_Popol Vuh_, p.

332.] Their close relation with Itzamna is evidenced, not only in the fragmentary myth preserved by Hernandez, but quite amply in the descriptions of the rites at the close of each year and in the various festivals during the year, as narrated by Bishop Landa.

Thus at the termination of the year, along with the sacrifices to the Bacab of the year were others to Itzamna, either under his surname _Canil_, which has various meanings,[1] or as _Kinich-ahau_, Lord of the Eye of the Day,[2] or _Yax-coc-ahmut_, the first to know and hear of events,[3] or finally as _Uac-metun-ahau_, Lord of the Wheel of the Months.[4] [Footnote 1: _Can_, of which the "determinative" form is _canil_, may mean a serpent, or the yellow one, or the strong one, or he who gives gifts, or the converser.] [Footnote 2: _Kin_, the day; _ich_, eye; _ahau_, lord.] [Footnote 3: _Yax_, first; _coc_, which means literally deaf, and hence to listen attentively (whence the name Cocomes, for the ancient royal family of Chichen Itza, an appellation correctly translated "escuchadores") and _ah-mut_, master of the news, _mut_ meaning news, good or bad.] [Footnote 4: _Uac_, the months, is a rare and now obsolete form of the plural of _u_, month, "_Uac_, i.e._u_, por meses y habla de tiempo pasado." _Diccionario Maya-Espanol del Convento de Motul_, MS.

_Metun_ (Landa, _mitun_) is from _met_, a wheel.

The calendars, both in Yucatan and Mexico, were represented as a wheel.] The word _bacab_ means "erected," "set up."[1] It was applied to the Bacabs because they were imagined to be enormous giants, standing like pillars at the four corners of the earth, supporting the heavens.