Part 6

The rattlesnake appears to be the only serpent which is represented 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 _Dicc. Motul_, the natives believed there were four varieties, corresponding to the four sacred colors, white, black, red, and yellow.

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.

11. _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. 11*, 16*, etc., Cod. Dres., p. 45; others making idols, Cod. Tro., p. 12*, Dres., p. 6, etc. Various religious ceremonies are pictured, as piercing the tongue, Cod. Tro., pp. 16*, 17*; baptizing children, which was performed at the age of four years,[99] Cod. Tro., 20*; and the important functions at the end of the years, depicted both in Cod. Tro., pp. 20–24, and Cod. Dres., pp. 25–28.[100]

A curious scene is that Fig. 29, from the Dresden MS., p. 35.

In the center, resting upon an altar of three degrees surmounted by the sign _caban_, earth, is the head of the god of fertility, 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_, probably signifying the day _eb_, on which this ceremony took or should take place. Its successful result is shown in the picture which follows it in the Codex.

* * * * *

Those who would follow Förstemann’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 variations, 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 pregnant, and, I believe, the only correct meaning is thus awarded to these strange memorials.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.)

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.”

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

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.