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*to Mayan Index <Mayan.html#anchor493098>*

*BOOKS OF THE CHILAM BALAM OF CHUMAYEL*

*/(For this new English translation of this important work, the
translator is Suzanne D. Fisher; editorial comments, inserted in the
text, as it proceeds, are by Dr. Bruce S. Fisher. The Spanish version of
Antonio Mediz Bolio is being used.)/*

*Prologue: History of the Translation and Commentary on the Texts
<#anchor3390178>*
*Introduction: the Mayans and their Spiritual Involvement <#anchor249628>*
*Books of the Chilam Balam <#anchor269020>*

*Book of the Lineages <#anchor273386>*
*/Kahlay/ of the Conquest* <#anchor278967>
*/Katún <#anchor283339>/*
*Book of the Trials <#anchor2230722>*
*Book of the Ancient Gods <#anchor1444475>*
*Book of the Spirits <#anchor271421>*
*The /Thirteen/ /Ahau Katún/* <#anchor276196>*/ /*
*Book of the Origin of the Itzaes <#anchor1922865>*
*Book of the Month <#anchor1586991> *
* *The /Katún/ of the Flower <#anchor1410915>
*Book of the Enigmas <#anchor382578>*
*The Wheel of the /Katunes/* <#anchor855910>
*Book of the Sequence of the /Katúnes/* <#anchor111702>
*/Kahlay/ of the Dzules* <#anchor131379>
*Book of the Prediction of the 13 /Katúnes/* <#anchor358713>
*Book of the Prophesies <#anchor943263>*

*/To Unique and Unusual Esoteric Books! <http://myweb.cableone.net/subru>/*

*PROLOGUE*

/"This knowing reached us in spite of the bonfires of the Spaniards, of
the destructive fury of men. Because the word of the Chilam Balam is not
solitary: it is the expression of an entire people, their soul, and
their life. Distant, enigmatic, the oracle's Mayan voice continued
reading the message of time for us, inscribed in the heavens among the
stars."/

*/Prologue of J. M. Le Clézio in his French version of Chilam Balam of
Chumayel/*

Books are today, for us, somewhat familiar and known; in principle they
are within reach of everyone, because reading and writing can be a
common acquisition. But for ancient man, the written word was something
that only a few could be acquainted with; it was at the service of the
sacred, because it itself was sacred. Thus books were objects of
veneration in that they contained the knowledge revealed by the gods,
divine laws or the history of great men and the most significant events
of a people that generally were determined by the gods. Such is the case
with the /Bible/, the /Koran/, the /Tao Te Ching/, the /Vedas/ and the
/Zend Avesta/, for example. Books, furthermore, were anonymous because
they did not have a personal meaning and the authors were merely the
transmitters of divine will and of a spiritual heritage.

Among the prehispanic indigenous peoples of Meso America, the written
texts had that same significance of something sacred. We do not know if
they were considered as revelations of the gods, but they were
embellished by the priestly caste ­ the only members of the community
who did the writing, and the texts were regarded as divine objects. In
them were the religious and moral principles of the community, the truth
one should follow, and the example of the ancestors and the
prescriptions of the gods. Because of this, sacred books were read in
religious ceremonies by some priests, thus making the entire community
aware of the meaning of its existence.

The Mayan people, which constitute even today around 28 ethnic groups
with different languages, created writing so complex that it has to be
considered the most developed in America. Using this writing, they
manufactured texts labored in stone, modeled in stucco, painted on walls
and ceramic, embroidered on clothing and painted on the codices or books
of /amate/ bark or papyrus that folded in the form of a screen. These
codices were called /Anahte/ by the Yucatecan Mayas, and only three have
survived: the one in Dresden, that in Paris, and the one in Madrid,
which were found in the cities from which their names originated. On the
other hand, hundreds of stone and stucco texts have been preserved. This
due in part to the fact that the codices were quite fragile, and
furthermore, that the Spanish conquerors considered them to contain the
teachings of the devil, and as a result, they were destroyed at the same
time that those who knew how to read them were pursued and punished.

So, with the Spanish conquest the knowledge of Mayan writings was lost.
But a people of strong religious traditions and a highly conservative
spirit such as that of the Mayas could not do without their sacred
books, the crux of their identity. That is why some noble Mayas that
were educated by Spanish friars and had learned the Latin alphabet were
determined to preserve their traditions, history and religious beliefs
by writing books in their own languages, but with the new form of
writing brought by the conquerors. This conservation movement happened
in all of the Mayan areas, and as a result, during the 16th century
indigenous books came out in communities in Guatemala as well as in
Chiapac, Yucatán and Tabasco.

In all of this literary production, two classes of books can be
distinguished: *(1)* those written with legal ends in mind ­ these, at
times, solicited by the Spanish authorities, and *(2)* those that
constituted the new sacred literature of the communities. The first
served to obtain privileges, such as the diminution of tributes and for
conserving the lands bequeathed by their ancestors. Nevertheless, they
were titles of ownership, and as they dealt with showing the antiquity
in the possession of the lands, they speak of the origin of the lineages
and of the main historical events as well as the boundaries and
extension of territories. The authors tried to please the Spanish
authorities, making clear that they had assimilated the teachings of the
friars, that they often say are descendents of Noah, and they present
versions of the biblical history of the Hebrew people instead of the
actual facts of their own past, which they likely knew about through the
ancient sacred books.

The second category of books were written out of another necessity,
perhaps even more important to the Mayan people then defending their
lands: that of preserving the spiritual heredity of their ancestors -
their religion and their customs that had been invalidated by the
Spaniards. Thus arose new sacred books, which came to replace the
ancient codices, because in them the myths of the gods and the history
of the ancestors were reproduced; and, besides, they put into writing
the oral tradition passed down from father to son, the explanation that
the old priests gave of the codices, as the events and the personal
experiences of that time.

These new books served no legal purpose, such as the titles of
ownership, but were destined to be read in ceremonies of the indigenous
community in which were also carried out rites as offerings, sacrifices,
songs and dances of prehistoric tradition. These acts, which looked to
the conservation of indigenous spiritual inheritance, were secret, and
those who participated in them were pursued and killed by the Spaniards,
who considered them demoniacal practices that were a crime against the
"True Religion." For that reason the books were jealously guarded by an
important family of the people and were passed down from father to son.

Thus, the existence of these books was unknown until the 18th century,
when by chance or due to the interest of some studious people in
locating ancient manuscripts, they began to find what we know today, of
which the most important are the /Popol Vuh/ of the Quichés, the
/Memorial de Sololá/ of the Cakchiqueles and the /Libros de Chilam
Balam/ of the Yucatecan Mayans.

The /Popol Vuh/, written in the 16th century, was discovered in the
possession of the indigenous residents of the town of Santo Tomás
Chuilá, today Chichicastenango, Guatemala, by Father Fray Francisco
Ximénez, at the beginning of the 18th century. Ximénez translated it and
included it in his historic work, but also transcribed the text into the
indigenous tongue. This manuscript remained forgotten in the archives of
the convent of Santo Domingo until 1854, when it was found by Dr. Carl
Scherzer, who published it in Vienna in 1857. Presently it is in the
Newberry Library of Chicago.

The /Memorial de Sololá/ or /Anales de los Cakchiquelas/ was also
written in the 16th century and preserved in the town of Sololá, next to
Lake Atitlán in Guatemala until it reached the hands of Father Fray
Francisco Vázquez at the end of the 18th century. Vázquez also wrote a
history utilizing the indigenous book, which remained in religious
archives. Later, it was translated into French by Abbot Charles Etienne
Brasseur of Bourbourg in 1855. Juan Gavarrete, a student of historic
documents of civil and ecclesiastic archives, translated it into
Castilian and edited it in 1873.

Thus, it was in the 19th century when these important indigenous texts
from the 16th century became known.

As for the sacred books of the Yucatan Mayans, these are known under the
name of /Chilam Balam/, although it appears that this was not the
original title. The word /chilam/ means literally "that which is mouth";
or, in other words, "that which prophesies." The /Chilams/ were the
sacerdotal prophets who interpreted ancient books to elaborate upon the
prophecies, in which they transmitted to the townspeople the knowledge
of that which was to come. This relates to the concept that time has a
cyclic rhythm, and thus events, in a certain sense, tend to repeat
themselves. These prophecies were considered to be interpretations of
the messages of the gods, as is expressed, for example, in the following
prophesy:

/"This is the remembrance of how Hunab Ku, supreme Deity, with Oxlahum
Tihu, third deity, immense deity, came . . . to say his word to the Ah
Kines, Sacerdotes-of-the-solar-cult, Prophets, Chalames Balames,
Wizard-Interpreters . . . the speaking taking place in the house of the
Chilam, Interpreter. These words were of a warning and advisory nature,
their meaning revealed . . .. The reason why it is called Chilam
Interpreter is because the Chilam Balam, Wizard-Interpreter, went to bed
stretched out, without moving or getting up from where he threw himself,
in his own house. But no one saw the face or the form and size of who
was talking on top of the house, straddling it . . . . They said that
Hunab Ku, supreme Deity . . . ."/

In this way, stretched out on their backs, the sacerdotes repeated the
messages of the gods, predicting the future. Balam means "jaguar" or
"wizard", and is a family surname; so Chilam Balam was a concrete
miracle worker, a sacerdote from the town of Maní who seems to have
lived a little before the conquest and who had a great reputation as a
prophet. Along with other sacerdotes, called Napuctun, Ah Kauil Chel,
Nahau Pech and Natzin Yubun Chan, he predicted the coming of a new
religion, for which, after the conquest, his prophesy was interpreted as
a warning of the arrival of the Spaniards and Christianity.

These prophecies are included in the sacred books, which were
appropriately called /Chilam Balam/. Each settlement wrote its own book
for which there are /Chilam Balames/ of Maní, Tizimín, Chumayel, Kaua,
Ixil, Tekax, Nah, Tusik, and there are references of /Chilams/ from
Teabo, Peto, Nabulá, Tehosuco, Tixcocob, Telchac, Hocabá and Oxkutzcab.

Thus, the initiative of writing the new books in an indigenous tongue
utilizing the writing taught by the Spanish was common in the whole
Yucatán peninsula, as was common in the entire Mayan area. Furthermore,
though the style of the books of Yucatán is distinct from those of the
books of Guatemala, in all of them, the structure and contents
faithfully preserve the religious traditions and the memory of the past.
They all constitute a form of continuity of being and identity
appropriate to the Mayan people at the moment of the Spanish imposition
of a new religion and some new social, political and economic forms that
reduced that people to servitude in their own territories. Such is, from
this standpoint, the chief merit of these books, many of which have been
kept until the present time in the hands of the indigenous communities,
as, for example, the discovery of one of them in 1973, of the Quichés of
Totonicapán, Guatemala.

The /Libros de Chilam Balam/ were written on European paper, in the form
of notebooks, at times with cowhide covers. In general, they are
compilations of diverse texts written in different epochs, starting from
the 16th century. There are written myths (some Mayan, some Christian),
historical, (principally about the lineage of the Xiúes and the Itzaes),
prophetical, ritualistic, medical, astronomical and chronological
(tablets from the series of /Katunes/, with its Christian equivalent,
explanations of the indigenous calendars and the eclipses; additionally,
other astronomical texts where European ideas of the 16th century are
revealed); literary texts and diverse others not classified.

Barrera Vásquez and Silvia Rendón, experts on Mayan writings, maintain
that the naturally indigenous religious and historical texts were copied
from ancient codices, which fact is quite likely, since the quantity of
events, names and exact dates contained in these documents could not
have been kept entirely in the memory. The history of the Itzaes, for
example, springs from a /katún/ 8 /Ahau/ corresponding to 415-435 AD.
The same thing occurs in the books of Guatemala: the Popol Vuh bears
witness to the existence of an ancient book from which the narration of
the origin of the world has been taken.

Some prominent family of the town guarded the books, and when they
became deteriorated, they were copied, resulting in errors of
transcription and the adding of words and phrases. Likely, new texts
were being integrated according to the criteria of the keepers. The
known versions, consequently, are not the originals of the 16th century,
but were copies of copies made in the last part of the 17th and 18th
centuries.

The /Chilam Balam de Chumayel/ proceeds from Chumayel, a district of
Tehax, Yucatán. It is supposed that the compiler was a native of Yucatán
named Juan José Hoil, since his name appears on page 81 of the
manuscript, next to the date January 20, 1782, but it is clear that
later other persons participated who interpolated diverse texts. The
book passed to the possession of some sacerdote or his secretary, named
Justo Balam, who wrote two baptismal registrations on one of the blank
pages of the book, in 1832 and 1833. In 1838 it passed into the hands of
Pedro de Alcántara Briceño, from San Antonio, who made a entry on the
same page, expressing that he had bought the book "in his poverty," for
the price of one peso, probably from a sacerdote, who was perhaps Diego
Hoil, the son of the original compiler. At some time during the next ten
years, the book of /Chumayel/ was acquired by Audomaro Molina, and from
him it passed to don Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona, bishop of Yucatán. In
1868 it was copied by hand by Dr. Carl Hermann Berendt and various
fragments were published by Daniel Brinton in his work /Maya
Chronicles/. (Juan Martínez Hernández published a translation in Spanish
from these chronicles and from other fragments of the book in 1912,
1913, 1927, and 1928.) In 1887, it was photographed by Teobert Maler,
and after the death of Carrillo y Ancona in 1897, it passed to Ricardo
Figueroa.

In 1910, George B. Gordon, director of the Museum of the University of
Pennsylvania, made a photographic reproduction, and edited it in a
facsimile form in 1913, returning it to Figueroa, in whose house it was
seen by Sylvanus G. Morley, distinguished Mayan Archeologist. Upon the
death of Figueroa in 1915, the manuscript passed to the Biblioteca
Cepeda de Mérida. When Morely visited this library in 1918, the sacred
book of Chumayel had been stolen along with other manuscripts.
Fortunately the photographs of Maler and Gordon remained.

In 1938 it appeared for sale in the United States for the amount of
$7,000, and later was offered to Morely for $5,000.

The first complete translation of the work was the Spanish version of
Antonio Mediz Bolio, edited in Costa Rica, by the /Repertorio Americano/
in 1930. The second complete version was that of Ralph L. Roys, in
English, edited by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1933.

In 1931, William Gates, who collected a large number of original
manuscripts on photographic reproductions, published his own version of
some fragments in the /Maya Society Quarterly/, Vol. 1. Various
fragments were included in the version Alfredo Barrera Vásquez and
Silvia Rendón made of the /Libros de Chilam Balam/ in 1938, and that the
Fondo de Cultura Económica edited under the name of /El Libro de los
libros de Chilam Balam/. In 1955, Peret translated it into French, and
J. M. Le Clézio prepared another version in French called /Les
Prophéties du Chalam Balam/, that Gillimard published in 1976.

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México edited the version of Mediz
Bolio in the in the Biblioteca del Estudiante Universitario (the
University student Library), number 21, in 1941, with a new Introduction
of the translator; in 1952 and 1973 the second and third editions were
published. The same version was re-edited in 1980, in the anthology
entitled /Literatura Maya/, prepared by Mercedes de la Garza for the
Biblioteca Ayacucho, of Caracas, Venezuela.

As for the contents of the /Chilam Balam de Chumayel/, the majority of
the texts are religious, distinguishing the individual fragments from
the cosmological myths, without apparent connection between them;
perhaps they refer to the distinct cosmic catastrophes that are found in
the myths of other groups, such as the Quichés and the Nahuas. Others
are ritual texts, prophesies of the /Katunes/, symbolic formulas of
religious initiation, as the "Language of Zuyída", calendar and
astronomical texts, and historical ones about the main groups of Yucatán
and about the Spanish conquest. The work ends with the famous prophesies
about the arrival of a new religion, attributed to Chilam Balam and
other miracle workers.

The mythical and prophetic writings are rendered in an archaic language,
highly symbolic and multivocal, employing metaphorical objects, colors
and natural beings to express ideas; besides, there is an abundant use
of synthetic formulas, through which the texts have an esoteric or
secret character that seeks to hide from the profane its true meaning.
As in many sacred books there are parallelisms (repetition of the same
thought in different terms), redundancies and enumerations that give the
texts their own rhythm in order to allow them to re recited or sung.

On the other hand, the historical fragments endeavor to consolidate and
be true to the facts and the dates of their occurrence ­ as the
historical facts in the old codices should be recorded, to be later told
to the people in a narrative form. In this latter case, there is an
eagerness for clarity and precision that contrasts with the metaphoric
language of the religious texts. The historical writings express to us,
furthermore, that in the colonial period the events were still recorded
so they could serve as a basis for the prediction of the future,
according to the cyclic concept of history that the ancient Mayans had.
For example, on August 18, 1766 a wind storm was recorded and the writer
affirms: "I write its memory so that one can see how many years
afterwards there is going to be another."

The narrations of the Spanish conquest are notable for their
dramatization, which corroborates for us that these books were written
with a defensive attitude and with the zeal of affirming the ancient
beliefs, and to "banish Christianity," as the Spaniards pretended to
"banish idolatry." We see in these fragments painful lamentations due to
the arrival of the Spaniards, indignation and contempt for their
rapacious attitude and their lust, which is expressed with the symbol of
the May flower. These subjects reveal the central preoccupations of the
Mayans of Chumayel who intended to express them through writing so they
would not be forgotten by their descendants.

Regarding the complete translations made directly from the Mayan, we can
say that the Roys version, accompanied by the transcription of the Mayan
text, is the result of a complex critical work that included a
comparison with other /Chilames/, mainly the ones of Tizimén and of
Maní, as the author obtained photographs of the three books from Gates.
Roys indicates that the work is very difficult to translate, since the
original language now is obscure, fundamentally because it deals with
archaic terms that are currently obsolete, above all the names of
deities and plants ­ which today are unknown. To the symbolism of the
text is joined the fact that Latin and stereotyped words are inserted.
In another part, the authors committed errors in spelling. For example,
in the use of the letter C (instead of Z), occasionally the cedilla
(e.g., as in façade) was omitted. Besides, many words were arbitrarily
broken up, i.e., the same word is divided in different ways on the same
page. Another problem is that the meaning of the sentences can be read
in three different ways, for which it is necessary to take into
consideration the context, and to make comparisons with parallel
fragments from other indigenous books. It was necessary, therefore, to
have recourse to Spanish colonial sources, such as dictionaries and
chronicles, archeological evidence, ethnological facts and linguistic
aspects of other languages. Such measures gave more reliable results
than those obtained by consulting Mayan residents, who would overlook
many terms. Roys, with a base in all these difficulties, established a
critical text in his final translation.

As far as the Spanish version /[upon which this English translation is
based]/ presented here is concerned, it is fitting to say that Antonio
Mediz Bolio, skilled in the Mayan tongue, endeavored to make a clear
translation that, however, preserved "all the literal strength of the
Mayan expression." At times, nevertheless, he seems to prefer the beauty
of the expression to the literal meaning, which results in a profoundly
emotional and poetical version. Of his labor, the same translator tells us:

/"It is certain that sometimes, above all when one crosses the synthetic
tangle of archaic religious texts, it is necessary to interpret a
little, at the same time as translating literally and that, on occasion,
one stumbles over the difficulty of finding, when being precise, too
much rigidity in our words when we try to use them to represent the
authentic Mayan meaning ­ which often is very subtle and abstract ­
which, especially in the religious concepts, never ceases to have a
somewhat allegorical intention and occult essence./

/"But I can sincerely say that, except when necessary, I have not
interpreted but translated with persevering fidelity, concept by
concept, leaving it up to those who study these mysterious writings to
understand and interpret them according to their own personal intuition."/

And he ends by saying:

/"For my part, I could only boast about having put into this version,
through long and arduous vigils consecrated to this endeavor, all my
love and strength in carrying out an honest work that in some way
contributes to the knowledge of the ineffable spirit of the mysterious
and very ancient race, in the midst of whose last offspring I was born
and have lived the better part of my life." /

We hope that, as the ancient Mayans of Chumayel wished, their sacred
book continues to live. May these words be listened to, revealing the
being of the Mayan man and of his zeal to preserve his identity and
dignity, trampled upon by the conquistadors and by many others since
then. We hope that these words communicate something of their profound
significance, something that has meaning today, such as the anonymous
writer of this fragment of the /Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel/
expressed:

/"This is the memory of the things that happened and they did. Now all
is passed. They speak with their own words and thus not all is
understood of its meaning; but rightly as it all happened so it is
written. Now again it all will be very well explained. And perhaps it
will not be bad . . . . Truly many were their 'Real Men.' Not in order
to sell betrayals did they like to be united some with others; but all
that is herein contained or how much needs to be explained is not yet
apparent. Those who know it come from our great lineage, that of the
Mayan men. These will understand the meaning of what is in here when
they read it. And then they will see it and then explain it, and then
the obscure signs of the Katún will be clear. It is so because they are
the sacerdotes. The sacerdotes ended, but not their name, ancient as
they are."/

*INTRODUCTION: THE MAYANS AND THEIR SPIRITUAL INVOLVEMENT*

*If we begin with the idea that the sacred or spiritual realm is that
which man considers to be transcendent reality, i.e., that which is
superior to himself and to nature, then, in order to comprehend a
religion, we have to base it on that which the religious man expresses
of this transcendent reality, that is to say, on myths, symbols and
rites created within the environment of a specific culture. Each town or
pueblo has a collection of expressions of its personal experiences about
that which is sacred, which are in agreement with particularities of its
culture and its historical moment. This implies that each pueblo has a
distinct religion, constantly changing and transforming. This means that
the religions are historical, that is to say, that they constitute
particular and dynamic forms of capturing the sacredness.*

*Nevertheless, in the diverse religions there are common structures ?
universal symbols, because in the psyche and in the development of man
in the world there are also common structures, based on similar forms of
personal experience and perception of reality. Due to this, we find
parallel meanings in the concepts and myths of many religions, not
communicated in time and space; for example, the ideas of cosmic trees,
of an axis of the world, of the aquatic origin of the universe, etc.*

*In the prehispanic Mayan world, religion was the foundation of
community living. The different cultural creations emerge from a
peculiar religious conception, according to which the whole universe is
penetrated by sacred energies which, unfolding in multiple combinations,
determine everyday life.*

