Commons
Island
Community
History
Visitor Center
Goods & Services
Search
Messages
Popol Vuh (Mayan)
Religious Document 253
pages
---------------------------------------------------------
1550
POPOL VUH:
THE MAYAN BOOK OF THE DAWN OF
LIFE
| Other Mayan texts: Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Diego de Landa, tr. William Gates [1937] The best primary source on the Maya, ironically by the monk who burned most of their books. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel by Ralph L. Roys [1930]
The Book of the People: Popol Vuh
Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (excerpts) The Popul Vuh excerpt from The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America, by Lewis Spence; London [1908] 79,023 bytes The Myths of Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence |
PREFACE
You cannot erase time.
-ANDRES XILOJ
INTRODUCTION
THE FIRST FOUR HUMANS,
the first four earthly beings who were
truly articulate when they moved their feet and hands, their
faces and
mouths, and who could speak the very language of the gods,
could
also see everything under the sky and on the earth. All they had
to do
was look around from the spot where they were, all the way to
the
limits of space and the limits of time. But then the gods, who
had not
intended to make and model beings with the potential of becoming
their
own equals, limited human sight to what was obvious and
nearby.
Nevertheless, the lords who once ruled a kingdom from a place
called
Quiche, in the highlands of Guatemala, once had in their
possession
the means for overcoming this nearsightedness, an ilbal, a
"seeing
instrument" or a "place to see"; with this they
could know distant
or future events. The instrument was not a telescope, not a
crystal
for gazing, but a book.
The lords of Quiche
consulted their book when they sat in council,
and their name for it was Popol Vuh or "Council Book."
Because this
book contained an account of how the forefathers of their own
lordly
lineages had exiled themselves from a faraway city called
Tulan,
they sometimes described it as "the writings about
Tulan." Because a
later generation of lords had obtained the book by going on
a
pilgrimage that took them across water on a causeway, they
titled it
"The Light That Came from Across the Sea." And because
the book told
of events that happened before the first sunrise and of a time
when
the forefathers hid themselves and the stones that contained
the
spirit familiars of their gods in forests, they also titled it
"Our
Place in the Shadows." And finally, because it told of the
first
rising of the morning star and the sun and moon, and of the rise
and
radiant splendor of the Quiche lords, they titled it "The
Dawn of
Life."
Those who wrote the
version of the Popol Vuh that comes down to us
do not give us their personal names but rather call themselves
"we" in
its opening pages and "we who are the Quiche people" later
on. In
contemporary usage "the Quiche people" are an ethnic
group in
Guatemala, consisting of all those who speak the particular
Mayan
language that itself has come to be called Quiche; they
presently
number over half a million and occupy most of the former
territory
of the kingdom whose development is described in the Popol Vuh.
To the
west and northwest of them are other Mayan peoples, speaking
other
Mayan languages, who extend across the Mexican border into
the
highlands of Chiapas and down into the Gulf coastal plain
of
Tabasco. To the east and northeast still other Mayans extend
just
across the borders of El Salvador and Honduras, down into the
lowlands
of Belize, and across the peninsula of Yucatan. These are the
peoples,
with a total population of about four million today, whose
ancestors
developed what has become known to the outside world as
Maya
civilization.
The roots of Maya
civilization may lie in the prior civilization
of the Olmecs, which reached its peak on the Gulf coastal
plain
about three thousand years ago. Maya hieroglyphic writing
and
calendrical reckoning probably have antecedents that go back
at
least that far, but they did not find expression in the lasting
form
of inscriptions on stone monuments until the first century B.C.,
in
a deep river valley that cuts through the highlands of Chiapas.
From
there, the erection of inscribed monuments spread south to the
Pacific
and eastward along the Guatemalan coastal plain, then reached
back
into the highlands at the site of Kaminaljuyu, on the western
edge
of what is now Guatemala City. During the so-called classic
period,
beginning about A.D. 300, the center of literate civilization in
the
Mayan region shifted northward into the lowland rain forest
that
separates the mountain pine forest of Chiapas and Guatemala from
the
low and thorny scrub forest of northern Yucatan. Swamps were
drained
and trees were cleared to make way for intensive
cultivation.
Hieroglyphic texts in great quantity were sculpted in stone
and
stucco, painted on pottery and plaster, and inked on long strips
of
paper that were folded like screens to make books. This is
the
period that accounts for the glories of such sites as Palenque,
Tikal,
and Copan, leaving a legacy that has made Maya civilization
famous
in the fields of art and architecture. The Mayan languages
spoken at
most of these sites probably corresponded to the ones now known
as
Cholan, which are still spoken by the Mayan peoples who live at
the
extreme eastern and western ends of the old classical
heartland.
Near the end of the
classic period, the communities that had
carved out a place for themselves in the rain forest were caught
in
a deepening vortex of overpopulation, environmental degradation,
and
malnutrition. The organizational and technological capacities
of
Maya society were strained past the breaking point, and by A.D.
900
much of the region had been abandoned. That left Maya
civilization
divided between two areas that had been peripheral during
classic
times, one in northern Yucatan and the other in the
Guatemalan
highlands. The subsequent history of both these areas was shaped
by
invaders from the western end of the old classical heartland,
from
Tabasco and neighboring portions of the Gulf coastal plain, who
set up
militaristic states among the peoples they conquered. The
culture they
carried with them has come to be called Toltec; it is thought
to
have originated among speakers of Nahua languages, who are
presently
concentrated in central Mexico (where they include the
descendants
of the Aztecs) and who once extended eastward to Tabasco. In the
Mayan
area, Toltec culture was notable for giving mythic prominence to
the
god-king named Plumed Serpent, technical prominence to the use
of
spear-throwers in warfare, and sacrificial prominence to the
human
heart. Those who carried this culture to highland Guatemala
brought
many Nahua words with them, but they themselves were
probably
Gulf-coast Maya of Cholan descent. Among them were the founders
of the
kingdom whose people have come to be known as the Quiche
Maya.*
Mayan monuments and
buildings no longer featured inscriptions
after the end of the classic period, but scribes went right
on
making books for another six centuries, sometimes combining
Mayan
texts with Toltecan pictures. Then, in the sixteenth
century,
Europeans arrived in Mesoamerica. They forcibly imposed a
monopoly
on all major forms of visible expression, whether in drama,
architecture, sculpture, painting, or writing. Hundreds of
hieroglyphic books were tossed into bonfires by ardent
missionaries;
between this disaster and the slower perils of decay, only
four
books made it through to the present day. Three of them, all
thought
to come from the lowlands, found their way to Europe in early colonial
times and eventually turned up in libraries in Madrid, Paris,
and
Dresden; a fragment from a fourth book was recovered more
recently
from looters who had found it in a dry cave in Chiapas. But
the
survival of Mayan literature was not dependent on the survival
of
its outward forms. Just as Mayan peoples learned to use the
symbolism of Christian saints as a mask for ancient gods, so
they
learned to use the Roman alphabet as a mask for ancient
texts.*(2)
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by Carlos A. Villacorta.
SCRIBES WENT RIGHT ON
MAKING BOOKS: This is a page from the Maya
hieroglyphic book known as the Dresden Codex, which dates to
the
thirteenth century. The left-hand column describes the movements
of
Venus during one of five different types of cycles reckoned for
that
planet. The right-hand column describes the auguries for the
cycle and
gives both pictures and names for the attendant deities. The
top
picture, in which the figure at right is seated on two glyphs
that
name constellations, may have to do with the position of
Venus
relative to the fixed stars during the cycle. In the middle
picture is
the god who currently accounts for Venus itself, holding a
dart-thrower in his left hand and darts in his right; in the
bottom
picture is his victim, with a dart piercing his shield. The
Venus gods
of the Popol Vuh are more conservatively Mayan than those of
the
Dresden Codex; they are armed with old-fashioned blowguns
rather
than Toltecan dart-throwers.)
-
There was no little
justice in the fact that it was the missionaries
themselves, the burners of the ancient books, who worked out
the
problems of adapting the alphabet to the sounds of Mayan
languages,
and while they were at it they charted grammars and
compiled
dictionaries. Their official purpose in doing this linguistic
work was
to facilitate the writing and publishing of Christian
prayers,
sermons, and catechisms in the native languages. But very
little
time passed before some of their native pupils found political
and
religious applications for alphabetic writing that were
quite
independent of those of Rome. These independent writers have
left a
literary legacy that is both more extensive than the
surviving
hieroglyphic corpus and more open to understanding. Their most
notable
works, created as alphabetic substitutes for hieroglyphic books,
are
the Chilam Balam or "Jaguar Priest" books of Yucatan
and the Popol Vuh
of Guatemala.
The authors of the
alphabetic Popol Vuh were members of the three
lordly lineages that had once ruled the Quiche kingdom: the
Cauecs,
the Greathouses, and the Lord Quiches. They worked in the middle
of
the sixteenth century, shortly before the end of one of the
fifty-two-year cycles measured out by their own calendar. The
scene of
their writing was the town of Quiche, northwest of what is
now
Guatemala City. The east side of this town, on flat land, was
new in
their day, with buildings in files on a grid of streets and the
bell
towers of a church at the center. The west side, already in
ruins, was
on fortified promontories above deep canyons, with pyramids
and
palaces clustered around multiple plazas and courtyards. The
buildings
of the east side displayed broad expanses of blank stone
and
plaster, but the ruined walls of the west side bore tantalizing
traces
of multicolored murals. What concerned the authors of the
new
version of the Popol Vuh was to preserve the story that lay
behind the
ruins.
During the early
colonial period the town of Quiche was eclipsed, in
both size and prosperity, by the neighboring town of Chuui La
or
"Above the Nettles," better known today as
Chichicastenango.*(3) The
residents of the latter town included members of the Cauec and
Lord
Quiche lineages, and at some point a copy of the alphabetic
Popol
Vuh found its way there. Between 1701 and 1703, a friar
named
Francisco Ximenez happened to get a look at this manuscript
while he
was serving as the parish priest for Chichicastenango. He made
the
only surviving copy of the Quiche text of the Popol Vuh and
added a
Spanish translation. His work remained in the possession of
the
Dominican order until after Guatemalan independence, but
when
liberal reforms forced the closing of all monasteries in 1830,
it
was acquired by the library of the University of San Carlos
in
Guatemala City. Carl Scherzer, an Austrian physician, happened
to
see it there in 1854, and Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg,
a
French priest, had the same good fortune a few months later.*(4)
In
1857 Scherzer published Ximenez' Spanish translation under
the
patronage of the Hapsburgs in Vienna,*(5) members of the same
royal
lineage that had ruled Spain at the time of the conquest of the
Quiche
kingdom, and in 1861 Brasseur published the Quiche text and a
French
translation in Paris. The manuscript itself, which Brasseur
spirited
out of Guatemala, eventually found its way back across the
Atlantic
from Paris, coming to rest in the Newberry Library in 1911. The
town
graced by this library, with its magnificent collection of
Native
American texts, is not in Mesoamerica, but it does have an
Indian
name: Chicago, meaning "Place of Wild Onions."
The manuscript Ximenez
copied in the place called "Above the
Nettles" may have included a few illustrations and even
an
occasional hieroglyph, but his version contains nothing but
solid
columns of alphabetic prose. Mayan authors in general made
only
sparing use of graphic elements in their alphabetic works,
but
nearly every page of the ancient books combined writing
(including
signs meant to be read phonetically) and pictures. In the
Mayan
languages, as well as in Nahua, the terms for writing and
painting
were and are the same, the same artisans practiced both skills,
and
the patron deities of both skills were twin monkey gods born on
the
day bearing a name translatable (whether from Mayan or Nahua) as
One
Monkey. In the books made under the patronage of these twin gods
there
is a dialectical relationship between the writing and the
pictures:
the writing not only records words but sometimes has elements
that
picture or point to their meaning without the necessity of a
detour
through words. As for the pictures, they not only depict what
they
mean but have elements that can be read as words. When we say
that
Mesoamerican writing is strongly ideographic relative to our
own, this
observation should be balanced with the realization that
Mesoamerican painting is more conceptual than our own.
At times the writers of
the alphabetic Popol Vuh seem to be
describing pictures, especially when they begin new episodes
in
narratives. In passages like the following, the use of
sentences
beginning with phrases like "this is" and the use of
verbs in the
Quiche equivalent of the present tense cause the reader to
linger, for
a moment, over a lasting image:
-
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.
-
It must be cautioned,
of course, that "word pictures" painted by
storytellers, in Quiche or in any other language, need not
have
physical counterparts in the world outside the mind's eye. But
the
present example has an abruptness that suggests a sudden still
picture
from a story already well under way rather than a moving
picture
unfolded in the course of the events of that story. The
narrators do
not describe how the boys arrived "in the leaves of the
tree"; the
opening scene is already complete, waiting for the blowgun shot
that
comes in the next sentence, where the main verb is in the
Quiche
equivalent of the past tense and the still picture gives way to
a
moving one.
More than any other
Mayan book, whether hieroglyphic or
alphabetic, the Popol Vuh tells us something about the
conceptual
place of books in the pre-Columbian world. The writers of
the
alphabetic version explain why the hieroglyphic version was
among
the most precious possessions of Quiche rulers:
-
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.
-
When "everything
they saw was clear to them" the Quiche lords were
recovering the vision of the first four humans, who at first
"saw
everything under the sky perfectly." That would mean that
the Popol
Vuh made it possible, once again, to sight "the four sides,
the four
corners in the sky, on the earth," the corners and sides
that mark not
only the earth but are the reference points for the movements
of
celestial lights.*(6)
If the ancient Popol
Vuh was like the surviving hieroglyphic
books, it contained systematic accounts of cycles in
astronomical
and earthly events that served as a complex navigation system
for
those who wished to see and move beyond the present. In the case
of
a section dealing with the planet Venus, for example, there
would have
been tables of rising and setting dates, pictures of the
attendant
gods, and brief texts outlining what these gods did when
they
established the pattern for the movements of Venus. When the
ancient
reader of the Popol Vuh took the role of a diviner and
astronomer,
seeking the proper date for a ceremony or a momentous political
act,
we may guess that he looked up a specific passage, pondered
its
meaning, and rendered an opinion. But the authors of the
alphabetic
Popol Vuh tell us that there were also occasions on which the
reader
offered "a long performance and account" whose subject
was the
emergence of the whole cahuleu or "sky-earth," which
is the Quiche way
of saying "world." If a divinatory reading or
pondering was a way of
recovering the depth of vision enjoyed by the first four humans,
a
"long performance," in which the reader may well have
covered every
major subject in the entire book, was a way of recovering the
full
cosmic sweep of that vision.
If the authors of the
alphabetic Popol Vuh had transposed the
ancient Popol Vuh directly, on a glyph-by-glyph basis, they
might have
produced a text that would have made little sense to anyone but
a
fully trained diviner and performer. What they did instead was
to
quote what a reader of the ancient book would say when he gave a
"long
performance," telling the full story that lay behind the
charts,
pictures, and plot outlines of the ancient book. Lest we miss
the fact
that they are quoting, they periodically insert such phrases
as
"This is the account, here it is," or "as it is
said." At one point
they themselves take the role of a performer, speaking directly
to
us as if we were members of a live audience rather than
mere
readers. As they introduce the first episode of a long cycle
of
stories about the gods who prepared the sky-earth for human
life, they
propose that we all drink a toast to the hero.*(7)
At the beginning of
their book, the authors delicately describe
the difficult circumstances under which they work. When they
tell us
that they are writing "amid the preaching of God, in
Christendom now,"
we can catch a plaintive tone only by noticing that they make
this
statement immediately after asserting that their own gods
"accounted
for everything- and did it, too- as enlightened beings, in
enlightened
words." What the authors propose to write down is what
Quiches call
the Oher Tzih, the "Ancient Word"*(8) or "Prior
Word," which has
precedence over "the preaching of God." They have
chosen to do so
because "there is no longer" a Popol Vuh, which makes
it sound as
though they intend to re-create the original book solely on
the
basis of their memory of what they have seen in its pages or
heard
in the "long performance." But when we remember their
complaint
about being "in Christendom," there remains the possibility
that
they still have the original book but are protecting it
from
possible destruction by missionaries. Indeed, their next words
make us
wonder whether the book might still exist, but they no sooner
raise
our hopes on this front than they remove the book's reader from
our
grasp: "There is the original book and ancient writing, but
he who
reads and ponders it hides his face." Here we must remember
that the
authors of the alphabetic Popol Vuh have chosen to remain
anonymous;
in other words, they are hiding their own faces. If they
are
protecting anyone with their enigmatic statements about an
inaccessible book or a hidden reader, it could well be
themselves.*(9)
The authors begin their
narrative in a world that has nothing but an
empty sky above and a calm sea below. The action gets under way
when
the gods who reside in the primordial sea, named Maker,
Modeler,
Bearer, Begetter, Heart of the Lake, Heart of the Sea, and
Sovereign
Plumed Serpent, are joined by gods who come down from the
primordial
sky, named Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth, Newborn Thunderbolt,
Raw
Thunderbolt, and Hurricane. These two parties engage in a
dialogue,
and in the course of it they conceive the emergence of the
earth
from the sea and the growth of plants and people on its
surface.
They wish to set in motion a process they call the
"sowing" and
"dawning," by which they mean several different things
at once.
There is the sowing of seeds in the earth, whose sprouting will
be
their dawning, and there is the sowing of the sun, moon, and
stars,
whose difficult passage beneath the earth will be followed by
their
own dawning. Then there is the matter of human beings, whose
sowing in
the womb will be followed by their emergence into the light
at
birth, and whose sowing in the earth at death will be followed
by
dawning when their souls become sparks of light in the
darkness.
For the gods, the idea
of human beings is as old as that of the
earth itself, but they fail in their first three attempts (all
in Part
One) to transform this idea into a living reality. What they
want is
beings who will walk, work, and talk in an articulate and
measured
way, visiting shrines, giving offerings, and calling upon their
makers
by name, all according to the rhythms of a calendar. What they
get
instead, on the first try, is beings who have no arms to work
with and
can only squawk, chatter, and howl, and whose descendants are
the
animals of today. On the second try they make a being of mud,
but this
one is unable to walk or turn its head or even keep its shape;
being
solitary, it cannot reproduce itself, and in the end it
dissolves into
nothing.
Before making a third
try the gods decide, in the course of a
further dialogue, to seek the counsel of an elderly husband and
wife
named Xpiyacoc and Xmucane. Xpiyacoc is a divine matchmaker
and
therefore prior to all marriage, and Xmucane is a divine midwife
and
therefore prior to all birth. Like contemporary Quiche
matchmakers and
midwives, both of them are ah3ih or "daykeepers,"
diviners who know
how to interpret the auguries given by thirteen day numbers and
twenty
day names that combine to form a calendrical cycle lasting
260
days.*(10) They are older than all the other gods, who address
them as
grandparents, and the cycle they divine by is older than the
longer
cycles that govern Venus and the sun, which have not yet
been
established at this point in the story. The question the
younger
gods put to them here is whether human beings should be made out
of
wood. Following divinatory methods that are still in use
among
Quiche daykeepers, they give their approval. The wooden beings
turn
out to look and talk and multiply themselves something like
humans,
but they fail to time their actions in an orderly way and forget
to
call upon the gods in prayer. Hurricane brings a catastrophe
down on
their heads, not only flooding them with a gigantic rainstorm
but
sending monstrous animals to attack them. Even their own
dogs,
turkeys, and household utensils rise against them, taking
vengeance
for past mistreatment. Their only descendants are the monkeys
who
inhabit the forests today.
At this point the gods
who have been working on the problem of
making human beings will need only one more try before they
solve
it, but the authors of the Popol Vuh postpone the telling of
this
episode, turning their attention to stories about heroic gods
whose
adventures make the sky-earth a safer place for human
habitation.
The gods in question are the twin sons of Xpiyacoc and
Xmucane,
named One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, and the twin sons of One
Hunahpu,
named Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Both sets of twins are players of
the
Mesoamerican ball game, in which the rubber ball (an
indigenous
American invention) is hit with a yoke that rides on the hips rather
than with the hands. In addition to being ballplayers, One and
Seven
Hunahpu occupy themselves by gambling with dice, whereas Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque go out hunting with blowguns.*(11)
The adventures of the
sons and grandsons of Xpiyacoc and Xmucane are
presented in two different cycles, with the episodes divided
between
the cycles more on the basis of where they take place in space
than
when they take place in time. The first cycle deals entirely
with
adventures on the face of the earth, while the second, though it
has
two separate above-ground passages, deals mainly with adventures
in
the Mayan underworld, named Xibalba. If the events of these two
cycles
were combined in a single chronological sequence, the
above-ground
episodes would probably alternate with those below, with the
heroes
descending into the underworld, emerging on the earth again, and
so
forth. These sowing and dawning movements of the heroes, along
with
those of their supporting cast, prefigure the present-day
movements of
the sun, moon, planets, and stars.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque
are the protagonists of the first of the two
hero cycles (corresponding to Part Two in the present
translation),
and their enemies are a father and his two sons, all of
them
pretenders to lordly power over the affairs of the earth. Hurricane,
or Heart of Sky, is offended by this threesome, and it is he who
sends
Hunahpu and Xbalanque against them. The first to get his due is
the
father, named Seven Macaw, who claims to be both the sun and
moon.
In chronological terms this episode overlaps with the story of
the
wooden people (at the end of Part One), since Seven Macaw serves
as
their source of celestial light and has his downfall at the
same
time they do. The twins shoot him while he is at his meal, high
up
in a fruit tree, breaking his jaw and bringing him down to
earth.
Later they pose as curers and give him the reverse of a
face-lift,
pulling out all his teeth and removing the metal disks from
around his
eyes; this puts an end to his career as a lordly being. His
earthly
descendants are scarlet macaws, with broken and toothless jaws
and
mottled white patches beneath their eyes. He himself remains as
the
seven stars of the Big Dipper, and his wife, named
Chimalmat,
corresponds to the Little Dipper. The rising of Seven Macaw
(in
mid-October) now marks the coming of the dry season, and his
fall to
earth and his disappearance (beginning in mid-July) signal
the
beginning of the hurricane season. It was his first fall,
brought on
by the blowgun shot of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, that opened the
way
for the great flood that brought down the wooden people. Just as
Seven
Macaw only pretended to be the sun and moon, so the wooden
people only
pretended to be human.*(12)
Hunahpu and Xbalanque
next take on Zipacna, the elder of Seven
Macaw's two sons, a crocodilian monster who claims to be the
maker
of mountains. But first comes an episode in which Zipacna has
an
encounter with the gods of alcoholic drinks, the Four Hundred
Boys.
Alarmed by Zipacna's great strength, these boys trick him into
digging
a deep hole and try to crush him by dropping a great log down
behind
him. He survives, but he waits in the hole until they are in
the
middle of a drunken victory celebration and then brings their
own
house down on top of them. At the celestial level they become
the
stars called Motz, the Quiche name for the Pleiades, and
their
downfall corresponds to early-evening settings of these stars.
At
the earthly level, among contemporary Quiches, the Pleiades
symbolize a handful of seeds, and their disappearance in the
west
marks the proper time for the sowing of crops.
Zipacna meets his own downfall
when Hunahpu and Xbalanque set out to
avenge the Four Hundred Boys. At a time when Zipacna has
gone
without food for several days, they set a trap for him by making
a
device that appears to be a living, moving crab. Having placed
this
artificial crab in a tight space beneath an overhang at the
bottom
of a great mountain, they show him the way there. Zipacna goes
after
the crab with great passion, and his struggles to wrestle
himself into
the right position to consummate his hunger become a symbolic
parody
of sexual intercourse. When the great moment comes the
whole
mountain falls on his chest (which is to say he ends up on
the
bottom), and when he heaves a sigh he turns to stone.*(13)
Finally there comes the
demise of the younger son of Seven Macaw,
named Earthquake, who bills himself as a destroyer of mountains.
In
his case the lure devised by Hunahpu and Xbalanque is the
irresistibly
delicious aroma given off by the roasting of birds. They cast
a
spell on the bird they give him to eat: just as it was cooked
inside a
coating of earth, so he will end up covered by earth. They leave
him
buried in the east, opposite his elder brother, whose killing of
the
Four Hundred Boys associates him with the west (where the
Pleiades may
be seen to fall beneath the earth). Seven Macaw, as the Big
Dipper, is
of course in the north. He is near the pivot of the movement of
the
night sky, whereas his two sons make the earth move- though
they
cannot raise or level whole mountains in a single day as they
once
did.*(14)
Having accounted for
three of the above-ground episodes in the lives
of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the Popol Vuh next moves back in time
to
tell the story of their father, One Hunahpu, and his twin
brother,
Seven Hunahpu (at the beginning of Part Three). This is the
point at
which the authors treat us as if we were in their very
presence,
introducing One Hunahpu with these words: "Let's drink to
him, and
let's just drink to the telling and accounting of the begetting
of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque." The story begins long before One
Hunahpu meets
the woman who will bear Hunahpu and Xbalanque; in the opening
episode,
he marries a woman named Xbaquiyalo and they have twin sons
named
One Monkey and One Artisan. One Hunahpu and his brother
sometimes play
ball with these two boys, and a messenger from Hurricane, a
falcon,*(15) sometimes comes to watch them. The boys become
practitioners of all sorts of arts and crafts, including
flute
playing, singing, writing, carving, jewelry making, and
metalworking. At some point Xbaquiyalo dies, but we are not
told
how; that leaves Xmucane, the mother of One and Seven Hunahpu,
as
the only woman in the household.
The ball court of One
and Seven Hunahpu lies on the eastern edge
of the earth's surface at a place called Great Abyss at
Carchah.*(16) Their ballplaying offends the lords of Xibalba,
who
dislike hearing noises above their subterranean domain. The head
lords
are named One Death and Seven Death, and under them are other
lords
who specialize in causing such maladies as lesions,
jaundice,
emaciation, edema, stabbing pains, and sudden death from
vomiting
blood. One and Seven Death decide to challenge One and Seven
Hunahpu
to come play ball in the court of Xibalba, which lies at the
western
edge of the underworld. They therefore send their messengers,
who
are monstrous owls, to the Great Abyss. One and Seven Hunahpu
leave
One Monkey and One Artisan behind to keep Xmucane entertained
and
follow the owls over the eastern edge of the world. The way is
full of
traps, but they do well until they come to the Crossroads,
where
each of four roads has a different color corresponding to a
different direction. They choose the Black Road, which means, at
the
terrestrial level, that their journey through the underworld
will take
them from east to west. At the celestial level, it means that
they
were last seen in the black cleft of the Milky Way when they
descended
below the eastern horizon; to this day the cleft is called the
Road of
Xibalba.
Entering the council
place of the lords of Xibalba is a tricky
business, beginning with the fact that the first two figures
seated
there are mere manikins, put there as a joke. The next gag that
awaits
visitors is a variation on the hot seat, but after that comes a
deadly
serious test. One and Seven Hunahpu must face a night in Dark
House,
which is totally black inside. They are given a torch and
two
cigars, but they are warned to keep these burning all night
without
consuming them. They fail this test, so their hosts sacrifice
them the
next day instead of playing ball with them. Both of them are
buried at
the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice, except that the severed head
of
One Hunahpu is placed in the fork of a tree that stands by the
road
there. Now, for the first time, the tree bears fruit, and it
becomes
difficult to tell the head from the fruit. This is the origin of
the
calabash tree, whose fruit is the size and shape of a human head.
Blood Woman, the maiden
daughter of a Xibalban lord named Blood
Gatherer, goes to marvel at the calabash tree. The head of
One
Hunahpu, which is a skull by now, spits in her hand and makes
her
pregnant with Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The skull explains to her
that
henceforth, a father's face will survive in his son, even after
his
own face has rotted away and left nothing but bone. After
six
months, when Blood Woman's father notices that she is pregnant,
he
demands to know who is responsible. She answers that "there
is no
man whose face I've known," which is literally true. He
orders the owl
messengers of Xibalba to cut her heart out and bring it back in
a
bowl; armed with the White Dagger, the instrument of sacrifice,
they
take her away.*(17) But she persuades them to spare her,
devising a
substitute for her heart in the form of a congealed nodule of
sap from
a croton tree. The lords heat the nodule over a fire and are
entranced
by the aroma; meanwhile the owls show Blood Woman to the surface
of
the earth. As a result of this episode it is destined that the
lords
of Xibalba will receive offerings of incense made from croton
sap
rather than human blood and hearts. At the astronomical level
Blood
Woman corresponds to the moon, which appears in the west at
nightfall when it begins to wax, just as she appeared before the
skull
of One Hunahpu at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice when she
became
pregnant.
Once she is out of the
underworld, Blood Woman goes to Xmucane and
claims to be her daughter-in-law, but Xmucane resists the idea
that
her own son, One Hunahpu, could be responsible for Blood
Woman's
pregnancy. She puts Blood Woman to a test, sending her to get a
netful
of corn from the garden that One Monkey and One Artisan have
been
cultivating. Blood Woman finds only a single clump of corn
plants
there, but she produces a whole netful of ears by pulling out
the silk
from just one ear. When Xmucane sees the load of corn she goes
to
the garden herself, wondering whether Blood Woman has stripped
it.
On the ground at the foot of the clump of plants she notices
the
imprint of the carrying net, which she reads as a sign that
Blood
Woman is indeed pregnant with her own grandchildren.
To understand how
Xmucane is able to interpret the sign of the net
we must remember that she knows how to read the auguries of
the
Mayan calendar, and that one of the twenty day names that go
into
the making of that calendar is "Net." Retold from a
calendrical
point of view, the story so far is that Venus rose as the
morning star
on a day named Hunahpu, corresponding to the ballplaying of
Xmucane's sons, One and Seven Hunahpu, in the east; then,
after
being out of sight in Xibalba, Venus reappeared as the evening
star on
a day named Death, corresponding to the defeat of her sons by
One
and Seven Death and the placement of One Hunahpu's head in a
tree in
the west. The event that is due to come next in the story is
the
rebirth of Venus as the morning star, which should fall, as
she
already knows, on a day named Net. When she sees the imprint of
the
net in the field, she takes it as a sign that this event is
coming
near, and that the faces of the sons born to Blood Woman will
be
reincarnations of the face of One Hunahpu.*(18)
When Hunahpu and
Xbalanque are born they are treated cruelly by
their jealous half-brothers, One Monkey and One Artisan, and
even by
their grandmother. They never utter a complaint, but keep
themselves
happy by going out every day to hunt birds with their
blowguns.
Eventually they get the better of their brothers by sending them
up
a tree to get birds that failed to fall down when they were
shot. They
cause the tree to grow tall enough to maroon their brothers,
whom they
transform into monkeys. When Xmucane objects they give her
four
chances to see the faces of One Monkey and One Artisan
again,
calling them home with music. They warn her not to laugh, but
the
monkeys are so ridiculous she cannot contain herself; finally
they
swing up and away through the treetops for good. One Monkey and
One
Artisan, both of whose names refer to a single day on the
divinatory
calendar, correspond to the planet Mars, which thereafter begins
its
period of visibility on a day bearing these names, and their
temporary
return to the house of Xmucane corresponds to the retrograde
motion of
Mars. They are also the gods of arts and crafts, and they
probably
made their first journey through the sky during the era of
the
wooden people, who were the first earthly beings to make and
use
artifacts and who themselves ended up as monkeys.
With their
half-brothers out of the way, Hunahpu and Xbalanque
decide to clear a garden plot of their own, but when they return
to
the chosen spot each morning they find that the forest has
reclaimed
it. By hiding themselves at the edge of the plot one night,
they
discover that the animals of the forest are restoring the
cleared
plants by means of a chant. They try to grab each of these
animals
in turn, but they miss the puma and jaguar completely, break the
tails
off the rabbit and deer, and finally get their hands on the rat.
In
exchange for his future share of stored crops, the rat reveals
to them
that their father and uncle, One and Seven Hunahpu, left a set
of ball
game equipment tied up under the rafters of their house, and he
agrees
to help them get it down. At home the next day, Hunahpu and
Xbalanque get Xmucane out of the house by claiming her chili
stew
has made them thirsty; she goes after water but is delayed when
her
water jar springs a leak. Then, when Blood Woman goes off to see
why
Xmucane has failed to return, the rat cuts the ball game
equipment
loose and the twins take possession of it.
When Hunahpu and
Xbalanque begin playing ball at the Great Abyss
they disturb the lords of Xibalba, just like their father and
uncle
before them. Once again the lords send a summons, but this time
the
messengers go to Xmucane, telling her that the twins must
present
themselves in seven days. She sends a louse to relay the message
to
her grandsons, but the louse is swallowed by a toad, the toad by
a
snake, and the snake by a falcon.*(19) The falcon arrives over
the
ball court and the twins shoot him in the eye. They cure his
eye
with gum from their ball, which is why the laughing falcon now
has a
black patch around the eye. The falcon vomits the snake, who
vomits
the toad, who still has the louse in his mouth, and the
louse
recites the message, quoting what Xmucane told him when she
quoted
what the owls told her when they quoted what the lords of
Xibalba told
them to say.
Having been summoned to
the underworld, Hunahpu and Xbalanque go
to take leave of their grandmother, and in the process they
demonstrate a harvest ritual that Quiches follow to this day.
They
"plant" ears of corn in the center of her house, in
the attic; these
ears are neither to be eaten nor used as seed corn but are to
be
kept as a sign that corn remains alive throughout the year,
even
between the drying out of the plants at harvest time and the
sprouting
of new ones after planting. They tell their grandmother that
when a
crop dries out it will be a sign of their death, but that
the
sprouting of a new crop will be a sign that they live
again.*(20)
The twins play a game
with language when they instruct their
grandmother; only now, instead of a quotation swallowed up inside
other quotations we get a word hidden within other words. The
secret
word is "Ah," one of the twenty day names; the twins
point to it by
playing on its sounds rather than simply mentioning it. When
they tell
their grandmother that they are planting corn ears (ah) in the
house
(ha), they are making a pun on Ah in the one case and reversing
its
sound in the other. The play between Ah and ha is familiar
to
contemporary Quiche daykeepers, who use it when they explain
to
clients that the day Ah is portentous in matters affecting
households.
If the twins planted their corn ears in the house on the day
Ah,
then their expected arrival in Xibalba, seven days later, would
fall
on the day named Hunahpu. This fits the Mayan Venus
calendar
perfectly: whenever Venus rises as the morning star on a day
named
Net, corresponding to the appearance of Hunahpu and Xbalanque on
the
earth, its next descent into the underworld will always fall on
a
day named Hunahpu.
Following in the
footsteps of their father and uncle, Hunahpu and
Xbalanque descend the road to Xibalba, but when they come to
the
Crossroads they do things differently. They send a spy ahead
of
them, a mosquito, to learn the names of the lords. He bites each
one
of them in turn; the first two lords reveal themselves as mere
manikins by their lack of response, but the others, in the
process
of complaining about being bitten, address each other by name,
all the
way down the line. When the twins themselves arrive before
the
lords, they ignore the manikins (unlike their father and uncle)
and
address each of the twelve real lords correctly. Not only that,
but
they refuse to fall for the hot seat, and when they are given
a
torch and two cigars to keep lit all night, they trick the lords
by
passing off a macaw's tail as the glow of the torch and
putting
fireflies at the tips of their cigars.*(21)
The next day Hunahpu
and Xbalanque play ball with the Xibalbans,
something their father and uncle did not survive long enough to
do.
The Xibalbans insist on putting their own ball into play first,
though
the twins protest that this ball, which is covered with
crushed
bone, is nothing but a skull. When Hunahpu hits it back to
the
Xibalbans with the yoke that rides on his hips, it falls to
the
court and reveals the weapon that was hidden inside it. This
is
nothing less than the White Dagger, the same instrument of
sacrifice
that the owls were supposed to use on Blood Woman; it twists its
way
all over the court, but it fails to kill the twins.
The Xibalbans consent
to use the rubber ball belonging to the
twins in a further game; this time four bowls of flowers are bet
on
the outcome. After playing well for awhile the twins allow
themselves to lose, and they are given until the next day to
come up
with the flowers. This time they must spend the night in
Razor
House, which is full of voracious stone blades that are
constantly
looking for something to cut. In exchange for a promise that
they will
one day have the flesh of animals as their food, the blades
stop
moving. This leaves the boys free to attend to the matter of
the
flowers; they send leaf-cutting ants to steal them from the
very
gardens of the lords of Xibalba. The birds who guard this
garden,
poorwills and whippoorwills, are so oblivious that they fail to
notice
that their own tails and wings are being trimmed along with
the
flowers. The lords, who are aghast when they receive bowls
filled with
their own flowers, split the birds' mouths open, giving them
the
wide gape that birds of the night-jar family have today.
Next, the hero twins
survive stays in Cold House, which is full of
drafts and falling hail; Jaguar House, which is full of
hungry,
brawling jaguars; and a house with fire inside. After these
horrors
comes Bat House, full of moving, shrieking bats, where they
spend
the night squeezed up inside their blowgun.*(22) When the
house
grows quiet and Hunahpu peeks out from the muzzle, one of the
bats
swoops down and takes his head off. The head ends up rolling on
the
ball court of Xibalba, but Xbalanque replaces it with a carved
squash.
While he is busy with this head transplant the eastern sky
reddens
with the dawn, and a possum, addressed in the story as "old
man,"
makes four dark streaks along the horizon. Not only the red dawn
but
the possum and his streaks are signs that the time of the sun
(which
has never before been seen) is coming nearer. In the future a
new
solar year will be brought in by the old man each 365 days; the
four
streaks signify that only four of the twenty day names- Deer,
Tooth,
Thought, and Wind- will ever correspond to the first day of a
solar
year. Contemporary Quiche daykeepers continue to reckon the
solar
dimension of the Mayan calendar; in 1986, for example, they
will
expect the old man to arrive on February 28, which will be the
day
Thirteen Deer.*(23)
Once Hunahpu has been
fitted out with a squash for a head, he and
Xbalanque are ready to play ball with the Xibalbans again. When
the
lords send off Hunahpu's original head as the ball, Xbalanque
knocks
it out of the court and into a stand of oak trees. A rabbit
decoys the
lords, who mistake his hopping for the bouncing of the ball,
while
Xbalanque retrieves the head, puts it back on Hunahpu's
shoulders, and
then pretends to find the squash among the oaks. Now the squash
is put
into play, but it wears out and eventually splatters its seeds
on
the court, revealing to the lords of Xibalba that they have
been
played for fools. The game played with the squash, like the
games
played with the bone-covered ball and with Hunahpu's severed
head,
corresponds to an appearance of Venus in the west, the direction
of
evening and death. If these events were combined in
chronological
order with those that take place entirely above ground, they
would
probably alternate with the episodes in which the twins defeat
One
Monkey and One Artisan, Seven Macaw, Zipacna, and Earthquake,
with
each of these latter episodes corresponding to an appearance
of
Venus in the east, the direction of morning and life.*(24)
At this point we are
ready for the last of the episodes that
prefigure the cycles of Venus and prepare the way for the first
rising
of the sun. Knowing that the lords of Xibalba plan to burn
them,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque instruct two seers named Xulu and Pacam as
to
what they should say when the lords seek advice as to how to
dispose
of their remains. This done, the twins cheerfully accept an
invitation
to come see the great stone pit where the Xibalbans are cooking
the
ingredients for an alcoholic beverage. The lords challenge them
to a
contest in which the object is to leap clear across the pit, but
the
boys cut the deadly game short and jump right in. Thinking they
have
triumphed, the Xibalbans follow the advice of Xulu and Pacam,
grinding
the bones of the boys and spilling the powder into a river.
After five days Hunahpu
and Xbalanque reappear as catfish;*(25)
the day after that they take human form again, only now they
are
disguised as vagabond dancers and actors. They gain great fame
as
illusionists, their most popular acts being the ones in which
they set
fire to a house without burning it and perform a sacrifice
without
killing the victim. The lords of Xibalba get news of all this
and
invite them to show their skills at court; they accept with
pretended reluctance. The climax of their performance comes
when
Xbalanque sacrifices Hunahpu, rolling his head out the
door,
removing his heart, and then bringing him back to life. One
and
Seven Death go wild at the sight of this and demand that
they
themselves be sacrificed. The twins oblige- and, as might
already be
imagined, these final sacrifices are real ones. Hunahpu and
Xbalanque now reveal their true identities before all the
inhabitants of the underworld. They declare that henceforth,
the
offerings received by Xibalbans will be limited to incense made
of
croton sap and to animals, and that Xibalbans will limit their
attacks
on future human beings to those who have weaknesses or
guilt.
At this point the
narrative takes us back to the twins' grandmother,
telling us what she has been doing all this time. She cries when
the
season comes for corn plants to dry out, signifying the death of
her
grandsons, and rejoices when they sprout again, signifying
rebirth.
She burns incense in front of ears from the new crop and
thus
completes the establishment of the custom whereby humans
keep
consecrated ears in the house, at the center of the stored
harvest.
Then the scene shifts back to Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who are
about
to establish another custom.
Having made their
speech to the defeated Xibalbans, the twins go
to the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice with the intention of
reviving
Seven Hunahpu, whose head and body still lie buried there. The
full
restoration of his face depends on his own ability to pronounce
the
names of all the parts it once had, but he gets no further than
the
mouth, nose, and eyes, which remain as notable features of
skulls.
They leave him there, but they promise that human beings will
keep his
day (the one named Hunahpu), coming to pray where his remains
are.
To this day, Hunahpu days are set aside for the veneration of
the
dead, and graveyards are called by the same word (hom) as the
ball
courts of the Popol Vuh.
At the astronomical
level the visit of Hunahpu and Xbalanque to
their uncle's grave signals the return of a whole new round of
Venus
cycles, starting with a morning star that first appears on a day
named
Hunahpu. As for the twins themselves, they rise as the sun and
moon.
Contemporary Quiches regard the full moon as a nocturnal
equivalent of
the sun, pointing out that it has a full disk, is bright enough
to
travel by, and goes clear across the sky in the same time it
takes the
sun to do the same thing. Most likely the twin who became the
moon
is to be understood specifically as the full moon, whereas
Blood
Woman, the mother of the twins, would account for the other
phases
of the moon.*(26)
With the ascent of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque the Popol Vuh returns to
the problem the gods confronted at the beginning: the making of
beings
who will walk, work, talk, and pray in an articulate manner.
The
account of their fourth and final attempt at a solution is
a
flashback, since it takes us to a time when the sun had not
yet
appeared. As we have already seen, the gods failed when they
tried
using mud and then wood as the materials for the human body, but
now
they get news of a mountain filled with yellow corn and white
corn,
discovered by the fox, coyote, parrot, and crow (at the beginning
of
Part Four). Xmucane grinds the corn from this mountain very
finely,
and the flour, mixed with the water she rinses her hands
with,
provides the substance for human flesh, just as the ground bone
thrown
in the river by the Xibalbans becomes the substance for the
rebirth of
her grandsons. The first people to be modeled from the corn
dough
are four men named Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True
Jaguar. They are the first four heads of Quiche patrilineages;
as in
the case of the men who occupy such positions today, they are
called
"mother-fathers,"*(27) since in ritual matters they
serve as
symbolic androgynous parents to everyone in their respective
lineages.
This time the beings
shaped by the gods are everything they hoped
for and more: not only do the first four men pray to their
makers, but
they have perfect vision and therefore perfect knowledge. The
gods are
alarmed that beings who were merely manufactured by them should
have
divine powers, so they decide, after their usual dialogue, to
put a
fog on human eyes. Next they make four wives for the four men,
and
from these couples come the leading Quiche lineages.
Celebrated
Seahouse becomes the wife of Jaguar Quitze, who founds the
Cauec
lineage; Prawn House becomes the wife of Jaguar Night, who
founds
the Greathouse lineage; and Hummingbird House becomes the wife
of
Mahucutah, who founds the Lord Quiche lineage. True Jaguar is
also
given a wife, Macaw House, but they have no male children.
Other
lineages and peoples also come into being, and they all begin
to
multiply.
All these early events
in human history take place in darkness,
somewhere in the "east," and all the different peoples
wander about
and grow weary as they go on watching and waiting for the rising
of
the morning star and the sun. Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar decide to change their situation
by
acquiring patron deities they can burn offerings in front of,
and it
is with this purpose in mind that they go to a great eastern
city
bearing the names Tulan Zuyua, Seven Caves, Seven Canyons. These
are
grand names that call up broad reaches of the Mesoamerican past.
Tulan
(or Tollan)*(28) means "Place of Reeds" or more
broadly "metropolis"
in Nahua, and it was prefixed to the names of many different
towns
during Toltecan times. The particular Tulan called Zuyua
was
probably near the Gulf coast in Tabasco or Campeche,
"eastern" because
it was east of the principal Tulan of the Toltecs, near Mexico
City at
the site now known as Tula. But in giving Tulan Zuyua the
further name
Seven Caves, the Popol Vuh preserves the memory of a metropolis
much
older and far grander than any Toltec town. This ultimate Tulan
was at
the site now known as Teotihuacan, northeast of Mexico City. It
was
the greatest city in Mesoamerican history, dating from the same
period
as the classic Maya. Only recently it has been discovered that
beneath
the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan lies a natural cave whose
main
shaft and side chambers add up to seven.*(29)
Countless lineages and
tribes converge on the Tulan Zuyua of the
Popol Vuh, and each of them, starting with the Quiches, is given
a
god. The Cauecs receive the god named Tohil, the Greathouses
receive
Auilix, and the Lord Quiches receive Hacauitz. Ultimately
the
patronage of the first-ranking god, Tohil, extended to all three
of
these lineages, and to two other Quiche lineages of lesser rank,
the
Tams and Ilocs. The worship of Tohil has recently been traced
back
to the classic period; in the inscriptions at Palenque, he bears
the
name Tahil, a Cholan word meaning "Obsidian Mirror,"
and he is shown
with a smoking mirror in his forehead.
The Popol Vuh tells us
that although "all the tribes were sown and
came to light in unity," their languages differentiated
while they
were at Tulan. The cause of this was that some peoples were
given
patron deities whose names differed from that of the god of
the
Quiches. The language of the Rabinals became only slightly
different, since they were given a god named One Toh rather
than
Tohil, but others, who received gods with completely
distinctive
names, ended up speaking distinctive languages, including
the
Cakchiquels, the Bird House people, and the Yaqui people.
Today,
indeed, the Rabinals, who live to the northeast of the
Quiche
proper, speak a dialect of Quiche, whereas the Cakchiquels
(still
known by this name) and the Bird House people (better known as
the
Tzutuhils) speak related but separate languages. What the Popol
Vuh
calls the Yaqui people are the speakers of Nahua languages, in
Mexico.
Those languages belong to a family that not only stands apart
from
Quiche, Cakchiquel, and Tzutuhil, but from Mayan languages in
general.
Tohil is the source of
the first fires kept by human beings,
making it possible for them to keep warm in the cold of the
predawn
world. When a great hailstorm puts all these fires out, Tohil
restores
fire to the Quiches by pivoting inside his sandal, which is to
say
that he originates the technology whereby fire is started
by
rotating a drill in the socket of a wooden platform. The other
tribes,
shivering with cold, come to the Quiches to beg for fire, but
Tohil
refuses to let them have it unless they promise to embrace
him
someday, allowing themselves to be suckled. They agree, not
realizing that when the time comes for the Quiche lords to
subjugate
them, being "suckled" by Tohil will mean having their
hearts cut out
in sacrifice. Only the Cakchiquels, who get their fire by
sneaking
past everyone else in the smoke, escape this fate.
At the suggestion of
Tohil the Quiches leave Tulan. They sacrifice
their own blood to him, passing cords through their ears and
elbows,
and they sing a song called "The Blame Is Ours,"
lamenting the fact
that they will not be in Tulan when the time comes for the first
dawn.
Packing their gods on their backs and watching continuously for
the
appearance of the morning star, they begin a long migration. At
a
place called Rock Rows, Furrowed Sands they cross a
"sea"*(30) on a
causeway; this would be somewhere in Tabasco or Campeche, perhaps
at
Potonchan or Tixchel, both lowland Maya sites where causeways
pass
through flooded areas. They also pass the Great Abyss, the
location of
the eastern ball court used by the sons and grandsons of
Xmucane, a
long way east and a little south of any likely location for Rock
Rows,
Furrowed Sands. Next they enter the highlands, turning west
and
continuing at a slight southward angle until they reach a
mountain
called Place of Advice, not very far short of the site where
they will
one day reach their greatest glory. With them at Place of
Advice,
having accompanied them ever since they left Tulan, are the
Rabinals, Cakchiquels, and Bird House people.
Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar
Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, together
with their wives, observe a great fast at Place of Advice.
Tohil,
Auilix, and Hacauitz speak to them, asking to be given hiding
places
so that they will not be captured by enemies of the Quiches.
After a
search through the forest, each of these gods is hidden at the
place
that bears his name today. They are not yet placed in temples
atop
pyramids, but merely in arbors decorated with bromelias and
hanging
mosses. At the place of Hacauitz, on a mountaintop, the
Cauecs,
Greathouses, and Lord Quiches weep while they wait for the dawn;
the
Tams and Ilocs wait on nearby mountains, while peoples other
than
the Quiches wait at more distant places. When, at last, they all
see
the daybringer, the morning star, they give thanks by burning
the
incense they have kept for this occasion, ever since they left
Tulan.
At this point we reach
the moment in the account of human affairs
that corresponds to the final event in the account of the lives
of the
gods: the Sun himself rises. On just this one occasion he
appears as
an entire person, so hot that he dries out the face of the
earth.
His heat turns Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz to stone, along with
such
pumas, jaguars, and snakes as had existed until now. A
diminutive
god called White Sparkstriker*(31) escapes petrifaction by
going
into the shade of the trees, becoming the keeper of the stone
animals.
He remains to this day as a gamekeeper, with stone fetishes
(volcanic concretions and meteorites) that resemble
animals,
together with flesh-and-blood game animals, in his care. He may
be
encountered in forests and caves, or on dark nights and in
dreams;
he appears in contemporary masked dramas dressed entirely in
red,
the color of the dawn.
At first the Quiches
rejoice when they see the first sunrise, but
then they remember their "brothers," the tribes who
were with them
at Tulan, and they sing the song called "The Blame Is Ours"
once
again. In the words of this song they wonder where their
brothers
might be at this very moment. In effect, the coming of the
first
sunrise reunites the tribes, despite the fact that they
remain
widely separated in space; as the Popol Vuh has it, "there
were
countless peoples, but there was just one dawn for all
tribes." The
orderly movements of the lights of the sky, signs of the deeds
of
the gods, enable human beings to coordinate their actions even
when
they cannot see one another. In point of fact Mesoamerican
peoples
in general shared a common calendar, consisting of the
260-day
cycle, whose auguries were first read by Xpiyacoc and Xmucane,
and the
cycles of Mars, Venus, and the sun and moon, as measured off by
the
movements of their sons and grandsons and by Blood
Woman.*(32)
Having seen the first
sunrise from the mountain of Hacauitz, the
Quiches eventually build a citadel there. But at first, even
while the
people of other tribes are becoming thickly settled and are
seen
traveling the roads in great numbers, the Quiches remain rustic
and
rural, gathering the larvae of yellow jackets, wasps, and bees
for
food and staying largely out of sight. When they go before
the
petrified forms of Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz, they burn bits
of
pitchy bark and wildflowers as substitutes for refined incense
and
offer blood drawn from their own bodies. The three gods are
still able
to speak to them, but only by appearing in spirit form. Tohil
tells
them to augment their offerings with the blood of deer and birds
taken
in the hunt, but they grow dissatisfied with this arrangement
and
begin to cast eyes on the people they see walking by in the
roads.
From hiding places on mountain peaks, they begin imitating the
cries
of the coyote, fox, puma, and jaguar.
Finally Tohil tells the
Quiches to go ahead and take human beings
for sacrifice, reminding them that when they were at Tulan the
other
tribes promised to allow him to "suckle" them. They
begin to seize
people they find out walking alone or in pairs, taking them away
to
cut them open before Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz and then
rolling
their heads out onto the roads. At first the lords who rule
the
victimized tribes think these deaths are the work of wild
animals, but
then they suspect the worshipers of Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz
and
attempt to track them down. Again and again they are foiled by
rain,
mist, and mud, but they do discover that the three gods,
whose
spirit familiars take the form of adolescent boys, have a
favorite
bathing place. They send two beautiful maidens, Xtah and Xpuch,
to
wash clothes there, instructing them to tempt the boys and
then
yield to any advances. They warn the maidens to return with
proof of
the success of their mission, which must take the form of
presents
from the boys.*(33)
Contrary to plan, the
three Quiche gods fail to lust after Xtah
and Xpuch, but they do agree to provide them with presents.
They
give them three cloaks with figures on the inside, one painted
with
a jaguar by Jaguar Quitze, another painted with an eagle by
Jaguar
Night, and the third painted with swarms of yellow jackets and
wasps
by Mahucutah. When the maidens return the enemy lords are so
pleased
with the cloaks that they cannot resist trying them on. All is
well
until the wasps painted on the inside of the third cloak turn
into
real ones. Xtah and Xpuch are spurned; despite their failure
to
tempt Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz they become the first
prostitutes,
or what Quiches call "barkers of shins." As for the
enemy lords,
they resolve to make war and launch a massive attack on the
Quiche
citadel at Hacauitz.
The enemy warriors come
at night in order to get as far as
possible without resistance, but they fall into a deep sleep on
the
road. The Quiches not only strip them of all the metal ornaments
on
their weapons and clothes, but pluck out their eyebrows and
beards
as well. Even so the enemy warriors press on the next day,
determined to recover their losses, but the Quiches are well
prepared.
What the enemy lookouts see all around the citadel of Hacauitz
is a
wooden palisade; visible on the parapet are rows of warriors,
decked
out with the very metal objects that were stolen during the
night.
What the lookouts do not see is that these warriors are mere
wooden
puppets, and that behind the palisade, on each of its four
sides, is a
large gourd filled with yellow jackets and wasps, put there at
the
suggestion of Tohil. As for the Quiches on the inside, what
they
see, once the attack begins, is more than twenty-four
thousand
warriors converging on them, bristling with weapons and
shouting
continuously. But Tohil has made them so confident that they
treat the
attack as a great spectacle, bringing their women and children
up on
the parapet to see it. When they release the yellow jackets
and
wasps their enemies drop their weapons and attempt to flee, so
badly
stung they hardly even notice the blows they receive from
conventional
Quiche weapons. The survivors become permanent payers of tribute
to
the Quiche lords.
After their great
victory, Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah,
and True Jaguar begin preparing, with complete contentment, for
what
they know to be their approaching death. First they sing
"The Blame Is
Ours," and then they explain to their wives and successors
that "the
time of our Lord Deer" has come around again. This is a
reference to
the day named Deer, one of the four days on which a new solar
year can
begin, and specifically to the first day of a longer period,
lasting
fifty-two years, which falls on One Deer.*(34) Such a major
temporal
transition is an occasion for rites of renewal; the Quiche
forefathers
declare that their time as lords among the living has been
completed
and that they intend to return to the place where they came
from,
far in the east. Jaguar Quitze leaves a sacred object called
the
"Bundle of Flames," a sort of cloth-wrapped ark with
mysterious
contents, as a "sign of his being." He and the others
"die" by
simply departing; they are never seen again, but their descendants
burn incense before the Bundle of Flames in remembrance of
them,
just as Xmucane burned incense before the ears of corn in
remembrance of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
The Quiche lords of the
second generation, following the
instructions of their departed fathers, go on a pilgrimage to
the east
(at the beginning of Part Five). Unlike their fathers, they do
this
with the intention of returning in the flesh. Cocaib, the
firstborn
son of Jaguar Quitze, goes on behalf of the Cauec lineage;
Coacutec,
the second son of Jaguar Night, represents the Greathouses;
and
Coahau, the only son of Mahucutah, represents the Lord Quiches.
They
go all the way back down into the lowlands, to the other side of
the
same "sea" their fathers once crossed on the way up to
the
highlands. If they were retracing their fathers' route in
detail, they
must have descended into the lowlands by way of the Great
Abyss.
They do not go to Tulan Zuyua, which may have been in ruins by
this
time, but they do come before the ruler of a great kingdom. His
name
is Nacxit, one of the epithets Nahua speakers give to the
god-king
Plumed Serpent. He gives them the emblems that go with the two
highest
titles of Mayan nobility, Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of
the
Reception House Mat. Both these titles, the one belonging to a
head of
state and the other to an overseer of tribute collection, go to
the
Cauecs. From other sources we know that the Greathouse and Lord
Quiche
lineages also receive emblems at this time, with the title of
Lord
Minister (ranking third) going to one and that of Crier to
the
People (ranking fourth) to the other.*(35)
Cocaib, Coacutec, and
Coahau return "from across the sea" with the
regalia given them by Nacxit, including canopies, thrones,
musical
instruments, cosmetics, jewelry, the feet and feathers of
various
animals and birds, and "the writings about Tulan."
Since one of the
titles of the Popol Vuh is "The Light That Came from Across
the
Sea," we may guess that it was the Popol Vuh they brought
back, and
that the hieroglyphic version of the book contained not
only
writings about the gods whose movements prefigured those of
celestial lights, but about such human affairs as those of
Tulan.
The sovereign lordship of the returned pilgrims is recognized
not only
by the Quiches themselves, but by the Rabinals, Cakchiquels,
and
Bird House people as well. Only now do the Quiche lords begin
to
have what the Popol Vuh calls "fiery splendor." It
seems likely that
their pilgrimage was conceived as a reenactment of the
adventures of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque in Xibalba, who had only the planet Venus
to
their credit when they first descended in the east at the Great
Abyss,
but who eventually returned with the greater splendor of the sun
and
full moon.
Later, after the death
of the widows of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
and Mahucutah, the Quiches leave Hacauitz and settle at a
succession
of other sites. The Popol Vuh mentions only one of these by
name,
Thorny Place, settled at some point after the deaths of
Cocaib,
Coacutec, and Coahau. The ruins of Thorny Place, which are
divided
into four parts just as the Popol Vuh indicates they should be,
are
some distance east and a little north of Hacauitz, in the
direction of
the Great Abyss. This location may have been chosen because it
was a
step backward on the Quiche migration route, placing the
ruling
lords closer to their forefathers than they were before. But
when
the Quiches move again, two generations later, they go west and
a
little south again, ending up even farther in that direction
than
Hacauitz. This time, with Cotuha as Keeper of the Mat and
Iztayul as
Keeper of the Reception House Mat, they found the citadel of
Bearded
Place, directly across a canyon to the south from the site of
what
will one day be their greatest citadel.*(36)
At Bearded Place there
is great harmony among the Cauecs,
Greathouses, and Lord Quiches; these three lineages, each with
its own
palace, are tied together through intermarriage. At Thorny Place
women
were married off in exchange for modest favors and gifts, but
now,
at Bearded Place, wedding arrangements are accompanied by
elaborate
feasting and drinking. The only disturbance during this period
comes
when the Ilocs not only try to get Iztayul involved in a plot
to
assassinate Cotuha, but come to the point of making a
military
attack on Bearded Place. They are defeated, and some of their
own
number are sacrificed before the gods of their intended victims.
The
Cauec, Greathouse, and Lord Quiche lineages now rise to greater
and
greater power, defeating some tribes in direct attacks and
terrorizing
still others by having them witness the sacrifice of prisoners
of war.
In the next generation
the Keeper of the Mat bears the divine name
Plumed Serpent, while the Keeper of the Reception House Mat is
Cotuha,
named after the previous Keeper of the Mat. They build a new
and
larger citadel across the canyon from Bearded Place, at
Rotten
Cane.*(37) The three leading lineages, faced with increased
numbers
and torn by quarrels over inflation in bride prices, break
apart
into smaller groups. The Cauecs divide into nine segments,
the
Greathouses into nine, and the Lord Quiches into four, with each
of
these segments headed by a titled lord and occupying its own
palace.
In addition, the inhabitants of Rotten Cane include the Zaquics,
a
lineage not previously mentioned in the Popol Vuh, divided into
two
segments but occupying only a single palace, making
twenty-three
palaces in all. Along with all these palaces, Rotten Cane
is
provided with three pyramids that bear the temples of Tohil,
Auilix,
and Hacauitz, ranged around a central plaza; elsewhere is a
fourth
pyramid for Corntassel, the god of the Zaquics.
The Popol Vuh
identifies Plumed Serpent, who holds the titles of
both Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat
during at
least part of his reign at Rotten Cane, as "a true lord of
genius." He
has the power to manifest his personal spirit familiars, putting
on
performances in which he transforms himself into a snake, an
eagle,
a jaguar, or a puddle of blood, climbing to the sky or
descending to
Xibalba. As the Popol Vuh explains it, his displays are
"just his
way of revealing himself," but they have the effect of
terrorizing the
lords of other tribes. The next Quiche lords to manifest
genius,
coming two generations later, are Quicab, who serves as Keeper
of
the Mat, and Cauizimah, who serves as Keeper of the Reception
House
Mat. Under their rule the dominion of the Quiches reaches its
greatest
extent. Where Plumed Serpent gained power through spectacular
displays
of shamanic skill, Quicab now gains it by military force.
Not
content with merely overpowering the citadels of
surrounding
peoples, he sends out loyal vassals, called "guardians of
the land" or
"lookout lineages," to serve as forces of occupation.
The stationing
of these guardians is conceived as analogous to the construction
of
a palisade; they turn the entire Quiche kingdom into one
great
fortress.
During this period the
settlement at the center of the Quiche
kingdom embraced a cluster of four citadels, with Rotten Cane at
the
focal point. Together with the ordinary houses that occupied the
lower
ground around them, these four sites made up a larger town that
took
the name Quiche. It was perhaps the most densely built-up area
that
had existed in highland Guatemala since early in the classic
period,
and it took on the stature of the place where Cocaib, Coacutec,
and
Coahau had gone to receive the titles and emblems of truly
glorious
lordship. Five generations after their pilgrimage a new
conferring
of titles took place, only now it was not Quiches but the heads
of the
leading "lookout" lineages who were ennobled, and it
happened not
under the authority of Nacxit, lord of a domain in the
mythic
"east," but under Quicab, who ruled from
Quiche.*(38)
The town of Quiche not
only took on the status of the place
visited by the pilgrims who saw Nacxit, but of the Tulan visited
by
their forefathers as well. When the founders of the ruling
Quiche
lineages and their closest allies left Tulan Zuyua before the
first
sunrise, they had come away with tribal gods whose names were
"meant
to be in agreement," and they were "in unity"
when they passed the
Great Abyss and convened at Place of Advice. Now, in this
latter
day, "the word came from just one place" again, and
the allies
convened in a town and "came away in unity" again, but
this time
they came away "having heard, there at Quiche, what all of
them should
do." It was probably during this period that the Quiche
lords went
so far as to have a branching tunnel constructed directly beneath
Rotten Cane, a tunnel that brought the Seven Caves of Tulan
Zuyua,
or of the ultimate Tulan that was Teotihuacan, to the time and
place
of their own greatest glory.
It is in the course of
explaining the greatness of lords like Plumed
Serpent and Quicab that the writers of the alphabetic Popol Vuh
tell
us how its hieroglyphic predecessor was put to use, serving as a
way
of seeing into distant places and times. Greatness also came to
the
lords through their participation in religious retreats. For
long
periods they would stay in the temples, praying, burning
incense,
bleeding themselves, sleeping apart from their wives, and abstaining
not only from meat but from corn products, eating nothing but
the
fruits of various trees. The shortest fast lasted 180 days,
corresponding to half the 360-day cycle (separate from the solar
year)
that was used in keeping chronologies of historical events,
and
another lasted 260 days, or one complete run of the cycle whose
days
were counted by Xpiyacoc and Xmucane when they divined for the
gods.
The longest fast, 340 days, corresponded to a segment of the
Mayan
Venus calendar, beginning with the departure of Venus as the
morning
star and continuing through its stay in the underworld and
its
period of reappearance as the evening star, leaving just eight
days to
go before its rebirth as the morning star. This fast
probably
commemorated the heroic adventures of Hunahpu and Xbalanque
in
Xibalba, the long darkness endured by the first generation of
lords as
they watched for the appearance of the morning star, and the
lowland
pilgrimage undertaken by Cocaib, Coacutec, and Coahau.
The Quiche lords sought
identification with the very gods, not
only in their pilgrimages, shamanic feats, limitless vision,
and
long fasts, but in the requirements they set for their
subjects.
Just as the gods needed human beings to nurture them with
offerings,
so human lords required subjects to bring them tribute. As the
Popol
Vuh points out, the "nurture" required by the Quiche
lords consisted
not only of the food and drink that were prepared for them, but
of
turquoise, jade, and the iridescent blue-green feathers of the
quetzal
bird. Apparently such precious objects as these were considered
the
ultimate fruits of the earth and sky, which were themselves
described as the "blue-green plate" and
"blue-green bowl."
Near the end, the Popol
Vuh lists all the noble titles held by the
various segments of the Cauec, Greathouse, and Lord Quiche
lineages
(in rank order), and it gives the names of those who held
the
highest titles (in the order of their succession). In the case
of
the two leading segments of the Cauec lineage, those whose
heads
held the titles of Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception
House
Mat, the text lists four generations after Quicab and Cauizimah,
who
were in the seventh generation, without comment. Then, in
the
twelfth generation, the names Three Deer and Nine Dog are
followed
by two sentences whose combination of gravity and brevity gives
the
reader a chill. The first is, "And they were ruling when
Tonatiuh
arrived," Tonatiuh or "Sun" being the name given
by the Aztecs to
Pedro de Alvarado, the man whose forces destroyed Rotten Cane in
1524.
And the second sentence about Three Deer and Nine Dog is simply,
"They
were hanged by the Castilian people."*(39)
In the thirteenth
generation of Cauecs the Popol Vuh lists Tecum and
Tepepul, who were "tributary to the Castilian people."
Then, at the
end of the list of Cauec generations, come the first lords who
adopted
Spanish names, Juan de Rojas and Juan Cortes, the living holders
of
the titles of Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the Reception
House
Mat when the alphabetic Popol Vuh was written. Today Quiches
ideally
list either nine or thirteen generations when they invoke
their
ancestors in prayer; from this we can see that the thirteen
generations of lords named as preceding Juan de Rojas and
Juan
Cortes need not be taken as constituting an exhaustive genealogy
but
may simply be a list of the names these two men used in their
own
prayers.
By giving us the names
of Quiche lords who were alive while they
were writing, the authors of the alphabetic Popol Vuh also give
us the
means for dating their work. They could not have finished it any
later
than 1558, since by that year the name of Juan de Rojas is
missing
from documents he would have signed had he still been among
the
living. And since they mention Pedro de Robles of the
Greathouse
lineage as the current Lord Minister, they could not have
finished any
earlier than 1554, at which time his predecessor was still
in
office. This places the writing of the Popol Vuh during the
very
same decade as the writing of the majority of the native
titulos
that exist for colonial Guatemala, documents that were composed
by
indigenous authors for the express purpose of reasserting the
rights
formerly enjoyed by specific lordly lineages living in
specific
places. The version of the Popol Vuh that comes down to us does
not
include a copy of the original title page or of whatever
explicitly
legal statements might have been appended to the original
alphabetic
manuscript, but it makes the lineage and place names plain
enough, and
it contains two different lists of towns that had once been
tributary to Quiche.*(40)
It may be that the
indigenous lords of highland Guatemala chose
the 1550s to make their claims because they thought they saw
an
opening in Spanish policy, but they may also have been preparing
for
the major temporal transition that Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar
Night,
Mahucutah, and True Jaguar had once called "the time of our
Lord
Deer." A new fifty-two-year cycle, with the first day of
its first
year falling on One Deer, was due to begin on June 2, 1558 (on
the
Julian calendar). Juan Cortes, whose duties as Keeper of the
Reception
House Mat would have included tribute collection had he
served
before the coming of Alvarado, worked constantly to restore
tribute
rights to the lordly lineages of the town of Quiche. In 1557 he
went
all the way to Spain to press his case, and it may well be that
he
took a copy of the alphabetic Popol Vuh with him. He continued
to make
claims when he returned to Guatemala in 1558, prompting a
missionary
to warn Philip II that "this land is new and not confirmed
in the
faith," and that Cortes, "son of idolatrous parents,
would need to
do very little to restore their ceremonies and attract their
former
subjects to himself."*(41) Quiche rights to collect tribute
never were
restored, but over the next thirty years Juan Cortes did take
a
considerable role in appointing and installing the leaders
of
various towns that had once been under Quiche rule.*(42)
By the time the authors
of the Popol Vuh have finished giving the
rank order of noble titles and the names of the individuals who
held
the highest titles, they are only a few sentences away from
finishing their work. At this point they single out one of
the
lesser titles for further discussion, a move that seems
anticlimactic until we realize that they are giving us a clue to
their
own identity. Without naming any individuals, they point out
that each
of the three leading lineages included one lord bearing the
title of
Great Toastmaster,*(43) also translatable as Great Convener
of
Banquets. Here we may recall that when the authors introduced
the
story of One Hunahpu, they themselves proposed a toast to
the
reader. If we look for a convener of banquets and maker of
toasts
among the contemporary Quiche, we find the professional
matchmaker,
who serves as an eloquent master of ceremonies at the feasts
where
marriage arrangements are completed. If our mysterious authors
were
themselves the three Great Toastmasters, and if their
duties
included the convening of wedding banquets, that would help
explain
why they took a special interest in marriage customs when
they
recounted the life and times of successive Quiche citadels.
