| Cardinal point. | Bacab. | Days. | Colors. | Elements. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South, | Hobnil (the Belly), | Kan, | Yellow, | Air. |
| East, | Canzicnal (Serpent Being), | Muluc, | Red, | Fire. |
| North, | Zaczini (White Being), | Ix, | White, | Water. |
| West, | Hozan ek (the Disembowelled Black one), | Cauac, | Black, | Earth. |
On the other hand, it should be noted that the names of the winds in Maya distinctly assign the color white to the east, thus:—
| East wind, | zac ik, “white wind.” |
| Northeast wind, | zac xaman ik, “white north wind.” |
| Southeast wind, | zac nohol ik, “white south wind.” |
The solution of these difficulties must be left for future investigation.
The Good Gods.—Divinities of a beneficent character were Yum Chac, “Lord of Waters or Rains;” Yum Kaax, “Lord of the Harvest Fields;” Cum Ahau, “Lord of the Vase,” that is, of the rains, who is described in the Dic. Motul as “Lucifer, Chief of the Devils” and is probably a name of Itzamna; Zuhuy Kak, “Virgin Fire,” patroness of infants; Zuhuy Dzip, “The Virgin of Dressed Animals,” a hunting goddess; Ix Tabai, “Goddess of the Ropes or Snares,” also a hunting goddess as well as the patroness of those who hanged themselves; Ah Kak Nech, “He Who Looks after the Cooking Fire,” Ah Ppua, “the Master of Dew,” and Ah Dziz, “The Master of Cold,” divinities of the fishermen.
To this list should be added Acan, “the God of the Intoxicating Mead,” the national beverage, that being its name; Ek Chua, “the Black Companion,” god of the cacao planters and the merchants, as these used the cacao beans as a medium of exchange; Ix Tub Tun, “she who spits out Precious Stones,” goddess of the workers in jade and amethysts; Cit Bolon Tun, “the Nine (i. e., numberless) Precious Stones,” a god of medicine; Xoc Bitum, the God of Singing, and Ah Kin Xoc or Ppiz Lim Tec, the God of Poetry (xoc, to sing or recite); Ix Chebel Yax, the first inventress of painting and of colored designs on woven stuffs (chebel, to paint, and a paint-brush).
A minor deity was Tel Cuzaan, “the swallow-legged,” a divinity of the island of Cozumel (“Swallow Island”).
On a lofty pyramid, where is now the city of Valladolid, Yucatan, was worshipped Ah zakik ual, “Lord of the East Wind.” His idol was of pottery in the shape of a vase, moulded in front into an ugly face. In it they burned copal and other gums. His festival was celebrated every fourth year with sham battles.[[52]] Probably this was a representation of Itzamna as lord of the cardinal point.
The “Island of Women,” Isla de Mugeres, on the east coast, was so named because the first explorers found there the statues of four female divinities, to whom altars and temples were dedicated.[[53]] They were Ix-chel, Ix-chebel-yax, Ix-hun-yé, and Ix-hun-yeta. The first two have already been mentioned. The last two seem to have been goddesses connected with the moonrise and sunrise, as the dictionaries give as the meaning of yé, “to show one’s self, to appear;” as in the phrases yethaz y ahalcab, “at the appearance of the dawn;” yethaz u hokol u, “at moonrise;” yet hokol kin, “at sunrise.”
Prominent among mythical beings were the dwarfs, known as ppuz, “bent over;” ac uinic, “turtle men;” tzapa uinic, “shortened men;” and pputum, “small of body.” They are sometimes represented in the carvings, an interesting example being in the Peabody Museum. A legend concerning such brownies was that before the last destruction of the world the whole human race degenerated into like diminutive beings, which prompted the gods to destroy it.[[54]] One class of these little creatures, called acat, were said to become transformed into flowers.