1 2 | 5 6 9 10 13 14 | 17 18 21 22 25 26
3 4 | 7 8 11 12 15 16 | 19 20 23 24 27 28.
I will first consider those signs, which are repeated and by means of which
the sections seem to be brought into connection with one another. But I
shall attend in detail to those hieroglyphs which contain characteristic
references to each picture, when I discuss the latter.
The first place both among the pictures and among the hieroglyphs again
belongs unquestionably to B. He is plainly designated in the 10th, 17th,
21st and 26th hieroglyphs, but, for an unknown reason, C's sign is joined
to B's in the 16th, probably also in the 6th and perhaps in the 9th, and in
20 and 28 C's sign forms an integral part of a hieroglyph. Now in
discussing the great Tonalamatl, pages 4a-10a, I attempted to make it
appear probable that C belongs to the eighth day (Chuen) and in that case
the Chuen sign in the thirteenth hieroglyph may be probably set down here.
Further, in discussing pages 25 to 28, I expressed the conjecture that this
Chuen sign might simply mean eight days, if we begin with Kan as the first
day, for which proceeding there is some warrant in the "Dresdensis." Now,
in hieroglyphs 8 and 24 we find an 8 inscribed; in hieroglyph 8 it is
joined to an Imix, exactly as on page 39c; on page 65a it is joined to Kin,
and on 67a and 68a to a hand. Is it possible that here also the 8 is
intended as a sign for Chuen = C?
Then the familiar Kin-Akbal sign (day and night) is in the fourth place as
well as in the eleventh and nineteenth.
The other signs which appear but once, I will discuss in connection with
each of the seven pictures:--
1. A serpent in the water, with B emerging from its head, exactly as on
pages 36a, Tro. 26 and Cort. 10.
The third sign, that of the serpent-deity H, refers to the serpent. The
first sign is the one which I think may be Caban-Muluc, while the second,
owing to its indistinctness, eludes interpretation.
2. This also represents a deity sitting in the water, whom we are probably
safe in calling H, for the top of his head changes into a serpent, ending,
however, in a bird's bill holding a fish. The deity holds up both hands.
The union of serpent and bird should be noted in connection with the fourth
picture. The deity is represented in the fifth sign; the sixth, seventh and
eighth signs have already been discussed.
3. B is traversing the water in a boat, exactly as on pages 29c, 40a and c,
and 43c. Here, however, there is a person beside him (probably a woman)
whom, from the ninth hieroglyph we recognize as the deity E, unless this
sign is C's. In 12 we see with Kan a sign which may suggest the usual
hieroglyph denoting a year.
4. A serpent is pictured here, with a bird sitting upon it. We met with the
same bird on page 17b. Schellhas, "Maya-handschr.," p. 51, has already
expressed the opinion that this is probably a rebus for the name
Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan, and this theory is certainly worthy of
consideration. In this connection I would call to mind that it is probably
also Kukulcan with serpent and bird who occupies the first place on page
4a. The bird appears again in the fourteenth sign, while the thirteenth is
a Chuen, which, according to the statement made above, may be connected
with the C in the sixteenth. The fifteenth sign is the cross _b_, which
probably denotes the connection between the thirteenth and sixteenth or
else between the bird and serpent. Or is Chuen intended here to represent
the serpent and not the ape?
5. This picture represents B carrying a burning torch, with the copal pouch
hanging from his neck. His left hand touches a strange object, a kind of
frame, the top of which ends in the head of a bird of prey.
The eighteenth sign is obliterated and the twentieth is a curious
combination of Caban, C and the front part of K.
6. B is walking, with the hatchet in his left hand and in his right an
object which looks like the representation of sounds issuing from musical
instruments, as on page 34a. Perhaps B is represented here as the air-god.
The twenty-second sign is the familiar Kan-Imix. The twenty-third sign
(_w_) is not intelligible to me; it occurs on pages 19c, 40b, 58, on the
right, with a superfix suggesting K.
7. Water, in which a small human being seems to be emerging from a snail
(the symbol of birth). Above the water is B, grasping a serpent which is in
the water, as if to protect the new-born being from the serpent. The
twenty-fifth (with Kin) is the so-called bat-god, who on page 50 at the
left ends the series of twenty gods. The twenty-seventh sign (with Yax) is
still undetermined.
Pages 38b--41b.
VI 16 IX 8 IV 11 II 10 XII 1 XIII 12 XII 6 V 12 IV 11 II 11 XIII 6 VI
Cauac
Akbal
Manik
Chuen
Men.
The sum of the black numbers is 104, the whole is, therefore, a double
Tonalamatl = 5 × 104 = 520. While the series on pages 31a-32a primarily
brought the 91 and the 104 together, and the series on page 45a
accomplished the same result with the 104 and the 364, here, though the
process is a different one, the 104 is combined with the 260 in another
number.
It is characteristic of this part of the Manuscript, that the astronomical
rectangles, which are very rare in the preceding pages, appear here in no
less than five of the eleven divisions and six of them represent showers of
rain. One is very readily, therefore, led to infer that the 104 days have
reference to the rainy season and to its dependence upon the position of
the planets. I will now analyse the eleven sections separately.
1. Rain is streaming down from two astronomical signs (Mars and Jupiter?
Day and night?) and in the rain stands a black human form, grasping an
implement with the right hand held downward and pointing upward with the
left. It has the vulture head which occurred on pages 8a and 13c.
Hieroglyphs 1 and 2 represent the sun and moon, both surrounded by half
white and half black envelopes, which must denote clouds. The third sign is
Imix, which just here might refer to the rainy season productive of
nourishment. The fourth sign is the vulture head of the picture.
2. B is walking in the rain and holds in one hand a stick pointed at the
lower end. This is doubtless a farming implement, likewise occurring
frequently in the Tro-Cort., which was used for making furrows or holes in
the ground.
