40 BURKAU of AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.2H 



this painted blue, that is, consecrated. Now, it does not seem to me 

 improbable that the words imix, imox, by which the Mayas and the 

 Tzental-Zotzil called the Hrst day sign, should be connected with this 

 word am. I should even like to trace the Mexican word amoxtli, 

 "book", otherwise very hard to be explained etymologically, back 

 to these Maya roots. The Maya hieroglyph Imix (5, figure 4) is very 

 frequently associated with the hieroglyph Kan, and we often see this 

 group among the gifts offered to the gods, as at c. It may perhaps 

 signify "beans and corn". 



With the second day sign, not one, l)ut two different words remain 

 after the removal of the prefix — the two w^ords quij and laa, which 

 both, however, mean the same thing, not "wind", as we might 

 suppose from the Mexican second day sign, Ehecatl, but "glow" or 

 "fire". This is an exceptionally noteworthy fact, for it explains the 

 part which we see the second day sign play in the Maya manuscript. 

 In Maya and kindred languages the second day sign invariably bears 

 the name Ik, properly speaking i'k, that is, "wind'\ But wherever 

 it occurs in pictures or hieroglyphs it gives the idea of flame or tire. 

 So it does in d, figure 4, from the Dresden codex, page 25, where we see 

 it in the center of the flame flashing up from the fire vessel; in <% figure 

 4, where it is borne on a staff; and in the hieroglyph of the sun god, 

 ?>, figure 3, which is composed of the picture of the sun, an element 

 which signifies "winged", the sign Been, which signifies the woven 

 mat and the woven straw roof, and the sign Ik, which in this combi- 

 nation can only signify the fire applied to the roof. In Cogolludo, 

 the w^ord Kakupacat, "fiery glance", is given as the name of a god 

 of war and of battle, and it is said of him: Fingian que traia en las 

 batallas una rodela de f uego, con que se al)roquelaba (" He was supposed 

 to carry a wheel of fire in battle, with which he defended himself"). 

 Now, in the Troano codex, page 24, and in the Dresden codex, page 69, 

 the black Chac is represented with spear and shield, and the latter (_/, 

 figure 4) has the sign Ik upon its surface. No doubt this is the fiery 

 shield, and the black Chac is Kakupacat, related to Cit-chac-coh, in whose 

 honor warriors danced the war dance (holcan okot) in the month Pax. 

 This union of wind and fire, which thus presents itself in the Zapotec 

 name and the Maya image of the second day sign, is also probably 

 the ])est explanation of the dual nature which seems to belong to the 

 wind god Quetzalcoatl, who now appears simpl}' as a wind god, and 

 again seems to show the true characteristics of the old god of fire and 

 light. 



In the third day sign, after removing the prefixe. that vary with the 

 numeral attached, we obtain the forms guela, ela, and ala or laala. 

 Here guela and ela are well-known, nuich-used words for "night"; 

 queela or gueela, "night"; te-ela,"})y night"; te-chij te-ela, " by day 

 and by night"; xilo-ela colo-ela, "midnight". The form ala or laala 



