1891.] ^* [Brinton. 



"They say farther that he once dwelt in Iluehuetan, a town in the pro- 

 vince of Soconusco. Near tliere, at the place culled Tlazoaloyan, he 

 constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put tapirs in 

 the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left all in charge of a 

 noble lady, assisted by guardians (tlapiane) to preserve. This treasure 

 consisted of earthenware vases with covers of the same material; a stone, 

 on which were inscribed the figures of the ancient native heroes as found 

 in the calendar ; chalchiuites, which are green stones ; and other super- 

 stitious objects. 



" All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the 

 plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit there in 

 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge and the guar- 

 dians. All the Indians have great respect for tliis Votan, and in some 

 places they call him 'the Heart of the Towns.' "* 



The English pi-iest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish 

 among the Pokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1G30, relates 

 his discovery of such a cave, in which the idol was preserved, 

 and gives this description of it : 



"We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen 

 cloth. The substance of it was w^ood, black shining like jet, as if it had 

 been painted or smoked ; the form was of a man's head unto the shoul- 

 ders, without either Beard or Mustaclioes ; his look was grim, with a 

 wrinkled forehead, and broad staring ej'es. 



"They boasted of this their god, saying that he had plainly told them 

 they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but follow the old 

 ways of their forefathers."! 



The black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient s^'mbol- 

 isLi, referring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the 

 holy cavern. Yetancurt informs us that the priests of the 

 ancient paganism were accustomed to rub their faces and bodies 

 with an ointment of fat and pine soot when they went to sacri- 

 fice in the forests, so that they looked as black as negroes | In 

 the extract from Nunez de la Vega already given, leal Ahau, 

 the " Black King," is named as one of the divinities of the 

 nagualists. 



In some parts the principal idol found in the caves was the 



* Constituciones Diocesanas, pp. 9, 10. 



t Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, pp. 389, 393. 



t Teatro Mexicano, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. Baudelier has called attention to the nam- 

 ing of one of the principal chiefs among the Aztecs, Tlilanculqui, "Man of the Dark 

 House," and thinks it related to the Votan myth. Twelfth Annual Report of tlie Peabody 

 Museum, p. 689. 



