Here is the story of the beginning,
when there was not one bird,
not one fish,
not one mountain.
Here is the sky, all alone,
here is the sea, all alone,
there is nothing more
no sound, no movement.
Only the sky and the sea,
only Heart-of-Sky alone,
and these are his names:
Maker and Modeler,
Kukulkan,
and Hurricane.
but there is no one to speak his names,
there is no one to praise his glory,
there is no one to nurture his greatness.
"Who is there to speak my name?
Who is there to praise me?
How shall I make it dawn?"
Heart-of-Sky only says the word .. "Earth"
and the earth rises,
like a mist from the sea.
He only thinks of it,
and there it is.
He thinks of mountains,
and great mountains come.
He thinks of trees,
and trees grow on the land.
And so Heart-of-Sky says,
"Our work is going well".
Now Heart-of-Sky plans the creatures
of the forest,
-birds, deer, jaguars and snakes.
And each is given his home.
"You the deer, sleep here along the rivers.
You the birds, your nests are in the trees.
multiply and scatter". He tells them.
The Heart-of-Sky says to the animals:
"Speak, pray to us"
but the creatures can only squack,
the creatures only howl,
They do not speak like humans
And so the animals are humbled,
they will serve those who will workship
Heart-of-Sky.
made of mud and earth.
It doesn't look very good.
It keeps crumbling and softening.
It look lopsided and twisted,
It only speaks no sense.
It cannot multiply.
So Heart-of-Sky lets it disolved away.
Now Heart-of-Sky plans again.
Our Godmother and our Godfather are summoned.
They are the most wise spirits,
"Determine if we should carved people from wood" commands Heart-of-Sky.
And as the words are spoken, it is done
The doll-people are made
with faces carved from wood.
But they had no blood, no sweat.
They have nothing in their minds.
They have no respect for Heart-of-Sky.
They are just walking about,
but they accomplish nothing.
"This is not what I had in mind"
says Heart-of-Sky.
And so it is decided to destroy
these wooden people.
It rains all day and rains all night.
There is a terrible flood
and the Earth is blackened.
The creatures of the forest
come into the homes of the doll-people.
"You have chased us of our homes,
so now we will take yours", they growl.
And their dogs and turkeys cry out,
"You have abused us,
so now we shall eat you".
Even their pots and grinding stones speak
"We will burn you and pound on you,
just as you have done to us".
The wooden people scatter into the forest,
their faces are crushed,
and they are turned into monkeys.
And this is why monkeys look like humans.
They are what is left of what came before,
and experiment in human design.
........ Popol Vuh .......
