There appear to be grounds for believing that the parent deities
Xpiyacoc and Xmucane are but derivations from Gucumatz, and represent
the male and female attributes of that god. In the "Popol Vuh"
they are spoken of as being "covered with green feathers," the usual
description of Gucumatz; but it is, of course, possible that they may
have received some of his attributes in the general jumble of myths
which, we have attempted to show, exists in the first book. Gucumatz,
it will be remembered, is Quetzalcohuatl in another form, and the
latter is often represented in the papyri as having a woman sitting
opposite to him. She does not, however, appear to be at all analogous
to Messrs. Förstemann and Schellhas's "Goddess I," whom I take to
represent the Mayan equivalent of Xmucane, and who wears on her head
the knotted serpent, a reptile characteristic of Quetzalcohuatl.