_Muan._ The proprietors of cacao plantations held a festival to their patrons, the Chac, Hobnil and Ekchuah, sacrificing a dog with a cacao-coloured patch and making other offerings, including feathers. At the ensuing feast not more than three cups of wine might be drunk by the participators. _Pax._ During this month a ceremony took place which was supposed to bring good luck in warfare. The priests and lords of the provincial towns assembled at the capital and passed five nights in prayer in the temple of the god Cit-chac-coh, together with the Nacon who was carried thither in divine state amidst clouds of incense. After this the populace at large joined in the proceedings, a fire-sacrifice, similar to that in Mac, was made, and the Nacon was carried round the temple. A dog was then sacrificed by the Chac, and its heart was offered between two plates, and after each of these officials had broken a vessel containing wine, a feast took place at which only the Nacon remained sober. After this month no great festival was held until the new-year ceremonies, but various minor local feasts were celebrated, and a great deal of time was spent in eating and drinking. The later Yucatec, we are told, were in the habit of setting up a “stone” to commemorate the commencement (or the end) of a katun (period of 7200 days, or 100 days less than 20 years). It is possible that this was a custom inherited from the earlier Maya, and if so it seems likely that the latter performed the ceremony every katun quarter. Certainly a large number of the stelæ, especially at Quirigua, bear initial dates of katun quarters, but there are also many to which this supposition cannot apply, and which must have served to mark some other occasion. It is certain that these stelæ were objects of worship, since in nearly every case an altar is found in front of each on which, presumably, offerings were made. Apart from the calendrical feasts, the Yucatec practised two interesting ceremonies, one of which was performed over children of about three years of age, and was known by a name signifying “to be reborn.” A lucky day was selected, and four Chac were chosen to assist the priest. The ceremony took place in a house which was purified for the occasion; the Chacs sat at each corner, holding cords enclosing the children and their fathers, the latter having fasted for three days; and the priest sat in the centre with a brazier and incense mixed with maize-meal. The boys wore a white head-ornament, and the girls a shell suspended from a girdle; each advanced in turn and offered meal and incense, receiving it from the priest. The cord, brazier and a vessel of wine were then given to a man to carry outside the village, and it was supposed that in this way evil was expelled from the house. The priest then assumed a tunic of feathers, chiefly red, with cotton streamers, and a feather head-dress (possibly similar to the costume shown on Fig. 82; p. 344),