topónimo : Xajbakyej

Recinos (1957:72n7) suggests that this place corresponds to the village Sajbaquiej in the municipality of Chichicastenango. Carmack (2001:233–34) characterizes it as a Nima K’iche’ calpul and translates its name as ‘deer bath’. In contrast, Tedlock (1996:189) translates the toponym “Deer Dance Plaza,” presumably interpreting xajb’a as an apocopated form of xajb’al, lit. 'place for dancing'. This designation also appears in a list of K’iche’ patrol groups elsewhere in the Popol Wuj (see Christenson 2003a:line 8094). In fact, both xaj- and xoj- are roots meaning ‘dance’ in modern K’iche’ (Ajpacaja Tum et al. 1996:491, 501). As Matsumoto (2017:187n127) notes, although the toponym is written with initial xa- in both the Popol Wuj and the Historia K’iche’ (Recinos 1957:72n7), it appears with initial xo- in the Nija'ib' text Utitulo rajawarem (see Matsumoto 2017:187).