1885.] -1 *^* [Brinton. 



by the anatomical tei'm " upper extremity." This is not an un- 

 common example in American tongues. When it is necessar}' to 

 define the hand specifically the Mayas say u cheel kab, " the 

 branch of the arm," and for the fingers u nii kab, " the points 

 (literally, noses) of the arm " or upper extremity. 



The shortest measurements known to them appear to have 

 been finger-breadths, which are expressed by this phrase u nii 

 kab. The thumb was called u rid ^a6, literally '' the mother of the 

 hand '* or arm, and as a measure of length the distance from the 

 first joint to the end of the nail was in use and designated by 

 the same term. 



With the hand open and the fingers extended, there were three 

 different measures or spans recognized by the Ma3'as. 



1. The na6, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the mid- 

 dle finger. 



2. The oeonab^ or little wa&, from the tip of the thumb to the 

 tip of the index finger. This is the span yet most in use by the 

 native inhabitants of Yucatan (Dr. Berendt). 



3. The chi 7iab, or the nab which extends to the edge, from 

 the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger (Pio Perez). 



The kok was a hand measure formed b}'^ closing the fingers and 

 extending the thumb. Measuring from the outer border of the 

 hand to the end of the thumb, it would be about seven inches. 



The cue or noch cue (noch, is a term applied to a bony promi- 

 nence, in this instance to the olecranon) was the cubit, and was 

 measured from the summit of the olecranon to the end of the 

 fingers, about eighteen inches. 



The most important of the longer measures was the zajj or 

 zapal. It was the distance between the extremities of the ex- 

 tended arms, and is usually put down at a fathom or six feet. 



The half of it was called betan or pdtan, meaning "to the 

 middle of the chest." Canes and cords were cut of the fixed 

 length of the zap and bore the name zapalche, za^-sticks, as our 

 yard-stick (che = stick), and hilpjiiz, measuring rods (/ii'Z, a 

 species of cane, and j^pi^, to measure. Dice. Motul). 



On this as a unit, the customary land measure was based. It 

 was the kaan, one shorter, hun kaan tah ox zapalche, a kaan of 

 three zap, and one longer, hun kaan tah can zapalche, a kaan 

 of four zap. The former is stated to be thirty -six fathoms 



