Xibalba

   In the Creation Legend of the Quiche Indians as told in the Popul Vuh Xibalba was an underground world inhabited by Huncame and Vukubcame, who challenged Hunhunapú and Vukub-Hunapú to a game of ball. However, the invitation was a trap in that they first had to cross a river of blood, and then, on arriving at the palace they were deceived by dummy figures of wood; when they were invited to sit, the seat turned out to be a red-hot stone; afterwards they were sacrificed and buried. The head of Hunhunapú was suspended from a gourd-tree and a princess, Xquiq, stopped to look at it, when the head spat into her palm and told her that she would become a mother. Later it was her children Hunapú and Xbalanqué who finally defeated the rulers of Xibalba. In actual fact Xibalba does not seem to have been an abode of the dead, but rather a series of underground dwellings where ceremonies were held for the initiation of kings, as is the case with the majority of these stories of the harrowing of Hades by great rulers. At a later stage in history the Mayan empire was known as the empire of Xibalba. It resembles Chicomoztoc of the Aztecs and Tulan-Zuiva. Camazotz, the bat god, was an important figure in these stories.