dence of tradition would clearly
prove that at the arrival of Votan the great proportion of the
inhabitants, from the Isthmus of Panama to the territories of
California, were in a savage condition. The builders of the Cyclopean
ruins were the only exception.

[Footnote A: The resemblance of this name to the Teutonic Wuotan or Odin
is certainly striking and will afford a new argument to the enthusiastic
Rafn, and other advocates of a Scandinavian colonization of
America.--Edd.]

The various traditions agree that this elevated being, the father of
American civilization, inculcated first of all a belief in a Supreme
Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. It is a singular fact, that the
ancient Quiche tradition represents the Deity as a Triad, or Trinity,
with the deified heroes arranged in orders below,--a representation not
improbably connected with the Hindoo conception. The belief in a Supreme
Being seems to have been generally diffused among the Central American
and Mexican tribes, even as late as the arrival of the Spaniards. The
Mexicans adored Him under the name of Ipalnemoaloni, or "Him in whom and
by whom we are and live." This "God of all purity," as he is
addressed in a Mexican prayer, was too elevated for vulgar thought or
representation. No altars or temples were erected to him; and it was
only under one of the later kings of the Aztec monarchy that a temple
was built to the "Unknown God."--Vol. I. p. 46.

The founders of the early American civilization bear various titles:
they are called "The Master of the Mountain," "The Heart of the Lake,"
"The Master of the Azure Surface," and the like. Even in the native
traditions, the questions are often asked: "Whence came these men?"
"Under what climate were they born?" One authority answers thus
mysteriously: "They have clearly come from the other shore of the
sea,--from the place which is called 'Camuhifal,'--_The place
where is shadow."_ Why may not this singular expression refer to a
Northern country,--a place where is a long shadow, a winter-night?

A singular characteristic of the ancient Indian legends is the mingling
of two separate courses of tradition. In their poetic conceptions, and
perhaps under the hands of their priests, the old myths of the Creation
are constantly confused with the accounts of the first periods of their
civilization.

The following is the most ancient legend of the Creation, from the MSS.
of Chichicastenango, in the Quiche text: "Wh