THE OLD ONES

Everything was peace and tranquillity in the place where they had lived so far, but for reasons hidden to the eyes of man, they decided to walk to a place called of the caves and the precipices. They crossed mountains, almost inaccessible ranges where the cold wind flailed their flesh making them suffer. They no longer had fire, only ashes and smoke. Many times they wanted to return to their point of origin. When he saw this, Balam Quitzé, distressed, said:
- Tohil, give us back the fire that once you gave us because my creatures die of cold.

To which Tohil answered:
- Arm yourself of patience and your people must also have it, soon you will have fire. They will suffer no longer.

Balam Quitzé transmitted the news to his people and they rejoyced, because no longer would they need to move around to warm themselves, nor the mothers to warm their children with their breath. Tohil rubbed a stone with one of his sandals and it brought forth a spark, then a light and immediately the fire. The travelers danced jubilantly and those that before were dying from cold now were reborn, they felt the blood run in their veins and, decided again, resumed their pilgrimage.

New groups joined them that shivered from cold, that hurt of the sores of their feet and tongues hurt by the ice, and when approaching they said to them:
- Do not be shamed of us when seeing us so destitute. You share with us the fire that you enjoy because otherwise we will die.

Balam Quitzé, indignant when hearing those words he did not understand, shouted to them, infuriated:
- In what language do you speak that we do not understand to you? Perhaps you have forgotten the common language? Why do you no longer speak like those that from Tulan?

When the strangers were leaving, afraid of the wrath in that voice, an envoy of Tohil appeared among them, saying to them:
- Tohil is our God and is the one that has given us the fire. We will not share it with you until you say what you will give us in return. We will thus punish you for having forgotten our language.

The envoy of Tohil was very tall and had on his back enormous black wings, like of a giant bat. To his voice, those that were already moving away out of fear, returned still cold-numb and addressing the emptiness, the eternity of those wings, said:
- Have mercy of us because we are dying from cold. Perhaps you have forgotten that we lived together, that we drank in same jicara and that we shared the fire that was given to us all? Why, then, we left Tulan if there we had peace, tranquillity and hopes?

A voice responded to them:
- You have heard it. What will you give us in exchange for the fire that now you request from us?
- We will give all our precious metals - said another voice -, in exchange for the fire.
- And what do we want your metals for?
- What do you want, then?
- Wait and we will tell you.

The Grandparents met again under the shelter of Tohil, because they could not see him with their eyes, and they said to him:
- Tohil, what can we ask this people in exchange for the fire that you gave us and that now request it to us so distressed and trembling?

Tohil answered:
- Ask them if they are willing to adore to us and to sacrifice themselves for us when the drums sound. If they accept, ask them to say what they think.

The Grandparents transmitted the answer of Tohil, and when hearing so ruthless a proposal, without fear to what could happen to them, they shouted:
- Yes! We will adore Tohil as our God; we will accept and wait for the arrival of his sacrificers!

And those that had been half dead before, were now reanimated, returned to live, they were warmed up with the fire given by Tohil and began to sing and to dance full of joy. Tohil forgot to put them through the test he had requested of them and smiled.

But there was a tribe, famous for its depredations, worshippers of the God Chamalkán, who had the form of a vampire and sharp and curved claws like those of an eagle. These men felt like they owned all the creation and they never requested, even less begged for what they needed or they liked. When they found resistance they did not stop and killed their enemy. But these savages did not give death to the slaves whom they preserved for sacrifice, they took care of them, they dressed them as if they were kings and in solemn ceremony they tore the entrails out of them. Although those customs were not very humanitarian, they had as part of their religion the abstinence, in a determined date that was always the same one, and felt a great faith in their destiny written long time ago by their Gods. Thanks to it they could hear the voice of Tohil when, addressing all the congregated and submissive tribes, He said to them:
- You forget your customs, do not sacrifice beings like you. From now on you will bleed yourselves only of the ears and the elbows, doing it with pleasure and with a smiling face. I detest the cowardly ones and I know that you are not.

From then, Tohil spilled on all his benevolence and his love, without forgetting to exert his power, worthy conduct of a God that knows how to fill the spirits with hope and peace.

Always with the aid of the Ancestors all that people left the high lands, the canyons and precipices and arrived at the low lands that were near a sea that they did not know. But their way was full of dangers and almost impassable obstacles, so the Grandparents called to Tohil crying out:
- Tohil, do not leave us and teach us the way we are to follow and that only you know and that will take us to the place you promised to us.

