Like their parents, the twins played
ball every day and the bouncing noise bothered the Lords of Xibalba
so much that they were summoned to face them in the underworld.
The messenger in charge of inviting the
brothers was a louse but, as he walked so slowly, a toad offered to
swallow him to get there faster. Since the toad also walked slowly, a
snake swallowed them to help them and, finally, an eagle swallowed
the snake and took it to Junajpu and Xbalamque. "I bring a
message inside," said the snake and spat the toad.
However, the toad could not spit out
the louse! They thought the toad had swallowed it, so they kicked him,
which is why toads have flattened rears. They had to look
inside its mouth, it had it stuck between its teeth. When the louse
was able to exit, they heard the invitation from the Lords of Xibalba.
Juanjpu and Xbalamke arrived at the
entrance of Xibalba and stood in front of the silhouettes of the
Lords. They were actually wooden dolls, but the brothers were not
fooled. They asked Xan, the mosquito, to sting all the people in
front of him. When being stung, the wooden dolls did not react, but
the Lords did!
"Ouch!", It was heard.
"What's wrong with you, Jun Kame?" "I don't know what
stung me," he exclaimed. "Ouch!", "What's wrong
with you, Wuqub Kame?" He asked. "I don't know what stung
me," he replied. Xan stung all the Lords and, thanks to him, the
brothers discovered their names. They were able to greet each one by
their real name and they won the first contest.
Many other contests happened and, by
their cunning and magic, they always managed to overcome them.
However, in the House of the Bats, the fate of the brothers changed.
The house was full of death bats. With
their magic, Junajpu and Xbalamke hid inside their blowguns to spend
the night. When Xbalamke asked if it had already dawned, Junajpu took
his head out of his blowgun and a bat cut it!
At dawn, the Lords of Xibalba hung the
head on top of the ball court, but Xbalamke did not give up. He
replaced his brother's head with a chilacayote and Junajpu appeared
alive again! Surprised, the Lords invited them to play ball. However,
Xbalamke already had a plan he had agreed to with a rabbit. When he
threw the ball near where the rabbit had hidden, it ran as far as it
could and the Lords confused it with the ball. Everyone ran after it!
Xbalamke took advantage of the moment
to retrieve Junajpu's head and place it on his brother's body. Upon
returning, the Lords saw that they had been deceived.
In spite of all their victories,
Juanjpu and Xbalamke knew that their destiny was to die in Xibalba
and, that night, they got ready for it. The next day, they threw
themselves into a big bonfire... and died! The Lords were happy
because they believed that they had been defeated. Then, they ground
the bones and threw the dust into the river.
Despite this, the brothers revived
inside the river! They went everywhere dressed as beggars and became
famous because they did wonderful things. Their fame was so great
that, when the Lords of Xibalba found out, they wanted to see those
miracles with their own eyes.
The Lords did not recognize them when
they arrived in Xibalba and asked to see the wonders they were doing.
Then, the brothers burned the house of the Lords and then restored it
intact. They sacrificed themselves and revived. The Lords were so
excited that they said: "Do the same with us!"
"Okay," the brothers said
with a smile, and they did, but they were not revived. In this way,
Junajpu and Xbalamke defeated the Lords of Xibalba.
Is there death for the Lords of Death?
Of course not, because they did not die totally, they just lost a lot
of power. As for the brothers, their time on Earth was over, so
Junajpu became the Sun and Xbalamke the Moon, and together they went
up to the skies. That moment was the true dawn on Earth.
*The Popol Vuh is the National Book of Guatemala.
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