Huntoh, as the god of the people of Rabinal is called; for that reason, it is said, they wanted to make their speech the same as that of the Quiché.
Well, the speech of the Cakchiquel is different, because the name of their god was different when they came from there, from Tulán-Zuyva. Tzotzihá Chimalcan was the name of their god, and today they speak a different tongue; and also from their god the families of Ahpozotzil and Ahpoxa,[315] as they are called, took their names.
The speech of the god was also changed when they were given their god there, in Tulán, near the stone;[316] their speech was changed when they came from Tulán in the darkness. And being together, dawn came to them and the light shone on all the tribes, in the order of the names of the gods of each of the tribes.
[315] Tzotzihá, the house of the zotzils or bats, that is to say of the Cakchiquel, who like the Zotzil of Chiapas also had the bat as a symbol. Chimalcán or Chamalcán, as explained in Chapter 6 of Part III was the name of a serpent, a sacred animal among the peoples of Middle America. Ahpozotzil and Ahpoxahil were the names of the king of the Cakchiquel and of his principal assistant and heir. The Spaniards gave the former, who was governing in 1524, the name Sinacán, from the Náhuatl Tzinacán, which also means "bat." Xahil, which may be translated as "dancer," from xah, "to dance," was the name of the second reigning house, and one of its descendants, Francisco Hernandez Arana, wrote the Memorial de Sololá, which contains the history of the Cakchiquel nation.
[316] Chirih abah. The meaning of these words is vague. However, it becomes clearer if one recalls the constant association of the ancient American divinity with stone. The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel says, describing the creation of the world, that God was hidden in the stone when there was neither sky nor earth, and that later he came from the stone and fell into a second stone, and then he declared his divinity (Kuil). The Quiché documents speak of the stone which Nacxit gave to those tribes when they left Tulán, and which "they used for their incantations. "And they add that in Qotuhá or Tzutuhá they also found a stone similar to that which Nacxit gave them, which they, the kings and the people, worshiped. As for the Manuscript of the Cakchiquel, it speaks of the obsidian stone, or Chay Abah to which that nation rendered homage.
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