e
prophetess of the Voeluspa:--

"Shall arise a second time,
Earth from ocean, green and fair,
The waters ebb, the eagles fly,
Snatch the fish from out the flood.

"Once again the wondrous runes,
Golden tablets, shall be found;
Mystic runes by Aesir carved,
Gods who ruled Fiolnir's line.

"Then shall fields unseeded bear,
Ill shall flee, and Balder come,
Dwell in Odin's highest hall,
He and all the happy gods.

"Outshines the sun that mighty hall,
Glitters gold on heaven's hill;
There shall god-like princes dwell,
And rule for aye a happy world."

CHAPTER IV.

THE HERO-GODS OF THE MAYAS.

CIVILIZATION OF THE MAYAS--WHENCE IT ORIGINATED--DUPLICATE TRADITIONS.

Sec.1. _The Culture Hero Itzamna._

ITZAMNA AS RULER, PRIEST AND TEACHER--AS CHIEF GOD AND CREATOR OF THE
WORLD--LAS CASAS' SUPPOSED CHRIST MYTH--THE FOUR BACABS--ITZAMNA AS LORD
OF THE WINDS AND RAINS--THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS--AS LORD OF THE LIGHT AND
DAY--DERIVATION OF HIS VARIOUS NAMES.

Sec.2. _The Culture Hero Kukulcan_.

KUKULCAN AS CONNECTED WITH THE CALENDAR--MEANING OF THE NAME--THE MYTH OF
THE FOUR BROTHERS--KUKULCAN'S HAPPY RULE AND MIRACULOUS
DISAPPEARANCE--RELATION TO QUETZALCOATL--AZTEC AND MAYA
MYTHOLOGY--KUKULCAN A MAYA DIVINITY--THE EXPECTED RETURN OF THE
HERO-GODS--THE MAYA PROPHECIES--THEIR EXPLANATION.

The high-water mark of ancient American civilization was touched by the
Mayas, the race who inhabited the peninsula of Yucatan and vicinity. Its
members extended to the Pacific coast and included the tribes of Vera Paz,
Guatemala, and parts of Chiapas and Honduras, and had an outlying branch
in the hot lowlands watered by the River Panuco, north of Vera Cruz. In
all, it has been estimated that they numbered at the time of the Conquest
perhaps two million souls. To them are due the vast structures of Copan,
Palenque and Uxmal, and they alone possessed a mode of writing which
rested distinctly on a phonetic basis.

The zenith of their prosperity had, however, been passed a century before
the Spanish conquerors invaded their soil. A large part of the peninsula
of Yucatan had been for generations ruled in peace by a confederation of
several tribes, whose capital city was Mayapan, ten leagues south of where
Merida now stands, and whose ruins still cover many hundred acres of the
plain. Somewhere about the year 1440 there was a general revolt of the
eastern provinces; Mayapan itself was assaulted and destroyed, and the
Pen