[29]Dates, however, were not assigned by a simple reference to days of the month, but by days of the week; these weeks being of thirteen days each, and including every day of the year. The week days were not named, but numbered only.

As will be noted in the Annals, more importance was attached to the day on which an occurrence took place than to the year. This is common with untrained minds. Every citizen of the United States knows that George Washington was born on the 22d of February; but it would puzzle a large portion of them to be asked the year of his birth.

Names of the Cakchiquel Months.

Name.Signification.
1. Tacaxepual,Corn planting
2. Nabey tumuzuz,First of winged ants.
3. Rucan tumuzuz,Second of winged ants.
4. Çibix,Smoky, or clouds.
5. Uchum,Re-planting
6. Nabey mam,First grandson.
7. Rucab mam,Second grandson.
8. Liiná,Soft to the hand.
9. Nabey to,First cacao harvest.
10. Rucab to,Second cacao harvest
11. Nabey pach,First incubation.
12. Rucab pach,Second incubation.
13. Tziquin ih,Bird days.
14. Cakan,Red clouds.
15. Ibota,Mat rolling.
16. Katic,Drying up.
17. Itzcal ih,Bad road days.
18. Pariche,In the woods.

[30]To appreciate the bearing of these names, one must remember that this is a rural calendar, in which the months were designated with reference to farming and household incidents. Thus, the “winged ants” referred to, are a species that appear in March and April, shortly before the first of the rainy season; the fourth month is cloudy or misty, from the frequent rains; the first and second grandsons refer probably to the “suckers,” which must be plucked from the growing corn; in the eighth month the earth is moist, and must be kept, by tillage, “soft to the hand;” the others have obvious rural allusions, down to the last, when the natives went “in the woods” to gather fuel. The names appear to be all in the Cakchiquel dialect, except the first, Tacaxepual, the resemblance of which to the name of the second Mexican month, Tlacaxipehualiztli, is too striking to be a coincidence, and perhaps the seventeenth, Itzcal, which is very like the eighteenth of the Mexican calendar, Izcalli; but if borrowed from the latter, two Cakchiquel words, of similar sound but different meaning, have been substituted for the original by the familiar linguistic principle of otosis or paronomasia.

Names of the Cakchiquel Days.

Name.Name.
1. Imox,11. Batz,
2. I,12. Ee,
3. Abal,13. Ah,
4. Kat,14. Yiz,
5. Can,15. Tziquin,
6. Camey,16. Ahmac,
7. Queh,17. Noh,
8. Kanel,18. Tihax,
9. Toh,19. Caok,
10. Tzii,20. Hunahpu,

[31]The calendars in use were of two different kinds, the one called

hol