Caban. This seems to be the earthquake sign, used also to typify motion, as the Mexican olin.
Eznab. This sign appears on spearheads, and seems to indicate a flaked stone, thus corresponding with the Mexican tecpatl.
Cauac. This sign represents the thunder-clouds, while the small cross is emblematical of the wind which blows from all quarters; it thus corresponds with the Mexican quiauitl, and the connection is emphasized by the fact that the Kakchiquel word for rain 1s caok, and the Tzental term for thunder is chauk.
Ahau. A face, sometimes, in the more elaborate of the sculptures, the head of a man of rank, which the word ahau implies. Xochitl, the flower, the last sign of the Mexican list, is, it will be remembered, the emblem of the god Xochipilli, the guardian of princes.
Like the Mexicans, the Maya observed the solar year of 365 days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five days over, called uayeb, and considered unlucky. The names of these months were as follows (Fig. 54 and Appendix II):—
Pop, Uo, Zip, Zotz, Tzec, Xul, Yaxkin, Mol, Chen, Yax, Zac, Ceh, Mac, Kankin, Muan, Pax, Kayak, Cumhu, five Uayeb days.
Unlike the Mexican months, however, these were used in dating, and a given day was expressed with its month-sign, together with a numeral to show which day of the month it was. Thus 6. caban, 5. pop, means the day 6. caban, after 5 days of the month pop have passed. 'The numerals were not expressed on quite the same system as the Mexican. Dots were used for the numerals up to four, but a bar was used for five, two bars for ten, and so on, odd days over a multiple of five being expressed by the requisite number of dots. On the monuments, if the supernumerary dots were few, the space between or on either side of them was filled with small crescents, which are merely ornamental and must