*For the Mayans, man is in a certain way harmonized with divine nature,
that his being is constituted of vegetable and animal substances, and
his energy flow is governed by the same laws as the physical world, at
the same time that the universe comports itself and acts like a man.
That is to say, man is cosmic and the cosmos is anthropomorphic.
Besides, man's spirit, divided into one part impulsive and irrational,
and in another part conscious and rational. It lives simultaneously in a
human body and in that of a wild animal, thus also reconciling the scope
pf the organized community and the environment of nature. But man and
nature are subject to that which is sacred. The universe was conceived
by the Mayans as a scene and manifestation of the divine forces, like a
great collection of hierofanías? manifestations of what is sacred and,
kratofanías, manifestations of power. The great cosmic levels (heaven,
earth and the underworld), which were not for them static spaces, but
were in constant movement and change, were populated by multiple visible
and sensitive expressions of what is divine; meaning that the sacred was
revealed before men in many of the beings who inhabited the three
levels. Thus, the stars are gods; the elements are gods, such as water,
earth, wind and fire (represented above all by lightning); the great
mountains are divine, some trees (like the bombax or silk-cotton tree),
some vegetables (like corn) and some animals (like the quetzal, the
jaguar and the serpent).*

*And time, which was put in order and systematized (thanks to the
development of mathematics) in groupings of lapses (durations of time)
that are repeated cyclically, also was deified. Within great cycles or
ages of the universe are produced an infinity of minor cycles, whose
origin is to the Mayans that of bodies or vehicles that, with a leather
strap, transport deities with human form. These, which are the numbers,
arrive "carrying time," travel through a certain space, on one of the
four cardinal directions of the land, and leave when "exhaustion" hits
them, passing the burden of time to the next deity. These minor cycles
range from days or kines to the lapses of 64 million years. Therefore,
time, that blows up space, is not simply the transit of one carrier
alone with his load, but of many carriers simultaneously, each one with
its corresponding lapse: the days, months, years, periods of 20 years or
katunes, etc. And as these carriers are gods, they always bring to the
world either a beneficent or malevolent influence, according to the
different combinations. In this way each god-time has diverse meanings,
according to its movement and relationship to the others. This
relationship is one of the more original conceptions of time that has
been created and it reveals a consciousness of temporality without
parallel in ancient cultures.*

*So, that which is sacred for the Mayans is diversified in multiple
deities, whom are versatile because of being subject to temporality;
that is, they have various meanings and functions, such as different
forms. The Pantheon or gathering of Mayan gods escapes all logic of
identity and lack of contradiction, since many gods are one and several
at the same time, good and bad, masculine and feminine, celestial and
terrestrial.*

*The gods that appear represented in plastic arts and mentioned in the
texts are characterized, in general, by uniting human, animal and
vegetable attributes, but above all, are hybrid beings of man and animal
or a combination of various animals. These figures, however, are not the
gods themselves as naturally mentioned, but rather are symbolic images
of the great cosmic forces or natural elements that, in their turn, are
the physical manifestations of what is sacred or hierofanías material.*

*The anthropomorphic (man like) or zoomorphic (animal like) figures that
received the cult, the ill-named idols, seem to have been only
representations of divine beings; nevertheless, at the moment that the
cult was established, the god would have incarnated, since the offerings
were placed in their mouth, and they then received a special treatment
as sacred objects.*

*But the great natural forces (heaven, sun, rain, wind, earth, etc.)
were conceived with some human characteristics, since they were angry,
happy, acted willfully and, above all, were nourished with the blood and
offerings of men. At times one god has an animal representation and
another anthropomorphic, although the human forms of deities have always
some extraordinary characteristics ? like fangs, reptilian eyes, claws
or wings. The most common are the features of a snake, of feline and
bird, the main symbolic animals in the Mayan religion. These deities
also act like patrons of lapses (time periods), thus connecting
themselves with the time-gods.*

*Among the many gods of the Mayan pantheon, stand out the creators and
those who symbolize life and death, who are related to the great
environments of the universe.*

*For the Quichés of Guatemala, the creator gods are one unit of deities
that form a council, which decides and achieves the creation of the
world. These gods form pairs and most of them have an animal nature, for
example, Hunahpú Vuch, "Hunter Tlacuache", goddess of dawn, and her
partner Hunahpú Utiú, "Hunter Coyote", god of the night. Another
partnership is formed by Zaqui-Nimá-Tziis, "Great White Trampler", old
mother goddess, and Nim Ac, "Great Pig or Mountain Javelina". These gods
are also named Tzacol and Bitol, "Creator of the Maker", mother goddess
and father god ? engenderers (begetters), "Heart and Spirit of the
Lagoon", "Heart of Heaven", "Lord of the Green Dish" (the earth), "Lord
of the Blue Gourd" (the sky). Next to them, Gucumatz appears as "Plumed
Serpent", as a vital principle, as generating water which gives origin
to the life of the world, since the plumes are a symbol of water, of
what is precious, like blood, jade, and the serpent ? i.e., vital
energy. Gucumatz is identified with Huracán, also an aquatic deity that
forms part of the council of creator gods.*

*In the cosmogonic Mayan myths, of Yucatán, the plumed serpent also
appears as vital energy giving birth to the world and is called Canhel,
"Serpent or Dragon", related to rain and primordial water (chaos or
mother-space), the original material (prima materia) from which the
world emerges.*

*In this way, the incarnated serpent, in the Mayan religion, is the
generated sacred energy that gives perpetual life to the cosmos. For
this pueblo the existence of the universe follows a cyclic law of death
and rebirth, of creations and destructions, which are based upon a
conflict of opposites. These are represented by antagonistic divine
forces, which are the celestial beings and the gods of the underworld.
The former represented life, and the latter death. The Mayans of Yucatán
tell of a cosmic catastrophe originated by the action of the new gods of
the underworld on the 13 gods of the sky: a fight in which death defeats
life and, as such, destroys the world and men perish. When, after this,
the principle of life (Canhel, the plumed serpent) is stolen by the
(creator) gods from the 9 underworld strata (Bolontiku) and given to the
gods of the 13 celestial strata (Oxlahuntiku), a flood ensues which
provokes the collapse of the sky (heaven) and the sinking of the earth
(land). When this cataclysm ends, the world is rearranged by the
Bacabes, gods of the four earthly regions and supporters of the sky, and
men associated with corn appear, men of the present epoch.*

*The Mayans of Guatemala (in the Popol Vuh) tell of the creation of the
world in a cosmogonic myth that can be considered as the best structured
and most complete. In it they express how creator gods, reunited in
council, decide to create the world so that a being who venerates and
supports the gods inhabits it. Once the world is organized, there are
several attempts to form human beings, that correspond to the cosmic
creations and destructions referred to in other myths. They speak also
about a deluge, but also of burning resin, that destroys the men of wood
because these were not aware of their creators. After this deluge, the
gods create the man of cornmeal, the present man, who is the conscious
being who venerates and feeds the gods. In this myth, too, there is a
fight of the beings of the underworld, the gods of death, with the
celestial beings, Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué, who, after conquering death,
are transformed into the sun and the moon, starting off the time of the
men.*

*The men of corn are conscious because of having been formed with a
sacred substance and with blood from the gods; their mission on earth
will be to communicate with the deities, offering them their blood so
that they will continue to exist and to give life to the world and to
men. Thus blood is converted into the vital principle through the
excellence that unites men with gods.*

*Regarding the structure of the world, we find two conceptions among the
Mayans: one geometric and another animal, which in religious mentality
is not a contradiction.*

*For them the cosmos is constructed through 3 horizontal planes placed
in a vertical order: the sky or heaven, divided into 13 layers or
strata; the earth, perhaps conceived as a quadrangular iron; and the
underworld, divided into 9 layers or strata. Perhaps the sky was
intended to be formed as an inverted pyramid. The sky, the earth and the
underworld are divided into 4 sectors, corresponding to the 4 cardinal
points.*

*Each sector has a color: black for the West, white for the North,
yellow for the South and red for the East. In the directions of the land
a silk-cotton tree of the corresponding color is raised, on which has
alighted a sacred bird of the same color. In the center stands straight
the "Great Mother Silk-Cotton Tree" or green ceibá, whose roots
penetrate to the underworld and whose leaves go through the heavens,
constituting itself in the bond of union of the three great planes.*

*At the same time, the sky and the fertility proceeding from it were
symbolized in the Mayan religion as a being having serpent, lizard and
bird features, and that sometimes it is represented with deer hoofs: the
dragon called Itzam Na by the Yucatán Mayans. This reptilian monster has
various forms in its plastic representations, according to the style of
each region; it can appear as a bicephalous dragon or a 2-headed plumed
serpent; and also as a bird with serpent features. The celestial dragons
are seen above all in sculptured works of the Classical period (300-900
AD) proceeding from Copán, Quiriguá, Palenque and other places;
likewise, they are seen in the codices of the Post Classical Period
(900-1524 AD) as beings having a scaly body of a serpent, feet with
claws or deer hoofs and heads of a stylized serpent. Its body has at
times astral symbols and from it fall streams of water, such as from its
open mouth downward. In other representations, the celestial monster has
the form of a 2-headed plumed serpent, with aquatic symbols on his body;
The fantastic heads have feathers, flames, circles and a fang coiled in
the corner of their mouths, which are seen in all the representations of
serpents. Out of their open and elongated mandibles emerge on many
occasions the figure of some anthropomorphic god of fertility, as that
of the sun and of vegetation. Examples of this celestial 2-headed
serpent are seen on the lintel (upper part of a door) 25 of Yaxchilán,
the tablet of the Temple of the Inscriptions of Palenque and the north
and east buildings of the Quadrangle of the Nuns of Uxmal. *

*Because of some images where the bicephalous body of the serpent
appears adorned with signs of directions, and because of certain
references in the texts, we know that the serpent that symbolizes heaven
among the Mayans was the jingle bell of the dorsal of rhombus (Crotalus
durissus terrificus), one of the most dangerous and imposing of the
Mayan region, called in Yucatán Mayan and Ahau Can, "Lord Serpent."*
*The relationship of this animal symbol of the sky with the geometric
conception is that there are four great monsters, of the colors of the
cosmic atmospheres, situated in the four heavenly regions.*

*Itzam Na is mainly associated with water and sky, for which it seems to
have symbolized rain or fecund energy derived from it. The two heads can
represent the wet and dry seasons, but also the duality of cosmic
opposites, whose conflict makes life possible - a concept that was
common to the Mesoamerican pueblos.*

*On the other hand, the symbol of the plumed serpent, tied to Itzam Na,
appears in the Mayan region from the end of the Preclassic Period (2000
BC to 300 AD) representing fertility. The combined qualities of the bird
and serpent constituted the religious symbol of excellence in the
Mesoamerican world; it also seems to have represented the cosmic vital
principle that gives birth to the world (the fecund energy of the
cosmogonic myths), the fertility of the sky, in other words the rain,
which for the agrarian towns is the basis of subsistence. For the
Nahuas, in the central high plain, the plumed serpent had also a place
of first importance among the manifestations of what is sacred, and he
was called Quetzalcóatl. With the arrival of Nahuan groups to the Mayan
area at the start of the Postclassical Period, Quetzalcóatl was
identified with the plumed serpent already existent for many centuries,
and he was venerated mainly in Chichén Itzá by the name of Kukulcán, who
also means plumed serpent.*

*Itzam Na had an anthropomorphic representation: the god D of the
codices, identified with the deity that the written sources mention.
These say that Itzam Na was the lord of the "dew or substance of the
sky," which alludes to rain; that he was a creator god and supreme god,
inventor of the calendar, writing, medicine and agriculture - meaning a
cultural hero. This humanized figure is represented as an old man with a
large and quadrangular eye, derived from the eye of the serpent, an
aquiline nose and toothless mouth. It was that he lived in the sky and
sent rain ? his name so indicated this, since Itzam means "sorcerer of
the water" or "he who has occult powers in the water." One of his
hieroglyphics carries the sign Ahau, or "lord", related to the
rattlesnake that is the celestial monster, the animal version of Itzan Na.*

*The anthropomorphic Itzan Na has a feminine aspect or a companion, the
goddess Ixchebel Yax, patron of painting and embroidery. In the codices
it is the goddess O, the weaver, who is represented with a twisted
serpent on her head and a roll of cotton. She appears at times
accompanied by the celestial dragon and throwing, like him, water on the
earth.*

*The sun also was considered as a manifestation of what was sacred in
the Mayan world. In the written sources he receives the names of Kin,
"Day" or "Sun"; Ah Kin, "He of the Sun"; Kinich Ahau, "Face of the Sun"
or "Lord of the Solar Eye." He is represented in humanoid form in the
codices carrying a glyph Kin, which is a flower of 4 petals, and a strip
hanging from the corner of his mouth. The incisors appear smooth and his
eyes are large, quadrangular and squinting. He has a slight relation
with Itzam Na because of being also a heavenly deity and linked to
fertility; the united energies of both produce life on earth. That is
why Itzan Na is at times called Itzan Na Kinich Ahau. He is patron of
the number 4, associated with the 4 cardinal directions of the universe
by those who transit the sun, producing temporality. Just as he has a
beneficent aspect, so he has a malevolent one, presenting himself as the
deity who razes the harvests. And besides being a heavenly god, he is
god of the underworld, lord of night, since at dusk there is a descent
to the region of the dead. In many of hid representations he is also
associated with the serpent, due to his relationship to fertility.*

*The sun has an animal manifestation and then he is called Kinich
Kahmoo, "solar macaw face of fire." For that reason, at times he is
represented by a macaw head and human body, carrying in his hands
lighted torches, symbol of draught and braising heat. He was venerated
in Izamal, Yucatán, and it was said that he came down flying in the form
of a macaw to receive the offerings of men.*

*His companion, apparently, is Ixchel, goddess of the moon, birth,
procreation and medicine. She had a great sanctuary in Cozumel, where
pilgrims came from many places of the greater area. As a goddess of
medicine she was given a party in the month Zip, in which doctor and
sorcerers brought their remedies in packages. At the same time other
gods of medicine were involved, among them was Itzam Na in a humanized
aspect.*

*As a human goddess and patron of births, Ixchel was related to water,
the vital principle, and was venerated in various aquatic places, like
the cave of Bolonchén, Yucatán, called "Hidden or Guarded Lady";
likewise she is linked to the earth, as a great mother. In the codices
she is the named goddess I, who is represented as a young woman with a
coiffeur of a twisted serpent on her head.*

*Among the Quiché of Guatemala, the sun and moon were two human persons,
demi-gods, called Hunahpú and Ixbalanque, as we had indicated
previously. These gods, after going down to the underworld to play ball
with the gods of death - that is, of passing an initiatory trial in
which they die and are reborn - ascend to heaven and become stars. With
this, the word of the creation of the world is fulfilled.*

*In spite of the fact that the celestial monster had as a function the
production of rain, there is a deity that incarnates rain itself; he is
named Chaac in Yucatán, an anthropomorphic deity of a serpentine
character, linked as much to the sky as to the earth.*

*For the Mayans, the terrestrial water of rivers, lagoons and seas is
not different from the water of rain, except that the latter proceeds
from the former, and for them water is in constant movement: it ascends
to form the clouds and then descends in the form of rain to render the
land fertile. This movement is caused by divine beings of serpentine
character and besides, the terrestrial water (what ascends) as well as
the celestial water (what descends) is also symbolized by serpents. This
cyclic transit of water is expressed in the codices with the following
image: a serpent forming with its body a receptacle containing water, as
well as water rising from open mouths. The god of rain rises (called god
B and represented as a man with a long nose serpentine eye and curved
fangs from the corner of the mouth) - this rising provoked, perhaps, by
the celestial monster. In other representations we see god B falling
from the heights. That is why the Mayans of Guatemala said: " . . .
water is a god who knows many paths and has much strength as he climbs
to the sky in order to bring rain.*

*Chaac is another of the quadruple deities of the Yucatán Mayans and his
cult is preserved even today. In other Mayan groups, as those of
Chiapas, the god of the thunderbolt is called Chauk, and is perhaps a
descendent of Chaac; therefore one of the attributes of this latter god
was a raised hatchet that symbolized the thunderbolt.*

*This association between Itzam Na and Chaac is very narrow now that
both symbolize rain, but it could be that while Chaac incarnates water,
the celestial and terrestrial serpents signify the vital energy which
generates it and one would deal with the same sacred aqueous energy from
the beginning of all time, the plumed serpent with which the creator
gods produced the life of the universe.*

*Regarding the terrestrial level, besides being represented in the
codices by a receptacle-serpent, it was symbolized with an erect serpent
from whose mouths the sun comes out - just as it comes over the horizon
at dawn - so much so that its tail penetrates the underworld and
surrounds the god of death, communicating to him its vital energy. That
is, that the underworld, more than being a distinct region in the animal
symbolism of the Mayan religion, is the womb of the great mother earth,
from which life is generated, since there are the subterranean riches:
seeds and precious stones that symbolize water.*

*But there also is the region of death, the Metnal, the dwelling place
to where the immortal heart of man arrives, except for those who because
of a special form of death were going to heaven with the sun or to the
paradise of the ceiba tree with the aquatic gods. And because of that,
the gods of death dwell in this region. These are represented by a
corrupt anthropomorphic body, a fleshless body or a skeleton. The god of
death among the Yucatán Mayans is Ah Puch, "The Fleshless One" or Kisin,
and among the Quichés for whom the place of death is called Xibalbá,
"Region of those who vanish," the underworld gods are Hun Camé, "One
Death" and Vucub Camé, "Seven Death," at whose side are the gods who
cause illnesses. In the codices, he is god A.*

*Thus, the underworld is life and death in the cycle of time; it
expresses the idea that from death comes life, and life ends in death.*

*Another terrestrial deity, the most well-known, is a great reptilian
monster, crocodile or fantastic lizard. In the plastic Mayan arts it is
represented as a great fleshless stone mask with an animal appearance,
to which it has been called "Monster of the Earth" Or "Land Monster." In
the texts it is named Itzam Cab, "Wizard of the land Water", Itzam Cab
Ain, "Wizard of the Land Water Crocodile," or rather Chac Mumul Ain,
"Great Muddy Crocodile," names that corroborate its reptilian character.
Examples of these stone masks are seen on the panel of the Temple of
Cruz Foliada of Palenque and in Temple 22 of Copán.*

*Therefore, just as the sky was symbolized by a reptile monster, so
earth was also, constituting in this way reptiles into animal symbols
par excellence in Mayan thinking.*

*Man, then, finds himself immersed in this sacred cosmos. As much in his
essence as in his existence he participates in what is sacred, but all
that which is sacred is monstrous and terrible. It is the other thing,
what is incognito, the inaccessible, the inexplicable; and the
reconciliation with it requires self-sacrifice, handing over one's own
life. Man is distinguished from the other beings by his conscious
awareness, which allows him to be linked with the gods through the
ritual. As provider of nourishment for divine beings, man has in his
hands the existence of the world, which is created and maintained by the
gods. In this sense neither men nor gods are perfect, since both are
mutually dependent upon one another; both are insufficient unto
themselves, but the dynamic harmony they constitute gives them
sufficiency.*

*The Mayan forms of venerating the gods were multiple, but the prayers
and self-sacrifices or gifts of something of one's self to the deities
stand out. These are from offerings of flowers, incense 9copal, food and
drinks, to the spilling of one's own blood or the offering of a human
life to nourish the life of the gods. In the rites there also were
processions, dances, song and dramatic representations; all the
community participated, headed by the sacerdotal group, who carried out
the main acts of the rites.*

*A good part of the Mayan life was dedicated to ritual; there were
ceremonies of the time periods, agricultural rites, rites of different
activities and professions, rites of the life cycle (pregnancy, birth,
infancy, puberty, marriage and death) and some initiatory rites reserved
for the priests and governors.*

*An essential aspect of the ritual was the prophecy based upon the
cyclic idea of time; so just as the sun returns each morning and the
seasons return, and vegetation becomes green again, the same divine
influences of the lapses return, causing the repetition of events.
Because of this, one of the principle functions of the priests was to
know these influences, thanks to their complex and precise calendar
system, and to warn the community, helping it to thus prepare itself to
receive the future with diverse rites that propitiated good influences
and to exorcise the evil ones.*

*The prophecy played a decisive role in the life of the prehispanic
Mayan; it went from personal horoscopes, elaborated when each child was
born, to general predictions for different calendar periods. In order to
conduct and fulfill any activity, they first had to consult the priest
or chilam, who analyzing everything in the ritual calendar or Tzolkin,
indicated the propitious day for the enterprise.*

*But the central part of the ritual was the offering of blood and human
hearts to the gods, since blood is the energy of divine origin that
instills life in men, animals and gods, substantially to these three
entities of the universe. Giving blood to the gods, man completes the
mission for which he was created: to maintain the life of what is
sacred, and thus, that of the whole cosmos that depends upon it.*

*Their multiple symbolic figures in which what is sacred is manifested
among the Mayans and their varied ritual practices, constitute a
religion according to the plurality that in all the holy orders reveal
its culture, and with its sense of profound union with the land and
life. The complex and multivariate Mayan gods reveal that human richness
about which Fernando Savater speaks when he says that this polytheism
represents " . . . the primate of what is open, is plural, for respect
to the difference, it does not demand faith, but piety. It does not look
for the abstraction that erases sacred places, but the taking root of
what is religious in the sense of the earth." *

*THE BOOKS OF THE CHILAM BALAM*

*Book of the Lineages*

*The Lord of the South is the root of the lineage of the great Uc.
Xkantacay is his name. And it is the stock of the lineage of Ah Puch.*

*Nine rivers guarded them. Nine mountains guarded them. The red flint is
the sacred stone of Ah Chac Mucen Cab. The Mother Red Ceiba (a tropical
tree), its Hidden Center, is in the East. The chacalpucté is their tree.
Theirs are the red zapote and the red reeds. The red turkeys of a yellow
crest are their turkeys. The red and toasted corn id their corn.**

*The white flint is the sacred stone of the North. The Mother White
Ceiba is the Invisible Center of Sac Mucen Cab. The white turkeys are
their turkeys. The lima beans are their beans. The white corn is their
corn.**

*The black flint is the stone of the West. The Mother Black Ceiba is
their Hidden Center. The black and spiral corn is their corn. The black
camote de pazóne (sweet potato) is their sweet potato. The black turkeys
are their turkeys. The black night is their home. The black bean is
their bean. The black lima bean is their lima bean.**

