Damascus was the name of the plain where our first father, Adam, was created by God. This was his name, his first name was Adam, after his soul entered <into him>, after Paradise was set up. After Adam had then been created, then was created our first mother, Eve, the first woman, the mother of the whole world. Drops of moisture formed on the stones and bushes for the first time, 1 they say, created when there was no sky.
But <God> the Father was created alone and by his own effort in the darkness. But the stones were created separately. 2 This was the land of Acantun. 3 This was created after Adam was formed also. They were put in the place where the Acans are. Thus it was that he named them when he created them all. These were the first people.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, these are the joint <names> of God. They were created in the stone, the red slender stone and the worn stone of grace. His name is the Word, Josustin Graçia. 4
However, at the same time there was born in the stone, the black stone of terror, the one named Verbum-tuorum, Ix-coal-tun, Ix-coal-cab, 5 taken by the mistress of the world. 6 Then there was set in its place the thrice seasoned heaven, 7 the seasoned heaven. White and clean, it lay guarded in the heart of Sustinal Gracia. 8 Thirteen orders of katuns 9 lay prostrate in the stone. Then the ruler, Hunac Ceel, stirred into motion. 10
The song: 11 Ho! What is so precious as we are? It is the precious jewel <worn on the breast.> Ho! What is the distinction of righteous men? It is my mantle, my loin-cloth. So spoke the god. Then do you mourn for anyone?
[paragraph continues] No one. A tender boy 1 was I at Chichen, when the evil man, the master of the army, 2 came to seize the land. Woe! 3 /
| p. 59. C |
created in the night. What were we born? Eya! We were <like> tame animals <to> Mizcit Ahau. 1 <But> an end comes to his roguery. Behold, so I remember my song. 2 Heresy was favored. Yulu uayano! Eya! I die, he said, because of the town festival. 3 Eya! I shall come, he said, because of the destruction of the town. This is the end <of what is> in his mind, of what he thought in his heart. Me, he did not destroy. I tell what I have remembered in my song. Heresy was favored. Yulu uayano! /
| p. 60 C |
114:1 "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." Genesis II, 6.
114:2 Alternative translation: But others were created separately.
114:3 Acantun could be translated as a stone set up on a foundation. The four Acantuns were stone .columns set up to represent the four Bacabs at the New Years' ceremonies (Landa 1929, pp. 22-40). Cf. Dresden MS. pp. 25C-28C.
114:4 Perhaps Josué sustina gracia is intended, a pious interpolation which might mean: Jesus, the sustaining grace, the maize plant which sustains us.
114:5 These names might be translated, the harlot born of the stone, the harlot born of the earth. Here is doubtless a reference to the black pustules of the corn-smut.
114:6 "The mistress of heaven" was a term applied to the Holy Virgin; here we may have the direct opposite.
114:7 Maya: ox-cocox-caan. Cocox is a term applied to cacao which has seasoned or ripened on the tree, also a fruit which withers on the tree before it ripens.
114:8 Sustinal Gracia probably refers to the growing maize.
114:9 Alternative translation, Thirteen times eight thousand katuns.
114:10 Uilim, here translated as motion, is an unusual word. Uil, among other meanings, could signify the stirring of leaves or branches. Uii is a tuberous root, and the phrase has been translated: "se movió la semilla del Senor Hunac Ceel" (Mediz Bolio 1930, p. 68).
114:11 Kay (song) is written in the margin in what appears to be the hand of the compiler. From this point on, we find a genuine old Maya song almost unaffected by post-Conquest influences.
115:1 A tender boy, Maya, munal. "Mun: something tender and unmatured, before it ripens, like fruit and young boys." Motul. Possibly mun nal is intended and the young maize plant or ear is meant.
115:2 Alternative translation: the lord of the katun (u tah katun).
115:3 Ayano, an old Toltec interjection of sorrow.
115:4 We have seen idolators referred to as "heretics" on page 79. Here we have a reference to an old legend related to the first Spanish settlers, probably by Gaspar Antonio. "It is told that the first inhabitants of Chichen Itzá were not idolators until Kukulcan, a Mexican captain, entered these provinces. He taught idolatry, as they say it was he who taught them." Relaciones de Yucatan, I, p. 270. This would be in the Tenth Century A.D. Cf. prophecy on p. 161. The story is hardly to be taken literally and probably refers to a change in the religion of Yucatan and the introduction of the Quetzalcoatl cult.
115:5 The translator believes this to be another old Toltec interjection.
115:6 Lit. West-well, perhaps the modern Chikin¢onot southwest of Valladolid, but more likely some locality near Chichen Itzá.
115:7 We find in the prophecies a reference to certain tribute being buried or hidden at Chichen Itzá in a Katun 4 Ahau which probably occurred in the Tenth Century A.D. (Tizimin p. 28). Perhaps, however, merely the planted corn is meant here.
115:8 The next two words, thunci yaue, are not translated. They appear to mean: after something was spattered. Yaue is probably a mistake of the compiler.
115:9 According to the Mani and Tizimin Chronicles the conquest of Chichen by the Itzá in Katun 4 Ahau was their second occupation of the city.
115:10 Lit. the day of the god. Cf. Motul.
115:11 In the katun-prophecies we shall see the Itzá referred to as enemies. This third triumph may refer to the conquest by Hunac Ceel.
115:12 Uuiyao: probably an interjection. It might mean hunger or famine.
115:13 Maya, Oxte caan u kin. Probably a chronological statement, referring to the position of the sun at the time. The sky was divided into thirteen layers or heavens, Oxlahuncaan (lit. thirteenth heaven or thirteen heavens) was the full moon. Motul.
115:14 Maya, tan yol uinice. Lit. in the midst of men. Tan yol che means in the forest, i.e. in the midst of the trees.
115:15 Maya, Cen u mac lee. This may be an error of the compiler.
115:16 Putun is a geographical term and refers to the people living near Laguna de Términos, in the ancient Province of Tixchel. There is also a town named Tixchel, where the people "speak a different language called Putun-than, otherwise named Chontal, although in many words it is close to the Maya, so that if one is known, the other is easily learned" (Ciudad Real 1873, II, p. 452). A study of the language is found in Blom & LaFarge 1927, II, p. 465. Possibly putun is also a Maya word. The translator recalls hearing of a variety of chile called putun-ic.
116:1 Possibly one of the conquerors associated with Hunac Ceel. Cf. p. 74. Alternative translation: We were your companions, Mizcit Ahau.
116:2 Alternative translation: I abhorred my song.
116:3 Possibly a reference to human sacrifice.
116:4 Except, perhaps, for some of the prophecies which may have been sung, we have here a unique example of the old songs of the Maya. It was probably little understood in the Eighteenth Century when the Chumayel was compiled. The repeated refrain, Antan hereyao, here translated as "heresy was favored," is likely to be the distortion of some old Toltec chant.