Xmukane is the primordial grandmother of the Popol Vuh, a diviner and midwife of creation paired with Xpiyacoc. When the gods resolve at last to make humankind from maize, it is Xmukane who grinds the yellow and white ears nine times to produce the dough of the first people's flesh and the gruel that gives them strength. She is grandmother to the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, raising them after the death of their father, and it is by her maize-divination and by a growing ear left in the center of her house that she perceives their fortunes in the underworld. She stands as the archetype of the female daykeeper and hearth-keeper in K'iche' religion.