Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX B. EXTEACTS FBOM THE POPUL VUH, OR SACKED BOOK OF THE QUICHE INDIANS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. (See Professor J. G. Dawsons's " Origin of the World/' p. 22: Dawson Brothers, Montreal, 1877.) Professor Dawson, in giving the following extracts from the Quiche Bible or sacred writings, says it is "an undoubted product of prehistoric religion in the Western Continent." He says also in a note that he avails himself of the condemned translation in Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii. "The original French translation of Brasseur du Bourbourg is more full." EXTRACTS. "And the heaven was formed, and all the signs thereof set in their angle and alignment, and its boundaries fixed towards the four winds by the Creator and Former and Mother and Father of life and existence--he by whom all move and breathe, the Father and Cherisher of the peace of nations and of the civilization of his people--he whose wisdom has perfected the excellence of all that is on the earth, or in the lakes, or in the sea. "Behold the first word and the first discourse. There was yet no man, nor any animal . . . nothing was but the firmament. The face of the earth had not yet appeared over the peaceful sea, and all the space of the heaven . . . nothing but immobility and silence in the night. "Alone also the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the Feathered Serpent--those that engender, those that give being --they are upon the water like a growing light. They are enveloped in green and blue, and therefore their name is Gucumatz.1 "Lo! now the heavens exist, now exists also the Heart of Heaven; such is the name of God. It is thus he is called. And they spake; they consulted together and meditated; they mingled their words and their opinions. "And the creation [of the...
