vident; hence it must be
given to denote the substance of which these things are formed, which I
maintain can only be wood. That the trees and boards must be wood is
admitted; that the walls of many of the houses and of some of the other
buildings of Yucatan were of wood must be admitted; that seats were
often of wood is well known. The heads with this mark are in all
probability representations of wooden masks. Masks are represented in
the hands of individuals at several places in the codices, as Dres.
42(1)a and in Peresianus. I therefore conclude that in all these cases
the symbol is to be interpreted by _che_, _cheil_, "wood, tree, timber,
stick." In order to show the difference between the explanation given
here and that by Dr Seler, I copy the latter:

We find, for instance, on the one hand the undoubted application
which is connected with the idea of cloud or rain. Thus, in the
hieroglyph, figure 80, the accompanying hieroglyph of figure 46,
i. e., the bird Moan. So also the one in figure 28 (p. 107) the
accompanying hieroglyph of the name Kinchahau, which, besides
cauac, contains further the element of fire and that of the
hatchet, which may remind us of the ray [or flash] darting from the
cloud. The hieroglyph cauac is, however, used far more commonly in
the sense of "stone" or "heaviness." This is most clearly shown in
the case of the animal figures pictured in Cod. Tro. 9a and 22*a,
where the stone laid upon and weighing down the horizontal beam is
represented by the element cauac. But this explanation must be
accepted also, because we find the pyramidal foundation of the
temple covered with the element cauac. And where, in Cod. Tro.
15*a, to the Chac who is felling a tree is opposed the death god,
also felling a tree, covered by the element cauac, it is clear that
here there is substituted with the death god a rigid stone in place
of what with the Chac is a sprouting tree. The numerous cases in
which the hieroglyph cauac serves as a seat or footstool of the
gods are sometimes easily interpreted as signifying clouds, but in
the majority of cases it undoubtedly represents "stone," homologous
to the hieroglyph caban and the element _tun_, "stone," itself
(figure 85), both of which are found equally often denoting the
seat and footstool of the gods. It is equally evident that in the
hierog