[the cross,] which shall make all the Gods to flee and fall. This nation
shall rule all the earth, giving peace to those who shall receive it in
peace and who will abandon vain images to adore an only God, whom these
bearded men adore." (Vol. II. p. 594.) M. de Bourbourg does not vouch
for the pure origin of the tradition, but suggests that the wise men of
the Quiche empire already saw that it contained in itself the elements
of destruction, and had already heard rumors of the wonderful white race
which was soon to sweep away the last vestiges of the Central American
governments.

[NOTE.--We cannot but think that our correspondent receives the
traditions reported by M. de Bourbourg with too undoubting faith. Some
of them seem to us to bear plain marks of an origin subsequent to the
Spanish Conquest, and we suspect that others have been considerably
modified in passing through the lively fancy of the Abbé. Even
Ixtlilxochitl, who, as a native and of royal race, must have had access
to all sources of information, and who had the advantage of writing more
than three centuries ago, seems to have looked on the native traditions
as extremely untrustworthy. See Prescott's _History of the Conquest of
Mexico_, Vol. I. p. 12, note.--EDD.]

* * * * *


ROGER PIERCE

The Man With Two Shadows.


"There is ever a black spot in our sunshine." Carlyle.