*The yellow flint is the stone of the South. The Yellow Mother Ceiba is
their Hidden Center. The yellow pucté is their tree. Yellow is their
sweet potato. Yellow are their turkeys. The kidney bean with a yellow
back is their bean.**

------------------------------------------------------------------------
** It is interesting that black-yellow-white-red are alchemically the
four successive stages in the formation of the Philosophers Stone in the
work of inner personal transformation. Whether or not there is a
connection between this and the four categories stated in the Chilam
Balam text is a matter of comjecture.*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*With the /Eleven Ahau Katún/ (a /katún/ consists of 20 /tunes/, or a
360-day year) appears the retinue of their servants.*

*And Ah Ppisté began to come. This Ah Ppisté was the measure of the earth.*

*And then came Chacté Abán, to prepare the measurings of land to be
cultivated.*

*And Uac Habnal came to mark the measurings with signs of the herb;
while Miscit Ahau came to clean the marked out lands and Ah Ppipsul, the
measurer, came, who measured wide areas.*

*This was when the chiefs of the directional routes established Ix Noh
Uc, Chief of the East. Ox Tocoy Moo, Chief of the East. Ox Pauah, Chief
of the East. Ah Mis, Chief of the East.*

*Batún, Chief of the North. Ah Puch, Chief of the North. Balamná, Chief
of the North. Aké, Chief of the North.*

*Kan, Chief of the West. Ah Chab, Chief of the West. Ah Uucuch, Chief of
the West.*

*Ah Yamás, Chief of the South. Ah Puch, Chief of the South. Cauich,
Chief of the South. Ah Couoh, Chief of the South. Ah Puc, Chief of the
South.*

*The great Red Bee is the one who is in the East. The red rose is its
cup. The incarnated flower is its flower.*

*The great White Bee is in the north. The white rose is its cup. The
white flower is its flower.*

*The great Black Bee is in the West. The black lilac is its cup. The
black flower is its flower.*

*The great Yellow Bee is in the South. The yellow lilac is its cup. The
yellow flower is its flower.*

*When the multitude of the children of the bees multiplied itself, the
small /Cuzamil/ was the flower of the honey; the mug of honey was the
first apiary and the heart of the earth.*

*Kin Pauah was the great priest, the one who governed the army of the
warriors and was the guardian of Ah Hulneb, on the altar of /Cuzamil/;
and of Ah Yax Ac-chinab and of Kinich Kakmó.*

*Ah-Itz-tzim-thul Chac was worshipped in Ich-caan sihó [Mérida today],
those of Uayom Chchichch. They were priests in Ich-caan-sihó, Canul,
IxPop-ti Balam, and the two Ah Kin Chablé. Their king was Cabal Xiú.*

*The priests of Uxmal worshipped Chac (god of rain), the priests of old
times. And Hapai-Can (blood-sucking serpent) was brought in his boat.
When he arrived, the walls of Uxmal were marked with blood.*

*Then the Serpent of Life [Canhel] from Chac-xib-chac was stolen. And
the Serpent of Life from Sac-xib-hac was also stolen. And the Serpent of
Life from Ek-yuuan-chac was snatched too.*

*Ix Sac-belis was the name of their grandmother. Chac-ek-yuuan-chac was
their father. Hun-yuuan-chac was the younger brother.*

*Uoh-Puc was his name. This was written "Uoh", in the palm of his hand.
And under his throat was written "Uoh". And it was written in the bottom
of his foot. And it was written inside the cheek of his hand, to Ah
Uoh-Pucil, [The Chaques] were not gods. They were giants.*

*Only the true god Great Father was adored in the language of the wisdom
in Mayapán. Ah Kin Cobá was a priest within the walls. Tzulim Chan in
the West. Nauatin the door of the fort in the South. Couoh and Ah Canul,
in the door of the fort in the East. Ah-Ek was another. Behold their
Lord: Ah Tapai Noh. Cauich was the name of their /Halach-Uinic/,
Hunacceel, servant of Ah Mex-cuc.*

*And the latter then asked for a whole flower. And he asked for a white
floor mat. And he ordered two garments. And he ordered blue turkeys. And
he asked for his hunting whip. And he asked for urns of white clay.*

*And from there, they left and arrived at Ppole. There the Itzaes grew
up. At that time and place they had Ix Ppol as mother.*

*Behold, they reached Aké. There children were born to them; there they
were nourished. Aké is the name of this place, they said.*

*Then they reached Alaa. Alaa is the name of this place, they said. And
they came to Kanholá; and to Tixchel. There their language arose and
their knowledge climbed. And then they arrived at Ninum. There the
language and the knowledge of the Itzaes progressed further. And they
reached Chikin-dzonot. They turned their faces to the* *West there.
Chikin-dzonot is the name of this place, they said. And they reached
Tzuc-op. There they divided into groups under a custard apple tree.
Tzuc-op is the name of this place, they said.*

*And they arrived at Tah-cab, where the Itzaes concocted a drink from
honey, dedicating it to the Image of the Sun. And honey was doctored up
and was drunk. Cabilnebá was its name.*

*And they reached Kikil. There they became sick from dysentery. Kikil is
the name of this place, they said.*

*And they reached Panab-haá. There they dug searching for water. And
when they left there, they loaded down their cargoes with water, well
water from the depth. And they arrived at Yalsihón. Yalsihón is the name
of that place that they populated. And they reached Xppitah, also a
town. And then they arrived at Kankab-dzonot. From there they left and
reached Dzulá. And they arrived at Pib-hal-dzonot. And they reached
Tah-aac, which is so-called.*

*And they came to a place that is named T'Cooh. There they bought words
at a heavy cost, there they bought knowledge. Ticoh is the name of this
place.*

*And they arrived at Tikal. There they lived in seclusion. Tikal is the
name of this place.*

*And they came to Ti-maax (today's Temax). There the warriors suddenly
bruised each other. And they arrived at Buc-Tzotz. There they dressed
the hairs on their heads. Buctzotz is the name of this place, they said.
And they reached Dzidzontun. There they began to conquer lands.
Dzidholtun is the name of this place.*

*And they arrived at Yobain. There they were transformed into caimans by
their grandfather Ah Yamás, Lord of the edge of the sea.*

*And they arrived at Sinanché. There the evil spirit named Sinanché
enchanted them.*

*And they reached the town of Chac. And they reached Dzeuc and Pisilbá,
towns of relatives; and another where their grandparents had come. There
they relieved their spirits. Dzemul is the name of this place.*

*And they arrived at Kini, place of Xkil, Itzam-Pech and Xdzeuc, their
relatives. When they arrived where Xkil and Itzam-Pech were, it was a
time of sorrow for them.*

*And they reached Baca. There water reached their bones. Baca is here,
they said.*

*And they reached Sabacnail, place of their ancestors, lineage of the
caste of Ah-Ná. The Chel-Ná were their ancestors.*

*When they arrived there, where the practice was of the Ná people, they
went into a meditative state.*

*And they came to Ixil. And they went to Chulul. And they reached
Chichicaan. And then they went to Holtún-Chablé. And they came to
Itzamná, and then to Chubulná. And they reached Caucel. There the cold
overpowered them. "Cá-ú-ceel" is here, they said.*

*And then they reached Ucú. There they said: "Yá-ú-cú" ("the elbow
hurts").*

*And they went to Hunucmá, and to Kinchil, and to Kaná. And they reached
Xpetón, a town, and Sahab-balam, and then Tah-cum-chakán. And they
arrived at Balché, and then Uxmal.*

*From there they left and reached Yubak, and then Munaa. There their
language became tender and their knowledge became smooth.*

*And they went to Ox-loch-hok, then to Chak-akal, and then to Xocné-ceh.
The deer was their tutelary genius (temperament) when they arrived. *

*And they went to Ppustunich; and to Pucnal-Chac and to Ppenhuyut; and
to Paxueuet and to Xayá. And they reached the place called tistis; then
to Chican and Tix-meuac, and to Hunacthi and Tzalis; and Musbulná and
Tizáa and Lop (actually Tixholop); and Cheemi-uán and Ox-cah-uanká; and
finally Sacbacel-caan.*

*When they arrived, the names of the towns that did not have it were
already complete, and those of the wells, so that one could know where
they had passed walking, in order to see if the land was good and if it
was established in those places. They said that this was called the
"order of the land."*

*Our Father God was the one who ordained this land.*

*He created and ordained everything in the world.*

*And they named the country and the towns and named the wells in which
they were established and named the high lands that were populated and
named the fields where their dwellings were. This was so because no one
had ever arrived here, to the "pearl of the throat of the land," when we
arrived* *Subinché. Kaua. Cum-canul. Ti-em-tun. There they brought down
precious stones. Sizal. Sacií. Ti-dzoc. There ended the course of the
/Katún/. Timocón. Popolá. There was extended the matting (political
power) of the /Katún/. Tixmaculum. There they made their language
occult. Dzitháás. Honkauil. Tixmex. Kochilá. Tix-xocen. Chumpak.
Pibahul. Tunkáás. Haaltunha. Kuxhilá. Dzidzilché. Ti-cool. Stilpech.
Chalanté. There their spirit rested.*

*Itzam-thulil. Tipakab. There they made seeds. Tiyá. Consahcab.
Dzidzomtun. As did their ancestors, they lay down a foot of conquest and
conquered the Doors of Stone. Popolá, to the south of Sinanché, in order
to come to Muci and to the well of Sac-nicté and to Sodzil. Here, where
they marked the border of the /Katún/, is the place named Mutumut, which
is here in Mutul. Muxupip. Aké. Hoctun. There they stopped at the foot
of the stone. Xoc-chchel Boh. Sac-cab-há. Tzanlahcat. Human. There the
word resounded upon them, there its fame sounded. Chalamté. Pacaxúa.
This is the name of this place, they said. Tekit. There they dispersed
the remains of the Itzaes.*

*Yokol-Cheen. Ppupulní-huh. The iguanas were their temperaments when
they left there. Dzodzil. Tiab. Bitun-chchen. It happened that they
entered Tipikal, the name of this well. And it happened that there they
became more numerous. And they went to Pochuh. This is the name of the
well where it happened that iguanas were annoying. And they went to
Maní. There they forgot their language.*

*And they arrived at Dzam. There they were submerged for three days in
water. And they went to Ti-cul; Sac-lum-chcheén; Tixtohilchcheén. There
they were healthy. And they went to Balam-kin, land of the priests; and
to Chcheen-chchomac, to Sacniteel-dzonot, to Xaxcab, Umán, Oxcum,
Sanhil, and to Ich-caan-sihó, and to Noh-pat, the place of the Great
Mother; to Poychéná, and to Chulul. And they then arrived at
Titz-luum-Cumkal. There they ceased to filter their pots (use them as
sieves or filters). Yaxkukul. Tixkokob. CucáEkol. Ekol is the name of
the well. Tix-ueué. Tix-ueué is the name of the well here. Its murmur
reached them suddenly. To Kanimal. To Xkaan. There, in old times, Father
Xul swung his hammock. Holtun Aké. Acanceh. Ti-cooh. Ti-chahil. And to
the rest of the great Mayapán, the one that is inside walls and on water.*

*And they went to Nabulá. Tixmucuy. Tixkanhub. Dzayilá. And they reached
Ti-sip. There their language ripened and their knowledge ripened.*
*And the Lords began to found lands. There was Ahkin-Palon-cab and the
priest named Mutec-pul. This priest Palon Cab was Ah May. This priest
Mutec-pul was Guardian of Uayom Chchicheh and also of Nunil. And the two
Ah-kin-chablé, from Ich-caan-sihó. And Holtun Balam, the son of the one
who let loose the Yaxum in the prairie.*

*Then other Lords arrived. These Lords were "same in voice" as the gods.
This happened in the /Eleventh Ahau/. And then they established their
towns and their lands and they were established in Ich-caan-sihó.*

*And then those from Holtun-aké came down there. And then those from
Sabacnail came down. And so the Lords were arriving and gathering. Those
from Sabacnail had the Ah Ná as the root of their lineage.*

*And then all were reunited in Ichcaansihó. There was Ix-pop-ti-Balam
and there was their king Holtun-Balam, Dzoy root of the Couoh lineage
and the Xiúes, Tloual, also. And Chacté, the god who cultivated the
lands, was their old god. Teppan quis was a priest of Ichtab and
Al-Ppisté, he who measured the lands. And behold he measured from the
lands that he measured, great measurements in the land of the Mayans.
Behold that when the lands began to be dug, Ah-cunté was the digger and
the one who cleared the lands was Miscit Ahau. For that reason they
established lands for them, the watered lands. Then it happened that
dawn occurred for them. Our lord had awakened the land for them.*

*And tribute began to flow in to them in Chichén. The tribute of the
Four Men arrived in ancient cotton thread. The Eleventh Ahau is the name
of the Katún in which it happened.*

*Then the tribute was measured and one saw that the whole mass that had
come down was sufficient and had existed from ancient times. And then it
happened that the tribute of Holtun-Suhuy-uá came down. And one saw that
it was enough. It was then when "their speaking evened out." This
happened in the /Thirteenth Ahau Katún/.*

*There the Great Lords received the tribute. And then they [the people]
began to venerate their majesty; and they began to behold them as gods,
and serve them. And it happened that they arrived to carry them in
stretchers. And they began to throw certain ones into the well so the
lords could hear their voices of prophesy. Their voice was not the same
as the other voices. (The sacred natural well of Chichén Itzá had an
oracular function.)*

*That Cauich - a Hunacceel whose family name was Cauich, behold he
stretched his throat to the edge of the well on the south side. And then
the ultimate power of his voice manifested. And he began to express the
gift of this voice. His mandate then began. And he began to say that he
was /Ahau/ (the highest theocratic hierarchy). And he settled down in
the place of the /Ahau/, through their auspices. And one began to say
that before there was Alach-uinich and not /Ahau/; that only he was the
precursor of Al Mex Cuc ["He of the beard of a squirrel," a seemingly
Nahua deity.] And it was said that he was an /Ahau/ because he was the
adopted son of Ah Mex Cuc; that an eagle had been his mother, that he
had been found on a mountain and that since then they began to obey him
as /Ahau/. Such was what they said at that time.*

*Then they began to build the High House for the Lords, and the Stairway
of Stone. And then he sat down in the House Above, among the Thirteen
Ahau, filled with majesty.*

*And then the Law was established, the glory and era of Ah Mex Cuc. Such
was the nature of things when he established them.*

*In this vicinity, then, in the time of Ah Mex Cuc, they began to
consider him as Father, and began to venerate his name. And then he was
adored and was served in Chichén. Chi-Chén Itzam is its name, because
there he went to give Itzam, when one swallowed the Sacred Stone of the
land, the Stone of the Force from ancient Itzá. He drank it and entered
inside the water. And then bitterness began to enter in Chichén Itza.
And then he went East and arrived at the house of Ah Kin Cobá. Now came
the /Eighth Ahau Katún/.*

*/Eighth Ahau/ is the name of the /Katún/ that ruled when the change of
the /Katún/ and the /Ahaues/ occurred.*

** * * * **

*"Our gods have grown!" their priests said (those from the Sun). And
then days of the year were introduced.*

*"Behold abundant suns come," they said. And the hoofs of the animals
burned and the edge of the sea burned.*
*"This is the sea of bitterness!" they said.*

*And the face of the sun was corroded, and its face became darkened and
was put out [this refers to an eclipse]. And then, above, they became
frightened. "It has burned up! Our god has died!" their priests said.
And they were beginning to think about making a picture of the figure of
the sun, when the earth shook and they saw the moon.*

*And then came the Beetle gods, the dishonest ones, those who put sin
among us, those who were the mud of the earth. ("It was Ix-Tziu-nene who
introduced sin among us, the slaves of the land when he came.")*

*When they came, the /Katún/ was ending. "The Cursed Katún" was that
which was ordered. "Speak carefully, thus are the gods of this land!"*
*When the time of the next /Katún/ commenced, and the /Katún/ in which
the dishonest ones were brought ended, the multitude of their warriors
was seen. And they began to kill them. And they erected gallows so they
would die. And Ox-halal-chan began to shoot them with arrows. And the
gods of the country began to be evoked. And their blood spilled and they
were seized by the Lords of the Deerand then they were astonishedand
their war ended*

*The /Eleventh Ahau Katún/ is seated on his mat, sits on his throne.
There his voice is raised, there his nobility manifests. The face of
their god emits rays.*

*Leaves come down from the sky, flowered arches come down from the sky.
Celestial is their perfume. Music sounds, the tambourines announce the
/Eleventh Ahau/. He enters at dusk and happily covers the sun with his
canopy, the sun that there is in Sulim chan [wet serpent], the sun in
Chikinputún [Chakanputun, Sabana-de-chiles]. Trees will be eaten, stones
will be eaten, all sustenance will be lost within the /Eleventh Ahau
Katún/.*

*In the /Eleventh Ahau/ the story begins, because it was in this /Katún/
when the Dzules arrived ? those who came from the East when they
arrived. Then Christianity also began. In the East his course ends.
Ichcansihó is the seat of the Katún.*

** * * * **

*This is the memory of the things that happened and that were made. Now
all is passed. They speak with their own words and so hardly not
everything is understood in its meaning, but, rightfully, such as
everything happened, so it was written. Now again everything will be
explained very well. And perhaps it will not be bad. Everything is not
bad as it is written. There is not much written regarding their
traditions and alliances. Just as the town of the divine Itzaes, so are
those of the great Uxmal, so re those of the great Ichcaansihó. The
named /Couoh/ also.*

*Truly many were their "True Men". They did not like to get together
with each other to sell traditions; but not all of this is revealed or
explained. Those who know it come from the great lineage of us, the
Mayan men. Those will know the meaning of what there is here when they
read it. And then they will see it and then will explain it and then the
obscure signs of the /Katún/ will be clear. This is so because they are
the priests. The priests died off, but not their name, which is as old
as they.*

*Only because of crazy times, crazy priests, did sadness come to us;
"Christianity" came to us. Because the "very much Christians" arrived
here with the true God; but that was the beginning of our misery, the
beginning of the tribute, beginning of the 'alms", the cause that occult
discord would leave, the beginning of the fights with firearms,
beginning of abuse and of the rubble of everything, the beginning of
slavery for debts, beginning of debts attached to the backs, the
beginning of the continuous dispute, the beginning of suffering. It was
the beginning of the work of the Spaniards and of the "fathers", the
beginning of the doings of the political bosses, the schoolteachers and
the fiscal administrators.*

*Because the boys of the towns were so small, they were martyred! The
poor wretches! The poor ones did not protest against the one who for his
pleasure enslaved them, the Antichrist on the earth, tiger of the towns,
wildcat of the towns, bloodsucker of the poor indian. But the day will
arrive in which the tears from their eyes reach God and His justice will
come down all at once on the world.*

*It truly is the will of God that Ah-Kantenal and Ix-Pucyolá will
return, in order to gnaw them from the firmament of the land!*

*/Kahlay/ of the Conquest*

*In the year one thousand five hundred forty one of the /Dzules/ [the
year of the Spanish settlement in Mérida].*

*1541, the day 5 Ik 2 Chen.*

*Behold the memory that I wrote. It has been 20 /Katúns/ and 15 /Katúns/
more since the heretics built the pyramids. Great men built them. And
the remains of their lineage disappeared. Cartabona [today in Guatemala
it is Cajabón] is the name of the land where they are now. There they
were when San Bernabé [the day of San Bernabé, the date when the
decisive battle of the Conquistadors occurred in Ichcaansihó, today
Mérida] arrived, and he taught that they should kill them, because they
were heretical men. This is the name of their caste.*

** * * * **

*1556, the difference today is 15 years. [Fifteen years after the
occupation of Mérida in 1541.] Behold what I wrote: the great temples
were built by the ancestor nobles, and their kings made things of great
repute. During 13 /Katúnes/ and 6 years more the pyramids were built by
those who made them in olden times. From the beginning of the pyramids,
they made 15 times 420 of them and 50 more, by their account, in a
group. These pyramids filled the entire country, from the sea to the
heart of the land. And they left their names and those of the wells.
Then it happened that their religion was composed by God.*

*And the town of Israel and the prophets was burned by the fire! The
memory of the /Katúns/ and the years was swallowed in the red moon! The
red moon of the land corrodes the lineage of the Tutulxíu!*

** * * * **

*This is the memory of the /Katúns/ and of the years in which, for the
first time, the land of the Yucatán was conquered by the /Dzules/, the
white men. That within the /Eleventh Ahau Katún/ it happened that the
"door of the water," Ecab, was taken control of. They came from the
East. When they arrived, they say that their first lunch was of anonas
(soursop, the slightly acid, pulpy fruit of the anona tree). This is the
cause of their being called "foreigners, eaters of anonas." Foreign men,
consumers of anonas, was their name. This is what the inhabitants of the
town that they conquered called them: those of Ecab, Nacom Balam is the
name of the first one conquered [according to the chronicler Diego López
Cogolludo, Nacom Balam was an old man who lived near Conil, on the east
coast of the peninsula], in Ecab, by the first captain Don Juan of
Montejo [Juan de Mantejo was not the conqueror of Yucatán, he was the
son of Francisco de Montejo, the Servant, who arrived at Mérida in the
/Katún 11 Ahau/], first conqueror, here in the country of Yucatán. In
the same /Katún/ it happened that they arrived at Ichcaansihó.*

*In the year 1513, in the /Thirteenth Ahau Katún/, it happened that they
conquered Campeche. A /Katún/ was there. The priest Camal, from
Campeche, put the foreigners in the country.*

** * * * **

*I am writing now on august 20 of the year 1541. I noted the names of
the years in which Christianity began here.*

*[The conquest began in] the year1519 [and was] completed 151 years
later, and then there was harmony with the foreigners. This is the price
to be paid. War was waged between the whites and the other men from the
towns here, those who were captains of the old towns. That is the price
we have paid for [what we have] today.*

