_Relacion_ was printed in the Compte Rendu of the Congress of
Americanists, the Madrid Meeting.
Footnote 53:
Landa, _Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 72 (Madrid Ed.). The ruins
of this ancient fane are still plainly visible from the sea. J. L.
Stephens, _Travels in Yucatan_, vol. II, p. 358.
Footnote 54:
Carrillo, _Historia Antigua de Yucatan_, p. 207.
Footnote 55:
See the article “The Folk-lore of Yucatan,” in my _Essays of an
Americanist_ (Philadelphia, 1890).
Footnote 56:
In Maya, _ppuch tun_ means to stone to death, matar à pedradas, _Dic.
Motul_.
Footnote 57:
Beltran, _Arte de la lengua Maya_, p. 217. Another name he gives is
_Ox kokol tzek_, “thrice beaten bones.”
Footnote 58:
Dr. Seler (_Verhand. Berlin. Anthrop. Gesell._, 1886, S. 416)
considers Hun Ahau to be a calendar name; but it is significant,
without having recourse to this roundabout 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.
Footnote 59:
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 Förstemann, in _Compte Rendu du Congrés
des Américanistes_, VII Session, p. 746. Elsewhere, however, another
suggestion as to the meaning of that number is offered.
Footnote 60:
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.
Footnote 61:
See the interesting observations of Mr. F. H. Cushing in my _Native
Calendar of Central America and Mexico_, p. 8.
Footnote 62:
Thus in the _Popol Vuh_, pp. 4, 6, it is called “the quadrated earth,
four-pointed, four-sided, four-bordered.”
Footnote 63:
“OL; el corazon formal y no el material.” _Dic. Motul._
Footnote 64:
“E alom, e qaholom.” _Popol Vuh_, p. 6. Ximenes adds: “y mas en los
nacimientos de los niños son los que asisten.” _Origen de los Indios_,
p. 158.
Footnote 65:
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._, 1894, classes
it as a “sun symbol;” but in this, as in most of his identifications,
I find myself unable to agree with him.
Footnote 66:
The doubts expressed by Dr. Schellhas as to the worth of mythology in
these studies (_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 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.
Footnote 67:
Schellhas, “Die Göttergestalten der Mayahandschriften,” in
_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1892. This is a classical article which
I shall have frequent occasion to quote.
Footnote 68:
Brasseur, _Le MS. Troano_, p. 214.
Footnote 69:
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 pictured in the Codices. I may add that Professor
Cyrus Thomas writes me that he also considers the “long-nosed god” to
be Itzamna.
Footnote 70:
The phrase of Cogolludo is: “con dientes muy disformes.” The name
_Lakin Chan_, is in the Tzental dialect. The Maya would be _Likin
can_; though _lakin_, east, appears in the “Books of Chilan Balam.”
Footnote 71:
_Caluac_ is from _calacal_, “cosa muy agujerada” (_Dicc. Motul_). The
mayordomo was called _ah caluac_, the baton being his staff of office.
Landa omits the prefix by mistake, _Rel. de Yucatan_, p. 40. It is
well shown on a later page.
Footnote 72:
Waldeck, _Voyage Pittoresque dans l’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
für Ethnologie_, 1888.
Footnote 73:
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).
Footnote 74:
_Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 109 (Madrid Edition).
Footnote 75:
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 conclusion 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.
Footnote 76:
Landa: _Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 87.
Footnote 77:
The name has various orthographies; that which I here adopt appears to
have most in its favor. It is a compound of _cucul_, covered (_i. e._,
with feathers), and _can_, snake; (_cucul_ also means “revolving”).
Footnote 78:
Examples are frequent; a good one is Cod. Tro., p. 24*_a_. Not to be
confounded with the _moan_ hairs around the mouth, nor with the chin
beard of the black monkey.
Footnote 79:
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.
Footnote 80:
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.”
Footnote 81:
The two bees, one waking, one sleeping, Cod. Tro. 33*, are placed
between signs representing the winds.
Footnote 82:
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 _Dicc. de Motul_).
Footnote 83:
“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.
Footnote 84:
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).
Footnote 85:
See Crescencio Carrillo, in _Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico_,
Tomo III, and Dr. Boas, in _Proceedings of the American Antiquarian
Society_ for 1890, pp. 350–357; the _Dic. Motul_ gives the Maya word
for one with head thus flattened, “_pechhec hol_, el de cabeza chata.”
Landa, _Cosas de Yucatan_, cap. XXX, speaks of the custom.
Footnote 86:
Former students have been unable to explain this design. It is also
found in Mexican pictography, as Cod. Vien., pp. 20, 22.
Footnote 87:
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.
Footnote 88:
“En figura de feroz negro, como una imagen de esculptura, con los
miembros de hombre. * * * Fué gran guerreador y crudelissimo. * * *
Quiere decir negro principal, ó Señor de los negros.” Nuñez de la
Vega: _Constituciones Diocesanas_, p. 9; _Carta Pastoral_, IX. (Rome,
1702.)
Footnote 89:
“En muchos pueblos de las provincias de este obispado tienen pintados
en sus Repertorios ó Calendarios siete negritos para hacer
divinacionès y prognosticos correspondientes à los siete dias de la
semana, comenzandola por el viernes à contar.” Nuñez de la Vega:
_Constituciones Diocesanas_, p. 9.
Footnote 90:
I 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, qualquier 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. 7.
