A maiden, then, daughter of a lord heard this story. The name of the father was Cuchumaquic and that of the maiden was Xquic.[120] When she heard the story of the fruit of the tree which her father told, she was amazed to hear it.
"Why can I not go to see this tree which they tell about?" the girl exclaimed. "Surely the fruit of which I hear tell must be very good." Finally she went alone and arrived at the foot of the tree which was planted in Pucbal-Chah.
"Ah!" she exclaimed. "What fruit is this which this tree bears? Is it not wonderful to see how it is covered with fruit? Must I die, shall I be lost, if I pick one of this fruit?" said the maiden.
Then the skull which was among the branches of the tree spoke up and said: "What is it you wish? Those round objects which cover the branches of the trees are nothing but skulls." So spoke the head of Hun-Hunahpú turning to the maiden. "Do you, perchance, want them?" it added.
"Yes, I want them," the maiden answered.
"Very well," said the skull. "Stretch your right hand up here."
"Very well," said the maiden, and with her right hand reached toward the skull.
In that instant the skull let a few drops of spittle fall directly into the maiden's palm. She looked quickly and intently at the palm of her hand, but the spittle of the skull was not there.
"In my saliva and spittle I have given you my descendants," said the voice in the tree. "Now my head has nothing on it any more, it is nothing but a skull without flesh. So are the heads of the great princes, the flesh is all which gives them a handsome appearance. And when they die, men are frightened by their bones. So, too, is the nature of the sons, which are like saliva and spittle, they may be sons of a lord, of a wise man, or of an orator.[121] They do not lose their substance when they go, but they bequeath it; the image of the lord, of the wise man, or of the orator does not. disappear, nor is it lost, but he leaves it to the daughters and to the sons which he begets. I have done the same with you. Go up, then, to the surface of the earth, that you may not die. Believe in my words that it will be so," said the head of Hun-Hunahpú and of Vucub-Hunahpú.[122]
And all that they did together was by order of Huracán, Chipi-Caculhá, and Raxa-Caculhá.
After all of the above talking, the maiden returned directly to her home, having immediately conceived the sons in her belly by virtue of the spittle only. And thus Hunahpú and Xbalanqué were begotten.
And so the girl returned home, and after six months had passed, her father, who was called Cuchumaquic, noticed her condition. At once the maiden's secret was discovered by her father when he observed that she was pregnant.[123]
Then the lords, Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé, held council with Cuchumaquic.
[120] Cuchumaquic, gathered blood; Xquic, little blood, or blood of a woman.
[121] Naol, Ahuchan, "orator" title of one of the officials who served in the court and who were called Lolmay, Atzihuinac, Galel, and Ahuchan. They were the agents, accountants, and treasurers, according to the text of the Petición de los principales de Santiago Atitlán al Rey Felipe II, insert in Ternaux Compans, Recueil de pièces relatives à la conquête du Mexique (Paris, 1838), 415. Naoh ah uchan, "he who knows," master of discourse, according to Father Pantaleón de Guzmán.
[122] There was only the head of Hun-Hunahpú. As will be noted, this passage reminds one of the Mexican myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, who was begotten by a little ball of feathers which fell on his mother, Coatlicue, who in turn placed it on her breast and "from which she became pregnant," according to Sahagún (Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Book III, Chap. I).
[123] Ta x-il ri r'al, literally, "when he saw the son."
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