2.This is also the opinion of Dr. Seler: “Es ist eine verhÄltnissmÄssig geringe Zahl von Bildern und Grundelementen, die in diesen Schriftzeichen wiederkehren.” Verhand. Berliner Anthrop. Gesell., 1887, S. 231.

3.“Studies in Central American Picture Writing,” in First An. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 210.

4.Among those who have especially merited the thanks of archÆologists in collecting material for the study of the monuments are M. DÉsirÉ Charnay, Mr. A. P. Maudslay, Prof. F. W. Putnam; and I shall hope to add Dr. Le Plongeon, when he makes public his material.

5.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 EuropÉennes du Codex Peresianus,” in the same, June, 1887, p. 87 sqq. FÖrstemann (Entziff. III.) gives several cogent reasons for believing that the Dresdensis was written in or near Palenque.

6.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 fÜr Ethnologie, 1886 and later. Dr. FÖrstemann has likewise published in the Zeitschrift, 1891, and also in the Centralblatt fÜr Bibliothekwesen, in which remote quarter some of his most thoughtful contributions have appeared; and in the Proceedings 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, Washington, where they can be readily consulted by American students.

7.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 Chortis, Quiches, etc.

8.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 AbbÉ 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.

9.The AbbÉ 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 DÉchiffrement de l’Ecriture HiÉratique de l’AmÉrique Centrale, folio, Paris, 1876. He fully recognizes, however, that there are also ideographic and pictorial characters as well as phonetic.

10.Dr. Le Plongeon’s “Alphabet” was published in the Supplement to the Scientific American, New York, for January, 1885.

11.At the time of his unexpected death, Dr. Cresson had left with me a full exposition of his theory. His enthusiasm was unbounded, and the sacrifices he had made in the pursuit of archÆological science merit for his memory a kindly recognition among students of this subject.

12.PalenquÉ et la Civilisation Maya (Paris, 1888). The “Alphabet phonÉtique des anciens Mayas” is on pp. 10 sqq. The author was at one time attached to the French legation in Guatemala.

13.In the American Anthropologist, Washington, D. C.

14.See my Library of Aboriginal American Literature, No. 1: The Maya Chronicles, Introduction, pp. 37–50 (Philadelphia, 1882).

15.Vincente Pineda, Gramatica de la Lengua Tzel-tal, pp. 154, sqq. (Chiapas, 1887). Pineda makes the multiplier 400 instead of 20, in which he is certainly in error.

16.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 puy and xicin.

17.FÖrstemann, Entzifferung, No. IV, and Maudslay, Biologia Centrali-Americana, ArchÆology. Part IV.

18.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 20th 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 fÜr Ethnologie, 1887, p. 57.

19.Dr. FÖrstemann’s article, “Zur Maya-Chronologie,” assigning the reasons for these identifications, appeared in the Berlin Zeitschrift fÜr Ethnologie, 1891.

20.Etude sur le Manuscrit Troano, p. 220.

21.A. P. Maudslay: Biologia Centrali-Americana; ArchÆology, Part II. Text, pp. 40–42 (London, 1890). The character b closely resembles the day-sign chuen. 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.

22.Since the above was written, Mr. Stewart Culin, 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.

23.See my Native Calendar of Central America, pp. 49–59 (Philadelphia, 1893).

24.The dictionaries give: “bolon pixan, bien adventurado;” bolon dzacab, and oxlahun dzacab, “cosa eterna.” The numeral “one,” as in English, had a superlative 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 extensive 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”—Dicc. 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.

25.Schrader: Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, pp. 307–9.

26.To enter into this debated question at length would not be possible in this connection; but I would merely note: (1) The positive assertion of Landa that the Maya year “invariably” began July 16 (Cosas de Yucatan, p. 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 Idolum Cultores del Obispado de Yucatan, Madrid, 1639), is actually one containing six intercalary days, “seis dias que fueron sus caniculares;” 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.

27.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 (Philadelphia, 1893).

28.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. FÖrstemann. (See his ErlÄuterungen zur Maya-Handschrift, Dresden, 1886, p. 21, and his “Die Zeitperioden der Mayas,” in Globus, January, 1892).

29.See especially his articles, Die Zeitperioden der Mayas, 1892, and his Zur Entzifferung der Maya-Handschriften, IV, 1894.

