Name: kat, potter's clay. There are a number of Maya words meaning clay, but all sources agree that kat is the specific term for the kind of clay used for pottery making. Both the Motel and Vienna dictionaries define kat as the day used by the olleros or pot makers. E. H. Thompson, writing about 1900 (and probably overstating the situation) claims that all potter's clay was further subdivided into 2 classes: xahkat (zac-kat, white/clay) and xkatkan (kart Icot, yellow/clay). Gaumer gives kan kan kat (yellow/clay) for the sample he collected in 1895 at Izamal. My Mama informants, like those from the other villages, always refer to their clay as kat. However, they do differentiate between the zahkat which they ordinarily use and the equally good but much less used kankat. I did not find this distinction at any other village.