                           Give us a steady light, a level place,
                                 a good light, a good place,
                                 a good life and beginning.
                            Give us all of this, thou Hurricane,
                       Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt,
                          NewBorn Nanahuac, Raw Nanhuac,
                                      Falcon, Hunahpu
                                Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
                                      Bearer, Begetter,
                                    Xpiyacoc, Xmucane,
                      Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light,
                      when it comes to the sowing, the dawning."

They said all this when they made their fasts and prayers, just watching intently
for the dawn. There too they looked toward the east, watching closely for the
daybringer, the great star at the birth of the sun, of the heat for what is under
the sky, on the earth, the guide for the human work, the human design.
They spoke, those who are Jaguar, Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True
Jaguar:
"Were are still waiting for the dawning," they said, these great knowers, great
thinkers, penitents, praisers, . And there was nothing of wood and stone in the
keep0ing of first mother-fathers, and they were weary at heart there, waiting
for the sun. Already there were many of them, all the tribes including the Yaqui
people, all penitents and sacrificers.
"Let us just go. We will look and see whether there is something to keep as our
sign. We will find out what we should burn in front of it. The way we are right
now, we have nothing to keep as our own, " said Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. They got word of a citadel. There they went:
And this is the name of the mountain where they went, Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar
Night, Mahucutah, True Jaguar, and the Tams and Ilocs: Tulan Zuyua, Seven
Caves, Seven Canyons is the name of the Citadel. Those were to receive the
gods arrived there.
And they arrived there are Tulan, all of them, countless people arrived, walking
in crowds, and their gods were given out in order, the first being those of Jaguar
Qutze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah and True Jaguar. They were happy:
"We have found what we were looking for," they said, And this one was the
first to come out:
Tohil is the name of the god loaded in he backpack born by Jaguar Quitze. And
the others came out in turn:
Auilix is the name of the god that Jaguar Night carried.
Hacauitz, in turn is the name of the god received by Mahucutah.
Middle of the Plain is the name of the god received by True Jaguar.
And there are still other Quiche people, since the Tams also received theirs, but
it was the same Tohil for the Tams, that is the name received by the grandfather
and father of the Tam lords.
And third was the Ilocs again, Tohil is the name of the god received by the
grandfather and father of those lords, the same ones known today.
And such was the naming of the three Quiches. They have never let go of each
other because of the god having just one name. Tohil: There is just one name
for their god, so those three people have not come apart.
And then all the tribes came in: Rabinals, Cakchiquels, those of the BirdHouse,
along with the Yaqui people, as the names are today. And the language of the
tribes changed there; their languages became differentiated. They could no
longer understand one another clearly when they went away from Tulan.
There they broke apart. There were those who went east, many who went
westward. They were all alike in dressing with hides. There were no clothes of
the better kinds. They were in patches, they were adorned with mere animal
hides. They were poor. They had nothing of their own. But they were people of
genius in their very being when they came away from Tulen Zayua Seven
Caves, Seven Canyons so says the Ancient Word.

They walked in crows when they arrived at Tulan and there was no fire. Only
those with Tohil had it, this was the tribe whose god was first to generate fire.
How it was generated was not clear. Their fire was already burning with Jaguar
Quitze and Jaguar Night first saw it:
"Fire has not yet become ours. We will die from the cold," they cried. Then
Tohil spoke:
"Do not grieve. You will have your own even when the fire you are talking
about has been lost," Tohil told them.
                                  "Aren't you a true god!
                             Our sustenance and our support!
                                          Our god!"
 

They gave thanks for what Tohil had said.
                                  "I am your god: so be it.
                                  I am your lord: so be it."
the penitents and sacrificers were told by Tohil.
And this was the warming of the tribes. They were pleased by their fire.
After that a great downpour began, which cut short the fire of the tribes. And
hail fell thickly on all the tribes, and their fires were put out by the hail. Their
fires did not start up again. So then Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night asked for
their fire again:
"Tohil, we will be killed by the cold," they cried.
"Do not grieve." said Tohil. He pivoted inside his sandal, and a fire began.
After that Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar were
pleased.
After they were warm, the fires of the other tribes were still out. Those tribes
were slowly dying from the cold, so they came back to ask for fire from Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. They could bear the cold
and hail no longer. They were now chattering and shivering. There were too
little and too much life in them. Their legs and arms kept shaking. Their hands
were stiff when they arrived.
"Perhaps we will not feel shame to ask you if we can have some burning coals
from your fire?" they asked. But they got no response. And the arriving tribes
cursed in their thoughts, for already their language was different from that of
Jaguar Quitze, Night, True Jaguar and Mahucutah.
"We do not have a common language. How did this happen. We had one
language, on origin when we went to Tulan. We have not done well." said all
the tribes beneath the trees and bushes.
And then before Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah and True Jaguar as
person appeared, a messenger from Xibalba.
"You have a god, your nurturer, the representation of your Make and your
Modeler. So do not give the tribes their fire until they give something to Tohil.
You do not want them to give you anything. Ask for Tohil, to him must be
offerings for them to get fire," said the messenger with wings like a bat.
Now the people were happy and thought all the more of Tohil, Auilix, and
Hacauitz. When the messenger had spoken he vanished.
So when the tribes arrived, done in by the cold. Thick was the hail, the
blackening skies, the white snow. The cold was unbelievable. They were
overwhelmed. They arrived doubled over in pain, pain in their hearts, desire in
the mouths and faces, as they arrived before Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True Jaguar, Jaguar Quitze.
"Would you not take pity on us if we asked for a little of your fire? Was it not
found, and revealed that we all were of one home, and one mountain when you
were modeled? Take pity on us," they said.
"What would you give us for taking pity on you?"
"We will give you metal," said the tribes.
"We do not want metal," said Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night.
"What do you want, if we may ask?" came the response.
We must Tohil, and then we will tell you." And then they asked Tohil:
"What should the tribes give you, Tohil? They want to share in your fire," said
Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar.
"Tell them, if they desire to worship me, to be sacrificed to me," said Tohil then
they shall have fire; if they do not desire it, then I shall not give them their fire."

