SBLER] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 305 



One reflection in particulnr is forced on us while considering 

 these antiquities peculiar to the Zapotec country. The types are 

 very uniform and very characteristic, and in them can be recognized, 

 i-trictly speaking, only the old creative god (fire god?), the earth 

 goddess, Tepeyollotl, and perhaps a war god. Among the genuine 

 Zapotec antiquities there is no trace to be found of the crowded 

 Oljanpus of the picture writings and its very characteristic figures, 

 particularly the forms of Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Xipe, and 

 the rest, which we shall meet with again in the frieze of Mitla, while 

 among the antiquities of the Valle de Mexico and that portion of 

 the highlands bordering upon it the characteristic form of Quetz- 

 alcoatl, at least, is often found. Hence the conclusion seems inevi- 

 table that the cosmogonic representations referring to Quetzalcoatl, 

 explained more fully above, as well as the Olympus with its many 

 personages which meets us in the picture Avritings and which we shall 

 find again in the frieze of Mitla, were not properly national, did not 

 have their roots in the Zapotec country, but represented a superim- 

 posed culture, which owes its origin to the influence of Nahua tribes 

 dating back to prehistoric times. 



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