Twice they stopped, overwhelmed by fatigue, in places full of cracks that expelled smoke that made them cry, of dark and thick waters that could not be drunk, so covered with stones that the feet bled and whose surface was whipped by hurricane winds that made life impossible for men. Impure animals attacked them. They walked without rest until the Ancestors ordered them to make a third stop. They were in the land of Chi Pizah, a place where mounts and hills rose where they could defend from the attack of the beasts. Jaguars and alligators devoured many of them. Since it was impossible to protect themselves from so many calamities, they decided go on with the approval of the Grandparents, until they arrived at an extensive and dusty plain, Tohil communicated with the Grandparents saying:
- A calendar, still unknown by you will indicate the day to you and I will signal you so that you find the place where you are going.

With neither pause nor rest, they kept walking southwards until they arrived at the shade of a mount that glimpsed in the distance. They dismantled their cabins, loaded stones of their Gods and without feeling fatigue, they guessed that the end of their trip was close. After a long time they arrived at the skirts of the mount, to the edges of a mountain covered with vegetation which they called Hacavitz. The strongest and boldest climbed to the top and they verified that it was a vast and cozy site, an appropriate place to rest, at last, from their long journey. And they rested for some time. From that peak they contemplated, ecstatic, the brightness of the morning star that shone like never before. And that, for them, was a good omen.

And full of joy, they danced around the bonfires where burned the incense destined to the adoration of the Gods. And the smoke of the incense was condensed and it rose to the sky, because not even the calmest wind blew. The place was illuminated with a shining light that came from a cave. And when the joy of that people was greatest, the voice of Tohil was heard:
- This is the place selected for you, here there is water that sips from the top of the mountain and water from the rivers that run under the Earth. Now you and us are one. Nothing will ever be able to separate us. You always watch your thoughts, because we can hear even your silences. Think right and act right so that you never lack our protection. Give in sacrifice not your flesh but that of the offspring of birds and animals around you. We do not ask for death, but life from you. You live in concord, submission and peace with all. Now you will not forget our names because our minds are one. Know that you will never be dispersed, you will suffer in the ill-fated days that will come in a time which you do not know, but this will be your home and your safe haven; this is your land...

Soon they divided in small groups giving them their own name so that they were not confused with each other.

When the morning star appeared again, the Grandparents discovered a place covered with scales, teeth, claws and feathers of animals killed in sacrifice, and with all this they made essences to banish evil and attract goodness. They knew that the discords are extinguished with hare teeth and the talent grows with bones of a small turtle called hicotea. After this, the Grandparents rested satisfied and content.
- Now we will see the Sun because we deserve it and because we have foreseen it. This one is our promised place.

And joy came with the announcement of clarity.
- Of the womb of darkness the light will be born that will allow us to see everything that surrounds us.

And it was then when the sky was cleared and the sun began to raise from the east. The Grandparents hid themselves, afraid that the creatures they had made would start feeling superior because of the light.

And the Sun spilled its light and warmth everywhere and everything received a new breath of life. And all the animals, great and small, called with their rough or sweet voices, and from the height people watched the land extending to the distance; the rivers, the mountains, the sky and the sea. And they listened to the jaguars and the tigers, the wild boars and the wild cats. And they also listened to the call of frogs and toads in the swamps. Trough the marshes slid, infusing terror in men, the enormous alligators and under the grass and thistles the serpents crawled. The parrots shouted like never before, and from it all, life arose that they had not been able to enjoy before.

And in that Promised Land, they began to build up the white stone roads that went from the farthest plains to the highest mountains seeking others like them to communicate. They raised towers of stone to watch the entire horizon. To the slightest signal of alarm they sounded their snail shells and their horns and their voices grew frightening the men, making them grab their maces and their lances to defend themselves. In the meantime, the Old Ones lived hidden in caves or scrubs to the west. Only a few came to where the leaders hid.
When the nights were dark and quiet, the Old Ones left their lairs and from where they were they emitted scary shouts and howls to be taken as death threats, but the oldest of the inhabitants of the Hacavitz Mountain met and they commented:

- Those shouts are to cause fear in us and they are up to something, perhaps they want to make us leave these land where we live and in which we are to die. It all belongs to us from the old days and we must be weary of those who try to provoke us. Nobody must right to disown us of what is ours. Or perhaps they want to assault our men that go from town to town offering their merchandise. But soon we will know what are their intentions and then we will take the necessary actions.

The men of the tribes lived peacefully, feeding from everything that the arts of their Grandparents had taught them. Their food consisted of honey, deer meat and turtle fat. They drank from the cenotes (natural wells) that past generations had discovered under the rocks. They were sober and they lived peacefully. But something soiled that life: the selfishness and envy, which was their original sin.