"And the tribes said we do desire it, and they said it very quickly, and so they
got their fire.
There was one tribe who stole their fire, under the cover of the smoke. This was
the Bat House. Calm Snake is the name of the god of the Cakchiquels, but it
looks like a bat. They went right past everyone under the cover of smoke, and
took without asking fire." This tribe refused to be sacrificed to the god Tohil.
They did not want to be cut open before him, lying on their side, their hearts
removed through sides, under their arms. This had not happened yet, and this
tribe did not want it to happen to them."
When they came away from Tulan Zuyua, they were not eating. They
observed a continuous fast. It was enough that they watch intently for the
dawning, that they watch closely for the rising of the sun, taking turns at
watching for the great star named daybringer. This one came first before the
sun when the sun was born, the new daybringer.
And there , always they were facing the east, when they were in the place
named Tulan Zuyua. Their gods came from there. It was not here that they
received their first fiery splendor and their dominion, but it was here that tribes
great and small were subjugated and humiliated. When they were cut open
before Tohil, fiery splendor came to them all at once at Tulan, along with great
knowledge, and they achieved this is the darkness, in the night.
Finally they said, "Our home is not here. Let us go on until we see where we
belong," said Tohil. He actually spoke to them, to Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar.
"It remains for you to give thanks, since you have to yet take care of bleeding
your ears, and passing a cord through your elbows. You must worship. This is
your way of giving thanks before your god."
And so the tribes bled their ears, and they sang as they departed Tulan:
                      " We won't be here when we see the dawn,
                                    when the sun is born,
                             when the face of the earth is lit."
.

Aand then they went away, camping on the road. People camped there, each
tribe slept and got up and went on again. They were always watching for the
star, the sign of the day. They kept watch, they kept faith in their heart, as they
moved from the east. In unity they passed beyond the place named Great
Abyss.
And then they arrived on top of a mountain there. All the Quiche people got
together there, along with the other tribes, and all of them held council there.
The name of the mountain came from holding council there that day. Place of
Advice is the name of the mountain. They identified themselves there:
"The Ilocs, the Cakchiquels, the Rabinals each got their name, names not lost
even to this day.
They were still waiting for the dawning, at this council, watching for the
appearance of the rising star, the one that comes before the sun.
They kept pain in their hearts, the separation from each other from Tulan, and
there was nothing to eat, nothing to feed on. They were just smelling the tips of
their staffs as if they were thinking of eating them.
And it is not clear how they crossed over the sea. The crossed as if there were
no sea. They crossed as if on some stones, stones piled up in the same. They
give the stones a name, Rock Rows, Furrowed Sands was the name for the
place where they crossed through the midst of the sea. Where the waters
divided they crossed over.
And this is what weighted on their hearts when they took counsel: that they had
nothing to eat. They had one beverage to drink, just one thing, which they
brought up on the mountain. Place of Advice. They brought Tohil, Auilix, and
Hacauitz.
Ovserving this fast was Jaguar Quitze, his wife Great Seahouse.
Also fasting was Jaguar Night, his wife named Prawn House.
And Mahucutah was also fasting with his wife named Hummingbird House.
And True Jaguar fasted also with his wife Macaw House.
So these were the ones who fasted. They fasted in the darkness, before the
dawn. It was at the place of advice that the gods spoke again.

Aand then Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz spoke to Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah and True Jaguar:
"Move us one, give us places to hide. It is nearly dawn. Would you look stupid
if we were stolen by warriors? Construct places where we can remain yours,
and give one place to each of us."
"We shall search the forces," they all replied.
After that they packed each one of the gods on their backs.
Auilix went into the canyon named Concealment Canyon in the forest. Pauilux
is its name today. He was left there by Jaguar Night, coming first in the
placements.
And then Hacauitz was placed above a great read river. Hacauitz is the name of
 

And then the sons remembered what had been said about the east. This is when
they remembered the instructions of their fathers. The ancient things received
from their fathers were not lost. The tribes gave them their wives, becoming
their fathers-in-laws. Three of them said as they began to depart:
"We are going to the east, where our fathers came from," they said, then they
followed their road. The three of them were these sons:
Cocaib son of Jaguar Quitze represented all the Cauecs.
Coacutec was the name of the son of Jaguar Night who represented solely the
Greathouses.
Coahau was the name of the son of Mahucutah, representing the Lord Quiches.
So these are the ones who went across the sea. There were only three who
went, but they had skill and knowledge. They were more than humans. They
advised all their brothers, elder and younger who were left behind. They were
glad to go:
"We are not dying, we are coming back," they said when they went clear across
the sea.
And then they arrived in the east, to acquire lordship. Next comes the name of
the lord with dominion of those in the east when the three sons arrived.

