SEi.ER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 37 



some extent incriisted upon the form of the words used to denote the 

 days. We can therefore detach a prolix from all of the names of the 

 word, which is very nearly the same for all the signs connected with 

 the same number. There are a few exceptions, which were perhaps 

 due to an oversight or an erroneous conception on the part of the 

 deserving monk who preserved this calendar for iis or possibly are 

 merely to be ascril^ed to the careless reprint. We have the following 

 prefixes in the words combined with the various numbers: 



1 chaga, or tobi, the prefix quia, qnie. 



2 cato, or topa, the prefix pe, jii, pehi. 

 8 cayo, or chona, the prefix peo, peola. 



4 taa, or tapa, the prefix cala. 



5 caayo, or gaayo, the prefix pe, pela. 



6 xopa, the prefix qua, quala. 



7 eaache, the prefix pilla. 



8 xona, the prefix ne, ni, nela. 



9 caa, or gaa, the prefix pe, j)i, pela. 



10 chij, the prefix pilla. 



11 chij bi tobi, the prefix ne, ni, nela.« 



12 chijbitopa, or i'hijl)icato, the prefix pifia, pino, pinij. 



13 ehijno, the prefix peee, pici, quici. 



Yet only a few of these various prefixes seem to contain any distinct 

 meaning. Primaril}' the prefix quia, quie, which belongs to the signs 

 connected with the number 1, which, as we know, took a special posi- 

 tion, was regarded as the ruler of the whole following thirteen. Juan 

 de Cordova says that these units of thirteen or their initial days were 

 called cocij, tobi cocij, como decimos nosotros, un mes, un tiempo ("as 

 we say, a month, a time"). Rut the four signs which pi-eside over 

 the first, sixth, eleventh, sixteenth 13 day periods, that is, the four 

 divisions of the tonalamatl, were called cocijo, or pitiio, that is, "the 

 great". The}' were regarded as gods and were honored with sacrifices 

 and bloodletting. Indeed, we find in the dictionary, for instance, 

 tiempo encogido, en que no se puede trabajar {"special time in which 

 no man can work") — cocij cogaa; tiempo dv mieses, frufas 6 de siego 

 6 de algo ("season of harvests, fruits, or grain") — cocij collapa, cocij 

 layna, cocij; tiempo enfermo 6 de pestilencia ("sickly season, time of 

 pestilence") — coo yoocho, piye yoocho, cocij yoocho. But the original 

 meaning of cocij can hardly have been "time". The prelix co diMiotes 

 a nomen agentis, and in a certain way corresponds to the Mexican 

 prefix tia. Cocii means " when we have taken"', hence something like 

 the Mexican tlapoualli, and, like that, it denotes a luiit of 20 days; 

 cocii, "20 days in the past" — that is, 20 days ago to-day; luiecii or 

 cacii, "20 days in the future", or "in 20 days"; cacii-cacii, "every 20 

 days". If, therefore, the Father be coi'rect in his statement, the appli- 

 cation of the word cocii to a iniit of thirteen days can only liave b(>eii 



aThis is the most common prefi.x, although the exceptions here are more fre«ju»Mi(, ii\i<l tlif ciiiifii- 

 sion particularly great. 



