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
The evidence that the Caban symbol is in some sense phonetic appears to
me to be too strong to be rejected. In the first place, one of its chief
elements is the corkscrew figure, which, as shown under the preceding
day, appears to have _b_ as its consonant element, this sound being a
prominent element of both _cib_ and _caban_. It also has been shown that
it is not out of place in the woman glyph, under the supposition that
this is also phonetic, as _chup_ or _chupal_ is the Maya name for woman,
and the change from _b_ to _p_ is not uncommon. It is found in several
places as that out of which plants are growing, as LXVII, 16, from Tro.
32b, which appears to represent some leguminous plant supported by a
stake driven into the ground. It is that on which persons are sitting
Indian fashion, and on which others are lying; again, it is that out of
which a serpent is arising. As "earth," "ground," will furnish an
entirely satisfactory explanation in all these cases, there is no
apparent reason why it should not be accepted. As _cab_ has "earth" as
one of its leading significations, we not only find therein a connection
with the day name, but also an indication of phoneticism.
In Cort. 30a is the figure shown at LXVII, 17. The animal represented,
notwithstanding the quadruped head, is conceded to be intended for the
serpent. The shading around the vessel, a blotch of which is on the
serpent's nose, I take for the clay or paste out of which the vessel is
being formed, or to be formed. In the division immediately below is a
representation of what appears to be some step in the manufacture of
vessels. May this not be correctly interpreted by _kancab_, "la terra
roja o amarilla," or "red clay?" Henderson gives _cancan_ as an
equivalent term of _kankan_. As I have not seen a copy of the colored
edition of this codex, I can not say whether this interpretation is
borne out by the color of the shading. If this interpretation be
correct, the serpent figure must be used symbolically or as a true
rebus.
In Tro. 9*c an individual is represented lifting what is supposed to be
honey or honeycomb out of a box-shape object on which is the _caban_
symbol. This symbol is presumed to indicate the contents--"honey." If
this supposition be correct, then, as _cab_ is the Maya name for
"honey," we have in this coincidence in sound and glyph another
indication of pboneticism. Support is given to this interpretation by
the fact that this is found in what is known as the "bee section," and
that on the upper division of the same plate the same figure, with the
_caban_ symbol upon it, is seen in the hands of an individual who holds
it to a bee.
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