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
Dr Brinton says that according to Bartolomé de Pisa the Zapotec name
signifies "dog," though he does not find it with this meaning in the
vocabularies. Dr Seler, however, obtains the signification "dog" for
this name by supposing that it is derived from _tee-lao_, "mouth
downward," referring to some myth of a dog representing the lightning,
or lightning demon, as falling or plunging downward from the sky in
certain figures of the codices. This, Dr Brinton says, "seems strained,"
which may also be said of the explanations of the Maya name.
The symbol of the dog as found in the Dresden Codex (13c), and as
admitted by Dr Seler, is shown in plate LXV, 59. The same symbol is
found in the same codex, 21b. Now, I think it possible to show, with a
considerable degree of certainty, what is the chief phonetic element of
this symbol, at least of its first or left-hand character. In plate LXV,
60, from Tro. 22*a, is seen (omitting the prefix) substantially the
symbol that Landa interprets _le_, "the lasso," and also "to lasso." As
the lower character is his _e_, we may take for granted that the upper
portion indicates the _l_ sound; further evidence of this, however, will
be presented under the twentieth day. As this is followed by the symbol
seen in plate LXV, 61, which refers to the "turkey" (kutz or
cuitz),[240-2] and the figure below the text shows a snared turkey, the
interpretation appears to be appropriate. Turning now to Dres. 44 (l)c,
we notice in the picture below the text the compound glyph shown in
plate LXV, 62. Immediately below it is the figure of a fish, which the
two individuals represented are trying to catch in a seine. As this
contains the same elements as 61 (plate LXV), reversed, the phonetic
value should be _tz'c_. Referring to Perez' Lexicon, we find that _tzac_
is a fish "so named;" Brasseur says, "a little fish resembling a sardine
which inhabits the senotes."
Now these give _tz'_ as the chief phonetic element of the left character
of the dog symbol (LXV, 59), which is also the consonant element of the
name for "dog" (_tzi_) in the Tzental, Cakchiquel, and most of the Maya
dialects, though not of the Maya proper. This furnishes a consistent and
appropriate rendering of the left portion of the symbol. Although the
symbol for the mouth _Kankin_ (LXV, 63) presents a difficulty, it is
possible some other name was applied to this month of which _tz_ was a
leading element; Yaxkin is sometimes written with the prefix _Dze_.
As _och_ is the Maya name for the "male fox," and _oquil_ or _ocquil_ is
the name in Tzental and Tzotzil for "wolf," it is possible the Maya name
may have been derived from one of these. Moreover, it is worthy of
notice that "foot" in Tzotzil is written _oquil_ as well as _oc_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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