QUETZALCOATL QUICHES 149 complete his astronomical studies ; and on his return in 1826, he was charged with super- intending the building of an observatory, of which he was director until his death. Be- tween 1827 and 1829 he visited England, Scot- land, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. He was perpetual secretary of the academy of sciences of Belgium, president of the central statistical committee, and corresponding mem- ber of the French institute. His most impor- tant publications are : Recherches sur la repro- duction et la mortality et sur la population de la Belgique (1832) ; De V influence des saisons sur la mortalite aux different^ ages (1838); Sur la theorie des probability appliquees aux sciences morales et politiques (1846); Du sys- teme social et des lois que le regissent (1848) ; Sur la statistique morale et les principes qui doivent en former la base (1848); and Anthro- pometrie (1873). From 1833 he published an Annuaire de Vobservatoire de Bruxelles. QIETZALCOATL (i. e., the serpent or the twin with peacock or trogon feathers), the name of a mythical personage introduced into Mex- ican mythology by the Huastecas, a branch of the Mayas, who came, according to tradi- tion, in boats along the coast and settled at Panuco, without opposition from the former possessors, though in course of time they held their own against the Otomies, Nahoas, and Chichimecas, till they were finally conquered by the great monarch Nezahualcoyotl. The Natchez are supposed to have been also a part of this body of emigrants. This mythical per- sonage appeared in a long white robe, hold- ing a statf, and introduced the honors paid to the cross. He taught the people many arts, introduced a system of worship, and finally returned to Yucatan according to Mexican tradition, though in Yucatan, where he is known as Cuculcan, they make him return to Mexico. The accounts given of him are not always consistent, and may apply to a series who bore the name. He was ultimately hon- ored as a god, and especially as the god of rain. The religious ideas introduced by him were not confined to the Huastecas, but ex- tended to the whole Mexican empire. QCEVEDO T YILLEGiS, Francisco Gomez de, a Spanish author, born in Madrid, Sept. 26, 1580, died at Villanueva de los Infantes, Sept. 8, 1645. He was educated at the university of Alcala, and took a degree in theology at the age of 15. Having killed a nobleman in a duel, he fled to Sicily, where the viceroy, the duke of Osuna, gave him honorable employment, and on his removal to Naples made him minister of finance. Cfo. visiting Madrid on diplomatic business, he was pardoned and received a pen- sion. He was concerned in the conspiracy of the marquis of Bedmar against Venice (16*18), and narrowly escaped from that city with his life. After the disgrace of his patron (1620) he was kept a prisoner at his country seat, La Torre de Juan Abad, for three years and a half, but was released without trial. He pub- lished in 1631 a collection of the poetry of Luis de Leon, and Poesias del bacMller de la Torre, being probably the work of Quevedo himself. Being falsely accused in 1639 of wri- ting some satirical verses which had been laid under the king's napkin at dinner, he was kept for nearly four years in rigorous confinement, where he contracted diseases from which he never recovered. His papers having been twice seized by the government, the greater part of his works have never been printed. Among his published writings are treatises " On the Providence of God ;" " God's Politics and Christ's Government," in which he en- deavors to collect a complete body of political philosophy from the example of the Saviour ; "On a Holy Life;" "The Militant Life of a Christian," &c. His most celebrated works are his prose satires, more witty than delicate. Among these are his "History and Life of the great Sharper, Paul of Segovia" (1627); his treatise " On all Things, and many more;" "The Tale of Tales;" and "Letters of the Knight of the Forceps" (Cartas del cavallero de la Tenaza, 1635). His Suenos, or " Visions," perhaps the most popular and effective of his satires, were published collectively in 1635, and translated into English by Sir Eoger L'Estrange in 1708. A collection of Quevedo's poetry was made by Salas in 1648, another by Alderete in 1670, under the title of "The Spanish Parnas- sus, divided into two Summits, with the Nine Castilian Muses." There is a complete edition of his works by Sancho (11 vols. 8vo, Madrid, 1790-'94), and a later collection by Guerra y Orbe (Madrid, 1852). A translation of the satirical works appeared at Edinburgh in 1798. QtlCHES, Kiehes, or Vtlatecas, a semi-civilized nation of Guatemala, occupying at the time of the conquest the greater part of what is now called Los Altos, or the highlands of Guate- mala, including the districts of Quiche, Totoni- capam, and Quesaltenango. Their traditions indicate that they sprung from the Toltec stock. Their records, as written out by mem- bers of the royal house immediately after the conquest, give a long array of kings, and imply a high antiquity. It seems that the Kachi- quels and Zutugils were once embraced in the Quich6 kingdom, and that their separation was the act of the king Acxopil, who divided his power with his two sons, retaining to him- self the capital and surrounding regions, which preserved the name of Quiche These three divisions, subsequently becoming hostile, were easily conquered by the Spaniards. Alvarado encountered his most vigorous resistance in Quiche^, where the king, Tecum-Umam, went out to meet him, according to the chroniclers, with 232,000 men. They fought with great bravery, but musketry and cannon, and above all the terror inspired by the Spanish horse, proved too powerful for the rude means of re- sistance at their command. The battle lasted six days, the Indians fighting desperately as they fell back. The king at last was slain by
