Suppose we look for somebody else to take the place of my son as the sun. There are three children here on earth, whose mother and father are dead. They live with their grandmother, whose name is Xkitza. Perhaps one of them will take the place of my son, and do the work of carrying the crown of the sun.”

Then the messenger talked with the second eldest of these three brothers. The boy agreed to be the sun, and the messenger asked him how long he would act as the sun. The boy replied, “I don’t know, perhaps forever.”

The messenger sent him to travel across the heavens to see if he liked it. When the boy turned back in the evening, the messenger asked him how he enjoyed it.

“I don’t like it at all,” replied the boy. “It isn’t the heat; I don’t feel that, but it is the earth. It is dull and flat. There are no hills or valleys — there are no seas or rivers. It is just a dead monotonous plain. If the earth were more interesting I would be the sun forever.”

Then the messenger reported what the boy said, and the world became dark for a short while, and the hills and valleys were formed, the seas were made and the rivers flowed across the land. Then the boy was once more sent as the sun to travel across the heavens, to see if he liked the earth now that it had been changed. In the evening when he returned from his journey he cried, “Now the world is beautiful and I will be the sun forever. I will never grow old, but will always be strong and do my work.”

But the messenger told him the time had not yet come, and for the present the first sun would continue to do the work.

This boy, Lord Kin, was the second brother. His eldest brother was Lord Xulab, or Nohoch Ich (Big Eye) who later was to become the planet Venus, and the youngest brother, the Tup, was to become one of the other planets, either Mars or Jupiter.

The three brothers used to go out to hunt birds in the forest with their blowgun (oontse). At night they would return home and give the birds they had killed to their grandmother, Xkitza, to cook. But the old woman used to make them sleep while she cooked the birds. She didn’t give the meat to the boys, but kept it for her lover, a huge monster, some say a tapir, who used to visit her every night. When the boys were asleep she would take fat and smear it on their lips and throw the bones of the birds they had shot down under their hammocks. When the boys woke up in the morning and called for meat, she would say to them: “But you ate all the meat last night. Look at the bones under your hammocks, and see, the grease of the meat from the bones you were gnawing is still on your lips and cheeks.” The boys used to believe her.

One day they met a trogon bird (Kokoh) in the forest.

“Kokoh, kokoh,” the trogon cried.

“I’ll kill you and put your head in a pot. What are you saying?” shouted Lord Kin.

“Kokoh, kokoh,” replied the bird.

“I’m going to kill you and eat you,” replied Lord Kin, raising his blowgun to take aim.

“Why do you want to kill me?” cried the trogon. “You kill off all us birds, but you don’t eat us at all.”

Lord Kin asked him what he meant, and the trogon thereupon explained how their grandmother used to trick the boys into believing they had eaten the meat, whereas really it was her lover who ate it. Then Lord Kin turned to Lord Xulab, and asked him what they should do. Lord Xulab, who was rather stupid, said, “I don’t know what we can do.”

“But I, yes, I know what we must do,” answered Lord Kin. “We’ll kill this monster. Leave it to me.”

When they got home the Lord Kin said to his grandmother, “We couldn’t get any birds. They are getting scarce and wild. Tomorrow we are going a long way away. Make us plenty of tortillas for the journey.”

That night the old woman made them a big pile of tortillas and totopostes, and at dawn the three brothers went off with their blow- guns. However, they didn’t go far, but looked around for the trail through the forest along which Xkitza’s lover used to pass. After a while they found it.

“Now how are we going to kill him?” Lord Kin asked his eldest brother.

“I don’t know,” replied Lord Xulab. “We have only our blow- guns, and with them we can’t kill this beast.”

“Oh you are very stupid. Do as I tell you and we’ll kill him.”

