Camazotz- Maya CreatureCreature · Monster"Master of the Bat House"

The Death Bat

Camazotz ruled Zotzilaha, the House of Bats, one of the six deadly trial chambers within Xibalba. In the Popol Vuh, he appears not as a mere animal but as a supernatural executioner: immensely powerful, preternaturally fast, and equipped with a snout sharp enough to sever a human head in a single pass. Zotzilaha was filled with "snatch-bats," monstrous creatures with bladed snouts that slashed at anything that moved in pitch darkness. Camazotz presided over this frenzy as its master. While the lesser bats harassed and wounded, Camazotz delivered the killing blow.

The Ordeal of Hunahpu

The Hero Twins entered Zotzilaha knowing its danger. To protect themselves, Hunahpu and Xbalanque concealed their bodies inside their blowguns, the hollow wooden tubes serving as shields against the whirling frenzy of razor-beaked bats. Through the long night they remained motionless, listening to the bats circle and slash in the darkness above them.

As the night wore on, the bat sounds gradually diminished. Hunahpu, impatient to know whether dawn had arrived, raised his head slightly above the edge of his blowgun to check for light. In that instant Camazotz struck. The great Death Bat swooped down and severed Hunahpu's head from his body with a single slash. The head rolled across the chamber floor and was carried to the ballcourt of Xibalba, where the death lords hung it in triumph.

The Head and the Ballcourt

The death lords suspended Hunahpu's severed head above the ballcourt and decreed that it would serve as the ball. Xbalanque responded with characteristic ingenuity. He summoned the animals and had a coati carve a squash into the shape of Hunahpu's head, which he animated through magic to pass as his brother's face. During the next game, when the death lords struck the squash-ball toward the court's edge, it split open, scattering seeds across the playing field. At that moment a rabbit concealed nearby bolted across the court; the death lords chased it, mistaking the bounding animal for the ball. In the confusion, Xbalanque retrieved his brother's true head and restored it to his body.