How Our Mother Beloved Maiden was Saved from an Untimely Death:  A christianized version of the Xkik’ tale of the Popol Wuj

Qachu Kilaj Qapoj or Our Mother Beloved Maiden

In the modern variant that I recorded Xkik’ became the holy Virgin Qachu Kilaj Qapoj or "Our Mother Beloved Maiden" (hereafter Beloved Maiden text). She is the daughter of "Our Celestial Father", who keeps her locked in his house. Nevertheless, she gets pregnant by eating an apple given to her by San Pedro (Saint Peter) through a small window. Here the gourd from the Popol Wuj is replaced by the biblical forbidden fruit.

In Rab’inal, San Pedro is the prototype of what I have called the Old Earth God, a mix of Maya gods D and N.  In their cosmovision he is the older brother of Rab’inal’s patron saint San Pablo (Saint Paul) who represents their former god Tojil. They are always worshipped together. I have shown elsewhere that the twin-temple pyramid in Rab’inal’s pre-Columbian town of Kaqyuq was dedicated to these Maya forebears of San Pedro and San Pablo (Van Akkeren, 2000a:249-254). There are various examples in Maya iconography that display the amorous advances of an old man towards a young girl (Taube, 1989:fig. 24.13, 24.14, K1339). The personage of the old man is also already anticipating Our Mother Beloved Maiden’s future husband, Saint Joseph.

When the father finds out about her pregnancy, Our Mother Beloved Maiden is ordered to be put to death, like her counterpart in the Popol Wuj. Her executioners San Miguel and San Vicente (Ferrer), angels who replaced the Owl messengers, fall for her pleas to let her go. She explains to them that she carries the body of the god of the new era in her belly. Still, the executioners have to come up with proof of her demise, and here the modern version exhibits more detail than its parallel in the Popol Wuj. Where in the Popol Wuj the lords of Xib’alb’a want her heart in a bowl, the father of Our Mother Beloved Maiden wants to hear her deathshriek, and see her heart and blood.

The messengers find the deathshriek with a local plant called tup. It is a plant with large fleshy leaves on long stems. When pulled from its sheathe the leaf produces a high-pitched sound. Interestingly, the tup is eaten by Maya women who have just given birth, as it guarantees good breastmilk. The fake heart comes from the nucleus of a tree called ratit kako, literally "grandmother of the cacao", though in Spanish called "madre de cacao". Its trunk has a distinctly red-colored heart when cut; it often serves as a shade-provider for cacao trees, hence its name. The blood is procured by the pitaya, a plant that seeks support with its roots on rocks. It produces a dark, purple fruit and equally colored sap.

Once the messengers have the fake proofs of her death, they return to their master and Our Mother Beloved maiden sets out for a long journey to the East. The East is epitomized by the city of Jerusalem. We observe already in the XVI^th document Título de Totonicapán that Jerusalem replaces the pre-Columbian legendary city of Tullan in colonial times. To get there Our Mother Beloved Maiden has to cross a body of water, just as the migrators from and to Tullan had to (Edmonson, 1971:line 7258).

But before she arrives at the coast, Our Mother Beloved Maiden has an arduous road ahead of her. At night she asks for shelter in various residences of wealthy people. They all give her impossible jobs to do, recalling the task that the grandmother Xmukane gives to Xkik’. As in the Popol Wuj, she is helped out by animals. In one scene, she must spin an entire load of cotton and weave fabrics from it; and just as she begins to cry, spiders (’am) slide down from the ceiling offering her help. In another, she is given bags of corn of mixed varieties and she has to select the corn. Pigeons (palomax) help her out in that case. Contrary to the Popol Wuj the people who give her these jobs get even more suspicious about her when she completes them with such apparent ease, and chase her from the house.

She finally arrives at the ocean. Her heart sinks anew, as she is unable to cross it. First a basilisk (patix) offers to carry her on his back, but they do not progress far before the animal realizes that she is too heavy – she is pregnant, – and they return. Then, a creature called Lord Dragon (ajaaw taragon) offers to help her. Its nature is not specified but it may be a version of Sipakna, because he preys on fish. Lord Dragon succeeds in bringing her to the other side.

It does not take long for her to arrive in Jerusalem. The nobles of the city show great interest in her. They summon the priest to announce a holy mass for Our Mother Beloved Maiden. Every nobleman is invited and is to bring a staff with flowers on top. The man whose staff begins to blossom during the mass, will marry her. So it happens; all the lords show up and the church is packed. They are dancing and playing flute while the maiden stands beside the altar. Then halfway through the celebration a strong perfume begins to pervade the temple. The priest sends his two messengers to find the chosen man, but he is not among the many young and virile men in the front. Instead, the flowering staff belongs to an old, white-haired man named San José (Saint Joseph) who is standing in the back, near the entrance of the church. Reluctantly, he follows the messengers to the altar. How can he be the chosen one? The priest points to his staff and says that that is the sign. Our Mother Beloved Maiden accepts her partner, telling him that she will love him as a father and a husband, and they get married. After the mass they have to flee the city under the protection of a group of good men, because the rich suitors plan to steal the maiden from San José.

The married couple escapes the city and starts another journey through a dry and deserted area with barren trees. Our Mother Beloved Maiden gets hungry and thirsty, but there seems no food available. Yet every time she sits down under a tree, it begins to shoot leaves and bear fruit (tapal or ’nance’ and q’enum or ’jocote’). The miraculous fruit-bearing recalls the gourd tree in the Popol Wuj that also immediately produces gourd when Jun Junajpu’s head was hung in it, and was subsequently visited by the predecessor of Our Mother Beloved Maiden, Xkik’. This is understandable, as the maiden is in her essence an Earth goddess. Modern Achi indeed call the earth among others, Our Mother Beloved Maiden.

The story ends as a traditional Christmas tale, with Our Mother Beloved Maiden giving birth to "the son of the god who is in heaven", which in terms of the Popol Wuj would be the son of Juraqan. Her child is born in a barn in Bethlehem and angels announce it to the shepherds in the field and a bright star guides the Three Wise Men to the baby in the manger.

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