Then under the Lord Kin’s direction they set to work and made a deep pit in the trail. In this they placed sharp sticks, of the kind called tontlib in Maya, with the points upward. The top of the pit they covered over with small branches and earth. When all was ready they spoke to the thrush (Tsiqwam), asking him to sing to them if the monster came along and fell into the trap. The bird agreed to do so, but when he sang and the boys came running up, there was no monster in the trap nor sign of him. Then they asked the Singing Thrush (Maya P’its; Spanish Tordo Cantor) to give them warning. He called out, but again it was a false alarm. They then asked the Magpie (Paap) to warn them. About sunset they heard the earth trembling. It was the noise of the monster coming out of the hill where he lived. The Magpie called to the boys. They went running and found the monster lover of their grandmother had fallen into the pit and was transfixed by the sharp stakes, called tontsib. Then the boys cut off and roasted the animal’s penis and took it home next day to their grandmother. When they arrived they called out to the old woman that they had shot no birds, but they had got a fine fish, giving her the roasted penis. The old woman ate it.

“Does it taste good?” asked the boys.

“Yes, it is fine,” replied Xkitza.

Then the boys began to laugh, and some birds that were round the house called out, “Look at her. She’s eaten the penis.”

Xkitza was suspicious, as her lover hadn’t visited her the previous night. She called to the boys, “You must be tired. Get into your hammocks and go to sleep. I’m going down to the river to fetch water.”

The boys did so, and the old woman, taking her water jar, left the house. The boys were afraid and didn’t go to sleep. After some time when the old woman didn’t return they asked the toad (Muts) to go and see what their grandmother was doing. But the toad said he was afraid as he couldn’t travel fast, and if the old woman wanted to kill him he could only get away hop by hop. Then the boys asked the big crested lizard (Baat) to go. The lizard went off. When he got to the side of the river he saw the old woman sharpening her finger nails, and muttering, “Make my nails and the bones of my fingers grow.”

When the lizard saw and heard this, he ran between the old woman’s feet. The old woman was annoyed, and breaking off a piece of the pottery water jar, she threw it at the lizard. The piece lodged there in the back of the lizard’s head. The lizard ran off back to the boys, and told them what he had seen, and how the old woman was going to kill the three of them. Then he asked them to take the piece of jar out of his neck. The boys only laughed and said he looked prettier like that, and they took a knife and sharpened the point of the piece of pottery.

“Now shake your head,” they said.

The lizard did so, but the boys only laughed. That is how the baat got his crest.

The boys then took three qaantse (“low wooden seats made from tree trunks”) and put one in each hammock, and then three calabashes which they put at the heads of the qaantse, and blankets over them, so that it appeared as though they were all three sleeping in their hammocks. Instead they climbed up into the rafters of the hut. Soon their grandmother came quietly in and creeping up to the first hammock dug her claws into the calabashes one by one, so that if the boys had been lying there instead they would surely have been killed. Then the boys laughed, and their grandmother looked up startled.

“What are you doing down there?” they asked.

“I was just playing,” she replied.

Lord Kin and Lord Xulab resolved to get rid of their youngest brother, as they had decided to kill their grandmother, and the youngest boy did not approve. They went out with their blowguns to shoot birds. Presently they shot a bird, which, although killed, remained stuck in a top branch of a high tree. They made the youngest boy climb up to retrieve the bird, after first tying a blanket round his waist with the loose end hanging down behind. When the boy had almost reached the top branch of the tree, Lord Kin called out to him, “You must do as I tell you. Now call out wacwacwacwacwac” (imitating the chatter of the spider monkey, Maas).

The boy did so. Then Lord Kin made the boy climb up higher still, and again imitate the spider monkey. Then the boy began to chatter just like a monkey, and to swing himself from tree to tree. The blanket round him turned into the shaggy hair of the monkey, and the end hanging down below was transformed into a monkey’s tail.

“Now you must stay there, and always remain like that,” Lord Kin told him.

Before this there had been no monkeys in the world. From the young boy who was turned into a monkey are descended all the monkeys one now sees in the forest.

Lord Kin and Lord Xulab returned home to Xkitza.

“Let’s play at asking questions,” Lord Kin said to the old woman. Now it was understood that whoever failed to answer any of the questions would be killed. The boy asked the first question. “What is the stick, from the end of which water flows?” He hoped that she would reply that it was the water liana, but she answered correctly that it was his penis. It was now the old woman’s turn to ask a question. “What is the water that flows between the two hills?” she asked. Kin answered correctly that it was her urine.

