The Popol Vuh is the sacred book of the Maya. Popol Vuh (fragments about the creation and death of the Second Humanity) - Earth before the Flood: Disappeared Continents and Civilizations See what "Popol Vuh" is in other dictionaries

"The Book of the People" and difficulties in translation

In fact, it is even surprising that the Popol Vuh (translated as “The Book of the People”) managed to survive to this day. But even now, researchers cannot say with absolute certainty when and by whom this literary monument was written. Most likely, it was created approximately in the 16th century, presumably in Santa Cruz Quiche. And for the "base" the author took numerous legends of the late Mayan-Kiche Indians, whose culture had almost died out by that time.

A century and a half later, the creation was found by the Dominican monk Francisco Jimenez, who at the beginning of the 18th century was the rector of the church in the Guatemalan town of Santo Tomas Chuvila (the Indians themselves called this settlement Chichicas-tenango). We can say that the future researchers of the culture of the Indians were lucky. After all, the monk knew the Kiche language very well and, in general, was very interested in the past. Therefore, Francisco realized that the found artifact is of historical value and he made the translation as accurate as possible.

Francisco Jimenez. (Pinterest)

As often happens, no one paid attention to the literary heritage of the Quiche. Only many years later, the Austrian Karl Scherzer discovered the transfer of a monk at the University of San Carlos, Guatemala. And only after that the researchers became seriously interested in the manuscript.

Soon the French scholar Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg translated the historical document into French. In 1861 he published a translation along with the original. The Frenchman called his work “Popol-Vuh. The Sacred Book and Myths of American Antiquity. Only after that the literary heritage of the Maya-Kiche was known all over the world.

And, as they say, rushed. Every more or less self-confident explorer of Central and South America considered it his sacred duty to do his own translation, and the work of de Bourbourg was taken as a basis. But, by and large, they all turned out to be failures, since the translators took the original very freely (after all, many points from the book were simply incomprehensible to them). This list, unfortunately, includes the translation of K. Balmont, which was published in the diary "Snake Flowers".

Konstantin Balmont also tried to translate the Popol Vuh. (Pinterest)

Only three researchers were able to translate the Indian manuscript with real scientific processing - this is the Frenchman J. Reynaud and the Guatemalan A. Resinos. And the best translation, according to scientists, belongs to the German Schulze-Pen.

What is the value of the book?

There are several mythological cycles in the Popol Vuh, which have different origins. Some were created by the Indians at the very beginning of the birth of their cults, others a little later, when the Maya came into contact with the Nahua peoples. But most of it is still reserved for the most ancient legends, which tells about the origin of the world and heroic adventures two twins Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque.

In this, one might say, Indian "Bible" there are four parts. The first two and a piece of the third tell directly about the creation of the world, as well as the confrontation between good heroes and the forces of evil. In the last section, all attention is paid to the misadventures of the Indians. The book tells in detail about their ordeals, about how they got to the land of modern Guatemala, founded a state there and heroically fought against numerous opponents.

"Popol Vuh". (Pinterest)

It is interesting that the original text itself is written in one piece, without any separation. The first to introduce parts and chapters into the book was the already mentioned Frenchman Brasseur de Bourbourg.

The original "Popol-Vuha" was created by rhythmic prose, which is distinguished by a certain, equal number of stressed syllables in a certain paragraph. Ancient Egyptian and ancient Babylonian poets "indulged" in this way of text alignment in their time. Also, "Popol-Vuh" is endowed with special "keywords", which are the main carriers of the semantic load. Simply put, each new sentence is built both in parallel and in the form of opposition to the previous phrase. But the "key" is repeated. And if it is not there, then there is necessarily a semantic opposite. For example, "day-night" or "black-white".

Quiche people

And yet the main character of the book is, of course, the Indian people. It is noteworthy how the book ends: “There is nothing more to say about the existence of the Quiche people ...”. After all the main objective creations is a story about the great past of civilization. And, as it should be in the worldview of that time, “great” means victorious wars, burned enemy cities and towns, captured slaves, annexed territories, human sacrifices for the sake of bloodthirsty gods, and so on.

At the same time, the creator of the book in every possible way avoids those moments that can in one way or another discredit his people. Therefore, in the "Popol Vuh" there is no word and numerous internal strife, which were successfully used by enemy peoples. For example, kakchikels. There is no mention of clashes with the Spaniards in the book, because they have nothing to brag about.

But the book clearly states that the Quiche Maya originally lived in central Mexico, most likely in the vicinity of the Toltecs. But then something happened, and they were forced to look for new territory. So the Quiche ended up in Guatemala.

Thanks to the Popol Vuh, it became known that the Indians considered themselves to be from the northern caves, that land was called Tulan. And the entrance to it was guarded by a bat. She was a kind of mediator between the world of the living and the world of the dead. So, if you believe the Mayan legends, their ancestors once managed to get out of the underworld and settle on living land.

FRAGMENT 1

" Let it be so!" - answered (the Creator and the Creator).
And the moment they were talking,figures were made of wood. They had faces like humans, spoke like humans, and populated the surface of the earth. They existed and multiplied;they had daughters, they had sons, these wooden figures, but they had neither soul nor mind, they did not remember their Creator and their Creator;they wandered aimlessly on four (legs). They no longer remembered the Heart of Heaven, and so they perished. It was no more than a test, than an attempt to (create) a person. True, they spoke, but their faces had no expression; their legs and arms had no strength; they had neither blood nor ichor, they had neither sweat nor fat. Their cheeks were dry, their feet and hands were dry, and their flesh was rotten.Therefore, they no longer thought about their Creator, nor about their Creator, about those who created them and cared for them.
These were the first people who existed in large numbers on the surface of the earth.

Immediately the wooden figures were destroyed, destroyed, broken and killed.
The flood was created by the Heart of heaven, a great flood was made that fell on the heads of the wooden creatures.
The flesh of a man was made from cyte wood, but when the Maker and Creator created a woman, her flesh was made from the core of a reed. These were the materials that the Maker and Creator wished to use in creating them.
But those whom they created, those whom they created, did not think or speak before the face of their Creator, before the face of their Creator. And because of that they were destroyed, they were sunk.Thick resin spilled from the sky. The one called Shekotkovach came and tore out their eyes; Kamalots came and tore off their heads; Kotsbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tukumbalam also came, he broke and tore their bones and their tendons, he rubbed and crushed their bones.
This (was done) to punish them, because their thoughts did not reach the face of their mother, the face of their father, the Heart of Heaven, which is called Hurakan.And for this reason the face of the earth darkened, and black rain began to fall; rain during the day and rain at night.
Then the small animals and the big animals came together,and trees and rocks began to beat (wooden people)by faces. And everything began to speak: their earthenware jars, their pans, their plates, their pots, their dogs, their stones on which they ground corn kernels - everything that was there rose up and began to beat them in the face.
“You did us a lot of harm, you ate us, and now we will kill you,” said their dogs and poultry.
And the grain grinders said:
- You tortured us every day; every day, at night and at dawn, all the time our faces were rubbing (against each other and talking) hol-holy, hooky-hooky because of you. This is the tribute we paid you. But now you people will finally feel our power. We will crush you and tear your flesh to pieces, their grain grinders told them.
And then their dogs spoke and said:
- Why didn't you want to give us anything to eat? You barely noticed us, but you chased us and threw us out. You always had a stick ready to hit us when you sat and ate. That's how you treated us because we couldn't speak. Wouldn't we be dead if everything went your way? Why didn't you look ahead, why didn't you think about yourself? Now we will destroy you, now you will feel how many teeth are in our mouth, we will devour you, - said the dogs, and then they tore their faces.
And at the same time, their pans and pots also said to them:
You have caused suffering and pain to us. Our mouths are blackened with soot, our faces are blackened with soot; you constantly set the pas on fire and burned us, as if we did not experience any torment. Now you will feel it, we will burn you, - said the pots, and they hit them in the faces.
The stones of the hearth, crowded together, rushed out of the fire right into their heads, causing them to suffer.
The desperate (wooden people) ran as fast as they could; they wanted to climb onto the roofs of the houses, but the houses fell and threw them to the ground; they wanted to climb the tops of the trees, but the trees shook them off; they wanted to hide in the caves, but the caves covered their faces.
Thus was the second destruction of created people, created people, beings that were destined to be destroyed and destroyed; and their mouths and faces were all mutilated.
They say that their descendants are those monkeys who now live in the forests;this is all that remains of them, because their flesh was created by the Creator and Creator only from wood.
That's why the monkey looks like a man; (she) is an example of that generation of people who were created and created, but were only wooden figures.

Exposition of the Four Books of the Popol Vuh

The myth of the creation of the world
The beginning of this interesting book close in content to the Quiche story of the creation of the world and what happened immediately after that. We learn that the god Huracan, a mighty wind in which we can see the Kichin equivalent of Tezcatlipoca, flew through the universe, still shrouded in darkness. He shouted "Earth!" and solid ground appeared. Then the main gods began to consult among themselves what to do next. These were Huracan, Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl, and Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, mother goddess and father god. They agreed to create animals. When this was done, they turned their attention to the creation of man. They made people out of wood, but they turned out to be irreverent and angered the gods, who decided to destroy them. Hurakan (Heart of the Sky) caused the waters to swell and a mighty flood fell upon these people. And an impenetrable downpour poured down on them. The tickling bird plucked out their eyes, the Kamulats bird cut off their heads, the Kotzbalam bird ate their flesh, the Tecumbalam bird broke their bones and muscles and ground them into powder. Then all creatures, big and small, mistreated the wooden people. Household utensils and domestic animals mocked them and joked evilly. The chickens said: “You treated us very badly, you ate us. Now we will eat you." The millstones said: “You annoyed us very much, and every day, day and night, we creaked and worked for you. Now you will feel our strength, we will grind your flesh and make food from your bodies. And the dogs growled at the unfortunate idols and tore them with their teeth, because they had not been fed. The cups and dishes said, “You have caused us pain and suffering by smoking us, setting us on fire, burning us and hurting us, as if we could not feel. Now it's your turn, you'll burn." The unfortunate wooden people tossed about in despair. They climbed onto the roofs of their houses, but the houses collapsed under their feet. They tried to climb the tops of the trees, but the trees threw them down. Even the caves did not let them in and closed in front of them. Thus, in the end, this unfortunate people was overthrown and destroyed. The only thing left is their descendants, little monkeys living in the forests.

Vukub-Kakish, Great Macaw
Shortly after the earth had fully recovered from the consequences of the seething flood that had fallen upon it, a proud creature named Vukub-Kakish lived on it (Seven times the color of fire - the name given by the Quiche Indians to a large macaw). His teeth were emerald, and other parts of his body shone with gold and silver glitter. In short, it is clear that in prehistoric times he was the god of the sun and moon. He boasted terribly, and his behavior so annoyed the other gods that they decided to destroy him. His two sons, Tsipakna and Kabrakan (Cockspur and He who showers the earth, or Earthquake), were earthquake gods, like Jotuns of Scandinavian myths or the titans of Greek legends. They were also arrogant and proud, and in order to overthrow them, the gods sent the celestial twins Hun-Apu and Xbalanque to earth with orders to punish this trinity.
Vukub-Kakish was proud to have a wonderful tree, on which grew round, yellow, fragrant fruits, and with which he breakfasted every morning. One morning he climbed to its top, from where he could better see the best fruits, and there, to his surprise and fury, he saw two strangers who had come there before him and deprived the tree of almost all its fruits. Seeing Vukub, Hun-Apu put a blowpipe to his mouth and fired a dart at the giant. The dart hit him in the mouth and he fell from the top of the tree to the ground. Hun-Apu jumped on Vukub and grappled with him. But the giant, terribly angry, grabbed the god by the hand and pulled it out of his body. He then returned to his house, where he was met by his wife Chimalmat, who asked him why he was crying in pain. In response, he pointed to his mouth, and so great was his anger at Huna-Apa that he took the hand pulled out from him and hung it over the blazing fire. Then he threw himself on the bed to mourn his wounds, consoling himself, however, in the fact that he had avenged himself on those who disturbed his peace.
While Vukub-Kakish groaned and howled from the terrible pain in his jaw and teeth (for the dart that struck him was probably poisoned), Huna-Apu's hand hung over the fire. Vukub's wife Chimalmat kept turning and turning her and spraying her with fat. The sun-god heaped curses upon those who entered his paradise and caused him such misfortunes, and gave vent to terrible threats as to what he would do if they fell into his hands.
But Huna-Apu and Xbalanque didn't care that Vucub-Caquix managed to escape so easily: they had to restore Huna-Apu's hand at any cost. Therefore, they went to consult with the two great wise magicians Xpiyakok and Xmukane, in whose images we see the two original creator gods among the Quiche Indians. They advised these twins to go with them in disguise to the dwelling of Vukub if they wanted to return the lost arm. The old wizards decided to disguise themselves as healers, and Huna-Apu and Xbalanque dressed in other clothes; those were supposed to represent their sons.
Soon they arrived at the palace of Vukub and, being still at some distance from him, heard his groans and cries. They greeted him at the door of his house and said that they heard someone crying out in pain, and, being famous healers, considered it their duty to ask who here was suffering so.
Vucub seemed satisfied with these words, but carefully questioned the old wizards about who they were the two young men who accompanied them.
"These are our sons," the wizards replied.
"Good," Vukub said. “Do you think you can cure me?”
“We have no doubts,” Spiillacock replied. “You received serious wounds to your mouth and eyes.”
“The cause of my suffering is the demons who fired a dart from a blowpipe at me,” Vukub said. “If you can cure me, I will reward you generously.”
“Your highness has a lot of bad teeth that need to be removed,” said the crafty old wizard. “And your eyes, it seems to me, are also affected by the disease.”
The Vucub looked greatly alarmed, but the wizards quickly dissuaded him.
“It is necessary,” said Spiillacock, “that we extract your teeth, but we will take care to insert corn kernels in their place. They will seem much better to you in every way.”
The unsuspecting giant agreed to this operation, and very quickly Xpiyacock, with the help of Xmukane, removed his emerald teeth and replaced them with white corn kernels. And with the titan there was a rapid change. His brilliance quickly faded, and when they removed the eyeballs from his sockets, he lost consciousness and died.
At this time, the wife of Vukub turned Huna-Apu's hand over the fire, but Huna-Apu snatched it from the brazier and, with the help of magicians, attached it to his shoulder. The defeat of Vukub was complete. The whole company left his home with the consciousness of a completed task.

