f\ .]V .^-: '-- ''1/ fMS< .^ i^MNISr ^^9 '.^ y? ^1 .IJ / y SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONM IS ^U^^^U ^^ AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY: W. H. HOLMES, CHIEF^ 2. BULLETIN 28 MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN ANTIQl ITIES,CALENDAR SYSTEMS, AND HISTORY TWENTV-FOUR TAPERS BYEDUARD SELERE. F(")RSTEMAT^TN"PAUE SCHELLIIASCARL SARRERand E. R. DIESELDORFF TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OFCHAREES R. BOWUITCM WASHINGTONGOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE11)04 CONTENTS PageThe IMexican chronology, with special reference to the Zapotec calendar, byEduard Seler 11Ancient Mexican feather ornaments, by Eduard Seler 57Antiquities of Guatemala, by Eduard Seler 75Alexander von Humboldt's picture manuscripts in the Royal Library at Berlin,by Pxluard Seler 12.1The bat god of the Maya race, by Eduard Seler 2:UThe wall paintings of Mitla, by Eduard Seler 243The significance of the Maya calendar for historic chronology, by Eduard Seler. o25The temple pyramid of Tepoztlan, by Eduard Seler 339The Venus period in the Borgian codex group, by Eduard Seler 353Aids to the deciphering of the INIaya manuscripts, by E. Forstemann 393Maya chronology, by E. Forstemann 473Time periods of the Mayas, by E. Forstemann 49 1 ]\Iaya hieroglyphs, by E. F(')rstemann 499The Central American calendar, by V,. Forstemaim 515The Pleiades, by E. Forstemann 521The Central American tonalamatl, l)y E. Forstemann 525Rei'ent Maya investigations, by E. F(")rstemann 535The inscription on the Cross of Palenque, by E. Forstemann 545The day gods of the Mayas, by E. Forstemann .'i57From the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque, by E. Forstcnuinii 573Three inscriptions of Palenque, by E. Forstemann 5S1Comparative studies in the field of Maya antiquities, by Paul Schellhas 591The independent states of Yucatan, by Carl Sapper (>23Two vases from Chama, by E. P. Dieseldorff, Eduard Seler, and E. Forstemann. (5353 ILLUSTRATIONS PagePlate I. Map of Yucatan 17II. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment I, part 1 iL'i)III. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment I, part 2 1 .'{oIV. INIexican painting?Humboldt fragment I, part 3 139V. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment I, part 4 148VI. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment I, part 5 152VII. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment II 154VIII. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment III 17()IX. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment IV 1 85X. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment V 18SXI. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment VI 190XII. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment VII 196XIII. Mexican painting?Humbuldt fragment VIII 200XIV. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment IX 208XV. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment X , 210XVI. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment XI 212XVII. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment XII 214XVIII. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment XIH 21HXIX. Mexican painting?Humboldt fragment XIV 218XX. Mexican painting?Humljoldt fragment XV 221XXI. Mexican painting?Hundjoldt fragment XVI 227XXII. Plan of ]\Iitla ruins, Oaxaca 251XXIII. Ground plan of Palace I, Mitla 253XXIV. Sketch of the facades on the north and south sides of the adjoin-ing court, Palace I, Mitla 256XXV. One view of Palace II, Mitla 258XXVI. A second view of Palace II, Mitla 262XXVII. Front of Palace II, Mitla 264XXVIII. Hall of Columns, Palace II, Mitla - 267XXIX. Interior court of Palace II, Mitla -?>'?XXX. Interior of a room of Palace II, Mitla 273XXXI. Relief designs from the walls at Mitla -'?>XXXII. Relief designs from the walls at :Mitla -i'-'iXXXIII. Pottery from a tomb at Zaachilla -??"XXXIV. Pottery from a tomb at Zaachilla ?"01XXXV. Pottery fragments from Zaachilla and Cuilapa 303XXXVI. Pottery fragments from Zaac-hilla and Cuilapa -'^5XXXVII. Wall painthigs at Mitla '?^^'^XXXVIII. Wall paintings at Mitla '-^^^XXXIX. Wall paintings at Mitla ?*-"-'XL. Plan of the temple Pyramid of Tepoxtlan ?^'^2XLI. The Tablet of the Cross, Palenque ?''*" (3 BUKEAU OV AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28PagePlate XLII. Painti-d clay image of the god Macuil Xochitl 549XLIII. Inscription on tlie Tablet of the Cross, Palenque 551XLIV. Glyphs from the Temple of Inscriptions 554XLV. Dress as shown in sculptured figures, Yucatan 604XLVI. Headdresses from the codices and monuments 618XLVII. Mexican and Maya household utensils 622XLVIII. Design on a vase from Chama - - - - 639XLIX. Design on a vase from Chama 665Fig. 1. Symbols of tiie cardinal iioints, colors, etc 282. Mexican calendar wheel from Dunin 293. Symbols from the Maya codices 344. Day signs and related glyphs, from the codices 395. Day signs and related glyphs, from the Maya codices 516. Copy of figure in Cozcatzin codex 607. Mexican warrior's dress and shield 628. Disks from Mexican codices 639. Mexican shields 6510. Mexican drums ( ueuetl ) 6711. Mexican figures showing human heads in eagle's mouth 701 2. Mexican feather ornaments 7213. Bowls from Guatemala 8414. Pottery vessels from Guatemala 8515. Pottery vessels and other articles from a Guatemalan mound 8616. Pottery vessels in the form of animals' heads, (Guatemala 8917. Pottery fragments from Guatemala 9318. Pottery fragments from Guatemala 9619. Face^form vessels from Guatemala 9820. Pottery ornaments from Guatemala 10021. Pottery figures from Guatemala 10222. Pottery vessels from Guatemala 10423. Animal-shaped vessel from Guatemala 10624. Ornamented bowls from Guatemala 10825. Pottery vessels from Guatemala 10926. Symbolic figures from Guatemalan pottery Ill27. Glyphs from Guatemalan pottery vessels 11328. Figures from Guatemalan pottery vessels 11429. Adjunct glyphs from Maya codices 12030. Headdresses and flags from Mexican codices 13031. Variations of the Mexican seventh day symbol 13332. Symbols of gold plates and bowls of gold dust from Mexican codices. . 14433. Figures of priests, from Mendoza codex and Sahagun manuscript 14734. Symbols of cloth and precious stones 14935. Symbols of personal and place names in Mexican codices 15136. Symbols of place and personal names, Mexican codictes 15337. Mexican symbols of persons and places 15938. Symbols of names 16939. Symbols from Mexican codices 17240. Symbols and figures from Mexican codices 17941. Mexican glyphs from list of names 18442. Figure from Mexican manuscript, fragment IV 18643. Mexican name glyphs 18744. Mexican symbols of various objects 19745. Mexican glyphs denoting various objects 202 ILLUSTRATIONS 7 Fig. 46. Mexican symbols for vari( ms articles 20847. Official signatures 21548. Symbols for certain persons and for numl)ers 21849. Mexican figures of the bat god 2.S650. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat god 2.'^751. Maya hieroglyphs of the l)at god 28852. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat god . . , 2'A953. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat god 24054. Symbols of official titles from Mendoza codex 25955. Symbols of years and persons, from the Codex Telleriano-Reinensis. . 2(5256. Battle scene from Mexican painting, Aubin-Goupil collection 26357. Mexican symbols of years and pueblos 26458. The five rain gods, from Borgian codex 26859. The twenty day signs, from Borgian codex 27160. Drawing blood from the ears, and implements of castigation fromMexican codices 2S261. Self-punishment and symbols of two kings from Mexican codices 28362. Deity of the morning star, Mexican codex 28763. Figures of the deity of the morning star, Mexican codices 28764. Tepeyollotl and Tlacolteotl, Mexican deities, Borgian codex 29165. Tlaelquani, Mexican goddess, Borgian codex 29166. Tepeyollotl, Mexican deity, Borgian codex 29267. Mexican symbols and figures of deities, from Mendoza codex andSahagun manuscript 29568. Gods Maciulxochitl and Ixtlilton, Mexican codices 297 ' 69. Relief fragments from Teotitlan del Valle, Zapotec 29870. Relief fragments from Teotitlan del Valle, Zapotec 29971 . Mexican deities, from Vienna codex 30372. Symbols and figure of deities, from Mexican codices 30773. Supposed descent of Quetzalcouatl and house symbols, Vienna codex. 30t)74. Venus symbol and figures of mountains and house, from Maya andMexican codices 31075. Temple and sun symbol, Borgian codex 31076. Mexican deity, Vienna codex 31177. Sculptured slab, Santa Lucia Cosamalhuapa, Cruatemala 31278. Symbols and figures of Quetzalcouatl, from INIexican codices 31579. Mexican deities, after Dunin and Sahagun 31980. Procession and sacrifice, from Sahagun manuscript and Borgian codex . 32081. Sacrifice and tribute bearer, from Mexican codices 32182. The sun god, Borgian codex 32383. Symbols of pueblos, from Mexican codices 34284. Temple pyramid of Tepoztlan, Valley of Cuernavaca 34585. View of interior of Tepoztlan, after Sevilla 34686. Glyphs of Mexican kings ?5'* ' 87. Tepoztecatl, the pulque god, from Mexican painting in Bil)liotecaNazionale, Florence ?"88. Stone idol, from Tepoztlan '^^^^89. Stone figure, from the Uhde collection ?'^?'^^^90. Stone figure of pulque god, Trocadero Museum '^^l91. "Juego de pelota", from Tepoztlan '^'^^92. Mexican figures of the sun, moon, certain stars, and constellations. . . .3.->693. God of the morning star and fire god, Mexican '''^I*94. Fitiures of the fire god and other deities, from tlie Mexit-an codices.. 363 8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28PageFig. 95. Figures of su))posed deities, Mexican rodices 36896. Mexican deities and Maya hieroglyphs 36997. Deity figures from the Mexican codices 37298. Figures and glyphs of Ah-bolon tzacab, Maya codices 37799. Figures and symbols of Maya and Mexican deities 378100. Symbolic figures, from the Maya and Mexican codices 381101. Glyphs and deity figures, from the Maya codices 383102. Glyphs and deity figures, from the Maya codices 388103. Glyphs of the month Kayab, and turtle figures, from INIaya codicesand inscrij)tions -124104. Glyphs and figures, from the Maya codices 425105. Glyphs of animals and month Mol, from Maya codices 428107. Glyphs from the Maya codices 441108. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 448109. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 469110. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 503111. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 505112. Day signs from the Maya codices 518113. Glyphs from the Palenque inscriptions 585114. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 598115. Glyphs from the Dresden codex 599116. Figures showing tattooing and facial decoration 600117. Representations of sandals, from Dresden codex and insi-riptions 603118. Representation of sandals and leg ornaments 604119. Leg and wrist ornaments 605120. Dress of the lower part of the body of females 606121. Dress of the lower body, from codices and sculptures 608122. Dress of females, from Dresden codex and monuments 609123. Mantles from Maya codices 610124. Figures showing dress, feather work, and necklaces 612125. Necklaces, ear ornaments, and so-called elephant trunk 614126. Ear ornaments and collars 616127. Ear ornament and synd)ol 616128. Headdresses from Maya codices and monuments 618129. A weaver' s shuttle, from Yucatan 621130. Glyphs from Maya codices and inscriptions 644131. Figures of warriors, from the Mendoza codex 653132. Messengers and traders attacked, from Mendoza codex 653133. Travelers and whip, from Columbino codex and Chama vase 654134. Figures from codices showing beards, and glyphs from vase 659 INTRODUCTION I For a number of years English-speaking- students of aboriginalAmerican history have given much attention to the archeology andespecially to the glyphic writing of the semicivilized peoples ofmiddle America. Researches relating to the latter subjecf are ofexceptional importance, not only because of their bearing on nativehistory, but on account of their application to the problems of theorigin and development of writing in general. Investigations regard-ing the American glyphic system have been greatly stimulated inrecent years by kindred researches in various parts of the world, andmore especially l)y the remarkable results achieved by Egyptologists,who, through the discovery of the Rosetta stone, have been able topresent to the world historic treasures of the greatest value. Althoughthere is no prospect that an American " Rosetta stone" will l)e found,since only one well-advanced system of writing had developed in theNew World, the present investigations along this line are w(dl worththe attention of the American Government.Among the scholars engaged in the stud}' of the native Americanwriting is Mr Charles P. Bowditch, of Boston, who is earnestly seek-ing to promote researches in this direction. He found that Americanstudents who essayed to enter this field were greatly embarrassed bythe fact that much of the literature bearing on the subject was pub-lished in foreign languages, and often in forms that placed it beyondtheir reach. Access to this literature is essential to the success ofEnglish-speaking students of the glyphs, and Mr Bowditch resolvedto undertake the translation and publication of a numl)er of the moreimportant papers. He advised with Major Powell with respect to pub-lication, and it was arranged that the translations, when completed,should be brought out by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Themanuscript translations were furnished in I'JOU, but were not editedor finally presented for publication until 1903. They are now issnedin the present bulletin, without modification, save that the illustrationsare somewhat difterently assembled. It is considered advisable topresent the papers as nearly in their original form as translations per-mit, in order to faithfully recoi-d the state of the researches at theperiod of their original publication. 9 10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. -JSThe translations were made, under the direction and at the expenseof Mr Bowditch, by Miss Sehiia Wesselhoeft, with the assistance ofMiss A, M. Parker. Supervision of the publication was entrusted toDr Cyrus Thomas, of the Bureau, whose familiarity with the arche-ology and especially with the glyphic writing of middle America hasbeen of much value in the revision of the proofs,Dr Eduard Seler, author of a number of papers herein republished,was engaged in exploration in Central America and Mexico whilehis memoirs were being put in type, hence it was not possible tosubmit the proofs to him at the time. Having returned recently toBerlin, however, Doctor Seler, lias prepared brief notes and has madenecessary corrections and important additions. These appear at theclose of the volume.In 1886 the Director of the Bureau was authorized to begin thepublication of a series of bulletins in octavo form and in paper covers,designed for the expeditious printing of minor papers relating toAmerican ethnology. Between 1886 and 1900 twenty-four bulletinsappeared, and in 11)00 provision was made for the publication of suc-ceeding numbers in large octavo form, and uniform in binding withthe annual reports. Nos. 25, 26, and 27 were issued in this style. In1903, in the interest of economy, Congress authorized the return tothe octavo form, in which the present number is issued. THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGYWITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE ZAPOTEC CALENDAR BYEDTJARD SELER 11 THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGYWITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE ZAPOTEC CALENDAR"By Ediiart) SelerThe peculiarities of the s^ystein of chronolojjfy in use among thevarious civilized nations of ancient Mexico and as far as Nicaragua arewell known. We know that it was based on a period of 20 days, whichwere known by the names of various tangible ol)jocts, half of them thenames of animals, and which were hierogh'phically designated by pic-tures of these animals or objects. Twent}^ signs were taken on accountof the vigesimal system of numeration, which all these races used. Thecalculation of the days, however, at least in the prevailing chronclog}',was not carried on according to this vigesimal system, but the numerals1 to 13 were combined with these twent}^ signs, so that each of the suc-cessive da3's was distinguished by a sign and a numeral in such a waythat when the numeral 1, combined with the lirst sign, served to desig-nate the lirst day, the fourteenth day took the fourteenth sign. I)utwiththe numeral 1 again. Thus, a period of 13 X 20, or 2()0, davs was obtainedas a higher chronologic unit. For only after the lapse of this periodof time did a day again obtain the same numeral and the same sign.In the following table (Table I) the twenty signs are designated byKoman, the thirteen numerals by Arabic, numerals.Table I (first half) i 1 14 BUEEAU OF AMERICAIsr ETHNOLOGYTable I (second half) [bull. 28 11 seler] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGYTable II 15 1 16 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 28 rendered impossible any authentic concordance of fixed historicallyleitified dates of the Mexican calendar with our chronology.The chronolog-ic unit, 20 days, is contained eighteen times in 365days. Each of these eighteen twenties?falsely called "months" bytlie Spanish?was dedicated to a special deity and gave rise to a speciallestival, which was connected with the season of the year, the work tobe done at that season, and with that which was expected of the season.I'ive days were left over, to which, as superfluous, a certain sinistermeaning was ascribed. The Mexicans called thenr nemontemi ornen-ontemi, that is, "the superfluous, supplementary days", withthe secondary significance, "the useless days, which were consecratedto no deit}', useful for no civic business"?acam pouhqui, "whichneither fell to any nor were dedicated to any, which were held in noesteem", as appears from the Aztec text of book 2, chapter 37, of thehistorical work by Father Sahagun, in which they are explained inthese words: Estos cinco dias a ningun dios estan dedicados, y por esoles llamavan nemontemi, que quiere decir por demas (" These fivedays are dedicated to no god, and hence they are called nemontemi,which is to say superfluous "). They were held to bo harmful days(baldios y aciagos). For with the word nen, "that which exceeds",was also connected the idea of "superfluous'', "untit", "useless".No action of an}^ importance whatever, nor any which transcendedthe circle of the most necessary offices of life, was undertaken.The house was not swept, no cause was tried, and the unfortunateperson who was born on one of these days, "is destined to nohappiness; miserable and wretched and poor shall he live upon theearth" (quihiotinemiz ompa onquiztincmiz yn tlalticpac). But thesedays had, especially, a prophetic power for the whole 3^ear (ayacteauaya, a3'ac manaya, auh yn aca oncan teaua, quilmach cenquicui)"No one quarreled, no one got into any dispute, for whoever quarreledon these da3^s, it was believed, would ^dwa3^s continue to do so ", Averead in Sahagun's Aztec text. And still more explicit is anotherpassage, which Sahagun gives in the following words: Guardabanseen estos dias fatales, de dormir entre dia, ni de renir unos con otros,ni de tropezar, ni de caer, porque decian que si alguna cosa de estasles acontecia que siempre les habia de acontecer adelante ("The3^ werecareful during these fatal da3's not to fall asleep during the da3', notto quarrel together, not to trip or to fall, because they said that if anyof these things befell them, the3^ would continue to befall them thenceforevermore").We find the same notion in Yucatan. On these da3'S men left thehouse as seldom as possible, did not wash or comb themselves, andtook special care not to undertake any menial or difficult task, doubt-less because the3^ lived in the conviction that they would be forced tokeep on doing it through the whole ensuing year. The Mexicans were 20 18 SELER] THP: MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 17more passive in regard to these da\'s, inasniucli as tlioy nierelv tookcare to avoid conjiuing up mischief for the coming year, while theMayas did things more thoroughly. During these days, so portentousfor the entire year, they banished the evil which might threaten them.They prepared a clay image of the demon of evil, Uuayayab, that is,u-uayab-haab ("l)y whom the year is poisoned"), confronted it withthe deity who had supreme power during the year in question, andthen carried it out of the village in the direction of that cardinal pointto which the new year belonged.Of these live days writers commonl}^ say " they were not counted."And we take this to mean that the ordinary designation of the days bynumerals and signs was not applied to these days. It is true thatSahagun's Aztec text affords ground for this supposition, for it saysof the nemontemi: Yn aoctle yn toca tonalli, yn aocmo ompouih, ynaocmo om pouhque (""The days no longer have names; they are nolonger counted"). And farther on: Ca atle y tonal, ca atle ytoca . . . ca nel amo ompouhque atle ypouallo ('"They have no signs,no names . . . for in truth they are not counted"). Duran stateseven more (dearly: Los cinco dias que sobraban, tenian los estanacion por dias aciagos, sin cuenta ni provecho; asi los dejaban enbianco, sin ponerles ligura ni cuenta, y asi los llamaban nemontemi,((ue quiere decir dias demasiados y sin provecho (''The tive days thatremained this nation held to ])e unfortunate days, of no account oradvantage; so they left them blank, without giving them figure oraccount, and so called them nemontemi, which means days superfluousand of no advantage"). In Yucatan these days were also directlydesignated as xma kaba kin ("days without names"). And whatDuran states is illustrated in Landa; in the calendar recorded by him,the five superfluous days are left ])lank, without number or sign. Arewe therefore actually to suppose that these days interrupted the con-tinuous tonalamatl calculation? 