And they came before the Lord named Nacxit, great lord and sole judge over a
populous domain.
He was the one who acted lordly, with his emblems, the signs of the Keeper of
the Mat, and the Keeper of the Reception House mat was set forth.
And when the signs of splendor and lordship of the Keeper of the Mat and
Keeper of the Reception House Mat were set forth, Nacxit gave the sons a
complete set of the emblems of lordship.
Here are the names of the emblems:
Canopy, throne,
Bone flute, bird whistle,
Paint of powdered yellow stone.
Puma's paw, jaguar's paw.
Head and hoof of deer.
Bracelet of rattling snail shells.
Gourd of tobacco.
Nosepiece.
Parrot feathers, heron feathers.
The sons brought all these back. They brought back the writing about Tulan.
They cried when they read them.
Then they went back to their citadel, named Hacauitz, all the Tams and Ilocs
gathered there. all the tribes gather together and they were happy. When
Cocaib, Coacutec, and Coahau came back, they resumed the lordship over the
tribes. The Rabinals, the Cakchiquels, and those of the BirdHouse were happy.
Now the lords could display their emblems thereby showing their lordship and
greatness as they could never before do.
All this occurred when they were at Hacauitz. The only ones with them came
from the east. They spent a long time there on that mountain. Now they were
all numerous.
And the wives of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, and Mahucutah died there. Then
they came away, they left their mountain place behind. They sought another
mountain where they could settle. They settled countless mountains. giving
them names.
Our first mothers and our first fathers multiplied and gained strength at those
places, according to what the people of ancient times said when they were told
about the abandonment of their first citadel, Hacauitz.
And then they came to a place where founded a citadel named Thorny Place.
They spent a long time there in that one citadel. They had daughters and sons
while they were there. There were actually four mountains, but there came to
be a single name for the whole town. Their daughters and sons got married.
They gave them away. They accepted favors and gifts as sufficient payment for
their daughters. They did only what was good.
They looked at each division of the citadel. Thorny Place: Dry Place, Bark
House Culba, Cauinal are the names of the mountains where they stayed.
This is when they looked out over the mountains of their citadel. They were
seeking a further mountain, since all the divisions had become more numerous.
But those who had brought lordship from the east had died by now; they had
become old in the process of going from one citadel to another. But their faces
did not die; they were passed on.
They went through a great deal of pain and affliction,; it was a long time before
the grandfathers and fathers found their citadel. Here is the name of the citadel
where they arrived.