earth giants
But in reality it was only partially fulfilled, because Vukub had two sons, Tsipakna and Kabrakan, with whom there was still to be dealt with. Every day, Zipakna was busy raising the mountains, and his brother Cabracan was shaking them with earthquakes. Hun-Apu and Xbalanque first directed their revenge on Tsipakna and conspired with a gang of youths to kill him.
These youths, who numbered four hundred, pretended to be busy building a house. They cut down a large tree, which was supposed to represent the ridge run of their house, and waited in the forest, through which, as they knew, Zipakna was going to pass. After a while they heard the giant breaking through the thicket. He came into view and, when he saw them standing around a huge tree trunk, which they could not lift, became very amused.
“What do you have here, little ones?” he asked with a laugh.
"Just a tree, your highness, that we cut down to make a ridge run for the new house we are building."
"Can't you carry it away?" the giant asked with contempt.
“No, your highness,” they replied, “it is too heavy for us to carry even with our combined efforts.”
With a good-natured chuckle, the titan bent down and lifted the huge barrel onto his shoulder. Then, asking them to show the way, he began to wade through the forest, not in the least embarrassed by his considerable luggage. And the young people, instigated by Hun-Apu and Xbalanque, have already dug a huge hole, which was supposedly intended for the foundation of their new home. They asked Tsipakna to go down into it, and, not sensing a dirty trick, the giant willingly complied with this request. When he descended to the bottom of the pit, his treacherous acquaintances began to throw huge tree trunks on him, but, hearing the noise of their approach, the giant quickly took refuge in a small side passage that these young people had dug to build a cellar under their house.
Deciding that the giant had been killed, they began to express their joy by singing and dancing, and Zipacna, to make his trick even more convincing, sent to the ground several ants ready to help him with strands of hair, which, as the young people concluded, were taken from his dead body. Having received imaginary evidence of the giant's death, the youths continued to build their house on tree trunks, under which, as it seemed to them, the body of Cypacna lay. Then, having prepared a sufficient amount of pulque, they began to enjoy themselves, celebrating the death of their enemy. For several hours their new dwelling rang with a noisy feast.
All the while, Zipacna, sitting quietly downstairs, listened to the noises upstairs and waited for his chance to take revenge on those who had lured him into a trap.
Suddenly rising to his full gigantic height, he threw both the house and all its inhabitants high into the air. The house was completely destroyed, and the gang of youths was thrown into the sky with such force that they remained there, among the stars that we call the Pleiades. To this day, we can see how tired they are, waiting for an opportunity to return to earth.

Death of Cypacna
But Hun-Apu and Xbalanque, saddened that their comrades had died such a death, decided that Tsilakna should not be allowed to leave so easily. Storming the mountains under the cover of night, during the day he sought food on the banks of the river, where he wandered, caught fish and crabs. The twins created a large artificial crab, which they placed in a depression at the bottom of the hollow. Then they dug a skillful tunnel under a huge mountain and began to wait for developments. Very soon they saw Zipacna wandering along the river bank and asked where he was going.
"I'm just looking for food," the giant replied.
"And what kind of food do you eat?" the brothers asked.
“Only fish and crabs,” Zipacna replied.
“Oh, yes, there is a crab down there,” said the treacherous brothers, pointing to the bottom of the hollow. We spotted him as we walked. True, it is a huge crab! It will be an excellent breakfast for you."
"Great! cried Zipacna, and his eyes sparkled. “I must get it immediately.” And with one leap he was already where the cunningly conceived crab lay in the hollow.
Before he could reach him, Hun-Apu and Xbalanque threw a mountain on him. But he made such desperate efforts to free himself that the brothers were afraid that he might throw off the huge mass of earth under which he was buried. And to ensure his death, they turned him into stone. Thus, at the foot of Mount Meajuan at Vera Paz, the proud Creator of the mountains perished.

Defeat of Cabrakan
Now the last of the family of braggarts remained, and he was the most proud.
"I am the Tearer of the Mountains!" he said.
But Hun-Apu and Xbalanque decided that none of the Vukuba clan should remain alive.
While they were plotting to destroy Cabrakan, he was busy moving mountains. He seized the mountains at their base, and with all his mighty strength he tossed them aside; and he did not pay attention to small mountains at all. While he was busy with this work, he met the brothers, who greeted him heartily.
“Hello, Cabrakan,” they said. “What are you doing?”
“Bah! Nothing special, the giant replied. “Don’t you see that I am scattering mountains? This is my usual occupation. Who are you to ask such stupid questions? What is your name?"
“We don't have names,” they replied. “We are just hunters, and we have blowpipes with which we hunt the birds that live in these mountains. So you see, we don't need names because we don't meet anyone on the way."
Cabrakan looked at the brothers with contempt and was about to leave when they told him: “Stay; we would like to see you throwing mountains.”
This fueled Cabrakan's pride.
“Well, if that's what you want,” he said, “I'll show you how I can move really big mountains. Now choose the one you want me to destroy, and before you know it, I will turn it to dust."
Hun-Apu looked around and, noticing a huge mountain peak, pointed to it. "Do you think you can bring down that mountain?" - he asked.
“Easier than easy,” replied Kabrakan, laughing out loud. "Let's go to her."
“But first you must eat,” said Hun-Apu. “You haven’t eaten since morning, and such a great deed cannot be completed if you fast.”
The giant smacked his lips. "You're right," he said with a hungry look. Cabrakan was one of those people who is always hungry. “But what do you have to feed me?”
“We don’t have anything with us,” Hun-Apu said.
“Ugh! growled Cabrakan. - And you are good! You ask me what I'm going to eat, and then you say you don't have anything." And in anger he grabbed one of the small mountains and threw it into the sea, so that the waves splashed up to the sky.
“Come on,” said Hun-Apu, “don't be angry. We've got our blowpipes with us and we'll shoot you a bird for dinner."
Hearing this, Cabrakan calmed down a bit.
"Why didn't you tell me about it right away? he growled. "Let's get on with it, I'm hungry."
Just at that moment, a big bird, and Hun-Apu and Xbalanque brought their blowpipes to their mouths. The darts shot up quickly and both hit the bird, which, tumbling in the air, fell at the feet of Cabracan.
“Wonderful, wonderful! the giant exclaimed. “And you really are clever guys!” And, seizing the dead bird, he was about to eat it raw, when Hun-Apu stopped him.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “It will be much tastier if cooked.” And he began to rub two sticks together, and he ordered Xbalanque to collect some dry brushwood, and soon the fire was already blazing.
The bird was hung over the fire, and after a short time, the appetizing smell tickled the nostrils of the giant, who stood and watched the cooking with hungry eyes and drooled.
Before placing the bird to cook over the fire, Hun-Apu smeared its feathers with a thick layer of clay.
The Indians in some parts of Central America to this day make it so that when the clay dries from the heat of the fire, the feathers fall off with it, leaving the poultry meat ready to eat. But Hun-Apu did it on purpose. The clay with which he smeared the bird's feathers was poisoned and was called tizate; its particles penetrated deeply into poultry meat.
When the appetizing dish was ready, he gave it to Cabrakan, who quickly swallowed it.
“Now,” said Hun-Apu, “let’s go to that high mountain and see if you can pick it up as you boast."
But Cabrakan already felt an incomprehensible sharp pain.
"What is this? he asked, running his hand over his forehead. "I don't seem to see the mountain you're talking about."
“Nonsense,” said Hun-Apu. - There she is. See? East of here."
“Something my eyes are clouded this morning,” the giant replied.
“That is not the point,” said Hun-Apu. “You boasted that you could lift this mountain, and now you are afraid to try it.”
“I tell you,” said Cabrakan, “that it is difficult for me to see. Will you take me to the mountain?"
“Of course,” said Hun-Apu, holding out his hand, and after a few steps they were at the foot of the summit.
"Now," said Hun-Apu, "let's see what you can do, braggart."
Cabrakan stared blankly at the bulk that towered before him. His knees were shaking and pounding against each other so that the sound was like the sounds of a war drum, sweat poured from his forehead and ran down the mountainside in a small stream.
"Come on! Hun-Apu shouted mockingly. “Are you going to lift the mountain or not?”
"He can't," said Xbalanque contemptuously. "I knew he couldn't."
Cabrakan shook himself, making one last effort to gather his strength, but all in vain. The poison rushed into his blood, and with a groan he fell dead in front of his brothers.
Thus perished the last of the earthly giants of Guatemala, whom Hun-Apu and Xbalanque were sent to destroy.

Second book
The second book, Popol Vuh, outlines the story of the hero-gods Huna-Apu and Xbalanque. It tells that Shpiyakok and Shmukane, a god and a mother goddess, had two sons, Hunhun-Apu and Vukuba-Hunapu. To the first of them, his wife Shbakiyalo gave birth to two sons, Hunbats and Hunchouen. All members of this family had a weakness for the local ball game - perhaps it was the Mexican-Mayan game of tlachtli - reminiscent of hockey. The natives of Central America were avid lovers of this game, and numerous traces of tlachtli playgrounds can be found among the ruins of cities in Yucatan and Guatemala. The meaning of the game was to drive the ball into a small hole made in a round stone or into the goal, and the player who managed to do this could demand all their clothes and jewelry from the spectators. The game, as already mentioned, was extremely popular in Central America in antiquity, and there is reason to believe that matches were held between various city-states, accompanied by the same hot support fans and rivalry, like the football matches of our day.

Hades challenges
Once Hunhun-Apu and Vukub-Hunapu were playing ball and did not notice how they ended up in the vicinity of the kingdom of Xibalba (Hades or Hades among the Kiche people). The rulers of this place of sorrow saw this as an opportunity to capture the brothers and challenged them to a ball game. This call was sent by the rulers of hell Hun-Kame and Vukub-Kame with four messengers in the form of owls. The brothers accepted the challenge and, after saying goodbye to their mother Shmukane, to their sons and nephews, they followed the feathered messengers down the mountainside that led to the Underworld.

Fooled brothers
The American Indian is serious and silent. If there is one thing he fears and dislikes most, it is a mockery. To his harsh and arrogant nature, she seems to be something that humiliates his dignity and shows disrespect for his masculine qualities. The hero brothers did not stay long in Xibalba when they realized that the lords of the underworld intended to fool them and subject them to all sorts of insults. After crossing the bloody river, they came to the palace of the lords of Xibalba, where they saw two figures sitting in front of them. Thinking that they were Khun-Kame and Vukub-Kame, they greeted them in a proper way, but they found to their annoyance that they addressed their greeting to wooden idols. This caused rude mockery from the inhabitants of Xibalba, who made the brothers laugh. Then they were invited to take places of honor. To their horror, they saw that it was a red-hot stone - and this caused boundless fun among the inhabitants of the underworld. Then they were imprisoned in the House of Gloom, where they were sacrificed and buried. But the head of Hunhun-Apu was hung on a tree, from the branches of which hung pumpkins, so similar to a terrible trophy that they were indistinguishable from it. A decree was issued that no one in Xibalba should eat the fruit of that tree. But the lords of Xibalba failed to foresee women's curiosity and its irresistible craving for everything forbidden.

Princess Shquik
One fine day - if daylight penetrated this dark and unhealthy place at all - the princess of Xibalba named Xquik (Blood), daughter of Kuchumakuik, a famous person in Xibalba, passed under this tree and, looking at the coveted fruits that it was strewn, reached out her hand to pluck one gourd. The head of Honghun-Apu spat into her outstretched palm and told the princess that she would become a mother. But before she returned home, the god-hero assured her that no harm would be done to her and she should not be afraid. Soon the princess's father found out about her adventure, and she was doomed to death. The owls, messengers of the lords of Xibalba, were ordered to kill her and bring back her heart in a bowl. But along the way, she confused the owls with beautiful promises, and they replaced her heart with curdled plant sap.