1 think not. The acam pouhqui andaocmo ompouhque do not state that these days are dropped out of thereckoning, })ut, as Sahagun also quite correctly explains, that no feastwas celebrated upon them; that they were held improper and worth-less for civic action. Compare acan ompoui, cosa insuticiente y falta,6 persona de quien no se hace caso ("insufficient and faulty thing, orperson held of no account"). (Molina.) We nuist also attach thesame meaning to the phrase atle ytoca and the Maya designation xmakaba kin. And if these days were left blank, according to Diiian andLanda, this oidy signified that men avoided mentioning these unluckydays in any way. They were coimted in silence. Otherwise Ivanda,for instance, could not state that the successive years began with th(20 days, or a period of 13 X 8, that is, 2 X 52, or 101:,years, in dates separated by regular distances, without a hiatus of anykind between one and the other of the two cycles of 52 years. Stillgreater periods of time are noted down upon the last leaves of theDresden manuscript by continuous, uninterrupted dates accompaniedby check numbers.But the advocates of intercalation also appeal to manuscripts.Clavigero (volume 2, page 62) says: Questi tredici giorni eranogr intercalari, segnati nelle lor dijunture con punti turchini; non glicontavano nel secolo giil compito, neppur nel seguente, ne continu-avano in esse i periodi di giorni, che andavano sempre numerando dalprimo sino alio ultimo giorno del secolo ("These thirteen days werethe intercalary ones, designated in printing them by blue dots; theywere not counted in the century already completed, nor in the follow-ing one either, nor were the periods of days continued in them whichwere continuously numbered from the first to the last day of thecentury"). Clavigero himself has not seen these manuscripts, butrefers to Don Carlos Sigiienza. The materials which Sigiienza pos-sessed seem for the most part to have passed into the possession ofBoturini. In consequence of their seizure by vice-regal authority theydisappeared from the scene. A part of them are in the Aubin collec-tion, whose present owner is M Eugene Goupil, of Paris. I do notthink that there are any papers among them which justify Clavigero's sEiER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 21 assertion. And 3 et I have seen l)lne numeral signs in a Maya manu-script, which might be interpreted in the sense of a correction orpossibly also of an interpolation. On pages 23 and 24 of the Fere/codex, the Mexican manuscript of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Parisare thirteen columns of 5 days each, which nuist be read from rightto left and from above downward, as the addition and as the positionof the hieroglyphs sliow, which, unlike the mode of writing employedelsewhere in the Maya manuscripts, is face backward (to the left).The separate dates in the series each ditier by 28 days and the last datein the first (top) row diti'ers from the tirst date in the second row by 28days also. There are in all 5x13x28, or 7x260 days^ that is, thespace of 7 tonalamatl. The muiierals belonging to the dates of thedays are, as usual, written in red, but above or below each column oftigures another figure is written in blue, which would denote a datesome 20 daj's further on. This is evidently a correction, but scarcelyone which can be taken for a sort of intercalation. It is a correctionwhich states what tigures belong to the dates when the beginning ofthe whole series is pushed forward by a unit of 20 days.Leon y Gama varies Sigiienza's theory of intercalation l)y stating(Dos Piedras, pages 52 and 53) that the Mexicans interpolated 25 daysat the close of a double cycle of 104 j^ears, or 12^ days at the end of a52-year cycle, and according to this the days of the one cycle l)egan inthe morning, those of the other in the evening. But this is mere spec-ulation. FinalW, the theory of the Jesuit Fabrega, with which A.von Humboldt agrees (Vue des Cordilleres, volume 2, page 81), thatthe Mexicans suppressed 7 days at the close of a great period of 20cycles, or 1,040 years, and thus reduced their 3'ear to almost the exactlength of the tropical year, rests upon an actual error. The passage inquestion from the Borgian codex (pages 62 to 66) by no means treats ofso long a space of time. The simple series of twenty day signs is repre-sented by beginning with ^Nlalinalli, or XII, on page (56 and ending onpage 62 with Ozomatli, or XI. The signs were undoubtedly originallyintended to be distributed around four sides of a square with the last(Ozomatli) in the middle.If, as I believe, the theory of intercalation is to l)e rejected, the(juestion arises all the more forcibly. How did the Mexicans contriveto make their system of chronology agree with the actual time'^ Mustthey not have speedily observed that their annual feasts, which fell inportions of the year determined by the course of the sun, the alterna-tion of wet and dry weather, winter sleep and perfection of vegetation,were noticeably advanced in the course of successive years ? Doubtlessthey did observe it, but they could hardly have known how to remedyit. And doubtless the confused and contradictory statements givenby th(> Indians themselves in regard to the time of their now year andthe true time of the various festivals were due to this uncertainty, to 22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the lack of intercalations. Es de notar (" It is to be noted"), saysSahagun at the close of his seventh book, quo discrcpan miicho endiversos lugares del principio del ano; en unas partes me dijeron quecomenzaba a tantos de Enero; en otras que a primero de Febrero; enotras que a principios de Marzo. En el Tlaltelolco junte muchos viejos,los mas diestros que yo pude aver, y juntamente con los mas habilesde los colegiales se alterco esta materia por muchos dias, y todos ellosconcluyeron, diciendo, que comenzaba el ano el segundo dia de Febrero(""that the beginning of the year ditiers greatly in different places; insome parts they told me that it began on such a day in January; inothers on the 1st of February; in others at the beginning of March.In Tlaltelolco 1 assembled many old men, the most skillful possil)le, andtogether with the most learned scholars they disputed as to this matterfor many days, and they all concluded by saying that the year beganon the second day of February '').The festivals connected with the course of the seasons, with theirelaborate ceremonies, had undoubtedly been observed from the earliestages and were similarl}^ celebrated over large portions of the country.The fixing of the beginning of the year was closely connected withthese festivals, and was also, as ma}^ positively be asserted, originallythe same over large portions of the country. The earlier, however,that a tribe gave up vaguely determining these festivals according tothe course of the sun and the condition of the crops and the priestsbegan to keep account of them by means of the continuous tonalamatlcomputation, the more must the beginning of the year and the festi-vals, or the relation of the latter to the beginning of the 3'ear, havebeen displaced for that tribe.There is reason to believe that what the Indian conference calledtogether at Tlaltelolco" by Sahagun finally determined, namely, thatthe year began with the Quauitleua, the feast of the rain god (Tlaloque),and on the 2d of February, according to Christian computation,vei'y nearly corresponded to the original custom; for in far distantYucatan, inhal)ited by a different civilized nation, we ffnd an approachto this idea in Landa's statement that the Mayas celebrated in honorof the rain gods (Chac), the feast Ocna (''Entrance into the house"),or, as Landa translates it, "Renewal of the temple", in one of theso-called months (really units of 20 da^^s) Chen and Yax; that is, aboutthe month of January, on a day which the priests expressly deter-mined, doubtless according to the chronology kept by them. Mira-ban los pronosticos de los Bacabes ("They beheld the prophecies ofthe Bacabs"); that is, they decided according to the deity who ruledover the year whether the j^ear would be good or bad. Y demasdesto renovavan los idolos de barro y sus braseros, y si era menester,liacian de nuevo la casa 6 renovabanla, y ponian en la pared la memoriadestas cosas con sus caracteres ("And besides this they renewed their sEi.EK] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 23idols of clay and their braziers, and if necessary they rebuilt the house orrenovated it, and placed upon the wall the memory of these things intheir proper characters"); that is, they established the character whichthe 3'ear was to have and renewed their objects of worship and house-hold utensils?ceremonies whose original meaning can only have beenthat the beginning of the year was set at this time. In fact, the Zotzilof Chiapas, whose people were near kin to the Mayas, seem also tohave begun the year with the month Chen, which they called Tzun,that is, "beginning" (see Pineda, quoted by Orozco y Berra, volume2, page 14:2). I may remark by the wa^^ that, just as we find theNew Year's feast of the Mexicans among the Mayas, so, too, the man-ner in which half a year later, in the month of Jul}^, the Mayasobserved their real New Year by solemnly conducting the spirit ofevil out of the village finds an analogy among the Mexicans in thebroom festival (Ochpaniztli), observed in August.The decision of the Indian conference at Tlaltelolco?that the firstday, Quauitleua, fell at the beginning of Februar}^?nuist therefore alsobe regarded as corresponding quite closely to the actual custom, becauseif it did so the various festivals were suited to the seasons in whichthey fell. The sixth feast, Etzalqualiztli, which refers to the settingin of the rainy season, fell on May 13. Don Cristobal del Castillo,who drew his information from Tetzcocan sources, and whom Gamafollows, begins the year with the feast Tititl, which lay two twentiesback, but sets the beginning of the year full 24 days earlier, so that byhis reckoning the feast Etzalqualiztli, belonging to the opening of therainy season, falls on the 29th of Ma3^ The interpreter of the CodexVaticanus A in one place accepts the 15th, in another the 21:th of Feb-ruary, as the beginning of the year. According to this Etzalqualiztliwould fall on May 26 or June 4. Clavigero's opinion that the 2()th ofFebruary and Duran's that the 1st of March was the beginning of the3'ear do not differ very widel}' from what is indicated b}- the nature ofthe seasons. Etzalqualiztli, the setting in of the rainy season, wouldfall on the 6th or Uth of June. We should thus have for the latterevent, specially important in the life of the civilized peoples ofMexico, a range of about the length of one of our months, whichfully corresponds with the nattiral conditions. If, finally, Tlaxcaltecsources make the year begin with Atemoztli, a feast occurring somethree twenties before Quauitleua, this gives us as the latest term whichwe find appointed for Quauitleua the last of December as the beginningof the year?a theory which again changes the beginning of the yearto what was a significant time as well to the Mexicans as the Mayas:the middle of the dry season. But the very fact that the nemontemi,the final and supplementary days of the year, were set now beforeQuauitleua, now before Tititl, now before Atemoztli, or elsewhere, asbefore Tlacaxipeualiztli, as according to the Guatemalan Cronica Fran- 24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 ciscana of 1683, was usual among- the Cakchikels, proves that festivalswere displaced aiuong- the Mexicans, that their years were actually tooshort, and that they were constantly falling into confusion in theircalendar of feasts.But if among the Mexicans festivals were constantly displaced inconsequence of their inability to express the real length of the year intheir system of chronology, on the other hand the tonalamatl computa-tion ofi'ered a strong framework, which, elaborated by the expert handsof priests, left not a moment's doubt as to the space of time whichdivided a given day from another. At one point only is the uncer-tainty of Mexican chronology apparent here; that is in regard to thelirst day of their year and to the titles which were assigned to thedifferent years, corresponding to their initial days. If, as 1 saidabove, it necessarily follows from the system of the tonalamatl and theacceptance of a year of 365 days that of the twenty day signs onlyfour fall on the opening days of the year, which four were each foursigns apart, one from the other (that is, there were four intermediatesigns), and if we further find that the years wereusuall}^ designated byfour day signs standing four signs apart, it is then the most naturalinference that it was from the initial davs of the year that these yearsthemselves were named. But this does not seem, or at least not uni-versall}^ to have been the case.Among the Mexicans the years were designated by the signs Acatl(reed), Tecpatl (Hint), Calli" (house), Tochtli (rabbit); that is, XIII,XVIII, III, and VIII, of the twenty day signs. To these correspondexactly the Chiapanec, Been, Chinax, Votan, Lambat, while }n Yuca-tan the signs Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac?that is, IV, IX, XIV, and XIXof the day sig-ns?were used for successive years. The four signs,Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtli, were registered upon the four arms ofa cross with hooks, in the style shown in tigure 2. By following acircle in the direction opposite to that in which the hands of a clockmove we pass from 1 Acatl past 2 Tecpatl, 3 Calli, 4 Tochtli, to 5Acatl, etc. , until we come to 13 Tochtli, As this registration suggests,the 3^ears recorded on one arm of the cross with hooks were alwaysreferred to a particular quarter of the heavens; the Acatl years to theeast, Tecpatl to the north, Calli to the west, and the Tochtli years tothe south. Computation within the cycle began in the east with theAcatl years, not with 1 Acatl, but, singularly enough, with 2 Acatl,so that the cycle closed with 1 Tochtli. The present period of theworld began, so the Mexicans believed, in the year 1 Tochtli. Theearth was created in this period, or rather the heavens, which fell atthe close of the last prehistoric period of the world, were again liftedup. Not until this was completed could tire be again produced andthe first cycle of 52 years be thus begun. This is expressly stated inthe Fuenleal codex of the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. SELF.R] THE MEXICAN "CHRONOLOGY 25Therefore 2 Aoati is the opening year of the tirst and ,)f all followino-cycles. As such it is also desionated in all pictui-e manuscripts ofhistorical nature by the tire drill. The statement of the interpretei'of the Codex Telleriano-Kemensis, part 4, paiL>e 24, on which Orozco yBerra hiys so nuich stress, that the betrinninj,^ of the cycle was lirstchanged from 1 Tochtli to 2 Acatl in the year J .5()(), under Motecuhzoma,on account of the famine which reoularly occurred in preyious years,is merel}' an attempt to explain the remarkable fact that the cyclebegins with the numeral 2 in a euhemeristic way. But Clayigero'sassertion that the cycle began wnth 1 Tochtli is simply an error. Itcontradicts the accounts of ancient authorities and all that documentstell us.With what days did the years begin? Duran and Cristobal delCastillo sa}' that the year l)egan with Cipactli, the tirst of the twentysigns for the dsiys. And if this is to be accepted as the initial day ofone year, then the others would begin with Miquiztli, Ozomatli, Cozca-quauhtli, VI, XT, and XVI of the signs for the da3's. This is Clayi-gero's theory. He begins the j^ears Tochtli, Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli,corresponding wdth Cipactli, Miquiztli, Ozomatli, Cozcacjuauhtli. I,myself, formerly )?elieyed that the years Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtliwere to be coupled with the da3^s Cipactli, Miquiztli, Ozomatli, andCozcaijuauhtli as initial days, relying upon page 12 of the Borgiancodex wliich agrees witli Codex Vaticaiuis B, page 2S, where we seerepresented l)y tiye Tlaloc tigures the live cardinal points and theirsigniticance in the life and housekeeping of men, and among the lirstfour of them the signs for the four years coordinated in the al)()\emanner with the signs of the aforesaid four days. But I haye recentlybecome puzzled again, since the aboye-mentioned pages of the manu-scripts yery readily admit of another explanation. For not only werethe years of the cycle apportioned among the four cardinal points, butso also were the four divisions of the tonalamatl, ])egiiming with 1Cipactli. The initial days of the four quarters were plainly d(\signatedin the Zapotec calendar? which, as we shall see, perhaps representsone of the most primitiye forms of this chronologic system -as theCocijo or pitao, that is, ''the holders of time", ''the rain gods", or "the great ones", "the gods". " In these names we find, then, a directreference to the Tlaloc figures, which we see depicted in the Borgiancodex, page 12, and Codex Vaticanus H, page 28, as representatiyes ofthe cardinal points. And the day signs set down under the lattersignify those yery initial days of the tonalamatl diyisions and the initialyears of the cycle divisions which were supposed to be coordinatedwith the cardinal points.The wisdom of the Mexican priest chroniclers spent itself in elabo-rating the tonalamatl from its arithmetico-theoretic and augural side.There is not?aside from a passage in the Maya manuscript, of which 26 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28I shall speak further on?a single place in the entire mass of picturemanuscripts belonging- to the pre-Spanish time where the successiveyears are enumerated with their initial days. This fact alone shouldmake us suspicious in regard to the assertions of Duran and Cristobaldel Castillo. For Cipactli, the first day of the tonalamatl, and thefollowing signs are generally used in the manuscripts somewhat as areour numerals 1 to 20. Bishop Landa also states directly of the Mayacalendar, that the tirst day of the year and the first day of the tonala-matl had absolutely nothing to do with each other. If we take intoconsideration the confusion, which, as 1 have explained above, pre-vailed in Mexico in regard to the beginning of the year, we can notavoid the impression that the opening days of the year were also dis-placed in the course of time, and thus could not always keep the samenames. If we once admit this, then the fact that it became necessaryto call the successive 3^ears by the names of the days Acatl, Tecpatl,Calli, Tochtli, acquires increased meaning. We can not well refuseto assume that at the time when and in the place where it tirstoccurred to the learned that only four of the twenty signs for thedays fall upon tho initial days of the years, it was just these very days,Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtli, with which the year then and in thatplace began, or at least, that these days, for whatsoever reasons, thenand in that place were chosen for the opening days of the year. Ifind an indirect proof that this was indeed the case in the fact thatancient accounts from two remote and widely separated localities, fromMeztitlan, on the boundaries of Huaxteca, and from Nicaragua, makethe series of twenty day signs begin with Acatl. In the Dresdenmanuscript the years do not begin with Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac, thefourth, ninth, fourteenth, and nineteenth day signs, with which, ata later period, to judge from Landa and the books of Chilan Balam,the Mayas began their years, but with Been, Ezanab, Akbal, andLamat, that is, the thirteenth, eighteenth, third, and eighth signs,which answer to the Mexican Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtli.In a paper presented before the International Americanist Congressat Berlin E. Forstemann, to whom we owe so many discoveries, espe-cially in regard to the mathematics of the Dresden manuscript, furnishedproof that the many high numbers which are to be found, particularly inthe second part of the Dresden maimscript, take for granted that the day4 Ahau (4 XX), the eighth of the month Cumku (the last of the eighteenannual festivals), is to be regarded as a zero mark, inasmuch as, if wecount on from this da}" for the number of days which the figure stand-ing above gives us, we obtain a different date, which?again exactlyindicated by numeral and sign and statement of what day of whichmonth?is noted beside it. Now Mr F<)rstemann saw very plainly thatthis zero mark, 4 Ahau, 8 Cumku, with which the other dates in themanuscript, with a very few exceptions, agree, clearly can not be SEI.KK] THP: MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 27made to liai-monize with Landa's theory of the l>eginnino- of the year.He therefore says that S Cuuiku is to be understood as '' the eve of afestival", the day which is followed by the eio-hth day of the monthCumku. The ingeniousness of this explanation certainly satisHed MrForstemann less than an3^one. 1 hold that 8 Cumku can not well beanything else than the eighth da}^ of the month Cumku. And if a dav4 Ahau (-1: XX) was the eighth day of the month C'umku, then tiie Hrstda}' of that month must be a day 10 Been (io XI 11) and the year mustalso have begun with Been, the thirteenth day sign, the Mexican signAcatl. According to this, therefore, the signs of the first days of theyears were not the fourth, ninth, fourteenth, nineteenth day signs(Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac), ])ut the thirteenth, eighteenth, third, eighthday signs. Been, Ezanab, Akbal, Lamat, or in Mexican, Acatl, Tecpatl,Calli, Tochtli. That this is actually the case in the Dresden mamiscriptis also confirmed elsewhere.Not unlike the Mexicans in their custom stated a1)ove, the Mavas alsoassigned the successive years of the c^^cle to the four cardinal points. Thebooks of Chilan Balam, acop}^ of which, prepared by the late lamentedDoctor Berendt, 1 had occasion to use in Doctor Brinton's li])rarv. unani-mously ascribe the Kan years to the east, the Muluc years to the north,the Ix years .to the west, and the Cauac years to the south. To besure, Landa contradicts this. Still the same relation follows from hisassertions. For the Kan 3^ears, which he assigns to the south, werethe years in the days preceding which, according to his statements,the spirit of evil dominating the Kan years was ])rought into the vil-lage from a southerly direction, and then borne out of the village onthe eastern side, that is, in the direction jjrobably significant of the newyear. And so, too, with the other 3^ears: ''"The Chac-uuayayab of theMuluc years is taken out toward the north, the Zac-uuayayal)of thclxyears toward the west, and the Ek-uuayayai) of the Cauac years towardthe south."Now, what years and what cardinal points are connected in the manu-scripts ? There is no lack of hieroglyphs for the four and the five cardi-nal points, respectively, in the manuscripts. We know distinctly that(( to d in figure 1 represent the four cardinal points, and that e to r/ areprobably variants of a hieroglyph for the fifth cardinal point, the direc-tion upward from l)elow, or downward from above. It was, however,still doubtful how a to lh and pages 'IQc and 306% the hieroglyphs11 to y, figure 1, are invariably combined with one of the hieroglyphsof the four cardinal points. And so, too, on pages SOc and 81c we seethe same elements of t to ui (always changing with the cardinal points)forming part of another hieroglyph otherwise not clear. Finally, thesame elements are (Dresden manuscript, pages 317> to ?Ah) added tothe principal glyph of Chac itself and combined with the same cardinalpoints. I have alread}^ suggested in my earlier work (Zeitschrift fiirEthnologic, volume 20, page 4) that these hieroglyphic elements chang-ing with the cardinal j)oints are meant to denote colors. We knowthat the Mexicans, like the Mayas and many other American nations,ascribed certain colors to the cardinal points, and that the objects orbeings whose various forms were supposed to reside at the difl'erentcardinal points were distinguished by the color appropriate to thecardinal point in question.Thus in Landa, in speaking of the xma kaba kin ceremonies, accord-ing to the year?that is, according to the respective cardinal point?a yellow, red, white, and black Bacab, a yellow, red, white, andblack Uuayayab, a yellow, red, white, and black Acantun is men-tioned!. But if this be the case, then the element of v/', figure 1, nmstdenote the color ek, "black". For in both the above-mentionedpassages of the Dresden manuscript the rain god (Chac) is repre-sented in black color below the glyph provided with this element(while he is left white elsewhere). The element v- (same figure), onthe contrary, is most probably to be described as expressing the colorzac, "white", for it forms the characteristic element in the glyphof the month name Zac, h. The element ^l may be taken to expresschac, "red", for it forms the characteristic element in the glyph ofa goddess, w, a companion of Chac, who is represented in the Dr(>sdencodex, pages 67? and 71, in red color and witii tiger claws. Finally,the gly])h t (same figure), seems as if it must be intended for Uan, "yellow". This is proved by the similarity of the element to thefigures by which gold, the