“Now again it is my turn,” he cried. “Tell me, what is it that makes a noise Trump, Trump’ as it moves?”

Xkitza said it was the spindle and whorl.

“This is it,” cried Lord Kin, hurling a throwing top (see p. 153) at her.

But Xkitza jumped aside, and the top did not kill her. Again it was her turn to put a question, and again the Lord Kin answered her. The question was as to what were the three hills with something flat on top. The answer was the three stones of the fireplace and the comal (griddle) on top. Once more Lord Kin put the question, “What is it that goes up into the air, travels along and drops down again?”

The old grandmother confessed she didn’t know.

“Well, this is it,” cried the Lord Kin. As he said this, he drew his bow and let fly an arrow which killed Xkitza.

The boys buried their grandmother, but then they found they had no woman to cook for them. Lord Kin told his brother Lord Xulab that, as he was the eldest, he must get married, so they could have a woman to cook for both of them. Lord Xulab didn’t want to marry, but Lord Kin insisted, and got an old woman to arrange the marriage between his brother and the daughter of an old man that lived close by. The girl came to live with Lord Xulab, but she never saw his face as he was away all day minding his animals and only came home at night. For Lord Xulab is the owner of all the animals in the world, and he used to keep all these animals in pens — the peccary, the deer, the antelope, the gibnut, the turkey, the curassow, in short, all the animals and birds of the world. He did this so that everyone could come to him for meat. He used, too, to make a milpa to have maize for his animals. Every plant in his milpa used to yield a cob of corn for every leaf, and with two cobs of corn a day he used to have sufficient corn to feed all his animals.

However, as Lord Xulab was always away his wife got discontented. One day when the brothers were away, a man arrived at the house and began to make love to her. The girl took no notice of him, although he was a sorcerer. A second time he came, and again he was repulsed. A third time he came and said to the girl, “Why won’t you take any notice of me? I’m handsome, but your husband, Lord Xulab, is as ugly as can be. His face is all covered with a big beard. If you don’t believe me, look at him tonight. Put seven sticks of pitch pine by the fire; and when he comes in, light them and hold them up so that you can see his face, and you will know that I am speaking the truth.”

That night when Lord Xulab was eating, the girl lit the pines and looked at her husband’s face. Just as the bad man had said, she saw how ugly Lord Xulab was with his great beard (like his brother, Lord Kin). Then she began to laugh, and Lord Xulab jumped up. As he jumped up, all the animals broke out of their pens and started to scatter in all directions. Lord Xulab ran out to catch them, but he couldn’t do so. Some of the animals, like the deer, the antelope, the rabbit, and the peccary, he managed to catch by the tail, but their tails broke off, and they escaped. That is why these animals either have no tails now, or their tails are very short.

Lord Xulab was very angry. “I’m going away,” he cried. “I won’t have anything more to do with women.”

Then he called the Mam, who are also known as the Huitz-Hok, and are the earth gods, Lords of the hills and valleys, and told them they must look after his animals and plants for him.

“The people can no longer have tame animals, but if they obey my laws I will give them meat to eat and corn and other plants in their milpas. My law is this. When men want to hunt, they must keep vigil all night, and in the hours before dawn they must burn copal incense (pom) to me, and beg me for some of my animals. They must do this when I am at home and before I rise high above the horizon. Then when they arrive where they are going to hunt or make their milpa, they must again burn copal and pray, but this time to the Mam. For the Mam are to do my work for me, and they will release the animals from their pens and place them in the forest where they can easily be hunted. Those people who don’t comply with this law will get no game except the few stray animals that don’t want to live in my pens, and the crops in their milpas will be of little value, and the fish they get will be small.”

Now Lord Xulab’s hands were covered with blood from the animals’ tails that had broken when he caught hold of them, and he wiped his hands first on the plant called Mayuk, and next on another plant called stsai (Jatropha acontifolia) and lastly on an old tree. Then these two plants became edible and edible fungi (siqintse) grew on the tree trunks. This Lord Xulab did, so that the people might have more to eat to replace the tame animals that were no more. Then Lord Xulab went away, but the time was not yet come for him to become the Morning Star.

