Now T’up (the youngest boy) was very lazy, as his father-in-law soon found out. T’up was always being scolded for being so lazy, and his mother-in-law was always upbraiding her youngest daughter for having such an idle husband.

When the time came to make milpa, the old man called his three sons-in-law together, and told them to go out the next day and make holche. Next morning the three brothers started out to work. They carried tortillas and posol to last them for three days, but T’up only carried a little, for his mother-in-law would not waste corn on so worthless a son-in-law. The two elder sons started to work at one place, but T’up went farther on until he was some way beyond where his brothers had decided to work. He sat down to rest and went fast asleep. Later, when he woke it was quite late in the afternoon, so he decided not to do any work except collect some guano palm leaves to make himself a shelter. After he had eaten some of his tortillas and drunk some of the posol, he went to sleep again.

Next morning when he woke all his tortillas and posol had disappeared. Looking around, he espied a large ant (Spanish sampopo, Maya sai) which was carrying off the last piece of tortilla. He realized then that while he slept the ants had robbed him of his food. He seized the ant and threatened to kill it unless it would lead him to its nest. The ant consented. On arriving at the nest, T’up knocked three times, and the lord of the nest appeared (he was considered to be a snake; see p. 109). “What do you want?” he asked.

“Your people have stolen all my tortillas and posol,” replied T’up. “Either you must return it to me or you must do my work.”

The lord of the nest considered for a few moments, and then agreed to do the work. So T’up instructed him where to make the milpa, and said its size was to be a square league, and returned to his shelter to sleep while the forest was being cleared. All the ants turned out to work that night, and with their huge numbers and powerful jaws they had cut down all the trees and bush at the end of three days.

T’up returned to his father-in-law’s hut. On the way he passed his two brothers, but instead of clearing the forest for the milpa they were busily engaged in making holes in the larger tree-trunks, for they had misunderstood what their father-in-law had said. Whereas he had told them to make holche, that is, cut down swathes in the forest for milpa, they thought he had told them to make hoolche, that is, make holes in the tree-trunks.

When T’up arrived home, his father called out, “Here comes Idle- bones, the last to go and the first to return. Don’t give him anything to eat.” But his wife managed to get some maize, and made him tortillas. Later the other two brothers arrived, and the old man ordered chickens to be cooked for them, as they had worked hard.

Later when he judged the milpas to be dry, the old man sent the three brothers to burn the dry felled bush. The elder brothers were given large supplies of posol and honey, but poor T’up, as he was so lazy, was only given a little of each. The two elder boys collected all the loose rubbish and burnt it, but the column of smoke that rose up to the sky was miserably thin. T’up took his honey and posol to the ants’ nest, and gave it to the lord of the nest on condition he burnt the milpa. Accordingly T’up rested all day, while the ants hurried about their task of burning the milpa. The dense columns of smoke that resulted were so huge that even the sun was hidden. But the old man thought that the smoke of T’up’s milpa was caused by the burning of the milpa of the other two brothers; so when T’up returned he again scolded him.

When all was ready for sowing, the elder brothers took three mules laden with maize seed; T’up took only a quart. The elder brothers sowed a little of the maize in the forest, but most of it they left in the store hut, and the rest they hid in one of the tree-trunks they had hollowed out. T’up took his seed to the ants, but they said it was not enough, for the fire had spread far beyond the cleared area, and the extent to be sown was enormous. T’up then showed them a storehouse where they could get more seed, and when they had started to work, as usual, T’up went to sleep. On the return of the brothers, T’up received his usual contemptuous welcome, while the elder brothers were feasted.

When the corn was in ear, the old man sent his three sons-in-law to their milpas to prepare the young corn in the pib. The elder made a small hole in the ground, into which they put the few small yellow ears that had just managed to survive in the shade of the forest. T’up again summoned the lord of the ants’ nest to his assistance. They brought fifteen loads, made the pib, heated it, and put in the food while T’up slept.

On the following day the old man and his wife, his three daughters and their husbands set out with four mules to bring in the young corn and to eat the pibil. When they arrived at the milpa of the two elder brothers, the father-in-law was very angry, for there was no clearing visible and no corn except the few miserable plants that were growing in the shade of the forest, and they resembled grass rather than corn. Then he espied the heap of rotting corn in the hollow tree. “Well, where is the pib?” cried the old man. When the tiny pib had been uncovered and a mere handful of tamales shown him, the old man was still more furious, and refusing even to speak to the two elder boys, he sneeringly bid T’up show them his milpa. They started off again, T’up leading the way, until they struck the path the ants had made from their nest to the milpa. This path gradually widened as they advanced until it became a wide highway. “Where does this fine road go?” asked the old man, and T’up replied, “To my milpa.” Eventually they reached a huge milpa, the end of which was lost to view in the distance, and T’up indicated that this was his milpa. But the old man, knowing full well T’up’s indolent habits, was incredulous. They ascended a small hill at the edge of the milpa when his mother-in-law inquired where the pib was, thinking thereby to discover if this huge milpa was really the work of her youngest daughter’s husband. “You are standing on it,” replied T’up. “This hill is the pib.” Then the old man said, “You’ve worked enough, let your two brothers uncover the pib.” While they were doing this, the mother-in-law started out to find the extent of the milpa, but it was so immense she got lost. Then T’up summoned his friends, the ants, who, on being informed of the loss of the old lady, began to search through the milpa until they located her. After they had all eaten, the mules were loaded, and they started off home. That night chickens were killed in honor of T’up. As for the other two brothers, they were ordered out of the house, and bidden never to return.

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