Birth of Hun-Any and Xbalanque
Shmukane, who stayed at home, looked after the young Hunbatz and Hongchouen, and here, at the instigation of the head of Hunhun-Apu, she came for the protection of Shquik. At first, Shmukane did not believe her story, then Shkuik appealed to the gods, and a miracle was created for her: in order to confirm the veracity of her words, she was given the opportunity to collect a basket of corn where corn did not grow. Since she was the princess of the Underworld, it is not surprising that she was associated with such a phenomenon, since it is from the gods of this world that we usually expect the miracle of growth. Shortly thereafter, when she won the favor of the elderly Xmukane, her twin sons Hun-Apu and Xbalanque were born to her, whom we have already met as the main characters of the first book.

children of god
But the children of God were both noisy and naughty. They annoyed their venerable grandmother with piercing cries and tricks. Finally, Shmukane, who could not come to terms with their behavior, put them out the door. They adapted to life outside the home with surprising ease and soon became skilled hunters and learned to deftly use the serbatana (wind pipe), with which they shot birds and small animals. Their half-brothers Hunbatz and Hongchouen mistreated them, as they were jealous of their fame as good hunters, and pestered them in every possible way. But these children repaid them by turning their tormentors into terrible monkeys. A sudden change in appearance and she began to ask that those who pleased her house with singing and playing the flute should not be doomed to such a terrible fate. The brothers told her that if she could look at their antics without smiling, then her wish would be granted. But they cracked such jokes and built such grimaces that she was so amused that she could not help laughing three times, and the ape-men had to leave.

magic tools
The childhood of Huna-Apu and Xbalanque was full of such episodes as might be expected from these creatures. For example, when trying to clear a milpa (corn plantation), they used magical tools that could be trusted to do the job in a whole day while they were out hunting. Returning in the evening, they smeared their hands and faces with earth in order to make Shmukane believe that they had been working in the fields all day. But wild animals gathered at night for a secret meeting and returned to their places all the roots and shrubs that had previously been cut down by magic tools. The twins realized that there were various animals here, and they laid a large net on the ground so that if the next night the animals came to this place, they would fall into it. And they came, but managed to escape safely, except for the rat. Also, the rabbit and deer have lost their tails, which is why these animals don't have tails! The rat, in gratitude that the brothers had spared her, told them the story of their father and uncle, as well as their heroic efforts to resist the forces of Xibalba, and the existence of a set of clubs and balls with which they could play tlachtli in the playground in Ninshor Karchach , where Hunhun-Apu and Vukub-Hunapu played before them.

Second call
But the vigilant Hun-Kame and Vukub-Kame soon learned that the sons and nephews of their first victims had taken over the game that had led the latter into the clutches of the treacherous inhabitants of Xibalba, and decided to send the same challenge to Hun-Apu and Xbalanque, thinking that the twins did not know about the fate of Hunhun-Apu and Vukuba-Hunapu. Therefore, they sent messengers to Shmukane's house in order to challenge them to a ball game. And Shmukane, alarmed by this challenge, sent a louse to warn her grandchildren. The louse, unable to move as fast as she liked, allowed herself to be swallowed by the toad; the toad was swallowed by a snake, and the snake was swallowed by the Wok bird, the messenger of Hurakan. At the end of the journey, all the animals duly released each other, but the toad could not get rid of the louse, which actually hid in the toad's gums, so it was not swallowed at all. Finally, the message was delivered and the twins returned to Xmukane's home to say goodbye to their grandmother and mother. Before leaving, each of them planted a stalk of reeds in the middle of the hut, saying that they would wither if any misfortune befell them.

Deceived deceivers
And then they went to Xibalba along the road trodden by Hunhun-Apu and Vukub-Hunapu, and passed by the river of blood, as they had done before. But they took precautions and sent ahead an animal called Shan as a spy or scout. They told this animal to prick all the inhabitants of Xibalba with a hair from Huna-Apu's leg, in order to find out which of them was made of wood, and at the same time to learn the names of others when they addressed each other, pricked with a hair. Thus, when they arrived at Xibalba, they were able to ignore the wooden idols and prudently avoid the red-hot stones. And the test in the House of Gloom did not frighten them, and they passed through it unharmed. The inhabitants of the Underworld were both surprised and furious with disappointment. To top it all off, they lost big in the ball game that followed. Then the Lords of Hell asked the twins to bring them four bouquets of flowers from the royal garden of Xibalba, at the same time ordering the gardeners to watch the flowers carefully so that none of them could be picked. But the brothers called for help from the ants, who managed to return with flowers. The wrath of the lords of Xibalba was terrible, and they imprisoned Hun-Apu and Xbalanque in the House of Spears, where the demons furiously threw sharp spears at the captives. But they bribed the spearmen and remained unharmed. The lords of Xibalba split the beaks of the owls that guarded the royal gardens and howled with rage.

Houses of Trials
Then they were pushed into the House of Cold. Here they escaped the terrible fate of freezing to death, warming themselves by what they burned. Pine cones. They were thrown overnight in the House of Tigers and in the House of Fire, but in both cases they escaped. In the House of Bats, they were so unlucky. As they made their way through this terrible place, Kamatzots, the ruler of bats, swooped down on them, whistling through the air with leathery wings, and with one wave of his saber-like claws, he cut off the head of Hunu-Apu. However, the tortoise, which accidentally crawled past the headless body of the hero on the ground and touched the neck, immediately turned into a head, and Hun-Apu rose to his feet and became no worse than he was.
These houses, in which the brothers were forced to spend some time, remind us of Dante's circles of Hell. Xibalba for the Quiche Indians was not a place of punishment, but a dark and terrible place, full of many dangers. It is not surprising that the Maya Indians had, according to Land, "an exorbitant fear of death", if they believed that after it they would fall into such a terrible abode!
To prove their immortality to their opponents, Hun-Apu and Xbalanque, having previously agreed with the two sorcerers Shulu and Pakau about their resurrection, lay down on funeral drogs and died. Their bones were ground to powder and thrown into the river. Then they underwent a rebirth procedure and on the fifth day after their death they looked like fish people, and on the sixth day they looked like ragged and disheveled old men who killed and brought each other back to life. At the request of the lords of Xibalba, they burned the royal palace and restored it to its original splendor, killed and revived the royal dog, cut the man into pieces and brought him back to life. The Lords of Hell were curious to experience death and asked to be killed and resurrected. The brothers-heroes fulfilled the first part of their request very quickly, but did not consider it necessary to pay attention to the second part.
Throwing off the masquerade, the brothers gathered the already greatly frightened princes of Xibalba and announced their intention to punish them for their hostility towards them, their father and uncle. They were forbidden to take part in the noble classical ball game - a great dishonor in the eyes of the upper caste Maya - they were condemned to do the work of servants, and they had power only over wild forest animals. After that, their power began to decline rapidly. These princes of the Underworld are described as owl-like, with faces painted black and white, symbolizing their duplicitous and deceitful nature.
As some reward for the terrible humiliations they had endured, the souls of Hunhun-Apu and Vukub-Hunapu, the first adventurers in the gloomy realm of Xibalba, were transferred to the sky, where they became the sun and moon. This apotheosis ends the second book.
It is not at all difficult, in the light of comparative mythology, to see in the material of this book a variant of the "devastation of the underworld", common to many mythologies. In many primitive beliefs a hero or heroes confront the countless dangers of Hades to prove to the savage mind that the fear of death can be overcome. In Algonquian mythology, the Blue Jay makes fun of the Dead Man her sister Joy married, and Balder passes through Scandinavian Helheim. God must first descend into the abyss and come out of it with victory, so that timid people can have the assurance of immortality.

Reality in myth
It is the material contained in the second book of the Popol Vuh that enables us to see how real a myth can be. As already emphasized, it is clear that the fear of death in the head of the savage could give impetus to the idea of ​​his suppression, as is clear from the Popol Vuh. But there is reason to suspect that other factors also entered the composition of the myth. It is well known that a tribe of conquerors, driving before them the remnants of a conquered people, is inclined to regard them, after a succession of generations, as something supernatural, as inhabitants of places more or less connected with the underworld. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. First of all, differences in ritual rites serve as an impetus for the belief that the enemy tribe is engaged in magic. The enemy is rarely visible to the eye, and if he is seen, he quickly takes cover or "disappears". Most of the native tribes often lived in dugouts or in caves, like the Scottish Picts. Probably the first inhabitants of Xibalba were the same.
Invaders from the Mayan-Kiche tribe, having met such people in secluded caves on the mountain slopes of Guatemala, would naturally consider them inhabitants of the Underworld. Rock dwellings in Mexico and Colorado show clear signs of the existence of such a cave people. In the state of Colorado there is a canyon of the Rock Palace, a huge crevice natural origin, in which, in fact, a small city was built, which is still perfectly preserved. In some such semi-underground cleft, perhaps, there was a city called Xibalba.

Inhabitants of Xibalba
We can also see that the people of Xibalba were not just dwellers in the depths of the earth. Xibalba is not a hell where punishment for sins is served, but a place where the dead live, and its inhabitants were hardly "devils" or evil gods. The Popol Vuh scribe writes about them thus: “In the old days they had no power. They annoyed and interfered with people, and, in truth, they were not considered gods. The word "Xibalba" comes from a root meaning "to be afraid", from which the word "ghost" or "ghost" originated. Thus, Xibalba was the House of Ghosts.

Third book
At the beginning of the third book, the gods again consult about the creation of man. As a result of these joint discussions, four people appear. These creatures were made from a dough kneaded from yellow and white corn flour and were named Balam-Kuice (Tiger with a gentle smile), Balam-Agab (Tiger of the Night), Mahakutah (Glorified Name) and Iki-Balam (Tiger of the Moon).
But the god Hurakan who created them was not satisfied with the creation of his hands, since these creatures were too similar to the gods themselves. The gods once again gathered for advice and agreed that a person should be less perfect and have less knowledge than this new tribe. Man should not become equal to God. Therefore, Hurakan clouded their eyes with a cloud so that they could only see part of the earth, whereas before they could see the entire round sphere of the world. After that, four men were put into a deep sleep and four women were created, who were given to them as wives. Their names were Kakha-Paluma (Falling Water), Choima ( beautiful water), Tsununiha (House of Water) and Kakisha (Parrot Water or Glittering Water). They were given in marriage to men, respectively, in the order given above.
These eight people became the ancestors of only the Quiche people, after which the predecessors of other peoples were created. At this time there was no sun, and relative darkness reigned on the surface of the earth. People did not know how to worship the gods, but blindly raised their eyes to the sky and prayed to the Creator to send them quiet life and daylight. However, no luminary appeared, and anxiety entered their hearts. And they went to a place called Tulan-Tsuiva (Seven Caves) - practically the same as Chikomotztok in the Aztec myth - and there the gods were granted to them. The cult of the god Tohil was accepted by Balam-Kuitze, the cult of Avilish by Balam-Agab, and the cult of Hakavitsa was granted to Mahakutah. And Iki-Balam was given a god, but since he had no children, his faith and knowledge died.

How did the kiche get the fire
The Quiche Indians were sorely lacking in fire in their sunless world, but the god Tohil (Thunderer, god of fire) gave it to them. However, heavy rain fell from heaven and extinguished all the fires on earth. True, Tohil could always re-ignite them: he only had to kick his leg in order for the fire to appear. In this image, one can easily see a well-drawn god of thunder.

The Quiche analogy with Babylon
Tulan-Tsuiva was the name of the place that brought great misfortune to the Kiche tribe, because due to the mixing of languages ​​​​the individual clans of this people ceased to understand each other, which recalls the history of Babylon. Because of this, the first four people could no longer understand each other and decided to leave this unfortunate place and, under the leadership of the god Tohil, began to look for other, more successful lands. Along the way, they encountered countless difficulties. They had to cross many high mountains, and once they had to go around for a long time along the bottom of the ocean, the waters of which miraculously parted to let them pass. Finally, they came to the mountain, which they called Hakavits, after one of their deities, and there they remained, since it was predicted to them that here they would see the sun. And then a light appeared. People and animals began to rejoice violently, although its rays were not strong and it seemed more like a reflection in a mirror than a powerful sun of a later time, whose fiery rays quickly sucked the blood of the victim on the altar. When it revealed its face, the three gods of the Quiche tribe turned to stone, like gods or totems associated with wild animals. Then came the first city of the Quiche people or their permanent place of residence.

Last days of the first people
Time passed, and the first people of the Quiche tribe grew old. They began to have visions in which the gods persuaded them to bring human sacrifice, and in order to fulfill the order of the gods, they raided neighboring lands, the inhabitants of which offered active resistance. But in the great battle of the Quiché, miraculous help came from a swarm of wasps and hornets, which flew into the faces of their enemies, stinging and blinding them, so that they could neither use their weapons nor effectively resist. After this battle, all the surrounding tribes became their tributaries.

Death of the first man
Now the first people felt that their death hour was near, and they called their kindred and vassals to listen to their dying words. Filled with sorrow, they sang the song “Kamuku” (“We see”), which they sang so joyfully when they first saw the light of day. Then they said goodbye to their wives and sons in turn. And suddenly they were gone, and in their place there was a large bundle that was never opened. They called it the Bundle of Majesty. So the first people from the Quiche tribe died.
As is clear from this book, here we are dealing with the problem of the origin and creation of man, which the Maya-Kiche Indians thought about. Several of the myths associated with it bear a strong resemblance to those of other peoples in the Americas. In American Indian mythology, one rarely finds Adam, a lonely character, left alone in the world, without any kind of companionship. A person is almost always the son of mother earth and comes into the light of day from some cave or underground country completely grown up and fully adapted to life on the surface of the earth. We find myths of this kind in the mythology of the Aztecs, Peruvians, Choctaws, Blackfoot Indians, and many other American tribes.

