Camazotz

In the Late Post‑Classic Kʼicheʼ narrative preserved in the Popol Vuh, Camazotz appears as bat-like spirits encountered by the Hero Twins during their trials in Xibalba (the Maya underworld). The Popol Vuh episode recounts a Camazotz snatching Hunahpu's head and carrying it to a ballcourt to be used by the gods in a ballgame. The name in Kʼicheʼ is etymologised as kame 'death' + sotz' 'bat', yielding the sense 'death bat'.

Primary narrative sources describe Camazotz simply as 'bat-like spirits' active in the House of Bats; the Popol Vuh episode records a Camazotz seizing Hunahpu's head. Classic‑period Maya iconography depicts leaf‑nosed bats (the bat motif associated with Camazotz) with prominent nasal appendages and sometimes shown exhaling vapour; these images are read as representations of a bat way‑spirit or nahual. Exact anthropomorphic detail in the Popol Vuh summary is not specified beyond 'bat-like.'

Attested behaviours are: physical aggression toward humans (in the Popol Vuh a Camazotz seizes Hunahpu's head), service to underworld lords during trials in Xibalba, and—in Classic iconography—representation as a way‑spirit that brings disease, depicted as exhaling unhealthy vapours. Sources do not provide an exhaustive list of powers (e.g., no explicit primary‑text claims of shapeshifting or speech in the supplied summaries).