Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were very happy when they saw the Morning Star. It rose first, with shining face, when it came ahead of the sun.
Immediately they unwrapped the incense[304] which they had brought from the East, and which they had planned to burn, and then they untied the three gifts which they had planned to offer.
The incense which Balam-Quitzé brought was called Mixtán-Pom; the incense which Balam-Acab brought was called Cavixtán-Pom; and that which Mahucutah brought was called Cabauil-Pom.[305] The three had their incense and burned it when they began to dance facing toward the East.
They wept for joy as they danced and burned their incense, their precious incense. Then they wept because they did not yet behold nor see the sunrise.
But, then, the sun came up. The small and large animals were happy; and arose from the banks of the river, in the ravines, and on the tops of the mountains, and all turned their eyes to where the sun was rising.
Then the puma and the jaguar roared. But first the bird called Queletzú[306] burst into song. In truth, all the animals were happy, and the eagle, the white vulture;[307] the small birds and the large birds stretched their wings.
The Priests and the sacrificers were kneeling; great was the joy of the priests and sacrificers and of the people of Tamub and Ilocab and the people of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, those from Tziquinahá, and those from Tuhalhá, Uchabahá, Quibahá, from Batená, and the Yaqui Tepeu, all those tribes which exist today. And it was not possible to count the people. The light of dawn fell upon all the tribes at the same time.
Instantly the surface of the earth was dried by the sun. Like a man was the sun when it showed itself, and its face glowed when it dried the surface of the earth.
Before the sun rose, damp and muddy was the surface of the earth, before the sun came up; but then the sun rose, and came up like a man. And its heat was unbearable.[308] It showed itself
[304] The Maya and Quiché Indians give the name Pom to the incense or white aromatic resin which oozes from a tree, and they used it in their religious ceremonies. This resin is commonly known as copal, from the Náhuatl copalli (Protium copal, Engl.).
[305] These names have a marked Mexican flavor and seem to come from the Aztec tongue. Mixtán-Pom might be the copal, or incense, which they burned to Mictán Ahau, and Caviztán-Pom that which they offered to Cavestán Ahau. Father Guzmán (Compendio de nombres en lengua Cakchiquel) mentions as gods of this tribe, among other minor deities, Mictán Ahau and Cavestán Ahau. The Aztec word Mictlán serves to designate the inferno. Cabauil-Pom is clearly the incense of the Quiché divinity in general, which is expressed with the word Cabauil, probably derived from the Maya Kauil, "god." The variety of incense of the offerings seems to be explained by the fact that the Quiché liked to offer "incense of a certain fragrance" to their gods.
[306] A climbing bird of the parrot family; quel in Quiché is a kind of parrot or magpie known in Guatemala as the chocoyo.
[307] Zaccuch, literally a vulture or white buzzard, "white-breasted buzzard," says Father Coto. The one called king buzzard, Gypargus papa, is larger than the ordinary vulture. It is also distinguished by the combination of its black and white feathers.
[308] Ma cu x-chihtahic u qatanal. All the translators have followed the interpretation of Ximénez, who translates these words as: "The heat was not great." Chihtahic, however, means "to bear," "to suffer," and the negative sentence must be understood in the sense that the heat of the sun was unbearable or insufferable. If the heat of the sun had not been intense, it would not have dried the damp and muddy surface of the earth. In the recent edition of the Popol Vuh, Schultze Jena gives the correct translation of this passage in German.
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