se aided him in the work of civilization. On
four occasions he returned to his former home, dividing the country, when
he was about to leave, into four districts, over which he placed these
attendants.

When at last the time came for his final departure, he did not pass
through the valley of death, as must all mortals, but he penetrated
through a cave into the under-earth, and found his way to "the root of
heaven." With this mysterious expression, the native myth closes its
account of him.[1]

[Footnote 1: The references to the Votan myth are Nunez de la Vega,
_Constituciones Diocesanas, Prologo_ (Romae, 1702); Boturini, _Idea de una
Nueva Historia de la America septentrional_, pp. 114, et seq., who
discusses the former; Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_,
translated, London, 1822; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nations
Civilisees de Mexique_, vol. i, chap, ii, who gives some additional points
from Ordonez; and H. de Charencey, _Le Mythe de Votan; Etude sur les
Origines Asiatiques de la Civilization Americaine_. (Alencon, 1871).]

He was worshiped by the Tzendals as their principal deity and their
beneficent patron. But he had a rival in their religious observances, the
feared _Yalahau_ Lord of Blackness, or Lord of the Waters. He was
represented as a terrible warrior, cruel to the people, and one of the
first of men.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Yalahau_ is referred to by Bishop Nunez de la Vega as
venerated in Occhuc and other Tzendal towns of Chiapas. He translates it
"Senor de los Negros." The terminal _ahau_ is pure Maya, meaning king,
ruler, lord; _Yal_ is also Maya, and means water. The god of the waters,
of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and the same in mythology,
and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove to be Votan's
brother and antagonist.]

According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan was one of four
brothers, the common ancestors of the southwestern branches of the Maya
family.[1]

[Footnote 1: Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas
y Soconusco_, p. 9 (Mexico, 1845).]

All these traits of this popular hero are too exactly similar to those of
the other representatives of this myth, for them to leave any doubt as to
what we are to make of Votan. Like the rest of them, he and his long-robed
attendants are personifications of the eastern light and its rays. Though
but uncritical epitomes of a fragmentary myth about him remain, they are
enoug