(1) Unto you (O Ahura and Asha!) the Soul of the Kine (our sacred herds and folk) cried aloud: For whom did ye create me, and by whom did ye fashion me? On me comes the assault of wrath, and of violent power, the blow of desolation, audacious insolence, and (thievish) might. None other pasture-giver have I than you, therefore do ye teach me good (tillage) for the fields (my only hope of welfare )!

(86) And they began, moreover, to devour those oxen; and behold all the children of the earth began to tremble and quake before them and to flee from them.

(2) But those that they had made, that they had created, did not think, did not speak with their Creator, their Maker. And for this reason they were killed, they were deluged. A heavy resin fell from the sky. The one called Xecotcovach came and gouged out their eyes; Camalotz came and cut off their heads; Cotzbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tucumbalam came, too, and broke and mangled their bones and their nerves, and ground and crumbled their bones.

(11) And in the first year of the fifth week Abram taught those who made implements for oxen, the artificers in wood, and they made a vessel above the ground, facing the frame of the plough, in order to put the seed thereon, and the seed fell down therefrom upon the share of the plough, and was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the ravens.

(3) Every day, too, they came before Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz and said in their hearts: "Here are Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. We can offer them only the blood of the deer and the birds; we take only blood from our ears and our arms. Let us ask Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz for strength and vigor. What will [the tribes] say about the deaths of the people, which, one by one, we are killing?" they said to one another as they went into the presence of Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. Then they punctured their ears and their arms before the divinities; they caught their blood and put it in a vase near the stones. They were not really stones, but each one appeared in the likeness of a youth. They were happy with the blood of the priests and sacrificers when they arrived with this example of their work. "Follow their tracks [those of the animals which they sacrificed], there is your salvation! "From there, from Tulán, whence you brought us," they were told, "came the skin, called Pazilizib, which was given to you, smeared with blood: spill your blood and let this be the offering of Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz."

(26) He brought forth a camel from a rock, and made the golden calf to bellow.

(86) And all the oxen feared them and were affrighted at them, and began to bite with their teeth and to devour, and to gore with their horns.

(44) And he celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits l with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not a handful of seed (in the land), for the famine was over all the beasts and cattle and birds, and also over man.

(3) 'Unblessed, surely, are the worlds to which a man goes by giving (as his promised present at a sacrifice) cows which have drunk water, eaten hay, given their milk, and are barren.'

(6) And the dead will outnumber the living! Anu addressed princess Ishtar, saying: "If you demand the Bull of Heaven from me, there will be seven years of empty husks for the land of Uruk. Have you collected grain for the people! Have you made grasses grow for the animals? Ishtar addressed Anu, her father, saying: "I have heaped grain in the granaries for the people, I made grasses grow for the animals, in order that they might eat in the seven years of empty husks. I have collected grain for the people, I have made grasses grow for the animals. When Anu heard her words, he placed the noserope of the Bull of Heaven in her hand. Ishtar led the Bull of Heaven down to the earth. When it reached Uruk It climbed down to the Euphrates... At the snort of the Bull of Heaven a huge pit opened up, and 100 Young Men of Uruk fell in.

(85) But that black bull grew and that heifer went with him, and I saw that many oxen proceeded from him which resembled and followed him.

(1) Moreover, if we may believe in so many ancient and credible historians as have written concerning him, the words of Pythagoras contained something of a recalling and admonitory nature, which extended as far as to irrational animals; by which it may be inferred that learning predominates in those endued with intellect, since it tames even wild beasts, and those which are considered to be deprived of reason. For it is said that Pythagoras detained the Daunian bear which had most severely injured the inhabitants, and that having gently stroked it with his hand for a long time, fed it with maze and acorns, and compelled it by an oath no longer to touch any living thing, he dismissed it. But the bear immediately after hid herself in the mountains and woods, and was never seen from that time to attack any irrational animal.

