SELER] UNITY OF CIVILIZATION 267 



Like all other things and every event of the world, the calendar was 

 governed by relations to space bj^ the powers ruling in the four points 

 of the compass. This was true of the simple calendar, the so-called 

 tonalamatl, of 13X20, or 2G0, days, and of the greater periods of 

 time, the 4X13, or 52, solar years, which, as I have demonstrated in 

 another place," were developed necessarily and logicall}' from that 

 simple calendar. These greater periods of time, that is to say, the 

 single components of the same, the successive, years each bearing the 

 name of one of four signs, stood in a specially close relation to the 

 jaoints of the compass. The reference of the years to the cardinal 

 points, therefore, was quite common to both the Mexicans and the 

 Mayas. The Zapotecs referred also the simple tonalamatl to the four 

 points of the compass, and therefore divided it into four sections of 

 65 days each. According to the conception of the Zapotecs, each of 

 these periods was governed by the sign which gave the name to its 

 first day, that is, by the signs which were called in Zapotec quia 

 Chilla, quia Lana, quia Goloo, and quia Guiloo, and in Mexican ce 

 Cipactli (" 1 alligator "), ce Miquiztli (" 1 death "), ce Ozomatli (" 1 

 monkey"), ce Cozcaquauhtli ('' 1 king vulture"). The Zapotecs 

 named these four powerful signs and the days Cocijo, or Pitao. 

 " They offered to them their sacrifices and the blood which they drew 

 from different parts of their bodies, the ears, the tip of the tongue, 

 the thighs, and other members. The order which they observed in 

 doing so was this: As long as the 65 days of the one sign lasted, they 

 sacrificed to this sign, and at the expiration of these, to the next 

 which came in turn, and so on until the first sign recurred; and they 

 prayed to this sign for everything which they needed for the sus- 

 tenance of life ".'' 



Pitao, or bitoo, means " the great one ", " the god ". Cocijo, on the 

 other hand, corresponds to the Mexican Tlaloc, the god of rain, 

 storms, and mountains. It is translated in the dictionary by " rain 

 god" (dios de las lluvias) and "lightning" (rayo).'' The rain god 

 dwells in the four points of the compass, and varies according to 

 these four points. Therefore the Mayas do not speak of the one rain 

 god, Chac, but always of the four Chacs. The story runs also among 

 the Mexicans that the rain god lived in four chambers, and that there 

 was a great court in the middle where stood four great casks of water. 

 The water in one of these was said to be very good, and the rain came 

 from it at the right time, when the grain and the corn were growing. 

 In the next the water Avas said to be bad, and the rain Avhich came 



« Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, v. 231, 1891, pp. 89-91. 



^ Juan de Cordova, Arte en Lengua Zapoteca, Mexico, 1578, p. 202. 



"^ See also Totia peni qulj cocijo, " sacrlflcar hombre por la pluvia 6 niiio (to sacrifice a 

 man for rain, or a child)"; tace cocijo, " caer rayo del cielo (to flash lightiiini; from 

 heaven) ". The name cocijo probably means the same as cozftana, that is. " tl!e procrea- 

 tor ". See cociyo, huechaa, huichaana, cozaana, plchijgo, linage geueralmente. 



