Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/153

Rh informed the Quiches of this, bringing to the Quiches the news of this famine: and this man said: "Truly, it is a great famine, and the people cannot suffer the pains of this hunger." So he said on arriving among the Quiches. Therefore the death of the Cakchiquels was decided on by the Quiches, and destruction was in their hearts.

90. Then took place the defeat at the town of Gumarcaah and the humiliation of all the princes. They brought out their god Tohohil and the people came in crowds; the multitude was innumerable; it was not merely in battalions of eight thousand and sixteen thousand men, but they came by villages and districts. They came in battle array, with their bows, their armor and their weapons, their brilliant plumes, their shining circlets, their head decorated with crowns of gold and precious stones; this was the manner of their coming.

91. It was on the day 10th Tzy that occurred the destruction of the Quiches at Iximche; but the news of it had not yet reached our ancestors, Oxlahu tzii and Cablahuh Tihax, when the Quiches came to destroy the Zotzil Tukuches. A fugitive came bearing to the chiefs the news that they were to be slain: "Day after to-morrow they will slay you. All the Quiche nation will come to slay and destroy the people of the city, which they will enter by force; truly their entry will be terrible, for they are many more than eight thousand or sixteen thousand men." Thus spoke this fugitive when he arrived among the Cakchiquels. The chiefs immediately assembled in council and said: "Listen! It is a good thing that we are to measure ourselves against the Quiches." Thus spoke the chiefs. Immediately they sent forth messengers. One division of the people formed and went forth to meet the Quiches, and the inhabitants alone went forth to battle. They went by the main road to the summit