** * * * **

*Behold what I wrote. The first arrival of the /Dzules/ from the East
occurred in the year 1541 at Ecab, which is the name of the place. The
year they arrived at the "door of the water," Ecab, town of Nacom Balam,
was the beginning of the days of the years and of the /Katún/, of the
/Eleventh Ahau Katún/. The dispersion of the Itzaes happened fifteen to
twenty-some years before the arrival of the /Dzules/. The city of
Sac-lah-tun was abandoned and the city of Kinchil was ruined. And
Chichen Itzá was ruined. And the city next to Ixmal, to the south of
Ixmal, named Cib, and also Kabah, was abandoned. And Seyé was abandoned
as was Pakam and Homtún, and the city of Tix-calom-kin, and Aké, the one
with the stone doors, and the city of Etzemal, where the rain from the
dew falls, was abandoned.*

*There the son of the true God, Lord of the sky, King, Virgin and
Miracles came down. And the King said: "Lower your shields of
Kinich-Kakmó. He cannot reign here. Here lives the Miracle Worker and
the Merciful." Chords came down, came from heaven. His voice came down,
from heaven, and then his divinity was worshipped by the other towns,
which said that the gods of Emmal were vain. And then the great Itzaes
left.*

*Thirteen times 400 times 400 thousand and 15 times 400 times 400
hundreds more, years upon years lived the Itzaes as heretics, and behold
they went away. Also their disciples went after them in great numbers
and gave their support to them.*

*Thirteen measurements was Iximal to the head of their count, and nine
measurements Almut and three Oc, in his Iximal. And many small towns
with their familiar gods at the forefront were behind them also.*

*They did not want to wait for the Dzules or for Christianity. They did
not want to pay tribute. The spirit men of the birds, the spirit men of
the precious stones, the spirit men of the carved stones, the spirit men
of the tigers, guided and protected them. Sixteen hundred years and 300
years more and they would have to reach the end of their life! For they
knew [what was to be] within the measurement (limitation) of their time.*
*The moon [in all its phases], all of the year, all of the day, and all
wind [that] blows, passes also. Also all blood (races and clans) reaches
the place of its quietude, as it arrives at its power and its throne.
Measured (limited) was the time in which the magnificence of The Three
were praised. Measured was the time in which the good of the Sun
/(vitality, the vital force)/ could be found. Measured was the time in
which they saw above them the grid of the stars, from where, flying by
them, they were contemplated by the gods, the gods that were imprisoned
in the stars. Then all [that] was good was then demolished.*

*There was wisdom in them. There was not sin then. There was holy
devotion in them. They lived healthy lives. There was no sickness then;
there was no pain in their bones; there was fever for them; there was no
smallpox, there was no breast burning, there was no pain in the abdomen,
there was no consumption. Their bodies were erect then.*

*What the /Dzules/ did when they came here negated all of this wellness.
They taught fear; and they proceeded to wither the flowers. So that
their flowers might live (their welfare would be promoted), they damaged
and corrupted the flowers (destroyed the welfare) of the others.*

*There were no longer good priests to teach us. This is the source of
the Chair of the second time, of the reign of the second time. And it is
also the cause of our death. We did not have good priests, we did not
have wisdom, and at the end value and shame were lost. And everyone was
equal (there were no longer any outstanding individuals).*

*There was no High Knowledge, there was not a Sacred Language, and there
was not a Divine Teaching in the understudies of the gods who arrived
there. To castrate the Sun! The strangers came to do that here. And
behold, the sons of their sons remained here amidst the people, and
those suffer the bitter consequences of this.*

*It happens that these /Dzules/ have resentment, because the Itzaes were
three times to attack them, because 60 years ago they took away our
tribute to them, because for a long time the Itzaes were bold against
these men. No, we did it and we pay for it today. Perhaps, because of
the Concert that exists it is possible for there to be harmony among us
and the /Dzules/. If it is not so, we are going to have a great war.*

*/Katún/*

*The beginning of the /eleventh Ahau/ was in the year 1513*

*SERIES OF THE MAYAN MONTHS (20 DAYS EACH) IN A YEAR*

*/Poop/* 

*July 16*

*/Uoo /*

*August 5*

*/Zip/*

*August 25*

*/Zodz/*

*/Tzec/*

*October 4*

*/Xul/*

*October 24. This is when the fish spawn.*

*/Dze-yax-kin/*

*November 13. This is when the stalks of corn are bent*

*/Mol/*

*December 3* 

*/Chchén/*

*December 23*

*/Yaax/*

*January 12. This a good time for harvest.* 

*/Zac/*

*February 1.* *this is when the white flowers bloom.*

*/Ceeh/*

*February 21.* 

*/Mac/*

*March 13. This is when the turtles lay their eggs. * 

*/Kan-kin/*

*April 2.* 

*/Muan/*

*April 22. The path of the sun is halted in the vault of heaven.*

*/Paax/*

*May 12.*

*/Kayab/*

*June 1.*

*/Cum-kú/*

*June 21. *

*/The uayeyab/ (the"goblin" days of the year) are five.*

*When the 11th day of June* arrives, the days are longer than the
nights. When the 13th day of September arrives, day and night are the
same lengths. When the 12th of December comes, the day becomes shorter
and the night longer. When the 10th day of March arrives, day and night
are of the same length.*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
**This date of the vernal equinox derives from the passage written at
the time when the Julian calendar was in force.*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*/Diagram that shows the course of the sun in the sky./*

*Behold the circle in the center, the one that is white. It means that
it locates where the Sun is traveling. The double wheels surrounding it,
the black ones, signify that the face of the Sun progresses along the
greater black circle and it goes down to the small black one. Likewise,
it is the same as to how it goes and how it walks (progresses) here too
in the world on land. And so it is how one sees the marching of the Sun
in all parts of the country. In order to walk it takes a real elongated
mug and enters it through the widest part, which is the edge of the
land. Such is the Kahlay of the Sun, as one knows here.*

*/Diagram representing an eclipse of the Sun../*

*It appears to the men that at their sides is that half circle in which
is described how the Sun is bitten into. What bites into it, is that it
is matched with the Moon, which goes attracted by it (the Sun), before
biting it. It arrives through its path to the north, large, and then
they become one and the Sun and Moon bite each other, before arriving at
the "trunk of the Sun." It is explained this way so that Maya men can
understand what happens to the Sun and to the Moon.*

*/Cause of the solar and lunar eclipses./*

*Eclipse of the Moon. It isn't that it is bitten. It is interposed with
the Sun, at one side of the Earth.*

*Ecl;ipse of the sun. It isn't tht it is bitten. It is interposed with
the Moon, at one side of the Earth.*

*This is a sign that God gives of which they are equaled; but they don't
bite each other.*

*Book of the Trials*

Language of figures*** and* *their understanding for our Governor
Marshal [of Yucatán in 1604-1612], that is established in Tzuc-Uaxim, to
the east of Ichcaansihó, there where there was land to take in order to
have his orchard and his plot established there. The day will arrive in
which his road ends and he goes to talk to his king. His speech will be
strong and his garment red when he arrives.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This refers to a questionnaire applied to candidates to be chosen to
govern hamlets and town.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Behold, in allegorical language, what he is going to say, what he is
going to ask the king of this land when the day arrives in which the
time of the /Three/ /Ahau Katún/ ends, when the other /Katún/ will
arrive, the /One Only Ahau Katún/. Thus it is said.

About this /Katún/ of now, the /Three Ahau Katún/, it may be said that
the day has already arrived when his lordship and majesty has ended. He
did not have another path. What was within him was not permanent but
borrowed.

Behold the /One Only Ahau Katún/, present within the house of the /Three
Ahau Katún/, and to visit him.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This refers to the Lord or Patron of the /Katún/. In the progression
of these 20-year periods, the idol of a /Katún/ was beginning to be
venerated during the last quarter of the period of the previous /Katún/,
and this situation is amusing to him [the Patron] because those of the
/Three Ahau Katún/, ashamed, are going away to hide in their places.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
he /Kaat Naat/, the Inquisitor, comes within the /Katún/ who now
finishes. And he arrives at the time in which the Princes of the towns
must "ask for his understanding"; if they know how their ancient lineage
and their Lords came; the order [of succession] in which their princes
and kings came: and if they are of the cast of princes or of kings. And
they must prove it.

Behold the first enigma that will be proposed to them. They will be
asked for their food. "Bring the sun," the True Man will say clearly to
them. So they will say to the Princes: "Bring the Sun, my children. And
let it be extended on my plate. For on it (the plate) is hammered the
lance of the sky, in the middle of his heart. On the Sun the Great tiger
must be seated, drinking his blood." This all must be understood in
figurative language. Behold the sun that will be required of them: the
sacred fried egg. Behold the lance and the cross of the sky, kneading in
one's heart: what we call "the benediction." Behold the green tiger
crouching above, drinking his blood; the green chili, that is the tiger.
This all is in figurative language.

This is the second enigma that will be proposed to them: "Go and bring
the brains of heaven so that the True Man may see them, who has a very
great desire to see them." They were told to go carefully. Behold the
brains of heaven are incense. Figurative language.

Behold the third enigma that will be proposed to them: that if when they
build a large house the façade is aligned with the roof in a straight
line. Behold the large house; the great royal hat, placed on the floor.
They will be told to go up on the royal white horse, with their garments
and white capes, and in their hands a white rattler that will be
sounding. The horse will be stained with blood, which will be seen
coming out of the rattler's flower. Behold the white horse: the sandal
of the feet with threads of henequén. The white rattler, the white cape,
the flower, with the white gentlemen. The blood from the rattler's
flower, gold. It is in the middle of it, because bloodstained it comes
from those who have neither mother nor father, and from them it comes.

This is the fourth trial that one must be subjected to. They will be
told to go home. And then they will be told: "when you are about to
return you will barely see the midday fire and you will be two boys who
will be crouching. When you will arrive, your dog will be at your side.
This dog will have in its hands the soul of Our Holy Lady [Ca Cilich
Colel], when you arrive with him." Behold the stock boys to whom it was
told, and the midday fire; that they would be seated in its shadow. That
is why they were told that they would go crouching when they arrived at
the home of the True Man. His dog, which will be ashed, is its pureness,
and the soul of Our Holy Lady is the great candle or wax hatchet. This
is all in figurative language.

This is the fifth enigma that will be proposed to them: they will be
told to search for God's heart, in the heavens. "And you will bring me
one of the many children in his cape, who is wrapped in the back in a
white sheet." Behold the heart of God: the sacred precious stone [kun].
He of the many children, who has been mentioned, is the royal bread,
with many beans inside [Yahau Uah]. The white wrapping is the woolen
cloth. From this, the meaning of the figurative language will be asked for.

This is the sixth enigma that will be proposed: that they go search for
the branch of a pochote tree, and three twisted things, and a live reed.
"That will make my food very delicious tomorrow; I have an urge to eat
it. Who knows if it will be bad to eat the pochote trunk!" they will be
told. "Behold the trunk of the pochote tree: the small lizard, the three
twisted things: the tail of the iguana. The live reed: the intestines of
the pig. The pochote tree trunk: the trunk of the lizard's tail."
Figurative language.

This is the seventh enigma that will be proposed: they will be told: go
bring me those things that cover the bottom of the natural well, two
white ones, and two yellow ones. I want to eat them. Behold those that
cover the bottom of the well, that will be asked them: the jícamas, two
of them yellow.

He who has understood will be able to reach the principality of the
towns, a second time, in the presence of the King, Great True Man.

And if it is not understood by the Princes of the towns, these words
will be told to them:

"Very sad star, adorn the abyss of the night! Be speechless from the
terror in the House of Sadness! The dreaded trumpet sounds deafeningly
in the vestibule of the nobles' house: the dead do not understand: those
who are alive will understand."

Those who are above the principality of the towns, those who have
measured their harvest will know that their reign will end sorrowfully.
Their hands will be tied in front to their genital parts. With a wet
cord, they will be taken to the King, First True Man. The last princes,
those who exist in their crazy time and in their crazy age, will hear
that their principalities will end with pain; those who exist in the
time in which the conclusion of the /Katún /occurs.

When the /Three Ahau Katún/ is ended, the princes of the towns will be
rounded up because they do not have understanding.

*In this way the Principality will be reached. Relationship*

In order to give their support to the Great True Men, when these ask for
their food, they will attach a cord to their neck, they will cut the tip
of their tongue and their eyes will be removed from the time that is
going to end. These children of nobles will remove themselves in the
presence of their Father; and they will kneel, so that he will know they
have wisdom and so he will hand over to them his mat and his throne. In
the same way his harvest will be looked at. Carefully one will see his
lineage of sovereign powers of this land. And those who live in that day
will receive a great staff.

So it is how this lineage of the Mayan men will be founded again, here
in the Yucatán land. So it is how the descendents of the royal lineages
of Mayan men were established in their places here in the land of Yucatán.

First God, when the world ends, the True King will come to ask us: "
What you obey, what you worship, are they stones or precious stones?"
And he will ask for a /balché/ [an alcoholic drink made with honey and
the fermented bark of the /balché/ tree]. He who does not have it will
be dead. And the one who worships the god of his land and says that he
does not know if it is god, everything that is written will happen to him.

Also, the noble descendents of the Princes, who have known their
lineages, came and the kings, who kindly governed them, will see that it
was their wisdom that had power over their vassals. And solemnly they
will be handed over their mat and throne by Our Father, the True Man.

That mat and throne were beaten upon and buried, and their face was
trampled on the ground, and was dirtied and dragged in the time of
delirium and in the epoch of the rabies. "Children of indolence," the
son of Evil said to them, he of the false mat, he of the false throne,
the monkey of the gods, the cunning rogue. And thus they walked inside
the /Three Ahau Katún/, heart swollen and broken, the descendents of the
nobles, the men of royal blood, until it came to tell them that they
were to take the principality of the towns, in order to go to take
possession of it.

** * * * **

*"*My son, go and bring me the flower of the night," it will be said to
him. And then he will go on his knees to the presence of the True Man
who commanded him. "Father, the flower of the night that you asked for
comes with me, and also the evil of the night, that is with me," he will
say.

So, if they are there with you, perhaps the Venerable Weak One [/Ix
Dzoy/] is also with you together with the Great Poplar.

"Father, they are with me, they came with me."

"Well, my son, if they came with you, go invite your relatives: one is
an old man who has nine sons and one is an old woman who has nine
daughters."

"Father," he answers, saying, "they arrived with me, here they are next
to me. They came in front of me when I arrived to see you."

"Well, son, if they are with you, go to gather the stones of the plain
and come with them, joining them and gathering them on your chest, if it
is true that you are the True Man, if you are from the lineage of the
kings of this land."

Behold the flower of the night that was asked for: the star of heaven.
Behold the evil of the night: the Moon, the venerable Weak One and the
Great Poplar, the "stevedore of the earth" [/ah cuch cab/] called "he of
wrinkled skin who is below." The old man asked of him, who has nine
sons, is the big toe; the old woman is the thumb. The stones of the
plain that he was asked to gather armfuls of: the quails.

"Therefore, my son, although they have told you that he is your
father-in-law, he has not told you to look at his face."

"Father, he is next to me."

"So, son, go and bring me celestial resin [heavenly placenta]. When you
return, you have to pass through the East. Following you closely, he has
to come."

"So be it, Father," he says. Behold his father-in-law who is here at his
back: the rind of the pumpkin. Behold the resin of the sky that was
ordered of him: the incense [copal], derived laboriously from much
grain. What he is told must come after he has gotten the incense is his
shadow that will be at their backs, enlarged by the western sun.

"Son, since you are a True Man, since you also are powerful, come and
bring me the 'accounts' of your prayers." The "accounts" that are asked
for are: precious stones. "Then one must ask how many days do you pray."

"Father," he says, "I pray the first and tenth day."

"On what days do you raise your prayer?"

"Father, the ninth day to God [/Bdon-Ti-Ku/, 'Nine Deity'], and the
thirteenth to the Word [/Oxlahun-Ti-Citbil***/, 'Thirteen Ordainer']. It
is when I review my 'accounts'."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***/Citbil/ means "he who creates with the word."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Son, go and bring me your clothes, so that I may feel your odor hear
and far away; the odor of the wool cloth of my waist, the odor of my
clothing, the odor of my incense burner, the odor that is attracted to
the center of heaven, to the center of the clouds; that which sticks to
my mouth and is in the white cup; if you are True Man."

"Father, I am going to bring it," he says.

Behold, the odor of his clothes that are asked for, the odor that is
attracted to the center of heaven: the lighted incense that burns. Here
is what he asks for that sticks to his mouth: the ground up cocoa, the
chocolate.

"So, son, go and bring me the pure blood from my son's urine [/Yax
kikel/, precious blood or green blood]; and his head and belly and thigh
and hand. And what you have covered inside your virgin earthenware pot,
and the urine stool, son. Bring it to me; I want to see it. I have
already given you what will tie your throat in my presence and what will
burst out your lament.

"So be it, Father." Likewise the scratching of the ceremonial cape of
the distributor will come with him, the day after tomorrow, and then he
will be gone.

Behold the blood of the son's urine that was asked for: Mayan wine. The
belly of urine of the son: the beehive of honey. The head of the urine
of the son: the virgin earthenware pot, in which the wine soaks, The
great stool of the son's urine: the apiary. The scratching cape of the
distributor is like peeling the bark from the /balché/ tree. Here are
the bones of the son's urine: the /balché/ full of holes. The thigh that
says it is the trunk of the /balché/. The hand of the urine of the boy
is the branch of the /balché/. What is said that will lament is as the
intoxicated one says: "Then may it be given to me." When he arrives, he
will be motionless, his speech suspended, his tongue rigid.

"Father, here is your son's urine, that you gave me4 to guard, whatever
you say, Father. You are my lord," says his son.

"Oh, my son! You are the equal of the True Men, the same as those who
have power. Remember it, then! Know it, then!" so he says. "That is the
blood of the boy's urine I have asked you for. An infinite number of
times does the boy's urine pass in front of him,, crying, and the boy's
urine reposes below in the end. He bursts out crying while the sight
passes before him, and, in the meantime, the Father speaks. "Oh, my
son," he says, "while you cry, you already are a True Man. Oh, my son,
you already have power! Oh, you already are equal to the True man. I am
going to hand over to you your mat, your throne and your nobility
(dominion). You, my son! The power is yours, yours is royalty! You, my
son!"

In this manner, the speech to the Princes of the towns will end. And
they will leave the place where the Great True Man is, the head place of
this land. And they will go to their homes.

When they are in their homes they will give their support to the True
Man and will ask for their own support, too. And thus will they go to
explain it:

"My son, bring me four 'cardinal' birds [/Chac Dzidzib/] that are in the
door of the cave. His crest will be raised above what sticks to my mouth
and reddish he will be when he arrives before me."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what he asks for: wine. This is the crest that says: the foam of
the chocolate. What sticks to my mouth: cocoa recently ground.

"Son, bring me the birds of the night [/Ch'ich'il Akab/], and the things
that pierce the night, and the brains from the sky. I am eager to see
them here."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what has been requested: The incense burner that burns the
incense. Here is what pierces the night: the precious stone. Here are
the brains from the sky: the incense. This is figurative language [of
Zuyúa].

"Son, bring me your father's bones, the ones you buried three years ago.
I am eager to see them."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what is asked for: the cooked yucca under the ground; let it be
given to the True Man.

"Son, go and bring me an old man whose buttons on his clothing are not
fastened. He is called the one who hides in the hole in the earth when
it rains."

"So be it, Father."

The armadillo is what is asked for.

"Son, bring me three halves of the sky. I wish to eat them."

"So be it, Father."

What is asked for is poured "atole" [American drink made from corn
flour] the foam of the atole. All will be asked for in figurative language.

"Son, bring me a trunk of henequén, from a flat henequén; do not take
off its bud; bring also its striped and broken stem."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what is requested: the head of a javelina [/keken/] baked
underground that is given. The so-called stem is the tongue, in that its
tongue is its spirit. This is figurative language.

"Son, bring me the sparrow hawks of the night for me to eat."

Chickens are asked for.

"Son, tell the Venerable Weak lady and he who is called 'the one with
the wrinkled skin from below' [the first captive called /Otlom-cabal/]
to bring me a basket of thrush birds that are taken from the Great Alamo
(Poplar). There they are scattered in the shade of the tree.

"So be it, Father."

Here is what is requested: black beans, that are in the house of the /Ah
Cuchcab/ (the stevedore of the earth), from the Venerable Weak One and
from he who is called "he of the wrinkled skin from below."

"Son, let them go look for the tiger of the cave, so that it can be
cooked and I eat it. I feel like eating tiger."

"So be it. Father."

The tiger that is requested is the /tepezcuintle/ [agouty].

"Son, bring me seven leaves from what is the poor man's coat. I feel
like eating them the day in which one must eat."

"So be it, Father."

Here today and gone tomorrow: /chaya/ leaves squeezed and cooked
(/dzotob-chay/).

"Son, bring me two good dancers to come to dance, to entertain me; they
must come with their drum and their rattler and their fan and their
drumstick. I will wait for them."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what is requested: turkeys. Their drum is its double chin, their
rattle is its head, their fan is its tail, and the little drumstick is
its music. This is figurative language.

"Son, bring me the whim of this land. I feel like eating it."

"So be it, Father."

What is requested is honey.

"Son, bring me the stones from the burnt land, those which have burned;
and then have your daughter come with them, so that with her I can put
them out, and so they can be gotten rid of in my house."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what is asked for: the /macal/ baked underground; the daughter
so that with her it be put out: the liquor of honey.

"Son, bring me the glowworms of the night, those that from north to
/west pass out their smell. May the licking of the tiger's tongue come
with them."

"So be it, Father."

Cigars are requested. The licking of the tiger's tongue [jaguar] is fire.

"Son, bring me your daughter so that I see her, the one who has a clean,
white face, the pretty one; white is her shawl and her belt. I desire her."

"So be it, Father."

Here is the request: the white cup and atole (corn flour drink). This is
figurative language.

"Son, bring me what is called /sabel/, whose aroma is dear."

"So be it, Father."

Melon is asked for.

"Son, bring me to the great ham (back of the knee) that has a blue back.
I am hungry to eat it."

"So be it, Father."

What is requested is turkey throat. This is figurative language.

"Son, bring me a girl, with a white and wavy calf (of the leg). Here I
will take off her dress down to the calf."

"So be it, Father."

The jicama is requested. What will take off her dress will pull up her
rind from her.

"Son, bring me a very pretty girl, with a white face. I desire her a
lot. Here before me. I will pull off her shirt and dress.

