"Then light came while they consulted together; and at the moment of dawn man appeared while they planned concerning the production and increase of the groves and of the climbing vines, there in the shade and in the night, through that one who is the Heart of the Sky, whose name is Hurakan.
"The Lightning is the first sign of Hurakan; the second is the Streak of Lightning; the third is the Thunderbolt which striketh; and these three are the Heart of the Sky.
"Then they came to Tepeu, to Gucumatz, and held counsel touching civilized life: how seed should be formed, how light should be produced, how the sustainer and nourisher of all.
"'Let it be thus done. Let the waters retire and cease to obstruct, to the end that earth exist here, that it harden itself and show its surface, to the end that it be sown, and that the light of day shine in the heavens and upon the earth; for we shall receive neither glory nor honour from all that we have created and formed until human beings exist, endowed with sentience.' Thus they spake while the earth was formed by them. It is thus, veritably, that creation took place, and the earth existed. 'Earth,' they said, and immediately it was formed.
"Like a fog or a cloud was its formation into the material state, when, like great lobsters, the mountains appeared upon the waters, and in an instant there were great mountains. Only by marvellous power could have been achieved this their resolution when the mountains and the valleys instantly appeared with groves of cypress and pine upon them.
"Then was Gucumatz filled with joy. 'Thou art welcome, O Heart of the Sky, O Hurakan, O Streak of Lightning, O Thunderbolt!'
"'This that we have created and shaped will have its end,' they replied.
"And thus first were formed the earth, the mountains, and the plains; and the course of the waters was divided, the rivulets running serpentine among the mountains; it is thus that the waters existed when the great mountains were unveiled.
"Thus was accomplished the creation of the earth when it was formed by those who are the Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Earth; for so those are called who first made fruitful the heaven and the earth while yet they were suspended in the midst of the waters. Such was its fecundation when they fecundated it while its fulfilment and its composition were meditated by them."
So runs the first chapter of the Quiché Genesis, displaying at the outset an odd intermingling, which characterizes the whole work, of the raw actuality of primitive imagination with the dramatic reflection of the mind of the sage.