As well as other peoples, the ancient Mayans had stories and legends about the creation of the world and other extraordinary adventures. When the Spaniards arrived in Guatemala, they forbade them from practicing their customs, languages and religions, and destroyed all their writings!
In order to rescue the legends and for their children to know their origins, three K'iche' mayan gentlemen came together and wrote the stories they had heard since they were children and that they knew by heart. That is how the Popol Wuj emerged, the sacred book of the Mayas, of which we now share some of its stories.
At the beginning there was only the sky and an immense sea. There was no light or earth. The Creators were at sea, wrapped in their quetzal feathers. One of them, Uk'u'x Kaj, Heart of Heaven, asked another Creator, Tepew Q'ukumatz, "When will it dawn?", and without waiting for an answer, said: "Let reality be made, let the earth appear!"
In turn, with their words, they created the animals that would be the guardians of the forests and ravines. Soon the deer, the birds, the jaguars and all the animlas that began to run on the land appeared. "Now, say our names and thank us for having received life!" they said, but the animals just shouted, cackled, howled and shrieked, all in a different way, and that did not please the Creators. It was not enough.
"Let's try something else. We need beings that respect us, thank us, sustain us and protect us with their prayers. If not, how can we, the Creators, be remembered?" They exclaimed. That's why they decided to create humans. As for the animals, they would be destined to be food for other beings.
Alom and K'ajolom then made some mud dolls and were the first humans. But they talked nonsense, they almost did not hold their heads and they melted with water! "That does not work... they will not multiply, they will not remember us either!" When they realized that their creation did not work, they undid all the clay dolls.
"With what should we create man?" Asked Alom and K'ajolom. "Let's ask grandpa Xpiyakok and grandma Ixmucané, they are great fortune-tellers, they will know how to advise us." After consulting with corn and tz'ite' seeds, the grandparents said that the man must be made of wood. "So be it," replied Alom and K'ajolom. They then made new tz'ite' wood dolls and cibaque dolls. Then, with a single word, they gave them life.
The wooden men and women ("ajamché", they were called) were more solid than mud men. They moved, they spoke and quickly they multiplied and populated the earth! But when they were asked to say the name of their creators and thank them, these men and women did not know how to answer either! Because besides not having blood in their veins, they did not have a heart either! They looked like humans but they still were not. "We have not achieved what we want," said the Creators, "you have to destroy these dolls."
The Creator Uk'u'k Kaj sent a great storm to drown the wooden dolls. The animals helped them and, under a great rain, the bats cut off their heads and the jaguars chewed them.
The objects of the houses also helped. The grinding stones stood up saying: "They hurt us, grinding food on our faces and they never thanked us. Now we will grind them! " The dogs said: "They did not feed us and they never thanked us for taking care of them. Now we will bite them! " The comales and the pots said: "They burned us day and night and never thanked us. Now we will burn them! " Even their hearth stones were thrown at them.
The wooden men wanted to flee, but could not: they wanted to take refuge in their houses, but they fell on them; they wanted to climb the trees, but they rejected them; They wanted to hide in the caves, but the entrances closed in front of them. Almost all were destroyed...
It seems that some survived because it is said that their descendants are the monkeys that live in the forests and jump among the branches of the trees. Have you ever seen them? They look like humans but they are not. Now they are the only memory that a long time ago, when the world was being created, there were tz'ite' men and cibaque women.
After this destruction, the creators took some time to think. They still had not finished their work: a human being with spirit, who remembered their creators and knew how to thank them. They had not yet decided what to make it with. One day, they found the solution... but that will be another story!
*The Popol Vuh is the National Book of Guatemala.
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