This contains their legends, written in the original tongue, and transcribed by Father Francisco Ximenes about 1725.

The manuscripts of this missionary were used early in the present century, by Don Felix Cabrera, but were supposed to be entirely lost even by the Abbe Brasseur himself in 1850 (_Lettre a M.le Duc de Valmy_, Mexique, Oct.

15, 1850).

Made aware of their importance by the expressions of regret used in the Abbe's letters, Dr.C.
Sherzer, in 1854, was fortunate enough to discover them in the library of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala.
The legends were in Quiche with a Spanish translation and scholia.
The Spanish was copied by Dr.Scherzer and published in Vienna, in 1856, under the title _Las Historias del Origen de los Indios de Guatemala, por el R.P.F.Francisco Ximenes_.

In 1855 the Abbe Brasseur took a copy of the original which he brought out at Paris in 1861, with a translation of his own, under the title _Vuh Popol: Le Livre Sacre des Quiches et les Mythes de l'Antiquite Americaine_.
Internal evidence proves that these legends were written down by a converted native some time in the seventeenth century.