"By no means, shall you use [your ball], but ours," the boys answered.
"Not that one, but ours we shall use," insisted the Lords of Xibalba.
"Very well," said the boys.
"Let us play for a worm, the chil,"[182] said the Lords of Xibalba.
"No, but instead, the head of the puma shall speak,"[183] said the boys.
"Not that," said those of Xibalba.
"Very well," said Hunahpú.
Then the Lords of Xibalba seized the ball; they threw it directly at the ring of Hunahpú. Immediately, while those of Xibalba grasped the handle of the knife of flint,[184] the ball rebounded and bounced all around the floor of the ball-court.
"What is this?" exclaimed Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. "You wish to kill us? Perchance you did not send to call us? And your own messengers did not come? In truth, unfortunate are we! We shall leave at once," the boys said to them.
This was exactly what those of Xibalba wanted to have happen to the boys, that they would die immediately, right there in the ball-court and thus they would be overcome. But it did not happen thus, and it was the Lords of Xibalba who were defeated by the boys.
"Do not leave, boys, let us go on playing ball, but we shall use your ball," they said to the boys.
"Very well," the boys answered and then they drove their ball[185] through [the ring of Xibalba], and with this the game ended.
And offended by their defeat, the men of Xibalba immediately said: "What shall we do in order to overcome them?" And turning to the boys they said to them: "Go gather and bring us, early tomorrow morning,[186] four gourds of flowers." So said the men of Xibalba to the boys.
"Very well. And what kind of flowers?" they asked the men of Xibalba.
"A branch of red chiptlín, a branch of white chiptlín, a branch of yellow chiptlín, and a branch of carinimac," said the men of Xibalba.[187]
"Very well," replied the boys.
Thus the talk ended; equally strong and vigorous were the words of the boys. And their hearts were calm when they gave themselves up to be overcome.
The Lords of Xibalba were happy, thinking that they had already defeated them.
[181] Brasseur de Bourbourg intentionally changes the order of this part of the dialogue. The order has been re-established here according to the original Quiché, to which both Ximénez and I adhere, as may be seen in the former's first version (1857).
[182] Chil, a caterpillar which, according to Ximénez in his Tesoro, clings. This may be the centipede, according to the Vocabulario Maya-Quiché-Cakchiquel que se habla en la laguna de Atitlán.
[183] This passage is very vague, and Brasseur de Bourbourg even says that it is unintelligible. There is an evident play of words concerned in it. The original says: He bala xa hu chil, x-e cha Xibalba. Ma bala, xa holom coh cha chic, x-e cha qaholab. Bala is an indefinite word used to give emphasis to the account, and is sometimes also an adverb of place. It seems, nevertheless, that here it is repeated in the text to appear like balam, as though wishing to say: "The head of the jaguar [balam] does not rule here, but the head of the puma [coh]." These seem to be terms of the ancient ball game. Surmounting the side of the imposing ball-court of Chichén-Itzá is the Temple of the jaguars, so called because of the figures of these animals which are engraved on its walls. Undoubtedly the jaguar had some connection with the ball game.
[184] Catepuch ta x-qu il Xibalba ri zaqui tog, ta x-el chupam ri quic. The lords of Xibalba, without losing time, wanted to kill their guests with the sacrificial knife and only were deterred from this intention by the just complaint which may be read in the following paragraph.
[185] Are cu x-oc ri quic. Playing with their own ball, the youths had no difficulty in driving it through the ring of their opponents and thus winning the game.
[186] Xa cacha ca cah cah zel cotzih. Cah is the numeral "four" and also the adverb "early."
[187] Caca-muchih. Muchih or muchit is the name of a certain plant called chipilín, says Ximénez. It is a plant of the leguminous family, Crotalaria longirostrata. It has not been possible to identify the plant which the text calls Carinimac.
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