And going to Hunbatz and Hunchouén they said to them: "Keep on playing the flute and singing, painting, and carving; warm our house and warm the heart of your grandmother."
When they took leave of their mother, Xmucané was moved and burst into tears. "Do not worry, we are going, but we have not died yet," said Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú as they left.
Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú went immediately and the messengers took them on the road. Thus they were descending the road to Xibalba, by some very steep stairs. They went down until they came to the bank of a river which flowed rapidly between the ravines called Nuziván cul and Cuziván,[107] and crossed it. Then they crossed the river which flows among thorny calabash trees.[108] There were very many calabash trees, but they passed through them without hurting themselves.
Then they came to the bank of a river of blood and crossed it without drinking its waters; they only went to the river bank and so they were not overcome. They went on until they came to where four roads joined, and there at the crossroads they were overcome.
One of the four roads was red, another black, another white, and another yellow. And the black road said to them: "I am the one you must take because I am the way of the Lord." So said the road.
And from here on they were already overcome. They were taken over the road to Xibalba and when they arrived at the council room of the Lords of Xibalba, they had already lost the match.
Well, the first ones who were seated there were only figures of wood, arranged by the men of Xibalba. These they greeted first:
"How are you, Hun-Camé?" they said to the wooden man. "How are you, Vucub-Camé?" they said to the other wooden man. But they did not answer. instantly the Lords of Xibalba burst into laughter and all the other lords began to laugh loudly, because they already took for granted the downfall and defeat of Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú. And they continued to laugh.
[107] Nu zivan cul, "my ravine," or "the narrow ravine." Cu zivan, narrow, close ravine." Zivan is "ravine," but the underground caves in Verapaz and the Petén are also called Zivan. The topographical data included in this chapter as well as similar indications found in other passages in Part II show that the ancient Quiché had very definite ideas about the location of the kingdom of Xibalba, where lived some cruel, despotic chiefs to whom they were subject in mythological time. in the present chapter, the large town of Carchah, which still stands a few miles from Cobán, capital of the department of Alta Verapaz, is named as the crossroads of the way to Xibalba. Leaving Carchah, the road leads down "by some very steep steps" until it comes to the ravines or caves, between which a swift river flows; which is to say, descending the mountains of the interior to the lowlands of the Petén, to the territory of the Itzá. At the end of Part II it is said that the people of Xibalba were the Ah-Tza, the Ah-Tucur, the evil ones, the owls. Nevertheless, these words may also be read as "those of Itzá [Petén]" and "those of Tucur," or Tecolotlán, the land of the owls (Verapaz). They are the two regions of northern Guatemala, very well known in the ancient Middle American world, over which the Quiché could not extend their conquests. These names confirm the topographical references in the text. Some of the tribes, which in relatively recent times came to establish themselves in the mountains of the interior of Guatemala, without doubt believed that the northern territory was inhabited by their old enemies, the same who, in former times, had taken the lives of their forefathers. These inhabitants of the north were the Maya of the Old Empire, one branch of which, the Itzá, was the last to surrender to the Spaniards in the later years of the seventeenth century. Other scattered data in the Popol Vuh reveal that Xibalba was a very deep, underground place, an abyss from which one had to climb up in order to come to the earth; but the same Quiché document explains that the Lords of Xibalba were not gods, nor were they immortals, that they were false of heart, hypocrites, envious, and tyrants. That they were not invincible is shown in the course of the narrative.
[108] Chupan halhal ha zimah. The Quiché word Zimah corresponds to the tree and fruit which the Mexican Indians call Xicalli, and in Guatemala is called jícaro. It is a tree of the Bignonia family, Crescentia cujete. The round or oval shaped fruit of this tree has a hard rind from which the Indians make vases called jícaras and guacales.
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