yellow metal, is represented in Mexican 32 BUREAU OF AMP:RICAN ethnology [bull. 28glyphs; also by the fact that, in coiijuiiction with the element '"tree"''',it is used to denote honey and honey wine (// and o, tigure l>), andthat it a[)pears vicariousl}' for kin. ''sun", and is tsometinies replacedl)}^ the hieroglyphic expression for th(> latter. According to this,indeed, we should have the four colors, yellow, red, white, and black,in t to w, tigure 1, and in the same order of succession as they aregiven by Landa for the four cardinal points.But these elements, which I call kan, chac, zac, and ek, are not, in theabove-mentioned passages, as we should suppose, assigned to the east,north, west, and south, but, in the same way as Landa?though, aswe must assume, incorrectly?refers the variously colored Bacabs andtheir years to the cardinal points, the}^ are assigned to the south, east,north, and west. I must confess that this fact disturbed me for a longtime, until it gradually became clear to me that in this instance otherideas were decisive in referring the rain god, Chac, to the cardinal points,and hence other colors were necessarily chosen to express that refer-ence than those chosen for the Bacabs prevailing in the different years.Wherever the Bacabs themselves and the difl'erent years and the cere-monies performed before the beginning thereof are represented in theDresden manuscript, especiall}" on the familiar pages 25 to 28, there theelements of iigures f to ui are not coordinated with d, a, 5, c, but with rt, h, e, d (tigure 1)?that is, actually with the east, north, west, and south.This can not, indeed, be noted on all four pages, the upper parts of 25 and27 being unfortunately too far destro3'ed. But we can still see thaton all four pages in a certain place on the upper part there was a per-vading hieroglyph, which contained the elements of t to in as a varia-ble constituent part. The same is retained on two pages, 2<) and 28(see r and *?, tigure 1), and there we actually see that the elements of uand v^?that is, as I assume, red (chac) and black (ek)?are allotted tothe north and south. That yellow (kan, t) and white (zac, v) are alsocorrespondinglv arranged is, I think, as good as certain. And theseassumptions are confirmed by corresponding passages in the Troanocodex. There the various Chacs are represented, pages 30 and 29^,beginning with that of the west, c. And the elements ek, kan, chac,zac answer to the directions of c, d^ a, h. On pages 31 and 30c7, onthe contrary, the various Bacabs are represented, beginning with that ofthe east (chac and hobnil). And here, as comparison with the Cortescodex, pages 41 and 42, show the elements kan, ek, zac, chac correspondto the directions of a, d, c, h?that is, east, south, west, north. Thus,that which I think I have discovered in regard to color nomenclatureagrees with the old Schultz-Sellack idea that a to d represent hiero-gl3'phically the cardinal points?east, north, west, south, or likin,xaman, chikin, nohol.Now if we turn with this, as 1 believe, (-ertain knowledge to pages25 to 28 of the Dresden manuscript, on which the various yea?'s are rep- sEiERl THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 33 resented and the ceremonies performed before the begiiniinu- of tliem,in the xnia Ivaba kin, I have still another exception to make. Thon^is an error in these pages. In the lowest row of hioroglyphs, the ver}^one which contains the hieroglyphs of the various cardinal points,north and south, xaman and nohol, d and J, arc transposed. It is obvi-ous that this is an error. Nowhere else in this manuscript do we tindthe order of succession c/, d., c, h. Only in the carelessly drawn CodexTroano-Cortes do we meet with a couple of inversions of the true order.So w^e find in Troano codex, page 36, where, however, there seems alsoto be an error, for the series goes on afterwards in the proper direction.And so, too, in Troano codex, pages 30 and 31, we have a reversal of theorder, as the succession of the colors kan, ek, zac, and chac shows. Hutthese are exceptions. As a general thing the order of succession of the3'ears follows the correct order also in the Troano codex. If we makethese corrections in pages 25 to 28 of the Dresden manuscript, we haveon these pages, as is fit, beginning with the east, the years answering tothe east, north, west, and south?that is, therefore, according to the))ooks of Chilan-Balam, the Kan, Mukic, Ix, Cauac years. But welook in vain for the signs for these years on those pages. On the frontof those pages, on the other hand, two successive day signs are repeatedthirteen times, wdiich can hardly be anything but the last day of theold and the first day of the new year. We have on page 25 VM (XII)and Been (XIII); on page 26, Caban (XVII) and Ezanal) (XVIII); onpage 27, Ik (II) and Akbal (111), and on page 28, Manik (VII) and Lamat(VIII). It therefore follows, according to the Dresden maiuiscript,that the years corresponding to the east, north, west, and south?thatis, the later Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac years? must have begun withthe days Been, Ezanab, Akbal, and Lamat; that is, with the Mexicancharacters Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli. This is precisely whatwe learn from ?he date 4 Ahau, 8 Cumku, and the other dates com-bined from figures, signs, and statements in regard to months.In one of my first works, in which I stated the result of my Mayastudies (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, volume 19, Verhandlungen, pages224 to 231), I attempted to identify the deities represented on pages25 to 28 of the Dresden manuscript with the deities mentioned byLanda in connection with the X^iia kaba kin ceremonies. 1 think myinferences at that time were perfectly correct. But l)ecause I did notread the hieroglyphs of the cardinal points aright, and because I hadno knowledge of the circumstance set forth above, namely, that theKan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac years begin witli the days Been, E/anab,Akbal, and Lamat, I w^as forced to make the somewhat I)ol(l conjiH-turethat the names given by Landa were probably to be applied to the fig-ures in the Dresden manuscript, but not in the order Kan, Muhic, Ix,and Cauac, as Landa reckoned the years, but in the order Ix. ^'iin'i'"-Kan, and Muluc, as they appear in the Dresden maiuis(ii[)t. This7238?No. L'8?05 3 34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 conjecture is now wholly superfluous. The Dresden manuscript does,indeed, reckon the years precisely as Landa does, that is, beginningwith the east, but the years which Landa designates by the dominicalletters, Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac, are here specified by the initialdays Been, Ezanab, Akbal, and i^amat. The chief figure on the firstpage is a god with a remarkable l^ranching nose, whose principalhieroglyph is a^ figure 3, a hieroglyph which otherwise serves todesignate the lightning animal, the heavenly dog darting from theclouds. Instead of the latter, e (same figure), that is, the head of Cha(5,appears as the principal hieroglyph in the Dresden codex, page 3.It is therefore obvious that this god is a god of rain and thunder.Landa mentions in the Kan year Bolon Zacab, a name which is not Fig. 3. Symbols from the Maya codices.known elsewhere. But he also states, and that only of the Kan j^ears,that they are said to be rich in rain.On the second page (26) of the Dresden manuscript the chief figureis a god who has the sign kin written on his e3'ebrow, and whosechief hieroglj'ph, h, figure 3, likewise contains the sign kin. Thisagrees with Landa's statement, who, in the Muluc j'ears, mentionsKinchahau, the "Lord with the sun face". On the third page theold god is represented, whose chief hieroglyph is e^ figure 3. Thisagain agrees with Landa, who mentions the god Itzamna in the Ix3^ears. And on the last page (28) of the Dresden manuscript a deathgod is designated hy the hieroglyph d^ the face with gaping jaws;elsewhere written also in the form of glyph h. This, too, agrees withLanda, who calls the Uac Uiitun ahau of the Cauac years "Lord ofsix hells". I can not go into further details concerning these deities SKIER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 35here, and refer the reader to my work quoted above. The two glyphs,which I have given in the plate accompanying- this work ( f and r/tigure 3), are characteristic companion glyphs, /'of Ivinchaiiau and (/of Itzamna. The former gives the idea of clouds or heaven, lightnino-,and fire; the latter may he translated as Ahtok, "Lord of the stoneknife '\Now, how are we to understand this difference between the Dresdenmanuscript and Landa's assertions in regard to the first day of the ^'ear? Are we to assume that Landa was mistaken in making theKan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac years begin also with the days Kan,Muluc, Ix, and Cauac? Or shall we assume that at some particularperiod later than that of the composition of the Dresden manuscript acorrection was made, in consequence of which the first days of theyears ascribed to the east, north, west, and south no longer fell uponthe signs Been, Ezanab, Akbal, and Lamat, but on the signs Kan,Muluc, Ix, and Cauac? I incline to the latter view, and remark thataccording to this the Troano and Cortes codices, which are only the twohalves of one and the same codex, would belong to the later pei'iod.For on pages 23 to 20 of the Troano codex, whose meaning correspondswith that of pages 25 to 28 of the Dresden manuscript, on the front ofthe pages, not the initial days Been, P^zanab, Akl)al, and Lamat, butlikewise, thirteen times repeated, the da3^s Cauac, Kan, Muluc, and Lxare found.In spite of this variability of the beginning of the \-ear the Mayaraces obtained a fixed chronology b}" reckoning, not the years, but thedays, from a zero point. Thus the tonalamatl reckoning afforded afirm basis, which prevented any error.Among the Cakchikels the zero point was furnished ])y a particu-lar historic event, the destruction of the seditious race of the Tukuchee,which occurred on the day 11 Ah (11 XIII). By counting from thiszero vigesimall}^?that is, by 20x20 days?they obtained periodswhich all began with the day Ah (XIII, or the Mexican Acatl), whichsuccessively took the numbers 11, 8, 5. 2, 12, 9, 6, 8, 13, 10, 7, -1, 1,and then again 11. Such a period Avas called a huna, and twentysuch periods a may (see my communication in the Zeitschrift fiir Eth-nologie, volume 21, Verhandlungen, page 475).Among the Mayas the starting point was undoubtedly the zero jwint1 Ahau 8 Cumku pointed out in the Dresden manuscript by Forste-mann? that is, a day which bore the numeral 4 and the sign Ahau (XX,or the Mexican Xochitl), and was the 8th of the month Cumku, thelast of the eighteen months of the year. But from this zero point thereckoning was not consistently vigesimal, but, as also follows from thecomputation in the Dresden manuscript set forth by Forstemami. byperiods of 20X360 days. These periods, since their munhcr is divis-ible by 20, had alwa3^s to take the same sign Ahau (XX, or the Mcxi- 36 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2S can Xochitl). But as the figure 13 only goes into 7,200 with a remain-der of 11, the figure of the first day of the period had to be two lessthan that of the first day of the previous period. Jn a word, theinitial days of the successive periods of 7,200 days are 1 Ahau, 2 Ahau,13 Ahau, 11 Ahau, Ahau, 7 Ahau, 5 Ahau, 3 Ahau, 1 Ahau, 12Ahau, 10 Ahau, S Ahau, 6 Ahau, and then again 4 Ahau. Such aperiod was called katun. It is still an open question upon what circum-stances it depended tiiat just such a period of 20 X 360 days was chosen.But, at any rate, this is the true length of the so-called ahau katunperiods, whose computation is clearly stated in the Dresden manu-script, but whose meaning has been very much misunderstood evendown to the present time.In later times, when the connection with old traditions, if it had notentirely disappeared, had yet been impaired in many ways, the katunwas taken, not as 20 X 360 days, but as 20 years. And thence it becameevident that the periods could not begin in the way indicated, with4 Ahau, 2 Ahau, 13 Ahau, etc., for the number 13 goes into 7,300 witha remainder of 7. Hence the initial days of the successive periods of20 years (reckoning 365 days to a 3'ear) must by turns begin with4 Ahau, 11 Ahau, 5 Ahau, etc. In order to meet this difficulty thetheory was evolved that the katun consisted, not of 20 years, but of 24years, for 24x365, or 8,760, is also divisible by 20, and the number 13goes into it with a remainder of 11, as it does into the true katun, theperiod of 20x360 days. And hence arose the dispute, in which muchink and paper have been wasted, as to whether the katun consisted of20 or 24 years. As a fact, it contained neither 20 nor 24 years (theold chroniclers did not take j^ears directly into their calculation), butit contained 20 X 360 days.Now that the relation of the tonalamatl to the other chronology hasbeen made clear, I will once more turn back to the tonalamatl itself.In my work on the character of the Aztec and Maya manuscripts(Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, volume 10, page 1 etseq.) I tried to provethat even the apparently quite dissimilar and differently named 20day signs of the. Mayas could be brought into conformity with thelinguistically and hieroglyphicall}^ distinct signs of the Mexicans.But I then overlooked one calendar, because it was not then acces-sible, or at least not intelligible, to me, namely, the Zapotec, whichis recorded in the grammar of Father Juan de Cordova, which was?imfortunatel}^, as it seems, very incorrectly and inexactly?republisheda few years ago by Doctor Leon.I have already mentioned that the Zapotec calendar is of an extremelyancient type. This is shown on the one hand by the ancient form ofthe words, w^hich are hardly explicable by the language spoken atl)resent or that recorded soon after the Conquest; also by the factthat the relation of the signs to the thirteen figures has become to SEi.ER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 37some extent incriisted upon the form of the words used to denote thedays. We can therefore detach a prolix from all of the names of theword, which is very nearly the same for all the signs connected withthe same number. There are a few exceptions, which were perhapsdue to an oversight or an erroneous conception on the part of thedeserving monk who preserved this calendar for iis or possibly aremerely to be ascril^ed to the careless reprint. We have the followingprefixes in the words combined with the various numbers:1 chaga, or tobi, the prefix quia, qnie.2 cato, or topa, the prefix pe, jii, pehi.8 cayo, or chona, the prefix peo, peola.4 taa, or tapa, the prefix cala.5 caayo, or gaayo, the prefix pe, pela.6 xopa, the prefix qua, quala.7 eaache, the prefix pilla.8 xona, the prefix ne, ni, nela.9 caa, or gaa, the prefix pe, j)i, pela.10 chij, the prefix pilla.11 chij bi tobi, the prefix ne, ni, nela.?12 chijbitopa, or i'hijl)icato, the prefix pifia, pino, pinij.13 ehijno, the prefix peee, pici, quici.Yet only a few of these various prefixes seem to contain any distinctmeaning. Primaril}' the prefix quia, quie, which belongs to the signsconnected with the number 1, which, as we know, took a special posi-tion, was regarded as the ruler of the whole following thirteen. Juande Cordova says that these units of thirteen or their initial days werecalled cocij, tobi cocij, como decimos nosotros, un mes, un tiempo ("aswe say, a month, a time"). Rut the four signs which pi-eside overthe first, sixth, eleventh, sixteenth 13 day periods, that is, the fourdivisions of the tonalamatl, were called cocijo, or pitiio, that is, "thegreat". The}' were regarded as gods and were honored with sacrificesand bloodletting. Indeed, we find in the dictionary, for instance,tiempo encogido, en que no se puede trabajar {"special time in whichno man can work")?cocij cogaa; tiempo dv mieses, frufas 6 de siego6 de algo ("season of harvests, fruits, or grain")?cocij collapa, cocijlayna, cocij; tiempo enfermo 6 de pestilencia ("sickly season, time ofpestilence")?coo yoocho, piye yoocho, cocij yoocho. But the originalmeaning of cocij can hardly have been "time". The prelix co diMiotesa nomen agentis, and in a certain way corresponds to the Mexicanprefix tia. Cocii means " when we have taken"', hence something likethe Mexican tlapoualli, and, like that, it denotes a luiit of 20 days;cocii, "20 days in the past"?that is, 20 days ago to-day; luiecii orcacii, "20 days in the future", or "in 20 days"; cacii-cacii, "every 20days". If, therefore, the Father be coi'rect in his statement, the appli-cation of the word cocii to a iniit of thirteen days can only liave b(>eii aThis is the most common prefi.x, although the exceptions here are more fre?ju?Mi(, ii\iX y z , figure 3, which is composed of the picture of the sun, an elementwhich signifies "winged", the sign Been, which signifies the wovenmat and the woven straw roof, and the sign Ik, which in this combi-nation can only signify the fire applied to the roof. In Cogolludo,the w^ord Kakupacat, "fiery glance", is given as the name of a godof war and of battle, and it is said of him: Fingian que traia en lasbatallas una rodela de fuego, con que se al)roquelaba (" He was supposedto carry a wheel of fire in battle, with which he defended himself").Now, in the Troano codex, page 24, and in the Dresden codex, page 69,the black Chac is represented with spear and shield, and the latter (_/,figure 4) has the sign Ik upon its surface. No doubt this is the fieryshield, and the black Chac is Kakupacat, related to Cit-chac-coh, in whosehonor warriors danced the war dance (holcan okot) in the month Pax.This union of wind and fire, which thus presents itself in the Zapotecname and the Maya image of the second day sign, is also probablythe ])est explanation of the dual nature which seems to belong to thewind god Quetzalcoatl, who now appears simpl}' as a wind god, andagain seems to show the true characteristics of the old god of fire andlight.In the third day sign, after removing the prefixe. that vary with thenumeral attached, we obtain the forms guela, ela, and ala or laala.Here guela and ela are well-known, nuich-used words for "night";queela or gueela, "night"; te-ela,"})y night"; te-chij te-ela, " by dayand by night"; xilo-ela colo-ela, "midnight". The form ala or laala SELER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 41seems to have been no longer in use when Juan do Cordova took upthe language. We shall also find further on that the vowel ii i>spreferred to the later e in the names of the day signs. In callini?-the third day sign by the name of the night, ''the dark house of theearth", varying from the Aztec calli, "house", the Zapotec calendaragrees with that of the various branches of the Maya family.In the fourth day sign we obtain, after removing the prefix, theforms gueche, quiche, ache, achi, ichi. The sign corresponds with theMexican Cuetzpalin, ''lizard''. Picture writings show us a lizard-likeanimal with a tail, usually painted blue, and translators state that thesign signifies "abundance of water". Now it is really hard to under-stand why the lizard, wdiich is usually found on stones and wallsheated by the sun, should be taken as the symbol of abundant water.The Zapotec word forms seem to solve this difhculty, for thev are tobe translated by "frog" or "toad". The dictionary gives peche,peeche, beeche: todo genero de rana 6 sapo. Here pe oidv occursas a prefix, which we find in almost all animal names in the form peor pi. And that eche is equivalent to the ache, achi, ichi of thecalendar is pi-oved by comparison with the fourteenth da}' ?ign, whereare found the same forms, gueche, ache, eche, used for the jaguar, whichis described in the dictionary as peche-tao, "the great peche". But,just as in the first day sign the Zapotec word suggested to us a pos-sibility of harmonizing the apparently incongruous Mexican and INIa^^aglyphs and their designations, so here in the fourth day sign thisseems also to be the case. Peche in Zapotec means literally maizekernel, not the simple ripe kernel, but the kernel roasted and, in con-sequence of the roasting, popped. We know that these grains of corn,which the Mexicans called uiomochtli, played a great part in ofi'eringsto the gods. It is even stated every time how many such grains ofcorn were used for the drink which was offered to the procession of par-ticipating- priests and chieftains in Yucatan during the xma kal)a kinceremonies. The Maya name for the fourth day sign is Kan, whichprobabl}^ goes back to kan or kanan, cosa abundante 6 preciosa ("anabundant or precious thing"). 1 have given the most chai'acteristicforms of the hieroglyph in <\ (/, and A, figure 4. They contain in theupper portion either the teeth (as on the mouth of the vessel in <-, figure4, and in the glyphs of d, //, /, and /?, figure 8, and h, figure 1, ])ages ,")(?and 36) or the eye, both of which, as 1 have already explained al)ove inregard to the hieroglyphs of />?, iigure 1, and /, k, and /, figure H, conveythe idea of the opening of the chasm. In the lower part of the Kanhieroglyphs, below the waving diagonal line, we have also a pair ofteeth, which, like the teeth in the upper part, are left white if thehieroglyph is done in colors. They are also most niiturally to ]>e con-ceived of as indicating a chasm. If we add to this that tlie hieroglyphwhen it is colored is invariably painted yellow, that is, the color of the 42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 outside of the kernel of corn, we must admit tliat the hierogl3q3h Kandoes indeed correspond to the ideas which the popped corn suggests.And, indeed, the part which the hieroglyph plays in the pictures of theMaya manuscripts is of such a nature that all authors have hithertospontaneously agreed in explaining the glyph Kan as "maize." Imyself formerly took the corncob, which we sometimes see representedwith teeth and eyes, to be Kan, because 1 did not think of popped corn;but I can now let this explanation drop, because tlie word peche andthe ideas connected with it atl'ord a satisfactory solution of the peculiarcharacteristics of the hieroglyph.For the fifth day sign the Zapotec calendar gives the roots zee,zi], which, again, are not, as we might suppose from the Aztec namefor the fifth day sign (Coatl), to be translated "snake" (snake inZapotec is pella or bela), but which seem to mean something abstract,namely, "misfortune", "evir', "trouble", "misery". In one placein the calendar, and that precisely in the first 13-day period, theword ciguij is used instead of zee, zii; and that means "deceiver", "layer of snares, who brings one into trou})le''\ If we consider thesevariants, we can, as I believe, ascribe a more pregnant meaning to zii,one that is contained in the word pijci (pijze, peezi), undoubtedlyderived from this root, which is, " harmful portent". Thus we arriveby a rounda])Out way at the same conception which the Aztec namefor the fifth day sign suggests to us, namely, the word "snake". Forit was this that the Zapotecs held to ])e the first and most serious ofall evil portents: Tenian estos Zapotecas muchas cosas por agiieros,a las quales si encontraban 6 venian a sus casas 6 junto a ellas, se tenianpor agorados dellas. P]l primero y mas principal era la culebra, quese llama pella, y como ay nuichas maneras dellas, de la manera que eraella, assi era el agiiero, esto deslindava el sortilegio ("These Zapo-tecs held many things to be omens, and if they met these things or ifthese things entered or approached their homes they held it to be anevil omen?that they would bring them misfortune. The first andchief was the viper, which is called pella, and as there are many sortsof them, according to the sort, so was the omen; this outlined theenchantment"). (Juan de Cordova, Arte, page 21-1, 188). Andthe death-l)ringing signiticance of the dog is also set forth in glyph ^^in which we tind the vertebral column of a skeleton, as also in /?, thehieroglyph of the month Kan-kin, the yellow^, that is, the scorchingsun high in the zenith. The dog shares this role of lightning beast inthe manuscripts with two other creatures. One represents a beast ofprey, unspotted, with long tail, a rather long head, and the sign Akbalover the e3"e, which is denoted in the Dresden codex, page 8(k/, by theprincipal hieroglyph of the tiger and also by .s, a glyph, which is com-posed of theda}^ sign Kan and the gl.yph kan, ''yellow", and thereforeprobably denotes the j^ellow beast. I think that it is meant for thelion or jaguar (coh), which is also, for instance, in Zapotec, describedas "the yellow beast of prey"" (pcche-yache). The other creature hasa head with a proboscislike, elongated snout, ??, and hoofs on its feet;it is glyphically described by this same head and also by gl.yph u,which is composed of an ax, a feather, and the abbreviation of a head,or the sign uinal ("a whole man")". 