30.The grounds for this opinion are stated in his Zur Entzifferung, etc., No. II.

31.A. Pousse, in Archives de la SociÉtÉ AmÉricaine de France, 1886, 1887.

32.In the American Anthropologist for July, 1893.

33.See her “Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System,” communicated to the Tenth International Congress of Americanists, Stockholm, 1894.

34.As the pages of the Codices are generally divided into compartments by transverse lines, the custom of students is to designate these from above downward by small letters added to the number of the page.

35.In American Anthropologist, July, 1893, p. 262.

36.“El lucero de la maÑana, que parece hacer amanecer.” Dicc. de Motul.

37.Like chimal ik, “north wind.” Chimal is the Nahuatl chimalli, shield, so these terms must be of late origin in Maya.

38.“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.

39.Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften, No. IV.

40.“Las tres estrellas juntas que estan en el signo de Geminis, las quales, con otras, hacen forma de tortuga.” Dicc. de Motul.

41.These definitions are given in the Dicc. Motul.

42.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.

43.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.

44.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.

45.The Dicc. Motul 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 dictionary, to which I shall often refer, is one of the Maya language, composed at the Convent of Motul, about 1570. A copy is in my possession.

46.In my work, American Hero-Myths (Philadelphia, 1882), Chap. IV, “The Hero-gods of the Mayas,” I have treated at considerable length the duplicate traditions relating to Itzamna and Cuculcan.

47.“Todos conforman en que este (Cuculcan) entrÓ por la parte del poniente.” 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 nohnial, “right-hand coming,” of the latter, dzicnial, “left-hand coming.” (Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucatan, Lib. IV, cap. IV.)

48.“En los Repertorios mas generales tienen pintado el 7 signo en figura de hombre y de Culebra, que llaman Cuchul chan, y han explicado los Maestros que es culebra de plumas que anda en el agua.” NuÑez de la Vega, Constituciones Diocesanas, Parte II, p. 132.

49.The word chac means “strong; the color red; heat; water.” The Dicc. Motul says: “Significa agua en algunas maneras de decir; tambien dios de las aguas, relampago y trueno; chacal ik, tempestad de agua, huracan.”

50.Mr. J. Walter Fewkes is certainly correct in his argument that the “ceremonial circuit,” 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.

51.An article by Dr. C. Schultz-Sellack, entitled “Die Amerikanischen GÖtter der vier Weltrichtungen,” in the Zeitschrift fÜr Ethnologie, Bd. XI, may be profitably read in this connection, though some of its statements are antiquated.

52.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.

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.

54.Carrillo, Historia Antigua de Yucatan, p. 207.

55.See the article “The Folk-lore of Yucatan,” in my Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890).

56.In Maya, ppuch tun means to stone to death, matar À pedradas, Dic. Motul.

57.Beltran, Arte de la lengua Maya, p. 217. Another name he gives is Ox kokol tzek, “thrice beaten bones.”

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.

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.

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.

61.See the interesting observations of Mr. F. H. Cushing in my Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 8.

62.Thus in the Popol Vuh, pp. 4, 6, it is called “the quadrated earth, four-pointed, four-sided, four-bordered.”

63.“Ol; el corazon formal y no el material.” Dic. Motul.

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.

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.

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.

67.Schellhas, “Die GÖttergestalten der Mayahandschriften,” in Zeitschrift fÜr Ethnologie, 1892. This is a classical article which I shall have frequent occasion to quote.

68.Brasseur, Le MS. Troano, p. 214.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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).

74.Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 109 (Madrid Edition).

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.

76.Landa: Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, p. 87.

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”).

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.

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.

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.”

81.The two bees, one waking, one sleeping, Cod. Tro. 33*, are placed between signs representing the winds.

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).

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.

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).

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.

86.Former students have been unable to explain this design. It is also found in Mexican pictography, as Cod. Vien., pp. 20, 22.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

91.Among feminine forms I find ix-bouat, prophetess; ix-cunal than, conjuress.

92.The Dicc. Motul gives: Ah-koh keuel, for the wizard wearing a mask and clothed in the skin of the jaguar.

93.See The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 5.

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.

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).

96.In Spanish, bujarro. The Dicc. Motul says of it, sub voce, coz, “ave de rapina; coge gallinas y grita como muchachos.”

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.

98.FÖrstemann, Entzifferung, No. III.