248 DAY SYMBOLS OF THE MAYA YEAR [erH. ANN. 16 
conventional pictograph. Possibly this is the correct conclusion, as I 
can find no evidence tending to show that it is phonetic. If we could 
suppose the form was intended to represent a ‘‘road” or “ pathway ”— 
be, beil, and bel in Maya, and beel in Zotzil—we might assume it to be 
phonetic. 
The combinations shown in plate LXVI, 28, 29, 30, and 55, in which the 
symbol of this day appears, have as yet received no satisfactory explana- 
tion. Those shown in LXVI, 28, and 55, are of very frequent occurrence 
and probably indicate some common ceremony, order, or direction in the 
religious ceremonies. I have a strong suspicion that the first indicates 
exorcism or driving away the evil spirits, but I find no appropriate 
Maya word unless it be pekokalil, given by Henderson. This, however, 
does not agree with the interpretation Kinichkakmo, given by Seler to 
LXVI, 29, above referred to. Seler gives to LXxvti, 30, the apparently 
strained interpretation, ‘““he who is conquered in war and brought 
home prisoner.” I have no interpretation to offer.! 

THE FOURTEENTH DAY 
Maya, ix or hiv; Tzental, hin; Quiche-Cakchiquel, balam, yiz, or hix; Zapotec, eche; 
Nahuatl, oceloil. 
The symbol of this day is found in quite a number of different forms, 
some of which are wide variations from the prevailing type. 
Landa’s figure is shown in plate Lxyvi, 31. The usual forms found in 
the Tro. Codex are LXVI, 52 to 37; 36 is somewhat rare. That shown 
at 58 is found only on plate 30*c, and that showing the animal head (39) 
on plate 12c. No essential variations from these are found in either the 
Codex Peresianus or Cortesianus. Those shown in Lxyt, 40-42, are 
from the Dresden Codex. 
The Nahuatl name and the Quiche-Cakchiquel, balam, denote the 
“tiger,” possibly the jaguar, though the Mexican name certainly refers 
to the ocelot. Dr Brinton says that the Zapotec eche, or in the full 
form be-eche-guia, has the same signification. Dr Seler, however, derives 
it from the term peche-tao, “the great animal”—the tiger, or ferocious 
animal. But the other names, ix, hixr, hiix or gix, as they are variously 
written (though really one word), present a more serious difficulty to 
the attempt to bring them into harmony with the others. 
Dr Seler says: 
The Cakchiquel term yiz, i. e., the Maya h-ez, ‘‘the sorcerer,’’ may well be consid- 
ered as giving an explanation of the Maya name of this day character (ix). My con- 
ception, after one more link in the chain of evidence pointing toward it, is that the 
day-character system has become known to the Mayas through the medium of the 
cognate branches of Chiapas, for we frequently find the Tzental-Zotzil x correspond- 
ing to the Maya z. 

1 Brinton says the ben symbol looks to him “like a wooden bridge, the two supports of which are 
shown and which was sometimes covered with a straw mat.’’ If so, it must be shown in profile, and 
the hanging marks above (see LXYI, 16, 17, 19) would seem to be without signification; moreover, in 
LXVI, 18, the supports hang from above, which would, on this theory, imply a hanging bridge. 
