There were their women when they awakened, and instantly their hearts were filled with joy because of their wives.
Here are the names of their wives: Cahá-Paluna was the name of the wife of Balam-Quitzé; Chomihá was the wife of Balam-Acab; Tzununihá, the wife of Mahucutah; and Caquixahá was the name of the wife of Iqui-Balam. These are the names of their wives, who were distinguished women.[254]
They conceived the men, of the small tribes and of the large tribes, and were the origin of us; the people of Quiché.
There were many priests and sacrificers; there were not only four, but those four were the Forefathers[255] of us, the people of the Quiché.
The names of each one were different when they multiplied there in the East, and there were many names of the people: Tepeu, Olomán, Cohah, Quenech, Ahau, as they called those men there in the East, where they multiplied.[256]
The beginning is known, too, of those of Tamub and those of Ilocab who came together from there in the East.[257]
Balam-Quitzé was the grandfather and the father of the nine great houses of the Cavec; Balam-Acab was the grandfather and father of the nine great houses of the Nimhaib; Mahucutah, the grandfather and father of the four great houses of Ahau-Quiché.
Three groups of families existed; but they did not forget the name of their grandfather and father, those who propagated and multiplied there in the East.
The Tamub and Ilocab also came, and thirteen branches of peoples, the thirteen of Tecpán, and those of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, those from Tziquinahá, and the Zacahá and the Lamaq,
[253] Xavi Cabahuil x-naohin chic. Naohin means to make something carefully.
[254] Ximénez (Historia ... de Chiapa y Guatemala, I, 35) interprets these names as follows: Cahá-Paluna, standing water (vertical) falling from above; Chomiha, beautiful, chosen water; Tzununihá, water of hummingbirds; Caquixahá, water of the macaw. The Título de los Señores de Totonicapán gives the names of the wives of those Quiché heroes with some differences: "The wife of Balam-Quitzé was called Zaka-Paluma, the wife of Balam-Agab was Tzununi-há; that of Mahucutah, Cakixa-ha; Iqui-Balam was single."
[255] Ri qui chuch oh quiche vinac, literally "the mothers of us, the Quiché." Chuch, "mothers," here has the generic meaning, as the word "fathers" has in Spanish, and both are understood as the forefathers.
[256] It is possible to recognize among these names that of Tepeu, which in other places in this book is applied to the Yaquis, Yaqui-Tepeu, one of the tribes of Toltec origin who emigrated together with the Quiché. The people of Olomán, who are the Olmeca, Olmeca-xicalanca, who lived at the south of Veracruz, may be identified as those with whom the Quiché were likewise intimately united.
[257] Copichoch, Cochochlam, Mahquinalon, and Ahcanabil were the chiefs of the tribe of Tamub whose names are found in the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán and in the Historia Quiché de D. Juan de Torres, an unpublished manuscript which also describes the succession of these chiefs. Brasseur de Bourbourg (Popol Vuh, p. cclxi) makes known the names of the chiefs of the tribe of Ilocab, which he took from another manuscript, the Título de los Señores de Sacapulas, which was in his possession. These names, which also appear in the Título de Totonicapán, are as follows: Chi-Ya-Toh, Chi-Ya-Tziquin, Xol-Chi-Tum, Xol-Chi-Ramag, and Chi-Pel-Camuhel.
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