This leads me to identify it [the Maya name] with, the Maya _mex_ or _meex_, which is the name of a fish (the "pez arana," "un pescado que tiene muchos brazos"), probably so called from another meaning of _mex_, "the beard." ... This identification brings this day name into direct relation to the Zapotec and Nahuatl names. In the former, _chiylla_, sometimes given as _pi-chilla_, is apparently from _bi-chilla-beo_, water lizard, and Nahuatl _cipactli_ certainly means some fish or fish-like animal--a swordfish, alligator, or the like, though exactly which is not certain, and probably the reference with them was altogether mythical. Dr Seler, in his subsequent paper, gives the following explanation of the Zapotec name _chilla_ or _chijlla_: For this I find in the lexicon three principal meanings: One is the cubical bean (wurfel bohne). "Pichijlla, frisolillos o havas con que echan las suertes los sortilegos" [beans used by the sorcerers in casting lots or telling fortunes]; another meaning is "the ridge" (pichijlla, lechijlla, chijllatani, loma o cordillera de sierra); another is "the crocodile" (cocodrillo, lagarto grande de agua); and another "swordfish" (pella-pichijlla-tao, espadarte pescado). Finally, we have chilla-tao, "the great Chilla," given again as one of the names of the highest being. Here it seems to me that the signification "crocodile" is the original one, and thus far suitable. For the manner in which the first day character is delineated in Mexican and Zapotec picture writing [our plate LXIV, 16] shows undoubtedly the head of the crocodile with the movable snapping upper jaw, which is so characteristic of the animal. Attention is called to the apparently closely related word as given by Perez--_mech_, _ixmech_, "lagartija." It will not be out of place here to refer to a superstition pervading the islands of the Pacific ocean, which seems strangely coincident with the conception of the physical symbol of this day. This is a mythological monster known in some sections by the name _Taniwha_, and in others as _moko_ or _mo'o_. Dr Edward Tregear[214-1] speaks of it as follows: Taniwha were water monsters generally. They mostly inhabited lakes and streams, but sometimes the sea. Sometimes the beast was a land animal, a lizard, etc, but the true _taniwha_ is a water kelpie. Mr Kerry Nichols,[214-2] speaking of these monsters, says: