down, and persuade them, when they complain, to loosen their girdles so that their movements may be the less restricted. The loosened girdles immediately become tails, and Hun Batz and Hun Chuen are transformed into monkeys. After a series of events Hunahpu and Xbalanque, by the aid of a rat, discover the existence of a set of implements and ornaments, used in the ball-game, which had formerly belonged to their father and uncle. They start to play, and again the noise of the game attracts the notice of the lords of Xibalba, who again send a challenge which is accepted. But this time affairs proceed on different lines. When they arrive at the cross-roads they send on a small insect, called _xan_, created from a hair of Hunahpu’s leg, to act as a spy. The xan finds the lords of Xibalba sitting with their councillors among certain wooden figures, and by biting them one by one discovers their names, so that when Hunahpu and Xbalanque arrive they salute each one by his title, and do not, as their father and uncle, give greeting to the wooden figures; they also avoid the hot stone which is offered them as a seat, and pass the later tests with success. One of these consisted in being shut up for the night in the “House of Gloom,” with torches and cigars which must be kept burning all night and produced intact in the morning. This feat the heroes achieve by fixing red feathers to the torches and fireflies to the cigars. Eventually disaster falls upon them in the “House of the Bats,” the Zotziha. The point of this test seems to be that the heroes must pass the night sleepless, erect and motionless, but Hunahpu moves his head just as the dawn is appearing, and is immediately decapitated by the Camazotz, the bat of the underworld, who leaps upon him from above. The head is suspended in the ball-court, but the tortoise affixes himself to Hunahpu’s body in its place. Xbalanque then goes out alone to face the Xibalbans in the ball-game; he hits the ball close to the ring, and the rabbit which is hidden near it leaps out and runs away. The Xibalbans give chase, thinking that the rabbit is the ball, and Xbalanque exchanges the tortoise for the head, and Hunahpu is revived. The heroes then immolate themselves, but return after five days in the disguise of travelling conjurers, performing many miracles, including the sacrifice and resurrection of a man. Hun Camé and Vukub Camé desire to have this trick performed upon them, but the heroes after sacrificing them naturally do not revive them. Xibalba is thus conquered, and sentence is pronounced by the heroes upon its people, “Your blood shall endure for a little, but your ball shall not roll again in the ball-game,” and the only occupations which they are allowed to retain are the making of pots and the keeping of bees. Following this, honours are paid to Hun Hunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu, who become the sun and moon respectively, while the four hundred slain by Zipakna are resuscitated and become stars.