vr.jtsTEMANN.J DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 561 



2. Chicchan, /(. Chic means great, and chan in Tzental, can in 

 Cakchikel, means serpent; the last syUable of Cukulcan has likewise 

 the same significance. The Aztec name for the clay, Coatl, also 

 signifies serpent. The first part of Chicchan, however, might be chii 

 {"" to bite, to sting"'). Th(> glyph is a head about whose temples is 

 wound a row of small circles like a string of pearls, and according to 

 Schellhas, Gottergestalten, page 23, the divinity H, the serpent 

 god has the same pretty decoration, wdiich has long been regarded as 

 signifying a serpent's skin. 



3. Cimi, /. The meaning of cimi is death; the Aztec name for the 

 day, Miqiiiztli, and the Kiche-Cakchikel, Camey, likewise have tlie 

 same significance. 



Accordingly there can be no doubt that the divinity A belongs to 

 this day, especialW as the glyph and the picture resemble each 

 other. Whether the bird Moan, as a special representation of A, 

 also belongs to this day, I must leave undecided for the present, but 

 I will return to the subject later. 



4. Manik, I,\ We know no more about a satisfactory meaning for 

 this word than we do for the Tzental Moxic. On the other liand, the 

 (lay name in Nahuatl, Mazatl, in Zapotec, China, and in Kiche- 

 Cakchikel, Queh, denotes in each case deer (Brinton, Calendar, 

 page 26). 



The glyph signifies a hand in the act of grasping, as in the 

 character for the east, where the hand (as it were) draws up the sun 

 which lies below it. 



To the deer as well as to this hand, a hunting god would be most 

 appropriate, in connection with which we particularly recall Codex 

 Troano-Cortesianus, in which there is such great prominence given to 

 the deer hunt (with snares, traps, and spears) that an entire section is 

 devoted to the subject. But thus far the picture of a god suitable 

 for a hunting god has not been found, although there is no lack of 

 names of gods of the chase both among the Mayas and among the 

 Aztecs. I think that one of the various forms under which F is rep- 

 resented might possibly apply here, especially as F is regarded as a 

 death god, Avho perhaps is meant to denote a violent death by sacri- 

 fice or at the hands of a hunter. 



5. Lamat, /. Without doubt the Tzental Laml)al is a purer form, 

 which Brinton, Calendar, page 27, interj)rets as derived from lam, 

 '■'■ to sink in ", " to sink beneath '", and from Bat, wliich means both 

 the grain, the seed, and a mattock for working the ground. The 

 Aztec designation for this da}', Tochtli, " rabbit ", might convey the 

 idea of the animal as a symbol of fertility or even as destroyer of the 

 cro}). The gly])h ])erhaps denotes the furi'ows or holes for the recep- 

 tion of the seed. 



7238— No. 28—05 ^36 