Seeing this, the Grandparents said:
- Tohil: hear us. We have given you the blood you of the small beasts that belonged to us; we have given you the blood of our ears, our elbows and our feet, receive it with affability and benevolence. Receive it in payment of all the sins that we commit. Watch our lives and fortify our will.
- We live peacefully in the calm of our hearts. If we do not do it thus, who will wash the body of our dead? We cannot bury them as if they had died in the war, dirty and impure. We hope that this does not happen and if it happens, that our eyes do not see it.

They deposited that blood on a sacrificial stone and on their knees they listened to the voice of Tohil that said:
- Cry and you will never die. The tears are good balsams for body and spirit. Remember that the tracks that we left in our way from Tulan are still fresh. Remember that once we crossed the sea, watching the waves crash on the rocks of the coast.

As soon as Tohil was silent, the Old Ones began to walk the roads to apprehend strange travelers, and they put them under torture twisting their feet and hands with wood forks. When their victims were close to death, they freed them in the middle of the forests leaving them without shelter and defense. As time passed, the Old Ones refined their punishments inflicting them with greater cruelty and then they captured anyone they surprised near the Hacavitz mountain. The prisoners died dismembered, and the next day their mutilated bodies were found, so the people of the plains exclaimed, full of wrath:

- This is not the work of men but of tigers that perhaps are hungry and thirsty. Let us hunt them down and kill them.

Others, not less infuriated and afraid said:
- Perhaps it is not the beasts, but the men who live in the top of the Hacavitz mountain. Let us do everything possible to avoid so much evil, finding the worshippers of that God that does not know what mercy is. The spilled blood will guide to us to their lairs and we will destroy them.

As they planned it they did it. They looked without finding what they persecuted. Desperate, they cried out to their own Gods, and guided by them they found the caves and the refuges that the old people had made to defend themselves, and began to kill the men of the plains. It was that the desperation and the terror increased among the people of the low lands.

And we must say, also, that the Old Ones appeared to the eyes of all as if they were children, and it was pleasant to see them enjoy the freshness of a river that ran tamely through the milti-colored forests. Therefore, most would say:
- This is the river of Tohil.

Others, smiling, said:
- This is the bath of Tohil.

When many eyes watched them, they disappeared unexpectedly without leaving a trace. Nobody could discover their whereabouts. All the men of the tribes agreed to destroy those that had made them suffer so much.

So they met in war council, and said:
- We have to get rid of the bad people of Cavec. We must separate their lives from our lives and destroy the evil influence that they have had on us. It does not matter that we die, but we must end those intruders and see if it is truth that Tohil is as powerful as they say, that he is invincible and if thus is, we will adore him. If those that bathe in this river are mortal Gods, we will fall on them and make them disappear along with their worshippers and their sacrificers.

And they planned:
- We will send two of our most beautiful maidens to wash our clothes at the edge of the river, as if nobody saw them. They will undress to ignite the appetites of the boys, and if they approach them, the maidens will pretend that they will comply in everything that they request from them. If the Gods who they are, they will answer that they are daughters of great gentlemen and will request an item in signal of the interview.

Thus did the maidens until the Old Ones appeared and, although they saw them beautiful and naked, they did not make any gesture that could be interpreted as sexual desire, with which the girls were confused and afraid.
When they approached the maidens, they spoke to them this way:
- Who are you, where do you come from and why you are here, in this river that is ours? Come on, do not resist and answer.

Stunned before the firmness of that voice, they confessed the entire plan that had been plotted against them. Tohil, knowing that they did not lie, said to them:
- It is well. You take the signal that your lords wish, and in it they will find the sense of our conversation.

Having agreed to this, they gave the maidens three cloaks of cotton, one with the image of Balam Quitzé, a tiger; another one with the image of Balam Acab, an eagle and third with the image of Mahuacatah, a fly.

Balam Quitzé, after greeting them in the name of the Ancestors, told them:
- Here it is the proof that we have met. Dress yourselves with these blankets and tell your lords that we will not say any more.

When the maidens returned to their tribe, they looked for the elders and once in their presence they delivered the clothes to them. They immediately put them on their shoulders, but when the third one tied his cloak to the waist he began to feel terrible bites, scratches and pains all over his body. Desperate, driven crazy, he tore the cloth away in pieces and shouted:
- What is this? What blanket have you brought to me? What does it hide under its weave? What moves and shakes under this diabolic drawing? Why this one comes to life and leaves the fabric?

The other elders undressed immediately of the magical blankets and were stunned. They knew that they had failed. Nevertheless, they decided to continue fighting and the oldest one said:
- We will only be able to overcome them trough cleverness. We will spy on them and we will attack them because we are more numerous than they are.

