Meaning
The Yucatec word kib' is wax. Thompson could make little of the glyph, perhaps a section of shell, or of its god; he recorded the deer god as the Yucatec augury and the souls of the dead, as insects, as the highland one, and noted that the K'iche' meaning had shifted from the souls of the dead to sinners. The Classic reading is unknown.
The K'iche' name is built on mak, a fault or sin. The Komon Tohil daykeepers make it the day on which people and daykeepers guard against mistakes and give thanks for their well-being; the Maya' Wuj manual makes it the day of the owl and of giving and receiving forgiveness.
Our reading: the ancestors, mistakes and forgiveness, and the lessons handed down, carried by people described as brave and spirited, who learn by trying. The words are ours.
In the highlands today
In Momostenango, Andrés Xiloj said in 2005, it is the day of the sinner, quick to fall into fault. Maya' Wuj makes it a day to seek harmony with oneself, the family and society.
Our English gloss, Forgiveness, is a word we chose for the chart from the highland reading; it is not a translation of the Yucatec name.
The glyph and the old readings
Ajmaq is never a year bearer.
The Central Mexican day of the same position is Cozcacuauhtli, the vulture, which with the owl is the bird most often attached to this day on Western pages.
In the count
Ajmaq comes round every twentieth day, thirteen times in the 260: on days 16, 36, 56, 76, 96, 116, 136, 156, 176, 196, 216, 236 and 256, with the numbers 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2 and 9 in that order, so 3 Ajmaq is its first day in the count and 9 Ajmaq its last. In the nawal cross of a person born on Ajmaq, the day eight before (conception) falls on Q'anil, the day eight after (destiny) on K'at, six before (the right hand) on Tz'i' and six after (the left hand) on Iq', each with its own number.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Thompson's reading of the glyph (1950)
- section of shell (uncertain) sourced
- Presiding god of the day, after Thompson
- a Bacab or Tzitzimime (uncertain) sourced
- Old augury, Yucatan and the highlands, after Thompson
- deer god (Yucatan); souls as insects (highlands); gradings differ between communities disputed
- The name, as the Zunil daykeepers explain it
- will; the day on which people and daykeepers guard against mistakes sourced
- Direction and colour
- south, yellow (k'an): read off the four-direction cycle; not attested for this day itself, and not shown on our chart unverified
- Our reading
- The ancestors, mistakes and forgiveness: brave and spirited, learning by trying. our construction
How the schools read it
- Classic inscriptions (epigraphers)
- Reading of the glyph not known
- J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950
- The glyph as section of shell (uncertain); the day's god a Bacab or Tzitzimime (uncertain).
- Komon Tohil daykeepers, Zunil
- Will; the day on which people and daykeepers guard against mistakes.
- The Maya' Wuj manual
- Owl; harmony with oneself, the family and society; a day to give and receive forgiveness and to pay one's faults.
- Momostenango (Andrés Xiloj, 2005)
- The day of the sinner, who is quick to sin.
- The Central Mexican count (tonalpohualli)
- Cozcacuauhtli, vulture: the day of the same position in a related but different count.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- "Yellow Warrior" for the same position in its own count; not our name for the sign.
- EsoTerrier
- The ancestors, mistakes and forgiveness: brave and spirited, learning by trying. Our words.
Claims about it
-
Ajmaq is the "Yellow Warrior".
falseWhat the record shows: That is a Dreamspell name from a modern count of 1990, which gives most dates a different sign.
-
Ajmaq means the vulture, as its Aztec counterpart does.
falseWhat the record shows: The Central Mexican count is different; the K'iche' name is built on the word for a fault, and the Yucatec on wax.
-
Ajmaq has kept one meaning.
disputedWhat the record shows: Thompson saw its highland meaning move from the souls of the dead to sinners; today's daykeepers read forgiveness.
