For positive proof that it is sometimes used to denote the earth, or that from which vegetation comes, it is only necessary to refer to the lower right-hand figure of plate 12, Borgian Codex. Here is Tlaloc sending down rain upon the earth, from which the enlivened plants are springing forth and expanding into leaf and blossom. The earth, on which they stand and from which they arise, is represented by the figure of the mythical Cipactli.
It is quite probable that the monster on plates 4 and 5 of the Dresden Codex, which appears to be of the same genus, is a time symbol, and also that on plate 74 of the same codex. It is therefore more than likely that the animal indicated by the Mexican name of the day is mythical, represented according to locality by some known animal which seems to indicate best the mythical conception. Some figures evidently refer to the alligator, and others apparently to the iguana; that on plates 4 and 5 of the Dresden Codex is purely mythical, but contains reptilian characteristics.
Dr Brinton, probably influenced to some extent by the apparent signification of the Nahuatl name and symbol, explains the other names as follows:
This leads me to identify it [the Maya name] with, the Maya mex or meex, which is the name of a fish (the “pez arana,” “un pescado que tiene muchos brazos”), probably so called from another meaning of mex, “the beard.” ... This identification brings this day name into direct relation to the Zapotec and Nahuatl names. In the former, chiylla, sometimes given as pi-chilla, is apparently from bi-chilla-beo, water lizard, and Nahuatl cipactli certainly means some fish or fish-like animal—a swordfish, alligator, or the like, though exactly which is not certain, and probably the reference with them was altogether mythical.
Dr Seler, in his subsequent paper, gives the following explanation of the Zapotec name chilla or chijlla:
For this I find in the lexicon three principal meanings: One is the cubical bean (wurfel bohne). “Pichijlla, frisolillos o havas con que echan las suertes los sortilegos” [beans used by the sorcerers in casting lots or telling fortunes]; another meaning is “the ridge” (pichijlla, lechijlla, chijllatani, loma o cordillera de sierra); another is “the crocodile” (cocodrillo, lagarto grande de agua); and another “swordfish” (pella-pichijlla-tao, espadarte pescado). Finally, we have chilla-tao, “the great Chilla,” given again as one of the names of the highest being. Here it seems to me that the signification “crocodile” is the original one, and thus far suitable. For the manner in which the first day character is delineated in Mexican and Zapotec picture writing [our plate [LXIV], 16] shows undoubtedly the head of the crocodile with the movable snapping upper jaw, which is so characteristic of the animal.
Attention is called to the apparently closely related word as given by Perez—mech, ixmech, “lagartija.”
It will not be out of place here to refer to a superstition pervading the islands of the Pacific ocean, which seems strangely coincident with the conception of the physical symbol of this day. This is a mythological monster known in some sections by the name Taniwha, and in others as moko or mo’o.
Dr Edward Tregear[214-1] speaks of it as follows:
Taniwha were water monsters generally. They mostly inhabited lakes and streams, but sometimes the sea. Sometimes the beast was a land animal, a lizard, etc, but the true taniwha is a water kelpie.