Migration of American tribes
In the Kiche migration story we also find a striking resemblance to the migration myths of other American tribes. But in the myth of the Quiche tribe we can trace the exact movement of this people from the cold north to the warm south. At first, the sun was not yet born. Darkness reigns. When the sun does appear, it is weak, and its rays are dim and watery, like the rays of a luminary in northern latitudes. And again there are references to crossing rivers on the "brilliant sand" that covers them, and it is reasonable to assume that ice was meant here. In this connection, one can quote from the Aztec myth of the migration of peoples, which seems almost identical to the myth of the Quiché people.
“This is the beginning of the description of the exodus of the Mexicans from a place called Aztlán. They came here by water, these four tribes, and they made their way in boats. They built their huts on stilts in what was called the Quineveyan Grotto. And from there came out eight tribes. The first tribe was the Huexotzinco tribe, the second was the Chalca tribe, the third was the Xochimilco tribe, the fourth was the Cuitlawaca tribe, the fifth was the Mallinalca tribe, the sixth was the Chichimeca tribe, the seventh was the Tepaneca tribe, and the eighth was the Matlatzinca tribe. It was there that they had their origins in Colhuacan. They have been colonists here ever since they landed here from Aztlán. ... And from here they soon left, taking with them their god Huitzilopochtli. ... There, these eight tribes paved our way on the water.
There is a similar myth in "Wollum Olum," or the drawn calendar records of the Lennie-Lenape Indians. As the story goes: “After the Flood, the Lenape Indians and brave turtle-like creatures lived nearby in a cave, Tully's dwelling. ... They saw that the country of snakes is beautiful and rich. Having agreed all together, they went on the water of the frozen sea in order to take possession of this country. It was amazing when they all walked on the smooth frozen water of the deep sea through the narrow passage of the serpentine sea in the great ocean.
Do these myths contain any grain of truth? Do they contain a reference to the real migration of peoples, when the ancestors of some American tribes passed through the frozen waters of the ocean in the Kamchatka Strait and left these cloudy northern lands with their Arctic night for a zone of more favorable climate? Could such a tradition have reached us through the countless centuries that must have elapsed between the appearance on the American continent of the first man of the Mongoloid race and the writing or composition of several of the legends cited? Of course no. But couldn't there have been later migrations from the north? Couldn't hordes of people, distant relatives of the early Americans, sweep through the frozen strait and, after a few generations, head for regions with a warmer climate, as the Nahua Indians, as we know, did? The Scandinavian Vikings, who reached the northeast coast of America in the 10th century, found there a tribe of people completely different from people with red skin and more like the Eskimos, whom they called "skrellingr" or "shavings" - they are so small and ugly were. Such a description could hardly apply to the North American Indians known to us. Based on the legends about the red people of North America, we can assume that for several generations they remained in the far west of the North American continent before moving to the east. And one might even venture to suggest that, having appeared in America somewhere at the dawn of the Christian era, they slowly settled in a southeasterly direction and ended up in the eastern parts of North America around the end of the 11th century or even a little later. This would mean that a legend like the one we have just read carefully would only need to survive a thousand years, assuming the Popol Vuh was first written down sometime in the 11th century, which seems quite probable. But such speculations are somewhat dangerous in light of the almost complete lack of evidence, and they must be met with great caution and treated only as conjectures.

"Popol Vuh" about the origin and development of the universe
We have already completed short review that part of the Popol Vuh that relates to mythology, and here it will be appropriate to delve into the origin and nature of the various gods, heroes and similar characters that fill its pages. But before we do that, let's take a look at the creation myth detailed in the first book. From internal signs, we can see that it is probably the result of a merger of more than one story about the creation of the world. We find that the myth refers to beings, each of which, to some extent, performs the function of a creator or "creator". These creatures also have common features. Obviously, here we have memories of early alternative beliefs. We know that this happened in the Peruvian cosmogony, which is known for its complexity, and many other European and Asian mythologies are examples of this phenomenon as well. Even in the Genesis story of the universe, we can detect the fusion of two separate stories, which follows from the reference to the creative force, which is designated both as "Jehovah" and as "Elohim" (the plural ending of the second name proves the presence of polytheistic, and monotheistic ideas).

Antiquity of the Popol Vuh
This reasoning leads to the assumption that the Popol Vuh is a collection of myths of very great antiquity, since the fusion of religious beliefs is a comparatively slow process. Of course, in the absence of other data, it is impossible to establish the date of its origin even approximately. We have only one version of this interesting book, so we are forced to confine ourselves to considering only one of them, without the help of philology, which would make it possible to compare two versions written at different times.

Father God and Mother Goddess
In the creation myth of the K'iche' we find two beings of a dual nature. These are Xpiyacoc and Xmukane, the father god and the mother goddess, who are obviously analogues of the Mexican couple Ometecutli-Omeciuatl, which we have already mentioned. The first represents the male fertilizing principle, and the name of the second deity means "female power." These gods were probably considered hermaphrodites, which, apparently, are the numerous gods of the North American Indians. They may be analogous to "Father Sky" and "Mother Earth" from many other mythologies.

Kukulkan
Kukulkan is also associated with the process of the universe among the Kiche. Among the Quiche Maya, it was a variation of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, or perhaps it was the other way around. His name means, as in Nahua, "Green-feathered Serpent".

Huracan
The wind god Huracan, "He who throws down," whose name possibly means "One-footed," must be the same as Tezcatlipoca of the Nahua. It has been suggested that the word "hurricane" came from the name of this god, but such word formation seems too unexpected and random to be real. Khurakan had three assistant gods Kakulha-Hurakan (Lightning), Chipi-Kakulha (Lightning Flash) and Rasha-Kakulha (Lightning Trail).

Hun-Apyi Xbalanque
The hero gods Hun-Apu and Xbalanque are depicted in such a way that they have the features of demigods in general. The name Hun-Apu means "Conqueror" or "Wizard", and Xbalanque means "Little Tiger". In American myths, which are full of god-heroes, we find many such characters.

Vukub-Kakish and his sons
Vukub-Kakish and his offspring, of course, are earth giants, like the titans in Greek mythology or jötunam among the Scandinavians. The removal of the emerald teeth from the Vukub-Kakish and their replacement with corn kernels might seem like an allegory or mythical interpretation of the destruction of the virginity of the ground cover and its sowing with corn seeds. Therefore, it is possible that Vucub-Kakish is an earth god and not a prehistoric sun and moon god, as Dr. Seler claims.

The Poetic Origin of the "Popol Vuh"
There is reason to believe that the Popol Vuh was originally a metered composition. This would support the hypothesis of its antiquity on the grounds that it was passed down from generation to generation before it was written down. Passages taken from it show a clear tendency towards dimensionality, and one no doubt refers to a description of a dance symbolizing the rising of the sun. Here he is:
"Ama x-u ch" ux ri Vuch?" "Ve", x-cha ri mama. Ta chi xaquinic. Quate ta chi gecumarchic. Cahmul xaquin ri marna.
In a free translation, it might sound like this:
“Will it be dawn?” “Yes,” the old man replied. Then he spread his legs. Darkness arose again. Four times the old man spread his legs. “Now the opossum spreads its legs,” people say.
Obviously, many of these lines have a well-known property characteristic of primitive dance poetry, which manifests itself in the alternation of one long foot and two short ones. We know that the Quiche were very fond of ritual dances, accompanied by the chanting of long texts, which they called nugumtzih or "garlands of words." And Popol Vuh, along with other material, probably included a lot of those.

Pseudo-history of the Quiche people
The fourth book, the Popol Vuh, contains a pseudo-history of the kings of the Kiche people. Obviously, it is very confused, and it would be difficult to say which part of it was originally included in the Popol Vuh and which was added or invented by its most recent compiler. No distinction can be made between saga and history, or between kings and gods, real and imagined. The theme of much of this book is endless battles, skirmishes, and conflicts, and details the many migrations of the people.

Queen My
In dealing with the pseudo-history of the Mayan people, it is helpful to look at the theories of the recently deceased Augustus Le Plongeon, who lived and excavated for many years in the Yucatan. Dr. Le Plongeon was obsessed with the idea that the ancient Maya spread their civilization over the entire habitable surface of the globe and were the creators of the Egyptian, Palestinian and Indian civilizations, among many others. In addition, he considered himself a true decoder of the Mayan hieroglyphic system, which, in his opinion, was almost identical to the Egyptian one. We will not try to refute his theories, since they were based on ignorance of the laws that govern philology, anthropology and mythology. But he had a deep knowledge of the Mayan language, and his acquaintance with their customs was exceptionally comprehensive. One of his ideas was that a certain hall among the ruins of Chichen Itza was built by Queen Mu, a princess of the Mayan people, who, after the tragic death of her brother, who was also her husband, and the disaster that ended in the sinking of Atlantis, fled to Egypt, where she founded the ancient Egyptian civilization. This theory could be easily refuted. But there is enough romance in the tale told by Dr. Le Plongeon to arouse interest in it and justify extracting it from the obscure book in which it is published (The Queen of Mu and the Egyptian Sphinx. London, 1896).
From Dr. Le Plongeon's book we do not know by what reasoning he came to the discovery that the name of his heroine is the rather dissonant "My." It may have occurred to him in exactly the same way that he discovered that certain Mayan architectural patterns were actually Egyptian letters. But it would be better if he told his own story. Here she is.

burial chamber
“In front of the entrance to the burial chamber, consecrated by the love of the sister-wife, Queen Mu, our attention is drawn to a beautiful carved beam that forms the door ceiling. It depicts the feud between the brothers Aak and Koch, which led to the murder of the latter by the former. The names of these characters are carved on the door ceiling, depicted as their totems: the head of a leopard depicts Koch, and the head of a boar or turtle is Aak (in the Mayan language, this word means both “boar” and “tortoise”). Aak is depicted inside the solar disk, his patron god, as evidenced by the wall inscriptions at Uxmal. Filled with anger, he looks into the face of his brother. In his right hand he holds an emblem adorned with feathers and flowers. The way he's holding her menacingly suggests a hidden weapon... Koch's face also expresses anger. Together with him, we see a feathered serpent, symbolizing royal power, and therefore the country. More often he is depicted as a winged serpent protecting Koch. In his left hand he holds his weapon lowered to the ground, and his right hand clutches the symbol of power with which he covers his chest, as if for protection, demanding the respect due to his position ...
Passing between the figures of armed chiefs, carved on both sides of the doorway and seemingly guarding the entrance to the burial chamber, we notice a sculpture in a headdress similar to the crown of the ruler of Lower Egypt, which was part of the pshent of the Egyptian pharaohs.

frescoes
“The frescoes in the burial chamber of the Prince Koch Memorial Hall, painted with water-based paints made from vegetable raw materials, consist of a series of paintings separated by blue lines. The plinths, the corners of the room and the edges of the ceiling, also painted blue, indicate that this room was intended for burial... The first scene depicts Queen Mu as a child. She sits on the back of a peccary, a type of American wild pig, under a royal feather umbrella, a symbol of royal power in the Mayan country, as well as in India, Chaldea and other places. She consults with a wise man: she listens with deep attention to the prediction of fate, which became known after the armadillo's shell, heated on a brazier, split and acquired various shades. This method of divination was one of the customs of the Maya ... "

soothsayers
“In front of the young queen Mu, facing her, sits a soothsayer, who is obviously a priest of high rank, judging by the blue and yellow color of the feathers on his ritual cloak. He reads the predictions of fate on the armadillo's shell. Next to him stands a winged serpent, the symbol and patron spirit of the Mayan empire. The head of the priest is turned towards the royal banner, which he seems to be stroking. Satisfaction is reflected in the gentle and contented expression on his face. Behind the priest, who holds his hand in the same way as Catholic priests bless their flock (the meaning of this gesture is well known to occultists), are the ladies-in-waiting of the young queen.

Queen Bride
“In another picture, we again see Queen Mu, but no longer a child, but an attractive young woman. She does not sit under a royal umbrella or banner, but is again in the company of a sage, whose face is hidden under a mask in the form of an owl's head. She, pretty and flirtatious, has many admirers who compete with each other for the honor of possessing her hand. Accompanied by one of her admirers, she goes to consult the priest. She is accompanied by an elderly lady, probably her grandmother, and maids. According to tradition, an elderly lady speaks for the queen. She declares that the young man, who sits on a low bench between two maids, wishes to marry the queen. The assistant priest, who also sits on a bench behind everyone, acts as a herald and loudly repeats everything that the old woman says.

Rejection of Queen My
“The young queen rejects the offer. The sage explains that Mu, being a woman of royal blood, according to law and custom, must marry one of her brothers. The young man listens to this decision with due respect to the priest, as indicated by his left hand lying across his chest and resting on his right shoulder. However, he does not accept rejection with humility. His clenched fist and also raised as if to stomp his foot indicate anger and frustration, while the servant behind admonishes him to be patient and humble, judging by the position of her hand turned palm up.

