the ants, thronging blackly on the stems and leaves, carrying off what the birds were meant to guard. The ants clambered up trees to harvest more flowers, with the guardians none the wiser, even though their wings and tails were chewed on as well.
By dawn, the ants had harvested enough flowers to fill the four bowls. When the messengers arrived at Blade House, they were discouraged to find the brothers alive.
“The lords summon you both,” they announced. “They demand you deliver their prize into their hands.”
“Right away,” the brothers said. When they arrived before the lords, they placed the bowls on the council table. The dark lords looked upon the petals with woeful expressions. They had been defeated. The faces of the council members went pale with fear.
Realizing the flowers were from the royal garden, they summoned the whippoorwills before them. The birds, tails and wings ragged from the ants’ chewing, had no answer for their incompetence, so their mouths were split open so that they would always gape when cawing their song.
A second game was played, but this one ended in a tie. After it was over, each side began making plans.
“At dawn again tomorrow,” said the dark lords.
“We’ll be there,” responded the twins.
They were escorted to a third torment, Cold House. Upon entering, they encountered cold beyond measure. The interior was thick with snow and hail. But the boys immediately dispersed the cold with divine magic, melting the ice and halting the hail. Though the dark lords intended them to die, they survived the night and were fine in the morning when the sentries summoned them.
“What is this? Did they not die?” asked the dark lords.
Once again they marveled at the deeds of the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
That evening they entered Jaguar House, which was crowded with ravenous jaguars. But the brothers were prepared.
“Wait. Don’t eat us. We’ll give you what’s yours.”
Then they scattered bones before the beasts, the remains of humans from the first three ages, which they had collected during their journey through the Land of the Dead. The jaguars crunched the bones contentedly while the brothers rested.
In the morning the sentries were delighted to see these skeletal remains scattered among the beasts. “They are finished! They gave themselves up. The jaguars ate their hearts, and now they gnaw upon their bones!”
But, of course, the twins were fine. They emerged from Jaguar House to the amazement of the dark lords who had gathered.
“What kind of beings are these? Whence did they come?”
The next evening they stepped into flame—Fire House, the fifth torment of that Realm of Fright. Its interior was pure conflagration, but neither Hunahpu nor Xbalanque was burned. The dark lords intended for them to be roasted to a crisp, but they were proof against such flame and emerged unscathed in the morning.
The dark lords were losing heart. The next evening they escorted the twins to the final place of torment, Bat House, replete with death bats, enormous beasts with razor-like snouts they used for slaughter. The dark lords were certain that this would finish them off, but the brothers made their blowguns bigger and slept snugly inside.
During the night they awoke to the sound of flapping wings and horrible screeching. The twins prayed for wisdom for hours until the house fell quiet and the bats stopped moving.
Xbalanque called to his brother. “Hunahpu, are they asleep? Is it morning already?”
“Let me check.”
Hunahpu crawled to the end of his blowgun and poked his head out to see, but at that instant a death bat swooped down and snatched his head from his shoulders.
After a few moments, Xbalanque called again. “And? Is it morning?”
There was no response.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Nothing moved, however. All he heard was the rustling of leathery wings.
“Ah, damn it. We’ve lost already,” Xbalanque groaned.
Soon the sentries entered. Xbalanque dragged his brother’s body from Bat House, but the King and Queen of Death ordered Hunahpu’s head placed atop the ball court. The dark lords rejoiced now that they believed the youth dead.
But Xbalanque was inspired to action. He called to his side all of the animals, great and small, telling them to bring him the various foods that they ate. The coati brought a chilacayote or Siam pumpkin, rolling it with her snout as she came. Xbalanque saw that the round squash would make a perfect replacement for his brother’s head.
So he carved features into the rind, calling on wiser deities from the heavens to descend and help him. Together, they hurried to make the pumpkin a perfect duplicate of Hunahpu’s head, endowed with the ability to speak. When it was placed on Hunahpu’s shoulders, the youth returned to life.
“Not bad,” he said.
“Okay, time for the ruse,” Xbalanque told him. “Don’t even try to play ball. Just look enigmatic and threatening. I’ll take care of things.”
Turning to a rabbit, Xbalanque instructed:
“Head to the far end of the ball court and hide in the tomato patch. When the ball lands near you, hop away until the deed is done.”
The dark lords were shocked when the brothers challenged them. “What trick is this?” they demanded. “We have already triumphed! There sits your head, boy, proof of your defeat. Surrender!”
Hunahpu merely called out:
“Wrong! That’s just a ball in the shape of my head, foolish lords. Strike it toward us. We’re not afraid of any harm…are you?”
So the dark lords took up the head and threw it down. It rebounded before Xbalanque. He used his yoke to send it sailing over the court. It bounced into the tomato patch, and the rabbit immediately hopped away. All of the dark lords rushed after the animal, shouting and rushing about. They believed it was the ball.
While their enemies were thus distracted, Xbalanque retrieved and reattached his brother’s head. He then set the pumpkin down on the court.
“Hey, come on!” the brothers cried. “We found the ball!”
The dark lords returned, confused about what they had been pursuing. The game resumed, each team equally matched, until Xbalanque struck the pumpkin so hard it burst, strewing seeds before the startled nobles of that Realm of Fright.
“Impossible! It was a head, not a pumpkin. How did that get here? Who brought it?”
They soon realized that they had been solidly defeated by Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Despite the best efforts of the dark lords, the brothers would not die.
Their Death and Resurrection
Hunahpu and Xbalanque knew, however, that the King and Queen of Death would not let them leave the Realm of Fright alive. They summoned the two great seers, Xulu and Paqam, whom the dark lords would consult concerning the proper disposal of the dead boys’ bones.
“It’s heaven’s plan that we die here. But we need a favor. When they ask what to do with our bones, have them grind them up like flour and sprinkle that dust into the river that wends its way through the mountains. Then our destiny will be fulfilled.”
The dark lords had meanwhile dug a pit oven, hot with coals and burning rock. They tried to trick the brothers into leaping over it in sport, but Hunahpu and Xbalanque called their bluff.
“You can’t fool us. We’ve known the form of our deaths for a long time. Just watch.”
Facing each other, the twins lifted their arms and dove into the pit. As they died, the maize withered in their grandmother’s home, in their family milpa,