The House of Bats

Why the Twins Were in Xibalba

In the K'iche' Maya Popol Vuh, recorded in the 1550s and preserved in Francisco Ximénez's copy of about 1701, the lords of Xibalba, One Death and Seven Death, summon the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque to play ball in the underworld, as they had summoned the twins' father and uncle before them and killed them. Each night the twins must pass a test house.

The Hero Twins had survived the Dark House, the Razor House, the Cold House, the Jaguar House, and the House of Fire. Now only the House of Bats remained.

They entered a cave filled with shrieking darkness. Giant bats with razor wings circled endlessly, and at the center sat Camazotz himself—the Death Bat with obsidian blade wings and an insatiable hunger for blood.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque crawled inside their blowguns for protection. All night the bats swooped and slashed, but the brothers remained hidden.

As dawn approached, the bats grew quiet. Hunahpu thought it safe to look out and see if morning had come. The instant his head emerged, Camazotz struck—and Hunahpu's head rolled across the floor.

Xbalanque was alone. The Lords of Xibalba took his brother's head and hung it in the ballcourt for the next day's game.

But Xbalanque was cunning. He called the animals to help. A coati found a squash the exact size of Hunahpu's head. A rabbit agreed to hide nearby. Xbalanque carved the squash into a face and placed it on his brother's body.

When the ballgame began, the Lords threw Hunahpu's real head as the ball. But the rabbit leaped past, and the Lords chased it, thinking it was the ball. Xbalanque switched the squash for his brother's real head.

Hunahpu lived again, and the squash, struck back into play, burst apart before the lords.

After the Bat House

The twins' final victory came by a trick of their own. Knowing the lords meant to burn them, they told two seers to have their bones ground and cast into the river. They returned as fish, then as ragged travelling performers whose wonders included sacrificing each other and coming back to life. One Death and Seven Death demanded to be sacrificed too; the twins killed them and did not bring them back. Xibalba's power was broken, and the twins rose into the sky as the sun and the moon.