And Bearded Place is the name of the mountain of their citadel. They stayed
there and they settled down there.
And they tested their metal there, their fiery splendor. They ground their
gypsum, plaster, in the fourth generation of lords. It was said that Conache
ruled when Nine Deer was the Lord Minister. The lords named Cotuha and
Iztayul reigned as Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat.
They reigned there at Bearded Place. It was through their works that it became
an excellent citadel.
The number of great houses only reached three, there at Bearded Place. There
were not yet a score and four great houses, but only three of them.
Just one Cauec great house.
One house for the Greathouses.
And finally, just one for the Lord Quiches.
The three were housed in just two buildings, one in each of the two divisions of
the citadel.
This is the way it was when they were at Bearded Place:
They were of just one mind: there was no evil for them, nor were there
difficulties.
Their reign was all in calm, there were no quarrels between them, and no
disturbances.
Their hearts were filled with a steady light, no stupidity no envy inhabited what
they did.
Their splendor was modest, they caused no amazement nor had they grown
overly great.
They tested themselves. They excelled in the Shield Dance, there at Bearded
Place. They did it as a sign of their sovereignty. It was a sign of their fiery
splendor and a sign of their greatness.
When it was seen by the Ilocs, the Ilocs began to foment war. It was their
desire that the Lord Cotuha be murdered, and that the other lords be allied with
them. It was the Lord Iztayul they wanted to persuade. The Ilocs wanted him as
their accomplice in committing murder. But their jealous plotting behind the
back of the Lord Cotuha failed to work out. They just wanted it over with but
the lord was not killed by the Ilocs on their first try.
Such were the roots of disturbances, of tumult and war. First they invaded the
citadel, the killers were on the move. What they wanted was to obliterate the
very identity of the Quiches. Only then, they thought, could they alone have
sovereignty and it was for this alone that they came to kill. They were capture
and they were made prisoners. Not many of them ever got their freedom again.
Then began the cutting of flesh. The cut the Ilocs open before the gods. This
was in payment for their wrongs against Lord Cotuha. And many others went
into bondage; they were made into slaves and serfs. They had simply given
themselves up in defeat by fomenting war against the lord and against the
canyon and citadel. What their hearts had desired was the destruction and
disintegration of the very identity of the Quiche lord, but it did not come to
pass.
In this way were people cut open before the gods, the shields of war were made
then; it was the very beginning of the fortification of the citadel at Bearded
Place. The root of fiery splendor was implanted there and because of it the
reign of the Quiche lords was truly great. They were lords of singular genius.
There was nothing to humble them; nothing happened to make fools of them or
to ruin the greatness of their reign, which took root there at Bearded Place.
The penance done for the gods increase there, striking terror again, and all the
tribes were terrified, small tribes and great tribes. They witnessed the arrival of
people captured in war, who were cut open and killed for the splendor and
majesty of Lord Cotuha and Lord Iztayul, along with the Greathouses and the
Lord Quiches. There were only three branches of kin in the citadel.
And it was also there that they began feasting and drinking over the blossoming
of their daughters. This was the way those who were called the "Three Great
Houses" stayed together. They drank their drinks there and ate their corn there,
they payment for their sisters, payment for their daughters. There was only
happiness in their hearts when they did it. They ate, they feasted inside the
palaces.
"This is just our way of being thankful and grateful that we have good news and
good tidings. It is the sign of our agreements about the daughters and sons born
to our women," they said.
Epithets were bestowed there, and the lineages, the allied tribes, the
principalities gave themselves names there.
"We are intermarried: we Cauecs, we Greathouses, and we Lord Quiches," said
those of the three lineages and the three great houses. They spent a long time
there at Bearded Place, and then they sought and saw another citadel. They left
Bearded Place behind.
And then they got up and came to the citadel of Rotten Cane, as the name is
spoken by the Quiches. The Lords Cotuha and Plumed Serpent came along,
together with all the other lords. there had been fives changes and five
generations of people since the origin of light, the origin of continuity, the origin
of life and of humankind.
They built many house there.
And they also built houses for the gods, putting these in the center of the
highest part of the citadel. They came and they stayed.
This was the origin of their separation, when they quarreled among themselves,
disturbing the bones and skulls of the dead. Then they broke into nine lineages,
putting an end to quarrels over sisters and daughters. When the planning of the
lordships was done, the result was a score and four great houses.
It was a long time ago when they all came up onto their citadel of Rotten Cane.
That was the citadel blessed by the lord bishop after it had been abandoned.
They achieved glory there. Their marvelous seats and cushions were arranged;
the varieties of splendor were sorted out for each one of the lords of the nine
lineages. One by one they took their places:
                               The nine lords of the Cauecs.
                           The nine lords of the Greathouses.
                           The four lords of the Lord Quiches.
                               The two lords of the Zaquics.
They became numerous. Those who were in the following of a given lord were
also numerous but the lord came first, and the head of his vassals. There were
masses, masses of lineages for each of the lords. We shall name the titles of the
lords one by one, for each of the great houses.

And here are the titles of the lords who led the Cauecs, first in rank, to lesser:
                                     Keeper of the mat,
                          Keeper of the Reception House Mat.
                                      Keeper of Tohil.
                              Keeper of the Plumed Serpent.
                            Great Toastmaster of the Cauecs.
                                  Councilor of the stores.
                                      Lolmet Quehnay.
                                Councilor of the Ball Court.
                             Mother of the Reception House.
So these are the lords who led the Cauecs, nine lords with their palaces ranged
around, one for each of them.
And now these are the lords who led the Greathouses starting with the first
lord:
                                        Lord Minister
                                  Lord Crier to the People
                             Minister of the Reception House
                                  Great Reception House
                             Mother of the Reception House
                         Great Toastmaster of the Greathouses.
                                         Lord Auilix
                        Yocolatam, or Edge of the Zaclatol Mat.
                                   Great Lolmet Yeoltux.
And now these are the lord Quiches. Here are the titles of the lords:
                                     Crier to the People.
                                         Lord Lolmet
                      Lord Great Toastmaster of the Lord Quiches
                                        Lord Hacauitz
         Four lords led the Lord Quiches, with their palaces ranged around.
                  Aand there are also two lineages of Zaquic Lords:
                                  Lord Corntassel House.
                                  Minister for the Zaquics.
                       There was one palace for these two lords.

