Let us now analyze the Maya title Kukulcan, of which Quetzalcoatl is the Mexican equivalent. As already stated, the word _can_ means serpent and the numeral 4 and is almost homonymous with the word for sky or heaven=_caan_. The image of a serpent, therefore, directly suggested and expressed the idea of something quadruple incorporated in one celestial being and appropriately symbolized the divine ruler of the four quarters. In the word Kukulcan the noun _can_ is qualified by the prefix _kukul_. In the compiled Maya dictionary published by Brasseur de Bourbourg (appendix to de Landa’s Relacion) the adjective _ku_ or _kul_ is given as “divine or holy.” Kukulcan may therefore be analyzed as “the divine serpent” or the “Divine Four.” When Maya sculptors or scribes began to represent this symbol of the divinity they must have searched for some object, easy to depict, the sound of whose name resembled that of ku or kul. The Maya adjective “feathered” being _kukum_, the artists evidently devised the plan of representing, as an effigy of the divinity, a serpent decorated with feathers and to this simple attempt at representing the “divine serpent” in sculpture or pictography is due, in my opinion, the origin of the “feathered serpent” effigies found in Yucatan and Mexico, which have so puzzled archaeologists. Of Kukulcan, the culture-hero of the Mayas, it is recounted that he had been one of four brothers who originally ruled at Chichen-Itza, over four tribes. “These brothers chose no wives but lived chastely and ruled righteously, until, at a certain time, one died or departed and two began to act unjustly and were put to death. The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the strife which his brothers’ acts had aroused, directed the minds of the people to the arts of peace and caused to be built various edifices. After he had completed his work at Chichen-Itza he founded the great city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the confederacy of the Mayas.” (See Brinton, Hero-myths, p. 162.) Friar Diego de Landa relates that the current opinion amongst the Indians of Yucatan was that this ruler had gone to Mexico where, after his return (departure?) he was named Cezalcouatl and revered as one of their gods (Relacion, ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 36). Before analyzing the Nahuatl rendering of Kukulcan’s name I would point out the noteworthy coincidence that, during his reign at Chichen-Itza and Mayapan, he practically united in his person and assumed the offices formerly fulfilled by four rulers, of which he had been only one.