1 take this creature to be tzimin,("a tapir"). We know that Central American nations connected thetapir closely with the deities of the four cardinal points. We are toldof the Itzaex at Peten that the}" worshiped an idol "de figura decavallo (of the tigure of a horse)", which bore the name Tzimin-Chac,Caballo del Trueno 6 Rayo ("horse of the thunder or lightning") andwas regarded by them as the god of thunder and lightning.Nunez de la Vega says of the great god Votan at Chiapas: Que enHuehueta, que es pueblo Soconusco, estuvo, y (fue alii puso dantasy un tesoro grande en una casa lobrega, que fabrico.a soplos. ("Thathe was at Huehueta, which is a village of Soconusco, and that there heplaced tapirs and a great treasure in an obscure house which he erectedin an instknt.") Certainly, the conception of the tapirs supporting theheavens and the words for it have penetrated even into Mexico. Thesix tzitzimime ilhuicatzitzquique, angeles de aire sostenedores del cieloque eran, segun decian dioses de los aires que traian las lluvias, aguas,truenos, relampagos y rayos y "habian de estar a la redonda de Uitzilo-pochtli ("angels of the air, upholders of the heavens; they were, aswe are told, gods of the air, who brought the rain, waters, thunder,lightning, and sun})eams, and must have been in the neighl)orhood ofUitzilopochtli"), which Tezozomoc mentions, are nothing else but theplural forms of tzimin, "tapir", constructed according to the rules ofthe Mexican tongue. From it, indeed, inversely, a singular form,tzitzimitl, which is the title of a particular warrior's dress coml)ined "Scler, Ueberdu-BedoutvinKdesZahlzeiohens L'O in dor iMuya-Schrilt (Zoitschrift fi\r Ellinologie,lU, Verhandlungen, pp. 238, 239). 46 BFRKAIT OF AMERICAN P:THN()L()GY [bull. 28 with a skull mask, is derived. And if the rain god Chac is distin-guished in the Maya manuscript by a i)eculiarly long nose, curvingover the mouth (see the hieroglyph in e^ tigure 8, page 36), and if inthe other form of the rain god, to which, as it seems, the name BolonZacab belongs, the nose widens out and sends out shoots, I believethat the tapir, which was employed identically with Chac, the rain god,furnished the model for this also.The tapir is called in Zapotec peche-xolo, and the native hairlessdog peco-x(Mo. Dog and tapir, then, the two animals darting fromheaven, who carry lightning and thunderbolts in their hands, arebrouoht tooether here in the conniion designation xolo. This wordXolo itself is the familiar name of a demon, the demon Xolotl, whorules over the sixteenth week (Ce Cozcaquauhtli), and the seventeenthday sign (Olin), and who is represented directly as a dog (CodexVatican us B, pages 4 and 77) or at least with the cropped ears of a dog(Borgian codex, page 50, and Codex Vaticanus B, page 33), and who isdistinguished as the deity of air and of the four directions of the windI)}' QuetzalcoatFs breast ornament, and h\ the fact that the four colors,symbols of the four cardinal points, and the sign naui olin (''the fourmovements"), are represented close beside him. There is therefore nodoubt that this demon is to be considered as equivalent to the beastdarting from heaven of the Maya manuscript. The spirit Xolotl is usu-ally described by translators as the '^'god of abortions". He is actu-ally also depicted in the Borgian codex, page 127, as crooked-limbed andblear-eyed. And in Mexico all sorts of mongrel figures, which wereregarded as abortions, were descril>ed by the word Xolotl.If we now return to the word tela, by which the tenth day sign isdenoted in the Zapotec calendar, it appears that we can find no mean-ing for it if we simply employ the word "dog", corresponding to theMexican itzcuintli, but that the word at once becomes intelligible ifwe think of the dog darting from heaven, as represented in the Maj^amanuscript. For tela is tee-lao, boca abajo, "with the head down'',hence answering to the Mexican Tzontemoc. The contracted formtela occurs in Zapotec in various derivatives, such as ti-tela-nii, usedof the kicking out behind of animals; tiniiij-natela, "to hold perversespeech"; totela, "to shake the dice from the cup (with its mouthdownward)"; quela-natela-lachi,"" "confusion (when everything is upsidedown and topsy-turvy in our minds)."For the eleventh day sign the Zapotec calendar, after removing theprefix, gives the form loo or (in 1 XI) goloo. This answers to theMexican Ozomatli. " ape", for the v^ocabulary gives pillao, pilleo, pilloogonna, mona anim: 1 (gonna is only the feminine designation). I haveshown in my foimer work that the other calendars, as well as theMaya glyphs of this day sign, agree with this meaning.For tli^ twelfth day sign the Zapotec calendar gives the form pija. sEiF^R] THP: MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 47But when it is combined with the numeral 1, where we should expectto hnd quia pija or quiepija, qui cuija is given. It seems as if therenmst be some mistake here, and that we should read it quie pija or cjuiechija. Pii, chii means "to be turned''. Thus pija corresponds exactlyto the name (Malinalli) which the day sign bears in the Mexican cal-endar. But the name and the delineation of this sign are different inthe Maya calendar. The name is ee or eb?that is, "a row of teeth"', "'a row of peaks". It is translated in the (xuatenialan chronicle, asin the Mexican Malinalli, by eseobilla (" brush'"'). This tninslation isundoubtedly correct. The eseobilla is a broomlike or ))rushlik(} instru-ment, made of plant til)ers bound together, which is still very gener-ally used by the Indian women to clean their clothes and comb theirhair (in Zapotec peego). The brush is therefore the symbol of purifica-tion and the instrument of women. It is the attribute of the mightygoddess Teteoinnan, or Toci, the ancient earth goddess, in whose honorthe *' broom feast" (Ochpaniztli)?that is, the feast of purification, oratonement for sin?was celebrated in the middle of the sununer. TiieMaya hieroglyph for the twelfth da}^ sign (see a ?, figure 5) shows usthe face of the ancient goddess, and l^ehind it, as a distinguishing mark,the eseobilla.For the thirteenth day sign we find the woixl forms (piij, ij, andlaa. Quij means "the reed", corresponding to the name Acatl, whichthis day sign bears in the Mexican calendar and with which the Guate-malan title ah seems to agree. The Maya word been is obscure; but 1have proved in my former work that the glyph Been refers to the sameidea of the reed or, perhaps more accurately, to the woven reed roof,the woven reed mat. I do not find the mean'ug "reed" given in thedictionary for the word laa. As, however, in considering tiic secondday sign (" vvind", "tire") we found these same word forms, (piij andlaa, to be synonymous, it is probable that there was also a synonymlaa for quij, "reed". Moreover, it is a remai'kalde coincidence thatin the Maya text the glyphs of these two day signs, which have thesame names in Zapotec, the glyphs Ik and Been, should most fre-quently occur in company (see />, figure 3).For the fourteenth day sign, the Mexican Ocelotl. '?tiger", theZapotec calendar gives gueche,''eche, ache, just as in the fourth daysign. As there in the words peche. peeche, beeche. "frog" of thedictionary, we were able to prove an agreement with the Mexicanname, so here the dictionary gives peche-tao (" the great beast"), tigre,animal feroz. I have shown in my earlier work that the ^Nlaya glypliis also expressive of the tiger. The Cakchikel title. Viz. tiiat is inMayah-ez, "the magician", is to be regarded as explanatory of theMaya name for this day sign (Ix), to my idea oiu^ more liidv in thechain of reasoning in favor of the theory that the system of day signs 48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOfiY [bull. 28became known to the Mayas through the medium of the kindred racesof Chiapas. For a Tzental-Zotzil x frequently corresponds to theMaya z.In the Zapotec calendar the fifteenth day sign had the form naa and,where it is combined with the numeral 1, quirulaa. The Mexican nameis Quauhtli, ""eagle", which is easily reconciled with the Guatemalantziquin, "bird", but not so readily with the Maya word men andthe Ma\^a hieroglyph (/', figure -i). But here again the Zapotec nameaffords linguistic evidence of what I felt compelled to infer, in myearlier work, from the form of the hierogl3q3h. The Maya hiero-glyph, /', shows an aged, wrinkled face. And we see this hiero-glj^ph, lengthened out, decorated with pompons, w, applied invarious ways pictorially and hieroglyphicall}^, among others in thehieroglyph which usually accompanies the chief hieroglyph of theeagle. I decided at that time that the Maya hieroglyph repre-sented the picture of the old earth mother, the universally adoredgoddess known as Tonantzin, "our mother", who goes about stuckover with the fine white down}- feathers of the eagle, and who appearsin the Vienna codex, under the name hieroglyph ce Quauhtli, or "eagle''. Now the Zapotec name gives us the same, for naa, naameans "mother"", a word which usually appears ordy with the prefixxi of genitive significance, because names of relationship were neverused without an indication of possession.The sixteenth da}^ sign is designated in the Mexican calendar by thepicture of the vulture (Cozcaquauhtli). The Maj'a races of Guatemaladesignate it as ah-mak, and this word also seems to denote the vul-ture, "wdio eats out eyes", "who makes pitlike excavations". TheZapotec word is loo, or guilloo. This indeed could not mean thevulture, but a different bird, the raven (pelao, halloo). The vulture inZapotec is pellaqui (pelahui, balai, baldai). Now it is not impossiblethat one and the same conception underlies both these titles. Lao,loo, means "eye", "face", "front", "outside". Laqui, lahui, lai,means "set into the very midst", "between", "common", "public".But at any rate, the meaning which lies at the bottom of the root ofpellaqui, baldai, "vulture", also occurs in the root loo. We have,for instance, xi-loo-eela, co-loo-eela, "in the middle of the night", "midnight"; loo-thoo, the "middle of the body", "breast", "trunk".Still a third bird is mentioned in the Mexican calendar, of the CronicaFranciscana of Guatemala, namely the tecolotl, "the night bird", "the owl". The idea of death forms a connecting link between thevulture feeding on corpses and the dark bird of night which is easilyunderstood. So, too, in pictun^ writings we often find the cozca-quauhtli and the owl used interchangeably.The Maya hieroglyph, as I have already stated in my earlier work,gives rise to very different conceptions. It shows us (see x, iigure 4) a, SEI.ER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 49 ti|rure which is invariably usod in the niamisciipts on the juofs fromwhich the intoxicatinj^ drink mead foams (see p^ tigure )>, page 86),and which seems to be nothing but a somewhat conventionalizedform of the yacanietztli, the half-moon-shaped nose ornament of thepulque god, which is used on drinking vessels in Mexican picturewriting/' The upper part of the hieroglyph shows the stripes usuall}'employed for snakes, and seems to indicate the snake, which is oftendrawn winding about the wine jug. The name Cib also suits this con-ception, for ci is the maguey plant and is also used to denote thepulque made from it, as well as all other intoxicating drinks. C'ibmight therefore be formed with the instrumental suftix and mean "that which is used for making wine", either the honey or, perhapsmore correctly, the narcotic root which was added to the fermenteddrink. The Mexicans called this addition patli, ''medicine*', fromwhich the pulque god was known as Patecatl.'' There is a connectionbetween these conceptions and the Mexican name for the day sign(Cozaquauhtli, "vulture"), as 1 have already pointed out in \\\yearlier work, arising from the conception of the vulture, "the bald-headed," as the s^mibol of age, for the enjoyment of pulque, the intox-icating drink, was in Mexico granted to old age only. It now seemsas if the Zapotec name for this day sign also fitted into the frameworkof these conceptions, for loo, loo-paa, is the root, and may thereforecorrespond to the Mexican patli, the Maya cib, that is, the puhjueseasoning. In Gerqian there is an undoubted etymologic connectionbetween Wurzel (" root") and Wiirze ("seasoning"). So I believe thatthe double meaning of the Zapotec name has perhaps more to do withthe divergent representation and designation of the sixteenth day sign,as it appears in the Mexican and Maya calendar, than the connection ofideas which links the conceptions of vulture, baldness, old age, andpulque. If I am not mistaken, a divergent representation of thisday sign is also actually expressed in the Maya hieroglyph. For weoccasionally find a variant of it (y, figure 4) in which the distinguish-ing element is not the pulque symbol, but a feather, or perhaps thenight bird itself, the owl (see hh^ figure -I, one of the glyphs of theowl). This would also answer to the above-mentioned Guatemalariname for this day sign. The forms in the books of Chilan Balam (r andaa)^ also seem to indicate or reproduce a feather.The seventeenth day sign in the Zapotec calendar is xoo. Thiscorresponds exactly with the Aztec name for it, Olin, "motion",for the Zapotec word xoo combines with the more general meaning "powerful", "strong", "forcible", the special one "earth(iuake'': a See Veroffentlichung des Koniglichen Museums fiir Volkerkunde in Berlin, v. 1. pp. 132,133, andfigs. 61, and 62, p. 169.bin my article on "DasTonalamatlder Aubin'schenSammlung" (Coraptercndu du scptiOme sessiondii Congr^s international d'Am<:-ricanistes, Berlin, 1888), I accepted the in<-<>rr.'(i rcMilini.' riintecatl.All the deductions based on this reading are therefore faulty.7238?No. 28?05 4 50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 xoo, xixooni, temblor de tierra (''carthciuake"); tixoo lay60, temblarla tierra (""for the earth to shake"); pitiio-xoo, dios de los terremotos(" god of earthquakes "). And it is well known that in Mexican picture-writings on historical subjects, as those in Codex Telleriano-Remensisand Codex Vaticanus A, the sign Olin?usually, to be sure, in connec-tion with the brown and black dotted stripes, v.'hich signify the earthor the tilled field?is generally used to denote a coming earth(|uake,as the verb olini is especially used of earthquakes: auh in tlalli olini(Olmos).But if this is the original meaning of olin, we shall likewise have tosearch for a similar tirst conception for the hieroglyph by which theseventeenth day sign is known in the Maya manuscript. And, in fact,the ver}^ name which the day sign bears in the calendars of the Mayaraces points to this fundamental conception. The Tzental-Zotzil wordchic means "to shake". The Guatemalan word noh means "great", "powerful", answering to the original meaning of the Zapotec xoo.The Maya name caban means "that which is brought down", "thatwhich is below", that is, "earth", "world". The root cab has a stillmore pregnant meaning: in Charencey's vocabvilary it is translated asterrain volcanique, that is, "earthquake region". In a broader senseit is also used for "earth", "world". And if the same root, cab, alsomeans "excretion" and "honey", miel, colmena, ponzona de insecto,untuosidad de una planta 6 fruta, ("honey", "beehive", "venominsect", "juice of a plant or fruit"), then the intermediate idea is, itseems to me, that of dripping down.The forms of the hieroglyph Caban (cr, figure 5) are very nmch alike.But I did not recognize the real meaning in my earlier article. Thehieroglyph contains an element which forms the characteristic constit-uent of the gl3^ph of the young goddess Chibirias, or Ixchebelyax, who,as I think I can prove, takes the name Zac Zuhuy, "the white virgin ",a name which we also recognize in Zac Ziui, the Bacab of the Ix year,mentioned by Landa. It is evident in the hieroglpyh of this goddess(J and (\ same figure) that the element which forms the distinguishingconstituents of the hieroglyph Caban is meant to represent a part ofthe dark tuft of hair, with the long, waving, whiplike strands whichgive the whole figure of the goddess, where she is drawn in full, socharacteristic an appearance. According to this we should conceiveof the hieroglyph Caban merely as an abbreviation of the hieroglyphof this goddess, and thus recur to the same meaning which I havealready derived from the Zapotec word xoo, namely, "the earth";for Ixchebelyax, the young goddess, is only another form of the earthgoddess, who occupies the same position in regard to the old earthmother Ixchel that Xochiquetzal does to Tonantzin among the Mexi-cans. I find a striking proof of the accurac}^ of this conception of thehieroglyph Caban in the fact that this hieroglyph appears homolo- seler] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 51gously with the hieroolyphic men (v, figure 4), which, as I statedabove, is the picture of the old earth g-oddess, the earth mother, Ixchel,or Tonantzin (compare the two forms g and //, figure 5, which areused for the bee fiyingdown, in Troano codex, page 9*c/),And, finall}% this conception of the sign Caban also agrees very wellwith the part played by the hieroglyph Caban in the compound hiero-glyphs in the Maya maiuiscript; for this elemont forms an essentialconstituent in all hieroglyphs which sj^mbolizc the word "below" or L Fig. 5. Day signs and related glyphs from the Maya codiees. "descent from above". Thus in the hieroglyph of the tiftli canlinalpoint {e to g, figure 1), which denotes the center; in the hieroglyph ofthe bee {e to h , figure 5), which represents an insect swooping down fromabove; in the hieroglyphs (/ to n, figure 5) which illustrate pcniringfrom a jug or wine skin; in the hieroglyph o, which denotes the fellingof the tree; in the snake formed by the sign Cal)an, upon whicii. in theDresden codex, page 3(?^/, the green Chac, the Chac of the fifth direc-tion, is descending. When, in my former article, I described tiiis caban 52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 snake, a.s well as d^ which in the Dresden manuscript in several placesserves as a seat or footstool for Chac, and the element Caban generallyas the heavenly seat, I gave the wrong emphasis to descent from aboveinstead of to descent. In fact, this hgure, likev/;, figure 4, which servesin other parts of the Dresden manuscript as the seat of C'hac, shouldbe defined as "the lower place", the "earth". Indeed, the face ofthe old earth goddess is clearly visible in w^ figure 4, while the tigureof the hieroglvph Caban, as I stated above, shows us the goddess's hair.I will also mention /, figure 5, which in the Troano codex, page 25*J,accompanies the figure of the tobacco-smoking god of heaven. Accord-ing to a view still prevailing in Yucatan, the Balam, the gods of the fourcardinal points, or the four winds, are great smokers, and shootingstars are merely the burning stumps of gigantic cigars which thesebeings fling down from heaven. And when it thunders and lightens,the Balitm are striking fire to light their cigars." Grlyph i gives us theelement of the stone and the element of descent from on high. Thepopular belief just described explains therefore in a simjjle way thesesingular pictures and the hieroglyphs which accompany them. Inanother place (Troano codex, page 26*16) the smoker is described in thetext b}^ the hieroglyph k. This is either to be translated as " the noc-turnal " (see the hieroglyph Akbal) or as "the red", Chac, For Ihave found the element Akbal in various places (for instance, in theCortes codex, page lOd) used as a substitute for u, figure 1, Chac, " red".The eighteenth day sign in the Zapotec calendar bears the nameopa or gopa. This is undoubtedly the same word as copa, " cokr', "the cold"; taca-copa, tipee-copa, "to be cold''; tix6pa-ya, "I amcold." This name agrees with the meaning of the sign in the Mexicancalendar (Tecpatl, "flint") and with the pictures of the Maya hiero-gl^'phs (Ezanab), which also represent the stone which is struck, thetip of the flint; for the notions "stone", "tip", " cold" are merged,one into the other, in the conceptions and language of the Mexicans.Itztlacoliuhqui, the god of stone, is also the god of cold, of infatuation,and of sin.The Zapotec name for the nineteenth day sign is harder to interpret.After removing the prefixes, we have the forms ape, appe, aape, gappe.This is probably to be resolved into aa-pee or caa-pee, and this wouldsignify "covered with clouds" or " cloud covering". Now, this doesnot answer directly to the Mexican name Quiauitl, " rain", but it doesto the form of the Maya hieroglj^ph {p^ figure 5), which, as I haveshown in my former work, contains an abbreviation of the head ofthe moan bird (^^ /, and ///, figure 4), the mythical conception of themu3'al, the "cloud covering of the heavens." The name also seems. tocorrespond to the other Mexican names, for the sign in Guatemalawas ayotl, " tortoise"; for the cloud was also expressed by the picture . 181.) 