Lastly, the fourth picture is, according to Schellhas, the serpent deity H,
and, according to Seler, the "young god," with the snail on his head. His
sign is hieroglyph 14. Added to this is the sign _a_ in 15, and in 16 it is
_q_ again with the same superfix as in sign 15 of the preceding Tonalamatl.
The sacrifice in 13 is represented by a Kan sign, which is equivalent to
maize, maize bread or tortilla.
Repeatedly, as on page 23b or 29b-31b of our manuscript, we see a portion
of game (deer), a bird, a lizard and a fish represented as sacrifices. With
this the fish and bird in our second and third pictures agree very well. I
shall not venture to explain the other two in the first and fourth
pictures. Perhaps future explanations of the curious head-ornament of the
four gods will shed further light on the subject.
Page 8c.
III 9 XII 9 VIII 9 IV 9 XIII 9 IX 7 III
Cib
Lamat
Ahau
Eb
Kan.
The horizontal line should be read in this order; in the manuscript the
numbers are in a somewhat unusual order.
An attempt has been made to divide the 52 days into sections of 9 days
each, and in doing this the sixth subdivision has fallen short of two days.
Since this passage has but two pictures, six of the 12 hieroglyphs must
belong to each of the figures. I read the hieroglyphs in the following
order:--
1 2 5 7 8 11
3 4 6 9 10 12.
Each of the two pictures contains a building and a deity in front of it,
each of whom seems to have placed another deity in the building. In the
first picture D is putting C inside and in the second F is doing the same
to A or the Moan. I will add also, that the day belonging to C (Chuen) is
actually 9 days distant from that of D (Ahau). I am uncertain in regard to
the other two. In the back of each building we see a cross.
A similar association of two gods appears again elsewhere, as on page 35a,
where D lies on a building in which C is sitting, thus showing an
association of the same two gods as in our first group.
In both groups the first two hieroglyphs form the common heading, since 1
corresponds in general to 7 and 2 to 8. In the first group 3 and 4 are the
hieroglyphs of D and 5 and 6 are the signs _q_ and _v_; does one of these
last signs refer to the god C? In the second group 9 is the sign of F, who
stands in front of the house and 10 that of the god in the house, as
perhaps is also 11, when we consider the closed eye; this is one of the
many hieroglyphs having an uplifted arm as a prefix. On page 9a we find
exactly the same sign. The last sign is the hieroglyph _q_, which sometimes
seems to be used merely to fill space; it corresponds, but with a different
superfix, to the fifth hieroglyph of the first group.
The last three parts of this section of the manuscript all differ
appreciably from the usual form (5 × 52 = 260 days).
Page 9c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account