62 A STUDY OF THE MAliTUSCEIPT TEOANO. 



" XXXVI. — Sacrifices of the new year at the sign of Muluc — Dancing on the 

 stilts — Dance of the old wotnen with the dogs of baked earth. 



"The year of which the dominical letter was Muluc had for the omen 

 Candenal. When the time arrived, the nobles and the priest elected the chief 

 who should celebrate the feast. This done, they modeled, as in the pre- 

 • ceding year, the image of the idol called Chac-ti- Uayeyah, and carried it to 

 the heap of stones at the eastern side, where they had left it the year before. 

 They made a statue of the god called Kinch-Ahau, which they placed in a 

 suitable spot in the house of the chief; then, fi-om there, setting out by a 

 road neatly swept and ornamented, they returned together with their accus- 

 tomed devotion to the statue of Chac-ti-Uayeyab. 



" Having arrived here, the priest perfumed it with his incense and forty- 

 three grains of bruised corn, which they called zacah; he gave to the nobles 

 the incense called chahalte to put in the censer, after which they cut off the 

 head of a. fowl, as formerly. They raised up the statue on a litter called 

 Chacte and carried it with devotion, while the crowd executed around it cer- 

 tain war dances called Holcan-Okot, Batel-Okot. They carried at the same 

 time, to the leaders and the principal citizens, their drink composed of three 

 hundred and twenty-four grains of burnt corn, as before. 



"Arrived at the house of the chief the}^ placed the statue facing that 

 of Kinch-Ahau, and presented to it the customary offerings, which they 

 divided afterwards as at the last time. They offered to him bread made in 

 the form of the yolk of an egg, and others like the hearts of deer, and another 

 composed with diluted spice. There were, as ordinarily, good men who drew 

 blood from themselves by piercing their ears and anointing with it the stone 

 of the idol named Chacan-Cantun} 



"Here they took small boys and forcibly pierced their ears, making 

 incisions on them with knives. They guarded this statue until the end of 

 the evil days; meanwhile they burned before it their incense. 



"When these da3^s were passed they carried it to the north side, where 

 they were to receive it the next year, and deposited the other in his temple, 

 after which they returned home to prepare for the ceremonies of the new 

 year They believed that if they neglected to celebrate the aforesaid cere- 

 monies they would be exposed to great evils of the eyes. 



'Doubtless iutendecl for Char-Acantun. 



