PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVKRSITY OF PENN; 
 
 
 Philology Literal 
 
 VOL 
 
 Archeology 
 
 A PRIMER OF 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHIC 
 
 DANIEL G. BR1NTGN, AM. ! D. 
 
 
 " Hieroglyphics old, 
 Which sa;:> r,.)id kt.;:i-eyt.' .ist, 
 Then living nn the earth, - ni:ig *hou' 
 
 Won from tlie gaze of many 
 
 GINN & COMPANY 
 
 uiada, and i 
 
 MAX NI2MEYHR 
 
 r or the Coiitihent <jf Rurop 
 
 
c^o^, 
 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 SERIES IN 
 
 Philology Literature and Archaeology 
 
 VOL. Ill No. 2 
 
 A PRIMER OF 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS 
 
 DANIEL G.^BRINTON, A.M., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D. 
 ? 
 
 PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 
 MENT OF SCIENCE, ETC., ETC. 
 
 " Hieroglyphics old, 
 
 Which sages and keen-eyed astrologers, 
 Then living on the earth, with labouring thought, 
 Won from the gaze of many centuries." 
 
 KEATS 
 
 GINN & COMPANY MAX NIEMEYER 
 
 Agents for United States, Canada, and England Agent for the Continent of Europe 
 7-13 Tremont Place, Boston, U.S.A. Halle, a S., Germany 
 
35 
 63 
 
Bancroft Library 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 
 In the following pages I have endeavored with the greatest 
 brevity to supply the learner with the elements necessary for a 
 study of the native hieroglyphic writing of Central America. 
 The material is already so ample that in many directions I have 
 been obliged to refer to it, rather than to summarize it. This 
 will explain various omissions which may be noted by ad- 
 vanced scholars ; but they will not, I believe, diminish the use- 
 fulness of the work as an elementary treatise. 
 
 In conclusion I would express my thanks to the officers of 
 the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, and of the Pea- 
 body Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge, for various facilities 
 they have obligingly furnished me. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 /. Introductory. PAGE 
 
 1. GENERAL CHARACTER OF MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS, 9 
 
 2. THE MAYAN MANUSCRIPTS OR " CODICES," 1 1 
 
 3. THEORIES OF INTERPRETATION. " ALPHABETS " AND " KEYS," .... 13 
 
 //. The Mathematical Elements. 
 
 1. THE CODICES AS TIME-COUNTS, 18 
 
 2. THE MAYAN NUMERAL SYSTEM 19 
 
 3. NUMERICAL AND ALLIED SIGNS 19 
 
 4. THE RHETORICAL AND SYMBOLIC USE OF NUMBERS, 24 
 
 5. THE MAYAN METHODS OF COUNTING TIME, 25 
 
 6. THE CALCULATIONS IN THE CODICES, 29 
 
 7. RULES FOR TRACING THE TONALAMATL, OR RITUAL CALENDAR, .... 31 
 
 8. THE CODICES AS ASTRONOMICAL TREATISES, 32 
 
 9. ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANCIENT MAYAS, 34 
 
 ///. The Pictorial Elements. 
 
 1. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT MAYAS 37 
 
 Itzamna Cuculcan Kin ich Other Gods The Cardinal Points 
 The Good Gods The Gods of Evil The Conflict of the Gods. 
 
 2. THE COSMOGONY OF THE MAYAS, 46 
 
 3. THE COSMICAL CONCEPTIONS OF THE MAYAS 47 
 
 4. PICTORIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF DIVINITIES, 50 
 
 Representations of Itzamna Of Cuculcan Of Kin ich Of Xaman 
 Ek, the Pole Star Of the Planet Venus Of Ghanan, God of 
 Growth Of the Serpent Goddess Of Xmucane Of Ah puch, 
 God of Death Of the God of War Of Ek-Ahau and other 
 Black Gods. 
 
 5. THE MAYA PRIESTHOOD, 68 
 
 6. FANCIFUL ANALOGIES, 69 
 
 7. TOTAL NUMBER OF REPRESENTATIONS, 70 
 
 8. FIGURES OF QUADRUPEDS, 71 
 
 9. FIGURES OF BIRDS, 72 
 
 10. FIGURES OF REPTILES, . 74 
 
 11. OCCUPATIONS AND CEREMONIES, 76 
 
 V 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. The Graphic Elements. PAGE 
 
 1. THE DIRKCTION IN WHICH THE GLYPHS ARE TO BE READ, 7 8 
 
 2. COMPOS; 11 Ci.vi'iis, 81 
 
 3. THE PiOPE* METHOD OF STUDYING GLYPHS, 81 
 
 i. AN ANALYSIS OF VAEIOUS GRAPHIC ELEMENTS, 82 
 
 The Hand The Eye and Similar Figures The " Spectacles" The 
 Ear Crescentic Signs Sun and Moon Signs Supposed Varia- 
 tions of the Sun Sign The Knife Signs The " Fish and Oys- 
 ter" Sign The Sacred Food Offerings The Ben ik and Other 
 Signs The Drum Signs The Yax and Other Feather Signs 
 The Cross-hatched Signs Some Linear Signs and Dots Linear 
 Prefixes The "Cloud-balls" and the "Corkscrew Curl" 
 Signs for Union The "Tree of Life" The "Machete" and 
 Similar Signs Supposed Bird Signs The "Crotalean Curve" 
 Objects Held in the Hand The Aspersorium, the Atlatl and the 
 Mimosa The " Constellation Band " The Signs for the Cardinal 
 Points The Directive Signs The " Cuceb." 
 
 5. THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE DAYS, 109 
 
 6. THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE MONTHS,. 116 
 
 7. THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE DEITIES, 121 
 
 V. Specimens of Texts. 
 
 1. THE GOD OF TIME BRINGS IN THE DEAD YEAR. DRESDEN CODEX, . . 127 
 
 2. SACRIFICE AT THE CLOSE OF A YEAR. DRESDEN CODEX, 128 
 
 3. END OF ONE AND BEGINNING OF ANOTHER TIME PERIOD. CORTESIAN 
 
 CODEX, 129 
 
 4^ THE GOD OF GROWTH AND THE GOD OF DEATH. CORTESIAN CODEX, . 131 
 
 5. AUGURIES FROM THE NORTH STAR. CORTESIAN CODEX, 131 
 
 6. ITZAMNA, THE SERPENT GODDESS, AND KIN ICH. DRESDEN CODEX, . . 132 
 
 7. THE GODS OF DEATH, OF THE SUN, AND OF WAR. DRESDEN CODEX, . 132 
 
 8. CUCULCAN MAKES NEW FIRE. CODEX TROANO, 133 
 
 9. THE GODS OF DEATH, OF GROWTH, AND OF THE NORTH STAR. DRESDEN 
 
 CODEX, 133 
 
 10. THE GOD OF GROWTH, OF THE SUN, AND OF THE EAST. DRESDEN CODEX, 134 
 
 11. AN INSCRIPTION FROM KABAH 135 
 
 12. LINEAR INSCRIPTION FROM YUCATAN, 136 
 
 13. THE " INITIAL SERIES" FROM THE TABLET OF THE CROSS, PALENQUE, . 137 
 
 14. INSCRIPTION ON THE "TAPIR TABLET," CHIAPAS 138 
 
 15. INSCRIPTION ON A TABLET FROM TONINA, CHIAPAS, 139 
 
 16. INSCRIPTION ON AN AMULET FROM OCOCINGO, CHIAPAS, 139 
 
 17. INSCRIPTION ON A VASE FROM A QUICHE TOMB, GUATEMALA, 140 
 
A PRIMER OF 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS 
 
 I. Introductory. 
 
 The explorations among the ruined cities of Central America 
 undertaken of late years by various individuals and institutions 
 in the United States and Europe, and the important collections 
 of casts, tracings and photographs from those sites now on view 
 in many of the great museums of the world, are sure to stimu- 
 late inquiry into the meaning of the hieroglyphs which constitute 
 so striking a feature on these monuments. 
 
 Within the last decade decided advances have been made 
 toward an interpretation of this curious writing; but the results 
 of such studies are widely scattered and not readily accessible 
 to American students. For these reasons I propose, in the 
 present essay, to sum up briefly what seem to me to be the most 
 solid gains in this direction ; and to add from my own studies 
 additional suggestions toward the decipherment of these unique 
 records of aboriginal American civilization. 
 
 i . General Character of Mayan Hieroglyphs. 
 
 One and the same hieroglyphic system is found on remains 
 from Yucatan, Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala, and Western Hon- 
 duras ; in other words, in all Central American regions occupied 
 
 9 
 
IO MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 at the Conquest by tribes of the Mayan linguistic stock. 1 It 
 has not been shown to prevail among the Huastecan branch of 
 that stock, which occupied the valley of the river Panuco, north 
 of Vera Cruz; and, on the other hand, it has not been discov- 
 ered among the remains of any tribe not of Mayan affinities. 
 The Mexican manuscripts offer, indeed, a valuable ancillary 
 study. They present analogies and reveal the early form of 
 many conventionalized figures; but to take them as interpreters 
 of Mayan graphography, as many have done, is a fatal error of 
 method. In general character and appearance the Mayan is 
 markedly different from the Mexican writing, presenting a much 
 more developed style and method. 
 
 Although the graphic elements preserved in the manuscripts 
 and on the monuments vary considerably among themselves, 
 these divergencies are not so great but that a primitive identity 
 of elements is demonstrable in them all. The characters 
 engraved on stone or wood, or painted on paper or pottery, 
 differ only as we might expect from the variation in the material 
 or the period, and in the skill or fancy of the artist. 
 
 The simple elements of the writing are not exceedingly 
 numerous. There seems an endless variety in the glyphs or 
 characters ; but this is because they are composite in formation, 
 made up of a number of radicals, variously arranged ; as with 
 the twenty-six letters of our alphabet we form thousands of words 
 of diverse significations. If we positively knew the meaning or 
 meanings (for, like words, they often have several different mean- 
 ings) of a hundred or so of these simple elements, none of the 
 inscriptions could conceal any longer from us the general tenor 
 of its contents. 2 
 
 1 In accordance with usage in this study, I employ the adjective " Mayan" when 
 speaking of the whole stock, and confine " Maya," in an adjectival sense, to that 
 branch of the stock resident in Yucatan. 
 
 2 This is also the opinion of Dr. Seler : " Es ist eine verhaltnissmassig geringe 
 Zahl von Bildern und Grundelementen, die in diesen Schriftzeichen wiederkehren." 
 Verhand. Berliner Anthrop. GeselL, 1887,8. 231. 
 
THE MANUSCRIPTS. I I 
 
 It will readily be understood that the composite characters 
 may be indefinitely numerous. Mr. Holden found that in all 
 the monuments portrayed in Stephen's Travels in Central America 
 there are about fifteen hundred; * and Mr. Maudslay has informed 
 me that according to his estimate there are in the Dresden 
 Codex about seven hundred. 
 
 Each separate group of characters is called a "glyph," or, by 
 the French writers, a " katun," the latter a Maya word applied to 
 objects arranged in rows, as soldiers, letters, years, cycles, etc. 
 As the glyphs often have rounded outlines, like the cross-section 
 of a pebble, the Mayan script has been sometimes called " calculi- 
 form writing " (Latin, calculus, a pebble). 
 
 2. The Mayan Manuscripts or "Codices" 
 
 The hieroglyphic writing is preserved to us on two classes of 
 remains painted on sheets of native paper, about ten inches 
 wide and of any desired length, which were inscribed on both 
 sides and folded in the manner of a screen ; and engraved or 
 painted on stone, wood, pottery, or plaster. 2 
 
 Of the former only four examples remain, none of them per- 
 fect. They have all been published with great care, some of 
 them in several editions. They are usually spoken of as "codi- 
 ces " under the following names : the Codex Troanus and the 
 Codex Cortesianus, probably parts of the same book, the original 
 of which is at Madrid ; the Codex Peresianus, which is in Paris ; 
 and the Codex Dresdensis, in Dresden. The two former and the 
 two latter resemble each other more closely than they do either 
 member of the other pair. There are reasons to believe that 
 the two first mentioned were written in central Yucatan, and the 
 
 1 " Studies in Central American Picture Writing," in First An. Rep. of the 
 Bureau of Ethnology, p. 210. 
 
 2 Among those who have especially merited the thanks of archaeologists in collect- 
 ing material for the study of the monuments are M. Desire Charnay, Mr. A. P. 
 Maudslay, Prof. F. W. Putnam ; and I shall hope to add Dr. Le Plongeon, when he 
 makes public his material. 
 
12 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 last two in or near Tabasco. 1 This district and that of Chiapas, 
 adjacent to it on the south, was occupied at the time of the Con- 
 quest by the Tzental-Zotzil branch of the Mayan stock, who spoke 
 a dialect very close to the pure Maya of Yucatan ; they were the 
 descendants of the builders of the imposing cities of Palenque, 
 Ococingo, Tonina and others, and we know that their culture, 
 mythology, and ritual were almost identical with those of the 
 Mayas. I shall treat of them, therefore, as practically one people. 
 
 Although Lord Kingsborough had included the Dresden 
 Codex in his huge work on " Mexican Antiquities" and the 
 Codex Troanus had been published with close fidelity by the 
 French government in 1869, it cannot be said that the serious 
 study of the Mayan hieroglyphs dates earlier than the faithful 
 edition of the Dresden Codex, issued in 1880 under the super- 
 vision of Dr. E. W. Forstemann, librarian-in-chief of the Royal 
 Library of Saxony. 
 
 The most important studies of the codices have been pub- 
 lished in Germany. Besides the excellent writings of Dr. 
 Forstemann himself, those by Dr. P. Schellhas and Dr. E. 
 Seler, of Berlin, are of great utility and will be frequently 
 referred to in these pages. In France, Professor Leon de Rosny, 
 the competent editor of the Codex Peresianus, the Count de 
 Charencey, and M. A. Pousse, whose early death was a severe 
 loss to this branch of research, deserve especial mention. In 
 England no one has paid much attention to it but Mr. Alfred P. 
 Maudslay, whose investigations have yielded valuable results, 
 forerunners of others of the first importance. The earlier 
 speculations of Bollaert are wholly fanciful. In our own coun- 
 try, the mathematical portions of the essays of Professor Cyrus 
 
 1 The Peresianus has been supposed by some to have been written in Guatemala ; 
 by others, both it and the Dresdensis have been considered of Tzental origin. See 
 Pousse, in Arch, de la Soc. Amer., 1885, p. 126, and Paul Perrin, " Les Annotations 
 Europeennes du Codex Peresianus," in the same, June, 1887, p. 87 sqq. Forstemann 
 (Entzijf. III.) gives several cogent reasons for believing that the Dresdensis was 
 written in or near Palenque. 
 
REBUS WRITING. 13 
 
 Thomas are worthy of the highest praise ; and useful sugges- 
 tions can be found in Charles Rau's article on the inscriptions of 
 Palenque, and in Edward S. Holden's paper on Central American 
 picture-writing. 1 
 
 3. Theories of Interpretation. 
 
 The theories which have been advanced as to the method of 
 interpreting the Mayan hieroglyphs may be divided into those 
 which regard them as ideographic, as phonetic, or as mixed. 
 The German writers, Forstemann, Schellhas, and Seler, have 
 maintained that they are mainly or wholly ideographic ; the 
 French school, headed by the Abbe Brasseur, de Ros'ny, and 
 de Charencey, have regarded them as largely phonetic, in which 
 they have been followed in the United States by Professor Cyrus 
 Thomas, Dr. Cresson/Dr. Le Plongeon, and others. 
 
 The intermediate position, which I have defended, is that while 
 chiefly ideographic, they are occasionally phonetic, in the same 
 manner as are confessedly the Aztec picture-writings. In these 
 we constantly meet with delineations of objects which are not 
 to be understood as conveying the idea of the object itself, but 
 merely as representing the sound of its name, either in whole or 
 in part; just as in our familiar "rebus writing," or in the 
 ''chanting arms " of European heraldry. I have applied to this 
 the term " ikonomatic writing," and have explained it so fully, as 
 
 1 The four Codices can be obtained by placing an order with one of the leading 
 importers of foreign books in New York City. The four cost about one hundred 
 dollars. The study of the German writers is indispensable. The contributions of 
 Dr. Schellhas and Dr. Seler will be found in the numbers of the Berlin Zeitschrift 
 fur Ethnologic, 1 886 and later. Dr. Forstemann has likewise published in the 
 Zeitschrift, 1891, and also in the Centralblatt filr Bibliothekivesen, in which remote 
 quarter some of his most thoughtful contributions have appeared ; and in the Pro- 
 ceedings of the- International Congress of Americanists. Four of his articles bear 
 the general title, " Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften," I, II, III, IV. I refer 
 to them by these numbers. The articles of Professor Thomas, Professor Rau, and 
 Mr. Holden are contained in the annual reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, Wash- 
 ington, where they can be readily consulted by American students. 
 
14 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 it is found in the Mexican manuscripts, in my " Essays of an 
 Americanist" that I need not enter upon it further in this con- 
 nection, but would refer the reader to what I have there written. 1 
 
 The attempt to frame a real alphabet, by means of which the 
 hieroglyphs could be read phonetically, has been made by 
 various writers. 
 
 The first is that preserved in the work of Bishop Landa. It 
 has failed to be of much use to modern investigators, but it has 
 peculiar value as evidence of two facts; first, that a native scribe 
 was able to give a written character for an unfamiliar sound, one 
 without meaning, like that of the letters of the Spanish alphabet; 
 and, secondly, that the characters he employed for this purpose 
 were those used in the native manuscripts. This is proof that 
 some sort of phonetic writing was not unknown. 2 
 
 This alphabet was extended by the Abbe Brasseur, and 
 especially by de Rosny, who, in 1883, defined twenty-nine 
 
 1 The essays to which I particularly refer are : " The Phonetic Elements in the 
 Graphic Systems of the Mayas and Mexicans;" "The Ikonomatic Method of 
 Phonetic Writing ;" " The Writing and Records of the Ancient Mayas ;" and " The 
 Books of Chilan Balam." All these are reprinted in my Essays of an Americanist, 
 published by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1890. As to how far this or any 
 phonetic system is consistent with the known differences of dialects in the Mayan 
 stock, is a question which space does not permit me to enter upon. I can only say 
 that the signification seems to me to have been fixed in the Maya-Tzental district, 
 and thence carried to the Chords, Quiches, etc. 
 
 2 The first copy of Landa's alphabet published in the United States was by myself 
 in the American Historical Magazine, 1870. Twenty years later, 1890, in my 
 Essays of an Americanist, p. 242, I reproduced a photographic fac-simile of it from 
 the original MS. Though not without considerable value in certain directions, I do 
 not think it worth while to dwell upon it here. 
 
 Bishop Landa's important work, Relacion de las Cosas de- Yucatan, written about 
 1570, must be carefully read by every student on this branch. It has been twice 
 published, first by the Abbe Brasseur, at Paris, 1864, and more fully at Madrid, under 
 the competent editorship of Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado, in 1884. On the 
 relative merits of the two editions, see my "Critical Remarks on the Editions of 
 Diego de Landa's Writings," in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical 
 Society, 1887. 
 
ALPHABETS AND KEYS. 
 
 5 
 
 letters, with numerous variants from the Codices and inscrip- 
 tions. 1 
 
 Two years later, Dr. A. Le Plongeon published an " Ancient 
 Maya Hieratic Alphabet according to Mural Inscriptions," con- 
 taining twenty-three letters, with variants. This he applied to 
 the translating of certain inscriptions, but added nothing to cor- 
 roborate the correctness of the interpretations. Each sign, he 
 believed, stood for a definite letter. 2 
 
 FIG. i. Landa's Alphabet; after a photograph from the original manuscript. 
 
 Another student who devoted several years to an attempt to 
 reduce the hieroglyphs to an alphabetic form was the late Dr. 
 Hilborne T. Cresson. His theory was that the glyphs stood for 
 the names of pictures worn down to a single phonetic element, 
 
 1 The Abbe.Brasseur's whimsical speculations are in his introduction to the Codex 
 Troano, published by the French government in 1869. The chief work of De Rosny 
 on the subject is his Essai sur le Dechiffrement de r Ecriture Hieratique de 
 r Amerique Centrale, folio, Paris, 1876. He fully recognizes, however, that there are 
 also ideographic and pictorial characters as well as phonetic. 
 
 2 Dr. Le Plongeon's " Alphabet" was published in the Supplement to the Scientific 
 American, New York, for January, 1885. 
 
l6 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 alphabetic or syllabic. This element he conceived was conso- 
 nantal, to be read with any vowel, either prefixed or suffixed; 
 and the consonant was permutable with any of its class, as -a 
 lingual, palatal, etc. On this basis he submitted, shortly before 
 his death in 1894, to the American Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science several translations from the Codex Troano. 
 Previous to this, in 1892, he had announced his method in the 
 journal "Science" and claimed that he had worked it out ten 
 years before. 1 
 
 An alphabet of twenty-seven characters, with variants, which 
 the author considered in every way complete, was published in 
 1888, by F. A. de la Rochefoucauld. 2 By means of it he offered 
 a volume of interlinear translations from the inscriptions and 
 codices ! They are in the highest degree fanciful, and can have 
 little interest other than as a warning against the intellectual 
 aberrations to which students of these ancient mysteries seem 
 peculiarly prone. 
 
 In 1892 Professor Cyrus Thomas, of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
 announced with considerable emphasis that he had discovered 
 the " key" to the Mayan hieroglyphs; and in July, 1893, pub- 
 lished a detailed description and applications of it. 3 In theory, 
 it is the same as Dr. Cresson's, that is, that the elements of the 
 glyphs were .employed as true phonetic elements, or letters. In 
 the article referred to he gives the characters for the following 
 letters of the Maya alpRabet: b, c, c\ dz, ch, h, t, k, /, m, n, 
 o, p, //, /, th, tz, x, v, z ; also for a large number of syllabic 
 sounds which he claimed to have recognized. With such an 
 
 1 At the time of his unexpected death, Dr. Cresson had left with me a full exposi- 
 tion of his theory. His enthusiasm was unbounded, and the sacrifices he had made 
 in the pursuit of archaeological science merit for his memory a kindly recognition 
 among students of this subject. 
 
 2 Palenque et la Civilisation Maya (Paris, 1 888). The "Alphabet phonetique 
 des anciens Mayas " is on pp. 10 sqq. The author was at one time attached to the 
 French legation in Guatemala. 
 
 3 In the American Anthropologist, Washington, D. C. 
 
ALPHABETS AND KEYS. I/ 
 
 apparatus, if it had any value, one would expect to reach prompt 
 and important re'sults ; but, aside from the doubtful character of 
 many of his analyses, the fact that this " key " has wholly failed 
 to add any tangible, valuable addition to our knowledge of the 
 inscriptions is enough to show its uselessness ; and the same may 
 be said of all the attempts mentioned. 
 
 A slight inspection of the Maya manuscripts and of almost 
 any of the inscriptions will satisfy the observer that they are 
 made up of three classes of objects or elements : 
 
 1. Arithmetical signs, numerals, and numerical computations. 
 
 2. Pictures or figures of men, animals, or fantastic beings, of 
 ceremonies or transactions, and of objects of art or utility ; and, 
 
 3. Simple or composite characters, plainly intended for graphic 
 elements according to some , system for the preservation of 
 knowledge. 
 
 I shall refer to these as, (i) the Mathematical Elements, (2) the 
 Pictorial Elements, and (3) the Graphic Elements of the Mayan 
 hieroglyphic writing. 
 
1 8 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 II. The Mathematical Elements. 
 
 I. The Codices as Time- Counts. 
 
 In another work I have explained the numeral system in vogue 
 among the ancient Mayas, as well as the etymology of the terms 
 they employed. 1 It will be sufficient, therefore, to say here that 
 their system was vigesimal, proceeding by multiples of twenty 
 up to very large sums. In the same work I have quoted from 
 original sources the information that the fives up to fifteen were 
 represented by single straight lines and the intermediate numbers 
 by dots. This has also been discovered independently by several 
 students of the manuscripts. 
 
 The frequency and prominence of these elementary numerals in 
 nearly every relic of Mayan writing, whether on paper, stone, or 
 pottery, constitute a striking feature of such remains, and forcibly 
 suggest that by far the majority of them have one and the same 
 purpose, that is, counting ; and when we find with almost equal 
 frequency the signs for days and months associated with these 
 numerals, we become certain that in these records we have before 
 us time-counts some sort of ephemerides or almanacs. This is 
 true of all the Codices, and of nine out of ten of the inscriptions. 
 Here, therefore, is a first and most important step gained toward 
 the solution of the puzzle before us. 
 
 But did this incessant time-counting refer to the past or to 
 the future ? Was it history or was it prophecy ? Or, passing 
 beyond this world, was it astronomy ? Was it mythology or 
 ritual, the epochs and the eons of the gods ? Perhaps the disposi- 
 tion, sequence, and values of the numbers themselves, once 
 comprehended, will answer these vital questions. 
 
 1 See my Library of Aboriginal American Literature, No. I : The Maya Chronicles, 
 Introduction, pp. 37-50 (Philadelphia, 1882). 
 
ANCIENT ARITHMETIC. 19 
 
 2. The Mayan Numeral System. 
 
 Unfortunately, the old writers, either Spanish or native, tell us 
 little about Maya mathematics. They say the computation ran 
 thus: 
 
 20 units = one kal, 20. 20 pic = one calab, 160,000. 
 
 20 kal ..one bafc, 400. 20 calab one kinchil or tzotzceh, 3,200,000. 
 
 20 bak = one^z<r, 8000. 20 kinchil ' = one alau, 64,000,000. 
 
 The Tzental system was the same, though the terms differed 
 somewhat: 20 units = one tab (cord or net-ful) ; 20 tabs = one 
 bac ; 20 bacs = one bac-baquetic (bundle of bacs); 20 bac-baquet- 
 ics = one mam (grandfather) ; 20 mams = one me c him (grand- 
 mother); 20 medium = one mucul mam (great-grandfather), 
 64,ooo,ooo. 1 
 
 No doubt in the numerical notation there were special signs 
 for each of these higher unities ; but neither Bishop Landa nor 
 the native writers who composed the singular " Books of Chilan 
 Balam " have handed them down. Modern sagacity, however, 
 has repaired ancient negligence, and we can, almost to a certainty, 
 restore the numerical notation of the aboriginal arithmeticians. 
 
 The scholar who has worked most successfully in this field is 
 Dr. Forstemann, the editor of the Codex of Dresden, and I shall 
 introduce a condensed statement of his results, referring the 
 student to his own writings for their demonstration. 
 
 3. Numerical and Allied Signs. 
 
 The first important discovery of Dr. Forstemann in this di- 
 rection was that of the sign for the naught or cipher, o. It is 
 given in Fig. 2. 2 It has a number of variants, some ornamental 
 in design. Next, he discovered the system of notation of high 
 
 1 Vincente Pineda, Gramatica de la Lengtta Tzel-tal, pp. 154, sqq. (Chiapas, 1887). 
 Pineda makes the multiplier 400 instead of 20, in which he is certainly in error. 
 
 2 The object portrayed is evidently a shell, probably selected as a rebus ; but the 
 name of the species I have not found. The ordinary terms are///y and xicin. 
 
i X 
 
 8,000) = 
 
 88,000 
 
 8X 
 
 400) =' 
 
 3,200 
 
 7X 
 
 20) = 
 
 140 
 
 oX 
 
 = 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,377,340 
 
 20 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 numbers. This is not like ours, but resembles that in use in the 
 arithmetic of ancient Babylonia and some parts of China. The 
 numerals are arranged in columns, to be read from below upward, 
 the value of each unit of a given number being that power of 20 
 which corresponds to the line on which it stands counted from 
 the bottom. This will be readily understood from the following 
 example : 
 
 Maya Simple Composite 
 
 numerals. values. values. 
 
 c (i = 2o 4 , = 160,000 ; hence, 8 X 160,000) = 1,280,000 
 
 II (l = 20 3 ,.= 8,000; 
 
 8 ( I = 20 2 , 400 ; 
 7 (i = 20 , 20 ; 
 
 o (i = i , = i ; 
 
 FIG. 2. Maya Notation. 
 
 This would be according to the regular system of the Maya 
 numeration as given above ; but in applying it to the calcula- 
 tions of the native astronomer who wrote the Dresden Manu- 
 script, Dr. Forstemann discovered a notable peculiarity which 
 may extend over all that class of literature. In the third line from 
 the bottom, where in accordance with the above rule the unit is 
 valued at 20 X 20 = 400, its actual value is 20 X 18 = 360. 
 
 It immediately suggested itself to him that in time-counts this 
 irregular value was assigned in order that the series might be 
 brought into relation to the old solar year of 360 days, composed 
 of 1 8 months of 20 days each, in the native calendar. 
 
 This correction being made, the above table would read : 
 
 8 (i = 7200 X 20 = 144,000) = 1,152,000 
 ii (i = 360X20= 7200)= 79,200 
 8 (i = 20 X 18 = 360) = 2,880 
 7 (i = 20) 140 
 
 0(1- i) _o 
 
 1,234,220 
 
NUMERICAL SIGNS. 21 
 
 An examination of the mural inscriptions showed that on 
 them also the same plan for the expression of high numbers had 
 been employed, and Dr. 
 
 Forstemann was en- *. 2. 3. 4-, 
 
 abled to interpret with 
 
 accuracy the computa- J / ~^$\ IT 
 
 tions on the monuments \22jS^ (% \^v)j r~ 
 
 from Copan, Ouirigua, 
 
 FIG. 3. Maya Numerals. 
 
 and Palenque ; devel- 
 
 poing incidentally the remarkable fact that the inscriptions of 
 Copan contain as a rule higher numbers and are therefore pre- 
 sumably of later date than those of Palenque. The highest is 
 that on " Stela N," as catalogued by Mr. Maudslay, which 
 ascends to 1,414,800 days, or 3930 years of 360 days. 1 
 
 The next step was the identification of the graphic signs for 
 the higher unities, 20, 360, and 7200, corresponding to the 
 native kal.bak, and pic. J^ t K(<^I S-o ' l^(,ft j-*> 
 
 That generally used for 20 was identified by several students. 
 It is shown in Fig. 3, No. 3 ; another also employed under cer- 
 tain circumstances for 20 is shown Fig. 3, No. 2. This was identi- 
 fied independently, first by Pousse, later by Seler. 2 No. 4 is 
 perhaps a variant of it. 
 
 The signs for the bak, 360, and the pic, 7200, are not so 
 certainly established, but Dr. Forstemann has given cogent 
 reasons for recognizing them respectively in the two shown Fig. 
 4, Nos. 6 and 7. 
 
