Meanwhile the guards went on crying, and they did not feel the teeth which were cutting their tails and their wings.
And thus the ants carried, between their teeth, the flowers which they took down, and gathering them from the ground, they went on carrying them with their teeth.
Quickly they filled the four gourds with flowers, which were moist [with dew] when it dawned.[198] Immediately the messengers arrived to get them. "'Tell them to come,' the lord has said, 'and bring here instantly what they have cut,'" they said to the boys.
"Very well," the [boys] answered. And carrying the flowers in the four gourds, they went, and when they arrived before the lord [of Xibalba] and the other lords, it was lovely to see the flowers they had brought. And in this way the Lords of Xibalba were overcome.
The boys had only sent the ants [to cut the flowers], and in a night the ants cut them and put them in the gourds.
Instantly the Lords of Xibalba paled and their faces became livid because of the flowers. They sent at once for the guardians of the flowers. "Why did you permit them to steal our flowers? These which we see here are our flowers," they said to the guardians.
"We noticed nothing, my lord. Our tails also suffered," they answered. And then the [lords] tore at their mouths as a punishment for having let that which was under their care be stolen.
Thus were Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé defeated by Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. And this was the beginning of their deeds. From that time the mouth of the owl is divided, cleft as it is today.
Immediately they went down to play ball, and also they played several tie-matches. Then they finished playing and agreed to play again the following day at dawn. So said the Lords of Xibalba.
"It is well," said the boys upon finishing.
[198] Tiquitoh chicut ta x-zaquiric.
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