The snake went quickly and having met Vac,[169] which is a very large bird, the hawk, [the latter] instantly swallowed the snake. Shortly afterward it arrived at the ball-court. From that time, this has been the food of hawks, who devour snakes in the fields.
And upon arrival, the hawk perched upon the cornice of the ball-court where Hunahpú and Xbalanqué were amusing themselves playing ball. Upon arriving, the hawk began to cry: "Vac-có! Vac-có!" it said cawing. ["Here is the hawk! Here is the hawk!"]
"Who is screaming? Bring our blowguns!" the boys exclaimed. And shooting at the hawk, they aimed a pellet at the pupil of the eye[170] and [the hawk] spiraled to the ground. They ran to seize it and asked: "What do you come to do here?" they asked the hawk.
"I bring a message in my stomach. First cure my eye and afterward I shall tell you," the hawk answered.
"Very well," they said, and taking a bit of the rubber of the ball with which they were playing, they put it in the hawk's eye. Lotzquic[171] they called it, and instantly the hawk's eye was perfectly healed.
"Speak, then," they said to the hawk. And immediately it vomited a large snake.
"Speak, thou," they said to the snake.
"Good," the [snake] said and vomited the toad.
"Where is the message that you bring?" they asked the toad.
"Herein my stomach is the message," answered the toad. And immediately he tried, but could not vomit; his mouth only filled with spittle but he did not vomit. The boys wanted to hit him then.
"You are a liar, "they said, kicking him in the rump, and the bone of the haunches gave way. He tried again, but his mouth only filled with spittle. Then the boys opened the toad's mouth and once open, they looked inside of it. The louse was stuck to the toad's teeth: it had stayed in its mouth and had not been swallowed, but only pretended to be swallowed.[172] Thus the toad was tricked, and the kind of food to give it is not known. It cannot run; and it became the food of the snakes.
"Speak," they said to the louse, and then it gave its message. "Your grandmother has said, boys: 'Go call them; the messengers of Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé have come to tell them to go to Xibalba, saying: "They must come here within seven days to play ball with us, and they must also bring their playing gear, the ball, the rings, the gloves, the leather pads, in order that they may amuse themselves here," said the lords. They have really come,' said your grandmother. That is why I have come. For truly your grandmother said this and she cries and grieves, for this reason I have come."
"Is it true?" the boys asked themselves when they heard this. And running quickly they arrived at their grandmother's side; they went only to take their leave of her.
"We are going, grandmother, we came only to say goodbye. But here will be the sign which we shall leave of our fate: each of us shall plant a reed, in the middle of the house we shall plant it; if it dries, this shall be the sign of our death. 'They are dead!' you shall say, if it begins to dry up. But if it sprouts again: 'They are living!' you shall say, oh, our grandmother. And you, mother, do not weep, for here we leave the sign of our fate," thus they said.
[169] A hawk which eats snakes. Vocabulario de los P. P. Franciscanos.
[170] There is a play on words in the original here: qui cu tacal u bac uub chu bac u vach, they aimed the pellet (bac) of the blowgun at the ball (bac) of the eye.
[171] Lotz, sorrel; lotzquic, rubber, or juice of the sorrel. An herb which the Mexicans call xocoyolli, and which seems to be oxalis, according to our classification of natural history, says Brasseur de Bourbourg. He adds that the natives of Central America assured him that they still used it to remove cataracts from their eyes. Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca, speaks in the same way of a similar plant used by the Indians of Peru. According to the Vocabulario de los P. P. Franciscanos, lotz is also the sapuyulo, or stone of the zapote which sometimes is covered with a white or amber-colored gum.
[172] Xa quehe xa bic.
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