[47]. “Todos conforman en que este (Cuculcan) entró por la parte del poniente.” Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. IV, cap. 2. Looking toward the North, Itzamna was the right-hand god, Cuculcan the left-hand; hence, the arrival of the former was called nohnial, “right-hand coming,” of the latter, dzicnial, “left-hand coming.” (Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucatan, Lib. IV, cap. IV.)
[48]. “En los Repertorios mas generales tienen pintado el 7 signo en figura de hombre y de Culebra, que llaman Cuchul chan, y han explicado los Maestros que es culebra de plumas que anda en el agua.” Nuñez de la Vega, Constituciones Diocesanas, Parte II, p. 132.
[49]. The word chac means “strong; the color red; heat; water.” The Dicc. Motul says: “Significa agua en algunas maneras de decir; tambien dios de las aguas, relampago y trueno; chacal ik, tempestad de agua, huracan.”
[50]. Mr. J. Walter Fewkes is certainly correct in his argument that the “ceremonial circuit,” of the Mayas,—the direction of movement in their ceremonies—was sinistral, that is, from right to left, in most instances. This should be remembered in studying the pictorial portion of the Codices. See Mr. Fewkes’ article, “A Central-American Ceremony,” in the American Anthropologist, July, 1893.
[51]. An article by Dr. C. Schultz-Sellack, entitled “Die Amerikanischen Götter der vier Weltrichtungen,” in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. XI, may be profitably read in this connection, though some of its statements are antiquated.
[52]. Relacion de la Villa de Valladolid (1579), caps. I and X. This Relacion was printed in the Compte Rendu of the Congress of Americanists, the Madrid Meeting.
[53]. Landa, Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 72 (Madrid Ed.). The ruins of this ancient fane are still plainly visible from the sea. J. L. Stephens, Travels in Yucatan, vol. II, p. 358.
[54]. Carrillo, Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 207.
[55]. See the article “The Folk-lore of Yucatan,” in my Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890).
[56]. In Maya, ppuch tun means to stone to death, matar à pedradas, Dic. Motul.