Popol Vuh makes reference to swords among the Quiché Maya.
- Type
- Book
- Source
- Popol Vuh Non-LDS
- Hearsay
- DirectTranslation
- Reference
Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings (trans. Dennis Tedlock; New York: Touchstone, 1985), 132
- Scribe/Publisher
- Touchstone
- People
- Popol Vuh
- Audience
- Reading Public
PDF- Transcription
And on the fifth day they reappeared. They were seen in the water by the people. The two o them looked like catfish when their faces were seen by Xibalba. And having germinated in the waters, they appeared the day later that as two vagabonds, with rags before and rags behind, and rags all over too. They seemed unrefined when they were examined by Xibalba; they acted differently now.
It was only the Dance of the Poorwill, the Dance of the Weasel, only Armadillos they danced.
Only Swallowing Swords, only Walking on Stilts now they danced.
- BHR Staff Commentary
On ibid., 281-82, we read:
Swallowing Swords: This dance is xtz’ul [xtzul], which is also the term for the centipede; the corrected form appears in FV and TC. Tz’ul may be from tz’ulej, “be together in an embrace and with the legs intertwined” (FV). DB describes the dance as one in which masked performers with tortoiseshell rattles put stick or daggers in their mouths. FV describes the masks as small and says that the dancers are two in number (as they are in the PV), wear the tails of macaws down their backs, put sticks down their throats and bones into their noses, and give themselves hard blows on their chests with a large stone. The swallowing of sticks cut to a shape like that of swords is also known among the Pueblo people of the Southwest United States.
- Citations in Mormonr Qnas
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