Footnote 91:
Among feminine forms I find _ix-bouat_, prophetess; _ix-cunal than_,
conjuress.
Footnote 92:
The _Dicc. Motul_ gives: _Ah-koh keuel_, for the wizard wearing a mask
and clothed in the skin of the jaguar.
Footnote 93:
See _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_, p. 5.
Footnote 94:
My count does not agree entirely with that of other observers (Fewkes,
Schellhas). I have limited my identifications to such figures as
seemed to me beyond reasonable doubt.
Footnote 95:
There may be here an ikonomatic allusion, or play on 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” (sonó el cielo, _Dicc. Motul_).
Footnote 96:
In Spanish, _bujarro_. The _Dicc. Motul_ says of it, _sub voce, coz_,
“ave de rapina; coge gallinas y grita como muchachos.”
Footnote 97:
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 _muyan_, it is akin in sound to _muyal_, cloud, _moan_,
cloudy; which may account for its adoption as a symbol of the rains,
etc.
Footnote 98:
Förstemann, _Entzifferung_, No. III.
Footnote 99:
_Relacion de la Villa de Valladolid_ (1579), cap. 14.
Footnote 100:
These are described at length by Landa, and their representations in
the Codices have been explained by Thomas in his _Manuscript Troano_.
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 preserved 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.
1. _The Direction in which the Glyphs are to be read._
The first step in the decipherment of any inscription is to ascertain
the direction in which it is to be read.
In my earliest essay on this subject,[101] 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, 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 figures in the records,
both manuscript and mural, is generally from right to left; the main
portion of the composite characters are drawn on the right, and the
minor portions or affixes are added on the left;[102] 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 bottom.[103] That this
rule does not hold good in a number of instances, 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,[104]
and exists to-day in the manuscripts of the Tuaregs of the Sahara.[105]
Dr. Förstemann 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.[106]
Great aid in settling this question in any given instance can be
obtained by a close examination of the _rubrication_ of the 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_ │
│ ├─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┤ │
│ _c_ │ │ _c_ │
│ │ │ │
│ _d_ │ picture picture │ _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 passages.[107]
The signs for the days are usually placed in columns on the left of the
groups of hieroglyphic characters, the numeral belonging to each being
inscribed above it; while immediately below the groups are numerals in
black and red, generally indicating 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 Förstemann and Thomas, who have paid fruitful attention to this
department.
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 generally known as “affixes.”
An element within another is called an “infix;” placed in front of it, a
“prefix;” behind it, a “suffix” or “postfix;” above it, a “superfix;”
and below it, a “subfix.” The same element will often be found first in
one and then in another of these positions; and a certain class of
elements 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.[108]
This identification accomplished, the student should proceed to
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 examine a number
of simple and composite characters, not by any means exhausting the
stock, but rather merely offering suggestions 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: 1, As an
ideogram; 2, as a rebus; 3, as an astronomical or numerical sign.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.—The Hand.]
The _hand_ contributes to some of the most numerous hieroglyphs in the
Mayan writing; and the significant poses assigned it in the pictures and
statues prove how expressive it was to this people.
The forms presented in Fig. 30 by no means exhaust its delineations.
They are drawn from gesture-speech and each is significant. No. 1, 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 _mach_, “to
grasp” (“asir, tomar con las manos,” _Dic. Motul_). No. 4, the hand
closed, thumb downward (_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. 6½, from the
stelæ of Copan, must mean union or friendship. The two hands held as No.
7 occur repeatedly in Cod. Dres., pp. 6, 7, in the Tro. and Cort. often
thus, [Illustration], to which Thomas, by means of his “key,” assigns
the wonderful meaning, “a meat pie”! Nos. 8 and 9 are explained by Seler
as the supporting hand; No. 10 shows the hand and arm pointing; No. 12,
Cod. Tro., 30, 31, is the index finger extended; No. 11, Cort., p. 28,
shows the closed hand as a suffix to the sign _ik_.[109]
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. 1 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 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 “superior,” “supremacy,” or something of that
kind.[110] For that reason it always appears in the sign of Kin ich
ahau. No. 8 I regard also as copied from a feather ornament.[111] No. 7,
called by Seler the “bleeding eye,” I take to be a sign for stars.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.—The Eye and Similar Figures.]
In Maya, _ich_, the eye, also means “face” and “twins.”
The design, Fig. 33, No. 1, abundant in the Codices and on the stone and
ceramic remains, shows eyes, but is believed by Förstemann 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 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.”
[Illustration: FIG. 33.—The “Spectacles.”]
[Illustration: 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. 1 (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 _camach_. (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.”[112]
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 suggestions are, that the crescentic
outlines, Nos. 6, 7, 11, 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.”[113]
[Illustration: 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_, which is also the
word for moon, and in sound is akin to _uil_, food.[114]
By the latter fact I would explain the frequent appearance of this sign
[Illustration] on the neck of vases and on haunches of venison (Cod.
Tro. 22, etc.). The picture of a necklace shown 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.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.—Sun and Moon Signs.]
The hieroglyphs of the _sun_, Fig. 36, Nos. 1 and 2, cannot be mistaken.
In the latter, the four teeth indicate the biting heat. This design
often occurs on war shields. No. 1 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, bravery, 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_, moon, but from
_uinic_, man. He explains the figure as a human head with a “bleeding
eye,” and bare teeth.