pools, and contained certain flowers and cacao. This part of the ceremony evidently possessed a purificatory significance, while the next act seems to signify, as far as the boys were concerned, the entry into boyhood. Their head-ornaments were removed by the priest with a stone knife, and an assistant followed with a handful of flowers and a pipe, handing them to each of the candidates in turn, the bouquet to smell and the pipe to smoke, making at the same time nine passes with them before the face of each. The mothers removed the shell ornament from the girls, who from this time were considered eligible for betrothal; and after several minor ceremonies, including the distribution of gifts among the chief actors, the function was over. The other ceremony, to which allusion is made above, consisted in the confession of sins, similar to, but less elaborate than, that practised by the Mexicans. It was believed that absolution could be given only once, and for this reason it was usually deferred until the penitent was seriously ill. The confession was made to a priest, if the services of one could be obtained, or else to a near relation, husband, wife, father or mother.
Of Kakchiquel ritual little is known; they, and also the Tzental, observed eighteen months of twenty days, and brought the year up to 365 by the addition of five extra days, just as the Maya and Mexicans. Some, at any rate, of their ceremonies appear to have been connected with the tonalamatl count, since we are told that in early times offerings of fresh incense, green branches and bark were made on each seventh and thirteenth day, and a "cat, the image of night," was burned before the god. We are also informed that this was before the "worship of the idol of the great Chay Abah was begun." However, various rites in connection with agriculture were practised, such as fasting before sowing, and the offering of incense at each of the corners of the fields.