Lord Kin, too, wandered away, travelling far. When he came to a large mountain, he hurled his blowgun at it, and crawled through the tube of the gun. Eventually he arrived at the house of his mother. Now his mother had been unmarried when she gave birth to him, and fearing the wrath of her father, had hidden him in a box close to a stream where he had been found by the old woman, Xkitza, whom he subsequently killed. On arriving at the house, he entered, asking for food and lodging, which his mother granted him. However, she did not recognize him as her son although he knew her to be his mother. She pointed to her hammock, and told him to rest in it until the food was ready; but he sat instead in the hammock of another son of his mother. When he had finished eating, he prepared to leave; but his mother asked him to stay and live with her as she had no husband. Lord Kin was angry at this. “Shameless woman,” he cried, “don’t you realize you are my mother, yet you wish me to sleep with you.”

When his mother understood who he was, she asked to be forgiven, begging him to stay at the hut, and promising to get a good wife. Lord Kin refused, and continued on his way.

After a time he came to a house where an old man lived, whose name was T’actani. With him lived his granddaughter, a pretty girl called X’t’actani, who was a very fine spinner and weaver of cotton. Lord Kin decided this girl should be his wife, but he resolved not to employ any professional matchmaker to arrange the affair, but to win the girl by himself. The first day in that neighborhood he went out to hunt, and shot an antelope. He returned home, passing by the house where the girl lived so that she could see him. Game was scarce, so Lord Kin decided to trick the girl into thinking he was a fine hunter. Accordingly he stuffed the antelope’s skin with ashes and dried grass and leaves, and every evening after dark he used to take the stuffed skin and leave it in the forest, returning to his hut. Early in the morning he would pass by the girl’s house empty-handed on his way to hunt, returning a short while afterwards with the stuffed animal on his shoulder. The girl was impressed.

“Look, grandfather!” she cried. “That man shoots game every day. He must be a wonderful hunter. I would like to have him as my husband.”

“Hmm,” said old T’actani. “Perhaps he’s just tricking you.”

“No,” said the girl. “He must be the one who kills the animals. Look at the blood on him.”

“Hmm,” grunted the old man. “Throw some water on the path next time he passes and see what happens.”

The girl didn’t believe him, but next time when Lord Kin was returning from hunting, she threw the lime water in which she had been soaking the maize on the path.

Lord Kin slipped and fell. The antelope skin burst, and all the ashes, grass, and leaves poured out on the ground in front of the house. The girl began to laugh, and Lord Kin, very ashamed of himself, ran off.

Lord Kin was very ashamed and vexed, but he still wanted the girl. So he went to the humming bird (o’unun) and asked him to lend him his skin. But the humming bird said that he could not lend his skin as he would die of the cold. Lord Kin said he would wrap him up in cotton, and then the humming bird agreed. Lord Kin then put on the skin and, turning into a humming bird, flew off to the house where X’t’actani lived. From the ashes and grass that had poured out of the antelope skin had sprung up a tobacco plant. To this sped Lord Kin, in his guise of humming bird, and darting from flower to flower sucked the honey. X’t’actani saw him, and called to T’actani.

“Grandfather, look at that beautiful humming bird. How I would like to have him. Get your blowgun and shoot him for me.”

The old man grumbling did so, and the humming bird fell to the ground. However, it was only stunned, and X’t’actani picked it up. As she stooped down, the strap which passed round her waist and held the loom taut slipped, and the loom fell to the ground. She took the humming bird indoors and, giving it chocolate and maize, succeeded in reviving it. That night she took it to her bedroom, which was the innermost of thirteen rooms.

In the night she woke up to find a man with her. Frightened, she asked him who he was. It was Lord Kin, and he explained how he had changed into a humming bird to be able to approach her.

“My grandfather will kill me now,” the girl cried.

“Well you must run away with me,” replied Lord Kin.

The girl wanted to do so, but she was afraid, as her grandfather had a magic stone (sastun, a round pebble of jade or rock-crystal) in which he could see everything that was happening in the world. Lord Kin told the girl to fetch the sastun, and when she brought it, he proceeded to cover it with soot, and then told the girl to put it back in its place, and then they could flee without danger of being found. But the girl was still afraid, as her grandfather had a magic blowgun with which he could suck anything to him, no matter how far away it might be. Lord Kin bade her bring him the blowgun too, and grind some red pepper. When the pepper was ready, he placed it in the blowgun and, stopping up the muzzle, told the girl to put it back in its accustomed place. They then fled together.

