"Go, Ahpop Achih!"[102] they were told. "Go and call Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú. Say to them, 'Come with us. The lords say that you must come.' They must come here to play ball with us so that they shall make us happy, for really they amaze us. So, then, they must come," said the lords. "And have them bring their playing gear, their rings, their gloves, and have them bring their rubber balls, too," said the lords. "Tell them to come quickly," they told the messengers.
And these messengers were owls: Chabi-Tucur, Huracán-Tucur, Caquix-Tucur and Holom-Tucur.[103] These were the names of the messengers of Xibalba.
Chabi-Tucur was swift as an arrow; Huracán-Tucur had only one leg; Caquix-Tucur had a red back, and Holom-Tucur had only a head, no legs, but he had wings.
The four messengers had the rank of Ahpop-Achih. Leaving Xibalba, they arrived quickly, bringing their message to the court where Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú were playing ball, at the ball-court which was called Nim-Xob-Carchah.[104] The owl messengers went directly to the ball-court and delivered their message exactly as it was given to them by Hun-Camé, Vucub-Camé, Ahalpuh, Ahalganá, Chamiabac, Chamiaholom, Xiquiripat, Cuchumaquic, Ahalmez, Ahaltocob, Xic, and Patán, as the lords were called who sent the message by the owls.
"Did the Lords Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé really say that we must go with you?"
"They certainly said so, and 'Let them bring all their playing gear,' the lords said."
"Very well," said the youths. "Wait for us, we are only going to say good-bye to our mother."
And having gone straight home, they said to their mother, for their father was dead: "We are going, our mother, but our going is only for a while.[105] The messengers of the lord have come to take us. 'They must come,' they said, according to the messengers.
"We shall leave our ball here in pledge,"[106] they added. They went immediately to hang it in the space under the rooftree. "We will return to play," they said.
[102] Title of some of the Quiché lords and chiefs.
[103] Chabi-Tucur, swift owl; Huracán-Tucur, owl with one leg, or gigantic owl; Caquix-Tucur, macaw owl; Holom-Tucur, head of an owl, or owl distinguished by the head. Tucur is the Quiché name for owl. A town of Verapaz, San Miguel Tucurú, is also so named. This night bird is known in Guatemala by the name of tucurú and also as tecolote, from the Náhuatl tecolotl. Dr. Otto Stoll (Die Maya Sprachen der Pokom-Gruppe) suggests that the name which the Mexicans gave to Verapaz was Tecolotlán, or place of owls or tecolotes, i. e., the land of the tucur, and that the Spanish missionaries, through an error, wrote it Teçolotlán, which later was changed to Tezulutlán. The name Verapaz was given to that province after its peaceful conquest by the Dominican friars. In fact, Ixtlilxóchitl says that the Tolteca emigrated to the south to Guatemala and Tecolotlán, and Sahagún (Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Vol. III, Book XI, Chap. II, p. 163) notes that the quetzal lives "In the province called Tecolotlán, which is toward Honduras, or near."
[104] The great Carchah, an important center of population in Verapaz, the region in which the Quiché seem to have placed the mythological deeds of the Popol Vuh. The Cakchiquel Manuscript says that they and the Quiché went to populate Subinal, in the middle of Chacachil, to the middle of Nimxor, to the middle of Moinal, to the middle of Carchah (nicah Carchah). Some of these places still retain their ancient names today and may easily be identified in the Verapaz region. According to the Cakchiquel document, Nim Xor and Carchah were two different places.
[105] Which is to say, "that they go, but they will return."
[106] X-chi canah cu caná va ca quic. Here is a play on words; canah is to "stay," and caná "pledges" "hostage," or "captive."
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