1893.] 283 [Brinton. 



but rather to the heaping up of the clouds in the sky on the 

 approach of the rains. 



Compare the Tzental toh-cal^ clouds ; Mame muh, Maya muh- 

 yalj clouds (Stoll, Ethnog. Guatemalas, p. 59). 



The Tenth Day. 



1. Maya, oc ; 2. Tzental, elab ; 3. Quiche -Cak., tzi ; 4. Zapotec, tella ; 

 5. Nahuatl, itzcuintU. 



The Nahuatl and the Quiche-Cak. are the ordinary terms for 

 " dog." Such also, according to Bartolom^ de Pisa, is the mean- 

 ing of the Zapotec tella^ though I do not find it in this sense in 

 the Yocabularies.* Probably it refers to some particular spe- 

 cies. 



The Maya oc has a variety of meanings, as, a foot or foot- 

 print ; a handful ; an entrance (from the verb, ocol., ocoltah, 

 ocolte, to go in) ; a theft or thief (from the verb, ocol, oclah^ ode, 

 to steal). I am inclined to believe that the last-mentioned sense 

 was intended, the dog being characterized as " the stealer,*" as 

 this seems to be the signification of the Tzental elab. The two 

 words given by Lara for " theft " (ladronicio) are elec and ochol, 

 in which we can scarcely fail to recognize the two names of the 

 day in these two dialects. The dog steals in and carries off the 

 meat whenever he gets a chance. The Mayas adopted the term 

 from the stem ochol, because this was the word for theft in their 

 dialect, in which the stem elec, common to the Tzental, Zotzil, 

 Cakchiquel and Quiche', does not appear.f 



The Eleventh Day. 



1. Maya, chuen ; 2. Tzental, batz ; 3. Quiche-Cak., hatz ; 4. Zapotec, loo ; 

 5. Naliuatl, ozomatli. 



The Nahuatl is the term for " monkey ; " batz in Quiche, Cak- 

 chiquel and Tzental also means monke}', specifically a dark- 

 haired, bearded variety. In the Tzental, according to Lara's 

 Vocabulary, another species is called chiu, and this unquestion- 



* " En el pueblo de Coatlan tenian un Cazlque que se llamaba Petella, que significa 

 perro," etc. Herrera, Decadas de Indian, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. xiv. This chief was one of 

 the Zapotec rulers who secretly continued the ancient rites after the introduction of 

 Christianity. Dr. Seler attempts to obtain the meaning " dog " by supposing tella is de- 

 rived from tee-lao, " mouth downward," referring to some myth of a dog falling from the 

 sky. This seems strained. 



t The common term for " wolf" in Tzental and Zotzil is ocquil. 