In the morning T’actani saw no sign of the girl. He called her, but there was no reply. He searched for her, but could not find her. Then he reached for his sastun to see where she had gone. It was covered with soot and he could see nothing till he noticed a small spot that Lord Kin had omitted to cover, and looking through that he saw his granddaughter and Lord Kin in a canoe. Determined to bring the couple back, he stretched for his magic blowgun and, putting it to his lips, he sucked with all his might. Next moment he lay on his back half-choked and gasping for breath, his mouth and throat full of the ground chili Lord Kin had put in the barrel before he fled. T’actani, when he recovered, was beside himself with fury.

“Now they shall die,” he cried.

He sent his son to fetch his uncle, Chac, the thunder god. When Chac arrived, he asked him to send a thunderbolt to kill the fleeing lovers. Chac protested, “No, I won’t kill them. You are very angry now, and want me to kill them; but later when your anger passes, you will be sorry that they are dead, and you will then be vexed with me for killing them.”

However, T’actani insisted and insisted until at last Chac agreed, and departing dressed himself in his black clothes, and took up his drum and axe.

Lord Kin saw Chac approaching. “Now your grandfather has sent Chac to kill us,” he cried. “In this canoe we have no shelter.”

Accordingly he turned himself into a turtle and the girl into a crab. With all speed they swam to the bottom of the sea (or lake?). But the crab swims slowly, and when the thunderbolt fell, Lord Kin was far below the surface, but the girl was only a little way down, and the thunderbolt killed her. Lord Kin, when the danger had passed, swam to the surface again, and saw the water dyed with the blood of X’t’actani. He was very grieved. He called to some small fish that were swimming in the water (suktan), and asked them to collect the remains of the girl. The fish came, but instead of collecting the remains they began to eat the flesh and drink the blood. Then Lord Kin asked the dragon flies (tuhlus) to help him. They did so and collected the remains in thirteen huhul (hollow wooden logs). These Lord Kin left in the house of an old woman who lived by the shore. “In thirteen days I will come back for them,” he told the old woman.

At the end of the thirteen days he returned for the huhul. “You must take them away,” the old woman cried. “I can’t sleep for the noise that comes from inside them, a buzzing and a humming and a creaking. Not another night must they remain here.”

Then Lord Kin began to open the barrels. The first contained nothing but snakes — tommy goffs, rattlesnakes, coral snakes; in fact, every conceivable kind of poisonous snake. Lord Kin shut the lid again. He peeped into all the other barrels. The second was full of snakes, as was the third, but they were not the poisonous kind. The fourth was full of mosquitos; the fifth, of sand flies; the sixth, of big green hornets; the seventh, of yellow wasps; the eighth, of small black wasps; the ninth, of black wasps with white wings; the tenth, of hairy white caterpillars, whose hair causes an intense irritation; the eleventh and twelfth held different kinds of flies, but squatting in the thirteenth was his love, X’t’actani. He sent a man to throw the other twelve huhul into the sea. On the way, the man became curious as to what caused all the noise in the barrels and opened them one by one. Out crawled the snakes and caterpillars, and the different insects flew away all over the world. Before this there had been none of these pests.

When X’t’actani came to life again, she had no vagina. Lord Kin did not know what to do, but consulted the old woman in whose house he had left the thirteen hollow wooden tubes. Acting on her advice, he made the girl lie down in a narrow defile between two hills. Then he called the small deer (yuk) and asked him to run over the outstretched girl. The small deer did so, but the imprint of his hoofs between the girl’s thighs was very small. Lord Kin thereupon summoned the large deer (keh) to his aid. The imprint of the hoof of the large deer was satisfactory. Lord Kin had connection with the girl. It seemed to him very wonderful. He thought the people would ruin themselves with this new pleasure; accordingly, he summoned the rat (tso) and bade him urinate in the girl’s vagina. Since then sexual pleasure has been followed by revulsion.

