The stories about the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque are taken from the Popol Vuh, the Council Book of the Quiche Maya people of Guatemala. The Popol Vuh was written by the Quiche lords after the Spanish conquest of Central America to preserve as much of their tradition, history and mythology as they could. This is the most exhaustive account of Mayan mythology and tradition that we have today. 

The Popol Vuh tells of gods and goddesses, and how the world began. It tells of events that happened before the first true dawn, and of the time when the ancestors of the Quiche hid themselves and their spirits in the shadows, and also of the rise of the sun and the moon and the morning star. And it foretold of the glory of the Quiche lords in this world, and of the divine twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

The Twins and Their Elder Brothers

To Xquiq were born the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The twins were born in the mountains, not in the house, and when Xquiq brought them home to their grandmother, the twins were wide awake and crying loudly.

Old Xmucane couldn’t bear their crying. ‘They’re too noisy,’ she cried. ‘Throw them out!’

So the two children were thrown out of the house. They lived outdoors and grew up outdoors.

This made their older brothers, Hunbatz and Hunchouen, the elder sons of Hunhunahpu, very happy. They were jealous of their little brothers, and didn’t want them in the house. They hoped the two boys would die outside. Now Hunbatz and Hunchouen were very clever, and also wise for they knew a great many things. They could play the flute and sing, they could write and carve. They could see that their younger brothers would be good and great, but their jealousy made them blind. They hated their younger brothers and wanted them to die.

But Hunahpu and Xbalanque did not die. They grew strong and healthy, and learnt how to hunt and use the blowpipe. Every day they would shoot birds, and bring them to their grandmother to cook. Xmucane would cook the birds and give them to Hunbatz and Hunchouen. Hunahpu and Xbalanque got nothing. They got no food. They got no love. They only got curses from their older brothers and their grandmother. But they didn’t seem to mind. They didn’t complain, they didn’t grumble. They merely carried on.

One day Hunahpu and Xbalanque came to their grandmother Xmucane but they didn’t bring any birds.

‘Why haven’t you brought any birds today?’ asked Xmucane angrily.

‘We have birds, dear grandmother,’ said the twins. ‘But they are stuck up in a tree. We shoot the birds but they don’t fall. They get stuck up in the tree. We can’t get them down. So could our elder brothers please come with us to get the birds?’

‘We’ll come with you in the morning,’ said the elder brothers.

Now Hunahpu and Xbalanque were happy because they had a plot; they had a plan to get rid of their elder brothers. ‘Our elder brothers have been cruel to us,’ they said to each other. ‘Now it is time to get rid of them.’

So next morning, Hunahpu and Xbalanque took their elder brothers to a tree. The tree was full of birds. Hunahpu and Xbalanque started shooting, but not one bird fell out of the tree. The elder brothers watched astonished.

‘Oh the birds get stuck in the tree,’ said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. ‘Why don’t you go up the tree and throw down the birds?’

‘Very well,’ said the elder brothers, and they climbed the tree.

But as they climbed, the tree began to grow. It grew higher and its trunk grew thicker.

Now the elder brothers wanted to get down, but they couldn’t.

‘Dear younger brothers,’ called Hunbatz and Hunchouen from the tree. ‘We can’t get down. Tell us how to climb down from this tree because now we’re frightened.’

‘Oh, take your loincloths off and tie them round your waist like tails,’ said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. ‘You will find it easier to get down.’

So the elder brothers did that, and suddenly they were turned into monkeys. They went swinging through the branches howling and calling in the trees.

Thus  Hunahpu and Xbalanque had their revenge. They got rid of their elder brothers who had been cruel to them. They turned them into monkeys.

Now Hunahpu and Xbalanque went to their grandmother Xmucane and said, ‘Something has happened to our elder brothers. They’ve turned into animals.’

‘Don’t do anything to your elder brothers, dear grandchildren, ‘ said Xmucane. ‘If you have done something to them, I won’t be able to bear it.’

‘Don’t worry, dear grandmother,’ said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. ‘We’ll bring our elder brothers home. But you must promise not to laugh when you see them. Because if you laugh they will have to go away as animals again.’

Then Hunahpu and Xbalanque started playing their flutes and singing and beating on their drums. Very soon their elder brothers, Hunbatz and Hunchouen, arrived swinging through the trees. The grandmother took one look at their funny faces and long tails and began laughing. She couldn’t stop laughing. So the elder brothers went back as they had come, back into the forest.

‘Why did you laugh, grandmother?’ said Hunahpu and Xbalanque. ‘They will never come back if you do. Three times more we will call them, and you must not laugh.’

So Hunahpu and Xbalanque played on their flute and sang and beat on their drums. Their elder brothers came swinging through the trees. And every time the grandmother Xmucane would see their funny faces and their funny antics and would burst out laughing.  And every time Hunbatz and Hunchouen would turn around and go back into the forest.

The fourth time that Hunahpu and Xbalanque sang and called to their elder brothers, the elder brothers did not come. They went far away into the forest and never came back again.