Indeed,
they specifically noted the point at which feasting and drinking
first
became a part of the negotiations for a bride.
The authors give us one
final clue to their identity when they
tell us that the three Great Toastmasters are "Mothers of
the Word"
and "Fathers of the Word." The combination of
"Mother" and "Father"
suggests the contemporary daykeepers called mother-fathers,
who
serve as the ritual heads of patrilineages; it is from their
ranks
that matchmakers are drawn. The focus on "the Word,"
coming as it does
near the very end of a work whose opening line promised to give
us the
"Ancient Word," suggests that the Word parented by the
Great
Toastmasters and the Word written down in the alphabetic Popol
Vuh are
one and the same. If so, we know the name of at least one of
the
writers: when Juan de Rojas and Juan Cortes signed a document
known as
the "Title of the Lords of Totonicapan" in 1554, a man
named Cristobal
Velasco*(44) signed himself as Great Toastmaster of the
Cauecs.
At the end of their
work the authors repeat the enigma they
presented near the beginning, allowing us to wonder whether
the
hieroglyphic Popol Vuh might still exist somewhere, only now
they
say it has been "lost" instead of telling us that the
reader is hiding
his face. They close on a note of reassurance, asking us, in
effect,
to accept what they have written without demanding a closer look
at
their sources, since "everything has been completed here
concerning
Quiche," meaning the place named Quiche. Then, lest we
forget their
difficult circumstances, they add the phrase, "which is now
named
Santa Cruz," or "Holy Cross." Here again they
take us back to the
beginning, where they told us, "We shall write about this
now amid the
preaching of God, in Christendom now."
Today, even when Quiche
daykeepers go to a remote mountaintop
shrine, sending up great clouds of incense for multitudes of
deities
and ancestors, they sometimes begin and end by running through
an "Our
Father" and a "Hail Mary" and crossing
themselves. It is as if the
alien eye and ear of the conqueror were present even under
conditions of solitude and required the recitation of two
spells,
one to ward them off for awhile and the other to readmit
their
existence. Between these protective spells daykeepers are left
to
enter, in peace, a world whose obligations they know to be
older
than those of Christianity, obligations to the mountains and
plains
where they continue to live and to all those who have ever lived
there
before them. So it is with the authors of the Popol Vuh, who
mention
Christendom on the first page, Holy Cross on the last page, and
open
up the whole sky-earth, vast and deep, within.
Perhaps the most
remarkable thing about the Popol Vuh, considered in
its entirety, is the vast temporal sweep of its narrative. It
begins
in darkness, with a world inhabited only by gods, and continues
all
the way past the dawn into the time of the humans who wrote it.
The
surviving Maya hieroglyphic books abound with gods, but they
seem to
stop short of dealing directly with the acts of mortals. The
Dresden
book does have one page that shifts the action to the human
sphere,
but the following pages were torn off at some time in the past.
If
we wish to find hieroglyphic texts that have the same
proportion
between divine and human affairs as the alphabetic Popol Vuh,
we
must leave the time and place in which it was written and go
a
thousand years back and hundreds of miles away to the classic
Maya
site of Palenque, in the Gulf-coast lowlands.*(45)
At Palenque, in the sanctuary of each temple
in what is now known as
the Cross Group, is a stone tablet bearing a hieroglyphic
narrative.
In each case the text is divided into two panels, one of
which
begins with the deeds of gods who include the classic
equivalents of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque, and the other of which ends with the
deeds of
human lords whose own scribes were the authors of the
inscriptions. In
the middle of this narrative, where the reader passes from one
panel
to the other, are characters who are neither fully divine nor
quite
human. So also with the Popol Vuh: about halfway through, the
reader
comes to a transition between what might be called
"myth" and
"history" (at the end of Part Three). The characters
in the
narrative are still divine at this point, but they are described
as
performing rituals for the veneration of ripened corn and
deceased
relatives, rituals that are meant to be followed by future
humans
rather than by ancient gods. After this episode, in which the
gods act
like people, comes another in which people act like gods (at
the
beginning of Part Four). The people in question are the first
four
humans, the ones who saw and understood everything in the
sky-earth.
Once their perfect vision has been taken away the narrative
begins
to sound more like history as it moves along, though human
characters continue to aspire to deeds of divine
proportions.*(46)
We tend to think of
myth and history as being in conflict with one
another, but the authors of the inscriptions at Palenque and
the
alphabetic text of the Popol Vuh treated the mythic and
historical
parts of their narratives as belonging to a single, balanced
whole. By
their sense of proportion, the Egyptian Book of the Dead would
need
a second half devoted to human deeds in the land of the living,
and
the Hebrew Testament would need a first half devoted to events
that
took place before the fall of Adam and Eve. In the case of
ancient
Chinese literature the Book of Changes, which is like the Popol
Vuh in
being subject to divinatory interpretation, would have to
be
combined with the Book of History in a single volume.
To this day the Quiche
Maya think of dualities in general as
complementary rather than opposed, interpenetrating rather
than
mutually exclusive. Instead of being in logical opposition to
one
another, the realms of divine and human actions are joined by a
mutual
attraction. If we had an English word that fully expressed the
Mayan
sense of narrative time, it would have to embrace the duality of
the
divine and the human in the same way the Quiche term cahuleu
or
"sky-earth" preserves the duality of what we call the
"world." In fact
we already have a word that comes close to doing the job:
mythistory, taken into English from Greek by way of Latin. For
the
ancient Greeks, who set about driving a wedge between the divine
and
the human, this term became a negative one, designating
narratives
that should have been properly historical but contained
mythic
impurities. For Mayans, the presence of a divine dimension
in
narratives of human affairs is not an imperfection but a
necessity,
and it is balanced by a necessary human dimension in narratives
of
divine affairs. At one end of the Popol Vuh the gods are
preoccupied
with the difficult task of making humans, and at the other
humans
are preoccupied with the equally difficult task of finding
the
traces of divine movements in their own deeds.
The difference between
a fully mythistorical sense of narrative time
and the European quest for pure history is not reducible to a
simple
contrast between cyclical and linear time. Mayans are always
alert
to the reassertion of the patterns of the past in present
events,
but they do not expect the past to repeat itself exactly. Each
time
the gods of the Popol Vuh attempt to make human beings they get
a
different result, and except for the solitary person made of
mud, each
attempt has a lasting result rather than completely
disappearing
into the folds of cyclical time. Later, when members of the
second
generation of Quiche lords go on a pilgrimage that takes them
into the
lowlands, their journey is not described as a literal repetition
of
the journey of Hunahpu and Xbalanque to Xibalba, nor even as
a
retracing of the journey of the human founders of the ruling
Quiche
lineages, but is allowed its own character as a unique event, an
event
that nevertheless carries echoes of the past. The effect of
these
events, like others, is cumulative, and it is a specifically
human
capacity to take each of them into account separately while at
the
same time recognizing that they double back on one another.*(47)
In theory, if we who
presently claim to be human were to forget
our efforts to find the traces of divine movements in our own
actions,
our fate should be something like that of the wooden people in
the
Popol Vuh. For them, the forgotten force of divinity reasserted
itself
by inhabiting their own tools and utensils, which rose up
against them
and drove them from their homes. Today they are swinging through
the
trees.
On the holy day Eight
Monkey
in the year Eleven
Thought,
June 22, 1984,
Menotomy,
Massachusetts
PRONOUNCING_QUICHE_WORDS
-
PRONOUNCING QUICHE WORDS
-
VOWELS
a Like a in English
"father," or Spanish a.
e Like ai in English
"wait," or Spanish e.
i Like ee in English
"seed," or Spanish i.
o Like o in English
"bone," or Spanish o.
u Like oo in English
"hoot," or Spanish u.
aa, ee, ii, The doubling of a vowel normally indicates
that it
oo, uu is followed by a glottal stop, which
is like tt in
the
Scottish pronunciation of "bottle"; when uu
begins a
word or follows another vowel it is
pronounced like English "woo."
-
CONSONANTS
b Like English b, but pronounced
together with a
glottal
stop.
c, qu Pronounced without the puff of air
that follows c in
English
"cat."
ch Like English ch.
h Pronounced deeper in the throat
than English h, like
Spanish
j or German ch.
k Pronounced with the tongue
farther back in the mouth
than for
c or qu, like the Hebrew letter qoph.
l Pronounced with the tongue moved
forward from the
position
of English l so as to touch the teeth, as
in the
ll of Welsh "Lloyd."
m Like English m.
n Like English n.
p Pronounced without the puff of
air that follows p in
English
"pit."
r Pronounced with a flap if
between two vowels, like
Spanish
r, otherwise trilled like Spanish rr.
t Pronounced without the puff of
air that follows t in
English
"ten."
tt Like t, but pronounced together
with a glottal stop.
tz Like ts in English
"mats."
x Like English sh.
y Like English y.
z Like English s.
3 Like k, but pronounced together
with a glottal
stop.
4 Like c or qu, but pronounced
together with a glottal
stop.
4h Like ch, but pronounced together
with a glottal
stop.
4, Like tz, but pronounced together
with a glottal
stop.
-
Stress is always on the
final syllable of a word.
PART_ONE
PART ONE
-
THIS IS THE
BEGINNING*(48) OF THE ANCIENT WORD, here in this place
called Quiche.*(49) 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*(50) we shall
take up the demonstration, revelation, and
account of how things were put in shadow and brought to
light*(51)
-
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*(52)
named Xpiyacoc,
Xmucane,
defender,
protector,*(53)
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.*(54)
We shall write about this now amid the preaching of God, in
Christendom now.*(55) We shall bring it out because there is no
longer
a place to see it,*(56) 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,"
-
as it is called. There is the original book and ancient writing,
but
he who reads and ponders it hides his face.*(57) It takes a
long
performance*(58) 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
in the sky,
on the earth,
the four
sides, the four corners,*(59)
-
as it is said,
-
by the Maker,
Modeler,
mother-father of
life, of humankind,
giver of breath,
giver of heart,
bearer,
upbringer*(60) in the light that lasts*(61)
of those born in
the light, begotten in the light;
worrier, knower
of everything, whatever there is:
sky-earth,
lake-sea.
-
THIS IS THE ACCOUNT,
here it is:
Now it still ripples,
now it still murmurs, ripples, it still sighs,
still hums, and it is empty*(62) under the sky.
Here follow the first
words, the first eloquence:*(63)
There is not yet one
person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree,
rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, forest. Only the sky alone is
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.*(64) It is held back,*(65) kept at
rest
under the sky.
Whatever there is that
might be is simply 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.*(66) They are there, they are enclosed in quetzal
feathers,
in blue-green.
Thus the name,
"Plumed Serpent." They are great knowers, great
thinkers in their very being.*(67)
And of course there is
the sky, and there is also the Heart of
Sky. This is the name of the god,*(68) as it is spoken.
And then came his word,
he came here to the Sovereign Plumed
Serpent, here in the blackness, in the early dawn.*(69) He
spoke
with the Sovereign Plumed Serpent, and they talked, then they
thought,
then they worried. They agreed with each other, they joined
their
words, their thoughts.*(70) Then it was clear, then they
reached
accord in the light, and then humanity was clear, when they
conceived the growth, the generation*(71) 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.*(72)
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?*(73) Who is to be the
provider, nurturer?"*(74)
"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*(75) 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,*(76)
all at once the great mountains came forth. By their genius
alone,
by their cutting edge alone*(77) they carried out the conception
of
the mountain-plain, whose face grew instant 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.*(78) The sky was set apart, and the
earth
was set apart in the midst of the waters.
Such was their plan
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,*(79) creatures of the mountains: the deer,
birds,
pumas, jaguars, serpents, rattlesnakes, yellowbites,*(80)
guardians of
the bushes.
A Bearer, Begetter
speaks:
"Why this
pointless humming?*(81) Why should there merely be
rustling beneath the trees and bushes?"
"Indeed- they had
better have guardians," the others 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:*(82) your nests, your houses are in the trees,
in the bushes. Multiply there, scatter there, in the branches
of
trees, the branches of bushes," the deer and birds were
told.
When this deed had been
done, all of them had received a place to
sleep*(83) 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.*(84) Please talk,
each to each, within each kind, within each group," they
were told-
the deer, birds, puma, jaguar, serpent.
"Name now our
names, praise us. We are your mother, we are your
father. Speak now:
-
'Hurricane,
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 just squawked, they
just
chattered, they just howled.*(85) It wasn't apparent what
language
they spoke;*(86) 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 we 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, 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- 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 invoked and remembered on the face of the earth?
We
have already made 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," they 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 just
separating,
just crumbling, just loosening, just softening, just
disintegrating,
and just dissolving. Its head wouldn't turn, either. Its face
was just
lopsided, its face was just twisted. It couldn't look around.
It
talked at first, but senselessly.*(87) It was quickly dissolving
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. Again 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 just tell
Xpiyacoc, Xmucane, Hunahpu Possum, Hunahpu
Coyote, to try a counting of days, a counting of
lots,"*(88) 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 names of Xpiyacoc and Xmucane.
When Hurricane had
spoken with the Sovereign Plumed Serpent, they
invoked the daykeepers, diviners, the midmost seers:
"There is yet to
find, yet to discover 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.*(89)
-
So be it, fulfill your names:
-
Hunahpu
Possum, Hunahpu Coyote,
Bearer twice
over, Begetter twice over,
Great Peccary,
Great Tapir,
lapidary,
jeweler,
sawyer,
carpenter,
Maker of the Blue-Green Plate,
Maker of the
Blue-Green Bowl,
incense maker,
master craftsman,*(90)
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,*(91)
just get it done, just let it come out whether we should carve
and
gouge a mouth, a face in wood," they told the
daykeepers.
And then comes the
borrowing,*(92) the counting of days; the hand is
moved over the corn kernels, over the coral seeds, the days,
the
lots.*(93)
Then they spoke 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:*(94) Xmucane is her name.
And they said, 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,"*(95)
-
they said to the corn kernels, coral seeds, days, lots.
"Have shame,
you up there, Heart of Sky: attempt no deception*(96) before the
mouth
and face of Sovereign Plumed Serpent," they said. Then they
spoke
straight to the point:
"It is well that
there be your manikins, woodcarvings,*(97) talking,
speaking, there on the face of the earth."
"So be it,"
they replied. The moment they spoke it was done: the
manikins, woodcarvings, human in looks and human in speech.
This was the peopling
of the face 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.*(98)
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 here on the face of 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 flood was made; it came down on the
heads of
the manikins, woodcarvings.
The man's body was
carved from the wood of the coral tree*(99) by
the Maker, Modeler. And as for the woman, the Maker, Modeler
needed
the pith of reeds*(100) 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 they were killed, done in by a
flood:
There came a rain of
resin*(101) 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.
They 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*(102) began, rain all day and rain all night.
Into
their houses came*(103) the animals, small and great. Their
faces were
crushed by things of wood and stone. Everything spoke: their
water
jars, their tortilla griddles, their plates, their cooking pots,
their
dogs, their grinding stones, each and every thing crushed their
faces.
Their dogs and turkeys*(104) told them:
"You caused us
pain, you ate us, but now it is you whom we shall
eat." And this is the grinding stone:
"We were undone
because of you.
-
Every day,
every day,
in the
dark, in the dawn, forever,
r-r-rip,
r-r-rip,
r-r-rub,
r-r-rub,*(105)
right in
our faces, 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 a 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 our mouths. We
shall eat you," their dogs told them, and their faces were
crushed.
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, crushing their faces.
The stones, their
hearthstones were shooting out,*(106) coming right
out of the fire, going for their heads, causing them pain. Now
they
run for it, helter-skelter.
They want to climb up
on the houses, but they fall as the houses
collapse.
They want to climb the
trees; they're thrown off by the trees.
They want to get inside
caves, but the caves slam shut in 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*(107) by
the
builder and sculptor.
So this is why monkeys
look like people: they are a sign of a
previous human work, 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. But 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 person of genius in his being.
"I am great. My
place is now higher than that of the human work, the
human design. I am their sun and I am their light, and I am also
their
months.*(108)
"So be it: my
light is great. I am the walkway and I am the foothold
of the people,*(109) because my eyes are of metal. My teeth
just
glitter with jewels, and turquoise as well; they stand
out*(110)
blue with stones like the face of the sky.
"And this nose of
mine shines white into the distance like the moon.
Since my nest is metal, it lights up the face of the earth. When
I
come forth before my nest, I am like the sun and moon for those
who
are born in the light, begotten in the light. It must be so,
because
my face reaches into the distance," says Seven Macaw.
It is not true that he
is the sun, this Seven Macaw, yet he
magnifies himself, his wings, his metal. But the scope of his
face
lies right around his own perch;*(111) his face does not
reach
everywhere beneath the sky. The faces of the sun, moon, and
stars
are not yet visible, it has not yet dawned.
And so Seven Macaw
puffs himself up as the days and the months,
though the light of the sun and moon has not yet clarified. He
only
wished for surpassing greatness. This was when the flood was
worked
upon the manikins, woodcarvings.
And now we shall
explain how Seven Macaw died, when the people
were vanquished, done in by the mason and sculptor.
PART_TWO
PART TWO
-
(See illustration:
Drawings by the author.
THE FIRST NAMED HUNAHPU
AND THE SECOND NAMED XBALANQUE: These are
the portrait glyphs for the classic Maya equivalents of Hunahpu
(left)
and Xbalanque (right) at Palenque.)
-
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's no good
without life, without people here on the face of the
earth."
"Well then, let's
try a shot. We could shoot 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, Hunahpu, Cave by the Water, Xcanul,
Macamob,
Huliznab, as the names of the mountains that were there at the
dawn
are spoken. They were brought forth by Zipacna in a single
night.
And now this is the
Earthquake. The mountains are moved by him;
the mountains, small and great, are softened by him.*(112) 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 father.
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 engaged 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.
-
(See illustration:
Photo 1980 by Justin Kerr.
THEY ARE NOW HIDING
BENEATH THE TREE OF SEVEN MACAW: In this classic
Maya vase painting from the lowlands, Seven Macaw is shown
perched
in the top of a fruit tree. The tree itself is portrayed as
animate,
with a face and ears at its base. Hidden behind the tree is
Xbalanque,
whose pawlike hand protrudes above the tree's left ear.
Crouching at
the right is Hunahpu, in the act of shooting Seven Macaw with
his
blowgun. The presence of a scorpion beneath the tree
remains
unexplained.)
-
And when Seven Macaw
arrived, perching over his meal, the nance,
it was then that he was shot by Hunahpu. The blowgun shot went
right
to his jaw, breaking his mouth. Then he went up over the tree
and fell
flat on the ground.*(113) 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: 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:
"What have you got
there?" said Chimalmat, the wife of Seven Macaw.
"What is it but
those two tricksters!*(114) They've shot me, they've
dislocated my jaw.*(115) All my teeth are just loose,*(116) 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
real
tricksters!" said Seven Macaw, then he hung up the arm of
Hunahpu.
Meanwhile Hunahpu and
Xbalanque were thinking. And then they invoked
a grandfather, a truly white-haired grandfather, and a
grandmother,
a truly humble grandmother- just 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:
'Do forgive us*(117)
our grandchildren, who travel with us. Their
mother and father are dead, and so they follow along there,
behind us.
Perhaps we should give them away, since all we do is pull worms
out of
teeth.' So we'll seem like children to Seven Macaw, even
though
we're giving 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 his mouth off because of
his
teeth. And when Seven Macaw saw the grandfather and
grandmother
traveling with them:
"Where are you
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're not,
your lordship. They're 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
getting
done in by the pain in his teeth, it is only with great
effort*(118)
that he speaks again:
"I implore you,
please take pity on me! What sweets can you make,
what poisons can you cure?"*(119) said the lord.
"We just pull the
worms out of teeth,*(120) and we just cure
eyes.*(121) We just set bones, your lordship," they
replied.
"Very well, please
cure my teeth. They really ache, every day.
It's insufferable! I get no sleep because of them- and my eyes.
They
just shot me, those two tricksters! Ever since it started I
haven't
eaten because of it. Therefore take pity on me! Perhaps it's
because
my teeth are loose now."
"Very well, your
lordship. It's a worm, gnawing at the bone.*(122)
It's merely a matter of putting in a replacement and taking
the
teeth out, sir."
"But perhaps it's
not good for my teeth to come out- since I am,
after all, a lord. My finery is in my teeth- and my
eyes."
"But then we'll
put in a replacement. Ground bone will be put back
in." And this is the "ground bone": it's only
white corn.
"Very well. Yank
them out! Give me some help here!" he replied.
And when the teeth of
Seven Macaw came out, it was only white corn
that went in as a replacement for his teeth- just a
coating*(123)
shining white, that corn in his mouth. 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 blue from his mouth.
And then the eyes of
Seven Macaw were cured. When his eyes were
trimmed back*(124) 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, Hunahpu got back his arm. And
Chimalmat, the wife of Seven Macaw, also died.
Such was the loss of
the riches of Seven Macaw: only the doctors got
the jewels and gems that had made him arrogant, here on the face
of
the earth. The genius of the grandmother, the genius of the
grandfather did its work when they took back their arm: it
was
implanted and the break got well again. Just as they had wished
the
death of Seven Macaw, so they brought it about. They had seen
evil
in his self-magnification.
After this the two boys
went on again. What they did was simply
the word of the Heart of Sky.*(125)
-
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 along, having cut a great tree for
the
lintel of their hut.*(126)
And then Zipacna went
there, he arrived 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."
"I'll carry it.
Where does it go? What do you intend to use it for?"
"It's 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, boy. Do you have a mother and father?"
"Not so," he
replied.
"We'd like some
help*(127) 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 this boy:
what should we do with him?"
"We should kill
him, because what he does is no good. He lifted that
log all by himself. Let's dig a big hole for him, and then we'll
throw
him down*(128) in the hole. We'll say to him:
'Why are you spilling
dirt in the hole?'*(129) And when he's
wedged*(130) down in the hole we'll wham a big log*(131) down
behind
him. Then he should die in the hole," said the Four Hundred
Boys.
And when they had dug 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.
After that he went down
in the hole.
"Call out when
enough dirt has been dug, when you're getting down
deep," he was told.
"Yes," 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,*(132) 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 digging will be
finished," said Zipacna, from down in the hole. But he's
not digging
at the bottom of the hole, in his own grave; rather, the hole
he's
digging is 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
your
call, it just echoes down here, it sounds to me as if you were
on
another level, or two levels away,"*(133) said Zipacna from
his
hole. He's hidden in there, he calls out from down in the
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, and they've
hidden
themselves, each one of them, after throwing down the log.
And then he did speak,
now he gave a single cry. He called out
when the log fell to the bottom.
"Right on! He's
been finished!"
"Very good! We've
done him in, he's dead."
"What if he had
gone on with his deeds, his works? He would've
made himself first among us and taken our place- we, the
Four
Hundred Boys!" they said. Now they enjoyed themselves:
"On to the making
of our sweet drink! Three days will pass, and
after three days let's drink to dedicate*(134) 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 sweet drink," they said. But Zipacna was
listening
from the hole when the boys specified "the day after
tomorrow."
And on the second day,
when the ants collected, they were running,
swarming. Having taken their pickings*(135) 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. It's his nails you can see. We've done it!" they
said among
themselves.
But this Zipacna is
still alive. He just cuts the 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 got drunk, and once they were drunk, all four
hundred
of those boys, they weren't feeling a thing.
After that the hut was
brought down on top of them by Zipacna. All
of them 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 entered a constellation, named Hundrath after
them,
though perhaps this is just a play on words.*(136)
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.
What now weighed
heavily on the hearts of the two boys was that
the Four Hundred Boys had been killed by Zipacna.
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*(137) of a great crab by Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
And they used bromelia
flowers, picked from the bromelias of the
forests. These became the forearms*(138) of the crab, and where
they
opened*(139) were the claws.*(140) They used a flagstone for
the
back of the crab, which clattered.*(141)
After that they put the
shell beneath an overhang,*(142) 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, boy?" Zipacna was asked.
"I'm not going
anywhere. I'm just looking for my food, boys,"
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,"*(143) Zipacna told Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
"There is that
crab that's 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 Xbalanque.
"Take pity on me,
please come point her out, boys,"*(144) said
Zipacna.
"We don't want to,
but you go ahead. You can't miss her. Just follow
the river, and you go straight 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.
"But won't you
please*(145) take pity on me? What if she can't be
found, boys? If you come along I'll show you a place where there
are
plenty of birds.*(146) Please come shoot them, I know where they
are,"
Zipacna replied. They consented. He went ahead of the boys.
"What if you can't
catch the crab? Just as we had to turn back, so
will you. Not only didn't we eat her, but all at once she was
biting
us. We were entering*(147) face down, but when she got scared
we
were entering on our back.*(148) We just barely missed reaching
her
then, so you'd better enter on your back," he was
told.
"Very well,"
Zipacna replied, and then they went on. Now Zipacna had
company as he went. They arrived at the bottom of the
canyon.
The crab is on her
side, her shell is gleaming red there.*(149) In
under the canyon wall is their contrivance.
"Very good!"
Zipacna is happy now. He wishes she were already in his
mouth, so she could really cure his hunger. He wanted to eat
her, he
just wanted it face down, he wanted to enter, but since the crab
got
on top of him with her back down, he came back out.
"You didn't reach
her?" he was asked.
"No indeed- she
was just getting on top with her back down. I just
barely missed her on the first try, so perhaps I'd better enter
on
my back,"*(150) he replied.
After that he entered
again, on his back. He entered all the way-
only his kneecaps were showing now!*(151) He gave a last sigh
and
was calm.*(152) The great mountain rested on his chest. He
couldn't
turn over now, and so Zipacna turned to stone.
Such, in its turn, was
the defeat of Zipacna by the two boys,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque. He was "the maker of
mountains," as his
previous pronouncements had it, the first son of Seven Macaw. He
was
defeated beneath the great mountain called Meauan, defeated
by
genius alone. He was the second to magnify himself, and now we
shall
speak what is spoken of another.
-
AND THE THIRD TO
MAGNIFY HIMSELF IS THE SECOND SON OF SEVEN MACAW,
NAMED EARTHQUAKE.
"I am the breaker
of mountains," he said. But even so, Hunahpu and
Xbalanque defeated the Earthquake. Then Hurricane spoke,
Newborn
Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt; he spoke to Hunahpu and
Xbalanque:
"The second son of
Seven Macaw is another one, another who should be
defeated. This is my word, because what they do on the face of
the
earth is no good. They are surpassing the sun in size, in weight,
and it should not be that way. Lure this Earthquake into
settling
down*(153) over there in the east," Hurricane told the two
boys.
"Very well, your
lordship. There is more to be done. What we see
is no good. Isn't it a question of your position and your
eminence,
sir, Heart of Sky?" the two boys said when they responded
to the
word of Hurricane.
Meanwhile he presses
on, this Earthquake, breaker of mountains. Just
by lightly tapping his foot on the ground he instantly
demolishes
the mountains, great and small. When he met up with the two
boys:
"Where are you
going, boy?" they asked Earthquake.
"I'm not going
anywhere. I just scatter the mountains, and I'm the
one who breaks them, in the course of the days, in the course of
the
light,"*(154) he said when he answered. Then the Earthquake
asked
Hunahpu and Xbalanque:
"Where did you
come from? I don't know your faces. What are your
names?" said Earthquake.
"We have no names.
We just hunt and trap in the mountains. We're
just orphans, we have nothing to call our own, boy. We're
just
making our way among the mountains, small and great, boy.
And
there's one great mountain we saw that's just growing right along.
It's rising really high! It's just swelling up, rising above all
the
other mountains. And there weren't even one or two birds to
be
found, boy. So how could it be that you destroy all mountains,
boy?"
Hunahpu and Xbalanque said to Earthquake.
"It can't be true
you saw the mountain you're talking about. Where
is it? You'll see me knock it down yet. Where did you see
it?"
"Well, it's over
there in the east," said Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
"Good. Lead the
way,"*(155) the two boys were told.
"Not so. You take
the middle. Stay here between us- one of us at
your left, the other at your right hand- because of our blowguns.
If
there are birds, we'll shoot," they said. They enjoy
practicing
their shooting.
And this is the way
they shoot: the shot of their blowguns isn't
made of earth- they just blow at the birds when they
shoot,*(156) to
the amazement of the Earthquake.
And then the boys made
fire with a drill*(157) and roasted the birds
over the fire. And they coated one of the birds with plaster,
they put
gypsum on it.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by Carlos A. Villacorta: Photo
by
Hillel Burger (C) 1984 by the President and Fellows of
Harvard
College.
AND THEN THE BOYS MADE
FIRE WITH A DRILL: In this illustration
from the lowland Maya hieroglyphic book now known as the Madrid
Codex,
two figures turn a fire drill while sparks fly up from the
wooden
platform where the point of the drill is inserted. They are
seated
on or beside a road, marked by footprints.)
-
"So this is the
one we'll give him when he's hungry, and when he
savors the aroma of our birds. That will be victory, since
we've
covered his bird with baked earth. In earth we must cook it, and
in
earth must be his grave- if the great knower, the one to be made
and
modeled,*(158) is to have a sowing and dawning," said the
boys.
"Because of this,
the human heart*(159) will desire a bite of
meat, a meal of flesh,*(160) just as the heart of the
Earthquake
will desire it," Hunahpu and Xbalanque said to one another.
Then
they roasted the birds and cooked them until they were brown,
dripping
with fat that oozed from the backs of the birds, with an
overwhelmingly fragrant aroma.
And this Earthquake
wants to be fed, his mouth just waters, he gulps
and slurps with spittle and saliva because of the fragrance of
the
birds. So then he asked:
"What are you
eating? I smell a truly delicious aroma! Please give
me a little bit," he said. And when they gave a bird to
Earthquake, he
was as good as defeated.
After he had finished off
the bird, they went on until they
arrived in the east, where the great mountain was.
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'd
eaten.
So now there was nothing he could do to the mountain. He
never
recovered; he was destroyed. So then he was bound by the two
boys; his
hands were bound behind him. When his hands had been secured by
the
boys, his ankles were bound to his wrists.*(161)
After that they threw
him down, 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,
having first explained the defeat of Seven Macaw, along with
Zipacna
and Earthquake, here on the face of the earth.
PART_THREE
PART THREE
-
AND NOW WE SHALL NAME
THE NAME OF THE FATHER OF HUNAHPU AND
XBALANQUE. Let's drink to him, and let's just drink to the
telling*(162) and accounting of the begetting of Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque. We shall tell just half of it, just a part of the
account
of their father. Here follows the account.
These are the names:
One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, as they are
called.*(163)
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
their mother: she is called Xbaquiyalo,
the wife of One Hunahpu. As for Seven Hunahpu, he has no wife.
He's
just a partner*(164) 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*(165) as well.
-
(See illustration:
Photo 1980 by Justin Kerr.
ONE MONKEY AND ONE
ARTISAN BECAME FLAUTISTS, SINGERS, AND WRITERS:
In this classic Maya funerary vase painting from northern
Guatemala,
the twin monkey gods are shown seated in a cross-legged
position,
pointing to screen-folded books while speaking or singing. The
books
they hold in their hands have jaguar-skin covers; other books
are
piled up at their feet. [Vase in the New Orleans Museum of
Art.])
-
And as for One and
Seven Hunahpu, 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
ballplayers*(166) 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's happening
on the face of the earth? They're just stomping
and shouting. They should be summoned to come play ball here.
We'll
defeat them, since we simply get no deference from them. They
show
no respect, nor do they have any shame. They're really
determined to
run right over us!"*(167) said all of Xibalba, when they
all shared
their thoughts, the ones named One and Seven Death. They are
great
lawgivers.
-
AND THESE ARE THE LORDS
OVER EVERYTHING, each lord with a commission
and a domain assigned by One and Seven Death:
There are the lords
named House Corner and Blood Gatherer. And
this is their commission: to draw blood from people.*(168)
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,*(169)
as it
is called. Such is the domain of Pus 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 skulls, until they die from emaciation and edema.*(170) This
is
the commission of the ones named Bone Scepter and Skull
Scepter.
Next are the lords
named Trash Master and Stab Master. This is their
commission: just to catch up with people*(171) whenever they
have
filth or grime in the doorway of the house,*(172) the patio of
the
house.*(173) Then they're struck, 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,"*(174) 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:
just to strike 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 are those who
shared their thoughts*(175) when they were piqued
and driven*(176) 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.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing reproduced by permission of
Michael D.
Coe and the Grolier Club.
AND THESE ARE THE LORDS
OVER EVERYTHING: This late classic Maya
funerary vase painting from northern Guatemala shows seven lords
of
Xibalba, with the head lord, corresponding to One Death of the
Popol
Vuh, smoking a cigar and sitting on a jaguar skin at right. The
two
lords immediately to his left may be Bone Scepter (in the
bottom
row) and Skull Scepter (in the top row), one with a staff that
looks
like a spinal column in front of him and the other with a
rounded
bundle that could contain a skull. All seven lords wear ball
game
yokes on their hips. The Popol Vuh mentions fourteen lords,
counting
two manikins that are meant to be mistaken for lords. Perhaps
each
pair of names mentioned in the Popol Vuh originally belonged to
a
single lord, or perhaps each of the lords shown here is
understood
to have another seated at his side.)
-
AND NOW FOR THE MESSENGERS OF ONE AND SEVEN
DEATH: "You're going,
you Military Keepers of the Mat, to summon One and Seven
Hunahpu.
You'll tell them, when you arrive:
'"They must
come," the lords say to you. "Would that they might come
to play ball with us here. Then we could have some excitement
with
them. We are truly amazed at them. Therefore they should
come," say
the lords, "and they should bring their playthings, their
yokes and
arm guards should come, along with their rubber ball," say
the lords,'
you will say when you arrive," the messengers were
told.
And these messengers of
theirs are owls:*(177) Shooting Owl,
One-legged Owl, Macaw Owl, Skull Owl, as the messengers of
Xibalba are
called.
There is Shooting Owl,
like a point, just piercing.
And there is One-legged
Owl, with just one leg; he has wings.
And there is Macaw Owl,
with a red back; he has wings.
And there is also Skull
Owl, with only a head alone; he has no legs,
but he does have wings.
There are four
messengers, Military Keepers of the Mat in rank.
And when they came 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 repeated their words, reciting
the
exact words*(178) of One Death, Seven Death, Pus Master,
Jaundice
Master, Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, House Corner, Blood
Gatherer,
Trash Master, Stab Master, Wing, Packstrap, as all the lords
are
named. Their words were repeated by the owls.
"Don't the lords
One and Seven Death speak truly?"*(179)
"Truly
indeed," the owls replied. "We'll accompany you.
'They're to bring along
all their gaming equipment,' say the lords."
"Very well, but
wait for us while we notify our mother," they
replied.
And when they went to
their house, they spoke to their mother; their
father had died:
"We're going, our dear
mother, even though we've just arrived.*(180)
The messengers of the lord have come to get us:
'"They should
come," he says,' they say, giving us orders. We'll
leave our rubber ball behind here," they said, then they
went to tie
it up under the roof of the house. "Until we return- then
we'll put it
in play again."
They told One Monkey
and One Artisan:
"As for you, just
play and just sing,*(181) write and carve to
warm our house and to warm the heart of your grandmother."
When they
had been given their instructions, their grandmother Xmucane
sobbed,
she had to weep.
"We're going,
we're 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,*(182) the roaring canyon narrows named Neck Canyon.
They
passed through there, then they passed on into the River of
Churning
Spikes. They passed through countless spikes but they were
not
stabbed.
And then they came to
water 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 through
again.
And then they came to
the Crossroads, but here they were defeated,
at the Crossroads:
Red Road was one and
Black Road another.
White Road was one and
Yellow Road another.
There were four roads,
and Black Road spoke:
"I am the one you
are taking. I am the lord's road," said the
road. And they were defeated there: this was the Road of
Xibalba.
And then they came to
the council place of the lords of Xibalba, and
they were defeated again there. The ones seated first there are
just
manikins, just woodcarvings dressed up by Xibalba. And they
greeted
the first ones:
"Morning,*(183)
One Death," they said to the manikin. "Morning,
Seven Death," they said to the woodcarving in turn.
So they did not win
out, and the lords of Xibalba shouted out with
laughter over this. All the lords just shouted with laughter
because
they had triumphed; in their hearts they had beaten One and
Seven
Hunahpu. They laughed on until One and Seven Death spoke:
"It's good that
you've come. Tomorrow you must put your yokes and
arm guards into action," they were told.
"Sit here on our
bench," they were told, but the only bench they
were offered was a burning-hot rock.
So now they were burned
on the bench; they really jumped around on
the bench now, but they got no relief.*(184) They really 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,*(185) all the lords of Xibalba
laughed
themselves down to their blood and bones.*(186)
"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, a house with darkness
alone inside. Meanwhile the Xibalbans shared their
thoughts:
"Let's just
sacrifice them tomorrow. It can only turn out to be
quick; they'll die quickly because of our playing equipment,
our
gaming things," the Xibalbans are saying among
themselves.
This ball of theirs is
just a spherical knife.*(187) White Dagger is
the name of the ball, the ball of Xibalba. Their ball is just
ground
down to make it smooth; the ball of Xibalba is just surfaced
with
crushed bone to make it firm.
-
AND ONE AND SEVEN
HUNAHPU WENT INSIDE DARK HOUSE.
And then their torch
was brought,*(188) only one torch, already lit,
sent by One and Seven Death, along with a cigar for each of
them, also
already lit, sent by the lords. When these were brought to One
and
Seven Hunahpu they were cowering,*(189) here in the dark. When
the
bearer of their torch and cigars arrived, the torch was bright
as it
entered; their torch and both of their cigars were burning. The
bearer
spoke:
"'They must be
sure to return them in the morning- not finished, but
just as they look now. They must return them intact,' the lords
say to
you," they were told, and they were defeated. They finished
the
torch and they finished the cigars that had been brought to
them.
And Xibalba is packed
with tests, heaps and piles of tests.
This is the first one:
the Dark House, with darkness alone inside.
And the second is named
Rattling House, heavy with cold inside,
whistling with drafts, clattering with hail.*(190) A deep
chill
comes inside here.
And the third is named
Jaguar House, with jaguars alone inside,
jostling one another, crowding together, with gnashing
teeth.
They're scratching around; these jaguars are shut inside the
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't get out.
And the fifth is named
Razor House, with blades alone inside. The
blades are moving back and forth,*(191) ripping, slashing
through
the house.
These are the first
tests of Xibalba, but One and Seven Hunahpu
never entered into them, except for the one named earlier,
the
specified test house.
And when One and Seven
Hunahpu 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 off. Here you will hide
your
faces: 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 that stands by the
road,"*(192) said One and Seven Death.
And when his head was
put in the fork of the tree, the tree bore
fruit. It would not have had any fruit, had not the head of
One
Hunahpu been put in the fork of the tree.
This is the calabash
tree, as we call it today, or "the head of
One Hunahpu," as it is said.
And then One and Seven
Death were amazed at the fruit of the tree.
The fruit grows out everywhere, and it isn't clear where the
head of
One Hunahpu is; now 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 in
the
fork. The Xibalbans said among themselves:
"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's exactly
the same as the fruit of the tree. Calabash tree came to be
its
name, and much was said about it. A maiden heard about it, and
here we
shall tell of her arrival.
-
AND 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. Blood
Gatherer is the name of her father, and Blood Woman is the name
of the
maiden.
And when he heard the
account of the fruit of the tree, her father
retold it. And she was amazed at the account:
"I'm not
acquainted with that tree they talk about. '"Its fruit is
truly sweet!" they say,' I hear,"*(193) she said.
Next, she went all
alone and arrived where the tree stood. It
stood at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice:
"What? Well!
What's the fruit of this tree? Shouldn't this tree bear
something sweet? They shouldn't die, they shouldn't be
wasted.
Should I pick one?" said the maiden.
And then the bone
spoke; it was here in the fork of the tree:
"Why do you want a
mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a
tree?" said the head of One Hunahpu when it spoke to the
maiden.
"You don't want it," she was told.
"I do want
it," said the maiden.
"Very well.
Stretch out your right hand here,*(194) so I can see
it," said the bone.
"Yes," said
the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there
in front of the bone.
And then the bone spit
out its saliva, which landed squarely in
the hand of the maiden.
And then she looked in
her hand, she inspected it right away, but
the bone's saliva wasn't in her hand.
"It is just a sign
I have given you, my saliva, my spittle.*(195)
This, my head, has nothing on it- just bone, nothing of meat.
It's
just the same with the head of a great lord: it's just the
flesh
that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get
frightened
by his bones. After that, his son is like his saliva, his
spittle,
in his being, whether it be the son of a lord or the son of
a
craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on
being
fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a lord, a
warrior, craftsman, 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.*(196)
So be it," said the head of One and Seven Hunahpu- they
were of one
mind*(197) when they did it.
This was the word
Hurricane, Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt
had given them. In the same way, by the time the maiden returned
to
her home, she had been given many instructions. Right away
something
was generated in 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 is the name of her
father.
-
AND AFTER THE MAIDEN
WAS NOTICED BY HER FATHER, when he saw that 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's just a
bastard,"*(198) Blood Gatherer said when he joined the
lords.
"Very well. Get
her to open her mouth.*(199) If she doesn't tell,
then sacrifice her. Go far away and sacrifice her."
"Very well, your
lordships," he replied. After that, he questioned
his daughter:
"Who is
responsible for the child in your belly, my daughter?" he
said.
"There is no
child, my father, sir; there is no man whose face
I've known,"*(200) 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*(201) this
very
day," the owls were told, the four of them.
Then they left,
carrying the bowl. When they left they took the
maiden by the hand, bringing 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's 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:*(202) don't do your sacrifice, messengers," said the
maiden.
Then they talked:
"What are we going
to use in place of her heart? We were told by her
father:
'Bring back her heart.
The lords will take it in their hands, they
will satisfy themselves, they will make themselves familiar with
its
composition.*(203) Hurry, bring it back in a bowl, put her heart
in
the bowl.' Isn't that what we've been told? What shall we
deliver in
the bowl? What we want above all is that you should not
die," said the
messengers.
"Very well. My
heart must not be theirs, nor will your homes be
here.*(204) Nor will you simply force people to die, but
hereafter,
what will be truly yours will be the true bearers of bastards.
And
hereafter, as for One and Seven Death, only blood,*(205)
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: use the fruit of a tree,"*(206) 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,
it
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,*(207) glistening red now, round inside the bowl.
When
the tree was cut open by the maiden, the so-called cochineal
croton,
the sap is what she called blood, and so there is talk of
"nodules
of blood."*(208)
"So you have been blessed with the face
of the earth. It shall be
yours," she told the owls.
"Very well,
maiden. We'll show you the way up there. You just walk
on ahead; we have yet to deliver this apparent duplicate of your
heart
before the lords," said the messengers.
And when they came
before the lords, they were all watching closely:
"Hasn't it turned
out well?" said One Death.
"It has turned out
well, your lordships, and this is her heart. It's
in the bowl."
"Very well. So
I'll look," said One Death, and when he lifted it
up with his fingers,*(209) its surface was soaked with gore,
its
surface glistened red with 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.*(210) They 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 onto 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*(211)
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 wasn't
very long
before the birth of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, as they are
called.
And when the woman came
to the grandmother, the woman said to the
grandmother:
"I've come,
mother, madam.*(212) I'm your daughter-in-law and I'm
your child,*(213) mother, madam," she said when she came
here to the
grandmother.
"Where do you come
from? As for my lastborn children,*(214) 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've
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 a
way
for the light to show itself,*(215) 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: all they do is play and sing, all they work at is
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's just a
bastard in your belly, you trickster! These children of mine who
are
named by you are dead," said the grandmother.
"Truly, what I say
to you is so!"*(216)
"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 are already my daughter-in-law,*(217) as I
understand it," the maiden was told.
"Very well,"
she replied.
After that, she went to
the garden;*(218) 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,*(219)
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'm
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 thou,
rise up, come thou, stand up:*(220)
Generous Woman,
Harvest Woman,
Cacao Woman,
Cornmeal Woman,
thou 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
came back, but animals carried her net. When she
got back she went to put 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 going to see if you've brought back our whole garden!"
said 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;
they were born suddenly. Two of them were born, named Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque. They were born in the mountains, and then they came
into
the house. Since they weren't 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 die in the brambles. One Monkey and One
Artisan
wanted this because they were rowdyish and flushed with
jealousy.*(221) They didn't allow their younger brothers in
the
house at first, as if they didn't even know them, but even so
they
flourished in the mountains.
And One Monkey and One
Artisan were great flautists and singers, and
as they grew up they went through great suffering and pain. It
had
cost them suffering to become great knowers. Through it all
they
became flautists, singers, and writers, carvers. They did
everything
well. They simply knew it when they were born, they simply had
genius.
And they were the successors*(222) of their fathers who had gone
to
Xibalba, their dead fathers.
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 didn't reveal their insight because of their
jealousy.
The anger in their hearts came down on their own heads;*(223) no
great
harm was done. They were decoyed*(224) by Hunahpu and Xbalanque,
who
merely went out shooting every day. These two got no love from
the
grandmother, or from One Monkey and One Artisan. They weren't
given
their meals; the meals had been prepared and One Monkey and
One
Artisan had already eaten them before they got there.
But Hunahpu and
Xbalanque aren't turning red with anger; rather,
they 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.
And then Hunahpu and
Xbalanque arrived again, but now they came in
here without bringing their birds, so the grandmother turned
red:
"What's your
reason for not bringing birds?" Hunahpu and Xbalanque
were asked.
"There are some,
our dear grandmother, but our birds just got hung
up in a tree,"*(225) they said, "and there's no way to
get up the tree
after them, our dear grandmother, and so we'd like our
elder
brothers to please go with us, to please go get the birds
down,"
they said.
"Very well. We'll
go with you at dawn," the elder brothers replied.
Now they had won, and
they gathered their thoughts, the two of them,
about the fall of One Monkey and One Artisan:
"We'll just turn
their very being around*(226) with our words. So be
it, since they have caused us great suffering. They wished that
we
might die and disappear- we, their younger brothers. Just as
they
wished us to be slaves here,*(227) so we shall defeat them
there. 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 the 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 these birds fell down beneath the
tree:
"Those birds of
ours don't fall down; just go throw them down," they
told their elder brothers.
"Very well,"
they replied.
And then they climbed
up 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?*(228) 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'll be better able
to
move," they were told by their younger brothers.
"All right,"
they said.
And then they left the
ends of their loincloths trailing, and all at
once these became tails. Now they looked like mere 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 trees.
Such was the defeat of
One Monkey and One Artisan by Hunahpu and
Xbalanque. They did it by means of their genius alone.
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've become simply shameless,*(229) they're like animals
now," they
said.
"If you've done
something to your elder brothers, you've 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'll come, but this will be a test for
you,
our dear grandmother. Will you please not laugh*(230) while we
test
their destiny?" they said.
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 got 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 ugly faces the
grandmother saw. Then she laughed, the grandmother could not
hold back
her laughter, so they just left right away, out of her sight
again,
they went up and away in the forest.
"Why are you doing
that, our dear grandmother? We'll only try four
times; only three times are left. We'll call them with the
flute, with
song. Please hold back your laughter. We'll try again,"
said Hunahpu
and Xbalanque.
Next they played again,
then they came back, dancing again, they
arrived again, in the middle of the patio of the house.*(231)
As
before, what they did was delightful; as before, they tempted
their
grandmother to laugh. Their grandmother laughed at them soon
enough.
The monkeys looked truly ridiculous, with the skinny little
things
below their bellies*(232) and their tails wiggling in front of
their
breasts.*(233) When they came back the grandmother had to laugh
at
them, and they went back into the mountains.
"Please, why are
you doing that, our dear grandmother? Even so,
we'll try it 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,*(234) with faces
blank,*(235)
puckering their lips,*(236) wiping their mouths and
faces,*(237)
suddenly scratching themselves.*(238) And when the grandmother
saw
them again, the grandmother burst out laughing again, and again
they
went out of sight because of the grandmother's laughter.
"Even so, our dear
grandmother, we'll get their attention."
So for the fourth time
they called on the flute, but they didn't
come back again. The fourth time they went straight into the
forest.
So they told their grandmother:
"Well, we've
tried, our dear grandmother. They came at first, and
we've tried calling them again. So don't be sad. We're here-
we,
your grandchildren. Just love our mother, dear grandmother.
Our
elder brothers will be remembered. So be it: they have lived
here
and they have been named; they are to 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 just
magnified themselves, they abused their younger brothers. Just
as they
wished them to be slaves, so they themselves were brought low.
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 mother.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by the author.
SUDDENLY SCRATCHING
THEMSELVES: This spider monkey was painted on
a classic Maya funerary vase from northern Guatemala. Note
the
dangling genitals, or what the Popol Vuh calls "the skinny
little
things below their bellies." [The vase is in the collection
of Edwin
Pearlman.])
-
AND NOW THEY BEGAN TO
ACT OUT THEIR SELF-REVELATION before their
grandmother and mother. First they made a garden:
"We'll just do
some gardening, our dear grandmother and mother,"
they said. "Don't worry. We're here, we're your
grandchildren, we're
the successors of our elder brothers," said Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
And then they took up
their axe, their mattock, their hoe;*(239)
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 simply cultivated the
ground.
And it wasn't 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
way,
it cut into the tree by itself, felling, scattering, felling all
the
trees and bushes, now leveling, mowing down the
trees.*(240)
Just the one axe did
it, and the mattock, breaking up thick
masses, countless stalks and brambles.*(241) Just one mattock
was
doing it, breaking up countless things, just clearing off
whole
mountains, small and great.
And then they gave
instructions to that creature named the
mourning dove. They sat up 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'll grab the mattock and
axe."
"Very well,"
said the mourning dove.
This is because all
they're doing is shooting; they're not really
doing any gardening.
And as soon as the dove
cries out they come running, one of them
grabbing the mattock and the other grabbing the hoe, and they're
tying
up their hair.
One of them
deliberately rubs dirt on his hands; he dirties his face
as well, so he's just like a real gardener.
And as for the other
one, he deliberately dumps wood chips on his
head,*(242) so he's like a real woodcutter.
Once their grandmother
has seen them they eat, but they aren't
really doing their gardening; she brings their food for nothing.
And
when they get home:
"We're really
ready for bed, our dear grandmother," they say when
they arrive. Deliberately they massage, they stretch their legs,
their
arms*(243) in front of their grandmother.
And 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 when they
arrived.
"Who's been
picking us clean?" they said.
And these are the ones
who are doing it, all the animals, small
and great: puma, jaguar, deer, rabbit, fox, coyote,*(244)
peccary,
coati, small birds, great birds. They are the ones who did it;
they
did it in just one night.
After that, they
started the garden all over again. Just as
before, the ground worked itself, along with the
woodcutting.
And then they shared
their thoughts, there on the cleared and broken
ground:
"We'll simply have
to keep watch over our garden. Then, whatever may
be happening here, we'll find out about it," they said when
they
shared their thoughts. And when they arrived at the house:
"How could we get
picked clean, our dear grandmother? Our garden was
tall thickets and groves all over again when we got there
awhile
ago, our dear grandmother," they said to their grandmother
and mother.
"So we'll go keep watch, because what's happening to us is
no good,"
they said.
After that, they wound
everything up, and then they went back to the
clearing.
And there they took
cover, and when they were well hidden there, all
the animals gathered together, each one sat on its haunches, all
the
animals, small and great.
And this was the middle
of the night when they came. They all
spoke when they came. This is what they said:
-
"Arise, conjoin, you trees!
Arise,
conjoin, you bushes!"*(245)
-
they said. Then they made a great stir beneath the trees and
bushes,
then they came nearer, and then they showed their faces.
The first of these were
the puma and jaguar. The boys tried to
grab them, but they did not give themselves up. When the deer and
rabbit came near they only got them by the tail, which just
broke off:
the deer left its tail in their hands. When they grabbed the
tail of
the deer, along with the tail of the rabbit, the tails were
shortened.
But the fox, coyote, and peccary, coati did not give themselves
up.
All the animals went by in front of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
-
SO NOW THERE WAS FIRE
IN THEIR HEARTS, because they didn't catch
them. And one more came, the last one now, jumping as he came,
then
they cut him off. In their net they caught the rat.
And then they grabbed
him and squeezed him behind the head. They
tried to choke him; they burned his tail over a fire. Ever since
the
rat's tail got caught, there's been no hair on his tail, and
his
eyes have been the way they are since the boys tried to choke
him,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
"I will not die by
your hand! Gardening is not your job, but there
is something that is," said the rat.
"Where is what is
ours? Go ahead and name it," the boys told the
rat.
"Will you let me
go then? My word is in my belly,*(246) and after
I name it for you, you'll give me my morsel of food," said
the rat.
"We'll give you
your food, so name it," he was told.
"Very well. It's
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:*(247) their kilts, their arm guards, their rubber ball.
But
your grandmother doesn't take these down in front of you,
because this
is how your fathers died."
"You know the
truth, don't you!" the boys told the rat.
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 his food, and
this
is his food: corn kernels, squash seeds, chili, beans, pataxte,
cacao.
These are his.
"If anything of
yours is stored or gets wasted, then gnaw away," the
rat was told by Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
"Very well, boys.
But what will your grandmother say if she sees
me?"*(248) he said.
"Don't be
fainthearted. We're here. We know what our grandmother
needs to be told. We'll set you up under the corner of the
roof
right away. When that's taken care of you'll go straight to
where
the things were left, and we'll look up there under the roof,
but it's
our stew we'll be looking at," they told the rat when they
gave him
his instructions.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque
made their plans overnight and arrived right
at noon, and it wasn't 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 then they asked their grandmother for their
meal:
"Just grind
something for our stew, we want chili sauce, our dear
grandmother," they said.
After that, she ground
chili for their stew. A bowl of broth was set
out in front of them, but they were just fooling*(249)
their
grandmother and mother. They had emptied the water jar:
"We're really
parched! Bring us a drink," they told their
grandmother.
"Yes," she
said, then she went, and they kept on eating. They
weren't really hungry; they just put on false appearances.
And then they saw the
rat reflected in their chili sauce: here was
the rat loosening the ball*(250) that had been left in the peak
of the
roof. When they saw him in the chili sauce they sent a
mosquito,
that creature the mosquito, similar to a gnat. He went to the
water,
then he punctured the side of the grandmother's jar. The water
just
gushed out from the side of her jar. She tried, but she could
not stop
up the side of her jar.
"What has our
grandmother done? We're choking for lack of water, our
parched throats will do us in," they told their mother,
then they sent
her there.
After that, the rat cut
the ball loose. It dropped from beneath
the roof, along with the yokes, arm guards, kilts. These were
taken
away*(251) then; they went to hide them on the road, the road to
the
ball court.
After that, they went
to join their grandmother at the water, and
their grandmother and mother were unable to stop up the side of
the
jar, either one of them.
After that, the boys
arrived, each with his blowgun. When they
arrived at the water:
"What have you
done? We got weary at heart, so we came," they said.
"Look at the side
of my jar! It cannot be stopped," said their
grandmother, and they quickly stopped it up.
And they came back
together, the two of them ahead of their
grandmother.
In this way, the matter
of the rubber ball was arranged.
-
HAPPY NOW, THEY WENT TO
PLAY BALL AT THE COURT. So they played
ball at a distance, all by themselves. They swept out the court
of
their fathers.
And then it came into
the hearing of the lords of Xibalba:
"Who's begun a
game again up there, over our heads? Don't they
have any shame, stomping around this way? Didn't One and Seven
Hunahpu
die trying to magnify themselves in front of us? So, you
must
deliver another summons," they said as before, One and
Seven Death,
all the lords.
"They are hereby
summoned," they told their messengers. "You are
to say, on reaching them:
'"They must
come," say the lords. "We would play ball with them
here. In seven days we'll have a game," say the lords,' you
will say
when you arrive," the messengers were told.
And then they came
along a wide roadway, the road to the house of
the boys, which actually ended at their house, so that the
messengers came directly to their grandmother. As for the boys,
they
were away playing ball when the messengers of Xibalba got
there.
"'Truly, they are
to come,' say the lords," said the messengers of
Xibalba. So then and there the day was specified by the
messengers
of Xibalba:
"'In seven days
our game will take place,'" Xmucane was told there.
"Very well.
They'll go when the day comes, messengers," said the
grandmother, and the messengers left. They went back.
So now the grandmother's
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,*(252) and then she picked
it up and put it in her hand, and the louse moved around with
fits and
starts.
"My grandchild,
perhaps you might like to take my message, to go
where my grandchildren are, at the ball court," the louse
was told,
then he went as a message bearer:
"'A messenger has
come to your grandmother,' you will say. '"You are
to come:
'In seven days they are
to come,' say the messengers of Xibalba,"
says your grandmother,' you will say," the louse was
told.
Then he went off, and
he went in fits and starts, and sitting in the
road was a boy named Tamazul, the toad.
"Where are you
going?" said the toad to the louse.
"My word is
contained*(253) in my belly. I'm going to the two boys,"
said the louse to Tamazul.
"Very well. But I
notice you're not very fast," the louse was told
by the toad. "Wouldn't you like me to swallow you? You'll
see, I'll
run bent over*(254) this way, we'll arrive in a
hurry."
"Very well,"
said the louse to the toad.
After that, when he had
been united with the toad,*(255) the toad
hopped. He went along now, but he didn't run.
After that, the toad
met a big snake named Zaquicaz:
"Where are you
going, Tamazul boy?" the toad was asked next by
Zaquicaz.
"I'm a messenger.
My word is in my belly," the toad next said to the
snake.
"But I notice
you're not fast. Listen to me, I'll get there in a
hurry," said the snake to the toad.
"Get going,"
he was told, so then the toad was next swallowed by
Zaquicaz. When snakes get their food today they swallow
toads.
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 he alighted on the rim of the ball
court.*(256) Hunahpu and Xbalanque were happy then, they
were
playing ball when the falcon arrived.
So then the falcon
cried out:
-
"Wak-ko! Wak-ko!"*(257)
-
said the falcon as he cried.
"Who's crying out
there? Come on! Our blowguns!" they said. And they
shot the falcon, landing their blowgun shot*(258) right in his
eye.
Wobbling, he fell down and they went right there to grab him,
then
they asked him:
"What are you
after?" they said to the falcon.
"My word is
contained in my belly.*(259) But heal my eye first, then
I'll name it," said the falcon.
"Very well,"
they said.
Next 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 falcon
became
good again.
"So name it,"
they said to the falcon, and then he vomited a big
snake.
"Speak up,"
they said next to the snake.
"Yes," he
said next, then he vomited the toad.
"What's your
errand? Tell it," the toad was told next.
"My word is
contained in my belly," the toad said next, and then
he tried to throw up, but there was no vomit, he just sort
of
drooled.*(260) 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*(261) in the
rear, and they crushed the bones*(262) of his rear end with
their
feet. When he tried again, he just sort of spit.
And then they pried the
toad's mouth open, it was opened by the
boys. They searched his mouth, and the louse had simply stuck in
the
toad's teeth, it was right there in his mouth.*(263) He
hadn't
swallowed it, but had only seemed to swallow.
And such was the defeat
of the toad. It's not clear what kind of
food they gave him, and because he didn't run he became mere
meat
for snakes.
"Tell it,"
the louse was told next, so then he named his word:
"Boys, your
grandmother says:
'Summon them. A message
came for them:
"From Xibalba comes the messenger of One
and Seven Death:
'"In seven days
they are to come here. We'll play ball. Their gaming
equipment must come along: rubber ball, yokes, arm guards,
kilts. This
will make for some excitement here," say the lords,' is the
word
that came from them,"' says your grandmother. So your
grandmother says
you must come. Truly your grandmother cries, she calls out to
you to
come."
"Isn't it the
truth!" the boys said in their thoughts. When they
heard it 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're just giving you
instructions. So here is the sign of our word. We'll leave it
with
you. Each of us will plant an ear of corn.*(264) We'll plant
them in
the center of our house. When the corn dries up,*(265) this will
be
a sign of our death:
'Perhaps they died,'
you'll say, when it dries up. And when the
sprouting comes:*(266)
'Perhaps they live,'
you'll 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.
Hunahpu planted one and
Xbalanque planted another.*(267) They were
planted right there in the house: neither in the mountains nor
where
the earth is damp,*(268) but where the earth is dry, in the
middle
of the inside of their house.*(269) They left them planted
there, then
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 then
they crossed Pus River and Blood River, intended as traps
by
Xibalba. They did not step in, but simply crossed over on
their
blowguns, and then they went on over to the Crossroads. But
they
knew about the roads of Xibalba:*(270) Black Road, White Road,
Red
Road, Green Road.
And there they summoned
that creature named the mosquito. Having
heard that he's a spy, they sent 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 in the roads," the mosquito was told.
"Very well,"
replied the mosquito, then he took 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
didn't
speak, so he bit again. When he bit the one seated second, again
it
didn't speak, and then he bit the third one, the one seated
third
actually being One Death.
"Yeow!" each
one said as he was bitten.
"What?" each
one replied.
"Ouch!" said
One Death.
"What is it, One
Death?"
"Something's
bitten me."
"It's- ouch!
There's something that's bitten me," the one seated
fourth said next.
"What is it, Seven
Death?"
"Something's bitten
me." The one seated fifth spoke next:
"Ow! Ow!" he
said.
"What, House
Corner?" Seven Death said to him.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. The one seated sixth was
bitten:
"Ouch!"
"What is it, Blood
Gatherer?" House Corner said to him.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated seventh
was bitten:
"Ouch!" he
said next.
"What is it, Pus
Master?" Blood Gatherer said to him.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. The one seated eighth was
bitten next:
"Ouch!" he
said next.
"What is it,
Jaundice Master?" Pus Master said to him next.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated ninth was
bitten next:
"Ouch!" he
said.
"What is it, Bone
Scepter?" Jaundice Master said to him.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated tenth
in order was bitten next:
"Ouch!"
"What is it, Skull
Scepter?" said Bone Scepter.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated
eleventh was bitten next:
"Ouch!" he
said next.
"What is it,
Wing?"*(271) Skull Scepter said to him next.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated twelfth
was bitten next:
"Ouch!" he
said next.
"What, Packstrap?"
he was asked next.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated
thirteenth was bitten next:
"Ouch!"
"What is it,
Bloody Teeth?" Packstrap said to him.
"Something's
bitten me," he said next. Then the one seated
fourteenth was bitten next:
"Ouch! Something's
bitten me," he said next.
"Bloody
Claws?" Bloody Teeth said to him next.
And such was the naming
of their names, they named them all among
themselves. They showed their faces and named their names, each
one
named by the one ranking above him, and naming in turn the name
of the
one seated next to him.*(272) There wasn't a single name
they
missed, naming every last one of their names when they were
bitten
by the hair that Hunahpu had plucked from his own shin. It
wasn't
really a mosquito that bit them. It went to hear all their names
for
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
After that Hunahpu and
Xbalanque went on, and then they came to
where the Xibalbans were:
"Bid the lords
good day," said someone who was seated there. It
was a deceiver who spoke.
"These aren't
lords! These are manikins, woodcarvings!"*(273) they
said as they came up.
And after that, they
bid them good morning:
-
"Morning,
One Death. Morning, Seven Death.
Morning, House
Corner. Morning, Blood Gatherer.
Morning, Pus
Master. Morning, Jaundice Master.
Morning, Bone
Scepter. Morning, Skull Scepter.
Morning,
Wing. Morning, Packstrap.
Morning, Bloody Teeth. Morning, Bloody
Claws,"
-
they said when they arrived, and all of their identities
were
accounted for. They named every one of their names; there wasn't
a
single name they missed. When this was required of them, no name
was
omitted by them.
"Sit here,"
they were told. They were wanted on the bench, but
they didn't want it:
"This bench isn't
for us! It's just a stone slab for cooking,"
said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They were not defeated.
"Very well. Just
get in the house," they were told.
And after that, they
entered Dark House. They were not defeated
there. This was the first test they entered in Xibalba, and as
far
as the Xibalbans were concerned they were as good as
defeated.
-
FIRST THEY ENTERED DARK
HOUSE.
And after that, the
messenger of One Death brought their torch,
burning when it arrived, along with one cigar apiece.
"'Here is their
torch,' says the lord. 'They must return the torch
in the morning, along with the cigars. They must return
them
intact,' say the lords," the messenger said when he
arrived.
"Very well,"
they said, but they didn't burn the torch- instead,
something that looked like fire was substituted. This was the
tail
of the macaw, which looked like a torch to the sentries. And as
for
the cigars, they just put fireflies at the tips of those cigars,
which
they kept lit all night.
"We've defeated
them," said the sentries, but the torch was not
consumed- it just looked that way. And as for the cigars, there
wasn't
anything burning there- it just looked that way. When these
things
were taken back to the lords:
"What's happening?
Where did they come from? Who begot them and bore
them? Our hearts are really hurting, because what they're doing
to
us is no good. They're different in looks and different in
their
very being," they said among themselves. And when they had
summoned
all the lords:
"Let's play ball,
boys," the boys were told. And then they were
asked by One and Seven Death:
"Where might you
have come from? Please name it," Xibalba said to
them.
"Well, wherever
did we come from? We don't know," was all they said.
They didn't name it.
"Very well then,
we'll just go play ball, boys," Xibalba told them.
"Good," they
said.
"Well, this is the
one we should put in play, here's our rubber
ball," said the Xibalbans.*(274)
"No thanks. This
is the one to put in, here's ours," said the boys.
"No it's not. This
is the one we should put in," the Xibalbans
said again.
"Very well,"
said the boys.
"After all, it's
just a decorated one,"*(275) said the Xibalbans.
"Oh no it's not,
it's just a skull!*(276) We've said
enough,"*(277) said the boys.
"No it's
not," said the Xibalbans.
"Very well,"
said Hunahpu. When it was sent off by Xibalba, the ball
was stopped by Hunahpu's yoke.
And then, while Xibalba
watched, the White Dagger came out from
inside the ball. It went clattering, twisting all over the floor
of
the court.
"What's
that!" said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. "Death is the only
thing you want for us! Wasn't it you who sent a summons to
us,*(278)
and wasn't it your messenger who went? Truly, take pity on us,
or else
we'll just leave," the boys told them.
And this is what had
been ordained for the boys: that they should
have died right away, right there, defeated by that knife. But
it
wasn't like that. Instead, Xibalba was again defeated by the
boys.
"Well, don't go,
boys. We can still play ball, but we'll put yours
into play," the boys were told.
"Very well,"
they said, and this was the time for their rubber ball,
so the ball was dropped in.
And after that, they
specified the prize:
"What should our
prize be?" asked the Xibalbans.
"It's yours for
the asking," was all the boys said.
"We'll just win
four bowls of flowers," said the Xibalbans.
"Very well. What
kinds of flowers?" the boys asked Xibalba.
"One bowl of red
petals,*(279) one bowl of white petals, one bowl of
yellow petals, and one bowl of whole ones," said the
Xibalbans.
"Very well,"
said the boys, and then their ball was dropped in.
The boys were their equals in 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've done well.
We've beaten them on the first try," said the
Xibalbans. "Where will they go to get the flowers?"
they said in their
hearts.
"Truly, before the
night is over, you must hand over our flowers and
our prize," the boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, were told by
Xibalba.
"Very well. So
we're also playing ball at night," they said when
they accepted their charge.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing from Alfred M. Tozzer, Chichen
Itza and
Its Cenote of Sacrifice: photo by Hillel Burger (C) 1984 by
the
President and Fellows of Harvard College.
"IT'S JUST A
SKULL": In this section from the relief panels in the
ball court at Chichen Itza, the ball (at center) bears a
skull
motif. Like One and Seven Hunahpu and their sons in the Popol
Vuh, the
players in this scene wear kilts, yokes (the belts with
objects
protruding upward from them at an angle), arm guards, panaches,
and
headbands. From the mouths of the two players at left and the
one at
extreme right comes speech (resembling curling smoke), probably
in the
form of taunts like those the lords of Xibalba hurl at Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque in a later Popol Vuh episode. The kneeling player to
the
right of the ball has been decapitated; from his neck
emerge
serpents and a vine with flowers and fruits. This may be a
squash
vine, corresponding to the squash that was substituted for
Hunahpu's
head when he lost his own to a snatch-bat.)
-
AND AFTER THAT, THE
BOYS NEXT ENTERED RAZOR HOUSE, the second test
of Xibalba.
And this is when it was
ordained that they be cut clear through with
knives. It was intended to be quick, intended that they should
die,
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.
And this is how they
stayed there overnight, in Razor House. Now
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 replied. Then all 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:
"Would you please
watch our flowers? Don't let them get stolen.
We've defeated these boys, so won't they come looking for the
prize
they owe us? Don't sleep tonight."
"Very well,"
they replied, but the guardians of the plants never
knew a thing. Their only inclination was to stretch their
mouths
wide open, going from one perch to another in the trees and
plants,
repeating the same song:
-
"Whip-poor-will!
Whip-poor-will!"
-
one of them says as he cries.
-
"Poor-willow! Poor-willow!"*(280)
-
says the other as he cries, the one named poorwill.
