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They came at last to the top of a mountain and there all the Quiché people and the tribes were reunited. There they all held council to make their plans. Today this mountain is called Chi-Pixab, 1 this is the name of the mountain.
There they reunited and there they extolled themselves: "I am, I, the people of the Quiché! And thou, Tamub, that shall be thy name." And to those from Ilocab they said: "Thou, Ilocab, this shall be thy name. And these three Quiché [peoples] shall not disappear, our fate is the same," 2 they said when they gave them their names.
Then they gave the Cakchiquel their name: Gagchequeleb 3 was their name. In the same way they named those of Rabinal, which was their name, and they still have it. And also those of Tziquinahá, 4 as they are called today. Those are the names which they gave to each other.
There they were come together to await the dawn and to watch for the coming of the star, which comes just before the sun, when it is about to rise. "We came from there, but we have separated," they said to each other.
And their hearts were troubled; they were suffering greatly; they did not have food; they did not have sustenance; they only smelled the ends of their staffs and thus they imagined they were eating; but they did not eat when they came. 5
It is not quite clear, however, how they crossed the sea; they crossed to this side, as if there were no sea; they crossed on stones, placed in a row over the sand. For this reason they were called Stones in a Row, Sand Under the Sea, 6 names given to them when they [the tribes] crossed the sea, the waters having parted when they passed.
And their hearts were troubled when they talked together, because they had nothing to eat, only a drink of water and a handful of corn they had. 7
There they were, then, assembled on the mountain called Chi-Pixab. And they had also brought Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Balam-Quitzé and his wife Cahá-Paluna, which was the name of his wife, observed a complete fast. And so did Balam-Acab and his wife, who was called Chomihá; and Mahucutah and his wife, called Tzununihá, also observed a complete fast, and Iqui-Balam. with his wife, called Caquixahá, likewise.
And there were those who fasted in the darkness, and in the night. Great was their sorrow when they were on the mountain, called Chi-Pixab.
125:1 p. 231 "The mandate, or council." Probably it is the same place which the p. 232 Título de los Señores de Totonicapán calls Chi-Quiché. According to this document, the tribes left Tulán Pa Civán (between ravines), crossed the sea, arrived at the edge of a lake where they made huts (houses with roof of straw), but disgusted with the place, they continued on to the place called Chicpach, where they lived, and leaving a stone there as a monument, they continued their wanderings, nourishing themselves with roots. They arrived at another place which they named Chi-Quiché and finally came to a hill which they called Hacavitz-Chipal, "where they settled."
125:2 Xa hunam ca tzih. Tzih has several meanings: word, opinion, history, fate, or destiny.
125:3 Those of the red tree, or of fire.
125:4 The people of Rabinal still preserve their old name. Tziquinahá is the present town of Santiago Atitlán and was the capital of the Zutuhil.
125:5 The Cakchiquel Manuscript describes in similar terms the hardship and hunger suffered by the tribes: "There was nothing to eat . . . everything was lacking, we nourished ourselves With the bark of trees, we only smelled the end of our canes and with this felt satisfied"; xa ca ti ca zec ru xe ca chamey ti cuquer vi ca cux ruma, in the Cakchiquel tongue.
125:6 Cholochic-Abah, Bocotahinac-Zanaieb.
125:7 Hu uq chi qui cumeh ri, xa huma ixim, in the original.