great descent,” came from the West.[353] Cogolludo disagrees with this view, and considers the eastern colony as the larger; a view which is not likely to be true. The author himself is not quite certain as to what he thinks upon the subject, and contradicts himself squarely on the same page, as to the direction from which Zamna, the Yucatanic culture-hero, is said to have come.[354] Señor Orozco y Berra, thinks that the Yucatanic population came from the north-east (from Florida), by way of Cuba and the islands adjacent.[355] The culture-hero, Zamna, the author of all civilization in Yucatan, is described as the teacher of letters and the leader of the people from their ancient home. His relation to the people and his office of priest and deity combined—the fact that he was the leader of a colony from the East, that he named all the divisions of the land, all the towns, coasts, bays and rivers—identifies him with Votan or rather with one of his disciples or associates. Cogolludo’s statement, first that he came from the West, may be true of the direction from which he came into Yucatan; and the statement that he came from the East, may refer to the original migration by which he in company with Votan reached Chiapas and from thence entered the peninsula on the north-east. He was the founder of the capital city of Mayapan, and after a long life died and was buried at Izamal.[356] This became a shrine for pilgrims and was visited for centuries afterwards by religious devotees in large numbers. Zamna is supposed to have founded the oldest royal house in Yucatan—that of the Cocomes.[357] The second culture-hero, of whom mention is made by all the early writers, was Cukulcan (meaning plumed serpent, precisely the same as Quetzalcoatl), who entered the country from the West and settled at Chichen-Itza.[358] Landa is not certain whether he preceded or followed the Itzas. His celibacy, general purity of morals, and the advanced character of his teachings, seem to identify him with the Nahua culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, and it is believed, with reason, that he appeared in Yucatan after his mysterious disappearance in the province of Goazacoalco. For some unknown reason, Cukulcan left Chichen-Itza after a residence there of ten years. Herrera states that he had two brothers who remained in Chichen-Itza, while Cukulcan went to Mayapan. He describes all as practising the purest asceticism. After the disappearance of Cukulcan, temples were erected to his memory and he was worshiped as a god.[359] The date of his residence in Yucatan is a matter of considerable dispute, Cogolludo placing it in the twelfth century, Herrera in the ninth, Brasseur de Bourbourg in the eleventh, and Bancroft in the second. To fix dates on no better data than such legends is folly. It is probable, however, that Cukulcan was the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, who was the teacher of the Nahua nations and figured as the introducer of the fine arts, of purity of