PLATE XXIII.
Ceremonial precinct or plaza, Quirigua. An altar and three stelae of the Old Empire Maya type are shown. Other monuments are still in situ on this site, among them the "Quirigua Dragon," Plate [I] (frontispiece). After photograph by Cornell, Lincoln.
"Admirable is the account"—so the narrative opens—"admirable is the account of the time in which it came to pass that all was formed in heaven and upon earth, the quartering of their signs, their measure and alignment, and the establishment of parallels to the skies and upon the earth to the four quarters, thereof, as was spoken by the Creator and Maker, the Mother, the Father of life and of all existence, that one by whom all move and breathe, father and sustainer of the peace of peoples, by whose wisdom was premeditated the excellence of all that doth exist in the heavens, upon the earth, in lake and sea.
"Lo, all was in suspense, all was calm and silent; all was motionless, all was quiet, and wide was the immensity of the skies.
"Lo, the first word and the first discourse. There was not yet a man, not an animal; there were no birds nor fish nor crayfish; there was no wood, no stone, no bog, no ravine, neither vegetation nor marsh; only the sky existed.
"The face of the earth was not yet to be seen; only the peaceful sea and the expanse of the heavens.
"Nothing was yet formed into a body; nothing was joined to another thing; naught held itself poised; there was not a rustle not a sound beneath the sky. There was naught that stood upright; there were only the quiet waters of the sea, solitary within its bounds; for as yet naught existed.
"There were only immobility and silence in the darkness and in the night. Alone was the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, the Lord, and Gucumatz, the Plumed Serpent, those who engender, those who give being, alone upon the waters like a growing light.
"They are enveloped in green and azure, whence is the name Gucumatz, and their being is great wisdom. Lo, how the sky existeth, how the Heart of the Sky existeth—for such is the name of God, as He doth name Himself!
"It is then that the word came to Tepeu and to Gucumatz, in the shadows and in the night, and spake with Tepeu and with Gucumatz. And they spake and consulted and meditated, and they joined their words and their counsels.