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. — John Shaqi
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 Seler refers also to the glyph on which the long nose deity is
seated, Dres. 44a, shown in our plate LXVIII, 23. The prefix he
interprets by "man, human being," and supposes the whole glyph refers to
the attributes of the Rain god. As the deity holds a fish in his hand,
and is seen in the lowest division of the same plate in the act of
seining fish, is it not more likely that this symbol should be rendered
by _cayom_, "a fisherman"? This is appropriate and retains the phonetic
value of the _imix_ symbol.
In the compound glyph 24, plate LXVIII, from Dres. 67b, to which Seler
also refers in the same connection, we see in the figure below the same
deity wading in water in which a fish is swimming. The right portion of
the symbol is the same as the last (plate LXVIII, 23) and presumably has
the same signification--_cayom_, "a fisherman," or _cayomal_, "to fish."
I am unable to interpret the first or left-hand character; possibly it
may be found in one of the terms _chucay_, or _ɔaucay_, which Henderson
gives as equivalents of _cayomal_. The latter--_ɔaucay_--would give to
this prefix precisely the phonetic value I have hitherto assigned it.
The next character Dr Seler refers to in this connection is that shown
in plate LXVIII, 25, from Dres. 40c, where the long-nose god is seen
below rowing a boat on the water. The adjoining symbol in the text is a
fish. It is probable therefore that substantially the same
interpretation is to be given here.
The group shown in plate LXIV, 9, consisting of an _Imix_ and _Kan_
symbol, is of frequent occurrence in all the codices. The relation of
the characters in this combination varies, the order being frequently
the reverse of that given in the figure, and again one being placed on
top of the other. They frequently follow deity symbols, especially the
symbol of the so called "Corn god," and in these instances seem to refer
to some attribute of the divinity indicated. However, they are by no
means confined to these relations, being found quite frequently in other
connections. The combination is occasionally borne upon the back of an
individual, as Dres. 16a, and on Tro. 21b it is on the back of a dog. Dr
Seler concludes "that it denotes the copal or the offering of incense."
However, he subsequently[210-1] expresses the view that it may signify
"beans and maize." In a previous work[210-2] some reasons were presented
by me for believing this combination was intended to denote bread or
maize bread. This belief is based on the statement by Landa in his
account of the sacrifices at the beginning of the year _Muluc_, that
they made "images of dogs, in baked earth, carrying bread on the back,"
and the fact that in plate 21 of the Codex Tro., representing the
sacrifices of this year, we see the figure of a dog with this _Kan-Imix_
group on its back. This figure (plate LXIV, 10) probably represents the
images of which Landa speaks, and the symbols on the back, bread or food
in the general sense.
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