The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
The above mentioned examples, which I shall illustrate later, have led me
to infer that whilst the arm symbolized one of the four divisions of the
State, the hand symbolized its capital, the thumb its central ruler and
the fingers his four officers or pilli, the rulers of the four quarters of
the minor seat of government. In another publication I shall produce
illustrations showing that the foot was also employed as an emblem of rule
and that Mexico, Yucatan and Central America furnish us with actual proofs
that the hands and the feet respectively symbolized the upper and lower
divisions of the State.
It is thus curious to compare the name for thumb=uei-ma-pilli and the name
Uei-mac (literally, great hand) which Sahagun gives as that of the
“temporal” coadjutor of the Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, as well as
the term, our toe=totecxopilli with the well-known title Totec=our chief
or lord. In Yucatan the word for hand=kab is, as I shall demonstrate
further on, actually incorporated in the title of the lords of the four
quarters=Bakab. I am almost inclined to find a trace of a similar
association in the Quechua word for fingers=pallca and the title palla
bestowed upon noble women.
I have already mentioned in the preceding pages that the natural basis of
the all-pervading native numerical division into 4×5=20 was the finger and
toe count. The following table exhibits the general custom to designate 20
as one man or one count.(42)
Word for Man. Word for 20.
Nahuatl. tlacatl. cem-poualli=one count.
Quiché }
and } uinay=one man. uinay= " "
Cakchiquel }
Tzendal. hun-uinic=one man. hun-uinic= " "
Maya. uinic. hun-kal= " "
In the latter case the affix kal seems to be derived from the same source
as the verb kal=to close up or fasten something, and to signify something
complete or finished. At the same time the Maya uinal is the Maya name for
the twenty calendar-signs, and the same association is demonstrated as
existing in Mexico by the well-known picture in the Vatican Codex I (p.
75), which represents a man surrounded by the twenty Mexican
calendar-signs.
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