"So be it, Father."

A female turkey is requested to be eaten. To tear off her shirt and
dress is to peel off her feathers, whenever one requests to eat.
Figurative language is used here.

"Son, bring me here an old man caretaker of a maize field. I want to see
his face."

"So be it, Father."

Here is what was requested: the fat macal to eat. This is what it means.

"My son, bring me an old lady caretaker of the maize field, her body
black, whose back is of seven palms. I wish to see her.

What is requested is the great fruit from the pumpkin. This is
figurative language. His day will arrive.

** * * * * *

Now is the day in which our Father the Great True Man [/Halach Vinic/],
who was trampled upon, is arriving here, at this land of Yucalpetén.
[Yucalpetén is an attempt to convert the name Yucatán into a
comprehensible term in Mayan.]

"By chance, are you Princes?"

"We are, Father," they respond.

"My sons, if you are the True Men of this land," he will say to them,"
go get the tiger who flies, and come give it to me to eat." Place its
pearls well situated, also its crest and come give it to me to eat. Go
quickly and right now come. Sons, I am eager to eat it. You, my sons,
you who are True Men."

Those who do not know are poor in their understanding and their sight.
Oh! They say nothing. He who knows, happily is going to look for the
flying tiger. And then, he comes with it.

"Are you my son?"

"Yes I am, Father."

"Are you noble, son of nobles, my son?"

"I am, Father."

"What news is there of your companions, my son?"

"Father, they are on the mountain looking for the tiger. They said
'There is no tiger,' and then the tiger was passing in front of them!"

Here is the tiger that was asked for: the horse of the Governor [Batab],
he who wants to eat up the weak, skinny horse. The pearls are the bells,
the crest is the red vegetable mold well placed with the saddle and the
bit. This is all spoken figuratively.

*Book of the Ancient Gods**

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Another translator (Roys) entitles this text /The Creation of the
World/, because it refers to the cosmogony; it is part of the myth of
the origin of the world that relates one of the periodical cosmic
destructions due to the underworld deity (symbolizing death) robbing his
vital principle from heaven. Immediately is narrated the reorganizing of
the cosmos, carried out on to the end by the /Bucabes/, gods of the
cardinal points and sustainers of heaven.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is very necessary that we understand that what you have been
worshiping has been the rocks, hard wood and animals placed here by our
Father God.*** In much earlier times, here, amongst us, the Men of
Majesty were worshipped as the true gods. Those stones and other less
worthy objects prevented the coming of the True god, Our Father, Lord of
Heaven and Earth. Although they were the ancient gods, they were
transient gods. The period of their worship was now ended. They were
dissipated by the blessing of the Sky Lord, when he finished the
redemption of the world, when the True God came back, when he blessed
Heaven and Earth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** This statement alludes to idol worship.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your gods crumbled, Mayan men! Hopelessly, you worshipped them.

** * * * **

The account of the history of this land was rendered in paintings:
because the day had not yet arrived in which these papers and this
multitude of words were used; so that one would ask the ancient Mayan
men if they knew how they were born and how their land in this region
was founded.

** * * * **

It was during the /Eleven Ahau Katún/ when Ah-Mucen Cab ["He who guards
the honey"] left to blindfold the Thirteen gods [/Oxlaun-ti-Ku/]. They
did not know his name. Only their sisters and sons spoke it, and neither
were they able to see his face. It was the moment in which the earth had
just awakened. They did not know what was going to happen.

And the Thirteen gods were captured by the Nine gods. And it rained fire
and ash; and trees and rocks fell. And the trees and rocks came crashing
against each other.

And the Thirteen gods were taken and each of their heads was broken and
their faces slapped. And they were spat upon and carried on their backs.
And their Serpent of Life [/Canhel/]*** with rattlers in its tail****,
was stolen and with it was taken its quetzal plumage*****.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***"/Canhel/", serpent or dragon. This /Canhel/ term has been translated
to mean "insignia" and signals the relationship with the god K, and has
been identified as Bolon Dz'acab: ah human figure with the facial
features of a snake who appears at times in a form of a scepter in the
hands of governors, especially in the classic period. It is a god
related to vegetation and blood. In this book, /Cangel/ is so written
because of its similarity to the word angel and seems to mean vital
principle (in this paragraph, of Chac, god of rain).

****"Stripped of its insignias and covered with soot" here means that it
was shamed, according to some researchers.

*****This translation seems more correct: If /Canhel/ is a serpent, the
text signifies that the plumed serpent from the sky was stolen, meaning
the celestial vital principle, due to the world being destroyed. In
these texts as in the plastic arts of the Mayan era, the plumed serpent
symbolizes celestial water and is corroborated by the translation of
Mediz Bolio.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And they took ground sweet peas along with their sperm and, along with
their heart, ground seed of squash and thick ground-up beans. And He who
is eternal [Yax Bolon Dzacub, "Great-Nine-Fertilizer"] wrapped it and
tied it all together and went to the thirteenth level of heaven.

And then his skin and the tips of his bones fell here on the land. And
it was then that his heart escaped because the Thirteen gods did not
want his heart and seed to be gone from them. And the orphans, helpless
old men and widows who were without strength to live were killed with
large arrow shots.

And they were buried by the side of the sand in the waves of the sea.
And then, in one fell swoop, the waters came.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This refers to one of the great cosmic destructions caused by a
flood. It coincides with the cosmogonic Quiché and Náhuatle myths
showing a community of beliefs at a Mesoamerican level. It also may
describe, according to Otto Muck in his /Secret of Atlantis/, an
asteroid strike that triggered the sinking of Plato's island of
Poseidenis - the last of the Atlantean landmasses - with the
catastrophic aftermath.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And when the Great Serpent was stolen, the firmament collapsed and the
earth sank. The four gods, the Four /Bacab/ leveled everything. At the
moment when the leveling was finished, they were secured in their places
in order to ordain the yellow men.

And the First White Tree [/Sac Imix Che,/ "White Silk-Cotton Tree"] was
raised in the North. And the arch of heaven was raised, sign of the
destruction below. When the first White Tree was raised, the First Black
Tree was then raised up [/Ek Imix Che/, "Black Silk-Cotton Tree"], and
in it rested the bird of the black chest. And the first yellow Tree was
raised [/Kan Imix Che/, "Yellow silk-Cotton Tree"], and in a sign of the
destruction from below, the bird of the yellow chest came to rest in it.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***The raising of the First Red Tree [/Chac Imix Che/] is lacking, in
the East.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the "Great Mother /Ceiba/ Tree [/Yax Imix Che/, "Green Silk-cotton
Tree] was raised, in the middle of the memory of the destruction of the
land. She sat down, placing herself erect and raised her goblet,
ordering eternal (evergreen) leaves. And with her branches and roots
called, her Lord.

And Chac-piltec was raised, to the East of the land. And she called her
Lord. And Lahun-chan was raised and she called her Lord. And Kanpiltec
was lifted up and she called her Lord. These reflect the will of the land.

At that moment, Uuc-cheknal came from the seventh layer of the sky. When
he came down, he trodded on the backs of Itzeam-cab-Aim ["sorcerer of
the water ­ land crocodile"]*** so-called. He came while the earth and
sky were being cleaned.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***The Great Crocodile symbolizes the earth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And they walked through the fourth fire, through the fourth level of the
stars. The earth had not yet been illuminated. There was no Sun, no
night, no Moon. They realized that the Earth was awakening. And then the
Earth awoke; at this moment the Earth awoke. Infinite rungs of the
ladder of time and seven moons later were counted since Earth woke up
and then the dawn came for them.

The Reign of The Second Period was felt, and then the Reign of the Third
Period. And then the three gods began to cry. They cried before the god
chacab, who was the one who was ruling on his red mat.

Because of them the First Tree of the land became red and the immensity
of the earth reddened. They were great sinners of the spirit. The day of
their power had not yet arrived.

In the same way, the nine gods cried. The ordinance of the measure of
time arrived here in the red mat. And then it was that oppression came
down from the center of the sky, despotic power, the tyrannical kings.

And then Chac-edz, he of the red face, and then the king of the white
face stopped. And then he of the black face was raised up. And then he
of the yellow face stopped.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Here again, as with the Great Ceiba Trees, we have the colors black,
yellow, white and red ­ the four stages of the Philosopher's Stone, the
four fires of transmutation; and also the four cardinal points.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And then Chactenel Ahau was raised, with his mat and throne. And
Zactemal arrived with his mat and throne. And Ek-tenel Ahau was raised
with his mat and throne. And Kan-tenel-Ahau stopped with mat and throne.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This seems to refer to the four gods of the cardinal points.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
They believed that they were gods; but perhaps they were not. They did
not scatter seeds, nor did they make it rain. Bit by bit they said they
were joining forces; but they were not saying what they loved.

Their countenance was harsh. Hard times arrived and heavy misery came
under their power. When they arrived to be established in the
measurement of their time, the fire of the sun was revived, his face
approached and he burned the Earth and the vestments of the kings. And
this is the cause of their lamentation.

On the magnificent day of power and beauty, on the day in which wisdom
of the gods is understood, the harvest will be raised and it will be
time for gathering. And the "evil animal" will disappear.

And when Ah Muuc lifts his tree, he who abandons his path, he who
succeeds him will usher in a very sad time in which the butterflies will
be taken away; and then unending bitterness will come.

That is what is coming, when three moons have fallen in the time of the
/Three Ahau Katún/, and after three portions of years, trapped within
the /Three Ahau Katún/; when the other /Katún/ appears, he of three
breads, he of three waters, his gift of life will be narrow and juice
will be misery. That is what he will eat and drink.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**"*The fruit of twigs will be his bread, and his drink; the wild gourd
will be his bread, his drink; this is what they will eat and drink."
This deals with what they used to eat in epochs of scarcity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
He will drink hailstones and will eat the scattered leaves from the
/chaya/. That will take place here, in the land of Sadness, Father,
within the Ninth year, in the time when the foreigners are here.

The burden of the /Katún/ is asked for, from all the years of the
/Thirteen/ /Ahau Katún/. Then the /Eleven Ahau/ opens his feet, and next
the word of the Eternal comes down to the tip of his tongue.*** When it
is lowered it questions the burden of the /Katún/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***It was when the word of Bolon Dzacab descended to the tip of his tongue.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nine were their cargoes when he came from the sky. The day of /Kan/ was
the day when his cargo was tied up. It was when the water came from the
sky for the second birth, from the house of the one of the "innumerable
years."

At the same time Bolon Mayel ["Nine scented"] came down. Sweet was his
mouth and the tip of his tongue [his words]. Sweet were his brains [his
thoughts]. And these four giants came down who, in earthen vases,
brought honey from the flowers.

From them blossomed that of the deep red chalice, of the deep white
chalice, of the deep black chalice and of the deep yellow chalice. And
the wide one and the deviated one. And at the same time blossomed the
flower that is watered and the one that has holes; and the wavy flower
of cocoa and the one never sucked on***, and the flower of the spirit of
color, and the one that always is a flower, and one with a crooked stem.
These flowers that came out were the /Comayeles/ [Ah Con Mayeles,
"the-offerers-of-perfume"], the mother of flowers.****
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This is the Five Flower, deity of music and dance.

****This could refer to the pollinating insects and the hummingbirds.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And odorous sacerdotes, kings, war chiefs and servants of the flower god
came out. When the latter came down he had no equal. "Look at him," they
said, "he does not spill his cargo."

And then "the ephemeral flower" came out and placed the sin of the Nine
gods [/Bolon-ti-ku/]. The third year is when they say it happened, when
the god of hell [/Bolon Dzacab/, "Nine progenitor"] had not come to be a
creator.

And Pizlimtec*** came down, he of green bones, to the foot of the flower
and he who is Eternal transformed him into a hummingbird. And then he
sucked the honey of the flower of the nine petals to the most internal
part. And then he took as a wife the empty flower**** and left the
spirit of the flower to wander. When the chalice of this flower was
opened, the Sun [Ah Kin Xochiltun] was within and in its middle his name
could be read. And it happened that the Thirteen gods sighed, full of
desire. They did no know that in this way sin came down to their mats;
they understood this to be gods. It happened that their mats were made
of flowers, their chairs of flowers and flowers were in their hair.
Jealous their seat, jealous their walking, jealous their plate, glass,
heart, understanding, their thoughts; much talking robbed the time from
their lordship.

At the time he was standing, at the time that his adoration on the lips
of his mouth was strong, what he ate behind the palm of his hand, the
substance that bites, will not be a stick or stone. He will have red
leftovers in his ten molars.

He will arrive with his sinful face, his sinful talk, sinful teaching
and sinful understanding. And sin will be his walk. He will arrive
blindfolded and his mat reddened. During his power, he will forget his
father, and his mother who bore him. His heart burning only among the
orphans, insulting his father, he must walk in the midst of the
homeless, his countenance drunk, his understanding lost, to the place of
his father and his m0ther. He has no kindness; there is no good in his
heart; only a little bit on the tip of his tongue. He does not know how
he must end up; he does not know what there will be at the end of his
reign, or what is going to end in time with his power.

** * * * **

These Nine gods [/Bolon-ti-ku/] will be manifested in nine faces [/Bolon
Chan/] of Men-Kings, of the mat of the Second time, of the throne of the
Second Time, came inside the /beast Ahau Katún/.

There will be a new Lord of this land. The course of the /Katún/ that
comes will be painfully offered, when the period of the Three Ahau Katún
ends, the time when children will be sold, he who will be above the
pride of the Itzaes.

There will be a period of waste and drought, followed by a period of
fertility and abundance. The length of a stone is the punishment for the
sin of pride of the Itzaes. The Nine gods will end the course of the
/Three Ahau Katún/. And then the wisdom of the gods of the land will be
understood. When the /Katún/ has ended, one will see the lineage of the
noble Princes appear, and new wise men, and the descendents of the
Princes whose faces were crumbled against the ground, who were insulted
by the rage of the time by the crazy ones of their /Katún/, by the son
of evil who called them "children of indolence"; those who were born
when the Earth awoke, inside the /Three Ahau Katún/.

Thus will end the power of those for whom God has two faces.

** * * * **

Here is when the period of this /Katún/ is going to end, then God will
make happen again the flood and the destruction of the land.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***According to Mayan cosmogony (and the Náhuatl), cosmic destruction is
produced cyclically, taking place in different epochs or universal ages.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And when it has ended, then Our Father the One True Man will come down,
in the sacred place, where at one time his redemptive energy will purify
us. There he will come one a great cloud to give testimony that truly he
was martyred a long time ago. There then will come in great power and
majesty the true God, he who created heaven and earth and everything in
the world, there will come to measure equally the good and evil of the
world, and the arrogant will be humbled!

*Book of the Spirits**

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This book s called by Roys /Ritual of the Angels/. It deals with
another cosmogonic text with some adulterated Christian ideas. It
includes corrupt words in Latin and Spanish. About it Medij Bolio says:
"The Latins more or less altered the original text ­ accusing posterior
Christian influence."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

/Dominus vobiscum/, they all said, singing where there was no heaven or
earth.

He who is Divinity and Power labored the great Stone of Grace [Tun
Gracia]** *there where in olden days there was no heaven.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Tun means precious stone and also the period of 360 days. The
Castillian term 'gracia" was used to designate the young corn plant.
Consequently, "Stone of Grace" symbolizes "grain of corn."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

And from there were born Seven sacred stones [/Tunes/], Seven Warriors
[/Katúnes/] suspended in spirit, Seven chosen flames.

And they were moved, and seven were his graces also, and seven his saints.

And it happened that countless graces were born from a stone of grace.
And it was the immensity of the nights, there where formerly there was
no God, because they had not received God, who alone by himself was
inside the grace, inside the shadows, there where there was neither
heaven nor earth.

And a warrior was finally formed, when the first Warrior had not been
born and had his hair long.

/Aden ti parami/. And it was his divinity. And he left and became male
in the second infinite Stone and Grace. Alpinon is the name of his /angel/.
When he was born, he left and asked for a Second Grace, in the second
immensity of the night, where before there was nobody. And he received
his divinity, he alone by himself.

And when he came to leave,/" to sign"/ said he sweetly. And he received
his divinity alone by himself. And he left and went to the third
infinite Stone of Grace. Albacongel is the name of his /angel/, the one
of the third Grace.

He went to the fourth infinite Stone Of Grace, in the fourth night. Atea
Ohe is the name of his /angel/. Being born, he wanted his fourth Grace,
and began to tell himself, alone to himself: "Oh, Powerful God, I am
nobody, for myself." Thus he was saying in his essence, in his divinity.

"I'm going," he said softly.

And he went to the fifth infinite Stone of Grace, and the fifth infinite
night. When the Fifth Warrior was born he wanted the fifth Grace. [/This
was born in the fifth Katún./] And the words of his divinity were raised
and his /angel/ was born. Decipto is his name.

And he said, "I'm going, then. I am God, then. I am powerful, then."
Thus his divinity was talking by itself. /"Aninite dei sin,"/ he was
saying when he received his divinity by himself.

And he went to the sixth infinite Stone of Grace, in the sixth
measurement of the night, the Sixth Warrior [Katún]. "Powerful Gods,
hear my voice. Nobody is in my solitude!"

When he was born, he wanted the Seventh Grace. Conlamil is the name of
his /angel/. "I adore you, Gods, hear my voice! There is no one. No one
listens to my voice!" ­ so softly was he talking, and said this while
his Seventh Grace was being born.

Happy was born the seventh Warrior [/Katún/]. Seven times seven
measurements of the night were illumined, seven times infinite.

/"Abiento boycayento de la Zipilna de fente note sustina gracia. Trece
mili y no cargo bende."** */First, second, third, three times four
hundred epochs, thousands of epochs, then the Word of God vivified the
land, from him alone, by himself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This is a corrupt mixture of Latin and Spanish. Only the words
"zipil' and "na" seem to be Mayan, and can be translated as "house of sin."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the bottom of the great Stone of Grace, the Word awoke the land of
God. His name is /Unidad/ (Unity) with God the Word.

The latter, his name, that divides the epochs, is the Eternal, he of one
Age alone, the Very Tall. And his Descendents of Seven generations.
[Seven were the generations of his /angels/.] And four times his Great
Word resonated, stamp of the night, of the sky: "I am the beginning, I
will be the end."

Here is the occult understanding of his word, /datate/, here received in
this land. I am /Unidate/, I am /Unidata/, I am his sound. I am
/Unitata/. " To /nuni/ comes /Unidad/."

/Nilu/ is the name of the night. It is the first word of god, it is the
first word of the Word. Thus he crushed the stone, alone by himself,
within the night.

Tomás [/Etomas/] Sipancas the name of the Spirit whose Lord is the First
Warrior/. Ota-ho/ in the sky. Arcángel is the name of the Spirit. [/Hun
Katún was his father. Otahocanil Aucangel was the name of the wind/.]
Heronix is the name of the Spirit that goes in front of him. Joramis is
the name of the Spirit of the Second Warrior. Here is what he said when
the Stone was opened: /"Yaxyonlacalpa."/ He hid his name. In the holy
heaven he said: "Our Holy Father the Word: Bolay is his name***," and he
met the second heaven, where the dust of the feet of the /Sustinal
Grace/ is.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***/Bolay/ was the general name given to beasts of prey.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There wisdom is formed, beating the stone inside the darkness.

And the Archetypal Stone was created that that founds the stones that
followed, the three Stones that were to be seated at the feet of the/
Sustinal Grace/. The stones that were born were beneath the First Stone.
And they were equal sisters.

Then entered Chac the giant, through the crevice of the Stone. Everyone
then was a giant, in one lone town, those of all the lands. And God was
the first king.

In the First epoch, the only Son of God was created. In the Second
epoch, the Word. In the Third epoch, Expleo [the name of the sky] was
created.

And Chac, the Giant, was born, whose name was Opilla, at the same time
as his heaven, Empileo, was formed. Expleo is its name inside the first
Book of God. Hebones. The only Son of God, mirror that will open his
beauty, is the Lord of the Stone, Father.

When he went to create the sky from the heaven one Grace and one Stone
opened up. Fire was born. Tixitate is his name, light of heaven. That
/Sustinal/ is the light of the heaven. Acpa. Because the Warrior [Katún]
created the light within the sky. /Acpa u manga/ is his name. And it ended.

** * * * **

the /angels/, the /Spirits/ [/Cangeles ik ­ of the winds/] were raised
while the stars were created. The earth had not been illuminated neither
was thaere any sky or land. There were:

The red Pauah [/Chac Pahuahtun/].
The white Pauah [/Zac Pahuahtun/].
The black Pauah [/Ek Pahuahtun/].
The yellow Pahuah [/Kanpahuahtun/].

Then in the first heaven, God the Word had his stone, his Serpent
[/cangel/] and his substance [/Kabalil/] secured. There his /angels/
were suspended. The Spirit called Corpinus, and behold, below, Orele, at
the height of the land. There were three /Persons/: the God Word [/the
active spiritual force ­ Father/]. The God Son [/the preserving force or
first Persona/], and the God Holy Spirit [/the creative force or Divine
Workman/].

At that time the planets were: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus; those
they say God in the heaven had in his hand, and formerly he created
them. Behold, here is the name of heaven: Christalino. This /angel/,
whose name is Corpinus, extended the blessing of the Father, there where
there was no heaven or earth, Inpicco is his name. He scattered all the
/angels/. Balayo is his name. Cacauecan ­ sexes ­ is his name. /Et
sepeuos/ is his name. /Laus deo/.

** * * * **

Below were Chac-Bolay-Balam*** and Cacau Balamté. Esperas is its name in
the sixth layer of heaven, Isperas is its name in the seventh layer of
heaven. It was created on land by Powerful God. In the seventh epoch it
was born inside the night. Spirit is its name.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***/Balam/ means jaguar or priest. Chac Bolay was also the name of a
certain maleficent spirit. The skin of the jaguar stretched out in the
plaza of the market was a symbol of war, hunger and pestilence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

/Saint Eden Deus, Saint eluseo, both Saints/. He saw the center of the
Stone to be born, the center of the night. /It is repeated./

Then it burned. During the night. It was what he said: when he spoke to
the center of the Stone, to the center of the night. ­ /Tronas alesayo
de mundo de gracia en apedia leyo zipidiate en picted gracia Sto.
Esuleptun Jaan estunast gracia suplilis estimeo me firme abin Finites
gracia y metis absolutum timetis de gracia Eden deo gracia de fentis de
gracia Fenoplis tun gracia locomdar y me gracia, tretris un mis gracia.
Nositusi de gracia in pricio de gracia. Tresimili uno de cargo leonte.***/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/*/*This corrupted Latin text appears to be some sort of incantation to
favor the creation of corn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

One, two, three, a pile, thirteen times four hundred, infinite /Katunes
/before the land was to awaken, was created the center of the Stone, the
center of the night, there where there was no heaven or earth, when it
was said by god the Word, alone by himself, in the Profound Night.

