A flood was brought about by the Heart of Heaven; a great flood was formed which fell on the heads of the wooden creatures.
Of tzité the flesh of man was made, but when woman was fashioned by the Creator and the Maker, her flesh was made of rushes.[41] These were the materials the Creator and the Maker wanted to use in making them.
But those that they had made, that they had created, did not think, did not speak with their Creator, their Maker. And for this reason they were killed, they were deluged. A heavy resin fell from the sky. The one called Xecotcovach came and gouged out their eyes; Camalotz came and cut off their heads; Cotzbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tucumbalam[42] came, too, and broke and mangled their bones and their nerves, and ground and crumbled their bones.[43]
This was to punish them because they had not thought of their mother, nor their father, the Heart of Heaven, called Huracán. And for this reason the face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall, by day and by night.
Then came the small animals and the large animals, and sticks and stones struck their faces. And all began to speak: their earthen jars,[44] their griddles,[45] their plates, their pots, their grinding stones,[46] all rose up and struck their faces.
"You have done us much harm; you ate us, and now we shall kill you," said their dogs and birds of the barnyard.[47]
And the grinding stones said: "We were tormented by you; every day, every day, at night, at dawn, all the time our faces went holi, holi, huqui, huqui, because of you.[48] This was the tribute
[41] The Quiché name zibaque is commonly used in Guatemala to designate this plant of the Typhaceae family, which is much used in making the mats called petates tules in that country. Basseta says it is the part of a reed with which mats are made.
[42] It is difficult to interpret the names of these enemies of man. Ximénez says that Xecotcovach was a bird, probably an eagle (cot) or sparrow hawk. The Camalotz which cut off men's heads was evidently the large vampire (nimá chicop) Camazotz, bat of death, which decapitated the young Hero Hunahpú in Part II of the manuscript. Cotzbalam may be interpreted as the jaguar who lies in wait for his prey. Tucumbalam is another name for the danta or tapir. Seler (Der Fledermausgott der Maya-Stämme, Vol. II of Gesammelte Abhandlungen) argues that these "wild animal demons of the Popol Vuh" are equivalent to the four monstrous figures which are seen in folio 44 of the Codex Borgiano. According to Seler, Tucumbalam is represented in that Códice as a species of shark or crocodile. The bat of the East had torn off the head of his neighbor in front of him, and the shark or crocodile of the West had torn off his foot.
[43] X-cahixic, x-muchulixic qui baquil, in the original.
[44] Quebal, which Ximénez translates "grinding stones," is a water-jug or pitcher here. Brasseur de Bourbourg translates it incorrectly as tout ce qui leur avait servi.
[45] Comalli in the Mexican language, xot in Quiché, a large plate or the disk of clay upon which the corn tortillas are baked.
[46] Qui caa, in the original, grinding stone, metate in Mexico. Brasseur de Bourbourg read it incorrectly as qui aq y and translated the passage "their hens."
[47] The dogs which the wooden men ate were not like those which are now in America, but a species which the Spanish chroniclers called "silent dogs," because they did not bark. The barnyard fowls were the turkey, the pheasant, and the wild hen.
[48] These words are merely an imitation of the noise made when the corn is being ground by the grinding stone.
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