 Then splendor and majesty grew among the Quiche. The greatness and weight
    of the Quiche reached its full splendor and majesty with the surfacing and
   plastering of the canyon and citadel. The tribes came, whether small or great
 and whatever the titles of their lords, adding to the greatness of the Quiche. As
 splendor and majesty grew, so grew the houses of gods and the houses of lords.
   But the lords could not have accomplished it, they could not have done the
   work of building their houses or houses of gods, were it not for the fact that
 their vassals had become numerous. They neither had to lure them, nor did they
  kidnap them or take them away by force, because each one of them rightfully
    belonged to the lords. And the elder and younger brothers of the lords also
                                      became populous.
    Each lord led a crowded life, crowded with petitions. The lords were truly
 valued and truly had great respect. The birthdays of the lords were made great
  and held high by their vassals. Those who lived in the canyons and those who
      lived in the citadels multiplied then. Even so they would not have been
           numerous, had not all the tribes arrived to give themselves up.
 And when war befell their canyons and citadels, it was by means of their genius
   that the Lord Plumed Serpent and Lord Cotuha blazed with power. Plumed
                          Serpent became a true lord of genius:
  On one occasion he would climb up to the sky; on another he would go down
                                    the road to Xibalba.
   One another occasion he would be serpentine, becoming an actual serpent.
On yet another occasion he would make himself quiline, and one another feline;
        he would become like an actual eagle or a jaguar in his appearance.
 On another occasion it would be pool of blood; he would become nothing but a
                                        pool of blood.
   Truly his being was that of a lord of genius. All the other lords were fearful
  before him. The news spread; all the tribal lords heard about the existence of
                                     this lord of genius.
  And this was the beginning and growth of the Quiche, when the Lord Plumed
       Serpent made the signs of greatness. His face was not forgotten by his
  grandsons and his sons. He did not do these things just so there would be one
 single lord, but they had the effect of humbling all the tribes when he did them.
   It was just his way of revealing himself, but because of it he became the sole
                                      head of the tribes.
This lord of genius named Plumed Serpent was in the fourth generation of lords;
     he was both Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat.
 And so he left signs and sayings for the next generation. The achieved splendor
    and majesty, and they too begot sons, making the sons still more populous.
      Tepepul and Iztayul were begotten; they merely served out their reign,
 becoming the fifth generation of lords. They begot another generation of lords.

 And here are the names of the sixth generation of lords. There were two great
  lords: fiery. Quicab was the name of one lord; Cauizimah was the name of the
                                            other.
   And Quicab and Cauizimah did a great deal in their turn. They added to the
  greatness of the Quiche because they truly had genius. They crushed and they
 shattered the canyons and citadels of the tribes, small and great, even the ones
                that had citadels among them in ancient times nearby:
 There was a mountain place of the Cakchiquels called Above the Nettles today.
          And also a mountain place of the Rabinals, Place of Spilt Water.
                     The mountain of the Coaques, Plaster House.
             Then a citadel of the White Earth, Above the Hot Springs.
                   Under Ten, Before the Building, and Willow Tree
   They all hated Quicab. They made war, but in fact they were brought down,
 they were shattered, these canyons, these citadels of the Rabinals, Cakchiquels,
 White Earth. All the tribes went down on their faces, or flat on their backs. The
 warriors of Quicab kept up the killing for a long time, until there were only one
  or two groups, from among all the enemies, who hadn't brought tribute. Their
  citadels fell and they brought tribute to Quicab and Cauizimah. Their lineages
   came to be bled, shot full of arrows at the stake. Their day came to nothing,
                              their heritage came to nothing.
 Projectiles alone were the means for breaking the citadels. All at once the earth
itself would crack open; it was as if a lightning bolts had shattered the stones. In
 fear, the members of one tribe after another went before the gum tree, carrying
 in their hands the signs of the citadels, with the result that a mountain of stones
  is there today. Only a few of these are not cut stones; the rest look as though
they had been split with an axe. The result is there on the flat named Petatayub;
    it is obvious to this day. Everyone who passes by can see it as a sign of the
 manhood of Quicab. He could not be killed, nor could he be conquered. He was
                     truly a man, and all the tribes brought tribute.
  And then all the lords made plans; they moved to cordon off the canyons and
                       citadels, the fallen citadels of all the tribes.

   And there began their song named "The Blame Is Ours". They sang out the
             lament of their very hearts and guts. In their song they say:
                                             "Alas!
                                 Were were lost at Tulan!
                                  We shattered ourselves!
                            We left our elder brothers behind!
                                    Our younger brother!
              Where did they see the sun? Where must they be staying,
                              Now that the dawn has come?"
   They were speaking of the penitents and the sacrificers who were the Yaqui
                                            people.
 "Even though Tohil is his name, he is the same god of the Yaqui people, whose
   god is named Yolcuat and Quitzalcuat. When we divided, there at Tulan, at
   Zuyua, they left with us, and they shared our identity when we came away."
 they said to themselves remembering their faraway brothers, elder and younger,
   the Yaqui people whose dawn was there in the place named Mexico today.
 And again there were also the Fishkeeper people. They stayed there in the east;
                             Sovereign Oloman is their name.
     "We left them behind." It was a great weight on their hearts up there on
  Hacauitz. The Tams and Ilocs did likewise except that they were in the forest.
 The Tam Tribe is the name of the place where the sun dawned for the penitents
   and sacrificers of the Tams, with their god, named likewise Tohil. There was
     just one name for the god in all the three divisions of the Quiche people.
  Again, the name of the god of the Rabinals was nearly the same, "One Toh" is
   the way the name of the god of the Rabinals is spoken. They say it that way,
      but it is meant to be in agreement with the Quiches and their language.
  And the language has differentiated in the case of the Cakchiquels, since their
 god has a different name when they came away from Tulan Zuyua. Calm Snake
  is the name of the god of the Bat House, and they speak a different language
    today. Along with their god, the lineages took their names; they are called
   Keeper of the Bat Mat and Keeper of the Dancer Mat. Like their god, their
 language was differentiated on account of a stone. when they came from Tulan
  in the darkness. All the tribes were sown and came to light in unity, and each
                        division was allocated a name for its god.
 And now we shall tell about their stay and their sojourn there on the mountain.
       The four were together, the ones named Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
      Mahucutah, and True Jaguar Their hearts cried out to Tohil, Auilix and
         Hacauitz, who were now amid the bromelias and hanging mosses.

