Here is the story. Here are the names of Hun-Hunahpú [and Vucub-Hunahpú], as they are called. Their parents were Xpiyacoc and Xmucané. During the night[81] Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú were born of Xpiyacoc and Xmucané.[82]
[81] Chi agabal, that is to say, before there was sun, or moon, or before man had been created.
[82] Hun-Hunahpú, 1 Hunahpú; Vucub-Hunahpú, 7 Hunahpú, are two days of the Quiché calendar. As is known, the ancient Indians of the Maya area designated the days by putting a number before each day, thus forming a series of thirteen days which are repeated without interruption until a cycle of 260 days is formed, which the Maya called tzolkín, the Quiché, cholquih, and the Mexicans, tonalpohualli. It was the custom to give an individual the name of the day upon which he was born.
The Quiché calendar is made up of twenty days. Each day is preceded by a number, a coefficient of from 1 to 13, and this is repeated indefinitely so that a name of a day and the number which accompanies it may not be repeated until 260 is reached, or 13 times 20. This period of 260 days constitutes the ritual year, or cholquih. The names of the days and their meaning in English are as follows:
1. Imox,
name of a fish
2. Ic,
moon, wind, spirit
3. Acbal,
night
4. Cat,
net with which to carry corn, or a lizard
5. Can,
serpent
6. Camey,
death
7. Queh,
deer
8. Canel,
wealth, car of yellow corn
9. Toh,
rain, storm
10. Tzi,
dog
11. Batz,
monkey
12. E,
ei, teeth, brush
13. Ah,
cane, or tender corn
14. Balam,
jaguar
15. Tziquin,
bird
16. Ahmac,
owl
17. Noh,
strong, resin
18. Tihax,
edge, obsidian
19. Caoc,
lightning and thunder
20. Hunahpú,
hunter, chief, or lord
With these twenty days the Quiché formed the following eighteen months:
1. Tequexepual,
time to plant the cornfields
2. Tziba
pop, painted mat
3. Zac,
white like certain flowers
4. Ch'ab,
muddy ground
5. Nabey
mam, first old man
6. Ucab
mam, second old man (both this and the preceding are months of ill-omen)
7. Nabey
liquin ca, soft and slippery soil
8. Ucab
liquin ca, second month of soft and slippery soil
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