 1 Forstemann, Entzifferting, No. IV, and Maudslay, Biologia Centrali-Ameri- 
 cana, Archeology, Part IV. 
 
 2 According to Pousse (Archives de la Soc. Amer. de France, 1887, p. 165), it is 
 used to designate the particular day which falls on the 2Oth of the month, that is, the 
 last day of the month, and has therefore the sense of " last," " final," rather than of 20. 
 It is written as an affix to the month sign. Thomas states that it is used with month 
 symbols " only where the month (of 20 days) is complete or follows one completed." 
 Amer. Anthropologist > Vol. VI, p. 246. There is some doubt whether No. 4 is not 
 an element of union. Compare Seler, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1887, p. 57- 
 
22 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Higher signs than these in the direct numerical scale have not 
 yet been ascertained ; but such plausible reasons have been 
 advanced by Dr. Forstemann for assigning calendar values to 
 certain other signs that they should be added in this description 
 of the numerals. 
 
 The first is that shown in Fig. 4, No. 8. It represents the 
 katunic cycle of 52 years of 365 days each, = 18,980 days: '-The 
 second is No. 9. This is taken to be the sign of the ahau katun, 
 24 years of 365 days, = 8760 day s?-''The third is No. 10. This 
 corresponds to one-third of an ahau katun, 2920 days. The 
 fourth, shown No. 1 1, is an old cycle of 20 years of 360 days, = 
 7200. No. 12 means an old katunic cycle of 52 years of 360 
 ^ = 18,720 days, and No. 13 an old year of 360 days. 1 ^ 
 
 11 12 
 
 FIG. 4. Calendar Signs. 
 
 13 
 
 There are also a series of other signs evidently connected with 
 the numerals, the precise value of which is yet undetermined. 
 One of these is a small right or oblique cross, or sometimes two 
 
 1 Dr. Forstemann's article, " Zur Maya-Chronologie," assigning the reasons for 
 these identifications, appeared in the Berlin Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1891. 
 
THE COSMIC SIGN. 23 
 
 arcs abutting against each other, connected or not. It is usually 
 by the side of a single dot or unit, or between two such. In 
 certain places, it seems to be a multiplier with the value 20; in 
 others, it would indicate a change or alternation in the series 
 presented of days or years. (See Fig. 5, Nos. 1-4.) 
 
 Of somewhat similar value are the calendar signs C/2, Fig. 4, 
 
 3. 
 
 , 
 
 x )C 
 
 FIG. 5. Numeral Signs. 
 
 Nos. 2, 3, 4, like an 6" placed lengthwise. 
 This is also understood to be a sign of 
 alternation or change of series of years or 
 cycles. 'H>O, 
 
 Of an opposite sense is the sign No. 
 5, the spiral, and also the sign No. I, both 
 of which are held to represent union. 
 
 This list exhausts the mathematical 
 signs so far as they have been ascertained 
 with probability. Those for high numbers 
 brought forward by Brasseur, 1 have no 
 evidence in their favor. 
 
 Mr. Maudslay has offered reasons for 
 believing that the character in Fig. 6, a, 
 "stands for the numeral 20 in a certain 
 class of mural inscriptions. 2 He further 
 
 ations. 
 
 1 Etude sur le Manuscrit Troano, p. 220. 
 
 2 A. P. Maudslay : Biologia Centrali- Americana ; Archeology , Part II. Text, 
 pp. 40-42 (London, 1890). The character b closely resembles the day-sign c/nten. 
 This could readily be chosen to express ikonomatically chun, " the beginning, the first," 
 and my studies convince me that it repeatedly must be so understood. To this I shall 
 recur on a later page. XV^V-t/vML 
 
 ' 
 
24 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 points out that the character b is not unfrequently united with 
 a, and 'that it (b} almost alone of the mural glyphs is found 
 with a double set of numerals attached to it as in c. One or 
 both these sets of numerals are at times replaced by the sign a, 
 giving the composites d, e, and/. It is thus evident that a has 
 some numerical or calendar meaning. As a character itself, it 
 is the " cosmic sign," conveying the idea of the world or uni- 
 verse as a whole, as is seen by the examples to which Mr. 
 Maudslay refers, from various Codices. The cross-hatching 
 upon it means, as I shall show later, " strong, mighty," and is 
 merely a superlative. It may very well mean 20, as that is the 
 number conveying completeness or perfection in this myth- 
 ology. 1 That it appears on what Mr. Maudslay calls the 
 " Initial Series " of glyphs (which I consider terminals), is ex- 
 plained by the nature of the computations they preserve. 
 Another combination, belonging most likely to a similar class, 
 
 is the following I >te8!jr where the " cosmic sign " is united 
 
 as a superfix to the pax and the flint. It has usually been ex- 
 plained as a " phallic emblem," and by Thomas as " tortillas." 2 
 
 4. The Rhetorical and Symbolic Use of Numbers. 
 In the old Maya language we find that certain numbers were 
 used in a rhetorical sense, and this explains their appearance in 
 some non-mathematical portions of the Codices and inscriptions. 
 The two most commonly employed were 9 and 13. These con- 
 veyed the ideas of indefinite greatness, of superlative excellence, 
 
 1 Since the above was written, Mr. Stewart Culm, Director of the museum of the 
 University of Pennsylvania, has called my attention to the fact that the cross-hatching 
 on the "cosmic sign" would, in Oriental, especially Chinese symbolism, convey the 
 idea of the fundamental dual principles of existence, male and female, upper and 
 lower, etc. The same interpretation may quite possibly apply in the Mayan symbolism. 
 
 2 See my Native Calendar of Central America, pp. 49-59 (Philadelphia, 1893). 
 
SACRED AND SYMBOLIC NUMBERS. 25 
 
 of infinity, etc. A very lucky man was a " nine-souled man ; " 
 that which had existed forever was " thirteen generations old," 
 etc. The " demon with thirteen powers" was still prominent in 
 Tzental mythology in the time of Nunez de la Vega. Other 
 numerals occasionally employed in a symbolic sense were 3, 
 4, and 7. 1 
 
 All these occur in the Codices as prefixes in relations where 
 they are not to be construed in their arithmetical values, but in 
 those assigned them by the usages of the language or the cus- 
 toms of religious symbolism. Thus, " twenty," owing to the 
 vigesimal method of numeration, conveyed the associated ideas 
 of completeness and perfection ; and as the month of 20 days 
 was divided into four equal parts of 5 days each, by which mar- 
 kets, etc., were assigned, these numbers also stood independently 
 for other concepts than those of computation. 
 
 5. The Mayan Methods of Counting Time. 
 
 Having ascertained the characters for the numerals, and hav- 
 ing learned that these records are mainly time-counts, the next 
 question which arises is : How did the Mayas count time? 
 
 About this we have considerable information from the works 
 of the Spanish writers, Landa, Aguilar, Cogolludo, Pio Perez, 
 etc., which has been supplemented by the researches of modern 
 authors. 
 
 The Maya system was a complicated one, based on several 
 
 1 The dictionaries give: " bolon pixan, bien adventurado ;" bolon dzacab\ and 
 oxlahun dzacab, " cosa eterna." Tbe numeral " one," as in English, had a superla- 
 tive sense, as hun miatz, " the one scholar," i. e., the most distinguished. Why a 
 symbolic or superlative sense was attached to such numbers is a question too exten- 
 sive to discuss here. I have touched upon it in my Native Calendar of Central 
 America, pp, 8, 13, and in an article on " The Origin of Sacred Numbers" in The 
 American Anthropologist, April, 1894. In another connection we find maay, odor 
 from something burning; " bolonmayel, qualquier olor suavissimo y transcendente " 
 Dice. Motul. Dr. Seler has suggested that the number 13 may refer to the thirteen 
 heavens ; but offers no evidence that the Mayas entertained the Nahuatl myth to 
 which this refers. 
 3 
 
26 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 originally distinct methods, which it was the duty and the aim 
 of the astronomer-priests to bring into unison, and the effort 
 to accomplish this will chiefly explain their elaborate computa- 
 tions. 
 
 Undoubtedly their earliest time-count was that .common to 
 primitive tribes everywhere a measurement of the solar year 
 by lunations or " moons." The exact lunar month is 29 days, 
 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds ; but primitive peoples usually 
 estimate it at 28 days, and allow 13 months to the solar year, as 
 do yet many North Asiatic peoples, and as probably did the 
 early Aryans j 1 or, they estimate the " moon " at 30 days, and 
 allow 12 moons to the year. There are good grounds for be- 
 lieving that the Mayan tribes were at one time divided in custom 
 about this, some using one, some the other method. At the 
 time of the Conquest they had undoubtedly reached a knowl- 
 edge of the length of the year as 365 days ; and there is 
 considerable probability that some of them at least made the 
 correction arranged for in our bissextile or leap year. 2 
 
 This is all familiar enough and would create no difficulty in 
 deciphering these aboriginal almanacs ; but a disturbing element 
 enters. The real time-count by which they adjusted the im- 
 portant events of their lives, and which is most prominent in 
 their records, had nothing to do with the motions of the sun, or 
 
 1 Schrader : Prehistoric Antiquities of the- Aryan Peoples, pp. 307-9. 
 
 2 To enter into this debated question at length would not be possible in this con- 
 nection; but I would merely note: (l) The positive assertion of Landa that the 
 Maya year " invariably " began July 1 6 (Cosas de Yucatan,^. 236), could not be 
 true even for five years, unless the bissextile correction was made, which he asserts 
 was done ; (2) the example of a Maya year given by Aguilar {Informe contra 
 Idohtm Cultores del Obispado de Yucatan, Madrid, 1639), is actually one containing 
 six intercalary days, " sets dias que fueron sus cauiculares ; " and (3) Father Martin 
 de Leon, in his " Calendario Mexicano" pointedly states that the fourth year was a 
 bissextile year (Camino del Cielo, fol. 100, Mexico, 1611). I do not maintain that 
 this knowledge was general, but that it had been acquired by the astronomer-priests 
 of certain localities. The investigations of Mrs. Zelia Nuttall tend to demonstrate 
 this opinion. 
 
THE RITUAL YEAR. 2/ 
 
 the moon, or any other natural' phenomenon. It was based on 
 purely mythical relations supposed to exist between man and 
 nature. As the number 20 (fingers and toes) completes the 
 man, and as all the directions, that is, potencies, of the visible 
 and invisible worlds were held to be 13, these two numbers, 13 
 and 20, formed the basis of an astrological and ritual calendar, 
 by which auspicious and inauspicious days were assigned, future 
 events foretold, the major feasts and festivals of religious wor- 
 ship dictated, and the like. 
 
 This singular time-count of 20 X 13 = 260 days was adopted 
 with slight variations by every semi-civilized nation of Mexico 
 and Central America, and even the names of the 20 days are 
 practically of the same meaning in all these languages. 1 It 
 constituted the to nalamatl of the Nahuas, the " Book of Days," 
 used in divination. 
 
 This sacred period was subdivided into four equal parts of 65 
 days each, each of which was assigned to the rule of a special 
 planet or star, and to a particular cardinal point with attendant 
 divinities ; and each was marked with a color of its own, white, 
 black, red, or blue. 
 
 Each " month " of 20 days was subdivided into four periods of 
 five days each, again each having its own divinity, assignment, etc. 
 
 But the importance to us of the tonalamatl is that its compu- 
 tations underlay the measurement of long periods of time, the 
 less and greater cycles. These were estimated by the methods 
 of the sacred year, in groups of 13, 20, 24, 52, 104, 260 years, 
 etc. These irregular numbers had to be brought into unison 
 with the lunar and solar years, with the vigesimal system of 
 counting by 20 and its multiples, and with the observed motions 
 of the planets, who were divinities controlling the ritual divisions 
 of time. 
 
 To devise a mathematical method of equalities and differences 
 
 1 On these points I would refer the reader to my work, The Native Calendar of 
 Central America and .Mexico ; A Study in Linguistics and Symbolism (Phila- 
 delphia, 1893). 
 
28 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 by which these conflicting numbers could be placed in har- 
 monious relations, subsumed under common measures, and the 
 ceremonies and forecasts which they controlled assigned by 
 uniform laws this is the arithmetical problem which fills the 
 pages of the Mayan Codices, and in parts or at length is spread 
 over the surface of the inscribed monuments and painted vases. 
 We need not search for the facts of history, the names of mighty 
 kings, or the dates of conquests. We shall not find them. 
 Chronometry we shall find, but not chronicles ; astronomy with 
 astrological aims ; rituals, but no records. Pre-Columbian 
 history will not be reconstructed from them. This will be 
 a disappointment to many ; but it is the conclusion toward 
 which tend all the soundest investigations of recent years. 
 
 Let us recapitulate the numbers which the Maya mathemati- 
 cian had to deal with and adjust under some scheme of uni- 
 formity : 
 
 1. The " week " of 13 days, '. ... 13. 
 
 2. The "month" of 20 days, 20. 
 
 3. Its division into four parts (called tzuc), each, 5. 
 
 4. The complete tonalamatl, 13X2 days 260. 
 
 5. Its divisions into four parts, each, 65. 
 
 6. The solar year, counted as 18 months of 20 days each, . . 360. 
 
 7. The solar year, counted as 12 months of 30 days each, . . 360. 
 
 8. The solar year, counted as 13 lunar months of 28 days 
 
 each, . '. 364. 
 
 9. The solar year, counted as 28 weeks of 13 days each, . . 364. 
 
 10. The true solar year, days, 365. 
 
 11. The bissextile year (?), 366. 
 
 12. The apparent revolution of Venus (Noh-ek, the Great Star), 
 
 days 584. 
 
 13. The apparent revolution of Mercury (?), days 115. 
 
 14. The apparent revolution of Mars (?), days, 780. 
 
 15. The kin katun, or day-cycle of years, 13. 
 
 1 6. The older cycle of years, 20. 
 
 17. The newer cycle of years, 24. 
 
 1 8. The katun cycle of years, 52. 
 
 19. The double cycle of years, 104. 
 
 20. The great cycle of years 260. 
 
THE NATIVE CHRONOLOGY. 2Q 
 
 6. The Calculations in the Codices. 
 
 The Codices contain numerous calculations intended to bring 
 these various quantities into definite relations as aliquot parts 
 of some arithmetical whole, which might be taken as a general 
 unit. The scribes appear to have begun by establishing a period 
 of 14,040 days. This equals 39 years of 360 days each, and 
 also 54 years of 260 days each, together, of course, with the 
 divisors of these numbers, 13, 18, 20, 65, etc. Then followed the 
 determination of the period of 18,980 days, -- 73 tonalamatl, = 
 52 solar years, so prominent in the calendar and ritual of the 
 Nahuas. 
 
 This number, however, could not be adjusted to the cycle of 
 the ahau katun, which was 24 years of 365 days each ; * nor to 
 the ceremonially prominent revolution of " the Great Star, "Venus, 
 which coincides with the Earth's revolutions in 292odays, or eight 
 solar years. To bring these into accord with the tonalamatl 
 required a period of 104 solar years, or 37,960 days; and to 
 adjust under one number the katuns, the ahau katnns, the revo- 
 lutions of Venus, the solar year, and the tonalamatl, three times 
 that number of days are required, that is, 113,880, = 312 years. 
 
 This period had still to be brought into relation to the old 
 year of 360 days, and this requires the estimation of a term 
 covering 1,366,560 days, or 3744 years; and this extended era 
 we find expressed in the Dresden Codex, page 24, in the 
 following simple notation, the interpretation of which into our 
 system of calculation, according to the method above explained, 
 I add to the right. 
 
 1 Professor Cyrus Thomas, in his carefully written article, " The Maya Year," in the 
 Bulletins of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1894), has collected evidence 
 that the same calendar system, based, he believes, on the year of 365 days, was used 
 in Palenque, Menche (Lorillard City), and Tikal, as well as in the Cod. Dresdensis. 
 That the Mayas had, at the time of the Conquest, long known the year of 365 days, 
 was demonstrated from the Codices by Dr. Forstemann. (See his Erlduterungen zur 
 Maya-Handschrift, Dresden, 1886, p. 21, and his " Die Zeitperioden der Mayas," in 
 Globus, January, 1892). 
 
3O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 This long period allowed all their important time- measures 
 to be dealt with as aliquot parts of one whole, and would seem 
 to be sufficient for the purposes they had in view. The credit 
 of establishing it from their ancient writings is exclusively due 
 to Dr. Forstemann, whose demonstrations of it appear to be 
 conclusive. 1 
 
 .9 (unit = 144,000) = 1,296,000 
 9 (unit = 7,200) 64,800 
 
 1 6 (unit = 360) = 5,760 
 20) = o 
 
 Total, " 1,366,560 
 
 This acute observer has, however, discovered some reasons 
 to suppose that the native priests occasionally contemplated a 
 much more extended era; some of their calculations seem to 
 require an era which embraced 12,299,040 days, that is, 33,696 
 years ! 2 
 
 No doubt each of these periods of time had its appropriate 
 name in the technical language of the Maya astronomers, and 
 also its corresponding sign or character in their writing. None 
 of them has been recorded by the Spanish writers ; but from the 
 analogy of the Nahuatl script and language, and from certain 
 indications in the Maya writings, we may surmise that some of 
 these technical terms were from one of the radicals meaning "to 
 tie, or fasten together," and that the corresponding signs would 
 
 * See especially his articles, Die Zeitperioden der Mayas, 1892, and his Zur Enlzif- 
 ferung der Maya- Handschrif ten, IV, 1894. 
 
 2 The grounds for this opinion are stated in his Zur Entzifferung, etc., No. II. 
 
POUSSE'S RULES. 31 
 
 either directly, that is, pictorially; or ikonomatically, that is, by 
 similarity of sound, express this idea. 
 
 Proceeding on the first of these suppositions, Dr. Forstemann 
 has suggested that the character, Fig. 4, No. 8, signifies the 
 period of 52 years, the Nahuatl xiuhmolpilli, " the tying together 
 of the years," represented in the Aztec pictographs by a bundle 
 of faggots tied with cords. The Maya figure is explained as the 
 day-sign imix, representing the first day of the calendar, and, by 
 a kind of synecdoche, the whole calendar, with a superfix. 
 
 7. Rules for Tracing the Tonalamatl, or Ritual Calendar. 
 That the computations of the tonalamatl underlie most of the 
 numerals in the Codices is shown by the rules for reading them, 
 formulated by Pousse with reference to the red and black 
 numerical signs. These rules are as follows : 1 
 
 1. If to a red number be added the black number immediately 
 following it, the total less 13 (or its multiples, when the total is 
 above 13) equals the next following red number. 
 
 2. When the red and black numbers are written alternately on 
 the same line, they are to be read from left to right; when written 
 one above the other, they are to be read from below upward ; when 
 in two vertical columns, they are to be read passing from one 
 column to the other, beginning with the first black number on 
 the left, passing to the first black number on the right, returning 
 to the second black number on the left, and so on. 
 
 Sequences of this kind are governed by the following 
 rules : 
 
 1 . In any of the above systems the beginning is always marked 
 by one or more columns of days surmounted by a number. 
 
 2. This number is always the same as that which ends the 
 series, and both are written in red. 
 
 3. The sum of the numbers written in black, multiplied by 
 the number of days with different names represented by the 
 
 1 A. Pousse, in Archives de la Societe Amiricaine de France, 1886, 1887. 
 
32 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 hieroglyphs attached, always equals 260, that is, the number of 
 days in the tonalamatl. 
 
 The above rules enable the student to recognize the relations 
 of the different parts of the Codices. They prove, for instance, 
 that the pages are not to be read from top to bottom, but that the 
 separate parts or chapters are to be read in many instances from 
 left to right in the section of the page in which they begin, 
 without respect to the folds of the MSS. ; and that evidently in 
 reading these " books " they were unfolded and spread out. A 
 good example of this is in Cod. Dresden, pages 4-10, on which 
 one chapter covers all the upper thirds of the seven pages. 
 
 8. The Codices as Astronomical Treatises. 
 
 A careful examination of Dr. Forstemann's remarkable stud- 
 ies, as well as a number of other considerations drawn from the 
 Codices themselves, have persuaded me that the general purpose 
 of the Codices and the greater inscriptions, as those of Palenque, 
 have been misunderstood and underrated by most writers. In 
 one of his latest papers 1 Professor Cyrus Thomas says of the 
 Codices : " These records are to a large extent only religious cal- 
 endars ; " and Dr. Seler has expressed his distrust in Dr. Forste- 
 mann's opinions as to their astronomic contents. My own con- 
 viction is that they will prove to be much more astronomical 
 than even the latter believes ; that they are primarily and 
 essentially records of the motions of the heavenly bodies ; and 
 that both figures and characters are to be interpreted as refer- 
 ring in the first instance to the sun and moon, the planets, and 
 those constellations which are most prominent in the nightly sky 
 in the latitude of Yucatan. 
 
 This conclusion is entirely in accordance with the results of the 
 most recent research in neighboring fields of American culture. 
 The profound studies of the Mexican Calendar undertaken by 
 Mrs. Zelia Nuttall have vindicated for it a truly surprising ac- 
 
 1 In the American Anthropologist for July, 1893. 
 
ASTRONOMY OF THE MAYAS. 33 
 
 curacy which could have come only from prolonged and accur- 
 ately registered observations of the relative apparent motions of 
 the celestial bodies. 1 We may be sure that the Mayas were not 
 behind the Nahuas in this ; and in the grotesque figures and 
 strange groupings which illustrate the pages of their books we 
 should look for pictorial representations of astronomic events. 
 
 Of course, as everywhere else, with this serious astronomic 
 lore were associated notions of astrology, dates for fixing rites 
 and ceremonies, mythical narratives, cosmogonical traditions 
 and liturgies, incantations and prescriptions for religious func- 
 tions. But through this maze of superstition I believe we can 
 thread our way if we hold on to the clue which astronomy can 
 furnish us. In the present work, however, I do not pretend to 
 more than prepare the soil for such a labor. 
 
 A proof of the correctness of this opinion and also an admir- 
 able example of the success with which Dr. Forstemann has 
 prosecuted his analysis of the astronomical meaning of the 
 Codices is offered by his explanation of the 24th page of the 
 Dresden Codex, laid before the International Congress of 
 Americanists, in 1894. 
 
 He showed that it was intended to bring the time covered in 
 five revolutions of Venus into relation to the solar years and 
 the ceremonial years, or tonalamatl, of 260 days ; also to set 
 forth the relations between the revolutions of the Moon and of 
 Mercury ; further, to divide the year of Venus into four unequal 
 parts, assigned respectively to the four cardinal points and to 
 four divinities ; and, finally, to designate to which divinities 
 each of the five Venus-years under consideration should be 
 dedicated. 
 
 This illustrates at once the great advance his method has 
 made in the interpretation of the Codices, and the intimate 
 relations we find in them between astronomy and mythology. 
 
 1 See her " Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System," communicated to the 
 Tenth International Congress of Americanists, Stockholm, 1894. 
 
34 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Such a theory of the Mayan books which we have at hand is 
 world-wide distant from that of Thomas and Seler. Take, for 
 example, the series of figures, Cod. Cort., pp. 14% 15*, i6V 
 Forstemann and myself would consider them to represent the 
 position of certain celestial bodies before the summer solstice 
 (indicated by the turtle on p. 7); while Thomas says of them, 
 " It may safely be assumed that these figures refer to the Maya 
 process of making bread ! ! " 2 
 
 9. Astronomical Knowledge of the Ancient Mayas. 
 
 Our information from European sources as to the astronomical 
 knowledge possessed by the Mayas is slight. 
 
 That they looked with especial reverence to the planet Venus 
 is evident from the various names they applied to it. These 
 were: Noh Ek, " the Great Star" or "the Right-hand Star;" 
 Chac Ek, " the Strong Star " (or " the Red Star ") ; Zaztal Ek, 
 " the Brilliant Star ;" Ah-Zahcab, " the Controller or Companion 
 of the Dawn;" 3 and Xux Ek, "the Bee or Wasp Star," for 
 reasons which will be considered later. In the Tzental dialect 
 it was called Canan Chulchan, " the Guardian of the Sky," and 
 Mucid Canan, " the Great Guardian." 
 
 The North Star was well known as Xaman Ek (xaman, north, 
 ek, star), and also as Chimal Ek, "the Shield Star," or "Star on 
 the Shield." 4 It was spoken of as " the Guide of the Mer- 
 chants" (Dice, de MotuF), and therefore was probably one of their 
 special divinities. 
 
 The historian Landa states that the Mayas measured the pas- 
 
 1 As the pages of the Codices are generally divided into compartments by trans- 
 verse lines, the custom of students is to designate these from above downward by 
 small letters added to the number of the page. 
 
 2 In American Anthropologist, July, 1893, p. 262. 
 
 3 " El lucero de la manana, que parece hacer amanecer." Dice, de Motul. 
 
 4 Like chimal ik, " north wind." Chimal is the Nahuatl chimalli, shield, f-o 
 these terms must be of late origin in Maya. 
 
MAYA STAR-NAMES. 35 
 
 sage of time at night by observations of the Pleiades and Orion. 1 
 The name of the former in their language is Tzab, a word which 
 also means the rattles of the rattlesnake. In the opinion of Dr. 
 Forstemann, 2 their position in the heavens decided the beginning 
 of the year (or, perhaps, cycle, as with the Nahuas), and they 
 %vere represented in the hieroglyphs by the moan sign (to be ex- 
 plained on a later page). 
 
 Certain stars of the constellation Gemini were defined, and 
 named Ac, or Ac Ek, " the Tortoise Stars," from an imagined 
 similarity of outline to that of the tortoise. 3 This may explain 
 the not infrequent occurrence of the picture of that animal in 
 the Codices, and its representations in stone at Copan and else- 
 where. 
 
 The terms for a comet in Maya were Budz Ek, " Smoking 
 Star," and Ikomne, " Breathing or Blowing," as it was supposed 
 to blow forth its fiery train ; in Tzental it was Tza EC, " Star 
 Dust." Shooting stars were Chamal Dzutan, " Magicians' 
 Pipes," as they were regarded as the fire-tubes of certain power- 
 ful enchanters. 
 
 The stars in Orion were known as Mehen Ek, " the Sons," 
 doubtless referring to some astronomical myth. 
 
 The Milky Way was spoken of under two different names, 
 both of obscure application, Tamacaz and Ah Poou. Another 
 meaning of the former word is "madness, insanity;" and the 
 latter term was also applied to a youth who had just attained the 
 age of puberty. 4 Perhaps the connection of the word lies in the 
 ceremonies of initiation practiced by many tribes when a youth 
 reached this age, and which, by fasting and the administration of 
 
 1 " Regianse de noche, para conocer la hora, por el lucero, i las cabrillas i los 
 astilejos ; de dia, por el medio dia." Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, cap. 34. 
 
 2 Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften, No. IV. 
 
 3 " Las tres estrellas juntas que estan en el signo de Geminis, las quales, con otras, 
 hacen forma de tortuga." Dice, de Motul. 
 
 4 These definitions are given in the Dice. Motul. 
 
36 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 toxic herbs, often led to temporary mania ; and the deity of the 
 Milky Way may have presided over these rites. 
 
 The moon in opposition was referred to as u nitpptanba, from 
 nupp, opposed, opposite. When -in conjunction, the expression 
 was hunbalan ?/, " the rope of the moon," or, " the moon roped." 
 When it was in eclipse, it was chibil u, " the moon bitten," the 
 popular story being that it was bitten by a kind of ant called 
 xulab. An eclipse of the sun was also chibil kin, " the sun bit- 
 ten ; " but more frequently the phrase was tupul u uich kin, or, 
 tupan u uich kin, "the eye of the day is covered over," or, 
 " shut up." It is useful to record such expressions, as they 
 sometimes suggested the graphic representations of the occur- 
 
 1 In Cod. Peres., pp. 18, 19, the sun is shown bitten by birds, snakes, etc. We 
 probably have in this a reference to an eclipse. On a later page I shall show the 
 hieroglyph of the double loop of the rope, which probably signifies the moon in 
 conjunction. 
 
MYTHOLOGY OF THE MAYAS. 37 
 
 III. The Pictorial Elements. 
 
 To understand the pictorial portions of the inscriptions some 
 acquaintance with the native mythology is indispensable. 
 
 I. The Religion of the Ancient Mayas. 
 
 The religion of the Mayas was a polytheism, but the principal 
 deities were few in number, as is expressly stated by Father 
 Francisco Hernandez, the earliest missionary to Yucatan 
 (1517); x and these, according to the explicit assertion of Father 
 Lizana, were the same as those worshipped by the Tzentals of 
 Tabasco and Chiapas. 2 Both these statements are confirmed by 
 a comparison of the existing remains, and they greatly facilitate 
 a comprehension of the Codices and epigraphy. 
 
 The spirit of this religion was dualistic, the gods of life and 
 light, of the sun and day, of birth and food, of the fertilizing 
 showers and the cultivated fields, being placed in contrast to 
 those of misfortune and pain, of famine and pestilence, of blight 
 and night, darkness and death. Back of them all, indeed the 
 source of them all, was Hunab Ku, " the One Divine ; " but of 
 him no statue and no picture was made, for he was incorporeal 
 and invisible. 3 
 
 Itzamna, Chief of the beneficent gods was Itzamna. He was 
 the personification of the East, the rising sun, with all its mani- 
 fold mythical associations. His name means " the dew or 
 
 1 The account of Hernandez is given by Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, cap. 
 CXXIII. The monk says that the principal lords alone knew the histories of the gods. 
 
 2 Lizana's work, of which only one complete copy is known to exist (in Madrid), 
 has been partly republished by Brasseur in the Appendix to Landa, Cosas de Yucatan. 
 He says the votaries came from Chiapas and Tabasco, p. 359. 
 
 3 The Dice, ftfotul defines Hunab Ku thus : " the one true and living God ; the 
 greatest of all the gods of Yucatan was so named, and he had no idol, because they 
 said that he could not be represented, seeing that he was incorporeal." This diction- 
 ary, to which, I shall often refer, is one of the Maya language, composed at the Con- 
 vent of Motul,^bout 1570. A copy is in my possession. 
 
38 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 moisture of the morning," and he was the spirit of the early 
 mists and showers. He was said to have come in his magic 
 skiff from the East, across the waters, and therefore he presided 
 over that quarter of the world and the days and years assigned 
 to it. 
 
 For similar reasons he received the name Lakin chan, " the 
 Serpent of the East/' under which he seems to have been popu- 
 larly known. As light is synonymous with both life and knowl- 
 edge, he was said to have been the creator of men, animals, and 
 plants, and was the founder of the culture of the Mayas. He 
 was the first priest of their religion, and invented writing and 
 books; he gave the names to the various localities in Yucatan, 
 and divided the land among -the people ; as a physician he was 
 famous, knowing not only the magic herbs, but possessing the 
 power of healing by touch, whence his name Kabil, " the skilful 
 hand," under which he was worshipped in Chichen Itza. For 
 his wisdom he was spoken of as Yax coc ak-mut, " the royal or 
 noble master of knowledge." 
 
 Cuculcan. In some sense a contrast, in others a completion 
 of the mythical concepts embodied in Itzamna, was Cucidcan or 
 Cocol chan, " the feathered or winged serpent." 1 He also was a 
 hero-god, a deity of culture and of kindliness. He was tradi- 
 tionally the founder of the great cities of Chichen Itza, and 
 Mayapan ; was active in framing laws and introducing the cal- 
 endar, at the head of which some Maya tribes placed his name ; 
 was skilled in leechcraft, and was spoken of as the god of chills 
 and fevers. 
 
 As Itzamna was identified with the East, so was Cuculcan 
 with the West. Thence he was said to have come, and thither 
 returned. 2 In the Tzental calendars he was connected with the 
 
 1 In my work, American Hero- Myths (Philadelphia, 1882), Chap. IV, " The 
 Hero-gods of the Mayas," I have treated at considerable length the duplicate tradi- 
 tions relating to Itzamna and Cuculcan. 
 
 2 " Todos conforman en que este (Cuculcan) entr6 por la parte del poniente." 
 
THE SUN-GODS. 39 
 
 seventh day (moxic, Maya, manik) ; hence he is mystically asso- 
 ciated with that number. He corresponds to the Gukumatz of 
 the Quiche mythology, a name which has the same signification. 
 
 In the myth he is described as clothed in a long robe and 
 wearing sandals, and, what is noteworthy, having a beard. In 
 the calendars of the Tzentals he was painted " in the likeness 
 of a man and a snake," and the " masters " explained this as 
 " the snake with feathers, which moves in the waters," that is, 
 the heavenly waters, the clouds and the rains ; for which reason 
 Bishop Nunez de la Vega, to whom we owe this information, 
 identified him with the Mexican Mixcoatl, " the cloud serpent ;" l 
 whereas Bishop Landa was of opinion that he was the Mexican 
 Quetzalcoatl. 
 
 Kin ich. As Itzamna was thus connected with the rising, 
 morning sun, and Cuculcan with the afternoon and setting sun, 
 so the sun in the meridian was distinguished from both of them. 
 As a divinity, it bore the name Kin ich, " the eye or face of the 
 day." The sacrifices to it were made at the height of noontide, 
 when it was believed that the deity descended in the shape of 
 the red macaw (the Ara macao), known as Kak mo, " the bird 
 of fire," from the color of its plumage, and consumed the offer- 
 ing. Such ceremonies were performed especially in times of 
 great sickness, general mortality, the destruction of the crops 
 through locusts, and other public calamities. It seems probable 
 from the accounts that Kin ich was a much less prominent 
 divinity in the popular mind than either of the other two solar 
 deities, and his attributes were occasionally assigned to Itzamna, 
 
 Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. IV, cap. 2. Looking toward the North, Itzamna 
 was the right-hand god, Cuculcan the left-hand ; hence, the arrival of the former was 
 called noknial, " right-hand coming," of the latter, dzicnial, "left-hand coming." 
 (Cogolludo, Hist, de Yucatan, Lib. IV, cap. IV.) 
 
 1 " En los Repertorios mas generales tienen pintado el 7 signo en figura de hom- 
 bre y de Culebra, que llaman Cttchitl chan, y han explicado los Maestros que es 
 culebra de plumas que andaen el agua." Nunez clela N tg^l Constitution es Diocesanas, 
 Parte II, p. 132. 
 
4O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 as we find the combination Kin icJi ahau Itzanma among the 
 names of divinities. 
 
 Otlier Gods. To Itzamna was assigned as consort Ix C/icl, 
 " the rainbow," also known as Ix Kan Leom, " the spider-web" 
 (which catches the dew of the morning). She was goddess of 
 medicine and of childbirth, and her children were the Bacabs,o\: 
 Ckacs (giants), 1 four mighty brethren, who were the gods of the 
 four cardinal points, of the winds which blow from them, of the 
 rains these bring, of the thunder and the lightning, and conse- 
 quently of agriculture, the harvests, and the food supply. Their 
 
 FIG. 7. The Beneficent Gods draw from their Stores. (Photographed from the 
 Cortesian Codex.) 
 
 position in the ritual was of the first importance. To each were 
 assigned a particular color and a certain year and day in the 
 calendar. To Hobnil, " the hollow one " or " the belly," were 
 given the south, the color yellow, and the day and years kan, 
 
 1 The word chac means " strong ; the color red ; heat ; water." The Dice. Motnl 
 says : " Significa agua en algunas maneras de decir ; tambien dios de las aguas, 
 relampago y trueno; chacal ik, tempestad de agua, huracan." 
 
THE CARDINAL POINTS. 41 
 
 the first of the calendar series, and so on. The red Bacab was 
 to the east, the white to the north, and the black, whose name 
 was Hozan Ek, " the Disembowelled," to the west. 1 
 
 The Cardinal Points. Much attention has been directed to 
 these divinities as representing the worship of the cardinal points 
 and to the colors, days, cycles, and elements mythically asso- 
 ciated with them. Uniform results have not been obtained, as 
 the authorities differ, as probably did also the customs of various 
 localities. 2 Pio Perez assigns kan to the east, mulucto the north, 
 ix to the west, and cauac to the south. The arrangement based 
 on Landa's statements would be as follows : 
 
 Cardinal point, Bacab. Days. Colors. Elements. 
 
 South, Hobnil (the Belly), Kan, Yellow, Air. 
 
 East, Canzicnal (Serpent Being), Muluc, Red, Fire. 
 
 North, Zaczini (White Being), Ix, White, Water. 
 
 West, Hozan ek (the Disembowelled Cauac, Black, Earth. 
 
 Black one), 
 
 On the other hand, it should be noted that the names of the 
 winds in Maya distinctly assign the color white to the east, 
 thus : 
 
 East wind, zac ik, " white wind." 
 
 Northeast wind, zac xaman ik, " white north wind." 
 
 Southeast wind, zac nohol ik, " white south wind." 
 
 The solution of these difficulties must be left for future inves- 
 tigation. 
 
 The Good Gods. Divinities of a beneficent character were 
 Yum Chac, " Lord of Waters or Rains ; " Yum Kaax, " Lord of 
 the Harvest Fields ; " Cum Ahau, " Lord of the Vase," that is, 
 
 1 Mr. J. Walter Fewkes is certainly correct in his argument that the " ceremonial cir- 
 cuit," of the Mayas, the direction of movement in their ceremonies was sinistral, 
 that is, from right to left, in most instances. This should be remembered in studying 
 the pictorial portion of the Codices. See Mr. Fewkes' article, " A Central-American 
 Ceremony," in the American Anthropologist, July, 1893. 
 
 2 An article by Dr. C. Schultz-Sellack, entitled " Die Amerikanischen Cotter der vier 
 Weltrichtungen," in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie,^&. XI, maybe profitably read in 
 this connection, though some of its statements are antiquated. 
 
 4 
 
4 2 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 of the rains, who is described in the Die. Motul as " Lucifer, 
 Chief of the Devils " and is probably a name of Itzamna ; Zuhuy 
 Kak, "Virgin Fire," patroness of infants ; Znhuy Dsip, "The 
 Virgin of Dressed Animals," a hunting goddess ; Ix Tabai, 
 " Goddess of the Ropes or Snares," also a hunting goddess as 
 well as the patroness of those who hanged themselves ; Ah Kak 
 Neck, " He Who Looks after the Cooking Fire," Ah Ppua, " the 
 Master of Dew, " and Ah Dziz, " The Master of Cold," divinities 
 of the fishermen. 
 
 To this list should be added Acan, " the God of the Intoxi- 
 cating Mead," the national beverage, that being its name; Ek 
 Chua, " the Black Companion," god of the cacao planters and 
 the merchants, as these used the cacao beans as a medium of 
 exchange ; Ix Tub Tun, " she who spits out Precious Stones," 
 goddess of the workers in jade and amethysts ; Cit Bolon Tun, 
 " the Nine (i. e., numberless) Precious Stones," a god of medi- 
 cine ; Xoc Bitum, the God of Singing, and Ah Kin Xoc or Ppiz 
 Lim Tec, the God of Poetry (xoc, to sing or recite) ; Ix Chebel 
 Yax, the first inventress of painting and of colored designs on 
 woven stuffs (chebel, to paint, and a paint-brush). 
 
 A minor deity was f&'Guxaa*, " the swallow-legged," a divin- 
 ity of the island of Cozumel ("Swallow Island"). 
 
 On a lofty pyramid, where is now the city of Valladolid, Yuca- 
 tan, was worshipped Ah zakik ual, " Lord of the East Wind." 
 His idol was of pottery in the shape of a vase, moulded in front 
 into an ugly face. In it they burned copal and other gums. 
 His festival was celebrated every fourth year with sham battles. 1 
 Probably this was a representation of Itzamna as lord of the 
 cardinal point. 
 
 The " Island of Women," Isla de Mugeres, on the east coast, 
 was so named because the first explorers found there the statues 
 of four female divinities, to whom altars and temples were dedi- 
 
 1 Relacion de la Villa de Valladolid '(1579), caps. I and X. This Relacion was 
 printed in the Compte Rendu of the Congress of Americanists, the Madrid Meeting. 
 
VARIOUS DIVINITIES. 43 
 
 cated. 1 They were Ix-chel, Ix-chebel-yax, Ix-hun-ye, and Ix- 
 hun-yeta. The first two have already been mentioned. The 
 last two seem to have been goddesses connected with the moon- 
 rise and sunrise, as the dictionaries give as the meaning of ye, 
 " to show one's self, to appear ; " as in the phrases yethaz y alial- 
 cab, " at the appearance of the dawn ; " yethaz u hokol u, " at 
 moonrise ; " yet hokol kin, " at sunrise." 
 
 Prominent among mythical beings were the dwarfs, known 
 as ppuz, " bent over ; " ac ninic, " turtle men ; " tzapa uinic, 
 " shortened men ; " and ppntiirn, " small of body." They are 
 sometimes represented in the carvings, an interesting example 
 being in the Peabody Museum. A legend concerning such 
 brownies was that before the last destruction of the world the 
 whole human race degenerated into like diminutive beings, 
 which prompted the gods to destroy it. 2 One class of these 
 little creatures, called acat, were said to become transformed into 
 flowers. 
 
 As I have shown elsewhere, 3 many similar superstitions sur- 
 vive in the folk-lore of Yucatan and Tabasco to-day. But it is 
 not safe to look at such survivals as part. .of genuine ancient my- 
 thology. For instance, the goddess Ix-nuc, or Xnuc t said by 
 Brasseur to have been goddess of the mountains, by Seler, god- 
 dess of the earth, and by Schellhas, goddess of water, is in fact 
 not a member of the Maya Pantheon. The name means simply 
 " old woman," and was first mentioned by an anonymous 
 modern writer in the Registro Yucateco. 
 
 The Gods of Evil. In contrast to the beneficent deities were 
 those who presided over war, disease, death, and the under- 
 world. Distinctively war go.ds were Uac Loin Chaam, " He 
 
 1 Landa, Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 72 (Madrid Ed.). The ruins of this 
 ancient fane are still plainly visibly from the sea. J. L. Stephens, Travels in Yucatan, 
 vol. II, p. 358. 
 
 2 Carrillo, Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 207. 
 
 3 See the article " The Folk-lore of Yucatan," in my Essays of an Americanist 
 (Philadelphia, 1890). 
 
44 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 whose teeth are six lances," worshipped anciently at Ti-ho, the 
 present Merida ; Ahulane, " The Archer," painted holding an 
 arrow, whose shrine was on the island of Cozumel ; Pakoc (from 
 paakal, to frighten) and Hex Chun Chan, "The dangerous one," 
 divinities of the Itzaes ; Kak u pacat, " Fire (is) his face," who 
 is said to have carried in battle a shield of fire ; Ah Chuy -Kak, 
 " He who works in fire," that is., for destruction ; Ah Cun Can, 
 " The serpent charmer," also worshipped at Ti-Ho; Hun Pic Tok, 
 " He of 8000 lances," who had a temple at Chichen Itza. 
 
 Chief of all these evil beings was the God of Death. His 
 name is preserved in the first account we have of Yucatecan 
 mythology, that by Father Hernandez, and, according to Father 
 Lara, it was the same among the Tzentals, Maya, Ah-puch, 
 Tzental, Pucugh. These words mean "the Undoer," or 
 " Spoiler," apparently a euphemism to avoid pronouncing a 
 name of evil omen. 1 In modern Maya he is plain Yum cimil, 
 " lord of death." He was painted as a skeleton with bare skull, 
 and was then called Chamay Bac, or Zac Chamay Bac, " white 
 teeth and bones." 
 
 The spirit (pixaii) after death was supposed to go to the 
 Underworld, which was called Mitna, or Metna where presided 
 the god Xibilba or Xabalba, sometimes called Hun Ahan, ".the 
 One lord," for to his realm must all come at last. 3 Another 
 name for this Hades was tancucula (perhaps tan kukul, " before 
 the gods," i. e.j where one is judged), which is given by the 
 Dice. Motul as an " ancient word " (vocablo antiguo). The 
 happy souls then passed to a realm of joy, where they spent 
 
 1 In Maya//#M tun means to stone to death, matar a pedradas, Die. MotuL 
 
 2 Beltran, Arte de la lengua Maya, p. 217. Another name he gives is Ox kokol 
 tzek, " thrice beaten bones." 
 
 3 Dr. Seler ( Verhand. Berlin. Anthrop. Gesell., 1 886, S. 416) considers Hun Ahau 
 to be a calendar name ; but it is significant, without having recourse to this round- 
 about explanation. Xibilbay, " the place of disappearance," is the Quiche name for 
 the underworld, corresponding to the Mictlan of the Nahuas. Both the terms in the 
 text may therefore be borrowed. See my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 127, 143. 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GODS. 
 
 45 
 
 their time under the great green tree Yaxche, while those who 
 were condemned sank down to a place of cold and hunger. ' 
 
 T/ie Conflict of the Gods. Between these two classes of deities 
 those who make for good and those who make for evil in the 
 life of man there is, both in the myths and in the picture 
 writings, an eternal conflict. 
 
 FIG. 8. The gods of Life and of Growth plant the tree. Death breaks it in twain. 
 (Photographed from the Cortesian Codex.) 
 
 In the Codex Troano, as Dr. Seler remarks, " The god of 
 death appears as the inevitable foil of the god of light and 
 heaven. In whatever action the latter is depicted, the god of 
 death is imitating it, but in such a manner that with him all turns 
 to nought and emptiness. Where the light-god holds the string, 
 in the hands of the death -god it is torn asunder; where the 
 former offers incense, the latter carries the sign of ' fire ' where- 
 with to consume it ; where the former presents the sign kan t 
 food, the latter lifts an empty vase bearing the signs of drought 
 and death." 
 
46 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 2. The Cosmogony of the Mayas. 
 
 We know practically nothing of the cosmogony of the Mayas ; 
 but it is instructive in connection with their calendar system to 
 find that, like the Nahuas, they believed in Epochs of the Uni- 
 verse, at the close of each of which there was a general destruc- 
 tion of both gods and men. The early writer, Aguilar, says 
 that he learned from the native books themselves that they 
 recorded three such periodical cataclysms. The first was called 
 MayacimU, " general death ; " the second, Oc na kuchil, " the 
 ravens enter the houses," that is, the inhabitants were all dead ; 
 and the third, Hun yecil, a universal deluge, a term which the 
 Dice. Motnl seems to explain by mentioning a tradition that the 
 water was so high " that its surface was within the distance of 
 one stalk of maguey from the sky!" Another term for this 
 catastrophe was bulcabal, haycabal or haycabil (destruccion, asol- 
 amiento y diluvio general con que me destruido y asolado el 
 mundo. Dice. Motul}. 
 
 This would make the present the fourth age of the world (not 
 the fifth, as the Nahuas believed) ; and .this corresponds to the 
 prophecies contained in the " Books of Chilan Balam," which I 
 have quoted in another work. The scene of the creation of man, 
 the " terrestrial Paradise," was known as hun anhil, and the name 
 of the first man was Amim,both apparently from the verb anhel, 
 to stand erect. 
 
 Many of the high calculations of the priests must have been 
 for the purpose of discovering the length of the present epoch 
 and how soon the world would end. They seem to have 
 thought this would take place when all their various time-meas- 
 ures would merge together into a common unity, which each 
 could divide without remainder. 1 
 
 1 There are some reasons to believe that at the time of the composition of the Cod. 
 Dres. the priests calculated that the world had then been in existence 3744 years. 
 See Forstemann, in Compte-Rendu du -Congres des Americanistes, VII Session, p. 746. 
 Elsewhere, however, another suggestion as to the meaning of that number is offered. 
 
IDEA OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 47 
 
 3. Cosmic al Conceptions of the Mayas. 
 
 The cosmical conceptions of the ancient Mayas have not 
 hitherto been understood ; but by a study of existing documents 
 I believe they can be correctly explained in outline. 
 
 FIG. 9. The Universe. (From the Chilan Balam of Mani.) 
 
 One of these is the central design in the Chilan Balam, or 
 Sacred Book, of Mani (Fig. 9). It was copied by Father Cogol- 
 ludo in 1640, and inserted in his History of Yucatan, with a 
 totally false interpretation which the natives designedly gave 
 him. 
 
48 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 The lettering in the above figure is by the late Dr. C. H. 
 Berendt, and was obtained by him from other books of Chilan 
 Balam, and native sources. In Cogolludo's work, this design is 
 surrounded by thirteen heads which signify the thirteen ahau 
 katuns, or greater cycles of years, as I have explained elsewhere.* 
 The number thirteen in American mythology symbolizes the 
 thirteen possible directions of space. 2 The border, therefore, 
 expresses the totality of Space and Time ; and the design itself 
 symbolizes Life within Space and Time. This is shown as fol- 
 lows : At the bottom of the field lies a cubical block, which rep- 
 resents the earth, always conceived of this shape in Mayan 
 mythology. 3 It bears, however, not the lettering, him, the Earth, 
 as we might expect, but, significantly, tern, the Altar. The Earth 
 is the great altar of the Gods, and the offering upon it is Life. 
 
 Above the earth-cube, supported on four legs which rest upon 
 the four quarters of the mundane plane, is the celestial vase, 
 cum, which contains the heavenly waters, the rains and showers, 
 on which depends the life of vegetation, and therefore that of 
 the animal world as well. Above it hang the heavy rain clouds, 
 muyal, ready to fill it ; within it grows the yax che, the Tree of 
 Life, spreading its branches far upward, on their extremities 
 the flowers or fruit of life, the soul or immortal principle of man, 
 called ol or yol? 
 
 Turning now to the central design of what has been called 
 the " Tableau of the Bacabs," in the Codex Cortesianus, Fig. 10, 
 we can readily see in the light of the above explanation that its 
 
 1 See my Essays of an Americanist, p. 269 ; and also an article by me, " Notes on 
 the Codex Troano and Maya Chronology," in the American Naturalist, September, 
 1881. 
 
 2 See the interesting observations of Mr. F. H. Cushing in my Native Calendar of 
 Central America and Mexico, p. 8. 
 
 3 Thus in the Popol Vuh, pp. 4, 6, it is called "the quadrated earth, four-pointed, 
 four-sided, four-bordered." 
 
 4 " OL ; el corazon formal y no el material." Die. Motul. 
 
COSMICAL CONCEPTIONS. 
 
 49 
 
 lesson is the same. The design is surrounded by the signs of 
 the twenty days, beyond which the field (not shown in this cut) 
 is apportioned to the four cardinal points and the deities and 
 time-cycles connected with them. 
 
 FIG. 10. Our First Parents. (From the Cortesian Codex.) 
 
 Again it is Life within Space and Time which the artist pre- 
 sents. The earth is not represented ; but we readily recognize 
 in conventionalized form the great Tree of Life, across it the 
 celestial Vase, and above it the cloud-masses. On the right sits 
 Cuculcan, on the left Xmucane, the divine pair called in the 
 Fopol Vuh "the Creator and the Former, Grandfather and Grand- 
 
 
 *- /3 6, i 
 
5O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 mother of the race, who give Life, who give Reproduction." l 
 In his right hand Cuculcan holds three glyphs, each containing 
 the sign of Life, ik. Xmucane has before her one with the sign 
 of union (sexual) ; above it, one containing the life-sign (pro- 
 duct of union) ; and these are surmounted by the head of a 
 fish, symbolizing the fructifying and motherly waters. 
 
 The total extension of the field in these designs resembles 
 the glyph a in Fig. 6. It is found in both Mayan and Mexican 
 MSS., 2 and expresses the conception these peoples had of the 
 Universe. Hence I give it the name of the " cosmic sign." 
 
 4. Pictorial Representations of Divinities. 
 
 Turning to the Codices and the monuments with the above 
 mythological lore in one's memory, it seems to me there is no 
 difficulty in identifying most of the pictures presented by them. 
 That this has not been accomplished heretofore, I attribute to 
 the neglect of the myths by previous writers, and a persistent 
 desire to discover in the mythology of the Mayas, not the divini- 
 ties which they themselves worshipped, but those of some other 
 nation, as the Nahuas, Quiches, Zapotecs, or Pueblo dwellers. 3 
 I shall pay small attention to such analogies, as the Mayas had 
 a religion of their own, and it is that which I wish to define. 
 We may turn first to the 
 
 1 " E alom, e qaholom." Popol Vuh, p. 6. Ximenes adds : " y mas en los naci- 
 mientos de los ninos son los que asisten." Origen de los Indios, p. 158. 
 
 2 See numerous examples in Prof. Cyrus Thomas's suggestive monograph, " Notes 
 on certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts," in the third annual Report of the Bureau 
 of Ethnology (Washington, 1884). Mr. Francis Parry, in an article entitled " The 
 Sacred Symbols and Numbers of Aboriginal America," in Bull, of the Amer. Geog. 
 Soc. t 1894, classes it as a " sun symbol ; " but in this, as in most of his identifications, 
 I find myself unable to agree with him. 
 
 3 The doubts expressed by Dr. Schellhas as to the worth of mythology in these 
 studies (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1892, p. 102), are justified by the confusion of 
 Mayan with Mexican myths in Dr. Seler's writings ; but I hope to show not by the 
 facts themselves. 
 
THE GOD OF LIGHT. 5! 
 
 Representations of Itzamna. I have no hesitation in identify- 
 ing Itzamna with the " god B," as catalogued 
 by Dr. Schellhas in his excellent study of the 
 divinities of the Codices, 1 and which he believes 
 to be Cuculcan, while the Abbe Brasseur, 
 followed by Dr. Seler, argue, that it is a 
 "Tlaloc" or Chac, i.e., a rain god. 2 He is FIG. n. Monogram 
 
 & of Itzamna. 
 
 extremely prominent in the Codices, being 
 painted in the Dresden Codex alone not less than 130 times, and 
 in the others about 70 times. No other deity has half so many 
 representations, and we may well believe, therefore, that he was 
 the Jove of their Pantheon. 
 
 This at once suggests Itzamna; but a phrase of the historian 
 Cogolludo leaves no doubt about it. The " god B " is associ- 
 ated with the signs of the east, and his especial and invariable 
 characteristic are two long, serpent- like teeth, which project from 
 his mouth, one in front, the other to the side and backward. 3 
 These traits enable us to identify " B " with Lakin Chan, " the 
 serpent of the east," who was portrayed " with strangely de- 
 formed teeth," and this was unquestionably but another name 
 for Itzamna, the god of the east. 4 
 
 An abundance of evidence may be adduced to confirm 
 this opinion. This deity is represented in close relations 
 with the serpent, holding it in his hand, sitting upon it, 
 even swallowed by it, or emerging from its throat. As a 
 
 1 Schellhas, " Die Gottergestalten der Mayahandschriften," in Zeitschrift fur 
 Ethnologie, 1892. This is a classical article which I shall have frequent occasion to 
 quote. 
 
 2 Brasseur, Le MS. Troano, p. 214. 
 
 3 Without pausing to discuss whether this is " tooth " or " tongue," it is, at any 
 rate, a serpentine trait, as may readily be seen by comparison with many serpents pic- 
 tured in the Codices. I may add that Professor Cyrus Thomas writes me that he 
 also considers the " long-nosed god" to be Itzamna. 
 
 4 The phrase of Cogolludo is : "con dientes muy disformes." The name Lakin 
 Chan,'\s in the Tzental dialect. The Maya would be Likin can ; though lakin, east, 
 appears in the " Books of Chilan Balam." 
 
52 . MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 44 medicine man " he carries the " medicine bag," and the wand 
 or baton, called in Maya caluac, " the perforated stick," * sur- 
 mounted with a hand, hinting at his name above given, Kabil, 
 the Skilful Hand. He is often in a boat, to recall his advent 
 over the eastern sea, and he is frequently associated with the 
 
 FIG. 12. Itzamna : from the Codex 
 Troano. 
 
 FIG. 13. Itzamna: from the Inscription of 
 Kabah. 
 
 showers, as was Itzamna, who said of himself, itz en muyal, its 
 en caan, " I am what trickles from the clouds, from the sky." 
 As the rising sun which dispels the darkness, or else as the 
 physician who heals disease, he is portrayed sitting on the head 
 of the owl, the bird of night and sickness ; and as the giver of 
 
 1 Caluac is from calacal, " cosa muy agujerada " (Dice. Molut]. The mayordomo 
 was called ah caluac, the baton being his staff of office. Landa omits the prefix by 
 mistake, Rel. de Yucatan?\>. 40. It is well shown on a later page. 
 
ITZAMNA. 
 
 53 
 
 life he is associated with the emblem of the snail, typical of 
 birth. 
 
 He himself is never connected with the symbols of death or 
 misfortune, but always with those of life and light. The lance 
 and tomahawk which he often carries are to drive away the 
 spirits of evil. 
 
 Besides the above peculiarities, he is portrayed as an elderly 
 man, his nose is long and curved downward, his eye is always 
 the " ornamented eye," which in the Maya Codices indicates a 
 divinity. He is associated with all four quarters of the globe, 
 for the East defines the cardinal points ; and what is especially 
 interesting, it is he who is connected with the Maya " Tree of 
 Life," the celebrated symbol of the cross, found on so many 
 ancient monuments of this people and which has excited so 
 much comment. This I shall consider later. 
 
 FIG. 14. Itzamha : from the Dresden Codex. 
 
 We know from the mythology that Itzamna, like most deities, 
 was multiform, appearing in various incarnations. In the cere- 
 monies this was represented by masks ; with this in mind I class 
 as merely one of the forms or epiphanies of Itzamna that figure 
 
54 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 in the Codices described by Dr. Schellhas as a separate deity, 
 " the god with the ornamental nose," whom he catalogues as 
 " god K." I am led to this conclusion by a careful study of all 
 
 the pictographs in which this deity 
 appears ; they all seem to show 
 that it is Itzamna wearing a mask 
 to indicate some one manifesta- 
 tion of his power (see especially 
 
 FIG. 15. Mask of Itzamna (?). Cod. Dresden., pp. /, 12, 25, 26, 
 
 and 34, 65, and 67, where Itzamna 
 
 is carrying the mask on his head). That there is a particular 
 monogram for this character merely indicates that it was a 
 separate mythological manifestation, not a different deity. 
 
 A remarkable and constant feature in the representations of 
 Itzamna is his nose. Thomas calls it " elephantine," but, as 
 Waldeck and Seler have shown, it is undoubtedly intended to 
 imitate the snout of the tapir} 
 
 When we remember that this animal was sacred to Votan, 
 who played the same part in Chiapas that Itzamna did in Yuca- 
 tan, dividing and naming the land, etc. ; and that the interesting 
 slate tablets from Chiapas, in the National Museum of Mexico, 
 portray the sacred tapir in intimate connection with the symbol 
 of the hand? that associated with Itzamna, we are led to identify 
 the two mythical personages as one and the same. According 
 to Bishop Landa the tapir was not found in Yucatan except on 
 the western shore near the bay of Campeche, 3 which shows 
 
 1 Waldeck, Voyage Pittoresque dans /' Yucatan, pp. 37, 74, etc. (Paris, 1838.) 
 This writer recognized the tapir snout on various masks and statues at Palenque, and 
 adds that he found the animal still venerated by the natives. Dr. Seler does not 
 mention Waldeck's remarks, but extends the identification to the figures in the codices. 
 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1888. 
 
 2 On the symbolism of the tapir see the erudite remarks of Don Alfredo Chavero 
 in the Antiguedades Mexicanas publicadas por la Junta Colombina de Mexico, 
 Texto, p. xxxv (Mexico, 1892). 
 
 3 Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 109 (Madrid Edition). 
 
THE TAPIR GOD. 55 
 
 that the myth of the tapir god was imported from Tzental 
 territory. 
 
 It may be asked why the tapir, a dull animal, loving swamps 
 and dark recesses of the forests, should have been chosen to 
 represent a divinity of light. I reply, that it arose from the 
 " ikonomatic " method of writing. The word for tapir in Maya 
 is tzimin, in Tzental tzemen, and from the similarity of this sound 
 to i-tzam-^na the animal came to be selected as his symbol. No 
 such sacredness attached to the brute among the Quiches, for 
 in their tongue the allusive sound did not exist, the tapir being 
 called tixl. This rebus also confirms the identity of Itzamna 
 with the tapir-nosed deity of the Codices. 1 
 
 The annual festival to Itzamna was called Pocam y "the cleans- 
 ing." On that occasion the priests, arrayed in all their insignia, 
 assembled in the house of their prince. First, they invoked 
 Itzamna as the founder of their order and burned to him incense 
 with fire newly made from the friction of sticks. Next they 
 spread out upon a table covered with green leaves the sacred 
 books, and asperged their pages with water drawn from a spring 
 of which no woman had ever tasted. This was the ceremonial 
 " cleansing." Then the chief priest arose and declared the 
 prognostics for the coming year as written in the holy records. 2 
 
 We may well believe that the Dresden Codex, pages 2943, 
 which are entirely taken up with the deeds and ceremonies of It- 
 zamna, was one of the books spread out on this solemn occasion. 
 
 Representations of Cuculcan. As I believe the reasons above 
 given are sufficient to establish the identity of the " god B," 
 
 1 In the American Anthropologist, July, 1894, Mr. J. Walter Fewkes devotes an 
 article to what he calls "the long-nosed god" in the Cortesian Codex (Itzamna). 
 He does not mention the similarity of the nose to the snout of the tapir, and his con- 
 clusion is that it is a "snake rain god," "'probably Cuculcan," " parallel with Tlaloc." 
 He thinks the heads portrayed in the Codices are " masks or ceremonial helmets.'' 
 It is needless to point out the divergence between his opinions and mine on these 
 points. 
 
