Lacandon Maya

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Hachakyum, in Lacandon mythology, created life on earth. Ak'inchob, the "Cross-Eyed Lord," is a guardian god.

In the beginning, Hachakyum told Ak'inchob, "Make a dugout canoe." Ak'inchob quickly made it. Then he brought all the animals to it. Hachakyum said, "Go cover all the people in the canoe." Quickly he covered them. Hachakyum said, "Go gather all the seeds of trees." Ak'inchob did so.

Then Chak-Ik'-al, the Red Wind Lord came, in the morning when the sun reached the treetops. He pulled up all the trees. At dusk, the water came. It rained all night. At sunrise, the water was halfway up the trees. At sunset, the water reached almost to the horizon. Those who had been left went for their canoes, but in place of their canoes they found alligators. All the people were destroyed.

For six years the rain fell. For ten years the water receded. Those in the canoe emerged and walked on the earth, but the earth was not hard. Then all was passed through a burning fire. Ak'inchob sent the people from the canoe.

Ak'inchob scattered seeds of all the trees all over the forest. In five days the fruit trees emerged. In two months the forest had regrown. In five months the trees bore fruit. There was food for the animals. Animals and people reproduced rapidly. Ak'inchob was very happy. Hachakyum was very happy. Hachakyum said, "Guard everything so that nothing dies."

"Good," said Ak'inchob. He guarded the Lacandon. They did not die.

John McGee, "The Flood Myth from a Lacandon Maya Perspective," Latin American Indian Literatures Journal 5 no. 1 (1989): 68-80.