Lord Kin and the woman went away and built a new house, and his brother, Lord Xulab, came to live with them.

After a time Lord Kin began to suspect that his wife was not true to him, and was having relations with his brother, Lord Xulab. He was jealous and angry and determined to give the pair a lesson.

One day he went out and, meeting a turkey on the road, asked the turkey if he would give him his gall. The turkey did so. A little farther he met a fowl, and from him, too, he obtained some gall. Then he went to the hut of an old woman and asked her for some ground chili, and red dye (arnatto) that is used to color food (kusub, Bixa orellana). Then he got the old lady to make a tamal out of the mixture. When it was ready in its covering of maize paste, he put it under his arm so that the heat of his body might cook it, and returned home. When he got to the hut, Lord Xulab and X’t’actani were there.

“I’ve got a fine tamal here,” he said. “An old woman made some for me, and they are very good.”

The’guilty pair took the tamal and began to eat it. With the first mouthful they almost choked to death. Tears streamed down their faces, and they vomited. They drank all the water that was in the house, but could not get the horrible taste out of their mouths. X’t’actani took the water jar, and went down to the bank of the river to get more.

She was sitting there sobbing with vexation and self-pity when a vulture (tsom) flew down. “Oh, I wish you would take me away with you. My husband is very cruel to me and I hate him,” sobbed the girl.

“I’ll take you away if you like,” answered the vulture. “I’ll take you to my master, who lives in a big white house.”

X’t’actani agreed to go, and getting onto the sopilote’s back was carried up into the air and away. After a half-way rest on a big cottonwood tree (yastse) they approached the town of the sopilotes.

“There is the fine stone house of my master,” said the sopilote. “See how white it is.” But the house wasn’t of stone. It was made of guano droppings.

The girl went to live with the chief of the vultures. Some say he was a king vulture; others, a big devil with four eyes and four horns.

Lord Kin suspected that the girl had been carried off by the vulture. Accordingly he went to the antelope and, borrowing his skin, changed into an antelope and lay down on the bank of the river as though he were dead. Then he called the blue blowfly (yaskats) and told him to put the stuff on the antelope skin that turns into worms. The blowfly did so.

“Now fly past the home of the vultures, so they smell the smell of rotten meat,” said Lord Kin.

The blowfly did so, and the vultures smelt the smell of the meat and asked the blowfly where he had been feeding.

“Down by the river bank there is a dead antelope,” replied the blowfly.

The vultures flew off to the feast. They alighted. All were there except the one that had carried X’t’actani on his back. They waited for him, for the vultures have the custom of waiting till all are present before they start to eat. At last he arrived, and the vultures hopped toward the antelope. Lord Kin kept still till the one that had carried off his wife hopped up to pluck out his eye. Then, swiftly putting out his hand, he caught the vulture.

“Let me go. Let me go,” cried the vulture.

“No, I won’t let you go. You must carry me to your master,” answered Lord Kin.

“You are too heavy. I can’t carry you,” said the vulture.

“You carried the girl, so you can carry me,” replied Lord Kin.

At last the vulture consented, and taking Lord Kin on his back, started to fly home. When they were getting near the vultures’ home, Lord Kin made the vulture put him down on the ground. Near-by he found two men who were cutting wood to carry to the town. One of these he persuaded to carry him, hidden in the middle of his load. The load of wood began to creak. When they were close to the town, Lord Kin got out of the wood and entered the town. He went to the house of the chief and asked lodging.

“There is no room here, but you can occupy that empty house over there,” the chief’s servant told him.

Lord Kin borrowed a hammock and went to the house. In the rafters he found a drum and a flute of the long kind called Sol, and on the ground he discovered seven grains of red maize. In each grain he dug a hole, and then threw all seven of them over the house where the chief lived. Then he began to play the drum and flute.

The chief began to suffer from toothache (caused by the red corn with the holes). Gradually the pain grew worse. The chief sent his servant to ask Lord Kin if he could cure the pain, but gave orders that Lord Kin was not to be admitted inside the room. Lord Kin refused to go, saying, “How can I cure the old man of his toothache if I have to stand outside the door and cannot see him to find out what is the matter?” The messenger returned to his master, and Lord Kin resumed playing the flute and drum.

