1881.] ^4t) [BHnton. 



of the Aztec Tlaloc and his happy abode. He was the god of rain, "dis- 

 tributor of the waters" (repartidor de las aguas), and the joyous spot 

 where he passed his time was called Paliaa, properly Pahatlan, from 

 pahatl, rose water, sweet unguent, or other such substance to strengthen 

 and refresh the body.* The waters, the timely rains, refresh and rejuve- 

 nate nature, and whence they come, their source and home, was in the 

 imagination of the Aztecs preeminently the land of life, joy and abun- 

 dance, the terrestrial paradise. 



While I am anxious to give full weight to these affinities between the 

 Maya-Kiche and the Aztec mythology, I must formallj^ protest against the 

 strained eflEbrts at identifying the divinities and myths of the one race with 

 that of the other, as has been done in many parts by Brasseur and in an 

 even more pronounced manner by Mr. H. H. Bancroft, f I wish to state 

 clearly my adherence to the opinion that the theogonies of the Maya and 

 Nahuatl stocks were distinct in origin, different in character, and only 

 similar by reason of that general similarity which of necessity arose from 

 the two nations being subj ect to like surroundings, and in nearly the same 

 stage of progress. The two nations had for generations frequent commer- 

 cial intercourse ; certain features of the religion of the one may have been 

 borrowed from the other, as were certain words of the language ; but to 

 explain the attributes of a Maya-Kiche divinity by those of an assumed 

 Mexican analogue is a hazardous and uncritical proceeding ; and to take 

 it for granted that historically the one mythology is a descendant of the 

 other is a gratuitous assumption wholly without support by the facts so 

 far as we know them, and at present contrary to probability. 



It will be noticed in some of the above names how prominent the per- 

 ception of color shows itself. This is very strongly marked in these dia- 

 lects. There is, however, no evidence that they distinguished colors to a 

 refined extent. On the contrary, Goto distinctly confines the names of 

 colors to five : "Los nombres de colores no tienen mas de cinco" (s. v. 

 Color). 



As I have above said, travelers maintain that the natives do not dis- 

 tinguish green from blue ; in Kiche, rax, in Maya yaax, stands for both 

 these shades. The names of these five main colors are constantly recur- 

 ing as signs and metaphors. They are : 



*"E1 lugar de Tlaloc, que era la tierra de Phajad, descanso y bieu aventu- 

 ranza." Joseph Joaquin Granados y Galvez, Tardes Americanas, p. 87. (Mexico, 

 1778.) This author, though well acquainted with Otomi, was not proficient in 

 Aztec. There is no ph nor/ sound in Aztec. Tlie word pahatl is given by Molina 

 with the significations stated in the text. 



^Native Races oftlie Pacific States, Vol. iii, chap. xi. 



