[77]. The name has various orthographies; that which I here adopt appears to have most in its favor. It is a compound of cucul, covered (i. e., with feathers), and can, snake; (cucul also means “revolving”).
[78]. Examples are frequent; a good one is Cod. Tro., p. 24*a. Not to be confounded with the moan hairs around the mouth, nor with the chin beard of the black monkey.
[79]. Space does not permit me to enter into the symbolism and myths connected with “the feathered serpent” of Central American mythology. Mr. Fewkes has argued that it also extended to the Pueblo tribes, and traces may be found still further north. See Fewkes, in American Anthropologist, July, 1893.
[80]. Father Lara, in his Vocabulario Tzental, MS., gives the name of one variety of bee as xanab xux; in Maya, xux is usually translated “wasp,” “abispa brava.” As a radical, it seems to mean “to go or sink slowly into something.”
[81]. The two bees, one waking, one sleeping, Cod. Tro. 33*, are placed between signs representing the winds.
[82]. The word cab has various meanings: a bee; a bee-hive; honey; the red or white clay with which potters painted their jars; strength or power; town, place, or world; short or low; down, downward, or below (all given in the Dicc. de Motul).
[83]. “Thus it is that are named, sung, and celebrated those who are the grandmother and grandfather, whose name is Xpiyacoc, Xmucane, preserver, protector, twofold grandmother, twofold grandfather. * * * They alone, the Maker, the Former, the Ruler, the Serpent clothed in feathers, They who beget, They who impart life, They rest upon the waters like a growing light. They are clothed in color green and blue. Therefore their name is Gucumatz, ‘Feathered Serpent.’” Popol Vuh, pp. 4, 6.
[84]. The root muc, in all the Mayan dialects, also means “to cover over, to hide, to bury.” The word mucul (“that which is disappearing”) is applied to the moon when in the wane (luna menguante).
[85]. See Crescencio Carrillo, in Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tomo III, and Dr. Boas, in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for 1890, pp. 350–357; the Dic. Motul gives the Maya word for one with head thus flattened, “pechhec hol, el de cabeza chata.” Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, cap. XXX, speaks of the custom.
[86]. Former students have been unable to explain this design. It is also found in Mexican pictography, as Cod. Vien., pp. 20, 22.