| with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were | | habited in the Castilian costume.” The same author relates that at | | “a short distance, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the | | columns of which were the figures of men likewise represented in | | Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and | | short cloak”.... | | | | “All the circumstances,” observes Juarros, “lead to a belief that | | there must have been some intercourse between the inhabitants of | | the old and new world at very remote periods.” | | | | The information given traditionally by the Indians living at | | Copan, is singularly in accordance with the traditions of the | | priests and caciques in Mexico and Yucatan with respect to the | | arrival of a stranger who commanded temples and pyramids to be | | built and then went away and never returned. | | | | It is remarkable that, in the first interview between Montezuma | | and Cortes, a singular tradition was mentioned by that Emperor. | | Cortes in his second letter (Segunda carta-relacion) dated 30th | | October, 1520, relates that Montezuma spoke to him as follows:—“We | | know from our writings that we received from our ancestors, that I | | and all those who live in this land are not the natives of it. We | | are strangers and came into it from very distant regions. We also | | know that our nation was led here by a chief whose vassals all | | were. He afterwards went back to his native country. Afterwards he | | returned and found that those he had left had married the native | | women (mujeres naturales) and had many children, and had built | | villages where they lived, and when he wished them to proceed with | | him they did not want to go, or even receive him as their chief | | and therefore he went away.” | | | | [112] The author of the Popol Vuh, does not mention the tradition | | about Votan. | | | | [113] Las Casas in commenting upon the subject of the Cozumel | | cross, mentions that it was ten palms high. In the course of | | the extensive explorations carried out by M. Desiré Charnay, in | | 1880–82, a similar stone was discovered at Téotihuacan. It is | | considered to be the emblem of Tlaloc, the god of rain. | | |