El hombre que fue al inframundo porque se preocupó demasiado por la pobreza. Texto Ixil de Nebaj

Resumen

[Xhas heard this story as a boy working at the finca 'Alwees:]
A man with many children was out of work. After saying that he would even go to the mountain underworld to find money for his family he finds himself transported there wearing iron shoes and with a contracted obligation to a ladino patron (underworld god) to remain under service until his iron shoes wear out. He is given the task of collecting firewood which turn out to be bones of the dead placing the load on a mule to bring back to the patron. The patron instructs him to beat the mule if it balks under the load.
After gathering a load of bones, the mule refuses to accept its load, the man hits the mule, injuring its eye. The mule cries out and identifies herself as the man's comadre. The woman is dying on earth but her soul has already been transported to the underworld in punishment for having had relations ("spoken") with a priest.
In return for being easy on her the comadre instructs him on how he can escape from the mountain underworld and return to his family with money. By putting his iron shoes in the urine of the mule as she instructs him, the shoes rust and wear out rapidly. Then, following her directions further, he goes to the patron to announce that he has completed his contract and wants to be paid. He is given the choice of real gold, or of the gold (souls?) of animals. He rejects both and instead asks for a little bag hanging over the fireplace. This is given to him. Then the patron asks him to choose the animal to transport him out of the underworld. As his comadre told him, he chooses the stork. On arriving home, as instructed, he puts the bag into a pot, doses it up for an hour while he talks with his wife, and then takes it out again. With a shout, a creature flies out of the pot and goes up into the sky. It is a stillborn child, the food of the underworld beings. Inside the pot is left a large quantity of money.
In gratitude the man and his wife go to visit the sick comadre and bring her a little rum. Her face is green and her eye is injured. The story ends with the moral that women should not "talk" to priests.