The Monkey Artisans, Patrons of Scribes and Craftsmen
Hun Batz (One Howler Monkey) and Hun Chouen (One Artisan) were sons of Hun Hunahpu and Xbaquiyalo, elder half-brothers of the Hero Twins. The Popol Vuh grants them every talent: they were flautists, singers, writers, carvers, workers of jade, and seers besides. But the prodigies had no room in their hearts for the newborn twins, whom they laid on anthills and dumped into brambles, and whose game they confiscated once the boys grew into hunters.
The twins' revenge was quiet. One day they reported that some birds they had shot were stuck high in a tree, and asked their brothers to fetch them. Hun Batz and Hun Chouen climbed; the trunk surged upward and stranded them in the crown. From below the twins called out helpful advice: loosen your loincloths and let the ends hang down behind you, and climbing will be easier. The trailing cloth became tails, and the two masters of every art swung away into the branches as monkeys. For the grieving grandmother Xmucane the twins played the tune called Hunahpu Monkey to call them home, warning her not to laugh; but when the monkeys came capering and grimacing into the yard she burst out laughing time after time, and at last they never returned, keeping to the forest for good.
The Popol Vuh adds that flautists and singers of the old days prayed to them, and writers and carvers prayed to them too. The monkey brothers became patrons of every craft. The monkey scribes painted on Classic period vases, bent over their codices with brush in hand, are portraits of this belief a thousand years older than the manuscript, and the calendar day of the monkey - Chuen in Yucatec, B'atz' in K'iche' - remains tied to artisans and weavers.
