The Totilme'iletik, 'fathers-mothers,' are the ancestral deities of the highland Maya — senior beings who dwell within the mountains encircling the ceremonial centres, above Zinacantán chiefly in Bankilal Muk'ta Vits, the Senior Great Mountain. They laid down custom in the first days, keep the corrals in which the animal-soul companions of the living are penned, and send illness and reversal to punish those who neglect ritual duty. Conceived as a celestial cabildo, they mirror and sanction the civil-religious hierarchy of the community below.