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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



from it produced fungous growths in the corn, which turned black. 

 It came from the third when it rained and froze; from the fourth, 

 when it rained and no corn came up or when it came up and dried. 

 This rain god, in order to produce rain, was said to have created 

 many helpers in the form of dwarfs, who lived in the four chambers 

 and carried sticks in their hands and jars into which they drew water 

 from the great casks, and if the god commanded them to water some 

 strip of land they took their jars and sticks and poured out water as 



'iH0:ji^4r'^M^^^'^^-^^' 







Fig. 58. Q'he live raiu gods, from the Borgiau codex. 



they had been commanded; if there was a flash of lightning it was 

 from something they had in the water or from the cracking of the 

 jar." 



This reference of the four sections of the calendar to the rain god, 

 who varied according to the four points of the compass, which is 

 shown by the designation cocijo or pitao for the initial Zapotec signs 

 of these four sections, is of special interest, inasmuch as it furnishes 

 the explanation for some very remarkable pages of the picture manu- 



" Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, chap. 2 ; Garcia y Icazbaleeta, Nueva 

 Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, v. 3, Mexico, 1891, p. 230. 



