First they made fire, then half a sun, the heavens, the waters and a certain great fish therein, called Cipactli, and from its flesh the solid earth.

The first mortals were the man, Cipactonal, and the woman, Oxomuco,[1] and that the son born to them might have a wife, the four gods made one for him out of a hair taken from the head of their divine mother, Xochiquetzal.
[Footnote 1: The names Cipactli and Cipactonal have not been satisfactorily analyzed.

The derivation offered by Senor Chavero (_Anales del Museo Nacional_, Tom.

ii, p.116), is merely fanciful; _tonal_ is no doubt from _tona_, to shine, to warn; and I think _cipactli_ is a softened form with the personal ending from _chipauac_, something beautiful or clear.

Hence the meaning of the compound is The Beautiful Shining One.
Oxomuco, which Chavero derives from _xomitl_, foot, is perhaps the same as _Xmukane_, the mother of the human race, according to the _Popol Vuh_, a name which, I have elsewhere shown, appears to be from a Maya root, meaning to conceal or bury in the ground.