Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/377

 ROYS] A MAYA ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION 365

Eight Muluc Thirteen Yx Five Cauac Ten Kan Nine Oc One Men Six Ahau Eleven Chicchan

Ten Chuen Two Cib Seven Ymix Twelve Cimi

Eleven Eb Three Caban Eight Yk Thirteen Manik

Twelve Ben Four Eonab Nine Akbal One Lamat

Thus came the creation of the uinal and of the world. Sky, earth, trees and rocks were set in order. All things were created by our Lord Dios. He was heard when there was neither sky nor earth as he was Dios in the clouds by his own power when he created the whole world. Then there was noise and movement in heaven and before God at the great accomplishment of him who was the ruler.

This is the day count, day by day, in which the count begins in

the east.

NOTES

1. In the Maya text only the capitalization and paragraphing are my own. I have kept the spelling and punctuation of the original, but have inserted a few obvious corrections in parentheses.

2. I am unable to find any definition of the word eb which would explain the expression, "eb water," and "the first eb" which "came from the midst of the heavens in the midst of the water," but I believe it refers to the event pictured on plate 74 of the Dresden Codex where the old goddess with the tiger claws is seen emptying a jar of water upon the earth amid a general deluge of water from the heavens. The day sign Eb is pictured in the stream of water which she pours out of her jar, as has been noted by Seler, Forstemann and others. These writers have explained the picture as depicting the end of the world in the far distant future, but this passage in the Chumayel would indicate that it was one of the events in the course of the creation of the world. The old goddess with the claws may well be the "mistress of the world " mentioned in our text. The Dictionary of Motul defines ebas "escalera." Seler (Gesammelte Abhandlung, vol. I. p. 482), gives eb, ebil, ebal and yebal as meaning a series of indentations, a flight of steps of a stairway.

3. Note the word play on the Maya day names in the following cases :

Ca Eb u mentci yax eb.

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