[Footnote 1: Landa, _Relacion_, pp. 208,-211, etc. _Hobnil_ is the ordinary word for belly, stomach, from _hobol_, hollow. Figuratively, in these dialects it meant subsistence, life, as we use in both these senses the word "vitals." Among the Kiches of Guatemala, a tribe of Maya stock, we find, as terms applied to their highest divinity, _u pam uleu, u pam cah_, literally Belly of the Earth, Belly of the Sky, meaning that by which earth and sky exist. _Popol Vuh_, p. 332.] Their close relation with Itzamná 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 Itzamná, 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-mètun-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-Español 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. In this sense they were also called _chac_, the giants, as the rain senders. They were also the gods of fertility and abundance, who watered the crops, and on whose favor depended the return of the harvests. They presided over the streams and wells, and were the divinities whose might is manifested in the thunder and lightning, gods of the storms, as well as of the gentle showers.[2] The festival to these gods of the harvest was in the month _Mac_, which occurred in the early spring. In this ceremony, Itzamná was also worshiped as the leader of the Bacabs, and an important rite called "the extinction of the fire" was performed. "The object of these sacrifices and this festival," writes Bishop Landa, "was to secure an abundance of water for their crops."[3]