heir
culture hero, Xbalanque. Hence in Cakchiquel tale, the Chay Abah
represented the principle of life, as well as the source of
knowledge.[43-2]

The Cakchiquel _Annals_ do not pretend to deal with mythology, but from
various references and fragments inserted as history, it is plain that
they shared the same sacred legends as the Quiches, which were, in all
probability, under slightly different forms, the common property of the
Maya race. They all indicate loans from the Aztec mythology. In the
Cakchiquel _Annals_, as in the _Popol Vuh_ and the _Maya Chronicles_, we
hear of the city of the sun god, _Tulan_ or _Tonatlan_, as the place of
their origin, of the land _Zuiva_ and of the _Nonoalcos_, names
belonging to the oldest cycles of myths in the religion of the Aztecs.
In the first volume of this series I have discussed their appearance in
the legends of Central America,[44-1] and need not refer to them here
more than to say that those who have founded on these names theories of
the derivation of the Maya tribes or their ruling families from the
Toltecs, a purely imaginary people, have perpetrated the common error of
mistaking myth for history. It is this error that renders valueless much
that the Abbe Brasseur, M. Charnay and others of the French school, have
written on this subject.

Xahila gives an interesting description of some of their ancient rites
(Sec. 44). Their sacred days were the 7th and 13th of each week. White
resin was burned as incense, and green branches with the bark of
evergreen trees were brought to the temple, and burned before the idol,
together with a small animal, which he calls a cat, "as the image of
night;" but our domestic cat was unknown to them, and what animal was
originally meant by the word _mez_, I do not know.

He mentions that the priests and nobles drew blood with the spines of
the gourd tree and maguey, and elsewhere (Sec. 37) refers to the
sacrifice of infants at a certain festival. The word for the sacrificial
letting of blood was _[c,]ohb_, which, by some of the missionaries, was
claimed as the root of the word _[c]abuil_, deity.

Human sacrifice was undoubtedly frequent, although the reverse has been
asserted by various historians.[45-1] Father Varea gives some curious
particulars. The victim was immolated by fire, the proper word being
_[c]atoh_, to burn, and then cut in pieces and eaten. When it was, as
usual, a male captive, the genital organs were given to one of the