THE DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS" 



By E. Forstemann 



To assign to each day a certain god as a ruler or protector is a wide- 

 spread custom, a trace of which is still perceptible in Europe to-day, 

 inasmuch as w^e still call our w-eek da.js after heathen deities. 



This custom also prevailed in the domain of Aztec; and Maya cul- 

 ture. With regard to its practice among the Aztecs, Doctor Seler, 

 in particular, has given us considerable information in the Compte 

 rendu of the Berlin Americanist Congress of 188S in his great 

 treatise on the Aubin Tonalamatl. In reference to the Mayas, this 

 scholar says in his treatise on the names of the Maya gods represented 

 in the Dresden manuscript (1887), page 230, that it appears from the 

 old Relacion of the Priest Hernandez (which I am unable to consult) 

 that Cukulcan was the chief of the 20 gods, who, according to the 

 description, clearly denoted the deities of the 20 day signs. 



Many names and glyphs of Maya and Aztec gods combined with 

 numbers always refer to certain specified days not in the series of 20 

 but in that of the 200 days of the tonalamatl, especially those of the 

 Mayas beginning with Hun (1), and those of the Aztecs beginning 

 with Macuil (5). 



From the account of Nunez de la Vega, as well as from that of 

 Francisco Fernandez, whose narrative is preserved by Bartholome de 

 las Casas, it appears that, generally speaking, the 20 days were each 

 dedicated to a god or lord. 



Such day gods have l)een handed down to us from certain parts of 

 the country, not only in a general way, but sj^ecial ones for special 

 days. 



Thus it is said of the first day, Kan, that among the Tzentals in 

 Chiapas and Tabasco (who, by the way, were the probable authors of 

 the monuments of Palenque and of the Dresden manusci-ipt) this day 

 had been called Ghanan, and Ghanan had been a divinity in those 

 localities (see Brinton, Mayan Hieroglyphs, pages 62, 123). 



The fifth day, Lamat, is designated among the Kiche-Cakchikels 

 in Guatemala by Kanel, a deity of seed sowing (see below). 



« Globus, V. 73, n. 8 and 9, 1898. 



559 