The two of them are the
guards of the garden, the garden of One
and Seven Death, but they don't notice the ants stealing
what's
under their guard, swarming, carrying away loads of flowers,
coming to
cut down the flowers in the trees, gathering these together with
the
flowers beneath the trees, while the guards just stretch
their
mouths wide open, not noticing the nibbling at their own tails,
the
nibbling at their own wings.*(281) The severed flowers rain
down
into the gathering and bunching here below, so that four bowls
of
flowers are easily filled, an acrobatic performance*(282) that
lasts
till dawn.
After that the
messengers, the pages, arrive:
"'They are to
come,' says the lord. 'They must bring our prizes here
right away,'" the boys were told.
"Very well,"
they said. Having loaded up the flowers, four bowls
of them, they left and came before the lord, or lords, who
received
the flowers with pained looks.
With this, the Xibalbans
were defeated. The boys had sent mere ants;
in just one night the ants had taken the flowers and put them in
the
bowls.
With this, all the
Xibalbans looked sick, they paled*(283) at the
sight of the flowers.
After that, they
summoned the flower guards:
"How did you allow
our flowers to get stolen? These are our flowers!
Here! Look!" the guards were told.
"We took no
notice, your lordship, though our tails are the worse
for it," they said.
And then their mouths
were split wide,*(284) their payment for the
theft of what was under their guard.
Such was the defeat of
One and Seven Death by Hunahpu and Xbalanque,
on account of which the whippoorwills got gaping mouths.
Their
mouths gape to this day.
Now after that, when
the ball was dropped in, they just played to
a tie. When they finished the game they made an arrangement
with
each other:
"At dawn
again," said Xibalba.
"Very well,"
said the boys, then they were finished.
-
AND NOW THEY ENTERED
COLD HOUSE. There are countless drafts,
thick-falling hail*(285) 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, but
were alive when it dawned. They came out when the pages arrived
and
the guards left.
"Why haven't they
died?" said the rulers of Xibalba. Again they were
amazed at the feats of the boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
-
SO NEXT THEY ENTERED
JAGUAR HOUSE, the jaguar-packed home of
jaguars:
"Don't eat us.
There is something that should be yours," the jaguars
were told.
With that, they
scattered bones before the animals.
After that, the jaguars
were wrestling around there, over the bones.
"So they've made
good work of them, they've eaten their very hearts.
Now that the boys have given themselves up, they've already
been
transformed into skeletons," said the sentries, all of them
finding it
sweet. But they hadn't died; they were well. They 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*(286)
with only fire alone inside. They weren't burned by it,
just
toasted, just simmered, so they were well when it dawned.
Although
it had been ordained that they be quickly killed in there,
overcome,
they weren't, and instead it was the Xibalbans who lost heart
over
this.
-
NOW THEY WERE PUT
INSIDE BAT HOUSE, with bats alone inside the
house, a house of snatch-bats, monstrous beasts, their snouts
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 blowgun; they were
not bitten by the members of the household. But this is where
they
gave one of themselves up because of a snatch-bat that came
down, he
came along just as one of them showed himself. They did it
because
it was actually what they were asking for, what they had in
mind.
And all night the bats
are making noise:
-
"Squeak! Squeak!"
-
they say, and they say it all night.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by the author.
SNATCH-BATS, MONSTROUS
BEASTS: The bats of Xibalba were frequently
painted on classic Maya funerary vases of the Chama style,
from
sites in the same region as the Great Abyss where Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque descended into the underworld. The designs on the
present
bat's wings represent plucked-out eyes, and he wears two eyes on
his
collar; the scroll-like forms issuing from his mouth, with
ragged
upper edges, may represent his shrieks. [The vase is in the
collection
of Edwin Pearlman.])
-
Then it let up a
little. The bats were no longer moving around. So
there, one of the boys crawled to the end of the blowgun,
since
Xbalanque said:
"Hunahpu? Can you
see how long it is till dawn?"*(287)
"Well, perhaps I
should look to see how long it is," he replied.
So he kept trying to look out the muzzle of the blowgun, he
tried to
see the dawn.
And then his head was
taken off by a snatch-bat, leaving Hunahpu's
body still stuffed inside.
"What's going
on?*(288) Hasn't it dawned?" said Xbalanque. No longer
is there any movement from Hunahpu. "What's this? Hunahpu
hasn't left,
has he? What have you done?" He no longer moves; now there
is only
heavy breathing.
After that, Xbalanque
despaired:*(289)
"Alas!*(290) We've
given it all up!" he said. And elsewhere, the
head meanwhile went rolling onto the court, in accordance with
the
word of One and Seven Death, and all the Xibalbans were happy
over the
head of Hunahpu.
After that, 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:
"Whatever your
foods are, each one of you: that's what I summoned
you for, to bring your food here," Xbalanque told
them.
"Very well,"
they replied, then they went to get what's theirs, then
indeed they all came back.
There's the one who
only brought his rotten wood.
There's the one who
only brought leaves.
There's the one who
only brought stones.
There's the one who
only brought earth, on through the varied
foods of the animals, small and great, until the very last
one
remained: the coati. He brought a squash,*(291) bumping it
along
with his snout as he came.
And this became a
simulated head for Hunahpu. His eyes were carved
right away, then brains came from the thinker, from the
sky.*(292)
This was the Heart of Sky, Hurricane, who came down, came on
down into
Bat House. The face wasn't finished any too quickly; it came out
well.
His strength was just the same,*(293) he looked handsome, he
spoke
just the same.
And this is when it was
trying to dawn, reddening along the horizon:
"Now make the
streaks, man," the possum was told.
"Yes," said
the old man. When he made the streaks he made it dark
again; the old man made four streaks.
-
(See illustration:
Drawings by Carlos A. Villacorta.
THE OLD MAN MADE FOUR
STREAKS: In these drawings from the Dresden
Codex, the possum deity is shown bringing in each of the four
types of
solar years. The repeated glyphs in the column to the left of
each
figure give the names of the four year-beginning day names;
in
Quiche the names are E or "Tooth" (upper left), Naoh
or "Thought"
(upper right), I3 or "Wind" (lower left), and Queh or
"Deer." Each
figure bears the patron deity of a given type of year on his
back.)
-
"Possum is making
streaks,"*(294) people say today, ever since he
made the early dawn red and blue, establishing its very
being.
"Isn't it
good?" Hunahpu was asked.
"Good
indeed," he replied. His head was as if it had every bone;
it had become like his real head.
After that, they had a
talk, they made arrangements with each other:
"How about not
playing ball yourself? You should just make lots of
threats,*(295) while I should be the one to take all the
action,"
Xbalanque told him. After that, he gave instructions to a
rabbit:
"Your place is
there above the court, on top. Stay there in the
oaks,"*(296) the rabbit was told by Xbalanque, "until
the ball comes
to you, then take off while I get to work," the rabbit was
told. He
got his instructions while it was still dark.
After that, when it
dawned, both of them were just as well as ever.
And when the ball was
dropped in again, it was the head of Hunahpu
that rolled over the court:
-
"We've won! You're done!
Give
up! You lost!"
-
they were told. But even so Hunahpu was shouting:
"Punt the head as
a ball!" he told them.
"Well, we're not
going to do them any more harm with threats," and
with this the lords of Xibalba sent off the ball and
Xbalanque
received it, the ball was stopped by his yoke, then he hit it
hard and
it took off, the ball passed straight out of the court,
bouncing
just once, just twice, and stopping among the oaks. Then the
rabbit
took off hopping, then they went off in pursuit, then all
the
Xibalbans went off, shouting, shrieking, they went after the
rabbit,
off went the whole of Xibalba.
After that, the boys
got Hunahpu's head back. Then Xbalanque planted
the squash; this is when he went to set the squash above the
court.
So the head of Hunahpu
was really a head again, and the two of
them were happy again. And the others, those Xibalbans, were
still
going on in search of the ball.
After that, having
recovered the ball from among the oaks,*(297) the
boys cried out to them:
"Come back! Here's
the ball! We've found it!" they said, so they
stopped. When the Xibalbans got back:
"Have we been
seeing things?" they said. Then they began their
ball game again, and they made equal plays on both sides
again.
After that, the squash
was punted by Xbalanque. The squash was
wearing out;*(298) it fell on the court, bringing to light
its
light-colored seeds, as plain as day*(299) right in front of
them.
"How did you get
ahold of that? Where did it come from?" said
Xibalba.
With this, the masters
of Xibalba were defeated by Hunahpu and
Xbalanque. There was great danger there, but they did not die
from all
the things that were done to them.
-
AND HERE IT IS: THE
EPITAPH, THE DEATH OF HUNAHPU AND XBALANQUE.
Here it is: now we
shall name their epitaph, their death. They did
whatever they were instructed to do, going through all the
dangers,
the troubles that were made for them, but they did not die from
the
tests of Xibalba, nor were they defeated by all the
voracious
animals that inhabit Xibalba.
After that, they
summoned two midmost seers, similar to readers.
Here are their names: Xulu, Pacam, both knowers.
"Perhaps there
will be questions from the lords of Xibalba about our
death. They are thinking about how to overcome us because we
haven't
died, nor have we been defeated. We've exhausted all their tests.
Not even the animals got us. So this is the sign, here in
our
hearts: their instrument for our death will be a stone oven. All
the
Xibalbans have gathered together. Isn't our death inevitable?
So
this is your plan, here we shall name it: if you come to be
questioned
by them about our death, once we've been burned, what will you
say,
Xulu and Pacam? If they ask you:
'Wouldn't it be good if
we dumped their bones in the canyon?'*(300)
'Perhaps it wouldn't be
good, since they would only come back to
life again,' you will say.
'Perhaps this would be
good: we'll just hang them up in a tree,'
they'll say to you next.
'Certainly that's no
good, since you would see their faces,'*(301)
you will say, and then they'll speak to you for the third
time:
'Well, here's the only
good thing: we'll just dump their bones in
the river.' If that's what they ask you next:
'This is a good death
for them, and it would also be good to grind
their bones on a stone, just as corn is refined into flour, and
refine
each of them separately, and then:
-
Spill them
into the river,
sprinkle
them*(302) on the water's way,
among the
mountains, small and great,'
-
you will say, and then you will have carried out the
instructions
we've named for you," said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. When they
gave these
instructions they already knew they would die.
-
THIS IS THE MAKING OF
THE OVEN, the great stone oven. The
Xibalbans made it like the places where the sweet drink is
cooked,
they opened it to a great width.
After that, messengers
came to get the boys, the messengers of One
and Seven Death:
"'They must come.
We'll go with the boys, to see the treat we've
cooked up for them,' say the lords, you boys," they were
told.
"Very well,"
they replied. They went running and arrived at the
mouth of the oven.
And there they tried to
force them into a game:
"Here, let's jump
over our drink four times, clear across, one of us
after the other, boys," they were told by One Death.
"You'll never put
that one over on us.*(303) Don't we know what
our death is, you lords? Watch!" they said, then they faced
each
other. They grabbed each other by the arms and went head first
into
the oven.*(304)
And there they died,
together, and now all the Xibalbans were happy,
raising their shouts, raising their cheers:*(305)
"We've really
beaten them! They didn't give up easily," they said.
After that they
summoned Xulu and Pacam, who kept their word: the
bones went just where the boys had wanted them. Once the
Xibalbans had
done the divination, the bones were ground and spilled in the
river,
but they didn't go far- they just sank to the bottom of the
water.
They became handsome boys; they looked just the same as before
when
they reappeared.
-
AND ON THE FIFTH DAY THEY REAPPEARED. They
were seen in the water by
the people. The two of them looked like channel catfish*(306)
when
their faces were seen by Xibalba. And having germinated in the
waters,
they appeared the day after that as two vagabonds,*(307) with
rags
before and rags behind, and rags all over too. They seemed
unrefined*(308) when they were examined by Xibalba; they
acted
differently now.
It was only the Dance
of the Poorwill, the Dance of the Weasel, only
Armadillos they danced.
Only Swallowing Swords,
only Walking on Stilts now they danced.
They performed many
miracles now. They would set fire to a house, as
if they were really burning it, and suddenly bring it back
again.
Now Xibalba was full of admiration.*(309)
Next they would sacrifice
themselves, one of them dying for the
other,*(310) 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. Everything they did
now was
already the groundwork for their defeat of Xibalba.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by the author.
ONLY ARMADILLOS THEY
DANCED: This dancer, who wears an armadillo
mask, plays a flute, and shakes a rattle, was painted on a
classic
Maya funerary vase of the Chama style, which pertains to sites
in
the same general region as the Great Abyss where Hunahpu and
Xbalanque
descended into the underworld. The cross-hatching represents
the
scales of an armadillo.)
-
And after that, news of
their dances came to the ears of the
lords, One and Seven Death. When they heard it they said:
"Who are these two
vagabonds? Are they really such a delight? And is
their dancing really that pretty? They do everything!" they
said. An
account of them had reached the lords. It sounded delightful,
so
then they entreated their messengers to notify them that they
must
come:
"'"If only
they'd come make a show for us, we'd wonder at them and
marvel at them," say the lords,' you will say," the
messengers were
told. So they came to the dancers, then spoke the words of the
lords
to them.
"But we don't want
to, because we're really ashamed. Just plain
no. Wouldn't we be afraid to go inside there, into a lordly
house?
Because we'd really look bad. Wouldn't we just be wide-eyed?
Take pity
on us! Wouldn't we look like mere dancers to them? What would we
say
to our fellow vagabonds? There are others who also want us to
dance
today, to liven things up with us, so we can't do likewise for
the
lords, and likewise is not what we want, messengers," said
Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
Even so, they were
prevailed upon: through troubles, through
torments, they went on their tortuous way. They didn't want to
walk
fast. Many times they had to be forced; the messengers went
ahead of
them as guides but had to keep coming back.*(311) And so they
went
to the lord.
-
AND THEY CAME TO THE
LORDS. Feigning great humility,*(312) they
bowed their heads all the way to the ground*(313) when they
arrived.
They brought themselves low, doubled over, flattened out, down
to
the rags, to the tatters.*(314) They really looked like
vagabonds when
they arrived.
So then they were asked
what their mountain*(315) and tribe were,
and they were also asked about their mother and father:
"Where do you come
from?" they were asked.
"We've never
known, lord. We don't know the identity of our mother
and father. We must've been small when they died," was all
they
said. They didn't give any names.
"Very well. Please
entertain us, then. What do you want us to give
you in payment?" they were asked.
"Well, we don't
want anything. To tell the truth, we're afraid,"
they told the lord.
"Don't be afraid.
Don't be ashamed. Just dance this way: first
you'll dance to sacrifice yourselves, you'll set fire to my
house
after that, you'll act out 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'll give you payment," they were
told.
So then they began
their songs and dances, and then all the
Xibalbans arrived, the spectators crowded the floor, and they
danced
everything: they danced the Weasel, they danced the Poorwill,
they
danced the Armadillo. Then the lord said to them:
"Sacrifice my dog,
then bring him back to life again," they were
told.
"Yes," they
said.
-
When
they sacrificed 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.
-
And the lord said to
them:
"Well, you have
yet to set my home on fire," they were told next, 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
back 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.
And then they were
asked by the lord:
"You have yet to
kill a person! Make a sacrifice without death!"
they were told.
"Very well,"
they said.
And then they took hold
of a human sacrifice.
And they held up a
human heart on high.
And they showed its
roundness*(316) to the lords.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing reproduced by permission of
Michael D.
Coe and the Grolier Club.
AND THEN THEY TOOK HOLD
OF A HUMAN SACRIFICE: In this classic Maya
funerary vase painting from northern Guatemala, the head lord
of
Xibalba, One Death, is seated on his throne at right; perched on
his
hat is one of the messengers of Xibalba, Macaw Owl, who is like
an owl
except in having the tail of a macaw. In front of One Death
are
Hunahpu (left) and Xbalanque (right), acting out the roles
of
sacrificial priests; Xbalanque's identity is marked by the
jaguar
paw on the nose of his mask. The women around the platform are
all
of noble rank; the one at extreme left is tapping the foot of
the
one who faces One Death, calling her attention to the
sacrificial
performance. [The vase is in the Princeton University Art
Museum.])
-
And now One and Seven
Death admired it, and now that person was
brought right back to life. His heart was overjoyed when he
came
back to life, and the lords were amazed:
"Sacrifice yet
again, even do it to yourselves! Let's see it! At
heart, that's the dance we really want from you," the lords
said now.
"Very well,
lord," they replied, and then they sacrificed
themselves.
-
AND THIS IS THE
SACRIFICE OF HUNAHPU BY XBALANQUE. One by one his
legs, his arms were spread wide.*(317) His head came off, rolled
far
away outside. His heart, dug out, was smothered in a leaf,*(318)
and
all the Xibalbans went crazy at the sight.
So now, only one of
them was dancing there: Xbalanque.
"Get up!" he
said, and Hunahpu came back to life. The two of them
were overjoyed at this- and 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 actually doing the dance.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing reproduced by permission of
Michael D.
Coe and the Grolier Club.
"SACRIFICE YET
AGAIN, EVEN DO IT TO YOURSELVES!": This classic
Maya funerary vase painting from the lowlands shows Hunahpu
(at
extreme left) about to swing the stone axe in his right hand
and
decapitate his brother Xbalanque, while an ecstatic lord of
Xibalba
(in skeletal form) looks on. The dog at right is doubtless the
one
already sacrificed and brought back to life earlier in this
same
episode. The insect above the dog holds a torch and may be one
of
the fireflies with which Hunahpu and Xbalanque made their
cigars
appear to be burning while they spent the night in Dark House,
in an
earlier episode. In the present scene Hunahpu is identifiable,
in
part, by the catfish barbel that emerges just behind his
nostril; he
acquired this attribute in a previous episode, when he and
Xbalanque
appeared as channel catfish after their ground bones had been
thrown
in water. Xbalanque, whose name is partly derived from balam
or
"jaguar," is identifiable from his jaguar ears, paws,
feet, and
tail. [This vase can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art.])
-
And then the hearts of
the lords were filled with longing, with
yearning for the dance of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, so then came
these
words from One and Seven Death:
"Do it to us!
Sacrifice us!"*(319) they said. "Sacrifice both of
us!" said One and Seven Death to Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
"Very well. You
ought to come back to life. After all, aren't you
Death?*(320) And aren't we making you happy, along with the
vassals of
your domain?" they told the lords.
And this one was the
first to be sacrificed: the lord at the very
top, the one whose name is One Death, the ruler of Xibalba.
And with One Death
dead, the next to be taken was Seven Death.
They did not come back to life.
And then the Xibalbans
were getting up to leave, those who had
seen the lords die. They underwent heart sacrifice*(321) there,
and
the heart sacrifice was performed on the two lords only for
the
purpose of destroying them.
As soon as they had
killed the one lord without bringing him back to
life, the other lord had been meek and tearful before the
dancers.
He didn't consent, he didn't accept it:
"Take pity on
me!" he said when he realized. All their vassals
took the road to the great canyon, in one single mass they
filled up
the deep abyss. So they piled up there and gathered
together,
countless ants,*(322) tumbling down into the canyon, as if they
were
being herded there. And when they arrived, they all bent low
in
surrender, they arrived meek and tearful.
Such was the defeat of
the rulers of Xibalba. The boys
accomplished it only through wonders, only through
self-transformation.
-
AND THEN THEY NAMED
THEIR NAMES, they gave themselves 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 here to clear the road of
the
torments and troubles of our fathers. And so we have suffered
all
the troubles you've caused us. And so we are putting an end to
all
of you. We're going to kill you. No one can save you now,"
they were
told. And then 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. Those two are buried at
the
Place of Ball Game Sacrifice," they replied.
"Very well. Now
this is our word, we shall name it for you. All of
you listen, you Xibalbans: 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 scabrous nodules of sap. There
will be
no cleanly blotted blood for you,*(323) just griddles, just
gourds,
just brittle things broken to pieces.*(324) Further, you will only
feed on creatures of the meadows and clearings. None of those
who
are born in the light, begotten in the light*(325) will be
yours. Only
the worthless will yield themselves up before you. These will be
the
guilty, the violent, the wretched, the afflicted. Wherever the
blame
is clear,*(326) that is where you will come in, rather than
just
making sudden attacks on people in general. And you will
hear
petitions over headed-up sap,"*(327) 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,*(328)
they are masters
of hidden intentions as well,
they are black and
white,
masters of
stupidity, masters of perplexity,*(329)
-
as it is said. By putting on appearances they cause dismay.
Such was the loss of
their greatness and brilliance. Their domain
did not return to greatness. This was accomplished by Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque.
-
AND THIS IS THEIR
GRANDMOTHER, CRYING AND CALLING OUT*(330) IN FRONT
OF THE CORN EARS they left planted.*(331) Corn plants grew, then
dried
up.
And this was when they
were burned in the oven; then the corn plants
grew again.
And this was when their
grandmother burned something,*(332) 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,*(333)
and
she gave them names: Middle of the House, Middle of the
Harvest,
Living Corn, Earthen Floor became their names.
And she named the ears
Middle of the House, Middle of the Harvest,
because they had planted them right in the middle of the inside
of
their home.
And she further named
them Earthen Floor, Living Corn, since the
corn ears had been placed up above an earthen floor.*(334)
And she also 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*(335) again, there in Xibalba. Their father spoke to them
again
when they had defeated Xibalba.
-
AND HERE THEIR FATHER
IS PUT BACK TOGETHER BY THEM. They put Seven
Hunahpu back together; they went to the Place of Ball Game
Sacrifice
to put him together. He had wanted his face to become just as
it
was, but when he was asked to name everything,*(336) and once he
had
found the name of the mouth, the nose, the 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,*(337) he had at least spoken
again.
And so it remained that
they were respectful of their father's
heart, even though they left him at the Place of Ball Game
Sacrifice:
"You will be
prayed to here,"*(338) 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*(339) by those who will be born in
the
light, begotten in the light. Your name will not be lost.*(340)
So
be it," they told their father when they comforted his
heart.
"We merely cleared
the road of your death, your loss, the pain,
the suffering that were inflicted upon you."
And such was the
instruction they gave when all the Xibalbans had
been finally defeated. And then the two boys ascended this way,
here
into the middle of the light, and they ascended straight on into
the
sky, and the sun belongs to one and the moon to the
other.*(341)
When it became light within the sky, on the face of the earth,
they
were there in the sky.
And this was also the
ascent of the Four Hundred Boys killed by
Zipacna.
And these came to
accompany the two of them. They became the sky's
own stars.*(342)
PART_FOUR
PART FOUR
-
AND HERE IS THE
BEGINNING OF THE CONCEPTION OF HUMANS, and of the
search for the ingredients of the human body. So they spoke,
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
they
sifted, they thought and they wondered.
And here their thoughts
came out in clear light. They sought and
discovered*(343) 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. Broken Place, Bitter Water Place is the
name: the
yellow corn, white corn came from there.
And these are the names
of the animals who brought the food:*(344)
fox, coyote, parrot, crow. There were four animals who 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 used 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, anonas,
jocotes,
nances, matasanos, sweets- the rich foods filling 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.*(345) Corn was used, along with the
water she
rinsed her hands with,*(346) for the creation of grease; it
became
human fat when it was worked by the Bearer, Begetter, Sovereign
Plumed
Serpent, as they are called.
After that, they put it
into words:
-
the making, the
modeling of our first mother-father,
with yellow corn,
white corn alone for the flesh,*(347)
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.
-
THESE ARE THE NAMES OF
THE FIRST PEOPLE WHO WERE MADE AND MODELED.
This is the first
person: Jaguar Quitze.
And now the second:
Jaguar Night.
And now the third:
Mahucutah.
And the fourth: True
Jaguar.
And these are the names
of our first mother-fathers. They were
simply made and modeled, it is said; they had no mother and no
father.
We have named the men by themselves. No woman gave birth to
them,
nor were they begotten by the builder, sculptor, Bearer, Begetter.
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 came out
human:
They talked and they
made words.
They looked and they
listened.
They walked, they
worked.*(348)
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 everything
under
the sky, whenever they looked. The moment they turned around
and
looked around in the sky, on the earth, everything was seen
without
any obstruction. They didn't have to walk around 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
through trees, through rocks, through lakes, through seas,
through
mountains, through plains. Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and
True Jaguar were truly gifted people.
And then they were
asked by the builder and mason:
"What do you know
about your being? Don't you look, don't you
listen? Isn't your speech good, and your walk? So you must look,
to
see out under the sky. Don't you see the mountain-plain clearly?
So
try it," they were told.
And then they saw
everything under the sky perfectly. After that,
they thanked the Maker, Modeler:
-
"Truly
now,
double thanks,
triple thanks
that we've
been formed, we've been given
our mouths,
our faces,
we speak, we
listen,
we wonder, we
move,
our knowledge
is good, we've understood
what is far
and near,
and we've seen what is great and
small
under the sky,
on the earth.
Thanks to you
we've been formed,
we've 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 didn't sound good to
the
builder and sculptor:
"What our works
and designs have said is no good:
'We have understood
everything, great and small,' 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 isn't good. Aren't they
merely
'works' and 'designs' in their very names? Yet they'll become as
great
as gods, unless they procreate, proliferate at the sowing,
the
dawning, unless they increase."
"Let it be this
way: now we'll take them apart just a little, that's
what we need. What we've found out isn't good. Their deeds
would
become equal to ours, just because 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,
Maker,
Modeler,
-
as they are called. And when they changed the nature of their
works,
their designs, it was enough that the 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, by the four humans. The root
was
implanted.
And such was the
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 as if they were asleep*(349) when
they
received them, truly beautiful women were there with Jaguar
Quitze,
Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. With their women
there
they became wider awake. Right away they were happy at 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,*(350) giving birth to the people of the tribes, small and
great.
-
AND THIS IS OUR ROOT,
WE WHO ARE THE QUICHE PEOPLE. And there came
to be a crowd of penitents and sacrificers.*(351) It wasn't
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, Cohah, Quenech Ahau, as the names of the
people
who were there in the east are spoken. They multiplied, and it
is
known that the Tams and Ilocs began then. They came from the
same
place, there 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.
There were three
separate lineages. The names of the grandfathers
and fathers are not forgotten. These multiplied and flowered
there
in the east, but the Tams and Ilocs also came forth, along
with
thirteen allied tribes, thirteen principalities,*(352)
including:
The Rabinals,
Cakchiquels, those of the Bird House.
And the White
Cornmeals.
And also the Lamacs,
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 only of 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.*(353) We
haven't
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 didn't know where they
were
going. They did this for a long time, when they were there in
the
grasslands: black people, white people, people of many faces,
people
of many languages, uncertain, there at the edge of the sky.
And there were mountain
people.*(354) They didn't show their
faces, they had no homes. They just traveled the mountains,
small
and great. "It's as if they were crazy," they used to
say. They
derided the mountain people, it was said. There they watched for
the
sunrise, and for all the mountain people there was just one
language.*(355) They did not yet pray to wood and
stone.*(356)
These are the words
with which they remembered the Maker, Modeler,
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, they
were
givers of praise, givers of respect, lifting their faces to
the
sky*(357) when they made requests 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 aside,
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.*(358)
When it comes to
the sowing, the dawning,
will it be*(359) 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.*(360)
Give us all of
this, thou Hurricane,
Newborn
Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt,
Newborn Nanahuac,
Raw Nanahuac,
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 when they made their fasts*(361) and prayers,
just
watching intently*(362) 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:
"We're still
waiting for the dawning," they said, these great
knowers, great thinkers, penitents, praisers, as they are
called.
And there was nothing of wood and stone in the keeping of our
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's just go.
We'll look and see whether there is something to
keep as our sign. We'll 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. They went there.
-
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
who were to receive the gods arrived there.
And they arrived there
at Tulan, all of them, countless people
arrived, walking in crowds, and their gods were given out in
order,
the first being those of Jaguar Quitze, 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 the backpack borne 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 were still
other Quiche people, since the Tams also
received theirs, but it was the same Tohil for the Tams, that's
the
name received by the grandfather and father of the Tam lords,
as
they are known today.
And third were 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 the god has just one name: Tohil for
the
Quiche proper, and Tohil for the Tams and Ilocs. There is just
one
name for their god, and so the Quiche threesome has not come
apart,
those three. Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz are truly great in
their very
being.
And then all the tribes
came in: Rabinals, Cakchiquels, those of the
Bird House, along with the Yaqui people, as the names are today.
And
the languages of the tribes changed there; their languages
became
differentiated. They could no longer understand one another
clearly
when they came away from Tulan.
And there they broke
apart. There were those who went eastward and
many who came here, but 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 Tulan Zuyua, Seven Caves,
Seven
Canyons, so says the Ancient Word.
-
THEY WALKED IN CROWDS
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 is not clear.
Their
fire was already burning when Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night
first saw
it:
"Alas! Fire has
not yet become ours. We'll die from the cold,"
they said. And then Tohil spoke:
"Do not grieve.
You will have your own even when the fire you're
talking about has been lost," Tohil told them.
-
"Aren't you a true god!
Our
sustenance and our support!
Our
god!"
-
they said when they gave thanks for what Tohil had said.
-
"Very well, in truth,
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 didn't start up again. So
then
Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night asked for their fire again:
"Tohil, we'll be
finished off by the cold," they told Tohil.
"Well, do not
grieve," said Tohil. Then he started a fire. He
pivoted inside his sandal.*(363)
After that, Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True
Jaguar were pleased.
After they had been
warmed, the fires of the other tribes were still
out. Now they were being finished off by the cold, so they came
back
to ask for their fire from Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah, and
True Jaguar. They could bear the cold and hail no longer. By
now
they were chattering and shivering. There was no life left in
them.
Their legs and arms kept shaking. Their hands were stiff when
they
arrived.
"Perhaps we
wouldn't make ourselves ashamed in front of you if we
asked to remove a little something from your fire?" they
said when
they arrived, but they got no response.*(364) And then the
tribes
cursed in their thoughts. Already their language had become
different from that of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah,
and
True Jaguar.
"Alas! We left our
language behind. How did we do it? We're lost!
Where were we deceived? We had only one language when we came
to
Tulan, and we had only one place of emergence*(365) and origin.
We
haven't done well," said all the tribes beneath the trees
and bushes.
And then a person
showed himself*(366) before Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, and he spoke as a
messenger of Xibalba:
"Truly, since you
have your god, your nurturer, and he is the
representation,*(367) the commemoration of your Maker and your
Modeler, don't give the tribes their fire until they give
something to
Tohil. You don't want them to give anything to you. You must ask
for
what belongs to Tohil; to him must come what they give in order
to get
fire," said the Xibalban. He had wings like the wings of a
bat.
"I am a messenger
of those who made you and modeled you," said the
Xibalban. So now they were happy; now they thought all the more
of
Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz. When the Xibalban had spoken he
made
himself vanish right in front of them, without delay.
And so again the tribes
arrived, again done in by the cold. Thick
were the white hail, the blackening storm, and the white
crystals. The
cold was incalculable. They were simply overwhelmed.*(368)
Because
of the cold all the tribes were going along doubled over,
groping
along*(369) when they arrived in the presence of Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar
Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar. There was great pain in
their
hearts; they had covetous mouths and covetous faces.*(370)
And now they were
coming as thieves before Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar
Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar:
"Wouldn't you take
pity on us if we asked to remove a little
something from your fire? Wasn't it found and wasn't it
revealed*(371)
that we had just one home and just one mountain when you were
made,
when you were modeled? So please take pity on us," they
said.
"And what would
you give us for taking pity on you?" they were
asked.
"Well, we'd give
you metal," said the tribes.
"We don't want
metal," said Jaguar Quitze and Jaguar Night.
"Whatever might
you want, if we may ask?" the tribes said then.
"Very well. First
we must ask Tohil, and then we'll tell you,"
they were told next. And then they asked Tohil:
"What should the
tribes give you, Tohil? They've come to ask for
your fire," said Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah,
and True
Jaguar.
"Very well. You
will tell them:
'"Don't they want
to be suckled*(372) on their sides and under their
arms? Isn't it their heart's desire to embrace me? I, who am
Tohil?
But if there is no desire, then I'll not give them their
fire," says
Tohil. "When the time comes, not right now, they'll be
suckled on
their sides, under their arms," he says to you,' you will
say," they
were told, Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True
Jaguar,
and then they spoke the word of Tohil.
"Very well. Let
him suckle. And very well, we shall embrace him,"
said the tribes, when they answered and agreed to the word of
Tohil.
They made no delay*(373) but said "very well" right
away, and then
they received their fire.
After that they got
warm, but there was one group that simply
stole the fire, there in 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 in the smoke then, they sneaked past when
they
came to get fire. The Cakchiquels didn't ask for their fire.
They
didn't give themselves up in defeat, but all the other tribes
were
defeated when they gave themselves up to being suckled on their
sides,
under their arms.
And this is what Tohil
meant by being "suckled": that all the tribes
be cut open before him, and that their hearts be removed
"through
their sides, under their arms." This deed had not yet
been
attempted*(374) when Tohil saw into the middle of it, nor had
Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar received
fiery
splendor and majesty.
-
(See illustration:
Drawing by the author.
"THEY'VE COME TO
ASK FOR YOUR FIRE": This is a scepter held by a
ruler, one of the forms taken by Tahil, the classic Maya
antecedent of
Tohil. On his forehead he wears an obsidian mirror with a
burning
torch emerging from it. Sometimes he is shown with a body of
human
form, except that one leg is a serpent; only his head and
the
serpent leg are shown here. The drawing is reconstructed
from
several stucco reliefs at Palenque.)
-
WHEN THEY CAME AWAY
FROM TULAN ZUYUA, they weren't 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.*(375)
And there, always, they
were facing the east, when they were there
in the place named Tulan Zuyua. Their gods came from there.
It
wasn't really here that they received their fiery splendor and
their
dominion, but rather there that the tribes, great and small,
were
subjugated and humiliated. When they were cut open before Tohil,
all
the peoples gave their blood, their gore, their sides,
their
underarms. Fiery splendor came to them all at once at Tulan,
along
with great knowledge, and they achieved this in the darkness, in
the
night.
And now they came away,
they tore themselves away from there. Now
they left the east:*(376)
"Our home is not
here. Let's go on until we see where we
belong,"*(377) 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 yet to take
care of bleeding your ears and passing a cord through your
elbows.*(378) You must worship. This is your way of giving
thanks
before your god."
"Very well,"
they replied, then they bled their ears. They cried
in their song about coming from Tulan. They cried in their
hearts when
they came away, when they made their departure from Tulan:
-
"Alas! We
won't be here when we see the dawn,
when the sun is
born, when the face of the earth is lit,"
-
they said.
-
AND THEN THEY CAME
AWAY, JUST CAMPING ON THE ROAD.*(379) People were
just camping there, each tribe slept and then got up again. And
they
were always watching for the star, the sign of the day. They
kept this
sign of the dawn in their hearts when they came away from the east.
In
unity*(380) they passed beyond the place named Great Abyss
today.
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 the mountain has today is
from
when they took counsel together: Place of Advice is the name of
the
mountain. They got together and identified themselves
there:
"Here am I: I am a
Quiche person, and you there, you are Tams,
this will be your name," the Tams were told. And then the
Ilocs were
told:
"You are the
Ilocs, this will be your name. The three Quiches must
not be lost. We are united in our word," they said when
they fixed
their names.
And then the
Cakchiquels were named: their name became
Cakchiquels. So, too, with the Rabinals; this became their name.
It
hasn't been lost today.
And then there are
those of the Bird House, as they are named today.
These are the names
they named for each other. When they held
council there, they were still waiting for the dawning, watching
for
the appearance of the rising star, the one that came before the
sun
when it was born.
"When we came away
from Tulan, we broke ourselves apart," they
told each other.
This is what kept
weighing on their hearts, the great pain they went
through: there was nothing to eat, nothing to feed on. They
were
just smelling the tips of their staffs*(381) as if they
were
thinking of eating them, but they weren't eating at all as they
came.
And it isn't clear how
they crossed over the sea. They crossed
over as if there were no sea. They just crossed over on some
stones,
stones piled up in the sand. And they gave it a name: Rock
Rows,
Furrowed Sands was their name for the place where they crossed
through
the midst of the sea. Where the waters divided, they crossed
over.
And this is what
weighed on their hearts when they took counsel:
that they had nothing to eat. They had one beverage to drink,
just one
atole, which they brought up on the mountain named Place of
Advice.
And they also brought Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz.
Observing a great fast
was Jaguar Quitze, with his wife; Great
Seahouse is his wife's name.
Likewise doing it was
Jaguar Night, with his wife, named Prawn
House.
And Mahucutah was also
there at the great fast, with his wife, named
Hummingbird House, along with True Jaguar, whose wife's name
is
Macaw House.
So these were the ones
who fasted, there in the blackness, in the
early dawn. Their sadness was great when they were there on
the
mountain named Place of Advice today. And their gods spoke
there.
-
AND THEN TOHIL, ALONG
WITH AUILIX AND HACAUITZ, SPOKE TO THEM, to
Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar:
"Let's just go,
let's just get up, let's not stay here. Please
give us places to hide. It's nearly dawn. Wouldn't you look
pitiful if
we became plunder for warriors? Construct places where we can
remain
yours, you penitents and sacrificers, and give one place to each
of
us," they said when they spoke.
"Very well. Let's get out and search the
forests," they all replied.
After that they packed
each one of the gods on their backs.*(382)
And then Auilix went
into the canyon named Concealment Canyon, as
they called it, into the great canyon in the forest. Pauilix is
the
name of the place today. He was left there, placed in the canyon
by
Jaguar Night, coming first in the sequence of placements.
And then Hacauitz was
placed above a great red river.*(383) Hacauitz
is the name of 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 by them. Hacauitz didn't stay in
the
forest. It was on a bare mountain*(384) that Hacauitz was
hidden.
And then came Jaguar
Quitze. He arrived in the great forest there.
Tohil was put into hiding by Jaguar Quitze; the mountain is
called
Patohil today. Then they gave Concealment Canyon an epithet:
Tohil
Medicine. Masses of serpents and masses of jaguars,
rattlesnakes,
yellowbites were there in the forest where he was hidden*(385)
by
the penitents and sacrificers.
So they were there in
unity: Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah,
and True Jaguar. In unity they waited for the dawn, there 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
of
the Tams was, there at the dawn. Net Weave Tribe 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, small and great. In unity they
stopped
there,*(386) 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 when the dawn comes," they said, and
they were in unity there: Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
Mahucutah,
and True Jaguar. There was no sleep, no rest for them. They
cried
their hearts and their guts out,*(387) there at the dawning
and
clearing, and so they looked terrible. Great sorrow, great
anguish
came over them; they were marked by their pain. They just
stayed
that way.
"Coming here
hasn't been sweet for us. Alas! If we could only see
the birth of the sun! What have we done? We all had one
identity,
one mountain, but we sent ourselves into exile," they said
when they
talked among themselves. They talked about sorrow, about
anguish,
about crying and wailing, since their hearts had not yet been
set to
rest by the dawn.
And these are the ones
who did feel settled there: the gods who were
in the canyons, in the forests, just out in the bromelias, in
the
hanging mosses, not yet set on pedestals.*(388) At first,
Tohil,
Auilix, and Hacauitz actually spoke. The greatness of their day
and
the greatness of their breath of spirit set them above all the
other
tribal gods. Their genius was manifold and their ways were
manifold,
their strategies.*(389) They were chilling, they were
frightening in
their very being and in the hearts of the tribes, whose
thoughts
were calmed by Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True
Jaguar. Their hearts did not yet harbor ill will*(390) toward
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, Pauilix, and Hacauitz, as
they are called today. And this is where our grandfathers, 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. And
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 with three kinds at once:
Mixtam Copal is the
name of the copal brought by Jaguar Quitze.
Cauiztan Copal, next,
is the name of the copal brought by Jaguar
Night.
Godly Copal, as the
next one is called, was brought by Mahucutah.
The three of them had
their copal, and this is what they burned as
they incensed*(391) the direction of the rising sun. They
were
crying 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 a 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,
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 peoples, but there was just one dawn for
all
tribes.
And then the face of
the earth was dried out by the sun. 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 his reflection that now remains.*(392) As they
put it
in their own words:
"The sun that
shows itself is not the real sun."
And then, all at once,
Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were turned to
stone, along with the idols of the puma, jaguar,
rattlesnake,
yellowbite, which the White Sparkstriker took with him into
the
trees.*(393) 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,
yellowbite-
and perhaps it wouldn't even be our day today, if the original
animals
hadn't been turned to stone*(394) by the sun when he came
up.
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 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
stated:
-
"Alas!
We were
lost at Tulan!
We
shattered ourselves!
We left
our elder brothers behind!
Our
younger brothers!
Where did
they see the sun?
Where
must they be staying,
now that
the dawn has come?"
-
They were speaking of the penitents and sacrificers who were the
Yaqui
people.
"Even though Tohil
is his name, he is the same as the god of the
Yaqui people, who 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 among themselves
when they
remembered 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," they said. 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. Tam Tribe is the name of
the
place where it dawned for the penitents and sacrificers of the
Tams,
with their god, the same Tohil. There was just one name for the
god of
all three divisions of the Quiche people.
And again, the name of
the god of the Rabinals was the same. His
name was only slightly changed; "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 with their
language.
And the language has
differentiated in the case of the
Cakchiquels,*(395) since their god had 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*(396) and their sojourn there
on the mountain. The four were there 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.*(397)
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*(398) 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,*(399) and
what
they brought and burned was not great. All they burned before
their
gods was resin, just bits of pitchy bark, along with
marigolds.*(400)
And when Tohil spoke
now it was only his genius. When the gods
taught procedures to the penitents and sacrificers, they said
this
when they spoke:
"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
peoples 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*(401) when they search for us.*(402)
They are truly numerous now, so don't you let us be hunted
down,*(403)
but rather give the creatures of the grasses and grains to us,
such as
the female deer and female birds.*(404) 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,*(405) and so also they will serve as
our
surrogates before the tribes. When you are asked:
'Where is Tohil?' then
you will display the deer costumes before
them, and without revealing yourselves. And 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,"*(406) 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.*(407) And the bloody drink was drunk by the gods.
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 marigolds and yarrow. There was a
deerskin
for each one of the gods, which was displayed there on the
mountain.
They didn't occupy
their houses during the day, but just walked in
the mountains. And this was their food: just the larva of the
yellow
jacket, the larva of the wasp, and the larva of the bee,*(408)
which
they hunted. As yet there wasn't anything good to eat or good
to
drink. Also, it wasn't obvious how to get to their houses, nor
was
it obvious where their wives stayed.
And the tribes were
already densely packed, settling down one by
one, with each division of a tribe gathering itself together.
Now they
were crowding the roads; already their roadways were
obvious.
As for Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar, it
wasn't 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's just a
coyote crying out," and "Just a fox."
"Just a puma. Just
a jaguar."
In the minds of all the
tribes, it was as if humans weren't
involved. They did it just as a way of decoying the tribes; that
was
what their hearts desired. They did it so that the tribes
wouldn't 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
intended to overwhelm them.
Each day, when they
came back to their houses and wives, they
brought just the same things- yellow-jacket larvae, wasp larvae,
and
bee larvae- and gave 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 the
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?
Should we just kill them one by one?" they said among
themselves.
And 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.
But these weren't really stones: each one 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 a
great many victories. Your right*(409) to do this
came from over there at Tulan, when you brought us here,"
they were
told. Then the matter of the suckling*(410) 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 COMES THE
KILLING OF THE TRIBES. This is how they died:
when there was just one person out walking, or just two were
out
walking, it wasn't 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 onto the road. So the
tribes
were talking:
"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's Tohil and
Auilix who are after us, we have only to search
for the penitents and sacrificers. We'll follow their tracks
to
wherever their houses are," said all those of the tribes,
when they
shared their thoughts among themselves.
After that, they began
following the tracks of the penitents and
sacrificers, but they weren't clear. They only saw the tracks of
the
deer, the tracks of the jaguar. The tracks weren't clear,
nothing
was clear. Where they began the tracks were merely those of
animals.*(411) It was as if the tracks were there for the sole
purpose
of leading them astray. The way was not clear:
It would get
cloudy.
It would get dark and
rainy.*(412)
It would get muddy,
too.
It would get misty and
drizzly.*(413)
That was all the tribes
could 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
being, 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.*(414) They would
seize
the people of the tribes in the roads, cutting them open before
Tohil,
Auilix, and Hacauitz.
And the boys hid there
on the mountain. 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 the
others. They roused and summoned one another, all of them. Not
even
one or two divisions were left out. All of them converged
and
presented themselves, then they shared their thoughts. And
they
said, as they questioned one another:
"What would assure
the defeat of the Cauecs, the Quiche people?
Our vassals have met their ends because of them. Isn't it 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's Tohil,
Auilix, and Hacauitz, then we can defeat them ahead of time. Let
the
defeat of the penitents and sacrificers begin right there!"
said the
Fishkeepers, and then they spoke further:
"How shall we
defeat them?" And then 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,*(415) maidens who
radiate
preciousness,*(416) so that when they go they'll be
desirable," they
said.
"Very well. So
we'll just search for two perfect maidens," the
others replied. And then they searched among their daughters for
those
who were truly radiant maidens. 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're coming after
you,' then you are to say:
'Yes.' And then you
will be asked:
'Where do you come
from? Whose daughters are you?' When they say
that, you are to answer them:
'We are the daughters
of lords, so let a sign be forthcoming from
you.' Then they should give you something. If they like your
faces you
must really give yourselves up to them. And if you do not
give
yourselves up, then we shall kill you. We'll feel satisfied when
you
bring back a sign, since we'll think of it as proof that they
came
after you," said the lords, instructing the two
maidens.
Here are their names:
Xtah is the name of the one maiden, and
Xpuch is the name of the other.
-
AND THEY SENT THE TWO
OF THEM, NAMED XTAH AND XPUCH, over to the
place where Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz bathed. All the tribes
knew
about this.
And then they went off.
They were dressed up, looking truly
beautiful, when they went to the place where Tohil bathed. 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, they began to wash. They
undressed themselves, both of them. They were on the rocks, on
their
hands and knees,*(417) when Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz came
along.
They got to the bank of the river and just barely glanced at the
two
maidens washing there, and the maidens got a sudden scare when
Tohil
and the others*(418) arrived. They did not go lusting after the
two
maidens. Then came the questioning:
"Where do you come
from?" the two maidens were asked. "What do you
intend by coming here, to the bank of our river?" they were
also
asked.
"We were sent here
by the lords, so we came. The lords told us:
'Go see the faces of
Tohil and the others, and speak to them,' the
lords told us, 'and also, there must come a sign as to whether
you
really saw their faces.*(419) Go!' is what we were told,"
said the two
maidens, explaining their errand.
But this is what the
tribes had intended: that the maidens should be
violated by the spirit familiars of Tohil and the others.
Then
Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz spoke, answering the two maidens
named
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," they were told.
And then 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're for the tribes; they'll go back with the
maidens
who are washing. Give them to the maidens," Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar
Night, and Mahucutah were told.
After that, they drew
figures for all three of them. Jaguar Quitze
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.
And the one who drew
next was Mahucutah, who drew the images, 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 threefold figures.
After that, when Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, and Mahucutah went
to give the cloaks to those who were named Xtah and Xpuch,
they
spoke to them:
"Here is the proof
of your word. When you come before the lords
you will say:
'Tohil really spoke to
us, and here is the sign we've brought back,'
you'll tell them, and give them the cloaks to try on," the
maidens
were told when they were given their instructions.
So then they went back,
taking the figured cloaks.
And when they arrived,
the lords were happy the moment they
spotted*(420) what they had asked for, hanging from the arms of
the
maidens.
"Didn't you see
the face of Tohil?" they were asked.
"See it we
did," said Xtah and Xpuch.
"Very good. You've
brought back some sort of sign. Isn't that so?"
said the lords, since there seemed to be signs of their sin- or
so
thought the lords. So then they were 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 a smooth
surface.*(421)
And they loved the way
the cloaks looked. They costumed
themselves. The jaguar didn't do anything; it was the first
figure
to be tried on by a lord.
And when another lord
costumed himself with the second figured
cloak, with the drawing of the eagle, the inside of it just
felt
good to him. He turned around*(422) in front of them,
unfurling
it*(423) in front of all of them.
And then came the third
figured cloak to be tried on by a lord; he
costumed himself with the one that had yellow jackets and
wasps
painted inside.
And then he started
getting stung by the yellow jackets and wasps.
He couldn't endure it, he couldn't 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. It was the
third
drawing that defeated them.
And then the maidens
named Xtah and Xpuch were reprimanded by the
lords:
"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.
Again, all the tribes
were defeated because of Tohil. This is what
they had intended: that Tohil would be tempted to go after
the
maidens. It then became the profession of Xtah and Xpuch to
bark
shins;*(424) the tribes continued to think of them as
temptresses.
So the defeat of Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, and Mahucutah was
not brought about, since they were people of genius.
And then all the tribes
plotted again:
"How are we going
to beat them? They are truly great in their very
being," they said when they shared their thoughts.
"Even so, we'll
invade them and kill them. Let's fit ourselves out
with weapons and shields. Aren't we a multitude? There won't
even be
one or two of them left," they said when they shared their
thoughts.
All the tribes fitted themselves out. There were masses of
killers,
once the killers of all the tribes had joined together.
And as for Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True
Jaguar, they were there on the mountain. Hacauitz is the name of
the
mountain where they were, and those spirit boys*(425) of theirs
were
hidden there on the mountain. They were not a numerous people
then;
their numbers were not equal to the numbers of the tribes.
There
were just a few of them on the mountain, their fortress,*(426)
so when
it was said that the tribes had planned death for them, all of
them
gathered together. They held a council; they all sent for one
another.
-
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, the men. In truth, they
were
just making talk, all of them. In truth, they would become
our
captives.
"Since there is a
Tohil, and since he is a god, let's celebrate
his day- or let's make him our prize!" they said among
themselves. But
Tohil already knew about it, and Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
and
Mahucutah also knew about it. They had heard about it while it
was
being plotted, since they were neither asleep nor at rest.
So then all the
lance-bearing warriors of the tribes were armed.
After that, all the
warriors got up during the night, in order to
enter our very midst. They set off, but they never arrived.
They
just fell asleep on the way, all those warriors.
And then they were
defeated again by Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night,
and Mahucutah, since every last one of them fell asleep in the
road.
Now they couldn't feel a thing. A multitude slept, all of them,
and
that's when things got started. Their eyebrows were plucked out,
along
with their beards.*(427)
And then the metal was
undone from their cloaks, along with their
headdresses.
And their necklaces
came off too, and then the necks of their
staffs. Their metal was taken just to cause them a loss of face,
and
the plucking was done just to signify the greatness of the
Quiche.
After that, they woke
up. Right away they reached for their
headdresses, along with the necks of their staffs. There was
no
metal on their cloaks and headdresses.
"How could it have
been taken from us? Who could have plucked us?
Where did they come from? Our metal has been stolen!" said
all the
warriors.
"Perhaps it's
those tricksters who've been abducting people! But
it's not over with. Let's not get frightened by them. Let's
enter
their very citadel! That's the only way we'll ever see our metal
and
make it ours again!" said all the tribes, but even so, they
were
just making talk, all of them.
The hearts of the
penitents and sacrificers were content, there 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*(428) at the edge of their citadel.
They
just made a palisade of planks and stakes*(429) around
their
citadel.*(430)
Next they made
manikins; it was as if they had made people. Next
they lined them up on the parapet. They were even equipped
with
weapons and shields. Headdresses were included, with metal on
top, and
cloaks were included. 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.*(431)
And then they asked
Tohil about their plan:
"What if we die,
and what if we're defeated?" 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," Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True
Jaguar were told, and 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.
These were their weapons against the tribes.
And they were spied
upon and watched from hiding; their citadel
was studied by the messengers of the tribes.
"There aren't many
of them," they said, but when they came to look
it was only the manikins, the woodcarvings, that were moving,
with
weapons and shields in their hands. They looked like real
people, they
looked like real killers when the tribes saw them.
And all the tribes were
happy when they saw there weren't 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*(432)
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
just enjoyed the spectacle*(433) 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 talk.
And then they climbed
up the mountainside, and now they were just
a little short of the edge of the citadel.
And then the gourds
were opened up- there were four of them around
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, with the insects landing on their eyes and landing
on
their noses, on their mouths, their legs, their arms.*(434)
The
insects went after them wherever they were, they overtook
them
wherever they were. There were yellow jackets and wasps
everywhere,
landing to sting their eyes. They had to watch out for whole
swarms of
them, there were insects going after every single person. They
were
dazed by the yellow jackets and wasps. No longer able to hold
onto
their weapons and shields, they were doubling over*(435) and
falling
to the ground, stumbling.*(436) They fell down the
mountainside.
And now they couldn't
feel a thing when they were hit*(437) 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, and all the other tribes just took
off running. The first to be overtaken were finished off,
killed,
and it wasn't just a few people who died. For those who didn't
die the
chase was carried into their very midst when the insects caught
up
with them. There were no manly deeds for them to do, since they
no
longer carried weapons and shields.
Then all the tribes
were conquered. Now the tribes humbled
themselves before Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, and
Mahucutah:
"Take pity on us!
Don't 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, they had sons on Hacauitz. They were happy, once they
had
beaten all the tribes, who were defeated there on the
mountain.
In this way they
accomplished the defeat of the tribes, all the
tribes.
After that, their
hearts were content. They informed their sons that
their death was approaching. They very much intended to be taken
by
death.
-
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 weren't sickly yet, they
weren't
gasping for breath*(438) when they left their word with their
sons.
These are the names of
their sons:
Jaguar Quitze begot
these two: Cocaib was the name of the
firstborn and Cocauib was the name of the second of the sons of
Jaguar
Quitze, the grandfather and father of the Cauecs.
And again, Jaguar Night
begot two. These are their names: Coacul was
the name of his first son, and the other was called Coacutec,
the
second son of Jaguar Night, of the Greathouses.
And Mahucutah begot
just one son, named Coahau.
These three had sons,
but 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 singing. "The Blame Is Ours" is
the name of the
song they sang.
And then they advised
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 wives. They advised each one of them:
"We are going back
to our own tribal place.*(439) Again it is the
time of our Lord Deer,*(440) as 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.
You have yet to see your own home and mountain, the place of
your
beginning.
"Let it be this
way: you must go. Go see the place where we came
from,"*(441) were the words they spoke when they gave their
advice.
And then Jaguar Quitze
left a sign of his being:
"This is for
making requests*(442) of me. I shall leave it with you.
Here is your fiery splendor.*(443) I have completed my
instructions,
my counsel," he said when he left the sign of his being,
the Bundle of
Flames, as it is called. It wasn't clear just what it was; it
was
wound about with coverings. It was never unwrapped. Its
sewing
wasn't clear because no one looked on while it was being
wrapped.
In this way they left
instructions, and then they disappeared from
there on the mountain of Hacauitz. Their wives and children
never
saw them again. The nature of their disappearance was not clear.
But
whatever the case with their disappearance, their instructions
were
clear, and the bundle became precious to those who remained. It
was
a memorial to their fathers. Immediately they burned
offerings
before this memorial to their fathers.
When the lords began
their generation of the people, the Cauecs took
their start from Jaguar Quitze, the grandfather and father;
his
sons, named Cocaib and Cocauib, were not lost.
Such was the death of
all four of our first grandfathers and
fathers. When they disappeared their sons remained there on
the
mountain of Hacauitz; their sons stayed there for awhile. As for
all
the tribes, it was now their day to be broken and
downtrodden.*(444)
They no longer had any splendor to them, though they were
still
numerous.
All those on
Hacauitz*(445) gathered on each day that was for the
remembrance of their fathers. For them, the day of the
bundle*(446)
was a great one. They could not unwrap it; for them it stayed
bundled-
the Bundle of Flames, as they called it. It was given this
epithet,
this name when it was left in their keeping by their fathers,
who made
it just as a sign of their being.
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 here in ancient times. When they
died
they were already old. They had a reputation for penitence
and
sacrifice.
PART_FIVE
PART FIVE
-
AND THEN THEY
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-law as they took wives.
And
there were three of them who said, as they were about to go
away:
"We are going to
the east, where our fathers came from," they
said, then they followed their road. The three of them were
representative sons:
Cocaib was the name of
the son of Jaguar Quitze who represented
all the Cauecs.*(447)
Coacutec was the name
of the son of Jaguar Night who served as the
sole representative of the Greathouses.
Coahau was the name of
the only son of Mahucutah, representing the
Lord Quiches.
So these are the names
of those who went across the sea. There
were only three who went, but they had skill and knowledge.
Their
being was not quite that of mere humans. They advised all
their
brothers, elder and younger, who were left behind. They were
glad to
go:
"We're not dying.
We're coming back," they said when they went,
yet it was these same three who went clear across the sea.
And then they arrived
in the east; they went there to receive
lordship. Next comes the name of the lord with dominion over
those
of the east, where they arrived.
-
AND THEN THEY CAME
BEFORE THE LORD NAMED NACXIT, the great lord
and sole judge*(448) over a populous domain.
And he was the one who
gave out the signs of lordship, all the
emblems; the signs of the Keeper of the Mat and the Keeper of
the
Reception House Mat were set forth.
And when the signs of
the splendor and lordship of the Keeper of the
Mat and Keeper of the Reception House Mat were set forth,
Nacxit
gave a complete set of the emblems of lordship. Here are their
names:
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.
They brought all of
these when they came away. From across the
sea, they brought back the writings about Tulan. In the
writings, in
their words, they spoke of having cried.*(449)
And then, when they got
back up in their citadel, named Hacauitz,
all the Tams and Ilocs gathered there. All the tribes
gathered
themselves together; they were happy. When Cocaib, Coacutec,
and
Coahau came back, they resumed their lordship over the tribes.
The
Rabinals, the Cakchiquels, and those of the Bird House were
happy.
Only the signs of the greatness of lordship were revealed before
them.
Now the lords became great in their very being; when they
had
displayed their lordship previously, it was incomplete.
This was when they were
at Hacauitz. The only ones with them were
all those who had originally come from the east. And 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 epithets and 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
told about the abandonment of their first citadel, named
Hacauitz.
-
AND THEN THEY CAME TO A
PLACE WHERE THEY 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,*(450) but there came to be a single name for the
whole
town. Their daughters and sons got married. They just gave
them
away. They accepted mere favors and gifts as sufficient payment
for
their daughters. They did only what was good.
Then they
examined*(451) each division of the citadel. Here are
the names of the divisions of Thorny Place: Dry Place, Bark
House,
Culba, Cauinal are the names of the mountains where they
stayed.
And 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;*(452) they passed them on.
They went through a
great deal of pain and affliction;*(453) 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
fiery splendor there. They ground their gypsum
their plaster,*(454) in the fourth generation of lords. It was
said
that Conache ruled when Nine Deer was the Lord Minister, and
then
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.
And just one great
house for the Greathouses.
And finally, just one
for the Lord Quiches.
But the three were
housed in just two buildings, one in each*(455)
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 for them, and no
disturbances.
Their hearts were
filled with a steady light: there was nothing of
stupidity and nothing of envy in what they did.
Their splendor was
modest: they caused no amazement, nor had they
grown great.
And then 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 lord
be allied with them.*(456) It was the Lord Iztayul they wanted
to
persuade; the Ilocs wanted him as their disciple*(457) 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
wasn't killed by the Ilocs on the first try.
Such were the roots of
disturbances, of tumult and war. First they
invaded the citadel,*(458) 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 captured and
they
were made prisoners. Not many of them ever got their freedom
again.
And then began the
cutting of flesh. They cut the Ilocs open
before the gods. This was in payment*(459) 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
the
citadel.*(460) 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 it came
about that people were 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.*(461) There was nothing to humble them; nothing happened
to
make fools of them*(462) or to ruin the greatness*(463) of
their
reign, which took root there at Bearded Place.
The penance done for
the gods increased 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 there at the citadel named
Bearded
Place.
And it was also there
that they began feasting and drinking over the
blossoming of their daughters.*(464) This was the way those who
were
called the "Three Great Houses" stayed together. They
drank their
drinks there and ate their corn*(465) there, the payment for
their
sisters, payment for their daughters. There was only happiness
in
their hearts when they did it. They ate, they feasted inside
their
palaces.
"This is just our
way of being thankful and grateful*(466) 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*(467) 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
again 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*(468) came along, together with all the other lords.
There had
been five changes and five generations*(469) of people since
the
origin of light, the origin of continuity, the origin of life
and of
humankind.
And they built many
houses 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.
After that their domain
grew larger; they were more numerous and
more crowded. Again they planned their great houses, which had
to be
regrouped and sorted out because of their growing quarrels.
They
were jealous of one another over the prices of their sisters
and
daughters, which were no longer a matter of mere food and
drink.
So this was the origin
of their separation, when they quarreled
among themselves, disturbing the bones and skulls of the
dead.*(470)
Then they broke apart 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,
building a score and four palaces there in the citadel of Rotten
Cane.
That was the citadel blessed by the lord bishop*(471) 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, at 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, beginning
with the first in rank:
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 to show
their
faces ...*(472)
-
AND NOW THESE ARE THE
LORDS WHO LED THE GREATHOUSES, beginning
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.
Yacolatam, or Edge of
the Zaclatol Mat.
Great Lolmet
Yeoltux.
So there were nine
lords who led the Greathouses.
-
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.
-
AND THERE WERE ALSO TWO
LINEAGES OF ZAQUIC LORDS:
Lord Corntassel
House.
Minister for the
Zaquics.
There was just one
palace for these two lords.
Such was the
arrangement of the score and four lords, and there came
to be a score and four great houses as well.
-
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 the houses of the
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.*(473) The
lords were truly valued and had truly great respect. The
birthdays*(474) 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 the Lord Cotuha
blazed
with power. Plumed Serpent became a true lord of genius:
On one occasion*(475)
he would climb up to the sky; on another he
would go down the road to Xibalba.
On another occasion he
would be serpentine, becoming an actual
serpent.
On yet another occasion
he would make himself aquiline, and on
another feline;*(476) he would become like an actual eagle or a
jaguar
in his appearance.
On another occasion it
would be a 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;*(477) 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 sons. He didn't do these things just so
there
would be one single lord, a being of genius, 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*(478)
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. They
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; they were 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- 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.
And a mountain of the
Caoques, Plaster House.
And then a citadel of
the White Earths, 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 Earths. All the tribes went
down on
their faces or flat on their backs.*(479) 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.*(480) Their day came to nothing, their heritage came
to
nothing.
Projectiles alone were
the means for breaking the citadels.*(481)
All at once the earth itself would crack open; it was as if
a
lightning bolt had shattered the stones. In fear, the members of
one
tribe after another*(482) went before the gum tree,*(483)
carrying
in their hands*(484) the signs of the citadels, with the result
that a
mountain of stones is there today. Only a few of these aren't
cut
stones;*(485) the rest look as though they had been split with
an axe.
The result is there on the flat*(486) 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.
-
AFTER THAT CAME THE
SENTRIES, to watch for the makers of war. Now
lookout lineages were established to occupy the conquered
mountains:
"Otherwise the
tribes would return to inhabit their citadels," all
the lords said 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,*(487) 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 mountain 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,"*(488) 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 his own god;*(489) they
just
blocked the way to the citadel. They all went out:
Keepers of Above the
Nettles, Keepers of Chulimal, White River, Deer
Dance Plaza, 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 kept
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 the
Lords Keeper of the Mat, Keeper of the
Reception House Mat, Minister, and Crier to the People had
shared
their thoughts, their decision came out:
"When it comes to
the ennobling of the lookout lineages,*(490) we'll
induct*(491) only those who are first in rank. I am Keeper of
the
Mat."
"And I am Keeper
of the Reception House Mat."
"The nobility of
Keeper of the Mat, which is mine- and that which is
yours,*(492) 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*(493) 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 weren't inducted at
Quiche. The mountain where the first-ranking vassals were
inducted has
a name; all of them were summoned, from each of the mountains
where
they were, and they gathered in just one place. Under the Twine,
Under
the Cord is the name of the mountain 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 the 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 Toastmasters, 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,
a
palisade, an enclosure, a wall, a fortress around
Quiche.*(494)
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 out later than the Keeper of the Mat proper and the
Keeper
of the Reception House Mat, and later than the Minister and
the
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 name of 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,
then, of the building that housed the god of
the Lord Quiches.
Corntassel, whose house
of sacrifice*(495) 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,*(496) who had been
victorious
over their 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.*(497) 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.*(498) Council Book was their name for it.
But it wasn't only in
this way that they were lords. They were great
in their own being and observed great fasts. As a way of
cherishing*(499) 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,*(500) 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,*(501) jocotes; 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.*(502)
This was a sign that
they had the being of true lords. And there
weren't any women with them when they slept;*(503) 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
life for their vassals and their domain. They lifted their faces
to
the sky, and here is their prayer before their gods, when they
made
their requests.
-
AND THIS IS THE CRY OF
THEIR HEARTS, here it is:
-
"Wait! On this
blessed day,*(504)
thou Hurricane,
thou Heart of the Sky-Earth,
thou giver of
ripeness and freshness,*(505)
and thou giver of
daughters and sons,
spread thy stain,
spill thy drops
of green and
yellow;*(506)
give life and
beginning
to those I bear and
beget,
that they might
multiply*(507) and grow,
nurturing 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,
nor diverted below
the road nor above it;*(508)
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 thine;*(509)
may thy nurturers
and providers be good
before thy mouth and thy face,*(510)
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 thy mouth
and thy 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.*(511)
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 Bird House, Sweatbath House, Talk House. They came away
in
unity, having heard, there at Quiche, what all of them should
do.
It wasn't merely that
they became lords;*(512) it wasn't just that
they gathered in gifts*(513) from nurturers and providers who
merely
made food and drink*(514) for them. Nor did they wantonly
falsify*(515) 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 drops of
jade and other gems that measured the
width of four fingers or a full fist across.*(516)
And there came green
and red featherwork,*(517) 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*(518) 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 and 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,*(519) as each generation of lords enters and
succeeds*(520) the previous grandfathers and lords of the
citadel,
going on through each and every one of the lords.
And here shall appear
the faces of each one of the lords.
-
AND HERE SHALL APPEAR
THE FACES, ONE BY ONE, OF EACH OF THE QUICHE
LORDS ...*(521)
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 fourth 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, were the
culmination of genius.
Tepepul and Xtayub, in
the eighth generation.
Tecum and Tepepul, in
the ninth generation.
Eight Cords, with
Quicab, in the tenth generation of lords.
Seven Thought 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.
Lord Keeper of the
Plumed Serpent, 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 these 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 Cristobal, 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,*(522) with one great house.
Mother of the Reception
House, with one great house.
Great Toastmaster of the Greathouses, 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.
So 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
houses:
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,*(523)
these
three Toastmasters:
Great Toastmaster for
the Cauecs, first.
And Great Toastmaster
for the Greathouses, second.
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. There is the original book and
ancient
writing*(524) owned by the lords, now lost, but even so,
everything
has been completed here concerning Quiche, which is now named
Santa
Cruz.
-
(See illustration: Map
of places mentioned in the Popol
Vuh.)
NOTES_AND_COMMENTS
NOTES AND COMMENTS
-
Quiche words in
brackets are corrections of the spellings in the
Popol Vuh manuscript. Popol Vuh is abbreviated P.V.
throughout.
Sources for the meanings of words, here and in the Glossary, are
cited
by the following letter code (see the Bibliography for the
full
citations):
-
(A.) Miguel Alvarado
Lopez, Lexico medico quiche-espanol.
(B.) Domingo de
Basseta, "Vocabulario en lengua quiche."
(C.) Lyle Campbell,
"Prestamos linguisticos en el Popol Vuh."
(D.) Alonso de Molina,
Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana.
(E.) Charles Etienne
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Gramatica de la lengua
quiche.
(F.) Floyd G.
Lounsbury, "The Identities of the Mythological
Figures in the
'Cross Group' Inscriptions."
(G.) Pantaleon de
Guzman, "Compendio de nombres en lengua
cakchiquel."
(K.) Terrence Kaufman,
"Common Cholan Lexical Items."
(L.) Robert M.
Laughlin, The Great Tzotzil Dictionary.
(M.) Antonio de Ciudad
Real, Diccionario de Motul.
(P.) Pedro Moran,
"Bocabulario de solo los nombres de la lengua
pokoman."
(Q.) Munro S. Edmonson,
Quiche-English Dictionary.
(R.) Adrian Recinos et
al., Popol Vuh.
(S.) Linda Schele,
Notebook for the Maya Hieroglyphic Writing
Workshop.
(T.) Fermin Joseph
Tirado, "Vocabulario de lengua kiche."
(V.) Francisco de
Varela, "Calepino en lengua cakchiquel."
(X.) Gail Maynard and
Patricio Xec, "Diccionario preliminar del
idioma
quiche."
(Z.) Dionysio de
Zuniga, "Diccionario pocomchi-castellano y
castellano-pocomchi."
-
INTRODUCTION
-
* My account of Mayan
archaeology is based largely on Michael D.
Coe, The Maya, and Norman Hammond, Ancient Maya
Civilization.
*(2) For a general
discussion of pre-Columbian books in the Mayan
region, see J. Eric S. Thompson, A Commentary on the Dresden
Codex,
chap. 1; the hieroglyphic book now in Dresden is reproduced in
color
in this same source. For a color reproduction of the fragment
that was
found more recently in Chiapas, see Coe, The Maya Scribe and
His
World; for a demonstration of the authenticity of this fragment,
see
John B. Carlson, "The Grolier Codex."