 2 Landa : Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 87. 
 
56 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 of Dr. Schellhas' catalogue, with Itzamna, so I think his " god D " 
 is Cuculcan. 1 He himself believes it to be a " night god," or 
 a " moon god," while Dr. Seler considers it to portray Itzamna. 
 The characteristics of this divinity are : A face of an old 
 man, with sunken mouth and toothless jaws, except one tooth 
 in the lower jaw, which, in the Tro. and Cortes. Codices, is 
 exaggerated as a distinctive sign; he has the "ornamented 
 eye " peculiar to deities ; and to his forehead is attached, or 
 over it hangs, an affix, which generally bears the sign akbal, 
 which means " darkness," because he is the setting or night 
 
 FIG. 16. Monogram of FIG. 17. Cuculcan, with owl 
 
 Cuculcan. head-dress. 
 
 sun ; for which reason his head-dress is often the horns of the 
 eared owl. He is clearly a beneficent deity, and is never asso- 
 ciated with symbols of misfortune or death. Indeed, he is at 
 times evidently a god of birth, being accompanied with the 
 symbol of the snail, above explained, and is sometimes asso- 
 ciated with women apparently as an obstetrician. He is con-* 
 nected with serpent emblems, and holds in his hand a sacred 
 rattle formed of the rattles of the rattlesnake. 
 
 All these traits coincide with the myths of Cuculcan ; but 
 when we perceive that he, and he alone of all the deities, is 
 
 1 The name has various orthographies ; that which I here adopt appears to have 
 most in its favor. It is a compound of cucul, covered (*. <?., with feathers), and can, 
 snake; (cucul also means "revolving.") 
 
THE MIDDAY SUN. 57 
 
 occasionally depicted with a beard under his chin, just as Cucul- 
 can wore in the legend, the identification becomes complete. 1 
 
 The most striking of his representations, and that which is 
 most distinctive of his identity with the " green-feathered ser- 
 pent," is the picture which extends over pp. 4 and 5, middle, of 
 the Dresden Codex. Here he is seen with face emerging from the 
 mouth of the great, green-feathered snake-dragon, indicative of 
 his own personality, his hieroglyph immediately above his head. 2 
 
 Representations of Kin ich. As has already been observed, the 
 sun at noon, conceived as a divinity, did not occupy a promi- 
 nent place in Maya mythology ; and this is also the case in the 
 pictorial designs. 
 
 There is no doubt as to his representation. It 
 is accompanied by the well-known ideogram of 
 the sun scattered over his body and represented 
 above him. It will be seen on a later page. 
 
 He is richly arrayed with large ear-rings and a T 
 
 J * FIG. 18. Mono- 
 
 characteristic, prominent nose decoration. He gram of Kin ich. 
 
 has the " ornamented eye " and a full head dress. 
 (God " G " of Schellhas). 
 
 Proceeding now to consider other divinities of the beneficent 
 class, I begin with 
 
 Representations of Xaman Ek y the Pole Star. -This is the " god 
 C, of the ornamented face, " of Dr. Schellhas' list, who suggests 
 its identity with the pole star. The very characteristic face re- 
 curs extremely frequently, especially in Codices Troano, Cor- 
 tesianus, and Peresianus. We have evidently to do with an 
 important divinity, and, as Dr. Schellhas says, " one of the 
 
 1 Examples are frequent; a good one is Cod. Tro., p. 24*^. Not to be con- 
 founded with the moan hairs around the mouth, nor with the chin beard of the black 
 monkey. , 
 
 2 Space does not permit me to enter into the symbolism and myths connected with 
 "the feathered serpent" of Central American mythology. Mr. Fewkes has argued 
 that it also extended to the Pueblo tribes, and traces may be found still further north. 
 See Fewkes, in American Anthropologist, July, 1893. 
 
 5 
 
58 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 most remarkable and difficult figures in the manuscripts." 
 That it is the personification of a star he argues, (i) from the 
 ring of rays with which it is surrounded, Cod. Cort, p. 10 ; 
 (2) from its appearance in the " constellation band ;" (3) from its 
 surmounting in certain pictures the "tree of life; " and that it 
 is the North Star is shown by its presence in the hieroglyph 
 of that quarter and its association with the sign for north. 
 
 There is another, and, to me, decisive argument, which at once 
 confirms Dr. Schellhas' opinion, and explains why the north 
 star is represented by this peculiar, decorated face. 
 
 The term for " north " in Maya is xaman, whence xaman ek, 
 north star. The only other word in the language which at all 
 resembles this is xamach, the flat, decorated plate or dish (Na- 
 huatl, comalli) on which tortillas, etc., are served. In the rebus- 
 writing the decorations on the rim of this dish were convention- 
 ally transferred to the face of the deity, so as to distinguish it by 
 recalling the familiar utensil. For a similar reason it is also 
 called " the shield star," cliimal ek (like chimal ik, north wind) ; 
 but as this is a foreign word (from the Nahuatl, chimalli, shield), 
 it was doubtless later and local. I shall refer to this peculiar 
 edging or border as the " pottery decoration," and we shall 
 find it elsewhere. 
 
 That the figure is associated at times with all four quarters of 
 the world, and also with the supreme number 13 (see above, 
 p. 24), are not at all against the identification, as Dr. Schellhas 
 seems to think, but in favor of it ; for at night, all four direc- 
 tions are recognized by the position of the pole ; and its immov- 
 able relation to the other celestial bodies seems to indicate that 
 it belongs above the highest. 
 
 The North Star is especially spoken of 'as " the guide of 
 merchants." Its representation is associated with symbols of 
 peace and plenty (removing the contents of a tall vase, C. Cor- 
 tes., p. 40; seated under a canopy, ibid., p. 29). In front of his 
 forehead is attached a small vase, the contents of which are 
 trickling into his mouth (?). 
 
THE PLANET VENUS. 
 
 59 
 
 He is especially prominent in the earlier pages of the Cod. 
 Peres., where his presence seems to have been practically over- 
 looked by previous writers ; and it is true that the drawings are 
 nearly erased. Close inspection will show, however, that he is 
 portrayed on both sides of the long column of figures which 
 runs up the middle of page 3. On the left, he is seated on the 
 "Tree of Life," as in Cod. Troanus, p. 17, a (which is growing 
 from the vase of the rains, precisely as in Cod. Tro., 14, $, 
 where the star-god is sailing in the vase itself). 
 On the right of the column he is shown in the 
 darkness of night (on a black background), 
 holding in his hand the kan symbol of fortune 
 and food. A similar contrast is on page 7, 
 where on the right of the column he is seen 
 above the fish, and on the left, in the dark, 
 again with the kan symbol. On the intermediate 
 page he is seated opposite the figure of Kin ich FlG - 19- The North 
 Ahau, which is head downward, signifying that 
 when the sun is absent the pole star rules the sky. 
 
 Representations of the Planet Venus. In view of the prominent 
 part which the Venus-year plays in the calculations of the 
 Codices, it has surprised students that 
 no pictorial figures of this bright star 
 appear on their pages. On this point 
 I have some suggestions to make. 
 
 In one part of the Codex Troano 
 (pp. i*-io*) there are a great many 
 nearly fifty pictures of an insect re- 
 sembling a bee in descending flight. 
 These pages have been explained by FlG - 2 '~ r e J^; ' god - ( Codex 
 Thomas as relating to apiculture and 
 
 the festivals of the bee-keepers, and by Seler, who rejects that 
 rendering, as referring generally to the descent of deities to 
 receive offerings. Direction downward is indicated not only 
 by the position of the insect, but by the accompanying hiero- 
 
6O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 glyph, which reads caban, the first syllable of which, cab, means 
 " downward.' My suggestion is that in this bee-like insect we 
 have an ikonomatic allusion to the Evening Star, which, as I 
 have already stated, was sometimes called xux ek, " the bee or 
 wasp star." 1 
 
 Not only is the picture phonetically appropriate, and the 
 " sign " consistent, but that a deity is referred to is shown by 
 three anthropomorphic pictures of the bee (two on p. 4* and one 
 on p. 5*). Furthermore, the "sign " or monogram of the bee 
 deity (Fig. 20) appears on the so-called " title pages " of the 
 Cod. Tro. and Cod. Cortes., adjacent to that of the north star, 
 indicating that another stellar deity is represented. 
 
 The object toward which the insect descends is generally either 
 a fire, or that shown in Fig. 22. 2 This was supposed by Bras- 
 seur to be a honeycomb, and by Seler, a food offering. It is 
 almost precisely the conventional representation of the clouds, 
 as may be noted in the interesting scene on Cod. Tro., p. 5*, where 
 this object is placed upon the earth, below which is the cloud 
 symbol. Often it is yellowish, a point which has been urged in 
 proof that it is honey. Does it not mean the golden-hued clouds 
 of sunset, and the fire, the flame of the setting sun, into which 
 the Evening Star descends ? 
 
 The sign caban, " downward," naturally refers to the Earth. 8 
 Thither sinks the star of evening to join the departed orb of 
 day ; hence this star mythically becomes the Earth-goddess, 
 the associate of the setting sun. Cuculcan is very frequently 
 depicted in relation to an old crone, having, like himself, but one 
 
 1 Father Lara, in his Vocabulario Tzental, MS., gives the name of one variety of 
 bee as xanab xux; in Maya, xux is usually translated " wasp," " abispa brava.'' 
 As a radical, it seems to mean " to go or sink slowly into something." 
 
 2 The two bees, one waking, one sleeping, Cod. Tro. 33*, are placed between 
 signs representing the winds. 
 
 3 The word cab has various meanings: a bee ; a bee-hive ; honey ; the red or white 
 clay with which potters painted their jars; strength or power; town, place, or world; 
 short or low; down, downward, or below (all given in the Dice, de Motul}. 
 
THE BEE GOD. 
 
 6 1 
 
 tooth, and, like himself, ever engaged in kindly offices, good to 
 men. She, I take it, is the Evening Star in her epiphany as 
 Mother Earth, source of life, ancestress of the race. 
 
 A striking verbal analogy supports this. In the Popol Vuh, 
 the sacred book of the Quiches, the " feathered serpent," Guku- 
 matz, is positively said to be the bisexual principle of life repre- 
 sented by the male Xpiyacoc and the female Xmucane, ancestor 
 and ancestress of all that is. 1 Here, x-mucane is most likely the 
 Quiche feminine form of muc (?//) canan, which is aTzentalname 
 
 FIG. 21. Monograms of the Bee Go,d. 
 
 for the planet Venus, as I have already mentioned. 2 
 elusion is, therefore, that the old woman so 
 frequently associated with Cuculcan is the 
 Evening Star, in her form as the Earth-God- 
 dess. I shall recur to her on a later page. 
 
 I think all these representations of the bee 
 should be interpreted as indicating the move- 
 ments of Venus, and the mythical conceptions 
 with which they were connected in the native mind. 
 
 My con- 
 
 FlG. 22. Offerings 
 to the Bee God. 
 
 1 " Thus it is that are named, sung, and celebrated those who are the grandmother 
 and grandfather, whose name is Xpiyacoc, Xmucane, preserver, protector, twofold 
 grandmother, twofold grandfather. * * * They alone, the Maker, the Former, the 
 Ruler, the Serpent clothed in feathers, They who beget, They who impart life, They 
 rest upon the waters like a growing light. They are clothed in color green and blue. 
 Therefore their name is Gucumatz, ' Feathered Serpent.' " Popol Vuh, pp. 4, 6. 
 
 2 The root muc, in all the Mayan dialects, also means " to cover over, to hide, to 
 bury." The word mucul (" that which is disappearing ") is applied to the moon when 
 in the wane (luna menguante). 
 
62 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Representation of Ghanan, God of Growth and Fertility. 
 Bishop Nunez de la Vega tells us that in the calendar he discov- 
 ered among the natives of his diocese, the fourth " sign " or day 
 corresponded to the Mexican Centeotl, god of fertility and the 
 maize harvests. This fourth day in the Tzental calendar bore 
 the name Ghanan, and on turning to the Tzental Dictionary 
 prepared by Father Lara, we find that ghan is the general term 
 for the ear of maize ; aghan, when the grains are still soft. 
 
 His representations in the Codices are moderately frequent 
 and quite peculiar. They all present in a marked degree the 
 flattening of the forehead and prolongation of the occiput up- 
 ward which is so striking in many of the sculptures. 
 
 Dr. Schellhas, indeed (who catalogues him as " God E "), is 
 so impressed by this that he argues that all such forms were 
 imaginary, obtained by the artists through copying the*conven- 
 tional drawings of an ear of maize arranged as a head-dress. 
 This, however, is going too far, as there is evi- 
 dence, derived from ancient skulls, that certain 
 classes of Maya priests used to have the head 
 artificially flattened in this manner. 1 Perhaps 
 they were those destined for the service of this 
 or similar deities. The officiants on the Palen- 
 que "Tablet of the Cross," presenting offerings 
 to the " tcee of life," are both deformed in this 
 manner. 
 
 The maize god is associated with symbols of 
 food, of vegetable growth, and of prosperity. 
 He carries a vase or is drawing forth the con- 
 FIG. 23. From tents of one, Cod. Cort., p. 40; he is seen with 
 
 the loom ' Cod - Dres " P- 45, and he generally 
 Growth. has about him the kan symbol, that of means 
 
 and comfort. 
 
 1 See Crescendo Carrillo, in Anales del Museo National de Mexico, Tomo III, and 
 Dr. Boas, in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for 1890, pp. 350-357 ; 
 the Die. Motul gives the Maya word for one with head thus flattened, " pechhec hoi, 
 el de cabeza chata." Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, cap. XXX, speaks of the custom. 
 
VARIOUS GODDESSES. 63 
 
 Representations of the Serpent Goddess. One of the most strik- 
 ing pictures in the Codices is the Serpent Goddess, whose fami- 
 liar is the rattlesnake, which she wears as a head-dress or as a 
 girdle. She is depicted as an old woman, her costume ample 
 and often splendid, decorated with embroidery and bells, with 
 necklace and ear-rings of jade. 
 
 In expression she is severe, her lips protrude in anger, and 
 her hands and feet sometimes end in claws. The sinister cross- 
 bones sometimes decorate her skirts. Her business is with 
 water and the rains. She is pouring from a vase (Cod. Dres., pp. 
 43, 67, 74) ; or water is flowing from her armpits, hands, and 
 mammae; or she is ejecting it forcibly from her mouth (Cod. 
 Tro., pp. 25, 27, 34*). 
 
 She is, however, not always represented as in old age, or else 
 there was another serpent goddess in the mythology ; for in a 
 number of places a similar serpentine head-dress is borne by a 
 young woman who holds a vase containing the rattles of the 
 rattlesnake (Cod. Dres., pp. 15, 1 8) ; or (ibid., p. 20), a figure which 
 shows seven black dots. May this be a sign of the constella- 
 tion of the Pleiades, which in the Maya language bore the same 
 name as the rattles of the rattlesnake, tzab f 
 
 As to the signification of the serpent goddess, I think there 
 can be no question of it, from a study of her appearance, signs, 
 and associations. She was the personification of the thunder- 
 storm. The vase she empties is the descending torrent of rain, 
 the rattles she carries are the thunderclaps, her severe mien is 
 the terror inspired by the din of the elements. In Maya, the 
 word for " thunder," pecchac, is derived from the noun pec, which 
 means " a sound like that of a bell or rattle " (Dice. Motut]. 
 
 Representations of Xmucane. A third goddess who can be 
 clearly distinguished is one with features of an old woman, her 
 face wrinkled, her mouth sunken, and but one tooth left in her 
 lower jaw. She usually wears her hair in a peculiar style, two 
 wisps or ends of it twisted above her head. 
 
 She does not appear in the Peresianus, and perhaps not in the 
 
64 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Dresden manuscript, but holds a prominent place in the Troanus 
 and Cortesianus. Her occupations are peaceable; she is weav- 
 ing on a loom (C. Tro., p. 1 1), carrying a plate of cakes, etc. 
 (Cod. Cortes., pp. 10, 1 1). 
 
 In appearance she is the female counterpart of Cuculcan, 
 and is plainly intended to represent his companion or wife. In 
 the " Tableau des Bacabs " of the Codex Cortes., these two 
 alone are represented sitting under the central "tree of life," 
 where they are placed back to back (see above, p. 49) ; while in 
 the section of the tableau showing the West, they are placed 
 face to face, she seated under a canopy hung with black and red 
 dotted lines. 
 
 In her, therefore, we have a person of great importance, the 
 consort of Cuculcan, intimately associated with the quarter of 
 the West to which he belongs. Dr. Seler has argued that she 
 was the goddess Ix chel, and the personification of the Earth. 
 With the last supposition I agree, but not with the name. 
 Ix chel was distinctly by name and myth the goddess of the rain- 
 bow. Much more probably we have in this ancient crone, as I 
 have already said, the personification of the Evening Star, and 
 the Earth, Xmucane, the companion of the sun when worn 
 out by his day's work, whose home is with him in the West, and 
 whom she soon joins. 
 
 Representation of Ah-Puch, God of Death. Next to Itzamna, 
 god of Life, the god of Death, Ah-Puch, is represented most 
 frequently on both Codices and monuments. In the former his 
 picture is given about eighty times, usually as a skeleton with 
 tremendous jaws, always with fleshless skull and backbone, 
 a true '"God Barebones," as the Dice, de Motul describes 
 him. 
 
 His symbols are unmistakeable, the head of a corpse and 
 cross-bones, the ill-omened owl and the ravenous dog, wonder- 
 fully " European" indeed. He has numerous costumes and 
 head dresses; some quite fanciful, and occasionally bells are at- 
 tached to his ankles and clothing. Some of his delineations seem 
 
GODS OF WAR AND DEATH. 65 
 
 to reveal a sense of ghastly humor, as we see in the medieval 
 " dance of death." 
 
 He is associated with the north, because in that direction lay 
 the mythical home of departed souls ; but he is also present 
 in the other .quarters of the compass, for death knows no dis- 
 tinction of places or persons. Besides the cross-bones, usually 
 
 FIG. 24. The God of Death. (From the Codices.) 
 
 shown as in Fig. 25, No. I, he often bears the curious design No. 
 2, 1 which I take to be a maggot, and his head-dress is sometimes 
 as No. 3, decorated with teeth, or flints, with rays. 
 
 I, 
 
 3. 
 
 FIG. 25. Symbols of the God of Death'. 
 
 Representation of the God of War. Frequently associated 
 with the figure of death is that of a deity with a black line 
 across his face. This is numbered by Dr. Schellhas the " god F," 
 
 1 Former students have been unable to explain this design. It is also found in 
 Mexican pictography, as Cod. Vien., pp. 20, 22. 
 
66 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 and called by him a " god of death." Much has been made of 
 the line across his face as identifying him with the Mexican god 
 Xipe, " the flayer; " but this is not a constant mark of Xipe, as 
 Father Duran neither mentions it nor portrays it. In fact, it is 
 nothing more than the line of black paint athwart the face which 
 meant " war" very generally among the 
 American Indians. An inspection of 
 the pictures clearly indicates that this is 
 a war god. For instance, in Cod. Tr., 
 27 *, 28 *, 29 * c t he is shown repeatedly 
 at full length, armed with a flaming 
 torch in one hand and a flint knife in the 
 other, firing the canopies of princes, his 
 body striped with war-paint like his 
 
 -^1 ^>^y^ face, following the god of death, who 
 _J C^c^c^^^J goes before him beating on a drum and 
 FIG. 26. The God of War. singing a song of war (as shown by the 
 lines issuing from his mouth). In Cod. 
 
 Dresden., p. 6 e, he wears a war helmet with nose-piece, and his 
 body is black-striped also. 
 
 Which of the gods of war I have named this leading one may 
 have been, I leave undetermined. 
 
 Representations of Ek Ahau and Other Black Gods. In the 
 Codices there are about fifty figures painted black, evidently 
 intended to represent deities supposed to be thus colored. 
 Forty of them are in the Codex Troano, which is in parts devoted 
 to a prominent character of this hue. He is depicted with a 
 truculent expression, a reddish-brown band around his mouth, 
 and with a large, hanging under-lip. He is generally armed 
 and often fighting. His figure is sometimes drawn unusually 
 large, of a ferocious appearance, and carrying a huge spear, 
 a shield, a tomahawk, a lighted torch, or other fearful sign of 
 war. (See Cod. Tro., pp. 24, 25.) 
 
 Previous writers have not been able to assign a name to 
 this deity. Prof. Thomas suggested that it was Ek Chuah, said 
 
THE BLACK GODS. 
 
 by Landa to be the god of the cacao planters ; but to this, 
 Schellhas objects that his warlike traits exclude such a sup- 
 position. 1 So the latter refers to him merely as " the god 
 M." 
 
 About his name, however, there can 
 be no doubt. The paintings correspond 
 precisely with what Nunez de la Vega 
 tells us of the Tzental divinity leal 
 Ahau, Maya, Ek Ahau, names which he 
 translates, " the black chief," or, " the 
 king of the blacks." He was reported 
 to have been " a famous warrior and 
 most cruel." He was depicted " in the 
 figure of a ferocious blackamoor with 
 the members of a man." 2 The "blacks " 
 of whom he was king were seven in 
 number, and were painted in most of the 
 native calendars which the bishop found 
 among the Tzentals. They were the 
 signs of seven days, beginning, he adds, 
 
 with Friday, which may have been an erroneous explanation of 
 the " masters." 
 
 Among the remainder of the seven were doubtless the god 
 Ek Chuah, of the cacao planters, and the god " L " of Dr. Schell- 
 has' list. The latter is found in the Cod. Dresden., pp. 7, 14, 21, 
 24, 46; but not at all in the Troanus. It is evident, however, 
 that, as Dr. Schellhas observes, several minor black gods are 
 
 FIG. 27. Ek Ahau, the 
 Black Captain. 
 
 1 In Cod. Tro., p. 29*, et seq., the black god has a girdle, to which are attached the 
 leg and claw of a scorpion. The name of the large black scorpion in Maya is ek 
 chuh, literally" the black scorcher." Dr. Seler appositely suggests that this may be 
 a rebus for the name of the god. 
 
 2 " En figura de feroz negro, como una imagen de esculptura, con los miembros de 
 hombre. * * * Fue gran guerreador y crudelissimo. * * * Quiere decir 
 negro principal, 6 Senor de los negros." Nunez de la Vega : Constitudones Diocesa- 
 nas, p. 9; Carta Pastoral, IX. (Rome, 1702.) 
 
68 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 depicted, which is explained by the statement of the Bishop of 
 Chiapas, that there were seven of them. 1 
 
 5. The Maya Priesthood. 
 
 Not all the designs of the inscriptions and Codices are to be 
 considered deities, however. Doubtless the priests, their repre- 
 sentatives, also appear. These were numerous and of both sexes, 
 called respectively, ah-kin and ix-kin, masters of days and mis- 
 tresses of days, that is, having power to predict auspicious and 
 inauspicious days. The chief priest was variously called ah-kin 
 inai and ahau can tnai, the word mat, dust, fragrance, vapor, 
 referring to the sacred rite of blowing substances through a 
 tube in incantation, as we find often represented in the Codices. 2 
 Ahau can, which at times means " rattlesnake," should perhaps 
 here be translated, " master of words," as another term for the 
 high priest was ah-chun can, which is rendered " one who has 
 the right of the first speech in business ; also, high priest." 
 (Dice. Motul^ 
 
 They were divided into a number of classes exercising spe- 
 cial functions ; as the ah-mac ik, who conjured the winds ; the 
 ah-uai chac, who could bring rains ; the ah-pul, " fetchers," who 
 could cause sickness, induce sleep, etc. ; the ah-uai xibalba., who 
 made a specialty of interviewing departed spirits ; the ah-cunal 
 than, who conjured by magical words ; and others. 3 
 
 In their rites they were accustomed to appear in masks, 
 
 1 " En muchos pueblos de las provincias de este obispado tienen pintados en sus 
 Repertories 6 Calendarios siete negritos para hacer divinaciones y prognosticos corres- 
 pondientes a los siete dias de la semana, comenzandola por el viernes contar." 
 Nunez de la Vega: Constituciones Diocesanas, p. 9. 
 
 2 1 add the following definitions : " MAI, polvillo que sale del tabaco, etc., cuando 
 le tratan con las manos. MAAY, espuma del palo que se quema. BOLON MAYEL, qual- 
 quier olor suavissimo y transcendente." Bolon, nine, in the last word is used in 
 Maya as an expression of admiration. (See p. 25.) The term is from Landa, Cosas 
 de Yucatan, c. "]. 
 
 3 Among feminine forms I find ix-bouat, prophetess ; ix-cunal than, conjuress. 
 
PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES. 
 
 6 9 
 
 koh, and dressed in skins of wild animals, as tigers, etc. 1 Their 
 ceremonies were often painful, as the old writers report, and as 
 the words to express them, kup y to cut, 
 ppeta, to cry out with pain, testify. 
 This is also abundantly shown by the 
 pictures of scarifying the body and 
 transfixion of the tongue and ears, on 
 the monuments. 
 
 They are said to have worn their 
 hair uncombed and long, often matted 
 with the blood of the sacrifices. The 
 expression for this was hunhun bnclah 
 u tzotzel hoi, (el que trae largos revueltos 
 y marafiados los cabellos como los traen 
 los idolatras. Dice. Motul}. 
 
 FIG. 28. A Maya Priestess, 
 
 bearing the Moan Bird. 
 (From the Dresden Codex.) 
 
 6. Fanciful Analogies. 
 
 It were easy in these names, myths, and pictures, to pick out 
 abundant analogies to the mythologies of Peru and Mexico, of 
 the Pueblos and of the Old World. It has been done over and 
 over again, usually with a total oversight of the only point in 
 which such analogies have much value the similarity disclosed 
 the world over by independent evolutions of the religious senti- 
 ment. The effort by such resemblances to prove identity of 
 historical origin is to be deprecated whenever the natural 
 growth of myths and rites will explain the facts considered. 
 For that reason I shall say nothing about " Tlaloc deities," " ser- 
 pent gods," etc., with which so many pages of other writers 
 have been fruitlessly taken up. That the adjacent nations of 
 equal culture influenced the people of Yucatan to some extent, 
 was no doubt a fact. It could not have been otherwise. But 
 that the Mayan mythology and civilization were distinctly inde- 
 
 1 The Dice. Molul gives: Ah-kohkeuel, for the wizard wearing a mask and 
 clothed in the skin of the jaguar. 
 
/O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 pendent, and were only superficially touched by their neighbors, 
 I am deeply convinced. 
 
 On the other hand, just how far the influence of this potent 
 and personal culture of the Mayas extended, it is difficult to 
 delimit. I have found no trace of its peculiar forms in South 
 America, nor anywhere in North America, beyond the bound- 
 aries within which that extraordinary calendar was accepted, 
 upon which so much of it was based ; but this, as I have shown 
 elsewhere, included not less than seven entirely different lin- 
 guistic stocks. 1 , 
 
 7. Total Number of Representations. 
 
 The actual progress toward an analysis of the pictorial ele- 
 ments of the Codices which the above identifications indicate, 
 may best be shown by a few statistics. 
 
 I find that the total number of figures of men and women, or 
 of anthropomorphic deities, which are preserved in the manu- 
 scripts, is just about 950, of which 825 are males and 125 are 
 females. 
 
 They are distributed as follows : 
 
 Codex Peresianus, 40 males no females 
 
 Codex Cortesianus, 157 " 6 " 
 
 Codex Troanus, 345 " 47 " 
 
 Codex Dresdensis, 283 " 72 " 
 
 825 125 
 
 Confining our attention to the male deities, the attributes of 
 which have been 'above described, we find their pictures are 
 distributed as follows: 2 
 
 1 See The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 5. 
 
 2 My count does not agree entirely with that of other observers (Fewkes, Schell- 
 has). I have limited my identifications to such figures as seemed to me beyond 
 reasonable doubt. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PICTURES. 
 
 
 PERESIANUS. 
 
 CORTESIANUS. 
 
 TROANUS. 
 
 DRESDENSIS. 
 
 Itzamna, 
 Cuculcan, 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 22 
 
 32 
 CA 
 
 I 3 
 2O 
 
 Kin Ich, 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 Xaman Ek 
 
 
 2O 
 
 20 
 
 5" 
 
 The God of Maize 
 
 
 16 
 
 60 
 
 6 
 
 Ah Puch 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 2C 
 
 2Q 
 
 The God of War, . . . 
 The Black Gods, . . . 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 39 
 
 !3 
 
 4 
 
 Total, . . . 
 
 28 
 
 116 
 
 264 
 
 229 
 
 This gives a total of 638 figures which have been recognized; 
 in other words, more than three-fourths of the whole number. 
 
 Of the remainder a considerable portion are unimportant men 
 and persons, victims of sacrifice, captives, attendants, etc. ; 
 others are priests or officiants in ceremonies ; allowing for which, 
 it is certain that no prominent figure in Mayan mythology 
 under the human form remains to be discovered in the Codices. 
 This is a satisfactory result, and shows that, as far as their picto- 
 graphs go, the* contents of these once mysterious volumes are 
 scarcely an unsolved enigma. 
 
 8. Figures of Quadrupeds. 
 
 The pictorial portions of the Codices contain delineations of 
 various animals, some of which are evidently introduced with 
 symbolical meanings, and others probably so. 
 
 The dog, Maya,/^/, is one of the most conspicuous. It is the 
 native breed, with smooth coat and erect ears. In many in- 
 stances it is associated with the sign for night, akbal, and with 
 the god of death {Cod. Tro., pp. 2, 3, 32, 33); also with the 
 storm and the lightning. For. that reason Dn Schellhas and Dr. 
 Seler regard him as a symbol of lightning. 1 But I am persuaded 
 that while not disconnected with this, the dog represents pri- 
 
 1 There may be here an ikonomatic allusion, or play oh words. The word pek, dog, 
 is close to pec, to sound, to make a noise, which was used for the thunder, as in the 
 current phrase pecni caan, "the sky rang " (sono el cielo, Dice. Motul}. 
 
72 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 marily some star or constellation. At times he is dotted with 
 spots to represent stars, Cod. Dres., p. 2 1 ; the akbalsign. refers to 
 the night. His body is often in human form, carrying a torch in 
 each hand, Cod. Dres., p. 39. (Compare Cod. Tro., p. 23*.) In 
 Cod. Dres., p. 40, he falls from the sky ; and in ibid., p. 47, he is 
 slain by the shaft of Itzamna. (Compare id. 2, where Itzamna 
 is sitting upon him.) He plays on the medicine drum, Cod. Tro. } 
 p. 20, and is associated with the rains, id. pp. 26, 27. He repre- 
 sents the end and beginning of time-periods, Cod. Cort, p. 32. 
 
 The spotted leopard, the jaguar, Maya, balam, whose name 
 is attached to the Chacs, and which appears in the calendar and 
 in many of the myths of the Mayan stock, is represented in a 
 number of passages of the Codices, as Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 26 ; Cod. 
 Tro., pp. 17, 20, 21, 22. In one part, Cod. Tro., 14, he enters 
 dressed as a warrior with a human body. 
 
