B'alam Ja'

El lingüista k'iche' Sam Colop (2008) traduce el nombre B'alam Ja' como "la casa de los jaguares," una de las casas de que los dos muchachos tienen que pasar en Xib'alb'a.

Anthropologist Dennis Tedlock (1996: 345) suggests that this house may be a sign of the Mayan zodiac. He explains, "Jaguar House is also the name of a people belonging to a group of thirteen allied tribes the Quichés regarded as having come (like themselves) from the east."

B’alam Ja' also appears in the Nija'ib' Utitulo ulew, for which Matsumoto (2017:267 n 38) notes: "Carmack (1967:5) describes B’alamija as the K’iche’ name for the Aguatecans and equates it with Balan naguala, a settlement on the other side of the Río Negro from the territory under discussion (see map in Carmack 1967:13). According to van Akkeren (2009:84n22), the 'Balamihá [Balamija] are Ixils.'."