It will be here observed that the declaration of the attributes of the highest divinity sets forth distinctly sexual ideas, and, as was often the case in Grecian, Egyptian and Oriental mythology, this divinity is represented as embracing the powers and functions of both sexes in his own person; and it is curious that both here and in the second paragraph, the _female_ attributes are named _first_. First in the specific names of divinity given is _Hun-ahpu-vuch_. To derive any appropriate signification for this has baffled students of this mythology. _Hun_ is the numeral _one_, but which also, as in most tongues, has the other meanings of first, foremost, self, unique, most prominent, “the one,” etc. _Ah pu_ is derived both by Ximenez and Brasseur from the prefix _ah_, which is used to signify knowledge or possession of, or control over, mastership or skill in, origin from or practice in that to which it is prefixed; and _ub_, or _pub_, the _sarbacana_ or blowpipe, which these Indians used to employ as a weapon in war and the chase. _Ah pu_, therefore, they take to mean, He who uses the sarbacane, a hunter. _Vuch_, the last member of this compound name, is understood by both to mean the opossum. In accordance with these derivations the name is translated “an opossum hunter.” Such a name bears little meaning in this relation; little relevancy to the nature and functions of deity; and if a more appropriate and not less plausible composition could be suggested, it would have intrinsic claims for adoption. There is such a composition, and it is this: The derivation of Ahpu from _ah-pub_ is not only unnecessary but hardly defensible. In Cakchiquel the sarbacane is _pub_, but in Quiche the initial _p_ is dropped, as can be seen in many passages of the _Popol Vuh_. The true composition of this word I take to be _ah-puz_, for _puz_ has a signification associated with the mysteries of religion; it expressed the divine power which the native priests and prophets claimed to have received from the gods, and the essentially supernatural attributes of divinity itself. It was the word which at first the natives applied to the power of forgiving sins claimed by the Catholic missionaries; but as it was associated with so many heathen notions, the clergy decided to drop it altogether from religious language, and to leave it the meaning of necromancy and unholy power. Thus Coto gives it as the Cakchiquel word for _magic_ or _necromancy_.[129] The word _puz_ is used in various passages of the _Popol Vuh_ to express the supernatural power of the gods and priests; but probably by the time that Ximenez wrote, it had, in the current dialect of his parish, lost its highest signification, and hence it did not suggest itself to him as the true derivation of the name I am discussing.