Rejected fan
"In another picture we see the same young man, whose matrimonial proposal was rejected by the young queen after consulting a nubchi, or soothsayer, a priest on whose high rank indicates his headdress and the triple breastplate he wears over a cloak of feathers. The young man, obviously an important person, has come accompanied by his trusted friend, or hachetail, who sits behind him on a cushion. The facial expression of the rejected young man shows that he does not humbly accept the decree of fate, although it is conveyed by the interpreter in the most conciliatory manner. His friend addresses the priest's servant. Reflecting his master's thoughts, he declares that the beautiful speech of the nubchi and his false interpretation of the will of the gods are complete nonsense. The answer of the assistant priest, indicated by the severity of his face, affirmative gesture and directness of speech, clearly means: “Yes, it is so!”

Aak's assertive matchmaking
“Her brother Aak is madly in love with My. He is depicted approaching the interpreter of the will of the gods, who stands without clothes as a sign of humility in the presence of their greatness and submission to their decisions. He comes, haughty, dressed in luxurious clothes, with the pomp inherent in kings. He does not go as a petitioner to listen and accept advice, but, full of arrogance, he dares to give orders. He becomes angry when the priest refuses to accept his demand for the hand of his sister Mu, whose totem - in this case an armadillo - he points imperiously. It was on the shell of the armadillo that the goddesses of fate inscribed the predictions of her fate when they held the Roi ceremony for this. The yellow flame of rage emanating from his entire figure from all sides symbolizes Aak's feelings. However, the high priest is unaffected. In the name of the gods, with an imperturbable expression on his face, he rejects the request of the proud ruler. The winged serpent, the spirit of this country, standing upright next to Aak and outraged by him, is also angry at his claims. He demonstrates this with his features, and by sending a dart into the royal banner of Aak, he shows their resolute rejection.

Prince Koch
“Prince Koch sits behind the priest as one of his companions. He is present at this scene, hears a calm negative answer, sees the anger of his brother and rival, laughs at his impotence and rejoices in defeat. But behind him sits a spy who will repeat his words and report them to his enemy. He listens, he watches. High Priest Kai himself, their elder brother, sees a looming storm behind the disagreement between Koh and Aak. He trembles at the thought of the misfortunes that will inevitably fall on the dynasty of Kan, of the ruin and poverty of the country that will undoubtedly follow. Having taken off his priestly robe, he comes out, naked and humble, as befits people in the presence of the gods, to ask their advice on how best to avoid imminent troubles. The soothsayer is in the process of interpreting omens from the quivering innards of the fish. The sad expression on his face, the expression of humility and humility on the face of the priest, the expression of respectful surprise on the face of his assistant speak of the inevitability of misfortunes that are destined to happen in the near future.
We pass by interesting battle scenes... in which the defenders are defeated by the Maya. Koch will return to his queen, laden with booty, which he will lay at her feet along with his glory, which also belongs to her.

Koch's murder
“Then we see a terrible quarrel between him and his brother Aak. The figures in this scene are depicted almost life-size, but they are so mutilated and defaced that it is impossible to get a clear picture. Koch is depicted unarmed, his fists clenched, he looks menacingly at the enemy, holding three spears, with which they treacherously inflicted three wounds in the back of his brother, which killed him. Now Koch lies, his body is being prepared for burning. His ribcage was opened so that the entrails and heart could be removed, which, after cremation, would have to be stored in a stone urn with cinnabar, where the author of the book found them in 1875. Queen Mu, his sister-wife, in mournful thoughts over the remains of her beloved ... kneels at his feet. ... The winged serpent, the guardian spirit of this country, is depicted without a head. The ruler of the country is killed. He is dead. The people were left without a leader.

Widowhood of Queen My
Further, in subsequent paintings, the widowhood of Queen Mu is depicted. Other contenders for her hand and heart, including Aak, propose to her, but she refuses everyone. “Aak's pride was wounded, his love turned to hatred. Since then, his only desire was to usurp the supreme power and start a war against his childhood friend. He started it under the pretext of religious differences. He declared that the worship of the sun was higher than the veneration of the winged serpent, the patron of the country, and also higher than the veneration of the ancestors, which was personified by a feathered serpent with horns and a flame or radiance on its head ... Incited by such pernicious passions, he stood at the head of his vassals and attacked those who remained faithful to Queen Mu and the memory of Prince Koch. Initially, Mu's supporters successfully resisted her enemies. The rival parties, forgetting in the heat of the fight that they were children of the same land, and blinded by prejudice, allowed anger to get the better of reason. Eventually Queen Mu fell into the hands of her enemy and became his prisoner.”

Troano manuscript
Here Dr. Le Plongeon takes the liberty of asserting that this story has a continuation in Troano's manuscript. Since no one can completely decipher this manuscript, he can calmly insist on his own. According to our author, this is what the pintura he mentioned says about Queen Mu:
“The Mayan people, who had been forced into submission and intimidated, no longer put up significant resistance. The lord grabbed her by the hair and, along with the others, made her suffer from blows. It happened on the ninth day of the tenth month of the year Kan. Having suffered a complete defeat, she moved to the opposite seashore in the southern regions of the country, which had already suffered great damage.
Here we will leave the queen and those who were trustworthy enough to create and believe in her and her companions. We do not claim that the drawings on the walls of the temple at Chichen Itza do not refer to some similar story or series of events, as described by Dr. Le Plongon. But giving names to dramatis personae (Latin characters) in the absence of an almost complete inability to read the Mayan script and the absence of accompanying historical documents is simply a waste of time, and we must treat Dr. Le Plongeon's story as a fictional story about something possible. At the same time, the light shed by him - minus some obviously scientific comments— on the customs of the Maya gives his story a considerable interest, which justifies the fact that we have presented it in such detail here.

"). These places were and remain to this day a kind of reserve, where the ancient culture and ancient customs are still preserved. A good-natured priest, far from fanaticism, gradually won the confidence of the local population, which consisted mostly of Quiche Indians, and in 1701 they decided to show him one of their religious books, written apparently under the influence of oral tradition, at the end of the 16th century, and for a century and a half kept secret from the conquerors.

Realizing the full value of the document in his hands, Padre Jimenez immediately set to work, and within two years (1701-1703) he managed to copy the manuscript, accompanying it with a rough interlinear translation into Spanish. The original has since disappeared, and Jimenez's copy remains the only original recording of the "Indian bible".

In 1715, Padre Jiménez, then parish priest of Genacoja (now Santo Domingo Genacoja in Guatemala) included passages from the Popol Vuh in the first volume of his History of the Province of San Vicente de Chiapas and Guatemala. However, the complete translation of the Popol Vuh into literary Spanish took 7 to 10 years, and was completed around 1722-1725, while Jiménez was abbot of the monastery of Santo Domingo in the village of Sacapulas. Francisco Jimenez died around 1720, and the forgotten manuscript remained in the archives of the monastery. Here she had to survive the devastating earthquake of 1773, after which the surviving part of the archive was moved to Nueva Guatemala de Anunciacion. During the war for the independence of the country, around 1829, when a campaign was launched in the country to close the monasteries, the manuscript "Popol Vuh" ended up in the library of the Catholic University of San Carlos.

Here, the Austrian researcher Karl Scherzer, who stayed in Guatemala for six months, drew attention to the old manuscript. After making a copy of the manuscript, he then published a part of it containing the Spanish text of Padre Ximénez. A few years later, the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg preferred to take the manuscript with him, delivering it to Paris, where he produced a French translation in 1862. After Bourbour's death, the Popol Vuh manuscript remained in his personal archive, and was sold along with other "manuscripts and printed editions" to Alfonso Pinart, a connoisseur and collector of old manuscripts. However, the manuscript did not stay with him for long. According to Otto Stoll, Pinart allegedly tried to sell him the Popol Vuh manuscript for 10,000 francs, but for some reason the deal did not go through. Instead, the book went to Edward E. Ayer, and again returned to the American continent with him. Together with 17,000 other ancient documents, the Popol Vuh was donated by Ayer to the Chicago Newberry Library in 1911, where it is now preserved as part of the Ayer Collection of American and American Indian Documents.

Original, translations, publications

The Popol Vuh manuscript consists of 56 leaves written on both sides; the text is divided into two columns, the left of which is the original text in the Quiche language, the right is a translation into Spanish (Castilian) of the early 18th century. Attached to the main text are 4 more introductory pages, authored by Padre Jimenez. The Popol Vuh, along with the Books of Chilam Balam, Rabinal Achi, the Annals of Tlatelolco, and the Annals of the Kaqchikels, is one of the very few Maya texts that have come down to modern times.

Francisco Jimenez lived for 63 years, of which 41 he gave to the "Christianization" of the Quiche and Kaqchikel Indians, and spoke both languages ​​quite confidently. And yet, the first translation, which actually constitutes the Jimenez Manuscript in the form in which it has come down to our time, according to M. Edmonson, leaves much to be desired - not understanding many local expressions and dialectisms, he treated the text very freely, sometimes making serious mistakes. In addition, trying to keep as close as possible to the original text, he created a rather crude interlinear; so that the text turned out to be sometimes cumbersome and difficult to understand so much that, from the Spanish version alone, a reader who is unfamiliar with the Quiche language cannot always understand the meaning of what he read. However, the result of his work became the starting point for further study of the manuscript already in the modern era. However, being aware of the shortcomings of his own work, Padre Jimenez did not stop there, and a new, much more carefully finished and improved version entered integral part in the essay "The History of the Province of San Vincente de Chiapa and Guatemala", completed in 1772.

The first of the European researchers to study the manuscript was an Austrian scientist, Dr. Karl Scherzer, who spent six months in Guatemala (1853-1854). His work (which was an exact copy of Padre Ximénez's manuscript) was issued in two editions (Trubner & Co., London) and (C. Herold & Son, Vienna, 1857). This first edition passed almost unnoticed, while the publication of Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (Popol Vuh. A Book of Sacred Texts and Mythology of American Antiquity, Paris, 1861), containing a translation of the manuscript into French, immediately attracted the attention of European scholars. to the new manuscript. However, knowing the Quiche language rather superficially, Brasseur de Bourbourg largely distorted the sound of the original names. This error was corrected in the second French translation by Paul Reynaud ("The Gods, Heroes and People of Ancient Guatemala According to the Book of the Council." Paris, 1925).

In 1926, someone who wished to remain anonymous published a Spanish translation of de Bourbourg's book under the title Popol Vuh, The Holy Book of the Quiché. Spanish version French translation by Abbé Carlos Esteban Brasseur de Bourbourg (San Salvador, 1926). Almost immediately after that, the first translation of the Popol Vuh from the Quiche proper into modern Spanish appeared, by J. M. González de Mendoza (Guatemala, 1927). d.), despite the fact that the researcher relied in his interpretation on the work of Reynaud. It was followed twenty years later by a translation by Ardian Resinos. After reviewing the Popol Vuh manuscript in Newberry, 1940, Resinos, after seven years of work, published his translation under the title Popol Vuh, ancient stories of the Quiche Indians (Foundation for the Economic Culture of Mexico, 1947). Popol Vuh by Diego Reynoso” was performed by a full-blooded Quiche Indian, a deep connoisseur of the language and traditions of his people, Adrian Ines Chavez (1979).

Among the English-language translations, the work of Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Grisfold Morley ("Book of the People") (1954) and the most recent edition - Dennis Tedlock's "Popol Vuh" (1985) should be mentioned. As regards translations into German, the first of them was carried out by Noah Eliezer Poorilles, who published his version in Leipzig in 1913 under the name "Popol Vuh, sacred writings of the Maya" (. A new translation entitled "Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Guatemalan Quiche Indians" was released in 1944 doctor of the University of Marburg Leonard Schulze-Jena... In addition to the actual translation, this edition included an exact reproduction of the Jimenez manuscript.

The book was translated into Russian from the Kiche language by Rostislav Vasilyevich Kinzhalov in 1959, also under the name "Popol Vuh" (in one book with the so-called "Genealogy of the Totonikapan lords". M.-L., 1959)

Estimated history of creation

Quiche civilization

Small in the modern era, the Qui'che people in Guatemala are one of the representatives of the vast language family of the Maya Indians. This name itself goes back to the Mayan words qui - "a lot" and che - "tree", that is, "many trees, forest", "forest people". Indeed, the tropical jungle has long been the homeland of the Quiche, although, apparently, the Quiche civilization originated in the mountainous regions of Guatemala, and only later spread to the plains. According to the information that archeology provides us with, the wave of settlement of the Mayan peoples spread gradually from its center - the Yucatan Peninsula farther south, capturing the Guatemalan selva.

It is assumed likely that the Mayan culture is a descendant of the ancient civilizations of the Olmecs and the unknown people of Teotihuacan, however, its closest predecessor was the Izapa culture, whose undeciphered inscriptions and monuments show a clear resemblance to later Mayan ones. The Yucatan experienced its heyday in the so-called. the classical era (c. 300-900 AD), when the Mayan empire extended its influence as far as modern Guatemala. In this era, hieroglyphic writing, astronomy, architecture, and mathematics were fully developed. Guatemala in those days was a distant provincial outskirts of the empire. In the classical era, the first cities appeared here - Camak Huyub (near the current capital of the country), Saculeu (modern Hueyestenango) and Sakualpa (on the site of the modern city of Quiche). It is worth saying that, unlike the rich cities of Yucatan, the buildings were quite modest, made not of stone, as was customary in the central regions, but of unbaked brick, located far enough from each other, on their walls, as well as on a few statues , there are no traces of hieroglyphic writing, as was customary in the central regions. The local civilization was quite mixed, since the influence of Teotihuacan culture was superimposed on the customs of the local population, and the classical language of Yucatan was mixed with local dialects. Almost nothing is known about the history of the Quiche during the heyday of the empire. However, there is no doubt that ancient cities experienced some kind of catastrophe, and this happened simultaneously with the events in the Yucatan. Just like the central cities, Kamak Huyub was abandoned and completely abandoned by the population. There is no explanation for what happened, existing hypotheses suggest some kind of barbarian invasion, or, more often, famine and an ecological catastrophe caused by overpopulation and soil depletion.