54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28and the element tun. Thus in the hieroglyph of the god of hunting, v,who.se distinguishing characteristic usually is that he bears on hisdiadem an eye or the element tun, that is, a "jewel". The hiero-glyph of this god is sometimes written in the form shown at t; some-times in that of u. And that the element substituted in u for theelement Cauac is actually to lie conceived of here as tun or ''stone", "precious stone", follows, on the one hand, from its use as a preciousstone in the head ornament (tun, "stone", "precious stone''), and, onthe other hand, from its being the basis for the post on which Mam,the Uuayayab demon, is set in the xma kaba kin (Dresden codex, page25c). Now, it is surely quite safe to assume a connection of ideasbetween clouds, rain, and stone, for in those regions every rain is athunderstorm. Nevertheless, it will \w plain that an army of doubtswas routed when I hit upon the fact in the course of my Zapotecstudies that the ver}^ same word, that is, quia, quie, is used in Zapotecfor "rain" and "stone".For the last day sign we find in the Zapotec calendar the name laoor loo, and this means "eye", "face", "front.'' This again does notagree directly with the Mexican Xochitl, "flower", but with the formof the Maya hieroglyph [y and z), which imdoubtedly represents aface. The name of the Ma^^a sign Ahau, "leader", also agrees.There is also undoubted}}^ a connection of ideas between "eye" and "flower". To ])e sure, I can not now actually prove it from theZapotec tongue. But I showed the metamorphosis of the eye intothe flower in the Zapotec figures which 1 described and copied inVeroft'entlichungen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde,volume 1, parts 1 to 4. And indeed the Zapotec word for flower mayexplain some singular resemblances of the hieroglyph Ahau. InZapotec, for instance, "flower" is quije, which is very much like theword quie, "rain", and "stone". The i, as is stated in a gram-mar, was pronounced with stronger emphasis ("for this ij is empha-sized more than to signify the stone"). Now, it is indeed a strikingfact that the element Ahau (Mexican xochitl, "flower") in somehieroglyphs seems to be homologous with the element Cauac (Mexicanquiauitl, "rain"). If this were a single instance, I should not laymuch stress upon it. But as the above researches as to the meaningof the Zapotec day signs have in almost every instance shown that theZapotec names formed the connecting link for apparently irreconcil-able diflerences in the Mexican and Maya names and designations, Ibelieve that I may also add this coincidence to the rest.It is obvious from its situation and it is also historically proved thatthe country of the Zapotecs was the region above all others in whichan interchange was effected of cultural influences which spread fromthe Mexican region to that of the Maya races and vice versa. But SELER] THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 55the present researches force us to the conchision that the Zapoteccountry was more than a region of interchange; that it was the land inwhich the Mexican calendar, a most important factor in our knowledgeof the Mexican races, had its origin. Indeed, among no otiier racesdid the calendar and the determining of fate connected with it exert sopowerful an influence over all the relations of life as among theZapotecs. We can speak with greater confidence upon this pointwhen more is known of that Maya race bordering on the Zapotecs,the Tzental-Zotzil of Chiapas. I IANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS I I EDUARD SELER 57 ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS"By Eduard Seler III the question raised by Mrs Nuttall as to whether the ancientMexican feather ornament in the Imperial Museum of Natural Historyat Vienna, which came from the collection at the castle of Ambras, isto be ret^arded as a standard, such as prominent Mexican warriors worestrapped to their backs in battle and in dances, or rather as a headdress,I have not declared for one theor}^ or another, and have taken partoidy in so far as 1 was justified in believing Mrs Nuttall's proofs to reston mistaken premises. She maintains that the ornament in (juestionshould ))e considered as a headdress, and, indeed, only as the headdressof Uitzilopochtli, which at the same time was also worn by the Mexi-can king-. This view I am inclined to reject.As for the matter itself, Valentini has alread}^ pointed out in anarticle in the American Antiquarian that headdresses similar to theVienna headdress are to be found here and there upon figures in theMaya sculptures. Mrs Nuttall subsequently brought forward the figureof a god from a picture manuscript which she was so fortunate as to dis-cover in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence (and which is an olderand better copy of the codex attributed to Ixtlilxochitl than is in theAubiu-Goupil collection), a figure wearing a head ornament whichis indeed strikingly like the Vienna ornament as it now exists withmissing frontlet. But this is not the god Uitzilopochtli, as Mrs Nut-tall asserts and as 1 also credulously repeated, but Tezcatlipoca. Irecently assured myself of this when I had an opportunity to examinethe original in Florence.This figure is surrounded hf impressions of a child's foot impiiiitedin the scattered meal, which announces the arrival of the young godTelpochtli Tezcatlipoca, the first of the gods returning home to theircity. The god Tezcatlipoca is represented in exactly the same way in theCodex Vaticanus A, and there denotes the twelfth feast of the year, thefeast Teotleco ("the god has arrived"). Finally, I have tried, in mysecond article, to make it seem probable that the quetzalapanecayoti("quetzal-feather ornament of the people of the coast regions"), a Verhaiidhingen cUt Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1893, p. 4^. 59 60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 which, together with xiuh-xayacatl, or coa-xayacacatl, the snake maskof turquoise mosaic, forms the most conspicuous piece of adornmentof the god known as Quetzalcouatl in the legend cycle of Tollan," wasa headdress similar to that worn by the god in the manuscript of theRihlioteca Nazionalo. Being convinced of this, I could accept MrsNuttalTs conjecture that the upper part of the hieroglyph apanecatlin the Boturini codex was intended to represent an apanecayotl.While I fully recognized that the interpretation offered by MrsNuttall was not unwai'ranted, I still believed that the other con-struction, given by von Hochstetter, which is based on an old oilpainting in the Bilimcc collection, was not to be set aside. For, sixmonths before, during an inspection of the Aubin-Goupil collection,I had discovered the original of the Bilimec warrior in the figure ofKing Axayacatl, who advances to ])attle against the arrogant Mociuiuix,king of Tlatelolco, with the banner bound upon his back. I could Fig. G. Copy of figure in the Cozcatzin codex.merely allude to this in ni}^ communication of that date. For duringthe hour which was allowed me to examine the Aubin-Goupil collectionI had no time for even the hastiest sketch. Doctor Uhle, who under-took to defend Mrs Nuttall's views in a reply, was quite reluctant toaccept this statement, brought forward without proof. Fortunately, Iam now in a position to offer a photographic reproduction of the pagesin question (Cozcatzin codex, pages 14 and 15), which is taken fromE. Boban's published synopsis of the Aubin-Goupil collection.The very ffrst glance shows us that the selfsame warrior in the self-same ornaments is represented here as in the Bilimec picture (comparefigure 6 and d, figure 9), only the latter is not a mere copy of one of thefigures in the Cozcatzin codex, but of kindred originals, and at anyrate the same tradition guided the artist in both cases. a Both these pieces are ascribed to Quetzalcouatl of Tollan, not only in the passage from the Analesde Quauhtitlan, which I quoted in my former article, but also in the Aztec text of the twelfth bookof the historical work of P. Sahagun. SELER] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS GlAt tlie time wIkmi Axiiyacatl was king, that is, supreme war chief ofthe Mexicans, the kitij>-dom passed through a severe crisis. AfterItzcouatl freed the Mexicans from the supremacy of Azcapotzalcoand the elder Motecuhzoma had prepared the conditions for the laterrapid extension of Mexican dominion by establishing the alliance of thethree states and forcibly subjugating Chalca, the enemy arose againstAxayacatl in his own house. Close by Tenochtitlan, on the samemarsh island, was the sister city of Tlatelolco, whose inhabitants,although of another and an older race than the Tenochca, living accord-ing to laws of their own, had hitherto united their interests with thoseof the Mexicans and fought shoulder to shoulder with them?forinstance, against Azcapotzalco. In the early years of Axayacatl's reign,discontent, which had probably long been smoldering, broke out.Histories give various insignificant provocations as the cause. Sufficeit to say that Moquiuix, king of Tlatelolco, opcidy took up armsagainst Tenochtitlan. The danger was all the greater because theneighboring cities allied to the Tlatelolca, Azcapotzalco, Tenayocan.and Quauhtitlan, also turned their arms against the Tenochca. Hereyoung Axayacatl seems to have decided the matter in favor of theMexicans b}' his own military abilit}'. The Tlatelolca were forcedback from street to street and finally surrounded in the great marketplace of Tlatelolco, near which the terraced pyramid of their godrose like a citadel. The warriors of the Tlatelolca took refuge uponits apex, and it was Axayacatl himself, as historians unanimously state,who, pressing forward, slew King Moquiuix and hurled him down thesteps of the pyramid. It is this event which is portraye^l in theaccompanying cut (figure (5) from the Cozcatzin codex. On the left wesee King Moquiuix, in eagle array and denoted by his name hiiu-oglyph,escaping up the steps of the pyramid pursued b}' Axayacatl; on theright, the victorious Axayacatl on the pyramid and Mo(|uiui\ lyingvancpiished at the foot.I have pointed out in earlier works that it follows from history, aswell as from picture manuscripts, that Mexican kings and connnandersin chief in later times assumed in war the dress and attributes of thegod Xipe, the red god of the Yopi, who was called Tlatlauh(|ui Tezcatlor Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca, the god who was clad in a flayed humanskin. This follows from various passages in the Cronica Mexicanaof Tezozomoc. It is confirmed by Sahagun. who mentions as firstamong the military equipments of kings the tlauhquecholtzontli("crown made of the feathers of the roseate spoonbilF'), which wasworn together with the coztic teocuitlayo ueuetl (?"the gilded timbrel"),the tlauhquecholeuatl ("the jacket of spoonbill feathers"), and thetzapocueitl ("the petticoat or apron of green feathers lapping overone another like tiles"), all parts of the dress of Xipe. And it isclearly demonstrated by a passage in the Codex Vaticaiuis A (page I'iS), 62 BUREAU OB' AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28where we find, in the .year "9 Calli" or A. D. 1501, King Moto-cuhzoma the younger represented in the complete dress of Xipeas victor over Tohica (a, figure 7), This Xipe dress is expressly men-tioned in a passage of the Cronica Mexicana by Tezozomoc as thedress formerly worn by King Axayacatl. I copy the passage in full,because it is of interest in relation to our picture. It refers to anenterprise against Uexotzinco, l.ying on the other side of the mountainsand hostile to the Mexican confederation, in the reign of Motecuh-zoma the younger, Tlacauepan, the younger brother of the king,comes to Motecuhzoma and says: "Lord, I believe that my eyes to-day behold you for the last time, for I am minded to put myself at thehead of the troops and make my way through or die in the attempt."To this the king replies: "If such be th}^ will, then take this armor,which once belonged to King Axayacatl, the golden device teocuitla-tontec with the tlauhquechol bird upon it and the broad wooden sword Fig. 7. The god Xipe's dress and .shield.with broad obsidian blades " (Pues que asi lo quereis, tomad estas armasque fueron del rey Axayacatl, una divisa de oro llamado teocuitla ton-tec con una ave en cima de el tlauhquechol y un espadarte ancho maaccuahuitl de ancha navaja fuerte). "-Now it is indeed this Xipe armor in which we see King Axayacatlrepresented here in the cut from the Cozcatzin codex, as well as in theBilimec picture. This is most plainly apparent in the human skin,the hands of which hang down over the king's wrists, the feet forminga sort of cuff over the ankles. So also the wholly un-Mexican featherskirt, almost like a theatric costume, which surrounds the hips of theBilimec warrior, the tzapocueitl, is a part of the Xipe dress. This Xipepetticoat is made of feathers, running into points and overlapping eachother like tiles. Likewise the tiger-skin scabbard with which the obsi-dian sword is provided in both pictures points to Xipe. In other par-ticulars the dress differs in no small measure from that of representa- a Tezozomoc, Crdnica Mexicana, chap. 91. seler] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS fi3tions of this deity hitherto known. The god usuiilly wear.s on his headthe yopitzoMtli, a pointed crown made of the rose-colored feathers ofthe spoonbill, with fluttering- ribbons, forked like a swallow's tail.Axajacatl, however, is usually represented in the Cozcatzin codex withthe xiuhuitzontli, the turquoise mosaic headl)and of Mexican kings,and the Bilimec warrior wears the quetzallalpiloni, the fillet with quet-zal-feather tassels. The plume which in both figur(\s of Axayacatl(flgure 6) rises behind the shield is likewise nothing else than an essen-tial part of the royal Mexican dress. It l)elongs, as a tuft, to themachoncotl, the shell bracelet which the king wore on his upper arm(compare the picture in the atlas of Duran). Ilhuitl, feast. ChalehluitI,emerald. Tezcatl, mirror. Fig. 8. Disks from Mexican codices.Xipe's shield is the tlauhte^uilacachiuhqui, a round shield coveredwith the rose-colored feathers of the spoonbill, showing concentriccircles of darker tint on its surface. It is not infrequently bisectedvertically, in which case one half is divided by an oblique line into alarger lower and a smaller uj^per panel. The former has a tiger- skindesign, the latter the figure of an emerald in a blue field, or one trav-ersed by wavy lines (see h, figure 7). I formerly explained the emeraldas a mirror. This is not quite correct, although in the drawing of both(mirror and emerald) the same fundamental principle of the glitteiingdisk throwing rays in all (four) directions is expressed. See a, figure 8, 64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.28where 1, 2, 3, and 4 are taken from the iiianuscripts, and in fact fromhieroglyphs whose phonetic vahie is known, while 5, which occurs ona beautiful cla>^ vessel found in the vicinity of Tlaxcala, with tigerand snake lieads, a Inindle of sjxnirs, and a feather ball, is perhaps onlymeant to represent the tier\^ luminous disk in general. The emeraldin a watery field is to be read chalchiuh-atl. This may mean, ingeneral, the ''precious fluid"; but it is more probably the same aschalchiuh-uitz-atl, the "precious water flowing in penance"?thatis, the sacrificial blood, the blood. Indeed, upon the beliutiful feathermantle belonging to the Uhde collection in the Royal Museum of Eth-nology we see the emerald above, on a ])right green field, and below ita stream of blood with a skull on its surface. These characteristicS3^mbols, which are seen on Xipo's shield, on the Chinialli stone fromCuernavaca {!>, figure 7), and also, although only indicated, on theshield borne by Motecuhzoma dressed as Xipe (r/, figure 7), are whollywanting in the Axayacatl disguised as Xipe of the Cozcatzin codexand in the Bilimec warrior. In both an arm is painted on the surfaceof the shield. This is not very common as a shield emblem. And theagreement upon this point, in conjunction with the identity of thedevices on the back, is a striking proof in favor of the theory thatthe painter of the Bilimec picture and the artist of the Cozcatzin codexhad the same original or, at least, the same tradition in mind.In the Sahagun manuscript of the Academia dc la Historia a shieldwith a drawing of a hand under the name macpallo chimalli is repre-sented among the shields of chiefs and warriors of lower rank. Butthis name does not explain the meaning of the emblem. On the otherhand, 1 find the shield with the hand on a beautifully drawn coloredpage in the Aubin-Goupil collection, which the publisher, EugeneBoban, describes as " worship of Tonatiuh (the sun), a document relatingto the theogon}^ and astronomy of the ancient Mexicans", and which, ashe explains, perhaps represents looking up at an eclipse of the sun.'*This cut reminds us, by the style of painting, of tlie Vienna manuscript,and originated somewhere near the Olmeca Uixtotin Mixteca. Thepaintings are done on a piece of leather, which is covered with a kindof white stucco, such as we find in the Mixtec manuscripts of thePhilipp J. Becker and Dorenberg collections. The sheet is a repre-sentation of the tonalamatl in five, instead of four, directions.The tonalamatl divisions in question are not, strange to sa3', desig-nated by the initial days, but by two dates, which, as it seems, repre-sent the name hieroglyphs of the divinities which adorn this division, a A copy, and that a very bad one, of this was made by Le6n y Gama, in which the middle part isrestored, doubtless iiieorreetly, as may be clearly seen in .several preserved yiortions. This copywas reproduced by Brantz Mayer ("Mexico as it was", etc.. New York, 1844) as the upper side of aburied stone found in Mexico, which was said to have served for the sacriflcio gladiatorio. Thiscopy is also given by Chavero in "Mexico & travC's de los siglos", v. 1, as " Piedra policroma del sa-criflcio gladiatorio". seler] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 65one of which is combined with the numeral 1 and the other with thenumeral 5. The five dates with the numeral 1 and the five withthe numeral 5 are just 51 days apart. And these five times 51 inter-mediate days are marked on the sheet by small circles in the circum-ference of the five divisions. Here we find a male and a female deityplaced opposite to each other in the first (upper rioht) division, wliichis shown to belong to the region of the east by the drawing of theheavens with the image of the sun upon it and, moreover, by a rising Fig. !>: Mexican shields. I sun {h, figure 8). Beside the latter stands ce Mazatl ("one deer"), asthe name hieroglyph of the day. Beside the former {c, figure 8) as namehieroglyph of the day is macuilli Cuetzpalin ("five lizard''). Theformer god, whom I must take, for various reasons, to be the same asXolotl in the Borgian codex, page 29 (a, figure 9), wears on his left arma shield, which has a hand as its emblem, and the ends of his loin cUjthare also painted with large black hands. Xolotl is a figuic wliich orig-inated in southern regions,and may possibly represent Hrc rushingdownfrom heaven or light flaming up in the heavens. In the manuscripts7238?No. 28?05 5 66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the setting sun, devoured by the earth, i.s opposed to him, similarly asthe sun god is opposed to the death god. He may perhaps be describedas a sun god of southern tribes (Zapotecs^). In the Mexican legendhe appears as the representative of human sacrifice 'and as the god ofmonstrosities, perhaps identical with Nauauatzin, the "poor leper",who leaps into the flaming fire, sacrificing himself, in order that he mayrise again as the sun in the firmament. The Xolotl head (quaxolotl)is therefore one of the most prominent warrior devices." Xolotl isdoubtless a kindred figure to the god Xipe, and his home should besought in the immediate vicinity of Xipe's home. The shield with thehuman arm as its emblem, which is worn by Axayacatl of the Cozcat-zin codex and by the Bilimec warrior, is therefore hardly to be regardedas an irregularity or as anything contradictory to the former costume.I now come to the device on the back, the remarkable standard, whichvon Hochstetter has used to interpret the Viennese ornament. Forthe sake of clearness I have drawn it once more from the Cozcatzincodex as 6^, figure 9, and contrasted it with the Bilimec warrior, d.Here, first of all, we should consider the framework, from which thestandard apparently rises. It is obvious that it is not a house, as vonHochstetter and Mrs Nuttall assumed, and as Doctor Uhle finally "proved".We grant Doctor Uhle, to be sure, that the "dark distinguishabledoor and window openings " in the small Bilimec picture might lead himastray. In other respects the frame on the Bilimec warrior resembles aMexican house as little as possible. On the contrary, that the object inquestion is a genuine framework carried on the back is clearly shownby the straps crossing over the breast of the figures in the Cozcatzincodex. But what kind of a framework can it be? Of course, it hasnothing to do with the ladderlike carrying frame (cacaxtli), to whichdevices for the back are fastened elsewhere. 1 hesitate between twotheories. The most natural conjecture would be to consider it onlyan ill-drawn ueuetl, a drum, such as King Nezaualcoyotl wears in h.^ a See Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1891, v. 23, p. 127.b Singular conflicts have arisen in regard to this portrait. It belongs, with three others, to a manu-script which is ascribed to the hi.storian Don Fernando Alva de Ixtlilxochitl, a decendant of Tetz-cocanic kings; later it doubtless came into the hands of the learned Jesuit Don Carlos de Sigiienza yGongora with all Ixtlilxochitl's possessions, and now forms a part of the Aubin-Goupil collection. Atthe time that it wa.s in Sigiienza's hands, the Neapolitan traveler, Gemelli Carreri, visited Mexicoand copied these four portraits, with other parts of the manuscripts, to use in the accountof his travels.These four portions represent, as the legends accompanying them state, the Tetzcocanic kingsNezaualcoyotl and Nezaualpilli and two Tetzcocanic nobles (tribal chiefs ?), named Tocuepotzin andQuauhtlatzocuilotzin. But Gemelli Carreri classed these with a fifth portrait, which, according toBoturini, also represents King Nezaualpilli, and gave them the names of the INIexican kings Tizoc,Axayacatl, Auitzotl, Motecuhzoma, and Quauhtemoc. But it happened that in the first Neapolitan edi-tion of his "Giro del mundo " (Naples, 1699-1701), the original, correct name (Nezaualcoyotl) was leftattached to the second figure. In later editions ( Venice, 1719; Paris, 1719) the list of Mexican kings iscomplets. Kingsborough's five portraits are reproduced from the first Neapolitan edition, and Iowe it to this circumstance that I was enabled to give King Nezaualcoyoti (6, fig. 9) his true name inmj work. seler] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER OKNAMENTS 67For .such ail object, the yopiueuetl, is actually a part of Xipe'scostume.In the drawing- of the Cozcatzin codex the lower appendages mayvery well represent the feet of the ueuetl. The dotted upper portionsmay be meant for a tiger skin?such, for instance, as serves in theBorgian codex, page 55, as a drumskin for the ueuetl beaten l)v thecoyote-eared god represented there. To be sure, the square form ofthe framework contradicts this theory, for the ueuetl is usually drawnround, cylindric (see figure 10). If we reject this interpretation, wecan conjecture that it may be a quetzal comitl, a feather basket, whichTezcatlipoca and other gods are often represented wearing on theirbacks.The handle of the standard, which rises from this framework, inthe Cozcatzin codex is apparently dotted, like the wooden swordwhich the king holds in his hand. We must suppose that the handlewas also meant to be represented as covered with tiger skin. This, 1think, is the case with the Bilimec warrior. The handle of his stand-ard is composed of three per-pendicular lines. Between twoof them we see a diagonal strip-ing, which led Mrs Nuttall toread the meeatl here as " rope".I think this diagonal striping,like that on the Xipe shield {h,figure T), is meant to expressthe hairy belly of the tiger,which should be indicated on the right hand, between the other twovertical stripes, by spots, but was omitted in the original from whichthe painter worked by an oversight such as often occurs in themanuscripts.Lastly, the fan-shaped ornament which is fastened to this handle isidentical in character in both illustrations, except that in the Bilimecwarrior (c?, figure 9) an arrow is added to the base. But this can scarcelyhave an}" special meaning. Perhaps it is only meant to accentuate thereed frame which serves to support the ornament.How, then, are we to interfTret the device worn by King Axayacatlin the Cozcatzin codex and by the Bilimec warrior?It may be accepted as a matter of course that it is ordy a furthercompletion of Xipe attributes. Those who are influenced b}^ MrsNuttalPs interpretation of the Vienna ornament may be led to con-jecture that it is Xipe's headdress borne upon the pole, just as weactually find the pointed Uaxtec cap, which is commonly the actualhead covering, also fastened on a frame as a device for the l)ack. " ButXipe's feather headdress, at least in so far as we may conclude from Fig. 10. Mexican drums (ueuetl). oSee Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1891, v. 23, pp. 132, 151. 