The first Word of God sounded, there where there was no heaven or earth.
And it was detached from his Stone and fell into the second time and
declared his divinity. And all the immensity of the eternal was shaken.
And its word was a measurement of grace, a spark of grace, and it broke
and pierced the back of the mountains. Who was born when he came down?
Great Father, You know it.

His First Principle was born and broke and drilled holes in the back of
the mountains.

"Who was born there? Who?"

"Father, You know it. He who tender in heaven was born."

He will speak when he arrives at the Seventh Stone of Grace, the Virgin
Stone of Grace. It happened that the angel Jeripite was called and
/Corporales de ojales/ [buttonholes] were given to him by the first High
Priest.

*The /Thirteen Ahau Katún/*

This is the face of the Katún, the face of the Katún, of the /Thirteen
Ahau/: the face of the Sun will be broken. It will fall, breaking up on
the gods of now. Five days the sun will be bitten and seen. This is the
representation of the /Thirteen Ahau/.

A sign that God gives is that it will happen that the King from this
land dies. Also it will come to pass that the old kings will fight among
themselves when the Christians enter this land. Also Our Father God will
give a sign that they will come, because there is no concordance,
because much misery has happened to our children's' children.

They Christianized us, but they make us pass from some to others like
animals. And God is offended by the /Chupadores/ [stupid ones].

[This is written in the year] 1539.

To the East is the door of the house of don Juan Montego, he who placed
Christianity in this land from Yucalpetén, Yucatán.

/Chilam Balam, Prophet/

*Book of the Origin of the Itzaes*

Damaceno. This is the name of the plains in which the First Father Adam
was formed by God. This is his name, his first name: Adam. And his soul
entered and inhabited Paradise. Adam having been born, the First Mother,
Eve, was born, the first woman, the mother of all the world. It was
suddenly, as a drop, dripped from Adam. And she was born.

There where there formerly was no heaven, the Word was born by itself in
the darkness.** *Behold that the rocks were created all at once, as were
the mountains. And also this land, which was set aside so that Adam
could labor. That is why he is his own son. And they entered the Place
of the Groans. Thus they called it when they were produced, those who
were the first forebears of men.

***This statement can also be rendered: "God the Father was created
alone by his own strength in the darkness."

/God the Word/, /God Son/, /and/ /God Holy Spirit/, are the Gods of the
whole land. They created the Precious Stone that was given up from the
storm, with the veil of grace. The word is its name; /Josus tin gracia/.

Behold that at the same time the Spirit of the Stars was born from his
Stone; /berbumtuorum/ is his name. The natural son of the Stone, the
natural son of the Earth, took the Lady of the Land and went to seat
himself in the highest part of heaven in the olden times.

A great brilliance arrived below from the Spirit of the /Sustinal gracia/.

** * * * **

13 times 8,000 /Katunes/ had been reposing in their Stone when the Seed
of Lord Hunaceel was moved.

Although they were not he same as the Sun, the caste of the good men
came down from the Jewel of the Chest of the Sun. would they have said
"My clothes, my attire" if they could have been gods?

So, you knew it, and everyone says it. The smooth edge of the Well
[Chichén] says that they arrived conquering, in the attack of the war.

"The Itzaes were in Chichén . . . (heresy help)." Did they just arrive
or were they already here?

***Perhaps this refers to the affirmation which the trusted ones
(encomenderos) of Yucatán make in the geographic relations that
elaborated that the Mayans were not idolatrous, until Kukulcán, "Mexican
Captain" who entered these lands and taught them to idolize.

/Uno Imix/, the day of reaching heaven, the King goes west to the West
of the Well where the temple is open. The /Uno Imix/ is the day that is
said in Chichén of the Itzaes: "Did they just arrive or were they
already here?"

"Hidden it is, hidden it is!" they say, shouting. Hidden it is, hidden
it is! The souls of the dead know it!

With a laborious shout did the souls of the dead exclaim, alone on the
first day. Resplendent day it was, and again it was night when they
came." They were, they were, they were here! Did they just arrive or
were they already here?"

"Is there someone perchance who is awake?"

Strongly they say again, in three groans: "They were here!"

"In the day of God, dwellers already were here, they were already
settlers."

Thus were they heard.

"It was not a fact that the Itzaes arrived at Chichén!"

"Did they arrive or were they already here?"

They groan thus three times, in their day.

"Am I somebody?" asks the man in his spirit.

"Am I that I am?"

"Am I perhaps a child who cries?" one half of the land asks.

I will try to help you to understand it. They say that I was created at
night. Were we perhaps born? It is said that we were created by
Miscit-Ahau. [/Perhaps one of the conquerors associated this with Hunac
Ceel/.]

The end was broken. Who is this one who I made bitter with my song? "Did
they arrive or were they already here?"

"They say I am dead. The priest of the town said it. They say I am
hidden. He said "the one who loses the people." He believed it in his
desire, he believed it in his heart. Because "he who loses the people,"
immediately is grieved with my song."

"Were they . . . Did they arrive or were they already here?" [/This is
believed to be a toltecan interjection of sorrow and sadness/.]

This song is always uttered in praise of the Lord God.

*Book of the Month**

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reyes entitles this part /The Creation of the uinal/. The /uinal/ was
the Mayan month of 20 days, The Mayan year, called /Haab/, consisted of
20 /uinales/ and a 5-day "left over" called /uayeb/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus the old wise man Mexchise explained, the old Great Prophet Napuc
tun, Great Priest /(one of the prophets who predicted the arrival of a
new religion)/, and so he sang that, when the ancient world had
awakened, the Month was born and began to walk alone.

And his grandmother and his aunt and the mother of his father and his
sister-in-law asked:

"Why was it said that we were going to see people on the path?"

They were speaking thus while they walked. It happened that there were
no people in olden times.

And then they reached the east. And they said:

"Someone has passed by here. Here are the footprints."

"Measure your foot," they say the Lady of the World said. And so the
Heavenly Man went and measured his foot. This is the origin of the
saying /Xoc-lah-cab, oc-lae, lah-ca-oc/ ­ "Tells of the whole world in
steps." This saying was invented because of /Oxlahun-oc (he of the 13
feet)/, and it happened that he matched his feet.

And they parted from the east. And the names of the days were recited,
as they still did not have names in ancient times.

And he walked with the mother of his father and with his aunt and the
mother of his mother and his sister-in-law.

Born the Month, he who is called Day was created, and the sky was
created and the earth, by scale: water, land, stones and trees.

And the things of the sea and land were created.

On the /One Chúen/ he took from himself his divinity and made the sky
and earth.

On the /Two Eb/ he made the first step, so that God would come down in
the middle of the sky and water. There was no land, nor stones, nor trees.

On the /Three Men/ all things were made, the multitude of things; the
things of the sky and things of the sea and of the land

On the /Four Ix/ it happened that sky and earth were inclined one above
the other.

On the /Five Men/ it happened that all began to work.

On the /Six Cib/ it came to pass that he made the first candle /(or
fire)/ and so it was that there was light where there were neither Sun
nor Moon.

On the /Seven Aban (Caban)/ the first land was born, there where it had
not been for us in ancient times.

On the /Eight Edznab/ he affirmed his hands and feet and he nailed them
to the earth.

On the /Nine Cauac/ hell was practiced for the first time.

On the /Ten Ahau/ it happened that bad men went to hell, because God had
not yet seen the Word.

On the /Eleven Ix (Imix)/ it happened that he made the stones and trees.
Those he made.

On the /Twelve Ik/ day it came to pass that he created the wind /(breath
of life) /and this is the reason why it is called /Ik (spirit)/; because
there is no death within him.

On the /Thirteen Akal /it happened that he drank water and moistened the
earth and carved the body of man.

On the /One Kan/ it passed that his spirit was broken by the evil he had
created.

On the /Two Chicchan/ it passed that evil appeared and was seen within
the eyes of the people.

On the /Three Cimil (Cimi) /occurred the invention of death. It happened
that God Our Father invented the first death.

(Here there is a blank space that would correspond to the /Four Man-Ik/,
"the day in which the spirit passes.")

On the /Five Lamat/ he invented the great drain of the great basin of
the sea.

On the /Six Muluc/ it passed that all the valleys were filled with
earth, when the world had not yet awakened. And it happened that a false
voice of Our Father God entered into them all, when there was no voice
from the heaven, nor were there rocks nor trees, in those ancient times.

And then the days went to prove themselves one to another. And they said
thus:

"Thirteen . . . And seven in a group."

They said this so that his voice would come forth to him who did not
have it when the First God, the Sun, asked them about their origin.
Their instrument of voice had not been opened up so that they could
speak to each other. And they went to the middle of the sky and took
each other's hands in order to unite with each other. And then it was
said in the middle of the earth: "Be opened." And the /Four Ah-Toc/, who
are four, opened up.

Four

	 /Chic-chan/ 	  	 /Ah-Toc***/

Four

	 /Oc/ 	  	 /Ah-Toc/

Four

	 /Men/ 	  	 /Ah-Toc/

Four

	 /Ahau/ 	  	 /Ah-Toc/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/*/* The burning
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ahau are Four

Eight 	 /Muluc/ 	 Five 	 /Cauac/
Nine 	 /Oc/ 	 Six 	 /Ahau/
Ten 	/Chuen/  	 Seven 	 /Imix/
Eleven 	 /Eb/ 	 Eight 	 /Ik/
Twelve 	 /Men/ 	 Nine 	 /Akbal/
Thirteen 	 /Ix/ 	 Ten 	 /Kan/
One 	 /Men-(Ben)/ 	 Eleven 	 /Chichan/
Two 	 /Cib/ 	 Twelve 	 /Cimi/
Three 	 /Aban/ 	 Thirteen 	 /Manik/
Four 	 /Edznab/ 	 One 	 /Lamat/

With them the Month /(Uinal)/ was created, when the earth awoke, and
when the sky, earth and trees and stones were created. All was created
by Our Father God, and by his Word; in that place where there had not
been sky nor land was his Divinity, who became a single cloud by itself,
and he created the universe. And his divine and great power and majesty
shook the heavens.

The relationship of the days, day by day, must be read, beginning with
the east, according to the order in which it exists.

*The /Katún of the Flower//*/*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*/ This book has also been entitled /History of the Spanish Conquest/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The name of the year when the /Dzules/ arrived: /From one thousand
five-hundred and nineteen years/, thus: 1519. This year was when the
/Dzules/ arrived, here up to our land, the Itzaes; here in the land of
Yucalpetén, Yucatán, that the Itzaes said /Mayá/.

So said the first /Adelantado/ Don Juan de Montejo /(he is confused with
his father Francisco de Mantejo, conqueror of Yucatán)/, because this
had been said to him by Don Lorenzo Chablé, who, when the arrival of the
latter, conquered Tixkobob, who received the Dzules with all the will of
his heart. And this original date and origin given him by Don Lorenzo
Chablé was based upon his having fed roasted meat to the Dzules and all
the captains. He had a son named Don Martín Chablé.

That was the year that was marching on when the Dzules began to prepare
to conquer here, at Yucalpetén. The Priest and Prophet named Ah Xupán
knew it. Christianity came to us in the year 1519. The Church of Hoó
(Mérida) was founded in 1540 and was completed in 1599. There was blood
vomit /(yellow fever)/ and we began to die off in 1648. There was hunger
for five years, during 1650-1654. When the hunger ended, there was a
great storm. In it father Agustín Goméz died. In 1661 there were great
droughts. In 1669 there was "holy fire" /(small pox)/. In 1692 the /Ten
Katún/ arrived, the /Niché Katún /(the /Katún of the Flower/) began.***

------------------------------------------------------------------------
** *This refers to the /Katún/* /11 Ahau/* when the Spaniards arrived;
it is called the First /Katún/ and /Katún/ of the Flower or of the May
Flower, alluding perhaps to the union of the Spanish with Mayan women,
now that the flower of Feathers is a symbol of luxury.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

** * * * **

You have been present for three months, Father. It is the vile offspring
of the /Yaxum/.***

* This is the quetzal, related to Kukulcán, "Plumed Serpent," a Mayan
name of Quezalcoatl. The arrival of the Spanish is associated in the
Books of Chilam Balam, to the arrival of the Toltec foreigners and to
the return to Chichén Itzá of the Itzaes, having taken place 500 years
earlier.

Later the hoof of the animal will be hardened; later it will have nine
hills, Father, the vile offspring of the /Yaxum/. They are not going to
understand that he was created in the Sun, in the presence of the gods.
In the twelfth year his name will be uttered. Look at him. His head is
of the tiger, his teeth are of a span of hand /(eight inches)/, and his
body is weak ­ as of a dog. His heart is pierced with pain; and he eats
and drinks well.

He does not speak in the manner that he hears.

His word will be a lie. It will not be discovered by any means.

The brotherhood of slaves of the land will disappear from those places.
The brotherhood is going to be wrapped in the nets of the slaves of the
land and the children of their children, immature ones, and trees of the
land of tomorrow.

Submit, you, brothers, you, dear little brothers and suffer the burden
of the /Katún/, who comes. If you do not suffer, your legs will shrink
and others will change you. If you do not suffer it, you will gnaw the
tree trunks and the grasses. If you do not suffer it, the cattle will
enter your towns like ants and so will the Enemy, who will return into
your towns, where it is not their place; and the fungus and mildew will
enter your homes, and it will a time for the sudden death of the animals.

He arrived on his mat; there is sin in his voice and in his teaching: He
is the /Katún/ of sin. Very jagged is the bread of the /Nicté Katún/,
who is the one who arrived with infinite pains in his origin, a little
puppy that still suckles, full of adulterous sin.

In him comes the /Bula/ or edict. He is divided into six parts. The
thing of the /Bula/ must be passed three times. When the Judge of the
/Bula/ arrives, if "the one of the silver staff" is going to be the
Judge, perhaps he will use candles of white wax. And by means of these
white candles, heavenly justice will come down, and Christian men will
go up before the face of justice that will shake the sky and earth. The
/Nicté Katún/ is going to end sadly and painfully. Hardly anyone will
have arrived to even speak, when it will be hung from the nape on the
stick of the pitchfork, which then will have covered all this land. The
/Nicté Katún/ will end its history betrayed!

It is not necessary for you to surrender your head to the archbishop.
When you are going to come down, go and hide yourselves in the hills. If
you surrender, you will go "behind" /Jesus Christ/. They are now with
the Cocomes /(governing family in Mayapán/). When the Judge is going to
end his visit, his candles and his flower sprinkles will come. For this
reason you will understand it. And then the sky will collapse in
dryness. And then will be spoken what is written on the walls. And you
will say that that is God also. And you will have faith that it is God.
The wise man that is in front of your eyes hardly understands. And then
one will go to the hill ahead of the Christians, who will not
understand. And that is all.

In the 14th year of their governing, the Son, Antonio Martínez y Saul
will come. These are his names since he left heaven. He went to
Tzimentan. There he is in Tzimentan. He told a Queen that she should
marry him and after seven years she accepted him in marriage. And the
golden door was opened to him. In the "house of learning evil" they were
taught it. And then he invented ships. Thirteen times four hundred. And
he raised war in Habana, the land where the one who represents the King,
Habana is. And it was told to the ear of the King by his representative.
He (Martínez) had a spy behind him, since he went there. And he also
heard that he was going to be apprehended. And then he left there and
went to Tzimentan. There he was overtaken.

After three months of having left, the apprehender arrived at Tzimentan.
And then he arrested him. And then and there he silenced the
apprehender, saying to him "Get out, man! Three months ago I arrived."
And he says: "Today, three months ago you left. It took you three months
to arrive here. Now that you have arrived, you will be enclosed in the
dungeon, while I come. I will take you from the dungeon. Although you
are a captain, I will have two at my backs." And he says: "Come near,
wretched old man, with that loaded rifle! The sea is going to burn! I am
going to raise the sails!" And he had fire in his gaze.

"You are going to sail with 'foam in the water,' the sun is going to be
darkened with the rain.

And he became silent. And then the captain said:

"It is going to be starry against the land, as the storm will be at sea.
Then I can sit down on my little bench while the 11200 ships come!" And
one will be saying to himself, also the King: "Prepare yourself, sir,
the French now come!"

"Well," he told me, "We are going to die because we are men. Why do your
forces fall due to a man like you? Defend yourself! I am going to give
you the fair price for the ships!" With that my tongue was raised up.

"It burned, the sea burned; I will say that the firmament was upset; but
when I came down two ships were in view."

"What is your name?' he asked me.

"I am an heretic. You are going to purify me. You are going to baptize
me. I am going to change my name, the Martínez. 'Father God, Son God,
Holy Spirit God' is my name."

And I acquired the Book of the Seven Generations for the purpose of
reading it. When I finished, three months already had passed. The
Mayors, then, said they would hand over the tax of my neighborhood, " a
half man."

"From where one pays your neighborhood, my neighborhood, that of
everyone from there, you have to pay my neighborhood. I am newly
arrived," this I say. That justice came down so that Christians would
know good fortune. And it will end by asking that they prove to the King
if they do not know they come out from within rocks and trees and they
become men to found towns. There are not little tigers that bite; that
was in the /Nine Ahau Katún/.

Five years passed. I am speaking after them. The time will come when
tribute comes down. When they have paid it, the Great Father will raise
his warriors. Do not believe that the war will be wasted. With it comes
the redemption of the town by Jesus Christ, the guardian of our souls.
As in the earth, so he will also receive your souls in the holy heaven,
my children, the true God. Amen.

*The Book of the Enigmas*

The foundation of the earth was in the /Thirteen Edznab/.*** The
foundations of the Iglesia Mayor (the Older Church) were placed in the
/Thirteen Chen, Eb/, the House of learning in darkness, the Older Church
of the Sky. Thus it was founded here also. /Thirteen Katúns/ are its
count. From thirteen it was measured in the sky; four feet were removed.
Nine feet is what is missing to ascend. Here it was built twice from the
ground. It had four measurements in feet when it left the ground.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This possibly refers to the Spanish occupation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is Maní, the trunk of the country. Campech is the point of the brim
of the country. Zací is the trunk of the brim of the country. Conkal is
the head of the country. In the middle is the city of Hoó /(Tihoó,
Mérida)/ the Older Church, the house of everyone, the house of good, the
house of the night, which is of Father God, Son God, and of Holy Spirit
God.

"Who enters the house of god, Father?"

"He whom is named Kulem /(the adored)/."

"Which is the day when one was attached to the womb of the Virgin
Mother, Father?"

"The /Four Oc/ was attached to her womb."

"Son, what day did he come out?"

"The /Three Oc/ came out."

"What day did he die?"

"The /One Cimi/ he died and he entered his grave."

"What entered his grave, Father?"

"His coffin entered his grave."

"What entered his thigh?"

"The red stone."

"And the stone of the earth that entered the sky, what is it called,
Father?"

"The stone of the arrow."

"On that same day the same stone is put on his foot."

The red rock entered and went East. And he came from the North and
entered the white stone; and entered the black stone to the West, and so
also the yellow stone to the South.

** * * * * * *

"Son, which are the sad holes through which the reeds shout?"

"The holes of the flute."

"Son, there where cenotí is, and its waters are very profound, there are
no little stones in its depth, and there are small tubes hidden in its
entrance,"

"The precious stone."

"Son, and the large weddings? Because of them the King's forces fall,
through them the forces of the Halachuiniques, when they used to be what
they were, fell, and because of them my forces also fall.

"The rockets."

"Son, have you seen the greenish stones that are two and in the middle
of which there is a raised cross?"

"The eyes of man."

"Son, there where there are foxes, there is one who has no house; he has
his collar and has his jingle bell also."

"The dog without owner."

"Son, the budded rook, with its brains overwhelmed; behind the dog and
with dried plums attached."

"The navel of the turkey."

"Children, take me to the one who has knotted lassos and to him who has
protruded teeth."

"The deer and the gopher."

"Children, and the old one who has a behind of seven quarters, and the
black girl?"

"The squash /(dzol)/.

"Children, see which is the white girl, who has squeezed her dress until
bursting it, the one who sells white flints."

"The pumpkin of wide seed."

"Son, bring me two yellow animals, one stewed and the other with his
head cut in order to drink his blood."

"The yellow deer and the mug in which there is chocolate."

"Children, see that there arrives here twenty stones, female loaders,
cultivated, and two married."

"Quails and turtledoves."

"Children, bring me a twisted thing in three branches,"

"The iguana."

"Children, bring me a good weed puller so I can see him here."

"Mayan wine." ***

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* "Son, or children, bring me . . ." is the mutual expression of sin
that I want to see here. It is a barbarism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Children, go bring me the lid of the entrance to the sky and its
stairway, of nine steps, all of honey.

"The royal bread."

"Son, have you seen the old man of the great earthenware dish? His
double chin is very large. Indolently he comes through the ground.

"The turkey."

"Children, bring me some old caretakers of Milpas. He brings in a single
tuft his pubic hairs together with those of his woman. From the mud of
the rain bring them here, with girl keepers of Milpas. I am going to
clean the girls and I am going to take away their dresses from above and
I am going to eat them (the girls)."

"The jícamas."

"Children, bring me the old dancers so they can entertain me; perhaps
they do not dance poorly. I will see them."

"The turkeys."

"Son, and the parrot that throws his clothes and his shirt and his cape
and his hat and his shoes? Son, he passed by where you were. Maybe you
passed by there; by the tall rock that is inclined up against the
entrance to the sky and which is at the door of the rampart. When you
passed by these, did you see some men who were coming in front of you?
At that place is a great party with the venerable /Ah Kulel/." ***

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** The /Ah Kulel/ is a mediator or delegate; it is a title of a certain
class of officials.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The pupil of the eyes and the partner of the two eyes."

