[[Footnote 21]: The Maya word is uahomche, from uah, originally the tortilla or maize cake, now used for bread generally. It is also current in the sense of life ("la vida en cierta manera," Diccionario Maya Español del Convento de Motul, MS.). Che is the generic word for tree. I cannot find any particular tree called Homche. Hom was the name applied to a wind instrument, a sort of trumpet. In the Codex Troano, Plates xxv, xxvii, xxxiv, it is represented in use. The four Bacabs were probably imagined to blow the winds from the four corners of the earth through such instruments. A similar representation is given in the Codex Borgianus, Plate xiii, in Kingsborough. As the Chac was the god of bread, Dios de los panes, so the cross was the tree of bread.]
[[Footnote 22]: See the Myths of the New World, p. 95 (1st ed., New York, 1868). This explanation has since been adopted by Dr. Carl Schultz-Sellack, although he omits to state whence he derived it. His article is entitled Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden und ihre Tempel in Palenque in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1879. Compare also Charles Rau, The Palenque Tablet, p. 44 (Washington, 1879).]
[[Footnote 23]: "Al pié de aquella misma torre estaba un cercado de piedra y cal, muy bien lucido y almenado, en medio del cual habia una cruz de cal tan alta como diez palmos, á la cual tenian y adoraban por dios de la lluvia, porque quando no llovia y habia falta de agua, iban á ella en procesion y muy devotos; ofrescianle codornices sacrificadas por aplacarle la ira y enojo con que ellos tenia ô mostraba tener, con la sangre de aquella simple avezica." Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Conquista de Mejico, p. 305 (Ed. Paris, 1852).]
[[Footnote 24]: The feasts of the Bacabs Acantun are described in Landa's work. The name he does not explain. I take it to be acaan, past participle of actal, to erect, and tun, stone. But it may have another meaning. The word acan meant wine, or rather, mead, the intoxicating hydromel the natives manufactured. The god of this drink also bore the name Acan ("ACAN; el Dios del vino que es Baco," Diccionario del Convento de Motul, MS.). It would be quite appropriate for the Bacabs to be gods of wine.]
[[Footnote 25]: Stephens, Travels in Yucatan, Vol. i, p. 434.]
[[Footnote 26]: Some have derived Itzamua from i, grandson by a son, used only by a female; zamal, morning, morrow, from zam, before, early, related to yam, first, whence also zamalzam, the dawn, the aurora; and ná, mother. Without the accent na, means house. Crescencio Carrillo prefers the derivation from itz, anything that trickles in drops, as gum from a tree, rain or dew from the sky, milk from teats, and semen ("leche de amor," Dicc. de Motul, MS.). He says: "Itzamna, esto es, rocio diario, ó sustancia cuotidiana del cielo, es el mismo nombre del fundador (de Itzamal)." Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 145. (Mérida, 1881.) This does not explain the last syllable, ná, which is always strongly accented. It is said that Itzamná spoke of himself only in the words Itz en caan, "I am that which trickles from the sky;" Itz en muyal, "I am that which trickles from the clouds." This plainly refers to his character as a rain god. Lizana, Historia de Yucatan, Lib. i, cap. 4. If a compound of itz, amal, ná, the name, could be translated, "the milk of the mother of the morning," or of the dawn, i. e., the dew; while i, zamal, ná would be "son of the mother of the morning.">[
[[Footnote 27]: Cogolludo, who makes a distinction between Kinich-ahau and Itzamná (Hist. de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. viii), may be corrected by Landa and Buenaventura, whom I have already quoted.]
[[Footnote 28]: Kin, the sun, the day; ich, the face, but generally the eye or eyes; kak, fire; mo, the brilliant plumaged, sacred bird, the ara or guacamaya, the red macaw. This was adopted as the title of the ruler of Itzamal, as we learn from the Chronicle of Chichen Itza--"Ho ahau paxci u cah yahau ah Itzmal Kinich Kakmo"--"In the fifth Age the town (of Chichen Itza) was destroyed by King Kinich Kakmo, of Itzamal." El Libro de Chilan Balam de Chumayel, MS.]
[[Footnote 29]: Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatan, Lib. iv, cap. viii.]
[[Footnote 30]: Lizana says: "Se llama y nombra Kab-ul que quiere decir mano obradora," and all writers have followed him, although no such meaning can be made out of the name thus written. The proper word is kabil, which is defined in the Diccionario del Convento de Motul, MS., "el que tiene buena mano para sembrar, ó para poner colmenas, etc." Landa also gives this orthography, Relacion, p. 216.]