cal lore of the Quiches seem to have their root
in the beliefs and facts of a time far more ancient than the national
beginning of this people. In assuming the form in which we find them,
they must have passed through several phases of growth, which changed
their appearance and obscured their meaning. Manifestly the history of
the country did not begin with the Quiches. The account of the creation,
with every thing else in this cosmogony and mythology, is original, like
the civilization to which they belong.

According to the "Popol-Vuh," the world had a beginning. There was a
time when it did not exist. Only "Heaven" existed, below which all space
was an empty, silent, unchanging solitude. Nothing existed there,
neither man, nor animal, nor earth, nor tree. Then appeared a vast
expanse of water on which divine beings moved in brightness. "They said
'earth!' and instantly the earth was created. It came into being like a
vapor; mountains rose above the waters like lobsters and were made. Thus
was the earth created by the Heart of Heaven." Next came the creation of
animals; but the gods were disappointed because the animals could
neither tell their names nor worship the Heart of Heaven.

Therefore it was resolved that man should be created. First, man was
made of earth, but his flesh had no cohesion; he was inert, could not
turn his head, and had no mind, although he could speak; therefore he
was consumed in the water. Next, men were made of wood, and these
multiplied, but they had neither heart nor intellect, and could not
worship, and so they withered up and disappeared in the waters. A third
attempt followed: man was made of a tree called tzite, and woman of the
pith of a reed; but these failed to think, speak, or worship, and were
destroyed, all save a remnant which still exists as a race of small
monkeys found in forests.

A fourth attempt to create the human race was successful, but the
circumstances attending this creation are veiled in mystery. It took
place before the beginning of dawn, when neither sun nor moon had risen,
and was a wonder-work of the Heart of Heaven. Four men were created, and
they could reason, speak, and see in such a manner as to know all things
at once. They worshiped the Creator with thanks for existence, but the
gods, dismayed and scared, breathed clouds on their eyes to limit their
vision, and cause them to be men and not gods. Afterward, while the four
men were asleep, the gods made fo