[18-*] Constitut. Diocesan, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48.
[19-*] Rather with the Quetzalcoatl of the Nahuas, and the Gucumatz of the Quiches, both of which names mean “Feathered Serpent.” Mixcohuatl, the Cloud Serpent, in Mexican mythology, referred to the Thunder-storm.
[19-†] In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact form; but in the neighboring dialect of the Cakchiquel Father Ximenes has quikeho, to agree together, to enter into an arrangement; the prefix zme is the Tzental word for “mother.”
[20-*] Father Lara, in his Vocabulario Tzendal MS. (in my possession), gives for medical (medico), ghpoxil, for medicine (medicinal cosa), pox, xpoxtacoghbil; for physician (medico), ghpoxta vinic (the form vanegh, person, is also correct). The Tzendal pox (pronounced pōsh) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel pūz, a word which Father Ximenes, in his Vocabulario Cakchiquel MS (in my possession), gives in the compound puz naual, with the meaning, enchanter, wizard. Both these, I take it, are derived from the Maya puz, which means to blow the dust, etc., off of something (soplar el polvo de la ropa ó otra cosa. Dicc. de la Lengua Maya del Convento de Motul, MS. The dictionary edited by Pio Perez does not give this meaning). The act of blowing was the essential feature in the treatment of these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exercise of spiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it à soplos, by blowing (Nuñez de la Vega, Constitut. Diocesan, p. 10). The natives did not regard the comet’s tail as behind it but in front of it, blown from its mouth. The Nahuatl word in the text, tzihuizin, is the Pipil form of xihuitzin, the reverential of xihuitl, which means a leaf, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the Nahuatl divinity Xiuhté cutli, described by Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of fire, etc.
[21-*] Hicalahau, for ical ahau, Black King, one of the Tzental divinities, who will be referred to on a later page.
[21-†] “Mæstros de los pueblos,” Constitut. Diocesan, i, p. 106.
[23-*] Historia de Guatemala, ò, Recordacion Florida, Tom. ii, p. 44, seq.
[24-*] Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, p. 388, seq. (4th Ed.).
[25-*] Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 315 (Ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1861). In the Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of Quetzalcoatl in Aztec legend. Both names mean the same, “Feathered Serpent.”
[25-†] Baeza’s article is printed in the Registro Yucateco, Vol. i, p. 165, seq.