68 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 existing illustrations, was of a different form (see J, figure 7). From thearrangement of the whole ornament it also seems to me, as von Hoch-stetter asserts for the Vienna ornament, that it is based upon theidea of a bird swooping down from above with outspread wings, themiddle, higher, upright part representing the tail, the side parts thewings, while head and l)eak are not indicated in the drawings in ques-tion. The idea that the Deity came down from heaven in the form ofa bird is a widely spread conception that plays an important part inthe mythologies of Central American races. From the Xipe dress ofthe Mexican kings, which I have described in my earlier article," itfollows that the god was regarded in three forms: as the red god (hav-ing the color of the tlauhquecholli, the roseate spoonbill), as the ])lue god(of the color of the xiuhtototl, the blue cotinga), and as a tiger (jaguar,ocelotl), probably corresponding to the three regions (heaven, earth,and underworld) or the three elements (fire, water, and earth). Theseare, moreover, the same three colors or variations represented on histripartite shield described above.In the manuscripts Xipe himself is usually represented in one formonly, as the red god; just as Ixcozauhqui, the fire god of Tlatelolco,only appears in the manuscripts in one form, as the burning, devour-ing fire, although he, too, as we know from the description of his fes-tival, was represented in twofold form, as the light-blue one with theturquoise and emerald mask and as the burning one with the mask ofred shell plates and black tezeapoctli. On the other hand, we find thegod Tezcatlipoca represented in the manuscripts now as the red oneand again as the black one, and as both of these?for instance, in theBorgian codex, page 18?placed together. It is worthy of note that thered Tezcatlipoca (Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca) is not only given as one ofthe names of the god Xipe, but that occasionall}^ also, just where Xipeshould be drawn, a red (tlatlauhqui) Tezcatlipoca is drawn instead, asin the Borgian codex, page 28, with the fifteenth day sign ((juauhtli, "eagle"). The manuscripts originating in more southern regions,Zapoteca and Mixteca, seem to lie more authoritative than the genuineMexican ones in regard to the represciitations of the deities in ques-tion. Among the former, the manuscript preserved in the Viennalibrary is the most important. In the first part of this we find thegod Xijie in his classic form, clad in the tia3'ed human skin, and des-ignated by the date chicome Quiauitl, "seven rain". As in the Bor-gian codex we have the red and the black Tezcatlipoca, so too wehave here a red and a l)lack god placed together, side by side or oneabove the other. But in this case the conception is quite different.The strangely formed face shows a tiger's jaw introduced into a humanface and eyes surrounded by serpentine lines. The red variant ofthis god, designated by the date naui Mazatl, "four deer", is dressed a See Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1891, v. 23, pp. 133, 134. I I SELER] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 69 ill the flaming- g-arl) of iin cagle-liko ))ird, dyed with the color of thetlauhquechol, or has the head of a similar bird as a helmet mask(J, d., and e^ figure 11, right). The other, distinguished by the datenaui Miquiztli, "four death", is elad in a similar but ])lackish l>irdgarment or wears its head as a helmet mask {a,, c, and e, left),I believe that I am right in recognizing in these two figures thesouthern counterparts of the red and the black Tezcatlipoca. Thesame idea certainl}^ underlies them both, and I am even tempted to seea reference to Tezcatlipoca in the footprints, which are given under a,and in the cobweb under both personages in e. Tezcatlipoca descendedfrom heaven by a spider's thread.'* And lo-peyo ("the face or imageof the moon ") is the Zapotec name for cobweb. I therefore concludethat the bird dress dyed with the color of the tlauhcjuechol was equiva-lent among southern races to a disguise of the red Tezcatlipoca?thatis, Xipe.In the little Bilimec picture there is painted on the surface of thefanlike ornament, which is carried on a pole, a broad stripe of deep-rose color and also one of white; that is, the colors of the roseatespoonbill (tlauhquecholli) and the colors of Xipe. In this fanlikeornament, 1 repeat, I find the idea of a bird swooping down with out-spread wings distincth' expressed.If these facts are taken into consideration, and if we further con-sider that ill dangerous military enterprises Mexican commanders inchief were accustomed to put on the Xipe dress, formerl}' worn byKing Axayacatl (see the passage quoted above from Tezozomoc, chap-ter 91), all must, I think, admit that it is not an idle conjecture if Iregard the device with which King Axayacatl is depicted in our draw-ing as a direct illustration of the description which is given in Tezo-zomoc's Cronica Mexicana of the armor which Motecuhzoma wore atthe storming of Nopallan. We read there (chapter 84) that Motecuh-zoma awaited his men armado todo de armas, con una divisa muvrica de plumeria, y encima una ave, la pluma de ella muy ricay relum-])rante, que llaman tlauhqiiecholtontec: iba puesto de modo que pare-cia que iba volando, y debajo un atamborcillo dorado muy resplan-deciente, trenzado con una pluma arriba de la ave arriba diclia. y unarodela dorada de los costean<5s muy fuerte, y unasonajaomichicahuaz,y un espadarte de fuerte nabaja ancha y cortadora ("fully armed,with a very rich device of feathers, and above a bird, its plume veryrich and resplendent, which they call tlauhquecholtontec: it wasplaced in such a manner that it seemed to be flying, and l)elow a smalldrum, gilded and very shining, braided above with a feather of theabove-mentioned l)ir(l, and a very strong shield gilded on the sides,and a rattle (oniichicaliuaz). and a big sword with a strong, widecuttlno- ))lade''"'). " Mendieta. 70 BUREAU OB' AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 -?J^ Fig. n. The black god and the red god, from the Vienna manuscript. SELER] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 71The meaning of tliis passage can scarcol}- be construed otherwisethan as a reference in this case to a combined ornament for the back,consisting of a drum attached to the carr\nng frame at the bottom,and of a bird (swooping down?) with outspread wings fastened at thetop of the pole/'I am therefore doubtful, in regard to figure 0, whether 1 may nothave done P. Sahagun an injustice in assuming that the passage (book8, chapter 9) where he states that the tlauhquecholtzontli was a devicefor the back?y trayan un plumage a cuestas que se llamaba tlauhque-choltzontli muy curioso (''and they carried on their backs a verycurious plumage that was called tlauhquecholtzontli'"')?was based ona false translation or a false application. The passage does, indeed,contradict book 8, chapter 12, where Sahagun says that the tlauhque-choltzontli is a head covering?un casquete de plumas muy coloradas.que se llamaban tlauhquecholtzontli,'' y al rededor del casquete unacorona de plumas ricas y del medio de la corona salia un manojo deplumas bellas que Uaman quetzal, como penachos ("'a helmet of col-ored feathers, which was called tlauhquecholtzontli, and around thehelmet a crown of rich feathers, and from the middle of the crownprojected a tuft of beautiful feathers which they call quetzal, likecrests"). But the Aztec text in the latter passage does not directlystate that the tlauhquecholtzontli was w^orn on the head, and in theformer passage may possibly be understood to mean that the tlauhque-choltzontli, together with the drum, ueuetl, formed the back device?tlauhquecholtzontli tla^otlanqui quetzalli ycuecuetlacayo, yuical veuetlcoztic teucuitla\o yn tlauiztli yn quimama mitotia ("the wig of spoon-bill feathers, the precious one with the waving tuft of feathers, andits appendix, the drum covered with gold; that is, the device [or, arethe devices] which he w^ears on his back in the dance"). It is verypossible that Father Sahagun, as was frequently the case, did nottranslate directly, but explained from circumstances known to him.Of course I do not now assert that the feather ornaments describedas tzontli, "wig", were all carried on poles. Of the next object, thexiuhtototzontli, the Aztec text says directly: ytzontecon conaquiatlatoani ("with this the king covers his head"), but it seems to mequite possible, as I suggested from the first,*- that this ornament, likethe Uaxtec pointed cap,'' was also sometimes worn on the head andsometimes borne as a device on a pole.''I now return to the Vienna ornament. Mrs NuttalPs attempt to ? Uhle asserts, we scarcely see on what authority, that the reference here is to a stnfTcd bird.6The word amended after the Aztec text of the passage.oZeitschriftfurEthnologie, 1889, V. 21, p. 63. .riZeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1891, v. 21, p. 132, Doctor Uhle introduces, on p. 161, an illustration fromthe Aztec text of the Florentine Sahagun manuscript where we see, side by side, the cuextoentl w itnhis pointed cap on his hea.l and a similar pointed cap, quctzalcopilli, borne on a pole upon the back.? Contrary to Doctor Uhle, I must say that it has never occurred to me to connect the expre.s..iontzontli, -hair", with patzactli, -device". I distinctly described tzontli as -fcath.-r cr..wn ,patzactli as "a comb-shaped device worn on the back" in ray pamphlet of 1891. 72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28 explain awa}^ the Bilimec picture, an attempt which must seem in thehighest degree fantastic to all who are familiar with Mexican subjects,is proved by our figure 6 to be false in all its premises. So, too, is theargument recently set forth by Doctor Uhle, that "warriors in battle,who, like the Mexicans, carried their own banners, would not have car-ried a banner likely to prove a hindrance in battle from its size or themanner of carrying it"". The Mexicans did not consider such "practi-cal points of view". The armor which the more prominent warriorsassumed for battle was the dress of a deity of whose power theybecame possessed when they put on his array, and to be assured of thispower was probably the first "practical point of view" for the Mexi-cans. If the costume of the god required a bird with outspread wings Fig. 12. Mexican feather ornaments.to be worn, it would have been woru without much question as towhether it was practical or not. As far as form is concerned, how-ever, the banner which King Axayacatl and the Bilimec warriors woreon their backs, and also the bat dancer (a, figure 12) from the DuranAtlas (Tratado 2, plate 8), to which 1 drew attention in my first com-munication, ma}^ of course l)e used for purposes of comparison instudying the meaning of the Vienna ornament quite as well as theheaddress apanecayotl of the god Tezcatlipoca in the manuscripts inthe Biblioteca Nazionale. The horseshoe-shaped curve, on which Uhlelays such especial stress, prolialily onl}' occurs in the Vienna ornamentin consequence of its imperfect state of preservation, the golden beakwhich originally belonged on tlip front ha\ing now disappeared. SELER] ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER ORNAMENTS 73We may perhaps go further. The ornament now preserved in theVienna Museum was found in the Ambras collection, together witha feather jacket (ain Morischer Roekh), a feather shield (ain KundellVon Roten federn). a ])lume (ein morischer Feder Puschen, so aimRoss auf die Stirn gehort, ''a Moorish plume, such as is used on thehead of a horse"), and a feather fan (ain Wedler von Federn). Thefeather fan and feather shield were found later." All are articles whichbelonged to the adornment of distinguished Mexican warriors. Forthe "'plume, such as is worn on the head of a horse," is undoubtedl}'an aztaxelli?a plume which Mexican warriors stuck into their Itacktuft of hair when they joined in the dance. This plume and the featherfan most certainly constituted the civic dress (festive dress), the })ackdevice, feather jacket, and feather shield being tlie military dress. Ifwe continue our conjectures, we may also consider it probable thatthe Vienna ornament was a warrior's device. If this be the case,then the Axayacatl of the Cozcatzin codex and the Bilimec warriorare more appropriate subjects for comparison than the god in themanuscript of the Biblioteca Nazionale.However, these are mere conjectures. Archeologic considerationsdo not lead to the goal. Since we are without historical proof, for thenote in the catalogue, "ain Morischer Huet", can hardly be regarded asdecisive, the matter must be relegated to that final resort to which,as I have alwa3'S insisted, it properly ])elonged from tiie Hrst?that is,to a study of the object itself. Von Hochstetter is the only one whohas really studied the Vienna ornament in reference to its construc-tion. Mrs Nuttall only worked with a model.In opposition to von Hochstetter, Mrs Nuttall maintains that in hisexperiments with the original the crease in the stiffening pi-eventedhim from recognizing the possibility of its use as a headdress. Wegrant Mrs Nuttall that the limitation of the transverse stifiening tothe side parts indicates a bending of these latter; but this is also ([uitecompatible with von Hochstettei's interpretation. The idea of a birdwith outspread wings doubtless underlies the ornament. This kind ofstifiening made a movement of the wings possible. Lastly, Mrs Nuttallclaims for her- theory that, according to von Hochstetter's own state-ment, there was a pocket or liood-shaped opening hirge enough toadmit a head between the nets which formed the foundation of thefiont and ))ack of the ornament. But here again von Hochstettergives a perfectly satisfactoi-y explanation, since he says that in hisopinion this pocket merely served to receive the upper part of thecarrying pole. While these conditions offer no grounds which obligeus to accept Mrs NuttalFs theory, there are yet two facts which, inmy opinion, Mrs Nuttall has not considered sufficiently. One is thedefective condition of the ornament. According to the oldest catalogue a See Franz Heger. Annalen des Koniglich-Kaiscrlichon Naturhistorischeii nofinuso.mis, v. /,I>t. 4. 74 BUREAU OF AMKRICAN ETHNOLOGY [buil.^s note there was a golden beak upon the front. Since we do not knowhow this was applied, or whether it covered the entire width of tliefront or not, all inquiry as to the possibility of its having been boundaround the head is useless and really proves nothing. Von Hochstetterhas further established that the back of the ornament was coveredwith feathers, which, like those on the front, were fastened to a linenetting. This is intelligible if the ornament is tlat. In a crown boundupon the head it would have been, to say the least, superfluous; but inthis case we would, above all, expect to find a contrivance of some sorton the back of the net to regulate the folding while it is being boundabout the head. The absence of this contravenes Mrs NuttalTs theor3\I have not mentioned one piece which is seen on the sheet from theCozcatzin codex (figure 0), that is, the large wheel-shaped ornament atthe left on the back of the Axayacatl figure. I hold this ornament tobe of exotic origin, an ornament adopted with the Xipe costume. Weare confronted with the question as to how this ornament should beworn, whether in a perpendicular position fastened to a pole, like a kindof movable comb, or whether we should imagine it as a huge horizontalcollar falling over the back. I am inclined to accept the latter theory,for similar horizontal collar-shaped feather ornaments were commonin the tierra caliente, and were worn especially in the Pacific tierracaliente (see J, figure 12 from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, whichrepresents a member of the unconquered tribes of Jalisco, againstwhom Pedro de Alvarado took the field). At Oaxaca I saw a pair ofclay figures (man and woman), coming from the district of Zimat-l.m, which combined with a huge aureole-shaped feather headdressanother feather ornament worn across the back of the loins like acollar (see There they worshiped a female deity to whommaidens were sacrificed. The name of the capital of Acalan alone,Izancanac, belongs to a strange idiom, and, as it seems, to a Mayalanguage. The first part of the w^ord is known to this day as thename of a little lagoon on the north of the Rio de la Pasion, whereDoctor Sapper found a settlement of Lacandon Indians. '' It also seemspossible to explain by a Maya dialect'" the title of the prince of Acalan,Apaspolon (or Apoxpalon, as Gomara spellb the word). The dialect,however, can not now be determined. ''The third territory mentioned in Cortes's letter, that l3'ing betweenAcalan and Tahitza, was generally called by a Mexican word, Mazatlan,that is, " the deer land." Cortes, however, several times gave Quiachoor Quiache '' as a S3'non3an for this word. It is doubtless the same nameas Quehache, given in the historical work by Villagutierre y Sotomayor,by which is designated a branch of the Maya found at the end of the a Vatun Chu, idolo derecho, is mentioned as a place of worship in the territory of the Chols. Seebelow. The name of the chief god of the Quiches, Tohil C'abauil, might be translated in the sameway.h Ausland, 1891, p. 892.< Perhaps Ahpo xbalon or Ahpo xbol6n. Ahpo or Ahpop is a customary expres.sion in theGuatemala language for "lord" and Xbal6n, or Xbol6n, which means "Mistress of the nine."was, perhaps, the name of the goddess of the country. Cf. the Maya god Ah Bolon Tzacab, the " Lord of nine generations" or " Lord of the nine medicines."din their intercourse with Cortes and the Spaniards they appear to have used the Mexican idiom,with which they were probably familiar on account of their Active trade with Tabasco and Xicalango,and which likewise Marina, Cortes's interpretress, spoke fluently. Where Bernal I>iaz repeats theinformation which the people of Acalan gave the Spaniards, he used exactly the words acales ithatis, Mexican acalli, "ship")?que en su lengua acales Uaman a los navies?and teules (that is,Mexican tecutli, or teuctli, "prince")?(|ue asi nos llamaban a los .soldados.e other copies give Quiatleo and tiuiatlia, but they are surely incorrect variations. 80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.28 seventeenth century in the savannas north of the Paso San Andres,neig-hhors of the Ah Itza, or Itzaex. The Maya word queh, ''deer",is contained in the name; it is ahiiost a direct translation of the Mexi-can mazateca, or mazatlan. That we have to do with a race closelyakin to the Maya also appears from the two names of cities, already men-tioned, which Cortes left us. Tiac would mean in Maya "city of thetortoise" and Yasuncabil somethino- like " o-reen earth". ^'^ The fortifi-cations skillfully constructed by the inhabitants of this territory provethat they had to protect themselves against constant hostile disturb-ances. Bernal Diaz believes that he heard the word "Lacantun" usedas the name of these enemies. It will, however, remain undecidedwhether this name, which was familiar in the place where he wrote,did not come into his mind or to his pen by error The description ofthe fortilied cit}' of the Mazateca in the middle of a lagoon remindsone very strongly of the city built on a rock in the Laguna delLacandon, which the expedition of Licenciado Pedro Ramirez deQuinones conquered and destroj^ed.^There still remain the ancient inhabitants of the mountains to thesouth and above the road traveled by Cortes. Those to the westwere designated the Lacandons, and those in the country about theRio de la Pasion, to the east, were called Chols.Lacandon is more a geographic than an ethnographic designation.And, if we are to believe Doctor Berendt,' at least two dilierent racesmust be included under this name even to-day. On the east are theMaya-speaking Lacandons, who live scattered on the lower Rio de laPasion, and also west of the Usumacinta, on the Lacan ha, the riverof Lacan, that is, the Rio Lacandon, and on the west the Lacandonsspeaking the Putum, or Choi, language, whose chief locations are saidto be found in Pet ha, in Chiapas. This account, which was repeatedby both Stoll and Sapper in earlier articles, is now contradicted byDoctor Sapper, who recently traveled through the boundary regionbetween Guatemala and Chiapas. He informed me by letter that hehad met Mayas speaking Lacandon on the road from Tenosique toOcocingo, and that there were no western Lacandons speaking Choi,and that the ancient Lacandons, who were for a long time the terrorof the Spanish settlements in Chiapas, Guatemala, and on the lowerUsumacinta, spoke, in part at least, the Maya proper, as appears froma few words which have come down to us. Against these Lacandonsa succession of costly campaigns was made, almost entirely in vain.Thus the Lacandons who met the column of Melchior Rodriguez, in1695, when it was advancing from Itzatan toward the north and alt is interesting that the name which Gomara mentions for the second of these two cities, XuucaCahitl, is doubtless, at least in its first part, a translation into Mexican, for xoxouhca in Mexicanmeans the same as the Maya yax, that is, "green ". '' Villastitierre y Sotoumyor, v. 1, chap. 12.cBerendt, Report of Explorations in Central America, 1867, p. 415. '^Ei.F.R] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 81northeast to the Rio Lacandon, called to the Spaniards in pure Maya:Utz im pusical, "1113- heart is good"?that is, ''good friend, we areharmless people ". '^The Chols, on the other hand, who still dwelt in the niountain forestsat the source of the Rio de la Pasion as far as the Sarstun at thebeginning and at the end of the seventeenth century, having a numeri-cal strength of 30,000 souls, were genuine Chols. To them Ix'longedthe Menche,'' the Axoye, and other lesser tribes; and the Mopan mustalso have been very closely akin to them. These Chols not onlv hadthe same name as the tribe still existing to-day in the north, in tlieneighborhood of Palenque, but also proved their kinship by ci^rtainpeculiarities of language, especially the change of c to cli/ Thisfact is the more important because it seems established accoixling tothe notes made l)y Doctor Sapper'' that the Choi-ti. the tribe whosedescendants are settled to-day in the neighborhood of Copan. likewiseb(>long to the same fanuly.' Thus, in fact, we have in that ancientthoroughfare a broad zone of related tribes, into which the Ma^^aswedged themselves oidy on one side, in the north, from Yucatan,and on the other side, in the south, in the valley of the Rio (irande, orMotagua river, the Mexican branch of the Pipils concjuered a i)lace forthemselves. Based on ethnologic conditions the kinship is apparentin the architectural style of the magniticent structures at the beginningand at the end of this great highwa}^ of nations?on the one hand, thoseof Palenque, and. on the other, those of Quirigua and Copan, to whichin the intermediate region are joined the ruins of Menchc Tinamit andsome others less well known. Maudslay, in a short paper which hewrote for Nature in 1892, calls attention to the fact that the colossalfigures on the stel? of Copan represent female deities exclusively, incontrast to the Yucatec reliefs, on which male and warlike forms pre-dominate. In this connection I would