And Conaché and Beleheb-Queh, the Galel-Ahau,[353] ruled. Then king Cotuhá and Iztayul reigned, as they were called the Ahpop and the Ahpop-Camhá, who reigned there in Izmachí, which was the beautiful city which they had built.[354]
Only three great houses were there in Izmachí. There were not twenty-four great houses then, only their three great houses, only a great house of the Cavec, only a great house of the Nihaib, and only one of the people of Ahau-Quiché. Only two had great houses,[355] the two branches of the family [the Quiché and the Tamub].
And there they were in Izmachí with only one thought, without disputes or difficulties, peaceful was the kingdom, they had no quarrels nor disputes, in their hearts were only peace and happiness. They were not envious nor jealous. Their grandeur was limited, they had not thought of aggrandizing themselves, nor of expanding. When they tried to do it, they fastened the shield there in Izmachí but only to give a sign of their empire, as a symbol of their power and a symbol of their greatness.
Seeing this, the people of Ilocab began the war; they wanted to kill King Cotuhá, wishing to have a chief of their own. And as for Lord Iztayul, they wanted to punish him, that he be punished and killed by those of Ilocab. But their evil plans against King Cotuhá did not succeed, for he fell upon them before the people of Ilocab were able to kill him.
This, then, was the beginning of the revolution and the dissensions of the war. First they attacked the town, and the warriors came. And what they wanted was to ruin the Quiché race; they wanted to reign alone. But they only came to die; they were captured and fell into captivity, and few among them succeeded in escaping.
Immediately afterward the sacrifices began; the people of Ilocab were sacrificed before the god, and this was the punishment for their sins by order of King Cotuhá. Many also fell into slavery and servitude; they only went to give themselves up to be overcome because of having
[351] "in the beards." This city was situated to the south of Utatlán, the last capital of the Quiché.
[352] X-cah qui chun qui zahcab, literally, "they ground their lime and their chalk." Ximénez and Brasseur de Bourbourg interpret this sentence as meaning they built their houses of lime and stone.
[353] Balam-Conaché was the third king of the Quiché, according to the final chapter of the book, and according to the text, he ruled with Beleheb-Queh, king of the fourth generation of the House of Nihaib, and with Ahau-Galel, or the first of the lords of the House of Nihaib. Balam-Conaché was the son of Qocavib, conceived by the wife of his brother, Qocaib, when the latter was absent on his first journey to the East, to Chichén Itzá, according to the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán and to the document from Zapotitlán about the origin of the Quiché kings, a translation of which is included in the Appendix to this book. Qocaib recognized the son of his brother and his own wife as being of his own blood, and this was the beginning, according to the Título, of the House of those of Conaché and Iztayul, and herein the rank and office of Ahpop-Camhail, second title of the House of Iztayul, had its origin.
[354] Iztayul was the son of Balam-Conaché.
[355] Xaqui caib chi nim ha ri ca chob chi chinamit. In transcribing this sentence Brasseur de Bourbourg substituted the word cumatzil, which he translates "serpents," for nim ha. In the margin of the manuscript of the Popol Vuh, one reads cumatzil pro nim ha, but Ximénez translates it as "large house."
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