skinny little thing

just a few things from Popol Vuh tonight.
the stories of these brothers seem more and more hurculean.
except that most of their feats are simply from cunning and don't require too much strength; well, maybe some skilled blowdarting.

but one of the stories is almost cinderellan. these two brothers were the "immaculate conception" so their grandmother and older brothers (One Monkey and One Artisan) didn't really care for them. so the twins would always go out and blow dart birds and the older brothers would eat the spoils.
so one day the twins purposely shot some birds and left them in the trees.
they told their older brothers that they could have them if they went up and got them. so they went, but the trees grew insanely large while they were up there.
so One Monkey and One Artisan yelled down for help. the twins told them to wrap their pants around their waist and let it hang off for balance. they did it, and for some reason turned into monkeys. I guess One Monkey had it coming, but One Artisan? the pants hanging off became the tail, and their faces became flat and distorted.
but the funniest shit is how they describe their nakedness now. i guess back in that time the most kosher way to talk about a guy's junk was to call it "the skinny little thing below their bellies." harsh!

they stories also tell how other animals came to be. after the older brothers became monkeys and dissappeared into the forest, the twins gave their hand at gardening. (somewhat related to the cane/able story? gardeners vs. hunters/pastoralists)
but while gardening, they had to fend off the animals that would try to eat their crops. first the deer and rabbits tried their luck, and the two twins almost captured them, but as they grabbed them by their tails, they snapped off.
as for the rats, when they captured one of those guys, they burned its tail and squeezed its neck until its eyes bulged out.
the jaguar, puma, fox, coyote, peccary, and coati made it out unscathed.
lucky bastards. no eye bulging for them.

last thing i wanted to mention.
the reason why these guys seemed hurculean was because they had to go down to Xibalba (hell/Hades) and play ball against those who live there. but first they had to face a few tests.
the first was to cross pus and blood rivers, no problem...
but next they had to recognize and name all of the head Xibalbans.
this was done by the twins sending out a mosquito to bite them all in order.
when they were bitten, the demon/council member sitting next to the one bitten would ask, by name what the matter was.
lucky fuckers.

but anyway. i love these mayan names. i'll list them out here in order of rank in Xibalba:

One Death
Seven Death
Scab Stripper
Blood Gatherer
Demon of Pus
Demon of Jaundice
Bone Scepter
Skull Scepter
Wing
Packstrap
Bloody Teeth
Bloody Claws

some are badass. others random.
but what i don't get is that the twin's mother is Blood Moon, and her father is Blood Gatherer, that 4th dude in the list up there. so either there were multiple Blood Gatherers, like there are John's or Juan's, or these kids are dumbasses and don't recognize their own grandfather.
but i guess he did kinda ostrasize them after believing that they were Blood Moon's bastard sons.
in the stories there have already been more than one Hunahpu. . .

i'm also trying to figure out the relevance of One and Seven before the names.
it seems to be very common. but no other numbers are. . .