like to point out that the prin-cipal deity worshiped in the territory of Acalan was likewise a female;that the next largest city, which stood farther down on the Usumacinta,bears the name Ciuatecpan (Zagoatezpan, Ciguatepecad), "palace ofthe woman (the goddess)"; that, likewise, the mightiest city in thecenter of Tabasco, which Cortes and Bernal Diaz call Zagoatan,Zaguatan, is actually called ?iuatlan, ' ' the city of the woman (the n Villagutierre y Sotomayor, v. 4, p. 262.hMenche was actually only a certain village at the foot of the nortli side of tlu' liuly mountainVatunchu, and on the left bank of the river Cacuen; but Remesal mentions all the villages under thecollective name of Mench(?, which later in Villagutierre are called villages of the Chols. '?This change of c into ch appears in different names, for example, Vattni-Chu = idolo derecho,where Chu stands for Maya Ku; and also in a specimen of the language transmitted to us in Vil-lagutierre, v. 3, chap. 2, Chamay tzam bucana xaguil Jesu Christo tut Santa Cruz umenel ca tanal,muri6,estendido en su cara de este palo que se 11am la Santa Cruz Nue.stra Senor .1. C. por luiefltrospecados.f' Petermann's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1893, p. ti.pThe word Chorti itself only means "the language of the Chols' , a.? the 1 of the Choi f)ecomfs rin Chorti.7238?No. 28?05 6 82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28g-oddess) "; and that also the onh' place which Landa mentions on theLagiina de Terminos, Tixchel, "to the aged goddess", seems to havebeen a place for the worship of a female deity.Copan, Quirigua, and Palenque lie beyond the limits of the presenttreatise. Their prosperity was e\'idently temporary, caused by cer-tain trade combinations, and for a time by the resultant conditions, ofacicumiilated wealth and power. It had doubtless already passed awaywhen Cortes entered this region. The intermediate territor}^ was pro))-ably always on a lower plane of governmental, social, and materialdevelopment, although in pre-Spanish times it was never as low as itafterward l^ecame on account of the entire cessation of trattic and thesubversion of all existing conditions in the surrounding regions. Asthe above statements show, we had, then, in ancient times two nationsexisting side by side, distinct, though closely related one to the other.Of the two the Mayas have preserved their nationality to the presentday, while the other, the Chols, appear to have been al)sorbed, partly bythe former and partly and chiefly by the neighboring Qu'ekchi, " Here,as in other regions, notwithstanding original difl'erences of race, sim-ilar conditions of environment and extensive mutual intercourse haveproduced a fairly uniform picture of civilization. This fact is at onceseen by comparing the descriptions of Choi settlements in the northof Cahabon, given by the old Dominican monks, with that which Doc-tor Sapper gives of the Lacandons on the lower bank of the Kio de laPasion. But it is also shown in several other details. At the con-quest of the rock city in the Laguna del Lacandon, as the chroniclerexpressh^ mentions, no idols whatever were found, for the Lacandonsworshiped the sun only (el cuerpo solar), and brought their ofteringsand sacriflces to the sun itself and not to any representations of it,differing in this way very distinctly from the Itzaex and other tribesof those mountains, who had countless idols, statues, and images ofmetal, stone, and wood, with many superstitious customs and diabolicalceremonies. ''The same statement is made in another place concerning the Acalansand Lacandons. Similarly, the Dominican monks reported that thej^had found no idols at all, either of stone or any other material, amongthe Chols in the north of Cahabon. Sacrifices of black wax and otherinflammable material were made, and chickens and other birds wereoccasionally sacrificed, as well as blood, which the Indians drew fromthemselves by piercing their tongues, their ears, their temples, or themuscles of their arms and legs. But the Indians said that they madethese sacrifices to the woods and the high mountains, the dangerousfords of the rivers, the road crossings, and the lakelike expansions ofthe rivers. In fact, the fathers found a place of sacrifice on the summit "Sapper, in Petermann's Geographls^che Mittheilungen, 1893, p. 8. '' Villagiitierre y Sotomayur, v. 1, chap. 2. SEIER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 83of the mountain over which they had to pass on their return journey,where a tire was evidently kept burning-, fed by the wax and copalofl'erings of passers-by. There were, besides, places of worship in thevillages, consisting only of a round structure or (in the temple ormeetinghouse) of a couple of stones upon which the wax candles andthe copal were burned." In the ermita of the Lacandons DoctorSapper likewise found no idols whatever, but only a " low table uponwhich wax candles appeared to have been burned" and the singulai-sacriticial vessels in which wax, copal, etc., were offered.''Peculiar clay vessels were found some time ago in this extensiveregion, which has lately been made more accessible by the felling oftimber along the Usumacinta and the Rio de la Pasion. These vesselsare distinguished by a face mask of a rather stereotyped form, whichis placed on the riiu. In the (luatemalan exhibit in Madrid there wasa series of .such vessels displayed, and their origin was given as fromUsumacinta. The Royal Museum of Ethnology received from Consul-General Sarg two such vessels with a similar label, one of whidi isrepresented by h. figure 13. An exactl}' similar vessel is found in themuseum at Copenhagen, said to have come from Peten (/>, figure 14).No such vessels are known to come from other parts of Guatemala.The museum in Copenhagen possesses two similar vessels of somewhatvarying but probably related forms {a and c, figure 14), which l)ear thegeneral label "from Tabasco ". Charnay found vessels like tf, />, and c,figure 18, in great numbers in the chief templeof Menche Tinamit. nearthe idol and in almost every room.*^ He copies two of them, and sincethe face mask of one is distinguished from the other by a very promi-nent nose he supposes that these two types represent, perhaps, twodifferent races. Charnay considered these vessels to be prehistoric.We have to thank Doctor Sapper for the knowledge that the Lacan-dons still make such vessels to-day and bring wax and copal to theirgods in them. Doctor Sapper saw these vessels in the great ermita ofthe settlement of Izan, and he collected fragments of them in theruins of Menche Tinamit, "where the Lacandons were accustomed tomeet once a year to celebrate their festivals by balche feasts and pecul-iar ceremonies, and to ofler sacrifices to their gods in various I)uildings,especially in a three-storied biylding distinguished by beautiful reliefsand a large sitting stone idoP".''I have had some of the fragments which were collected by Docto?-Sapper copied in < tof. figure 18, while a shows a specimen which wasgiven to the Royal Museum from the Ecuadorian exhibit at the Cohnn-bian Exposition in Chicago, and which is evidentlv of similar origin.In the latter, as well as in the different fragments sent in by Sapper,thick masses of a waxv or resinous substance were found. On the n Remesal, v. 2, chap. I'.t. ? Les Anclennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, p. 381. ''Ausland. 1S91, T>. 893. ^Ausland. 1891, pp. 893-S&4. 84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 outside, as it seems, all tiie pieces were oritjfinall}' smeared over witha white earth, which usuall}^ nearly covered even the prominent detailsof the face mask.Shapes like those of the vessels represented here were naturally not Fig. 13. Bowls from Guatemala.an original invention. One can imagine that they originated in ves-sels like (7, figure l-l, and that the latter shape arose from the need Iof distinguishing the back from the front. But one can also consider |them as survivals of whole-figui-e vessels, which seems to me more I seler] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 85probable. The inclined position which was given to the face masksin the vessels of the Lacandons proves that the original shape can nothave been an erect hgure like those of the Zapotec tioure vessels andthe vessels of Ranchito de las Animas. The}' are, it would seem, morelike the vessels represented in <:/, ligure 23, and a, figure 24, below ?that is, animal figures whose bodies form the hollow of the vessel.The human face which our vessels show might have originated as asubstitute for tiie animal head. It seems more probable to me that thehuman face held in the open jaws of the animal on the vessel in d^ fig-ure 23, and similar ones, as well as in numerous small clay figuresof Yucatan, in the stone monuments of Menche Tinamit, and else-where, has finally become predominant. This would best explain tome the projecting band bv which the face mask of our Lacandonvessels is bordered above the forehead, which is wanting only in themask of e^ figure 13.'^' This, then, would represent what remains ofthe animal jaw, and the erect, comblike object above it the relic of a ^^ Fig. 14. Potterv vessels from Guatemala.tuft of feathers, which rises in most of these figures above the crown orthe nostrils. The vessel shown in e^ figure 13, which, instead of theband above the forehead and the comblike, erect object, shows only anotched edge of the forehead, appears to represent the last stage ofthis development.1 need not especially dwell upon the fact that the face masks containonly things which have long since gone out of use, which the makersof these vessels no longer had before their eyes, and which they merelyrepeated in stereotyped fashiow. Neither the ear pegs, nor the knob-like objects resting on the cheeks (cheek pegs?), nor the knob, which isdifficult to explain, placed above the root of the nose, nor the deepcuts which outline the upper lip in/, figure 13, are used to-day amongthe Lacandons. Like the Lacandons themselves, these vessels, fossil-ized, as it were, represent the remains of a long-vanished epoch ofcivilization.The territories of the Chols and the Lacandons would to-day adjoin,on the south, the lands of the Qu'ekchi and their kin, the Pokonchi. a In a, fig. 13, the whole of the part referred to is broken off. 86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYThese are the cultivated regions of the Vera Paz, open to Christiancivilization and populated to this day to some extent. Here we find inthe west, in the valley of the Chixoy, the ruins of Salinas de los NueveCerros and those of Chania. Doctor Sapper is inclined to ascribe boththese to the Chols, without of course expressing more than a supposi-tion on this question.From the former place, where, according to Doctor Sapper's state-ment, a pretty sculpture, with some hieroglyphs, was found in a moundhaving well-preserved burial chambers, the Sapper collection containstwo grinding slabs, two stone rings, a pottery vessel, and three potteryplates. The grinding slabs are of natural gneiss or mica schist of slightthickness (maximum, 3 cm.). The larger of the two has a rubbing sur-face of 52 by 35 cm. Of the two stone rings, the inner diameter of the c d e fFig. is. Pottery vessels and other articles from a Guatemalan mound.larger is from 4 to 5 cm., and the ring is 5^ cm. broad and 5 cm. thick;the other has an inner diameter of 2|^ to 3^ cm.; the breadth of thering is 3 cm., and the thickness somewhat over 3 cm. The larger oneis smooth on the upper and lower surfaces and rough on the circumfer-ence. Both were perhaps used in a game resembling the chunky gameof the Indians of the southern United States. The pottery vessel(a, figure 15) has a height of 15 cm. , and the diameter at the mouth is 13cm. It was well baked and carefully smoothed, and then received ared coating, upon which was traced a network of black lines; but thecoating is rubbed off in many places. The plates (J, figure 15) have adiameter of 22 to 25 cm, and a height of about 6 cm. They are also ofwell-baked clay, rough on the outside and furnished with a light-redcoating on the inside. ^VA.ER] ANTTQUITTES OF GUATEMALA 87Farther up in the vaiiey of the Chixoy, where the 8alba empties onthe right, lie the ruins of Chama, where the excavations of Mr Die-seldorff have yielded such fine results. According to the infcn-mationwhich he has given about them in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic,there were on the left, as well as on the right, hank of the Salbaseveral plazas (courts or squares inclosed by walls), above whichrise artificial mounds of the familiar truncated pyramidal form. Inthe pyramid on the north side of the plaza, distinguished by him asthe ''lower" one, which, if 1 understand riglitly, is on the left bankof the Salba, he found, among a layer of potsherds nearly two feet inthickness, a dark resinous mass in which were embedded diti'erentspecimens of stone, small polyhedric slabs of iron pyrites, and disksof a sort of slate. The small disks of iron pyrites, which Diescldorffwould prefer to explain as mirrors, probabh^ served as mosaic incrus-tations of utensils or ornaments (ear pegs or similar articles). Th(?stone disks which Dieseldortf designated as sacrificial plates are pro-vided with holes and connecting grooves which doul)tless representg-uides for cords. ? They are, perhaps, ornamental disks like the largedisks which we find in Mexican picture writings on the fillets worn onthe forehead by difierent deities, especially by the sun god (see below,h, figure 28), and in a similar manner on difierent stone heads of Copan.''He found under this resinous layer a graA'e formed of stones, inwhich, near the dead, who were buried in a sitting posture, were founda jaguar's skull, a ring made of a mussel shell, and five potter}' ves-sels?one painted jug-, two cup-like painted vessels, an unpainted pot,and a three-footed bowl.'"Mr Dieseldorff found similar conditions in the northwest mound ofthe upper plaza, on the left bank of the Salba. He could not per-sonally complete the excavations, but others excavated after him, andvarious painted vessels were found near the dead. A very inter-esting drawing of one of them Mr Dieseldorfi sent to the BerlinAnthropological Society.-' Lastly, Mr Dieseldorfi' found, in a i)y ramidwhich forms the southern end of a plaza on the right bank of theriver Salba, under a layer of stone, a quantity of vessels of \arioiisshapes embedded in a viscous clay. ))ut all of them were shattered bythe fall of the stone layer.'' ''Mingled with the vessels were found theremains of various human skek>tons, whose recumbent posture, withthe head toward the south, was still clearly recogniza])le. N'ariousstone specimens and a small polyhedral slab of iron pyrites were found a See the photographs in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1893, v. 25, p. 377.bMaudslay, Biologia Centrali Americana, Archseology, pt. 1, pi. ii.c Of these the painted jug is reproduced in Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, v. 2."i, ]?93, y>. 37s, and one ofthe painted jug.s, same volume, pi. xvi, fig. 1.d Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1894, v. 26, pi. viii.e Three of these are reproduced in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, a vessel with the god in the snailshell, V. 25, 1893, pi. XVI, figs. 3, 4, and two others with the figure of the but god, in the .same volume,p. 374, and v. 26, 1894, pi. Xiii. 80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buij.. 2,samong- them; but ttie resinous mass over the l)urial chambers in theother two cases was entirel}" lacking- here.These discoveries are especially interesting because the painted ves-sels belong- among those which, partl}^ by reason of the character ofthe figures, but especiall}' b}^ reason of the hieroglyphs which are foundon diii'erent ones, are proved to be akin to the Ma^^a manuscripts andsculptures of the great ruin cities of Central America and Yucatan.Such vessels have also been found in other parts of Guatemala, andthis fact rather contradicts the statements of the authors, who, whilethey la}" stress on the fact that the Ma^'as of Yucatan and Petenhad "signs and letters with which they wrote their histories and notedtheir ceremonies, and the order of sacrifices to their idols, and theircalendar", ncA'ertheless mention nothing of the kind concerning theraces of Guatemala. The isolated statement of Zorita that he wasconvinced from the paintings of the natives of Utatlan that theirancient history dated back eight hundred years rather indicates picturewritings of the nature of the historical codices of the Mexicans.The locality of Chama is quite near the region in w hich occur ruinsof Maya character or sculptures with hierogl^'phs. At least fourof the vessels which Mr Dieseldorff described in print bear a fairlyuniform character, although they were found in three different places,and if they were not manufactured in this locality they must certainlyhave all originated in the same region. The hieroglyphs conform ingeneral to those of the reliefs and manuscripts, though it is not possi-ble to connect them with particular manuscripts or reliefs. But sev-eral of the pictorial representations, however, seem to refer to certainconditions peculiar to Guatemala. ** Whether these vessels were madein Chama itself, or whether the}^ were brought there in trade, can onlybe decided when not mere single fragments, but the entire contentsof the graves and the earth surrounding them are made known orbecome accessible for study, as has been done by Mr Strebel. Thatthe place of manufacture can not be ver}' distant, however, must, itseems, be accepted as certain.The eastern provinces have especial importance in the Qu'ekchiregion. In Cahabon, as StoU learned from Professor Kockstroh,* apart of the ancient Chols were settled, and three barrios of this villageat that time still claimed the region on the upper Sarstun and to thenorth of this river as having belonged to their ancestors. DoctorSapper has been unable to find traces of the Choi language in Cahabon.Still, the dialect of the people of Lanquin and Cahabon differs fromthat of the Qu'ekchi of Coban. They likewise differ in certain pecu-liarities in the building of their houses and in their burial customs.''Doctor Sapper has investigated a few of the caves in this eastern ?See Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1894, v. 26, p. 577, and following; 1895, v. 27, p. 27.b Stoll, Guatemala, p. 359.<^Petermann'.s Geographische Mittheilungen, 1893, pp. 7, 8. selkr] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 8W region, which he considers quite ancient settlements. In Campur heexcavated a small cave which is about 10 meters deep and whose floorslopes inward. Four meters from the entrance a wall, built of stonewithout mortar, runs obliquely through the cavern. Doctor Sapperfound behind this wall some large stones, without recognizable signifi-cance or connection, which may perhaps have been hearthstones or g hFig. 16. Pottery vessels in the form of animal heads. Guatemala. seats. There were, further, remains of pots, most of thorn withoutdecoration. One fragment had a hole drilled under the rim, doul)tlessfor a cord by which the vessel was carried. A fragment of the rim ofa thick vessel showed linear decorations scratched on it. Hut iiear bywere also found two feet, belonging to vessels, in the form of animalheads of the types copied in a and J, tigure 16, apparently of the same 90 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 material as the other vessels. There was, further, a pottery stamp witha simple geometric or meander pattern; also clay balls, which DoctorSapper calls blowgun balls, but which, it is more likely, came out ofthe hollow handles of incense spoons, and may be designated as rattlestones. There were found two fragments of stone hatchets, one offlint, the other of a hornblendic (piartz rock; a whetstone, a flint arrow-head, v^arious small obsidian knives, a })iece of rock crystal, countlessfresh-water shells of tho Melania family, a land snail, fragments ofskeletons of birds and small mammals, among which the paca and othersmall rodents were recognized. There were also teeth of the jabali,tepescuinte, and other tusked animals, a jaguar's tooth, and noticeably,also, a piece of crab's claw, and a piece of a sea urchin's shell withpores. It was without doubt the wretched abode of a people who livedby the chase. But I believe that there is no special reason to considerit very much older than the other settlements which have becomeknown in that region.A second cave in this region, which was searched by Doctor Sapper,is that of Ceamay. Fragments of a large thin-walled vessel were foundthere, the exterior of which was decorated with a sort of mat-braidpattern scratched in line lines.The tinds of Chiatzam seem also to have a peculiar character. Besidesa beautiful lance point of flint and a fine obsidian knife, 25 cm. in lengthand 3 cm. in breadth, the Sapper collection contains fragments of stonejugs, which seem to have had two small handles on the circumference,with a boss between them, and which are decorated at the base of theneck with a double row of small grooved circles. Further, there areworth}^ of notice thick coarse fragments, with deeply scratched ser-pentine lines which form definite figures, and also thick potsherds dec-orated in very deep lines with symbols and hieroglyphs, almost likecertain vessels from Tabasco which were placed in the TrocaderoMuseum by M. Charna3^ A pottery head from Chiatzam will be dis-cussed below.From the central parts of the Qu'ekchi territor}', the district ofCoban, Zamac, San Pedro Carcha, and San Juan Chamelco, the RoyalMuseum possesses, partly in the Sai'g and partly in the Sapper collec-tion, a large number of pottery objects and fragments, mostly small,as well as some stone objects.In his contributions to the ethnography of the Republic of Guate-mala'* Doctor Sapper calls attention to the diflerence in the form ofthe millstones for grinding maize used in the difl'erent parts of Guate-mala. While in the highlands they use clumsy millstones and heavycylindric hand rollers projecting on each side beyond the edge of themillstone and held at the ends (manufactured about Santa Catalina, notfar from Quetzaltenango), there were used in Peten, in Vera Paz, and a Petermann's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1893, p. 12. SELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 91in southeast Guatemala lij^hter millstones with smooth hand rollersshorter than the breadth of the millstone and held in the middle (man-ufacturing center at Jilotopeque). The first form of hand rollers witha circular section (in many cases becoming nearly square or vervmuch flattened on one side) is also the customary form in the plateauof Mexico. It is represented in the Guatemalan collection of the RoyalMuseum by a fragment of a hand roller from the ruins of Q'umarcaah-Utatlan, the ancient Quiche (capital. A hand roller which DoctorSapper has sent from the ruins of Bolonchac in Chiapas?that is, fromthe Tzental territory?shows the smooth, shorter form. It is 25 cm.long by y cm. broad and 1^ cm. in its greatest thickness (see c\ figure15). A similar but less regular form is shown in a hand roller of theSapper collection from Panquip, or Las Pacayas, a region whichbelongs to the Pokonchi territor3\ But, besides these, there occurs inthe ancient settlements of Vera Paz a remarkable form of long handcrusher, flattened on two sides almost like a board, with thick knob-like ends which serve as handles and must have extended be3"ond thesides of the millstone (see the fragment d, figure 15). Such crushersare in the Sapper collection from Campur and from the neighbor-hood