Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts: Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66Thomas, Cyrus
History
Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts: Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66
Thomas, Cyrus
Calendar -- Mexico; Maya calendar
Brasseur, in his _Histoire des Nations civilisees du Mexique et de
l'Amerique Centrale_,[18] assigns Kan to the east, Muluc to the north,
Hix to the west, and Cauac to the south. But in his supplement to
_Etudes sur le Manuscrit Troano_,[19] and in his note to Landa's
_Relacion_,[20] refers Kan to the south, Muluc to the east, Ix to the
north, and Cauac to the west, although afterwards, in the same work, in
a note to Perez' _Cronologia_, he quotes Cogulludo's statement without
explanation or objection.
Dr. Brinton, in his _Myths of the New World_,[21] places these dominical
days at the same points to which I have assigned them--Kan at the east,
&c.--although referring in a note at the same place to the very page of
Landa's _Relacion_, where they are assigned as given by Rosny. In a
subsequent work, _Hero Myths_, referring to the same passage in Landa,
and with Cogulludo's work before him, he assigns them to the same points
as Rosny--Kan to the south, &c.--yet without any reference whatever to
his former expressed opinion.
Schultz-Sellack, in an article entitled _Die Amerikanischen Gotter der
vier Weltrichtungen und ihre Tempel in Palanque_, in the _Zeitschrift
fuer Ethnologie_ for 1879,[22] comes to the same conclusion as Rosny.
Rosny's opinion on this subject has already been quoted.[23]
From these facts it is evident that the assignment of the dominical days
to their respective cardinal points has not as yet been satisfactorily
determined, but that the tendency at the present day is to follow
Landa's simple statement rather than Cogulludo and Perez. This is
caused, I presume, in part, by the fact that certain colors--yellow,
red, white, and black--were also referred to the cardinal points, and
because it is supposed that among the Maya nations yellow was
appropriated to Kan, red to Muluc, white to Ix, and black to Cauac; and
as the first appears to be more appropriate to the south, red to the
east or sunrise, white to the north or region of snow, and black to the
west or sunset, therefore this is the correct assignment.
But there is nothing given to show that this was the reason for the
selection or reference of these colors by the inhabitants of Central
America.
This brings another factor into the discussion and widens the field of
our investigation; and as but little, save the terms applied to or
connected with the dominical days, is to be found in regard to the Maya
custom in this respect, we are forced to refer to the Mexican custom as
the next best evidence. But it is proper to state first that the chief,
and, so far as I am aware, the only, authority for the reference of the
colors named to the four Maya days, is found in the names applied to
them by Landa.[24]
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