1893.] ^OO [Brintoa. 



a satisfactory rendering of it. I find, however, that in Tzental 

 the dried cornstalk (caiaa de mais seco) is called cagh-ben, and 

 from this I doubt not this day-name in that dialect and the 

 Maya was taken and syncopated. The verb ben or been in Tzen- 

 tal means " to walk, to go ;" but in the above compound the ben 

 is from the Maya stem bene!, to be used up, to be dead (faltar 6 

 quedar algo por hacerse de lo que se hacia, morirse, Dice. Motul). 

 We thus obtain substantially the same meaning for all the 

 names of the day. 



The Fourteenth Day. 



1. Maya, ix {gix, Mx) ; 3. Tzental, liix ; 3. Quiche Cak., halam or Mx ; 

 4. Zapotec, eche ; 5. Nahuatl, ocelotl, or (Pipil) teyollocuani. 



The Nahuatl name oceJofl means tiger, as does the Zapotec 

 eche and the Quiche balam, referring of course to the American 

 tiger or jaguar.* The Pipil teyollocuani^ literally " soul-eater," 

 means sorcerer, as does the Maya, Tzental and Cakchiquel word, 

 hix or ix. The power of transforming themselves into a tiger 

 was one of the peculiar faculties of the sorcerers ; hence they 

 were called by the Quiches, balam, which means both tiger and 

 to transform one's self into one* (7i(^//(7?7i; tigre, 6 hacerse tigre, 

 Ximenes). 



It is probable that ix is a variant of ik'' or igh, wind, breath, 

 life, as Lara gives : " Vuch-igh, 6 Vuch-ix, hechicero que cura 

 soplando," in which vuch is to blow, as the medicine man through 

 a tube ; and igh is air, wind, etc. In the medicine rites over 

 most of the continent, and especially in Central America, blow- 

 ing upon the part or in a certain direction was the leading cere- 

 mony. 



TJie Fifteenth Day. 



1. Maya, men; 2. Tzental, tziquin ; 3. Quiche-Cak., tziquin ; Zapotec, 

 naa or naa; 5. Nahuatl, quauhtli. 



The Nahuatl quauhtli, eagle, and the Tzental and Quiche tzi- 

 quin, bird in general, are sufflcientl}^ alike to show a common 

 origin. 



The Zapotec naa is identified by Dr. Seler with naa, mother; 

 but I believe it is from the widely extended root word, na or na, 



* The full form in Zapotec is be-cche-guia. 



