and characteristics with the original home of each race “across the sea.” The Quiché record furnishes us with the account of an epoch in the early Quiché history which we are justified in characterizing as their heroic period. It occupies the same place in their history as the Trojan war in the history of Greece. The tradition of the fall of Xibalba, the terror of its neighbors, the power which by its enemies was called infernal, is a heroic composition founded on a combination of events as mysterious and wonderful as those contained in the Iliad itself. To locate the events in their proper place, to assign them their true period, is attended with as many difficulties as attend the Homeric history. The authorities differ as to the proper chronologic order of the record. The _Popol Vuh_, both in the Ximinez and Brasseur editions, give the narrative to which we have reference immediately after the destruction of the men made of pith or wood—the result of the first creation. Mr. Bancroft is somewhat indifferent about the order and follows the narrative. Brasseur de Bourbourg, however, considers that chronologically the narrative follows the third creation, that of the four founders of the Quiché race.[340] If we look upon the so-called creations as simply tribal origins and not as mythical accounts of the origin of man, there is room for the heroic period before the days of the four ancestors of the Quichés; but if, on the contrary, the two creations preceding that of Balam-Quitzé and his associates are mythical, are the legendary accounts of a fancied order in creation and not the origin of tribes, the view taken by the Abbé is the only one which can be accepted. The question cannot at present be definitely settled. If we resort to the latter view, that of the Abbé, it is necessary for us to suppose that the long reign of Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam is that of a line, a dynasty, and not of individuals—which is altogether probable. Brasseur supposes the time of which the tradition speaks to have been about fifteen centuries before the Spanish conquest, and thinks Copan was the capital of a province called Payaqui (“in the Yaqui,” which we have seen was the name of the Nahuas), and that this capital, otherwise known as Chiquimula, owed its origin to a warrior known as Balam, who introduced human sacrifices. His authority is the _Isagoge Historico MS._ cited by Pelaez, to whose work we have already referred.[341] To attempt to determine upon the time definitely would be a hopeless undertaking. The mysterious tradition with its confused statements and allegorical allusions we will attempt to condense into intelligible shape. This has already been accomplished by Mr. Bancroft, and his version greatly facilitates our efforts in the same direction.