    After that came the sentries, to watch for the makers of war. Now lookout
           lineages were established to occupy the conquered mountains:
  "Otherewise the tribes would return to inhabit their citadels," all the lords say
  when they had all shared their thoughts. Then the assignments were given out:
  "Let them be like a palisade to us, and like doubles for our own lineages, and
       like a stockade, a fortress to us. Let them now become our anger, our
     manliness," said all the lords. The assignments were given to each of the
           lineages that were to provide opposition to the makers of war.
  And then they were notified, and then they went to their posts, occupying the
                              mountains places of the tribes:
"Go, because these are now our mountains. Do not be afraid. The moment there
  are makers of war again, coming back among you as your murderers, send for
 us to come and kill them," Quicab and the Minister and the Crier to the People
                             told them, notifying all of them.
  Then they went off, those who are called the Point of the Arrow, Angle of the
  Bowstring. Their grandfathers and fathers split up then; they were on each of
  the mountains. They went just as guards, of the mountains, and as arrowhead
 and bowstring guards, and as guards against the makers of war as well. None of
  them had been there at the dawning nor did any of them have their own god;
             they just blocked the way to the citadel. They all went out:
 Keepers of Above the Nettles, Keepers of Chulimal, White River, Deer Dance
                              Plazas, Plank Place, Eighteen.
                Also, Keepers of Earthquake, Meteor, Hunahpu Place.
  And Keepers of Spilt Water, Keepers of Cut Rock, Keepers of Plaster House,
  Keepers of Ziya House, Keepers of Hot Springs, Keepers of Under Ten, of the
                                  plains, of the mountains.
   The war sentries, the guardians of the land, went out, they went on behalf of
 Quicab and Cauizimah, Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception House
 Mat, and on behalf of the Minister and the Crier to the People. There were four
       lords who posted messengers and sentries against the makers of war:
    Quicab and Cauizimah are the names of the two lords who led the Cauecs.
               Quema is the name of the lord who led the Greathouses.
      And Armadillo Dung is the name of the lord who led the Lord Quiches.
 So these are the names of the lords who posted messengers and couriers. Their
  own vassals went to the mountains, to each one of the mountains, and as soon
  as they had gone, spoils kep0t coming back, and prisoners of war kept coming
 back to Quicab and Cauizimah, to the Minister and the Crier to the People. The
 Points of the Arrows and Angles of the Bowstrings made war. They took spoils
   and prisoners again. There came to be heroes again, among those who were
        sentries. They were given seats and honored; they were generously
 remembered by the lords when they came to turn over all their spoils and their
                                           prisoners.
    After that when it comes to the ennobling of the lookout lineages, we will
       induct only those who are first in rank, so said the Keeper of the Mat.
   "The nobility of the Keeper of the Mat, which is mine and that which yours
   Lord Minister should enter into this. Ministers will be ennobled." And all the
   lords spoke as they gathered their thoughts. The Tams and Ilocs did just the
 same; the three divisions of the Quiche were in concord when they carried out
       the investiture. They titled those of the first rank among their vassals.
 In this way the decision was reached. But they were not inducted at Quiche but
  at Under the Twine, Under the Cord is where they were inducted, where they
                 entered into nobility. It was done there in Chulimal.
 And here are their titles, their honors, and their marks: a score of Ministers and
    a score of Keepers of the Mat were created by the Keeper of the Mat, and
  Keeper of the Reception House Mat and by the Minister and the Crier to the
                                            People.
  All of these entered the nobility: Ministers, Keepers of the Mat, eleven Great
 Toastmaster, Minister for the Lords, Minister for the Zaquics, Military Minister,
 Military Keeper of the Mat, Military Walls, and Military. Corners are the titles
     that came in when the soldiers were titled and named to their seats, their
                                          cushions.
    These were the first ranking vassals, watchers and listeners for the Quiche
    people: Points of the Arrows, Angles of the Bowstrings, and a palisade, an
                      enclosure, a wall, a fortress around Quiche.
   And the Tams and Ilocs did the same thing; they inducted and titled the first
                            ranking vassals for each mountain.
  So this was the origin of the noble Ministers and Keepers of the Mat that exist
  for each of the mountains today. The sequence was such that they came after
 the Keeper of the Mat, the Keeper of the Reception House Mat, and later than
                          the Minister and Crier to the People.

