The doings of Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque, in Xibalba, may be regarded
either as the Kiché account of the adventures of two veritable heroes
in a new land, or as the visitation of divine beings to Hades for
the express purpose of conquering death. But by the period of the
formation of the myth it is probable that Xibalba had become confounded
with the Place of the Dead, and was regarded as a fit theatre for the
prodigies of craft and valour of the young hero-gods. The Kiché Hades
had, in fact, evolved from the old northern home, exactly as had the
Mexican Mictlan, which, although a subterranean locality, was also,
and separately, a northern country. A complete Place of the Dead
had been established, and the gods, to show their contempt of death,
must descend thereto and emerge triumphant. The idea of metempsychosis
was known to the American aboriginal mind. "We Indians shall not for
ever die; even the grains of corn we put under the earth grow up and
become living things," is the noble and touching reply of a chief
to the interrogation of a Moravian Brother, regarding the native
belief in immortality. [17] Man must have the example of the gods,
if he wishes to live in peace and quiet assurance of immortality. And
just as we believe that our God descended into Hell and vanquished Sin
and Death, so did these simple people gain strength to face Eternity
from the thought that they had been preceded in the dark journey by
the Immortals.
It is evident that the divine brothers feared ridicule, and profiting
from the disasters of their father and uncle made sure of knowing
the names of the chief Xibalbans ere they set out. In like manner
they avoided making an obeisance to the dummy figures to which their
predecessors had bowed so profoundly. The American savage, grave
and reserved, cannot abide ridicule. He shrinks from it in a manner
which a less self-regarding or a more self-assured people cannot
comprehend. The other tests--the "House of Tigers," and the "House
of Cold," and the various torments mentioned in the Second Book are
much what might be expected from a barbarian idea of death--no more
horrible, perhaps, than the European idea of Hell in the Middle Ages,
certainly not more fear-compelling than the picture of Dante.
The American peoples are at one in their belief in a Paradise, a Place
of Joy, if not of Reward. Their Hades appears to have been reserved
almost entirely for the unillustrious. Paradise in some American
mythologies, notably in that of Mexico, and perhaps in that of Peru,
is nothing more than a preserve of the great; the poor might not
enter therein, no more than might the coward pass the gates of the
Norse Valhalla. It was to Mictlan or Supay, then, that the popular
mind turned. How did the American peoples regard this drear abode? To
enter it one must cross a deep and swift river by means of a bridge
formed of a slender tree, said the Hurons and Iroquois to the first
missionaries. On this frail passage the soul must defend itself from
the attacks of a savage dog. [18] The Chepewayan Athapascans told
of a great water which the soul must cross in a stone canoe; the
Chilians, of a western sea, where toll must be given to an evil hag,
who plucked out an eye if payment were not forthcoming; the Algonquins,
of a stream bridged by an enormous snake. The Aztecs called this river
Chicunoapa, the Nine Rivers, where the departed must pay toll to a
dog and a dragon. It will be recollected that the brothers in the
"Popol Vuh," cross a river of blood. This almost certainly alludes
to the ocean under the red beams of the setting sun, towards which
all these voyages are made.
The hero-gods in the myth voluntarily succumb to the power of the
Lords of Death, and after being burned their bones are ground in a
mill and thrown into the waters. The belief was almost universal in
America that the soul resided in the bones. The bones were the basis
of the man. Flesh would readily perish, but would return to clothe
this more lasting foundation. So in many tribes the bones of the dead
were carefully preserved. In all Central American countries the bones
of distinguished persons were preserved in temples or council-houses
in the small chests made of cane mentioned by the chroniclers of
De Soto's expedition. This, too, may possibly have been the origin
of mummification in Peru. In Egypt all the members and intestines
must be preserved, in Peru only the bones. The state of comparative
desiccation in which most Peruvian mummies are discovered proves
that the preservation of the flesh or organs was not regarded as
a necessity.
The game of ball figures very largely throughout the Third Book. The
father and uncle of the young hero-gods were worsted in their
favourite sport by the Xibalbans, but Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque in their
turn vanquish the Lords of the Underworld. This may have resembled
the Mexican game of tlachtli, which was played in an enclosed court
with a rubber ball between two opposite sides, each of two or three
players. It was, in fact, not unlike hockey. This game of ball
between the Powers of Light and the Powers of Darkness is somewhat
reminiscent of that between Ormuzd and Ahriman in Persian myth. The
game of tlachtli had a symbolic reference to stellar motions. [19]