[Footnote 2: See the _Myths of the New World_, p. 95 (1st ed., New York, 1868). This explanation has since been adopted by Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. His article is entitled _Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque_ in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1879. Compare also Charles Rau, _The Palenque Tablet_, p. 44 (Washington, 1879).] [Footnote 3: "Al pié de aquella misma torre estaba un cercado de piedra y cal, muy bien lucido y almenado, en medio del cual habia una cruz de cal tan alta como diez palmos, á la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de la lluvia, porque quando no llovia y habia falta de agua, iban á ella en procesion y muy devotos; ofrescianle codornices sacrificadas por aplacarle la ira y enojo con que ellos tenia ô mostraba tener, con la sangre de aquella simple avezica." Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Conquista de Mejico_, p. 305 (Ed. Paris, 1852).] Each of the four Bacabs was also called _Acantun_, which means "a stone set up," such a stone being erected and painted of the color sacred to the cardinal point that the Bacab represented[1]. Some of these stones are still found among the ruins of Yucatecan cities, and are to this day connected by the natives with reproductive signs[2]. It is probable, however, that actual phallic worship was not customary in Yucatan. The Bacabs and Itzamná were closely related to ideas of fertility and reproduction, indeed, but it appears to have been especially as gods of the rains, the harvests, and the food supply generally. The Spanish writers were eager to discover all the depravity possible in the religion of the natives, and they certainly would not have missed such an opportunity for their tirades, had it existed. As it is, the references to it are not many, and not clear. [Footnote 1: The feasts of the Bacabs Acantun are described in Landa's work. The name he does not explain. I take it to be _acaan_, past participle of _actal_, to erect, and _tun_, stone. But it may have another meaning. The word _acan_ meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicating hydromel the natives manufactured. The god of this drink also bore the name Acan ("ACAN; el Dios del vino que es Baco," _Diccionario del Convento de Motul_, MS.). It would be quite appropriate for the Bacabs to be gods of wine.] [Footnote 2: Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, Vol. i, p. 434.] From what I have now presented we see that Itzamná came from the distant east, beyond the ocean marge; that he was the teacher of arts and agriculture; that he, moreover, as a divinity, ruled the winds and rains, and sent at his will harvests and prosperity. Can we identify him further with that personification of Light which, as we have already seen, was the dominant figure in other American mythologies?