Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/276

220 he was in particular the deity of the Cavek tribe and a thunder-god, while the other principal divisions of the Quiché, the Nihaib and Ahau-Quiché, were under the leadership of Avilix and Hacavitz respectively. A fourth tribal division worshipped a god Nicatayah, but just as the ultimate prosperity of the Aztec raised their deity Uitzilopochtli to a predominating position in the pantheon, so the extinction of this Quiché division resulted in the extinction also of its god. Tohilisin one place definitely identified with Quetzalcoatl, under the name Yolcual Quetzalcuat (i.e. Yoalli Eecatl Quetzalcoatl). The god of the Rabinal was Huntoh, who is probably identical with Tohil. The god of the Kakchiquel was a divinity in bat-form, called Zotziha Chimalcan, and was a deity associated by the Quiché with the underworld, Xibalba. Gods especially associated with certain localities were, Kukulkan with Mayapan and, later, Mani, Ahchun Caan with Tihoo, Ahulneb with Cozumel, Kinich Ahau with Campeche, and Itzamatul (perhaps a form of Itzamna) with Itzamal. The Tzental of Chiapas and Tabasco venerated a culture-hero Votan. But in actual cult, at any rate as far as the Yucatec were concerned, the agricultural divinities were of primary importance. As in Mexico, the god of agriculture and rain was also the thunder-god; in Yucatan he was called Chac, and was assisted in the performance of his functions by a number of subsidiary Chac, just as Tlaloc by the Tlaloque. Another fertility-god was Ah Bolon Tzacab, who, in one creation myth, is represented as taking the seeds of all cultivated plants with him to the thirteenth heaven, a story which recalls the theft of maize by Tlaloc (p. 48). Other patrons of agriculture were the so-called Bacab, the four deities placed by the creator to support the heavens. Their names were Hobnil, Kanzicnal, Zaczini and Hozanek, and they are closely associated with the Chac, so closely in fact that I am inclined to think that they were actually four of