MYTHS OF MEXICO AND PERU
the presence of polytheistic as well as monotheistic conceptions.
Antiquity of the "Popol Vuh"
These considerations lead to the assumption that the Popol Vuh is a mythological collection of very considerable antiquity, as the fusion of religious beliefs is a comparatively slow process. It is, of course, in the absence of other data, impossible to fix the date of its origin, even approximately. We possess only the one version of this interesting work, so that we are compelled to confine ourselves to the consideration of that alone, and are without the assistance which philology would lend us by a comparison of two versions of different dates.
The Father-Mother Gods
We discover a pair of dual beings concerned in the Kiche creation. These are Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the Father-Mother deities, and are obviously Kiche equivalents to the Mexican Ometecutli-Omeciuatl, whom we have already noticed (pp. 103-4). The former is the male fructifier, whilst the name of the latter signifies "Female Vigour." These deities were probably regarded as hermaphroditic, as numerous North American Indian gods appear to be, and may be analogous to the "Father Sky" and "Mother Earth" of so many mythologies.
Gucumatz
We also find Gucumatz concerned in the Kiche scheme of creation. He was a Maya-Kiche form of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, or perhaps the converse was the case. The name signifies, like its Nahua equivalent, "Serpent with Green Feathers."