The second hieroglyph is B's, the first is Caban = earth, the fourth might
be a compound of Caban and Muluc, referring to the rain, and the third is
the familiar Kan-Imix, which, as the designation of food and drink, would
be especially appropriate here.
3. B is apparently resting from tilling the soil, since he is sitting on a
support consisting of the signs just spoken of, _i.e._, Caban and Muluc
(?).
The latter signs are repeated in the second hieroglyph, while the third is
B's with the sun-glyph (?) prefixed; the first is the head apparently open
on top with the Akbal eye, probably the sign for beginning, and the fourth
is the familiar sign _a_, which I think signifies a good, auspicious day.
4. Page 39. This represents a violent shower of rain, which might be
pronounced a cloud-burst. The old red goddess with tiger-claws and a
serpent on her head is pouring water in a stream from a jug. The same
goddess occurs on page 43b and on the last page, 74.
Her hieroglyph is the second; it is more distinct in the two other
passages. The first part of the third hieroglyph is indistinct, and the
second part is the hieroglyph denoting the year. The first hieroglyph is a
head with the Akbal sign, and the fourth is the usual compound of Kin and
Akbal.
5. The cloud-burst seems to have destroyed the cultivation of the field,
for B walks forth again with the implement for tilling the soil, as in the
second picture. The second hieroglyph is B's with the prefix of the west,
therefore probably denoting sunshine, the first again contains Caban and
Muluc and the fourth is Kan-Imix referring again to the produce of the
field. I shall not venture to explain the third sign here any more than I
did in the previous passages. Compare page 8b.
6. B is again sitting in the rain and under the same astronomical signs as
before on page 38. He is pointing downward (to the sprouting seed?). He has
the sun-glyph on his back. The first two hieroglyphs are unfamiliar to me
(Yax); the third is Imix with the sign for the west, and the fourth is
again Muluc.
7. Page 40. B is plunging down headfirst from the same astronomical signs
and is brandishing the hatchet.
Hieroglyph 1 is the cross _b_, 2 is B's sign, 3 probably that of the
grain-god E, and 4 being Kan-Imix refers to grain. Favorable weather seems
to have set in.
8. The astronomical signs are not the same as those in the three preceding
instances (Mercury and sun?). Below them is a deity with tortoise-head--in
my opinion, the sign for the longest day--holding a torch in each hand and
thus referring to the heat.
Hieroglyph 1 (_w_) with the superfix suggesting K still puzzles me. 2 is
the cross _b_, 3 is the tortoise-head with the number 4, which probably
refers to the Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac years, as the 4 sometimes appears
prefixed to N's hieroglyph. In exactly the same way the tortoise-head with
the tortoise itself occurs frequently in the Cortesianus. 4 is the sign of
the year with prefixed Kin and Cauac, _i.e._, day-Cauac-year.
9. A thunder-storm, which is very appropriate after the longest day. The
lightning-beast, likewise holding a burning torch, is plunging down from
the astronomical signs, which are different ones again (Venus and the
moon?).
The second hieroglyph contains the sign of the dog together with the cross
_b_, while the third is that of the north-god C, and the fourth is Muluc. I
cannot explain the first sign; its prefix, which rarely occurs, appears
also on pages 23b, 25a, 37b, 63a, and possibly on pages 53b, 62-63a, 69b.
10. Page 41. Another representation of rain. There is an old deity in the
rain, who is N rather than F, denoting the end of the old year. He is
emerging from a snail (cf. with this page 37b), and is pointing upward; a
part of the first hieroglyph is on his head.
This first hieroglyph recalls the sign which, in the Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie, XXIII, p. 145, I ventured to connect with the change of the
year; but it also suggests the snail pictured below, hence the birth of the
new year. The beginning of the year for the Mayas, although of course not
for all parts of the country, is fixed, as a rule, to fall on the 16th of
July. This would agree admirably with the eighth and ninth sections, which
represent the time of the longest day and of thunder-storms.
The second hieroglyph is B's, the fourth the cross _b_, probably referring
here to a union of two years, and the third with its Cauac to the duration
of the rainy season or to the god N.
11. The rain seems to fall with less violence. B is seated, clad in the
gala mantle with a Kan on his head, as the sign of grain. His headdress
also strongly recalls that of the grain-deity E (which is also the case of
the headdress on the preceding picture.)
Hieroglyph 1, the upper part of which is very like that of the first sign
of the preceding group, looks like a plaited mat. Does it not suggest that
the name of the first month of the new year is Pop and that this word is
denoted by carpet, mat? Hieroglyph 2 is B's, 3 is the sun between a dark
and a bright sky, and 4 is the common Kin-Akbal, day and night.
If the seventh picture really refers to the beginning of the year, then the
entire period of 104 days extends from April 15th to August 2nd, which,
with the addition of the five days not counted at the end of the year, does
indeed make 109 days. All this, however, is only true on the supposition
that I have not seen more in these representations than they contain.
Pages 41b--43b.
VI 12 V 7 XII 6 V 21 XIII 6 VI.
Caban
Muluc
Imix
Ben
Chicchan.
Another regular Tonalamatl, and like the preceding one apparently referring
to the change of the year, the tilling of the soil and the rainy season.
B's sign is regularly repeated in the second place of all five groups of
hieroglyphs, and moreover each of these groups has six signs. The head with
the missing under jaw is in the fourth place of groups 2 and 3, in the
sixth of group 5 and might perhaps be intended also in the fourth of 1 and
4. The usual Kan-Imix is in the third sign of group 2, in the fifth of 4,
and the fourth of 5; possibly also in the fifth of 1; the third hieroglyph
in group 3, at any rate, contains Imix.