This is the great Mesoamerican earth deity, the ultimate swallower of all living beings, depicted in Classic Mayan art (in the Palenque relief panels, for example) as an enormous pair of jaws upon whose lips even the feet of great lords must rest in precarious balance, and into whose throat even great lords must fall.

Turning to the contemporary scene, daykeepers who visit the main cave beneath the ruins of Rotten Cane, the last Quiché capital, speak of the danger of falling into 'the open mouth of the Mundo' there, which is said to be more than four yards wide."

(Tedlock in his comments on Popol Vuh)