The pain grew worse, and again the chief sent to fetch Lord Kin, but still refused him admittance to the room. Again, Lord Kin said it would be useless for him to go unless he was allowed into the presence of the sick man. At last the old chief could stand the pain no longer and sent for Lord Kin, giving orders that he was to be admitted to the room. Lord Kin then went. When he entered the room, he saw his wife sitting there with the sick chief. By means of his skill he quickly cured the sick man of his toothache, and in a short while the chief fell asleep. Lord Kin turned to X’t’actani and bade her flee with him. X’t’actani refused, but after much entreaty at last consented to return to him. The pair then left the house and, catching two of the vultures, made these carry them back to the side of the river.

The time had now come for Lord Kin to take up his duties as the sun and to bear on his head the crown. Together with his elder and younger brother and his wife he ascended into the sky. His elder brother became the morning star. His younger brother became the evening star; and his wife, X’t’actani, the moon.

Lord Kin placed a mirror in the center of the sky, and every morning he used to start out from his home in the east and travel till he got to the center. Then he used to turn back home, but the mirror reflected his light, and it appeared as though he were continuing his journey. When he got home, X’t’actani, as the moon, used to walk across the heavens in the same manner. At that time she was as bright as her husband, the sun. Then there was no darkness, for the night was as bright as the day. One night when she returned from her journey, she appeared sad. Lord Kin asked her what ailed her.

“I have been looking down on the earth during my walk across the sky,” she replied, “and I see the people of the world are not happy. They work all day and night, and cannot sleep as the nights are as bright as the days.”

Lord Kin thought for some time, and then turning to her said, “What you say is true. The people require sleep. Your light is too bright. I will take out one of your eyes, and then you will not shine so brightly.” Whereupon he gouged out one of her eyes.

“Now go and see if the people of the world are more contented,” he cried. The lady U did so. With her one eye, that gave only a soft light, she looked down on the world, and saw the people there contentedly sleeping in their houses. She returned to her husband and reported that now all was well. Since that time men have been able to rest from their labors and sleep at night.

Now at that time mankind had no maize or other agricultural plants. They and the animals lived on fruits and the roots they found in the forest. However, there was maize in the world. It was hidden under a great rock, but no one knew of it except the leaf- cutting ants (sai). One day the fox was going along, when he found a number of grains of maize, which the ants had dropped when they brought them from under the big rock; for they had found a way to get down through a small crack in the rock to the hidden supply below. The fox tried the maize and thought it tasted delicious. He waited till night when the ants came again, and then followed them till they came to the rock. However, he could not get under the rock, as the hole through which the leaf-cutters passed was too small. Again he ate up the grains of maize that the ants dropped on their track. After he had eaten, he returned to where the other animals were sitting. He broke wind, and the other animals asked him what he had been eating that caused even his wind to smell sweet.

The fox denied that he had been eating anything new, but the other animals suspected him and decided to follow him and see what he ate. A little later the fox loped off. The other animals followed him secretly. The fox went back to the ants’ trail, where there was more maize that had been dropped. He looked round to see if he was observed, and as he could see no other animal, he began to eat the maize. However, all the other animals were hidden in the bush without his knowing it, and as soon as he began to eat, they came out of their hiding places, jeering at him. “Now we know what you have been eating,” they cried.

They tried the maize and liked it. Then all the animals waited for the ants to come along the trail to ask these to fetch them more maize. The ants agreed, but the animals were so numerous that they couldn’t keep all of them supplied with maize, and refused to bring any more up except for their own use. The other animals didn’t know what to do. They went to the big red ants and asked them to help, but the big red ants were too big to get into the hole. Then they went to the rat and asked him to help them, but he could not get into the cache any more than the red ants could.

