Day Symbols of the Maya Year: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-1895, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 199-266.Thomas, Cyrus
Religion
Day Symbols of the Maya Year: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-1895, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 199-266.
Thomas, Cyrus
Maya calendar
In Tro. 11*d is the character shown in plate LXIV, 52. As the right
portion is the upper part of the symbol for _chikin_, "west" (see plate
LXIV, 53), its phonetic value may be a derivative of _kuch_, _kuchnahi_,
_kuchah_, "to spin, to draw out into threads." Henderson gives _chuch_
as an equivalent. As the subfix in plate LXIV, 48, is the character I
have usually interpreted by _u_, this would give us some of the elements
of the name _Kukulcan_ and not _Itzamna_, as Seler and Schellhas
suppose. Possibly, however, the deity represented may be _Baklum-Chaam_,
the god adored at Ti-ho and usually considered, though without apparent
justification, as the Maya Priapus.
The somewhat similar character, plate LXIV, 55, from Tro. 18*c, which Dr
Seler considers synonymous, is probably essentially distinct, as it
bears a somewhat stronger resemblance to the _chuen_ than to the _akbal_
symbol. In character 54, plate LXIV, from Dres. 17b, which denotes the
vulture or rapacious bird figured below the text, it probably indicates
the _c_ sound, as the most reasonable interpretation of the symbol is
_hchom_, "the sopilote" (Perez), or _hchuy_, "a hawk or eagle." If the
character shown in plate LXIV, 54, is intended to indicate the bird
figured below, and is neither of those mentioned, it is probably one the
name of which begins with _ch_.
The symbol of the month _Zoɔ_ (_Tsoz_ or _Zotz_) also contains this
supposed _akbal_ glyph, but in the varied form last above mentioned,
which, as we have said, bears a strong resemblance to the _chuen_ symbol.
This, as will be seen by comparing, bears a very close resemblance to
glyph LXIV, 54. If phonetic, we must assume that the _ch_ (if the
interpretation of the former be correct) has been hardened to _z_ or
_tz_.[225-1]
The same character is also found in the symbol for the month _Xul_ (see
plate LXIV, 56, from Dres. 49c). As Dr Seler refuses to accept the
theory that the characters are either phonetic or ikonomatic, he
concludes, in the following words, that resemblance in the forms of the
symbols indicates relationship in the subject-matter:
_Xul_ signifies the end, the point; _xuulul_, to end; _xulah_,
_xulezah_, to bring to an end; _xulub_ (that with, which anything
ends), horns, or he who has horns, the devil; _xulbil_, jests,
tricks, deviltry. We see, therefore, that this word contains
doubtless a reference to something unholy, uncanny, demoniac. To
the Central Americans the bat was not merely a nocturnal animal.
The Popol-Vuh speaks of a Zo'tzi-ha, "bat house," one of the five
regions of the underworld. There dwells the Cama-zo'tz, "the
death-bat," the great beast that brings death to all who approach
it, and also bites off the head of Hunapu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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