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
On Tro. 34*c two individuals are engaged in some work which we might
suppose to be weaving but for the fact that there is no cord or thread
to be seen. Over each is the character shown in plate LXVIII, 38. This
is evidently an incomplete _manik_ symbol. As the supposed aspirate sign
is present, it is probable that _hooch_, "to pare off, to scrape," or
_hoochci_, "to pare off, or scrape the hennequin," will furnish an
appropriate rendering.
THE EIGHTH DAY.
Maya, _lamat_; Tzental, _lambat_; Quiche-Cakchiquel, _canel_ or _kanel_;
Zapotec, _lapa_ or _laba_; Nahuatl, _tochtli_.
The various forms of the symbol of this day are shown in plates LXV, 33
to 37, and LXVIII, 39-40. That given by Landa is seen in LXV, 33; it is
also found very frequently in the codices as LXV, 34. The three other
forms found in the codices are shown in LXV, 35, 36, 37. The form on the
Palenque Tablet is given in LXVIII, 40; that of the Tikal inscription is
similar to Landa's figure, if we are correct in our determination, of
which there is some doubt, as the dots are effaced.
A comparison of plate LXV, 36, with the symbol of the day _Ahau_, shown
in LXVIII, 5, leads at once to the impression that the former was
derived from the latter, and that, if in any sense phonetic, the
equivalents of the two are closely related. As will be shown hereafter,
the _Ahau_ symbol has _l_ as its chief phonetic element, if it be
considered in any sense phonetic. We should therefore expect to find, in
the verbal equivalent of this _Lamat_ symbol, _l_ as a prominent
element. In the form shown at LXV, 33, it would seem that we see an
effort to intimate by the character itself the presence of the _b_
element. That the symbol shown in plate LXV, 38, has _b_ as its chief
element is shown elsewhere. It is possible, therefore, that this _Lamat_
symbol had no original signification purely its own, but that it is a
composite derived from the _Ahau_, and what I have termed the _b_
symbol. Without anticipating the proof that the _Ahau_ symbol has _l_ as
its chief phonetic element, I call attention to the fact that it is the
upper character in the symbol for _likin_, "east" (plate LXVIII, 12). As
the lower character is the well-known symbol for _kin_, "day" or "sun,"
we must assume that the value of our _Ahau_, in this case at least, is
_li_. As another suggestion, I would add that it may have been derived
from a figure used in some game. As the figure is usually divided into
apartments or cells, most of which inclose a dot, the Maya word _lem_,
_lemah_, "meter, encajar, poner dentro, introducir" (Perez), would not
inappropriately express the idea. Its use as a day symbol would then be
simply for its phonetic value. This is based, of course, on the
derivation. I suggest below. Nevertheless it must be admitted that these
are but mere guesses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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