* Grateful acknowledgement is made to the National Science Foundation for its 
support in a grant to B. N. Colby (No. GS-32252) and to the National Endowment for 
the Humanities for its support in a grant to Lore M. Colby (No. H-69-I-192). 
Two Ixil Myths (Guatemala) 
Benjamin N. and Lore M. Colby 
Myths and other narratives can be seen as having a number of compon 
ents, each calling for a different analytical approach. The linguistic and poetic 
components require that the data studied be retained in their original form as 
told by the author. Other components, however, can be analyzed in large 
part in translation. Among these other components are the symbolic, the 
dramatic and the eidochronic. 
Analysis of the symbolic component has as its goal the understanding 
of those metaphoric and allegoric aspects of a narrative that are of cultural 
importance. Some of the attempts of Lévi-Strauss seem to be in this direction. 
Needless to say, the greatest problem in analyzing the symbolic component 
of a folktale is the validation of the results. How can we say what the meaning 
or even a meaning, of a narrative symbol is for a native without engaging 
the native himself in some sort of ethnographic procedure, or without looking 
at linkages between the symbols of a group of narratives and other aspects 
of a culture which are less opaque. 
We are on more solid ground in the analysis of the dramatic component. 
Elements of this component serve to dramatize or highlight narrative action 
as well as highlight elements of the symbolic component. As early as 1909, 
Axel Olrik in his study of European folktales noticed some regularities ôr 
“laws” which dramatize or highlight elements of the main plot of a story 
(cf. Olrik 1965). For example, focus and the reduction of complexity are 
encompassed in Olrik’s law, “two to a scene”. In any narrative scene, only 
two people interact. If others are present, they serve only as onlookers. Another 
law is that of contrast. If a rich man appears in a folktale, there is also a poor 
man. This explicit binary opposition, or polarization, extends to many attri 
butes, young and old, good and evil, large and small.