*(3) For a comparison
of the towns of Quiche and Chichicastenango
during the colonial period, see Robert M. Carmack, The Quiche
Mayas of
Utatlan, pp. 76, 106, 304, 328.
*(4) For a longer
account of the odyssey of the Ximenez
manuscript, see Adrian Recinos et al., Popol Vuh: The Sacred
Book of
the Ancient Quiche Maya, pp. 32-45.
*(5) For the Vienna
volume see Francisco Ximenez, Las historias
del origen de los indios de esta provincia de Guatemala; for the
Paris
volume, see Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh: Le
livre
sacre et les mythes de l'antiquite americaine. The title chosen
by
Scherzer for the Vienna volume is the one used by Ximenez;
Brasseur
was the first to call the alphabetic version of the ancient book
by
the name of its hieroglyphic predecessor. His version of the
Quiche
text leaves much to be desired; by far the best version ever
published
is that of Leonhard S. Schultze Jena (Popol Vuh: Das heilige
Buch
der Quiche-Indianer von Guatemala). A highly legible facsimile
of
the manuscript (easier to read than the original) was published
in
1973 by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education (Francisco Ximenez,
Popol
Vuh).
For evidence that the
manuscript Ximenez worked from contained at
least a few hieroglyphs, see notes *(472) and *(521). Maya
writing,
like Egyptian and Chinese, was both logographic and phonetic,
which is
to say that a given word could be written with a single sign all
its
own, but could also be spelled out with glyphs that stood for
the
sounds of its individual consonants or syllables; see David
Humiston
Kelley, Deciphering the Maya Script, chaps. 6 and 9. The
monkey
patrons of writing and painting and the close relationship
between
these arts are discussed in Coe, "Supernatural Patrons of
Maya Scribes
and Artists."
*(6) The four corners
in question here are not the four cardinal
points, but the four places marked out by the solstitial rising
and
setting points of the sun; see Eva Hunt, The Transformation of
the
Hummingbird, chap. 6.
*(7) See Alfred M.
Tozzer, Landa's Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan,
pp. 153-54, for a description of the reading of a hieroglyphic
book in
Yucatan. At present there are public readings of alphabetic
manuscripts in the Yucatec Maya ceremonial center of Xcacal,
in
Quintana Roo; see Allan F. Burns, "The Caste War in the
1970's," and
An Epoch of Miracles, pp. 22-23, 71-72.
*(8) For a further
discussion of the Ancient Word and its relation
to the preaching of God, see Dennis Tedlock, The Spoken Word and
the
Work of Interpretation, chap. 12.
*(9) In holding open
the possibility that the authors of the
alphabetic P.V. had access to the hieroglyphic version I am
in
agreement with Munro S. Edmonson, The Book of Counsel: The Popol
Vuh
of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala, pp. 6-7. For a discussion of
the role
of dialogue in the Quiche story of the origin of the world and
the
contrasting monologue of Genesis, see D. Tedlock, The Spoken
Word,
chap. 11.
*(10) Contemporary
Quiche daykeepers and their practices are fully
described in Barbara Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya.
The
260-day cycle daykeepers divine by is made up of two shorter
cycles,
one consisting of an endlessly repeating sequence of thirteen
day
numbers and the other of an endlessly repeating sequence of
twenty day
names. Since 13 and 20 have no common factor, the interaction of
13
numbers with 20 names produces a larger cycle consisting of 13 x
20 or
260 days, each with a unique combination of number and name. If
we
begin with the day that combines the number 1 with the name
Queh,
the list of successive days proceeds as follows:
-
QUICHE
DAY NAMES WITH NUMBERS
(Yucatec
names in parentheses)
-
1 Queh (Manik) 12 Tihax
(Etznab)
2 3anil (Lamat) 13 Cauuk
(Cauac)
3 Toh (Muluc) 1 Hunahpu
(Ahau)
4 4,ii (Oc) 2 Imox (Imix)
5 Ba4, (Chuen) 3 I3
(Ik)
6 E (Eb) 4 A3abal
(Akbal)
7 Ah (Ben) 5 4at (Kan)
8 Ix (Ix) 6 Can
(Chicchan)
9 4,iquin (Men) 7 Came
(Cimi)
10 Ahmac (Cib) 8 Queh
(Manik)
11 Naoh (Caban) etc.
etc.
-
From 8 Queh the count goes on to 9 3anil, 10 Toh, and so
forth,
returning to 1 Queh after 260 days.
Andres Xiloj, the
daykeeper introduced in the preface to the present
work, insists that the period of human pregnancy is the basis
for
the length of this cycle; medically speaking, 260 days is indeed
a
sound, average figure for the period lasting from the time when
a
woman first misses her menses to the time when she gives birth.
It
should also be noted that the growth cycle of one of the
varieties
of corn used in highland Guatemala is such that it is harvested
260
days after planting, though it is necessary to hasten the
ripening
of the ears by bending the stalks over; see B. Tedlock,
"Earth Rites
and Moon Cycles: Mayan Synodic and Sidereal Moon
Reckoning."
*(11) For more on the
ball game, see Theodore Stern, The Rubber-Ball
Games of the Americas, and Stephan F. de Borhegyi, The
Pre-Columbian
Ballgames: A Pan-Mesoamerican Tradition.
*(12) For a full
exploration of the astronomical dimensions of the
P.V., see D. Tedlock, "The Sowing and Dawning of All the
Sky-Earth:
Astronomy in the Popol Vuh." The sources for the
astronomical
identifications of Seven Macaw and Chimalmat are given under
their
names in the Glossary. Claude Levi-Strauss states that the
Big
Dipper is identified with the hurricane (rather than opposed to
it) in
the mythology of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (From Honey to
Ashes,
pp. 115-16), but he bases this statement on the work of R.
Lehmann-Nitsche, who presents not a single concrete
ethnographic
example of such an identification and even passes over evidence
that
would place the stellar aspect of the hurricane close to
the
ecliptic rather than near the pole star ("La constelacion
de la Osa
Mayor y su concepto como Huracan o dios de la tormenta en la esfera
del Mar Caribe").
*(13) The symbolism of
the Pleiades is discussed in B. Tedlock,
"Earth Rites and Moon Cycles." The sexual symbolism of
the Zipacna
story was pointed out by Andres Xiloj, whose full comments will
be
found in notes *(144)-*(152).
*(14) Together, Zipacna
and Earthquake probably correspond to the
two-headed "Cauac monster" of classic Maya iconography
(see Dicey
Taylor, "The Cauac Monster").
*(15) The falcon who
serves as the messenger for Hurricane, or Heart
of Sky, may correspond to the planet Jupiter, for reasons that
are
given in D. Tedlock, "The Sowing and Dawning."
*(16) The Great Abyss
at Carchah (see the Glossary) is probably near
the town of Coban; an independent colonial source on that
region,
Bartolome de las Casas, has a god named Exbalanquen entering
the
underworld through a cave near Coban (Apologetica historia de
las
Indias, pp. 330, 619).
*(17) The movements of
the messenger owls, here and elsewhere, fit
those of the planet Mercury; see D. Tedlock, "The Sowing
and Dawning."
*(18) The Maya Venus
cycle, as given in the Dresden Codex, is
discussed at length in Thompson, A Commentary on the Dresden
Codex,
pp. 62-71. A given Venus cycle (lasting 584 days) is divided
into four
stages, with Venus appearing as the morning star (for 236
days),
then disappearing (90 days), then reappearing as the evening
star (250
days), and finally disappearing again (8 days). During a given
584-day
cycle the 20 day names will repeat fully 29 times, giving 580
days and
a remainder of 4; this means that a new Venus cycle will
always
begin 4 days later in the sequence of 20 day names than the
previous
cycle. And since 4 divides evenly into 20, giving 5, only 5 of
the
20 day names can ever begin a Venus cycle. In the Dresden Codex
the
chosen days (here given their Quiche names) were Hunahpu, 4at
(or
"Net"), 3anil, E, and Ahmac, followed by Hunahpu
again. Starting
from 1 Hunahpu (as the Dresden Codex does) and running through
five
complete cycles so as to show all of the possible day names,
the
beginning dates for the four stages within each Venus cycle work
out
as follows:
-
DAY NUMBERS AND NAMES
FOR FIVE
SUCCESSIVE VENUS CYCLES
-
FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH
CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE
-
Appears as
morning star: 1
Hunahpu 13 4at 12 3anil 11 E 10 Ahmac
Becomes
invisible: 3 Ahmac 2 Hunahpu 1 4at 13 3anil 12 E
Appears as
evening star: 2
Came 1 4,ii 13 Ix 12 Tihax 11 13
Becomes
invisible: 5 Ahmac 4 Hunahpu 3 4at 2 3anil 1 E
-
After five complete cycles totaling 2,920 days, the movements of
Venus
fill exactly 8 years of 365 days each and come within hours of
filling
99 lunar months. At this point Venus is also close to completing
13 of
its sidereal periods, which run a little under 225 days each. In
the
present context this means that when Venus begins its cycle for
the
sixth time, an event that will fall on 9 Hunahpu, it will have
the
same relationship to the fixed stars that it had 2,920 days
earlier,
when its appearance as morning star began on 1 Hunahpu. The date
for
this appearance will not return to 1 Hunahpu until all five of
the
possible day names have combined with each of the 13 day
numbers, by
which time Venus will have passed through precisely 65 cycles of
584
days each, 104 cycles of 365 days each, and 146 cycles Of 260
days
each.
The divine names One
and Seven Hunahpu and One and Seven Came (or
"Death") point directly to the Venus calendar, and
specifically to the
first of its five cycles. Andres Xiloj pointed out that
combining
the numbers 1 and 7 with a given day name is a conventional way
of
indicating all 13 days bearing that name. The reason is that
when
one traces a single day name through all of its occurrences in a
given
260-day cycle, the accompanying numbers fall out in the sequence
1, 8,
2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, and 7. This means that if the
divine
names in question here refer to astronomical events, these
should be
events whose day names remain constant but whose day numbers
are
variable, which is indeed the case. By the same argument, the
names
One Ba4, (or "Monkey") and One Chouen (or
"Artisan"), both of which
refer to the same day (see the Glossary), point to an event
that
varies neither as to number nor as to name and must therefore
occur
each 260 days or a multiple thereof. The only astronomical
events that
fit this description are those pertaining to Mars, whose
synodic
period is 780 (3 x 260) days. For example, if Mars made its
first
appearance in a given cycle on the day 1 Ba4, the return of
this
same event would again fall on the day 1 Ba4,.
*(19) The falcon who
serves as the messenger for Xmucane may
correspond to the planet Saturn, for reasons that are given in
D.
Tedlock, "The Sowing and Dawning."
*(20) It was Andres
Xiloj who pointed out that the ritual
performed with the ears of corn in the P.V. is the same as
a
contemporary ritual; his detailed comments on this and
other
connections between the P.V. and contemporary practices may be
found
throughout the notes to the P.V. translation itself. For an
account of
contemporary sound plays on day names, see B. Tedlock,
"Sound
Texture and Metaphor in Quiche Maya Ritual Language," and
Time and the
Highland Maya, chap. 5.
*(21) The macaw's tail
and the two fireflies that glowed all night
may correspond to the stars Procyon, Castor, and Pollux, for
reasons
that are given in D. Tedlock, "The Sowing and
Dawning."
*(22) Ideally there
should be a total of five test houses,
corresponding to the second stage in each of the five types of
Venus
cycles; these would be Dark House, Razor House, Cold (or
Rattling)
House, Jaguar House, and Bat House. They may correspond to
locations
along the Mayan zodiac, since Venus begins to repeat the pattern
of
its relationship to the fixed stars after five cycles. In the
second
of two passages naming the houses, the P.V. seems to add a
sixth
house, a "house of fire," but this may be a secondary
elaboration on
the part of the narrator [see note *(286)].
*(23) In a given
365-day period the 20 day names repeat themselves
completely 18 times, giving 360 days with a remainder of 5; this
means
that the next solar year will always begin with a day name
that
comes 5 days later in the cycle of 20 than the name that began
the
previous year. And since 5 divides evenly into 20, giving 4,
only 4 of
the 20 day names, evenly spaced within the name cycle, can
ever
begin a solar year. For the Quiche, these new year's day names
were
and are Queh or "Deer," E or "Tooth," Naoh
or "Thought," and I3 or
"Wind," followed by Queh again. As for the new year's
day number,
the cycle of 13 numbers repeats itself completely 28 times in
a
given solar year, giving 364 days and a remainder of 1; this
means
that a given solar year will always begin with a day number that
comes
a single place later in the cycle of 13 than the number that
began the
previous year.
The year as a whole is
designated by the number and name of its
beginning day; starting with a year bearing the name 1 Queh,
the
reckoning of successive years proceeds as follows:
-
QUICHE
YEAR DESIGNATIONS
-
1 Queh 6 E 11
Naoh
2 E 7 Naoh 12 I3
3 Naoh 8 I3 13 Queh
4 I3 9 Queh 1 E
5 Queh 10 E etc.
-
Note that two of these day names, E and I3, also have a potential
for events pertaining to Venus (see the Venus calendar in an
earlier
note). They occur in the fourth and (more markedly) in the fifth
and
final cycle of Venus, just as the solar dimension of the story
of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque begins to manifest itself in the final
episodes.
*(24) In Mesoamerican
iconography the evening-star Venus is a
death's head (see Carlson, "The Grolier Codex"). Even
the ball game
played with the squash fits into place when we consider the
report
of Ruth Bunzel that in at least one contemporary Quiche town,
an
excess of large squashes in a field means that the senior male
of a
family may die, since the squashes are a sign that his head is
rotting
(Chichicastenango, p. 54). The vine shown growing out of the
head of a
ballplayer in one of the ball-court relief panels at Chichen
Itza
may well be a squash vine; note that the ball in this panel is
shown
as enclosing a skull (see illustration: "It's just a
skull").
The morning-star and
evening-star episodes should total five each,
corresponding to the five types of Venus cycles. The
morning-star
episodes are brought up to five if we count the period when One
and
Seven Hunahpu were on the surface of the earth as the first
episode,
with the four above-ground adventures of Hunahpu and
Xbalanque
following. The first evening-star episode is of course the one
in
which One Hunahpu's head is placed in the tree at the Place of
Ball
Game Sacrifice, followed by the three ball games with literal
or
figurative heads; the fifth head will be Hunahpu's again, when
he
loses it in a future episode.
*(25) The appearance of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque as catfish recalls
that the purported equivalent of Hunahpu among the classic Maya,
the
god designated G-I in the epigraphic literature on Palenque,
has
cheeks with appendages that sometimes look like catfish barbels
and
sometimes like spiny fins [see Floyd G. Lounsbury, "The
Identities
of the Mythological Figures in the 'Cross Group' Inscriptions
at
Palenque," and notes *(306)-*(307)]. The appearance of the
twins as
vagabond actors is a further sign, beyond the earlier appearance
of
the "old man" or possum, that the sun will soon rise.
Among the
roles of classic Maya year-bearers was that of wandering
actors
(Thompson, Maya History and Religion, p. 277).
*(26) The similarities
between the sun and full moon were also
pointed out by the Aztecs (Bernardino de Sahagun, Florentine
Codex,
Book 7, p. 3).
*(27) Contemporary
Quiche mother-fathers are discussed in B.
Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, pp. 74-85.
*(28) For a general
discussion of the subject of Tollan, see Nigel
Davies, The Toltecs, chap. 2. Tulan (Tulapan in Yucatec sources)
and
Zuyua (often Holtun Zuyua in Yucatec sources) are mentioned in
various
Mayan alphabetic writings, including Recinos et al., The Annals
of the
Cakchiquels, pp. 44-53; Ralph L. Roys, The Book of Chilam Balam
of
Chumayel, pp. 74, 132, 139, 153; and Eugene R. Craine and
Reginald
C. Reindorp, The Codex Perez and the Book of Chilam Balam of
Mani, pp.
80, 138, 166, 167.
From a Yucatec point of
view (see the Chumayel book), Holtun Zuyua
occupied the western position in a four-directional group of
towns
whose leaders converged on Chichen Itza (a fifth and central
town)
in order to receive lordship; it may have been at the place
now
known as Puerto Escondido in Campeche (Thompson, Maya History
and
Religion, p. 23), though Edmonson (without giving any
evidence)
locates it near Motul in Yucatan (The Ancient Future of the
Itza:
The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, p. 38). As for Tulapan,
that
was the place where the Tutul Xiu lineage traced its origins; it
was
even farther west than Zuyua (according to the Mani book), which
could
mean that it was the primary Toltecan Tollan near Mexico City.
The
Cakchiquel book uses the name Tulan in this narrow sense when it
has
the Quiches and Cakchiquels coming to Zuyua from a western
Tulan,
but it also uses the name in a broader sense that takes in the
Yucatec
system of directional towns, speaking of a Tulan for each of
the
four directions and of a convergence on what appears to be a
central
Tulan. In effect, the authors of the P.V. apply the name
Tulan
specifically to the western town in the Yucatec system,
producing
the name Tulan Zuyua. When they say Tulan Zuyua is in the
"east," they
are reckoning its position not in the context of the Yucatec
system
but relative to the Tulan or Tulapan that is west of Zuyua in
the Mani
and Cakchiquel books.
*(29) The main cave at
Teotihuacan and its relationship to a Nahua
tradition concerning seven caves are discussed by Doris Heyden
in
"An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of
the Sun in
Teotihuacan, Mexico." The existence of a god named Tahil at
Palenque
and his relationship to Tohil have been pointed out by Linda
Schele
(Notebook for the Maya Hieroglyphic Writing Workshop, p. 114)
and
Floyd G. Lounsbury (personal communication). For more on the
Yaqui see
the Glossary; they are not to be confused with the Yaqui tribe
of
Sonora and Arizona.
*(30) The reference to
the body of water crossed by the Quiche
forefathers as a "sea" is a hyperbole; it is called
both a "lake"
and a "sea" in "Historia Quiche de don Juan de
Torres," in Recinos,
Cronicas indigenas de Guatemala pp. 24-25. The causeways at
Potonchan and Tixchel are noted in France V. Scholes and Ralph
L.
Roys, The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel, p. 81.
*(31) For more on the
Zaki 4oxol or "White Sparkstriker," see the
Glossary and B. Tedlock, "El C'oxol: un simbolo de la
resistencia
quiche a la conquista espiritual."
*(32) In Quiche theory,
at least, the reckoning of the 260-day cycle
should have been in synchrony everywhere in Mesoamerica. We do
know
that Cuauhtemoc, the successor of Moctezuma, surrendered the
city of
Tenochtitlan to Hernan Cortes on an Aztec day whose name means
"One
Snake," falling on August 13, 1521, on the Julian
calendar
(Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, p. 303). Tracing the
contemporary Quiche calendar back to that same Julian date, we
come to
a day whose Quiche name, Hun Can, also means "One
Snake." In other
words, when it was One Snake in Tenochtitlan, it was One Snake
a
thousand road miles away in the town of Quiche. Lounsbury
argues, in
"The Base of the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex,"
for a lowland Maya
calendar correlation that would move the classic Maya 260-day
cycle
two days out of synchrony with the Quiche and Aztec calendars,
but the
astronomical basis of his argument could easily be two days
off,
according to the astronomer John B. Carlson (personal
communication).
*(33) If the Quiches
timed their attacks on their rivals in the same
way as the classic lowland Maya, they favored periods when Venus
was
the evening star (see Lounsbury, "Astronomical Knowledge
and Its
Uses at Bonampak, Mexico"). The "road" onto which
they rolled the head
of a sacrifice victim may have been symbolic of the zodiacal
path
within which Venus is confined, and the head may have been
thought
of on the model of the severed heads that appeared as the
evening-star
Venus in the story of Hunahpu and Xbalanque and their
fathers.
*(34) It took 52 years
of 365 days each for all four
year-beginning day names to occur in combination with all
thirteen day
numbers (4 x 13 = 52). The seniority given by the Quiche to Queh
or
"Deer" among the year-beginning day names is noted in
B. Tedlock, Time
and the Highland Maya, p. 99.
*(35) Alternative
accounts of the names and generational positions
of the Quiches who went on the pilgrimage, and of the titles
that were
given to them, may be found in Adrian Recinos et al., Title of
the
Lords of Totonicapan, pp. 176-79. Tulan, the place where the
Quiche
founding fathers had spent some time in an earlier episode, may
have
been left completely empty by the time they and the other
tribes
mentioned in the P.V. had departed from it. In the Quiche language
the
word for this place, in the form tolan, came to figure in such
phrases
as tolanic tinamit, "abandoned city," and tolan ha,
"dark, uninhabited
house" (B.).
*(36) A long list of
the citadels settled by the Quiches between
Hacauitz and Thorny Place is given in Recinos et al., Title of
the
Lords of Totonicapan, pp. 180-83. For a description of Thorny
Place,
now known as Cauinal (the name given to one of its four
divisions in
the P.V.), see John W. Fox, Quiche Conquest: Centralism and
Regionalism in Highland Guatemalan State Development pp. 243-50,
and
Alain Ichon, "Arqueologia y etnohistoria en
Cawinal."
*(37) For a full
discussion of the buildings of 3umarakah (Rotten
Cane) or Utatlan (the Nahua name for the same place), see
Carmack, The
Quiche Mayas, chap. 9.
*(38) The military
exploits of Quicab are discussed in Carmack,
The Quiche Mayas, pp. 134-37. The citadels that made up the town
of
Quiche, in addition to Rotten Cane, were Bearded Place to the
south,
which now belonged to the Tams; Mukuitz Pilocab to the
north,
belonging to the Ilocs; and Resguardo, or Atalaya, to the
east,
whose Quiche name and lineage affiliation are unknown (Carmack,
The
Quiche Mayas, chap. 8).
*(39) For the full
story of Alvarado's conquest of the Quiche
kingdom, which was resisted by a large military force, see
Victoria
Reifler Bricker, The Indian Christ, the Indian King, pp. 39-41.
The
events at Rotten Cane itself are further described in Carmack,
The
Quiche Mayas, pp. 143-47. According to Spanish sources, Three
Deer and
Nine Dog were burned at the stake and it was Tecum and Tepepul
who
were hanged.
*(40) In dating the
writing of the alphabetic P.V., I follow
Recinos, Popol Vuh, pp. 22-23. For a description of titulos
contemporary with the P.V., see Carmack, Quichean Civilization,
pp.
19-71. The calculations correlating a year-beginning day bearing
the
name One Deer with June 2, 1558 (Julian) are my own. The fact
that a
calendrical event of the same kind fell on April 10, 1818
(Gregorian),
may help explain why the years 1816 to 1820 saw a Quiche
revolt
against tribute payments to the Spanish crown, climaxing in
the
coronation of Atinasio Tzul, the mayor of Totonicapan, as King
of
the Quiches. For a description of this revolt see Bricker,
The
Indian Christ, chap. 7.
*(41) For more on the
Spanish journey of Juan Cortes and the warning
sent to Philip II, see Pedro Carrasco, "Don Juan Cortes,
cacique de
Santa Cruz Quiche."
*(42) The lineal
descendants of Juan de Rojas and Juan Cortes
continued to litigate well into the eighteenth century. The
Cortes
line died out by 1788; the de Rojas line still lives, but
its
members lost all remaining vestiges of their lordly privileges
with
the coming of liberal reforms in 1801 (Carmack, The Quiche
Mayas,
pp. 321, 362).
*(43) In translating
the nim chocohib of the P.V. as "Great
Toastmasters" or "Great Conveners of Banquets" I
take my cue from
Ximenez, who has "grandes combites" (Popol Vuh, p. 265);
see also
Great Toastmaster in the Glossary. For more on contemporary
matchmakers (or "road guides"), see B. Tedlock, Time
and the
Highland Maya, pp. 74, 110, 117, 156.
*(44) The name Cristobal Velasco may be found
in Recinos et al.,
Title of the Lords of Totonicapan, p. 195.
*(45) The Dresden Codex
page that begins an otherwise torn-off
section is discussed in Thompson, A Commentary on the Dresden
Codex,
pp. 78-80.
*(46) My discussion of
the Palenque inscriptions is based on
lectures given by Linda Schele in the spring of 1984; their
contents
are partially available in Schele, Notebook for the Maya
Hieroglyphic Writing Workshop at Texas.
*(47) For more on the
dialectical nature of Quiche thought see B.
Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, pp. 145-46, 176-77. The
role of
myth in Mayan thinking about history is explored by Bricker in
The
Indian Christ, chaps. 1 and 14.
-
POPOL VUH
-
PART ONE
-
*(48) the beginning:
This is uxe, literally "its base" or "root"; it
is as if the writers were starting at the bottom of something
vertical
and working their way up.
*(49) this place called
Quiche: That "Quiche" is meant as a place
name here is confirmed at the very end of the P.V.:
"everything has
been completed here concerning Quiche, which is now named Santa
Cruz."
See the Glossary for more on Quiche and Santa Cruz.
*(50) And here: The
paragraphing of the present translation is
largely based on two considerations. The first is the occurrence
of
what Dell Hymes calls "initial particles" ("In
Vain I Tried to Tell
You", pp. 318-20). Examples in Quiche are are 4ut,
"And here" (or "And
this is"); 4ate 4ut, "And next"; and quehe 4ut,
"And so." The second
consideration is the occurrence of quotations. In
contemporary
Quiche speech there are deliberate pauses both before and
after
phrases consisting of initial particles, and immediately
before
quotations. For more details, see D. Tedlock, The Spoken Word,
chap.
4, and "Hearing a Voice in an Ancient Text."
*(51) how things were
put in shadow and brought to light: This is
euaxibal zaquiribal [zakiribal], "being-hidden-instrument
becoming-light-instrument." The first word is built on a
passive
(-x) form of euah, which V. glosses as "to hide" but
then explains
that it has to do with shadows or dark places. The second word
is
built on an inchoative (-ir) form of zak, "be light,"
which it
shares with zakiric, "to dawn." The two words together
describe the
activities of the gods at a very general level. As will be seen,
the
gods not only bring things to light but can also darken what
was
once in the light.
On the other hand, the
two words could also be translated as "the
hiding place, the dawning place," since -bal can either
be
instrumental or indicate place. The "hiding place"
would be euabal
ziuan or "Concealment Canyon" (see Glossary), where
the gods were
hidden away before the dawn; the "dawning place" would
be the place
(or places) where the founding ancestors of the ruling Quiche
lineages
were keeping vigil when the morning star and then the sun rose
for the
first time, places which are referred to as zaquiribal
[zakribal.]
*(52) the midwife,
matchmaker: This is iyom, mamom. Andres Xiloj
immediately identified iyom as the modern term for
"midwife" (yom is
given the same meaning in B.). He knew of mamom only as a
term
addressed to a matchmaker in the ceremonial language of a
bride-asking
ceremony; ordinarily the matchmaker is referred to as 4amal
be,
"road guide."
*(53) defender,
protector: This is matzanel chuquenel. B. lists
matzanel (under matzo) as "defender," which fits the
role of the
Quiche daykeeper as the maker of prayers and offerings on behalf
of
clients. As Andres Xiloj pointed out, the daykeeper who takes
this
role today may be called, among other things, by the Spanish
word
abogado, "lawyer, advocate," and may be thought of as
presenting the
case of the client before a divine tribunal. The translation
of
chuquenel rests on the entry in B. for chukonal (under
chu3u),
"protector." The two terms are very similar in their
root senses;
for matzo, B. gives "to shelter after the manner of a
hen," and for
chu3u, "to cover over."
*(54) as enlightened
beings, in enlightened words: "Enlightened"
is my translation, for the present context, of zaquil
[zakil],
"lightness" or "whiteness." This insistence
that the aforementioned
Quiche deities and their words have the properties of light
is
directly juxtaposed to a mention of God and Christendom in
the
sentence that follows; it can thus be read as a direct and
deliberate contradiction of the missionary teaching that
the
pre-Conquest gods were all devils.
*(55) amid the
preaching of God, in Christendom now: After the
Dios and christianoil in this phrase, there will be no more Spanish
or
Spanish-derived words until Part Five of the present
translation
[see note *(471) for the lord bishop]. The "preaching"
is 4habal,
literally "manner of speaking" or just plain
"talk"; the phrase
u4habal Dios, "talk of God," came to be the standard
Quiche way of
referring to Christian doctrine and is still used in that sense
by
both Quiches and missionaries, but the original choice of
these
words to translate "la palabra de Dios" must have been
made by a
Quiche rather than a missionary. The proper Quiche term for
an
authoritative and abiding "word" was and still is tzih
rather than
4habal; the writers of the P.V. refer to their own manuscript
as
containing oher tzih, "the Ancient Word," but neither
they nor
contemporary Quiches use tzih as a way of referring to "la
palabra
de Dios." In choosing to translate u4habal Dios as
"the preaching of
God" in the present context, I have tried to combine the
"Christian
doctrine" sense of this phrase with the more general sense
of 4habal
as an act of speaking.
*(56) a place to see
it: The original pre-Columbian P.V. is referred
to here and much later as an ilbal re (written ibal re in the
later
place), "an instrument (or place) for the seeing of
something." What
was "seen" there included "how things were put in
shadow and brought
to light" by the gods, together with future events such as
war, death,
famine, and quarrels. B. has an entry for ilbal re (under ilo)
glossed
redundantly as "figura de dibujos," which could
variously mean
"figure," "drawing," and even
"picture." Today ilbal or ilobal
(without the re) refers to crystals used for gazing by diviners
and to
eyeglasses, binoculars, and telescopes.
*(57) There is the
original book and ancient writing, but he who
reads and ponders it hides his face: Edmonson is correct in
interpreting the phrase eual uuach, "hidden his-face,"
as pertaining
to the reader of the P.V. rather than to the book itself (The
Book
of Counsel, p. 7). "There is" is my translation of 4o;
some
translators have used the past tense here, the usual treatment
for
Quiche verbs inflected for the complete aspect, but that would
call
for x4o. "He who reads" translates ilol, literally
"one who sees."
B. gives ilol as "seer" or "prophet," and
ilol uuh (literally "book
seer") as "reader"; an English translation built
on "read" does
quite well at covering the full range of ilol, since
"read" still
retains divinatory usages that go all the way back to its
Germanic
root. "[He who] ponders" translates bizol, an agentive
form of biz,
"sad" or "pensive." The emotional dimension
of bizol is made quite
clear in later passages, where we hear again and again how
the
Quiche forefathers wept at the thought of having left the
mythic
city of Tulan and having become separated from other
tribes.
*(58) performance: This
is my translation of peoxic, which I read as
a passive and nominalized form of peyoh, "to hire"
(V.), probably
meaning something like "service rendered."
*(59) the fourfold
siding, fourfold cornering, / measuring, fourfold
staking, / halving the cord, stretching the cord / in the sky,
on
the earth, / the four sides, the four corners: The
"fourfold siding"
and "cornering" are ucah tzucuxic and ucah xucutaxic;
the "four sides"
and "four corners" are cah tzuc and cah xucut. Xucut
was and is
"corner," and cah xucut is still in use as a way of
referring to the
four directions, most frequently in prayers in the line, cah
xucut
cah, cah xucut uleu, "four corners of sky, four corners of
earth."
Tzuc is more difficult to translate. Andres Xiloj suggested
"sides" on
the basis of context. B. gives cahzuc as "a square
thing," and
although he gives cahxucut as a synonym for cahzuc under the
entry for
the latter, he elsewhere glosses cahxucut as "four angles
of the
world." The notion that tzuc means "side" in the
present context, in
contrast with "corner" or "angle," is based
on zu3u-, "to go somewhere
straight, without straying" (B.), and on zu4um,
"straight" (X.). Under
zucube, which would mean "straight (direct) road," B.
lists tzucu be
as an alternative spelling; this supports the relationship
between the
tzuc of the P.V., with its tz, and the dictionary entries for
zu3
and zu4um with their z.
The "fourfold
staking" is ucah cheexic; Andres Xiloj understood this
to be four sticks or poles driven in the ground at the four
corners.
The "measuring" is retaxic, literally
"its-being-measured," translated
on the basis of etah, "to measure, to mark out" (B.),
and the
reading offered by don Andres. The measuring in this passage is
done
according to a unit still in use among the Quiche, the 4aam
or
"cord" (a length of rope). Don Andres was familiar
with the
phraseology used here, umeh camaxic [4aamaxic],
"its-folded
cording," and uyuc camaxic [uyuk 4aamaxic],
"its-stretched cording."
He explained that the "folded" measurement is done
with the cord
folded back upon itself to halve its length, and that the
"stretched" measurement is done with the cord pulled
out to its full
length. His reading of 4aamaxic (which has a passive ending)
is
confirmed by an entry in B., caamaah (with an active ending),
"to
measure lands." He observed that the P.V. describes the
measuring
out of the sky and earth as if a cornfield were being laid out
for
cultivation. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel also describes
the
setting up of the earth and sky as an act of measurement,
carried
out not only in space (by footsteps in this case) but in time
(through
twenty consecutive days from the 260-day divinatory cycle)
(Roys,
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, pp. 116-118). The
Chumayel
document makes a passing reference to a celestial cord (p.
155);
Yucatec Mayas near Valladolid told Alfred M. Tozzer that a
cord
suspended in the sky once linked Tulum and Coba with Chichen
Itza
and Uxmal (A Comparative Study of the Mayas and Lacandones, p.
153).
The present passage
offers one of the clearest examples of
parallel verse structure in the P.V.; it may be scanned as
follows:
-
ucah
tzucuxic, fourfold siding,
ucah
xucutaxic fourfold cornering,
retaxic,
measuring,
ucah
cheexic, fourfold staking,
-
umeh
camaxic, halving the cord,
uyuc
camaxic stretching the cord
-
upa
cah, in the sky,
upa
uleu on the earth,
-
cah
tzuc the four sides,
cah
xucut the four corners
-
Note that the first two lines actually form a quatrain, with
a
slight variation in the third part; such quatrains occur
elsewhere
in the P.V. and in Yucatec texts as well (see D. Tedlock, The
Spoken
Word, chap. 8). Edmonson presented the entire P.V. in couplets
(The
Book of Counsel), ignoring triplets, quatrains, and passages
in
which the horizontal movement of prose strongly modifies
the
vertical movement of parallelism [see note *(70)]. In the
present work
I have chosen a verse format only where the parallelism is
both
strongly marked and sustained.
In contemporary Quiche
discourse with parallelism like that of the
passage under discussion, the formation of lines in oral
delivery
would depend on considerations of audience. If this were a
prayer
meant only for the ears of the gods and if the wording were well
known
to the speaker, the whole thing might be run off on a single
breath,
with the end of each phrase marked by a slight drop in pitch. In
a
slower rendition meant to be heard by humans, or near the beginning
of
a performance, there might be a pause after each of the lines
as
they are given in the translation, though the opening quatrain
might
well be run together as a single spoken line rather than
divided
between two lines (see D. Tedlock, "Hearing a Voice").
In any case,
the two parts of a couplet are seldom divided between
lines.
*(60) giver of heart,
... upbringer: These are respectively 4uxlanel
and 4uxlaay, both built on the stern 4ux, "heart,"
which in its
4uxla-forms has to do with thought in the sense of
"memory" and
"will." Andres Xiloj defined 4uxlanel as follows:
"One who raises us
and has a good reputation for doing this." In the
translation I have
tried to preserve the full range of 4uxla- by staying literal
for
its first occurrence ("giver of heart") and
translating for sense
the second time around ("upbringer").
*(61) in the light that
lasts: Here I have tried to preserve in
English the relationship that exists between the corresponding
words
of the text, zaquil amaquil [zakil ama3el]. These two Quiche
words are
linked by assonance and alliteration, giving them a parallel
sound,
but they are not properly parallel in their morphology- in fact,
the
latter word modifies the former. Zakil is composed of zak,
an
adjective meaning "light" or "white," and
-il, which makes it into
an abstract noun; ama3el, on the other hand, whether in
classical or
modern Quiche, is a unitary, unanalyzable form (at least
where
proper morphology is concerned). As an adverb it means
"always" or
"all the time"; as an adjective it means
"continuous" or "eternal." In
rendering zakil ama3el as "the light that lasts," I
change parts of
speech as the original phrase does (though not in precisely the
same
way), while at the same time linking the two halves of the
phrase
through alliteration.
*(62) Now it still
ripples, now it still murmurs, ripples, it
still sighs, still hums, and it is empty: The full sound pattern
of
this passage can only be fully appreciated in the original; I
have
corrected ca to 4a, -oc to -ok, and tzini- and tzino- to 4,ini-
and
4,ino-: 4a ca4,ininok, 4a cachamamok ca4,inonic, 4a cazilanic,
4a
calolinic, catolona puch. 4a is "still, yet"; ca- is
the incomplete
aspect; and -ok has the effect of "now"; nevertheless,
translators
have generally put this passage in the past tense! What we are
hearing
here is the performer's effort to make the primordial state of
the
world present for his listeners, setting a scene rather
than
recounting a past event; the mood is a lyric rather than a
historical one.
Translators have
rendered the first five verbs here with
adjectives like "quiet" or "silent"; the
problems with such a
treatment only begin with the fact that the Quiche words in
question
are, after all, verbs and not adjectives. To translate these
verbs
as referring to mere silence and the like misses the fact that
the
stems 4,inin-, chamam-, 4,inon-, and lolin- all contain
reduplicative alliteration (together with reduplicative
assonance in
two cases) and are therefore onomatopoeic. Colonial and
modern
dictionary entries for the stems of this passage do indeed
include
some of the glosses translators have chosen, but B. gives
"ring" for
4,ino-, and V. explains that zilan- (under zilee) refers to
the
(audible) process through which windy weather is calmed.
Further,
Andres Xiloj identifies lolin- as the standard Quiche way of
rendering
the sound of a cricket. In translating this passage I have
chosen
quiet sounds that can be expressed as verbs; my
"ripples" are
derived from the fact that there is nothing but sky and water
in
this opening scene, as will be seen further on; for the same
reason
I have avoided obvious animal sounds. The "quiet" in
question here
is not so much a complete silence as it is a "hush"
(note the
onomatopoeic quality of this English word), the kinds of sounds
one
hears when there are no other sounds- or in this case, the
"white
noise" of the primordial world itself.
*(63) the first
eloquence: Ximenez translates uchan as
"eloquence," the same gloss given it by B. (under the
entry for chan).
*(64) It is at rest;
not a single thing stirs: Some translators have
made the first half of this sentence negative by joining it to
the
negative clause that precedes it, but in fact what we have here
is the
last in a series of three sentences with the same
positive-negative
clause structure. The negativity of the second clause of the
present
sentence is marked by hunta, "not one thing" (B.),
which is not to
be confused with hutak, "each one." The entire
sentence is perfectly
intelligible, just as it is, in modern Quiche; Andres Xiloj gave
it
the same reading I have.
*(65) It is held back:
This is camal cabantah, which is difficult to
translate. I find my clue in the entry for camalo in B., which
is
glossed "late, not quick"; the entire phrase might be
read as, "it
is made to be late (or slow)."
*(66) a glittering
light: This is zactetoh [zaktetoh], which B.
glosses as "the brightness that enters through
cracks." If this is the
central meaning of this word rather than an illustrative
example, then
the light in question must be escaping between the feathers with
which
the Bearers and Begetters are covered (see the next two
sentences).
Note that the first light in the primordial scene is not up in
the
sky, but down at (or in) the level of the water. Its
"glittering"
corresponds, in the sensory domain of light, to the soft
and
repetitive nature of the primordial sounds described
earlier.
*(67) in their very
being: This is chiqui4oheic,
"at-their-being-there." I have translated it as
"in their very
being" because the writers of the P.V., wherever they add
chiqui4oheic
(or a similar form based on 4oheic) to a statement in which the
verb
"to be" is already present or understood, are making a
pointedly
ontological statement. Some translators have softened the
ontological abstractness of these statements by using such
phrases
as "by their nature," but 4oheic has no aura of the
natal or the
biological hanging about it the way "nature" does, and
in fact I
know of no Quiche concept that corresponds to
"nature." If I were
translating 4oheic into German, I would choose Dasein.
*(68) the name of the
god: The word I have translated as "god"
here is cabauil [4abauil]. The primary reference of 4abauil,
through
most of the P.V., is to the patron deities of the ruling
Quiche
lineages and to the sacred stones that were the material
embodiments
of these deities. But the present passage- given that 4abauil
is
linked specifically to the Heart of Sky, and given that the
Heart of
Sky will shortly hereafter be described as a trinity- must be
read
as an allusion to Christian teachings. Note carefully that when
the
passage is read literally rather than as an allusion, it
contains
nothing that directly contradicts indigenous Quiche theology;
Heart of
Sky is among the names uttered before 4abauil stones in a prayer
given
much later. For a general discussion of biblical allusions in
the
P.V., see D. Tedlock, The Spoken Word, chap. 11.
Looking into the
etymology of 4abauil, we find 4ab, "to have the
mouth open"- for example, in admiration and in death (V.).
B. and T.
have caba, "to open," with the mouth given as an
example. 4abauil,
then, could mean something like "open-mouthed." The
ancient stone
4abauil were given drinks of sacrificed blood through their
mouths;
their modern counterparts in the eastern Quiche area,
called
4amauil, are given drinks of liquor (and sometimes chicken
blood)
through their mouths.
*(69) in the early
dawn: This phrase constitutes the P.V.'s first
allusion to the day names of the 260-day divinatory
calendar.
Instead of the ordinary word for "early dawn," a3abil,
the text has
a3abal, an archaic form that is also the proper name of a day.
Like
other day names, A3abal is often given a divinatory interpretation
by means of sound play, and one of the words used to play on
it
today is in fact a3abil, an allusion to the fact that the
rituals
scheduled for days named A3abal are best carried out during the
time
of day known as a3abil. The rituals in question, appropriately
enough,
involve the first steps toward the negotiation of new
social
relationships that will last a lifetime (B. Tedlock, Time and
the
Highland Maya, pp. 77-81). One A3abal is an appropriate day for
a
daykeeper with the office of mother-father to go to the pair
of
shrines dedicated to the welfare of the human inhabitants of the
lands
of his patrilineage, in order to discuss (in prayer) the fact that
a
family in his lineage wishes to propose a marriage between one
of
its young men and a woman from another lineage. A later day
named
A3abal may be chosen for the making of the actual proposal at
the
house of the prospective bride.
On One, Eight, and Nine
A3abal a mother-father who has taken on
the responsibility of training and installing the successor of
his
deceased counterpart in a neighboring lineage will go to the
shrines
of that lineage to discuss the fact that one of its members
wishes
to become its new mother-father. In both the marriage and
the
installation the negotiation has two levels: it is not only the
living
who must give their approval to the bond between husband and
wife or
between the new mother-father and the foundation shrines (which
is
thought of as a spiritual marriage), but the ancestors and the
gods.
In the case of the Heart of Sky's discussion with the Sovereign
Plumed
Serpent in the P.V., the problem is a more fundamental one.
When, by
their joint efforts (and those of other gods) they
eventually
succeed in making four different mother-fathers, each of
them
married to one of four different women, these will be the
first
human mother-fathers and the first human married couples who
ever
existed.
*(70) He spoke with the
Sovereign Plumed Serpent.... they joined
their words, their thoughts: This passage offers an example of
what
happens when the Quiche tendency to parallel verse is modified
by
the forward thrust of prose (see D. Tedlock, "Hearing a
Voice"). The
result is a diagonal trajectory:
-
xchau ru4 ri tepeu
4ucumatz
xe4ha cut, ta
xenaohinic
ta
xebizonic,
xerico
quib
xquicuch
quitzih
quinaoh
-
He spoke with the
Sovereign Plumed Serpent,
and they talked, then
they thought,
then
they worried.
They agreed with each other,
they joined their words,
their thoughts.
-
It is passages such as this that move the action forward in
narratives, with the balance sometimes swinging more toward
the
verticality of verse than in the present example and sometimes
more
toward the horizontality of prose. The more a passage in
contemporary Quiche discourse swings toward this horizontality
the
less predictable- and, potentially, the more dramatic- its
pauses
become, except for the paragraphing discussed in note *(50). As
in the
present case, I have kept such passages in a prose format in
the
translation proper.
*(71) the generation:
This is uinaquiric [uinakiric]. Others have
translated this as "creation," but it has to do with
such processes as
the seasonal rising of springs in places that would otherwise
be
dry, and the growth or formation of algae or larvae in still
water
(V.). The word "creation" is too heavily laden with an
implied
ontological priority of the spiritual over the material to be
imported
into the present account of origins, which contains no word
quite like
it.
*(72) Thunderbolt
Hurricane comes first, the second is Newborn
Thunderbolt, and the third is Raw Thunderbolt: There may be
an
allusion to the Christian trinity here, but the pre-Columbian
Quiche
pantheon did include at least one trinity, whether that trinity
was
the same as the present Thunderbolt trinity or not. The
principal gods
(4abauil) of the ruling Quiche lineages are listed again and
again
as Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz, though there is occasional
mention
of a fourth god. The P.V. never directly links the three
Thunderbolts with the three lineage gods, but it is at
least
suggestive that the dwelling place of the latter threesome
is
described as shrouded in a rainstorm.
On the basis of
fieldwork, Barbara Tedlock and I can confirm
Lowy's report that cakulha not only is the Quiche term for
thunderbolt
but is also the Quiche name for the Amanita muscaria mushroom
(Bernard
Lowy, "Amanita muscaria and the Thunderbolt Legend in
Guatemala and
Mexico," p. 189). We must hasten to add that although
Quiches are
indeed what Gordon Wasson would call "mycophiles"
rather than
"mycophobes"- they are very fond of the Amanita
caesaria, for example-
they generally regard the muscaria as a poisonous species
best
avoided. But we cannot rule out the possible presence of a
muscaria
cult in the P.V., whether in the form of a symbolic residue
of
something long past or a highly coded allusion to something
still
under way at the time Europeans first arrived, nor can we rule
out the
use of muscaria by some present-day highland Guatemalan
shamans.
As to the stone and
pottery mushroom effigies discovered in
Guatemalan archaeological sites (Stephan F. de Borhegyi,
"Pre-Columbian Pottery Mushrooms from Mesoamerica"),
these pertain
to the hot Pacific lowlands rather than to the high, cool
evergreen
forests where the muscaria grows, and there is the further
problem
that the ruling Quiche lineages trace their origins to the
Gulf
coast rather than the Pacific. Moreover, de Borhegyi dates
the
effigies no later than a thousand years ago, leaving a gap
of
several centuries before the Quiche kingdom expanded into
the
Pacific lowlands during the reign of Quicab. Of all the
arguments
for a mushroom cult among the highland Maya the archaeological
one
is the weakest.
The case for Amanita
muscaria in the P.V. itself is somewhat
stronger, though we must begin from the fact that mushrooms as
such
are never mentioned. Far beyond the present passage there occur
the
words holom ocox, literally "head of a mushroom,"
translated there
as "yarrow", but Duncan MacLean Earle ("La
etnoecologia quiche en el
Popol Vuh") has found this to be the Quiche term for a
common herb,
named (like a great many other Quiche plants and mushrooms) for
its
resemblance to an anatomical part of another biological species
(see
yarrow in the Glossary). What is more, the holom ocox of the
P.V. is
not eaten but rather burned as incense, along with another
common herb
called iya (see marigold in the Glossary); according to Earle,
both
these herbs are still used as incense today in the region east
of
Santa Cruz Quiche, and Andres Xiloj attested the use of iya
in
Momostenango. The flowers of iya are yellow and those of holom
ocox
are white; the P.V. mentions the two plant names in this same
order,
which fits with the yellow/white order of corn colors in the
P.V.
and the color pairings in the couplets of contemporary prayers
(see B.
Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, Appendix B).
Whatever the problems
with finding a clear reference to mushrooms in
the P.V., the evidence for the Amanita muscaria is not limited
to
the fact that cakulha could refer both to a literal thunderbolt
and to
the mushroom named for the thunderbolt. First of all, the stipe
of a
mushroom (like the trunk of a tree) is called rakan, "its
leg," in
Quiche, and of course a mushroom with a stipe has only one
"leg,"
which recalls that the name translated "Thunderbolt
Hurricane" here
could also be glossed as "One-legged Thunderbolt" (see
Hurricane in
the Glossary). This leaves the way open to the muscaria but does
not
settle the matter, since there are plenty of literal
thunderbolts that
also have a single "leg." The rawness (or freshness)
and
youthfulness ascribed to the cakulha in the P.V. work in the same
way:
there could be an allusion to the suddenness of the growth
of
mushrooms, but these same qualities are also possessed by
thunderbolts.
The single most
suggestive bit of evidence for the mushroom theory
lies in the fact that a later P.V. passage gives Newborn
Thunderbolt
and Raw Thunderbolt two further names: Newborn Nanahuac and
Raw
Nanahuac. As Schultze Jena pointed out (Popol Vuh, p. 187),
Nanahuac
would appear to be the same as the Aztec deity Nanahuatl
(or
Nanahuatzin), who throws a thunderbolt to open the mountain
containing
the first corn. Nanahuatl means "warts" in Nahua (D.),
which
suggests the appearance of the muscaria when the remnants of
its
veil still fleck the cap.
*(73) "How should
it be sown, how should it dawn?": "Sowing" (auax-)
and "dawning" (zakir-) are frequently paired
throughout the portion of
the P.V. that deals with the predawn world. The meanings of
these
two words, which run through them several different threads
when
they are paired, have something of the structure of a Mobius
strip. If
we start with the literal meaning of sowing in the present
context,
the reference is to the beginning of plants; but if we trace
that idea
over to the other side of our strip, the sprouting of those
same
plants is expressed metaphorically as "dawning." If,
on the other
hand, we start from the literal meaning of "dawning,"
the present
reference is to the first of all dawns; but if we trace that
idea back
over to the other side of the strip, the origin of that dawn
is
expressed metaphorically as a "sowing," referring to
the fact that the
Quiche gods who eventually become Venus and the sun and moon
must
first descend into the underworld. The head of one of these
gods
becomes the fruit of a calabash tree, while another has his
head
replaced by a squash- that is, at least two of them acquire
plant
characteristics in the underworld before the coming of the
first
literal dawning.
The pairing of sowing
and dawning receives a further meaning when it
is taken to refer to human beings, whose perfection is the
principal
goal of the world-making gods of the present passage. To trace
out
this meaning, we must have recourse to ethnography. In
Momostenango
a mother-father or patrilineage head "sows" and
"plants" an unborn
child in certain shrines of his lineage by announcing its
mother's
pregnancy there (B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, p. 80).
On
the "dawning" side of this process, the woman who
gives birth to the
child cuya ri zak, "gives it light" (Ibid., p. 211).
This particular
tracing remains metaphorical on both sides of the
"sowing" and
"dawning," but it retains a twist in that it is
specifically built
on the model of the literal sowing and metaphorical
"dawning" of
vegetation. A second human tracing, also metaphorical on both
sides
but twisted in that it seems to be built on the model of
the
metaphorical "sowing" and literal dawning of heavenly
bodies, is
followed out in death and its aftermath. Here the body is put in
the
earth, but the deceased "becomes light" or
"dawns" (both zakiric) in
two different senses: the body itself is reduced to plain
white
(light-colored) bones, but the spirit becomes a spark of
light,
something like a star.
*(74) provider,
nurturer: This is tzucul cool [tzukul 3ool]; both
words broadly refer to sustenance, but the latter seems to
refer
more overtly to actual food than the former (at least in B.),
and
the only word that resembles it today is 3obic, "to get
fat" (X.). The
providers or nurturers ultimately intended here are human
beings,
who will one day sustain the gods through prayer and sacrifice,
but
for the time being the gods will succeed only in making
animals.
Eventually deer and birds will indeed be among those who nurture
the
gods with their blood, but only when there are humans to
sacrifice
them; these same sacrificers will also provide their very own
blood to
the gods, drawing it from their ears and elbows, and will
ultimately
offer the blood and the hearts of human captives.
*(75) But there will be
no high days and no bright praise: The
paired words here are uquihilabal [u3ihilabal] and
ucalaibal
[u3alaibal]. The first is literally
"its-day-ness-instrument,"
referring to the keeping or setting aside of a specific day on
the
calendar for ritual purposes; I chose "high days"
because the notion
of "holidays" has become so secularized in English
(despite the
etymology of that word). The second is "its-brightness
(or
manifestness)-instrument"; it could even be translated as
"publicity,"
but that term, unlike the Quiche one, is strictly secular,
includes
unfavorable attention, and does not involve a visual
metaphor.
*(76) just like a
cloud, like a mist, now forming, unfolding. Then
the mountains were separated from the water: The
"unfolding" here is
upupuheic, which for both B. and Andres Xiloj describes the way
in
which clouds form around mountains. "Separated" is my
translation of
xtape, tangentially based on tapo, "to pick out" (B.).
On reading this
passage don Andres immediately commented: "It's just the
way it is
right now, there are clouds, then the clouds part, piece by
piece, and
now the sky is clear." It is as if the mountains were there
in the
primordial world all along and were revealed, little by little,
as the
clouds parted. But don Andres complicated this interpretation
by
saying, "Haven't you seen that when the water passes- a
rainstorm- and
then it clears, a vapor comes out from among the trees? The
clouds
come out from among the mountains, among the trees." This
lends a
cyclical movement to the picture: the clouds come from the
mountains, then conceal the mountains, then part to reveal
the
mountains, and so on.
*(77) By their genius
alone, by their cutting edge alone: The paired
terms here are naual and puz. The former term, although it is
a
Nahua borrowing, does not have the narrow meaning in Quiche that
it
has in central Mexico, but rather covers a very broad notion
that
may be glossed as "spirit familiar" (see genius in the
Glossary for
more detail). The latter term, puz, carries one central
literal
meaning from its Mixe-Zoque (and possibly Olmec) origins right
down to
its use in modern Quiche: it refers to the cutting of flesh with
a
knife (see D. Tedlock, The Spoken Word, p. 265). At the time of
the
conquest it was the primary term for sacrifice. In the
present
context, it implies that "the mountains were separated from
the water"
through an act resembling the extraction of the heart (or
other
organs) from a sacrifice. As if to confirm this allusion, the
text
goes on to refer to the earth as the "mountain-plain,"
or huyub
tacah [ta3ah], which is today the principal Quiche metaphor for
the
human body.
When don Andres read
these lines, he shifted away from the idea that
the preceding lines about cloud formation and dispersal referred
to
something happening in the atmosphere around the mountains,
moving
toward the idea that this process was a simile for the formation
and
differentiation of the mountains themselves. That the
mountains
under discussion were made by means of naual rather than
physical
labor suggested a certain insubstantiality to him, and he
commented:
"Then these mountains are for no other reason than
representing that
there are hills or volcanoes." That is to say, he
interpreted the
mountains not as hard realities but as mere "signs"
(retal), unfolding
themselves "just like a cloud, like a mist."
*(78) 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:
Andres
Xiloj took this to mean that the formation of the earth was an
act
of self-revelation on the part of the Heart of Sky and Heart of
Earth.
He compared them to the present-day u4ux puuak or "Heart of
Metal
(or silver or money)," which reveals itself to the
fortunate. As he
explained it, "When one has luck, one picks up some kind of
rock,
but in the form of an animal; this is the Heart of Metal. When
the
moment comes, suddenly it appears." Such rocks may be
volcanic
concretions that happen to resemble animals, or they may be
ancient
stone artifacts. They are properly kept in the indoor half of a
pair
of patrilineage shrines called the mebil, which consists of a
wooden
box placed on a family altar (B. Tedlock, Time and the
Highland
Maya, p. 81). Don Andres continued, "This is where one
prays, this
is where the fortune, the money, abounds. Here in the Popol Vuh,
the
Heart of Sky and the Heart of Earth appeared, and this is where
the
earth was propagated." The objects in a mebil should
multiply of their
own accord, and that, as don Andres would have it, is what
happened to
the object or objects from which the earth began.
The notion of a
"Heart of Sky" might seem out of place where
something as substantial as earth or stone is concerned, but
don
Andres' interpretation is supported by a much later passage in
which
the names Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth are both addressed to
gods
whose bodies have been petrified. The connection between these
gods
and the sky lies in the fact that they were petrified when the
sun
first rose and burned them. The objects called "Heart of
Metal"
today also have their celestial dimensions: volcanic concretions
with animal shapes are said to have been formed at the
first
sunrise, just as the stone gods of the P.V. were, while
ancient
stone artifacts are said to have been formed where thunderbolts
struck
the ground. The P.V. does not mention the latter process, but
it
does include thunderbolts among the attributes of the Heart of
Sky.
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel takes the question of
celestial
stoniness home to the sky itself, declaring that the "Heart
of Heaven"
is a bead of precious stone (Roys, The Book of Chilam Balam
of
Chumayel, p. 91).
*(79) all the guardians
of the forests: Andres Xiloj commented: "The
animals are the caretakers of the woods. They [the gods]
thought,
'There is a need for animals, so that people won't be able to
enter
the woods. The animals will frighten them.'" For the
contemporary
Quiche, wild animals are (in effect) the domestic animals of
the
Mundo, or earth deity. One cannot take a deer in the hunt
without
first asking permission of the Mundo. When a family is in
arrears in
its offerings, the Mundo may send a predator from out of the
woods
to raid its flocks or herds.
*(80) deer, birds,...
yellowbites: On the basis of meaning this list
might be organized into couplets and triplets:
-
quieh, deer,
tziquin, birds,
-
4oh, pumas
balam, jaguars,
-
cumatz, serpents,
zochoch, rattlesnakes,
canti yellowbites
-
But whatever the groupings according to meaning, a list of this
kind
would be orally delivered today without any more marking of
the
transition between jaguars and serpents than that between pumas
and
jaguars; each individual word would retain its integrity, as
marked by
a stress on its final (or only) syllable, but there would be
no
pause until the run of parallel nouns came to a halt, or until
the
breath of the speaker ran out. On this basis I have chosen not
to
break such lists into lines of verse in the translation, but
have
run them on as prose.
*(81) "Why this
pointless humming?": The "humming" and "rustling"
referred to in this passage are the lolin- and tzinin-
sounds
discussed earlier [see note *(62)]. What the gods are
ultimately
looking for here is the sound of articulate human speech, but
they
will not succeed in hearing it until Part Four of the
present
translation. In the present scene, all they can hear on the
earth is
sounds that are indefinitely repetitive or vibratory and
therefore
without meaning, just as sounds were without meaning when there
was
only the sea.
*(82) "You,
precious birds": This is ix ix 4,iquin, in which the
second ix might be treated as a scribal error, but it is
essential
to the full understanding of the phrase. The first ix is
plainly
enough "you," in the familiar and in the plural, but
the second one
has a double meaning. At one level it is diminutive, making
the
whole phrase translatable as "You, precious (or little)
birds," but at
another level it is the day name Ix, which immediately
precedes
4,iquin or "Bird" in the sequence of twenty day names.
These are the
two days devoted to the contemporary rites of the
patrilineage
shrine called the mebil, specifically Seven Ix and Eight
4,iquin;
indeed, this shrine is often referred to simply by naming these
two
days.
*(83) a place to sleep:
This is uarabal, and it alludes to
patrilineage shrines, which are called uarabalha,
"foundation of the
house" or, literally, "sleeping (or resting) place of
the house."
The animals that are given places to sleep in this passage, queh
or
"deer" and 4,iquin or "birds," give their
names to two of the days
used for uarabalha rites today. The human mother-father or
patrilineage head uses a low-numbered day bearing the name Queh
or
"Deer" to go to the parts of the uarabalha dedicated
to people in
order to announce that a woman married into his lineage is
pregnant
and to pray for the child she bears. This ritual is called a
"sowing,"
just as is the long process in which the divine mother-fathers
of
the P.V. speak of making humans and prepare for their coming
long
before they actually succeed in making them a reality. Deer
result
from one of their four attempts to make humans; these animals
are,
in effect, an approximation of real humans, their fault being
that
they walk on all fours and lack articulate speech. The
implication
here is that in visiting his shrines to announce a child on the
day
named after the deer, the human mother-father commemorates the
process
whereby properly walking and talking humans were spoken of
and
approximated by the divine mother-fathers (the Maker and
Modeler)
before they were realized.
The most startling link
between shrines and deer- deer as animals
rather than days named Deer- manifests itself in dreams. On this
point
I can give firsthand testimony. During the period of my
formal
apprenticeship as a daykeeper in Momostenango, I told Andres
Xiloj
of dreaming that I was followed along a path by a series of
large
deer. After a laugh of immediate recognition he told me that I
had
been followed by shrines! He explained that outdoor shrines
have
spirit familiars that frequently take the form of deer- and,
these
days, of horses and cattle. The path, of course, was that of
the
days of the calendar, along which each shrine had its proper
place
in a sequence. The deer were following me in anticipation of
the
time when I would end my apprenticeship and feed them- that is,
make
offerings of my own.
*(84) "Talk, speak
out. Don't moan, don't cry out": Here again the
gods express their desire for articulate human speech, this
time
contrasted with moans and cries rather than humming and
rustling.
Not only that, but they want to hear their own names and
praises,
and they ask the animals to "keep our days." This last
idea is
expressed by cohiquihila [cohi3ihilaa], literally,
"to-us-you
(plural familiar) day (transitive imperative)," analogous
to the
form rendered as "high days." If English permitted
"day" to be a verb,
one could translate cohi3ihilaa as "dayify us," with
the pun on
"deify" being appropriate enough. A less direct
translation would be
"calendrify us."
*(85) they just
squawked they just chattered, they just howled:
New sounds have been added to the world here. They are not yet
the
sounds of speech, but neither are they like the rippling,
murmuring,
and humming of the world that had only a sea. Those sounds
tended
toward vowel harmony and repeated consonants- 4,inin- and
chamam-, for
example- whereas the verb stems here retain vowel harmony but do
not
repeat their consonants: uachela-, carala-, and uoho-.
*(86) It wasn't
apparent what language they spoke: The text has maui
xuachinic uuach qui4habal, literally, "not faced-out its
face
their-talk-instrument." The active verb uachinic, built on
uach,
"face," is used primarily with reference to the
bearing of fruit by
plants. The implication is that the sounds made by the
animals
contained a potential for articulate speech, but that this
potential
was never realized.
*(87) It talked at
first, but senselessly: The person of mud is
unique among all the creatures made by the gods in that it not
only
lacks sensible speech, but is not even quoted by means of
onomatopoeia. Note also the correlate lack of articulation of
its
body. But the subtlest point here is that the only creature made
of
mud is also the only one made in the singular, which makes
this
episode an allusion to the Adamic myth. What the writers of the
P.V.
have to say about Adam, in their indirect way, is that a
singular
creature of mud could neither have made sense nor walked
nor
multiplied. If there ever was such a creature, there is no way
it
could have left a trace of itself; it must have dissolved.
*(88) "a counting
of days, a counting of lots": This is uquihixic
[u3ihixic] ubitaxic, "its-being-dayed (or timed) its-being-modeled
(or
shaped)." As daykeepers, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane will divine
by means
of counting the day numbers and names of the 260-day divinatory
cycle,
dividing or "shaping" a fistful of seeds of the coral
tree (see the
Glossary) into lots.
*(89) the human mass:
"Mass" is anom, which is given this gloss in
B.
*(90) master craftsman:
This is ahtoltecat, in which ah- is
occupational; the rest is from Nahua toltecatl, "master
of
mechanical arts" (D.).
*(91) "Run your
hands over the kernels of corn, over the seeds of
the coral tree": The verb stem here is mala-, "to run
the hand over
something" (V.). The contemporary Quiche daykeeper first
pours the
seeds out of a small bundle into a pile on a table and mixes
them,
moving the right hand over them with palm down flat and
fingers
spread, and then grabs a fistful. The remaining seeds are then
set
aside; those from the fistful are sorted into lots of four seeds
each,
arranged in parallel rows so that the days can easily be counted
on
them, one day for each lot. When seeds are left over from the
division
into fours, a remainder of three seeds is made into two
additional
lots (with two seeds in one and one seed in the other), while
a
remainder of one or two seeds counts as one additional lot. Once
the
clusters are complete the diviner begins counting the days of
the
260-day cycle, starting in the present (the day of the
divination
itself), the past (the day the client's problem began), or
the
future (the day of an action contemplated by the client). The
augury
is reckoned from the character or portent of the day that is
reached
by counting through to the final lot of seeds.
The alphabetic P.V.
does not give the numbers and names of the
days counted by Xpiyacoc and Xmucane in this earliest of
all
divinations, but the ancient P.V. may have been like the
Chilam
Balam book from Chumayel, which treats the first counting of
days as
nothing less than the origin of the 260-day calendar itself
and
gives not only numbers and names but day-by-day
interpretations,
running through twenty consecutive days (Roys, The Book of
Chilam
Balam of Chumayel, chap. 13).
*(92) the borrowing:
This is ukahic, a term that Andres Xiloj, as
a daykeeper, recognized immediately. When today's daykeeper
speaks the
opening prayer for a divination, invoking the sheet-lightning,
clouds,
mists, and damp breezes of the world, he or she is said to
be
"borrowing" these forces from the days themselves, each
of which is
ruled by a lord, and from the mountains of the world, each of
which
has a spirit familiar (B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya,
pp.
155, 157, 162). Xpiyacoc and Xmucane are not as modest as this
human
daykeeper in their own borrowing of lightning, moisture, and
air
currents: they name the Heart of Sky, whose electrical
aspect
ultimately manifests not as far-off and silently flickering
sheet-lightning but as close-up thunderbolts, and who is also
known as
Hurricane, the bringer of rains and winds of
world-destroying
proportions. Meteorological forces, large or small, serve to
connect
the cosmos at large, both temporally and spatially, with
the
microcosmic scene of the divination, transmitting information
about
distant places or times through the counting of days and
through
lightninglike sensations that occur in various parts of the
diviner's own body.
*(93) the lots: This is
bit, possibly the same as the stem in the
name bitol, "Modeler" (see Maker, Modeler in the
Glossary). My guess
is that it refers to the clusters of seeds that are made up from
the
random fistful taken up by the diviner (as described above);
in
effect, the diviner is giving shape to a chaotic mass. I
translate bit
as "lots" because that word both fits the groups of
seeds, which are
arranged in lots of four, and figures in English-language
divination
terminology. "Diviner" (in a later passage) is a
translation of ahbit,
in which bit has the occupational prefix.
*(94) who stands behind
others: This is chiracan, which Andres Xiloj
identified as part of a phrase used today by daykeepers:
chirakan
u3ab, "at-his/her-legs his/her-arms" (in which
"legs" and "arms"
include "feet" and "hands"). To be at
someone's feet and hands means
to give assistance, as a daykeeper does when praying and
giving
offerings on behalf of a client, or a midwife does when
assisting a
birth.
*(95) "may you
succeed, may you be accurate": Like Xpiyacoc and
Xmucane, the contemporary daykeeper speaks to the seeds
while
arranging them, asking for a clear outcome.
*(96) "Have shame,
you up there,... attempt no deception": Andres
Xiloj was not surprised to hear the Heart of Sky addressed in
this
manner. He pointed out that today's daykeepers (including
himself)
also ask that the gods not deceive their divinatory clients.
The
praying diviner may say, for example, ma ban la ri mentira,
"Do not
make a lie." In the case of the P.V. the client in question
is none
other than the god Sovereign Plumed Serpent.
*(97) manikins,
woodcarvings: Andres Xiloj remarked, "Then these
will only be representations of humans."
*(98) They just went
and walked wherever they wanted: Andres Xiloj
commented: "Then they're like animals." In Quiche
thinking one of
the major differences between animals and humans is that humans
must
ask permission of the gods to go abroad in the world. To pray
that
nothing bad happen to one in the road is to ask permission to
pass;
the need for such permission is more acute in the case of visits
to
powerful shrines or distant towns. In prayers that prepare the
way for
a long trip, one asks not only that there be no robbers in the
road,
but that policemen, soldiers, and customs officials look the
other
way.
*(99) The man's body
was carved from the wood of the coral tree: The
body of the god presently called Maximon in the Tzutuhil Maya
town
of Santiago Atitlan is made of this wood (Michael Mendelson,
"Maximon:
An Iconographical Introduction," p. 57).
*(100) the pith of
reeds: This is zibac; B. gives ziba3 as "the pith
or insides of a small reed."
*(101) a rain of resin:
Andres Xiloj commented: "This was turpentine
that fell, and it was burning as it fell."
*(102) the black
rainstorm: This is quecal hab [3ekal hab]. As
Andres Xiloj explained, this does not mean that the rain itself
was
black, but refers to the darkness created by a very intense rainstorm.
*(103) Into their
houses came: This is xoc ula [xoc ulaa],
"entered as visitors." Today any invasion of the house
(including
its patio) by a wild animal is viewed as a sign sent by the
earth
deity, whether it is a fox or possum that attacks domestic
animals or,
say, a bird that happens to fly indoors. Andres Xiloj pointed
out that
such animals do not speak (4hauic) but rather give signs (retal)
by
their cries or movements. Note that even under the
cataclysmic
conditions of the present episode the speaking is done by
domestic
animals and by artifacts; it is not attributed to wild
animals.
*(104) turkeys: This is
ac [a4], which became the term for the Old
World chicken during colonial times. A number of colonial
dictionaries
give the term for turkey as kitzih a4, "true a4" (T.
and V.), or
mazeual a4, "Indian a4" (G.), which makes it plain
enough that the
pre-Hispanic term for turkey was a4. Today the turkey is called
nooz
(X.), a term that had already appeared by the seventeenth
century
(listed in B. as noz).
