In this chapter we have seen that there is nothing to indicate that the Americans owe their origin to a special act of creation, and further, if they originated by the process of development (for which there is no sufficient evidence), that it was not upon the American continent. We are supported in these conclusions by the most respectable writers on American Ethnology[305] and Antiquities. That the American population is of old world origin there can be little doubt; but from whence it came, and to what particular people or peoples it owes its birth, is quite another question.[306] That view seems open to least objections which maintains that the Western Continent received its population at a comparatively early period in the history of the race, before the peoples of Western Europe and Eastern Asia had assumed their present national characteristics or fully developed their religious and social customs.[307] CHAPTER V. TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MAYA NATIONS. Ancient Civilization of Tabasco and Chiapas — The Tradition of Votan — The First Emigrants to America — City of Nachan — The Votanic Document — Ordoñez — Brasseur and Cabrera on the Tzendal Document — The Empire of the Chanes — The Oldest Civilization — The Earliest Home of the Mayas — The Quichés — Their Origin Tradition — The Quiché Cosmogony — The Creation of Man — The Quiché Migration — Tulan — Mt. Hacavitz — Human Sacrifices instituted — Four Tulans — Association of the Mayas and Nahuas — Heroic Period of the Quichés — Xibalba and its Downfall — Exploits of the Quiché Chieftains — War of the Sects — Xibalba and Palenque the same — Mayas of Yucatan and their Traditions — Culture-Heroes — Zamna and Cukulcan — Christ Myth.