Note X-54 — Chapter X · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Chan, 'snake,' was the name of a tribe of Lacandones, near Palenque, known also as Colhuas, Chanes, or Quinames. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 109. The book referred to or a copy of it, written in the Tzendal or Quiché language, was in the possession of Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who published short extracts of it in his Constitut. Diœces, but seems to have had it burned, together with other native relics, in 1691, at Huehuetan. Previous to this, however, Ordoñez y Aguiar had obtained a copy of it, written in Latin characters, and gave a résumé of the contents in his Hist. del Cielo, MS. This author contradicts himself by stating, in one part of his MS., that the original was written by a descendant of Votan. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, pp. lxxxvii., cviii.; Tschudi's Peruvian Antiq., p. 12; Cabrera, Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., pp. 33-4. Cabrera, who bases his account of the myth on Ordoñez' rendering, which he at times seems to have misunderstood and mutilated, thinks that Chivim refers to Tripoli, and it is the same as Hivim or Givim, the Phœnician word for snake, which, again, refers to Hivites, the descendants of Heth, son of Canaan. Votan's expression, as given in his book, 'I am a snake, a Chivim,' signifies 'I am a Hivite from Tripoli.' Teatro, in Rio's Descrip., p. 34, et seq.