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 Peninsula was divided among a number of petty chieftains.

Such was its political condition at the time of the discovery.  There were numerous populous cities, well built of stone and mortar, but their inhabitants were at war with each other and devoid of unity of purpose.[1] Hence they fell a comparatively easy prey to the conquistadors.

[Footnote 1:  Francisco de Montejo, who was the first to explore Yucatan (1528), has left strong testimony to the majesty of its cities and the agricultural industry of its inhabitants.  He writes to the King, in the report of his expedition:  “La tierra es muy poblada y de muy grandes ciudades y villas muy frescas.  Todos los pueblos son una huerta de frutales.” Carta a su Magestad, 13 Abril, 1529, in the Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Tom. xiii.]

Whence came this civilization?  Was it an offshoot of that of the Aztecs?  Or did it produce the latter?