*(105) r-r-rip,
r-r-rip, / r-r-rub, r-r-rub: This is holi, holi,
huqui, huqui, onomatopoeic for the sound of a handstone (mano)
rubbing
against a grinding stone (metate). If the performance of the
present
Quiche story was anything like that of North American Indian
tales,
these lines were probably sung. It must be kept in mind that h
in
Quiche is rough, like Spanish j or German ch. This roughness
would
probably be exaggerated in a dramatic oral rendering, hence
my
suggestion in the translation that the r be trilled. When judged
by
the fact that the verb for "rub together" is hukunic
(X.), huqui,
huqui should probably be huki, huki. Andres Xiloj immediately
heard
a sound play in these lines, which he rendered as follows:
-
hoo
ali, hoo ali,
hukuuic, hukuuic
-
meaning something like this:
-
Let's go girl, let's go girl,
rubbing
together, rubbing together.
-
*(106) their
hearthstones were shooting out: Andres Xiloj
remarked: "It's like a cataract of stones from a
volcano!" This
incident may be the origin of the stars Alnitak, Saiph, and
Rigel in
Orion; today these three stars are said to be the three hearthstones
of the typical Quiche kitchen fireplace, arranged to form a
triangle, and the cloudy area they enclose (Great Nebula M42)
is
said to be the smoke from a fire (B. Tedlock, "Earth Rites
and Moon
Cycles").
*(107) wood alone was
used for their flesh: Andres Xiloj remarked,
"They lacked blood, or quickening, which is what corn
gives." As it
turns out later, real human beings are indeed made of corn.
*(108) "I am their
sun ... their months": "Sun" is quih [3ih]
here, which could either be "sun" or "day,"
but "months" is iquil
[i4il], which is definitely "months," rather than i4, "moon."
*(109) "I am the
walkway and I am the foothold of the people":
"Walkway" is binibal and "foothold" is
chacabal; -bal is an
instrumental suffix. Andres Xiloj explicated Seven Macaw's
statement
as follows: "Binibal is to give light for walking, or to go
out on a
somewhat clear road; and chacabal- now we say chacanibal- is the
same.
These words are in the prayers we say at the uarabalha
[patrilineage
shrines], to ask permission for anyone who goes out of the house
to
whatever place. They can walk, they can crawl- chacanibal is
to
crawl on all fours. Seven Macaw is saying that he is a
person's
feet, since he knows that he has light [to show a person where
to
step], but in fact the person sees darkly, it isn't very
clear."
*(110) "they stand
out": This is cauacoh, translated on the basis of
cauaquic, "to have big teeth (so as to be unable to close
the
mouth)" (X.).
*(111) the scope of his
face lies right around his own perch:
Seven Macaw, as the Big Dipper, is restricted to a path that
lies
close to the pole star, unlike the sun and moon (see Glossary
and D.
Tedlock, "The Sowing and Dawning of All the
Sky-Earth"). The classic
Maya equivalent of Seven Macaw is shown perched atop a northern
tree
at Palenque, in the central panel of the Tablet of the Cross and
on
the lid of the sarcophagus beneath the Temple of the
Inscriptions
(Linda Schele, Notebook, pp. 66-67).
-
PART TWO
-
*(112) the mountains
... are softened by him: "Softened" is my
translation of nebonic; X. glosses this as
"overcooked," but Andres
Xiloj read it as "soaked." He commented: "When
the earth is completely
soaked it can be destroyed by the water. When there are rains
of
forty-eight or sixty hours, there may be destruction. Landslides
are
the work of such rains."
*(113) Then he went up
over the tree and fell flat on the ground:
When birds are shot they fly upward in a spasm before falling
from a
tree. But Seven Macaw's movement here also suggests that of the
Big
Dipper; assuming that his head and body correspond to the bowl
of
the Big Dipper and his tail to its handle, his climbing of the
tree to
eat his nances, his going up over the tree when shot, and his
fall
to the ground all follow the pattern of the Big Dipper, which
rises
with its handle down, goes up over the North Star
(counterclockwise)
in a momentarily horizontal position, and then sets with its
bowl
end down. The period when all seven stars may be seen in
ascendancy,
from mid-October to mid-May, corresponds approximately to the
dry
season; the period when the Big Dipper is already in steep
descent
by twilight and when all seven stars may become invisible for
as
much as half the night, from mid-July to mid-October,
corresponds to
the hurricane season.
*(114) "tricksters":
This is 4axto4; it is glossed as "the devil" or
"liar" in colonial dictionaries (B. and V.), but that
is a
missionary view of the matter. In the P.V., where the word is
used ten
different times, it is usually obvious from context that the
person or
persons labeled by it have done something tricky or are accused
of
trickery. In the present case Hunahpu and Xbalanque have
ambushed
Seven Macaw while he was at his meal. In other cases the
Four
Hundred Boys suspect Zipacna of being tricky, which he indeed
turns
out to be; Xmucane accuses Blood Woman of trickery, but
(ironically)
Blood Woman's ability to work magic apparently comes from the
fact
that she carries Xmucane's own grandchildren in her womb;
Hunahpu
and Xbalanque accuse a toad of trickery, and sure enough it
turns
out that the toad never swallowed what he claimed was in his
belly;
Xtah and Xpuch are accused of trickery when painted wasps turn
into
real ones; and the Quiches are called tricksters by their
enemies
for making it look as though the people they've seized for
sacrifice
were attacked by wild animals. Except for the cases of Zipacna
and the
toad, the trickery works on the side of the protagonists in a
given
story. Translating 4axto4 as "trickster" rather than
"devil" puts
the matter in a more general American Indian context, where
the
exploits of trickster figures are simultaneously disapproved
and
enjoyed.
*(115) "they've
dislocated my jaw": This is obviously the origin
of the way a macaw's beak looks, with a huge upper mandible and
a much
smaller and retreating lower one.
*(116) "All my
teeth are just loose": "Loose" is chu, translated
on the basis of a reduplicated form in B., chuyucha, "to
rattle."
*(117) "'Do
forgive us'": The addition of "'Do'" to this phrase is
my way of translating qui [ki], which, according to V., carries
a
sense of exaggerated politeness.
*(118) with great
effort: This is nimac ua chih [nimak uaa 4hih],
"great this effort," in which 4hih is translated on
the basis of
4hihinic, "the strength to do something" (X.).
*(119) "What
sweets can you make, what poisons can you cure?": The
"sweets" and "poisons" are both qui [quii],
a word that carries both
these meanings to this day (for an explanation see sweet drink
in
the Glossary).
*(120) "We just
pull the worms out of teeth": There is a
contemporary Mopan Maya myth in which Lord Kin ("Sun"
or "Day") causes
the chief of the vultures to have a toothache and then is begged
to
come and cure it (Thompson, Ethnology of the Mayas, pp. 129-32).
But
in this case the motive of the trickery is the protagonist's
desire to
get his wife back from the vultures.
*(121) "we just
cure eyes": As a medical specialty, the curing of
eyes fits under the same heading as bones and teeth because the
Quiche
language classifies the eyes as bones. Eyes are ubac [ubak]
uuach,
literally "its-bones (or pits) his/her-eyes," in the
P.V.; today
they are uba3uach. Andres Xiloj himself covers a medical
territory
similar to that of Hunahpu and Xbalanque: in addition to being
a
bonesetter and healer of sprains, he knows how to make
eyedrops.
*(122) "It's a
worm, gnawing at the bone": The present-day Quiche
retain the notion that a toothache is caused by a worm gnawing
at
the bone. According to T. J. Knab (personal communication),
there is a
Mesoamerican parasite that takes up residence in the gums.
*(123) a coating: This
is cu [3u], "covering" (X.).
*(124) When his eyes
were trimmed back: The verb stem here is cholic
[4holic], "to cut or pull out hair or feathers" (X.),
or "flay,
skin, take off crust" (V.). This is clearly meant to be the
origin
of the large white eye patch and very small eyes of the
scarlet
macaw (see Seven Macaw in the Glossary). I take it that Seven
Macaw
sported two large metal discs where the patches of the scarlet
macaw
are now.
*(125) What they did
was simply the word of the Heart of Sky: In a
similar fashion the Zunis sometimes portray the Ahayuuta
warrior
heroes- who, like Hunahpu and Xbalanque, are tricksters- as
simply
carrying out the word of the Sun Father, though they may appear
to
be acting on their own (see D. Tedlock, Finding the Center,
pp.
234-48).
*(126) a post for their
hut.... the lintel of their hut: This
passage is self-contradictory as to what use the Four Hundred
Boys
intend for their log. The "post" is acan [akan],
literally "leg";
Andres Xiloj explained that this would be a vertical post with
a
fork at the top. The "lintel" is uapalil (apalil
today), which he
specified as a term for a horizontal beam over a door or
window.
*(127) "We'd like
some help": This is cacachaquimah [cakacha3imah]
tana, in which caka- is "incomplete-we" and tana
indicates
supplication; the verb stem, cha3imah, is given by V. as
"ask to
borrow."
*(128) "we'll
throw him down": The verb stem here is tzac [tzak],
"fling, cast" (X.). This is mere bravado; it is not
what the Four
Hundred Boys actually end up doing.
*(129) "'Why are
you spilling dirt in the hole?'": The verb stem
here is written macaha, but with the stem of the h crossed off
to make
it into an n. I translate it "spill" on the basis of
ma4anic, "to
spill or scatter" (X.). Here the Four Hundred Boys are
proposing to
make a sarcastic statement to Zipacna, but once again, as when
they
talked about throwing him into the hole, they are indulging
in
bravado.
*(130)
"wedged": This is pachal, translated on the basis of
pa4hinic, "be between two walls or in a crack"
(X.).
*(131) "we'll wham a big log": The
verb stem here is tarih, "give
a blow that makes a sound" (X.). In effect the Four Hundred
Boys are
planning to put a major vertical post for their hut into
place,
resting its butt end on a sacrifice victim.
*(132) he dug a
separate hole to one side: Edmonson notes here
that in digging a hole for the present-day Flying Pole
Dance,
Quiches place offerings in a hole dug to one side from the post
hole
proper (The Book of Counsel, p. 45). Speakers of the Achi
dialect of
Quiche tell a story in which a character now known as Zipac
carries
a log the narrator compares with the pole used in the Monkey
Dance
(Mary Shaw, According to Our Ancestors, p. 48).
*(133) "on another
level, or two levels away": "Level" is my
translation of elebal; literally this would be "place of
egress,"
but I take my cue from Burgess and Xec, who decided on
"elevation"
(Popol Wuj, p. 42), a solution that fits with the general
Mesoamerican
notion of a stratified underworld.
*(134) to dedicate:
This is lacabebal, with an instrumental suffix
(-bal), translated on the basis of la3abeh, "to inhabit
some place,
occupying it" (B.).
*(135) Having taken
their pickings: The verb stem here is culun,
translated on the basis Of 3ulunic, "to pluck, devastate,
strip" (X.).
*(136) a play on words:
This is zacbal tzih, "play-instrument
words"; B. gives zaquibal as "instrument for
playing." The authors
of the P.V. seem uncertain as to whether the Four Hundred
Boys
actually became the Pleiades (see Hundrath in the Glossary),
in
which case motz (the Quiche term for these stars) would mean
the
same thing as omu4h, "four hundred," or whether the
supposed
connection between the Four Hundred Boys and the Pleiades is
merely
a matter of a pun between omu4h and motz.
*(137) counterfeiting:
This is haluachixic, translated on the
basis of haluachir, "change one thing for another"
(V.).
*(138) the forearms:
This is xul, translated on the basis of an
entry in V. that is missing its heading but falls between xulbak
and
xulu; the gloss is "little arms of crabs or
shrimps."
*(139) where they
opened: This is pa hac, pa is "in" and hac is
translated on the basis of the entry for hak in V., "to
open things"
(such as curtains or eyelids).
*(140) the claws: This
is ucoc [ucooc] 3ab, "its-carrying-device
arm," in which cooc is translated on the basis of an entry
in X.
*(141) They used a
flagstone for the back of the crab, which
clattered: Andres Xiloj commented: "A crab is just like
a
wristwatch: it has the meat inside and it's pure bone
outside."
*(142) they put the
shell beneath an overhang: Andres Xiloj pictured
this as a spot beneath a waterfall.
*(143) "By now I
can't stand the hunger": "Hunger" is a Quiche
metaphor for sexual appetite; that the metaphorical level
is
intended here becomes more obvious as the story unfolds.
*(144) "please
come point her out, boys": Andres Xiloj chuckled as
he read this and then said, "This Zipacna is abusing the
boys here,
he's saying they shouldn't be afraid. It says here, quibe ta
iuaba,
which could be quibe ta iuabaa, 'If only you would come along
to
iuabaa- to point it out,' but it could also be, quebe ta iuabah,
'If
only iuabah- your stones, your balls- would come along.' Today,
when
someone runs from a fight, the saying is queeme ta iuabah,
'Don't hide
your balls.' So Zipacna is saying, 'Don't you have any balls,
boys?'
They're still young." Since the puns in this passage cannot
be
preserved in English I have tried to make its sexual dimension
more
obvious by using feminine pronouns for the crab (though
Quiche
pronouns do not have gender), since the crab is the object
of
Zipacna's "hunger."
*(145) "But won't
you please": This sentence begins with la qui
[ki]; la makes it a yes/no question and ki (according to V.)
indicates
exaggerated politeness.
*(146) "I'll show
you a place where there are plenty of birds":
Continuing along the lines of the above comment, Andres Xiloj
said,
"There it is again, only now it's nuuaba, 'I show you
something,' or
else nuabah, 'my balls'- he's got balls." As for the
"birds"
(4,iquin), the primary metaphor for penis is "bird" in
Quiche; Q.
dates this metaphor to the late post-Hispanic period, but it
is
already present in a colonial dictionary for Pokoman Maya (P.), a
Quichean language.
*(147) "We were
entering": The verb stem here is oc-, translated
(literally) as "enter" throughout this passage, a
simple solution that
keeps the same double meaning going in English that is present
in
the original.
*(148) "facedown
... on our back": These two opposite body positions
are given throughout the present episode as hupulic and
pacalic,
respectively. Although they seem to have caused difficulties
for
some translators, they are spelled correctly in the MS., are
glossed
in B. in the same way I have translated them, and were perfectly
transparent to Andres Xiloj.
*(149) her shell is
gleaming red there: Some translators have
complained about the color of this crab, but there are species
of crab
that are red before they are cooked.
*(150) "perhaps
I'd better enter on my back": By this time Andres
Xiloj had already begun snickering as he read, but now he burst
into
laughter. Explaining himself, he said: "Clearly, the crab
is a
woman. As you already know, a woman does it on her back, but
here it's
in reverse: the man is on the bottom and the crab will go on
top.
These are trial runs. In ancient times, I think, they didn't
know what
sin was. They were looking for a way to understand
everything."
*(151) only his
kneecaps were showing now: At this point don
Andres sat back and said, "My God! All the way to the
knees!"
*(152) He gave a last
sigh and was calm: The "sigh" here is
biquitahic, translated as suggested by don Andres; X. gives
bi3bitic, "sigh." Don Andres translated xlilob as
"was calm"; V. gives
lilot as "tranquil." Of Zipacna's state don Andres
commented: "Nothing
will bother him now." The story of Zipacna and the crab
prompted him
to tell a story that has been translated elsewhere (see D.
Tedlock,
The Spoken Word, pp. 317-20). There is a contemporary Achi story
about
a character named Zipac that makes the sexual dimension more
overt
than it is in the P.V. (Shaw, According to Our Ancestors, pp.
48-51).
*(153) "Lure this
Earthquake into settling down": "Lure" is bochiih,
translated on the basis of bochih, "allure" (B.);
"settling down" is
cuubic, "to sit" (X.). I have supplied "this
Earthquake" in order to
clarify the sense of the sentence, setting it apart from the
plural
reference of the previous sentence.
*(154) "in the
course of the days, in the course of the light":
chi be quih [3ih], chi be zac [zak], "in-road day (or sun),
in-road
light." According to Andres Xiloj, this means "for all
time. Just
the way we in my family are weavers. All the time, and for all
time,
we are weavers." For an alternative translation of this
line and a
further comment by don Andres, see "as long as there is
day" in note
*(358).
*(155) "Lead the
way": This is chicama cabe [chi4ama kabe],
literally "imperative-you-take our-road," a common
Quiche idiom
which I have translated into the equivalent English idiom.
*(156) they just blow
at the birds when they shoot: Andres Xiloj
remarked: "When people go out hunting today with guns, and
when they
see that an animal is coming, they do this: [blows a quick puff
of
air]. It is like magnetism, they pull it, the animal stops-
it
feels, it thinks there is a person hidden. When the animal has
stopped
for a moment, the person shoots, and there it is. The animal
stopped
to see what this noise was."
*(157) made fire with a
drill: This is xquibac cu quicac [xquibak 4u
qui3a3], "they-drilled then their-fire." And example
of the same idiom
is given by B. as canuba3 ca3, "I start a fire"; V.
gives bak as "to
drill."
*(158) "the one to
be made and modeled": The reference is to
humankind, and the problem is the same one the twins discuss in
an
earlier passage. Like so many other American Indian hero twins,
they
are monster slayers, making the earth habitable for humans.
*(159) "the human
heart": I have supplied "human" here, assuming
that the subject of the discussion has not changed since
the
previous sentence.
*(160) "a bite of
meat, a meal of flesh": The parallel items here
are tiic and chacuxic, which have been translated in many
different
ways; my version is based on tiinic, "to eat meat"
(X.), and 4hacuh,
"to eat meat" (V.).
*(161) his ankles were
bound his wrists: The "ankles" and "wrists"
are ucul racan ucab [rakan u3ab], literally "its-necks
his-legs
his-arms"; Andres Xiloj explained, the "neck" of
a leg or arm is its
"ankle" or "wrist" in Quiche.
-
PART THREE
-
*(162) let's just drink
to the telling: The verb stem for "drink"
here is camuh; I follow Edmonson in reading it as a variant
of
kumuh, "to drink" (The Book of Counsel, p. 58). Andres
Xiloj liked
this reading and pictured the narrator as seated on the tomb of
One
Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, on a day bearing the name Hunahpu.
On
many such days contemporary Quiche cemeteries look like crowded
picnic
grounds; whole families come to the graves of their
ancestors,
sprinkling flower petals, burning offerings, reciting prayers,
and
eating and drinking, all this in a respectful but festive
mood.
*(163) One Hunahpu and
Seven Hunahpu, as they are called: The MS.
leaves out Seven Hunahpu here; I assume that this is an error,
given
that everything else in the sentence is in the plural, and
given
that One and Seven Hunahpu are named together two sentences
later.
*(164) a partner: This
is laquel [la3el]. V. gives an example of the
use of this term in which a woman may refer to another woman
who
shares the same man with her as nula3el (nu- is
"my").
*(165) flautists,
singers, and writers; carvers, jewelers,
metalworkers: Note that in these two sets of three skills
each,
writing is grouped with the performing arts rather than
with
handicrafts. Whatever writing system or systems were employed by
the
Quiche, the grouping of writing with flute playing and
singing
points to its close association with oral recitation [see also
note
*(57)]. "Writers" is my translation of ahtzib
[ah4,ib],
"person-who-does-writing," in which 4,ib also covers
painting.
*(166) The four
ballplayers: These words are supplied; the text only
indicates "they."
*(167) "They're
really determined to run right over us!": This is
xax quehiquic uloc [ulok] pacaui [pakaui], literally
"certainly
they-cut-straight hither above-us."
*(168) to draw blood
from people: Andres Xiloj commented: "When
there is strife, when people begin to fight, they strike
one
another. The blood comes out, and Xibalba receives this blood.
We
see that it fell, but it fell into the flasks of the evil ones.
It
is like their food."
*(169) to make pus come
out of their legs, to make their faces
yellow, to cause jaundice: "Jaundice" is 3anal,
"yellowness." This
passage could refer not only to hepatitis but to yellow fever
(if
yellow fever was present in pre-Columbian times), whose
symptoms
include jaundice. The pus in the legs would be sores spread
out
along the lymphatic system.
*(170) to reduce people
to bones ... until they die from
emaciation and edema: The first of these ailments is ziiah
bac
[bak], in which the first word may be a form of ziy,
"extended"
(E.), and the second is "bone"; B. gives ziyah bak as
"skeleton" and
ziyah bakil as the name of an unspecified illness; X. gives
bakil,
literally "bony," as "thin, weak." The
second ailment is xupan,
"dropsy" (V. and G.), better known today as
"edema," swelling caused
by excess fluid in the tissues or cavities of the body.
According to
Andres Xiloj, the contemporary shamans called ahmesa,
"keepers of
the table," sometimes go bad and practice a ritual called
chakih mesa,
"dry table," in which they ask Xibalba to cause
emaciation: "They
put bones into the body of a person by means of prayers, in
order to
dry him up. They put a skull into the body of a person. They dry
up
the whole body." He told of a recent case in Momostenango
in which a
man was brought to court because "there were skulls, and
bones of
the arms and legs, in the place where this man burned his
offerings.
It was by means of these things that he screwed people up."
Edema is
caused by a separate ritual, called rax mesa, "fresh (or
unripe,
sudden, strong) table." Don Andres continued: "This,
too, is done with
bones. They put the bone in water, or whatever they put it in,
and
this same bone comes to be left in the body of the person, then
he
swells up. It's like an injection, but the evil is contained by
this
bone. The moment it is put in the body, the evil befalls
one."
*(171) to catch up with
people: The verb here is culuachih
[4uluachih], "to come about" (B.), "to strike
with misfortune" (V.).
*(172) whenever they
have filth or grime in the ... house: According
to Andres Xiloj, the best way to keep the agents of Xibalba out
of
one's house is to keep the place swept out and not allow trash
to
accumulate. See the story in note *(175) for a case in which a
house
is cleaned out as a way of ending the deeds of a Xibalban.
*(173) in the doorway
of the house, the patio of the house: This
is chirih ha, "at the back of the house," and chuua
ha, "at the face
of the house." In Quiche terminology, as Andres Xiloj
explained, the
"back" of a house is the side that has a door or
entrance way giving
access to a public road or path, while the "face" is
the side that
gives onto a patio (whether enclosed on all four sides or
not).
*(174) that people
should die in the road, just "sudden death": This
affliction is rax camical, "fresh (or unripe, sudden,
strong)
death." According to Andres Xiloj, it is like edema [see
note
*(170)] in that it is caused by practices that come under
the
heading of rax mesa: "They come to frighten one in the
road, and now
one doesn't arrive home. Suddenly one may fall in the ditch,
rax
camical. As it says here in the Popol Vuh, 'Blood comes to the
mouth,'
it is as if one had pneumonia, suddenly one begins to vomit
blood, and
one dies in a moment. It is a matter of the rax mesa. They put
a
bone in the lung, and it is damaged in a moment. One begins to
vomit
pure blood. They carry their materials on their shoulders, as
it
says here: 'The load on his shoulders.' When they are
encountered in
the road, they can kill one. But it isn't the ahmesa directly,
but
rather his genius [see the Glossary] or uin [were animal]."
See note
*(170) for more about the ahmesa.
*(175) Such are those
who shared their thoughts: At this point
Andres Xiloj was reminded of a story, which he told on the spot.
It is
about a young man who gets aggravated with his wife almost to
the
point of taking a machete to her, all because an emissary of
Xibalba
keeps sneaking hairs or bits of rag or even bugs into the food
she
prepares. Moving in for the kill, the Xibalban tells the young
man
he has just seen his wife serving lunch to another man. Sure
enough,
when he gets home for lunch and asks his wife to give him the
breast
of the chicken she has prepared, she cannot find it in the
pot.
Later the young man is seized with the idea of climbing a tree;
the
earth rumbles and he suddenly finds himself looking down on the
spot
where the lords of Xibalba regularly assemble to banquet on
blood that
has been spilled by violence. He sees Blood Gatherer (the head
lord)
come out, and the last one to arrive, named Jodido (a Spanish
word
roughly translatable as "screwed-up"), turns out to be
the very
Xibalban who has been plotting against him. Jodido brags about
how
he sneaked the chicken breast out of the pot and tells the
others they
will soon enjoy the blood of the poor woman who was cooking
it.
After the Xibalbans leave, the young man returns home and
throws
boiling water in each corner of his house. Returning to the
banquet
spot in time to see the Xibalbans reassemble, he sees Jodido
come in
very late, barely able to move because of the scalding he
has
received. After this no more foreign objects appear in the young
man's
food.
*(176) they were piqued
and driven: This is xetzaixic, "they were
salted (spiced)" (X.), and xecotobax, "they were pursued"
(B.).
*(177) And these
messengers of theirs are owls: Andres Xiloj
remarked: "At times an owl suddenly arrives near the house
and
begins to sing. This is a warning. Yes, it is a warning from
Xibalba."
*(178) repeated their
words, reciting the exact words: This is ta
xquizac [xquitzak] cut [4ut] quitzih xaui xere ucholic utzih. B.
gives
tzaconizah ri tzih as "to fulfill words," and V. gives
tzakantic as
"deliver up, render, regurgitate"; xaui xere is
"yet the same," and
ucholic is "to say in an ordered way" (V.).
*(179) "Don't the
lords ... speak truly?": That this line is part of
the dialogue rather than part of the narrative is made obvious
by
the next line, which is clearly a reply.
*(180) "We're
going,... even though we've just arrived": "Even
though" is my translation of xaet, which B. gives as
"in vain,
uselessly." Antitheses are rather frequent in the speech of
Hunahpu
and Xbalanque.
*(181) "just play
and just sing": The playing here (tzuan-) is
specifically on the flute.
*(182) where the rapids
cut through: This is chuchi halha ziuanub,
in which the first word is "at-its-mouth"; the second
is "rapid,
violent river" (B.); and the third may be an error for
ziuanuh, "to
open a ditch" (V.).
*(183)
"Morning": This is calah [3alah], literally "clear, bright,
plainly visible," used as a morning greeting in classical
Quiche.
Today the preferred greeting for the morning is zakiric,
"it is
getting light (or dawning)."
*(184) they got no
relief: This is maui xeyacamaric, in which maui
is negative; B. gives yacamaric as "be relieved,
alleviated."
*(185) the laughter
rose up like a serpent in their very cores:
Cumatz or "serpent" is a term for various kinds of
disabling cramps
(see B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, pp. 54, 56).
Concerning
the present case of "serpent," Andres Xiloj said the
following: "There
are people who begin to make an uproar when one passes by, they
die
laughing. This is because those of Xibalba are among them; it is
as if
they had been ordered to do this. This is a work of Xibalba,
and
this is what the Popol Vuh is talking about. People get a
serpent
(cumatz) here in the breast [indicates a diagonal through his
trunk,
from one shoulder to the opposite hip] for having laughed so
hard. Now
one can't bear laughing because of the pain of the serpent; now
it
doesn't let one breathe. We could go out in the street right
now.
There could be a group of people there. They could begin to make
an
uproar, killing themselves laughing, and we couldn't hear what
they
were laughing about. But Xibalba would know what they were
saying."
*(186) down to their
blood and bones: This is chi quiqui [quiqui4]
quib, chi quiba [quibak] quib, literally, "that
they-blooded
themselves, that they-boned themselves." That is, they
became
nothing but blood and bones, having laughed their flesh away;
in
idiomatic English, "they laughed themselves
sick."
*(187) This ball of
theirs is just a spherical knife: This is are cu
[4u] ri quichah [chaah] xa coloquic cha, "this-is then
the
their-ball just rounded knife." Chaah often means
"ball game" in the
P.V.; wherever it is used for the ball itself, as it is here,
it
refers to the ball of Xibalba, whereas the ball used by One
and
Seven Hunahpu (and later by Hunahpu and Xbalanque) is always
called
quic [qui4], literally "blood (or sap)," but
"rubber [ball]" in the
context of the ball game. I suspect that chaah was a generic
term
and therefore translate it (wherever it refers to the ball) as
just
plain "ball," as contrasted with "rubber
ball."
*(188) their torch was
brought: The torch is chah, literally "pine";
in the present context it is the Quiche term for what is more
widely
known in Mesoamerica as ocote (a Nahua-derived term), a
split-off
stick of extremely resinous pine wood, still widely used for
torches
and kindling.
*(189) they were
cowering: The verb here is chocochoh, which means
to crouch "in a cowering manner" (B.).
*(190) whistling with
drafts, clattering with hail: This is zac
[zak] xuruxuh, zac caracoh [4aracoh], in which zak may be
shortened
from zakbach, "hail." The first verb is similar to
xururic, "the
penetration of cold" (into a house) or "a sharp
whistling" (X.); the
second is similar to 4ararem, "the sound of hail
falling" (X.). My
translation retains the drafts and the hail while at the same
time
preserving the onomatopoeia.
*(191) The blades are
moving back and forth: "Back and forth" is
zacleloh, which B. gives as "in alternation."
*(192) "Put his
head in the fork of the tree that stands by the
road": Andres Xiloj read xol che [chee] as "in the
fork of a tree," as
did Ximenez long before him. Given that the head of One Hunahpu
is
Venus as evening star (see D. Tedlock, "The Sowing and
Dawning"),
the form of the tree has two different astronomical
interpretations.
On the one hand, it could represent the forked or crossed
sticks
that Mesoamerican astronomers used for sighting heavenly bodies;
on
the other hand, it could be part of a tree constellation
lying
somewhere along the zodiac. Once the calabash tree of the
story
bears fruit, the head of One Hunahpu cannot be told apart from
the
fruit, which suggests a conjunction between Venus (as evening
star)
and a number of closely grouped stars. For example, it could be
that
this particular evening star spent part of its period of
visibility
between the horns of Taurus, which point upward when Taurus is
on
the western horizon.
*(193) "'"Its
fruit is truly sweet!" they say,' I hear.": The
words "they say" translate cacha [cachaa], whose use
following a
statement in Quiche marks that statement as general hearsay. A
more
literal translation would be "it says" or "it is
said," but I have
chosen "they say" because that is what a speaker of
English would be
likely to use when citing hearsay. Blood Woman is repeating
something that was already marked as hearsay by the time she
heard it,
so she adds a further layer of quotation with "I
hear." As Andres
Xiloj pointed out, the hearsay in question here is
misinformation,
since the fruit referred to is not only not sweet, but is not
even
edible (see calabash tree in the Glossary). For a general
discussion
of how the writers of the P.V. address the epistemological
questions
raised by their text, see D. Tedlock, The Spoken Word, chap.
12.
*(194) "Stretch
out your right hand here": Andres Xiloj explained
that the right side of the body (whether that of a male or
female)
is symbolically male, while the left is female. Further, the
hands
unite the fingers, which symbolize the living members of a
family,
graded from babies (the little finger of each hand) on up to
the
elderly (thumbs). The fact that Blood Woman receives the sign
from the
head of One Hunahpu in her right hand already points toward
the
bearing of a male child; in fact she will bear male twins.
*(195) "It is just
a sign I have given you, my saliva, my
spittle": Because of the mention of "sign"
(retal) here, Andres
Xiloj remarked, "Then this is a dream." Asked what
would be augured by
being spit on in a dream, he said, "This is two matters. It
depends on
whether the saliva is good or bad. When it is good it has a lot
of
foam; when it is just clear water it is bad. But here in the
Popol
Vuh, one isn't told which kind of saliva it is."
*(196) "Keep the
word": The stem of the verb here is oc-, which
can carry the sense of "keeping to something"
(V.).
*(197) they were of one
mind: This is xaui quinaoh, "same
their-thoughts."
*(198) "It's just
a bastard": "Bastard" is hoxbal, literally
"fornication-instrument," glossed as
"bastard" by B.
*(199) "Get her to
open her mouth": This is chacoto uchi [uchii],
literally "Dig it out of her mouth," an idiom for
close questioning.
In terms of the somatic mapping of actual or potential speech,
as
conceived by Quiches, this implies that she knows perfectly
well
what her father wants her to say; if her word were "in her
belly,"
on the other hand, it would mean that she could not readily
articulate
a response even if she wanted to. See also notes *(246) and
*(259).
*(200) "there is
no man whose face I've known": This statement is
not only true in its figurative reference to Blood Woman's
sexual
innocence, but in its literal sense: she has never known the
(fleshly)
face of the man responsible for her miraculous pregnancy. For
the
importance of a man's "face" (and personal identity)
in sexual
encounters, see Part Four of the present translation, "And
they sent
the two of them,..."
*(201) "take it in
their hands": This is quicololeh [qui4ololeh],
a reduplicative form of 4oleh, "have something round in the
hand"
(V.); B. gives colola as "revolve, turn around."
*(202) "So please
stop": The verb here is queque; B. gives
quequeba as "stop, detain."
*(203) "they will
make themselves familiar with its composition":
This is xchiquihunam uachih utzaquic [u4,akic], "will-they-compare
appearance its-being-made (or constructed)"; X. gives
hunamanic as
"compare" and B. gives hunamah uach as "to make
friends."
*(204) "nor will
your homes be here": In the biological sense,
this means that future owls will be free to move around the
surface of
the earth. If I am right in suspecting that the messenger owls
of
Xibalba correspond to the planet Mercury, the astronomical sense
of
this same statement would be that Mercury appears above the
horizon on
more days than it remains below (the average ratio for a given
Mercury
cycle is 76:40)
*(205) "only
blood": "Blood" is a literal translation of quic
[qui4], which also refers to gums and resins from trees
(including
latex), in this case the blood-red resin of the cochineal
croton
(see croton in the Glossary).
*(206) "use the
fruit of a tree": This is a figurative reference
to nodules of sap from the cochineal croton.
*(207) it formed a
surface like blood: This is quehe cu [4u] ri quic
[qui4] rih xuxic, "like then the blood its back (or upper
or outer
surface) became."
*(208) "nodules of
blood": This is quic [qui4] holomax. For a
discussion of "blood" in this context, see notes
*(205)-*(207).
Holomax would seem to be composed of a verbal form of holom,
"head,"
with a passive suffix (-x); in the present context it would
mean
something like "headed-up," hence
"nodules."
*(209) and when he
lifted it up with his fingers: This is ta
xuchuieh cu [4u] acanoc [a3anok], "when
he-lifted-with-fingers and
upward"; B. gives chuieh as "to lift with the
fingers."
*(210) they leaned over
it intently: This is xechique [xechike]
chuui, in which xe- is "complete-they" and chuui is
"over (or on top
of)"; V. gives chiker as "to be inclined
pensively."
*(211) the mother of
One Monkey and One Artisan: In fact the
mother (in the literal sense) of One Monkey and One Artisan
has
already died by this time; in the present passage the term
"mother" is
being used in its role-designating sense rather than in its
genealogical sense. One Monkey and One Artisan are living alone
with
Xmucane, their father's mother, at this point; she is the
only
person they have who could fill the role of
"mother."
*(212) "mother,
madam": This is lal chichu, in which lal is "you
(singular polite)," here translated as "madam." I
cannot locate chichu
in any dictionary, colonial or modern, nor did Andres Xiloj know
it,
but it resembles chuch, "mother." It is not the
ordinary term for
mother-in-law; that is alib, which is used by Blood Woman later
on
in this same dialogue.
*(213) I'm your
daughter-in-law and I'm your child": The use of
"child" here is metaphorical. A Quiche daughter-in-law
takes up
residence with her husband's family; in offering herself not
only as a
daughter-in-law but as a "child," Blood Woman both
seeks the kind of
acceptance a daughter would have and makes an offer of
loyalty.
*(214) "my
lastborn children": Given that Xmucane is never mentioned
as having had any children other than One and Seven Hunahpu, she
may
be using chipa [4hipa] or "lastborn (youngest)"
endearingly, in effect
calling her sons, who were adults when they left home, "my
little
babies."
*(215) "They have
merely made a way for the light to show itself":
"A way ... to show itself" is ucutbal [u4utbal] rib,
literally
"its-showing-instrument." The immediate reference, as
the rest of
the sentence makes clear, is to the symbolic survival of the
dead
through their offspring, "light" being a metaphor for
birth. But
"light" may also be taken literally here: Blood
Woman's twin sons will
account for Venus (in some of its cycles) and, in time, the sun
and
moon (or at least the full moon) (see D. Tedlock, "The
Sowing and
Dawning").
*(216) "Truly,
what I say to you is so!": I take it that this
sentence belongs to Blood Woman rather than Xmucane, given that
it
is followed with utz bala, "Very well," which signals
the beginning of
a reply and definitely belongs to Xmucane.
*(217) "since you
are already my daughter-in-law": The grandmother
isn't so much accepting Blood Woman's claim to kinship here as
she
is saying (with sarcasm) something like, "If you say you're
my
daughter-in-law, then act like one." Quiche
daughters-in-law, who live
with the families of their husbands, are subject to the commands
of
their mothers-in-law, who give them heavy household tasks to
do.
*(218) she went to the
garden: "Garden" is abix, often translated
"milpa." Maize is the principal plant in the highland
Mayan milpa, but
it is interplanted with beans and squash. Each of these crops
has
different characteristics in its response to wet or dry
conditions
at various points in its growth cycle; interplanting assures
that when
one crop suffers during a given season, another part will
prosper.
*(219) but there was
only one clump: In Mesoamerica corn is properly
grown in thick clumps, not stalk by stalk in single file;
clumps
survive high winds better.
*(220) "Come thou,
rise up, come thou, stand up": This is tatul
ualoc tatul tacaloc. In tatul, ta- suggests Cakchiquel
"you" (singular
familiar in V.) and -at- suggests Quiche "you"
(singular familiar),
while -ul would be "come" in either language. For the
rest, ual- is
"get up" (B.) and tacal- is "stand up, present
oneself" (B.), while
-oc [-ok] carries an urgent or imperative force. Throughout
the
P.V., I translate the first person singular familiar pronoun as
"thou"
in prayers but as "you" in conversation.
*(221) they were
rowdyish and flushed with jealousy: For these two
qualities the MS. has quichaquimal and qui3a3 [quicak] uachibal,
in
which qui- is "their." B. gives chaquimal as
"tumult, clatter, fuss,
disturbance; clamor of boys." X. gives quiak [cak]
uachinic, which
would literally be "red in appearance," as "zeal,
jealousy."
*(222) the successors:
This is quexel [4exel], "substitute." This
may be a reference to the fact that Mars, the planet of One
Monkey and
One Artisan, sometimes serves as morning star in the absence of
Venus,
which in one of its five cycles is the planet of One and Seven
Hunahpu
(see D. Tedlock, "The Sowing and Dawning"). When Venus
and Mars appear
in the east together Mars remains long after Venus has
descended
into the underworld, just as One Monkey and One Artisan remained
on
the face of the earth when One and Seven Hunahpu went to
Xibalba.
*(223) The anger in
their hearts came down on their own heads:
Andres Xiloj remarked, "We see a person; we speak behind
his back
and he doesn't hear what we are murmuring. Then this murmur
doesn't
fall upon that person, but we are the ones who pay for it."
A
daykeeper, taking on the task of defending a person who has been
the
victim of witchcraft, asks in prayer that "the one who did
this work
should be the one to receive it."
*(224) They were
decoyed: The verb here is poizaxic [poyizaxic];
if English "doll" were a verb, this could be
translated literally as
"to be dolled"- that is, to be misled by a doll. Today
poyizaxic is
most commonly employed with reference to the use of scarecrows
in
fields.
*(225) "but our
birds just got hung up in a tree": When birds are
shot they sometimes close their feet around the branch where
they were
sitting and then hang there, dead.
*(226) "We'll just
turn their very being around": The verb here is
catzolcomih, which Andres Xiloj read as catzol3omih, "to
turn around."
*(227) "Just as
they wished us to be slaves here": This is quehe
ri ala xohpe ui uloc [ulok] chiqui4ux, "like the slaves
we-came
location here in-their-hearts," in which I take xohpe
chiqui4ux to
be an idiom analogous to the one given in B. as chi nucux
[4ux]
petinac [petinak], literally "in-my-heart come-from-perfect"
but
glossed as "of my own will." Ala ("slaves")
is shortened here from
alabil, which is the form given in a later and similar
passage
(translated "slaves").
*(228) "How can we
grab hold?": The verb stem here is chanic,
translated on the basis of chanih, "keep in the fist"
(B.). The tree
is too thick for One Monkey and One Artisan to use their hands
in
coming down.
*(229) "simply
shameless": This is rax quiuach, "fresh (or raw or
green) their-faces"; B. gives rax uach as
"shameless."
*(230) "Will you
please not laugh": Among the contemporary
Jacaltec Maya there are myths in which the hero tricks his
elder
brother or his mother's brothers into going up a tree that
grows
taller and maroons them, after which they turn into monkeys.
The
hero's mother then tries to reverse this transformation but
fails
(Morris Siegel, "The Creation Myth and Acculturation in
Acatan,
Guatemala," pp. 122-24; Oliver La Farge, Santa Eulalia, pp.
53-56), in
one case because she disobeys an admonition not to laugh (La
Farge,
pp. 51-53).
*(231) the patio of the
house: See note *(173) for a discussion of
the parts of a house.
*(232) the skinny
little things below their bellies: This is chi
xiriric xe quipam; Ximenez translated xiriric as "that
which is thin,"
and Andres Xiloj read it as "round little thing,"
chuckling as he
did so. This refers not to the "bellies" of the
monkeys (quipam) but
to what is "below" or "at the bottom of"
(xe) their bellies.
*(233) and their tails
wiggling in front of their breasts: This is
chi chilita he pu chuchi qui4ux, "that wag tails and
at-edge-of
their-breasts." Andres Xiloj read chuchi as "up
against" in this
context. Spider monkeys and howler monkeys both have very
long
prehensile tails; howlers are seldom observed, but spider
monkeys
are given to winding their tails around to the front of their
bodies
and all the way up to their chins.
*(234) thin red lips:
This is ca3 [cak] ruxruh uchi [chii], "red
thin his-mouth (or lips)"; ruxruh may be a reduplicative
form of
ruxaa, "thin" (X.).
*(235) with faces
blank: "Blank" is my translation of tac [ta3],
"deafened" (B.) or "fool" (X.) or
"flat" (various sources).
*(236) puckering their
lips: "Puckering" is my translation of
mutzumac [mutzumak], based on the gloss offered by Andres Xiloj:
"to
make small, like a trumpet." This passage reminded don
Andres of the
contemporary Monkey Dance in Momostenango: "These monkeys,
when they
come out here in the fiesta, they scratch themselves, and do
their
mouths this way [touches himself all around the mouth], as if
they had
fleas and lice." They also climb a high pole and do
acrobatics on a
tightrope above the plaza.
*(237) wiping their
mouths and faces: The verb stem here is mal;
B. gives mala- as "to touch lightly" and Andres Xiloj
read it as "to
clean."
*(238) suddenly
scratching themselves: This is macama [makama]
chiquihoquih chique; Andres Xiloj read hoquih as ho3oh,
"to
scratch"; chique is "to them," possibly referring
to the mouths and
faces of the monkeys.
*(239) their mattock,
their hoe: These tools are mixquina and
xoquem, respectively; I have rendered the former word as
"mattock"
because B. glosses it as a "large" hoe.
*(240) leveling ... the
trees: "Leveling" is my translation of
3a3chacachoh, based on cakchachoh, "thrown down by the
wind" (V.).
*(241) stalks and
brambles: "Stalks" is my translation of tum, based
on tun, "shoot (of a plant)" (V.);
"brambles" translates quixic, based
on 4ix, "spine (or thorn)" (X.).
*(242) dumps wood chips
on his head: The verb here is puquih,
translated on the basis of pu4unic, "dunk" or
"throw" (X.); the
"wood chips" are uuebalche [uuebalchee], glossed as
such by B.
*(243) they massage,
they stretch their legs, their arms: Andres
Xiloj, who is a uikol bak or "bonesetter" in addition
to being a
daykeeper, remarked here that he uses a combination of massage
and
stretching to treat sprains.
*(244) fox, coyote: The
fox is yac in Quiche; it is sometimes called
gato del monte or "mountain cat" in rural Guatemalan
Spanish, which
has caused much confusion among speakers of English. Foxes are
more
like cats than like dogs in their fur and in their graceful
leaps. But
in Quiche, as in English, the fox is nevertheless thought
of
together with the coyote (utiu), as in the case of the present
list,
whereas cats are covered by the "puma, jaguar" pair of
terms occurring
earlier in the list.
*(245) "Arise,
conjoin, you trees! / Arise, conjoin, you bushes!":
This is iac lin che [chee] iac lin caam [4aam], in which iac is
"for
inciting someone" (V.) and is probably related to yacalic,
"be up
high" (X.); lin is "to squeeze, press together"
and is used for
tamping the weft in weaving (B.).
*(246) "My word is
in my belly": Here and in a later passage the
animal who makes this statement is assigned its characteristic
food in
exchange for a message. For the contemporary Quiche diviner,
words
that are "in the belly" of a person are words that
person is unable to
bring to consciousness and articulate; words that are higher up,
in
the chest or the head, are more likely to be spoken, and those
that
are in the throat or mouth or on the tongue are at the very
point of
actually being said. As for animals, their utterances are
regarded
as clear to other members of the same species but very difficult
for a
human to understand. The fact that the animals in the P.V.
have
their word in their bellies is not only an indication of
their
interest in being given food but an indication of the
difficulties
of understanding what animals have to say. They may be able to
make
sounds, but the meaning of these sounds is as hidden as are
the
crucial facts a human client may find difficult to articulate
when a
diviner asks probing questions. See also notes *(199) and
*(259).
*(247) "up under
the roof of the house": This is chuui ha,
"at-its-top house," which, as Andres Xiloj explained,
means the attic.
He pointed out that this is the part of the house where tools
are kept
today, along with the stored harvest.
*(248) "But what
will your grandmother say if she sees me?":
Andres Xiloj commented: "When the rat speaks it isn't
understood
what he says, 'Ui4,, ui4,, uit4,.' When a boy is born, then the
rat
doesn't cry, 'tis said. He is content, because the boy is the
one
who sows the garden. Now, if a woman is born, then the rat
cries, 'tis
said, because when the rat is near a woman in the kitchen she
grabs
a stick to kill him."
*(249) they were just
fooling: "Fooling" is michbal [mi4hbal],
literally "means of plucking," an idiom for deception.
Note that in
a later story the victims of deception are literally
plucked.
*(250) loosening the
ball: The verb here is colon, translated on the
basis of colo, "to free" (B.).
*(251) These were taken
away: The verb stem here is mahix,
"be-taken," translated on the basis of mahinic,
"to take" (X.).
*(252) a louse fell on
her elbow: I read chucayac as "elbow" on
the basis of 4hucah, the entry for "elbow" in X., and
picture
Xmucane with her head buried in her arms. The louse, of
course,
falls from her head.
*(253) "My word is
contained": "Contained" is 4oba, translated on
the basis of coba, "to contain" or "keep to
oneself" (B.).
*(254) "bent
over": This is pe, translated on the basis of
pe4elic, "to sag" (X.).
*(255) when he had been
united with the toad: The verb here is
xrictaxic, a complete and passive form of the verb given by B.
as
riquitahic, "to join."
*(256) on the rim of
the ball court: "Rim" is zutzil (in which -il
is adjectival), translated on the basis of tzutz, "to
finish
weaving" (E.) or "to finish weaving by filling out the
space at the
edge" (V.). I take it that the falcon alighted at the top
of the
wall enclosing the ball court.
*(257) "Wak-ko!
Wak-ko!": This is uac co, uac co in the MS. The bird
in question, the uac or laughing falcon (see Glossary), makes
two
different sounds: a long call consisting of a single, rapidly
repeated
syllable, resembling laughter, and a short song that makes use
of
two different syllables. L. Irby Davis transcribes a typical
phrase of
the song as woo-o ka-woo (A Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico
and
Central America, p. 25), which is close to the way the P.V. has
it.
Michael Coe has called my attention to the fact that the
Aztecs,
like Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the present passage, took the
sounds
of this falcon (called oactli in Nahuatl) to be portentous.
The
call, which they heard as uncontrolled laughter, was a bad omen,
but
the song was good (Sahagun, Florentine Codex, book 5, pp.
153-55).
Hunahpu and Xbalanque, in a move the original hearers of their
story
may have found humorous, take the matter of the omen into their
own
hands, bringing the bird down and demanding to know exactly
what
message it carries. The song would seem to be a good omen for
them,
despite the dangers implied by the message that lies behind
(or
inside) it; they are like the twin heroes of North American
Indian
myths in fearlessly taking immediate action whenever a new
adventure
presents itself. But their grandmother, like her own North
American
counterpart, is filled with apprehension.
*(258) their blowgun
shot: The "shot" of the blowgun is ubac [ubak],
literally "its bone" or "its pit" (in the sense
of the pit of a
fruit).
*(259) "My word is
contained in my belly": See note *(246) for a
discussion of the meaning of words in bellies. What is notable
in
the present context, where the hawk contains the snake that
contains
the toad that contains the louse who has the message, is a
symbolic
acting out of the structure of the speech of messengers. Again
and
again the messengers of the P.V. deliver their news in the form
of
multiply embedded quotes; in the present episode each
animal
corresponds, as it were, to a pair of quote marks, one pair
inside the
next.
*(260) he just sort of
drooled: This is xa quehe chucaxh, "just like
that-he-drooled"; I translate the verb stem, caxh, on the
basis of
caxahinic, "to drool" (B.).
*(261) they kicked him:
The verb stem here is iic, translated on the
basis of yicbal, "kick with the foot" (B.). I have
spared the reader
the redundancy of the original phrasing, which goes on to
specify that
the kicking was indeed done with the foot.
*(262) they crushed the
bones: The verb stem here is cah [4ah],
translated on the basis of 4ahinic, "to crumble"
(X.).
*(263) it was right
there in his mouth: In terms of the somatic
mapping of speech, as conceived by Quiches, this implies that
the toad
knew perfectly well what the message was; it was not buried in
his
belly, a realm of the unconscious or the dimly perceived, but
right up
front in his mouth [see notes *(246) and *(259)].
*(264) Each of us will
plant an ear of corn: These are not kernels
(ixim) but ears (ah) that are planted (tic), and as will be
made
clear, they are "planted" not in the earth but above
it, in the
attic of the house, where harvested corn is stored. Andres
Xiloj
recognized this as one of the rituals he carries out in his
capacity
as a mother-father [see also the notes immediately below
and
*(331)-*(334), as well as the Introduction].
*(265) When the corn
dries up: "Corn" has been supplied here; the
original sentence does not specify what is drying (chakihic). It
might
be the ears of corn Hunahpu and Xbalanque left in the center
of
their house, but Andres Xiloj took it to be the ripening of a
corn
crop in their field, which would coincide with the arrival of
the
dry season.
*(266) when the
sprouting comes: This is ta chipe utux, "when
there-comes its-shoot." It would not be the sprouting of
the ears of
corn left in the center of the house by Hunahpu and Xbalanque,
but
of a new crop in the field [see notes *(331)-*(334)].
*(267) Hunahpu planted
one and Xbalanque planted another: This makes
it sound as though there were two ears of corn, but today it would
be four: one yellow, one white, one spotted, and one blue. Note
that
the ears planted by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, however many of
them
there may have been, are later given four different names.
*(268) where the earth
is damp: This is rax uleu, literally "green
(or raw) earth," in contrast with the chaquih [chakih] uleu
or "dry
earth" mentioned in this same sentence; my translation
follows the
reading offered by Andres Xiloj.
*(269) in the middle of
the inside of their house: This is
chunicahal [chuni4ahal] upa cochoch, "at-its-middle
its-inside
their-house." Andres Xiloj was quite definite that this could
only
mean indoors, not in the patio. See note *(173) for further
information on the parts of a house.
*(270) the roads of
Xibalba: Apparently all four roads eventually
lead to or through Xibalba, but in an earlier passage
"the" Road of
Xibalba, and specifically of its lords, is the Black Road
(see
Glossary).
*(271) "What is
it, Wing?": "Wing" has been provided.
*(272) each one named
by the one ranking above him, and naming in
turn the name of the one seated next to him: This is huhun
chiholoman ubixic cumal are chibiin ubi hun ri cubul chuxucut,
"each-one from-ahead being-named by-them this-one naming
his-name
one that seated at-his-side." I interpret chiholoman as
referring to
differences in rank, with chi- as prepositional and holom as
"head" in
the sense of leadership (a sense given by V. under the entry
for
ui). In the dialogue that follows each lord is indeed named by
the one
ranking immediately above him and in turn names the next one
down
the line; the only exception is One Death, who has no one above
him
and must therefore be named by Seven Death.
*(273) "These
aren't lords! These are manikins, woodcarvings!":
Strictly speaking this remark refers to the two manikins,
or
woodcarvings, who are seated first in the sequence, but may also
be
taken as slyly referring to the entire group of lords. They
are
waiting for a good laugh, like the one they had earlier at the
expense
of One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, but instead the joke is on
them.
*(274) "here's our
rubber ball," said the Xibalbans: This is one
of the few points at which qui4, "rubber ball," is
used with reference
to the ball belonging to Xibalba, which is otherwise called
chaah, a
generic term for "ball" [see note *(187)], or else by
its proper name,
White Dagger (see Glossary). Given the general air of duplicity
in the
present passage, we may assume that the Xibalbans are falsely
using
the term qui4.
*(275) "just a
decorated one": This is xa huchil [hu4hil], in
which I take hu4hil to be an adjectival form of hu4hunic,
"to
stripe, put on a design" (X.). The ball of Xibalba (see
White Dagger
in the Glossary) is fundamentally different from the rubber
ball
used by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, but the Xibalbans are claiming
that
it is merely decorated.
*(276) "just a
skull": The ball of Xibalba is surfaced with
crushed bone (see White Dagger in the Glossary).
*(277) "We've said
enough,": This is coh4hachic,
"we-stop-talking," translated on the basis of forms
like chach and
chachachi in B., which have to do with the cessation or hushing
of
talk. Others have treated coh as a separate word here, in which
case
it would mean "puma," but that leaves 4hachic
hanging.
*(278) "Death is
the only thing you want for us! Wasn't it you who
sent a summons to us?": This is an ironic reference to the
names of
One and Seven Death. To put it in other words, "Given that
you are
named came (Death), no wonder you want our camic (death)!"
Hunahpu and
Xbalanque play on the name came again in a later episode. See
One
Death, Seven Death in the Glossary for a discussion of their
name.
*(279) "One bowl
of red petals": "One bowl" is my translation of
huticab, in which I take -ticab to be a numeral classifier
for
counting by the bowlful, similar to -tuc in hutuc, "one
jarful"
(T.); the bowls in question here (zel) are mentioned just before
this.
"Petals" translates a word given as muchih the first
time and muchit
thereafter, which Andres Xiloj read as muchic, referring to
the
"undoing" of flowers to get their petals off, rather
than as mu4h,
which is an herb (known as chipilin in Spanish) whose leaves
are
used as a seasoning in beans. Today flower petals are sprinkled
on
tombs and may be used to adorn shrines before offerings are
burned.
*(280)
"Whip-poor-will!" and "Poor-willow!": The bird calls here
are
xpurpuuec and puhuyu, respectively. Andres Xiloj recognized
xpurpuuec as the call of the bird named perpuuak, which he
described
as a ground-dwelling bird that calls out at night. This is
obviously a
whippoorwill; phonetically the Quiche rendition of its call is
not
that different from the English version, except for the
final
consonant (for an ornithologist's technical description of the
call
see Davis, A Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central
America,
pp. xiii-xv). I interpret puhuyu as a similar but somewhat
simpler
call, belonging to a related species, and translate it as
"poorwill"
when it is used as a species name rather than as a call.
*(281) the nibbling at
their own tails,... wings: This may be a
reference to the fact that the tails and wings of whippoorwills
and
poorwills are marked with bands, bars, and spots that give them
a
mottled appearance.
*(282) an acrobatic
performance: This is tiquitoh, translated on the
basis of tiquita, "to dance audaciously in front of
others" (B.).
*(283) all the
Xibalbans looked sick, they paled: The key forms here
are zaccahe [zakcahe], "be discolored in sickness"
(V.), and zacbu
[zakbu], "pallid" (B.).
*(284) their mouths
were split wide: Whippoorwills and poorwills are
night-jars (Caprimulgidae), all of which have small bills but
mouths
that gape very wide.
*(285) countless
drafts, thick-failing hail: For more about the
drafts (teu), see note *(190). The hail is zacbocom
[zakbokom],
based on glosses offered by B. and by Andres Xiloj.
*(286) a house of fire:
This is hun ha chi 3a3, a descriptive phrase
not constructed in the same way as the proper names given the
other
houses- balami ha, "Jaguar House," for example. It is
omitted from the
earlier list of five test houses and is the most briefly
described
of the houses in the present sequence; it may be a
secondary
elaboration, based on the immolation undergone by Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque in a later episode. That would leave five proper test
houses
in both passages, probably corresponding to segments of five
different
kinds of Venus cycles (see Bat House in the Glossary and D.
Tedlock,
"The Sowing and Dawning").
*(287) "Can you
see how long it is till dawn?": "How long" is my
translation of hanic, "How much?" (B.).
*(288) "What's
going on?": This is my reading of huchalic, based
on hucha, "How?" or "What's this?" (B.).
*(289) Xbalanque
despaired: The verb stem here is quixbih,
translated on the basis of 4ixbeh, "to have shame"
(V.) and
considerations of context.
*(290)
"Alas!": This is acaroc [probably akarok], which Ximenez
translates as "Ay! Ay!" Elsewhere akarok begins a song
of lament,
where I again translate it as "Alas!" But when it
begins prayers I
render it as "Wait!" on the basis of akar,
"wait" (V.) and the
apparent imperative suffix (-ok). A person at prayer is said
to
"cry" (o3ic) and "call out" (zi4ih); to
translate akarok as "Alas!"
emphasizes the emotional tone, while "Wait!"
emphasizes the attempt to
get attention.
*(291) He brought a
squash: What the coati brings is written as coc,
which must be 3o3, "squash," rather than cooc,
"turtle." As Edmonson
has pointed out (The Book of Counsel, p. 124), turtles do not
have
seeds, and I would add that a turtle would not burst open when
hitting
the floor of a ball court.
*(292) then brains came
from the thinker, from the sky: I follow
Edmonson (The Book of Counsel, p. 124) in reading tzatz as
tzatz
3or, "brains" (literally "thick dough").
According to the riddling
"language of Zuyua" in the Book of Chilam Balam of
Chumayel, the
"brains" of the sky consist of copal (Roys, The Book
of Chilam Balam
of Chumayel, pp. 90, 96). That raises the possibility that
"thinker," which is ahnaoh (ah- is occupational) in
the present
passage, could be a pun on naoh [nooh], which is a variety of
copal
(X.). For a discussion of punning in the language of Zuyua,
see
Brian Stross, "The Language of Zuyua."
*(293) His strength was
just the same: "Strength" is chuuc here,
translated on the basis of chu3a, "strength" or
"force" (V.).
*(294) "Possum is
making streaks": This is caxaquin uuch [caxakin
uu4h], "he-is-making-black-streaks possum." V. has an
entry for
xakin uu4h, "a darkness before dawn," which confirms
that uuch
should be uu4h, "possum"; Ximenez translated
"vulture," as if the text
had read 4uch. Andres Xiloj read the verb stem as xakin, "make
black
stripes"; V. has "stripe with carbon" as a gloss
for xakih. Don Andres
commented: "At four-thirty in the morning it is as if black
clouds
were placed there at the end of the sky [the horizon], they are
like a
sea, they are in grades or levels, alternating yellow and black.
Then,
according to the hour, as it clears up, the black becomes
blacker,
blacker, blacker, and what was yellow becomes redder, as the sun
comes
nearer. Then it changes, these black clouds are no longer there,
now
there is only the light of the sun. These black clouds appear to
be
over the earth, they go far [to the left and right], all the way
to
wherever. The stripes signal that the sun is already shining;
they are
a reflection. When one gets up at four or four-thirty in
the
morning, cak chuui xecah, 'it is red over the end of the sky.'
At
first only one black band is there, then it divides up. One can
see
all this in the dry season, but not at this time of year"
(as he
said this his voice was almost drowned out by the sound of
rain).
The possum who made the black streaks or bands in the P.V. is
called
mama, "old man (or grandfather)," which identifies him
as one of the
so-called "year-bearers" (see the Introduction). The
year-bearers
announce the coming of a new solar year, just as the black
streaks
announce the coming of a new day.
*(295) "You should
just make lots of threats": The verb stem here is
yecuh, "be in a threatening attitude" (under the entry
for yecoh in
B.).
*(296) "Stay there
in the oaks": These are pixc, "oaks" or
"acorns" (V., G.), not pix, "tomatoes."
*(297) having recovered
the ball from among the oaks: "Oaks" has
been supplied here. I picture Hunahpu and Xbalanque standing
among the
oaks, pretending they have found the ball when in fact they
have
traded it for a squash.
*(298) The squash was
wearing out: The verb stem here is pucabin
[pu3abin], translated on the basis of pu3, "wear down"
(V.).
*(299) bringing to
light its light-colored seeds, as plain as day:
This is zaquiram cu ri uzaquilal [zakiram 4u ri uzakilal],
literally
"becoming-light (or white) then the
its-lightness-own." Zakir- is also
"to dawn," and zakil is the term for squash seeds; in
the
translation I have added the word "seeds" and the
phrase "as plain
as day" in order to make these dimensions more obvious to
the
reader. Further, zakir- is a metaphor for the sprouting of
plants, but
the phrase "bringing to light its light-colored seeds"
turns that
metaphor inside out. When the squash bursts and causes a
"dawning"
of seeds, it is a "dawning" that comes from the
harvested fruit of a
plant rather than from the planted seeds. To put it another way,
the
seeds burst forth rather than being sown.
This passage probably
has an astronomical dimension as well. Keeping
in mind that Hunahpu and Xbalanque, in their Venus or
ballplayer
aspect, cannot stray from the zodiac, we may speculate that
the
splattered squash seeds correspond to a constellation, and that
this
constellation is closer to being "in bounds" with
respect to the
zodiac than the oaks (or acorns) discussed in note *(296).
The
Pleiades are within the zodiac, but they would seem to be
accounted
for by the Four Hundred Boys. But the seeds of the burst
squash
could at least be somewhere near the Pleiades, since the
Four
Hundred Boys may be rabbits (see under their name in the
Glossary) and
since it is a rabbit who leads the Xibalbans away from the ball
court.
*(300) if we dumped
their bones in the canyon: T. J. Knab informs me
that in the lore of contemporary Nahuatl speakers in the Sierra
de
Puebla, this is precisely the procedure that would be used to
put a
permanent and complete end to a person. On the other hand,
grinding
the bones and putting them directly into water (which is what
is
finally done with Hunahpu and Xbalanque) would ensure continued
life
in some form.
*(301) since you would
see their faces: This is an allusion to
what happened when the head of One Hunahpu was put in a
tree.
*(302) sprinkle them:
The verb stem here is icah, "sprinkle" (B.).
*(303) "You'll
never put that one over on us": The verb stem here is
mich [mi4h], "pluck," but in the present context a
literal translation
would not make sense in English [see note *(427) for a case in
which
deception involves literal plucking of the victim].
*(304) They grabbed
each other by the arms and went head first
into the oven: Hunahpu and Xbalanque do not ascend as the sun
and moon
until later in Part Three of the translation, but their
self-immolation here is obviously the act that opens the way to
that
event. In Aztec mythology the sun and moon are again a pair
of
males, Nanahuatzin and Tecuciztecatl, though apparently not
brothers. They do not jump into the flames arm in arm; instead,
the
former jumps in because the latter is afraid to, and then the
latter
follows out of shame. At first they rise as two identical suns,
but
then Tecuciztecatl is dimmed and becomes the moon (Sahagun,
Florentine
Codex, Book 7, pp. 2-7).
*(305) raising their
shouts, raising their cheers: Andres Xiloj
remarked, "It's like they held a fiesta, complete with a
marimba."
*(306) The two of them
looked like channel catfish: For the
identification of the fish, see the Glossary. There is a
classic
Maya vase on which a figure that has been positively identified
as
Hunahpu by Floyd Lounsbury ("The Identities of the
Mythological
Figures in the 'Cross Group'") is shown in profile with a
barbel
growing out of his cheek (see illustration: "Sacrifice
yet
again, even
do it to yourselves!"). The scene depicted takes place not
far
beyond the one in the present passage [see notes *(317)-*(321)].
It
should be noted that among the Pokomchi Maya Xbalanque gave his
name
to a fish of the perch and bass family (see Xbalanque in
the
Glossary), whose members lack the barbels that characterize
catfish
and (unlike catfish) have spiny fins. It may be that for
speakers of
Quichean languages (who include the Pokomchi) Hunahpu manifested
as
a catfish and Xbalanque as a perch or bass, but it remains to
be
seen whether their classic counterparts might be sorted out
between
two different fish.
Taking our cue from the
fact that other P.V. episodes involve the
establishment of customs by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, we may guess
that
the casting of their bones in the water (an event they
themselves
planned) may have established a fishing ritual. Many fishing
cultures-
on the northwest coast of North America, for example- have rituals
in which the casting of fish bones back in the water results in
the
reincarnation of the fish to which they belonged. When we
combine this
possibility with the fact that Hunahpu and Xbalanque also
established a ritual for the perpetuation of the life of
corn
plants, it brings to mind the raised-field complex among the
classic
lowland Maya, who harvested fish from the same ditches that
drained
their cornfields (see Hammond, Ancient Maya Civilization, pp.
160-63).
Contemporary Quiches do not link corn with fish, but the
founders of
the leading Quiche lineages came from the Gulf-coast lowlands,
and a
later generation of lords obtained the hieroglyphic P.V. from
the
lowlands.
*(307) vagabonds: This
is my translation of meba, given by B. and X.
as "poor person"; I have chosen "vagabonds"
because Hunahpu and
Xbalanque later disclaim any attachment to a particular place.
At this
point in their career they probably correspond to the
so-called
"year-bearers" or "possum actors" of the
lowland Maya, and this is
probably the point at which they earned the epithets Hunahpu
Possum,
Hunahpu Coyote (see Glossary).
*(308) They seemed
unrefined: This is mana chibananta quiuach,
literally "not-yet that-get-to-be-done their-faces";
ban uach is an
idiom meaning "polished, adorned" (B.).
*(309) Now Xibalba was
full of admiration: The "admiration" is
cayic, translated on the basis of cai3, "watch
admiringly" (B.).
*(310) Next they would
sacrifice themselves, one of them dying for
the other: This would seem to indicate that either of the
twins
could assume either role in this act. When the P.V. describes
the act,
it is Xbalanque who sacrifices Hunahpu, but the classic Maya
vase that
portrays this scene shows it the other way around (see
illustration:
"Sacrifice yet again, even do it to yourselves!"). In
terms of
consistency within the P.V. the former arrangement makes more
sense,
since the sacrifice includes decapitation and since it is
otherwise
Hunahpu who gets dismembered; by this time he has already
suffered a
decapitation by a snatch-bat, having previously lost his arm
to
Seven Macaw.
*(311) had to keep
coming back: The verb stem here is machcay,
translated on the basis of machcai3, "to come and go
repeatedly" (B.).
*(312) Feigning great
humility: This is quemochochic; B. gives
mochochic as "to humble oneself hypocritically."
*(313) they bowed their
heads all the way to the ground: This is
chiquixulela quiuach, in which the second word is "their
faces"; B.
gives xulela as "throwing the face on the
ground."
*(314) down to the
rags, to the tatters: The "rags" are mayoquih,
translated on the basis of maquih, "to throw out"; the
"tatters" are
atziac [a4,iak], which carries this meaning in both classical
and
modern Quiche.
*(315) their mountain:
This is quihuyubal, "their-mountain-place."
Huyubal is a metonym for almost any settlement, but especially
a
fortified town or "citadel" (tinamit), located on a
defensible
elevation.
*(316) And they showed
its roundness: This is xquicoloba cut
[xqui4oloba 4ut] chiquiuach, "they-positioned-round-thing
then
to-their-faces."
*(317) his legs, his arms were spread wide:
The verb here is
xperepoxic, apparently a complete (x-), passive (-xic), and
reduplicated form of pere-, "to put a wide thing
somewhere" (V.); B.
has an entry for perrepic, "wide." The limbs of
Mesoamerican sacrifice
victims were indeed spread wide.
*(318) was smothered in
a leaf: This is xcheque [xcheke] chuuach
tzalic [4,alic], "stanched in-face-of leaf-wrapping."
X. gives
4hekelic as "stop the flow of" and 4,alic as
"leaves for wrapping."
This line has caused much confusion, but Andres Xiloj found it
crystal
clear. He commented that 4,alic refers to any leaves used to
wrap
tamales, of which there are several different kinds.
*(319) "Do it to
us! Sacrifice us!": Here Andres Xiloj remarked, "It
didn't please them that they were perfectly well; what pleased
them
was to be butchered."
*(320) "After all,
aren't you Death?": Edmonson has pointed out
the irony of this statement (The Book of Counsel, p. 138).
"Death"
is cam here, lacking any suffixes, which leaves it open to
various
interpretations: caminak, "dead person"; camical, the
ordinary term
for "death"; or came, "Death" as the proper
name of a day on the
calendar and of the two highest lords of Xibalba, One and Seven
Death.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque also played on the name came in an
earlier
passage [see note *(278)].
