[III-20] See vol. iii., pp. 42-4, note 1, for a bibliographical notice of the _Popol Vuh_.
[III-21] _Popol Vuh_, pp. 1-5; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 4-5.
[III-23] _Popol Vuh_, pp. 5-31; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 5-14.
[III-25] Or, as Brasseur translates, 'the remnant of those that were drowned,' etc.
[III-26] pp. 31-67; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 15-29.
[III-27] Ximenez, p. 29, conveys the idea, however, that it is only from ignorance that so little is told, and not from a desire to be mysterious.
[III-28] Ximenez renders this word by 'infierno,' or hell. No satisfactory meaning can be derived from its etymology.
[III-29] Carchah is the name of an Indian town in Vera Paz.
[III-30] _Casa lobrega, maison ténébreuse_. It will be remembered that Votan is said to have established a House of Gloom at Huehuetan. See p. 160.
[III-31] A ballet, according to Brasseur, still performed by the natives of Guatemala, clad in wooden masks and peculiar costumes.
[III-32] The place whence the brothers started to contend against the princes of Xibalba, seems to have been Utatlan in Guatemala--see vol. iv., pp. 124-8--for Gumarcaah the Quiché name of that place is said to signify 'house of old withered canes.' Moreover, Torquemada and Las Casas have preserved the tradition that Exbalanquen (Xbalanque) set out from Utatlan for the conquest of hell. _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 53; _Hist. Apologética_, MS., cap. 125. Xibalba doubtless had the signification of the infernal regions in the popular traditions.
[III-33] _Popol Vuh_, pp. 68-192; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 29-79.
[III-38] _Popol Vuh_, pp. 245-7; _Ximenez_, _Hist. Ind. Guat._, pp. 98-9.
[III-39] Notes to _Popol Vuh_, pp. lxxxv, ccliv.
[III-41] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 139-45.
[III-43] According to Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 59, the name should be Temoanchan to agree exactly with Sahagun's definition, 'vamos á nuestra casa.' The same author heard an Indian of Guatemala define the name as an earthly paradise. _Popol Vuh_, pp. lxxviii-lxxix.
[III-44] Brasseur believes that the Oxomoco and Cipactonal of the Nahua myth, are the same as the Xpiyacoc and Xmucane of the _Popol Vuh_, since the former are two of the inventors of the calendar, while the latter are called grandmothers of the sun and light. _Popol Vuh_, pp. 4, 20.