 The monkey, maax y is not often depicted, but is found with 
 astronomic relations, Cod. Tro., 25*; his sign is distinguishable 
 by the markedly prognathic jaws. , 
 
 Deer are numerous, especially in the Cod. Troanus, where 
 the pages 9-12 are occupied with a series of pictures of the 
 animal in snares. On page 14 a large one is shown, sitting on 
 his rump, his organ erect and prominent. I have little doubt 
 these represent a constellation. In Cod. Dres., p. 2, a composite 
 figure with deer's hoofs appears three times, sailing through the 
 sky on the serpent's head. (Compare Cod. Cort., p. 14.) 
 
 The small edentate, the nine-banded armadillo, Tatusia novem- 
 cincta, in Maya, ibach, is shown twice in the Cod. Tro., both 
 times caught under a trap, once, p. 9, under the wind sign, 
 again, p. 22*, under the cauac sign. What it represents is un- 
 known. 
 
 9. Figures of Birds. 
 
 Birds had important symbolical functions, and a number are 
 figured in the Codices. In their identification I have had the 
 advantage of the advice of Mr. Witmer Stone, who has pursued 
 
THE BIRD SYMBOLS. 73 
 
 his ornithological studies in Yucatan itself. The following 
 are recognizable : 
 
 i. The red macaw, Ara macao, Maya, moo or ahlo ; the type 
 is shown in Fig. 29. This was the symbol of Kin ich. 
 
 FIG. 29. Bird Symbols from the Codices. 
 
 2. The horned or eared owl, a large raptorial bird of the 
 genus Bubo, Maya, cos} He is usually shown in full face to 
 display his ears or horns, e.g., Cod. Tro., 18*. He appears as 
 an associate of the gods of death and war, and symbolizes clouds, 
 darkness, and inauspicious events. His horns frequently appear 
 on the head-dress of Cuculcan to indicate the departing sun and 
 night, like the akbal sign. (See Cod. Tro., pp. 19, 29*, 35*.) 
 He is often associated with the number 13, and may represent 
 in the calendar the 1 3-day period. 
 
 3. Two species of vulture, the king vulture, Vultus papa, and 
 the turkey vulture, Cathartes aura, both abundant in Yucatan, 
 Maya, kuch and ahchom. The former is the bird seated on the 
 " tree of life," tearing out the eyes of the victim, Cod. Dres., p. 3 ; 
 Cod. Tro., pp. 15, 17, or the entrails, Cod. Tro., p. 15, 17. The 
 naked head and neck of the vulture on a human body is seen 
 Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 13, 19, 38; Cod. Cort, p. 10, etc. His head 
 is his monogram, frequent in Cod. Peres., pp. 4, 7, 9, etc. (See 
 Fig. 29, No 2.) Its body is sometimes black, at others more or 
 less white. 
 
 4. The quetzal bird, Trogon splendens, is distinctly shown 
 in Cod. Dres., p. 16, above the middle figure. 
 
 1 In Spanish, bujarro. The Dice. Motul says of it, sub voce, coz, " ave de rapina ; 
 coge gallinas y grita como muchachos." 9 
 
 6 
 
74 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 5. The crested falcon, Spizcetus tyrannus, the moan bird, in 
 Maya muan or muyan. This has well-developed tufts of erectile 
 feathers on the head and resembles in the drawings the horned 
 owl. It is believed by Forstemann to be the symbol of the 
 Pleiades ; by Seler, to be associated with the clouds and rains. 
 Both are probably correct. 1 (See Fig. 28.) 
 
 6. The pelican or cormorant is drawn with a human body and 
 the " fish and oysters " sign in Cod. Cort., pp. 20, 21. 
 
 7. Blackbirds, of which two species live in Yucatan, are por- 
 trayed in Cod. Tro., p. 31. 
 
 8. The wild turkey is easily recognized by his head and 
 " wattle " among the food offerings. 
 
 10. Figures of Reptiles. 
 
 Among reptilians, the turtle or tortoise (Maya, ac) is one of 
 the most prominent. By Dr. Schellhas it has also been called a 
 Blitzthier, or animal symbolical of the lightning, basing his opin- 
 ion especially on Cod. Dres., p. 40, where a human figure with a 
 tortoise head is seen holding a torch in each hand. It is dis- 
 tinctly represented as a celestial body in Cod. Cort., pp. 13, 17, 
 37, and 38 ; and when we are informed that the Mayas called a 
 portion of the constellation Gemini by the name " the tortoise," 
 it is quite clear that we are dealing with an astronomical, not a 
 meteorological, emblem. 
 
 Dr. Forstemann has advanced the theory that at least one 
 and an important function of the tortoise was as a symbol of 
 the summer solstice, in accordance with which he explains Cod. 
 Dres., p. 40; and that on the earth-plane it indicated the north- 
 east and northwest directions. His arguments for this opinion, 
 if not conclusive, certainly attach to it a high probability. 
 
 1 Some writers have thought that the moan bird was a mythical animal ; but Dr. C. 
 H. Berendt found the name still applied to the falcon. In the form tmiyan, it is 
 akin in sound to muyal, cloud, moan, cloudy ; which may account for its adoption as 
 a symbol of the rains^ etc. 
 
FIGURES. OF ANIMALS. 75 
 
 Between the tortoise and the snail (Maya, hub or ut) there is 
 in the Codices some mythical relation. In the Aztec symbolism 
 the snail is often an emblem of death ; but also of birth. It is 
 likely that the same holds true of the Maya designs. The ani- 
 mal is associated distinctly with the beneficent deities, notably 
 with Itzamna and Cuculcan, Cod. Dres., 5 and 37. But it is also 
 visible in close relation with the god of death, Cod. Dres., pp. 9, 
 12, 13, 14, 23. 
 
 Regarding it as a counterpart of the tortoise, Dr. Forstemann 
 has given various reasons for holding that it symbolizes the 
 winter solstice and the directions southwest and southeast, and 
 thinks it probable that it is found in the hieroglyph of the month 
 mol, which occurs about that season of the year. 1 
 
 The frog, Maya, muck, uo y is a well-known symbol of water 
 and the rains. It is shown falling from the sky in Cod. Cort., p. 
 17; and on p. 12, Itzamna, in his character as a rain god, appears 
 with the body of one. 
 
 The scorpion (Maya, zinaan) is depicted several times, espe- 
 cially in Cod. Cort, p. 7, and Tro., pp. 9, 13, where it is of large 
 size. Its symbolic sense is not clear. The Mayas applied the 
 term zinaan ek, " scorpion stars," to a certain constellation, but 
 it is possible they derived it from the Spaniards. Another pos- 
 sibility is that the animal represents the earth-plane. The word 
 zinaan is derived from the radical zin, which means to stretch 
 out, to extend ; and the entire earth, as one extended plane, was 
 called sinil. 
 
 The rattlesnake appears to be the only serpent which is repre- 
 sented as a symbol. It was distinctively called, both in Tzental 
 and Maya, " the Snake King " (Maya, ahau can, Tzental, aghau 
 chan). Its rattles were termed tzab, and hence its name ahau 
 tzab can, also in use. According to the Dice. Motul, the natives 
 believed there were four varieties, corresponding to the four 
 sacred colors, white, black, red, and yellow. 
 
 1 Forstemann, Entziffcrung> No. III. 
 
7 6 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 It is shown in the Codices, realistically, biting a man's foot, 
 Tro., p. 7 ; astronomically, in the sky among the stars, Cod. 
 Dres., p. 43 ; Cort, pp. 12, 13 ; as the head-dress of the serpent 
 goddess, already described ; as the companion of Itzamna and 
 Cuculcan, frequently; as the body of Itzamna, Cod. Cort, 10, in 
 Cod. Dres. and Cod. Tro. It carries the " constellation band," 
 and may generally be regarded as one of the symbols of Time. 
 
 1 1 . Occupations and Ceremonies. 
 
 Among the illustrations are a number which throw light on 
 the habits and customs of the ancient Mayas. We see persons 
 engaged in spinning and weaving, Cod. Tro., pp. n*, 16*, etc., 
 Cod. Dres., p. 45 ; others making idols, Cod. Tro., p. 12*, Dres., 
 p. 6, etc. Various religious ceremonies are pictured, as piercing 
 
 FIG. 30. A Religious Function. (From the Dresden Codex.) 
 
 the tongue, Cod. Tro., pp. 16*, 17* ; baptizing children, which 
 was performed at the age of four years, 1 Cod. Tro., 20* ; and the 
 
 1 Reladon de la Villa de Valladolid (1579), cap. 14. 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE CODICES. JJ 
 
 important functions at the end of the years, depicted both in 
 Cod. Tro., pp. 20-24, and Cod.^Dres., pp. 25-28. 1 
 
 A curious scene is that Fig.*si from the Dresden MS., p. 35. 
 
 In the center, resting upon an altar of three degrees sur- 
 mounted by the sign caban, earth, is the head of the god of fer- 
 tility, his soul escaping from his nostril. Below, on each side 
 of the altar, are two figures, one playing on a flute, the second 
 on the medicine drum. Above are also two, one shaking the 
 sacred rattle, the second squatted before a flaming altar, in one 
 hand the holy staff, caluac, while the other lifts above his head 
 the " fish and oyster " sign, symbol of the products of the sea. 
 On the right hand are other offerings, the turkey and the dog ; 
 and below them a ladder, eb-che y probably signifying the day eb, 
 on which this ceremony took or should take place. Its success- 
 ful result is shown in the picture which follows it in the Codex. 
 
 Those who would follow Forstemann's (and my own) views in 
 understanding the Codices, must accustom themselves to look 
 upon the animals, plants, objects, and transactions they depict 
 as largely symbolic, representing the movements of the celestial 
 bodies, the changes of the seasons, the meteorological varia- 
 tions, the revolutions of the sun, moon, and planets, and the 
 like; just as in the ancient zodiacs of the Old World we find 
 similar uncouth animals and impossible collocations of images 
 presented. The great snakes which stretch across the pages of 
 the Codices mean Time ; the torches in the hands of figures, 
 often one downward and one upward, indicate the rising and the 
 setting of constellations ; the tortoise and the snail mark the 
 solstices ; the mummied bodies, the disappearance from the sky 
 at certain seasons of certain stars, etc. A higher, a more preg- 
 nant, and, I believe, the only correct meaning is thus awarded to 
 these strange memorials. 
 
 1 These are described at length by Landa, and their representations in the Codices 
 have been explained by Thomas in his Manuscript Troano. 
 
78 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 IV. The Graphic Elements. 
 
 Having made this satisfactory progress in explaining the 
 numeral and the pictorial portions of the Codices, we are well 
 prepared to approach the more difficult part of our task, the 
 interpretations of the hieroglyphs themselves. 
 
 Fortunately, an even superficial inspection of the manuscripts 
 shows us that we are not without material aids to this end. It 
 is clear that many of the hieroglyphs are those of the twenty 
 days and the eighteen months of the Maya year, which are pre- 
 served to us in the work of Bishop Landa; others, again, by 
 their arrangement, must be connected with the cardinal points ; 
 and others suggest, by their appearance and disposition, that they 
 portray the celestial bodies, the sun, moon, and stars ; others are 
 in the columns of numerals, and must have numerical values ; 
 and others are so related to the pictures that they are plainly a 
 repetition of them in a partial and conventional manner, as the 
 written characters for divinities, which are usually merely the 
 head of the divinity more or less cursively expressed. 
 
 I. The Direction in which the Glyphs are to be read. 
 
 The first step in the decipherment of any inscription is to as- 
 certain the direction in which it is to be read. 
 
 In my earliest essay on this subject, 1 I stated that whatever 
 the prevailing rule in this respect might have been, the native 
 artists had no hesitation in disregarding it, when artistic or 
 other reasons presented themselves. This is the conclusion 
 which has since been arrived at by conservative later students. 
 I shall have numerous illustrations of it to offer in the following 
 pages. Most of the diversity in this respect was not capricious, 
 
 1 " The Ancient Phonetic Alphabet of Yucatan," in the American Historical 
 Magazine ', for 1870. 
 
DIRECTION OF THE WRITING. 79 
 
 however, but in accordance with rules, some of which have been 
 ascertained. 
 
 Three points in this connection will immediately attract the 
 attention of the student. The movement of the principal fig- 
 ures in the records, both manuscript and mural, is generally 
 from right to left ; the main portion of the composite charac- 
 ters are drawn on the right, and the minor portions or affixes 
 are added on the left ; l and in placing numerals on a line, the 
 upright strokes which mean the fives are placed to the right, and 
 the dots which mean units less than five are placed to the left. 
 These facts look as if the lines were written from right to left. 
 The general opinion, however, is that expressed by Pousse and 
 by Thomas, that the characters when arranged in lines are to 
 be read from left to right, and when in columns from top to bot- 
 tom. 2 That this rule does not hold good in a number of in- 
 stances, as I shall show, need not surprise us, as precisely the 
 same uncertainty in the arrangement is found in the Mexican 
 picture-writing, as Chavero has pointed out, 3 and exists to-day 
 in the manuscripts of the Tuaregs of the Sahara. 4 Dr. Forste- 
 mann has shown conclusively that the numerical elements in 
 the long computations to which I have referred (above p. 30) 
 are to be read from below upward^and from right to left. 5 
 
 Great aid in settling this question in any given instance can 
 be obtained by a close examination of the rubrication of the 
 
 1 A notable exception to this, commented o'n by de Rosny, is seen on pages 18 and 
 19 of the Codex Peresianus, Why the rule should be reversed in those sections is 
 still a problem. 
 
 2 Study of the MS. Troano, Preface, p. viii. 
 
 3 Alfredo Chavero, Antiguedades Mexicanas, p. xi (Mexico, 1892). The Codex 
 Porjirio Diaz must be read from right to left. 
 
 4 D. G. Brinton, " The Alphabets of the Berbers " in Proceedings of the Orien- 
 tal Club of Philadelphia, p. 64 (Philadelphia, 1894). 
 
 5 For instances, the numerals in connection with the snakes in Cod. Dres., pp. 61- 
 64, and 69-73, are to be read from right to left, and from below upward, beginning 
 at the last page of the series, and proceeding toward the left on the extended sheet. 
 Forstemann, Entzifferung, No. II, 1891. 
 
8o 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 manuscript. The native scribe, before he filled in the glyphs or 
 letters, divided his 'sheet into small compartments by- faint red 
 lines, bounding as it were the different sentences or paragraphs 
 he intended to set down. Each such sentence consists usually 
 of four or six characters, arranged either in a column or in a 
 square, the whole of which may be called a " cartouche." The 
 following diagram illustrates the manner in which the separate 
 glyphs are to be read in ordinary cases : 
 
 a 
 
 a b 
 
 a b 
 
 a 
 
 b 
 
 c d 
 
 C d 
 
 b 
 
 \ 
 
 picture . picture 
 
 c 
 d 
 
 Without the aid of the rubrics, from an independent study of 
 the characters themselves, M. Pousse demonstrated that this 
 is a necessary arrangement of the majority of the written pas- 
 sages. 1 
 
 The signs for the days are usually placed in columns on the 
 left of the groups of hieroglyphic characters, the numeral be- 
 longing to each being inscribed above it ; while immediately 
 below the groups are numerals in black and red, generally indi- 
 cating certain days. This disposition of the elements of the 
 writing shows that it was intended for a " time-count," as I have 
 before stated. For the somewhat voluminous analysis of the 
 Codices in this direction, the reader is referred to the works of 
 Forstemann and Thomas, who have paid fruitful attention to 
 this department. 
 
 1 In the Archives de la Societe Americaine de France, for 1887, pp. 27, 28, 113 
 etc. 
 
RULES FOR STUDY. 8 1 
 
 2. Composition of the Glyphs. 
 
 I have already stated, p. 10, that the main elements of the 
 Mayan hieroglyphic writing are not numerous. The apparent 
 complexity of many of the glyphs arises from the combination 
 of a number of frequently recurring elements which are placed 
 in different positions and relations, and each of which has many 
 variant forms, dependent on the degree of skill or care of the 
 scribe or sculptor, and the material which he used for the record. 
 
 Usually each glyph or katun consists of one main element 
 with a number of others drawn in or around it, which are gener- 
 ally known as " affixes." An element within another is called 
 an " infix ; " placed in front of it, a " prefix ; " behind it, a " suf- 
 fix " or " postfix ; " above it, a " superfix ; " and below it, a " sub- 
 fix." The same element will often be found first in one and 
 then in another of these positions ; and a certain class of ele- 
 ments are employed as affixes only. I shall refer to the single 
 elements as " simple characters," and to the complex glyphs as 
 " composite characters." 
 
 3. The Proper Method of Studying the Glyphs. 
 
 The proper method to adopt in studying composite characters 
 is first carefully to separate them into the simple characters of 
 which they are composed, noting the relative positions of these. 
 
 The next step is vitally important and often most difficult. It 
 is to determine what visible objects these simple characters were 
 intended to represent. They are often so conventionalized or so 
 negligently sketched that the most careful students have reached 
 absurdly different opinions as to what they were designed to 
 portray. 1 
 
 This identification accomplished, the student should proceed to 
 
 1 In this connection I would call the especial attention of students to the article by 
 Dr. Schellhas, " Vergleichende Studien auf dem Felde der Maya-Alterthumer," in the 
 Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographic, 1890. He there illustrates their methods 
 of tattooing, wearing the hair, personal ornaments, costumes, utensils, etc., as shown 
 in the Codices and other remains. 
 
82 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 ascertain the name of the object in the Maya language ; because, 
 though it may be employed as pure ideogram in one connection, 
 in another it may be used for its phonetic value according to the 
 " ikonomatic," or rebus method, as I have above explained, and 
 instances of which I give in these pages. I do not believe that 
 a further phonetic analysis that to the isolation of distinct 
 alphabetic elements as has been pursued by a number of 
 writers already referred to, is justified by the nature of the Maya 
 script, or will yield useful results. 
 
 4. An Analysis of Various Graphic Elements. 
 I shall now proceed, in the manner above described, to exam- 
 ine a number of simple and composite characters, not by any 
 means exhausting the stock, but rather merely offering sugges- 
 tions and examples for future students. In their application it 
 must always be remembered that any Maya character may be 
 employed in either of three values : I, As an ideogram ; 2, as a 
 rebus ; 3, as an astronomical or numerical sign. 
 
 6/2. 
 
 FIG. 31. The Hand. 
 
 The hand contributes to some of the most numerous hiero- 
 glyphs in the Mayan writing ; and the significant poses assigned 
 it in the pictures and statues prove how expressive it was to this 
 people. 
 
THE HAND SIGNS. 83 
 
 The forms presented Fig. 30 by no means exhaust its delinea- 
 tions. They are drawn from gesture-speech and each is signifi- 
 cant. No. i, from the Cod. Cort, is the usual sign " to give ; " 
 No. 2, from the Cod. Tro., shows it in hasty writing ; No. 3 is 
 the hand closing (" la main qui se ferme," Brasseur). It is the 
 sign for the day manik, and is explained by Dr. Seler, " to eat ; " 
 but I take it to be the rebus for mack, "to grasp" ("asir, tomar con 
 las manos," Die. Motul). No. 4, the hand closed, thumb down- 
 ward (pollice verso), has probably an inauspicious significance 
 (very common, e. g., Cod. Per., pp. 2, 3, 6, 7) ; No. 5 is the 
 " supporting hand " (very frequent, usually in composition) ; No. 
 6 is intended to show the hand, palm upward, forming a cup 
 (Cod. Dres., p. 40, Cod. Tro., p. 21), it would signify " offering ; " 
 No. 6y 2 , from the stelae of Copan, must mean union or friend- 
 ship. The two hands held as No. 7 occur repeatedly in Cod. 
 
 Dres., pp. 6, 7, in the Tro. and Cort. often thus, s* ""< , to which 
 
 Thomas, by means of his " key," assigns the wonderful mean- 
 ing, " a meat pie " ! Nos. 8 and 9 are explained by Seler as the 
 supporting hand ; No. 10 shows the hand and arm pointing ; No. 
 1 2, Cod. Tro., 30, 3 1 , is the index finger extended ; No. 1 1 , Cort., 
 p. 28, shows the closed hand as a suffix to the sign ik. 1 
 
 Phonetically the hand is kab, which also means " arm, finger, 
 juice, sap, tears ; " and as a rebus it could stand for kaba, name. 
 
 By some writers all the signs, Fig. 32 are supposed to 
 represent the eye. Nos. I and 2 may also stand for a tooth, and 
 for the small bells worn as ornaments. No. 3 has been called 
 the " weeping eye," and by Brasseur " une hache ;" but I take it 
 
 1 On the interpretation of these and allied signs the student should consult Garrick 
 Mallery, Sign Language among the North American Indians, in Rep. of the Bureau 
 of Ethnology, Vol. I, and W. P. Clark, The Indian Sign Language (Philadelphia, 
 1885). It is not possible for me here to give more than the most meager details on 
 this important topic. 
 
84 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 to be the space within the closing hand (Figs. 31, No. 3). 
 No. 4 shows the eyelashes of the closed eye, and signifies sleep 
 or death. No. 5 is the " ornamented " or " serpent " eye, and, 
 according to Thomas, is the characteristic of a deity. Nos. 6 
 and 8 are supposed by Seler to be the eye torn out. They are 
 extremely common affixes. Schellhas explains No. 6 as " the 
 head and creeping foot of a snail." I am persuaded that it is a 
 bird's wing, or the chief feather of a wing, and means " supe- 
 
 1. 2. 
 
 3. 4-. 
 
 
 
 ^ W< 
 
 6. 
 
 7- 8. 
 
 
 ^~\ fo\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 & $ 
 
 FIG. 32.- 
 
 -The Eye and Similar Figures. 
 
 rior," " supremacy," or something of that kind. 1 For that 
 reason it always appears in the sign of Kin ich ahau. No. 8 
 I regard also as copied from a feather ornament. 2 No. 7, called 
 by Seler the " bleeding eye," I take to be a sign for stars. 
 In Maya, ich, the eye, also means " face " and " twins." 
 The design, Fig. 33, No. I, abundant in the Codices and on the 
 stone and ceramic remains, shows eyes, but is believed by Forste- 
 
 1 Bird's wing in Maya is xik. Close in sound is xikal, queen (senora principal, 
 Dice. Motut}. The first wing feather was also called " a knife " (la primera pluma 
 de la ala del halcon se llama "cuchillo masestre," " u cicil u/um." Dice, de San 
 Francisco}, 
 
 2 In the museum of the University of Pennsylvania there is a beautiful vase from 
 Guatemala, with a vitrified surface ; on it a face and head, with a necklace entirely 
 of this sign, repeated in a pattern. 
 
EYE AND EAR SIGNS. 
 
 mann to represent the planet Venus, and to be a variant of Fig. 
 37, No. 4. Seler thinks it an ornamental kin (see Fig. 36). It 
 is carved on the great tortoise of Copan, and Nos. 2, 3, and 4 
 
 2, 
 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 
 5. 
 
 y^X^^V 
 
 FIG. 33. The " Spectacles." 
 
 are from the pottery of that city, on which it is the most common 
 glyph I have noted. In No. 5, from Cod. Dres., p. 57, it is 
 postfixed to a human figure reversed. Brasseur explains it as 
 "the spectacles of Tezcatlipoca," and for a name, we may call it 
 "the spectacles glyph." 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 FIG. 34. The Ear. 
 
 The human ear has been represented by No. 2, Fig. 34, as has 
 been proved by de Rosny and Thomas. No. I (Cod. Cort., p. 
 16) is either an ear or an ear ornament. It is not the ordinary 
 ear-ring, which is clearly shown in Figs. 12, 17, etc. This latter is 
 often used as an affix, and has been confused with the serpent 
 rattle, and with No. 3, which is the lower jaw bone, cham or 
 catnach. (See Cod. Cort., pp. 35, 36, etc.) 
 
 The ear is xicin, which also means " shell." Ear-rings are 
 tup, a word which as a verb signifies " to stop up, to cover over, 
 to extinguish." 1 
 
 1 " Tup ; ciertas arracadas de palo antiguas; y llamanse ahora las arracadas 6 zar- 
 cillos." Dice. Motul. 
 
86 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 The group of signs, Fig. 35, beginning with a person seated, 
 are, in the opinion of Seler, all derivatives from " man." Nos. 2, 
 3, and 4 he calls " eyes," and Nos. 5-11 outlines of the mouth, 
 jaws^and face, with a general value, " person." Other sugges- 
 tions are, that the crescentic outlines, Nos. 6, 7, II, refer to a 
 crescent moon, or an ear (Schellhas), or to a serpent's mouth 
 (Allen) ; while No. 10 may be an eye and eyelashes (Allen), a 
 comb (Valentini), a claw, a feather, part of a plant, etc. It may 
 be called the " comb sign." l 
 
 FIG. 35. Crescentic Signs. 
 
 My belief is that some of these affixes show the necklace on 
 which beads and precious stones were strung. This was called 
 u, w r hich is also the word for moon, and in sound is akin to nil, 
 food. 2 
 
 By the latter fact I would explain the frequent appearance of 
 
 this sign C o UJJJ D d on the neck of vases and on haunches 
 of venison (Cod. Tro. 22, etc.). The picture of a necklace shown 
 
 1 In Maya a comb is xel. This as a verb means " to cut in two ;" and as a numeral 
 prefix it divides in half unities less than 20 ; as xel u yox kinbe, " two-and-a-half-day 
 journeys." Ikonomatically, the comb sign may have these significations. Landa 
 gives it as the sign for ca, perhaps, as Valentini suggests, for cac, to pull out hair. 
 
 2 7//also means anything favorable or advantageous " cosa provechosa," Die. 
 Motul. The word u never means " vase," as Prof. Thomas has repeatedly stated, fol- 
 lowing the unreliable Brasseur. 
 
SUN AND MOON SIGNS. 8/ 
 
 in the Lienzo de Tlascala, p. 7, will demonstrate how close is 
 the resemblance. That in Landa's alphabet (see above, p. 15) 
 this sign is given for u, confirms my supposition. 
 
 FIG. 36. Sun and Moon Signs. 
 
 The hieroglyphs of the sun, Fig. 36, Nos. rand 2, cannot be 
 mistaken. In the latter, the four teeth indicate the biting heat. 
 This design often occurs on war shields. No. I is that usually 
 employed in composition. The word for sun is kin, which has 
 the further meanings, "day, light, festival, time, news, to rule;" 
 from it are derived kinal, " heat, hot ;" kinam, " strength, brav- 
 ery, power, poison, fear, veneration ;" ah-kin, " a priest," etc. 
 The kin sign usually indicates a beneficent divinity. 
 
 The third sign in Fig. 36 is that for moon (Schellhas). Dr. 
 Seler, however, claims that it is the symbol of " night," and that 
 where it means 20 (see above, p. 21), it is not derived from u y 
 moon, but from uinic, man. He explains the figure as a human 
 head with a " bleeding eye," and bare teeth. 
 
 In all these points I think he is in error. Maya grammar does 
 not authorize the derivation of uinal from uinic (in which Seler 
 follows Brasseur) ; but it may come from u, month, inn or uen t 
 " relating to a month." His statement that the 2O-day period 
 was not spoken of as an uinal, is disproved by Landa, who calls 
 it uinal hun ekeh, " a dark month," to distinguish it from one 
 lighted by the moon. A close examination of most of the 
 drawings will show that the line on which the supposed bare 
 teeth are shown is not that of the mouth, but that of the neck- . 
 lace above mentioned, which has the value ?/. Cf. Fig. 3, No. 3. 
 
MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 No. i, Fig. 37, I introduce from Mexican pictography; it is 
 the sacred green jade jewel, the xihuitl, meaning " precious, 
 divine." By it I explain the very common No. 2, a modification 
 either of it or of the kin sign, constantly associated with deities 
 (on the hand, Cod. Dres., p. 21 ; on the leg, id., 12 ; on the back, 
 id., 39 ; and always on the head-dress of the God of Growth). 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 FIG. 37. Supposed Derivatives of the Sun Sign. 
 
 No. 3 may be a modification of the kin. It is given in 
 Landa's alphabet, where it stands for be, footprints. It may 
 also be the stones of the hearth, and signify " house." As a 
 "directive sign," it stands for the point south, and the color 
 yellow ; and it appears as an occasional variant of the day-signs 
 lamat, muluc, and chuen. 
 
 No. 4 is thought by Seler to be merely an ornamental form of 
 the kin sign ; but by Forstemann is taken for the monogram of 
 the planet Venus, at least in the Cod. Dres., where it is very 
 frequent on pp. 46-50. It is repeated with slight variations on 
 the Copan pottery. 
 
 2. 
 
 3, 
 
 4. 5. 
 
 6. 
 
 FIG. 38. The Knife Signs. 
 
 The flint knife was an important implement. Landa speaks 
 of the numerous large ones kept by the priests for slaughtering 
 
THE KNIFE SIGNS. 89 
 
 their victims. 1 They were called ta, and licit dzicil ; in Tzental, 
 chinax, from chi, to bite. Fig. 38, Nos. I, 2, and 4, show the usual 
 forms in which they are drawn, the small squares at the end being 
 the biting edges. No. 3, surmounted by the " trinal " sign, refers 
 probably to lightning. No. 6 is a rare sign for a dog, showing 
 his biting teeth (Cod. Tro., p. 25). The flint knife typifies sacri- 
 fice, death, war, the East, and fire. As a rebus, it could stand for 
 ta, excrement ; tah, a dramatic representation, etc. 
 
 No. 5 is a very common affix. It has been regarded as a 
 variant of the knife (Seler, etc). But it is too constantly distin- 
 guished from it to have this meaning. I consider it the sacred 
 bean, with which divination was practiced and lots cast. This 
 was called bul, a word which, as an affix, means " all," the whole 
 of anything, as bulkin, " the whole day." This may suggest its 
 signification. 
 
 The curious objects in Fig. 39 were long a puzzle to me, and 
 have not been explained by previous writers. I believe them 
 to be representations of the ~ 
 
 food products of the sea, 
 showing a fish and two shell- 
 fish. My reasons for this are 
 that in Cod. Dres., p. 34, they 
 are seen along with other 
 
 c , - 7 T- FIG. 39. The "Fish and Oyster" Sign. 
 
 food-offerings (see Fig. 30) ; 
 
 in some places the fish tail is unmistakeable (Cod. Dres., pp. 6, 
 7, 36) ; in Cod. Cort., pp. 20, 21, they are associated with a fish- 
 ing bird, a pelican or cormorant ; in Cod. Dres., p. 50, the two 
 shells are replaced by one conch shell ; and in Cod. Dres., p. 67, 
 a fish and two shells are painted separately, to represent food 
 from the sea. The two shells are often seen in other relations, as 
 sprinkled with blood (Cod. Tro., p. 18*), and as an affix (see Fig. 
 31, No. 10). I shall refer to this as the " fish and oyster " sign. 
 
