Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/83

Rh shall be given you; you shall receive more than others; you shall lift up your face; for jade, silver, painted articles, engraved articles, all the seven nations have paid as tribute; but there, in those hills you shall lift up your faces, there is a refuge for all of you, there you shall lift up your faces, your bows, your bucklers. One shall be your first chief, and one his junior, of you the thirteen warriors, you the thirteen princes, you the thirteen equal chiefs, to whom I shall give the bows and bucklers. Soon you shall lift up your face and have your burden, your bows and bucklers; there is war there toward the east, at the place called Zuyva; there you shall go, there is the place for your bucklers which I shall give you, you indeed, you my sons." So it was spoken to us when we came to Tullan, before the warriors of the seven villages; and when we arrived at Tullan, truly our coming was terrifying, with our accompaniments against the bugs, the dirt, the clouds, the fogs, the mud, the darkness, the rain, when we entered Tulan.

13. And soon the divination began with them. A bird called "the guard of the ravine," began to complain within the gate of Tulan, as we were going forth from Tulan. "You shall die, you shall be lost, I am your portent," said this brute to us. "Do you not believe me? Truly your state shall be a sad one." Thus spake to us this brute, as is related.

14. Then another bird called "the owl," seated on a red tree, complained and said thus: "I am your portent," he said. "You are not our portent, although you would like to be," we answered this owl. Such were the messengers who gave them their idols, said our fathers, our ancestors of old. Then another bird called the parroquet complained in the sky, and said: "I am your portent; ye shall die." But we said to the brute, "Do not speak thus; you are but the sign of spring. You wail first when it is spring; when the rain ceases, you wail." Thus we spoke to him.