The elders ignited the wick of the war and armed all the young people telling them to die or to win. Balam Quitzé and the other Grandparents saw from the top of the Hacavitz Mountain the movements of their enemies and they prepared themselves too. Nothing escaped the sight of their sentries. And those of the plain began to climb up the mazes of the mountain, carefully, in silence. Suddenly the attackers, without knowing when or how, started to fall one by one, prey of an invincible sleep. And they stayed as tree trunks, unmoving.

Those of Hacavitz came down to where their enemies were, they took away their weapons, their clothes and all the hairs of their faces and for greater scorn, they tied their feet, they painted in their hairless cheeks insult signs and, not satisfied, they urinated on them and left them. Hours later they woke up, and seeing themselves in so ridiculous form, they fled covering themselves with banana leaves to return to their cabins. And none of them could answer the questions that turned in their heads, of the inexplicable event.
While the men of the plains, shamed, took refuge in their houses; in the Hacavitz Mountain, Tohil and the other Ancestors advised their people to fortify themselves making a deep ditch covered with a thin mud layer held with reed and woven lianas. Behind those ditches they placed dolls with appearance of men, whose feathers and hair, shaken by the wind, gave to the distant viewer the impression of soldiers arranged for combat.

Once prepared, the Old Ones resorted to the Ancestors and asked them if in that fight they would loose or win, because in truth, they did not feel hatred in their hearts since they only obeyed the impulse of destiny.
Tohil made his voice be heard:
- Do not doubt, we and you are one and we will know how avoid all danger.

And the Ancestors attracted to the mountain thousands and thousands of flies and poisonous wasps and advised their own to lock them up in boxes and to wait for their orders. These little creatures will leave their boxes when we say and will attack your enemies defending your refuges.
The men of the plains prepared themselves for the fight. They made with haste their shields, their poisoned lances, their blowpipes, their arrows and they tensed pieces of fur on the carapaces of the hicoteas and made reed flutes, they armed themselves with stones and they arranged themselves to attack the mountain.

At dawn, they began to sound their tunkules - a kind of very loud drum-, their hicoteas and their flutes and whistles. And again they began to climb up the mazes of the mountain. The moment came for the encounter, face to face, weapon against weapon; the two enemy hosts faced their destiny. Death began to roam among the climbers. Suddenly, at the command of the Ancestors, those of the mountain opened the boxes that locked up the wasps and the flies and their wings filled the air of a noise and a deadly pestilence. The small animals attacked immediately causing panic among the attackers whom rolled on the ground hurt by innumerable bites and stings. They threw their weapons away and they charged blindly downhill. The people of Balam Quitzé chased them and the survivors were dismembered with the stone axes. The dust clouded the air and the blood of the defeated covered the place. Thus, the men who lived in the Hacavitz Mountain thanked the Ancestors for the victory over their enemies.
Thus came to an end the war between the tribes who came from the distant Tulan and those that, by their selfishness could not defend nor retain the land of their ancestors. Once that peace, tranquillity and brotherhood reigned between the tribes come of Tulan, the Ancestors got them all together to tell them:
- Know that we have fulfilled our task and that the time has come to return to the place from which we come. But it will not be for ever, we will return, but before leaving we must tell you that you are to live without discords, as if you were a single one enjoying the flocks that we gave you. To the chosen ones we have revealed some of our secrets and there are many that have learned the art of writing. You are prepared for when ill-fated times come.

You pool together your seeds, your flocks. You be to defend what we have given you. Do not forget our names and evoke our faces and our words. Take the roads and return to your houses with your joint safety and strength. Do not leave this land and do not forget your origin. All the good things you do during your life has to come from your hearts and not from other people's words. After the sound of the last word a great space of silence opened. The Ancestors walked slowly to the top of the mountain and a cloud that seemed to foretell rain covered them. The elders burned incense and its smoke went up to the sky and while this fire burned, one of them said these words that were recorded for ever in the spirit of us all:

- Juracan: heart of the night, creator of our children and their virtue, return to us, do not deprive us of your presence. Give life and strength to our children so that they grow in goodness and they know how to propagate our faith and to pronounce your name. Make them proliferate and have healthy and kind sons and daughters. Protect them from illness and any cures that might befall them. Make them remain always united and may they never suffer neither hunger nor thirst. Clean them of all vanity for their wealth so they do not become weak of goodness. Make them always firm of heart.

Thus the feeling of brotherhood and a permanent equality between all was born among them. They decided, also, that in the council of the tribes they were only the best lords of each house.
And thus it was until dispersion and death came.