animated beings are the calm and tranquillity of Ocean, over which a
sail is flying towards an unknown shore; and the first aspect of the
shores of America, with its mighty mountains and great rivers, is
confounded with the first appearance of the earth from the chaos of
waters.

"This is the first word," says the Quiche text. "There were neither men,
nor animals, nor birds, nor fishes, nor wood, nor stones, nor valleys,
nor herbs, nor forests. There was only the heaven. The image of the
earth did not yet show itself. There was only the sea, on all sides
surrounded by the heaven ... Nothing had motion, and not the least sigh
agitated the air ... In the midst of this calm and this tranquillity,
was only the Father and the Maker, in the obscurity of the night; there
were only the Fathers and Generators on the whitening water, and they
were clad in azure raiment... And it is on account of them that heaven
exists, and exists equally the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of
God."--Vol. I. p. 51. [B]

[Footnote B: Compare the Hindoo conception, translated from one of the
old Vedic legends, in Bunsen's _Philosophy of History_:--

"Nor Aught nor Nought existed; yon bright
sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad roof outstretched
above.
What covered all? What sheltered? What
concealed?
Was it the waters' fathomless abyss?
There was not death,--yet was there nought
immortal.