"Son, did you see God's water fasten itself? It passed beneath the good
of God and entered beneath the good of God. The water of God passes
because of the roundness of heaven. Son, through where God's water
passes, sterile trees come out."

"Father, the head of the man. And the drink of the crazy man that passes
through his throat and comes out his behind."

"Son, whom did you see a while ago on the road, son, through where you
passed in front of your relatives who together were made to come behind
you?"

"I could not wait for my relatives. I will wait for them in the judgment
of God, when I die. The shadow of the body."

"Son, whom did you see on the road? Did you perhaps see some old ones
who had some boys with them?"

"Father, those old ones that I saw on the road were together with me and
they could not leave me; these are: the big toe and the rest of the toes."

"Son, did you see some old ladies who were carrying their step-sons in
their arms, and other boys?"

"Father, here they are next to me while I eat; I cannot leave them. The
thumb of the hand and the other fingers."

"Son, where you passed there is a river."

"Father, that river is with me. It is the path of my back."

"Son, where did you see an old man on horseback crossing the river?"

"Father, that old man is with me. "The horse" is that of my shoulder.
And the gall of what they say is the old one."

"Son, that old man who is on your shoulders and what you call the path,
is seen truly and exactly. Son, go to look for the heart of the stone
and the liver of the earth, so that I can see them the next day,
tomorrow. You will see a giant and a hunchback, that, therefore, will be
going to hell."

"Those are the hare and the badger. And the /Batab/ and the /Ah Kulel/;
the hearts of thee men are made of stone. And the top of the throat from
hell represents the sweet potato and the jícama.

"Son, go catch a woman from Jalisco,* ** who has her hair whirled, very
nice and maiden-like. I will take off her shirt and clothing. I will be
very happy to see her. Her odor will be of the earth and her head will
be a whirl.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** In Mayan, Ix ha-liz co; it means "women with humid molars." It does
not deal with Jalisco, a place far from the Mayan area.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is the tender ear of corn made /pibil/ (cooked underground)."

"Son, now go get an old man and the herb from in front of the sea (from
the beach)."

"The old man is the tortoise. The herb is the crab."

"Son, now go get the stones from the bottom of the hill. They are black."

"The singed tortoise."

"Son, now go and bring me the stones of the prairie and the venerable
witches who/ make themselves into two/.

"These are the mole and the hare. And the badger and the javalina."

"Son, go to search for the thigh of the earth."

"The yucca."

"Son, go look for the great dancer and the great singer."
"The pheasant and the turkey."

"Son, bring me your semen. At the sun of tomorrow we will see it. First
will come a little; afterwards will come a lot of it. And the sprout of
the hill fastens a band on his head. There he will have his 'shawl.' I
will take off his shawl from him. And the /Ah Kulel/ will be behind.
Son, go get a bud from a flower that gives its perfume the day of
tomorrow."

"The toasted corn with honey."

"Son, from here I have heard news that you have in your house many
strands from the cave. Curl them in order to see them here at meal time."

"The fried egg."

** * * * **

Acquire and happily carry away the red stone that has dreamed. He has
dreamed of juice from heaven, dew from heaven.

** * * * **

"Dream that you gather, until the day that you are taken from the earth.
Dreams are the substance of the heavenly juice, the heavenly dew; the
yellow flower form heaven is dream. Perchance have I taken from you your
time, have I taken from you your sustenance? Enough! It would have been
better if your stone were to have taken you! I have got you detained in
your distraction, so that you can thank the virtue of your dawn. When
you were sent to him, you got word of the occult. I caught you and
contained you, until today that I let be heard your virtue by your Lord.
Hope from him that the stone that I let slide into your mouth speaks,
the precious bleeding stone.

** * * * **

He who is going to continue ahead in the explanation of the /Ahaus/,
explained here, is going to study so he can understand.

*The Wheel of the Katunes*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*

***Four of the first and most ancient series of prophecies for the
/Katunes/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*/The Wheel of the Katunes/*

1. /Emal/ ­ is the seat of the Katún, of the /One Ahau Katún/ -. Strings
will come down, cords will come down, on the day when the /Foam/, the
/Book/ and the /Fish/ come down.
2. /Two Ahau/ Maya Cuzamil. ­ Mayapán
3. /Suhuy-uah/, is the seat of the Katún, of the /Three Ahau Katún/. ­
the skin of the Serpent and the skin of the Tiger will be laid out. ­
Blue fireflies will announce the face of the Lord of the /Three Ahau
Katún/.
4. /The Four Ahau - /with great abundance the Katún is seated in
/Chichén Itzá/.
5. /Zodzil/, is the seat of the Katún, of the Five Ahau. -The mask of
the Lord of the /Five Ahau Katún/ will escape him.
6. The /Six Ahau Katún/ is seated in great abundance.
7. /Mayapán/, is the seat of the /Katún/ of the /Seven Ahau/.
8. /Lahun (?) Chablé/, is the seat of the /Katún/ of the /Eight Ahau/.
9. /Nine Ahau/. The /Katún/ of the /Nine Ahau/ is seated in very grave
years.
10. /Lahum-Chablé/, is the seat of the /Katún/ of the /Ten Ahau/.
11. /Eleven Ahau/ ­The seat of the /Katún/ is /Ichcaansihó/. Lightning
flashes.
12. /Saclahtun /­is the seat of the /Katún/ of the /Twelve Ahau/. Blue
and burned is the face of its Lord.
13. /Thirteen Ahau Katún/. ­In /Kin-colah-petén/, is seated the
/Thirteen Ahau Katún/.

The /Eleven Ahau Katún/ is seated in Ichcaansihó /(Mérida.
"Yax-haal-chac is his face"; green god of the rain)/. Leaves fall from
the sky; perfumes fall from the sky. The musicians sound, the
tambourines from he of the Nine Feet sound. On a day when there will be
blue pheasants, on a day when fish will be seen, on the day of
Chakan-putún trees will be eaten, stones will be eaten; they will have
lost the sustenance within the /Eleven Ahau Katún/. \

** * * * **

The /Katún/, the /Four Ahau Katún/, is seated in Chichén, in seven
periods of abundance.
Seven periods of abundance are the seat of the great spiller of water.
His face is covered and his eyes closed beneath his rains, abundantly
spilled on his corn. His mat and his throne are filled to abundance.
There will be a day when his clothing will be white, as also his waist,
and he will be flattened by the gush of the bread of the /Katún/.
Plumages will arrive, green birds will arrive, bundles will arrive, as
well as pheasants and tapirs; all will be covered with Chichén tribute.

** * * * **

Not Zaquí but Mayapán is the seat of the /Katún/, of the /Two Ahau
Katún/. When the /Katún/ has seated himself, strings will come down, the
venom of the plague. Three hills of skulls will form a white wheel at
his body, when he comes with his burden attached. Smothering himself, he
will catch a puff of wind in his straw bedding. He will drop his bread
three times. Moderate hunger, moderate bread. This is the burden of the
/Two Ahau Katún/.

** * * * **

Kinchil Cobá is the seat of the Katún, of the /Thirteen Ahau Katún/. The
Mayan god Itzam*** will give his face up to his reign. He will feel pain
three times in three years, and when the tenth generation will end. His
leaves will be similar to those of palm trees. His aroma will be that of
the palm tree. His sky will be charged with thunderbolts. Without rains
the bread will shrink from the /Katún/. A multitude of blemishes is the
burden of the /Katún/. Men and gods will be lost. The sun will be
afflicted for five days and will visible. This is the burden of the
/Thirteen Ahau Katún/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Itzam or Itzam-tzab, also. Itzam Na is the heavenly dragon; Itzam
Tzab, the Mayan name for the Pleiades. Tzab signifies a snake rattle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Book of the Sequence of the Katúnes*

Relationship of the */Katúnes*/*/ counted since Chichen Itzá was found./
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Periods of 20 years of 360 days each.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the very far distant past it was written in this land so that it
would be known by whomever wished to know the story of the /Katúnes/.

*VI.* In the /6 Ahau /[435-455]**, it happened that Chichen Itzá was
discovered.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****For some Katúnes, the corresponding "Christian" date will be indicated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*IV. */4 Ahau./
*II*/. 2 Ahau./* *
*XIII. */13 Ahau/ [495-514], "They arranged matting, and they occupied
Chichén."
*XI.* /11 Ahau./
*IX.* /9 Ahau./
*VII.* /7 Ahau./
*V.* /5 Ahau./
*III.* /3 Ahau/.
*I.* /1 Ahau./
*XII.* /12 Ahau./
*VIII.* /8 Ahau /[672-692]/,/ Chichen Itzá was abandoned, after 13 folds
of the /Katún/. And the people who had left settled in the land of
Chahán-putún, and were established in their houses, in the time of this
/Katún/.

* * * * *

*VI.* /6 Ahau./
*IV.* /4 Ahau/ [711-731]. The land of Chakán-putún was conquered by them.
*II.* /2 Ahau./
*XIII./ /*/13 Ahau./
*XI. */11 Ahau./
*IX.*/ /9 Ahau.
*VII.* /7 Ahau./
*V.* /5 Ahau./
*III.* /3 Ahau./
*I.* /1 Ahau./
*XII. */12 Ahau./
*X. */10 Ahau./
*VIII. */8 Ahau/ [928-948]/. /Chakán-putún was abandoned by the Itzaes
men. And they came again to place their houses. Thirteen folds of the
/Katún/ were passed in their homes of Chatán-putún. In this same /Katún/
the Itzaes went to live under the trees, under the ash, under their misery.

* * * * *

*VI.* /6 Ahau./
*IV.* /4/ /Ahau./
*XIII. */13 Ahau./
*XI. */11 Ahau./
*IX.* /9 Ahau./
*VII. */7 Ahau./
*V. *5 Ahau.
*III./ /*/3 Ahau./
*I. */1 Ahau./
*XII. */12 Ahau./
*X.*10 Ahau.
*VIII.*/ 8 Ahau* */[1185-1204]. The Itzaes were dispersed from their
homes a second time, because of the "sin of the word" of Hunaceel,
because of their tumults with the Itzmals. Thirteen folds of the /Katún/
had passed, when they were dispersed by Hunaceel, "in order to give
understanding" of the Itzaes.

* * * * *

*VI.* /6 Ahau./
*/IV./ */4 Ahau./
II./ 2 Ahau./
*/XIII. /*/13 Ahau./
*XI. */11 Ahau./
*IX./ /*/9 Ahau./
*VII.* /7 Ahau./
*V./ /*/5 Ahau. /
*III.* /3 Ahau./
*I./ /*/1 Ahau./
*XII. */12 Ahau./
*X. */10 Ahau./
*VIII.*/ 8 Ahau /[1441-1461]. Mayapán the walled city collapsed, because
those behind the wall destroyed the fortress, in order to empty the city
of Mayapán of the power accumulated in it.

* * * * *

*VI.* /6 Ahau./
*IV. */4 Ahau./* *A pestilence occurred then; the vultures entered the
houses in force.
*II. */2 Ahau./* *There was smallpox, terrible smallpox.
*XIII. */13 Ahau/ [1520-1539]. Ah-Pulá died. Six years were left of the
old story of the years, toward the East. The /Four Kan/ stopped /Pop/ to
the East. Behold that I carefully put head against head the /Katúns/ and
the years. The /18 Zip and Nine Imix/ is the day of the death of
Ah-Pulá, Napot Xiú, in the year 1508.
*XI. */11 Ahau/ [1559-1579]/./ The "men of god" arrived from the East,
those who brought pain. Their first beginning, here in the land of us
Mayan men, was in the year 1513.
*IX.* /9 Ahau/ [1559-1579]. Christianity began. Baptism took place. This
came within the /Katún/ in which Bishop Toral* arrived. Also the removal
of salt stopped, in the year 1546.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Fray Francisco Toral, first bishop of Yucatán. He arrived in 1562 in
/Katún 9 Ahau./
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*VII./ /*/7 Ahau/ [1579-1599]. Bishop De landa died.**

***Fray Diego De Landa, author of the "Relationship of Things from
Yucatán," one of the main sources written for the knowledge of the
ancient Mayans of Yucatán. He died in Mérida, april 29, 1579, being
bishop of Yucatan.*

*V.* /5 Ahau./
*III.* /3 Ahau/ [1618-1638].

* * * * *

/Four Ahau/ is the name of the /Katún/ in which they were born. The
Pauah, having descended from the Moon, were their Kings. Numerous ages
took possession of their name being powerful.

/Four Ahau/ is the name of the /Katún/ when the "Great Descent" came
down, the "Small Descent,"*** which this is named. For numerous epochs
they had power, They were renown. Then their oppressors arose - many
tyrants oppressed them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This refers to the migrations of the Itzaes ­ by the East the
/Cenial/, "Small Descent," and by the West the /Nohenial/, "Great
Descent"; it is called thus for the number of persons.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Four Ahau/ is the /Katún/ in which it happened that they searched for
Chichén Itzá. There was composed the Marvellous thing for them by their
Fathers. Four Departures left. "The four divisions of the land" are
named. From the East to Kincolahpetén was one Departure. From the North
to Naco-cob one Departure "left." Here "left one Departure." To Holtún
Suhuyuah one Departure "left." Four mountains they are. "The Nine
Mountains" is the name of the land.

/Four Ahau/ is the /Katún/ when it happened that they invited those of
the Four Divisions, called /Cantzuculcab/, so they would come. They were
"made Fathers" when they came to Chichén Itzá. Itzaes they were called
then. /Thirteen Katúnes/ excercized power.And they were betrayed by
Hunaceel. And they abandoned their lands. And they went to the desert
forests called Tanxulucmul.*** /Four Ahau/ is the /Katún/ in which was
the uproar of the souls.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Tanxulucmul was found a short distance from Lake Petén in Guatemala.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thirteen /Katúnes/ had enough of their suffering. /Eight Ahau/ is the
/Katún/ when it happened that the rest of the named Itzaes arrived.****
Ttey arrived and
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**The /8 Ahau/ was for the Itzaes a /Katún/ of changes, as migrations
and wars. In one of those /Katúnes/, in 1697, its last city, Ta Itzá
(Tayasal), founded next to Lake Petén, fell under the power of the Spanish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
raised their powers in Chakanputún. The /13 Ahau/ is the /Katún/ when
the city of Mayapán was founded. They were called Mayan men. In the /8
Ahau/ they abandoned their lands and they were scattered thoughout the
whole country. In the 6 Ahau they were dispersed and their name of
Mayans ended. /Eleven Ahau/ is the name of the /Katún /in which they
ceased being called Mayans. "Christian Mayans" everyone was called,
vassals of the successors of St. Peter and of the Majesty of the King.

* * * * *

Relationship of the /Katúnes/ of the Itzaes, which are called /Mayan
Katúnes/.

/Twelve Ahau./
/Ten Ahau./
/Eight Ahau./
/Six Ahau. /They destroyed those from Coní [Conil].
/Four Ahau./
/Two Ahau./
/Thirteen Ahau./
/Eleven Ahau./
/Nine Ahau./
/Seven Ahau./
/Five Ahau. /The land of the gods of Itzamal was destroyed, Kinich-Kakmó
and Pop-hol-chac, by Hunac-ceel.
/Three Ahau./
/One Ahau./ The rest of the Itzaes in Chichén were dispersed. In the
third year in the /One Ahau/ Chichén was destroyed.
/Twelve Ahau./
/Ten Ahau. /
/Eight Ahau./ This is the /Katún/ when the rest of the Itzaes, who came
from the forest and from under its ashes, founded lands. Tan Xulucmal is
their name. From there, they left and founded Zac-lac-tun, named
Mayapán. In the seventh year /tun/, of the /Eight Ahau Katún/,
Chakan-putún was ended by Kak-u-pacat and Tec-uilu.
/Six Ahau./
/Four Ahau./
/Two Ahau./
/Thirteen Ahau./
/Eleven Ahau./
/Nine Ahau./
/Seven Ahau./
/Five Ahau./ The foreign Lord of the "bitters of men" arrived, who was
called "the man without clothes." The region was not ruined by them.
/Three Ahau./
/One Ahau./ The district of Tancáh, named Mayapán, was destroyed. In the
first year /tun/ in the /One Ahau Katún/ the sovereign Tutul and the
princes of the land and the /Cantzuculcab/ came out of there. In that
/Katún/ the men of Tancáh were conquered and the princes of the land
were dispersed.

* * * * *

/Twelve Ahau./ Their stone was erected in Otzmal.**/ /*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*/This refers to the Mayan custom of erecting a monumednt dated each
7,200 days to commerorate the /Katún/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Ten Ahau./ Their stone was erected in Sisal.
/Eight Ahau. /Their stone was erected in Kancabá.
/Six Ahau./ Their stone was erected in Hunacthi.
/Four Ahau./ Their stone was erected in Ti-kuh. In this /Katún/ there
was a plague, in the fifth year of this /Four Ahau Katún/
/Two Ahau./ Their stone was erected in Chacalná.
/Thirteen Ahau./. Their stone was erected in Euan.
/Eleven Ahau./ This is the beginning. In Kincolahpetén [Colox-petén]
their stone was erected. In this /Katún/ Ah-Pulá, called Napot Xiú,
died, in the first year (/tun/) of the /Eleven Ahau Katún/. This is the
/Katún/ when the Spanish arrived in this land for the first time.**** In
the seventh year (/tun/) of the /Eleven Ahau Katún./ This was the
beginning of Christianity. In the year 1519.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**The Spanish arrived in Mérida in 1541, in the /Eleven Ahau Katún/,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Nine Ahau./ Their stone was erected. In this /Katún/ the first bishop,
Fray Francisco Toral, arrived. He arrived in the sixth year (/tun/) of
this /Nine Ahau Katún./
/Six Ahau./ Their stone was not erected. The bishop De landa died in
this /Katún/ and the bishop's replacement also arrived.
/Five Ahau./
/Three Ahau./

* * * * *

I am in August 18 of this year 1766. There was a wind storm [hurricane].
I denote the date of its occurrence so that one can see how many years
afterwards there will be another storm.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***The events were registered because it was believed that they wouod be
repeated, given that time is cyclic. This idea was the basis of the
prophesies and that by this register we see that it continued in effect
in the 18th century.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

** * * * **

Here I am in January 20, 1782. It was when the "inflammation" here in
the town of Chumayel was propagated. The peoples' throats and lower
parts of their bodies were swollen. From boys and girls to the elders,
they all worked together to clean their houses when entering them. This
is their medicine: sour ash and lemons, or herb of /sisal/ for the
children. It began from the year 81. Then there were also great droughts
because the rain did not come. All the mountains burned and died also.
This is the memory that I write.

Don Juan Josef Hoil. (A rubric of marked old Spanish character, as the
letter.)***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Considerd the first compiler of the /Chilam Balam of Chumayel/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Here visibly ends the primitive compilation. One sheet continues with a
note in very vascillating and unskillful letter that says almost
illegibly): /Chumayel and June 28, 1838/. It happened that I I keep the
/Chilám Balám/, I Pedro Briseño.

(Another additional sheet, which forms the 84 of the manuscript):
Wednesday. I am at April 4, 1832. It happened that I indicated the name
of María Isidora, daughter of Andrés Balam and María Juana Sicuras
[Xicum]. Sunday. I am at December 2, 1832. It happened that I indicated
the name of Tomás, son of Andrés Balam and María Juana Xuum [Xicum] ­
Godparents; for [José] María Carbajal [Castañeda] Madrina, Micaela Marin
[Manuela Marin]. Justo Balam ­ cura, fray ­ (illegible).****
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****The terms that Roys transcribed in his version are added.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Another characteristic of the letter.) This is the day when I bought
this book. June 1, 1938. It cost me while in poverty - this book cost me
3 pesos [one peso]. This is the year I bought it, June 1. I indicate it
so you may know what day it passed into my hands. I, Pedro of Alcantará
Briceño, neighbor of San Antonio.

*/Kahlay/ of the Dzules*

On the /Thirteen Ahau Katún/ for the first time the boat of the /Dzules/
arrived at Campeche. 1,541 is the name of the year in whIch this
happened. And with them the time came when Mayan men entered
christianity. They founded the town in Tan-Tun Cuzamil, and they were
there half a year. And they went away through the "water door" toward
the West.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Chikin-chel, a native province immediately to the south of the River of
Lizards. Its captital was Chauac Ha.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This happened in the year 1542.

They founded the county of Hoó, Ichcaansihó, in the /Eleven Ahau Katún/.
Its first Chief (halach-uinic) was don Francisco de Montejo, Adelantado.
He gave his town to the /Dzules/, "men of God,"** within the year in
which the fathers arrived, four years after the /Dzules/ arrived. It
began to "enter water on the head of the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**It is possible that this refers to the "incomiendes" (benefits of
indigenouswork granted by the king to a conquerer or colonizer, in order
to recompense for services).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
men" [Baptism]. The fathers were established and towns were given out to
them.

In the year 1544, 855 years had passed since the city of Chichén Itzá
had been abandoned and its dwellers dipersed. And 870 years had passed
since the city of Uxmal had been destroyed and its lands abandoned.

In the year 1537, the day called /Nine Cauac/, it happened that the
nobles joined together in Council in the city of Maní, in order to
choose a Lord for their town, because their sovereign had been killed.

Here are their names: Ah Moó-Chan-Xiú; Na-Haés; Ah Dzun-Chinab;
Ná-Poot-Cupul; Ná-Pot-Cha; Ná-Batún-Itzá; Ah-Kin-Ecan, who came from
Caucel; Nachi-Uc; Ah-Kul-koh; Nachán Mutul and Nahaú-Coyi. These who
were the great men of the county said that a Lord was going to be chosen
for their town, because their Sovereign had been dead, Ah Napot Xiú, in
Otzmal.