‘Don’t be sad, grandmother,’ said Hunahpu and Xbalanque to Xmucane. ‘We are here, we are your grandchildren. Don’t feel sad for our elder brothers. They will be remembered. This was their destiny.’

So Hunahpu and Xbalanque began living with their mother and their grandmother. Their elder brothers were remembered for their skill in playing the flute and singing, and for their ability to write and carve.  The flautist and singers, writers and carvers of the world all prayed to Hunbatz and Hunchouen.

But because they had been cruel to their younger brothers, they themselves were humbled.

That had been their destiny.

 The Maize Field, the Rat and the Tlachtli Kit

Now the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque came into the house to live with their mother Xquiq and their grandmother Xmucane. They had sent away their elder brothers, turned them into monkeys, and now they took their place.

The twins said to Xmucane. ‘We’ll look after you grandmother. We have come in place of our elder brothers. Don’t worry grandmother.’

The twins then decided to clear a field for planting maize. They told their mother and grandmother that that is where they were going. ‘Bring us our food at midday, grandmother,’ they told Xmucane.

Then Hunahpu and Xbalanque took their tools, an axe and a mattock and a hoe. And they put their blowguns over their shoulders and went off to clear the field.

 When they reached the field they had planned to clear, they didn’t want to do any work. They only wanted to go hunting with their blowpipes. So they stuck the mattock in the ground, and the axe in a tree. And the mattock and the axe cleared the field. They went through trees and brambles and broke up the ground. And while the tools did all the work, Hunahpu and Xbalanque went hunting with their blowpipes.

 But they called to the dove and told her to keep watch. ‘When you see our grandmother coming, call out and tell us,’ they told the dove.

 So the dove sat on a tree and kept watch. When she saw old Xmucane coming, she called out. Hunahpu and Xbalanque ran to pick their tools up. One picked up the axe, one the hoe. They rubbed dirt on their faces and soil on their fingers so that Xmucane would think they had been working all day.

 Xmucane brought them their food, and sat there watching them eat. She thought they had been working. She didn’t know they had only been hunting. When they had finished eating, Xmucane went away.

 When it was night the twins went home. Their field had been cleared all ready for planting.

 ‘Oh dear mother, dear grandmother, we are tired,’ said the twins pretending to be really tired. They yawned and stretched and went straight to bed.

 Next morning when they woke up, they went back to their field of maize. But the field had returned to what it was before their tools had cleared it. Every tree, every bush, ever bramble had grown back just as it used to be before.

 ‘Who has done this to us?’ said the twins. ‘We must keep watch over our field at night, to see who has done this.’

 Their tools cleared the field again. But that night, the twins went home and told their mother and grandmother what had happened, and how the trees and bushes and brambles had grown back in the night. ‘We must go back to the field tonight, to find out who did this to us,’ the twins said to their mother and grandmother.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque went back to the field and spread a large net to catch whoever had undone their work. Then they hid themselves.

Now it had been all the animals of the field and the forest who had made the field grow wild again. And in the middle of the night, they came, all the animals great and small. They gathered together in the filed and then they sang and made the brambles and bushes and trees grow again.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque tried to catch the animals. First came the jaguar and the puma, but they escaped. Next came the rabbit and the deer, but the twins could only grab their tails, which broke off in their hands. That is why the rabbit and the deer don’t have proper tails.

The twins could not catch a single animal. All the animals ran away, except one. Except the rat, who got stuck in the net and couldn’t get away.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque caught hold of the rat and asked him, ‘Why do you undo all our work? Why do you make the trees and bushes and brambles grow again?’

‘Will you promise me food if I tell you?’ asked the rat.

 ‘We will promise you food if you tell us,’ said the twins.

‘It is because you are not made for clearing fields and planting,’ said the rat. ‘You are made for playing tlachtli with your fathers’ ball and their kit.’ And the rat told them all about their fathers Hunhunahpu and Vukub-Hunahpu, and their adventures in Xibalba and how they died.

The twins felt a great happiness coming over them when they heard of their fathers.

‘Can you tell us where their ball and their kit is?’ asked the twins.

‘Old Xmucane, your grandmother, has them hidden in her roof,’ said the rat.

And the rat led them to where Xmucane had hidden her sons’ rubber ball and their tlachtli kit. She had hidden them because it was because of the ball game that they had gone to Xibalba and died. She did not want her grandchildren to go the same way.

 Hunahpu and Xbalanque thanked the rat and gave him his food, and his food was corn kernels, beans, seeds, cacao. That is why the rat eats these things. ‘If you find any of your food that is stored or wasted, eat away, don’t stop,’ said the twins. So that is why the rat eats stored or wasted food that is his.

When Hunahpu and Xbalanque found their fathers’ ball and tlachtli kit, they were happy and began to play. They wanted to play like their fathers, and get an invitation to Xibalba by the lords. But how they managed to do that, and how they managed to trick the dark lords of Xibalba is another story.

*The remains of several tlachtli courts have been found in the ruins of Mayan cities.

** The Maya believed entrances to Xibalba were through caves found today in Guatemala, Mexico and Belize.