*(321) heart sacrifice:
The stem here is xaraxo-; B. gives xaraxoh
as "cut or open the chest and take out the
heart."
*(322) countless ants:
This may or may not be metaphorical; if
not, it may be that the fate of the vassals of the lords of
Xibalba
was to become the ants of today. In any case it is very unusual
for
"vassals" to come downward to get to where their lords
are; it would
seem that the domain of Xibalba is the reverse of earthly
domains,
where lords are situated in citadels rather than at the bottoms
of
canyons.
*(323) no cleanly
blotted blood for you: This is chahom quic [4hahom
qui4], literally "washed blood." I take this to be a
reference to
autosacrifice, in which the blood that flowed from
self-inflicted
pricks and wounds was blotted up with paper or leaves. This is
no
longer done today, but Andres Xiloj pointed out that it is
still
said of the Xibalbans that they collect blood that is spilled on
the
ground- that is, dirty blood.
*(324) just griddles,
just gourds, just brittle things broken to
pieces: The "griddles" are xot, for toasting
tortillas; the "gourds"
are acam, translated on the basis of akem, "gourd"
(V.); the
"brittle things" are chuch, which B. glosses as
"delicate, thin";
and "broken to pieces" is xheraxic, translated on the
basis of
hera-, "crumble" (V.). This list suggests the
contemporary ritual of
the days Seven 4,ii and Eight Ba4, (Seven Dog and Eight Monkey)
at
Momostenango, in which novice daykeepers are initiated. On the
eve
of Eight Monkey, the novice is visited at home by his or
her
teacher, who breaks a large and previously unused jar and
burns
copal incense in the shards; the ashes of the copal are put in a
small
gourd. The next day the shards and the gourd are taken to a
shrine
called 4huti Zabal or "Little Place of Declaration"
and deposited
there (see B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, pp. 65-66
for
more details). But this ritual is dedicated primarily to the
Mundo
(earth deity) and the ancestors; there is no mention of Xibalba
in its
liturgy. Perhaps the Quiche elite of pre-Columbian times was
given
to defaming the indigenous highland Guatemalan religion as
Xibalban in
the same way that Christian missionaries have since defamed it
as
Satanic.
*(325) born in the
light, begotten in the light: Andres Xiloj
pointed out that only human beings can be referred to in this
way;
note the contrast with "creatures of the meadows and
clearings" in the
previous sentence. The point is that the lords of Xibalba
will
henceforth be denied proper human sacrifices.
*(326) the blame is
clear: The idiom here is chac umac, "to make
clear one's sin" (B.).
*(327) And you will
hear petitions over headed-up sap: This is
quixtaon puch chuui ri quic [qui4] holomax, "you-listen and
over the
blood (sap) headed-up." Elsewhere I have translated qui4
holomax as
"nodules of sap." What this sentence means is that
henceforth, when
people pray to the Xibalbans, they will burn nodules of the sap of
croton trees (see croton in the Glossary) as offerings.
*(328) they are
inciters to wrongs and violence: Andres Xiloj
commented: "They are the ones who send one to do evil. It
is as if, in
spirit, they enter us, into the head. I think, 'I'm going to
do
such-and-such a thing,' but I don't know who put this bad idea
into
me."
*(329) masters of
perplexity: This is ahlatzab, consisting of ah-,
"person or owner of"; latz, "embarrassed,
perplexed" (B.); and -ab,
plural.
*(330) crying and
calling out: What the grandmother of Hunahpu and
Xbalanque does is coquic caziquin [co3ic cazi4in],
translated
literally here, but in both classical and contemporary Quiche
the
combination of the verb stems o3- ("cry") and zi4-
("call out"),
used in that order, refers to the act of praying. This is
generally
done in a mildly insistent tone rather than a sorrowful one, but
the
petitioner is nevertheless thought of as seeking pity; the
amplitude
of the voice is generally low to moderate, but those who are
addressed
by a prayer are thought of as being summoned from a
distance.
*(331) the corn ears
they left planted: These are the corn ears
Hunahpu and Xbalanque dedicated when they left for Xibalba. "They
left
planted" is xquitic canoc [canok], "they-plant
left," an idiom
referring to the establishment of a ritual obligation. Andres
Xiloj
recognized one of the obligations of the contemporary
mother-father
(patrilineage head) in this passage: "What was 'left
planted' was a
custom. They left it 'planted' that because of the corn, they
would
never be forgotten. Now, this is the uinel [a pair of
shrines
located near a cornfield, one above it and the other below].
When
the corn is ripe one has to give thanks, to burn copal in the
uinel.
One gives thanks so that the seeds will have to sprout again;
one
carries the corn there to have it at the burning place, and when
one
is finished praying one passes the ears through the smoke of
the
copal, saying are 4u ua ru4ux [this here is that which is
its
heart]. This is what their grandmother must have done in the
Popol
Vuh. And after the ears are passed through the smoke they are
placed
in the center of the house, in the middle of our crop. They are
not
eaten until another crop is ripe." Although these dedicated
ears are
not used as seed corn, they are thought of as alive, and it is
because
"the heart of the corn has not died" that the seed
corn is able to
sprout and that even the stored corn is able to continue
multiplying.
It would seem that
Hunahpu and Xbalanque, in addition to their
aspects as Venus, year-bearing vagabond actors, and (eventually)
the
sun and moon, are also maize deities. The rites of the uinel
are
performed on two successive days bearing the names Queh and
3anil,
"Deer" and "Yellowness (or Ripeness)," with
the latter being the
principal day (B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya, pp. 77,
80).
There are fixed rites each 260 days on Seven Deer and Eight
Yellowness; planting rites are carried out on the Deer and
Yellowness days nearest the actual planting time, and harvest
rites
are carried out on the days nearest the actual harvest. The
day
corresponding to Yellowness (named Lamat in Yucatec) also
figures
prominently in the Venus table of the Dresden Codex, where it is
the
first day of the morning star that begins the third of five full
Venus
cycles and the first day of disappearance for both morning and
evening
stars during the fourth Venus cycle. It may be that at
least
portions of these Venus cycles symbolize the life cycle of the
maize
plant; indeed, the lowland Maya maize god is actually depicted
at
the bottom of the page dealing with the third cycle.
*(332) And this was
when their grandmother burned something: That
is, when the corn dried up (ripened), coinciding with the
burning of
Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the oven.
*(333) the ears were
deified by their grandmother: "Were deified" is
xcabauilax [x4abauilax], "complete-deify-passive,"
which could also be
translated "made into an idol," not in the sense of an
image but as an
object of adoration.
*(334) the corn ears
had been placed up above an earthen floor: This
is chuui chata [4hata] uleu quitic ui ah, "above bed (or
slab or
table) earth they-plant to corn-ear," which makes it quite
clear
that the corn was not "planted" in any ordinary sense
of the word- not
that one would plant corn ears in the first place.
*(335) their father:
Note that the term for father (kahau) is
extended to Seven Hunahpu in this passage; he is the younger
brother
of One Hunahpu, who is the actual father of Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
In a sense One Hunahpu (or at least his head) has long since
come back
to life, but Seven Hunahpu, whose head and body were both buried
at
the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice, has been dead all this
time.
Therefore Hunahpu and Xbalanque's attempt at a revival of the
dead
is directed at Seven Hunahpu.
*(336) he was asked to
name everything: The notion here is that
articulate speech, with clearly enunciated words, is analogous
to a
clearly recognizable human face. Seven Hunahpu is not able
to
articulate the names of all the parts of his face because he
has
very few parts beyond the ones he does name, having been reduced
to
bones. The "meat" of his face is irreversibly lost,
just as One
Hunahpu has said the meat of a dead man's face would be
lost.
*(337) each of his
former parts: This is ri uhunal puil, "the
its-each formerness"; I translated puil on the basis of
puhil,
"antiquity" (B.).
*(338) "You will
be prayed to here": Andres Xiloj saw this as the
beginning of the veneration of the dead. He explained that
when
there is a death in the patrilineage, the funeral rites are
not
complete until the mother-father goes to the lineage shrines on
a
Hunahpu day that falls after the actual death. There he prays
that the
lingering soul of the deceased, which is a spark of light,
might
pass on into the cool, dark room of the underworld, from which
it
may later have the good fortune to rise into the sky. The number
of
the Hunahpu day is chosen according to the age and importance of
the
deceased, with a very low number for a small child and a high
one
for a very old person who occupied important offices. With
or
without a recent death Hunahpu days are appropriate for visiting
the
graves of relatives, where prayers are said and offerings are
burned
in much the same way as at lineage shrines, except that the
entire
family can go along and make a day of it, taking along a
picnic
lunch and strong drink.
*(339) "you will
be the first to have your day kept": This may refer
specifically to the day Seven Hunahpu, but it probably means
Hunahpu
days in general, regardless of their number prefix.
*(340) "your name
will not be lost": Andres Xiloj, who is the
mother-father for his own patrilineage, remarked: "This is
just the
way it is with our family. The first man who lived in this place
was
named Gaspar Xiloj, but we are still remembering him right now.
Gaspar
is the first generation, the second is Juan, the third is
Sabino,
the fourth is Antonio, the fifth is ourselves, but we are
still
remembering all of them. That's what it's talking about here in
the
Popol Vuh." He added that ideally, a mother-father would be
able to
call upon nine or even thirteen generations of predecessors, all
of
them having lived on the same lands (see the Introduction for
a
discussion of the naming of predecessors within the P.V.
itself).
The list of people invoked in prayers should also include
the
spouses of all these men (with their maiden names); the writers
of the
P.V. name the women only for the first generation.
*(341) the sun belongs
to one and the moon to the other: This is hun
cu [4u] quih [3ih] hun nai pu ic [i4] chique, "one then sun
one also
and moon to-them." The text does not say that they
literally became
the sun and moon. From the general order of mention of Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque and the order of mention of the sun and moon in
the
present passage, it would appear that the sun pertains to
Hunahpu
and the moon to Xbalanque. But Thompson noted that except for
this
passage and a contemporary Cakchiquel myth, all the sources on
Mayan
peoples (including the contemporary Quiche) cast the moon as
a
woman, and he argued that the male moon of the P.V. was the
result
of an influence from outside Mayan culture (Maya History and
Religion,
pp. 234, 368). Lounsbury, following Thompson, argues that
Xbalanque in
particular is properly a solar rather than a lunar deity, one of
his
principal pieces of evidence being that among the
contemporary
Kekchi Maya, one of the names of the sun god is Xbalam3e, in
which
3e is "day" and once meant "sun" ("The
Identities of the
Mythological Figures in the 'Cross Group'"). As for
Hunahpu,
Thompson associates him with both the sun (Maya History and
Religion, p. 234) and Venus (p. 368), whereas Lounsbury
casts
Xbalanque as "the" Maya sun god and assigns Hunahpu
(or the equivalent
of Hunahpu at Palenque) to Venus alone.
There are at least
three major problems with any attempt to give
unambiguous astronomical assignments to Hunahpu and Xbalanque-
or to
their counterparts at Palenque, the gods designated G-I and
G-III. The
first is that a single celestial light need not be assigned to
a
single god; in the P.V., at least, one of the five Venus cycles,
the
first, is assignable neither to Hunahpu nor Xbalanque but to
their
father, One Hunahpu (see the Introduction), and Thompson notes
that
the classic Maya personification of the sun takes several
different
forms (Maya History and Religion, pp. 237, 239, 281). The
second
problem is the converse of the first, which is that a single
god
need not be limited to a single astronomical assignment. The
P.V.
treats a given celestial phenomenon as a "sign"
(retal) or (in the
case of the rising sun) a "reflection" (lemo) of a
past event; given
that Hunahpu and Xbalanque undergo various transformations and
take on
various disguises in the course of their adventures, there is
no
reason to suppose that if the sun and moon (or aspects thereof)
are
signs or reflections of their past actions, all other
celestial
phenomena are thereby eliminated.
A third major problem
with giving simple assignments to Hunahpu
and Xbalanque is that Quiches do not limit the use of 3ih,
"sun" or
"day," to words or expressions for solar phenomena,
and the same may
have been true of writers who used glyphic elements meaning
"sun" in
classic inscriptions. In the P.V. the morning star is called
iko3ih,
"day (or sun) bringer" (see the Glossary), and
contemporary Quiches
use 3ih as a figure of speech for the full moon (see the
Introduction). A colonial source reports an occasion on which
the
Quiches "saw three suns in one day" (Carmack, The
Quiche Mayas, p.
129); this was probably a day that began with Venus as the
morning
star and ended with the rising of the full moon. Returning to
the
P.V., the fact that Xbalanque (or Xbalan3e) may have
"sun" in his name
need not mean that he is "the" Maya sun god, nor does
it disqualify
him from having a lunar aspect. And given that balan can mean
"hidden"
in classic inscriptions and is used to designate human lords
who
have passed into the underworld at death (Schele, Notebook, p.
118),
it could be that Xbalanque was specifically responsible for
the
night-time sun (the one in the underworld), and that he became
visible
on the surface of the earth once a month as the full moon.
That
would leave the daytime sun open to Hunahpu.
*(342) They became the
sky's own stars: Earlier we were told that
the Four Hundred Boys correspond specifically to the
Pleiades.
-
PART FOUR
-
*(343) they sought and
discovered: The root of the latter verb is
canaizah, translated on the basis of caneizah, "discover,
find" (B.).
*(344) the animals who brought the food:
Andres Xiloj pointed out
that all four of these animals eat corn. Of the birds he
said,
"There are birds that take the kernels from the crop and
carry them
off to hide them. When the time comes they still know where they
are
and go to eat them. When they don't find where they left them,
a
garden is created there."
*(345) Xmucane did the
grinding nine times: Andres Xiloj
commented: "The first time corn is ground it is broken
open. The
second time, it is somewhat fine. The third time is finer."
He
indicated that ordinarily corn would not be ground nine times;
that
would be very fine indeed.
*(346) the water she
rinsed her hands with: This is ha ropenal in
the MS.; Andres Xiloj read it as the haa (water) a woman uses
to
wash off rupenal, which is the corn meal that sticks to the
hands
during grinding.
*(347) with yellow
corn, white corn alone for the flesh: This
reminded Andres Xiloj of a saying used today: uhral 3anuach,
xolob,
"We are the children [specifically a woman's children] of
yellow-faced
corn, spotted corn."
*(348) They walked,
they worked: The second verb here is xechapanic,
literally "they grasped," but Andres Xiloj suggested
"worked," since
work is done with the hands. Quiches think of the
extremities
together; walking and using the hands are the physical
counterparts of
articulate speech. Note that the linking of speech and walking
is made
explicit in the statement "Isn't your speech good, and your
walk?"
*(349) It was as if
they were asteep: Note that this passage seems
to allude to Genesis, but that it disagrees with Genesis on
four
crucial points. First, it was only "as if" (quehe) the
men were asleep
when the women were made, and they were "wider awake"
afterward- qui
xe4aztahic, "really (or very) they-got-to-be-alive (or
awake)."
Second, there were four men and then four women, not one and
one.
Third, the women were not made from parts of men but were
made
separately from men. Fourth, sexual differences already
existed
among the gods.
*(350) ladies of rank:
This is xoccohauab [xokohauab], literally
"women-lords."
*(351) penitents and
sacrificers: This is ahquix (sometimes ahquixb)
ahcahb [ah4ixb ah4ahb], in which ah- is occupational; V. gives
4ixb as
"shame" and E. gives 4ahb as "sacrifice,
idolize." 4ixb is probably
a verbal form of 4ix, "spine," and 4ahb probably has
the same root
as 4ahinic, "punish" (X.). The reference is to the
penitential
autosacrifice of blood, a widespread practice in
pre-Columbian
Mesoamerica.
*(352) thirteen allied
tribes, thirteen principalities: This is
oxlahuh uca amac [ama3] oxlahuh tecpan, in which oxlahuh is
"thirteen"
and ama3 is "tribe." Tecpan is Nahua for "royal
house or palace" or
"put something in order" (D.); in the Quiche context
it seems to be
a term for a tribe that is organized under a recognized noble
house,
but a house that is tributary (at least ideally) to the
larger
Quiche state. The tecpan list in this passage contains fifteen
names
rather than thirteen; some of the names may be subdivisions
of
larger entities, or some may be synonyms, or else the
number
thirteen is simply an ideal figure rather than a literal
count.
That leaves the
question of how to translate uca, which requires
appeal to the only other passage in the entire P.V. that
combines ama3
and tecpan in parallel construction (Part Five, "And
Bearded Place
is the name of..."): uuc amac [ama3] quib quiticpan
[quitecpan]
quib, in which quib is "themselves." It stands to
reason that uca in
the first passage should be the same as uuc in the second
passage.
By itself the latter form might be read as uukub,
"seven," but that is
disconfirmed by the fact that there are thirteen uca ama3 in
the
earlier passage. I translate both uca and uuc as
"allied" on the basis
of two entries in B.: uuquih [probably uu4ih], "to make a
friend," and
uuq [probably uu4], "friend"; these forms are probably
related to
the prepositional root -u4, "with."
*(353) each one a
division of that citadel: This is probably a
reference to Tulan Zuyua, a place that will not be properly
discussed until later.
*(354) And there were
mountain people: Here the P.V. follows the
lines of Toltecan myths of national origin, exemplified by the claim
of the powerful Aztecs (or Mexicans) to a humble past as
Chichimec
hunters and gatherers. The ancestors of the Quiches and related
tribes
will later be described as being "adorned with mere animal
hides," and
the Quiche ancestors in particular will be described as hunters
of
deer, birds, and larvae who stay apart from more populous
tribes.
*(355) for all the
mountain people there was just one language: I
have supplied "mountain people" here; the intent seems
to be to
separate the mountain people (including the Quiche ancestors)
from
others who were in the east, including "people of many
languages."
*(356) They did not yet
pray to wood and stone: That is, they had
not yet received the objects whose spirit familiars would become
their
tribal gods.
*(357) lifting their
faces to the sky: Andres Xiloj explained: "When
one prays, as here, asking for things, one looks to heaven;
afterwards, when waiting for the blessing, one looks to
earth."
*(358) "as long as
there is day, as long as there is light": This is
an alternate translation of the line discussed in note *(154)
("in the
course of the days"). In the present context Andres Xiloj
commented:
"Today one says kabe 3ih, kabe zak [our-road day, our-road
light].
This is the time that goes forward; it is the road of time, the
number
of years one is going to live, or the number of times there will
be
until the end of the world."
*(359) "will it
be": This line has been translated as a question
because it begins with quita, which B. gives as "what"
or "how."
*(360) "a good
life and beginning": Andres Xiloj commented: "These
words would be used in prayer when someone was setting up a
new
household."
*(361) they made their
fasts: The verb stem here is quilonic,
translated on the basis of 3ilonic, translated on the basis
of
3ilonic, "avoid, abstain" (X.).
*(362) watching
intently: This is zelauachin, translated on the
basis of zelauachih, "to view with close attention"
(listed under
zeleuachih in B.).
*(363) He pivoted
inside his sandal: The verb phrase here is xubac
uloc [xubak ulok], "he drilled hither"; V. gives bak
as "to drill."
Just as he promised, Tohil gave his followers fire even when
others
had lost theirs; his "sandal" was presumably the
platform of a fire
drill. The classic Maya antecedent of Tohil, who also
possesses
fire, is the personage designated only as G-II or God K in the
past
literature, but whose name at Palenque is now known to have
been
Tahil, "Torch Mirror" or "Obsidian Mirror"
(Linda Schele and Floyd
G. Lounsbury, personal communications); he is typically shown
with a
burning torch sticking out of the mirror he wears on his
forehead.
As Michael Coe had previously pointed out (The Maya Scribe, pp.
16,
116), God K is the Mayan cognate of the Nahua god named
Tezcatlipoca
or "Smoking Mirror." The Tohil of the P.V. is like
Tezcatlipoca in
demanding human sacrifice; it remains to be seen if the same
was
true of Tahil at Palenque. Tahil often takes the form of
the
"manikin scepter" (Thompson, Maya History and
Religion, pp. 225-26),
an object carried by classic rulers (see illustration:
"They've come
to ask for your fire"). In this form he is like
Tezcatlipoca in having
only one leg (the other "leg," when present, takes the
form of a
serpent). This suggests that Tohil may be a manifestation of
Hurricane
or Hurakan (literally "One leg"); see also note
*(516).
*(364) they got no
response: The verb here is xeculaxic, "they
were [not] answered"; B. glosses cula as
"respond."
*(365) place of
emergence: This is tzuquibal [4,uquibal], in which
-bal is "place of"; V. glosses 4,uc as "spring
forth, sprout."
*(366) And then a
person showed himself: At this point in the MS.
Ximenez, who otherwise confines his own parenthetical remarks to
the
Spanish translation in the right-hand column of each page,
inserts a
remark into the left-hand column, otherwise reserved for the
Quiche
text. As if avoiding an impropriety, he uses Latin, writing
"Demonio
loquens eis." The writers of the P.V. probably intended
their own
allusion to Christian demonology in this passage, since
they
describe the person under discussion as having the wings of a
bat
and as coming from Xibalba (the underworld), but note that they
make
this allusion at the expense of the Cakchiquels, the
principal
rivals of the Quiches, whose god, they say, "looks like a
bat." To
this day a great many Cakchiquel men wear jackets with a bat
motif
on the back.
*(367) the
representation: This is quexuach [4exuach], literally
"substitute-face," which B. glosses as
"resemblance" (under the
entry for quexel); Andres Xiloj offered the same reading.
*(368) They were simply
overwhelmed: This is xa quiculu, in which xa
is "just" and qui- is "they"; culu is
translated on the basis of culum
[4ulum], "dismay" (B.).
*(369) groping along:
The verb stem here is chacchot, translated
on the basis of chacacha, "to go like a blind person"
(B.).
*(370) they had
covetous mouths and covetous faces: This is
chiquimah quichi [chii] chiquimah quiuach. The combination of
mah
("rob") with chii ("mouth") and uach
("face") is an idiom meaning
"to be pained by not having something to trade with or
something one
has need of" (under mah in V.). A more literal translation
of the
present example would be something like "They had thieving
mouths
and thieving faces."
*(371) "Wasn't it
found and wasn't it revealed": This is a
divinatory phrase, much like the one used by Xpiyacoc and
Xmucane at
the beginning of their divinatory question concerning the making
of
humans from wood. The verb stems in both cases are culu [4ulu]
and
rico [riko], "encounter" and "find." In the
present context the
implication is that those who want fire claim a kinship with
those who
already have it on the basis of some past divinatory reading
rather
than on the basis of a clear genealogy. This is what
anthropologists
call "fictive kinship"; it may have been standard
practice in highland
Guatemala to include divinatory readings in the negotiation of
such
relationships.
*(372) "Don't they
want to be suckled?": Throughout this passage I
follow Edmonson in translating tunic [tuunic] as having to do
with
suckling (The Book of Counsel, p. 168), a meaning found in
both
classical and modern Quiche. In the present context the suckling
is
a metaphor for sacrifice by removal of the heart. It may be the
horror
of this metaphor that has caused translators to pass over
it
heedlessly; even Edmonson's note on the subject suggests that
mere
sacrifice by self-bleeding is meant. The place where Tohil
desires
to do his suckling is "on their sides and under their
arms," which
fits with what is known about Mesoamerican heart sacrifice:
the
incision ran all the way to the sides of the chest (Francis
Robicsek
and Donald Hales, "Maya Heart Sacrifice"). The next
sentence, "Isn't
it their heart's desire to embrace me?" is not only a
statement
about motivation but a further reference to heart sacrifice.
Tohil
is no mere suckler of breasts; what he wants from those who
embrace
him is deep inside the breast, and he wants the whole
thing.
*(373) They made no
delay: The text has maui xquiquiyaluh, in
which I take the second word to be an error for xquiyaluh; yaluh
is
"to delay oneself" (B.), giving "not
complete-they-delay" for the
whole phrase.
*(374) This deed had
not yet been attempted: The verb stem here is
tihou, translated on the basis of tihouic, "try,
practice" (X.).
*(375) the new
daybringer: "New" is my translation of raxa, which
could also be "raw"; I assume that the reference is to
the first
appearance of Venus as morning star after a period of
invisibility.
*(376) they left the
east: The verb stem here is canah, "to leave"
(B.).
*(377) "where we
belong": This is cohtique ui, "incomplete-we-stop";
B. glosses tequeic as "to stop."
*(378) "bleeding
your ears and passing a cord through your
elbows": The verbs here are hutic, "to let blood"
(B.), and ziza,
translated on the basis of tzizo, "to sew a seam, to string
[like
beads]; formerly, to let blood for sacrifice to idols"
(B.). The
"ears" and "elbows" are xiquin and chuc
[4huc]. Ears are well attested
throughout Mesoamerica as sites for the drawing of blood in rites
of
self-sacrifice, but elbows are mentioned only for the Quiche,
in
both the P.V. and in B. (under the entry for tzizo). Michael D.
Coe
has pointed out to me that the penis was a primary site for
the
drawing of blood among the classic Maya. In the present passage
chuc
(if it is not 4huc) could conceivably be related to chu3a or
chu3ab,
"strength, energy, vigor" (V. and X.), and thus allude
to the penis,
but this seems unlikely, given that B. confirms the elbow as a
site
for drawing blood.
*(379) camping on the
road: This is xucanahibeh ri pa be,
literally "it was left in the road."
*(380) In unity: This
is chiquihunam uach, "in-their-one face," an
idiom given in X. as hunam quiuach, "in agreement,"
and in B. as
hunamah uach, "to make friends."
*(381) They were just
smelling the tips of their staffs: Andres
Xiloj commented: "Perhaps these staffs had some secret.
Perhaps they
were of a wood like cherry, which has the odor of the
fruit."
*(382) packed ... on
their backs: The verb stem here is eca [eka],
"to carry on the shoulders or back" (B.).
*(383) above a great
red river: This is chuui hun nima ca3ha
[cakhaa], "on-top one great red-river." Given that the
writers of
the P.V. usually transcribe both "house" (ha) and
"water (or river)"
(haa) as ha, this could also be "great red house." Red
was perhaps the
commonest color for the stuccoed exteriors of Mayan public
buildings, going all the way back to the pre-classic.
*(384) on a bare
mountain: This is zaqui [zaki] huyub, literally
"white mountain," but zaki is sometimes used to mean
"plain" (in the
sense of unadorned). I take it that the writers mean to contrast
the
situation of Hacauitz with that of Auilix and Tohil, both of
whom seem
to be "in a great forest" even though the latter, like
Hacauitz, is on
a mountain.
*(385) Masses of
serpents ... jaguars, rattlesnakes, yellowbites
were there in the forest where he was hidden: Today in
Momostenango
the shrines on the high mountains that bound the community,
together
with the shrine (atop a very high waterfall) used by those
who
organize and play parts in the Monkey Dance, are all said to
be
haunted by dangerous animals. Such animals appear to those
whose
ritual office does not entitle them to visit a particular
shrine; they
also appear to those who have a right to visit but have failed
to
abstain from sexual or violent acts (whether verbal or physical)
on
the day of their arrival at the shrine.
*(386) they stopped
there: The verb stem here is tacotob, translated
on the basis of ta3atobic, "to stop and not move
forward" (under
ta3aba in B.).
*(387) They cried their
hearts and their guts out: Asked why, Andres
Xiloj said, "They were sad in the darkness, there was no
light, no
day, no night, all the time it was dark." The Quiche do not
think of
night as simply "dark" as opposed to "light"
[see in the early dawn in
note *(69)]. The conditions before the first dawn of the P.V.
were
so bad that one could not even speak properly of night, with
its
moon and stars and even a faint trace of dawn, to say nothing of
the
full light of day.
*(388) the gods who
were ... just out in the bromelias, in the
hanging mosses, not yet set on pedestals: Today bromelias
and
hanging mosses (see Glossary) are standard materials in the
construction of temporary outdoor arbors or archways for saints;
the
present passage would seem to mean that the gods were put
beneath such
arbors, not that they were put up in the trees where bromelias
and
hanging mosses actually grow. Only later were the gods "set
on
pedestals," presumably in the "houses" at the
tops of pyramids.
*(389) their
strategies: This is quichacabal [qui4hacabal],
"their-win-instrument."
*(390) Their hearts did
not yet harbor ill will: This is mana chilic
cayal ta qui4ux, in which mana is "not yet," ta is a
further marker of
the negative, and qui4ux is "their hearts." B. glosses
both chilic and
cayal as "ill will, anger."
*(391) they incensed:
The verb stem here is zacbiza, translated on
the basis of za3bizah, "to incense" and "to wag
[a tail]" (B.). In the
next sentence I have translated the same verb as "they
shook." A
pottery censer of the kind used in Mesoamerica must be shaken
or
swayed back and forth to keep the incense burning.
*(392) it is only his
reflection that now remains: What might lie
behind this statement is revealed by a contemporary Mopan Maya
tale in
which Lord Kin (the sun) goes from his home in the east to
the
center of the sky and then back to the east again; it appears
that
he goes clear across the sky because he has placed a mirror at
its
center (Thompson, Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and
Central
British Honduras, p. 132). To interpret the movements of the sun
in
this manner is to model it on Venus as morning star, which
both
rises and sets in the east.
*(393) Tohil, Auilix,
and Hacauitz were turned to stone, along
with the idols of the puma, jaguar, rattlesnake, yellowbite,
which the
White Sparkstriker took with him into the trees: The
"idols" here
are ucabauilal [u4abauilal], "its-god-own," 4abauil
being translated
elsewhere as "god." The White Sparkstriker is named
immediately
after the yellowbite and could be included in the list of beings
who
are turned to stone, but in terms of what is known about him
(or
her) today (B. Tedlock, "El C'oxol: un simbolo de la
resistencia
quiche") it makes much more sense to treat the name as the
subject
of the sentence that follows it, xa xuchap chi uca [u4ah] rib pa
che
[chee], "just he/she took that to-accompany him/herself
into trees."
Today the White Sparkstriker is the keeper of volcanic
concretions and
ancient artifacts that resemble animals; these objects, which
are said
to have been petrified when the sun first rose, are called
mebil
(the same as the name of the shrine in which they are kept)
in
Momostenango and 4amauil in the eastern Quiche area.
Andres Xiloj commented
on the passage at hand as follows: "When
all the birds, animals were converted into stone, they remained
as
mebil. When the moment comes and one is able to acquire one
of
these, this is the mebil. Birds, rabbits, in sum, all the
different
kinds of stones. Now the 4oxol [Sparkstriker], this one, yes, he
has
money, 'tis said. When one has luck, the 4oxol presents himself.
If he
takes off his shoe and leaves it thrown away, then there is the
money;
or his little bag- because he has a little bag, and if he leaves
it
thrown away, there is the money. This is the mebil of a person;
it
is the luck." Lucas Pacheco said that the 4oxol lost
his/her shoe when
the sun first rose; the 4oxol escaped petrifaction by running
into the
trees, but the shoe did not.
*(394) Perhaps we would
have no relief from the voracious animals
today- the puma, jaguar, rattlesnake, yellowbite-... if the
original
animals hadn't been turned to stone: "Voracious
animals" is tionel
chicop, "biting (or meat-eating) animals." The MS.
erroneously adds
the White Sparkstriker to the list of animals in this
sentence;
apparently Ximenez (or a copyist) interpreted the previous
naming of
the White Sparkstriker (see above) as part of a list of animals
and
then assumed that the name must be missing from the present
list.
Andres Xiloj commented: "The 4oxol [Sparkstriker] has to
take care
of the animals; he doesn't allow them to go out, because they
are
harmful. He keeps them, he has them in a corral." This is
the
Sparkstriker in his role as gamekeeper (see B. Tedlock, Time and
the
Highland Maya, pp. 181-87); today the dangerous animals only
attack
people who have failed in their ritual duties. According to
Lucas
Pacheco, the corral where the Sparkstriker keeps his animals
is
located deep within a branch of the cave beneath the ruins of Rotten
Cane; in that context they take the form of small stones.
The
fortunate may be allowed to take some of these; the unfortunate
fall
into a great, wide mouth.
*(395) And the language
has differentiated in the case of the
Cakchiquels: In this passage the P.V. presents a theory
that
linguistic differentiation correlates with differences in the
names
originally assigned to tribal gods. The linguistic observations
are
themselves quite accurate (see the Introduction).
*(396) their stay: This
is quiabulic, translated on the basis of
yabulic, "to stop" (B.).
*(397) the masking of
Tohil: The "masking" is cohbal,
"mask-instrument," apparently referring to the deer
costumes discussed
later.
*(398) they bowed down:
The verb here is uonouoh, "contract, as in
joining the chin with the knees" (B.).
*(399) Now it was only
a manifestation of his genius that spoke when
the penitents and sacrificers came before Tohil: That is to say,
the
words came not from the stone itself but from an apparition of
its
spirit familiar, which in this case would be a youth.
*(400) All they burned
before their gods was resin, just bits of
pitchy bark, along with marigolds: That is to say, they
burned
things gathered in nature rather than proper copal (see
Glossary). The
resin is 3ol, which may be gathered in gummy nodules from the
trunks
of various trees. The bits of pitchy bark are rachak nooh,
literally
"leavings of pine resin," pieces of bark on which a
hard red resin has
been formed as a result of the holes bored by worms. The species
of
marigold in question is a common roadside herb (see
Glossary).
According to Andres Xiloj, all of these things are burned as
offerings
today in Momostenango, but they constitute a poorer offering
than
copal. Earle reports the use of marigolds in the eastern Quiche
area
as well ("La etnoecologia quiche"), and I have seen
the unburned
remains of bits of bark at a shrine near Chichicastenango.
*(401) Do not reveal us
to the tribes: Andres Xiloj compared this
hiding of the gods (or the stones that contain their geniuses)
to
the proper treatment of the valuable objects that are called
mebil
in the Quiche dialect of Momostenango: "These stones are
like mebil.
When one finds one, one must not show it to another person,
because
it's for oneself directly. There are persons who find some
little
things; they may show them to others, but this mebil won't allow
it,
now it won't give good fortune to the person who found it.
It
withdraws. If there is some little thing, an ancient coin found
in the
woods, or a stone, then one must guard it." See also note
*(68).
*(402) "they
search for us": This is coh3a3anih rumal,
"us-watch-closely by-them"; the verb stem is
translated on the basis
of 3a3alinic, "ambushed, surveyed closely" (Q.).
*(403) "don't you
let us be hunted down": This is maui
cohiralahobizah, "not incomplete-us-you-hunt (or
trap)-cause."
*(404) "female
deer and female birds": "Female" is xnam here; V.
gives xnam as "female deer," but in the present
passage xnam appears
as an adjective with both "deer" and
"birds": xnam queh xnam 4,iquin.
*(405) "deer
costumes": These are u queh at the first mention and cu
queh thereafter. B. gives cuu as "clothing"; it should
probably be 4uu
on the basis of its resemblance to 4ul, which several other
sources
gloss as "clothing."
*(406) "They
belong to us already": This is a reference to the
long-standing promise the tribes made in order to get fire,
namely,
that they would allow themselves to be "suckled"- that
is, to have
their hearts cut out.
*(407) they would then
go to anoint the mouth of the stone of
Tohil or Auilix with the blood of the deer or bird: In the
eastern
Quiche area today, the mouths of stones (now called 4amauil
rather
than 4abauil as here) are more commonly given drinks of
distilled
liquor than of blood, but the blood of sacrificed chickens
is
sometimes given in the area of Chichicastenango. Drinks of
liquor
are also put into the mouths of saints. Ideally the liquid
offered
should quickly disappear, as if actually swallowed by the stone
or
saint; in the words of the P.V., "And the bloody drink was
drunk by
the gods."
*(408) just the larva
of the yellow jacket, the larva of the wasp,
and the larva of the bee: Andres Xiloj described these insects,
the
uonon, zital, and akah, as follows: "The uonon is large and
striped
yellow and black; there is honey in its hive, and it stings. The
zital
is bigger and has red stripes. Its bite is more serious than
that of
the uonon; it causes a large swelling and one could even die.
It, too,
has honey. The akah is small, a little bigger than a fly,
and
stings. It makes a nest, with thousands of akah. If one can get
it
down with a stick the akah stay up there, then one can get
whatever
pieces of honey there are." At present the larvae are eaten
only in
the case of the akah.
*(409) "Your
right": This is icolbal iuib, in which i- is "you"
and iuib is yourselves" (both plural familiar); B. gives
colbalib as
"liberty." This is a reference to the agreement the
tribes made to
allow themselves to be sacrificed (see the next note).
*(410) the suckling:
This is ri 4,um; some have taken it to be
"pelt," but I translate it on the basis of tzumah
[4,umah], "to
suckle" (B.), and take it to be a further reference to
the
"suckling" (heart sacrifice) pledged by the tribes
(see the previous
note).
*(411) the tracks were
merely those of animals: This is cacan
[cakan] ri xa quipich, "their tracks that just their
feet," in which
"feet" (pich) is specifically "the feet of
quadrupeds" (V.).
*(412) dark and rainy:
This is quecal [3ekal] hab, literally
"black rain," but referring (according to Andres
Xiloj) to a storm
that is so intense that the sky gets very dark. This supports
the
notion that Tohil is an aspect of Hurricane [see note *(363)],
who
caused a "black rain" when he destroyed the wooden
people. In the view
of Lounsbury (personal communication), Tahil, the classic
equivalent
of Tohil at Palenque, was also a rain god.
*(413) misty and
drizzly: This is muzmul hab, "misty rain." Andres
Xiloj explained: "These are days when it doesn't rain
strongly;
instead the drops are small, little bits of water fall. It is
muzmul."
*(414) they singled
them out and cut them down: The MS. has
echalamicat, in which the only certainty is e, "they."
My reading is
based on chala "to pick out among many" (B.), and
(following Edmonson,
The Book of Counsel, p. 192) 4at, "cut" (in the sense
of "reap").
*(415) "in full
blossom": This is chaom, "blossom," a "metaphor
meaning beauty" according to B.
*(416) "radiate
preciousness": This is zaclocoh [zaklo3oh], a
combination of "light" (zak) and "valuable"
or "precious" (lo3oh).
Andres Xiloj pictured the maidens as twelve to fifteen years
old.
*(417) on their hands
and knees: This is chacachaxinac
[chacachaxinak], with passive and perfect suffixes (-xinak),
which I
translate on the basis of chacachotic, "go on all
fours" (B.).
*(418) Tohil and the
others: Here and elsewhere in this story I have
supplied "and the others"; the name Tohil is often
used to mean all
three gods and may be combined with a plural verb prefix.
*(419) there must come
a sign as to whether you really saw their
faces: Note that when Blood Woman went before the head of One
Hunahpu,
he gave her a "sign" by spitting in her hand, which
made her pregnant;
in this case the signs will be quite different, intended not for
the
women but for their fathers.
*(420) they spotted:
This is xil quiuach, in which x- is complete
and qui- is "they," translated on the basis of
ilauachih, "to look
with attention" (B.).
*(421) on a smooth
surface: This is chiyulinic uuach, "on-smooth
its-face"; B. gives yulunic as "a smooth thing."
The paintings were on
"the inside" (upam) of the cloaks, and it was this
side that went next
to the body of the lord who was then stung by wasps, despite
the
"smooth surface."
*(422) He turned
around: The verb stem here is zolouic, translated
on the basis of zololic, "to give turns" (B.).
*(423) unfurling it:
This is catzonon ucuxic [u3uxic], literally
"he-undresses his-being-covered"; B. gives tzonolic as
"undressed."
I take it that this lord opened up his cloak so that everyone
could
see the eagle on the inside of it.
*(424) It then became
the profession of Xtah and Xpuch to bark
shins: "Bark shins" is my translation of hoxol chec
[4hek], based on
the comments of Andres Xiloj: "4hek is the shin bone. Hoxol
is 'one
who wounds.' It is the wound that they [the girls] gave them. A
girl
or a boy comes to know how the world is [laughs]. Let's suppose
we are
now old people. We can deceive a girl of fifteen or sixteen
years, and
there is the wound. The violence. And so a woman can deceive a
boy
of fifteen or fourteen years, then there it is. The old woman
wounded the boy [laughs]. This is hoxol 4hek, 'the wounder
of
shins.' Only now we say xuporo rakan, 'she burned his
legs.'"
*(425) those spirit
boys: I have supplied "spirit" to make it
clearer that the reference is to Tohil, Auilix, and
Hacauitz.
*(426) their fortress:
Ximenez translates catem as "fortification"
here; B. gives cateh as "to block passage."
*(427) Their eyebrows
were plucked out, along with their beards: The
"plucking" here is mich [mi4h], which is elsewhere a
metaphor for
deception; this time plucking carries both its literal and
metaphorical meanings.
*(428) made a fence:
The "fence" is coxtun, "wall, castle, fence"
(B.). In the next paragraph I translate this same word as
"parapet" on
the basis of context.
*(429) They just made a
palisade of planks and stakes: The materials
for this structure are tzalam and chut, respectively glossed
as
"board" and "stake" by B.; the verb for the
making of the palisade
is quehbeh, translated on the basis of quehom che,
"palisaded" (B.).
This was definitely not stonework.
*(430) around their
citadel: This is rih quitinamit, which is
misleading when translated literally as "its-back their-citadel."
Rih,
when applied to a house, means the side or sides that face the
outside
world, whereas uuach, "its-face," means the side or
sides that face
the patio; I assume that the same scheme was analogously applied
to
a citadel. That is to say, a citadel turned its "back"
to the
outside world and its "face" inward. This
interpretation is
confirmed by the entry for cotoh chirih tinamit in B.,
literally
"surround at-its-back citadel" but glossed (following
European
reckoning) as the "face of a fortress."
*(431) They surrounded
the citadel: The verb stem here is
cotcomih, a reduplicated form meaning "surround" (B.).
*(432) eight hundred
score,... thirty times eight hundred: This is
my attempt to translate Mayan numbers into English without
completely converting them from the vegesimal system to the
decimal
one; "score" in English is of course a remnant of
vegesimal reckoning.
The numbers in the text are cachui and oxchui, "2 x
8,000" and "3 x
8,000," 8,000 being the third power of 20 and filling the
same place
in a vegesimal system that 1,000 fills in a decimal system.
*(433) they just
enjoyed the spectacle: The verb stem here is cai,
"to watch admiringly, like watching dances" (listed
under cai3 in B.).
*(434) their legs,
their arms: As Andres Xiloj pointed out, this
is an idiom meaning "all over their bodies."
*(435) they were
doubling over: The verb stem here is uon,
translated on the basis of uonih, "to be doubled over so
that the
knees meet the chin" (B.).
*(436) stumbling: The
verb stem here is lahahic, a reduplicated
form, translated on the basis of lahab, "snare"
(B.).
*(437) they were hit:
Edmonson has qiyaq [kiyak], "poisoned," here
(The Book of Counsel, p. 208), but the MS. has cac, which I
translate on the basis of ca3o, "hit with stones"
(B.).
*(438) gasping for
breath: This is quehilouic quepolou, probably
an idiom for heavy or laborious breathing; hilouic is "sigh
of
tiredness" and polou is "breath" (both in
B.).
*(439) "our own
tribal place": This could be all the way back at the
place where they were before arriving at Tulan Zuyua.
*(440) "Again it
is the time of our Lord Deer": "It is the time"
is my translation of cholan, "order" (in the sense of
sequence).
"Our Lord Deer" is a reference to one of the twenty
day names of the
260-day divinatory cycle. At present a day addressed in prayer
is
always prefaced with the title "Lord," but the number
prefix of the
day is specified- for example, ahau hun queh, "Lord One
Deer." One
of the few contexts in which days may be addressed or referred
to by
name alone is that of prayers to or stories about the mam, the
only
four day names that can serve to mark a new solar year. Deer is
one of
these days, and it seems likely that the present passage refers
to the
day named Deer in its capacity as a mam. For speculation that
the
specific day in question was One Deer, see the
Introduction.
*(441) "Go see the
place where we came from": Given that Jaguar
Quitze and the others have already said that they themselves are
going
to "our own tribal place," it is difficult to
interpret their
instructions to their sons. Perhaps the answer is that the
fathers are
going in spirit, whereas their sons will make a pilgrimage in
the
flesh. Also, the sons will not go until some time later. In
any
case, the irreducible difference between the journey of the
fathers
and that later undertaken by the sons is that the former are
never
seen again.
*(442) "for making
requests": This is tanabal [taanabal],
"asking-instrument." Andres Xiloj remarked, "It's
like a place to burn
offerings. But this word is only used for places that are open
to
the public, not for shrines that only a mother-father
[patrilineage
head] can visit."
*(443) "fiery
splendor": This is my translation of 3a3al,
"fire-ness" or "hot-ness," a frequent
metaphor for the glories and
splendors of lordly dominance over others.
*(444) downtrodden:
This is yocotahinac, translated on the basis
of yo3o, "step on" (B.).
*(445) All those on
Hacauitz: This phrase has been supplied in order
to distinguish the inhabitants of the citadel of Hacauitz from
the
"broken and downtrodden" tribes.
*(446) the day of the
bundle: This may have been the day named
Deer, mentioned by the departing Quiche ancestors on the same
occasion
as the presentation of the bundle. Today this day is associated,
above
all others, with mother-fathers, the priest-shamans who
perform
rites for lineages, cantons, and an entire town (according to
their
rank). All mother-fathers, as well as the ordinary daykeepers
who rank
just below them, possess a sacred bundle, but this bundle
contains
divining paraphernalia and is opened frequently.
-
PART FIVE
-
*(447) who represented
all the Cauecs: This is rech ronohel
cauiquib, literally "of (or belonging to) all the
Cauecs." There are
similar phrases in the sentences dealing with the Greathouses
and Lord
Quiches in this same passage.
*(448) judge: This is
catol [3atol] tzih, at present 3atal tzih (X.)
or (in the dialect of Momostenango) 3atbal tzih,
"reap-instrument [of]
words."
*(449) From across the
sea, they brought back the writings about
Tulan. In the writings, in their words, they spoke of having
cried:
The MS. reads as follows: xquicam [xqui4am] ula ri chaca
[chaka]
palo utzibal [u4,ibal] tulan utzibal xe4ha chire quioquinac
[quio3inak] chupan chupan quitzih. The repetitions of utzibal
and
chupan make no sense unless we assume a scribal
transposition;
moving the second utzibal to a position immediately after the first
chupan gives the following reading: "they-brought back the
from-across
sea its-writings Tulan, they-talked about having-cried
inside
its-writings, inside their-words." The writers of the P.V.
do not
specify whether the "writings about Tulan" and the
Council Book (P.V.)
itself were one and the same, but it seems likely, given that
one of
the epithets of the Council Book is "The Light That Came
from Across
the Sea."
*(450) There were
actually four mountains: "Mountains" (huyub), in
referring to settlement, could mean prominences in close
proximity and
of any size; for symbolic purposes even a small mound can be called
"mountain" in Quiche.
*(451) they examined:
This is xeico chiri chuui, literally "they
passed there above," but Andres Xiloj read it as an idiom
meaning
"to look over."
*(452) But their faces
did not die: This is mana xucam quiuach,
translated almost literally. The reference is to the eschatology
set
forth by One Hunahpu in his lecture to Blood Woman, in which
he
says, "Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a
lord."
*(453) pain and
affliction: This is caxcol [4ax4ol] rail, translated
on the basis of entries in B., where the two words are treated
as
synonyms, and on the basis of the entry for 4ax4ol in X.
*(454) They ground
their gypsum, their plaster: This seems to be a
metonym for major construction. It may not mean that previous
Quiche
sites lacked gypsum plaster, but in the present context it
combines
with such phrases as "excellent citadel," "the
root of fiery
splendor," and "lords of singular genius" to
indicate that the
building of Bearded Place represented a whole new level in the
rise of
the Quiche lords.
*(455) one in each:
This is my interpolation.
*(456) and that the
other lord be allied with them: This is xa cu
[4u] hun ahau xrah cu [cuu] quib, "just then one (other)
lord
was-wanted to-keep themselves," in which the translation of
cuu is
based on B. The lord in question here is Iztayul, as the next
sentence
makes clear; in the present sentence he is being distinguished
from
Cotuha.
*(457) the Ilocs wanted
him as their disciple: This is xrah tihox
cumal ilocab, "was-wanted disciple by-them Ilocs"; B.
gives tihoxel as
"disciple."
*(458) First they
invaded the citadel: This is xcoquibeh nabe
tinamit, literally "they-entered first citadel"; B.
gives oquibeh
tinamit as "scale a fortress."
*(459) This was in
payment: The "payment" is tohbal,
"pay-instrument," which in this context is a sound
play on Tohil,
the principal god before whom the Ilocs were sacrificed, and on
the
day name Toh, which was the day of Tohil. This day is still
interpreted by diviners as having to do with the payment of
debts;
in making this interpretation they utilize a sound play on the
day
name similar to the one used here, moving from toh as a proper
name to
the verb tohonic, "pay" (see B. Tedlock, Time and the
Highland Maya,
p. 155).
*(460) the canyon and
the citadel: This is the first of a number
of joint appearances of ziuan, "canyon," and tinamit,
"citadel"; taken
together, they seem to encompass both a citadel proper (see
Glossary),
in the sense of a high, fortified place with temples and
palaces,
and what lies around or below that citadel as well. The effect
is to
extend the sense of settlement or community beyond its fortified
core,
with temples and palaces, to the surrounding population,
creating a
compound concept meaning something like "town" or
"city." T. J. Knab
(personal communication) suggests that this expression might be
the
Quiche equivalent of the Nahua term for town or city, which
also
involves a juxtaposition of the low with the high (in that
order):
altepetl, compounded of al (from atl), "water," and
tepetl, "mountain"
(D.). The Quiche also use a water-mountain pairing, but it
is
applied not to towns but to outdoor shrines, which (ideally)
exist
in low-high pairs (see B. Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya,
pp. 76,
80). In sum, the Quiche and Nahua terms for "town,"
along with the
Quiche pairing of shrines, all involve a juxtaposition of the
low
and the high, in that order. Both languages construct their term
for
town by pairing complementary metonyms for a town rather than
by
reducing the complexity of a town to a unitary abstraction.
*(461) lords of
singular genius: "Singular" is humah, translated
on the basis of hunah, "make oneself unique"
(B.).
*(462) nothing happened
to make fools of them: "To make fools" is my
translation of alachinak, which is given by B. as
"joke."
*(463) or to ruin the
greatness: This is xaui banol rech nimal, in
which xaui indicates "the same as the aforesaid" and
links this clause
to the negative one preceding it; banol is translated "to
ruin" on the
basis of banoh, "disaster" (V.); rech is "of
their"; and nimal is
"greatness."
*(464) the blossoming
of their daughters: The verb stem here is
ziih, "to flower" (X.), and fits with an earlier
floral metaphor for
young women [see note *(415)].
*(465) ate their corn:
The verb here is uech, which refers
specifically to the eating of foods made of corn, and what I
have
translated "corn" is ua, which refers to these same
things,
primarily to tamales (which are often made of nothing but corn
dough
in Guatemala).
*(466) our way of being
thankful and grateful: The former is
camouabal [4amouabal], "thanks-instrument," and the
latter is pacubal,
translated on the basis of pa3uh, "be thankful for"
(B.).
*(467) allied tribes
... principalities: See note *(352) for a
discussion of these terms.
*(468) The Lords Cotuha
and Plumed Serpent: The Cotuha mentioned
here is probably not the one who ruled as Keeper of the Mat at
Bearded
Place, but the Cotuha who was Keeper of the Reception House Mat
when
Plumed Serpent was Keeper of the Mat.
*(469) There had been
five changes and five generations: This is
xroquexoc xrolea puch, in which x- is complete, ro- is
"five," and
puch is "and." The rest is translated on the basis of
quexoc, "change,
return," and le, "generation" (both in B.).
*(470) their
separation, when they quarreled among themselves,
disturbing the bones and skulls of the dead: The scribe got into
a
tangle here, writing as follows (the items in parentheses were
written
in the margin with their places of insertion marked by
daggers):
quihachouic quib ta xqui (tzolbeh quib) tzol (cacbeh) bac
uholom
caminac xquicacbeh quib. The only way I can make sense of this
is to
assume that the scribe meant to cross out the final xquicacbeh
quib
and move it (except for xqui-) to a position immediately
following the
dangling xqui he had already written, and to insert a missing
beh
after tzol. In the process he unnecessarily repeated tzol
before
-beh and then inverted the order of cacbeh and tzolbeh,
meanwhile
forgetting to cross out the final xquicacbeh quib. If I am
right,
the text should read, quihachouic quib ta xquicacbeh
[xquicakbeh] quib
tzolbeh bac [bak] uholom caminac [caminak],
"their-sorting-out
themselves when they-quarreled themselves turning-over bone
its-head
dead-person."
*(471) the lord bishop:
This is Sr. obicpo, the first Spanish to
appear in the text since Part One. The person referred to here
is
Francisco Marroquin, who blessed the ruins of Rotten Cane in
1539,
fifteen years after the place had been burned by Alvarado.
*(472) And now to show
their faces: This is cate [4ate] chic
chiuachin uuach, "next now that-show his-face,"
singular in Quiche
in order to agree with "each of them" in the previous
sentence. The
notion of "face" is intimately tied up with personal
identity in
Quiche; a person's day of birth, for example, is called uuach
u3ih,
"its-face his/her-day," and a number of Quiche lords
were named
after the days of their birth. A later passage mentioning
the
"faces" of lords precedes a list of the names of
individual lords. I
have put dots following both of these mentions of faces to
indicate
that graphic elements might be missing here, something that was
in the
manuscript Ximenez discovered but which he did not reproduce.
If
that manuscript was like the Book of Chilam Balam of Mani, there
may
have been a graphic device, at least partially based on hieroglyphic
writing, corresponding to each lord. In the Mani book the device
is
a line drawing of a face with a European crown, a latter-day
version
of the much more stylized face that composes the glyph meaning
ahau or
"lord," but the individual name of each lord is
written in block
letters on a scroll beneath the head rather than rendered
hieroglyphically (Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindorp, The
Codex
Perez and the Chilam Balam of Mani, pp. 79-86).
*(473) a crowded life,
crowded with petitions: "Crowded"
translates molomox, a passive form of molomanic, "many
join
together" (B.). "Petitions" translates utabal
tzih, in which the
stem of utabal is taba, "supplicate" (B.), and tzih is
"words."
*(474) The birthdays:
This is uquih [u3ih] ralaxic, "its-day
his-being-born," the phrase still used for
"birthday."
*(475) On one occasion:
This is hu uuc, a phrase most translators
have taken to be hu uuk and to mean "one seven"
(literally) and "seven
days" (idiomatically). But "seven" should be
uukub, not uuk, and there
is nothing in the colonial dictionaries of Quichean languages
that
would allow for its combination with hu. The solution I offer is
based
on considerations of context and on uu3ul, a form that refers
to
pauses or interruptions in the normal course of events (V.); I
take
the present phrase to be hu uu3 and to mean something like
"during one
interval," or (idiomatically) "one time" or
"on one occasion."
*(476) serpentine....
aquiline ... feline: At some moments this
passage claims that Plumed Serpent became an "actual"
(quitzih)
serpent (cumatz) or eagle (cot) or jaguar (balam), but at
other
moments it would seem that he took on the qualities of
these
animals. Wherever I translate with English words ending in -ine,
the
MS. has cumatzil, cotal, and balamil, each of which has a
suffix
meaning something like "-ness."
*(477) The news spread:
This is xpaxin rib utaic, "it-scattered
itself its-being-heard."
*(478) he became the
sole head: "Sole" here is huquizic,
translated on the basis of hu4izic, "only" (V.).
*(479) went down on
their faces or flat on their backs: This is
xuleic, xpacaic, translated on the basis of xuleic, "throw
face
down" (B.), and pa4alic, "face up" (X.).
*(480) Their lineages
came to be bled, shot full of arrows at the
stake: This is xeoc chinamit xelotzic xecacquic chiche
[chichee], in
which xeoc is literally "they-entered" but
idiomatically "it was their
time," and chichee is "at-tree" or
"at-pole." Xelotzic, in which xe-
is "complete-they," is translated on the basis of
lotzo, "to let
blood" (B. and V.). Xecacquic (with a passive suffix) is
translated
"they were shot with arrows" by Ximenez; B. has
cacoqueh (with an
active suffix), "hunt with arrows." This passage
confirms that
Quiche rituals included arrow sacrifice, a practice better
known
from central Mexico.
*(481) Projectiles
alone were the means for breaking the citadels:
The weapon here is 4ha [sometimes 4hab] in the MS.,
"arrow" and
(judging from V.) the spear thrown by an atlatl (spear-thrower).
4ha
or 4hab is distinct from cha or chaa, which is the term for any
lithic
projectile point or cutting instrument and (today) for glass
(see
4ha and chaa in V., chab and cha in B., and 4hab and cha in X.).
In
Mixtec codices, towns (or citadels) are identified by place
signs
whose basic element is a mountain; the conquest of a town is
signified
by showing its place sign pierced with a projectile (Mary
Elizabeth
Smith, Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico, p. 33 and
fig.
51). The present passage sounds like a literal reading of a
codex of
this style. It may also be that such codices depict a
ritual
practice in which the very earth or native stone of a
conquered
citadel was actually pierced or broken. Whatever the case
with
codices, people from the towns conquered by the Quiche came
to
Petatayub, "carrying in their hands the signs of the
citadels,"
which "look as though they had been split with an
axe."
*(482) one ... after
another: This is libah chi, given by B. as
"step by step."
*(483) the gum tree: I
follow Edmonson in reading col che as 3ol
chee, "gum (or resin) tree" (The Book of Counsel, p.
236), rather than
as a place named "Colche," partly because the name of
the place
under discussion in this passage is otherwise accounted
for.
*(484) carrying in
their hands: This is chelah, translated on the
basis of 4helenic, "to carry with the hands"
(X.).
*(485) cut stones: I
have supplied "stones" here, assuming that they
are still the subject of the discussion; "cut" is my
translation of
xcatatahic [x3atatahic],
"complete-cut-result-passive." Reading the
verb stem as 3ata, "cut," fits with xchoi chi icah,
"split with an
axe," later on in this same sentence, and with the general
sense of
the paragraph up to this point.
*(486) there on the
flat: Ximenez translates tacah [ta3ah] as "the
coast," meaning the long Pacific coastal plain of
Guatemala, but
this term can refer even to very small flats. See Petatayub in
the
Glossary for a further discussion.
*(487) "and like
doubles for our own lineages": This is quehe pu
cacachinamit, which I read as quehe pu kacacab chinamit,
"like and
our-pair lineages."
*(488) "send for
us to come and kill them": Here the text has both
nu, the first person singular, and ca [ka], first person plural.
The
text reads chulibiih chibe nu ca camizah, in which ca is
written
somewhat above the line, just after nu; for this reason, and
because
the statement quoted here is attributed to three people, I take
nu
to be an error the scribe forgot to cross out when he added
ca.
*(489) nor did any of
them have his own god: That is to say, those
who were sent to occupy the conquered citadels did not have
stone gods
(4abauil) of the kind that were brought from Tulan Zuyua. We do
not
know whether the previous lords of these citadels had such
stones or
what might have been the fate of their stones. It is interesting
to
note that the present-day term 4amauil, which covers large
stones
found in outdoor shrines, is used only in the region around
the
ruins of Rotten Cane. Shrines in the western Quiche area lack
such
stones, and the small stone objects collected for household
altars are
called by a different term, mebil.
*(490) "the
ennobling of the lookout lineages": The "ennobling" is
quecalem [quekalem], in which qu- is "their"; B. gives
ecalem as
"dignity" or "nobility." The root eka- has
to do with taking a load on
the shoulders; it is used today in various expressions having to
do
with the taking on of responsibilities, such as those of
mother-fathers for people they train as daykeepers, or those
of
daykeepers for the clients they are currently praying for.
*(491) "we'll
induct": This is cachapa [kachapa], literally
"we-take-hold-of," but V. notes that chapa is also an
idiom for
"putting into lordship."
*(492) "which is
mine ... which is yours": This translates ue, "of
mine," and aue, "of yours (singular familiar)";
others have missed the
sense of this sentence, trying to make these two pronouns
agree;
Edmonson has ui for the ue of the MS. (The Book of Counsel, p.
240).
*(493) in concord: This
is hunam uach, literally "equal face," an
idiom meaning "to be in concord" (under the entry for
hun in B.).
*(494) a fortress
around Quiche: In effect, the entire Quiche
state was conceived as a gigantic fortress, an enlargement of
the
citadel at its center.
*(495) house of
sacrifice: This is cahbaha, which I take to be
composed of cahb, "sacrifice" [see the note *(351)],
and ha,
"house." Some have taken cahbaha to be a reference to
the place called
Sajcabaja today, but that is written zacabaha or zaccabaha in the
P.V.
(see Plaster House in the Glossary) and combines ha with
zakcaba,
"plaster."
*(496) they nurtured
and provided for the Keeper of the Mat and
Keeper of the Reception House Mat: The gods are spoken of at
various
points as needing nurturers and providers; the present passage
means
that the relationship between lords and vassals was conceived in
the
same terms as that between gods and humans. Note here that the
text
goes right on to emphasize the greatness of the lords under
discussion.
*(497) everything they
saw was clear to them: That is to say, they
were able to recover the clairvoyance that the first humans had
before
"they were blinded as the face of a mirror is breathed
upon."
*(498) there was a
place to see it, there was a book: The "place
to see it" is ibal re, earlier written as ilbal re. With
the book
the lords are able to recover the full vision of the first
humans;
such vision, as this passage makes clear, reached into future
time.
*(499) a way of
cherishing: This is locbal [lo3bal], "love (or
desire or value) instrument." Andres Xiloj suggested
"something that
shows esteem or expresses a sense of value."
*(500) For nine score
days they would fast: "Nine score" is beleh
uinac [uinak]; Edmonson is correct in reading this as 9 x 20
rather
than "nine persons" (The Book of Counsel, p. 243). As
he has observed,
180 is half a tun, the 360-day cycle (distinct from the solar
year)
used by the lowland Maya in reckoning chronologies. The
"thirteen
score" (or 260) mentioned next is the length of the
so-called
divinatory cycle, while the "seventeen score" (or 340)
is the combined
length of the 90- and 250-day segments of the Venus cycle (see
the
notes to the Introduction).
*(501) They would only
eat zapotes, matasanos....: For
identifications of the tropical fruits listed here, see the
Glossary. Of this kind of diet, Andres Xiloj said, "This
was so that
they would have strength. This Tecum Umam [hero of Quiche
resistance
to the Spanish] didn't eat cooked things, only raw [or
green]
things. Because of this, the people of that time were
muscular.
Whatever place they went, whatever kind of fruit they found,
they
ate in place of tamales."
*(502) abstinence: This
is auazinic, translated on the basis of
auazim, "forbidden" (in B. under auatz).
*(503) there weren't
any women with them when they slept: This
does not mean that women were not present at all. When people
"keep
the days" at present, the abstinence always includes sexual
contact
but never avoidance of all interaction with the opposite sex. If
the
fasts described here were like those of the first four
Quiche
ancestors, it was not only the lords who fasted but their wives
as
well.
*(504) "On this
blessed day": This is atoob uquih [u3ih], in which
u3ih is "its-day"; B. gives atob as
"good."
*(505) "ripeness
and freshness": literally 3anal, "yellowness,"
and raxal, "greenness." Andres Xiloj commented:
"When one prays, 3anal
means to have corn, to have money, to do business. Yes, it is
like
'yellow' but it isn't yellow, but rather that it ripens. Raxal
is like
a plant that is green, it is developing to give fruit. 3anal is
when
it ripens."
*(506) "spread thy
stain, spill thy drops / of green and yellow":
This is a fairly literal translation of chatziloh, chamaquih
uloc
[cha4,iloh, chama4ih ulok] araxal, a3anal. Andres Xiloj
commented:
"4,iloh is to use [sexually]; now they are going to have a
family.
Ma4ih is the sin. The man looks for his companion, there it is.
And
there is that liquid [semen]. And the green [raxal], there it
is, it
is the son or daughter, and the yellow [3anal]; and they, in
turn,
have to produce again. Here it is like a plant, the sowing of a
plant,
and its ripening."
*(507) "that they
might multiply" [chipo3tah]: Andres Xiloj
commented: "Po3tah is that it produces. Like a seed: when
we cast
it, we say to it, capo3 la, 'Come out [sprout], produce
more.'"
Commenting on the prayer as a whole, he said, "We're using
this now;
it's just that the language has changed somewhat."
*(508) "may they
neither be snared nor wounded, / nor seduced, nor
burned, / nor diverted below the road nor above it":
"Burned" is
paired with "seduced" here because, as Andres Xiloj
pointed out, the
act of seducing an innocent person may be expressed in the
phrase
xuporo rakan, "He (or she) burned her (or his) legs."
He suggested
that a contemporary prayer for safety in the road might include
the
following lines:
-
Do not let
us fall into the hands
of this person,
this neighbor,
who has a
pistol, who has a dagger,
who has a
knife, who has a revolver;
keep away
the legs and arms
of people at
the corners, on the streets.
-
Contemporary prayers also include numerous passages with lists
of
negative requests; here is an example from a prayer by
Esteban
Ajxub, a professional ahbix or "singer":
-
May
there be no pain,
may
there be no trouble,
may
there be no jail,
may
there be no prison,
may
there be no weakness,
may
there be no feebleness,
may
there be no stiffness,
may
there be no lies and gossip.
-
*(509) "secrets or
sorcery of thine": This is acuil auitzmal, in
which a- is your (singular familiar)." Andres Xiloj read
cuil as
4uyil, "hidden"; itzmal is translated on the basis of
itzim, "witched"
(X.). Don Andres commented, "God gives all the good and all
the evil."
*(510) "before thy
mouth and thy face": Placement "before" someone's
"face" is the commonest Quiche way of saying something
like English
"in" someone's "presence"; sometimes this is
elaborated, as here, by
adding "mouth" to "face," in which, if
"face" is a metonym for the
whole front of the body, "mouth" is a metonym for the
whole face. In
the present context "mouth" has an additional
connotation, given
that it refers in part to Heart of Earth, the deity called
Mundo
today. This is the great Mesoamerican earth deity, the
ultimate
swallower of all living things, depicted in classic Maya art (in
the
Palenque relief panels, for example) as an enormous pair of
jaws
upon whose lips even the feet of great lords must rest in
precarious
balance, and into whose throat even great lords must fall.
Turning
to the contemporary scene, daykeepers who visit the cave beneath
the
ruins of Rotten Cane, the last Quiche capital, speak of the
danger
of falling into "the open mouth of the Mundo" there,
which is said
to be more than four yards wide.
*(511) carrying the
tribes and all the Quiche people on their
shoulders: This is re3alaxic [rekalaxic] amac [ama3] ru4
ronohel
queche uinac [uinak], "its-being-carried (on the shoulders)
tribe,
with all-of Quiche people."
*(512) they became
lords: The verb stem here is ahauaric, "to make
oneself a lord" (B.).
*(513) gathered in
gifts: This is xquicac cochih, in which xqui-
is "complete-they"; the rest is translated on the
basis of 4a4, "to
gather" (E.), and cochih, "to receive a gift."
(B.).
*(514) food and drink:
This is uain ucaha, translated on the basis
of the reading offered by Andres Xiloj, who uses the phrase
uaim
o4aha, "food, drink," in his own prayers.
*(515) falsify: This is
tzuba, translated on the basis of tzubu,
"deceive" (B.).
*(516) drops ... that
measured the width of four fingers or a full
fist across: "Drops" is my translation of racan
[rakan], literally
"its leg" but also a term for the large drops of rain
that begin or
end a thunderstorm (see Hurricane in the Glossary). The measurements
are cahcab [cah3ab], translated on the basis of cah3a,
"measured
with the four fingers together" (under 3a in V.), and tuic,
translated
on the basis of tuuic, "measurement of the fist with the
thumb out"
(B.).
*(517) green and red
featherwork: This is raxon cubulchactic. Raxon,
literally "greened," is a synonym for 3u3,
"quetzal feather."
Cubulchactic is a "thing made of feathers" (G.) or a
"garland" (R.);
B. lists chactic as "a species of red bird."
*(518) rise and growth:
The MS. has unimaric ri unimaric puch, in
which the second unimaric is probably an error for uuinakiric,
giving "its-big-becoming its-growth and."
*(519) two by two: In
the list of Cauec lords that follows, the
pairing of lords will not actually begin until the fourth
generation.
*(520) succeeds: This
is camiheic, which Ximenez translates this
way; B. has 4amibeh, "continue" (listed after
camibeh).
*(521) the faces ... of
each of the Quiche lords: Again, it would
seem that something is missing here; perhaps the MS. Ximenez
copied
had name glyphs for the lords in the list that follows this
statement.
*(522) Great Reception
House: The MS. repeats this title after
Mother of the Reception House and leaves out Great Lolmet Yeoltux,
the
final name on an earlier list of titles belonging to the
Greathouses.
*(523) great in being
few: This is nim zcaquin u4oheic, "great few
(or little bit) its-being-there."
