1893.] ^^«-' [Briuton. 



Day 8. — The Babbit, the Seed, the Flower Gay-land. 



As the former sign seems to indicate fortune in the chase, so 

 does this one in cultivating the fields. The figure in the full 

 moon was called by the Nahuas " the I'abbit ;" * the animal also 

 symbolized ease, idleness, and especially drunkenness. The god of 

 drunkards bore this name.f This, however, must have been a 

 later application, as the intoxicating pulque was known in but 

 a limited area and probably its invention was much later than 

 the adoption of the sign. 



This and the previous sign seem to refer to the two chief 

 sources of the food supply, hunting and agriculture. 



Day 9. — Water, Thunder-storms. 



The rains may be regarded as the agents of productiveness 

 and the creators of fertility ; or, on the other hand, as those 

 which bring gloomy, sunless days, dampness, chilliness, rheu- 

 matic pains, coughs and disease. The thunder terrifies, the 

 lightning destroys, the floods overwhelm. 



It is from the latter aspect that water is contemplated in this 

 sign. It represented sickness and desolation. Hence, among 

 the Nahuas, it was deemed ominous of evil and its patron was 

 the yellow-visaged god of fire, Ixcocauhqui, indicative of its 

 desolating portent. 



Day 10.— The Dog, the Stealer. 



The dog among the Nahuas was held in small esteem, and was 

 badly treated. " A dog's life," with them, as with us, meant a 

 miserable one. Their verb itzcuinizcaJtia, " to be brought up like 

 a dog," conveyed the same ideas of bad treatment and hardship 

 that the phrase does among ourselves. A very common locution 

 in Nahuatl to signify afliiction is in tetl, in qaahuitl, " with stick 

 and stone," as one treats a dog. 



The dog was closely associated with the notion of death ; the 

 Nahuatl patron of the day was the god of hades, Mictlantecutli, 

 and he was painted with a man in the last stages of misery fol- 



*As do now the common people of India and some Mongolian tribes. See Grimm, 

 Teutonic Mythology, p. 716 (Eng. Trans.). 



tSee my Sacred Songs of the Ancient Mexicans, p. 61 (Philadelphia, 1890), for an illustra- 

 tion of the " Totochtin," or rabbit gods of drunkenness and a hymn to them taken from 

 the unpublished MSS. of Father Sahaguu. 