However, the collapse of the empire created a prerequisite for the outlying peoples to create their own statehood; on the ruins of the Mayan empire, many small outlying kingdoms arose, forced to fight with the Aztecs, who powerfully declared themselves in Central America. Guatemala in that era also experienced a strong influence of the Nahuatl languages ​​and Aztec culture, which was reflected in the book Popol Vuh. The heyday of the former outskirts dates back to 800 AD. e. - that is, two hundred years after the fall of Teotiucan, and captures the entire post-classical period - from 900 to 1500, up to the Spanish invasion of Guatemala. Developing Agriculture, the peasants are increasingly drawn into the social and religious movements of the era, a single central body is replaced by many small states, constantly at war with each other for primacy, and achieving certain successes in this hostility, one of which was the country of Quiche. She appeared on geographical map around 900, and was immediately drawn into another strife with the kakchikels, who also claimed leadership in these places. The capital of the new kingdom was Kumarkaah ("Old Camp"), better known by the Aztec name Utatlan. The ruling dynasty, in order to strengthen its own influence, persistently tried to trace its origin to the Toltec rulers, who long ago turned into semi-divine figures in the eyes of their descendants, as well as to the ancient Yucatan metropolis, the connection with which was never completely broken. At the same time, in all likelihood, messengers were sent to the East coast of Yucatan, returning with precious booty - the Book of Dawn, the original Popol Vuh, the loss or inaccessibility of which the anonymous authors of the alphabetical version of the book regret.

Meanwhile, the Spaniards poured into Mesoamerica, in the words of D. Tedlock, who had at their disposal “ more than reliable means of persuasion - firearms, torture pincers and the threat of eternal damnation". For the conquest of the state by Quiche Cortes, a detachment was sent under the leadership of Pedro de Alvarado. The Quiche resisted fiercely against the Spaniards and their allies from Tlaxcala, but in three battles on the mountain passes they were utterly defeated. There remained an opportunity to pay off the conquerors, which the leaders 7 Deer and 9 Dog tried to take advantage of, inviting Alvarado to their capital and forced to give him a magnificent reception. But whatever their plans were, they were not destined to come true, because as soon as he was in the capital with his detachment, Alvarado ordered both leaders to be taken into custody, accusing them of trying to set up a trap for him. 7 Deer and 9 Dog ended their lives at the stake, Utatlan became the capital of Spanish Guatemala. A new era has dawned.

The Problem of the Source

Without exception, all Mayan documents relating to the times following the conquest are made in alphabetical writing on European paper. However, the question of whether the alphabetic "Popol Vuh", transcribed by Padre Jimenez, had some proto-source, possibly written in hieroglyphic writing, remains open to this day.

The history of the recording of the Popol Vuh should begin with the fact that immediately after the conquest, the colonial government initiated a persecution of the ancient Indian culture, in which there was no place for either the Spaniards or the Catholic Church. Although in Guatemala, unlike the Yucatan, there was no specially organized campaign to destroy the Indian codes, ancient Indian art turned out to be banned. tz'ib" in other words, “the art of ornament” or a kind of “letter”, with which Indian women have long adorned woven products. According to the ornament on the clothes, for example, one could unmistakably determine the tribal affiliation, pedigree and even the name of the weaver (or weaver) and the owner of the finished dress. In addition, public performances of storytellers, musicians, and actors who used ancient legends in their repertoire were banned. Any "pagan" document could be immediately destroyed, and its copyist, performer or even listener could be severely punished.

prevailing in modern science the point of view is that no "proto-source", such as a hieroglyphic code that corresponded in content to the alphabetic "Popol-Vuh", never existed; while the Padre Ximénez manuscript is a record of an oral tradition made by a group of people who memorized ancient traditions (and also used a mnemonic reading technique well known, for example, for the Australian continent). The evidence given by experts who hold such an opinion is as follows:

Padre Ximénez's text actually mentions a certain book, the Popol Vuh, the loss of which the nameless authors mourn. However, it is mentioned in the following context:

From which it becomes clear that it was about the so-called. "prophetic almanac" - a code where the results of divination were recorded for each day for a certain period of time. An example of such an almanac is the books of Chilam Balam. Such books were called among the Maya ilb'al retal q'ij i.e. "an instrument for clairvoyance", the same term applied to mirrors or magic crystals used for divination, while the reader or interpreter of such a book was called ilol i.e. "seeing". Such almanacs were indeed in use until the beginning of the 18th century, they are mentioned, in particular, by Padre Jimenez, saying that "pagans" use them for predictions. However, the alphabetical "Popol-Vuh" contains the epic, but not the results of divination, that is, we are undoubtedly talking about documents that are completely different in content, coinciding only in the name given, moreover, by a later researcher.

In addition, according to Denis Tedlock, the very text of the modern Popol Vuh suggests a mnemonic technique - that is, an interpretation, based on a legend known to the narrator, of a set of images or pictograms. In particular, the scene in which the heroic twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque lie in wait under a tree for a monstrous bird named 7 Macao and shoot it with blowpipes directly echoes the image on a chocolate vessel dating back to the late classical period. The only difference is that there is a scorpion on the vessel, which is not mentioned in the Popol Vuh in this episode, but this can be explained either by the fact that a slightly different version of the legend was used for the image, or by the fact that ancient vases were often mixed plots of several legends. Similar stories in pictures have come down to us, dating back to the Mixtec culture, but according to Tedlock, nothing prevents us from assuming the interaction of civilizations, especially since the passage from the Popol Vuh, “ Meanwhile, Cabrakan was busy shaking the mountains. At the slightest impact of his foot on the ground, large and small mountains opened up.” directly speaks of the Mishtek influence, since the image of the conquered city adopted by this people corresponds to the mountain, which is revealed through the darts stuck into it. On the other hand, it should be noted that such a view is based on pure assumption; despite the fact that to date not a single hieroglyphic manuscript of the "mnemonic type" relating to the Quiche civilization has been found.

The opposite point of view, advocated in particular by the first researcher of the Popol Vuh, Karl Scherzer, is based on several remarks made by Padre Jiménez in his History of the Province. Padre Jiménez notes that during his time in the village of San Tomas Chuila, he repeatedly had to see other Indian documents "kept in such deep secrecy that the former priests had no idea of ​​their existence." Nothing prevents us from assuming that one of these mysterious documents was the proto-source of the Popol Vuh, whose further fate remains unknown. Another argument is one of Padre Jimenez's comments on the Popol Vuh test, in which he speaks of the "prophetic almanacs" available to the local population, one of which he even managed to acquire for himself. According to Scherzer, this almanac is related to the proto-source (that is, the book of fortune-telling mentioned in the alphabetical manuscript), while Padre Jimenez could not get to this proto-source.

There is also a compromise point of view, for example, it is held by Richard Sherer, a researcher of the ancient history of the Maya. According to him, "Popol-Vuh" could be written from a certain hieroglyphic code, now lost, in addition to which pictoramas and drawings were used.

Hypotheses about authorship, place and time of writing

Scribe. Image from a Mayan vase. Late Classic

The anonymous authors or compilers of the Popol Vuh, who call themselves shortly - "we", remain unknown to this day, although attempts have been repeatedly made to show with varying degrees of certainty who could be hiding behind these names. Spanish-speaking researchers, in particular, Adrian Ines Chavez, put forward for the role of one of these anonymous Diego Reynoso, a baptized Quiche Indian, who is known to be the son of Lahuha-Noh and acted as a “popol-vinaka”, in other words, an expert in hieroglyphic writing, and, accordingly, the keeper of the history and traditions of the tribe. This Diego Reynoso was later baptized, moreover, he took the monastic vows under the name Diego de Asunción and became involved in missionary work among the Indian population of the province of Chiapas. American researcher Denis Tedlock, a specialist in Indian cultures, translator of the Popol Vuh into English, put forward three Indian priests, known as masters of ceremonies in the country of the Quiche Indians, as authors. The name of one of them has been preserved - Cristobal Velasco. In this role, Velasco is mentioned in another Indian document, the Annals of the Kaqchikels. No other information about him has been preserved.

As for the time of the Popol Vuh, it can be determined with sufficient accuracy as a result of the analysis of the manuscript of Padre Jimenez. In the text of one of the last chapters, it is noted that " they won the favor of the lord of the bishop, Don Francisco Marroquin". It is known that Don Francisco Marroquin arrived in Guatemala in 1530, accompanying the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado. Padre Jimenez also mentions that during a bishop's visit in 1539, the bishop consecrated a new Spanish settlement, which replaced the ancient Utatlán, the capital of the Quiche state. Thus, the lower limit of the composition of the text "Popol-Vuh" is found.

It has also been observed that in the Quiché text, Padre Ximénez, although infrequently, uses letter combinations invented by Padre Francisco de la Parra to convey Gutural Mayan sounds that are absent in Spanish. It is known that de la Parra's alphabet was created in 1545; thus, with sufficient certainty, it can be judged that the text of the Popol Vuh was written down somewhat later than this date.

Finally, the upper limit can be judged on the basis of another passage: “ Don Juan de Rojas and don Juan Cortés were the fourteenth generation of rulers, they were the sons of Tecum and Tepepul". We are talking about the grandchildren of the last two Quiche rulers; their grandfathers were executed by the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, and they themselves eked out a miserable existence " beggars and outcasts, like the last village poor Indian", as Alonso Zurita wrote about them, who traveled around the Quiche country in 1553-1557." ) in 1558. Thus, the creation of the Popol Vuh is usually attributed to the period between 1545 and 1558. The names and events listed in the last chapters indicate the same period.

And finally, anonymous authors indicate that they are “in a place called Quiche” - modern Santa Cruz del Quiche (Quiche Department, Guatemala). After colonization, this city gradually began to decline, losing more and more to a steadily growing neighboring town called Chuy La or "Nettle Heights", also known as Chichikastanenango. Ultimately, the descendants of the ancient royal families of Kauek and Quiché moved here, one of them, apparently, took the book Popol Vuh with him, and in the end it ended up in the hands of Padre Jimenez.

Name, structure, style

The original manuscript of Padre Ximénez has no title. The title page opens with the following words.

The name "Popol-Vuh" was given to the nameless manuscript by its first translator into French - Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, since a book with a similar name is mentioned several times in the text, in particular, in the introduction, where unknown authors write about their work - " We are now writing this already under the law of God and under Christianity. We state this because we no longer have a light, Popol Vuh, as it is called, a clear light that came from the other side of the sea, a symbol of our protection, a light for a clear life.»

The word Popol in the Quiche language means "mat" or "on the mat". We are talking about mats familiar to Guatemala, woven from cattail, on which representatives of the nobility sat in the royal council. From here the word popol got the meaning "council under the monarch", or even more broadly "city-state", "people". Vuh(according to the spelling adopted in the Spanish language of the 18th century, or Vuj- according to the rules of modern spelling) means "book" or "paper". Thus, the name "Popol-Vuh" is interpreted as "Book of Council" or "Book of the People".

The manuscript is not divided into chapters or paragraphs, the text in it makes up a single array, starting from the creation of the world and ending with the events of the beginning of the 18th century, which is consistent with the worldview of the Indians, in whose understanding history is a single and indivisible whole, no matter how long it lasts. The translators and researchers of the Popol Vuh also owe the modern four-part division and division into chapters within the parts to Brasseur de Bourbourg.

As far as stylistics is concerned, studies of the complex poetic structure of the Popol Vuh began in European scholarship only in the middle of the 20th century. Immediately after the colonization of Latin America, the missionaries brought with them not only the concept of the alphabet, but also the concept of prose. To the European ear, for whom the poetic form is determined primarily by the presence of meter and rhyme, any local exposition was prose by default. In this pseudo-prose record, all Indian manuscripts that were created after the conquest have come down to us.

The existence of a poetic rhythm in the Popol Vuh, based on a complex system of assonances and alliterations, combining in pairs (or much less often - three or four) lines connected by a single idea and a single vocabulary content, was noticed by the Mexican researcher Miguel Leon Portilla. However, literary scholars and linguists this time rushed to the other extreme, declaring the entire text of the Popol Vuh, without exception, to be poetic. “Arrhythmic” lines that did not fit into this scheme were declared “bad verse”, explained by lacunae in the text, or simply mechanically stitched together with previous or subsequent stanzas. And only in 1999, in the works of Luis Enrique Sam Colop, a linguist and literary critic, for whom Quiche is his native language, an explanation was finally found for an imaginary contradiction. It turned out that the "non-metric" (essentially written in prose) lines are transitional from one array of text to another, a link between parts of the plot. Kolop finally restored the stylistic structure of the Popol Vuh, dividing it into poetic lines and prose inclusions, correcting all the shortcomings and errors that existed in the original manuscript. This division forms the basis of the latest translation of the Popol Vuh into English, published by Denis Tedlock in 2010.

