"Oh, Thou, beauty of the day! Thou, Huracán; Thou, Heart of Heaven and of Earth! Thou, giver of richness,[410] and giver of the daughters and the sons! Turn toward us your power and your riches; grant life and growth unto my sons and vassals; let those who must maintain and nourish Thee multiply and increase; those who invoke Thee on the roads, in the fields, on the banks of the rivers, in the ravines, under the trees, under the vines.
"Give them daughters and sons. Let them not meet disgrace, nor misfortune, let not the deceiver come behind or before them. Let them not fall, let them not be wounded, let them not fornicate, nor be condemned by justice. Let them not fall on the descent or on the ascent of the road. Let them not encounter obstacles back of them or before them, nor anything which strikes them. Grant them good roads, beautiful, level roads. Let them not have misfortune, nor disgrace, through Thy fault, through Thy sorceries.
"Grant a good life to those who must give Thee sustenance and place food in Thy mouth, in Thy presence, to Thee, Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth, Bundle of Majesty. And Thou, Tohil; Thou, Avilix; Thou, Hacavitz, Arch of the Sky, Surface of the Earth, the Four Corners, the Four Cardinal Points. Let there be but peace and tranquility[411] in Thy mouth, in Thy presence, oh, God!"[412]
Thus [spoke] the lords, while within, the nine men fasted, the thirteen men, and the seventeen men. During the day they fasted and their hearts grieved for their sons and vassals and for all their wives and their children when each of the lords made his offering.
This was the price of a happy life, the price of power, the price of the authority of the Ahpop, of the Ahpop-Camhá, of the Galel and of the Ahtzic-Vinac. Two by two they ruled, each pair succeeding the other in order to bear the burden of the people of all the Quiché nation.
One only was the origin of their tradition and [one only] the origin of the manner of maintaining and sustaining, and one only, too, was the origin of the tradition and the customs of those of Tamub and Ilocab and the people of Rabinal and the Cakchiquel, those of Tziquinahá, of Tuhalahá and Uchabahá. And there was but one trunk [a single family] when they heard there in Quiché what all of them were to do.
But it was not only thus that they reigned. They did not squander the gifts of those whom they sustained and nourished, but they ate and drank them. Neither did they buy them; they had won and seized their empire, their power, and their sovereignty.
And it was not at small cost, that they conquered the fields and the towns; the small towns and the large towns paid high ransoms; they brought precious stones and metals, they brought honey of the bees, bracelets, bracelets of emeralds and other stones, and brought garlands made of blue feathers,[413] the tribute of all the towns. They came into the presence of the marvelous kings
[410] Ganal raxal, "abundance of riches." Diccionario Cakchiquel.
[411] Xa ta zac, xa ta amac. "Only may there be peace in your presence."—Ximénez.
[412] Bishop Las Casas has also included in his Apologética Historia (Chap. CLXXVIII, p. 468) a prayer which he says the Indians of Guatemala recited during the human sacrifices, the essence of which is identical to the prayer given here. It says: "Lord God, remember us who are Thine; grant us health, give us children and prosperity so that thy people shall increase and serve thee; give us water and good weather so that we may maintain ourselves and that we may live; hear our petitions, receive our prayers, help us against our enemies; give us ease and rest."
[413] X-ul puch raxón cubul chactic. The raxón (Cotinga) shared with the quetzal, guc, the honor of adorning with its feathers the gods and the kings; the beautiful sky blue feathers of the raxón were joined and then they were called pixo raxón, "sewed feathers," an expression which Zúñiga (Diccionario Pokonchí-Castellano) explains, by saying that "the feathers are interwoven and [fasten] with knots of a very fine thread, with great skill, and there are some garlands of these blue feathers which they wear in their dances, and which they wear around their temples and forehead." Cubul chactic are these garlands of feathers sewed, as Zúñiga says, or stuck into a framework of light wood.
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