Here is the destruction and division of the fields and the towns of the neighboring nations, small and large. Among them was that, which in olden times, was the country of the Cakchiquel, the present Chuvilá,[383] and the country of the people of Rabinal,[384] Pamacá,[385] the country of the people of Caoqué,[386] Zaccabahá[387] and the towns of the peoples of Zaculeu,[388] of Chuvi-Miquiná,[389] Xelahuh,[390] Chuva-Tzac,[391] and Tzolohche.[392]
These [peoples] hated Quicab. He made war on them and certainly conquered and destroyed the fields and towns of the people of Rabinal, the Cakchiquel, and the people of Zaculeu; he came and conquered all the towns, and the soldiers of Quicab carried his arms to distant parts. One or two tribes did not bring tribute, and then he fell upon all the towns and they were forced to bring tribute to Quicab and Cavizimah.
They were made slaves, they were wounded, and they were killed with arrows against the trees [to which they had been tied] and for them there was no longer any glory, they no longer had power. In this way came about the destruction of the towns, which were instantly razed to the ground.[393] Like a flash of lightning which strikes and shatters the rock, so, in an instant were the conquered people filled with terror.
Before Colché, as a symbol of a town destroyed by him, there is now a pile of stones, which look almost as if they had been cut With the edge of an ax. it is there on the coast, called Petatayub,[394] and it may be clearly seen today by people who pass, as proof of the valor of Quicab.
They could neither kill him nor overcome him, for, in truth, he was a brave man, and all the people rendered tribute unto him.
And all the lords, having gathered in council, went to fortify the ravines and the towns, having conquered the towns of all the tribes. Then spies went out to observe the enemy and they
[383] "In the nettles," a name which the Mexicans translated as Chichicastenango, with identical meaning, which is the name it still bears today.
[384] The town of Rabinal.
[385] Today it is Zacualpa, near the mountains of Joyabaj.
[386] The Caoqué nation, probably represented by the present towns of Santa Maria and Santiago Cauqué.
[387] The present San. Andrés Saccabajá.
[388] "White earth," a fort of the Main near the ancient town of Chinabjul, today Huehuetenango.
[389] "Over the hot water," today Totonicapán, a Mexican name with the same meaning, as Atotonilco in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.
[390] Xelahuh-Quieh, "under the ten deer or chiefs," the ancient Culahá of the Main, today Quezaltenango.
[391] "In front of the fort," the present Momostenango.
[392] "The willow," the present Chiquimula, a short distance from Santa Cruz Quiché.
[393] Chi hixtahic u chi uleu, literally, "destroyed level with the ground."
[394] The coast of Petatayub is evidently the litoral of the Pacific where the Guatemalan town of Ayutla stands today, on the border of Mexico. The Títulos de la Casa de Ixcuín-Nihaib mention among the conquests of the Quiché in that region, the lands washed by the Samalá, Uquz (Ocós), Nil, and Xab rivers, which are still known by these same names. Ayutl in Náhuatl is the turtle. The pre-Columbian name of this coast was Ayotlán, and thus it appears in the Anales de Cuauhtitlán. Anáhuac Ayotlán was the name of all the region of Tehuantepec, washed by the Pacific Ocean, which Sahagún calls the coast of the turtles, and which later was called Soconusco. It is curious to observe that the Aztec word ayotl has the double meaning of "turtle" and "gourd," the same as the word coc in the native languages of Guatemala.
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