Poetic stanza Popol Vuh

Esoteric part

The twenty-day nominal cycle is superimposed with a count from one to thirteen, that is, at the beginning of the countdown from the New Year, on the first day 1 Deer (1 Kej) - we will end with a day called 13 Kawuq. The next, 14th day in a row will again receive the number 1 - that is, 1 Junajpu and so on. Simple mathematics will show us that each next twenty-day cycle lags behind the previous one by 7 days (13 + 7 = 20) so that the new Deer Day will be called 8 Kej and so on.

A full turn and return to 1 Kej will occur exactly in 260 days (13 * 20), which is one ritual year (tsolkin). The importance of the Earth cycle can already be judged by the fact that every Indian bore the name of the day on which he was born. As in the Old World, this day was associated with a certain "fortune telling", at least in part related to the experience of a previously living famous person who was born on the same day. In particular, the sad fate of the leader 9 Dog, who was burned alive by the conquistador Pedro Alvarado, makes today's shamans assume that the most unfortunate predictions are associated with this day.

The lag by 7 also had an important meaning for the ancient Maya. In fact, if you go through the Tzolkin only on Deer Days, you get the numbers 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7. Thus the numbers 1 and 7, with which could go through the whole cycle received from the Maya sacred meaning as the embodiment of "all time in general". That is why two of the main characters of the Popol Vuh bear the names 1 Hunter and 7 Hunter (1 Junajpu, 7 Junajpu), and their worst enemies are called respectively 1 Death and 7 Death (1 Kame 7 Kame).

Moon cycle

The ancient Maya were perfectly able to calculate the time of lunar cycles and lunar eclipses. Information about this is contained, in particular, in the Dresden Codex, which lists 405 lunar cycles, starting from day 13 Toj (according to the Kiche calendar) and ending on 12 Q'anil. It is worth noting that the lunar cycles of the Popol Vuh are associated with the mother of the divine twins, the Blood Moon (Xkik), whose name already indicates that this is a goddess corresponding to the Lunar Woman of the Dresden Codex. It is the gods of the days of 13 Toj and 12 Q'anil that she invokes when she has to pass the test, magically increasing the amount of corn, in order to prove her kinship (through her husband) with the goddess of time Xmukane.

The ancient Maya also knew how to calculate the time of lunar eclipses, counting from the last 6 lunar months. It is during this time that the Blood Moon manages to hide her pregnancy from her father, after which the secret becomes clear.

solar cycle

The ideal solar year of 365 days consists of 18 repetitions of 20 days and an additional five days, for the Mayans and the Aztecs, who adopted the calendar account from them, were considered unlucky. This remainder of five days is a multiple of twenty (20: 5 = 4), so the "New Year's Day" in the Mayan cycle can only be one of the four possible days - Kej, E, No'j and Iq', after which the fifth in a row the year returns to Deer Day - Kai. New Year's Days in the Popol Vuh are associated with the appearance of symbols of the change of time - old possums that accompany the divine twins dressed as wandering actors, and finally five days later (that is, at the end of the unhappy period) the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque themselves dress up as possums, announcing thus the advent of the New Year. It is also worth noting that it is on two New Year's days (Iq 'and E) that can be associated with the Venus cycle, which constantly accompanies the adventure of the twins.

Venus cycle

The complex cycles of Venus are described in the Dresden Codex, and the knowledge of the Quiche Indians was further proved by the discovery of an almanac dating from 1722. This planet is known to have a synodic period of 584 days, during which it appears as a morning star, then disappears from view, returns again as an evening star, and again becomes invisible. At the beginning of the cycle on day 1 Junajpu, it appears that the planet will return to the position of the morning star on the day of the same name after five rotations of 584 days, or five Mayan cycles.

For the Popol Vuh, the first of these cycles is especially important, when the planet appears as a morning star on day 1 of Junajpu, when the hunting brothers, in the future - the fathers of the divine twins, carelessly kick the ball in their yard, causing black envy in demons of the underworld. On day 2 Kame, when Venus (in the same cycle) appears on the horizon as an evening star, the hunting brothers are killed by demons of the same name - Death. Venus returns as the morning star, starting a new countdown on day 1 Junajpu, and the divine twins succeed in bringing back to life one of their fathers of the same name.

The number five is persistently found twice in the Popol Vuh book - these are five deadly houses in which the divine twins must spend one after another five nights, and five persistent mentions of a severed head, that is, according to D. Tedlock's interpretation, the evening star. These are 1) the severed head of 1 Hunahpu, placed on a pumpkin tree, 2) the ball game in the kingdom of death, where an artificial skull acts as a ball 3) the severed head of Hunahpu-son, which became a ball 4) substitution, when the cunning Xbalanque, in order to return brother's head, throws a skillfully carved pumpkin on the field instead 5) a false sacrifice, when Xbalanque allegedly cuts off his brother's head.

Mars cycle

The first antagonists of the divine twins are their evil brothers - the gods of writing and drawing 1 Monkey and 1 Master (1 B'atz "1 Chuen). Both of these names correspond to the same day, if you call it in the Quiche language and in the classical Maya. So Thus, according to the assumption of D. Tedlock, we are talking about some astronomical event that always falls on the same day in a 260-day cycle. the only planet suitable for this role, in his opinion, is Marswhose synodic cycle is 780 days (three times 260). According to the bold assumption of the same author, the Martian animals of the Dresden Codex with the bodies of crocodiles and the legs of pekkari, the Quiche should correspond to monkeys. He wants to see confirmation of this in the myth recorded among modern Quiche. In this myth, we are talking about the brother of the Sun and Venus, who, having turned into a monkey, became the god of a certain planet. The evil brothers eventually, also as punishment for all the injustices they did to the divine twins, were turned into monkeys.

starry sky

The movements of the stars and the star cycles in the Popol Vuh are most of all associated with the death or reincarnation of divine characters. Brothers 1 Hunahpu and 7 Hunahpu go to the underworld along a dark gap in the Milky Way, in the underground kingdom of Xibalba - "places of fear" they have to spend 5 nights in 5 deadly houses corresponding (according to D. Tedlock's hypothesis) to 5 cycles of Venus in its path according to the signs of the Mayan zodiac.

But the third time they fail. Wooden creatures quite tolerably learned to move on all fours, speak, build houses, give birth to children and even breed dogs and turkeys, but deprived of reason, these creatures lived solely by their own will, not wanting to know about those who created them, and even more so to pray to them. or make the necessary sacrifices. Appearance they, too, left much to be desired - devoid of blood and moist skin, they were dry, skinny and rotten.

In the end, having lost their patience, the gods decide to destroy their worthless creations in a cruel but effective way - by the will of the heavenly gods, tar rain fell on the earth, predatory animals attacked wooden people, to top it all off, their own household utensils and animals, remembering how the hosts treated them soullessly, they also rebelled. Frying pans and grain graters beat them, stone hearths were burned, animals bit them - in desperation, wooden people rushed to run, but neither houses, nor trees, nor even caves were willing to accept them. So the wooden race perished, leaving, perhaps, their only descendants of monkeys, aimlessly jumping through the trees.

Here the story of creation lingers somewhat. Before making a third attempt, the gods want to get rid of the monsters living on earth, which in the future may turn out to be too dangerous for future creations. The first of them is called 7 Macau, this monstrous bird demands divine honors for itself, declaring its person at the same time the sun, moon and "light for the walking one." Her claims are echoed by two no less monstrous sons, the eldest of whom, the crocodile-shaped Sipamna, declares himself "the creator of the Earth and mountains", and the youngest, Earthquake, is the destroyer of mountains.

Denis Tedlock suggests that 7 Macao (or in the Yucatan transcription "fiery sun-eyed macao", wakub kaqix, from kaq - "red" and qi'x - "feather") corresponds, on the one hand, to a very real bird - scarlet macao, the owner of white "lunar" beak, and bright plumage, on the other hand - to the Supreme Deity-Bird, whose image has been known since the time of the Izap culture. This deity often appears with a snake in its beak, combining the features of a macaw parrot and a royal hawk. In this capacity, it is also found in the mythology of the Kaqchikels, where "macao from the underworld" is described as "a bird similar to a hawk that eats snakes." According to his own assumption, the false god 7 Macau served as an object of worship for false, wooden people, until their death. The falsity of his claims is already visible because, unlike other celestial bodies that rise in the East and set in the West, the 7 stars of Macau (Big Dipper) remain in one place, making only a revolution around the Polar Star, which fundamentally contradicts the “correct” idea of ​​the universe. With the fall of Macau 7 (the setting of the Ursa stars) in these latitudes, the beginning of the season of storms is associated, which, probably, formed the basis of the myth of the destruction of wooden people by means of a hurricane wind. The typhoon season ends with the new rise of the Great Bear, while the end of the storms is marked by the rainbow, considered in Native American mythology to be the feathered headdress worn by the 7 Macao.

Second part. divine twins

The anonymous authors of the Popol Vuh, having temporarily interrupted the narration, go directly to the third generation of gods. Their names are Hunahpu and Xbalanque, they are the sons of the young god of corn, treacherously killed by the demons of the underworld and the cunning goddess of the moon. The divine twins are called upon to cleanse the Earth of monsters that prevent the dawn, and also to defeat the underground demons, thus avenging the death of their father.

Name Hunahpoo(Junajpu) literally means "One hunter-with-a-horn-pipe - hun-ahpu". Adrian Resinos draws attention to how high the status of the hunter was in ancient times, since the existence of the family, and sometimes the entire tribe, depended on his luck or failure. Hunahpu, named after his father, really proves himself to be a skilled and successful hunter, along with his twin brother, he constantly disappears in the forest, almost never returning empty-handed. Also, the brothers give part of the time to the ball game, which ultimately attracts the attention of demons to them, as happened to their fathers.

Name Xbalanque(X-balanque) is interpreted differently by different researchers, which ultimately led D. Tedlock to the conclusion that the images of the divine twins mixed different traditions. So the Soviet translator R. Kinzhalov, pointing out that sh- in the Mayan languages ​​is a common prefix of female names, believes that at the initial stage of the existence of the legend, the second twin was a woman and interprets his name as “Jaguariha-deer” (x-balam -kej). Indeed, somehow the legend reflected the cult of the divine jaguar, known since the time of the existence of the Olmec civilization. So, if the iconography of Hunahpu always suggests depicting him with several large black spots on his body, his brother on the skin here and there even “human” areas are interspersed with spotted patches of a jaguar skin. And at the same time, the hieroglyphs that convey the names of both brothers are human faces looking in profile, with a few additional signs that make it easier to read - which directly contradicts the interpretation of them as "animals". Their father and mother also have a completely anthropomorphic appearance; and the legend itself does not give a single hint of a different nature. D. Tedlock, in turn, draws attention to the fact that the prefix x- has a second meaning - “small, younger”, while the name of the second brother is often also written as x-Junajpu (Hunahpu Jr. - unlike Hunahpu-father ) . The word "balam" undoubtedly translates as "jaguar", and at the same time has a homonym with the meaning "hidden, hidden", which directly leads us to the conclusion that we are talking about the "night luminary" and the brothers act primarily as "day "and" night "twins - a daytime luminary that illuminates the earth, and a night one that descends to shine in the realm of the dead. Indeed, attention is drawn to the fact that when things happen on the surface of the earth, Hunahpu is the leader, but as soon as the brothers descend into the kingdom of the dead, Xbalanque takes the initiative. Thus, the final answer regarding the origin and meaning of the name of the second twin does not yet exist.

Anyway, their first opponent was the boastful false god 7 Macao. The twins ambushed him as he flew up the nance tree to enjoy the sweet fruit to his heart's content. Hidden Hunahpu brought a blowpipe to his lips, and with the very first shot crushed his opponent's jaw. Howling in pain, 7 Macau convulsively tried to take off and crashed to the ground.

D. Tedlock believes that in this episode 7, Macau again demonstrates its "star-bird" nature. In fact, the shot bird tries to take off, and only then ends up on the ground. At the same time, rising above the horizon, the Big Dipper first “holds” the bucket handle down, then raises it up, and finally descends to the horizon with the handle down.

Hunahpu, from his hiding place, inadvertently extended his hand, trying to grab the fallen one, but 7 Macau, even wounded, remained an enemy both formidable and dangerous. With one movement, he intercepted the outstretched hand, pulled it away from his shoulder, and groaning in pain, he went home, supporting his torn jaw with one wing, carrying his prey with the other. His wife, Chimalmat, seriously frightened that she sees her husband in such a state, asked him what happened and what he was carrying with him. 7 Macao, hanging his severed hand over the hearth, replied: I got shot by two crooks and soon they'll be here to take this.».

Trying to determine the exact date of this "event", D. Tedlock refers to the Dresden Codex, where on one of the last pages the Big Dipper (7 Macao) is simultaneously mentioned and there is an image of the deity of the planet Venus (Hunahpu). Their "meeting" really takes place during the ripening period of nance - June 10, and apparently, the defeat of the monstrous bird should be attributed to this day.

