Episode Details

In The Journey to Tulan, the hearts of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam weary of waiting for the sun, and they resolve to seek keepers for their symbols; and all the tribes journey to Tulan-Zuiva, the Seven Caves, the Seven Ravines, and there receive their gods — Tohil first, then Avilix, Hacavitz and Nicahtagah — and Tamub and Ilocab receive Tohil also, and the three K'iche' families do not separate, for their god has a single name; and at Tulan the language of the tribes is changed, and they divide, some going to the East and many coming this way, with the skins of beasts their only clothing. In The Bargain for Fire, there is no fire, and Tohil, the god of the nation, is the first to create it; the tribes are warmed, but the great rain and the hail take their fire away, and freezing and trembling they beg a little of the fire of the four fathers, and are not well received; and the messenger of Xibalba, whose being is like the being of a bat, counsels that the fire be held until the tribes have given Tohil his price; silver is offered and refused, and Tohil names his price in words only, and himself defers it — little by little, it is not now — and the tribes consent and receive the fire, and are warmed. In The Fire Stolen in the Smoke, the Cakchiquels of the house of Zotzil steal the fire in the smoke and do not ask for it, nor give themselves up as beaten; and the tribes keep their perpetual fast at Tulan, watching in turn for the Morning Star, until the parting is spoken and they tear themselves away toward the road, some left sleeping along the way in their hope of seeing the star, the messenger of the sun. In The Naming of the Nations, all the people assemble on the mountain called Chi-Pixab and glorify themselves in their names — Quiche, Tamub, Ilocab, the Cakchiquels, Rabinal, Tziquinaha — and counsel together in hunger, smelling the stocks of their staves in place of food, remembering how they crossed the sea upon scattered stones at the place named Row of Stones and Torn-Up Sands, and the four fathers keep the great fast with their wives, Caha-Paluna, Chomiha, Tzununiha and Caquixaha, in the darkness and in the night. In the source's sixth chapter, two passages stand excluded from this telling under the collection's standard — the price of fire collected as Tohil had signified it, and a blood-offering commanded at the parting from Tulan; they are not told here, and no completeness is claimed for the telling beyond what it tells. These are the K'iche' people's own book, written down by K'iche' authors in the 1550s and preserved in Fr. Ximénez's copy, read here with respect as the sacred and historical book it is.

Chapters: 0:00 Opening 0:04 The Journey to Tulan 4:17 The Bargain for Fire 10:45 The Fire Stolen in the Smoke 12:54 The Naming of the Nations

From the Popol Vuh in the French translation of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1861), from the K'iche' text preserved in the copy of Francisco Ximénez — a fresh in-house English rendering.

Popol Vuh.

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