There too, were all the people of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, the Tziquinahá, all the small tribes, and the large tribes. Together they stayed. awaiting the coming of the dawn and the rising of the large star called Icoquih, which rises just before the sun, when it dawns, according to the legend.
There they were together, then, Balam-Quitzé. Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. They did not sleep; they remained standing and great was the anxiety of their hearts and their stomachs for the coming of dawn and the day. There, too, they felt shame; they were overcome with great sorrow, great suffering. and they were oppressed with pain.
They had come that far. "Oh. we have come without joy! If only we could see the rising of the sun! What shall we do now? If we lived in harmony in our country, why did we leave it?" they said to each other, in the midst of their sadness and affliction, and with mournful voices.
They talked, but they could not calm their hearts which were anxious for the coming of the dawn. "The gods are seated in the ravines, in the forests, they are among the air-plants, among the mosses,[302] not even a seat of boards were they given," they said.
First there were Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Great was their glory, their strength, and their power over the gods of all the tribes. Many were their miracles, and countless their journeys, and their pilgrimages in the midst of the cold; and the hearts of the tribes were filled with fear.
But calm were the hearts of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. With respect to them [the gods]. They felt no anxiety in their hearts for the gods whom they had received, and had carried on their backs when they came there from Tulán-Zuivá, from there in the East.
They were there, then, in the forest, now called Zaquiribal, Pa-Tohil, P'Avilix, Pa-Hacavitz.[303]
And next came the dawn, and light shone for our grandparents and our parents.
Now we shall tell of the coming of the dawn and the appearance of the sun, the moon, and the stars.
[302] Xa pa ec, xa pa atziac e qo vi. Ec is the Tillandsia Species pluribus, a bromeliaceous plant which lives on trees, as was said before. Atziac is another bromeliaceous plant which also grows on trees, and its thick fibres, similar to gray hair, hang to the ground. Its common name in Guatemala is paxte, derived from the Náhuatl word paxtle. An epiphyte Dendropogon usneoides, incorrectly called moss of Florida and Spanish moss in the southern part of the United States.
[303] The coming of dawn in the mountains of Tohil, of Avilix, and of Hacavitz. The Título de los Señores de Totonicapán says that when the chiefs of the Quiché nation disappeared, their children found themselves, by a miracle, in the mountains where the gods were, and that since that time these mountains are called Zaquiribal-Tohil, Zaquiribal-Avilix, and Zaquiribal-Hacavitz.
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