SKIER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 53 



of a flying tortoise. In Cortes codex, page 17^/, we see its picture 

 accompanied 1)\' the group of hieroglyphs of y, figure 5, which eon- 

 tains in its flrst part above the eh^nient of flying and below it the ele- 

 ment Cauac. And elsewhere we see the tortoise, now in a stream of 

 water, with the frog, coming down from above; again with open jaws 

 hanging to the heavenly shield/' 



But if the Zapotec name for the nineteenth day sign can only be 

 placed among the names of the other calendars with a certain doubt 

 attached to it, on the other hand the Zapotec language aflords the only 

 and direct clue to an explanation of the part which the hieroglvph 

 Cauac plays in th(^ Maya manuscript. We find on the one hand, it is 

 true, terms which approach to the idea of clouds and rain. Thus there 

 is the hieroglyph -v, the companion hieroglyph of k^ ligure 4, that is, the 

 bird moan. So also in /, tigure 3 (page 3(5), is the companion hiero- 

 glyph of the name Kinchahau, which besides Cauac also contains the 

 element of fire and that of the ax, which would suggest the lightning 

 flashing from the clouds. But the hieroglyph Cauac is chiefl}- used 

 simply with the meaning "stone" or "weight". This is most strik- 

 ingly shown in the animal traps which are represented in Troano codex, 

 pages 9« and 22*<'/, where the stones laid upon the beams to weigh them 

 down have the element of the hieroglyph Cauac written on them. But 

 we must also accept this same explanation when we find the pyramidal 

 sulistructure of the temple covered with the element of the sign Cauac. 

 And if in Troano codex, page 15*^/, the Chac felling a tree is confronted 

 with the death god felling a tree which is covered with the element of 

 the sign Cauac, it probably only means that a barren stone is substituted 

 in the case of the death god for what is a living tree in the case of Chac. 

 The many instances where the hieroglyph Cauac serves as a seat or foot- 

 stool for the gods are probably to be interpreted sometimes as clouds, 

 but in most cases undoubtedly as stone, homologous with the hiero- 

 glyph Caban and the element tun ("stone") itself (,r, tigure 5), both of 

 which we so often find depicted as the seat and footstool of the gods. 

 There is quite as little doubt that the element Cauac in the hieroglyph 

 of v/', which denotes the bearing of a burden on the back, is to be con- 

 ceived of simply as the expression of "that which weighs down", 

 "the burden". 



In the remarkable instances where we find the gods holding a board 

 in their hands on which are the elements of the sign Cauac or where 

 a board provided with a plaited handle is drawn in front of the gods, 

 the surface being covered with the element Cauac, it seems to denote 

 a sounding-board, for the hieroglyi)hs added seem to mean nuisic. 

 Finally, there are also direct resemblances between the element Cauac 



oThe tortoise plays a similar part among the northern Indians. Catlin learned from the Mandan 

 that " there were four tortoises— one in the north, one in the east, one in the south, and one in the 

 west. Each one of these rained ten days iind the water covered the earth." (Manners and Cuatoms 

 of the North Amerioan Indians, v. 1, i>. 181.) 



