Tedlock points out that cha’j is used for the game ball in Xib’alb’a while kik’ -- also meaning "blood" or "resin" -- refers only to the ball of Juajpu and Xb’alanke. Perhaps this wordplay solidifies a semantic connection for the Maya, allowing kik’ to be used to refer to balls and, more distantly, to humans’ interaction with the supernatural through sacrifice or ball game challenges. The ball in Xib’alb’a further differs from a normal ball in that it appears to the boys to be a skull – previously described as being coated with crushed bone; Tedlock says that what is played off as “mere decoration” by the Lords is actually a fundamental and sinister difference. Reference to this bone-ball as kik’, the word for “ball” easily associated with blood and death, seems fitting for this particular object despite the usual cha’j for Xibalban game balls.