The Hero Twins and the Lords of the Underworld (Campfire Story)

Long ago, in the land of the Maya, there lived two brothers, twins named Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They were hunters and they were tricksters, and more than anything, they loved to play ball.

The Maya ball game was played on a long stone court, with a heavy rubber BALL. You couldn't touch it with your hands or your feet. You had to keep it in the air with your hips and your knees and your elbows, and get it through a stone ring high on the wall. The twins played all day long. BALL! BALL! BALL!

Now, deep below the earth was Xibalba, the Underworld, ruled by the LORDS OF DEATH. The Lords were cruel and proud, and they couldn't stand noise. And all that thumping from the twins' ball game came right down through the ground and kept them awake.

Years before, the twins' own father and uncle had played ball too loudly, and the LORDS OF DEATH had tricked them into coming down to Xibalba, and they had never come back. Now the Lords sent their owl messengers to the twins. 'Come down to Xibalba and play ball against us. If you don't come, we'll come up and get you.'

So Hunahpu and Xbalanque went down into the dark, down steep stairs and across a river of blood and a river of pus, to Xibalba. And all along the way, the LORDS OF DEATH laid traps.

The first night, the Lords gave them each a cigar and a torch, and said, 'Keep these burning all night, and give them back to us in the morning, whole.' It was impossible. But the twins put red macaw feathers on the end of their torches to look like flames, and fireflies on the ends of their cigars, and handed them back in the morning, as good as new. The LORDS OF DEATH stamped their feet.

The next night, they put the twins in the Razor House, full of flying knives. The twins talked to the knives and promised them the flesh of every animal, and the knives lay down. Then the Cold House, full of ice and hail. The twins built a fire. Then the Jaguar House, full of hungry jaguars. The twins tossed them bones, and the jaguars chewed contentedly. Then the Fire House. The twins walked out without a burn.

Then came the Bat House. It was full of killer BATS, with noses like knives. The twins crawled inside their hollow blowguns to hide. BATS! All night, the BATS swooped and screeched around them. Just before dawn, Hunahpu poked his head out of his blowgun to see if the sun had come up. Swoop! A bat snatched his head clean off, and carried it away to the ball court.

Now, this is a Maya legend, and in Maya legends this kind of thing is a problem, but it isn't the end. Xbalanque called all the animals together. A coati brought a big squash, and Xbalanque carved it into the shape of his brother's head and set it on Hunahpu's shoulders. It worked well enough. Hunahpu could even talk.

The next morning, the twins went to the ball court. And the LORDS OF DEATH laughed, because they were using Hunahpu's real head as the BALL.

But Xbalanque had a plan, and a friend: a rabbit. The game began. BALL! Xbalanque hit the BALL so hard that it flew right out of the court and into the bushes. And out of the bushes, at that exact moment, the rabbit leapt and went bounding away. 'There's the ball!' cried the LORDS OF DEATH, and every one of them went chasing after the rabbit.

While they were gone, Xbalanque grabbed his brother's real head, and stuck it back on Hunahpu's shoulders, and put the squash out on the court instead. When the Lords came back, panting, the game went on. Xbalanque kicked the squash. It burst into a thousand seeds all over the court. The Lords had been tricked again!

In the end, the twins outwitted the LORDS OF DEATH one last time and defeated them, and Xibalba was never as powerful again. And when the twins climbed back up out of the Underworld, they kept going, up into the sky. Hunahpu became the sun, and Xbalanque became the moon. And they've been chasing each other across the sky ever since, like a ball going back and forth across a court.

Storyteller tips: the head-as-ball part gets big groans and big laughs, so play it up. Skip the rivers of blood and pus for younger Scouts. Ancient Maya ball courts can still be seen today at Copán, Tikal and Chichén Itzá.