Finally they told man about this wonderful new food, and man asked the Mam to help them. Now the Mam are very numerous. There are four principal ones and many others of less importance. Yaluk is the greatest of the Mam. When man asked the Mam to help, Yaluk was not present. The rest of the Mam decided to try to break the stone themselves. Now the Mam are lords of the mountains and plains, they look after the animals for the Morning Star, and they are also lords of the thunder. Then each of the other three important Mam hurled a thunderbolt at the rock to try and burst it, but all failed. At last they decided they would have to ask Yaluk after all. They sent a message to him, saying they needed his help. Now Yaluk knew all that had happened, and he refused to go. A second time they asked him to go, but again he refused.

“I am an old man,” he bade the messenger tell them. “I haven’t the strength. They are young men, let them do it.”

Thereupon the other three principal Mam again sent to summon Yaluk, confessing that they had tried, but failed. Then at last Yaluk went. First, he sent the woodpecker (kolonte) to tap the stone to see where it appeared weakest. The woodpecker tapped all over the stone and told Yaluk where it was thinnest.

“Well, that is the point at which I am going to hurl my thunderbolt,” Yaluk told him. “Hide there behind that ledge of the rock, and you will be quite safe, but don’t thrust your head out, or you will probably get killed.”

Yaluk gathered all his strength together, and hurled his thunderbolt at the spot that the woodpecker had indicated as the thinnest, and burst the rock asunder. Just as the thunderbolt fell, the woodpecker, forgetful of what Yaluk had warned him, thrust out his head; and a piece of rock, hitting him on the head, cut it open, and the blood gushed out. Ever since then the woodpecker has had a red poll. Yaluk fainted away from the tremendous force he had exerted, but the other three principal Mam rushed forward to seize the corn. Now when the thunderbolt burst the rock asunder, it had burnt much of the maize. Originally all the maize had been white, but now much of it had been badly burnt and had turned red. Other grains were covered with smoke, and they had turned yellow. This is how the red and yellow maize originated.

The three Mam, taking no notice of Yaluk, seized only the white grains and hurried away to plant them. When Yaluk recovered, he could find only the red and yellow maize. This he took, and making a milpa, planted it. He was angry with the other three Mam, and said, “They have taken all the white maize, but they will have to plant it three times before it will come up.”

And so it happened. The crops of the three other Mam failed. Again they sowed, and again the crop failed to come up. Then they went to Yaluk and asked him why their crops were a failure, but his was coming up beautifully.

“I don’t know,” replied Yaluk, still angry with them for having left him no white maize. “Your crops ought to do better than mine as you took all the good maize and only left me what was burnt. I steeped my seed in lime for three days. Perhaps that is the reason why it has come up so well.”

Now he just said this as a joke, for he knew their crop would fail in any case. The three Mam went off, and soaked the rest of their seed in lime, and then sowed it. A few plants came up, but the crop was of poor quality. Thus was maize brought into the world.

The Mam gave the maize to man to sow, but at that time there were no other plants cultivated. One day some men, wandering in the forest, found a huge mamey tree (tsukul haas), on the branches of which grew all kinds of vegetables and fruit such as beans, sweet potatoes, squashes, etc. The animals had known of this tree for a long time and used to go there to eat.

The men decided to cut down the tree so that they might have the seed to sow. The tree was so large that by the evening there still remained a small part of the trunk to be cut through before it would fall. Next day they returned to finish chopping it down, but to their astonishment found no trace of the cut they had made the previous day; the trunk was intact.

Once more they started to cut it down, but by evening a small portion still remained uncut, and nightfall forced them to abandon the task. On returning next morning again they found the trunk once more intact. All day again they worked chopping down the tree, and when nightfall forced them to stop work, they laid down close to the tree to see what happened. Soon all the animals of the forest began to arrive one by one. When they were all there, they began to collect the chips that the men’s axes had bitten out of the trunk and to hand them to the fox who replaced them one by one in their original position. As he replaced them, he called out, “Tente ots” (“I am replacing it”). (There is a play on words here such as the Mayas are so fond of as the word for fox is also ots.) When all the chips were back in position, and the trunk healed up, the animals departed.

Next day the men started. once more to cut down the tree, and this time, by working without halt day and night, succeeded in felling it. They gathered the fruits and vegetables, and taking them to their milpas, sowed them.

Since then there has been plenty of beans, squashes, and other cultivated plants in the world.

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