 1 " Los navajones para los sacrificios, de los quales tenian buen recaudo los sacer- 
 dotes," p. 107, Ed. Madrid. 
 7 
 
9O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Shells had a peculiar sacredness in Maya symbolism. The 
 robes of some of the priests were bordered with them. 1 
 
 FIG. 40. The Sacred Food-Offerings. 
 
 Some other sacred food-offerings are shown in Fig. 40. The 
 first is the haunch of venison tied up (identified as such by Bras- 
 seur); the second is the fish, here shown with a subfix; the third 
 is the wild turkey, represented by his head in a dish. Another 
 is the iguana (see p. 122, No. 14) ; and a fifth is the object shown 
 on p. 122, No. 12. It has been explained as a grain of corn 
 sprouting from the ground, or a mole emerging from its hole 
 (Schellhas). The true explanation is that of Brasseur, that it por- 
 trays the forequarter and head of a food-animal, tied up. He 
 does not specify what animal, but in some of the drawings I dis- 
 tinctly recognize the dog, with his sharp teeth, the species raised 
 by the Mayas to be eaten on festival occasions, as stated by Landa. 2 
 
 I 3- 4-V 
 
 FIG. 41. The ben-ik and other Signs. 
 
 Nos. I and 2, Fig. 41, are variants of an element often occur- 
 ring with a ben-ik superfix. Dr. Seler, who is apt to see gory 
 
 1 Relation de la Villa de Valladolid (1579), Chap. XIV. I am aware that some 
 variants of this glyph have a striking resemblance to a penis flaccidus cum testiculis ; 
 but after close comparison I have rejected this rendering. Thomas sees in the two 
 shells " tortillas." 
 
 2 Cosas de Yucatan, p. 112 (Ed. Madrid). What looks like the kan sign below 
 it is the strap which fastens it. * 
 
THE PAX SIGN. 9! 
 
 human heads everywhere, thinks it is one carried in a sling and 
 means " conquered in war." 
 
 Dr. Forstemann, with greater probability, considers that it 
 symbolizes an astronomical event connected with the motions of 
 the sun. (See the significant designs, Cod. Tro., 28* b.} 
 
 The ben-ik sign referred to is rendered by Seler to mean con- 
 quest and destruction ; by Forstemann, astronomically, as the 
 lunar month of 29 days ; in a general sense, I would say, 
 " strength and deific power/' It is a very constant association 
 of the two day-signs so named, ben giving the idea of motion, 
 and ik of life and power. 
 
 In No. 3 is a long worm-like figure under the ben-ik sign. Bras- 
 seur pointed out that it is a variant of the day-sign men, and ex- 
 plained it as a caterpillar (chenille). Seler speaks of it as an 
 eagle, and as a symbol of " mother earth; " Schellhas, as perhaps 
 the serpent goddess. It sometimes is drawn to have a fish-like 
 appearance (Cod. Per., p. 7), and may symbolize the waters ; the 
 more so as it has occasionally as a superfix the " cloud-balls." 
 
 No. 4 is explained by Brasseur as the girdle, xoc, around the 
 body ; and I prefer this to later suggestions. A similar design 
 was the tress of hair, kax pol or kaaxi, worn by women (see Cod. 
 Tro., p. 27 ; Cod. Dres., p. 45). Its signification would seem to 
 be " to tie together, to join," or, as a rebus, " rain, to rain," for 
 kaxala (Hover, y la lluvia). 
 
 I- 2. 3. 
 
 FIG. 42. The Drum Signs. 
 
 No more prominent hieroglyph than No. I, Fig. 42, can be 
 found in the Mayan inscriptions, and none which has proved 
 such a stumbling block to interpreters. Valentini has called 
 
92 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 it the picture of a censer or brazier; de Rosny thought it a 
 variant of the ahau sign ; Dr. Seler explained it as a precious 
 stone ; and Thomas as " a stone heap ! " It is the upper figure 
 in the " Initial Series" of glyphs at Palenque, Copan, Quirigua, 
 etc. (see above, p. 24), and recurs with but slight variations in 
 all the Codices. 
 
 I first announced what it represents and its signification at 
 the meeting of the American Association for the advancement 
 of Science, August, iS^. 1 It is the picture of a drum, the 
 large variety, made of the hollow trunk of a tree resting upon 
 short feet, the trunk being sawed across partly through so as 
 to give two vibrating surfaces, which were often decorated with 
 cross-hatching. Such drums are described by the early Spanish 
 writers, and one is shown in the Atlas to Duran's History. 2 Their 
 sound could be heard for two leagues, and they were important 
 adjuvants in the services in the temples. 
 
 In the hieroglyphics the significance of this design is pri- 
 marily phonetic. The name of this particular kind of drum 
 was pax che, from pax, musical instrument, and che, wooden ; a 
 large one was bolon pax che, the word bolon, nine, being a super- 
 lative prefix in Maya. Employed according to the ikonomatic 
 method, this expressed the word paxan, a very common term in 
 Maya, meaning " it is finished," and applied to anything com- 
 pleted, ended, or destroyed, in a good or bad sense. 3 This is 
 
 1 Mr. Marshall H. Saville, in a paper published in \ht Journal of American Folk- 
 lore, September, 1894, and stated to have been read before the American Association 
 the preceding month, entitled " A Comparative Study of the Graven Glyphs of Copan 
 and Quirigua," observes of the design of \htpaxche that it " is probably a drum." No 
 expression to this effect was in the paper as read before the Association, and in the 
 following number of the Journal Mr. Saville concedes that I was the first to offer this 
 identification. 
 
 2 Duran : Hist, de las Sn(fias,Tr&t. I, Lam. 29; Trat. II, Lam. 6. 
 
 3 I quote the explanation from the Dice, de Motul, " Paxaan : cosa que esta 
 quebrada, como vasija, cabeza, barco, etc.; cosa que esta desparecida; paaxan in cab, 
 huido se me han mis abejas ; paaxan in cuchtel, paaxan in cahal, despoblado se me 
 ha el pueblo, ido se me ha mi gente. Y asi se puede decir de muchachos, de hormi- 
 
THE DRUM SIGNS. 93 
 
 why in the numeral signs it marks the end of a series (see above, 
 p. 22), and in the so-called " Initial Series" (which I believe to 
 be terminal), it surmounts and thus closes (reading from below 
 upward) the rows of computation signs. For the same reason 
 it is the support of the figure representing the dying year in the 
 ceremonies at its termination (Cod. Tro., pp. 20-24), an d is often 
 associated with the deities of old age, destruction, and death. 
 
 Several other varieties of drums were in use among the 
 Mayas. That shown Fig. No. 2, is noteworthy. It is the dzac- 
 atan (Berendt), or medicine-drum (from dzacah, to cure, to prac- 
 tice medicine). It was used in the sacred ceremonies (see Fig. 
 30), and Itzamna is portrayed playing upon one (Cod. Dres., p. 
 34). Its representations in the Codices are peculiar, and have 
 been entirely misunderstood by previous writers. I show them 
 in Fig. 43, Nos. I, 2, 3. In a more highly conventionalized form 
 
 we find them in the Cod. Troano, thus : If/vM I'lT^l which has 
 
 been explained by Pousse, Thomas, and others, as making fire 
 or as grinding paint. It is obviously the dzacatan, what I have 
 called the " pottery decoration " (see p. 58) around the figures, 
 showing that the body of the drum was of earthenware. 
 
 Fig. 42, No. 3 shows the ordinary hand drum, the huehuetl of 
 the Mexicans. Its name in Maya is tunkul, properly tankul, which 
 means either "before the gods," or " now one worships " (ahora 
 se adora, Baeza.) It was either of wood and was struck with a 
 stick ; or of pottery with a skin stretched over its mouth, when 
 the sound was produced by the fingers. Some were large and 
 stood upright, as shown in Fig. 43. L Representations of these are 
 
 gas, humo, niebla, nublados, dolor de cabeza, de la voluntad, etc., anadiendose al 
 paaxan el nombre de la cosa." In a similar sense the phrases paaxal yit caan, 
 " the edge of the sky is broken," paaxal zt chun caan, " the beginning of the sky is 
 broken," are translated, " reir el alba, venir el dia, 6 amanecer asi." 
 
 1 In the Tzental dialect the drum entirely of wood was called culinte ; that with a 
 skin stretched across it, cayob. Lara, Vocabulario Tzenlal, MS. 
 
94 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 common in the Codices, and have generally been mistaken for 
 vases. (See Cod. Cort., p. 27.) Even Nos. 4 and 5, Fig. 44, are 
 
 probably some such musical instruments. 
 12, 30,31-) 
 
 (See Cod. Cort., pp. 
 
 FIG. 43. A Stand- 
 ing Drum. (From 
 the Cortesian Co- 
 dex.) 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 -fo'\ I;" N 
 
 Si...ol V, .-' 
 
 FIG. 44. Graphic Delineations of Drums. 
 
 2. 3. A-. 
 
 FIG. 45. The yax and other P'eather Signs. 
 
 Few glyphs are more frequent than No. I, Fig. 45, either 
 alone or in such combinations as Nos. 2 and 3. The guesses as 
 to what it represents have been singularly divergent. Brasseur 
 said, a kind of gourd ; Seler, a tree ; Schellhas, the zapote ; 
 Rosny and Forstemann, the phallus, etc. 
 
 None of these suggestions seems to me tenable. I believe it 
 represents a common feather decoration made of short green or 
 blue feathers, attached to a style or staff. It is frequent on 
 Mexican and Maya figures, and in No. 4, Fig. 45, I copy one 
 from a Maya war dress. The lower portion represents the or- 
 nament to which I allude. It was called yax kukul, and this 
 
FEATHER SIGNS. 
 
 95 
 
 gives the phonetic rebus value of the sign, which is yax, green, 
 and (metaphorically) new, young, fresh, strong, virile, etc. 
 
 Care must be taken not to confound this with the character 
 seen in the sign of the dog (see p. 70), which really represents 
 the ribs and breast-bone, although called a " phallus " by 
 Rosny, an " article of food " by Thomas, a " breast- 
 plate " by Allen, and a " vertebral column " by Seler. 1 
 
 The three feathers which surmounted thej/ax kukul, as shown 
 in No. 4, Fig. 45, also developed in the hieroglyphs to an import- 
 ant sign. It is shown in Fig. 46, No. I, and is the uppermost sign 
 in the " Initial glyph "of Palenque (see p. 137) and was a mark 
 of eminent distinction. (See Fig. 47, No. 2.) 
 
 These three feathers indicated in Maya symbolism the high- 
 est place and power. They appear on the head of the import- 
 ant statue unearthed by Dr. Le Plongeon at Chichen Itza, 
 which he calls " Chac Mool," in the form given Fig. 46, No. 
 2. Three was a sacred number with the Mayas, and with this 
 in mind I shall refer to it as the " trinal " sign. 
 
 In Mexican writing the three 
 feathers appear in the ikono- 
 matic sign for tecpan, royal, in 
 the Lienzo de Tlascala, pp. 56, 
 57, 78. As feather in Maya is 
 kukum, which is allied in sound 
 to ku, god, kul, divine, etc., we 
 see what an appropriate rebus 
 the " trinal " makes. 
 
 Rounded figures, identified by Seler as " feather balls," are 
 sometimes portrayed above the men, or " Mother Earth " sign, 
 and in other relations. See Cod. Peres., p. 7, for a good ex- 
 ample. 
 
 1 A similar design is found on Mexican shields, e.g., Lienzo de Tlascala, plate 12, 
 Cod. Porf. Diaz., lam. s. and on the curious sculptures at Monte Alvan, Oaxaca, 
 figured in Captain Dupaix's Second Expedition, plate 21, in Kingsborough's Mexican 
 Antiquities. 
 
 2. 
 
 rn/flin. 
 
 FIG. 46. The " Trinal 
 Emblem. 
 
 Feather 
 
96 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 A number of drawings in the Codices represent textile mate- 
 rials mats, cotton cloth, wicker-work, etc. That Fig. 47, No. I 
 
 is frequent, both as an affix and as 
 
 2 3 P ai "t f costume. Thomas calls 
 
 it a trellis or lattice work ; Seler, 
 an imitation of a snake skin ; 
 Forstemann, of the shell of a tor- 
 toise. In some places it is clearly 
 a part of a helmet made of inter- 
 FiG.47.-The Cross-hatched "Signs, laced and twisted cords attached 
 
 to a frame. (See Cod. Tro., pp. 
 
 2, 3, 6, 19, 22*, 23*.) 1 In Nos. 2 and 3 it appears as a written 
 character with superfixes. It forms part of the sign of the day 
 chicchan, and is attached to the sign of the sun and of the 
 world. 
 
 This cross-hatching I regard as showing woven stuff, or that 
 twisted, knotted, and plaited ; and I consider its value when used 
 phonetically to be " strong, mighty," because the word for 
 " strong " in Maya is chich, and that for twisting and interlacing 
 cords is chich-kuch, again a simple rebus. 2 
 
 The designs, on p. 129, are supposed by Seler and Thomas to 
 represent a house, the roof of which is indicated by the cross- 
 
 hatched or plaited objects, gPVVV and Oa^-r.. 
 
 I regard them as meaning a canopy, the practical and symbolic 
 uses of which article are often referred to by the early visitors 
 to these tribes. 3 
 
 1 Probably the " morriones de madera," to which early writers allude as part of the 
 armor of a Maya warrior. 
 
 2 " Torcer hilo con huso; chich. kuch. Hilo torcido ; chichin bil kuch" Dice, de 
 Motul. Meanings of chich, are : " strong, swift, hard, violent, " also " grandmother." 
 
 3 Father Ximenes speaks of the " asiento del rey ; " " tenia un docel de pluma ; 
 sobre el guarda polvo, tenia cielos de diversos colores, tres, dos, etc." Origen </e 
 los Indios de Guatemala, p. 196. The symbol is therefore one of power and author- 
 ity, rather than of a mere inanimate object. 
 
LINES AND DOTS. 97 
 
 In Fig. 48, No. I, I give a frequent postfix. In the pictures 
 it portrays the wing of a bird, the foot of an animal, the claw of 
 a reptile or insect, or the tail of a dog (Cod. Tro., p. 27). 
 
 No. 2 is the conventional sign for smoke, as may be seen in 
 Cod. Tro., pp. 5*, 6*, etc. 
 
 No. 3 is called by Seler an ideogram for " man " or " person." 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4-. 
 
 FIG. 48. Some Linear Signs and Dots. 
 
 No. 4 I introduce from the Mexican pictography to illus- 
 trate the use of black dots. They have many significations 
 which I have not traced in Mayan Codices, such as seed, salt, 
 ashes, stars, sand, earth, and from the latter, place, region, world. 1 
 In the sign for the day, z>, I believe we see the dots with the 
 signification xiix, " grain-husks." A line or lines of dots 
 mean " speech " or vocal sound, as 
 attached to the drum, Fig. 44, No. 3 ; 
 coming from the mouth of a dog, Cod. 
 Tro., p. 20, singing, etc. Some have 
 mistaken this for the sign of death. 
 Dots in Maya are ua or ual, akin in sound to ?/, month, nil, food, 
 and may be allusive for these ideas. 
 
 1 See Antonio Penafiel, Nombres Geograficos de Mexico ; Estudio Jeroglifico, pas- 
 sim (Mexico, 1885). I would especially recommend this easily obtainable work. to 
 the student who would familiarize himself with the method of " ikonomatic" writing as 
 it was used by the ancient Mexicans. Another series of admirable examples are in the 
 " Lienzo de Tlascala," published by the Junta Colombina (Mexico, 1892), under the 
 editorship of the distinguished antiquary, Don Alfredo Chavero. 
 
98 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 The kan and imix signs are often associated under two super- 
 fixes enclosing dots, as in Fig. 49, No. i. These have been 
 interpreted by Seler to indicate copal gum, or the burning of 
 incense. The sign is associated with various deities, especially 
 those of a beneficent character. 
 
 The same objects, however, occur elsewhere as superfixes 
 over various glyphs, as Fig. 49, No. 2, where it is not easy to 
 assign them any such meaning. 
 
 Modifications of Fig. 
 
 ~ 35 O ' No. I are quite fre- 
 
 quent. This sign has 
 
 Tfaffi) had various explana- 
 Jll/ tions, as typifying fire, 
 -- ^~LK lightning, or wind 
 
 5TL 
 
 (Seler, Schellhas) ; but 
 
 I believe it represents 
 FIG. 50. Linear Prefixes. 
 
 divine or magical power 
 
 exerted by blowing. As I have explained in my Nagualism, 
 " the act of blowing was the essential feature in the practice of 
 the ' medicine men.' It symbolized the exercise and transfer of 
 spiritual power." * Where the deity is portrayed with this addi- 
 tion, he is in the act of exerting his divine influence. For 
 examples, see the "bee god," in Cod. Tro., pp. 5* and 10*, 
 where the head is as in No. 2 ; and the scorpion, in Cod. Tro., 
 p. 2, precisely like one in the Cod. Porfirio Diaz, lam. I. At 
 times it also conveys the idea of speech, or vocal sound, or that 
 from a drum, etc., e. g., Fig. 44, No. 3. 
 
 No. 3 represents the usual mode of portraying the antennae of 
 scorpions, insects, etc., of interest because the word for these in 
 Maya, matzab, also means the rays of the sun and of light, and 
 the figure might so be interpreted. 
 
 1 Nagualism ; a Study in Native American Folk-lore and History, p. 20, note. 
 Sometimes water was used, when the word in Maya is puhaa, "to blow water," and 
 is translated in the dictionaries, " rociar con la boca." 
 
CURVILINEAR SIGNS. 
 
 99 
 
 Dr. Forstemann believes that the circle of dots, as in the 
 lower portion of No. 2, means " movement or precession ;" as in 
 Cod. Dres., p. 68. The CO sign is so surrounded, indicating 
 the junction of two time-periods; or, as others would say, the 
 crooked lightning darting from the sky. 
 
 2 . 
 
 o Oo 
 
 FIG. 51. The "Cloud-Balls" and the "Cork-screw Curl." 
 
 In Fig. 51, Nos. I and 2, copied from the great tortoise of 
 Copan, show the rain-clouds as conceived by the native artist. 
 In the Codices they are seen in the day-sign cauac; and 
 elsewhere. An almost identical conception appears in the 
 pictography of the northern tribes. 1 Seler speaks of them as 
 Wolkenballen, " cloud-balls," an appropriate name for the ele- 
 ment. 
 
 No. 3 has been explained by Thomas and Seler as the por- 
 trayal of trickling fluid ; or, again, by the latter, as a " nose 
 ornament." Dr. Schellhas first saw its real intention. It is a 
 picture of a twisted lock of hair, or " cork-screw curl," worn by 
 
 ffTTTT 
 
 FIG. 52. Symbols for the Earth. 
 
 the Maya women. It appears in the monograms of various god- 
 desses. Ideographically it has two meanings, one, woman or 
 
 1 Mallery : Picture Writing of the American Indians, p. 700. The double curves 
 that we see on the snake, Cod. Cort., p. 15, etc., I construe as the sign of the sky. 
 The expression in Maya was u nak caan, "la boveda del cielo;" literally, the 
 "belly " of the sky. 
 
100 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 female ; the other, down or downward ; either from its name 
 (which we do not know), or because it hangs downward. In the 
 latter sense, it is in the hieroglyph of the Earth, as that which is 
 down or below us, Fig. 52 ; although, as the Earth is the feminine 
 principle in nature, Mother Earth, I would suggest that this 
 is the intimation conveyed by the sign. 
 
 3., 
 
 4, 
 
 FIG. 53. Signs for Union. 
 
 No. I, Fig. 53, occurs with great frequency. Allen explains 
 it as " the radical of the mouth," others as " falling water," etc., 
 but I accept without hesitation Brasseur's identification of it as 
 the side view of the joint of a reed or maize stalk, with the 
 meaning " union." In the writing it is probably among other 
 things the conjunctive conjunction, yetal, " and," which explains 
 its frequency. It is common in the form No. 2, in the Vienna 
 Codex, signifying the union of day series (pp. 58, 61, 64, etc.) ; 
 it may imply sexual union, as in the " Tableau des Bacabs " (see 
 above, p. 50.) 
 
 FIG. 54. The Knotted Head Dress. 
 
 Other signs for union are No. 3, which is a knotted head-dress, 
 common on males, and No. 4, from the Cod. Troano, p. 5, which 
 
THE TREE OF LIFE. IOI 
 
 perhaps indicates the union of two month periods, or the new and 
 old moons, in relation. The middle design between the two 
 crescents is frequent as an affix (e.g., Cod. Tro., p. 7, etc.). 
 
 2. 
 
 FIG. 55. The "Tree of Life." 
 
 I have already hinted at the significance of the "tree of life" 
 in Mayan mythology. It is shown in the Codices under two 
 forms, Fig. 55, Nos. I and 2. In the former it seems to be 
 growing from a bottle-shaped vase. The leaves (omitted in this 
 instance) are well shown in Cod. Tro., p. 17*. They are cordate 
 and pendent. 
 
 No. 2 is taken from the Cod. Peres., p. 3 ; it beautifully shows 
 the sacred tree, here distinctly anthropomorphic, 1 in the vase 
 of the heavenly waters, lifting its fourfold branches. In the 
 original, the god of the north star is resting upon them. Usually 
 the tree is associated with Itzamna. Both forms are frequent in 
 the Mexican manuscripts, and the myths relating to them have 
 been subjects of study by various writers. 2 
 
 1 The transformation of the human into the arboreal form and its opposite are fre- 
 quently referred to in the myths and pictography of the red race. Some interesting 
 observations upon this point, by the R'ev. S. D. Peet, may be found in the American 
 Antiquarian, for September, 1894. 
 
 2 See the Codex Borgia, plates 8, 16, 17, 18, 19; Cod. Vaticanus, plate 65 ; Cod. 
 Colomb., Lam. 5, 17; Cod. Vienna, pp. 18, 37, etc. ; and consult Pousse in Arch, de 
 la Soc. Amer., 1887, p. 102; Schellhas, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1886, p. 53. . 
 
IO2 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Forms like Nos. I and 2, Fig. 56, and perhaps No. 3, are usually 
 taken to represent a chopper or machete. The representation of 
 this weapon or implement is seen in Cod. Tro., p. 17, where 
 
 I. 2. 3. 
 
 FIG. 56. The "Machete" and Similar Signs. 
 
 a man is killing a snake with one. In the conventional and 
 negligent manner in which these characters are often written, it 
 is not easy to distinguish them from others of different origin 
 and meaning. Nos. 2 and 3 may be feather signs. Seler explains 
 the machete as the symbol of striking or* wounding (" Ausdruck 
 des Schlagens"). 
 
 I. 2. 3. 4-. 
 
 o 
 
 FIG. 57. Supposed Bird Signs. 
 
 Characters like the above recur in all the forms of writing. 
 No. I has been called by Seler the representation of " man," 
 but this is doubtful. It may be a variant of No. 2, which is a 
 " closing hand " from Fig. 31, No. 3. Nos. 3 and 4, from Copan 
 and Guatemalan pottery, follow closely the Codices. With a 
 " comb affix," Forstemann calls No. 4 " a well-known form of 
 moan" meaning the Pleiades (Entziff. IV) ; while Dr. Seler 
 explains it as an owl symbol. The design enclosed is held to 
 depict the bill of a bird. 
 
 The " Crotalean curve," the outline of the jaws of the rattle- 
 snake, Crotalus horridus, has been dwelt upon with emphasis by 
 Allen and Maudslay as one of the most notable emblems in 
 
CURIOUS CURVES. 
 
 103 
 
 Maya art. 1 Fig. 58, Nos. I, 2, 3, 4, show some of its forms in 
 the Codices, and No. 5, from Stephens, illustrates its radical. 
 As a graphic element, it is less prominent than in architecture. 
 
 2. 
 
 5. 
 
 FIG. 58. The Crotalean Curve." 
 
 Fig. 59, Nos. 1-4, are outlines of objects often seen in the 
 Codices. No. I, which looks like a carriage-wrench, is in fact a 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4-. 
 
 FIG. 59. Objects Heldjn the Hand. 
 
 serpent wand, as can readily be seen by comparing Cod. Tro., 
 pp. 6, 7, 31*, with Cod. Dres., pp. 40, 42, 43. 
 
 1 Dr. Harrison Allen : An Analysis of the Life Form in Art, p. 37 (Philadelphia, 
 1875) ; A. P. Maudslay : Biol. Cent. Amer. Archeology, Part II, plate 23, etc. 
 
JO4 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 No. 2 is the " medicine rattle." Sometimes it was a gourd, 
 at others of earthenware, as we see by the " pottery decoration " 
 in Cod. Tro., 34, 35, etc. Sometimes it looks like a fan or a 
 mirror. 1 
 
 No. 3 is the hatchet, and No. 4 the chisel. The peculiar 
 shape and mode of use of the latter are seen Cod. Tro., 34, etc. 
 Both of these implements were made of metal obtained from 
 Tabasco, and Landa especially says that the latter was that 
 with which they carved their idols, exactly as we see in the 
 MSS. 2 
 
 The word for the tomahawk in Maya was bat ; and from the 
 same root come batul, " to fight ; " batab, " a chief; " batan, " first 
 or in front of; " bat, " hail ; " for any of which ideas the weapon 
 might be a symbol or a rebus. It is of frequent occurrence in 
 the texts. One of its uses, I am persuaded, was to indicate a 
 thunderbolt or stroke of lightning. The name for this in Maya 
 was u the blow of the cloud," 3 and in the group of the moan 
 sign and the tomahawk we have this well expressed. 
 
 The first design in Fig. 60 shows the aspersorium, lilabal, 
 with which the high priest sprinkled the holy water (which was 
 the dew collected in the early morning) during the ceremonies. 
 To it were attached the rattles of the rattlesnake and tails of 
 
 1 Mr. E. P. Diesel dorff, in a description of a very beautiful decorated vase from the 
 vale of Cham a, Guatemala, says that fans were noi in use among the natives, and that 
 the object in the paintings usually identified as such is a " soplador," or fire-blower, 
 made of woven palm leaves, and still found in every house. Verhand. der Berliner 
 Anthrop. Gesell., 1894, p. 374. 
 
 2 " Tenian cierto azofar blando y con alguna poca mezcla de oro, de que hazian las 
 hachuelas de fundicion y unos cascabelejos con que vaylavan y una cierta nianera de 
 escoplillos con que hazian los idolos." ftelacion de Yucatan, p. 107. (Madrid edi- 
 tion.) 
 
 3 U hadz muyal, literally, " its blow, the cloud." Another figure which seems to 
 indicate the same is the broad, pointed object seen in the hands of deities. Cod. 
 Cort., p. 28; Cod. Tro., pp. 29, 30, 38, 39. It is the same as the Nahuatl tlauite- 
 quiliztli, portrayed in the hands of Tlaloc, in plate 70, of Boban's Catalogue Rai- 
 sonneof the Goupil collection. 
 
VARIOUS OBJECTS. 
 
 105 
 
 poisonous serpents. 1 It is often portrayed in the Codices and 
 inscriptions. 
 
 The second design is the throwing-stick, in Nahuatl, atlatL 
 The admirable monograph of Mrs. Zelia Nuttall explains its im- 
 portant symbolic uses. 2 Examples where it is well portrayed 
 are : Cod. Dres., p. 60, 65 ; Cod. Tro., pp. 21* and 22*. 
 
 ! 
 
 FIG. 60. The Aspersorium, the Atlatl, and the Mimosa. 
 
 The third design in Fig. 60 is what Seler calls a broom (Span- 
 ish, escobilla, Nahuatl, mallinalli^} and Schellhas, a feather. But 
 that it is, as Brasseur said, a mimosa, seems clear from Cod. 
 Tro., p. 29, where it is shown growing. In id., p. 32*, where it 
 is above the turtle, it has an astronomic significance. 
 
 Other objects sometimes depicted are fans, ual or picit; mir- 
 rors, nen ; shields, chimal ; and planting sticks, xul. 
 
 The designs shown in Fig. 61 recur in all the Codices, and I 
 agree with Dr. Forstemann that they must refer to the celestial 
 bodies and their relative motions (contrary to the view of Dr. 
 Seler). That they have not all been identified is perhaps because 
 none of the students of the subject has been astronomer enough 
 to understand the lessons they convey. 
 
 A few we are certain about. No. I is the sun, No. 2 the 
 moon ; No. 13 must be " the rope of the moon " (see above p. 36) 
 
 1 The name is from lil, to sprinkle, haa, water, and bat, the instrumental termina- 
 tion. The Relacion de la Villa de Valladolid, 1579, cap. xiv, says : " el ahkin llevaba 
 un hisopo, atado en el muchas colas de vibora y culebras ponzonosas." 
 
 2 The Atlatl or Spear Thrower of the Ancient Mexicans. By Zelia Nuttall 
 (Cambridge, Mass., 1891). 
 
io6 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 indicating its conjunction; 1 No. 12, from the Cod. Peres., might 
 reasonably indicate its opposition; No. 14 is the pole star, 
 occurring in Cod. Tro., pp. 20, 22, 23. Dr. Forstemann has 
 offered certain reasons, reaching a moderate probability, that 
 Nos. 3 and 4 symbolize the planet Mercury ; Nos. 5 and 6 the 
 planet Venus ; No. 7, Jupiter ; No. 8, Mars ; and No. 1 1, Saturn ; 
 No. 15 I have seen only on the casts from Sastanquiqui, Peten, 
 at the World's Columbian Exposition. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 L " 
 
 
 i -^ 1 
 
 
 O-. ,.-O 
 
 
 
 p o z 
 
 
 O^ 
 
 
 
 
 .'' \ \ *". 
 
 FIG. 61. The Constellation Band." 
 
 These designs are arranged in rows of three or more, forming 
 ribbons or bands, and therefore I shall refer to the series as 
 " the constellation band." Some members of it usually are 
 placed above the representation of the sun and moon (day and 
 night), frequent in the Codices and represented in Fig. 62. 
 
 1 See Cod. Dres., p. 50. Precisely the same design recurs in the (Mexican) Codex 
 Borgia, published in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities. No. n is also a Mexican 
 calendar sign (Gama). 
 
CELESTIAL SYMBOLS. 
 
 107 
 
 This has been called " the heavenly shield," a designation I 
 shall retain. Its signification was first explained by Schellhas. 
 The orbs are suspended from the " constellation band " by curi- 
 
 FIG. 62. The " Heavenly Shield." 
 
 ous bearings, which seem to be developments from a form very 
 common in the Mexican MSS., ancl which is shown in Fig. 63, 
 No. I, which, however, I have copied from a potsherd brought 
 from Copan. Figs. Nos. 2 and 3, from the same source, also 
 seem of astronomical intent, though No. 3 may be a variant of 
 the ik (comp. Cod. Dres., pp. 56, 57). 
 
 I . 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 FIG. 63. Designs from Copan Potsherds. 
 
