“This we will do: We will first ask of the Cocomes that they allow our people to pass to make sacrifice at the Sacred Well. If they consent we will make a great pilgrimage and a sacrifice that shall be remembered through the ages to come, for it will be the seal of friendship and of peace between old and bitter enemies. If they refuse us their permission to pass freely and to make our sacrifice, we will then take that right, as they of old took it, by force, and by force we will hold it for all time.
“Now, this very night we will send the message to the Cocomes, so that we may know without delay what course to follow. Until then let each of you in his own way so prepare that whatever comes we shall be ready.
“At once, summon the swiftest runners to take the message to Nachi Cocom, Batab of Zotuta, and through him to his allies, the Cupules and the Cochuahes!”
Nachi Cocom, Batab of Zotuta, King of the Cocomes and leader of allied provinces, sat in his great council chamber. About him were his chiefs and nobles and those of his allies, the Cupules and the Cochuahes. Upon the high walls of the council chamber were war-banners and trophies of many hard-won battles. On broad wooden platforms, one at each end of the building, were heaped the captured weapons, war-masks, and armor of those who had fought against the Cocomes or their allies and lost.
Gathered around the entrance were keen-eyed warriors armed with lances and swords and hul-ches. Lounging but watchful, they first gave the warning, high-pitched and long, that echoed through the city and carried even to the houses nestled in the fringe of the forest: “Hek-utal le macoboo! Here come strangers!” Down the winding path came the messengers from the Batab of Mani, carrying his word to Nachi Cocom, Batab of Zotuta.
The messengers were three brothers, picked men, holpopes all three; good men to look upon and worthy of their office. For Mayas they were tall but well proportioned and lithe, as supple as young jaguars. Wide of brow and clear-eyed they were. None could doubt their fitness to be the messengers of the king. Striding up to where the Batab of Zotuta and those of his council sat, each fearlessly and proudly made his obeisance and gave his salute—the sign of a holpope bringing a message. To the chief holpope, the eldest and tallest of the three brothers, the batab said, “Welcome, holpope, and those with you. Speak!”
Said the chief holpope:
“To thee, O Batab of Zotuta, I bring a message from the Batab of Mani and thus runs the message:
“‘To the Batab of Zotuta and its provinces I, Batab of Mani and its provinces, send greeting.
“‘We are brothers, in that we were both born and are nourished from the same earth-mother, this land of Mayab. Therefore I, Ah Pula Xia, Batab of Mani, do now and by these my chosen messengers send to you, Nachi Cocom, Batab of Zotuta, this brotherly greeting and with it a brother’s request: