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
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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 Dres. 18c is the compound symbol shown in plate LXVI, 46, followed by
47. In the former we see our _ek_ or _ke_ symbol as the upper character
and the supposed _cimi_ (LXV, 28) glyph as the lower character, and to
the left a prefix. This prefix is precisely that in the symbol for the
month _Zac_ (LXVI, 48), and has presumably the same value in one glyph
as the other. This will give, as the proper rendering of the symbol
LXVI, 46, _zeek-cimil_, "the skull of the dead." By referring to the
figure below the text, a woman is seen bearing on her back a skull
inclosed in a wrapping of some kind, which in Kingsborough, where the
color is retained, appears to be cloth. This certainly agrees with the
rendering of the glyph. The symbol which follows it, shown in LXVI, 47,
has one of the elements of LXVI, 27, and, as suggested under "the
Thirteenth Day," should probably be interpreted _cuchpach_, "a carrier
or porter" (or "bear upon the back"). In the corresponding glyph in Tro.
20*d (LXVI, 24) the upper portion, as above stated, refers probably to
the hamper or basket-like holder in which the load is carried, and is a
simple ideogram; but here (LXVI, 47) the upper character is phonetic,
corresponding very closely to the lower part of the symbols for the
months _Yax_ and _Zac_. The character which follows--the lower left-hand
of the group of four--seen at LXVI, 49, is the well-known symbol for
woman. As the women were the burden bearers in Yucatan, the
interpretation appears to be consistent. It is therefore probable that
the prefix to LXVI, 43, is to be interpreted by _ek_, as Rosny has
suggested.
Seler, alluding to the symbol, asks, "May not the skin of the tiger,
instead of the animal itself, be here indicated?" He further suggests
that it represents the round hairy ear and the spotted skin of the
tiger, and that the glyph shown at LXVI, 39, represents the entire head
of this animal, of which there can be little doubt.
Some of the symbols of this day, found in the Fejervary Codex, one of
which is shown in LXVIII, 41, appear to favor Seler's idea.[250-2]
THE FIFTEENTH DAY
Maya, _men_; Tzental, _tziquin_; Quiche-Cakchiquel, _tziquin_; Zapotec,
_naa_ or _ñaa_; Nahuatl, _quauhtli_.
Landa's figure is so imperfect in this case that it is not given. The
usual forms and variations are shown in plate LXVI, 50 to 54. The last
two, which show the widest variation, are from the Dresden Codex.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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