To interpret this paragraph, which is greatly condensed, is a difficult undertaking, still there are certain facts which seem to serve as the basis of intelligent speculation. The language is extremely figurative throughout the entire narrative, and especially so here. Their worship of the morning star at an early period seems to connect them with the Mediterranean peoples of the old world. The allusions to the sun not yet having come may be retrospective, indicating that the worship of the sun had not been adopted at that early day, or it may indicate that the period of national strength had not dawned. The fact that the morning star shone more brilliantly on Mt. Hacavitz than at Tulan (the seven caves), may mean either that the worship of the star was more splendidly celebrated, or it may have reference to an astronomical fact, that the star itself was more luminous, and furnish evidence in harmony with the statements of the narrative that Mt. Hacavitz was a more southern location than the tempestuous Tulan. The petrifaction of the three tribal gods may have been the result of an age of peace and prosperity which offered an opportunity for developing their cultus; or, upon the other hand, if the coming of the sun refers to the advent of a new religion, that which is known to have prevailed among the Nahuas, the old gods may have been sculptured in stone, that their national character and deeds might not be forgotten before the increasing importance of the new faith. There they instituted sacrifices of beasts to the three stone gods Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz; they even drew blood from their own bodies and offered it to them. Finally, not content with these, the first four men, led by Balam-Quitzé, instituted human sacrifices. Captives were taken from neighboring tribes, kidnapping was practised extensively, until the hostility of their neighbors broke forth into open war. The contest, however, resulted favorably to the Quichés, and the surrounding tribes became subject to the victorious power. In Hacavitz they composed a national song called the Kamucu (“we see”)—a memorial of their misfortunes in Tulan—a lament for the loss of so many of their people in that unfortunate locality. This loss is described as occasioned by a portion of their race being left behind, rather than as the result of the misfortunes which attended them there. At last, at the noon-day of their national glory, it came to pass that the ancestors of their race, Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam, died—the men who came from the east, from across the sea, died—and their remains were enveloped in a great bundle and preserved as memorials of the ancestors of the race.[334] Then the Quichés sang the sad Kamucu, and mourned the loss of their leaders and that portion of their race which they left behind them in Tulan.