 After considerable discussion the signs for the cardinal points 
 have been definitely determined to be as in Fig. 64, reading from 
 left to right, East, North,West, South. The East sign is composed 
 of the kin (sun) sign with the a/iauas a superfix and the " claw " 
 postfix; the North has the north star god's monogram with the 
 lunar prefix ; the West the kin sign with the mack as a superfix 
 
io8 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 (see p. 83) and the " claw " postfix ; the South has the yax with 
 the mac superfix and sometimes an augment. Space will 
 not permit a further analysis of these important composites, but 
 
 FIG. 64. The Signs for the Cardinal Points. 
 
 each is highly significant. These signs never occur isolated, 
 but always together; where one is found, the* others may confi- 
 dently be looked for. 
 
 Another series of signs are intimately associated with these. 
 They are shown Fig. 65, and read from left to right,, South, East, 
 North, West. 
 
 FIG. 65. The " Directive Signs." 
 
 The precise purpose of these has remained obscure. Dr. 
 Seler has suggested that they indicate the colors which were as- 
 signed to the four directions. This is true as far as it goes, but 
 does not explain many of their uses. My own studies have led me 
 to believe they are primarily " directive signs," intended to guide 
 the learner in the use of the calendar wheel. This was somewhat 
 intricate, made by the superposition of two surfaces, the lower 
 marked with the cardinal points, etc., the upper, I take it, with 
 these directive signs. That any quarter in the native astrology 
 could be transferred into any other, explains why they 'are all 
 
 
THE DIRECTIVE SIGNS. IOO, 
 
 found with all the signs of the cardinal points. 1 My view is 
 borne out by the Books of Chilan Balam. In this work the 
 rotation of the time-periods is called cuceb, 
 "the squirrel," and their beginning is 
 marked with the Fig. 66. This is identical 
 with several variants of the North " directive 
 sign " above ; and the reason it was called , 
 cuceb was that the verb cucul means " to 
 
 move round and round " as they did their T 
 
 J FIG. 66. The "Cuceb." 
 
 calendar wheels. . 
 
 These four directive signs occur repeatedly as affixes. They 
 may be read, (i) ideographically : either as directions, south, 
 east, north, west ; or for colors, yellow, red, white, black ; or, (2) 
 ikonomatically : for the homonyms of the names of these colors, 
 that is, for the other meanings of the color names. These are 
 numerous. Thus, kan, yellow, also means "jewels, money, food, 
 abundance, a rope, a hamac ; " chac, red, may also signify 
 "strong, water, rain, the rain god, a tempest;" zac, white, is 
 also an intensive particle, " much, very," and is close to zacal, to 
 'weave, a web, and zacan, bread; while ek, black, may also be 
 translated " dark, darkness, a star, dyewood, the fat of meat." 
 The sign for the East, the flint knife, may as such have the 
 values assigned above to that object (see p. 89). This, however, 
 does not make the method so complicated as one may think, for 
 in all rebus-writing we find the ordinary signs employed are 
 limited to a few recognized meanings. 
 
 5. The Hieroglyphs of the Days. 
 
 In my work on " The Native Calendar of Central America " 
 I pointed out that the hieroglyphs of the names of the days are 
 to be looked upon as rebuses, and therefore do not tell us the 
 
 1 I hesitated some time to assign the flint knife to the East, but believe the evidence 
 is in its favor. As Chavero has pointed out {Antiguedades Mexicanas, p. xxxv), in 
 Mexican symbolism, the tecpatl belongs decidedly to the West. 
 
IIO MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 real meaning of the name given the day. They are merely the 
 pictures of some familiar visible object or objects, the name of 
 which has more or less similarity to the name of the day, and 
 would serve by an ocular representation to recall it to mind. To 
 repeat what I there said on this essential point : " It is quite 
 misleading to seek the real meaning or derivation of a day-name 
 or other word from the figure which represents it in the hiero- 
 glyphic writing. The latter usually stands for a word of an en- 
 tirely different meaning, the only connection being a more or 
 less similarity of sound." ] 
 
 It should be remembered, therefore, that some of these hiero- 
 glyphics of the day-names recur as independent characters with 
 other than calendar significations. 
 
 i. Kan. The object represented is a polished stone, shell pen- 
 dant, or bead, in Maya, kan. It was their circulating medium, 
 and it stands for money, and all which that magic word conveys, 
 food, prosperity, abundance. 2 The dot or eye in the upper 
 portion is the perforation by which it was strung on a "cord. 
 Others explain it as an eye (Seler) ; a tooth (Brasseur) ; a grain 
 of maize (Schellhas). 
 
 1 The Native Calendar of Mexico and Central America, p. 4 (Philadelphia, 
 1893). 
 
 2 " Kan : cuzcas 6 piedras que Servian a los indios de moneda y de adorno al 
 cuello." Dice, de Motul. I owe this identification to my late friend, Dr. C. H. 
 Berendt, a profound Maya scholar. Its correctness will be confirmed by examining 
 Cod. Cort., p. 12, Cod. Dres., p. 48, etc. This circulating medium of the Mayas is 
 mentioned in the Relacion de Valladolid, 1579, cap. 33. In purchasing a wife the 
 expression was ah coy kan, " he who must pay kans" as these were the considera- 
 tion. (Dice. Motul .) Other meanings of kan are : yellow, and hence ripe fruit, the 
 yolk of an egg, cooked maize, etc. ; anything precious or valuable ; a measure oi 
 length ; a set task ; a net, and to fish or hunt with one. 
 
THE DAY SIGNS. I I I 
 
 2. Chicchan, The allusive design to suggest the name is sup- 
 
 plied by the twisted threads chick kuch. See above, p. 96. 
 Brasseur sees in it a petticoat, Seler a serpent's skin, etc. 
 
 3. Cimi. Represented either by an eye closed as in death, 
 cimil ; or by the maggot (see above p. 65). 
 
 4. Manik. Correctly explained by Brasseur as a hand in the 
 act of grasping, " une main qui se ferme." Its phonetic value is 
 not kab, hand, but mach, " to grasp " (see above p. 83). 
 
 5. ' Lamat. The figures bear a close resemblance to some of 
 the sun signs. See Fig. 37. They seem to show the orb partly 
 below a line the horizon which would give as a rebus lamal 
 kin, the sunsetting ; enough to recall the day name. 
 
 6. Muluc. The day sign muluc and the month sign mol have a 
 resemblance, as do the words. The root mol or mul means a 
 
112 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 coming together, or piling up. The hurricane is called molay 
 ik, "the winds united; " the word for religion is umolay, liter- 
 ally, " a congregation or meeting." Both signs seem to portray 
 one thing inside of another of the same kind, with a probable 
 reference to the sense of the root. 
 
 7. Oc. Among its various meanings this word signifies " a 
 trail" and "footprints." Such seems the design in the first 
 variant. Brasseur, and, following him, Seler, think that the 
 
 others portray the ears of a dog, as in 
 
 (/!rtn(\ * f~J L ^^ some Mayan dialects the dog is called 
 fc^JJ^JVSTTC* oc. The full glyph is thus: 
 
 It is of frequent occurrence in such a 
 cartouche as shown in Fig. 67, where a 
 is the strengthened pax. (See p. 92), 
 b, the dog sign ; c, the haunch of veni- 
 son ; and d, the monogram of Xmucane 
 with a vigesimal or personal prefix. 
 
 FIG. 67. A Cartouche. 
 
 8. Chuen. The figure is that of a mouth, chi, with fangs ; but 
 as that was not very near in sound, a calabash, chu, is sometimes 
 portrayed at the bottom of the circle, within. The mouth of no 
 particular animal is intended, as is evident from allied designs ; 
 though Brasseur and Seler claim that it is of a monkey, Schell- 
 has, of a snake, etc. The day name is close in sound to chun, 
 the first, the beginning, and appears occasionally as a numeral 
 (see above, p. 23). Piles of chuen are shown as offerings, e.g., 
 
THE DAY SIGNS. 113 
 
 Cod. Dres., pp. 26, 42 ; Cod. Cort, p. 3. Do they mean " first 
 
 fruits?> " , /, 
 
 i * >*, 
 
 9. Eb. The face of an old man with a peculiar pointed ear 
 mark. The word eb means "ladder; " ebtun, a stone stairway; 
 ebzah, to sharpen or point a flint ; this last may explain the 
 sharpened ear and dots. 
 
 10. Ben, or Been. Explained by Brasseur as showing a path, 
 be ; by Seler, as a mat and a straw roof. To me, it looks like a 
 be che, a wooden bridge, the two supports of which are shown 
 and which was sometimes covered with a straw mat. This rebus 
 gives the first syllable of the name. In Tzental tradition Been 
 was the ancient hero who erected the inscribed stelae (piedras 
 paradas) at Quixte, near Comitan, 2 which the natives still deco- 
 rate at certain times with garlands of flowers, etc. 3 
 
 11. Ix. The usual figure contains a number of black dots. 
 
 1 Variants of the chuen are extremely frequent in the mural inscriptions, and its 
 correct interpretation, therefore, highly important. As stated in the text, I believe 
 they generally stand for chun, which means "the foundation, the beginning, the first, 
 the cause." We find such expressions as tu chun che, " at the foot of the tree ; " 
 tu chun uitz, " at the base of the hill," etc. In Tzental, chit is the teat or mamma, 
 chunel, to suck the teat. In many inscriptions the position of the chun is antithetic 
 to the/tf.*, the one indicating the beginning, the other the end of a series. 
 
 2 Nunez de la Vega, Constitutions Diocesanas,p. 10. The story was that Been 
 inscribed his own name upon them. I have not ascertained that this locality has 
 been examined by modern travelers. It might offer valuable material. 
 
 3 E. Pineda, Description Geografica de Chiapas* pp. 7, 8. 
 
MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 These suggest the word xiix, scattered grain husks. Seler thinks 
 it shows " the round hairy ear and spotted skin of the jaguar." 
 
 Je/,. 
 
 Brasseur proposed that it conventionally portrays the feminine 
 parts, as ix is the feminine prefix in Maya. 
 
 6 ,o V; 
 
 0D ( ^"^ 
 
 12. Men. The head of an aged person, supposed by Brasseur 
 and Seler to be Mother Earth. Sometimes it is extended worm- 
 like, as in Fig. 43, No. 3. 
 
 13. Cib. Brasseur and Seler believe the enclosed spiral repre- 
 sents the fermented liquor, ci, trickling down. The " pottery 
 decoration " (see p. 58) certainly indicates a jar or vase. 
 
 14. Caban. The design is that of the " cork-screw curl" of 
 a woman, and stands for cab (see p. 99). 
 
 15. Ezanab. The picture is of the sacrificial knife of flint, 
 which closely corresponds with the name. 
 
THE DAY SIGNS. 
 
 1 6. Cauac. The design shows a side face, with pendent 
 clouds for the eye, the " windcross " for the ear, and, perhaps, 
 
 
 y. 
 
 as Seler thinks, the hairy mouth of the moan bird. On the 
 other hand, Rosny explains it as " the plan of a building," and 
 Thomas as " the sign for wood." 
 
 17. Ahau. Usually considered . to be the conventional draw- 
 ing of a full face. 
 
 1 8. Imix. Generally regarded as representing a mammary 
 gland, though it is not quite like those shown in the Codices. 
 It is typical of prosperity and is often attached to the kan sign. 
 In the calendar it indicated the beginning of a time-period. 1 
 
 19. Ik. The word means air, wind, breath, spirit, soul, and 
 life. The design is a katun enclosing the sign of the four direc- 
 tions or four winds, the " wind-cross." Brasseur calls it a flower, 
 because it is sometimes shown with what looks like leaves emerg- 
 ing from it (Cod Tro., pp. 5*, 6*, etc.). This indicates, however, 
 the spirit of life coming forth (or, as Seler thinks, is a sign of 
 
 1 See Forsteraann, Entzifftrung, IV, S. 15. 
 
i6 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 sacrifice ; the same superfix occurs on the kan, Cod. Cort, p. 37, 
 etc.). 
 
 20. Akbal. The word resembles akab, night, and is probably 
 derived from it. The design may be that of a mouth with teeth 
 (Brasseur, Seler), or the rays of the sun after sinking below the 
 horizon. As a general glyph it is frequent with the signification 
 of night and darkness, not necessarily in a bad sense. 
 
 6. The Hieroglyphs for the Months. 
 
 These are more intricate than those of the days, and show 
 wider variation. In the designs given below, the first on the 
 line is from Landa's work, the second and third are from the 
 Dresden Codex. 
 
 I. Pop. The word means " a mat." The principal element in 
 the glyph is the south or yellow sign, referring perhaps to the 
 color of a mat, with the alar subfix. The prefix to the first 
 variant shows the " windcross." 
 
 2. Uo. The usual meaning of this term is a prickly pear ; 
 also, a species of frog ; uooh t a written character or letter. The 
 prefix indicating speech (see p. 98) seems to indicate the 
 latter. The chief element is the mol sign with the night sun as 
 a subfix. 
 
THE MONTH SIGNS. 
 
 117 
 
 3. Zip. The design shows the sun below the flint knife, that 
 is, the slain or departed sun, a play on the phrase, zipik kin, the 
 
 sun set (ponerse el sol, Dice. Motul}. The idea is strengthened 
 by the mac as a prefix, signifying " to extinguish." 
 
 4. Zodz. The word means " bat," and the design shows the 
 head of one with the kin as a superfix. 
 
 ^Uiiimiiu 
 
 5. Z^, or Tzec. The design is explained by Brasseur as a 
 death's head, Maya, tzekel ; by others, as an open mouth with 
 teeth (compare ckuen, p. 1 1 2). The projecting curved lines above 
 the head are supposed by Schellhas to represent a peculiar mode 
 of wearing the hair. But as tzec means " scorpion," they may 
 depict conventionally the claws of that animal. 1 
 
 6. Xid. The three signs are quite unlike. The first presents 
 
 1 Seler observes, on doubtful premises, " Tzec scheint der Zermalmer zu bedeu- 
 ten." 
 
n8 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 the conical bill of a bird of the finch or sparrow family ; the 
 second, the horned owl or the falcon (?) ; the third, a conven- 
 tionalized bird's head. The second may be ikonomatic for 
 xulub, horns. The word xul means to end or to finish ; and, the 
 end, limit, or extremity. 
 
 '7 
 
 7. Yaxkin. This means " new sun " or " strong sun." The 
 glyph expresses this by the yax sign, " new " or " strong ;" the 
 kin (sun) sign and the dotted postfix, ual, month. According 
 to the Dice. Motul, the phrase dze yax kin was applied by the 
 Mayas to the hottest part of the summer. 
 
 Y 
 
 8. Mol. See remarks on the day sign muluc, p. in. Dr. 
 Forstemann suggests that the above designs represent either 
 (i) a snail in its shell, or (2) an egg with its yolk, or (3) the 
 sun after setting. Seler holds that it shows the heart, Maya, ol, 
 within the body, making a rebus for mol. 
 
 9. Clien. This means a spring or well of water. The second 
 sign shows a water jar bearing the sign of fluid, with reference 
 to the sense of the word. The first is more complex. The 
 main element is a face with a moan mouth, referring to water ; 
 for an eye the infix u, for month ; and two prefixes, the sign of 
 
THE MONTH SIGNS. 
 
 union (see p. 100), and above it what may be a variant of ben 
 (seep. 113). 
 
 10. Yax. The feather sign yax (see p. 94) is the superfix 
 to the cauac sign, which carries the postfix ual, month. 
 
 ii. Zac. This word means "white," and this is here ex- 
 pressed by the cauac sign carrying as a superfix the north direc- 
 tive sign (see p. 109), as white was the color sacred to the North. 
 
 1 2. Ceh. The meaning of ceh is " deer," and the design shows 
 the flint knife used in slaughtering that animal, placed as a 
 superfix to the cauac sign. 
 
 jimuu a 
 
 13. Mac. The first glyph represents the cover of a jar, the 
 name of which in Maya is mac, thus making a perfect rebus. 1 
 The second, not plain, is a variant of the kan or imix, with the 
 
 1 " Mac, tapa de vasija." The opinion of Allen that the sign represents the ex- 
 tended arms, the " great span," is inappropriate. The measure called mac was much 
 greater (doce brazas, Pio Perez). Another meaning of mac is the sea turtle and its 
 shell (galapago y concha del). 
 
120 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 " comb " subfix. In this month was celebrated the important 
 rite of tupp kak, " the extinguishing of the fire," the aim of which 
 was to secure rain for the growing crops. The figure may refer 
 to this. 
 
 14. Kan kin. This expression means "the yellow sun." 
 The first glyph is a perfect rebus, showing the sun sign, kin, and 
 the south directive sign (see Fig. 65), which means " yellow." 
 The second glyph is the sign for a breast-bone, a shield, or dog 
 (seep. 125). 
 
 15. Muan. The head of the muan bird, the crested falcon, 
 with his ears or horns, see p. 74. 
 
 16. Pax. The only or main element is the drum, pax che, 
 above explained (see p. 91). 
 
 17. Kayab. The main element was recognized by Schellhas 
 as the head of a turtle. In Landa's alphabet this has the value 
 
MONOGRAMS OF THE GODS. 
 
 121 
 
 a or ak. It is applied as a rebus to recall the first syllable of 
 the name. 
 
 %'t 
 
 18. Cum ku. The glyph in one case combines kan and cum, 
 with prefixes of cauac and cib. Dr. Forstemann fancifully ex- 
 plains it as portraying " from one point two flashes of light- 
 ning or sun's rays striking the maize field." Rather, we have 
 here the rebus cum kan, recalling the name, and the cauac sign, 
 which is repeated in a number of the month signs. 
 
 7. The Hieroglyphs of the Deities. 
 
 I have already mentioned that in the texts the gods are sever- 
 ally represented by their signs or monograms. The credit of 
 defining these in a clear and satisfactory manner is due almost 
 entirely to Dr. Schellhas, and I shall here present the results of 
 his careful studies, retaining his alphabetic nomenclature, which 
 has in some degree been accepted by Dr. Forstemann and others. 
 
 A. The god of Death. 
 
 His signs are clearly established and vary but little, Nos. 1-4. 
 Two of them are usually written. The prefix to I and 3 has 
 been already referred to (see p. 84). The bean (or flint) 
 appears as a prefix in No. 2, as a subfix in No. 3. Frequently- 
 associated with his monogram is No.' 5, which Seler explains as 
 the sign of the owl. No. 6, from Cod. Dres., p. 50, with a skull 
 9 
 
122 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 for a head-dress, may be a priest of ths divinity ; No. 7, fromi 
 Dres., p. 22, may also be a priest or a companion. 
 
 B. Itzamna, or " the god with the snake-like tongue." 
 
 His hieroglyphs are, beyond mistake, Nos. 8 and 9. The di- 
 rective sign, No. 10, is occasionally associated with his mono- 
 gram. In Cod. Dres., p. 33, one of his attributes is shown in 
 No. 11, the hand closing on the rattles of the crotalus. The food 
 symbols, Nos. 12, 13, 14, 15, are often connected with him. 
 Some regard them as the four elements, etc. 
 
 C. The North Star, or " the god with the ornamental face." 
 
 c. 
 
 19 
 
 It is easy to recognize his monogram, Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19, 21. 
 I have already explained the " pottery decoration " (above, p. 
 58). As prefixes, we find the bean, No. 20; the crescent, as in 
 21 ; the number 13, indicating completeness or perfection; and 
 the vase, as in 16 and 17. 
 
 D. Cuculcan, " the moon god, or night god." 
 
 The complete hieroglyph is No. 22, generally followed by No. 
 23. He is "the old man god," with one tooth, as in No. 24; 
 
MONOGRAMS OF THE GODS. 
 
 123 
 
 sometimes connected with the moon symbol as in No. 25 ; and 
 often holds in his hand the aspersorium, shown in Nos. 26 and 
 27. See p. 105. 
 
 E. Ghanan, " a male maize god." 
 
 23. 
 
 His usual monogram is No. 28. No. 29 is a picture of the 
 maize plant from Cod. Tro., p. 29, from which Dr. Schellhas 
 argues that the head-dresses of this divinity, as shown in Nos. 30 
 -34, are conventional designs for growing maize. My own col- 
 lations persuade me that the maize should here be understood 
 as a general symbol for vegetable growth, fertility, and the 
 harvests. 
 
 1 F. The god of War, or, " a^companion of the god of death." 
 
 His hieroglyphs, shown in Nos. 35-41, often contain the num- 
 ber ii. The black line is characteristic. His signs appear in 
 connection with all four cardinal points. 
 
 G. Kin ich, " the sun god." 
 
 His monogram is uniform No. 42. It is the sun with the 
 ben ik superfix and alar postfix. (See p. 90). His nose orna- 
 
124 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 ment, No. 43, and the " flower," No. 44, are usually distinctive 
 of his portraits. 1 
 
 /. " The serpent goddess." 
 
 Her signs are not distinct. Dr. Schellhas believes them to be 
 Nos. 49-5 1 ; but I cannot accept that they are intended for the 
 same individual. 
 
 H. " The serpent god." 
 
 The hieroglyph and the personage, No. 45, are doubtful. He 
 is supposed to be shown in Cod. Dres., pp. 1 1, 12, 20, etc. Nos. 
 46 .and 47, from Cod. Tro., p. 17, are also assigned him. The 
 rattle, No. 48, appears as a hieroglyph in Cod. Dres., p. 61, and 
 elsewhere. I doubt this deity. 
 
 K. " The god with the ornamented nose." 
 
 The hieroglyph is No. 52, often accompanied by the " dog " 
 sign, No. 53. I have already expressed the belief that this is 
 merely one of the manifestations of Itzamna. (See p. 54-) 
 
 L. leal Ahau, "a black god." 
 
 Dr. Schellhas distinguishes between a divinity whose sign is 
 No. 54, and " M" " a second black god," whose hieroglyph is 
 
 1 Dr. Seler, in Zeitschrifl fur Ethnologic, 1891, p. ill, gives another monogram 
 for Kin ich the cauac, with the "blowing" prefix (see p. 98) and the "machete" 
 subfix. 
 
MONOGRAMS OF THE GODS. 
 
 125 
 
 No. 55, 56, and whose face is shown No. 57. He appears in 
 Cod. Dres., pp. 13, 16, 43, and is common in the Cod. Tro. The 
 sign No. 58 is occasionally associated, as in Cod. Tro., p. 5, and 
 Cod. Cort., p. 28. 
 
 N. "A god with the features of an old man." 
 
 His sign is No. 59, which may be translated " 5 Zac," and may 
 refer to his festival on that date (Seler). His face and peculiar 
 head-dress, with the pax sign, are shown No. 60. These do not 
 strike me as representing divinity, but simply " old age." 
 
 O. "A goddess with features of an old woman" (Xmucane?). 
 Her hieroglyphs are shown Nos. 61, 62; the latter is more fre- 
 quent. 
 
 P. "A figure with features of an old man." 
 
 It is seen Cod. Dres., p. 21, with the sign No. 63. It is 
 doubtful if a deity is intended. 
 
 Q. "An isolated deity." 
 
 Shown Cod. Dres., p. 20, with the signs Nos. 64 and 65 ; 
 probably a mere personage. 
 
 R. The moan bird. 
 
 He is often associated with the god of death, and bears the 
 hieroglyphs Nos. 66-69, sometimes with the 13. 
 
 5. No. 70 is the usual hieroglyph of the dog, and T, No. 71, 
 is that of the vulture. 
 
126 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 U. No. 72 is the sign of the jaguar, as seen in Cod. Tro., p. 
 17, and in Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 26. 
 
 V. The turtle or tortoise. Its monogram is seen Nos. 73, 
 74, 75. It is the a of Landa's alphabet. There is no doubt but 
 that the turtle's head and not that of the parrot is intended, 
 though some have thought otherwise. 
 
SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. 
 
 127 
 
 V. Specimens of Texts. 
 
 In the selection of the following texts I have been guided 
 principally by the desire to illustrate Mayan palaeography as 
 presented on different surfaces, paper, stone, earthenware, etc., 
 and as it is found in the various regions occupied by tribes of 
 Mayan culture and affinity. Some of the examples have not 
 been previously published, and for this reason have a special 
 value. 
 
 FIG. 68. The God of Time brings in the Dead Year. (From the Dresden Codex.) 
 
 Fig. 68 I would explain as the god of time bringing in the 
 dead year. It is part of the ceremonies depicted as belonging 
 to the close of the year. That the wolf-headed figure represents 
 time, the Devourer, I infer from its relations in the early pages 
 of the Ferjevary Codex, where it is shown eating a string of 
 days, etc. (in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities). 
 
128 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 These ceremonies are represented in the Cod. Troano, pp. 
 20-23, and the Cod. Dres., pp. 25-28. The recognition of 
 their significance is principally due to Prof. Cyrus Thomas. 
 
 The god arrives in the vase of the heavenly waters. In his left 
 hand he holds the rattle, in his right the magic wand, or magi- 
 cian's staff, caluac, and the medicine bag (Maya chimil, Nahuatl, 
 xiquipilli) ; around his waist is the broad carrying-band, in the 
 loop of which he has the dying year, kan. 
 
 F IGt 6 9 . A Sacrifice at the Close of the Year. (From the Dresden Codex.) 
 
 In Fig. 69 is another scene from the same ceremonies. The 
 person on the right is the celebrant, holding a beheaded fowl in 
 his right hand, while his left strews grain. Before him is a 
 haunch of venison and a turkey. Above the latter is the moon 
 symbol with the number 15. To the left of these stands the 
 statue of Mam, the Grandfather, a log folded in a robe and sur- 
 mounted by the leaves of the Tree of Life. 1 In front are seen 
 the serpent's head, the sign of Time ; below this are footprints, 
 
 1 See Cogolludo : Hisloria de Yucatan, Tom. I, p. 317. 
 
SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. 
 
 I2 9 
 
 to indicate that time is gone ; and beneath the form of the god 
 is the sign pax, with the meaning, " it is ended." 
 
 FIG. 70. Symbolic Representation of the Close of one Time-Period and the Begin- 
 ning of another. (From the Cortesian Codex.) 
 
 In interesting contrast to these two is Fig. 70, showing the 
 beginning of a time-period. On the left, two dogs, back to back 
 beneath the same canopy, indicate the closing of one period 
 and the beginning of another. On the right, the serpent of time, 
 resting on the earth, brings to the heavens the new sun. The 
 youthful god between the serpent's jaws carries the world-sign 
 for an eye, and holds in his hand the symbol yax kin, " new 
 Above are appropriate hieroglyphs, the tenor of which 
 
 sun. 
 
I3O MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 the diligent student of my previous pages will have little diffi- 
 culty in catching. 
 
 In Fig. 71 the God of Growth and Fertility holds an elaborate 
 caluac surmounted by a bird, its apertures filled with shells. Be- 
 hind him is seated the God of Death, his caluac tipped with a 
 formidable spear-head. The God of Growth has not his own 
 monogram, but that of the old Cuculcan. 
 
 When we recall that the shell is the sign for " nought," the 
 indication seems that the God of Death with his spear will bring 
 to nought the efforts of the God of Fertility. 
 
 We see in Fig. 72 the North Star in a series of relations to 
 other celestial bodies or divinities. Beginning at the left, he is 
 seated on his own sign which is surrounded by rays ; next, he 
 is upon the sign of the four winds and four quarters of the earth ; 
 in the third he is suspended in a sling from the " constellation 
 band " between the sun and a planet ; and fourth, he is above the 
 clouds, which rest upon a canopy protecting a pile of kans y 
 money or food emblems. 
 
 The three figures in Fig/73 present the beneficent deities, 
 each bearing in the hand the food symbol, kan. 
 
 The group copied in Fig. 74, show the God of Death fol- 
 lowed by Kin ich, who seems remonstrating with him, who in 
 turn is followed by the God of War with a wrathful visage: The 
 positions of the hands are especially noteworthy. The sign mol 
 leads each of the cartouches. 
 
 In Fig. 75 Cuculcan is making fire from the friction of two 
 pieces of wood. On his head is the moan symbol, on his thigh 
 the kin. Each of the three cartouches begins with the drum 
 sign. His own monogram is the third member of the second 
 cartouche. 
 
 In Fig. 76 the text is the same in each of the three car- 
 touches except the monograms of the three divinities repre- 
 sented. 
 
1 . * 
 
 ' 
 
 (** 
 
 FIG. 71. The God of Growth and the God of Death. (From the Cortesian Codex.) 
 
 FIG. 72. Auguries from the North Star. (Cortesian Codex.) 
 
FIG. 73. Itzamna, the Serpent Goddess, and Kin ich. (Dresden Codex.) 
 
 
 'oVo 
 
 rL^ 
 
 FIG. 74. The God of Death, Kin ich, and the God of War. (Dresden Codex.) 
 
 I 3 2 
 
FIG. 75. Cuculcan Makes New Fire. (Codex Troano.) 
 
 FIG. 76. The Gods of Death, of Growth, and the North Star. (Dresden Codex). 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 In Fig. 77 each cartouche begins with mol, and is immediately 
 followed by the monogram of the god. The lower glyphs differ 
 materially. 
 
 FIG. 77. The God of Growth, Kin ich, and Itzamna. (Dresden Codex.) 
 
 All the above specimens of texts have been photographed 
 from the Codices, without restoration. They show, therefore, 
 not only the general character of those documents, but also 
 their state of preservation. In many instances the pages have 
 been defaced, and portions of the inscriptions upon them injured. 
 Sometimes it is possible to restore the obliterations by a compar- 
 ison of parallel passages, and this has been done successfully by 
 various scholars. 
 
 The extracts have been selected also with the object of show- 
 ing the representations of the most prominent deities, Itzamna, 
 Kin ich, Cuculcan, the God of D,eath, etc., in the manner in 
 which we find them in the Codices. 
 
SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. 
 
 135 
 
 In this interesting inscription from Central Yucatan, we 
 recognize familiar signs, as the medicine-drum and the cloud- 
 signs at the bottom, and cauac, chikin, yax, etc., within the 
 
 Bandrof t Library 
 
 FIG. 78. The Inscription of Kabah. 
 
 square area. It is sufficient to prove that at Kabah the same 
 
 writing was in use. 
 
 1 This inscription, painted on stucco, was copied by H. F. Becker and printed in 
 the Archives de la Societe Americaine de France. See de Rosny, L? Interpretation 
 desanciens Textes Mayas, p. 12. note (Paris, 1875). 
 
136 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 There is some reason to suppose, however, that in this 
 part of the Mayan territory there had been a development of 
 this writing until it had become conventionalized into a series of 
 lines and small circles enclosed in the usual square or oval 
 of the katun. I have seen several examples of this remarkable 
 script, and; give one, Fig. 79,. part of an inscription on a vase 
 from Labna, Yucatan, now in the Peabody Museum. 1 
 
 I. 
 
 " 
 
 FIG. 79. Linear Inscription from Yucatan. 
 
