The nature of this king was really marvelous, and all the other lords were filled with terror before him. Tidings of the wonderful nature of the King were spread and all the lords of the towns heard it. And this was the beginning of the grandeur of the Quiché, when King Gucumatz gave these signs of his power. His sons and his grandsons never forgot him. And he did not do this in order to be an extraordinary king, he did it as a means of dominating all the towns, as a means of showing that only one was called upon to be chief of the people. The generation of the wonderful king called Gucumatz was the fourth generation, and Gucumatz was also the Ahpop and the Ahpop-Camhá. They left successors and descendants who reigned and ruled, and begot children, and did many things. Tepepul and Iztayul whose reign was the fifth generation of kings were begotten; and in the same way, each of the generations of these lords had succession.

When told to adore the king, Hunahpu and Xbalanque laughed, for they knew that the figure pointed out to them was the lifeless manikin. The young...