Strung end to end are the precious stones, the red precious stones, representing the substance of heaven, the moisture of heaven. 3
The form in which you created the sun, <in which> you created the earth! The form of the moisture of heaven, the substance of heaven, the yellow blossom 4 of heaven! How did I create your sun? <How did I> create your moon? How did I create your precious stones? I created you. When you were sprinkled with water, you remembered the force of the sun. Then when the message was sent to you ... Under cover I created you, I set you <where you are>. From time to time I take <you>, I perceive your vigor because of your father. You await ... that I may take away ... from your mouth. They are the yellow precious stones. So runs its course as he records 5 it. These are the rulers 6 which have been set in order. Go and read it and you will understand it. 7
131:1 The text reads un trus nicte. Nicte is a flower, usually the Plumeria. Trus, since it contains an r is probably a distorted Spanish word. The translation given here is derived from a comparison of the use of the expression on p. 118 of B.L.C. No. 43 and that of a similar Maya phrase, oxlahun tzuc nicte on page 174 of the same manuscript. The translator is inclined to associate this expression with the love-charm described by Aguilar (Aguilar 1892, p. 84; translated in Saville 1921, p. 207).
131:2 Maya, pectzil. This word usually means news or what is said of some one. Here something concrete appears to be intended, and the word has been divided into its component parts, pec and tzil, which give a very different meaning.
131:3 Maya: kab caan itz caan. When asked who he was, Itzamat-ul, a deified ruler of Izamal, replied: "Itz en caan, itz en muyal." This has been translated: "Yo soy el rocío, ó sustancia del cielo y nubes" (Cogolludo 1868, Book 4, chap. 8).
131:5 To obtain this meaning ¢olic (he skins it) has been changed to tzolic (he records it).
131:6 Ahau (ruler) is the day for which the katun is named.
131:7 This very difficult passage differs in vocabulary and style from the rest of the MS. The spaces left in the text indicate that the Eighteenth Century compiler copied it from a defective original. Its unique style resembles that of Gates' Ritual of the Bacabs, which was probably written in eastern Yucatan, judging from a comparison of the latter with the Titulos de Ebtun. The translator is familiar only with a few extracts from the Ritual of the Bacabs, but it is possible that the above passage has been copied from that manuscript. Cf. Tozzer 1921, p. 196. We suggest that this is an invocation to the growing corn. Possibly the last three sentences refer to the following chapter.