maidens were called: "Very well, with you shall go proof of our conversation. Wait a little and then you shall give it to the lords." they said.
Then they held council with the priests and sacrificers and they said to Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam:[332] "Paint three capes, paint on them the symbol of your being in order that it may be recognized by the tribes, when the maidens who are washing carry them back. Give the capes to them," Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, and Mahucutah were told.
At once the three began to paint. First, Balam-Quitzé painted a jaguar; the figure was made and painted on the surface of the cape. Then Balam-Acab painted the figure of an eagle on the surface of a cape; and then Mahucutah painted bumblebees and wasps all over, figures and drawings of which he painted on the cloth. And the three finished their painting, three pieces they painted.
Then they went to give the capes to Xtah and Xpuch, as they were called, and Balam-Quitzé. Balam-Acab, and Mahucutah said to them: "Here is proof of your conversation [with us]; take these before the lords: Say to them, 'In truth, Tohil has talked to us; here we bring the proof,' tell them, and have them dress themselves in the clothes which you will give them." This they told the maidens when they bade them farewell. The latter went at once, carrying the above-mentioned painted capes.[333]
When they arrived, the lords were filled with joy to see their faces and their hands, from which hung the things the maidens had gone for.
"Did you see the face of Tohil?" they asked them.
"Yes, we saw it," answered Xtah and Xpuch.
"Very well. And you bring the token, do you not?" the lords asked, thinking that this was the proof of their sin.
Then the maidens held out the painted capes, all covered with [the figures] of jaguars and eagles, and covered with bumblebees and wasps, painted on the surface of the cloth and which shone before them. At once they felt a desire to put the capes on.
The jaguar did nothing when the lord threw the first painting on his back. Then the lord put on the second painting, with the figure of the eagle. The lord felt very well wrapped within it. And he turned about before all of them.
Then he undressed before all, and put on the third painted cape. And now he had on himself, the bumblebees and wasps which were on it. Instantly the bumblebees and the wasps stung his flesh. And not being able to suffer the stings of these insects, he began to scream because of the insects whose figures were painted on the cloth, the painting of Mahucutah, which was the third one that had been painted.
Thus they were overcome. Then the lords reprimanded the two maidens named Xtah and Xpuch: "What kind of clothes are those which you have brought? Where did you go to bring them, you devils?" they said to the maidens when they reprimanded them. All the people were overcome by Tohil.
Well, what they [the lords] wanted was that Tohil should have gone to amuse himself with Xtah and Xpuch, and that the [maidens] would have become whores, for the tribes believed that they would serve to tempt them. But it was not possible that they should overcome them, thanks to those miraculous men, Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.
[332] The name of Iqui-Balam appears here with that of the other Quiché chiefs, but later the manuscript says that there were only the other three who painted the capes.
[333] Ta x-e be cut x-cu caah u bi ri tziban cul, in the original.
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