In Xquic and the Calabash Tree, the maiden Xquic, daughter of the prince Cuchumaquic, hears of the tree at Pucbal-Chah that bore fruit for the first time when the head of Hunhun-Ahpu was set among its branches; she comes to see it, the skull speaks with her, and when her father condemns her, the owls of Xibalba save her, bringing him a heart shaped from the red sap of a tree in place of her own. In The Net of Maize, Xquic, already with child, presents herself to the grandmother Xmucané and is received as the true daughter-in-law when she fills a great net with maize from a single ear. In The Birth of the Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque are born in the mountains; laid on an anthill and among thorns by their jealous elder brothers, they sleep sweetly, and they grow up wild with their blowguns — until Hunbatz and Hunchouen, lured up the great tree after the twins' birds, are changed into monkeys. These are the K'iche' people's own book, written down by K'iche' authors in the 1550s and preserved in Fr. Ximénez's copy, read here with respect as the sacred and historical book it is.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
0:00 Opening
0:04 Xquic and the Calabash Tree
8:24 The Net of Maize
12:39 The Birth of the Twins
From the Popol Vuh in the French translation of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1861), from the K'iche' text preserved in the copy of Francisco Ximénez — a fresh in-house English rendering.
Popol Vuh.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