 The tablets at Palenque are too extensive a study for me to 
 enter upon in the present work. The engraving, Fig. 80, is 
 merely to show the character of the writing and to present the 
 " initial glyphs," upon which, in Copan and elsewhere, Mr. 
 Maudslay lays so much stress (see above, p. 23). 
 
 Incidentally, they seem to me to prove that the proper reading 
 of the tablet is to begin at the top of the two right-hand columns, 
 read them together downward (as Thomas suggested), then the 
 next two to the left in a similar manner ; but the last two on the 
 left, those headed by the great pax, should be read from below 
 upward. This differs from any scheme yet proposed, but alone 
 corresponds with the natural sequences of the groups of glyphs. 
 The terminal (upper left) glyph shows the pax surmounted by 
 the xihuitl wt\& this by the " trinal " signs. The student of the 
 preceding pages will not be at a loss to explain their purport. 
 
 1 Another example is in the Thompson collection, and a third, somewhat similar, 
 also from a vase from Yucatan (now in Berlin), has been published by Dr. Schellhas, 
 Internat. Archiv.fur Ethnographie, 1890 (p. 3 of his separatum). 
 
SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. 
 
 137 
 
 I have already referred (above, p. 54) to the singular " bas- 
 reliefs of Chiapas." They are covered with elaborate designs 
 
 FIG. 80. The " Initial Series" of the Tablet of the Cross, Palenque. 
 
 carved in low relief on the argillaceous slate of which they con- 
 sist. Nearly all have hieroglyphics of a decorative Mayan char- 
 acter. For the sake of comparison I add Fig. 81, a tracing of 
 
 10 
 
138 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 the four glyphs which are placed in front of the tapir on the 
 " tapir tablet." 
 
 o 
 
 rode 
 
 FIG. 81. Inscription on the " Tapir Tablet," Chiapas. 
 
 The interesting group, Fig. 82, is the most complete example 
 of the ancient writing I know of, from the region of the Zotzils. 
 The original, formerly in the possession of Don Secundino 
 Orantes, in the city of Chiapas, measures 26 by 17 inches. The 
 front is badly injured, but the back well preserved. We find in 
 this cartouche of twenty glyphs enough familiar forms to con- 
 vince us of the identity of the graphic method. Pax, chuen, the 
 iguana, etc., are soon recognized. The copy was made by the 
 late Dr. C. H. Berendt. 
 
C- ^ 
 
 SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. .. 
 
 139 
 
 '^ 
 
 Tonina is about 80 miles south of Palenque and near Ococingo, 
 whence Mr. Squier obtained the amulet bearing the neat inscrip- 
 
 Obverse. 
 
 Reverse. 
 
 FIG. 82. Inscription on a Tablet from Tonina, Chiapas. 
 
 tion shown in Fig. 83. The original is now in the American 
 Museum of Natural History, New York city. 
 
 
 FIG. 83. Inscription on an Amulet from Ococingo, Chiapas. 
 
 The beautiful inscription, Fig. 84, hitherto unpublished, is on 
 
140 
 
 MAYAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 a burial vase from the Quiche district of Guatemala, near Hue- 
 huetenango. It is not only the longest and most perfect exam- 
 ple known of Quiche palaeography, but it is*also the most exten- 
 sive inscription I have seen on pottery from any part of the 
 
 FIG. 84. Inscription on a Vase from a Quiche Tomb, Guatemala. 
 
 Mayan territory. The original, a vase of high artistic merit, is 
 in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Again we 
 see familiar signs, the imix, the pax, the numerals, the bean sub- 
 fix, etc. 
 
 The limits which I have prescribed for this work do not per- 
 mit me to add further comparisons in Mayan palaeography. 
 Fortunately, the student can find ready access to abundant 
 examples. The inscriptions of Copan and Quirigua, of Chichen 
 
SPECIMENS OF TEXTS. 141 
 
 Itza, and Palenque, are or will be represented with admirable 
 fidelity in Mr. Maudslay's work already referred to; others from 
 Tikal have been made accessible by the labors of Berendt, Charnay 
 and de Rosny ; and we are justified in believing that b'efore many 
 years the intelligent explorations of competent archaeologists 
 will add hundreds of texts from the relics in stone, clay, and 
 wood whfch still exist to attest the character of ancient Mayan 
 literature. 
 
 The most urgent duty resting upon the present generation of 
 students interested in this subject is to collect and accurately 
 reproduce as many of these texts as possible, before they are 
 destroyed or lost. Extended comparisons will ultimately reveal 
 their meaning, as will readily be seen from the advances in that 
 direction chronicled in the preceding pages. 
 
I. INDEX-VOCABULARY OF MAYA WORDS. 
 
 (T. signifies the Tzen tal dialect.'] 
 
 ac, a tortoise, or turtle, 35, 74 
 
 acan, mead, 42 
 
 ac ek, a constellation, 35 
 
 aghan, T., young ear of maize, 62 
 
 ahau, ruler, lord, 41 ; a day name, 115 
 
 ahau can, rattlesnake, 68, 75 
 
 ahau can mat, chief priest, 68 
 
 ahau katun, 22 
 
 ahau tzab can, the rattlesnake, 75 
 
 ah-caluac, the staff bearer, the mayordomo, 
 
 5 2 
 ah-ch'om, a vulture, 73 
 
 ah-chun can, high priest; 68 " 
 
 ah-coy-can, v. p. 1 10, note 
 
 ah-cunal than , word-conjurer, 68 
 
 ah~kin, priest, 68 
 
 ah-kin-mai, chief priest, 68 
 
 ah koh-kcuel, a masked priest, 69 
 
 ahlo, the macaw, 73 
 
 ah-mac ik, wind conjurer, 68 
 
 ah-poou, the milky way, 35 
 
 ah -pul, a conjurer, 68 
 
 ah-ttai-chac, rain conjurer, 68 
 
 ah-uai xibalba, conjurer of departed souls, 
 
 68 
 
 ah-zahcab, Venus, 34 
 akbal, night, darkness, 56; a day name, 
 
 116 
 
 alau (64,000,000), 19 
 anhel, to stand erect, 46 
 
 bacab, 40 
 
 bac-baqitetic, a numeral, 19 
 balam, the jaguar, 72 
 bak, four hundred, 19 
 
 bat, an axe; hail, 104 
 batab, a chief, 104 
 batul, to fight, 104 
 be, footprints, 88 
 be che, a bridge, 1 13 
 ben, or been, a day name, 91, 113 
 ben-ik, a graphic sign, 90, 123 
 bolon, nine, 25 
 
 bolon paxche, a large drum, 92 
 budz ek, a comet, 35 
 'bit/, a bean; all, the whole, 89 
 bulcabal, a destruction, 46 
 
 caan, the sky, 52 
 
 cal>, down, downward, etc., 60, 99, 114 
 
 caban, a day name, 114 
 
 cac, to pull out, 86 
 
 calab (160,000), 19 
 
 calacal, perforated, 52 
 
 caluac, the " staff of office," 52, 128, 130 
 
 camach, a jaw bone, 85 
 
 canan, a sentinel, guardian, 34 
 
 canan chulchaii, Venus, 34 
 
 can zicnal, serpent being, 41 
 
 caitac, a day name, 115 
 
 * cayob) T., a drum, 93 
 
 ceh, a deer ; a month name, 1 19 
 
 cha'am, the (molar) teeth, 43 
 
 chac, red, strong; water, etc., 34, 40, 109 
 
 chac ek, Venus, 34 
 
 chacal ik, strong wind, 40 
 
 chain, a jaw bone, 85 
 
 chainal dzttlan, shooting stars, 35 
 
 che, tree, wood, 45 
 
 chebel, to paint; a paint brush, 42 
 
 '43 
 
144 
 
 I. INDEX-VOCABULARY OF MAYA WORDS. 
 
 chel, the rainbow, 40 
 
 ch>en, a month name ; a well, 118 
 
 chi, to bite, 89; a mouth, 112 
 
 chibil kin, a solar eclipse, 36 
 
 chibil it, a lunar eclipse, 36 
 
 chicchan, a day name, in 
 
 chick, strong, powerful, swift, hard, 96 
 
 chick kuch, to twist thread, 96 
 
 chimal, shield, 34 
 
 chimal ek, the north star, 34 
 
 chimal ik, the north wind, 34 
 
 chimil, a medicine bag, 128 
 
 chinax, T., a knife, 89 
 
 chu, a calabash, 112 
 
 chuen, a day name, 23, 112 
 
 chidchan, the sky or heavens, 34 
 
 chun, the first, the beginning, 23, 113 
 
 ci, to trickle, 114 
 
 cib, a day name, 114 
 
 cicil, a knife, 84 
 
 cimi, a day name, ill 
 
 coz, an owl, 73 
 
 cuceb, a squirrel, 109 
 
 cucul, covered; revolving, 56, 109 
 
 culinte, T., a drum of wood, 93 
 
 cum, a vase, 41, 48 
 
 cum ku, a month name, 121 
 
 cun, to conjure, 44 
 
 cuzaan, or cuzam, a swallow, 42 
 
 dzacab, a generation, 25 
 
 dzacah, to heal by magic rites, 93 
 
 dzacatan, a medicine drum, 93 
 
 dzicnial, 39 
 
 ^z2/>, to skin animals, 42 
 
 dziz, coolness, cold, 42 
 
 eb, a day name, 113 
 
 eb-che, a ladder, 77 
 
 eb-tun, a stone stairway, 113 
 
 ebzah, to sharpen, 113 
 
 </, star; black, 34; dyewood, fat, 109 
 
 ek chuh, scorpion, 67 
 
 ezanab, a day name, 114 
 
 ghan, T., maize, 62 
 
 haycabal, a destruction, 46 
 
 hobnil, hollow ; the belly, 40 
 
 hozan, disembowelled, 41 
 
 hub, a snail, 75 
 
 htm, one, 25 
 
 hunab, only, sole, 37 
 
 hunbalan &,the moon in conjunction, 36 
 
 ibach, an armadillo, 72 
 
 zVtf/, or ic, T., black, 67 
 
 zV^, an eye ; a face ; twins, 84 
 
 ik, wind, breath, life, soul, etc., 50, 115 
 
 ik, a day name, 91, 115 
 
 ik omne, a comet, 35 
 
 imix, a day name, 115 
 
 itz, fluid, 52 
 
 z>, feminine prefix, 40 
 
 ix-bouat, a prophetess, 68 
 
 ix chel, the rainbow, 40 
 
 ix-cunal than, a conjuress, 68 
 
 ix kan leom, a spider-web, 40 
 
 ix kin, priestess, 68 
 
 ix nuc, old woman, 43 
 
 kaax, a knot; a harvest-field, 41 
 
 kab, a hand, arm, finger, juice, sap, tears, 83 
 
 kaba, a name, 83 
 
 kabil, his hand, 38 
 
 kak, fire, 42, 1 20 
 
 kak mo, a bird, 39 
 
 kal, twenty, 19 
 
 kan, money, food, etc., 109 
 
 kan kin, a month name, 120 
 
 katun, II, 22, 28 
 
 kax or kaax, a knot, 91 
 
 kax pol, the tress of the hair, 91 
 
 kaxala, to rain ; the rain, 91 
 
 kayab, a month name, 1 20 
 
 kin katun, 28 
 
 kin, ^ 
 
 kinal, \- see p. 87 
 
 kinam, J 
 
I. INDEX-VOCABULARY OF MAYA WORDS: 
 
 kinchil (3, 200,000), 19 
 
 kin ich (deriv.), 39 
 
 koh, a mask, 69 
 
 ku, a god ; divine, 37 
 
 >&^fc, a vulture, 46, 73 
 
 //, divine, 95 
 
 ku kum, a feather, 95 
 
 kup, to sacrifice, to cut, 69 
 
 lakin chan (deriv.), 38 
 lamat, a day name, ill 
 licil dzicil, a knife, 89 
 lilabal, a sprinkler, 105 
 lorn, a lance, 43 
 /z*w, the earth, 48 
 
 maax, a monkey, 72 
 
 wflf, to extinguish ; a cover ; a turtle ; a 
 
 month name, 119 
 mach, to grasp, 83 
 
 mat or maay, dust, smoke, fume, 25, 68 
 mam, a numeral, 19; grandfather, 128 
 manik, a day name, 39, III 
 matzab, antennae, rays, 98 
 mechun, a numeral, 19 
 mehen ek, a constellation, 35 
 w,?w, a day name, 114 
 miatz, a scholar, 25 
 moan, see muan 
 mol, a month name, 118 
 molay ik, a hurricane, 1 12 
 #*00, the macaw, 73 
 moxic, T., a day name, 39 
 muan, a falcon, cloudy, 74 ; also, a month 
 
 name, 120 
 
 muc, to cover, to bury, 61 
 much, a frog, 75 
 mucul canan, Venus, 34 
 muctd mam, a numeral, 19 
 mucul u, the waning moon, 61 
 muluc, a day name, III 
 tnuyal, clouds, 48, 52, 74 
 muyan, see muan 
 
 nak caan, the sky, 99 
 
 #, a house, 37 
 
 nen, a mirror, 105 
 
 noA, great, strong ; right hand, 34 
 
 noh ek, great star, 34 
 
 nohnial, 39 
 
 nuc, old, 43 
 
 <?f/5, provisions, 42 
 
 oc, to enter; a day name, 112 
 ol, the soul or spirit, 48 
 oxlahun, thirteen, 25 
 
 paakal, to frighten, 44 
 
 pacat, face, 44 
 
 /a^r, a musical instrument 92 ; a month 
 
 name, 120 
 
 paxan, completed, finished, 92, 125, 129 
 pax che, a wooden drum, 92 
 pec, to rattle, to thunder, 63, 71 
 pec chac, thunder, 63 
 peek hec hoi, flatheaded, 62 
 pek, a dog, 71 
 pic, eight thousand, 19 
 picit, a fan, 105 
 pixan, the soul, 25 
 pocam, a cleansing, 55 
 pop, a mat; a month name, 116 
 ppeta, to perform religious rites; to cry 
 
 with pain, 69 
 ppua, dew, 42 
 pputum, small, 43 
 ppuz, bent over, 43 
 puch, to spoil, to undo, to destroy, 44 
 puhaa, to blow forth water from the mouth, 
 
 98 
 puy, a shell, 19 
 
 ta, a knife ; excrement, 89 
 tah, a dramatic representation, 89 
 tab, cord, twenty, 19, 42 
 tamacaz, the milky way, 35 
 tan kukul, before the gods, 44 
 
146 
 
 INDEX -VOCABULARY OF MAYA WORDS. 
 
 tan kul, a drum, 93 
 
 tetn, an altar of stone, 48 
 
 fix I (Cak.), the tapir, 55 
 
 tub) to spit, 42 
 
 tun, a stone, a jewel, 42 
 
 tunkul, see tanknl 
 
 tup, to stop up, to extinguish ; also, ear- 
 rings, 85, 1 20 
 
 tupul u ttich kin, a solar eclipse, 36 
 
 tzab, rattles of the rattle-snake ; the Pleia- 
 des, 35, 63 
 
 tza ec, a comet, 35 
 
 tzapa, short, 43 
 
 tzec, a scorpion ; a month name, 117 
 
 tzekel, a death's head, 117 
 
 tzimin, the tapir, 55 
 
 tzotzceh (3,200,000), 19 
 
 tzitc, a five-day period, 28 
 
 U, the moon.; a necklace ; his ; 36, 86, 87 
 tea or nal, a dot, 97 ; a fan, 105 
 uac, six, 43 
 ual, month, 118 
 
 u nitpptanbct, the moon in opposition, 36 
 nil, food ; advantageous, 86 
 ly month ; twenty, 87 
 y a man, 43, 87 
 uo, a frog, 75 ; a month name, 116 
 uooh, a book ; a letter, 116 
 ut, a snail, 75 
 
 xamachy a platter, 58 
 xaman, north, 34 
 xaman ek, the north star, 34 
 xanab xux, a bee, 60 
 xel, a comb, etc., 86 
 xicin, an ear; a shell, 85 
 ~xik, wing of a bird, 84 
 
 xikal, a queen, 84 
 
 xiixy bran, husks of grain, 97 
 
 xocy to sing, to chant, 42 
 
 xocy the breech clout, 91 
 
 xul, a planting stick, 105 ; to end ; a month 
 
 name, 117 
 xttlaby an ant, 36 
 xulub, horns, 118 
 xux, a wasp, 60 
 xux ek, Venus, 60 
 
 yax, green ; blue ; fresh ; strong ; virile ; 
 
 early, 95 ; a month name, 119 
 yax che, green tree, 45, 48 
 yax kin, a month name, 1 18, 129 
 yax kukul, a feather ornament, 95 
 ye, to appear, to show oneself, 43 
 yetal, and, 100 
 yum, father, ruler, 41 
 
 zac, white, east, v. pp. 109, no; a month 
 
 name, 119 
 zacal, to weave, 109 
 zacan, bread, 109 
 zac ik, east wind, 41 
 zac nohol ik, southeast wind, 41 
 zac xaman- ik, northeast wind, 41 
 zac zini, white being, 41 
 zaztal ek, Venus, 34 
 zee, a month name, 117 
 zin, to stretch out, 75 
 zinaan, a scorpion, 75 
 zinaan ek, a constellation, 75 
 zinil, the earth, 75 
 zip, a month name, 117 
 zipik kin, the sunset, 117 
 zodz, a bat ; a month name, 117 
 zuhny, a virgin, 42 
 
II. INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Aguilar, 26, 45 
 
 Allen, H., 86, 95, 103, 119, etc. 
 
 Baeza, P., 93 
 Becker, H. F., 137 
 Beltran de Santa Rosa, 44 
 Berendt, C. H., 48, 74, 93, no, 138 
 Boas, F., 62 
 Boban, E., 104 
 
 Brasseur, Abbe, 13, 14, 15, 23, 51, 83, 86, 
 90, JI2, etc. 
 
 Carrillo, C., 62 
 
 Charency, H. de, 12 
 
 Charnay, D., II, 143 
 
 Chavero, A., 54, 79, 97, 109 
 
 Chilan Balam, Books of, 46, 47, 109 
 
 Clarke, W. P., 83 
 
 Cresson, II. T., 13, 15 
 
 Cogolludo, P., 39, 47, 51 
 
 Culin, S., 24 
 
 Gushing, F. H., 48 
 
 Dieseldorff, E. P., 104 
 Dupaix, C., 95 
 Duran, D., 66, 92 
 
 Fewkes, J. W., 41, 55, 57,70 
 Forstemann, E. W., 12, 13, 18, 29, 33, 74, 
 etc. 
 
 Hernandez, P. R.,37 
 Herrera, A., 39 
 Holden, E. S., u, 13 
 
 Kingsborough, Lord, 12, 95 
 
 Landa, D. de, 14, 26, 35, 39, 43, 54, 68, 
 
 104, 116 
 Lara, D., 60, 93 
 Las Casas, B., 37 
 Leon, M., 26 
 Lizana, P., 37 
 
 Mallery, G., 83, 99 
 
 Maudslay, A. P., n, 12, 21, 23, 102, 136 
 
 Motul, Dice., 37 
 
 Nunez, de la Vega, 25, 39, 62, 67, 68, 1 13 
 Nuttall, Z., 26, 32, 105 
 
 Orantes, S., 138 
 
 Parry, F., 50 
 
 Peet, S. D., 101 
 
 Penafiel, A., 97 
 
 Perrin, P., 12 
 
 Pineda, E., 113 
 
 Pineda, V., 19 
 
 Pio Perez, 41, 119 
 
 Plongeon, Dr. Le, 11, 15, 95 
 
 Popol Vuh, 48, 50, 6 1 
 
 Pousse, A., 12, 21, 31, 79, 80, 101 
 
 Putnam, F. W., II 
 
 Rada y Delgado, J. D., 14 
 Rau, C, 13 
 
 Rochefoucauld, F. A., 16 
 Rosny, L. de, 12, 14, 85, 115, 137 
 
 Saville, M. H., 92 
 
 Schellhas, P., 12, 43, 50, 51, 62, 71, 81, 
 121, 136, etc. 
 
 H7 
 
148 
 
 II. INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Schrader, Dr., 26 
 
 Schultz-Sellack, Dr., 41 
 
 Seler, E., 10, 25, 32, 43, 44, 45, 71, 83, 
 
 86, 124, etc. 
 Squier, E. G., 141 
 Stephens, J. L., II 
 Stone, \V., 72 
 
 Thomas, C, 13, 16, 24, 29, 32, 34, 50, 51, 
 
 76, 86, 128, etc. 
 Thompson, E. C., 136 
 
 Valentini, F., 86 
 Waldeck, F., 54 
 Ximenes, F., 50, 96 
 
III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Acan, 42 
 Acat, 43 
 Ah chuy kak, 44 
 
 cun can, 44 
 
 dziz, 42 
 
 kak nech, 42 
 
 kin xoc, 42 
 
 ppua, 42 
 
 puch, 44, 64 
 Ahulane, 44 
 Ah zakik ual, 42 
 Alphabets, of Landa, 14 ; of other 
 
 Anum, the first man, 46 
 Armadillo, the, 72 
 Aspersorium, the, 105, 123 
 Atlatl, the, 105 
 
 Bacabs, the, 40 
 Baptism, native, 76 
 Baton of office, 52, 128, 130 
 Bean symbol, 89, 121, 122 
 
 sign, 89 
 
 Beards, on images, 39, 57 
 Bee god, the, 59-61, 98 
 Bells, as ornaments, 64, 83 
 Ben, or Been, myths of, 113 
 Ben-ik sign, 91, 123 
 Birds, figures of, 72 
 Bissextile years, 26 
 Black gods, 66, 124 
 
 Calendar signs, 22 
 
 systems, 26-29 
 Canopies, 96 
 
 writers, 
 
 Canzicnal, 41 
 
 Cardinal points, the, 40, 41, 108 
 
 Centeotl, 62 
 
 Ceremonial circuit, the, 41 
 
 Chac mool, 95 
 
 Chacs, the, 40 
 
 Chamay bac, 44 
 
 Chiapas, 37, 138 
 
 Chichen Itza, 38 
 
 Chilan Balam, Books of, 14, 19 
 
 Cit bolon tun, 42 
 
 Cloud balls, 98 
 
 Codices, the, n; as time-counts, 18 
 
 Colors, symbolism of, 40, 41 
 
 signs for, 109 
 Comb sign, 86 
 Comets, 35 
 Conjurers, 68 
 
 Constellation band, the, 106 
 Copan, inscriptions, 21, 107, 136 
 Corkscrew curl, 98 
 Cosmic sign, the, 24, 50 
 Cosmogony of Mayas, 46 
 Cross hatching, 24, 96 
 Cross, Tablet of, 62, 137 
 Crotalean curve, 102 
 Cuculcan, 38, 49, 55-57, 61 
 Cum ahau, 41 
 
 Days, hieroglyphs of, 159 
 Death, god of, 44, 64, 1 21 
 
 signs for, 84, 97 
 Deers, 72, 119 
 Directive signs, 88, 108 
 
 I 49 
 
150 
 
 III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Dogs, figures of, 71, 129 
 
 signs for, 89,95, II2 I2 5 
 as food animals, 90 
 
 Dots, their meanings, 97 
 
 Drum signs, 91. See/^jr 
 
 Dwarfs, 43 
 
 Ear rings, 85 
 
 Earih-goddess, the, 61, 64, 91, 95, 100 
 
 Eclipses, 36 
 
 Ek ahau, 66, 67 
 
 chua, 42, 66, 67 
 Epochs of the Universe, 46 
 Evening Star, the, 61, 64 
 Evil, gods of, 43 
 Eye, signs for, 83-85 
 
 Falcon, the crested, 74 
 Fans, 104, 105 
 Feather balls, 95 
 
 signs, 84, 94 
 Female divinities, 40-44 
 Fish, 90 
 
 " Fish and oyster " sign, 89 
 Flatheacls, 62 
 Flint-knife, the, 88, 109 
 Folk-lore of Yucatan, 43 
 Food offerings, the, 90 
 
 sign for, 86 
 Frog, the, 75 
 
 Gemini, 35 
 Ghanan, 62, 123 
 Gukumatz, 38, 61 
 
 Hand, the, as deity, 38 
 
 the closing, 102 
 
 signs for, 82 
 Hex chun chan, 44 
 Hohnil, 40 
 Holy water, 104 
 House, signs for, 88 
 Hozan ek, 41 
 Huastecas, 10 
 
 Hunab ku, 37 
 Hun ahau, 44 
 pic tok, 44 
 
 leal ahau, 67, 124 
 
 Iguana, the, 90, 122 
 
 Ikonomatic writing, 13, 82, 97 
 
 " Initial series " of glyphs, 24, 92, 93, 136 
 
 Itzamna, 37, 51-55, 101, 122, 124 
 
 Ix chebel yax, 42 
 
 chel, 40, 64 
 
 hun ye, 43 
 
 hun yeta, 43 
 
 kan leom, 40 
 
 nuc, 43 
 
 tabai, 42 
 
 tub tun, 42 
 
 Jade, jewels of, 88 
 Jaguar, the, 72, 126 
 Jupiter, planet, 106 
 
 Kabah, inscription of, 52, 135 
 Kabil, 38, 51 
 Kak u pacat, 44 
 
 " Keys" to the hieroglyphs, 16, 17 
 Kinich, 39, 57, 123, 124 
 ahau Itzamna, 40 
 Kin sign, the, 88 
 Knife signs, 88, 109 
 Knives, sacrificial, 89 
 Knots, 100 
 
 Labna, 136 
 Lakin chan, 38, 51 
 Life, symbol of, 49, 115 
 
 tree of, 49, 53, 59, 62, lor, 128 
 Lightning, symbols, 71, 74, 89, 104 
 Lorillard City, 29 
 Lunar years, 26 
 
 Macaw, the, 73 
 Machete, the, 102 
 Maize god, the, 62, 123 
 
III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Mam, the god, 128 
 Man, the first, 46 
 
 signs for, 86, 97 
 Mars, planet, 106 
 Masks, use of, 54, 55 
 Mayan, meaning of, 10 
 Medicine drum, 93 
 
 rattle, 104 
 
 bag, 128 
 Menche, 29 
 Mercury, planet, 106 
 Metals, use of, 104 
 Mexican writing, 10, 79 
 Mimosa, the, 105 
 Mirrors, 104, 105 
 Mitna, 44 
 Mixcoatl, 39 
 Milky Way, the, 35 
 Moan bird, the 74, 125 
 Money, the native, no 
 Monkey, the, 72 
 Monograms of gods, 121 
 Months, signs for, 88 
 Moon, words for, 36 
 signs for, 87 
 
 Mother Earth, sign for, 91/95, loo 
 Mugeres, Isla de, 42 
 
 Nagualism, 98 
 Necklace, sign for, 86 
 North Star, the, 34, 57-59 
 Numbers, sacred and symbolic, 24, 25 
 
 Ococingo, 139 
 Orion, 35 
 Owl, the, 73 
 
 Pakoc, 44 
 
 Palaeography, Mayan, 127 
 
 Palenque inscriptions, 13, 16, 21, 54, 62, 
 
 95 ! 3 6 > 137 
 Pelican, the, 74 
 Phallic emblems, 24, 90, 95 
 Picture writing, 98 
 
 Pleiades, the, 35, 63 
 Pole star, the, 57-59 
 Pottery decoration, 58, 122 
 Ppiz lim tec, 42 
 Priesthood, the, 68 
 Pucugh, 44 
 
 Quetzal bird, 73 
 Quetzalcoatl, 39 
 Quiches, 44, 140 
 Quiiigua, 21 
 
 Rainbow goddess, 40 
 Rain signs, 91-94 
 
 symbols, 72, 74, 75 
 Rattlesnake, the, 75 
 Rays, signs for, 98 
 Rebus writing, 13 
 Rhetorical use of numbers, 24 
 Rubrication of codices, 79 
 
 Sacred numbers, 25 
 
 Sastanquiqui, ruins of, 106 
 
 Saturn, planet, 106 
 
 Scorpion symbol, 67, 75, 117 
 
 Serpent eye, the, 84 
 
 goddess, the, 63, 124 
 gods, 38, 124, 128 
 the feathered, 38, 56, 57 
 wand, 103 
 
 Shells, symbol i*m of, 19, 90 
 
 Shield, the heavenly, 107 
 star, the, 58 
 
 Shields, designs on, 95 
 
 Shooting stars, 35 
 
 Smoke, sign for, 97 
 
 Sols:ice, symbol of, 74 
 
 Souls, fate of, 44 
 
 " Spectacles " sign, 85 
 
 Speech, sign for, 97, 98 
 
 Spider-web goddess, 40 
 
 Sun god, the, 39, 57, 123 
 signs, 87 
 
152 
 
 III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Tableau des Bacabs, 48, 64 
 
 Tancucula, 44 
 
 Tapir, the, 54, 138 
 
 Tel cuzaan, 42 
 
 Terrestrial Paradise, 46 
 
 Textile signs, 96 
 
 Thirteen, as symbolic, 25 
 
 Thunder, personified, 63 
 
 Tikal, 29 
 
 Time, symbols of, 76, 127, 128 
 
 Tlaloc, 5 i, 55 
 
 Tomahawk, the, 104 
 
 Tonalamat!, the, 27, 29, 31 
 
 Tongue, piercing, 76 
 
 Tonina, 139 
 
 Tree of life, 48, 53, 59, 62, 101, 128 
 
 " Trinal " emblem, 95, 136 
 
 Turkey, the, 74, 90 
 
 Turtle, the, 74, 119, 126 
 
 Tzental dialect, 19, 35, 113 
 
 Tzentals, 37, 38, 113 
 
 Uac lorn chaam, 43 
 Underworld, the, 44 
 Union, signs for, 100 
 
 Venus, the planet, 33, 34, 106 
 
 sign for, 88, 106 
 Vigesimal system, 18 
 Vultures, 73, 125 
 
 War, gods of, 44, 65, 123 
 Water deities, 40, 41 
 Wind cross, the, 115, 116 
 World-sign, the, 129 
 Writing, direction of, 79 
 
 Xabalba, 44 
 
 Xaman ek, the North Star, 57 
 
 Xibilba, 44 
 
 Xipe, 66 
 
 Xiuhmolpilli, the, 31 
 
 Xnuc, see Ix nuc 
 
 Xmucane, 49, 50, 61, 63, 112, 125 
 
 Xoc bitum, 42 
 
 Xpiyacoc, 61 
 
 Xux Ek, Venus, 60 
 
 Yax coc ahmut, 38 
 Yellow, sign for, 88 
 Yucatan, 9, 37, 42, etc. 
 Yum chac, 41 
 
 cimil, 44 
 
 kaax, 41 
 
 Zac chamaybac, 44 
 Zac zini, 41 
 Zotzils, 12, 138 
 Zuhuy dzip, 42 
 Zuhuy kak, 42 
 
X */ -^ 
 
 B A.' 
 O 
 
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