Zin-ché=cross, literally tree of life or of power. Zin-il=powerful, _cf._ zihnal=original, primitive. Zihzabal=creation. Zian=the beginning, origin, generation. Zihil=to commence, or be born. Zinan=scorpion, symbol. Name And Symbol Of North. _Maya._ Am=spider. Aman=the north. Star-Names. _Maya._ Ek=star, black. Ek-chuah=name of the patron divinity of travellers and traders, _i. e._, the pole-star. _cf._ Ikal, native word adopted by Spanish missionaries to denote “a spirit.” I have already pointed out how a minute comparison of the equivalent Mexican symbols and their names shows that the latter often seem to be mere translations from the Maya and that the same identity of sound does not always exist between the Nahuatl symbol, its name and true significance. On the other hand in the much-used Mexican symbol for the centre and four quarters, the flower, pronounced ho-chitl, but written xo-chitl, the archaic Maya syllable ho, so intimately connected with the centre, recurs. It also appears in the name of the constellation Ursa Minor, xo-necuilli, in the word xoch-ayotl=tortoise, employed as a symbol, and in the name xolotl=something double or dual, sometimes employed as a synonym of coatl=twin, serpent. The hand=maitl was employed to express the numeral five=macuilli. It is particularly interesting to note that in order to express the word tlachi-ual-tepetl or “artificial mound” (the Maya hom) in Nahuatl, the scribes had to paint a mountain surmounted by an eye, a symbol also employed to designate stars=the eyes of night. The Nahuatl for tree=quahuitl is almost homonymous with quaitl=head and both were employed as symbols of the centre. The following Nahuatl words claim special attention. The first is teotl, which was adopted as the equivalent of the Greek Theos by the Spanish missionaries, but which appears to have been originally used in the sense of a “Divinity,” or “divine lord,” and was also applied to all lords or rulers. The second is the verb yoli or yolinia=to live and yollotl=heart. A special interest attaches itself, however, to the noun yauatl=circle and the verb yaualoa=to go around in a circle many times, because there is good ground for identifying, as the Ursa Major, the star-god mentioned as Youal-tecuhtli by Sahagun. As youalli means night, the title literally signifies “the lord of the night,” while yaual=tecuhtli would mean the lord of the circle or wheel, the most appropriate name for Ursa Major. The actual representation, in the “Lyfe of the Indians,” of the “Lord of Night,” within a wheel or circle composed of his own footsteps, so strikingly corroborates this view, that further comment appears unnecessary (fig. 59). [Illustration.] Figure 59. In conclusion the exact meaning of the most important native symbols is here recapitulated so as to facilitate comparative research. THE SWASTIKA OR CROSS