Sec.1. The Culture Hero, Itzamna.

To this ancient leader, Itzamna, the nation alluded as their guide, instructor and civilizer.  It was he who gave names to all the rivers and divisions of land; he was their first priest, and taught them the proper rites wherewith to please the gods and appease their ill-will; he was the patron of the healers and diviners, and had disclosed to them the mysterious virtues of plants; in the month Uo they assembled and made new fire and burned to him incense, and having cleansed their books with water drawn from a fountain from which no woman had ever drunk, the most learned of the sages opened the volumes to forecast the character of the coming year.

It was Itzamna who first invented the characters or letters in which the Mayas wrote their numerous books, and which they carved in such profusion on the stone and wood of their edifices.  He also devised their calendar, one more perfect even than that of the Mexicans, though in a general way similar to it[1].

[Footnote 1:  The authorities on this phase of Itzamna’s character are Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. iii; Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, pp. 285, 289, and Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria, Arte del Idioma Maya, p. 16.  The latter has a particularly valuable extract from the now lost Maya Dictionary of F. Gabriel de San Buenaventura.  “El primero que hallo las letras de la lengua Maya e hizo el computo de los anos, meses y edades, y lo enseno todo a los Indios de esta Provincia, fue un Indio llamado Kinchahau, y por otro nombre Tzamna.  Noticia que debemos a dicho R.F.  Gabriel, y trae en su Calepino, lit.  K. verb.  Kinchahau, fol. 390, vuelt.”]

As city-builder and king, his history is intimately associated with the noble edifices of Itzamal, which he laid out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting wise laws and extending the power and happiness of his people for an indefinite period.

Thus Itzamna, regarded as ruler, priest and teacher, was, no doubt, spoken of as an historical personage, and is so put down by various historians, even to the most recent[1].  But another form in which he appears proves him to have been an incarnation of deity, and carries his history from earth to heaven.  This is shown in the very earliest account we have of the Maya mythology.

[Footnote 1:  Crescencio Carrillo, Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 144, Merida, 1881.  Though obliged to differ on many points with this indefatigable archaeologist, I must not omit to state my appreciation and respect for his earnest interest in the language and antiquities of his country.  I know of no other Yucatecan who has equal enthusiasm or so just an estimate of the antiquarian riches of his native land.]