{p. 244}

Vladimir--that is to say, without the light of the sun. At length the
sun goes to seek him, expecting to find him starved to death; but the
king's daughter has sent him food every day for _three years_, and he
comes out of the cave hale and hearty, and ready to fight again for
Vladimir, the Fair Sun.[1] These three years are the three years of
the "Fimbul-winter" of the Norse legends.

I have already quoted (see chapter viii, Part Ill, page 216, _ante_)
the legends of the Central American race, the Quiches, preserved in
the "Popul Vuh," their sacred book, in which they describe the Age of
Darkness and cold. I quote again, from the same work, a graphic and
wonderful picture of the return of the sun

"They determined to leave Tulan, and the greater part of them, under
the guardianship and direction of Tohil, set out to see where they
would take up their abode. They continued on their way amid the most
extreme hardships for the want of food; sustaining themselves at one
time upon the mere smell of their staves, and by imagining they were
eating, when in verity and truth they ate nothing. Their heart,
indeed, it is again and again said, was almost broken by affliction.
Poor wanderers! they had a cruel way to go, many forests to pierce,
many stern mountains to overpass, and a long passage to make through
the sea, along _the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand_--the sea
being, however, parted for their passage. At last they came to a
mountain, that they named Hacavitz, after one of their gods, and here
they rested--for here they were by some means given to understand
that _they should see the sun_. Then, indeed, was filled with an