Rat and Mosquito

“I must not die by your hands. Your task is not to be maize farmers. But there is
something that is yours,” said the rat.

“Where is that which is ours? Speak then,” the boys said to the rat.

“Will you first let me go?” asked the rat. “My word is here in my belly. I will
tell it to you if you first give me a little food.”

“We will give you your food later, but tell us first,” he was told.

“Very well then. It is what belonged to your fathers, One Hunahpu and Seven
Hunahpu by name, who died in Xibalba. They left behind their gaming things hanging
above the house—their yokes, their arm protectors, and their rubber ball as well. Your
grandmother did not show these to you, for it was because of them that your fathers
died.”

“Is it not true? Do you truly know this?” the boys asked the rat.

Thus they rejoiced in their hearts when they heard from the rat the news about the
rubber ball.

This, therefore, was given to the rat as his food—grains of maize, squash seeds,
chili peppers, beans, pataxte, and cacao.

“These, then, are yours. If anything has been swept out with the trash and has
become exposed, then it is yours. You shall gnaw on it,” said Hunahpu and Xbalanque to
the rat.

“Very well then, boys. But what will I say if your grandmother sees you?” he
asked.

“Don’t be disheartened,” they said to the rat. “We are here. We know what to
say to our grandmother. We will lift you up onto the corner of the house to fetch them.
Straightaway you will go up to where the things are hanging. We will be able to see it in
the rafters of the house, reflected in our sauce.”

Thus Hunahpu and Xbalanque gathered their thoughts and instructed him all
night. And when it was truly midday, they arrived.

THE rat they carried could not be seen clearly when they arrived. While one went
into the house, the other went around to the corner of the house and immediately lifted up
the rat.

Then they asked their mother for their food:

“Just prepare for us a bite to eat,” they said. We desire chili sauce, our
grandmother.”

Thus their bite was prepared, and a plate of sauce was placed before them. But
this was just a trick they were playing on their grandmother and their mother. They
drained the water jug dry:

“We are truly thirsty. Bring us something to drink,” they said to their
grandmother.

“All right,” she replied.

Thus she left, leaving them behind to eat. But it was not true that they were
hungry. It was merely a deception so that they could see the rat reflected in their chili
sauce. There the rat was, behind the rubber ball where it hung above the house. This they
saw reflected in their chili sauce.

Then they sent forth a mosquito. The mosquito is an insect similar to a small
biting fly. It went to the river and pierced the front of the Grandmother’s jug.
Thus the water that she had raised leaked out from the front of the jug. Try as she
might, the face of the jug would not be sealed.

“What is our grandmother doing? We are gasping for water. We are parched with
thirst!” they said to their mother.

Thus they sent her away.

Then the rat clawed at the ropes that held the rubber ball from the thatch roof
above the house until it fell, along with the yokes, the arm protectors, and the leathers.
They carried them away and hid them along the road leading to the ballcourt.
Then they went back to where their grandmother was at the river, and there they
found their grandmother and mother busily trying to seal the face of the jug. Thus they
arrived at the river, each carrying his blowgun:

“What have you been doing? Our hearts became weary, so we came,” they said.

“Look at the front of my jug. It cannot be sealed off,” replied their grandmother.

Immediately then they sealed it, and together they returned once more, leading the
way before their grandmother.

Thus was the discovery of this rubber ball.

AND so they went rejoicing as ballplayers to the ballcourt. For a long time they
played ball there alone, sweeping clear the ballcourt of their father.
Then the lords of Xibalba heard it:

“Someone has begun to play again over our heads. Have they no shame, stomping
about up there? Did not One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu die when they desired to puff
themselves up before us? Go then to summon them here once again,” said One Death and
Seven Death, along with all the lords.

“Summon them here,” they said to their messengers. “Tell them, ‘They must
come, say the lords. Here we shall play ball with them. In seven days, we will play, say
the lords.’ Tell them this when you arrive there,” the messengers were told.

Thus they came along the great cleared pathway, the road that led to the home of
the boys. The messengers pursued them into the home of the Grandmother, but the
boys were still playing ball when the messengers of Xibalba arrived.


- Popol Vuh