For this reason another attempt had to be made to create and make men by the Creator, the Maker, and the Forefathers.
"Let us try again! Already dawn draws near:[23] Let us make him who shall nourish and sustain us! What shall we do to be invoked, in order to be remembered on earth? We have already tried with our first creations, our first creatures; but we could not make them praise and venerate us.[24] So, then, let us try to make obedient, respectful beings who will nourish and sustain us." Thus they spoke.
Then was the creation and the formation. Of earth, of mud, they made [man's] flesh. But they saw that it was not good. It melted away, it was soft, did not move, had no strength, it fell down, it was limp, it could not move its head, its face fell to one side, its sight was blurred,[25] it could not look behind. At first it spoke, but had no mind. Quickly it soaked in the water and could not stand.
And the Creator and the Maker said:[26] "Let us try again because our creatures will not be able to walk nor multiply. Let us consider this," they said.
Then they broke up and destroyed their work and their creation. And they said: "What shall we do to perfect it, in order that our worshipers, our invokers, will be successful?"
Thus they spoke when they conferred again: "Let us say again to Xpiyacoc, Xmucané, Hunahpú-Vuch, Hunahpú-Utiú: 'Cast your lot again. Try to create again.'" In this manner the Creator and the Maker spoke to Xpiyacoc and Xmucané.
Then they spoke to those soothsayers, the Grandmother of the day, the Grandmother of the Dawn,[27] as they were called by the Creator and the Maker, and whose names were Xpiyacoc and Xmucané.
And said Huracán, Tepeu, and Gucumatz when they spoke to the soothsayer, to the Maker, who are the diviners: "You must work together and find the means so that man, whom we shall make, man, whom we are going to make, will nourish and sustain us, invoke and remember us.
"Enter, then, into council, grandmother, grandfather, our grandmother, our grandfather, Xpiyacoc, Xmucané, make light, make dawn. have us invoked, have us adored, have us remembered by created man, by made man, by mortal man.[28] Thus be it done.
"Let your nature be known, Hunahpú-Vuch, Hunahpú-Utiú, twice-mother, twice-father,[29] Nim-Ac,[30] Nima-Tziís,[31] the master of emeralds, the worker in jewels, the sculptor, the carver, the maker of beautiful plates, the maker of green gourds, the master of resin, the master Toltecat,[32]
[23] Mi x-yopih r'auaxic u zaquiric. "Already the time of planting nears" is the meaning which Brasseur de Bourbourg incorrectly gives to this sentence, getting ahead of events, because man had not yet been created, nor had agriculture yet been practiced.
[24] Mavi mi x-utzinic ca quihiloxic, ca calaixic puch cumal, in the original text.
[25] Xa cul u vach.
[26] Ahtzac, Ahbit, variants of Tzacol and Bitol.
[27] R'atit quih, R'atit zac. The word atit may be taken here in the collective sense, including the two grandparents Xpiyacoc and Xmucané, who are later called by their names in the text. The same expression is found farther on.
[28] Vinac poy, vinac anom. Poy anom, in Cakchiquel, has the meaning of "the mortal."
[29] Camul Alom, camul Qaholom. The author calls Hunahpú-Vuch, "two times mother," and Hunahpú-Utiú, "two times father," thus giving the sex of each of the two members of the Creator-couple.
[30] Large wild boar, or wild pig. Nim-Ac is the father.
[31] Nimá-Tziís, the mother, large pisote or coati mundi (Nasua nasica). It might also be interpreted as large tapir (Tix in Poconchí, tzimín in Jacalteca). The tapir was the sacred animal of the Tzeltal Indians of Chiapas, and Bishop Núñez de la Vega says that, according to legend, Votán took a tapir to Huehuetlán, and that it multiplied in the waters of the river which runs through Soconusco, a district in the present state of Chiapas, Mexico.
[32] Here the text seems to enumerate the usual occupations of the men of that time. The author calls upon ahqual, who is evidently the one who carves emeralds or green stones; ahyamanic, the jeweler or
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