Cauac. This sign represents the thunder-clouds, while the small cross is emblematical of the wind which blows from all quarters; it thus corresponds with the Mexican quiauitl, and the connection is emphasized by the fact that the Kakchiquel word for rain is caok, and the Tzental term for thunder is chauk.

Ahau. A face, sometimes, in the more elaborate of the sculptures, the head of a man of rank, which the word ahau implies. Xochitl, the flower, the last sign of the Mexican list, is, it will be remembered, the emblem of the god Xochipilli, the guardian of princes.

Like the Mexicans, the Maya observed the solar year of 365 days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five days over, called uayeb, and considered unlucky. The names of these months were as follows (Fig. [54] and Appendix II):—

Pop, Uo, Zip, Zotz, Tzec, Xul, Yaxkin, Mol, Chen, Yax, Zac, Ceh, Mac, Kankin, Muan, Pax, Kayab, Cumhu, five Uayeb days.

Fig. 54.—Maya month-signs; upper rows from the monuments; lower rows from the MSS.

Fig. 55.—Maya period-signs. Upper row, face-signs; lower row, normal signs.