Alom the Conceiver and Qaholom the Begetter, working with the other creator gods, shaped the Four Progenitors — Balam-Quitze, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam — from white and yellow maize dough, at last achieving beings who could speak, pray, and sustain the gods with worship.
The Four Progenitors, the men fashioned from maize dough who founded the K'iche' nation, were Balam-Quitze, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam.
Huracan directed the creation of the Four Progenitors and then clouded their perfect vision so they would not rival the gods. Heart of Sky oversaw every stage of their making from maize dough.
Before departing the world, the Four Progenitors left behind the Pisom Q'aq'al, the sacred bundle containing the spiritual essence of the patron gods, as the holiest heirloom of the K'iche' nation.
Tohil gave fire to the Four Progenitors during the cold darkness before the first dawn, warming the shivering ancestors and demanding in return that they suckle him — a word meaning blood, establishing the sacrificial covenant that defined K'iche' worship.
The Four Progenitors departed from Tulan Zuyva in the Popol Vuh, beginning the migration that would lead them to the Guatemalan highlands where they founded the K'iche' nation.
Xmucane ground the white and yellow maize into dough from which the Four Progenitors were fashioned. The divine grandmother's labor provided the sacred substance of their bodies.
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