Once again. Perhaps Blood Moon went up from the Underworld to the (sur)face of the Earth because she was a 'Fish' who had become pregnant with a person who needed air to breathe in order to live - fish gills (peiaha) were not enough. ... The state of the tree loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at the same time the head of One Hunaphu was put in the fork. The Xibalbans said among themselves: 'No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go beneath the tree', they said. They restricted themselves, all of Xibalba held back. It isn't clear which is the head of One Hunaphu; now it's exactly the same as the fruit of the tree. Calabash came to be its name, and much was said about it. A maiden heard about it, and here we shall tell of her arrival. And here is the account of a maiden, the daughter of a lord named Blood Gatherer.
And this is when a maiden heard of it, the daughter of a lord. Blood Gatherer is the name of her father, and Blood Moon is the name of the maiden. And when he heard the account of the fruit of the tree, her father retold it. And she was amazed at the account: I'm not acquainted with that tree they talk about. It's fruit is truly sweet! they say, I hear, she said. Next, she went all alone and arrived where the tree stood. It stood at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice. What? Well! What's the fruit of this tree? Shouldn't this tree bear something sweet? They shouldn't die, they shouldn't be wasted. Should I pick one? said the maiden.
And then the bone spoke; it was there in the fork of the tree: Why do you want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree? said the head of One Hunaphu when it spoke to the maiden. You don't want it, she was told. I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely in the hand of the maiden. And then she looked in her hand, she inspected it right away, but the bone's saliva wasn't in her hand. It is just a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle. This, my head, has nothing on it - just bone, nothing of meat. It's just the same with the head of a great lord: it's just the flesh that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get frightened by his bones. After that, his son is like his saliva, his spittle, in his being, whether it be the son of a lord or the son of a craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on being fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a lord, a warrior, craftsman, an orator. Rather, he will leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you. Now go up there on the face of the earth; you will not die. Keep the word. So be it, said the head of One and Seven Hunaphu - they were of one mind when they did it ... Previously there had been a Ball Game involving juggling (pei) where the Jaguar lost his eyes - cfr Cat's Eye in the night before the Leopard at the Winnowing Basket. Perhaps this was when One Hunaphu became Seven Hunaphu. There is only one planet (moving star) in the daytime, but 7 in the night.
... The jaguar learned from the grasshopper that the toad and the rabbit had stolen its fire while it was out hunting, and that they had taken it across the river. While the jaguar was weeping at this, an anteater came along, and the jaguar suggested that they should have an excretory competition. The anteater, however, appropriated the excrement containing raw meat and made the jaguar believe that its own excretions consisted entirely of ants. In order to even things out, the jaguar invited the anteater to a juggling contest, using their eyes removed from the sockets: the anteater's eyes fell back into place, but the jaguar's remained hanging at the top of a tree, and so it became blind. At the request of the anteater, the macuco bird made the jaguar new eyes out of water, and these allowed it to see in the dark. Since that time the jaguar only goes out at night. Having lost fire, it eats meat raw. It never attacks the macuco - in the Apapocuva version, the inhambu bird, also one of the Tinamidae ... During approximately half the cycle of the year the Sun was absent, together with his other wife, which could explain the main division of the object held in the left paw of the Jaguar sorcerer. Menkaure had 6 days before he lost his life and 6 = 360 - 354, but he continued for a further 6 'days' because he was clever enough to live also in the (watery) nights. 354 + 6 days + 6 nights = 366.
The surface of the Earth (Turtle) - the Middleworld - stretched across from one equinox to the other.
... An iconographic study by Jeff Kowalski suggests a cosmological layout for the Nunnery. The higher placement of the North Building, with its 13 exterior doorways (reflecting the 13 layers of heaven), and the celestial serpents surmounting the huts identify it with the celestial sphere. The iconography of the West Building, with 7 exterior doorways (7 is the mystic number of the earth's surface), and figures of Pawahtun - the earth god as a turtle - indicate this to be the Middleworld, the place of the sun's descent into the Underworld. The East Building has mosaic elements reflecting the old war cult of Teotihuacan, where tradition had it that the sun was born; thus, this may also be Middleworld, the place of the rising sun. Finally, the South Building has 9 exterior doorways (the Underworld or Xibalba had 9 layers), and has the lowest placement in the compex; it thus seems to be associated with death and the nether regions ...
And the Fish brought up by Maui became the stretched out surface of the Earth, a very great island. However, the brothers of Maui committed a sacriledge (haka-turou) by dividing the Fish too early and therefore the gods contracted the Fish:
... 'Now while I'm away,' he said, 'show some common sense and don't be impatient. Don't eat food until I come back, and whatever you do don't start cutting up the fish until I have found a priest and made an offering to the gods, and completed all the necessary rites. When I get back it will be all right to cut him up, and we'll share him out equally then. What we cannot take with us will keep until we come back for it.' Maui then returned to their village. But as soon as his back was turned his brothers did the very things that he had told them not to. They began to eat food, which was a sacrilege because no portion had yet been offered to the gods. And they started to scale the fish and cut bits off it.
When they did this, Maui had not yet reached the sacred place and the presence of the gods. Had he done so, all the male and female deities would have been appeased by the promise of portions of the fish, and Tangaroa would have been content. As it was they were angry, and they caused the fish of Maui to writhe and lash about like any other fish. That is the reason why this land, Aotearoa, is now so rough and mountainous and much of it so unuseful to man. Had the brothers done as Maui told them it would have lain smooth and flat, an example to the world of what good land should be. But as soon as the sun rose above the horizon the writhing fish of Maui became solid underfoot, and could not be smoothed out again. This act of Maui's, that gave our people the land on which we live, was an event next in greatness to the separation of the Sky and Earth ...
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