SELER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 41 



seems to have been no longer in use when Juan do Cordova took up 

 the language. We shall also find further on that the vowel ii i>s 

 preferred to the later e in the names of the day signs. In callini«- 

 the third day sign by the name of the night, ''the dark house of the 

 earth", varying from the Aztec calli, "house", the Zapotec calendar 

 agrees with that of the various branches of the Maya family. 



In the fourth day sign we obtain, after removing the prefix, the 

 forms gueche, quiche, ache, achi, ichi. The sign corresponds with the 

 Mexican Cuetzpalin, ''lizard''. Picture writings show us a lizard-like 

 animal with a tail, usually painted blue, and translators state that the 

 sign signifies "abundance of water". Now it is really hard to under- 

 stand why the lizard, wdiich is usually found on stones and walls 

 heated by the sun, should be taken as the symbol of abundant water. 

 The Zapotec word forms seem to solve this difhculty, for thev are to 

 be translated by "frog" or "toad". The dictionary gives peche, 

 peeche, beeche: todo genero de rana 6 sapo. Here pe oidv occurs 

 as a prefix, which we find in almost all animal names in the form pe 

 or pi. And that eche is equivalent to the ache, achi, ichi of the 

 calendar is pi-oved by comparison with the fourteenth da}' »ign, where 

 are found the same forms, gueche, ache, eche, used for the jaguar, which 

 is described in the dictionary as peche-tao, "the great peche". But, 

 just as in the first day sign the Zapotec word suggested to us a pos- 

 sibility of harmonizing the apparently incongruous Mexican and INIa^^a 

 glyphs and their designations, so here in the fourth day sign this 

 seems also to be the case. Peche in Zapotec means literally maize 

 kernel, not the simple ripe kernel, but the kernel roasted and, in con- 

 sequence of the roasting, popped. We know that these grains of corn, 

 which the Mexicans called uiomochtli, played a great part in ofi'erings 

 to the gods. It is even stated every time how many such grains of 

 corn were used for the drink which was offered to the procession of par- 

 ticipating- priests and chieftains in Yucatan during the xma kal)a kin 

 ceremonies. The Maya name for the fourth day sign is Kan, which 

 probabl}^ goes back to kan or kanan, cosa abundante 6 preciosa ("an 

 abundant or precious thing"). 1 have given the most chai'acteristic 

 forms of the hieroglyph in <\ (/, and A, figure 4. They contain in the 

 upper portion either the teeth (as on the mouth of the vessel in <-, figure 

 4, and in the glyphs of d, //, /, and /•, figure 8, and h, figure 1, ])ages ,")(» 

 and 36) or the eye, both of which, as 1 have already explained al)ove in 

 regard to the hieroglyphs of />», iigure 1, and /, k, and /, figure H, convey 

 the idea of the opening of the chasm. In the lower part of the Kan 

 hieroglyphs, below the waving diagonal line, we have also a pair of 

 teeth, which, like the teeth in the upper part, are left white if the 

 hieroglyph is done in colors. They are also most niiturally to ]>e con- 

 ceived of as indicating a chasm. If we add to this that tlie hieroglyph 

 when it is colored is invariably painted yellow, that is, the color of the 



