As a city-builder, he was spoken of as the founder of Palenque, Nachan, Huehuetlan--in fact, of any ancient place the origin of which had been forgotten. Near the last mentioned locality, Huehuetlan in Soconusco, he was reported to have constructed an underground temple by merely blowing with his breath. In this gloomy mansion he deposited his treasures, and appointed a priestess to guard it, for whose assistance he created the tapirs. Votan brought with him, according to one statement, or, according to another, was followed from his native land by, certain attendants or subordinates, called in the myth _tzequil_, petticoated, from the long and flowing robes they wore. These aided him in the work of civilization. On four occasions he returned to his former home, dividing the country, when he was about to leave, into four districts, over which he placed these attendants. When at last the time came for his final departure, he did not pass through the valley of death, as must all mortals, but he penetrated through a cave into the under-earth, and found his way to "the root of heaven." With this mysterious expression, the native myth closes its account of him.[1] [Footnote 1: The references to the Votan myth are Nuñez de la Vega, _Constituciones Diocesanas, Prologo_ (Romae, 1702); Boturini, _Idea de una Nueva Historia de la America septentrional_, pp. 114, et seq., who discusses the former; Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, _Teatro Critico Americano_, translated, London, 1822; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nations Civilisées de Mexique_, vol. i, chap, ii, who gives some additional points from Ordoñez; and H. de Charencey, _Le Mythe de Votan; Etude sur les Origines Asiatiques de la Civilization Américaine_. (Alencon, 1871).] He was worshiped by the Tzendals as their principal deity and their beneficent patron. But he had a rival in their religious observances, the feared _Yalahau_ Lord of Blackness, or Lord of the Waters. He was represented as a terrible warrior, cruel to the people, and one of the first of men.[1] [Footnote 1: _Yalahau_ is referred to by Bishop Nuñez de la Vega as venerated in Occhuc and other Tzendal towns of Chiapas. He translates it "Señor de los Negros." The terminal _ahau_ is pure Maya, meaning king, ruler, lord; _Yal_ is also Maya, and means water. The god of the waters, of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and the same in mythology, and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove to be Votan's brother and antagonist.] According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan was one of four brothers, the common ancestors of the southwestern branches of the Maya family.[1] [Footnote 1: Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco_, p. 9 (Mexico, 1845).]