222 A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO. 



incense in many places, making offerings of meat, cooked without pepper 

 or salt, and drinks made from beans and kernels of calabashes. The lords, 

 and also those who had observed the fast, passed five days and five nights 

 there without returning home — praying, burning copal, and executing sacred 

 dances. During this time the actors went to the houses of the nobles and 

 others, exhibiting their performances and receiving the gifts which were 

 offered to them. At the end of the five days they carried them all to the 

 temple, where they divided them among the priests and the dancers. After 

 this they resumed the banners and idols, which they carried back to the 

 mansion of the prince, from which place each one returned home with 

 whatever he recovered. They said, and devoutly believed, that Kukulcan 

 descended from heaven in person on the last day of the feast and received 

 the sacrifice, the presents, and offerings which they made to him. They 

 called this feast Chlc-Kaban. 



Gr- — The month Yaxkin. During this month they commenced to pre- 

 pare, as was their custom, for a general feast, which was celebrated in Mol, 

 on a day designated by the priest in lionor of all the gods; they called it 

 Oloh-Zab-Kam Yax. After the usual ceremonies and incensing which they 

 desired to do, they smeared with their blue paint all the instruments of 

 every profession, from those used by the priests even to the spindles of the 

 women and the doors of their houses. On this occasion they painted the 

 children of both sexes with the same color; but, instead of smearing their 

 hands, they gave them each nine gentle raps on their knuckles, that they 

 might be skillful in the professions of their fathers and mothers. As for the 

 little girls, an old woman brought them there, and for this reason they 

 called her Ixmol, that is to say, conductress. The conclusion of this cere- 

 mony was a grand orgy and banquet with the offerings which they had 

 presented, although it was understood that the devoted old woman was not 

 permitted to become intoxicated, lest she should lose on the road the plume 

 of her office. 



H. — The month Mol. During this month the apiarists repeated the 

 feast which they had celebrated in the month Tzec, in order that the gods 

 might cause the flowers to grow for the bees. 



