ob, Ahal xic, and Ahál
anya; at least three of these second words are also the designations of maladies, and ahal is probably a mistake of the copyist for ahau, lord. As the gods of the abode of the dead, he names Tatan bak and Tatan holom, Father Bones and Father Skull.
Another series of appellations which Guzman gives as of Cakchiquel gods, show distinctly the influence of Nahuatl doctrines. There are Mictan ahauh, lord of Mictlan, this being the name of the abode of darkness, in Aztec mythology; Caueztan ahauh, probably Coatlan, lord of the abode of serpents; Tzitzimil, the tzitzimime of the Aztecs; and Colele,[42] probably colotl, the scorpion, or tecolotl, the owl, which latter, under the name tucur, is also mentioned by Xahila.[42-1]
Father Coto refers to some of their deities of the woods and streams. One of these, the Man of the Woods, is famous throughout Yucatan and most of Central America. The Spaniards call him Salonge, the Mayas Che Vinic, and the Cakchiquels ru vinakil chee; both these latter meaning “the woods man.” What gives this phantom especial interest in this connection is, that Father Coto identifies the woodsman with the Zaki
oxol, the white fire maker, encountered by the Cakchiquels in Xahila’s narrative ([Sec. 21]).[42-2] I have narrated the curious folk-lore about the woodsman in another publication, and need not repeat it here.[42-3] His second name, the White Fire Maker, perhaps refers to the “light wood” or phosphorescence about damp and decaying trees.
To the water-sprites, the Undines of their native streams, they gave the name xulu, water-flies, or ru vinakil ya, the water people.
As their household gods, they formed little idols of the ashes from the funeral pyres of their great men, kneading them with clay. To these they gave the name vinak, men or beings (Coto).
[43]Representations of these divinities were carved in wood and stone, and the words chee abah, “wood and stone,” usually mean, when they appear together in Xahila’s narrative, “idols or images in wood and stone.”