The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History. Hubert Howe Bancroft

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Then follows an account, which has already been presented in a condensed translation,298 of a time when all was silent, and there was yet no earth, and no living thing, only the immobility and silence of a boundless sea, on the surface of which floated the Creator and his companion deities named above, including Gucumatz, the 'plumed serpent.' Then the light appeared and the earth with its vegetation was created by Gucumatz and the Dominator at the word of Hurakan, Heart of Heaven, the Thunderbolt. Life and fecundity were given to the animals and birds, who were distributed as guardians of the forests and mountains, and called upon to speak and praise the names of those that had made them; but the poor animals, after efforts twice repeated, could not obey, and were assigned a position far below that which they had been intended to fill. Two attempts at the creation of intelligent beings followed, both failures. First man was made of earth, and although he could speak, he was intellectually stupid and physically clumsy, unable to stand erect, and soon mingled with the water like a man of mud. He was destroyed by the disgusted creators. The sorcerers, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, grandmothers of the sun and of the moon, were consulted in the second creation, and the 'chief of Toltecat' is mentioned in addition to the names already given. Lots were cast, all needful precautions were taken, and man was made again of wood and pith; but he lacked intelligence, led a useless life, and forgot the Heart of Heaven. They became numerous on the face of the earth, but the gods were wroth and sent upon them a flood, and a resinous shower from heaven; their houses refused to cover them, the trees shook them from the branches where they sought shelter, the animals and even the household implements turned against the poor wooden men, reviling and persecuting them, until all were destroyed, save a few who remained as a memorial in the form of apes.299

      At this point the character of the narrative changes somewhat, and, although an account of a third and final creation of man, given on a subsequent page,300 should, in the opinion of Brasseur, be introduced here, I proceed with a résumé of the Quiché tradition in the order of its arrangement in both the Spanish and French version, devoting a paragraph to each chapter of the French translation.

      There was sky and earth, but little light; and a man named Vucub Cakix, 'seven aras, or paroquets,' was puffed up with pride and said, "those that were drowned were like supernatural beings;301 now will I be great above all created beings. I am their sun and their moon; great is my splendor." He was not the sun, nor did his view reach over the whole earth, but he was proud of his riches. This was when the flood destroyed the wooden manikins. Now we will tell when Vucub Cakix was defeated and man was made.

      This is the cause of his destruction by two young men, Hunahpu (or Hunhunahpu) and Xbalanque, 'little tiger,' who were really gods, and thought it not good that Vucub Cakix should swell with pride and offend the Heart of Heaven; and they plotted against his life and wealth. He had two sons, Zipacna and Cabrakan, the 'earthquake,' by his wife Chimalmat. Zipacna's work was to roll the great mountains which he made in a night, and which Cabrakan shook at will. The death of the father and son was resolved upon by the two young men.

      Vucub Cakix was shot by them while eating the fruit called nanze in a tree-top, and his jaw broken, although in revenge he carried home the arm of Hunahpu, which he hung over the fire. But an old man and an old woman, Zaki Nim Ak and Zaki Nima Tzyiz – divinities already named, in human disguise – were induced by the two young men to volunteer their services in curing the jaw of Vucub Cakix, who seems to have been a king, for they found him on his throne howling with pain. They pulled out his broken teeth of precious stones, in which he took great pride, substituting grains of maize; they dimmed his eyes, took away his riches, and recovered the missing arm. Then the king died as did his wife, and the purpose of Hunahpu and Xbalanque was accomplished against him who was proud and regarded not the will of the Heart of Heaven.

      These are the deeds of Zipacna, son of Vucub Cakix, who claimed to be creator of the mountains. Bathing at the river-side he found four hundred young men striving in vain to carry away a tree which they had cut. Generously he bore the burden for them, and was invited to join their band, being an orphan; but they soon plotted against him, casting a tree upon him in a deep pit they had employed him to dig. He cunningly took refuge in a branch gallery, cut off his hair and nails for the ants to carry up to his foes, waited until the four hundred had become intoxicated in their rejoicing at his supposed death, emerged from the pit, and toppled over their house upon them so that not one escaped.

      But in his turn Zipacna was conquered by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who were grieved that the four hundred had perished. Zipacna, bearing the mountains by night, wandered in the day by the river and lived on fish and crabs; by an artificial crab his two foes enticed him in a time of hunger to crawl on all fours into a cavern at the bottom of a ravine, where the mountain, previously mined, fell upon him. Thus perished and was turned to stone, at the foot of Mt Meavan, the self-styled 'maker of the mountains,' the second who by his pride displeased the deities.

      One only now remained, Cabrakan. "It is I who destroy the mountains," he said; but it was the will of Hurakan, 'the thunderbolt,' that his pride also should be humbled, and the order was given to Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They found him at his favorite employment of overturning the hills, enticed him eastward to exhibit his skill and overthrow a particularly high mountain which they claimed to have seen, killed a bird with their blowpipe on the way, and poisoned it with earth before it was given Cabrakan to eat. Thus was his strength destroyed; he failed to move the mountain, was tied, and buried.

      Thus ends the first of the four divisions of the Popol Vuh.302 Next we are to hear something of the birth and family of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The recital is, however, to be covered with mystery, and only half is to be told of the relation of their father.303 Xpiyacoc and Xmucane had two sons, Hunhunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu, the first being as the French translation unintelligibly renders it a sort of double personage. The former had also by his wife Xbakiyalo two sons, Hunbatz and Hunchouen, very wise, great artists, and skillful in all things; the latter never married. All four spent the day in playing at dice and at ball, and Voc, the messenger of Hurakan, came to see them, Voc who remained not far from here nor far from Xibalba.304 After the death of Xbakiyalo, the two played ball, journeying toward Xibalba, having left Hunbatz and Hunchouen behind, and this became known to Hun Came and Vukub Came, monarchs of Xibalba, who called together the council of the empire and sent to summon them or to challenge them to a game of ball, that they might be defeated and disgraced.

      The messengers were owls, four in number; and the players, after a sad parting from their mother, Xmucane, and from the young Hunbatz and Hunchouen, followed them down the steep road to Xibalba from the ball-ground of Nimxob Carchah.305 Crossing ravines and rivers, including one of blood, they came to the royal palace of Xibalba, and saluted two wooden figures as monarchs, to the great amusement of the latter and the assembled princes. Then the brothers were invited to a place on the seat of honor, which proved to be a red-hot stone, and the contortions of the guests when they sat upon it provoked a new burst of laughter which well-nigh resulted in apoplexy. Five ordeals are here mentioned as existing in Xibalba, to the first of which only, that of the House of Gloom,306 were the brothers subjected; then they were sacrificed and their bodies buried together. But the head of Hunhunahpu was hung in a tree, which at once became covered with gourds from which the head could not be distinguished, and it was forbidden to all in Xibalba to approach that tree.

      But Xquiq, a virgin princess, daughter of Cuchumaquiq, heard of the tree, and went alone to taste the forbidden fruit. Into her outstretched hand the head of Hunhunahpu spat, and the spittle caused the young girl to conceive, and she returned home, after a promise from the head that no harm СКАЧАТЬ