symbol of life and power among the Central Americans and Mexicans has ever been a serpent, a fact which may have derived its significance from the meaning of the name of the Votanites together with the power attained by Palenque.[320] Votan’s followers were called Tzequites by their predecessors, probably by the descendants of Igh and Imox, the signification of which term is ‘men with petticoats.’ The Tzendal traditions refer always to the city of Nachan as the capital of the kingdom of the Chanes or Serpents, and the most significant feature of the traditional names of this people is the fact that the name Culhua, applied by the Nahua nations and especially by the Toltecs to a powerful people who had preceeded them at the south, is the exact equivalent of Chanes; the same is true of Culhuacan.[321] The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg obtained a copy of the fragmentary MS. of Ordoñez, which he informs us was written in two separate parts in quarto, at different times. The first or mythological part exists in a copy owned by the Abbé.[322] The second or historical part, if ever written, has never reached the light, and from the description of its contents found in the first part, we should think that the author might have made a rather imaginative historian.[323] While some of the details of the Votanic tradition are not worthy of a moment’s consideration, it is quite certain that in the general facts we have a key to the origin of what all Americanists agree in pronouncing the oldest civilization on this continent, one which was gray and already declining when the Toltecs entered Mexico. There is not the slightest evidence that it originated in any other place than in Chiapas, where it is found, and extended itself into Guatemala, Yucatan, and possibly branched northward in a colony as remote as Culhuacan. Sr. Orozco y Berra has found fifteen languages or dialects to be related to the Maya language, a fact which indicates the age and extent of that remarkable civilization.[324] Sr. Orozco is convinced from linguistic and other researches, that the inhabitants of Cuba and others of the West India Islands were Mayas, and points out the intermediate location of Cuba between Florida and Yucatan. He thinks the earliest home of the Mayas on this continent was on the Atlantic coast of the United States, from whence they emigrated to Cuba and thence to Yucatan.[325] Though we are not fully satisfied that the Mayas ever occupied Florida, it is quite likely that the islands of the Gulf were inhabited by them at an early day. The culture hero Votan is a mystery, and to arrive at his true character or office is simply an impossibility. For those disposed to speculate, there is abundant opportunity.[326] The most interesting traditionary history which has been discovered is that of the Quichés of Guatemala. By the name Quiché, in this immediate connection, we do not mean to speak of that people after they became amalgamated with