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270 or 100 days less than 20 years). It is possible that this was a custom inherited from the earlier Maya, and if so it seems likely that the latter performed the ceremony every katun quarter. Certainly a large number of the stelæ, especially at Quirigua, bear initial dates of katun quarters, but there are also many to which this supposition cannot apply, and which must have served to mark some other occasion. It is certain that these stelæ were objects of worship, since in nearly every case an altar is found in front of each on which, presumably, offerings were made. Apart from the calendrical feasts, the Yucatec practised two interesting ceremonies, one of which was performed over children of about three years of age, and was known by a name signifying "to be reborn." A lucky day was selected, and four Chac were chosen to assist the priest. The ceremony took place in a house which was purified for the occasion; the Chacs sat at each corner, holding cords enclosing the children and their fathers, the latter having fasted for three days; and the priest sat in the centre with a brazier and incense mixed with maize-meal. The boys wore a white head-ornament, and the girls a shell suspended from a girdle; each advanced in turn and offered meal and incense, receiving it from the priest. The cord, brazier and a vessel of wine were then given to a man to carry outside the village, and it was supposed that in this way evil was expelled from the house. The priest then assumed a tunic of feathers, chiefly red, with cotton streamers, and a feather head-dress (possibly similar to the costume shown on Fig. 82; p. 344), and held in his hand a brush made of serpent-tails. The heads of the children were covered with cotton cloths, and a bone was passed nine times over the forehead of each and dipped in a vessel of water with which their brows, faces and the interstices of their fingers and toes were anointed. 'This water had been procured from hollow tree-stumps or mountain