Studies in Central American Picture-Writing: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the; Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,; Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 205-245 — John Shaqi
Studies in Central American Picture-Writing: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the; Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,; Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 205-245Holden, Edward S. (Edward Singleton)
History
Studies in Central American Picture-Writing: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the; Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80,; Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 205-245
Holden, Edward S. (Edward Singleton)
Mayan languages -- Writing
In Plate LVI (our Fig. 48) the mask at the foot of the cross is a human
mask, and not a serpent mask, as has been ingeniously proved by Dr.
HARRISON ALLEN in his paper so often quoted. It is the mask of _Tlaloc_,
as shown by the teeth and corroborated (not proved) by the way in which
the eye is expressed. The curved hook within the eyeball here, as in
185, stands for the air--the wind--of which _Tlaloc_ was also god. The
Mexicans had a similar sign for breath, message.
The _chiffre_ 1975, on which _Huitzilopochtli's_ priest is standing, I
believe to be the synonym of 185 in Plate XXIV. Just in front of
_Tlaloc's_ priest is a sacrificial yoke (?), at the top of which is a
face, with the eye of the _Tlalocs_, and various decorations. This face
is to be found also at the lower left-hand corner of Plate XLI (of
STEPHENS'), and also (?) in the same position in Plate XLII (of
STEPHENS'). These will serve as subjects for further study.
Notice in Plate LVI (our Fig. 48) how the ornaments in corresponding
positions on either side of the central line are similar, yet never the
same. A careful study of these pairs will show how the two gods
celebrated, differed. A large part, at least, of the attributes of each
god is recorded in this way by antithesis. I have not made enough
progress in this direction to make the very few conclusions of which I
am certain worth recording. The general fact of such an antithesis is
obvious when once it is pointed out, and it is in just such paths as
this that advances must be looked for.
I have just mentioned, in this rapid survey of the plates of vol. ii of
STEPHENS' work, the principal pictorial signs relating to _Tlaloc_.
There are a number almost equally well marked in vol. i, in Plates VII,
IX, X, XIII, and XV, but they need not be described. Those who are
especially interested can find them for themselves.
The following brief account and plate of a _Tlaloc_ inscription at Kabah
will be useful for future use, and is the more interesting as it is
comparatively unknown.
_INSCRIPTION AT KABAH (Yucatan)._
This hitherto unpublished inscription on a rock at Kabah is given in
_Archives paleographiques_, vol. i, part ii, Plate 20. It deserves
attention on account of its resemblances, but still more on account of
its differences, with certain other Yucatec glyphs.
We may first compare it with the Plate LX of STEPHENS (our Fig. 59).
The head-dress in Plate 20 is quite simple, and presents no resemblance
to the elaborate gear of Plate LX, in which the ornament of a leaf (?),
or more probably feather, cross-hatched at the end and divided
symmetrically by a stem (?) or quill about which four dots are placed,
seems characteristic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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