    And now we shall name the names of the houses of the gods, although the
                        houses have the same names as the gods:
    Great Monument of Tohil is the building that housed Tohil of the Cauecs.
 Auilix, next, is the name of the building that housed Auilix of the Greathouses.
  Hacauitz is the name of the building that housed the god of the Lord Quiches.
   Corntassel, whose house of sacrifice can still be seen, is the name of another
                                      great monument.
   These were the locations of the stones whose days were kept by the Quiche
     lords. Their days were also kept by all the tribes. When the tribes burned
                         offerings, they came before Tohil first.
   After that, they greeted the Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception
  House Mat next, then they handed over their quetzal feathers and their tribute
                               to the lords, these same lords.
   And so they nurtured and provided for the Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of
       the Reception House Mat, who had been victorious over the citadels.
 They were great lords, they were people of genius. Plumed Serpent and Cotuha
   were lords of genius., and Quicab and Cauizimah were lords of genius. They
     knew whether war would occur; everything they saw was clear to them.
  Whether there would be death or whether there would be famine, or whether
 quarrels would occur, they knew it for certain, since there was a place to see it
                there was a book. Council Book was their name for it.
   But it was not only in this way that they were lords. They were great in their
  own selves and observed great fast. As a way of cherishing their buildings and
 cherishing their lordship, they fasted for long periods, they did penance before
                                          their gods.
                             And here is their way of fasting:
  For nine score days they would fast, and for nine they would do penance and
                                        burn offerings.
     Thirteen score was another of their fasts, and for thirteen they would do
 penance and burn offerings before Tohil and their other gods. They would only
 eat zapotes, matasanos, jocote; there was nothing made of corn for their meals.
  Even if they did penance for seventeen score, then for seventeen they fasted,
                they did not eat. They achieved truly great abstinence.
   This was a sign that they had the being of true lords. And there were not any
    women with them when they slept; they kept themselves apart when they
   fasted. They just stayed in the houses of the gods each day. All they did was
  keep the days burn offerings and do penance. They were there whether it was
 dark or dawn; they just cried their hearts and their guts out when they asked for
 light and for life of their vassals, and their domain. They lifted their faces to the
   sky, and here is their prayer before the gods, when they made their requests.

                              This is the cry of their hearts:
                                "Wait! On this blessed day,
                     thou Hurricane, thou Heart of the Sky-Earth,
                           thou giver of ripeness and freshness,
                          and thou giver of daughters and sons,
                            spread they stain, spill they drops,
                                    of green and yellow;
                                  give life and beginning,
                                 to those I bear and beget,
                           that they might multiply and grow.
                             nuturing and providing for thee,
                        calling to thee along the roads and paths,
                                    on rivers, in canyons,
                              beneath the trees and bushes;
                           give them their daughters and sons.

                  "May there be no blame, obstacle, want or misery;
                      let no deceiver come behind or before them,
                       may they neither be snared nor wounded,
                                 nor seduced, nor burned,
                        no diverted below the road nor above it;
                   may they neither fall over backward nor stumble;
                    keep them on the Green Road, the Green Path.

                      "May there be no blame or barrier for them,
                        through any secrets or sorcery of theirs;
                        may thy nurturers and providers be good
                             before they mouth and thy face
                        thou, Heart of Sky; thou Heart of Earth;
                                  thou, Bundle of Flames;
                            and thou, Tohil, Auilix, Hacauitz,
                                under the sky, on the earth,
                              the four sides, the four corners;
                    may there be only light, only continuity within,
                      before they mouth and they face, thou god."
  So it was with the lords when they fasted during nine score, thirteen score , or
  seventeen score days; their days of fasting were many. They cried their hearts
 out over their vassals and over all their wives and children. Each and every lord
  did service, as a way of cherishing the light of life and of cherishing lordship.
   Such were the lordships of the Keeper of the Mat, Keeper of the Reception
   House Mat, Minister and Crier to the People. They went into fasting two by
     two, taking turns at carrying the tribes and all the Quiche people on their
                                          shoulders.
   At its root the word came from just one place, and the root of nurturing and
      providing was the same as the root of the word. The Tams and Ilocs did
      likewise, along with the Rabinals, Cakchiquels, those of the BirdHouse,
 Sweatbath House, Talk House. They came away in unity, having heard there at
                           Quiche what all of them should do.
  It was not merely that they became lords, it was not just that they gathered in
 gifts from nurturers and providers who merely made food and drink from them.
      Nor did they wantonly falsify or steal their lordship, their splendor their
 majesty. And it wasn't merely that they crushed the canyons and citadels of the
        tribes, whether small or great, but that the tribes paid a great price:
                        There came turquoise, there came metal.
 And there came green and red feather work, the tribute of all the tribes. It came
to the lords of genius Plumed Serpent and Cotuha and to Quicab and Cauizimah
      as well, to the Keeper of the Mat, Keeper of the Reception House Mat,
                            Minister, and Crier to the People.
 What they did was no small feat, and the tribes they conquered were not few in
          number. The tribute of Quiche came from many tribal divisions.
  And the lords had undergone pain and withstood it; their rise to splendor had
    not been sudden. Actually it was Plumed Serpent who was the root of the
                                 greatness of the lordship.
              Such was the beginning of the rise and growth of Quiche.
    And now we shall list the generations of lords, and we shall also name the
                                  names of all these lords.

And here are the generations the sequences of lordships, so that all of them will
                                           be clear.
     Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar were our first
grandfathers, our first fathers when the sun appeared, when the moon, when the
                                       stars appeared.
 And here are the generations, the sequences, of lordships. We shall begin from
 here, at their very root. The lords will come up two by two, as each generation
 of lords enters and succeeds the previous grandfathers and lords of the citadel,
 going on through each and every one of the lords, each of the faces of each one
                                         of the lords.

