the latter the “destroyer of mountains,” and they too incurred the enmity of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Zipakna had been persuaded by certain four hundred young men to dig for them the hole in which to erect the main post of a house, and they intended to bury him alive while thus engaged; but he constructed a side-tunnel in which he hid, and cut off his hair and nails which he gave to the ants to carry to the surface so that the four hundred might believe him to be dead. Finally emerging from his hiding-place when the young men were making merry over his supposed decease, he pulled the house down over them and killed them all. In revenge for this he was destroyed by Hunahpu and Xbalanque by means of a stratagem, and his brother Zipakna perished in a similar manner. The next act of the two brothers was to avenge the death of their father and uncle at the hands of the inhabitants of Xibalba. Xpiyakok and Xmukane had two sons, Hun Hunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu, who one day while playing the ball-game tlaxtli attracted the notice of the lords of the underworld. “Who are these,” they said, “who make so much noise and cause the earth to shake over our heads?” So they sent their messengers, the owls, to challenge them to a game. Hun Hunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu take up the challenge, and start off for Xibalba, passing down a steep descent, and across several rivers, one of which is full of gourds, another of blood, and come to four cross-roads, coloured yellow, red, white and black, the colours associated with the four cardinal points. They take the last and arrive at Xibalba, where they are received by the rulers Hun Camé and Vukub Camé. The court at Xibalba seems to have been conducted on the principle of a secret society with a definite form of initiation, for the new-comers are forthwith submitted to various tests at all of which they fail, and they are finally sacrificed by having their hearts torn out before being allowed to engage in the game for which they had come. Hun Hunahpu’s head is suspended in a tree which immediately becomes covered with calabashes so that the head is indistinguishable from the fruit. The head however retains its vital properties, since when Xquik, daughter of one of the high officials of Xibalba, is standing near the tree, it spits into her hand, causing her to conceive. When her condition is discovered, she is delivered over to the owl messengers to be killed, but escapes to the upper world where she seeks out the dwelling of Xmukané and gives birth to Hunahpu and Xbalanque mentioned above. With Xmukané are living Hun Batz and Hun Chuen, also sons of Hun Hunahpu, who are accomplished musicians, dancers and artisans. These two persecute their half-brothers, who take their revenge as follows: The four start out to hunt, and Hun Batz and Hun Chuen are persuaded to climb into the trees to drive the birds. Hunahpu and Xbalanque cause the trees to start growing, so that their half-brothers cannot come