The "Codex Chimalpopoca"--a Nahua, Central
American record--tells us that the third era of the world, or "third
sun," is called, Quia Tonatiuh, or sun of rain, "because in this age
there fell a rain of fire, all which existed burned, and there fell a
rain of gravel;" the rocks "boiled with tumult, and there also arose the
rocks of vermilion color." In other words, the traditions of these
people go back to a great cataclysm of fire, when the earth possibly
encountered, as in the Egyptian story, one of "the bodies moving round
the earth and in the heavens;" they had also memories of "the Drift
Period," and of the outburst of Plutonic rocks. If man has existed on
the earth as long as science asserts, he must have passed through many
of the great catastrophes which are written upon the face of the planet;
and it is very natural that in myths and legends he should preserve some
recollection of events so appalling and destructive.
Among the early Greeks Pan was the ancient god; his wife was Maia. The
Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg calls attention to the fact that Pan was
adored in all parts of Mexico and Central America; and at Panuco, or
Panca, literally Panopolis, the Spaniards found, upon their entrance
into Mexico, superb temples and images of Pan.
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