566 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



knives and lance licads. To this corresponds the Tzental Chinax, an 

 old form for the usual zninax, "'■ knife "'. The Cakchikel Tihax is 

 said to mean hitin<>:, scratch ini>:. while in the Zapotec (Jopaa Brinton 

 (Calendar, page 8'2) surmises a variant of guipa, " sharp point, edge " 

 (gueza-guipa, "flint knife"). The Maya word Ezanab, Brinton, in 

 the same work, coiniects with edz, " to stab, to shar])en ", and nab, 

 something stained, especially Avith blood. In fact the lance heads 

 repeatedly api)ear bloodstained in the mannscri])ts. 



The gly])h consists of two intersecting zigzag lines, which are 

 also repeated on the lance heads. These lines reproduce very well 

 the jagged slanting lines of a flint knife (Schellhas, Mayahandschrift, 

 page 22). 



It is difficult to find an appropriate deity for this sign. For the 

 present I am inclined to consider in connection with it one of the 

 serpent deities (vSchellhas, H and I), so difficult to distinguish, one of 

 which belongs to the second day. The wound made by stabbing or 

 cutting could be conceived of as a serpent's bite. All this is very un- 

 certain, but I hope later to bring forward moi-e arguments in support 

 of my opinion. 



IC). Canac, w. In this sign I see the rainy season, the time of the 

 greatest heat and most frequent thunderstorms. The Maya word 

 is exactly equivalent to the Tzental Cahogh (chaoc), the Pokonchi 

 and Pokoman Cahoc (cohoc), and the Chontal Chauoc, Avhich all 

 mean thunderstorm. Even the remote Huastec has the same word 

 in its tzoc. The Zapotec Ape (api), jjroperly dark cloud; in the 

 compounds laari-api-niza and ri-api-laha, signifies lightning (Brin- 

 ton, Calendar, page 33). In the Aztec the name of this day is Quia- 

 huitl, equivalent to rain. 



The glyph, which distinctly includes a mass of clouds, corre- 

 sponds very well to the above. 



The language of the remote Aztec Pipiles shows us how to find the 

 god belonging to the day. In this language the day is called Ayotl, 

 ^' the tortoise ", which is a symbol of the thunderstorm deit3^ as Schell- 

 has has already stated in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1892, page 

 120, and also in his latest work, page 31. I myself have principally 

 demonstrated in my third treatise, " Zur Entzifferung ", that the tor- 

 toise signifies the summer solstice, the climax of the season of rain 

 and thunderstorms. Add to this that among the Mayas cooc, or 

 caoc, denotes the lightning, and coc the tortoise, and it seems prob- 

 able that the resemblance of the word may have influenced the selec- 

 tion of the symbol. . Indeed, it may be thought that the Yucatec rain 

 god Chac is the same word as cauac, caoc, or cahogh. Even to-day 

 chaac (chac) is used in the sense of rain. 



17. Ahau, x. Literally " lord of the necklace ". as the ornament 

 marking a distinguished rank. From this the name of the day 



