ii, cap.

xv; Diego de Landa, _Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p.288.Cogolludo also mentions _Ix chel_, _Historia de Yucatan_, Lib.

iv, cap.vi.The word in Maya for rainbow is _chel_ or _cheel_; _ix_ is the feminine prefix, which also changes the noun from the inanimate to the animate sense.] That the Rainbow should be personified as wife of the Light-God and mother of the rain-gods, is an idea strictly in accordance with the course of mythological thought in the red race, and is founded on natural relations too evident to be misconstrued.

The rainbow is never seen but during a shower, and while the sun is shining; hence it is always associated with these two meteorological phenomena.
I may quote in comparison the rainbow myth of the Moxos of South America.
They held it to be the wife of Arama, their god of light, and her duty was to pour the refreshing rains on the soil parched by the glaring eye of her mighty spouse.

Hence they looked upon her as goddess of waters, of trees and plants, and of fertility in general.[1] [Footnote 1: "Fabula, ridicula adspersam superstitione, habebant de iride.
Ajebant illam esse Aramam feminam, solis conjugem, cujus officium sit terras a viro exustas imbrium beneficio recreare.