1881.1 t)17 [Brinton. 



sion of, control over, mastership or skill in, origin from or practice in that 

 to which it is prefixed ; and uh, or pub, the sarbacana or blowpipe, which 

 these Indians used to employ as a weapon in war and the chase. Ah pu, 

 therefore, they take to mean, He who is skilled in using the sarbacane. 

 Vuch, the last member of this compound name, is understood by both to 

 mean a species of fox, the tlacziatzm of the Mexicans, which is the Opossum. 

 In accordance with these derivations Ximenez translates the name Un 

 tirador tacuasin, and Brasseur, Un Tireur de Sarbacane au Sari(jue. 



Such a name bears little meaning in this relation ; little relevancy to the 

 nature and ftiuctions of God ; and if a more appropriate and not less 

 plausible composition could be suggested, it would have strong intrinsic 

 claims for adoption. There is such a composition, and it is this : The dc- 

 riration of Ahpu fi-om ali-piib is not only unnecessary but hardly defensi- 

 ble. It is true that in Cakchiqiiel the sarbacane is fuh, but in Kiche the 

 initial p is dropped, as can be seen in many passages of the Popol Vuh, 

 but, this apart, the true composition of this word I take to be unquestion- 

 ably a7t-p'.i3, forpws has a distinctly relative signification, one intimately 

 associated with the most recondite mysteries of religion ; it expressed the 

 divine power which the priests and prophets claimed to have received 

 from the gods, and the essentially supernatural attributes of divinity itself. 

 It was the word which at first the natives applied to the power of the for- 

 giving of sins claimed by the Catholic missionaries ; but the word was as- 

 sociated with so many wholly heathen notions that the padres decided to 

 drop it altogether from religious language, and to give it the meaning of 

 necromancy and unholy power. Thus Goto gives it as the Cakchiquel 

 word for Magica, Nlgromantica, and under the word Poder, has this in- 

 teresting entry : 



'" Poder : vfzini'Q%bal, vel vtzintarjbal ; deste nombre usa la Gartilla en el 

 ''Credo para decir por obra vel poder del Spirito Santo. Al poder que 

 "tienen los Sacerdotes de perdonar pecados y dar sacramentos, se 

 '^llaman, o an llamado, piiz, naual. Asi el Pe Varea en su Dkcionnrio 

 " J el Saacto Vico en la Theologia, Indorum usa en muchas partes destos 

 "vocablos en este sentido. Ya no esLan tan en uso, pues entienden por 

 " el nomhvQ poder j vtzintac^ibal ; y son vocables que antiguamente aplica- 

 "'ban a sus idolos, y oy se procura que vayan olbidando todo aquello 

 "con que se les puede hacer memoria dellos." 



The word piiz is used in various passages of the Popol Yuh to express 

 the supernatural power of the gods and priests, but probably by the time 

 that Ximenez wrote it had, in the current dial-ect of his parish, lo«t its 

 highest signification, and hence it did not suggest itself to him as the true 

 derivation of the name I am discussing. 



The third term Yiich or Vugli was chosen according to Ximenez, Vie- 

 cause this species of fox is notoriously cunning, ''por su astncia." It 

 seems to me on the whole probable that this is C3rrect, and that we have 

 here a reminiscence of an animal myth, such as we might suppose in an 

 early stage of civilization miglit have grown out of the stor^^ of Re^^nard 