The /Ten Kam/ was the "porter of the year," in which the "seekers of
towns" passed, of whom the mentioned Montejo was the one who "used to
write the towns." It was the same year when the foreigners passed by,
men of the land, foreigners "heavy eaters of soursop" Then there was the
first partitioning of towns. And when the /Dzules/ came to take them,
"recipients of the visit," they went to Campeche, to where its boat left
and the nobles went to greet them. Thirteen ambassadors went to receive
the /Dzules/, and with them they came to Ichcaansihó. This took place in
the /Ninth Ahau Katún/.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***These events occurred in the /Katún 11 Ahau/, not on the /9 Ahau
/according to Roys.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Book of the Prediction of the/ /13/ Katúnes/*

*/The Lords of the 13 Katúnes/*

The relation of the explanation of the wisdom of the Sacred Books, and
of the order of walking through the epochs, was recorded here in these
lands of Nitún-dzalá, Chactemal, Tah-Uaymil /[Chactemal and Tah-Uaymil
were names of Chetumal]/, Holtún Itzá, Chichimilá, so that the "burden"
of the passing of the /Katúnes/ could be known. One by one, each
/Katún/, be it good or bad, so it was written by the writers of sacred
writings. /Evangelists/. It is the Lord's word from heaven and earth,
the fire kindled on the face of the sun that came from above, that was
given to them. So they know the beginning of the land, the trunk of our
race, and in the true talk of the sacred writers, it has been put in the
books. /Repuldorio/ [Reportorio]. It has no error. Very carefully
revised, it has been stamped in their book by four men of noble lineage,
who came from heaven, juice of the sky, dew of heaven. True men, Kings
of this earth: Zacaalpuc, Hooltun-Balam, Hochchtun-Poot and Ah
Mex-Cuc-Chan.

Behold within 7 times 20 years Christianity will come. There will be
commotion and confusion of the Kings and the war of conquest. Then the
prophesies and the prediction of the /Katúnes/ will be manifested.
Unfortunate ones of the faces of the /Great Figures/ when the boss of
the House of Adoration*** arrives that is in the middle of the city of
Hoó! They will arrive from the East, North, West and South, in order to
impose their language and its Christianity, priests will arrive,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Miserable is the face of Chac Chuen Coyi. Then the leader of the church
will come. /(Roys)/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
bishops will arrive and what is called the Holy Inquisition. The word of
God will be made. No one will be able to avoid it. Amen.

*Chapter of the Katún Year*

First. /Eleven Ahau/. First foundation of the land by the /Dzules/.

The /Eleven Ahau Katún/ is the beginning of the story of the /Katúnes/,
it is the first /Katúne/. Ichcaansihó is the seat of this /Katún/.

The /Dzules/ arrive. Their beards are red. They are children of the Sun.
They are bearded. They come from the East; when they arrive in this
land, they are the lords of the land. They are white men . . . The
beginning of the time [The beginning of carnal sin] of the flower.***
They scatter flowers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Nicté/, flower of Plumeria, symbol of luxury.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh, Itzaes! Prepare youselves! Now comes the white twin of the sky, now
comes the all-white child; the white holy tree is going to come down
from heaven. At a cry, at a league of its road, you will see its
announcement. Oh, it will be night for us when they come. Great
gatherers of timber, great gatherers of stones,**** the "white sparrow
hawks of the earth"!***** They light fire on the tips of their hands,
and at the same time hide their venom and their ropes in order to hang
their parents!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****This probably refers to the construction of Spanish cities and
churches.
*****/Zac ibteeloob cab/; difficult of translation. Roys: "Despicable
rubble of the town."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, Itzaes! Here is your god! there is no need for that true god that
has come down. One sin is his possession, one sin is his teaching. Deaf
will be their warriors, mean will be their captains. Who will be the
Prophet who understands it, now that it comes to Tancah of Mayapán and
to Chichén Itzá.

Oh, dear brother-children, within the/ Eleven/ /Ahau Katún/ comes the
weight of pain, the rigor of misery and the tribute. Scarcely are you
born and you already are bent under the yoke of the tribute, branches of
the trees of tomorrow! Now that it has come, children, prepare
yourselves to pass on the burden of the bitterness that arrives in this
/Katún/, which is the time of sadness, time of the dispute of the devil,
who arrives in the /Eleven Ahau Katún/.

Receive, receive your bearded guests who lead the sign of God! Your
brothers come, /oh Tantunes/!*** They come to ask for their offering.
Act confused with them!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Tantun is related to Cozumel; it can mean: "Before the precious stone."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the name of the sacerdotes:

/Ah Misnilac-pet/ (those who have a circle on their head and sweep their
plate with their noses). Of leoncillo [puma], of Antichrist will be his
semlance in the time when they come, in the day that now is before you.
Oh, the misery will be augmented, my children!

This is the word of Our Father: the land will burn. White circles will
appear in the sky, on the day that has to arrive. It comes from the
mouth of God, it is not a lie. Oh, heavy is the servitude that arrives
in Christianity! It is coming now! Words will be slaves, trees slaves,
rocks slaves, men slaves, when it comes! It will arrive . . . and you
will see. Their /Halach uiniques/ are those of the trunk of the second
time, those of the straw matts of the second time, within the days of
the /uayeyab/, maleficent days.

With this ends the word of God.

They compete with one another in getting drunk. [/lit. "11 jousts are
their mugs/."] Frowning is the aspect of the face of their god. All that
he teaches, all that he talks is: "You are going to die!"

You are going to live, those of you who understand the words of the
written scriptures of life, children of Mayapán! "One man begot himself.
Their justice put him in prison. That same justice got him out so that
he would be bound and whipped. And then he came to be eated in the fold
of the blanket of his Son. His hat is on his head and his shoes on his
feet. Tied is his cingulum at his waiste. Noow he is coming."***

***This refers to Jesus Christ. Here the writer included his knowledge
of the Christian doctrine.

*Second*

1560

2. The /Nine Ahau Katún/, the second Katún. It is told in Ichcaansihó,
that it is the seat of their /Katún/. There the lords of the land
receive their tribute. there the masters of our souls arrived. There all
the towns united themselves into one. There the counties were
distributed to their chiefs. There the holy faith was begun to be
learned. There it began to "enter water onto their heads." There the
cathedral of the Greater Holy Church was established, the palace of God,
the open virtuous house of God. There the principle of the seven
sacraments was established.

There was lost . . . [illegible]. There the work of destruction began in
the middle of the town . . . the misery of the whole world. There the
good of God's word was raised, the message from the mouth of God. There
will arrive a white creature come from heaven named the Virgin woman.
Her house is seven red stars.****
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****Red star refers to Venus, but here it seems to refer to the seven
planets of medieval astronomy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * * * *

The /Nine Ahau/ will have reached its ninth year, when Christianity will
be accepted. Thus it is written by the Prophet Chilam Balam, with the
sacred Seal of Heaven. Eterrnal is his time in heaven, as here in the
earth. Of the "Spirit of Heaven" of the "Book of Heaven" comes down the
word of God, who comes from heaven for the whole world.

Nine are their plates, nine are their mugs. Oh, watch out, Itzaes! Don't
hand yourselves over completely to your guests. You could devour them.
They will devour you also. That will happen.

*Third*

*/1580/*

2 The/ Seven Ahau Katún/ is the third /Katún/. Ichcaansihó [Merida] is
the seat of this /Katún/. The countenance and wisdom of his Lordship
flashes like lightning*** before the ruin below, before the blows below,
which cut the flower from the bread and the flower of water. It pains
him that the luxury of wise men begins.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Yaxal Chac (green Rain) is the face of the /Katún/ in the heavens. of
water.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
He calls the flowers and calls the warriors. There it begins. That, he
will ask everyone for once. His clothing is made from flowers, his face
is made of flowers, his shoes of flowers, his head, his walking is of
flowers. Twisted is his throat, tilted his mouth, half-closed his eyes,
with saliva spilling out. Such are their men, women, princes, justice,
prelates, their Christians, teachers, elders, their little ones.

There is not Great Knowledge. The heaven and earth are quite lost for
them. They have no shame. The sovereigns and kings of their towns and
the mayan priests will be hung. Understanding and wisdom, then, will be
lost.

Prepare youselves, Itzaes! Your children will see the /Katún/
extinguished by the blows of war. Crazy is the talking, crazy the
countenanceof the reign of the King of the reddish scarecrows. "Seven
are their plates, seven their mugs." It is the word of God. Innumerable
deaths by gallows are the burden of this /Katún/.

*Fourth*

*/1600/*

Te /Five Ahau Katún/ is the fourth /Katún/. Ichcaansihó is the seat of
this /Katún/. Hard is their countenance, hard is the announcement of
their reign. Harsh biter of children, when he comes will begin the crime
of the devil in the world. And there he will go with his face of
bitterness.***
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***"Then will begin the vexation by the devil in the world. Then will
come the blindness of the face of god, of the face of Kauil." Kauil is
probably the god of the harvests. Itzam Na was called at times Itzam Na
Kauil.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The gifts will be the doorway to heaven. And the succession in public
offices will be opened with bribery. It will happen that there will be
hangings in all parts. He who raises his head , , , Will be bitten. He
who raises his head, will lower it with holes in it.** The children will
be sold and resold. The Father of everyone will be seized. And there
will be a day when the dance of the hatchets will be heard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****The red rattlesnake will raise his head to bite. The /holil och/
[tlacuache] will raise his head to bite." The Mayans of Yucatán speak of
four kinds of rattlesnakes, of the colors of the cardinal points: red,
white, black and yellow.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three big heaps of large ants will flood the land. And the fences of of
he who puts our hearts within the tribute. It will be the rigor of pain,
the rogor of discord; bedbug chiefs, suckers, evil spell of the towns!

Speaking comes with a voice of thunder. "I am going to slap your back."
And you, little brother, brother, he will put you on all fours before
his view. It is the time of the hypocritical fox [/tolil och/,
"oppossum-mice"]. His small bench is made of flowers. He sits on his
throne in the middle of the square in the middle of his rug ­ false
throne, false rug ­ where the Guardian Bee of the Hive had been before
in the town.

The two, the fox chief and "he who is on all fours," are going to give
the plague. It will be the beginning of the debts that were accumulated
a little earlier, and this wil be called now "the first that the
poulterer turns around."

This latter will be the /Katún/ of the treasons. Tancáh of Mayapán and
the great Zuhuyua of the tribute will fall into error pursuing the
jaguar and the cub. Painful /Katún/, painful years of tyrannical reign!
Continuing hangings are the burden of the /Katún/. If the governor of
this land be hung, it will be the end of the misery of the Mayan men.
And the coming of the /Uaymiles/ would be eased, so that all could take
his straight path.

*Fifth*

*/1620/*

The /Three Ahau Katún/ is the fifth /Katún/. Ichcaansihó is the seat of
this /Katún/. A black brilliance covers the countenance of his reign and
his wisdom.*** The face of his Lordship is from the Antichrist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***In the text, Ek-Cohah-mut, name of a deity, was probably associated
with Itzam Na. Barrera and Rendon translate the name as "The
star-turtle-announcement."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A fire will be lit on the horns of the deer.**** In Ichcaansihó, the
lion's skin***** will be extended from the reverse side [inside-out?] in
the middle of the square. He looks like a dog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****/Yuc/, a small deer of Yucatán.
*****Chac Bolay,* *"Fierce red tiger or jaguar."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The moon will have white circles of rain. The skies will get saturated
with rains; the skies wil resonate with downpours; the rains will shoot
arrows from thwe skies, celestial rains, celestial rains of cotton
balls, rains of roosters, rains of deer.

Ants will come down like tigers, as long as 3 times the height of a man.
Years of lobster will come. Three times "his narrowness will hang."
Three times the leaves of the chile will die.

With a deaf and sad accent, they will go counting the signs of the
/Katún/ by the crossroads.

The souls of the dead will groan in the dugouts of the city of stone of
the Itzaes.

When he comes, he will say: "Behold, I am seated in Ichcaansihó. I am
César Augusto [Charles V] and I sit to receive my alms in the desert . . ."

(/One page missing/)

*First*

*/1640/*

The /One Ahau Katún/ is the seventh /Katún/. Emal is the seat of the/
Katún/, in the time when Ix Puc-Yolá [the "destroyer of the heart of
water"] and Ox Ualah-cii [/Ix Ual Cuy/, "The tecolate of extended
wings]. Ropes will come down, cords from the sky will come down.***
Their word will not be a lie. They come so that the word of the Lord of
the Sky is realized, but it is not a word of deceit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Probably this alludes to the belief in the /cuxam zum/, "living
cord," suspended from heaven and extended from Tulum and Cobá to Chichén
Itzá and Uxmal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

His aspect is as a dog [pek], also as a raven [ah cuch, "zipilote"]. A
flag is his second body. The face of his reign is as a fox [zarigüeya].
Sterile is his understanding and his word. Sterile is his virile member
and dented is the large flint knife of his reign and his wisdom.

Thousands of warts will arrive to sting Balam [jaguar] and Canul.***
*Seven years will a wart sting, seven years will it sting the Temple
Guardian. And the justice of our Father
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****Name of an important Mayan family.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
God will come down on the destroyers, on the white sparrow hawks from
the towns, on the reddish wrists, on the vile knaves. Then another
different language will arrive and another different teaching.

Mayan men will not believe. The word of God, Lord of heaven, will be
sung among them, so that they can rectify their path, so that they can
abandon the evil of their works. The older Mayan men do not want to hear
God's word, in the home of their Father and their Judge. They will be
distressed by the King of the world. They believe little and not even
that do they believe either. "It does not matter," they say, "everyone
is happy."

The Guardians of the Hive will light the fire, that is the Sign of the
pure and only god of the Mayans in the virginity of the Only church.**
*There the word of the Lord of Heaven, of the Lord of Earth will be
proclaimed and ther it will be heard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Barrera and Rendón translate this sentence thus: "The fire will be
lit in honor of the Mayan Virgin and of Hunab Ku only-God in the
holiness of the only Church."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world will be filled with sadness. The wing of this land will
tremble and the center of this land will tremble n the day when the
venerable Lords /Ah Bentanes/ [/Ah-Bentana/] come. It is the word of God.

In three parts will the justice of our Father-God come down on the whole
world. A great war will come on the white sparrow hawks of the towns.
And it will be known if their faith is truly strong when the serfs come
down to irrigate with hot water the faces of the moths of the land, of
the vile knaves, of the vultures of the villages, of the wild cats of
the towns.

And then "the god that is endless" will arrive and will cut the bond of
the burden of our misery, Xotom Ahau. And the punishment for all will
come from the sky, the punishment of the whole world. Surely the time of
great droughts will come to all the nations in the world.

There will remain only twenty of the Guardians of Sand, of Sea, such as
those of Uaymil ["Place-of-the-naguales"],*** like those of Emal [The
Coming Down]. Their remains will be buried in the middle of the sea, at
the end of the war.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***One of the names of the province of Bakhalal or Bacalar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus it will come to pass that the next /Katún/ arrives. The crime of
the devil will be let out and will appear, that of the Antichrist; there
will be fighting by knives, hidden discord will come out, one will fight
with guns, and there will be violent conflict and stone throwing. And
upon this /Katún/ ending, César Augusto [Charles V] will receive his
alms in the middle of the desolated places.

Here are hungers, epidemics and plagues that come with shocking
intensity, in line on the road, one after the other.

Brothers, dear brothers, having come into the world as children of
servitude! When the King arrives and is foreseen, the face of the Son of
God will be crowned. And the bishop, the Holy Inquisition as it is
called, will arrive before Saul to ask for harmony with the Christians,
so that oppression ends, and it will be the end of misery.

Behold, when the great war is going to end, five provinces of the
prairie will be raised,*** to fight some against the others ­ the little
war of the /One Ahau Katún/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***"The five divisions of Chahan," a province where Mérida was founded.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tempests of whirlwinds are the burden of the /Katún/, and continuous
rains, skies saturated with rains.

The evil of the Katún is brought to an end by the blow of an arrow. Then
comes the burden of the judgements, the trial comes. Trials will be
asked for, with seven palms of flooded land!

Then God's service will become very strong. The Antichrist will stop
receiving his money. The Antichrist will not come. Our Father God does
not want it. This war will not be lost, here in this land, /because this
land will be born again/.****
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****This latter part is thus translated by Barrera and Rendón: "The
antichrist will not come anymore because God our Lord does not wish it
for the salvation of this Katún and of these provinces, because He was
the creator of these provinces and the origin of the Antichrist was
avarice."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the origin of the Antichrist: avarice, the avaricious. If the
"men of God" would not have come, there would not have been plunders or
greed, or underestimation of the blood of other men, or of the strength
of the humble ones. Each one would eat as a result of their own ability
and strength. When those of "five eyes" come the little tigers Ah
bentana will eat, but the Lord of Heaven [/Yumil Caan/] is offended.
This /Katún/ will be ended with smallpox. War in Havana will be raised.
Many boats.

*Second*

/1660/

The /Twelve Ahau Katún/ is the eighth /Katún/. It is related in
Saclahtún [white stones]*** which is the seat of the /Katún/. Blue and
burned is the semblance of the jug of heaven. Rain is the face of his
reign. "Together in one lasso there is day of heaven and night of
heaven." He is a great worker and great wiseman.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***This name has survived in one hacienda of Izamal. It is associated
with Mayapán.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There will be very good /Halachuinices/, very good /Batabes/, and there
will be much goodwill in the opinions of the whole world. Poor men will
become wealthy. Harvesta and more harvests are the topic of the /Katún/,
and rich years and much ranching.

In this good /Katún/, good red men will work. The fruits will come out
like rocks of the land.*** The Christians will walk together with God.
Then the doctrine will be petitioned by the ruling government of the
towns and the "silver door," and the marriages of the town. In the house
of four stories we will ask for our shoes and at the same time it will
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Barrera and Rendón: "The Chaques, good gods-of-rain, will cause fruit
trees to produce even in the rocky terrain."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
take place where they will give us Christianity. And now you will say
that this is he who awakened the land.

Behold, here will end this /Nicté Katún/ [/Katún/ of the May flower ­
symbol of luxury]. It will end up sold. The word of the King will
arrive. And seven good stars of an incarnate color are going to arrive.
And there will be strong downfalls of rain in the 17th year.

*Third*

*/1680/*

The /Ten Ahau Katún/, Chablé [scaly sheet] is the seat of the /Katún/.
There their inhabitants will arrive. And the trees of the forest will
bend over them, who will be the Kings of the land.

The hoofs of the animals will burn; the sands of the seas will burn; the
birds' nests will be kindled. The cisterns will burst. Great droughts
are the burden of the /Katún/. It is the word of our Father God and of
the Lady of heaven [/U Colel Caan/]. No one will be able to escape from
the boundary of war. It is the word of Our Father God, Son of God, Lord
of Heaven and Earth. It has not happened. It is going to take place with
complete rigor over everyone.

The "Holy Christian" will arrive bringing a time in which the sovereigns
covert from their evil path.

And no one will be able to ignore, in the days of the great suns, the
word of the Mayan Sacerdotes [/Ah Kines/, "priests-of-the solar-cult].
It is the word of God.

*Fourth*

*/1700/*

The /Eight Ahau Katún/ is the ninth /Katún/. Itzmal is the seat of the
/Katún/.

/Kinich Kakmó/! [Guacamaya-of-fire-of-solar-force]. Coats of arms will
come down, arrows will come down [on Cha-kanputun], in pursuit of the
Kings of the Earth.*** And they will strike the "head" of the districts
of the plain, and it will be the Lady of the Land. It will be the end of
the oppression and of the misfortunes of all. It is the word of God.
Their inhabitants will make many wars.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Roys translates this: "The heads of the foreigners of the land will
be imprisoned within the walls of Chak putun." Possibly this is derived
from the custom of placing the heads of those conquered in the battles
on the /Tzampontli/, a platform reserved for this purpose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Fifth*

/1720/

The /Six Ahau Katún/ is the tenth /Katún/. It is told in Uxmal, which is
the seat of the /Katún/.

There it will be affirmed, being extended on their feet.*** *Disordered
is their history,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
****"The monuments of the /Katún/ are seated on their bases." This
refers to the erection of trails each /Katún/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Confused is the reign of their King. Their malicious talking will
deceive them. And then the word of God will come down, and it will cut
their throats because of their treasons. And then they will be revived
to wait for the judgment of God Our Father. And they will enter
Christianity with their servants. All those born here in the world will
enter Christianity.

*First*

/1740/

The /Four Ahau Katún/ is the eleventh /Katún/. It is told in Chichén
Itzá [Sides-of-the-wells-of-the-sorcerer-of-water], which is the seat of
the /Katún/.

The Itzaes will arrive at their city. Plumes and quetzals will arrive.
Kantenal [He-of-the-yellow-tree] will arrive, and Xekik and Kukulcán
will arrive.*** And after them, the Itzaes arrived again. It is the word
of God.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***It alludes to the arrival of the Nahua groups that brought to Chichén
Itzá the worship of Quetzalcóatl, called Kukulcán by the Mayas.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Second *

*/1760/*

The /Two Ahau Katún/ is the twelfth /Katún/. The Mayans will return to
to Cuzamel [/Cuzamil/, "swallow"], which is the seat of this /Katún/.
Their bread and their water will be neither too much nor too little.

This is the word of God. The temple of their gods will resound for some
time. This is the end of the word of God.

*Third (Judgment)*

/1520/

/1780/

/1599/

13 The /Thirteen Ahau Katún/ is read in Kinchil-Cobá
[chachalaca-of-solar-face], which is the seat of the /Katún/, of the
thirteenth /Katún/.

Everyone will be equal within, the Kings of the land will hear the
judgment of God Our Father.

The blood of the trees and stones will run. The sky and earth will burn.
It is the word of God the Word, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
This is the Holy Judgment of God.***

***Perhaps this refers to the final or last judgment of Christian thought.

The strengths of heaven and earth will be lacking. Great cities and
their inhabitants will enter Christianity. A very great city ­ who knows
the name, very large ­ will swallow up this our Mayan land of Cuzamil
and Mayapán [Banner-deer], that of our men of the Second Time, that
which is below the weight of rage, where the children are born into
servitude; where in the end strength and shame were lost, the living
soul of our children in flower!

We do not have good priests, and the cause of our death is bad blood.**
*The moon comes out, the moon goes away, it becomes full. In ancient
times, a person was defined by his blood, and as in the splendor of the
planets, his kindness was a reflection of this.

***Tu lobol kik. This expression is associated with dysentery in the
Mayan medical texts.

It is the end of the word of God. The water of the second birth" will
come on them; the "holy souls" will receive the holy oil, without being
obligated, but that it will come from God. The Christians will go to
holy heaven, guarded by their holy faith, and the Itzaes and the Balams
will stop being lost . . .

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