*(524) the original
book and ancient writing: This is simply nabe
oher, "original (or first) ancient" in the MS.,
abbreviated from a
phrase near the opening of the P.V., nabe uuhil, oher
tzibam
[4,ibam] puch, translated as "the original book and
ancient
writing." I have repeated the full phrase here to make the
echo of the
opening more obvious. In general the closing paragraph is
rather
terse, as if the hand that wrote it were running downhill toward
the
finish.
GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
-
ABOVE THE HOT
SPRINGS Chuui miquina [mi3inaa],
"above (or on top
of) hot water." The town known today as San Miguel
Totonicapan,
capital of the Department of Totonicapan, formerly located on
one of
the hilltops above the present site. Once a citadel of the
White
Earths (Mam Mayas), conquered by the Quiche lords during the
reign
of Quicab. Today the inhabitants speak Quiche.
ABOVE THE NETTLES Chuui la, "above (or on top of) the
nettles." The
town more widely known today as Chichicastenango, a Nahua name
meaning
"Nettles Citadel." Formerly a Cakchiquel citadel,
conquered by the
Quiche lords during the reign of Quicab. Today the inhabitants
speak
Quiche.
ACUL PEOPLE Acul uinac [uinak], in which uinak is
"people." A
people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the
Quiches
regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east.
ANCIENT WORD Oher tzih, also translatable as "Prior
Word." A
word, whether in the narrow sense of a single word or in the
broad
sense of an extended discourse, that carries the authority
of
tradition rather than being mere hearsay. At the beginning the
writers
of the P.V. claim this authority for their entire work, though
they
occasionally assign their later statements to hearsay.
ANONAS Cauex [3auex]. A tropical fruit (Anona
spp.), sometimes
called "cherimoya" or "custard apple" in
English. Heart-shaped,
green outside and creamy inside, segmented, and incredibly
sweet.
ARMADILLO Yboy. The name of a dance done by Hunahpu
and Xbalanque
in their guise as vagabonds.
ARMADILLO DUNG Achac [achak] iboy, "dung
armadillo." Crier to the
People for the Lord Quiches when Quicab was Keeper of the
Mat;
possibly a nickname for one of the Lord Quiche lords listed in
Part
Five of the present translation.
ARM GUARD Pachcab [pa4h3ab], composed of pa4h,
"tighten, fasten"
(X.), and 3ab, "arm." Part of the equipment necessary
for the ball
game played in the P.V. (see gaming equipment). The players of
the
pre-Columbian ball game are usually depicted with a wrapping on
the
lower arm (often the right arm only).
ATOLE A ixim, "water corn-kernel," is
the Quiche term for the
corn-gruel drink more widely known in Mesoamerica by its Nahua
name,
atole.
AUILIX Often aulix in the MS. Patron deity of the
Greathouse
lineage, given to Jaguar Night at Tulan Zuyua and eventually
placed in
Concealment Canyon, "the great canyon in the forest",
in a location
that came to be named Pauilix, literally "At Auilix";
the
Greathouses were there when the dawn first came. Auilix was also
the
name of the temple that housed the god Auilix in the citadel of
Rotten
Cane, at the east side of the main plaza. It consisted of a
pyramid
with a single stairway (on the west side) and topped by a
single
thatch-roofed room with its door facing west across the
plaza,
toward the temple that housed the god Tohil; at present its
ruins
are the site of an active shrine. And finally, Auilix or Lord
Auilix
was the title of the priest of the god Auilix; he was seventh
in
rank among the lords of the Greathouses and headed one of the
nine
great houses into which their lineage was divided after the
founding
of Rotten Cane.
BALL COURT Hom. The I-shaped courtyard in which the
Mesoamerican
ball game was played. The playing field was paved with stone
and
bounded by stone walls; the side walls of the narrow part
(connecting the two ends of the I) sloped upward in
opposite
directions from the playing surface, resembling grandstands
in
appearance but in fact constituting part of the area where the
ball
was in play. The ball court at Rotten Cane (see Councilor of
the
Ball Court) ran east-west, but many Mesoamerican ball courts
ran
north-south. Today hom is the Quiche term for
"graveyard," which
suggests the deadly nature of the game described in the P.V., at
least
when it is played in the underworld court of the lords of
Xibalba (see
also Place of Ball Game Sacrifice). It should be noted that
the
playing fields of the ball courts in Mesoamerican archaeological
sites
typically lie on a lower plane than that of the nearby plazas
or
courtyards.
BARK HOUSE See Thorny Place.
BAT HOUSE Zotzi [zo4,i] ha. One of the tests of
Xibalba, fourth
or sixth in the sequence of tests. If the test of fire that
comes
fifth in the later list is discounted as a redundant elaboration
based
on the eventual immolation of Hunahpu and Xbalanque (which does
not
take place in a house), then Bat House would come fifth in the
later
sequence and both sequences would total five houses. These
houses
may correspond to the five different kinds of complete Venus
cycles
plotted out in the Maya calendar; each cycle includes a
ninety-day
period during which Venus has disappeared as the morning star
and
has not yet reappeared as the evening star. Bat House is also
the name
of a lordly Cakchiquel lineage whose founders steal fire from
the
Quiches rather than pledge themselves as sacrifice victims.
BEARDED PLACE Chi izmachi, "at bearded." Citadel
of the Quiche
lords after they left Thorny Place and before they built
Rotten
Cane, founded by Jaguar Conache. When the Cauecs, Greathouses,
and
Lord Quiches left for Rotten Cane, Bearded Place was left to the
Tams.
The ruins are located one kilometer south of Rotten Cane,
separated
from the latter by a canyon.
BEARER, BEGETTER Alom 4aholom, "one who bears children,
one who
begets sons," sometimes pluralized (e alom, e 4aholom).
Names or
epithets for the gods who make the earth, plants, animals, and
humans.
The bearing and begetting is metaphorical, since these gods do
their
work by means of words, genius, and sacrifice rather than
through
procreation. The same gods are also called Maker, Modeler, and
they
include Sovereign Plumed Serpent.
BEFORE THE
BUILDING Chuua tzac [4,ak],
"in-front-of building (of
earth or stone)." The town more widely known today as
Momostenango,
a Nahua name meaning "Citadel of Shrines," formerly
located five
kilometers northwest of its present site. Conquered by the
Quiche
lords during the reign of Quicab.
BIRD HOUSE Tziquina [4,iquina] ha. The palace, at
Rotten Cane, of
the Keeper of the Reception House Mat, second in rank among all
the
Quiche lords. Not to be confused with the ah4,iquina ha,
"those of the
Bird House," a people known today as the Tzutuhil. They
speak a
language of the Quichean family and are located south and west
of Lake
Atitlan. They belong to a group of thirteen allied tribes
the
Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves) from the
east.
BLACK ROAD Quecabe [3ekabe]. One of four cosmic roads
(see
Crossroads and Road of Xibalba).
"BLAME IS OURS,
THE" Camacu [kamacu], "our
blame or wrong." A
song sung by Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and
True
Jaguar, in which they lamented being separated from the
other
peoples who were together at Tulan Zuyua before the first dawn.
They
especially lamented leaving the Yaqui people behind,
presumably
Nahua speakers of the Gulf coast.
BLOOD GATHERER Cuchuma quic [qui4], "gathering (or
uniting) blood."
Fourth-ranking lord of Xibalba; by this same name he figures
in
present-day Quiche tales, in which he heads the banquet table
where
the other lords of Xibalba bring together all human blood that
has
been lost by violence or illness since their previous banquet.
BLOOD RIVER Quia or quiquia [qui4 yaa], "blood
water." A river that
crosses the road to Xibalba (the underworld). This name, along
with
Pus River, might have been an actual toponym, referring to a
large,
muddy river of the kind that originates in the Guatemalan
highlands
and flows into the northern lowlands. For today's Quiche the
region
that drops off toward the Atlantic in the vicinity of Coban is
still
an abode of evil.
BLOOD WOMAN Xquic [xqui4], composed of x-, archaic in
Quiche but
"she of" or "small" in Cholan (K.), and
qui4, "blood"; by way of sound
play the name also suggests i4, "moon." Daughter of
Blood Gatherer,
one of the lords of Xibalba, and mother of Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
She is probably the moon but perhaps not the full moon (see
Xbalanque).
BLOODY TEETH, BLOODY
CLAWS Quic [qui4] re, quic rixcac
[rix4ak],
"blood his teeth, blood his claws." These two lords of
Xibalba are
omitted from earlier lists but appear as the eleventh- and
twelfth-ranking lords in later lists. The situation is just
the
opposite for Trash Master and Stab Master, who appear only in
the
earlier lists and may be these same two lords under different
names.
BONE FLUTE, BIRD
WHISTLE Zubac [zubak], in which zu is
"flute"
and bak is "bone," and chamcham, possibly a
reduplicated form
derived from 4hanin, referring to the trilling and warbling of
birds
(V.). Among the emblems of lordship given out by Nacxit.
BONE SCEPTER, SKULL
SCEPTER 4hamia bac [bak], 4hamia
holom,
"staff bone, staff skull (or head)." Seventh- and
eighth-ranking lords
of Xibalba.
BRACELET OF RATTLING
SNAIL SHELLS Macutax tot tatam, in
which
macutax is probably from Nahua mahcuetlax, "bracelet"
(C.); tot is
"snail"; and tatam may be related to totaanic,
"shake" (X.). One of
the emblems of lordship given out by Nacxit.
BROKEN PLACE, BITTER
WATER PLACE Pan paxil, pan cayala
[cayalaa],
in which pan is an archaic or non-Quiche form of pa,
"at" or "in";
paxil probably has the same root as paxinic, "to
break" (used with
pottery); and cayal may be like modern 4ayil,
"bitter," combined
with -aa for "water." A mountain or citadel where the
Makers and
Modelers got the corn and water needed to make the bodies of the
first
true humans; its interior was filled not only with corn but with
a
variety of tropical fruits. The name Broken Place suggests the
Nahua
myth in which a mountain containing the corn needed for human
flesh
was split open by a thunderbolt.
BROMELIAS Ec [e4]. Tillandsia spp., air plants
abounding in the
trees of highland Guatemala, except in arid regions. In some
species
the flowers have pointed petals and grow at the ends of stiff
stalks
that jut out from the rest of the plant; hence their use by
Hunahpu
and Xbalanque in constructing the arms and claws of an
artificial
crab. Today, bromelias and Spanish moss are among the
principal
materials used in constructing outdoor arbors for saints.
BUNDLE OF FLAMES Pizom 3a3al, "wrapped fieriness or
heat." A sacred
relic left to the Quiche lords by Jaguar Quitze. Like the
sacred
bundles of the North American Indians, a sort of cloth-wrapped
ark
with mysterious contents.
CACAO Caco. Theobroma cacao, a higher grade of
cacao than
pataxte. The seeds of cacao, which is native to the New World,
were
and are used by Mesoamerican Indians to make cocoa and
chocolate.
CAKCHIQUELS 3a3chequeleb or ca3chiqueleb, in which che
is from
chee, "tree"; the first syllable would be
"fire" (3a3), judging by the
spelling in the P.V., but in the etymology offered by the Annals
of
the Cakchiquels it is cak, "red." This is the name
(still used
today) of a people who border the Quiches on the south and
east;
they speak a language of the Quichean family. They belong to a
group
of thirteen allied tribes the Quiches regarded as having come
(like
themselves) from the east. One of the Cakchiquel citadels, Above
the
Nettles, was conquered by the Quiche lords during the reign of
Quicab.
CALABASH TREE Zima [tzimah]; tzimah is Cholan for
"gourd" (K.), but
in Quiche this is a term for a lowland tree with fruit
resembling
gourds (Crescentia cujete). It did not bear fruit until the head
of
One Hunahpu was placed in a fork of its branches. According
to
Andres Xiloj, the "gourds" of this tree are indeed the
size of a human
head; they have a woody or bonelike rind and are halved to make
bowls.
CALM SNAKE Chamalcan, in which chamal may be derived
from chaman,
"calm" (V.), and can is Yucatec for "snake."
That the writers of the
P.V. were aware of the meaning of can is hinted at by the fact
that
they comment, after mentioning the name chamalcan, "but it
looks
like a bat." The name of the god of the Bat House lineage
of the
Cakchiquels.
CANOPY, THRONE Muh, "canopy" (literally
"shade"), and 3alibal,
"presiding chair" (G.). Among the emblems of lordship
given out by
Nacxit. The Keeper of the Mat was entitled to have four
canopies
over him, the Keeper of the Reception House Mat three, the
Lord
Minister two, and the Crier to the People one.
CAOQUES Caoqueb, an untranslatable proper name with
a plural suffix
(-b). A tribe whose citadels once included Plaster House, which
was
among the places conquered by the Quiche lords during the reign
of
Quicab. Possibly the Caoques are the ancestors of the people who
speak
the Quichean language called Uspantec today and whose
present
territory begins only ten kilometers north of Plaster
House.
CAUATEPECH A Nahua name of uncertain translation.
Keeper of the
Reception House Mat in the eleventh generation of Cauec
lords.
CAUECS Cauiquib [cauikib], singular cauec [cauek].
First-ranking
Quiche lineage, founded by Jaguar Quitze and divided into
nine
segments or great houses after the founding of Rotten Cane.
CAUINAL See Thorny Place.
CAUIZIMAH Keeper of the Reception House Mat in the
seventh
generation of Cauec lords.
CAUIZTAN COPAL Cauiztan pom, in which pom is "copal
incense" and
the rest is a Nahua name of uncertain translation. The kind of
copal
used by Jaguar Night to incense the direction of the rising
sun.
CAVE BY THE WATER Pecul ya; V. gives rupecul as "cave at
the edge
of a river or lake," and ya is "water." One of
the volcanoes made by
Zipacna. It may be the Volcan de Agua, eleven kilometers south
of
Antigua Guatemala, which once had a lake at its summit.
CELEBRATED
SEAHOUSE Caha [3aha] paluna, from
3ahar, "be famous";
palu, an archaic or non-Quiche form of plo or palo,
"sea"; and na,
Yucatec for "house." One of the first four human
females; wife of
Jaguar Quitze.
CHANNEL CATFISH Uinac [uinak] car, "person fish,"
identified by
G. as the bagre or channel catfish. One of the forms assumed
by
Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Catfish barbels are shown coming out of
the
cheeks of the classic Maya equivalent of Hunahpu.
CHIMALMAT A Nahua-derived name in which chimal is from
chimalli,
"shield." The word chimalli also entered Yucatec; M.
gives chimal as
"shield" and chimal ek ("shield stars") as
"the guards of the north
(Ursa Minor)," but the constellation in question might well
have
included Draco (to form the border of the shield). Chimalmat is
the
wife of Seven Macaw and the mother of Zipacna and Earthquake.
Her
astronomical identification fits with Seven Macaw's (he is the
Big
Dipper).
CHULIMAL A place three kilometers north of
Chichicastenango,
occupied by vassals of the Quiche lords during the reign of
Quicab.
CHURNING SPIKES, RIVER
OF Halha ha [haa] zimah; B. has halha
ha
as "waters that join and revolve"; zimah is
"sharpened or pointed
things." One of the rivers that crosses the road to Xibalba
(the
underworld).
CITADEL Tinamit, from Nahua tenamitl,
"enclosure, or wall of a
city" (D.). A town in a defensible position, whether on top
of a
hill or mountain or between two canyons; any points of easy
access
were walled or stockaded. Under Spanish rule most such towns
were
relocated to weaker sites as a matter of colonial military
policy;
today tinamit (or tinimit) is the general Quiche term for
"town,"
regardless of location.
CO- 4o- or co- in the MS., probably related to
the co- in two forms
given in B.: cobic, "to have an epithet," and cobizah,
"to praise."
Co- begins the names of a large number of Quiche lords (see
below),
especially the earlier ones, and probably has an honorific
effect.
COACUL First-ranking lord in the second generation
of Greathouse
lords.
COACUTEC Second-ranking lord in the second generation
of Greathouse
lords. He represented the Greathouses on the pilgrimage to the
lord
Nacxit.
COAHAU Co-, an honorific prefix, with ahau,
"lord." First-ranking
lord in the second generation of Lord Quiche lords. He
represented the
Lord Quiches on the pilgrimage to the lord Nacxit.
COATI Tziz. Nasua narica, an omnivorous,
tree-dwelling,
raccoon-like mammal with a long, flexible nose and a long, erect
tail,
ranging from southern Arizona to South America; confined to
the
lowlands in Guatemala.
COCAIB Co-, an honorific prefix, with caib,
"two." First-ranking
lord in the second generation of Cauec lords. He represented
the
Cauecs on the pilgrimage to the lord Nacxit. According to the
Title of
the Lords of Totonicapan, his generation was already the fourth
one
(starting with Jaguar Quitze) rather than the second.
COCAMEL Crier to the People for the Lords in the
seventh generation
of Lord Quiche lords.
COCAUIB Second-ranking lord in the second generation
of Cauec lords
and brother of Cocaib. According to the Title of the Lords
of
Totonicapan, the generation of these brothers was already the
fourth
one (starting with Jaguar Quitze) rather than the second. While
Cocaib
was on the pilgrimage to the Lord Nacxit, Cocauib fathered a
child,
Jaguar Conache, with Cocaib's wife. On his return, Cocaib
nevertheless
recognized Jaguar Conache as his own legitimate successor in
the
first-ranking Cauec lordship.
COCHAHUH First-ranking lord in the third generation
of Greathouse
lords.
COCHINEAL See croton.
COCOZOM Crier to the People for the Lords in the
fourth
generation of Lord Quiche lords.
COHAH A people belonging to a group of thirteen
allied tribes the
Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves) from the
east.
COLD HOUSE Teuh ha. One of the tests of Xibalba, also
called
Rattling House; it is second or third in the sequence of
test
houses. These houses may correspond to the periods when Venus
is
invisible between its appearances as morning and evening star
(see Bat
House).
COMAHCUN Crier to the People for the Lords in the
fifth
generation of Lord Quiche lords.
CONACHE See Jaguar Conache.
CONCEALMENT CANYON Euabal ziuan, "hiding place (or place
of putting
into shadow) canyon." A great canyon in a forest; location
of Pauilix,
where Jaguar Night placed the god Auilix. After Jaguar Quitze
had
placed the god Tohil on a mountain in this same vicinity,
Concealment Canyon received the epithet Tohil Medicine.
COPAL Pom, from proto-Mixe-Zoque (C.). The Quiche
term for a type
of incense widely used in Mesoamerica to this day, better known
as
copal (from Nahua copalli). The basic ingredient is the resin
from the
bark of the palo jiote tree (Hymenaea verrucosa).
CORAL TREE, CORAL
SEEDS Tzite [4,ite]. A tree known in
Spanish as
palo pito (Erythrina corallodenron), or its hard, red, beanlike
seeds.
The seeds are used by Xpiyacoc and Xmucane in performing
calendrical
divination for the gods who seek the proper materials for the
human
body; the wood of the tree is then used in making an
experimental male
figure.
CORNTASSEL HOUSE Tzutuha [4,utuha], composed of 4,utuh,
"tassel
of the maize plant," and ha, "house." Temple of
the patron deity of
the Zaquic lineage, who was probably called 4,utuh, at Rotten
Cane
or perhaps at a site now known as El Resguardo, one kilometer to
the
east. Lord Corntassel House was the title of the first-ranking
lord of
the Zaquic lineage, who headed one of the two great houses
into
which that lineage was divided; he must have been the priest of
the
Corntassel god.
CORTES, DON JUAN Lord Keeper of the Reception House Mat in
the
fourteenth generation of Cauec lords, alive when the P.V. was
written.
His title was recognized by the Spanish, but he was unsuccessful
in
his attempt to restore the full powers of the Cauec lords to
don
Juan de Rojas (Keeper of the Mat) and himself, an effort that
took him
all the way to Spain.
COTUHA Co-, an honorific prefix, probably with tuh,
"sweatbath,"
and ha, "house." Keeper of the Mat in the fourth
generation of Cauec
lords. There were two plots against his life, in the second of
which
he was ambushed at his sweatbath, according to the Title of
the
Lords of Totonicapan; the latter source does not make it clear
whether
this second plot succeeded, but the P.V. implies that it did. A
second
Cotuha was Keeper of the Reception House Mat in the fifth
generation
of Cauec lords, helping Plumed Serpent to found Rotten Cane.
Still
other Cotuhas served as Lord Minister in the fifth, eighth,
and
eleventh generations of Greathouse lords.
COTZIBAHA Co-, an honorific prefix, probably with
4,iba, "write,
paint," and ha, "house." Second-ranking lord in
the third generation
of Greathouse lords.
COUNCIL BOOK Popo uuh or popol uuh, in which pop is
"mat," -ol
has the effect of "-ness," and uuh (or vuh) is
"paper" or "book." In
classical Quiche, popol occurs in many phrases in which it has
the
effect of "public" or "in common"; popoh, a
verb built on the same
root, was "to hold a council" (V.), and the
pronouncements of a
council were popol tzih, in which tzih is "word."
Popol, literally
"matness," would be a metonymic reference to a
council, referring to
the mat on which a council sat; at the very same time it could be
a
metaphor for the way councils were structured, weaving
diverse
interests together. Alternative readings of popol uuh would be
"Common
Book" or "Council Paper."
COUNCILOR OF THE BALL
COURT Popol uinac [uinak] pahom
tzalatz,
"council person in-courtyard long-and-narrow"; the
second time this
title is mentioned the name Xcuxeba is added (untranslatable).
Title
of the lord who was eighth in rank among the Cauecs and head of
one of
the nine great houses into which their lineage was divided after
the
founding of Rotten Cane. The ball court at Rotten Cane ran
east-west
and was located immediately south of the Great Monument of Tohil,
with
its east end forming part of the west side of the main plaza.
The
north wall of the ruins of the ball court is at present the site
of an
active shrine.
COUNCILOR OF THE
STORES Popol uinac [uinak] chituy,
"council person
at-stack"; in B., tuyuba is "put one thing on top of
another." Title
of the lord who was sixth in rank among the Cauecs and head of
one
of the nine great houses into which their lineage was divided
after
the founding of Rotten Cane.
COYABACOH Crier to the People for the Lords in the
eighth
generation of Lord Quiche lords.
CRIER TO THE
PEOPLE Ahtzic uinac [ahtzi4 uinak],
"person who [or
person whose occupation is] calling out to people"; G.
gives ahzi4
as "crier" (in the sense of "town crier"),
and tzi4 could be an
archaic form of zi4, "to call out." Crier to the
People or Crier to
the People for the Lords was the title of the lord who ranked
first
among the Lord Quiches and headed one of the four great houses
into
which their lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten
Cane.
He ranked fourth among the four lords who jointly ruled the
Quiche
state from Rotten Cane, with the Keeper of the Mat, Keeper of
the
Reception House Mat, and the Lord Minister above him. A title
with a
slightly different wording, Lord Crier to the People, pertained
to the
lord who ranked second among the Greathouses and headed one of
the
nine great houses of that lineage.
CRISTOBAL, DON Lord Minister in the twelfth generation
of
Greathouse lords, still in office by September of 1554.
CROSSROADS Cahib xalcat be, "four junction
roads"; xalcat refers to
any joining or forking of roads, and cahib makes this junction
a
"crossroads." There are two lists of the names of the
four roads
that lead away from this junction. The earlier list has Red,
Black,
White, and Yellow roads; it seems consonant (in terms of both
sequence
and colors) with the lowland Maya color-directional scheme, in
which
red is east, black west, white north, and yellow south. The
later list
has Black, White, Red, and Green roads; this may be a
separate
scheme for which the Milky Way (rather than the sun's path) is
the
key. In the P.V. the Black Road is also the Road of Xibalba,
which
corresponds to the cleft in the Milky Way. Whenever the cleft
is
visible, the opposite end of the Milky Way is undivided where
it
intersects the horizon; the undivided part is called White Road
(see
below), which could explain why Black and White (rather than Red
and
Black) are paired in the later list of roads. Since characters
corresponding to Venus (One and Seven Hunahpu and later Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque) travel a path that intersects the Black Road,
the
Crossroads would seem to be the point at which the cleft is
crossed by
the zodiac. Note that both the Milky Way and the zodiac
shift
positions with respect to the horizon; we are not dealing so
much with
a system of cardinal points fixed to the terrestrial plain as
with a
complex system of navigation.
CROTON 3a3che [cakchee] or chuh 3a3che, "red
tree" or "cochineal
red tree." A croton called sangre de dragon in Spanish
(Croton
sanguifluus). Cochineal is a red dye made from scale insects
that feed
on the prickly pear cactus; in the present context the Quiche
word for
this dye is used simply as a color term. When the
"cochineal red tree"
is cut open, the sap that flows looks like blood and dries in
scabrous
nodules. A large nodule of this sap is passed off as the heart
of
Blood Woman by the messengers of Xibalba, and the burning of
such
nodules is established as an appropriate offering to the lords
of
Xibalba.
CRUNCHING JAGUAR Cotzbalam [co4,balam], composed of co4,ih,
"grind"
(V.), and balam, "jaguar." One of the monsters who
ends the era of the
wooden people.
CULBA See Thorny Place.
CUT ROCK Xay (or xoy) abah, possibly composed of
choy, "cut," and
abah, "rock." The town known today as Joyabaj,
occupied by vassals
of the Quiche lords during the reign of Quicab.
CUTTING ANTS,
CONQUERING ANTS Chai zanic, chequen
[4hequen]
zanic; chai refers to cutting instruments made of stone. Ants
summoned
by Hunahpu and Xbalanque to help them cut the flowers of
Xibalba;
possibly two names for the same species. V. lists he chay as
ants that
go in swarms; Andres Xiloj identified 4hequen zanic as very
large
leaf-cutting ants seen only in the lowlands, called zampopo
in
Guatemalan Spanish.
DARK HOUSE Que3uma [3ekuma] ha. One of the tests of
Xibalba,
first in the sequence of test houses. These houses may
correspond to
the periods when Venus is invisible between its appearances as
morning
and evening star (see Bat House).
"DAWN OF LIFE,
THE" Zac [zak] 4azlem, "light
(or dawn) life." An
epithet for the P.V., referring to the period after the first
light of
dawn and of the sun itself, as contrasted with the previous
period,
which is referred to by the epithet, "Our Place in the
Shadows." An
alternative reading of the present epithet would be "The
Life in the
Light."
DAYBRINGER Icoquih [iko3ih in both T. and V.], composed
of iko- (or
eko-), "to carry a burden," and 3ih, "sun"
or "day." The morning star.
DAYKEEPER Ahquih [ah3ih], "keeper (or person of)
day (or sun),"
referring to diviners who count the days of the 260-day calendar
using
coral seeds (see above). The daykeepers in the P.V. are the
husband
and wife Xpiyacoc and Xmucane.
DEER DANCE PLAZA Xahba quieh, "dance-place deer." A
place six
kilometers northwest of Chichicastenango, occupied by vassals of
the
Quiche lords during the reign of Quicab.
DRY PLACE See Thorny Place.
EARTHQUAKE Cabracan [cabrakan], "earthquake"
in both classical
and modern Quiche. This name has been etymologized as cab-,
"two,"
-r-, "his," and -akan, "leg," but
"two" is caib in classical Quiche
and Cakchiquel and takes the form cabi- as a prefix. The
Cakchiquel
equivalent of this name, cabarakan, makes it even harder to read
"two"
and instead suggests caba, "pile up a quantity of
earth" (V.). In that
case -rakan, which can mean not only "leg" but
"trunk" or "pillar,"
suggests that the body of cabarakan provides the pillar (or
pillars)
that hold up the earth, and that earthquakes are caused by
his
movements. Earthquake is the second son of Seven Macaw and the
younger
brother of Zipacna. He gives his name to a place nine
kilometers
southeast of Rotten Cane, occupied by vassals of the Quiche
lords
during the reign of Quicab.
EIGHT CORDS Uahxaqui caam [uahxaquib 4aam]. Keeper of
the Mat in
the tenth generation of Cauec lords.
EIGHTEEN Uaxalahuh. A place of unknown location,
occupied by
vassals of the Quiche lords during the reign of Quicab.
EMBLEMS OF
LORDSHIP Uuachinel rahauarem,
"its-face-agentive
his-lord-inchoative-substantive." The symbols of Toltecan
lordship
given by Nacxit to Cocaib, Coacutec, and Coahau, listed as bone
flute,
bird whistle; bracelet of rattling snail shells; canopy, throne;
gourd
of tobacco; head and hoof of deer; nosepiece; paint of powdered
yellow
stone; parrot feathers, heron feathers; and puma's paw, jaguar's
paw
(see also under each of these headings).
FALCON Uoc, a bird that probably resembles the
laughing falcon
(uac) listed elsewhere. A divine name paired with Hunahpu in a
prayer.
Uoc is also the term used for the bird that serves as a
messenger
for Heart of Sky, flying over One and Seven Hunahpu, as well as
One
Monkey and One Artisan, while they play ball, (translated
as
"falcon"); uac is the term for the bird that later
brings a message to
Hunahpu and Xbalanque at the same ball court. The two falcons
may be
the planets Jupiter and Saturn; given that the uoc seems to be given
greater importance, he may be Jupiter, which is brighter than
Saturn.
FIRE MOUTH Chicac [chi3a3], "mouth fire." One
of the volcanoes made
by Zipacna. Generally thought to be the Volcan de Fuego,
nineteen
kilometers southwest of Antigua Guatemala.
FISHKEEPERS Chah [4hah] car, "guard fish." A
people, also known
as Sovereign Oloman, who stayed in the east when the Quiche
ancestors left, but who later participated in a plot against
them
while they were settled in the citadel of Hacauitz.
FOUR HUNDRED BOYS Omuch [omu4h] 4aholab, "four-hundred
boys (or
sons of a male)." The boys who attempt to kill Zipacna but
are
killed by him instead, eventually becoming the Pleiades
(see
Hundrath). They die while in a drunken stupor, just as the
four
hundred rabbits of Nahua mythology do, and like those rabbits
they
were probably the patron deities of an alcoholic beverage (see
sweet
drink) and of drunkenness.
GAMING EQUIPMENT Etzabal [e4,abal],
"play-instrument." The gear
used by One and Seven Hunahpu and by their sons, Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque, in the Quiche version of the Mesoamerican ball game.
The
items mentioned in the P.V. include a kilt, yoke, arm
guard,
panache, headband, and rubber ball (see also under each of these
headings).
GENEROUS WOMAN, HARVEST
WOMAN, CACAO WOMAN, CORNMEAL WOMAN
Xtoh,
xcanil [x3anil], xcacau, ix pu tziya, in which the x- or ix is
archaic
in Quiche but "she of" or "small" in Cholan
(K.); toh may be related
(given the horticultural nature of the accompanying names)
to
tohohohenic, "to give in abundance" (X.); 3anil is
"yellow" or
"harvest"; cacau is "cacao"; and tziya is
"corn flour." Apparently
these are all names or epithets for the single goddess who
guards
the crops of One Monkey and One Artisan.
GENIUS Naual. From a Nahua term (usually written
nagual)
referring to the animal alter ego of a person. In Quiche usage
naual
is much broader, referring to the spiritual essence or character
of
a person, animal, plant, stone, or geographical place; this
corresponds to English "genius" in its older sense as
"spirit
familiar." In the P.V. naual is sometimes paired with puz,
a word of
Mixe-Zoque and possibly Olmec origins (C.) that refers to
the
cutting open of flesh with a knife and is the primary term for
the act
of heart sacrifice. When used together, puz and naual are
metonyms for
shamanic power, referring to the ability to make genius or
spiritual
essence visible or audible by means of ritual.
GODLY COPAL Cabauil [4abauil] pom, "god
copal." The kind of copal
incense used by Mahucutah to incense the direction of the rising
sun.
GOUGER OF FACES Cotcouach [4ot4ouach], composed of 4ot4o,
a
reduplicated form of 4oto, "to carve out," and uach,
"face." One of
the monsters that ends the era of the wooden people. Andres
Xiloj gave
the modern name as 4ot quiuach, "gouges out their
faces," and
identified it as a kind of animal, commenting that "they
still
exist, but I don't know whether in the sky or the forest. They
stay in
the darkness, and when the sun doesn't shine they come
out." In the
P.V. the Gouger of Faces accompanies a great, dark rainstorm.
GOURD OF TOBACCO 4uz buz, from Yucatec cuz or cutz,
"tobacco,"
and bux, referring to a small gourd used for keeping tobacco
(R.). One
of the emblems of lordship given out by Nacxit.
GRANARY
Cuha, "granary for maize." The palace, at Rotten Cane, of
the Keeper of the Mat, first in rank among all the Quiche
lords.
GRANDMOTHER OF DAY,
GRANDMOTHER OF LIGHT Ratit quih [3ih],
ratit
zac [zak], "its-grandmother day (or sun), its-grandmother
light."
Epithets for Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, despite the fact that
Xpiyacoc is
described in other contexts as a grandfather (mama). Andres
Xiloj
explained that a grandmother of "day" and
"light" would be a
grandmother from the beginning of light "until the end of
the
world," that is, for as long as light lasts. In this
context, then,
"day" and "light" are a dyadic and less
direct way of referring to
what Indo-European languages reduce to the unitary concept of
"time."
GREAT ABYSS AT
CARCHAH Nim xob carchah or nim xol. If
these two
forms both referred to the same place, and if xob were correct,
then
the translation of nim xob would be "great respect (or
shame)." But if
xol were correct, then the translation would be something
like
"great insertion"; xolobachan is given as
"abyss" by B. Finally,
carchah suggests the town called San Pedro Carcha, located
eight
kilometers east of Coban on a river that descends rapidly into
a
canyon and thence to the lowlands. Nim xob carchah is the ball
court
where One and Seven Hunahpu played (followed later by Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque) before they were summoned by the lords of Xibalba.
The
route from this ball court to Xibalba is described as
descending
very steeply; perhaps it was poised at the edge of the
"great
abyss." Nim xol (translated "Great Abyss" in Part
Four of the
present translation) refers to a place located somewhere
between
Staggering and Place of Advice on the Quiche route of
migration.
Note that San Pedro Carcha is located far to the east of the
area
presently inhabited by the Quiches- that is, in the direction
from
which the P.V. says the Quiches came- and that One and Seven
Hunahpu
are responsible for the morning star, which appears and
disappears
in the east.
GREAT HOUSE Nim ha. A term for a formally organized and
named
lineage segment (within a larger patrilineage) with a person of
lordly
rank at its head, and for the palace that served as headquarters
for
that segment (see also lineage).
GREATHOUSES Nihaib, composed of ni- from nima,
"great"; ha or
hai, "house"; and -ib or -b, plural. Second-ranking
Quiche lineage,
founded by Jaguar Night and divided into nine segments or great
houses
after the founding of Rotten Cane.
GREAT LOLMET
YEOLTUX See Lolmet.
GREAT MONUMENT OF
TOHIL Nima tzac [4,ak] tohil, literally
"great
building [specifically of stone or earth] Tohil." The
temple that
housed the god Tohil in the citadel of Rotten Cane, on the west
side
of the main plaza. It consisted of a pyramid with stairways on
three
sides (all but the west) and topped by a single thatch-roofed
room
with its door facing east across the plaza, toward the temple
of
Auilix; at present its ruins are the site of an active shrine.
It is
not clear whether the Great Monument of Tohil housed the
original
Tohil stone brought from Tulan Zuyua by Jaguar Quitze or
whether
that stone was left on the mountain of Patohil (see Tohil) and
was
represented by some secondary object in Rotten Cane. In today's
ritual
practice, one can use a shrine close at hand to summon up a
deity
whose proper residence is another and quite distant shrine.
The
diviners of El Palmar, a community whose inhabitants emigrated
from
Momostenango, have named their local shrines after those of
their
parent town but address the shrines of Momostenango itself from
a
distance; they try to make a pilgrimage to the parent shrines
once
each 260 days. In a like manner, the priest of Tohil at Rotten
Cane
might have addressed the mountain named Patohil while he
was
actually on the pyramid of Tohil, making periodic pilgrimages to
the
mountain itself.
GREAT RECEPTION
HOUSE Nima camha [4amha], "great
receive-house."
Title of the lord who was fourth in rank among the Greathouses
and
head of one of the nine great houses into which their lineage
was
divided after the founding of Rotten Cane.
GREAT TOASTMASTER Nim chocoh, "great convener of
banquets." E.
gives choc- as "invite to a banquet"; G. and V. give
chocola a similar
meaning, with V. specifying a banquet in which a drink prepared
from
cacao was consumed. Each of the three ruling Quiche lineages had
a
lord with this title, and each one of these lords was the head of
one of the great houses of his respective lineage. The
Great
Toastmaster ranked third among the Cauec lords, sixth among
the
Greathouses, and third among the Lord Quiches; these three
Great
Toastmasters came together for meetings. They are described as
being
like fathers and like "givers of birth" to the other
lords, and as
being Mothers of the Word, Fathers of the Word (see below); they
may
be the authors of the Popol Vuh. During the reign of Quicab
the
title of Great Toastmaster was bestowed upon the heads of
eleven
vassal lineages.
GREAT WHITE PECCARY,
GREAT WHITE TAPIR Zaqui [zaki] nim ac [ak],
zaqui nima tziz, "white great peccary, white great tapir
(or
coati)"; in abbreviated form, "Great White Peccary,
Tapir" or "Great
Peccary, Great Tapir." These are epithets for Xpiyacoc and
Xmucane,
respectively. That the ak is "great" and
"white" identifies it as
the white-lipped peccary (Tayasu pecari), which has white jowls
and is
markedly larger than the collared peccary (Tayasu tajacu);
the
white-lipped peccary is strictly a lowland species, ak being
the
Cholan term for the male (K.). That the tziz is
"great" and "white"
identifies it as the tapir (Tapirella bairdii), which is
enormously
larger than the coati and has white hair all over its jowls,
cheeks,
and chest; no Quiche term for the tapir has been reported
in
dictionary sources, but tzimin is "tapir" in Cholan
(K.). Like the
white-lipped peccary, the tapir is a lowland species. What the
coati
or tziz (see coati) and the tapir or tzimin have in common,
in
addition to the first syllable of their names, is a very long
and very
flexible snout. What the tapir and peccary have in common, in
addition
to long, flexible snouts, is that they are ungulates.
GREEN ROAD Raxabe. In a prayer quoted in the P.V., the
petitioner
asks for the Green Road and does not mention roads of any
other
color (see also the "greening road" in a previous
prayer). The Green
Road also appears in the later of two lists of the four
cosmic
roads, where it replaces the Yellow Road mentioned earlier. In
the
lowland Maya color scheme green did not correspond to any of
the
four directions, but to the center, a sort of fifth direction.
The
Green Road of the P.V. may be a paradoxical fifth road,
synthesizing
the other four roads or passing vertically through the spot
where they
cross. See also Crossroads.
GUARDIANS OF THE
SPOILS Canchaheleb [can4haheleb],
composed of can-
from canab, "spoils of war" (B.); 4hahel,
"guardian"; and -eb, plural.
A people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the
Quiches
regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east.
HACAUITZ Uitz is Cholan for "mountain" (K.)
and the rest is of
uncertain derivation. Patron deity of the Lord Quiche lineage,
carried
by Mahucutah from Tulan Zuyua and eventually placed "above
a great red
river" on a mountain that then took the name Hacauitz. The
Lord
Quiches were there when the first dawn came, and the same
mountain was
the site of the first Quiche citadel, built by Jaguar Quitze,
Jaguar
Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar and abandoned after their
deaths.
Hacauitz was also the name of the temple that housed the
god
Hacauitz in the citadel of Rotten Cane, with its back marking
the
south side of the main plaza. It consisted of a pyramid with
a
single stairway (on the south side) and topped by a single
thatch-roofed room with its door facing south onto a
courtyard
considerably smaller than the main plaza. Lord Hacauitz was
the
title of the priest of the god Hacauitz; he was fourth in rank
among
the lords of the Lord Quiches and headed one of the four
great
houses into which their lineage was divided after the founding
of
Rotten Cane.
HANGING MOSSES Atziyac [a4,iak], literally
"clothing."
Dendropogon usneoides, an air plant commonly called Spanish moss
in
English. See bromelias for a discussion of its use.
HEAD AND HOOF OF
DEER Holom pich queh, "head (or
skull) hoof deer."
Among the emblems of lordship given out by Nacxit.
HEADBAND Uach zot, in which uach is "face"
and zot is "to make
circular, like a crown or ring" (V.). Part of the gear
needed by
players of the ball game in the P.V. (see ball court and
gaming
equipment), probably corresponding to the wreaths or turbans
worn at
forehead level by the players in the ball-court reliefs of
Chichen
Itza.
HEART OF SKY, HEART OF
EARTH U4ux cah, u4ux uleu,
"its-heart sky,
its-heart earth." Heart of Sky, sometimes followed by Heart
of Earth
(which never appears by itself), is an epithet for the god or
gods
otherwise named Hurricane, Newborn Thunderbolt, and Raw
Thunderbolt.
These epithets are no longer used in Quiche prayers, but
Andres
Xiloj compared the notion of u4ux uleu to that of u4ux puuak,
"Heart
of Metal," which is applied to found objects that are
either ancient
artifacts or stones that happen to resemble life forms. Some
of
these objects (especially artifacts shaped by flaking) are said
to
have been formed where lightning struck the ground, which
suggests
that it was lightning that provided the conceptual link between
the
Hearts of Sky and Earth for the Quiches of the P.V.
HEART OF THE LAKE,
HEART OF THE SEA U4ux Cho, u4ux palo,
"its-heart
lake, its-heart sea." These are epithets that may cover all
the gods
who were in or on the sea before the raising of the earth; they
are
also known as Maker, Modeler and as Bearer, Begetter, and they
include
Sovereign Plumed Serpent. Their counterparts, with whom they
cooperate
in making the earth, are covered by a contrasting pair of
epithets:
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth.
HOT SPRINGS See Above the Hot Springs.
HOUSE CORNER Xiquiri pat; in Pokomchi Maya (a language of
the
Quichean family), xiquin pat is "corner of a house"
(Z.).
Third-ranking lord of Xibalba. According to Andres Xiloj, it is
at the
corners of a house that the evil influences of Xibalba enter.
When a
house is under construction in Momostenango, eight skulls
are
painted on the outside walls (two at each corner); they are
something like scarecrows.
HULIZNAB One of the volcanoes made by Zipacna;
location uncertain.
HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE Tzununiha [4,ununiha], in which 4,unun
is
"hummingbird" and ha is "house." One of the
first four human
females; wife of Mahucutah.
HUNAHPU Composed of hun, "one"; ah-,
occupational; and pu, from
pub, "blowgun" (B.); thus the name as a whole could be
read as "One
Blowgunner." This is one of the twenty day names of the
260-day
divinatory calendar; since a speaker of Quiche no more takes
note of
the "blowgunner" contained in Hunahpu than a speaker
of English
takes note of the "Thor" in Thursday, the name has
been left
untranslated in the body of the present work. The hun is so
embedded
in the name that in both classical and modern Quiche, the
particular
Hunahpu day that bears the number one is called hun hunahpu,
literally
"One One-blowgunner." In the P.V., Hunahpu without any
number prefix
is the name of the elder brother of Xbalanque; the two of them
are
twins, the sons of One Hunahpu and Blood Woman and nephews of
Seven
Hunahpu. Hunahpu and his twin succeed their father and uncle
at
controlling the morning-star aspect of Venus, playing ball at
an
eastern site on the brink of Xibalba. Hunahpu is most like
his
father in losing his head (twice) in Xibalba; as in the case of
his
father, his detached head is probably the evening-star aspect
of
Venus. Ultimately he becomes the sun, or at least the sun
belongs to
him. Hunahpu is also the name of one of the volcanoes made by
Zipacna;
this could be the Volcan de Amatenango, five kilometers north of
the
Volcan de Fuego (Fire Mouth in the P.V.), since the Annals of
the
Cakchiquels describes Hunahpu as standing beside Fire
Mouth.
"HUNAHPU
MONKEY" Hunahpu coy [4oy]. Title
of a tune played on the
flute by Hunahpu and Xbalanque; One Monkey and One Artisan,
having
been turned into monkeys, danced and did acrobatics to it,
climbing up
over their grandmother's house instead of using the door.
Today
there are numerous Guatemalan Indian towns whose fiestas include
a
Monkey Dance. The version done in Momostenango seems to confirm
the
celestial aspect of One Monkey and One Artisan: two monkeys,
with
stars on their costumes, climb a high pole and do acrobatics on
a
tightrope.
HUNAHPU PLACE Chi hunahpu, "at Hunahpu." A place
of unknown
location, occupied by vassals of the Quiche lords during the reign
of Quicab.
HUNAHPU POSSUM, HUNAHPU
COYOTE Hunahpu uuch [uu4h], hunahpu
utiu.
Epithets for Hunahpu and Xbalanque in their guise as
vagabond
dancers and magicians. The year-bearers of the lowland Maya are
the
so-called possum actors, strolling players who appear at
the
transition point between two solar years. Hunahpu and Xbalanque
do not
assume their guise as performers until shortly before
Hunahpu
becomes the sun. In the Venus tables of the Dresden Codex, day
names
with solar implications do not appear until the last two
divisions
in a series of five Venus cycles, reaching a crescendo in the
fifth
cycle. In this last cycle, the descent of the morning star into
the
underworld on a day associated with a year-bearing possum actor
(the
day Eb in Yucatec and E in Quiche) would correspond to the
appearance of the vagabond Hunahpu and Xbalanque before the
lords of
Xibalba.
HUNDRATH Motz, the Pleiades; the astral form of the
Four Hundred
Boys. Motz appears to be an archaic form of omu4h, "four
hundred"; for
that reason it is translated here as "Hundrath," the
archaic (Old
Norse) source of English "hundred." In today's Quiche
thought the
Pleiades symbolize a fistful of seeds. The planting season for
high-altitude maize, in March, is marked by evening settings of
the
Pleiades, which leave them invisible for most of the night; by
May,
when low-altitude maize is planted, the Pleiades enter a period
of
complete invisibility. In the P.V., the Pleiades' first fall
into
the earth corresponds to Zipacna's defeat of the Four Hundred
Boys.
HURRICANE Huracan [hurakan]. The god who causes the
rain and
flood that end the era of the wooden people; his aspects
include
thunderbolt gods (see Newborn Thunderbolt, Raw Thunderbolt) and
the
first-ranking patron deity of the Quiche people (see Tohil), and
his
epithets include Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth (see above). The
name
can be read as hu[n]rakan, "one-his-leg," but Andres
Xiloj pointed out
that it could also mean "one out of a group" or
"one of a kind," since
-rakan is a numeral classifier used in counting things that
belong
to collectivities. V. gives rakan hab as "the drops of a
rainstorm
when it begins or ends," apparently referring to the very
large
drops that precede or follow a thunderstorm; thus hurakan could
be
an abbreviated form of a phrase meaning "one large
raindrop." All of
these readings point to the classic Maya god who is one-legged
when he
takes the form of the so-called manikin scepter, whose names
include
Hunab Ku or "Solitary God," and who is sometimes
referred to as the
itz or "drop of liquid" (M.) of the sky, though he
causes torrential
rainstorms. Another name for this classic god is Tahil,
"Torch Mirror"
or "Obsidian Mirror" (see Tohil). This name, together
with his
one-leggedness and his rains, make him cognate, in turn, with
the
Nahua god named Tezcatlipoca or "Smoking Mirror," who
was (among other
things) a god of the hurricane. Whatever the etymology of the
word
hurakan, it may well have included the meaning
"hurricane" in the
Mayan language spoken in the Gulf coast region where the
Quiches
came from, a region susceptible to frequent hurricanes.
Throughout the
West Indies and along the north coast of South America,
especially
among Carib and Arawakan peoples, there is a god of the
hurricane
and thunderbolt whose name is cognate with hurakan; in the
Guianas
he is one-legged. Dictionary compilers favor a Taino (Arawakan)
origin
for the word "hurricane" (which came into English from
Spanish or
French) over a Mayan origin, but the Taino word itself could
have been
borrowed from the Quiche homeland, which was a center of
far-reaching maritime trade.
ILOCS Ilocab (singular iloc). One of the allied
groups of
lineages called "the three Quiches," the other two
members being the
Quiche proper (comprising the Cauecs, Greathouses, and Lord
Quiches)
and the Tams.
IZTAYUL Sometimes ztayul or ztayub in the MS.; from
Nahua izta,
"white, salt," and yol, "heart" (C.). Keeper
of the Reception House
Mat in the fourth generation of Cauec lords, with Cotuha as
Keeper
of the Mat. A second Iztayul was Keeper of the Reception House
Mat
in the fifth or sixth generation of Cauecs, with Tepepul as
Keeper
of the Mat. A third Iztayul was Lord Minister in the
seventh
generation of Greathouse lords. See also Xtayub.
JAGUAR CONACHE Balam conache or simply conache. The first
to rule
with the title of Keeper of the Mat, coming in the third
generation of
Cauec lords; a contemporary of Nine Deer, who was Lord Minister
in the
fourth generation of Greathouse lords. According to the Title of
the
Lords of Totonicapan, Jaguar Conache was the son of Cocaib's
wife
but was fathered by Cocaib's brother Cocauib while Cocaib was on
his
pilgrimage to the Lord Nacxit. Nevertheless Cocaib
officially
recognized Jaguar Conache as his legitimate successor in
the
first-ranking Cauec lordship. But after Jaguar Conache's death
the
descendants of Cocauib were shifted to the second-ranking
lordship,
supplying Keepers of the Reception House Mat (beginning with
Jaguar
Conache's own son Iztayul), while the first-ranking title of
Keeper of
the Mat reverted to the direct descendants of Cocaib.
JAGUAR HOUSE Balami ha. One of the tests of Xibalba,
third or
fourth in the sequence of test houses. These houses may
correspond
to the periods when Venus is invisible between its appearances
as
morning and evening star (see Bat House). Jaguar House is also
the
name of a people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes
the
Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves) from the
east.
JAGUAR NIGHT Balam acab [a3ab]. One of the first four
human males
and founder of the Greathouse lineage.
JAGUAR QUITZE Balam quitze in the MS.; balam is
"jaguar" and quitze
(or better 4itze) could well be an archaic form of 4iche,
"Quiche."
One of the first four human males and founder of the Cauec
lineage.
JAGUAR ROPES Balam colob, composed of balam,
"jaguar"; colo, "rope"
(B.); and -b, plural. A people belonging to a group of thirteen
allied
tribes the Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves)
from
the east.
JOCOTES Quinom [3inom], also meaning
"richness." A tropical fruit
(Spondias purpurea), yellow in color and resembling small
plums.
KEEPER OF THE BAT
MAT Ahpo zotzil [zo4,il],
"keeper-mat
bat-ness." A Cakchiquel lineage whose god was Calm
Snake.
KEEPER OF THE DANCER
MAT Ahpo xa [xahil in other
sources],
"keeper-mat dancer." A Cakchiquel lineage.
KEEPER OF THE MAT Ahpop, "person of [or person whose
occupation is]
mat," a woven mat being a metonym for a council (whose
members sat
on a mat or mats) and probably, at the same time, a metaphor for
a
council (whose members might have been thought of as being
interwoven like a mat or as serving to interweave those whom
they
represented). Keeper of the Mat or Lord Keeper of the Mat was
the
title of the lord who ranked first among the Cauecs and headed
one
of the nine great houses into which their lineage was divided
after
the founding of Rotten Cane. He also ranked first among the four
lords
who jointly ruled the Quiche state from Rotten Cane, with the
Keeper
of the Reception House Mat, the Lord Minister, and the Crier to
the
People for the Lords coming below him. The signs or emblems
that
accompanied these four titles (or at least the first two of
them) were
given out by Nacxit, the lord of a "populous domain"
located in "the
east"; the Keeper of the Mat was entitled to have four
superimposed
canopies over his head, with the others having three, two, and
one,
respectively. During the reign of Quicab, the title of Keeper of
the
Mat was conferred upon the heads of twenty vassal lineages,
presumably
lineages that were specifically vassals of the Cauecs.
KEEPER OF THE PLUMED
SERPENT Ahcucumatz [ah3ucumatz],
"person of
[or person whose occupation is] quetzal serpent." Title of
the
priest of the god Sovereign Plumed Serpent at Rotten Cane; he
was
fourth in rank among the lords of the Cauecs and headed one of
the
nine great houses into which their lineage was divided after
the
founding of Rotten Cane. The temple of Sovereign Plumed Serpent
was
a round tower near the center of the main plaza, halfway between
the
temples of Tohil and Auilix. Its circular foundation, whose
outline is
still visible in the pavement of the plaza, is the site of an
active
shrine.
KEEPER OF THE RECEPTION
HOUSE MAT Ahpop camha [4amha], person
of
[or person whose occupation is] mat receive-house." That
the cam- of
the MS. should be 4am-, "receive," rather than 3am-,
"stairway," is
indicated by V. and G., both of whom list an analogous
Cakchiquel
title as 4amahay. The Keeper (or Lord Keeper) of the Reception
House
Mat ranked second among the Cauec lords and was the head of one
of the
nine great houses into which the Cauecs were divided after
the
founding of Rotten Cane. He ranked second among the four lords
who
jointly ruled the Quiche state from Rotten Cane, coming below
the
Keeper of the Mat and above the Lord Minister and the Crier to
the
People for the Lords. If there was a council connected with
the
"Reception House Mat," it might have consisted of the
Keeper of the
Reception House Mat himself (representing the Cauecs), the two
Mothers
of the Reception House (one each for the Cauecs and
Greathouses),
and the Minister of the Reception House and the Great
Reception
House (both representing the Greathouses). If these lords were
like
the Cakchiquel 4amahay, their business was the collection of
tribute.
KEEPER OF TOHIL Ahtohil, "person of [or person whose
occupation is]
Tohil." Title of the priest of the god Tohil at Rotten
Cane; he was
third in rank among the lords of the Cauecs and headed one of
the nine
great houses into which their lineage was divided after the
founding
of Rotten Cane.
KILT 4,uum, "hide." The protective kilt
worn by players of the ball
game in the P.V. (see ball court and gaming equipment); this
kilt is
clearly shown to be a hide in classic Maya art of the
lowlands.
LAKE-SEA Chopalo, composed of cho, "lake,"
and palo, "sea," but
pronounced as a single word. In this context "lake"
and "sea" are
complementary metonyms that together produce a term for all
pooled
water, but without any final reduction of the difference between
lakes
and seas. This composite term is used in contemporary Quiche
prayers.
LAMACS Lamaquib, in which -ib is plural. A people
belonging to a
group of thirteen allied tribes the Quiches regarded as having
come
(like themselves) from the east.
LAUGHING FALCON Uac; its cry is uac co, uac co in the text.
In
Tzotzil Maya, the laughing falcon is vakos and its cry is vakvon
(L.).
That vakos and uac are the same bird is confirmed by the fact
that
Hunahpu and Xbalanque patch the wounded eye of the uac with gum;
the
laughing falcon has a black patch around the eye. It is amusing
to
note that the uac of the P.V. catches a snake; the scientific
name
of the laughing falcon is Herpetotheres cachinnans. This bird
is
obviously closely related to the uoc mentioned elsewhere; both
birds
are messengers, and there are reasons for thinking the uoc
corresponds
to Jupiter and the uac to Saturn (see Falcon).
"LIGHT THAT CAME
FROM ACROSS THE SEA, THE" Zac
petenac chaca palo
[zak petenak 4haka palo], "light come-from-perfect
other-side sea." An
epithet for the P.V., alluding to the fact that the sons of
the
first Quiche lords, returning from a pilgrimage to the great
lord
named Nacxit, "brought back the writings about Tulan"
from "across the
sea." "Sea" is probably a hyperbole for
"lagoon" here; other Quiche
documents call the body of water in question both a
"lake" and a
"sea."
LINEAGE Chinamit, from Nahua chinamitl, "hedge
or enclosure of cane
plants" (D.). In Quiche this refers to an organized and
named
patrilineage (or segment thereof) or to its lands; in the
P.V.
chinamit seems to be synonymous with nim ha or "great
house" in most
contexts.
LOLMET Each of the three ruling lineages of the
Quiche included one
lord whose title incorporated this word; in G., lolmay is
"he who is
sent on business," suggesting "emissary" as a
possible translation
of Lolmet. Lolmet Quehnay was the title of the lord who ranked
seventh
among the Cauecs and headed one of the nine great houses into
which
their lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten Cane.
Great
Lolmet Yeoltux was the title of the lord who ranked ninth among
the
Greathouses and headed one of their nine great houses; this
title is
omitted in the second of the two lists of Greathouse lords.
Lord
Lolmet or Lolmet of the Lords was the title of the lord who
ranked
second among the Lord Quiches and headed one of their four
great
houses.
LORD QUICHES Ahau quiche [4iche]. Third-ranking Quiche
lineage,
founded by Mahucutah and divided into four segments or great
houses
after the founding of Rotten Cane.
MACAMOB Possibly from macamo, "to do something
suddenly" (V.).
One of the volcanoes made by Zipacna; location uncertain.
MACAW HOUSE Caquixaha [cakixaha]. One of the first four
human
females; wife of True Jaguar.
MACAW OWL Caquix [cakix] tucur, in which cakix is
specifically
the term for the scarlet macaw. Third-ranking Military Keeper of
the
Mat for the lords of Xibalba, a messenger. This is clearly
the
so-called Moan bird of classic Maya vase paintings, who seems
to
have the head and wings of an owl but the tail of a macaw.
Along
with three other owl messengers, he may correspond to the
planet
Mercury (see Shooting Owl).
MAHUCUTAH Possibly ma, "not," with hucotah,
"right away, in a
moment" (B.), giving something like
"nonmomentary." One of the first
four human males and founder of the Lord Quiche lineage.
MAKER, MODELER Tzacol bitol [4,akol bitol], consisting of
an
agentive suffix, -ol, added to two different verb stems. In
both
classical and modern Quiche, 4,ak- has to do with making things
out of
clay, plaster, cement, or stone; the objects made range
through
bricks, walls, monuments, mounds of earth, and buildings of all
sizes.
Bit-, on the other hand, has to do with making definite shapes
out
of a pliable and otherwise formless material, as when vessels
are
shaped out of clay. Andres Xiloj said of 4,ak- (whose agentive
form
would be 4,akal today), "This is to make or construct, like
a
building, a wall." Of bit- he said, "This bitic is to
form, as when we
were small and played with mud; we made forms. Kabitic, 'we form
it'."
He saw 4,akol and bitol as referring, respectively, to the
amassing of
clay and then its shaping into forms such as vessels or figures.
In
the P.V. these two words are names or epithets for the gods who
make
the earth, plants, animals, and humans. The same gods are
also
called Bearer, Begetter, and they include Sovereign Plumed
Serpent.
MAKER OF THE BLUE-GREEN
PLATE, MAKER OF THE BLUE-GREEN BOWL
Ahraxa la3 [lak], ahraxa tzel, "person-of-blue-green
plate,
person-of-blue-green bowl." First used as an epithet for
Xpiyacoc
and Xmucane; later appears in a list of the arts and crafts
practiced by their grandsons, One Monkey and One Artisan. The
plate
and bowl may refer ultimately to the earth and sky; the term
raxa
covers both the green of a verdant landscape and the blue of
the
sky. Andres Xiloj pointed out that when the head of a
contemporary
patrilineage (who is always a diviner) dies, his successor must
be
installed in office by the head of a neighboring lineage, who is
hired
as an ah4hahbal lak, ah4hahbal tasa, "washer of the plate,
washer of
the cup." Before the new lineage head can take office, the
"washer"
must go to all that lineage's shrines and clean out the ashes of
all
the offerings burned by the deceased lineage head. Such shrines
are
lined and covered with slabs of stone and pieces of pottery,
which are
spoken of as "plates" and "cups." In the
P.V., Maker of the Blue-Green
Plate, Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl would refer to Xpiyacoc
and
Xmucane in their general roles as those who look after (and
even
create) shrines, or it might refer to pottery vessels used for
burning
incense rather than to shrines as such.
MARIGOLD Yia [iya]. A species of marigold called
pericon in
Guatemalan Spanish (Tagetes lucida), a common roadside herb in
the
highlands, with all-yellow flowers. In the P.V. (as among
today's
Quiche) the burning of marigolds, together with yarrow (see below),
constitutes a more modest offering than the burning of copal
incense.
MATASANOS Ahache [ahachee]. A tropical fruit
(Casimiroa edulis),
large, pulpy, thin-skinned, yellow inside and chartreuse
outside;
called matasanos in Guatemalan Spanish.
MEAUAN The mountain beneath which Hunahpu and
Xbalanque defeated
Earthquake. Possibly located within the great bend of the Rio
Negro or
Chixoy, north of Rabinal.
METEOR Cabicac or chabicac [4habi3a3], "globe
of fire" (T.),
literally "arrow fire"; a comet, by contrast, is uhe
4humil, "star's
tail." A place of unknown location, occupied by vassals of
the
Quiche lords during the reign of Quicab.
MIDDLE OF THE HOUSE,
MIDDLE OF THE HARVEST, LIVING CORN, EARTHEN
FLOOR Nicah [ni4ah] ha,
nicah bichoc [bichok], cazam [4azam] ah,
chatam [4hatam] uleu, "middle house, middle shucked-corn,
living
corn-ear, bed (or slab) earth"; the gloss of bichoc is from
B. When
Hunahpu and Xbalanque left their grandmother to go to Xibalba,
they
"planted" ears of corn in the middle of their house,
up above its
earthen floor. For their grandmother, the drying (or ripening)
and
renewed sprouting of corn served as a sign of their death and
rebirth,
and she burned copal incense before ears of corn as a memorial
to
them. As Andres Xiloj pointed out, her act corresponds to
the
present-day customs of a patrilineage shrine called the uinel,
located
near a cornfield.
MIDDLE OF THE
PLAIN Nicacah tacah [ni4ah
ta3ah],"middle plain."
Name of the god received by True Jaguar at Tulan Zuyua.
MIDMOST SEERS Nicuachinel [ni4uachinel], composed of ni4,
"middle";
uachin, "see with one's own eyes" (V.); -el, agentive.
A term for
diviners, applied both to Xpiyacoc and Xmucane and to Xulu
and
Pacam. It could mean that a diviner sees into the middle of
things, or
it could mean that a diviner recovers the vision that the first
humans
had when they could see everything from the spot where they
were,
without having to walk around.
MILITARY KEEPER OF THE
MAT Rahpop achih,
"its-keeper-mat
soldier." Title held by the four owls who served as
messengers for the
lords of Xibalba. One of the titles conferred upon the heads of
vassal
lineages during the reign of Quicab.
MILITARY MINISTER U3alel achih, "its-minister
soldier." One of
the titles conferred upon the heads of vassal lineages during
the
reign of Quicab.
MILITARY WALLS,
MILITARY CORNERS Rahtzalam [rah4,alam]
achih, utzam
[utzaam] achih, "his-keeper-wall soldier, his-corner (or
angle)
soldier." 4,alam is "wall" in V., while other
sources give "plank";
the "walls" and "corners" here are
undoubtedly those of a stockade.
Military Walls and Military Corners are among the titles
conferred
upon the heads of vassal lineages during the reign of Quicab;
they
seem analogous to the "sides" and "corners"
of the sky-earth,
suggesting that a fortified town was seen as a microcosm.
MINISTER 3alel, possibly from 3alunel, "one who
holds something
in his arms." Lord Minister was the title of the lord who
ranked first
among the Greathouses and headed one of the nine great houses
into
which their lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten
Cane.
He also ranked third among the four lords who jointly ruled the
Quiche
state from Rotten Cane, coming below the Keeper of the Mat and
the
Keeper of the Reception House Mat and above the Crier to the
People
for the Lords. During the reign of Quicab, when Quema was
Lord
Minister of the Greathouses, the title of Minister was
conferred
upon the heads of twenty vassal lineages, presumably lineages
that
were specifically vassals of the Greathouses.
MINISTER FOR THE
LORDS 3alel ahau, "minister
lord," with ahau
referring, as it does when it ends other titles, to the Lord
Quiche
lineage. One of the titles conferred upon the heads of one or
more
vassal lineages during the reign of Quicab, when Armadillo Dung
was
Lord Crier to the People for the Lord Quiches. Presumably
these
would have been vassals of the Lord Quiches in particular,
although
Minister is not listed as one of the titles actually held by
their
lineage.
MINISTER FOR THE ZAQUICS 3alel zaquic. Title of the lord who
ranked
second among the Zaquics and headed one of the two great houses
into
which their lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten
Cane. The
Zaquics may not have acquired this title until the reign of
Quicab,
two generations after the founding of Rotten Cane, since it
is
elsewhere listed as one of the titles conferred on the heads of
vassal
lineages during the reign of Quicab. It could also be that the
Zaquics
themselves ennobled one or more lineages subordinate to
themselves,
titling them Ministers for the Zaquics in order to distinguish
them
from the Ministers created by the Greathouses at this same
time.
MINISTER OF THE RECEPTION
HOUSE 3alel 4amha, "minister
receive-house." Title of the lord who ranked third among
the
Greathouses and headed one of the nine great houses into which
their
lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten Cane.
MIXTAM COPAL Mixtam pom, in which pom is "copal
incense" and the
rest is a Nahua name of uncertain translation. The kind of
copal
incense used by Jaguar Quitze to incense the direction of the
rising
sun. Andres Xiloj suggested that this might be Ixtahuacan pom,
a
kind of copal from the area of Ixtahuacan and Cuilco (Mam
towns)
that is highly valued by the Quiche today.
MONKEY HOUSE Batza [ba4,a], composed of ba4,,
"howler monkey,"
and ha, "house." Lord Minister in the sixth generation
of Greathouse
lords.
MOTHER-FATHER Chuchcahau [chuchkahau], composed of chuch,
"mother,"
and kahau, "father," but pronounced as a single word.
In this
context "mother" and "father" are
complementary metonyms that together
produce the sense of "parent," but without any final
reduction of
the difference between motherhood and fatherhood. In the P.V.,
the
composite term thus produced is used as a metaphor for the gods
called
Maker and Modeler and less figuratively for the first four
human
males, three of whom become founders of patrilineages. In
several
present-day Quiche towns the heads of patrilineages, who
are
daykeepers and are also responsible for lineage shrines, are
called
mother-fathers even though they are all males (see also Mothers
of the
Word, Fathers of the Word).
MOTHER OF THE RECEPTION
HOUSE Uchuch camha [4amha],
"its-mother
receive-house." Title of the ninth in rank among the Cauec
lords (also
titled Sovereign Yaqui) and head of one of the nine great
houses
into which their lineage was divided after the founding of
Rotten
Cane. The fifth-ranking lord of the Greathouses, who headed one
of the
nine great houses of their lineage, was also titled Mother of
the
Reception House.
MOTHERS OF THE WORD,
FATHERS OF THE WORD Uchuch tzih,
ucahau
[ukahau] tzih. An epithet of the Great Toastmasters, suggesting
that
they were ritual heads of patrilineages (see mother-father) and
that
they may have been responsible for the Word (see Ancient Word)
that is
set forth in the Popol Vuh itself.
MOUNTAIN-PLAIN Huyubtacah [huyubta3ah], composed of
huyub,
"mountain (or hill)," and ta3ah, "plain (or
flat)," but pronounced
as a single word. In this context "mountain" and
"plain" are
complementary metonyms that together produce the sense of
"earth," but
without any final reduction of the difference between mountains
and
plains. In modern Quiche ritual language, at least, huyubta3ah
(or
huyub by itself) is a common metaphor for the human body. In
the
P.V. the gods conceive humans at the same time they conceive
the
earth, but a great deal of time passes before they succeed in
actually
making humans.
NACXIT From Nahua naui, "four," and
ikxitl, "foot" (C.). In Nahua
sources this is a title held by the king named Quetzalcoatl; in
the
Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, a lord named Nacxit Xuchit
is
mentioned in connection with events that sound like part of
the
Nahua legend of Quetzalcoatl. In the P.V. Nacxit gives out the
emblems
of lordship to Cocaib, Coacutec, and Coahau, who come to him on
a long
pilgrimage.
NANCE Tapal. A tropical fruit (Byrsonima
crassifolia), small,
yellow and purple.
NECK CANYON Cu [ku] ziuan, "neck, narrow
place" (from kul)
"canyon." A canyon crossed by the road to Xibalba (the
underworld).
NET WEAVE TRIBE Amac [ama3] uquin cat [4at], composed of
ama3,
"tribe"; u-, "its"; quin, "do the warp
in weaving" (B.); and 4at,
"net." Place where the Ilocs gave a home to their
patron deity, not
far from where the Tams, Cauecs, Greathouses, and Lord Quiches
did the
same; also the place where the Ilocs were when the dawn first
came.
NEWBORN NANAHUAC, RAW
NANAHUAC Chipi [4hipi] nanauac, raxa
nanauac,
in which 4hipi is "youngest child"; raxa is
"green, blue" or "raw,
fresh"; and nanahuac seems to be the Quiche equivalent of
Nanahuatzin,
who in Nahua mythology throws the thunderbolt that opens up the
mountain filled with the corn needed to make human flesh (see
Broken
Place). In the P.V., Newborn Nanahuac and Raw Nanahuac are
alternative
names for Newborn Thunderbolt and Raw Thunderbolt.