Perceiving likewise an ox at Tarentum feeding in a pasture, and eating among other things green beans, he advised the herdsman to tell the ox to abstain from the beans. The herdsman, however, laughed at him, and said that he did not understand the language of oxen, but if Pythagoras did, it was in vain to advise him to speak to the ox, but fit that he himself should advise the animal to abstain from such food. Pythagoras therefore, approaching to the ear of the ox, and whispering in it for a long time, not only caused him then to refrain from beans, but it is said that he never after tasted them. This ox also lived for a long time at Tarentum near the temple of Juno, where it remained when it was old, and was called the sacred ox of Pythagoras.

It was also fed by those that came to it with human food. When likewise he happened to be conversing with his familiars about birds, symbols, and prodigies, and was observing that all these are the messengers of the Gods, sent by them to those men who are truly dear to the Gods, he is said to have brought down an eagle that was flying over Olympia, and after gently stroking, to have dismissed it. Through these things, therefore, and other things similar to these, he demonstrated that he possessed the same dominion as Orpheus, over savage animals, and that he allured and detained them by the power of voice proceeding from the mouth.

(14) And the day passed, and Abram offered the pieces, and the birds, and their fruit -offerings, and their drink- offerings, and the fire devoured them.

(21) But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which stands in love and wrath.

(45) And the years of the famine were accomplished, and Joseph gave to the people in the land seed and food that they might sow (the land) fn the eighth year, for the river had overflowed all the land of Egypt.

(2) The incense which Balam-Quitzé brought was called Mixtán-Pom; the incense which BalamAcab brought was called Cavixtán-Pom; and that which Mahucutah brought was called Cabauil-Pom. The three had their incense and burned it when they began to dance facing toward the East. They wept for joy as they danced and burned their incense, their precious incense. Then they wept because they did not yet behold nor see the sunrise. But, then, the sun came up. The small and large animals were happy; and arose from the banks of the river, in the ravines, and on the tops of the mountains, and all turned their eyes to where the sun was rising. Then the puma and the jaguar roared. But first the bird called Queletzú burst into song. In truth, all the animals were happy, and the eagle, the white vulture; the small birds and the large birds stretched their wings.

(25) But to the Mockery be it spoken, he is a Weed, and shall be thrown to the Beasts. And now though other Seed be found among the Wheat (when it is fanned and sifted) that he cannot get out, shall he therefore not use his Wheat for Food? Every Kind of Grain has its Virtue; one strengthens the Heart, the other the Stomach, another the other Members of the Body; for one Essence alone makes no Tincture, but all the Essences together make the Senses, [Thoughts,] and Understanding.

(1) And now we shall tell of their stay and abode there on the mountain, where the four called Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam were together. Their hearts mourned for Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz, whom they had placed among the air-plants and the moss. We shall tell now how they made the sacrifices at the foot of the place where they had carried Tohil, when they arrived in the presence of Tohil and Avilix. They went to see them, to greet them, and also to give them thanks for the arrival of the dawn. They were in the thicket amidst the stones, there in the woods. And only by magic art did they speak when the priests and sacrificers came before Tohil. They did not bring great gifts, only resin, the remains of the gum, called noh, and pericón, they burned before their gods.

(11) Arise, bull of the Amenta, thou art established, well established in the womb of Nut; she replenishes thee (with life and health) when thou comest out of her. Thy heart is well established on its stands and thy whole heart as at the beginning. Thy nose is vivified with the breath of life; thou art living, renewed, made young like Rā every day, thou art great and triumphant, Osiris, who has been revived

(12) To me the allegory also seems to signify that the husbandry of the Word is not to be assigned equally to the clean and the unclean, the believer and the unbeliever; for the ox is clean, but the ass has been reckoned among the unclean animals. But the benignant Word, abounding in humanity, teaches that neither is it right to cut down cultivated trees, or to cut down the grain before the harvest, for mischiefs sake; nor that cultivated fruit is to be destroyed at all - either the fruit of the soil or that of the soul: for it does not permit the enemy's country to be laid waste.