The cunning brothers easily figured out the intention of the enemy, and therefore asked for help their own grandfather and grandmother - the Big White Baker and the Big Coati, and accompanied by them appeared on a visit to 7 Macao, who at that time could neither sleep nor eat, yelling from pain in a twisted jaw. Not expecting a trick from the handsome old men, 7 Macao inquired what their children were doing, and received the answer that the two twins were not children, but the grandsons of the old gods, and they were engaged in wandering from place to place, offering their services as chiropractors. and eye healers. Deceived by 7 Macau, he immediately asked to be cured, probably due to poor health, not paying attention to the fact that one of the healers was one-handed. The brothers willingly set to work, and after examining the patient, they declared that the worms gnawing his teeth were to blame; the only way to cure him would be to rip them out and replace them with prostheses. After hesitating for a short time, 7 Macau agreed to this operation. The twins pulled out his teeth, and at the same time removed the metal rings that he wore around his eyes, and deprived him of precious jewelry. Instead of the promised prostheses, soft corn kernels were inserted into the toothless jaw of 7 Macau. As a result of such a “treatment”, the jaw of 7 Macau finally fell in; the pain is gone - along with life. 7 Macao died, his wife and mother of monsters, Chimalmat, went to another world after him, turning into a circle of stars, part of which corresponds to Ursa Minor. Hunahpu put a severed hand to his shoulder, which miraculously immediately grew back. The first feat was thus successfully completed.

According to A. Shelokh, who advised D. Tedlock, the remote descendants of the monster are modern Macau parrots - small, toothless and harmless, no longer thinking about universal greatness, in which lower jaw narrower and weaker than the upper one, and white rims are visible around the eyes, pouring red if the bird is angered.

The third part. 1 Hunahpoo and 7 Hunahpoo

A young maize god identified with Hun Hunahpu.

Having finished the story about the exploits of the divine twins, the anonymous authors of the Popol Vuh return to the myth of their birth and the second generation of gods - the sons of an "old man" and an "old woman". The old god had already died by that time. Two sons, still living with their mother, had "calendar" names characteristic of the May languages ​​- Hun Hunahpu (1 Hunter - in the classical Mayan language 1 Lord) and Vakub Hunahpu (7 Hunter or 7 Lord). The first of them was married and had two children named 1 Master and 1 Monkey, but his wife had already died by the time the story began, while his sons had grown up, although they continued to live with their grandmother, the goddess of time Shmukane.

Both brothers were passionate lovers of the ball game, to which they devoted all their time; it happened that children also joined them, playing as a couple against their fathers. This game was so exciting that even the messenger of the Thunderstorm named Wok used to indulge in the pleasure of watching it. Looking for more and more places to play, both brothers once carelessly started a ball race on the road leading to the underworld, and immediately attracted the attention of chthonic spirits. Numerous "lords" of Xibalba - the gods of diseases - bleeding, dryness, suppuration and other things, which were dominated by two higher "judges" with the names corresponding to the occasion 1 Death and 7 Death were outraged that both brothers started a fuss right at the entrance to the underworld, without experiencing neither fear nor reverence for its leaders. In addition, the authors add, demons were tormented by envy. The brothers had excellent equipment for the game - leather knee pads, gloves, helmets and masks, and a round rubber ball. Nothing like this existed in the underworld, and the lords of Xibalba devised a trick to lure the brothers into a trap and appropriate the things they liked.

The brothers underestimated the dangers, and succumbing to the sweet speeches of the messengers, who assured that the ball game "will make the underground gods happy," they said goodbye to their mother and left a round rubber ball as a memory of themselves, went into the dungeon. The danger was more than real - according to the ancient law, death awaited the losers.

Descending the steep steps into the realm of the dead, the brothers at first safely passed the traps they encountered along the way, crossing without harm to themselves through a turbulent river flowing through a narrow gorge, and another river, the banks of which were completely overgrown with thorns, and finally, a bloody river, and a river full of pus, without drinking a drop from them, and finally ended up at the crossroads of four roads of multi-colored roads, and succumbing to the false persuasions of the black road, they went along it, and found themselves, as befits the souls of the dead, in front of effigies depicting the lords of Xibalba. These stuffed animals, made so skillfully that they could be mistaken for the lords of the underworld, were supposed to confuse those who came, causing malevolent laughter from the demons.

As the next test, the brothers were offered to sit on a red-hot bench, and those, thoughtlessly agreeing, received severe burns, making the demons laugh once again. And finally, the last test, which should decide their fate, was called the House of Gloom. The demonic messenger brought to both brothers, crouching in fear in the dark, one lit torch and a tobacco-leaf cigar each, warning them to return everything received in the morning in the same form in which it was given to them. The brothers did not heed the advice, and burned the torches and cigars to the ground, after which, as they could not stand the test, they were sacrificed. The elder's head was separated from the body, and hung on a gourd tree, which had never before given fruit, and suddenly miraculously began to bear fruit, so that the head was completely lost among them. The stricken demons ordered from now on no one to approach this tree and in no case eat its fruits, after which they buried the bodies of both brothers in a common grave.

This story has much in common with the legends of dying and resurrecting gods known in the mythology of other peoples, Hun Hunahpu himself is currently identified with the “young god of corn”, who annually dies under the reaper's sickle and returns back next spring. The “Popol Vuh” itself is also not alien to the motive of the “return” of the fathers, who come to life again in countless generations of their descendants. The death of both brothers serves as a necessary prelude to the birth of the divine twins and the victory over the demons of death.

Trickster Girl Blood Moon

Of course, the ban on approaching the sacred tree was violated after a while and a girl named blood moon(Shkik, Xcic) is the daughter of the Collector of Blood. After hearing stories about the magic tree, she, of course, could not resist the desire to taste its fruits. But from the tree foliage, the whitened skull of Hun Hunahpoo spoke to her, declaring that the fruits that seemed so tasty to her were just skulls, and whether therefore the Blood Moon would lose its determination. She expressed a desire to go to the end, and the skull of Hun Hunahpu asked her to stretch out her hand, on which a few drops of saliva fell after that. This saliva magically disappeared, and the girl suffered from the dead god.

Popol Vuh

INTRODUCTION

This is the beginning of the old tales about those who in this area bear the name of Quiché. Here we (all) will write. We will begin with ancient stories, with the beginning and origin of all that was done in the city of the Quiche by the tribes of the Quiche people.

Here also we will reveal and communicate what was previously hidden; Let us describe how it was illuminated by the Creator and the Creator, the Great Mother and the Great Father, as they are called. Here will be told about Khun-Ahpu-Vuch, about Khun-Ahpu-Utiu, about Saki-Nima-Tziis, about Tepeu, about Kucumats, about the Heart of the Lake, about the Heart of the Sea, about the Lord of the green dish and the Lord of the green bowl, as they are called . Here also will be proclaimed and told about the Ancestor and the Progenitor, whose names are Xpiyakok and Xmukane, protectors and guardians, the twice honored Ancestor and the twice honored Progenitor, as they are called in the tales of the Quiche. It tells all that they have done in the light of existence, in the light of history.

We are now writing this already under the law of God and under Christianity. We state this because we no longer have a light, Popol Vuh, as it is called, a clear light that came from the other side of the sea, a symbol of our protection, a light for a clear life. The true book, written long ago, exists, but its sight is hidden from those who seek and think. Majestic was her appearance and the story in her about how the emergence of everything took place: heaven and earth; how its four corners and four main points were formed and marked; how she was divided and how the sky was divided; and a measuring rope was brought and strung in the heavens and on the earth, at the four corners, at the four principal points, as it was called by the Creator and Creator, Mother and Father of life and all created things, by those who created breath and created thought, by those who give birth to children, those who watch over the happiness of the people, the children of light, the sons of light, those thoughtful thinkers who meditate on the well-being of everything that exists in the sky, on earth, in lakes and sea.

This is a story about how everything was in a state of uncertainty, everything is cold, everything is silent; everything is motionless, quiet; and the expanse of the sky was empty.

This is the first story, the first narrative. There was no man, no animal, no birds, fish, crabs, trees, stones, caves, gorges, grasses, there were no forests; only the sky existed.

The surface of the earth had not yet appeared. There was only the cold sea and the great expanse of heaven.

There was nothing connected yet, there was nothing that could make noise, there was nothing that could move or tremble or make noise in the sky.

There was nothing that existed, that could have existence; there was only cold water, a calm sea, lonely and still. Nothing existed.

In the darkness, in the night, there was only stillness, only silence.

Only the Creator and the Creator, Tepeu and Kucumats, the Great Mother and the Great Father were in the endless waters. Yes, they were there, hidden under green and blue feathers, and therefore they were called Kukumac. By nature they were great sages and great thinkers. This is how the sky existed, and there was the Heart of Heaven - this is the name of God and this is how he was called.

Then came his word. To Tepeu and Kukumatsu, who had gathered together in the darkness, it came in the night, and Tepeu and Kukumatsu spoke to it. And so they talked, discussing and conferring; they agreed with each other, they combined their words and their thoughts.

And while they were meditating, it became clear to them that at the onset of dawn a man must also appear. Then they distributed the creation of the world, the growth of trees and forest thickets, the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was established in the darkness and in the night by the power of the one who is the Heart of heaven, who is called Hurakan.

The first is called Kakulha-Hurakan. The second is Chipi-Kakulha. The third is Rasha-Kakulha. And these three are the one Heart of heaven.

Then Tepeu and Kucumats came together with them, then they conferred about life and light, about what should be done so that light and dawn would appear; who should be the one who would take care of (their) food and sustenance.

So let it happen! May the void be filled! Let the waters recede and form a void, let the earth appear and be strong; let it be done, they said. - Let there be light, let there be dawn in heaven and above the earth! But there is neither glory nor greatness in this creation of ours, in our creation, until a human being is created, until man is created. until man is created! - That's what they said.

Then the earth was created by them. This is how it was actually created. "Earth!" they exclaimed, and immediately it was created.

Like mist, like a cloud, and like a cloud of dust was (the earth) at its creation, at the beginning of its corporeality. Then mountains emerged from the water; big mountains rose instantly.

Mountains and valleys were formed only by a miracle, only by magical art; and immediately cypress and pine groves sprang up on the surface of the earth.

And then Kucumats was filled with joy and exclaimed:

Useful was your coming, Heart of Heaven; and yours, Hurakan, and yours, Chipi-Kakulha, Rasha-Kanulha!

Our work, our creation must be finished! they answered.

First the earth was created, mountains and valleys; the way was shown to the water streams, the streams began to run freely at the foot of the hills and between them. Since then, the rivers have been separated from each other when high mountains appeared.

Thus was the earth made when it was formed by the Heart of heaven, the Heart of the earth, as they are called, by those who first made it fruitful, when the sky was in a state of uncertainty and the earth was submerged in water.

This is what was done by them after reflection, after reflection, what should become, thanks to them, reality.

Then they created small wild animals, forest men, mountain spirits, deer, birds, puma, jaguars, reptiles, snakes, echidnas, guardians of the forest thickets.

And the Great Mother and the Great Father asked: “Is there really only silence and only silence under the trees, under the creepers? It's good that in the future someone will be there to guard them."

Thus they spoke when they meditated and conversed with one another. And deer and birds were quickly created. Immediately they pointed out to the deer and the birds of their dwellings: “You, deer, will sleep in the fields, on the banks of the rivers and in the gorges. You will wander among the bushes, among the grasses; in the forests you will multiply; you will walk on four legs and they will support you. So let it be done!” That's what they said.

Then they also appointed dwellings for birds, large and small: “You birds will live among the trees, among the creepers. There you will make your nests, there you will multiply; there you will increase in number, in the branches of the trees, in the midst of the creepers.”

So it was said to the deer and the birds; they immediately did what they were supposed to do, and they all got their dwellings and their nests. This is how the Great Mother and the Great Father gave the earthly animals their habitats, so everything went well for the deer and the birds.

And when it was finished, the Creator and Creator, the Great Mother and the Great Father said to them: “Speak, shout, chirp, call, speak to each other, each according to his own kind, according to his kind, each according to his own way!”. So it was said to deer, birds, puma, jaguars and snakes.

“Call our names, praise us, your mother, your father. Call on Hurakan, Chini-Kakulkh, Rasha-Kakulkh, Heart of heaven, Heart of the earth, Creator and Creator, Great mother and Great father, speak loudly, call us, honor us, ”so it was said to them.

But they couldn't make them talk like people; they only whistled and squeaked and cackled; they were unable to utter words, and each squeaked in his own way.

When the Maker and the Creator heard that it was impossible for them to speak to each other, they said: “It is absolutely impossible for them to pronounce our names, the names of us, their creators and creators. This is not good,” Great Mother and Great Father said to each other.

Then they told them, “Since it is impossible for you to speak, you must be changed. We have changed our intentions: your food, your pastures, your dwellings and your nests will remain with you; it will be gorges and forests, because it is impossible for you to honor us or call upon us. There will still be those who will honor us, we will create other creatures that will be obedient. Accept your destiny: your flesh will be torn apart. Let it be so! This is what will be your lot." Thus they said, when they announced their will to great and small animals, as many as there are on the surface of the earth.

They were willing to give themselves a new test, they were willing to make a new attempt; they desired to create (beings capable of) honoring them.

But (the animals) could not understand each other's speech; they could not succeed in anything and could not do anything. This is the reason why their flesh was sacrificed, and all the animals that are on the earth were condemned to be killed and eaten. It is for this reason that the Creator and Creator, the Great Mother and the Great Father made a new attempt to create and create people.