Instead of having to surmise this fancied relation, I think the explanation is to be found in the fact that similarity in the form of the glyph is indicative of a similarity in the sounds of the words represented. Here the _ch_ becomes _x_ (sh).
Dr Seler also calls attention in this connection to the animal figures in Dres. 36a and elsewhere, which are "represented as plunging down from heaven with torches in their paws, and fire also issuing from the tassel-like ends of their tails, which doubtless denote the lightning, the death-dealing servant of the Chac." By the mention of this last word--_chac_--Dr Seler has shown that correct reasoning by a different line leads to precisely the same result as that which appeals to the phonetic or ikonomatic character of the symbol. Here again the _ch_ sound appears as the chief element of the character. The rain or field deities, the chacs, are usually represented in the codices as dog or panther like animals; and _chuac_, "the tempest," and, according to Henderson, _chac_ also, signifies lightning. But the relation of figures and phonetic value includes also the animal; _chacbolay_, "a savage tiger, a young lion" (Perez); _chacboay_, "a leopard" (Henderson); _chacoh_, "a leopard;" _chacekel_, "a tiger, jaguar;" _chac-ikal_, "the storm, the tempest." The similar figures in Tro. 32c probably symbolize the dry burning season which parches and withers the corn. The word is probably _choco_, _chocou_, or some related form.
Maya, _kan_ or _kanan_; Tzental, _ghanan_; Quiche-Cakchiquel, _k'at_ (_k'ate_, _k'atic_, _gatu_); Zapotec, _guache_ or _gueche_; Nahuatl, _cuetzpallin_.
The Maya symbol of this day is subject to but few and slight variations. The principal forms are shown in plates LXIV, 57, to LXV, 3. That given by Landa is presented in plate LXIV, 57. The forms in the codices are shown in plates LXIV, 58; LXV, 1, 2, 3, that with the eye (LXV, 3) being the usual form given in Peresianus; LXV, 4 represents it as found on the right slab of the Palenque tablet.
The significations of the Maya word _kan_ are various, as "yellow," "rope," "hamac," etc, and, according to Dr Brinton, the Tzental _ghanan_ is the same word under a slightly different form. However, he contends that the original sense is to be found in the Cakchiquel word _k'an_, as given by Guzman (in a manuscript work in his possession), who says it is the name applied to the female iguana, or tree lizard. This, it is true, brings the signification into close correspondence with that of the Nahuatl term, but it is more than probable that the Maya and Tzental terms were in use before the application mentioned by Guzman was made by the Cakchiquel. It is noticeable, however, that in the list from Taylor's "Te-Ika-a-Maui," presented in the appendix, "lizards" are given as symbolic of one of the New Zealand days.