"My daughter is pregnant,[124] Sirs; she has been disgraced,"[125] exclaimed Cuchumaquic when he appeared before the lords.
"Very well," they said. "Command her to tell the truth,[126] and if she refuses to speak, punish her; let her be taken far from here and sacrifice her."
"Very well, Honorable Lords," he answered. Then he questioned his daughter:
"Whose are the children that you carry, my daughter?"[127] And she answered, "I have no child, my father, for I have not yet known a youth."[128]
'Very well," he replied. "You are really a whore. Take her and sacrifice her, Ahpop Achih; bring me her heart in a gourd and return this very day before the lords," he said to the two owls.
The four messengers took the gourd and set out carrying the young girl in their arms and also taking the knife of flint with which to sacrifice her.[129]
And she said to them: "It cannot be that you will kill me, oh, messengers, because what I bear in my belly is no disgrace, but was begotten when I went to marvel at the head of Hun-Hunahpú which was in Pucbal-Chah. So, then, you must not sacrifice me, oh, messengers!" said the young girl, turning to them.
"And what shall we put in place of your heart? Your father told us: 'Bring the heart, return before the lords, do your duty, all working together, bring it in the gourd quickly,[130] and put the heart in the bottom of the gourd.' Perchance, did he not speak to us so? What shall we put in the gourd? We wish too, that you should not die," said the messengers.
"Very well, but my heart does not belong to them. Neither is your home here, nor must you let them force you to kill men.[131] Later, in truth, the real criminals will be at your mercy and I will overcome Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé. So, then, the blood and only the blood shall be theirs and shall be given to them.[132] Neither shall my heart be burned before them.[133] Gather the product of this tree," said the maiden.
The red sap gushing forth from the tree fell in the gourd and with it they made a ball which glistened and took the shape of a heart. The tree gave forth sap similar to blood, with the appearance of real blood. Then the blood, or that is to say the sap of the red tree, clotted, and formed a very bright coating inside the gourd, like clotted blood; meanwhile the tree glowed at
[124] Qo chi r'al, literally, "she is with child."
[125] Xa u hoxbal, literally, "is nothing more than a prostitute."
[126] Ch'a qoto u chi ri, literally, "search her mouth."
[127] Apa ahchoc e ri av'al qo ch' a pam, at nu meal?
[128] Ma-habi achih v'etaam u vach. "I have not known the face of a man."
[129] The Zaquitoc, the flint knife used to open the breast of the victim sacrificed to the Indian gods.
[130] Ch'anim ch'y cama uloc pa zel.
[131] Ma cu xa ch'y chih vinac chi camic.
[132] Xa quic xa holomax rech ch'uxoc are chicut chuvach. Ximénez translates this difficult passage thus: "Only the blood and skull shall be theirs." The sentence contains the possessive pronoun, singular, following the custom of the Quiché writer to consider as only one person the group of two, in this case Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé. The word holomax is not found in the Tesoro by Ximénez, nor in the other Quiché and Cakchiquel vocabularies which I have consulted; but it is very similar to the Maya word yolomal, which is a compound of o'om, "blood" in the ancient Maya of Yucatán. Yo omal uinic, "blood of man," the Diccionario de Motul. It is possible, therefore, that holomax may be derivative of the Maya o'om, yolomal, a synonym for "blood," and for that reason the author, who was very fond of using synonyms, employs it here to give emphasis to the language.
[133] Although it had not been mentioned before, Xquic knew very well that the lords wanted her heart in order to burn it. This was an ancient custom of the Maya. Father Landa says that in the month Mac "they threw the hearts of birds into the fire to burn them, and if they had no large animals, such as jaguars, pumas, or alligators, they made hearts with incense (pom or copal); and if there were animals and they killed them, they brought their hearts for that fire."
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