Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/104

60 "The year of which the dominical letter was Kan the omen was Hobnil, and, according to the belief of the Yucatecs, they both reigned in the region of the south. This year, therefore, they fabricated a hollow image or figure of baked earth, of the idol which they called Kan-u-Uayeyab, and carried it to the heap of dry stones which was on the south side. They elected a chief from the citizens, at whose house they celebrated the feasts of these days. At this ceremony they made also the statue of another god, named Bolon-Zacab, which they placed in the house of the chief elect, in a spot where every one could approach.

"This done, the nobles, the priest, and the citizens assembled together. They returned, by a road swept and ornamented with arches and foliage, to the two piles of stone, where they found the statue, around which they gathered with much devotion. The priest then perfumed it with forty-nine grains of bruised maize mixed with incense. The nobles placed their incense together in the censer of the idol and perfumed it in their turn. The maize mixed with the priest's incense is called zacah, and that which the nobles present is called chahalte. Having incensed the image, they cut off the head of a fowl and presented to it. "When this was finished they placed the statue on a litter called Kanté, and on its shoulders an 'angel' as an omen of water and the good year which they should have. As to these 'angels,' they were frightful in appearance.

"Then they carried the statue, dancing with much gaiety, to the house of the chief, where he found the other statue of Bolon-Zacab. While they were on the way one of them carried to the nobles and the priest a drink composed of four hundred and twenty-five grains of burnt maize, which they called Picula-Kakla, and all partook of it at the same time. Arrived at the chiefs house, they placed the image which they carried, face to face with the statue which was already there, and made many offerings of drinks and viands, of meat and fish. These offerings were afterwards divided among the strangers who were present, and they gave the priest only a leg of venison. "Others drew blood from themselves by scarifying their ears, and anointed with it a stone which they had as an idol, called ''Kanal-Acantun. ''