"They know all. . . what shall we do with them now? Let their sight reach only to that which is near; let them see only a little of the face of the earth! . . . Are they not by nature simple creatures of our making? Must they also be gods?"
This is the profession of the creator deities after they witness the sentience of their new creation -- man. They decide to restrict the vision of their new creations, lest they become too ambitious and powerful. By only allowing the humans to see so much of the earth at once, the gods institute a safeguard that ensures both that the men will use imagination to solve problems and that they will have something to strive for. In this case the limiting factor is a kindness.
"THESE, then, are the first words, the first speech. There is not yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, or forest. All alone the sky exists. The face of the earth has not yet appeared."
This text is the origin story of the Quiché people. It is a creation myth which is supposed to account for the origins of life itself. According to the myth, only the sky existed at the beginning. Using grandiose language, the text sets up readers to appreciate both the mythic content and the narrative value of this text, which had been passed through generations through oral tradition first, long before it was written.
"However many nations live in the world today, however many countless people, they all had but one dawn."
In this simple profession, the anonymous author of the text more directly explains the purpose of the manuscript than if they had merely opened with the account of the creation. This story is supposed to serve as an equalizer, an explanation common to all peoples. While the text obviously takes a stance that this version is the alleged most true, it does allow that interpretations exist of the one main narrative.
