[X-56] Equivalent to laying the foundation for civilization. According to Ordoñez he was sent to people the continent; a view also taken by Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 150-1. Torquemada's account of the spreading of the Toltecs southward, may throw some light on this subject. Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 256, et seq.
[X-57] Valum Chivim, Valum Votan, land of Chivim and Votan. See note 15. Cabrera considers two marble columns found at Tangier, with Phœnician inscriptions, a trace of his route; the dwellings of the thirteen snakes are thirteen islands of the Canary group, and Valum Votan, the Island of Santo Domingo. Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 34, et seq. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 489, hints significantly at the worship of the snake-god Votan, on Santo Domingo Island, under the name of Vaudoux. Brasseur de Bourbourg's ideas on this point have already been made pretty evident in the account of Quetzalcoatl's myth. The thirteen snakes may mean thirteen chiefs of Xibalba. There is a ruin bearing the name of Valum Votan about nine leagues from Ciudad Real, Chiapas. Popol Vuh, p. lxxxviii. Ordoñez holds Valum Votan to be Cuba, whence he takes seven families with him. Cabrera, ubi sup.
[X-58] Ordoñez says the original Na-chan means 'place of snakes.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 69.
[X-59] A date which is confirmed by the Chimalpopoca MS. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. lxxxviii. One tradition makes the Tzequiles speak a Nahua dialect, but it is possible that Ordoñez confounds two epochs. Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 70.
[X-60] In the traditions presented on [pp. 67]-[8], [50], of this volume, will be found reference to Cholula as the place where the tower of Babel was built, and to the confusion of tongues, which tends to connect this myth with those of the neighboring country. Ordoñez' orthodox ideas have probably added much to the native MS. from which he took his account, yet Nuñez de la Vega agrees with him in most respects. Cabrera, Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 84, considers the great city to be Rome, but agrees with his authorities that the latter edifice is the tower of Babel. A Tzendal legend relates that a subterranean passage, leading from Palenque to Tulhá, near Ococingo, was constructed in commemoration of the celestial passage, or 'serpent hole,' into which Votan in his quality of snake, was admitted. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 72-3.
[X-61] Cabrera has it that the new-comers are seven Tzequiles, or shipwrecked countrymen of Votan. The voyages and other incidents he considers confirmed by the sculptures on the Palenque ruins, which shows Votan surrounded by symbols of travel, indications of the places visited in the old and new world; he recognizes the attributes of Osiris in the idol brought over by Votan, with the intention of establishing its worship in the new world. Lastly, Votan and his families are Carthaginians. Teatro, in Rio's Description, pp. 95, 34.
[X-62] The ruins of Huehuetan, 'city of old men,' are still to be seen. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 73-4; Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq., pp. 11-15; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., pp. 10-21. Vega mentions that at Teopixca in Chiapas he found several families who bore the hero's name and claimed to be descendants of his. This has little value, however, for we know that priests assumed the name of their god, and nearly all mythical heroes have had descendants, as Zeus, Herakles, and others. Boturini, Idea, p. 115.
[X-63] A portion of this relic was sent to Pope Paul V., in 1613; the remainder was deposited in the cathedral for safe keeping. Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 350-2.
[X-64] The place of the dead, or hades, also called Yopaa, land of tombs. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 9.
[X-65] Fray Juan de Ojedo saw and felt the indentation of two feet upon the rook, the muscles and toes as distinctly marked as if they had been pressed upon soft wax. The Mijes had this tradition written in characters on skin. Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 299.