Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/264

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MEXICAN ARCHÆOLOGY

Rabinal (later at Zamaneb), the Tziquinaha (of Atitlan), and others. The four Quiché ancestors however were too perfect to please the gods, being omniscient, so the latter dimmed their intellects, but, as some sort of compensation, provided them with wives. The sun as yet was not created, all the world was dark, and mankind had no knowledge of ritual. So they set out for Tulan Zuiva, where each tribe received its god under whose leadership it commenced its migration. Before the general separation however the need of fire was felt, and the Quiché god, Tohil, who was a thunder-god, provided his votaries with a constant supply, by striking it from his sandal. The other tribes begged fire from the Quiché, but they, on the advice of a messenger in bat-form from the underworld, Xibalba, demanded in return that the recipients should consent to be united with their god "beneath their girdles and beneath their armpits." This dark saying implied the gift of their hearts in sacrifice, and the other tribes, failing to understand the true import, fell into the trap, with the exception of the Kakchiquel, whose bat-god stole fire from the smoke without agreeing to the terms. The migrations then took place, many of the tribes going eastward, while the Quiché, together with the Kakchiquel, Tamub, Hocab, Rabinal and Tziquinaha, travelled to Guatemala, where on a mountain they assumed their tribal names and "awaited the dawn, looking for the morning star." The phrase recalls very distinctly the Mexican legend related on p. 10. Finally the morning star made its appearance, followed by the sun, to which incense brought from Tulan was offered, but the tribal gods, who had meanwhile expressed the wish to be secluded in sanctuaries apart from the settlements of men, were turned into stone. After this the four Quiché leaders withdrew themselves from association with their followers, but were occasionally seen, together with the gods, in the mountains and forests;