refore, as well as the discrepancies, between the ninth
chapter of Genesis and the chapter here translated from the Quiche MS.
require special attention:

'All had but one language, and they did not invoke as yet
either wood or stones; they only remembered the word of the
Creator, the Heart of heaven and earth.

'And they spoke while meditating on what was hidden by the
spring of day; and full of the sacred word, full of love,
obedience, and fear, they made their prayers, and lifting
their eyes up to heaven, they asked for sons and daughters:

'"Hail! O Creator and Fashioner, thou who seest and hearest
us! do not forsake us, O God, who art in heaven and earth,
Heart of the sky, Heart of the earth! Give us offspring and
descendants as long as the sun and dawn shall advance. Let
there be seed and light. Let us always walk on open paths,
on roads where there is no ambush. Let us always be quiet
and in peace with those who are ours. May our lives run on
happily. Give us a life secure from reproach. Let there be
seed for harvest, and let there be light."

'They then proceeded to the town of Tulan, where they
received their gods.

'And when all the tribes were there gathered together, their
speech was changed, and they did not understand each other
after they arrived at Tulan. It was there that they
separated, and some went to the East, others came here. Even
the language of the four ancestors of the human race became
different. "Alas," they said, "we have left our language.
How has this happened? We are ruined! How could we have been
led into error? We had but one language when we came to
Tulan; our form of worship was but one. What we have done is
not good," replied all the tribes in the woods and under the
lianas.'

The rest of the work, which consists altogether of four books, is
taken up with an account of the migrations of the tribes from the
East, and their various settlements. The four ancestors of the race
seem to have had a long life, and when at last they came to die, they
disappeared in a mysterious manner, and left to their sons what is
called the Hidden Majesty, which was never to be opened by human
hands. What it was we do not know. There are many subjects of interest
in the chapters which follow, only we must not look there for history,
although the author ev