When the Hero Twins first arrive at the crossroads of Xilb'ab'a, they face four possible paths: the red way, black way, white way, and yellow way. Ximénez expresses these paths in colonial K'iche' as "hun ꜫaꜫabe, hun cut queca be, zaqui be hun, hun cut eana be cahib be" (14r).
When the Hero Twins first arrive at the crossroads of Xib'alb'a, they face four possible paths: the red way, black way, white way, and yellow way. In Maya cosmovision, the color red represents power and authority (Ajpub' Pablo García Ixmatá 2010: 227).
The black path ("camino negro" or "queca be," in Ximénez's script) is one of the four cosmic routes of the universe ("cahib be"); along with the red path ("camino rojo" or "ꜫaꜫabe"), white path ("camino blanco" or "zaqui be") and yellow path ("camino amarillo" or "cut eana be"), these routes represent the spiritual pathways and cardinal points of the K'iche' cosmovisión (14r). In this tradition, the color black represents danger (Ajpub' Pablo García Ixmatá 2010: 227).
The white way ("camino blanco" or "zaqui be" in Ximénez's script) is one of the four cosmic routes of the universe ("cahib be"); along with the red path ("camino rojo" or "ꜫaꜫabe"), black path ("camino negro" or "queca be"), and yellow path ("camino amarillo" or "cut eana be"), these routes represent the spiritual pathways and cardinal points of the K'iche' cosmovisión (14r). As Ajpub' Pablo García Ixmatá (2010: 227) notes, the color white represents "aid" or "assistance" in K'iche' Maya cosmology.
The yellow path ("camino amarillo" or "ꜫana be," in Ximénez's script, and "q'ana b'e" in modern orthography) is one of the four cosmic routes of the universe ("cahib be"). Along with the red path ("camino rojo" or "ꜫaꜫabe"), black path ("camino negro" or "cahib be"), and white path ("camino blanco" or "zaqui be"), these four routes represent the spiritual pathways and cardinal points of the K'iche' cosmovisión (14r). In Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color, Stephen Houston et al.
The "green way" is unlike the other four cosmic routes of the universe -- the red way (camino rojo/ꜫaꜫabe, or kaq bej in modern orthograph), black way (camino negro/queca be/q’eq bej), white way (camino blanco/zaqui be/saq bej), and yellow way (camino amarillo/ꜫana be/q’än bej). In linguistic and cultural terms, green (rax in K'iche', yaax in Yukatek) represents newness or "primary" states within Maya cosmovision (Ajpub' Pablo García Ixmatá 2010: 227).