He translates it "Senor de los Negros." The terminal _ahau_ is pure Maya, meaning king, ruler, lord; _Yal_ is also Maya, and means water.

The god of the waters, of darkness, night and blackness, is often one and the same in mythology, and probably had we the myth complete, he would prove to be Votan's brother and antagonist.] According to an unpublished work by Fuentes, Votan was one of four brothers, the common ancestors of the southwestern branches of the Maya family.[1] [Footnote 1: Quoted in Emeterio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco_, p.

9 (Mexico, 1845).] All these traits of this popular hero are too exactly similar to those of the other representatives of this myth, for them to leave any doubt as to what we are to make of Votan.

Like the rest of them, he and his long-robed attendants are personifications of the eastern light and its rays.

Though but uncritical epitomes of a fragmentary myth about him remain, they are enough to stamp it as that which meets us so constantly, no matter where we turn in the New World.[1] [Footnote 1: The title of the Tzendal MSS., is said by Cabrera to be "Proof that I am a Chan." The author writes in the person of Votan himself, and proves his claim that he is a Chan, "because he is a Chivim." Chan has been translated _serpent_; on _chivim_ the commentators have almost given up.