                     And here are the faces of the Quiche Lords:"
                           Jaguar Quitze, origin of the Cauecs.
                Cocauib, in the second generation after Jaguar Quitze.
   Jaguar Conache, who began the office of Keeper of the Mat was in the third
                                          generation.
                       Cotuha and Iztayul, in the third generation.
 Plumed Serpent and Cotuha, at the root of the lords of genius, were in the fifth
                                          generation.
                    Tepepul and Iztayul next, sixth in the sequence.
              Quicab and Cauizimah in the seventh change of lordship.
                    Tepepul and Xtayaub, in the eighth generation.
                      Tecum and Tepepul in the ninth generation.
              Eight Cords with Quicab in the tenth generation of lords.
      Seven Though and Cauatepech next, eleventh in the sequence of lords.
   Three Deer and Nine Dog, in the twelfth generation of lords. And they were
     ruling when Tonatiuh arrived. They were hanged by the Castilian people.
   Tecum and Tepepul were tributary to the Castilian people. They had already
                  been begotten as the thirteenth generation of lords.
  Don Juan de Rojas and Don Juan Cortes in the fourteenth generation of lords.
                       They are the sons of Tecum and Tepepul.
  So these are the generations, the sequences of lordships for the Keeper of the
     Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat, the lords who have led the
                 Cauecs of Quiche. Next we shall name the lineages.

  And here are the great houses of each one of the lords in the following of the
    Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat. These are the
 names of the nine lineages of the Cauecs, nine great houses. Here are the titles
                      of the rulers of each one of the great houses.
    Lord Keeper of the Mat, with one great house. Granary is the name of the
                                            palace.
     Lord Keeper of the Reception House Mat. Bird House is the name of his
                                            palace.
               Great Toastmaster of the Cauecs, with one great house.
                      Lord Keeper of Tohil, with one great house.
                     Councilor of the Stores, with one great house.
                         Lolmet Quehnay, with one great house.
            Councilor of the Ball Court, Xcuxeba, with one great house.
                         Sovereign Yaqui, with one great house.
  So there are the nine lineages of the Cauecs. Many vassals are counted in the
                          following of these nine great houses.

  And here are those of the Greathouses, with nine more great houses. First we
   shall name the genealogy of the lordship. It began, from just one root, at the
                        origin of the root of the day and the light:
                       Jaguar Night, first grandfather and father.
                    Coacul and Coacutec, in the second generation.
                   Cochahuh and Cotzibaha in the third generation.
                        Nine Deer next, in the fourth generation.
                         Cotuha in the fifth generation of lords.
                   And Monkey House next, in the sixth generation.
                    And Iztayul, in the seventh generation of lords.
                   Cotuha then, eighth in the sequence of lordships.
                            Nine Deer, ninth in the sequence.
             Quema, as the next one was called, in the tenth generation.
                        Lord Cotuha, in the eleventh generation.
   Don Critobal, as he was called, became lord in the presence of the Castilian
                                            people.
                     Don Pedro de Robles is Lord Minister today.
   And these are all the lords who come in the following of the Lord Minister.
      Now we shall give the title of the ruler of each one of the great houses:
   Lord Minister, the first ranking lord at the head of the Greathouses with one
                                         great house:
                    Lord Crier to the People with one great house.
            Lord Minister of the Reception House, with one great house.
                     Great Reception House with one great house.
                            Lord Auilix, with one great house.
                             Yacolatam with one great house.
    So these are the great houses at the head of the Greathouses; these are the
   names of the nine lineages of the Greathouses, as they are called. There are
    many branch lineages in the following of each one of these lords. We have
                            named only the first ranking titles.
 
 

    And now these are for the Lord Quiches. Here are their grandfathers and
                           fathers: Mahucutah, the first person.
              Coahau is the name of the lord of the second generation.
                                         Red Banner.
                                          Cocozom,
                                         Comahcun,
                                         Seven Cane,
                                           Cocamel,
                                         Coyabacoh,
                                       Person of Bam.
 These are the lords at the head of the Lord Quiches; these are their generations
                                       and sequences.

       And here are the lords within the palaces, with just four great house:
    Crier to the People for the Lords is the title of the first lord, with one great
                                            house.
             Lolmet of the Lords, the second lord, with one great house.
       Great Toastmaster of the Lords, the third lord, with one great house.
                 And Hacauitz, the fourth lord, with one great house.
      And so these are the four great houses at the head of the Lord Quiches.

   And there are three great Toastmasters in all. They are like fathers to all the
 Quiche lords. They come together in unity, these three Toastmasters. They are
   givers of birth, they are Mothers of the Word, they are Fathers of the Word,
                      great in being few, these three Toastmasters:
                            Great Toastmaster for the Cauecs.
                      Great Toastmaster for the Greathouses next,
 Great Toastmaster Lord for the Lord Quiches, third of the Great Toastmasters.
  And so there are three Toastmasters, one representing each of these lineages.

  This is enough about the being of Quiche given that there is no longer a place
  to see it. The original book and ancient writing owned by the lords is now lost,
 but even so everything has been written here concerning Quiche, which is now
                                     named Santa Cruz.
 

A Map
 

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