Finally, Ek Chuah was the patron of cacao, and the owners of plantations of this crop conducted a ceremony in his honor in the month of Muán. This god was a friend to the Maya. It should be noted that Mayan commerce extended from Xicalango, on the Laguna de Terminos on the Gulf of Mexico, to the mountains of Chiapas, and along the Caribbean coast as far as Honduras. It continued after the collapse of the Mayan Empire until the arrival of the Spaniards.
The principal Mayan god of merchants was Ek Chuah (ek means “star” and chuah means “black” in Yucatec Maya), who was also the god of cacao. The connection lies in the fact that cacao seeds were used as currency throughout Meso-America.
Fray Diego de Landa reports that as special ritual travelers as well as merchants would bring out incense every night in order to arrange three stones with several grains of incense on top, and place incense on another three flat stones arranged in front of the first three, praying to Ek Chuah to bring them home safe and sound.