could invest them with. Codex Vaticanus A tells much the same story regarding Ixnextli and was probably inspired from the same source.
MEXICAN CONCEPTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
No definite account of the Mexican conception of the universe has come down to us, but we are probably founding correctly if we accept the Maya belief as closely approximating to that in general currency in Mexico. An examination of the central design in the Maya Book of Chilan Balam of Mani, given in Cogolludo’s History of Yucatan (1640), shows the earth as a cubical block, by which term it is practically described in the Popol Vuh (“the quadrated castle, four-pointed, four-sided, four-bordered”). This the Maya described as tem (“the altar”), that is, the altar of the gods, the offering upon which was life. Above this cube on four legs is the celestial vase (cum) containing the heavenly waters, rains, and showers, upon which all life depends. Above it hang the rain-clouds which fill it and from it springs the vax che, or Tree of Life, with outspread branches.