NEWBORN THUNDERBOLT,
RAW THUNDERBOLT Chipa [4hipa]
caculha
[cakulha], raxa caculha in which 4hipa is "youngest
child"; raxa is
"green, blue" or "raw, fresh"; and cakulha
is specifically a bolt of
lightning (with the accompanying thunder), as contrasted
with
coyopa, which is sheet lightning (seen in the distance and
without
distinguishable bolts or audible thunder). Gods who are included
under
the Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth rubric and make up a threesome
when
combined with the name Hurricane. Lucas Pacheco recognized their
names
and said that in today's prayers they also go under the names of
two
archangels, Michael and Gabriel.
NINE DEER Beleheb queh. Lord Minister in the fourth
generation of
Greathouse lords, when Jaguar Conache was Keeper of the Mat.
Another
Nine Deer was Lord Minister in the ninth generation. At least
the
first of these two was apparently born on the day Nine Deer on
the
divinatory calendar; the second was probably named after the
first.
Today such a birth date would augur a domineering, articulate,
and
masculine character with shamanic inclinations, and because of
the
relatively high number these qualities should be obvious.
NINE DOG Beleheb tzi [4,ii]. Keeper of the Reception
House Mat in
the twelfth generation of Cauec lords, apparently born on the
day Nine
Dog on the divinatory calendar. Today, such a birth date would
augur
confusion, weakness, promiscuity, and ill fortune. According to
the
P.V. Nine Dog was hanged by the Castilians; other sources have
him
burned at the stake. In any case he and Three Deer were executed
by
Alvarado in 1524, immediately following the fall of Rotten
Cane.
NOSEPIECE Caxeon, possibly derived from kaxah [3axah],
"to run
through, as with an arrow" (T.); -on could be the substantive
suffix
or it could be related to onih, "to nail" (E.). One of
the emblems
of lordship given out by Nacxit; the Annals of the
Cakchiquels
mentions that noses were pierced when the emblems were given out
but
does not refer to the ornament itself. Of the various names
given to
the emblems in the P.V., caxeon is the most likely candidate as
a term
for this particular item.
ONE DEATH, SEVEN
DEATH Hun came, uucub [uukub] came, in
which hun
and uukub are "one" and "seven." Came is one
of the twenty day names
of the divinatory calendar; it shares the same root with such
forms as
camel, "dead person," but it is not the ordinary term
for "death"
(that would be camic or camical). One and Seven Death rank first
and
second among the lords of Xibalba. They are treated in the
narrative
as two persons, as are One and Seven Hunahpu (see below), but
their
numbers show that they represent all thirteen possible days
bearing
the name came, as Andres Xiloj pointed out (see the notes to
the
Introduction).
ONE HUNAHPU, SEVEN HUNAHPU Hun hunahpu, uucub [uukub] hunahpu.
The sons, elder and younger respectively, of Xpiyacoc and
Xmucane; One
Hunahpu is the father (by Xbaquiyalo) of One Monkey and One
Artisan,
later becoming the father (by Blood Woman) of Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
One and Seven Hunahpu, as their numbers show, represent all
thirteen
possible days bearing the name Hunahpu (see the notes to
the
Introduction). They are responsible for Venus in its aspect as
a
morning star that first rises on a day bearing the name
Hunahpu;
such a morning star appears at the start of each fifth Venus
cycle.
One Hunahpu's severed head, when placed in the fork of a tree by
the
lords of Xibalba, becomes Venus in its aspect as an evening
star
that first rises on a day bearing the name Came or
"Death"; this is
the particular evening star that follows after a Hunahpu morning
star.
ONE-LEGGED OWL Huracan [hurakan] tucur, "one-his-leg
owl." As
Andres Xiloj pointed out, owls stand on only one leg at a
time.
Second-ranking Military Keeper of the Mat for the lords of
Xibalba,
a messenger. Along with three other owl messengers, he may
correspond to the planet Mercury (see Shooting Owl).
ONE MONKEY, ONE
ARTISAN Hun batz [ba4,], hun chouen, in
which hun
is "one"; ba4, is "howler monkey"; and
chouen is Yucatec for "artisan"
and archaic Yucatec for "howler monkey." The sons of
One Hunahpu and
Xbaquiyalo; patron deities of flautists, singers, writers,
carvers,
lapidaries, jewelers, sawyers, carpenters, incense makers,
and
metallurgists. Hunahpu and Xbalanque (their younger
half-brothers)
leave them marooned in a tall tree, where they become monkeys;
this is
also the beginning of their celestial career (see "Hunahpu
Monkey").
They probably correspond to the planet Mars.
ONE TOH Hun toh, a day on the divinatory calendar.
The god of the
Rabinals, declared by the writers of the P.V. to be equivalent
to
the Tohil of the Cauecs, Ilocs, and Tams.
"OUR PLACE IN THE
SHADOWS" Camuhibal
[kamuhibal],
"our-being-shaded-place." An epithet for the P.V.,
referring to the
period (lasting about two-thirds of the book) before the first
sunrise
is seen; the following period is referred to by another
epithet,
"The Dawn of Life." The implication of
"shadows" in the present
epithet is that the light of dawn and of sunrise were really
there
(somewhere) all along, but that "our" position as
humans with
respect to this light was such that we remained in
darkness.
PAINT OF POWDERED
YELLOW STONE Tatil canabah [3anabah];
tatil may
be the same as titil, "bright powder" (B.); 3anabah is
an unidentified
"yellow stone" (V.) and a paint applied to the body
(R.). One of the
emblems of lordship given out by Nacxit.
PANACHE Iachuach, B. gives yachuachibeh as "to
crown." Part of
the gear needed by players of the ball game in the P.V. (see
ball
court and gaming equipment), probably corresponding to the
long
bunch of feathers shown attached to the crowns of the heads of
the
players in the ball-court reliefs of Chichen Itza.
PARROT FEATHERS, HERON
FEATHERS Chiyom, "parrot
feathers" (R.), and
aztapulul, which is partly derived from aztatl, a Nahua term for
a
white heron (D.). Among the emblems of lordship given out by
Nacxit.
PATAXTE Pec. Theobroma bicolor, a lower grade of
cacao than cacao
proper (or caco in Quiche), more widely known in Mesoamerica by
its
Nahua name, pataxte. The seeds of pataxte and cacao, which
are
native to the New World, were and are used by Mesoamerican
Indians
to make cocoa and chocolate.
PATOHIL See Tohil.
PAUILIX See Auilix
PERSON OF BAM Uinac [uinak] bam, "person,"
followed by an
untranslatable proper name. Crier to the People for the Lords in
the
ninth generation of Lord Quiche lords.
PETATAYUB Partly from Nahua petatl, "mat"
(C.). A flat place
(ta3ah) where a "mountain" (huyub) of shattered stones
from
conquered citadels was piled up during the reign of Quicab.
Ximenez
takes this flat to be the south coastal plain of Guatemala,
but
ta3ah can refer to any level place, down to the size of a
cornfield.
Petatayub may be the spot known today as Altar Place (chi
mumuz), a
prominent pile of broken stones on an otherwise stoneless flat eight
kilometers northwest of San Pedro Jocopilas. On the south side
of this
pile is an active shrine.
PLACE OF ADVICE Chi pixab, "at advice (or
counsel)." A mountain
where the Quiches and other tribes held a council during
their
migrations. It is a peak, still known by this name, of the
Montana los
Achiotes, about seven kilometers west of San Andres
Sajcabaja.
PLACE OF BALL GAME
SACRIFICE Pucbal Chah [puzbal chaah];
B. gives
puzbal as "place of sacrifice," and chaah is
"ball game." The place
where the decapitated body of One Hunahpu and the complete body
of
Seven Hunahpu were buried by the lords of Xibalba. Probably not
a
place name, but rather a name for the altar where losing
ball
players were sacrificed. That such altars were in or near
ball
courts is indicated by the fact that the classical Quiche term
for a
ball court, hom, is today the term for a graveyard. Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque, addressing the remains of Seven Hunahpu (their
paternal
uncle), tell him, "You will be prayed to here"; today,
as Andres Xiloj
pointed out, people visit graveyards on days bearing the name
Hunahpu.
PLACE OF SPILT
WATER See Spilt Water.
PLANK PLACE Chitemah, "at-plank"; tema is a
bench or a roofing
beam. A place of unknown location, occupied by vassals of the
Quiche
lords during the reign of Quicab.
PLASTER HOUSE Zaccabaha [zakcabaha], composed of zakcaba,
"plaster"
(B.), and ha, "house." The town known today as San
Andres Sajcabaja.
Formerly a Caoque citadel, conquered by the Quiche lords during
the
reign of Quicab. Today the inhabitants speak Quiche.
PLUMED SERPENT Cucumatz [3ucumatz], from 3u3, "quetzal
bird" or
"quetzal feathers," and cumatz, "serpent."
Keeper of the Mat in the
fourth or fifth generation of Cauec lords, named after the
god
listed elsewhere as Sovereign Plumed Serpent. The P.V. mentions
Cotuha
(not the same Cotuha who preceded Plumed Serpent as Keeper of
the Mat)
as the Keeper of the Reception House Mat who corresponded to
Plumed
Serpent in a number of places, but elsewhere states that
Plumed
Serpent served as both Keeper of the Mat and Keeper of the
Reception
House Mat; perhaps Cotuha died during the reign of Plumed
Serpent
and was not replaced until after the latter's death. However
that
might be, it was Plumed Serpent and Cotuha who together founded
Rotten
Cane. Both of them were regarded as lords of genius- that is, as
lords
with powerful spirit familiars- and Plumed Serpent in particular
put
on miraculous demonstrations of shamanic power. Here, as in the
case
of his central Mexican counterpart (Quetzalcoatl), it is
difficult
to separate Plumed Serpent as king from Plumed Serpent as
deity.
POINT OF THE ARROW,
ANGLE OF THE BOWSTRING Uchi 4ha, uchi
cam
[4aam], "its mouth arrow, its mouth cord"; Andres
Xiloj pointed out
that in Quiche, the "mouth" of an arrow is its tip,
while the
"mouth" of a bowstring is the point at which the butt
end of the arrow
is pulled back against it. Epithets for the vanguard lineages
sent out
to occupy conquered citadels during the reign of Quicab.
POORWILL, DANCE OF
THE Xahoh puhuy, "dance
poorwill." The name of a
dance done by Hunahpu and Xbalanque in their guise as
vagabonds.
POPOL VUH See Council Book.
PRAWN HOUSE Chomiha, composed of chom,
"shrimp" (B.), and ha,
"house." One of the first four human females; wife of
Jaguar Night.
The "prawn" etymology- as opposed, for example, to
4humil or "star"-
lets the four women's names fit together in a pattern, making
for
two with maritime names (Celebrated Seahouse and Prawn House)
and
two with avian names (Hummingbird House and Macaw House).
PUMA'S PAW, JAGUAR'S
PAW Tzicuil [4,icuil] coh, tzicuil
balam; V.
gives 4,ic as "heel of hand," and coh and balam are
"puma" and
"jaguar." Among the emblems of lordship given out by
Nacxit.
PUS MASTER, JAUNDICE
MASTER Ahal puh, ahal 3ana, "owner
pus,
owner yellowness." Fifth- and sixth-ranking lords of
Xibalba.
PUS RIVER Puhia [puhiaa], "pus water." A
river that crosses the
road to Xibalba (the underworld). This name, along with Blood
River,
might have been an actual toponym, referring to a large, muddy
river
of the kind that originates in the Guatemalan highlands but
flows into
the northern lowlands. For today's Quiche the regions that drop
off
toward the Atlantic, especially in the area of Coban, are an
abode
of evil.
QUEHNAY See Lolmet.
QUEMA Also spelled queema in the MS. Lord Minister
in the tenth
generation of Greathouse lords. Yet he is also mentioned among
the
contemporaries of the Keeper of the Mat named Quicab, who ruled
in the
sixth or seventh generation of Cauec lords.
QUENECH AHAU From Yucatec Kinich Ahau, "sun-eye
lord" (C.), one
of the names of the lowland Maya sun god. In the P.V. this is
the name
of a people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the
Quiches
regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east.
QUETZAL Cuc [3u3]; according to G., raxon, literally
"blued" or
"greened" (and translated "blue green"), is
a synonym for 3u3.
"Quetzal," the name by which this bird is best known,
is from Nahua
quetzalli. Pharomachrus mocinno, the most spectacular bird in
the
New World, confined to localized cloud forest habitats
scattered
from Chiapas to Panama; red breast but otherwise mostly green
(with
blue iridescence). The two-foot-long tail coverts were a major
item of
tribute and a major feature of lordly regalia throughout
Mesoamerica.
QUIBA HOUSE, THOSE
OF Ahquibaha, in which ah- is
"persons from" and
ha is "house." A people belonging to a group of
thirteen allied tribes
the Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves) from the
east.
QUICAB Possibly 4i, "many," with 3ab,
"hand" or "arm." Keeper of
the Mat in the sixth or seventh generation of Cauec lords.
Quicab
greatly expanded the Quiche state, destroying the citadels
of
neighboring peoples and occupying them with vassal lineages
drawn from
the immediate vicinity of Rotten Cane. He ennobled the heads of
many
vassal lineages, including those who had served him well in
his
conquests, but members of this new nobility later perpetrated a
revolt
(as described in both the Title of the Lords of Totonicapan and
the
Annals of the Cakchiquels but not in the P.V.). They failed in
an
assassination attempt, but the lineages with military titles
(see
under Military) gained in power.
QUICHE Quiche [4iche] and sometimes queche [4eche],
possibly from
4i, "many," and chee, "trees," thus carrying
approximately the same
meaning as Cuautemallan, the Nahua name for what is now
called
Guatemala. Quiche is used in several different senses in the
P.V. As a
people, the Quiche proper consist of those who descend from
Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, and Mahucutah- that is to say, the
Cauec,
Greathouse, and Lord Quiche lineages- and who worship the
gods
Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz. "The three Quiches"
include the Quiche
proper, as just described, together with two further lineages
whose
god was Tohil, the Tams and Ilocs. This Quiche threesome is said
to
have been inseparable since its members were all at Tulan
Zuyua
together, and to have shared the same language- a language which
is
also called Quiche. Late in the narrative Quiche becomes a
toponym
referring to the vicinity of Rotten Cane, covering Rotten Cane
itself,
the modern site of Santa Cruz (three kilometers to the east
of
Rotten Cane), and probably also Bearded Place (half a kilometer
to the
south of Rotten Cane). By metonymic extension, Quiche also
becomes the
name for the conquest state formed by the Quiche threesome after
the
founding of Rotten Cane.
QUITZALCUAT Equivalent to Nahua Quetzalcoatl,
"quetzal serpent."
One of the names of the god of the Yaqui people, who is said by
the
writers of the P.V. to be the same as Tohil.
RABINALS Rabinaleb, in which -eb is plural. The
people known
today as the Achi, whose principal town is Rabinal. Their language,
Achi, may be considered either a dialect of Quiche or a
separate
language of the Quichean family; its speakers are located to
the
northeast of the speakers of Quiche proper. They belonged to a
group
of thirteen allied tribes the Quiches regarded as having come
(like
themselves) from the east. One of the Rabinal citadels, Spilt
Water,
was conquered by the Quiche lords during the reign of
Quicab.
RATTLING HOUSE Xuxulim ha; B. gives xuxulim as a continuous
buzzing
or humming. This is one of the tests of Xibalba, also called
Cold
House; it rattles because of continuous drafts and hail. This
test
comes second or third in the sequence of test houses. These houses
may
correspond to the periods when Venus is invisible between
its
appearances as morning and evening star (see Bat House).
RAZOR HOUSE Chaim ha; chay or cha refers to cutting
instruments
or projectile points made by percussion techniques,
probably
obsidian blades in the present context. One of the tests of
Xibalba,
fifth or second in the sequence of test houses. These houses
may
correspond to the periods when Venus is invisible between
its
appearances as morning and evening star (see Bat House).
RED BANNER Ca3lacan [cakla3an], with cak,
"red"; B. gives la3am
as "banner." Crier to the People for the Lords in the
third generation
of Lord Quiche lords.
RED ROAD Cacabe [cakabe]. One of four cosmic roads
(see
Crossroads).
ROAD OF XIBALBA Ri be xibalba, "the road Xibalba,"
also called
Black Road (see Crossroads). The road that beckoned to One and
Seven
Hunahpu when they were on their way to Xibalba and led to
their
deaths. At present ube xibalba, "its-road Xibalba," is
the Quiche term
for the black cleft in the Milky Way. From the identity of One
and
Seven Hunahpu (or their rubber ball) as Venus, and from the
fact
that they go down to Xibalba from a ball court located far in
the
east, it may be deduced that they descended at a time when Venus
was
ending its period of visibility as the morning star in a
sidereal
position that was in or near the Milky Way cleft. Venus takes
five
complete cycles to repeat its sidereal position, which is the
same
number of cycles it takes for its periodic reappearance as a
morning
star to return to a day bearing the name Hunahpu.
ROBLES, DON PEDRO
DE Lord Minister in the thirteenth
generation
of Greathouse lords, in office when the P.V. was written. Since
his
predecessor was still in office in September of 1554, the P.V.
must
have been written after that time.
ROCK ROWS, FURROWED
SANDS Cholochic abah, bocotahinac
[bocotahinak]
zanaieb, composed of a reduplicated form of cholo-, "to
order, put
in a row"; abah, "rocks"; boco-,
"uproot"; tahii-, "cultivate,
plough"; -nak, perfect; and zanaieb, "sands." The
place where Jaguar
Quitze, Jaguar Night, Mahucutah, and True Jaguar crossed through
a
palo or "sea" on their migration from Tulan Zuyua. The
name is, in
effect, a description of a lowland Maya causeway.
ROJAS, DON JUAN DE Lord Keeper of the Mat in the
fourteenth
generation of Cauec lords, in office when the P.V. was written.
His
title was recognized by the Spanish; he retained his serfs,
was
given a reception room in the Royal Palace at Santiago
Guatemala,
served as a sort of minister of native affairs, and attempted
to
regain jurisdiction over the towns that had been conquered by
the
Quiche state before the arrival of the Spanish. He was still in
office
in 1554; since he was no longer signing documents by November of
1558,
the P.V. must have been written before that date.
ROTTEN CANE Cumaracaah [3umarakah],
"rotten-plural-cane plant." The
citadel built by the Quiche lords after they left Bearded
Place,
founded by the Keeper of the Mat named Plumed Serpent. At
Bearded
Place there had been only three great houses or lordly lineages,
but
after the founding of Rotten Cane the Cauecs divided into
nine
parts, the Greathouses into nine parts, the Lord Quiches into
four
parts, and there were also two divisions of Zaquics (not
mentioned
at Bearded Place). Except for the two divisions of the
Zaquics,
which shared a single palace, each of these lineage
segments
apparently had a separate palace, making twenty-three palaces
in
all. It was from Rotten Cane that Quicab greatly expanded the
Quiche
state, and it was Rotten Cane that was burned by Pedro de
Alvarado
in 1524. The ruins, better known by their Nahua name, Utatlan,
are
located three kilometers west of Santa Cruz Quiche (see also
Great
Monument of Tohil, Auilix, Hacauitz, Keeper of the Plumed
Serpent,
Councilor of the Ball Court, Granary, and Bird House).
RUBBER BALL Qui4, literally "blood" but also
referring to rubber,
rubber balls in particular. Europeans saw rubber balls for the
first
time in the West Indies and Mesoamerica. In the P.V. a rubber
ball
is part of the gaming equipment (see under that heading) used by
One
and Seven Hunahpu and by their sons, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The
ball
used by their opponents in Xibalba is not called qui4 (except by
a
falsehood that fails to deceive Hunahpu and Xbalanque) but is
rather
referred to by its proper name (see White Dagger) or by the
term
chaah, which is also a term for the ball game itself (whatever
kind of
ball it is played with).
SANTA CRUZ Bishop Francisco Marroquin gave this name to
Rotten Cane
in 1539, but the town that came to be known as Santa Cruz Quiche
was
not built on the ruins of Rotten Cane itself but three
kilometers east
of there.
SERPENTS Cumatz, A people belonging to a group of
thirteen allied
tribes the Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves)
from
the east.
SEVEN CANE Uucub [uukub] ah, "seven cane plant."
Crier to the
People for the Lords in the sixth generation of Lord Quiche
lords.
Apparently born on the day Seven Cane on the divinatory
calendar;
today such a birth date would augur good luck in all the affairs
of
life and a potential career as a dutiful priest-shaman or
official.
SEVEN CAVES, SEVEN
CANYONS Uucub [uukub] pec, uucub ziuan.
An
epithet for Tulan Zuyua, the citadel where the ruling
Quiche
lineages acquired their patron deities. Uucub pec is a
Quiche
translation of Chicomoztoc, the "seven caves" of the
mythic Nahua
place of origin. The ruins of both Teotihuacan and Xochicalco
have
natural caves beneath them; Rotten Cane has an artificial cave
that
penetrates to a point beneath the main plaza.
SEVEN MACAW Uucub caquix [uukub cakix], in which the
term for macaw
is composed of cak, "red," and perhaps quiix,
"feathers." A lord who
falsely claimed to be both the sun and moon during the era of
the
wooden people, causing offense to Hurricane; husband of
Chimalmat
and father of Zipacna and Earthquake. From his red feathers and
from
his nose that "shines white", the macaw in question
could only be
the scarlet macaw (Ara macao), which displays more red feathers
than
the military macaw (Ara militaris) and contrasts with the latter
in
having a white beak. The P.V. does not specify Seven Macaw's
actual
astronomical identification (as contrasted with his false claim
to
be the sun), but A. gives it as Ursa Major, whose prominent
stars
(comprising the Big Dipper) number seven. In West Indian Carib
myths
the Big Dipper has a feathered headdress that shows by day as
the
rainbow, which suggests that Seven Macaw might also have a
rainbow
aspect. What the Big Dipper has in common with the rainbow is
that its
appearance marks the end of storms, only it does so seasonally.
In the
latitudes of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, the hurricane
season
(mid-July to mid-October) begins with nights on which the Big
Dipper
is already in steep descent at twilight and disappears entirely
for as
much as half the night, and it ends with the first nights on
which all
seven stars of the newly ascending Big Dipper appear before
dawn. To
put this in terms of the P.V., when Hunahpu and Xbalanque
(acting on
behalf of Hurricane) bring Seven Macaw down out of his tree
(or
below the horizon), they open the way for the great rain that
destroys
the people for whom Seven Macaw was the sun.
SEVEN THOUGHT Uucub noh [uukub naoh]. Keeper of the Mat in
the
eleventh generation of Cauec lords, apparently born on the day
Seven
Thought on the divinatory calendar. Today, such a birth date
would
augur an ability to solve problems, potential leadership, and
a
markedly masculine character.
SHIELD DANCE Pocob, "shield," not only an
implement of war but
"an ancient dance" (B.). A dance performed by the
Quiche lords while
they were settled at Bearded Place.
SHOOTING OWL 4habi tucur, in which tucur is
"owl"; 4ha is
"arrow," but better yet, B. gives chabih as
"stoop like a hawk."
First-ranking Military Keeper of the Mat for the lords of
Xibalba, a
messenger. The four owls of Xibalba are able to reach the
eastern ball
court used by One and Seven Hunahpu and by One Monkey and One
Artisan,
but in contrast with Falcon, the messenger of the Heart of Sky,
or
Hurricane, they are not described as being able to reach the
place
where the Heart of Sky is located. They may correspond to the
planet
Mercury, with perhaps one pair of owls for its morning star aspect
and
the other for its evening star aspect.
SKULL OWL Holom tucur, "head (or skull)
owl." Fourth-ranking
Military Keeper of the Mat for the lords of Xibalba, a
messenger.
Along with the other three owl messengers, he may correspond to
the
planet Mercury (see Shooting Owl).
SKY-EARTH Cahuleu, composed of cah, "sky,"
and uleu, "earth," but
pronounced as a single word. In this context "sky" and
"earth" are
complementary metonyms that together produce the sense of
"world," but
without any final reduction of the difference between sky and
earth.
This composite word is used in contemporary Quiche prayers.
SNATCH-BATS Camazotz [4amazo4,], composed of 4ama,
"take," and
zo4,, "bat." The bats that inhabit the Bat House of
Xibalba. B.
lists camotzoh as "an animal that eats the moon."
Andres Xiloj
commented, "These are not animal bats, but the bats of
Xibalba." Today
in Rabinal the dance-drama of San Jorge includes a character of
this
same name.
SORREL GUM Lotz quic [qui4], in which qui4 (literally
"blood") is
the term for latex or other plant products of a gummy
consistency.
SOVEREIGN OLOMAN Tepeu oloman or oliman, from Nahua tepeuani
(see
Sovereign Plumed Serpent) and ollomani, "ballplayer"
(D.). A people,
also called Fishkeepers, probably from the Gulf coast of Tabasco
or
eastern Veracruz. They stayed in the "east" when the
Quiche
ancestors left there, but later, during the time the Quiches
were
settled in the citadel of Hacauitz, they participated in a
plot
against them.
SOVEREIGN PLUMED
SERPENT Tepeu 4ucumatz [3ucumatz], in
which
tepeu is an honorific title and the second word is composed of
3u3,
"quetzal bird or quetzal feathers," and cumatz,
"snake." Tepeu is from
Nahua, in which tepeuani is "conqueror or victor in
battle" (D.);
Quiche tepeual, a participial form (marked by -al), is translated
by
B. as "majesty, dignity." 3ucumatz is the equivalent
in Quiche of
Yucatec Kukulcan and Nahua Quetzalcoatl, both of which names
mean
"quetzal-plumed serpent." As a god, the Plumed Serpent
is nearly
always prefixed with tepeu in the P.V.; he numbers among the
gods
who are covered by the names or epithets Maker, Modeler;
Bearer,
Begetter; and Heart of the Lake, Heart of the Sea. In the
primordial
scene these gods, unlike the god or gods called Heart of
Sky,
Hurricane, Newborn Thunderbolt, and Raw Thunderbolt, are on or
in
the sea. Just as the Nahua Quetzalcoatl cooperates with
Tezcatlipoca
in making the present earth in the midst of the sea, so the
Quiche
Sovereign Plumed Serpent cooperates with Hurricane; the
difference
is that the Nahua earth in question was the fifth, whereas the
P.V.
seems to have it as the first. By the time Rotten Cane was
founded,
Sovereign Plumed Serpent numbered among the most important of
Quiche
gods, judging from the fact that the Keeper of the Plumed
Serpent
was among the five heads of lordly lineages who were priests,
the
others being priests of Tohil, Auilix, Hacauitz, and Corntassel.
But
the writers of the P.V. neither give the story of Sovereign
Plumed
Serpent's origin nor elaborate his divine attributes, and
scarcely a
trace of him remains in today's Quiche oral narratives.
SOVEREIGN YAQUI Title of the lord who was ninth in rank
among the
Cauecs and head of one of the nine great houses into which
their
lineage was divided after the founding of Rotten Cane; he was
also
called Mother of the Reception House.
SPILT WATER Maca [ma4aa] or pamaca [pama4aa], composed
of pa,
"at" or "in"; ma4, "spill or
fall"; and aa, "water." The town known
today as Zacualpa, formerly located two kilometers southeast of
its
present site. Once a Rabinal citadel, conquered by the Quiche
lords
during the reign of Quicab. Today the inhabitants speak
Quiche.
STAGGERING Zilizib; zilizab is "sway, swing, stagger"
(B.). The
place where the tribes (other than the Cakchiquels) pledged
themselves
to be "suckled" (or to have their hearts cut out) by
Tohil in exchange
for fire; the name of this place is not mentioned until
later.
STAR HOUSE, THOSE
OF Ahchumilaha [ah4humilaha],
"persons-from-star-house." A people belonging to a
group of thirteen
allied tribes the Quiches regarded as having come (like
themselves)
from the east.
SUDDEN BLOODLETTER Camalotz, probably composed of cahmah,
"fright, surprise attack" (V.), and lotz, "to let
blood." One of the
monsters that ends the era of the wooden people.
SUN-MOON Quihic [3ihi4], composed of 3ih,
"sun," and i4, "moon,"
but pronounced as a single word. In this context "sun"
and "moon"
are complementary metonyms that together produce an
abstraction
encompassing major heavenly bodies (and major markers of time),
but
without any final reduction of the difference between sun and
moon.
The composite concept of sun-moon would include Venus as
morning
star as well, since the latter has 3ih in its Quiche name
(see
daybringer).
SWALLOWING SWORDS Xtzul [x4,ul], a proper name of
uncertain
etymology. The name of a dance done by Hunahpu and Xbalanque
in
their guise as vagabonds. B. describes it as a dance in which
masked
performers with tortoise-shell rattles put sticks or daggers
in
their mouths. V. (who specifies 4,, the glottalized tz),
describes the
masks as small and says that the dancers are two in number (as
they
are in the P.V.), wear the tails of macaws down their backs,
put
sticks down their throats and bones into their noses, and
give
themselves hard blows on their chests with a large stone.
SWEATBATH HOUSE Tuhalha. The people who inhabit the area
around
Sacapulas today, belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes
the
Quiches regarded as having come (like themselves) from the
east;
they speak a highly distinctive dialect of Quiche. One of the
four
sections of the town of Sacapulas still bears the name
Tuhal.
SWEET DRINK Qui [quii], "sweet,"
"poison," and (according to G.)
"wine or chicha," chicha generally being an alcoholic
beverage made by
fermenting corn. It is not known for certain what went into the
making
of quii; the pulque of Mexico (made from maguey) is not
reliably
reported for indigenous Guatemala, nor is the drink the Yucatec
Maya
called balche (partly made from honey). What is known about quii
is
that it required cooking at some stage, that it took three days
to
ferment, and that the Four Hundred Boys went "out of their
senses"
drinking it. The making of balche does not involve cooking, but
at
least one kind of pulque does (a variety in which maguey
cuttings
are boiled together with honey prior to fermentation). Pulque
and
balche are both sweet to the taste before fermentation and
bitter
afterward; perhaps the seemingly contradictory meanings of
quii
reflect the paradox of a drink that started out sweet and
harmless and
ended up bitter and (in sufficient quantities) sickening.
TALK HOUSE Uchabaha [u4habaha],
"its-talk-place-house." A people
belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the Quiches
regarded as
having come (like themselves) from the east.
TAMAZUL From Nahua tamazolin, "toad" (C.);
the Quiche term for this
animal is xpek. The name of the toad that swallowed the louse
that
carried the message of Xmucane.
TAMS Tamub (singular tam). One of the allied
groups of lineages
called "the three Quiches," the other two members
being the Quiche
proper- comprising the Cauecs, Greathouses, and Lord Quiches-
and
the Ilocs.
TAM TRIBE Amac [ama3] tan, composed of the term for
"tribe" and
an archaic pronunciation of tam. Place where the Tams gave a
home to
their patron deity, not far from where the Ilocs, Cauecs,
Greathouses,
and Lord Quiches did the same; also the place where the Tams
were when
the dawn first came.
TEARING JAGUAR Tucumbalam, probably composed of tucun,
"scratch"
(V.), and balam, "jaguar." One of the monsters that
ends the era of
the wooden people.
TECUM A Nahua name of uncertain translation.
Keeper of the Mat in
the ninth generation of Cauec lords; a second Tecum held the
same
position in the thirteenth generation. The latter Tecum was
taken
hostage when Rotten Cane fell to the Spanish in 1524; he was the
son
of Three Deer, the Keeper of the Mat who was executed by
Alvarado.
Tecum's accession to his father's title was later recognized
by
Alvarado, who made that position subordinate to himself, but
Tecum
plotted rebellion and was eventually hanged. He is not to be
confused with the warrior named Tecum Umam, who died in a
battle
with Alvarado's forces before the attack on Rotten Cane took
place.
TEPEPUL From Nahua tepe, "mountain," and
pol, "big" (C.). Keeper of
the Mat in the fifth or sixth generation of Cauec lords;
taken
prisoner in an attack on the Cakchiquels. Another Tepepul was
Keeper
of the Mat in the eighth generation of Cauec lords, and still
others
were Keepers of the Reception House Mat in the ninth and
thirteenth
generations of Cauec lords. This last Tepepul, along with the
last
Tecum, was taken hostage when Rotten Cane fell to the Spanish in
1524;
he was the son of Nine Dog, the Keeper of the Reception House
Mat
who was executed by Alvarado. Tepepul's accession to his
father's
title was later recognized by Alvarado, who made that
position
subordinate to himself, but Tepepul plotted rebellion and was
hanged
in 1540.
THORNY PLACE Chiquix [chi4ix], "at thorns."
Citadel of the Quiche
lords after they left Hacauitz and before they built Bearded
Place. It
was divided into four parts or "mountains": Dry Place,
Bark House,
Culba, and Cauinal. Dry Place is chichac [chichak], "at
dryness"; Bark
House is humetaha, composed of humeta, "bark," and ha,
"house." Thorny
Place doubtless corresponds to the archaeological site known
today
as Cauinal (beneath a mountain of the same name), on the Rio
Blanco
near its confluence with the Rio Negro or Chixoy, about
twenty
kilometers northwest of Rabinal. The site has four main plazas,
two on
each side of the Rio Blanco; it is located in a dry region
dominated
by xerophytic vegetation, in which it contrasts with most of
the
area occupied by the Quiches today.
THREE DEER Oxib quieh. Keeper of the Mat in the
twelfth
generation of Cauec lords, apparently born on the day Three Deer
on
the divinatory calendar. Today such a birth date would augur
a
domineering, articulate, and masculine character, with
possible
shamanic inclinations, but because of the low number, these
qualities would be present in only moderate quantity. According
to the
P.V. Three Deer was hanged by the Castilians; other sources have
him
burned at the stake. In any case he and Nine Dog were executed
by
Alvarado in 1524, immediately following the fall of Rotten
Cane.
THRONG BIRDS 4,iquin molai, "birds joined
together." Possibly a
mythic species, or possibly referring to a flock rather than
a
species. One of the obstacles on the road to Xibalba (the
underworld).
TOHIL Patron deity of the Cauec, Tam, and Iloc
lineages; the name
sometimes covers the patron deities of the Greathouse and
Lord
Quiche lineages as well, Auilix and Hacauitz. Apparently the
name is
composed of Toh, one of the twenty day names of the 260-day
calendar, and -il, "having the quality of"; Toh may be
related to
Cholan tohokna, "the way in which clouds join," and
tohmel,
"thunder" (C.), but the classic Maya predecessor of
Tohil at
Palenque carries the name Tahil, meaning "Torch
Mirror" or "Obsidian
Mirror" (S.). Tahil is shown with a burning torch sticking
out of
the mirror on his forehead; Tohil is a giver of fire,
pivoting
inside his own sandal like a fire drill. The one-leggedness
suggested by the fire drill, together with the fact that Tohil
can
cause great rainstorms, identify him as an aspect of Hurricane
(see
above). The stone whose genius or spirit familiar was Tohil
was
carried in a backpack by Jaguar Quitze, founder of the Cauecs,
when he
left Tulan Zuyua. He placed this stone on a mountain that came
to be
called Patohil, literally "At Tohil," apparently
located above or near
Concealment Canyon, where the god Auilix was placed. A
temple
dedicated to Tohil was later built at Rotten Cane (see
Great
Monument of Tohil); those bringing tribute to Rotten Cane, which
was
probably payable on days named Toh, gave offerings to Tohil
before
they made their presentations to the Quiche lords. The
present
character of the day Toh seems to reflect its past connection
with
tribute. One of the divinatory mnemonics for the meaning of this
day
is tohonic, "to pay," indicating that the client owes
offerings to the
gods and the ancestors. In visits to shrines, daykeepers use
Toh
days to make up for delinquent ritual obligations.
TOHIL MEDICINE Cunabal tohil, "cure-instrument
Tohil." An epithet
given to Concealment Canyon after Tohil was placed nearby on
the
mountain called Patohil. This epithet may be based on a
bilingual
pun on the place name Patohil; Nahuatl patli means
"medicine" (D.).
TOHIL'S BATH Ratinibal tohil, "his-bathing-place
Tohil." During the
time when the Quiche lords occupied the citadel of Hacauitz,
the
spirit familiars of Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were regularly
seen
bathing at this place (location unknown).
TONATIUH Donadiu, a Nahua word meaning
"sun." This was the name
given by the Indians of central Mexico to Pedro de Alvarado
before
he came to Guatemala.
TORTILLA GRIDDLE Xot. A round and slightly concave pottery
griddle,
used in toasting tortillas; better known in Mesoamerica as
the
comal, from Nahua comalli.
TRASH MASTER, STAB
MASTER Ahal mez, ahal tocob [to3ob],
"owner
filth (or trash), owner puncture wound." These lords of
Xibalba rank
ninth and tenth in earlier lists but are omitted from later
ones.
See also Bloody Teeth, Bloody Claws.
TRUE JAGUAR Iquibalam, with balam, "jaguar,"
possibly prefixed with
iki- (V.) or iqui- (X.). This prefix can be combined with
a3ab,
"hand," to give "right hand," and with tzih,
"word," to give "truth"
(V.); it is probably present in the expression of affirmation
given by
B. as iquiquih. True Jaguar was one of the first four human
males, but
he had no son and therefore did not found a lineage.
TULAN From Nahua tollan, "Place of Reeds (or
Cattails)." A term
widely used in Mesoamerica to prefix the names of places where
the
investiture of Toltecan lords could take place. The P.V. states
that
the Quiches, Cakchiquels, and various other tribes were assigned
their
patron deities at Tulan, before the first sunrise; it locates
Tulan in
the east, perhaps recalling the direction from which the
Quiches
happened to be moving immediately before coming into the region
of
their present home rather than the absolute spatial
relationship
between that home and Tulan. Tulan is nearly always joined to
the name
Zuyua in the P.V. (see below).
UNDER TEN Xelahuh, "under (or below) ten";
the full name (not given
in the P.V.) is xelahuh queh, "Under Ten Deer." This
town is still
called Xelaju or Xela in everyday Guatemalan speech, whether
in
Spanish or in an indigenous language, but in government
documents
and on maps it is known by a slightly altered form of its
Nahau
name, Quezaltenango (it should be spelled Quetzaltenango,
meaning
"Quetzal Citadel"). Its former location, when it was
truly a
citadel, must have been on one of the hilltops in the vicinity
of
the present town, but the exact site is not known. It was among
the
citadels conquered by the Quiche lords during the reign of
Quicab.
UNDER THE TWINE, UNDER
THE CORD Xebalax, xecamac, in which
xe-
may be "under" but could also be a verb prefix
indicating completed
action and the third person plural; balax may be a passive form
of
bal, "to make or twist a cord" (V.), and camac may be
4aamak, a
perfect form of 4aamah, "to cord (measure land with a
cord)." A
place in Chulimal or perhaps an epithet for Chulimal. This is
where
the heads of vassal lineages were elevated to lordship and
assigned to
conquered territories during the reign of Quicab; the name
may
allude to the setting of boundaries for these territories.
VASSALS Al4ahol, "children," a composite
term made up of al, "child
(of a woman)," and 4ahol, "son (of a man)." The
term for members of
commoner lineages owing fealty to lordly lineages. Vassalage was
a
sort of kinship by adoption, but note that the term clouds or
averts
the issue of lineality by including the term for a woman's children.
During the reign of Quicab the first-ranking male members of
many
vassal lineages were elevated to lordship.
WALKING ON STILTS Chitic, "to go on stilts" (B.).
The name of a
dance done by Hunahpu and Xbalanque in their guise as
vagabonds.
WEASEL, DANCE OF
THE Xahoh cux, "dance
weasel." The name of a dance
done by Hunahpu and Xbalanque in their guise as vagabonds. B.
mentions
a dance (cux) done with weasel skins.
WHITE CORNMEALS Zacahib [zak4ahib],
"white-cornmeal-plural." A
people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the
Quiches
regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east. They
must
have settled in the area of the present town of Salcaja, which
is
called zak4aha in Quiche.
WHITE DAGGER Zaqui toc [zaki to3]; V. gives to3 as
"knife" or
"stab"; it is the Cholan term for implements of flaked
stone (K.),
which are cha in Quiche. The name of the sacrificial knife
belonging
to the lords of Xibalba and of the ball (containing this knife)
they
are anxious to use in their game with Hunahpu and
Xbalanque.
WHITE EARTHS Zaculeuab [zakuleuab],
"white-earth-plural." A tribe
named after the citadel of Zakuleu (located five kilometers west
of
the present town of Huehuetenango) and comprising part or all of
the
speakers of the Mayan language known today as Mam. The P.V. does
not
claim that the Quiche lords conquered Zakuleu itself, but rather
a
separate citadel belonging to the White Earths, named Above the
Hot
Springs.
WHITE RIVER Zaqui ya [zaki yaa], "white
water." A place four
kilometers west of Chichicastenango, occupied by vassals of the
Quiche
lords during the reign of Quicab.
WHITE ROAD Zaquibe [zakibe]. One of four cosmic roads
(see
Crossroads). Today, at least, this is the term for the solid
white
portion of the Milky Way, as opposed to the Road of Xibalba
(see
above), which is the portion divided by a dark cleft.
WHITE SPARKSTRIKER Zaqui coxol [zaki 4oxol], composed of
zaki,
"white"; 4oxo, a verb stem used for the act of
striking stones
together "to start a fire" (V.); and -l, agentive. In
the P.V. this
being escapes into the shelter of the woods when the sun
first
rises, taking along the animals that were petrified by the sun;
in the
present-day Quiche dance-drama of the Conquest, he or she (the
sex
is ambiguous) escapes into the woods to avoid Spanish
domination. In
the drama the White Sparkstriker appears as a dwarf dressed
entirely
in red, but may have silver clothing in dreams and visions. When
the
sun rose and petrified the first animals, the White
Sparkstriker
escaped into a tree and is now the keeper of the petrified
animals
(iron concretions that resemble animals) and may be encountered
in
caves, in deep woods, and at night. In some manifestations the
White
Sparkstriker carries a stone hatchet- the one he-she used to
strike
sheet lightning into the bodies of the first daykeepers,
according
to Vicente de Leon Abac.
WHITE VULTURE Zac cuch [zak 4uch]. The king vulture
(Sarcoramphus
papa), a lowland species which has a naked red head and black
flight
feathers but is otherwise white.
WILLOW TREE Tzolohchee, "willow tree." The
town known today as
Santa Maria Chiquimula. One of the citadels conquered by the
Quiche
lords during the reign of Quicab.
WING, PACKSTRAP Xic [xi4], patan, "wing,
packstrap," the latter
referring to a strip of hide used to protect the forehead when
a
load is carried with a tumpline. These lords of Xibalba
rank
eleventh and twelfth in earlier lists and ninth and tenth in
later
ones.
XBALANQUE The younger brother of Hunahpu and the son
of One Hunahpu
and Blood Woman; the full meaning of his name remains uncertain.
X- is
archaic in Quiche but means "she of" or
"small" in Cholan (K.);
balan is from balam, "jaguar"; que could be from queh,
"deer," or it
could be like 3e in the Kekchi Maya term for "sun,"
zak3e, which is
composed of zak, "light," and 3e, "day"
(F.). It has been reported
that one of the names of the sun god among the contemporary
Kekchi
is xbalam3e (F.), which recalls the fact that Hunahpu and
Xbalanque
become the sun and moon in the P.V. If the name Xbalanque
literally
means "Little Jaguar Sun" in the P.V., it could refer
specifically
to the full moon, which is metaphorically called "sun"
by contemporary
Quiches; that would leave other phases of the moon to his
mother,
Blood Woman. In Pokomchi Maya, xbalanque or xbalamque is the
term
for species of fish of the family that includes perch and bass
(Z.),
which recalls the fact that Hunahpu and Xbalanque are described
as
taking the form of channel catfish after their ground bones are
thrown
in water; perhaps it was specifically Hunahpu who became a
catfish,
whereas Xbalanque became a bass.
XBAQUIYALO The x- is archaic in Quiche but "she
of" or "small" in
Cholan (K.); the rest is of uncertain derivation but could
include
bak, "bone" or "pit (of a fruit)." The wife
of One Hunahpu and the
mother of One Monkey and One Artisan.
XCANUL [X4anul], in which the x- is archaic in
Quiche but "she
of" or "small" in Cholan (K.). In the P.V. this
is a proper name for
what is now called the Volcan Santa Maria (note the
feminine
gender), nine kilometers south of Quezaltenango, but in the
present-day vocabulary of the western part of the
Quiche-speaking
region it is a generic term for volcano.
XCUXEBA See Councilor of the Ball Court.
XIBALBA Probably derived, in part, from the same
root as xibih,
"frighten"; the -al might have been participial and
the final -ba
could have been -bal, "place of." The underworld,
located below the
face of the earth (uuach uleu) but at the same time
conceptualized
as being accessible by way of a road that descends cliffs and
canyons,
probably in the general direction of the lowlands that lie to
the
Atlantic side of the Guatemalan highlands. In Yucatec Maya,
Xibalba is
one of the names for the lord of the lowest underworld. See
also
Road of Xibalba.
XPIYACOC, XMUCANE Divine grandparents, probably older than
all
the other gods; parents of One and Seven Hunahpu; patrons of
the
diviners known as daykeepers (see above). Their epithets
include
Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light (though Xpiyacoc is
male);
Maker of the Blue-Green Plate, Maker of the Blue-Green Bowl;
Great
White Peccary, Great White Tapir; and Bearer twice over,
Begetter
twice over (as if to make them even older than the gods who are
simply
called Bearer, Begetter). They are also described (respectively)
as
a midwife and matchmaker, which are specialized subfields
of
contemporary daykeepers (female and male respectively).
That
Xpiyacoc is named first, reversing the normal feminine-masculine
order
of Quiche phrasing, may reflect the fact that the two of them
are
the Quiche counterparts of Cipactonal and Oxomoco, an old
divining
couple named in masculine-feminine order in Nahua. The meaning
of
the Quiche names is unclear, except that the initial x-,
though
archaic in Quiche, means "she of" or "small"
in Cholan (K.). The
feminine aspect of Xpiyacoc recalls the fact that
contemporary
daykeepers (of either sex) are symbolically androgynous, female
on the
left side of the body and male on the right. Andres Xiloj
suggested
that the -pi- in Xpiyacoc might be -pe-, "to come,"
and he derived
-yac- from yequic (yaquic in some dialects), "to be put in
order, to
be lifted up," a verb diviners use with reference to the
problems of
clients. In classical Quiche yaco is a numeral classifier for
counting
tribute (B.); the yaco in Xpiyacoc could refer to the counting
(and
manipulation) of the divining seeds rather than to the
"lifting up" of
the client. In the case of Xmucane, Xiloj derived mucane from
moconic,
"to do something requested" or "to do a
favor"; he pointed out that
a diviner who has ascertained the cause of a problem may then be
hired
to make prayers and offerings on behalf of the client. To this
day,
a daykeeper ideally has a spouse who is also a daykeeper, and
the
divinations with the clearest outcomes are the ones they do
together.
XTAH, XPUCH The x- is archaic in Quiche but "she
of" or "small"
in Cholan (K.). The two women sent (by tribes hostile to
the
Quiches) to seduce Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz. On the
positive
side, -tah could be read as "goods, riches, gifts"
(V.), and xpuch
could be read as a borrowing from Nahua ichpuchtli,
"maiden" (D.).
On the other hand, tahih is "to sin many times" (V.),
and puchu is "to
smash, disembowel" (B.).
XTAYUB Possibly a variant spelling of Iztayul (see
above). Keeper
of the Reception House Mat in the eighth generation of Cauec
lords.
XULU, PACAM Names of the diviners consulted by the lords
of Xibalba
on the question of how to dispose of the remains of Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque. V. describes xulu as "[spirit] familiars
appearing
alongside rivers"; an ahxulu, or "keeper of
Xulu," is a curer (V.)
or a diviner (B.). Pacam could be composed of pa, "at"
or "in," and
cam, "bridge" (B.).
YACOLATAM, OR EDGE OF
THE ZACLATOL MAT Yacolatam, utzam
pop
zaclatol; yaco- is "to lift," and V. gives yac as a
particle for
counting tribute; utzam pop is "its-edge (possibly fringe)
mat"; zac
is likely zak, "white" or "light"; the rest
is untranslatable.
Yacolatam is listed by itself the second time it is mentioned.
Title
of the lord who ranked eighth among the Greathouses and was head
of
one of the nine great houses into which their lineage was
divided
after the founding of Rotten Cane.
YAQUI PEOPLE Yaqui uinac [uinak], in which yaqui is Nahua
for
"gone, departed" (C.) and uinak is Quiche for
"people." This refers to
Nahua speakers who were present in the citadel of Tulan Zuyua at
the
same time the Quiches, Rabinals, Cakchiquels, and those of the
Bird
House (Tzutuhils) were there; according to the P.V., their god
(called
Yolcuat and Quitzalcuat) was equivalent to Tohil. See also
"The
Blame Is Ours."
YAQUI SOVEREIGN Probably the same as the Yaqui people (see
above).
YARROW Holom ocox, "head of mushroom." A
common aromatic herb in
the Guatemalan highlands, named for the shape of its
composite
flower head, which consists of numerous tiny, closely spaced
white
blossoms; probably Stevia eupatoria, called pericon blanco in
Spanish.
In the P.V. (as among today's Quiche) the burning of this
herb,
together with marigolds (see above), constitutes a more
modest
offering than the burning of copal incense.
YELLOWBITE Canti [3anti], in which 3an is
"yellow" and ti is from
the same root as tiinic, "to eat (meat)." The snake
commonly known
as the fer-de-lance, which has a yellow zone around the
mouth.
YELLOW ROAD 3anabe. One of four cosmic roads (see
Crossroads).
YELLOWWOOD Cante [3ante], in which 3an is
"yellow" and te is Cholan
for "wood" or "tree" (C.). A. gives 3ante as
the madre cacao
(Gliricidia sepium), a large tree that is planted to provide
shade
in cacao plantations. Hunahpu and Xbalanque send One Monkey and
One
Artisan up this tree in order to transform them into
monkeys.
YOKE Bate, from Cholan bat, which is today
"ax, shovel, blade," and
te, "wood, tree" (C.). Part of the equipment necessary
for the ball
game played in the P.V. (see gaming equipment). Each player in
the
Mesoamerican ball game had a yoke-shaped object of wood riding
on
his hips; it was with this yoke that he returned the ball, which
could
not be touched with the hands while it was in play. The upper,
outer
rim of this yoke is often depicted with a mildly sharpened edge.
Among
all the words for the gaming equipment in the P.V., bate is the
best
candidate as a term for the yoke. First of all, bate is used as
a term
for the game itself over wide areas of Mesoamerica; since the
yoke
is one of the most distinctive features of the game, it could
well
have given its name to the game itself at some remote point in
the
past. Second, it was the bate with which Hunahpu and
Xbalanque
received and returned the ball when they played the game against
the
lords of Xibalba.
YOKE HOUSE, THOSE OF Ahbatenaba,
"person-from-yoke-plural-house." A
people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the
Quiches
regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east.
YOLCUAT From Nahua yol, "heart," and
coatl, "snake" (C.). One of
the names of the god of the Yaqui people, who is said by the
writers
of the P.V. to be the same as Tohil.
ZAPOTES Tulul. A tropical fruit (Lucuma mammosa),
sometimes
called "sapota" in English. The tan skin resembles
suede; the flesh is
chocolate-colored.
ZAQUIC A lordly lineage divided into two great
houses after the
founding of Rotten Cane; not mentioned as having come from the
east
with the lordly Quiche lineages or as having been present at
Tulan.
The Zaquics may have been indigenous to the area around
Chinique,
and they may have been adopted by the Cauecs, Greathouses, and
Lord
Quiches to fill out an ideal foursome that was left short by
the
fact that True Jaguar (one of the first four human males) had no
sons.
ZAQUICAZ V. gives zaki3az as "a very thick snake
that flees when it
sees people, making a noise with its belly." This is the
snake that
swallows the toad that swallows the louse that carries the
message
of Xmucane.
ZIPACNA Derived from the same source as Nahua
cipactli, referring
to a mythological animal, with the features of a crocodile
and
sometimes those of a shark, that gives its name to the Nahua
day
corresponding to Imox on the Quiche calendar. That Zipacna
hunts
fish and crabs from a position on shore fits the crocodile
identification, but the Quiche term for crocodile, ayin, does
not
occur in the P.V. Zipacna is the son of Seven Macaw and
Chimalmat
and the elder brother of Earthquake; he claims to be the maker
of
mountains and even of the earth in general.
ZIYA HOUSE Ziyaha, in which -ha is "house." A
place of unknown
location, occupied by vassals of the Quiche lords during the
reign
of Quicab.
ZUYUA In the P.V. this name (sometimes rendered as
zuua) always
appears as part of the compound name Tulan Zuyua, referring to
the
town where the Quiches and related peoples are said to have been
given
the stones containing the spirit familiars of their patron
deities
(see also Tulan). Zuyua was probably on the system of
lakes,
lagoons, and estuaries that stretches from southwestern
Campeche
through Tabasco to eastern Veracruz, known in Nahua as Nonoalco.
The
etymology of the name remains unsolved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
Alvarado Lopez,
Miguel. Lexico medico quiche-espanol. Guatemala:
Instituto Indigenista Nacional, 1975.
Aveni, Anthony F.
Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1980.
Basseta, Domingo de.
"Vocabulario en lengua quiche." Manuscript
(1698?) in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Typescript
paleography
by William Gates (1921), in the J. P. Harrington collection at
the
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
Borhegyi, Stephan F.
de. The Pre-Columbian Ballgames: A
Pan-Mesoamerican Tradition. Milwaukee Public Museum
Contributions in
Anthropology and History 1. Milwaukee, 1980.
___.
"Pre-Columbian Pottery Mushrooms from Mesoamerica."
American Antiquity 28 (1963): 328-38.
Brasseur de
Bourbourg, Charles Etienne. Gramatica de la lengua
quiche. Translated into Spanish by Jorge Luis Arriola.
Guatemala: Jose
de Pineda Ibarra, 1961.
___. Grammaire de la
langue quichee. Collection de Documents
dans les Langues Indigenes de l'Amerique Ancienne, 2, pt. 1.
Paris:
Arthus Bertrand, 1862.
___. Popol Vuh: Le
livre sacre et les mythes de l'antiquite
americaine. Collection de Documents dans les Langues Indigenes
de
l'Amerique Ancienne, 1. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1861.
___. Rabinal-Achi ou
le drame-ballet du tun. Collection de
Documents dans les Langues Indigenes, 2, pt. 2. Paris:
Arthus
Bertrand, 1862.
Bricker, Victoria
Reifler. The Indian Christ, the Indian King: The
Historical Substrate of Maya Myth and Ritual. Austin: University
of
Texas Press, 1981.
Bunzel, Ruth.
Chichicastenango: A Guatemalan Village. Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1959.
Burgess, Dora M. de,
and Patricio Xec. Popol Wuj. Quezaltenango:
El Noticiero Evangelico, 1955.
Burns, Allan F.
"The Caste War in the 1970's: Present-Day Accounts
from Village Quintana Roo." In Anthropology and History in
Yucatan,
edited by Grant D. Jones, 259-73. Austin: University of Texas
Press,
1977.
___. An Epoch of
Miracles: Oral Literature of the Yucatec Maya.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.
Campbell, Lyle.
"Prestamos linguisticos en el Popol Vuh." In
Nuevas perspectivas sobre el Popol Vuh, edited by Robert M.
Carmack
and Francisco Morales Santos, 81-86. Guatemala: Piedra Santa,
1983.
___. Quichean
Linguistic Prehistory. University of California
Publications in Linguistics 81. Berkeley: University of
California
Press, 1977.
Carlson, John B.
"The Grolier Codex: A Preliminary Report on the
Content and Authenticity of a 13th-Century Maya Venus
Almanac." In
Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations
of
Time, edited by Anthony F. Aveni and Gordon Brotherston, 27-57.
BAR
International Series 174. Oxford: British Archaeological
Reports,
1983.
Carmack, Robert M.
"Indians and the Guatemalan Revolution."
Cultural Survival Quarterly 7, no. 2 (1983): 52-54.
___. Quichean
Civilization: The Ethnohistoric, Ethnographic, and
Archaeological Sources. Berkeley: University of California
Press,
1973.
___. The Quiche Mayas of Utatlan. Norman:
University of Oklahoma
Press, 1981.
___. Review of Munro
S. Edmonson, The Book of Counsel. American
Antiquity 40 (1975): 506-7.
Carmack, Robert M.,
and Francisco Morales Santos. Nuevas
perspectivas sobre el Popol Vuh. Guatemala: Piedra Santa,
1983.
Carrasco, Pedro.
"Don Juan Cortes, cacique de Santa Cruz
Quiche." Estudios de Cultura Maya 6 (1967): 251-66.
Casas, Bartolome de
las. Apologetica historia de las Indias.
Madrid: Serrano y Ganz, 1909.
Chavez, Adrian I. Pop Wuj. Mexico:
Ediciones de la Casa Chata,
1979.
Ciudad Real, Antonio
de. Diccionario de Motul, Maya-Espanol.
Edited by J. Martinez Hernandez. Merida, 1929.
Coe, Michael D. The
Maya. Revised edition. New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1980.
___. The Maya Scribe
and His World. New York: The Grolier Club,
1973.
___.
"Supernatural Patrons of Maya Scribes and Artists." In Social
Process in Maya Prehistory, edited by Norman Hammond,
327-47.
London: Academic Press, 1977.
Craine, Eugene R.,
and Reginald C. Reindorp. The Codex Perez and
the Book of Chilam Balam of Mani. Norman: University of
Oklahoma
Press, 1979.
Davies, Nigel. The
Toltecs. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1977.
Davis, L. Irby. A
Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central
America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972.
Earle, Duncan
MacLean. "La etnoecologia quiche en el Popol Vuh."
In Nuevas perspectivas sobre el Popol Vuh, edited by Robert M.
Carmack
and Francisco Morales Santos, 293-303. Guatemala: Piedra Santa,
1983.
Edmonson, Munro S.
The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of
Chilam Balam of Tizimin. Austin: University of Texas Press,
1982.
___. The Book of Counsel:
The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of
Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute Publication 35.
New
Orleans: Tulane University, 1971.
___. Quiche-English
Dictionary. Middle American Research Institute
Publication 30. New Orleans: Tulane University, 1965.
Fox, David G. Review
of Quiche-English Dictionary, by Munro S.
Edmonson. Language 44 (1968): 191-97.
Fox, John W. Quiche
Conquest: Centralism and Regionalism in
Highland Guatemalan State Development. Albuquerque: University
of
New Mexico Press, 1978.
Guzman, Pantaleon de.
"Compendio de nombres en lengua cakchiquel."
Manuscript (1704) in the collection of E. G. Squier. Photocopy
in
the Gates collection in the library at Brigham Young
University,
Provo, Utah.
Hammond, Norman.
Ancient Maya Civilization. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 1982.
Harrington, John P.
"Popol wuh." Transcription of an oral
rendition of the Quiche text by Cipriano Alvarado. Manuscript
(1922)
in the Harrington collection at the National Anthropological
Archives,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
___. "Quiche Grammar."
Manuscript (1948) in the Harrington
collection at the National Anthropological Archives,
Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
Heyden, Doris.
"An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the
Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico." American
Antiquity 40
(1975): 131-47.
Hunt, Eva. The
Transformation of the Hummingbird: Cultural Roots
of a Zinacanteco Mythical Poem. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press,
1977.
Hymes, Dell. "In
Vain I Tried Tell You": Essays in Native American
Ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1981.
Ichon, Alain.
"Arqueologia y etnohistoria en Cawinal." In Nuevas
perspectivas sobre el Popol Vuh, edited by Robert M. Carmack
and
Francisco Morales Santos, 237-46. Guatemala: Piedra Santa,
1983.
Kaufman, Terrence.
"Common Cholan Lexical Items." Photo
reproduction. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1979.
Kelley, David
Humiston. Deciphering the Maya Script. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1976.
La Farge, Oliver.
Santa Eulalia. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1947.
Laughlin, Robert M.
The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo
Zinacantan. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 19.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975.
Lehmann-Nitsche, R.
"La constelacion de la Osa Mayor y su concepto
como Huracan o dios de la tormenta en la esfera del Mar
Caribe."
Revista del Museo de La Plata 28 (1924-25): 101-45.
Leon-Portilla,
Miguel. Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Levi-Strauss, Claude.
From Honey to Ashes. Translated by John
and Doreen Weightman. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.
Lounsbury, Floyd G.
"Astronomical Knowledge and Its Uses at
Bonampak, Mexico." In Archaeoastronomy in the New World,
edited by
Anthony F. Aveni, 143-68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982.
___. "The Base
of the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex, and Its
Significance for the Calendar-Correlation Problem." In
Calendars in
Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations of Time,
edited
by Anthony F. Aveni and Gordon Brotherston, 1-26. BAR International
Series 174. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1983.
___. "The
Identities of the Mythological Figures in the 'Cross
Group' Inscriptions of Palenque." Undated mimeograph. New
Haven:
Yale University.
Lowy, Bernard.
"Amanita muscaria and the Thunderbolt Legend in
Guatemala and Mexico." Mycologia 66 (1974): 188-91.
Maynard, Gail, and
Patricio Xec. "Diccionario preliminar del
idioma quiche." Mimeograph, 1954.
Mendelson, E.
Michael. "Maximon: An Iconographical
Introduction." Man 59 (1959): 56-60.
Miles, S. W.
"The Sixteenth-Century Pokom-Maya." Transactions of
the American Philosophical Society 47: 735-81. Philadelphia:
The
American Philosophical Society, 1957.
Molina, Alonso de.
Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y
mexicana y castellana. Estudio preliminar de Miguel
Leon-Portilla.
Mexico: Porrua, 1970.
Mondloch, James L.
Basic Quiche Grammar. Institute for
Mesoamerican Studies Publication, no. 2. Albany: State
University of
New York, 1978.
Moran, Pedro.
"Bocabulario de solo los nombres de la lengua
pokoman." Manuscript in the Bancroft Library, University
of
California, Berkeley. Copy in the Tozzer Library, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Recinos, Adrian.
Cronicas indigenas de Guatemala. Guatemala:
Editorial Universitaria, 1957.
___. Popol Vuh. Las
antiguas historias del Quiche. Mexico: Fondo
del Cultura Economica, 1947.
Recinos, Adrian,
Dionisio Jose Chonay, and Delia Goetz. The Annals
of the Cakchiquels. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1953.
___. Title of the
Lords of Totonicapan. Bound in the same volume
with Recinos et al., The Annals of the Cakchiquels. Norman:
University
of Oklahoma Press, 1953.
Recinos, Adrian,
Delia Goetz, and Sylvanus Griswold Morley.
Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya.
Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.
Robicsek, Francis,
and Donald Hales. "Maya Heart Sacrifice." In
Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, edited by Elizabeth H.
Boone,
49-90. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 1984.
Roys, Ralph L. The
Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.
Sahagun, Bernardino
de. Florentine Codex: A General History of the
Things of New Spain. Translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and
Charles
E. Dibble. 12 vols. Santa Fe: School of American Research
and
University of Utah, 1950-69.
Schele, Linda.
Notebook for the Maya Hieroglyphic Writing Workshop
at Texas. Austin: Institute of Latin American Studies,
1984.
Scholes, France V.,
and Ralph L. Roys. The Maya Chontal Indians of
Acalan-Tixchel: A Contribution to the History and Ethnography of
the
Yucatan Peninsula. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1968.
Schultze Jena,
Leonhard S. Popol Vuh: Das heilige Buch der
Quiche-Indianer von Guatemala. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer,
1944.
Shaw, Mary. According
to Our Ancestors: Folk Texts from
Guatemala and Honduras. Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics,
1971.
Siegel, Morris.
"The Creation Myth and Acculturation in Acatan,
Guatemala." Journal of American Folklore 56 (1943):
120-26.
Smith, Mary
Elizabeth. Picture Writing from Ancient Southern
Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. Norman: University of
Oklahoma
Press, 1973.
Stern, Theodore. The
Rubber-Ball Games of the Americas. Memoir
17 of the American Ethnological Society. Seattle: University
of
Washington Press, 1966.
Stross, Brian.
"The Language of Zuyua." American Ethnologist 10
(1983): 150-64.
Taylor, Dicey.
"The Cauac Monster." In Proceedings of the
Tercera Mesa Redonda de Palenque, edited by Merle Greene
Robertson and
Donnan Call Jeffers. Palenque: Pre-Columbian Art Research
Center,
1978.
Tedlock, Barbara.
"El C'oxol: un simbolo de la resistencia
quiche a la conquista espiritual." In Nuevas perspectivas
sobre el
Popol Vuh, edited by Robert M. Carmack and Francisco Morales
Santos,
343-57. Guatemala: Piedra Santa, 1983.
___. "Earth
Rites and Moon Cycles: Mayan Synodic and Sidereal Moon
Reckoning." In Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical
and
Cosmological Traditions of the World, edited by John B. Carlson
and
Von Del Chamberlain. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution
Press, forthcoming.
___. "Quichean
Time Philosophy." In Calendars in Mesoamerica and
Peru: Native American Computations of Time, edited by Anthony F.
Aveni
and Gordon Brotherston, 59-72. BAR International Series 174.
Oxford:
British Archaeological Reports, 1983.
___. "Sound
Texture and Metaphor in Quiche Maya Ritual
Language." Current Anthropology 23 (1982): 269-72.
___. Time and the
Highland Maya. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1982.
Tedlock, Dennis.
Finding the Center. Narrative Poetry of the
Zuni Indians. New York: Dial, 1972; Lincoln: University of
Nebraska
Press, 1978.
___. "Las formas
del verso quiche." In Nuevas perspectivas sobre
el Popol Vuh, edited by Robert M. Carmack and Francisco
Morales
Santos, 123-32. Guatemala: Piedra Santa, 1983.
___. "Hearing a
Voice in an Ancient Text." In Native American
Discourse: Poetics and Rhetoric, edited by Joel Sherzer and
Anthony C.
Woodbury. New York: Cambridge University Press,
forthcoming.
___. "The Sowing
and Dawning of All the Sky-Earth: Astronomy in
the Popol Vuh." In Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical
and
Cosmological Traditions of the World, edited by John B. Carlson
and
Von Del Chamberlain. Washington: Smithsonian Institution
Press,
forthcoming.
___. The Spoken Word
and the Work of Interpretation. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
Thompson, J. Eric S.
A Commentary on the Dresden Codex.
Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1972.
___. Ethnology of the
Mayas of Southern and Central British
Honduras. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological
Series
17, no. 2. Chicago: Field Museum Press, 1930.
___. Maya
Hieroglyphic Writing. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1960.
___. Maya History and
Religion. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1970.
Tirado, Fermin
Joseph. "Vocabulario de lengua kiche." Manuscript
(1787) in the Tozzer Library, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass.
Tozzer, Alfred M. A
Comparative Study of the Mayas and the
Lacandones. New York: Macmillan, 1907.
___. Landa's Relacion
de las cosas de Yucatan. Papers of the
Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, v.
18.
Cambridge, Mass.: The Peabody Museum, 1941.
Vare[l]a, Francisco
de. "Calepino en lengua cakchiquel."
Manuscript copy by Francisco Ceron (1699) in the library of
the
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Typescript
paleography by William Gates (1929), in the Gates collection in
the
library at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Villacorta Calderon,
Jose Antonio. Popol Vuh. Guatemala: Jose de
Pineda Ibarra, 1962.
Wasson, R. Gordon.
The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in
Mesoamerica. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.
Ximenez, Francisco.
"Arte de las tres lenguas 3a3chiquel, Quiche y
4,utuhil." Manuscript (1701?), with the Popol Vuh as an
appendix, in
the Ayer collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago,
Illinois.
___. Escolios a las
historias del origen de los indios. Sociedad
de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala, pub. 13, Guatemala,
1967.
___. Historia de la
provincia de San Vicente Chiapa y Guatemala.
Biblioteca "Goathemala" de la Sociedad de Geografia e
Historia, 3
vols. Guatemala: Tipografia Nacional, 1929-30.
___. Las historias
del origen de los indios de esta provincia de
Guatemala. Introduction, paleography, and notes by Carl
Scherzer.
Vienna: Academia Imperial de las Ciencias, 1857.
___. Popol Vuh.
Facsimile edition with paleography and notes by
Agustin Estrada Monroy. Guatemala: Jose de Pineda Ibarra,
1973.
___. "Primera
parte de el tesoro de las lenguas cacchiquel, quiche
y tzutuhil." 2 vols. Manuscript in the Bancroft Library,
University of
California, Berkeley, California.
Zuniga, Dionysio de.
"Diccionario pocomchi-castellano y
castellano-pocomchi de San Cristobal Cahcoh." Manuscript in
the
Berendt collection at the University of Pennsylvania
library,
Philadelphia. Photocopy in the Tozzer Library, Harvard
University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Diego de Landa, tr. William Gates [1937]
The best primary source on the Maya, ironically by the monk who burned most of their books.The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel by Ralph L. Roys [1930]
The Book of the People: Popol Vuh
by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley from Adrián Recino's translation from Quiché into Spanish [1954, copyright not registered or renewed]Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (excerpts)
by J. Eric S. Thompson [1950]The Popul Vuh excerpt from The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America, by Lewis Spence; London [1908] 79,023 bytes
The Myths of Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence
Commons
Island
Community
History
Visitor Center
Goods & Services
Search
Messages
