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 LXIII of STEPHENS (vol. ii) is a small figure of CUKULCAN
which, he calls "Bas Relief on Tablet." WALDECK gives a much larger
drawing (incorrect, however, in many details), in which the figure, the
"Beau Relief," is seen to wear bracelets high up on the arm. This was a
distinguishing sign of QUETZALCOATL (see BANCROFT'S _Native Races_, vol.
iii, pp. 249 and 250), and this figure probably is a representation of
the Maya divinity. He is on a stool with tigers for supports. The tiger
belongs to the attributes which he had in common with TLALOC, and we see
again the intimate connection of these divinities--a connection often
pointed out by BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG.
This is the third proper name which has been deciphered. All of them
have been pure picture-writing, except in so far as their rebus
character may make them in a sense phonetic.
XI.
COMPARISON OF THE SIGNS OF THE MAYA MONTHS (LANDA) WITH THE TABLETS.
We have a set of signs for Maya months and days handed down to us by
LANDA along with his phonetic alphabet. _A priori_ these are more likely
to represent the primitive forms as carved in stone than are the
alphabetic hieroglyphs, which may well have been invented by the
Spaniards to assist the natives to memorize religious formulae.[243-*]
BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG has analyzed the signs for the day and month in
his publication on the MS. _Troano_, and the strongest arguments which
can be given for their phonetic origin are given by him.
I have made a set of MS. copies of these signs and included them in my
card-catalogue, and have carefully compared them with the tablets XXIV
and LVI. My results are as follows:
PLATE XXIV (our Fig. 60).
No. 42 is the Maya month _Pop_, beginning July 16.
No. 54 is _Zip_??, beginning August 25.
No. 47 is _Tzoz_??, beginning September 14.
No. 57 is _Tzec_? beginning October 4.
No. 44-45 is _Mol_?, beginning December 3.
No. 39 is _Yax_, _Zac_, or _Ceh_, beginning January 12, February 1,
February 21, respectively.
PLATE LVI (our Fig. 48).
No. 1804 is _Uo_????
No. 1901 is _Zip_????
No. 1816 is _Tzoz_??
No. 1814 is _Tzec_?
No. 1807 is _Mol_?
No. 1855 is _Yax_, _Zac_, or _Ceh_.
No. 1844 is _Mac_?
The only sign about which there is little or no doubt is No. 42, which
seems pretty certainly to be the sign of the Maya month _Pop_, which
began July 16.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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