TELL ME A STORY
Gods squabble over mankind

"Voices of the Earth" is a Mayan creation story.

Adapted by Amy Friedman

In the beginning of the world, the creator god Hunab Ku sat on his throne in the heavens. Shimmering trees surrounded him, but otherwise all was darkness. The other gods — Sun and Moon, Lizard and Maize, and the rain gods known as Chacs sat nearby.

Jillian Gilland

That is how it happened. The Earth rose out of nothing. Forests and oceans and mountains appeared. When Hunab Ku reached his enormous finger through the clouds and drew in the soil, the deer and antelope, snakes and frogs and turtles, jaguars and monkeys, and all the birds were created.

"Worship us for your creation," Hunab Ku commanded the animals. But when they began to speak, the world was filled with screeching and shrieking and warbling and roaring.

The creator god reached down again, this time to scatter the animals, and they ran for the lakes, forests, mountains and trees. The birds shot into the sky.

The other gods soon were arguing about who would worship them, and who should be worshipped, in which order, and who was greatest of the gods, and who was this and who was that. The noise was as loud and irritating as the shrieking and screeching of the animals.

"Stop," Hunab Ku commanded. "A great god does not argue. A great god creates."

The other gods fell silent. Lizard god picked up a scoop of mud and handed this to Hunab Ku. "This will be man," he said. "He will worship us."

Hunab Ku created a figure from the mud. This he breathed upon and placed on Earth, and when Sun god lighted up the day, man stood up. Then he walked. Then he multiplied.

"Worship us," the gods called down to the mud men, but with brains full of mud, they could find no words. When they tried to speak, they sputtered, and mud splattered everywhere.

"What good are they?" the gods asked, and the rain gods flooded the Earth. When the mud men tried to run away, they began to melt, and soon they all melted into one great pool.

Moon goddess, laughing, pulled a tree from its root and gave this to Hunab Ku. "Here is your worshipper," she said. So Hunab Ku twisted the boughs into the shape of a man, and he breathed upon it and set it on Earth. Sun god sent the light, and wood man stood. Wood man walked. Wood man multiplied. Wood man began to hunt and to cook and to build homes.

And the gods called for all the wood men to worship the gods.

But wood men's brains were filled with sawdust, and when they tried to speak, their words were scratchy and horrid sounding.

Again the rain gods flooded Earth. The wood men ran to higher ground, but when they tried to dry themselves by the fires they made, they burned up and turned into coals.

Now it was Maize god's turn. "Let me plant my seeds," he said, and he traveled to Earth to plant. Maize god clapped his hands, and two spirits appeared.

Hunab Ku sent Moon goddess and Lizard god to Earth to test them.

"If you are worthy of becoming men," Moon goddess said, "you must enter the house of Chacs and thank them for the water that helped to create Earth."

The spirits agreed and entered the house of the rain gods. A dreadful storm blew up, and the spirits curled themselves beneath the ground. When the Sun god sent light again, the spirits walked out of the house, unharmed.

Now Lizard god offered a test. Handing them sticks, he told them they must enter the House of Gloom. "But make sure you do not lose these sticks. They belong to the gods."

The spirits entered the House of Gloom, and the door slammed shut. They were trapped in darkness, thick as smoke, but guided by the shimmering light of fireflies, they walked through the darkness and, when light dawned again, the spirits walked out of the house, their sticks unharmed.

Hunab Ku praised Maize god for his creation.

Moon goddess and Lizard god, driven by envy, grabbed the spirits and threw them into a fast-flowing river. Hunab Ku struck the Earth with his staff. "You will be punished for this," he told the gods. "Moon goddess, you are banished to roam the night sky. Lizard god, from now on you will live in the mud."

To Maize god he said, "Sow your seeds across the whole Earth."

Maize god opened his pouch and pulled out the mud he had saved, and this he spread across the Earth. Then, with his staff, he stuck holes into the mud, and into each of these holes, he spread his maize.

As the gods watched, a race of tall bronze men and women rose out of the ground. They walked, and then talked. They built homes, and they worked the fields, and they cooked, and they hunted.

"Praise the gods," Hunab Ku called to them.

When the bronze people spoke, their voices sounded like song.

Gods of water, earth, land, trees Gods of sky and sun and moon, Because you have created all this We worship you Hunab Ku was pleased with these people.

Since that day, there has been no more arguing among the gods in heaven. And life has gone on.