THE BOOK OF
THE PEOPLE: Popol Vuh Preamble This is the
beginning
of the old traditions
of this
place called
Quiché.[1]
And here we shall set forth the revelation, the declaration, and the narration of all that was hidden, the revelation by Tzacol, Bitol, Alom, Qaholom, who are called Hunahpú-Vuch, Hunahpú-Utiú, Zaqui-Nimá-Tziís, Tepeu, Gucumatz, u Qux cho, u Qux Paló, Ali Raxá Lac, Ah Raxá Tzel, as they were called.[3] And [at the same time] the declaration, the combined narration
[1] Aré u xe oher tzih varal Quiché u bi. At the very beginning of the ancient chronicles of the Quiché race and in the following words, the unknown author of this manuscript gives the name Quiché to the country: varal Quiché u bi; to the city, Quiché tinamit; and to the tribes of the nation, r'amag Quiché vinac. The word quiché, queché, or quechelah means "forest" in many of the Indian dialects of Guatemala, and comes from qui, quiy, "many," and che, "tree," an original Maya word. Quiché, "land of many trees," "covered with forests," was the name of the most powerful nation of the interior of Guatemala in the sixteenth century. The Náhuatl word Quauhtlemallan has the same meaning, which is probably a direct translation of the Quiché name and aptly describes the mountainous, fertile country which lies south of Mexico. Without doubt the Aztec name Quauhtlemallan, from which the modern name of Guatemala is derived, was applied to the entire country and not only to the capital of the Cakchiquel, Iximché (the tree now called breadnut in English), which the Tlaxcalteca, who arrived with Alvarado, called Tecpán-Quauhtlemallan. All this territory situated to the south of Yucatán and the Petén-Itzá region was known since before the Spanish Conquest as Quauhtlemallan and Tecolotlán (the Verapaz of today). Sahagún is very explicit when he says (Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España [1938 ed.] Book X, Chap. XXIX) that the first inhabitants of New Spain landed in Panutla (Pánuco) and traveled along the seacoast looking toward the snow-covered mountains and volcanoes until they came to the province of Guatemala.
[2] Varal x-chi ca tzibah vi, x-chi ca tiquiba-vi oher tzih, in the original. In order to write the ancient chronicles about the origin and development of the Quiché nation, the author probably made use not only of oral traditions, but also of the ancient paintings or picture-writings. Sahagún says that the Toltec priests as they journeyed toward the East (Yucatán) took with them "all their paintings in which they had all the things of ancient times and of the arts and crafts." In Chapter 5 of Part IV of this book one reads that Lord Nacxit (Quetzalcoatl) gave to the Quiché princes, among other things, "the p. 196 paintings of Tulán [u tzibal Tulán], the paintings as those were called in which they put their chronicles."
[3] These are the names of the divinity, arranged in pairs of creators in accord with the dual conception of the Quiché: Tzacol and Bitol, Creator and Maker. Alom, the mother god, she who conceived the sons, from al "son," alán, "to give birth." Qaholom, the father god who begat the sons, from qahol, "son of the father," qaholah, "to beget." Ximénez calls them Mother and Father; they are the Great Father and the Great Mother, so called by the Indians, according to Las Casas; and they were in heaven.
Hunahpú-Vuch, a hunting-fox bitch, or tacuazín (opossum), god of the dawn; vuch is the moment which precedes dawn, Hunahpú-Vuch is the divinity in the feminine capacity, according to Seler. Hunahpú-Utiú, a hunting coyote, a variety of wolf (canis latrans), god of the night, is the name in the masculine capacity.
Zaqui-Nimá-Tziís, great white coati mundi (Nasua nasica), gray with age, mother of god; and her consort, Nim-Ac, great wild pig, or wild boar, wanting in this passage through unintentional omission, but given in the following chapter.
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