This section seems to refer chiefly to the harvest. First the Muluc sign
with suffix and affix, which is repeated in 1, 5, 9, 13 and 17 at regular
intervals, suggests rain as a preliminary condition of the harvest. Next in
2 the hieroglyph of K, the wind-god, is added to this Muluc sign, and K is
the patron of the day Muluc. Then the signs _a_ and _o_ follow in 3 and 4.
There is no picture belonging to this group; it ought to be the god K. The
second group adds to the Muluc in 6 the glyph of the sun, which is the
second preliminary condition of the harvest. This is followed in 7 by the
sign _u_ apparently denoting wind and cloud and having the prefix of the
storm-god, and in 8 is the sign, which, strange to say, stands also in the
last Tonalamatl in the eighth place. I am not very clear in regard to this
sign. The sun-god G with copal pouch and a vessel containing grains of
maize is appropriately represented with this group. With equal fitness the
third group contains E, the harvest-god proper, with copal pouch and grains
of maize, and, as usual, a Kan sign on his head, but also with a parrot,
probably as an enemy of the harvest. Sign 10 is E's hieroglyph, to which,
as is so often the case, sign 11 (Imix-Kan) is added and in 12 the double
Manik (_i_). The last two groups are without figures of deities; the double
Manik (14 and 18), possibly a repeated summons to sacrifice, is common to
both groups. There seems here to be a further reference to the _enemies_ of
the harvest, for 15 is the hieroglyph of the vulture, 16 that of the
death-bird and 19 that of the night-god, after which this section closes
with the quite universal sign a. If space had permitted, the vulture and
the night-god would have been represented here.
Page 12b.
I 13 I 26 I 13 I
Ix
Cimi
Ezanab
Oc
Ik.
This is again a regular arrangement, half of the 52 days being in the
middle and a quarter each at the beginning and end.
The first four days refer to the purport of the prediction, Ix, the tiger,
Cimi, death, Ezanab, the wounding lance point, and Oc, the lightning dog.
The 12 hieroglyphs indicate the connection with the foregoing Tonalamatl,
for 1, 5 and 9 contain the same Muluc sign which we found there in the same
places.
The three figures, it seems to me, signify the approach of death, the wound
occasioning death, and the arrival of death.
The first picture represents the god probably as feminine, with which the
illustration on page 9c should be compared. The lock of hair before sign 3,
the death hieroglyph, agrees with this as do also the familiar signs 2 and
4. The god is making sounds, which is indicated by the figure issuing from
his mouth. Is the snail in his head-ornament to be understood as the sign
for retarded motion?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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