of Coban. In one remarkable piece in the Sarg collection fi-omCebaczoos {e, figure 15) these ends are even developed into a sort ofhandle. I must remark, however, that this flat boardlike form, whichdiffers in a very conspicuous way from the cylindric or (juadrangularforms of the Mexican plateau and the highlands of (xuatemala, is alsofound in a specimen of the Strebel collection, which is said to havecome from the neighborhood of Misantla in the State of Vera Cruz.Several other hand rollers of the Sapper collection which come fromPilon de Azucar, hence from the Misantla region, show the origin ofthis form?namely, that the flattened side is cut out, as it were, ofthe original cylindric tool, the ends remaining thick and knobby.Among the coarser pottery, I will next mention two pieces, one ofwhich came from San Juan Chamelco, the other from the locality ofSanta Cruz, which is soon to be discussed in detail. These specimensrecall in a certain way the shoe vessels, as they, too, are shaped (seefigure 15) suitabl}" to be pushed into the ground. On the whole, theyresemble the neck of a jug,''the mouth of whi(rh has been closed andforms the bottom of the vessel. The Sarg collection contains anactual small shoe vessel. It is said to have come from C'oban. Hutthis vessel is so out of place and reminds one so much of the typespeculiar to Central America (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Chiriqui) thatI am inclined to think it was accidentally brought licrc. but I willawait further discoveries before deciding.In the Sapper collection there are fragments of ruder vessels fromthe neighborhood of Coban, with thick, wavy, indented rims. Someare likewise embossed with decorations and have grooved circles, like V)2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BrT,L.28those from Ceamay. There are some polished ones, with dark, thinwalls, ornamented with circles and bosses of rather elegant appearance,from Petet, near Coban, There are also some with thick walls and ayellowish-red coating bordered with broad white stripes, from SanJuan Chamelco. There are, besides, painted fragments with differentpatterns in ])lack and red on a j^ellowish-red ground.Three-footed dishes, so-called cazuelas, with heads of animals asfeet, appear to have been much used, together with simple dishes, flat-bottomed or slightly rounded. One wliole dish of this kind is in theSapper collection from the neighborhood of Coban, and there are alsobroken-off feet from San Juan Chamelco and other places. A reddish-yellow or dark-brown coating seems to have been preferred for thevessels. The feet of vessels in the form of animal lieads partly recallthe tj^pes in the Strebel collection from Cerro Montoso and those fromCholula. Among the shapes represented I mention the alligator,coati(?), jaguar, monkey, and human face (? to e^ figure 16, which aretaken from the Sarg collection).I further mention larger juglike vessels. As in other regions, a facewas frequently placed on the necks of these. The Sapper collectioncontains a ruder fragment of this kind from Campur, and a thinner-walled one from San Juan Chamelco, which I have reproduced in f,figure 16. The circular protuberances on the cheeks are noticeablehere. The lips were added separately, but are unfortunately brokenawa}^ It is not impossible that a beard may have been indicated,similar to the one depicted in the vessel below {d, figure 23). Thewhole face has a coating of light-red ocher.One must not confuse the head-shaped ends of incense-spoon handles,which are also frequent, with the feet of vessels in the form of animalheads. The former preferably show a reptile head (A, figure 16, fromSacuyo in Doctor Sapper's collection), or the}^ have a human head withempty eye sockets communicating with the hollow interior of thehandle {g^ figure 16, from Petet, near Coban, Sarg collection). Here,too, appears a certain analogj' with the region of the Strebel col-lection. I remark here that in the Yucatan collection of the RoyalMuseum a similar head, with hollow eye sockets, is used to decorate thefront of a cylindric vessel.Many of the feet of vessels and, commonly, the hollow handles ofincense spoons, contain little clay balls, which give these articles thecharacter of rattles. A large number of such little clay balls werecollected by Doctor Sapper in the cave of Campur.The fragment from Coban (c, figure 17) evidently also belongs to anincense vessel, which was not held in the hand, but was meant to stand.The head, whose ornamental finish strongly recalls the style of theCopan sculptures, is doubtless intended for an animal head. But whatkind of an animal it is meant to represent unfortunately can not be seler] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 93determined from the fraoinent, as the f i-ont of botli jaws is broken off.Behind the angles of th(^ jaw a human ear, with a square ear plate, isindicated, which often occurs in animal figures, especially in such astigure in mythology. In the small collection of antiquities which Mi' Fig. 17. Pottery fragments from Guatemala.Dieseldorff broug'ht over some years ago and which at present js keptat his house in Hamburg- is found the handle of an incense spoon, withan animal head at the end, which corresponds almost exactly to our <:tigure IT, and which is complete. I have taken pains to make a draw-ing of this object from a few small photographs which I possess ??f 94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28this collection through the kindness of Mr Dieseldorli', and havereproduced it in a. The nose is remarkably long, and one is almosttempted to think of the Tzimin-Chac, the horse of Cortes, whichremained in Peten and was worshipped as a god. But I believe anothercomparison lies nearer. In h 1 reproduce in outline a large piece ofsculpture from Santa Lucia Cozumalhuapa, which is found in ourRoyal Museum and which I believe corresponds to the head in n, andprobably also to the one in c. This stone head is especially interesting,Ijecause it is represented with weeping eyes or, perhaps more correctly,with eyes fallen out of the sockets.In the Mexican calendar writings, whose models doubtless camefrom the south, the empty eye sockets are the special sign of a certainmythologic personage to whom the interpreters give the name Xolotl.This is a person who has no place in the worship of the plateau tribesand is evidently a stranger to them. Something mysterious and unnat-ural pertained to him. By the interpi-eters he was called the "god ofmonstrosities", and "monstrosity'' is probabl}^ the most suitable trans-lation of his name. The empty eye sockets are explained by the Mexicanlegend which says that, when in Teotihuacan the gods had decided tosacriiice themselves in order to give strength and life to the newlycreated sun, Xolotl withdrew from this sacrifice and wept so that hiseyes started from their sockets. This explanation was invented onlyto make the imintelligible characteristic of a strange personality com-prehensible to themselves and others. In an earlier work I have soughtto make it clear that, since in Zapotec the hairless native dog is calledpeco-xolo, by Xolotl was originally meant the lightning beast of theMaya tribes, the dog. A dog, or, more correctly, perhaps, a coyote,is, in fact, in certain picture writings, the direct equivalent of Xolotl.But I was later convinced that in the above-mentioned Zapotec expres-sion xolo is only the attribute, and in this case designates a special,really unnatural, kind of dog. Thus the dog or coyote has become therepresentative of Xolotl in a roundabout way, by a secondary trainof thought?perhaps, indeed, through the false interpretation of anunknown, uncomprehended animal form.I am inclined to see the true Xolotl in an animal which the Zapotecslikewise designate by xolo, in full, as peche-xolo,'^' suggesting the senseof "sinister being", also known to the Mexicans under this name,their tlaca- xolotl.'' This is the tapir, whose mythologic role is estab- " "Pecho-xolo", "danta animal silvestre", Juan de C6rdoba, Vocabulario Zapoteco.^Sahagun and Hernandez describe under the name of tlaca-xolotl an animal which is said to livein the provinces of Atzaecan, Tepotzotzontlan, and Tlanquilapan, "not far from Honduras". It is aslarge as an ox, has a long snout, large teeth, hoofs like an ox, a thick hide, and reddish hair. Itlivesupon wild cocoa, fruits, and leaves of trees, lays waste the maize fields, and is caught in pits andeaten. The name tlaca-xolotl is moreover nothing more than a translation of the Zapotec p^ehe-xolo, for in Zapotec p^che is probably a secondary form of peni, "human being", "rational livingbeing" (Mexican tlacatl) as mache is a secondary form of mani, "animal ". The description of Her-nandez contains some conspicuous errors. He translates " pero de la forma de una persona", whichin Sahagun refers only to the preceding "los diente.s y muelas muy grandes". that is, " very largeincisors and molar teeth, but of the same shape as those of men" by " humana psene facie". 3ELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 95lished, yet very little is known of its peculiar nature, and whose well-drawn figure we see in one of the interesting relief tiles of Chiapas.If the tapir be really Xolotl, the empty sockets must be characteristicof the tapir, and we ought to recognize the tapir in h. howeverimprobable this identification may be to the eye trained to observenatural phenomena.A quantity of other fragments show^ the same style and tli(> sameconception as ^r and c, especially those with conventionalized and oi-na-mentally developed serpent heads, many of which seem to be found inthis region. I have copied in a, figure 18, a fragment from San JuanChamelco and in h another from Santa Cruz. The human leg, wJiichis seen in the latter fragment under the edge of the upper jaw, prob-ably ))elongs to a complete human figure which issued from the jawsof the serpent?a very common representation which we see in thecedar-wood biblets of Tikal and numerous other sculptures. These areusually clay tablets with ijuite high and boldly executed reliefs. Somehave a peglike attachment on the reverse side. Perhaps they belongto the kind of tablets which I have represented in /, ^?, and /, figure 20,and which I interpret as celestial shields. On the last page of theDresden manuscript and in the Perez codex the celestial shields ter-minate in half figures, especially heads of crocodiles. It seems moreprobable to me that they are fragments of complicated figure struc-tures resembling those of the Copan stelai.The material of these quite numerous fragments and also of thefragment in c^ figure 17, is a hard-baked clay of brick-red appearance.The fragments convey a strong impression of having all come fromthe same place of manufacture.The majority of the heads and figure fragments of this region aremade of this same red clay. I reproduce next, in e, figure 18, the castof an ancient pottery shape, which Doctor Sapper obtained in theregion of Coban without being able to fix the exact place of discovery.It is probably a female figure with parted hair falling down at thesides of the head, a lock of which, drawn forward from l)ehind. hangsfar down over the shoulder. This long tapering lock of flowing hairin front is likewise a distinguishing characteristic of women in theDresden manuscript, and we jjce it, moi'eover, in the vase paintiiig fromRio Hondo, which is reproduced below in t\ figure 26. The form <.figure 18, wears large square ornamental tablets in the ears. A clothis wound about the body inunediately below the breasts, and aroundthe neck she wears a cord on which is strung a large quadraiigulai'prismatic stone bead with a round bead at each end. A head {h. figure19) which comes from San Juan Chamelco evidently belonged to a sim-ilar figure. Here, too, the hair is parted, but bound above the foreheadby a tupuy, "headband". Two other modes of dressing the hair. 96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 SELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 97doubtless also belonging to female figui-es, are giv^en in d and e^ fio-ure18, one a back, the other a front, view. The latter strongh- remindsus of the festive headdress of an Indian woman whose picture Stollgives in his contributions to the ethnology of the Indian races ofGuatemala/' These two fragments came from San Juan Chamelco.Both the cloth wound around the body and the neck decoration are alsovery distinctly seen in the fragment shown in h, figure 10, which like-wise came from San Juan Chamelco. Here again on the neck cordare strung two quadrangular prismatic beads on each side of a smallmask, which must have been heavy, for it was held by a separate bandor strap passing over the shoulder. A small pottery pipe of the Sargcollection, which comes from Coban ( /, figure 18) shows a woman witha cloth around the body, carrying a large water jug on her shoulder,who has the same way of dressing the hair as c, figure 18, also largesquare ear plates.The forms a and c, figure 19, are male heads. The latter, which comesfrom San Juan Chamelco, is characterized by a large nose bar. Theformer, which comes from Sesis, is distinguished b}^ a clearly definedand strongl}^ modeled mustache and a foldlike elevation on the fore-head above the I'oot of the nose. 1 saw a mustache marked in asimilar wa}^ on a head in the Dieseldorfi' collection. A mustache andbeard are likewise clearly present in a relief {e^ figure 1J?), from Petet,near Coban, now in the Sarg collection. In the remarkable vesselfrom Chama which Mr Dieseldorff described in the Zeitschrift fiirEthnologic* all the persons of the group at the left of the pictureare distinguished by a more or less prominent growth of hair on theupper lip and chin. I believe that we have here, if not an anthro-pologic distinction, certainl}^ an ethnologic one, and, at the same time,proof that the heads and reliefs which I have copied here were madein the same region as the painted pots of Chama or, at least, in someadjacent region, which increases the probability that none of thesearticles were importations, but were made on the spot.The two reliefs e and /belong to the Sarg collection. The formerwas found in Petet, the latter in Chicojoito, near Coban.' Unfortu-natelj% both are fragments and must each be assigned to a separategroup of figures. They are male figures. That at e distinctly showsa mustache and beard; f shows them less clearly. The manner ofdressing the hair seems to be the same in both. It is long and hangingdown behind, and is cut off over the forehead, just as the Dominicanmonks described it as being worn among the Qu'ekchis and the Chols.It was, as we know, a very difficult task for the monks to persuade their a Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographic (Leiden), supplement to v. 1, pi. ii, fig. 15.bl894, V. 26, pi. Vll.o\ am familiar with similar quadrangular pottery reliefs bordered by broad stripes from Teotitlandel Camino in the State of Oaxaca. They all appear to be parts of square seat-like foundations ofpottery figures.7238?No. 28?05 7 98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28 Fig. 19. Face-form vessels from Giuitemala. *^ELEK] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA WV*heathen pupils to have their hair cut in a Christian and civilized man-ner. In the %iires on the reliefs we are considering- the hair seems tohave been removed from the middle of the head, like a tonsure, andfrom the back of the crown decorations of feathers (quetzal feathers)hang far down the back. For ornament both figures wear square earplates and necklaces of large round beads. They are clothed with thebreechcloth (Mexican maxtlatl, Maj^a ex), the knot of which is lai-oeand plainly seen in <^ while in/ it is covered by a skull which thisfigure wears on a cord hanging over the back. The action is difficultto explain, since the opposite figure is wanting. An offering or apresentation appears to be expressed. I can say nothing further inexplanation.The head in g was obtained by Doctor Sapper in Chiatzam. It wasmade of the same brick-red clay as all of the above-described headsand fragments, and is, the first which we can identif}'^ with a knownmythologic character. The hair standing erect in flaming tongues,and especially the eye with the four radiations on the forehead, leadus to recognize in it Kinich Ahau, the sun god. The piece is unfor-tunately incomplete, the lower half of the face being absent. Butthe Dieseldorff" collection contains two heads which represent the sungod and have a very peculiar characteristic on the lower half of theface. Mr Dieseldorfi' permitted me to make a sketch of these. Theyare a and 5, figure 20. Both come from the neighborhood of San JuanChamelco. They can be recognized as representations of the sun god bythe large, peculiarly formed eye, whilst h is distinguished also by thehair, and a by the cross over the forehead, which is a variant of the Kinsign. Both show, as the most striking peculiarity, teeth filed to apoint in a certain manner. This is precise!}" the peculiarity whichoccurs with great regularity in the Copan sculptures of the sun god.A glance at c and d will suflfice to confirm this. The form c is takenfrom Stela H, d from Stela A (Maudsla}' \s notation). Both are clearlydesignated as representations of the sun god by the Kin sign on theforehead. But we also see this same peculiarity" in the heads of the sungod which stand among the initial numerical hieroglyphs of the steltein the sixth place, directly before the name of the katun (10 Ahau),which thus denote the units, tjiat is, the single days (see e and/', whichare taken from Stelte A and J). The beardlike lines indicated l)clowthe head of the sun god are without doubt the u mex kin, "the beai'dof the sun", "the sunbeams'". Wherever in this place, instead of thehead of the sun god, the simple Kin sign stands, as on Stela ^I of Copanand on the altar slab of the first cross temple number in Palenque, thissun beard is regularly indicated (see g and h).1 should further like to call attention to the fact that the representa-tions of the sun god found in the manuscripts by no means show theteeth filed to a point in the same characteristic way. Therefore the 100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2? k IFig. 20. Pottery ornaments from Guatemala. .'^KiKK] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 101fact that this is so distinctly brought out in the heads of 8an oluanChamelco is of especial weight. It proves that the ancient iiihal)itantsof Vera Paz were under the immediate influence of the civilized nationwhich had erected the monumental structures of Copan, perhaps wereidentical with them; at any rate, that they were closely akin to tiiom.Further, I will not omit to mention that this peculiar manner of tiling-the teeth is seen on the pottery pipes of the Strebel Ranchito dvlas Animas collection, the so-called ""Totonac priests'', which aresitting-, standing, or carousing figures, dressed in a peculiar capelikeovergarment.In this connection a few other small antiquities, some of which arecontained in the Sapper collection, and some in the Dieseldortf collec-tion, from this region, seem to me to be of importance. These are redpottery tablets with a rectangular border, on which, between raisedintersecting moldings, is a series of consecutive s^^ubols executed inrelief. I copied a fragment of the Sapper collection, seen in /. andattempted, in / and k, to reproduce some of the symbols contained onthese fragments from photographs of the Dieseldortf colhn-tion. Ibelieve that in these fragments we have celestial shields executed inrelief, that is, they correspond to the tablets (square or rectangularlybent), bearing the signs Kin, Akbal, and variants of the same, whichoccur frequently in the Maya manuscripts, and which Forstemann wouldlike to interpret as symbols of different stars or planets. Messrs Sapperand Dieseldortf formerly attached special importance to the littlerosettes {d, figure 19), which occur frequently in the region of Chamelco.I consider them fragments of larger figures, and do not believe thatany deeper meaning can be attached to the number symbols on them,excepting, of course, the four parts into which the center knot divides.On the latter there are traces of blue color, as in the ear plates of h,figure 19. The rosette itself appears to have been painted crimson.The ear plates might, perhaps, be considered to represent turquoisemosaic, and the same might l)e true of the knots of the rosettes.A few pottery figures (pipes) of the Sarg collection, said to havecome from the cave of Zabalam, near Coban, are of a peculiar character(r/, J, and c, figure 21). The material is a brick-red clay, which is some-what more sandy than in the fragments described before, painted incertain places partly light-blue and partly white. The whole construc-tion has something remarkably modern about it; the first, '/, shows afigure clothed with a maxtlatl and a loin cloth, wearing large roundear pegs and a cylindric stone bead on a cord around the neck, andadorned with great winglikc feather ornaments projecting from thesides of the head. The figure is represented in a dancing posturebefore a sort of tree, whose branches are made of unripe ears of niuizestill in the husk. Such an ear of maize also rises high over the headof the figure. Both at the right and left are seen figures of animals 102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bl'LL. 28(squirrel and bird) nibbling the ears of maize. There are also animalfigures erect on their haunches at the feet of the principal figure. Fig. 21. Pottery figures from Guatemala.The second piece, h, is a sitting figure, similarly costumed, with a largeheaddress, the chief feature of which is a high braided structure, perhaps ANTIQUITIKS OF (IFATKMALA 108an imitation of an ear of maize. The tree with the ears of maize and theanimal tioures is lacking-. The third piece, v, one might actually sui)-pose to be the representation of a Spaniard if this idea were not con-tradicted hy the ear ornament, the ])road bead anjvlets, and, especially,the maxtlatl. The figure may, perhaps, ])e thought to be clothed withan ichcauipil, or quilted armor, unless we have before us, which is alsovery pro])able, a Christian cacique in Spanish costume. Tnder the lefthand there is an object which looks almost like a Spanish shield, butis perhaps a piece of cloth with a broad bordei-. It is this last figurewhich suggests the idea that in all three pieces we have fantasticimages of recent date. On the other hand, I find in the photographsof the Dieseldortf collection an ear of maize, which seems as if it werebroken from a figure similar to the one in <(.The fragments which Doctor Sapper found in his excavations in LaCueva, near Santa Cruz, under-taken with Mr Dieseldorff,form an especiall}' valuablepart of his collection. Thisancient settlement, the plan ofwhich is here given, lies atpresent near the boundarj^ linebetween the districts in whichthe Qu'ekchi and the Pokonchilanguages are spoken. DoctorSapper prefers to ascribe itto the latter tribe, because theplan of the settlement as wellas the finds especially difi'er inmany respects from the undoubted Qu'ekchi finds of San Juan.Chamelco, etc. I am inclined to accept this opinion. Isolated pieces,to be sure, agree with the undoubted Qu'ekchi finds. I have alsodescribed above some among the latter. Owing to the geograph it-proximity of the two places of discovery this is not to l)e wondered at.The mounds A, B, C were excavated by Messrs Sapper and Diesel-dorff, and the chief discoveries were made in the southern mound, A.a small terraced pyramid constructed of earth and stone (called in theIndian dialect of that place tzak, that is, "masonry"). The findsare, in the main, simple, undecorated vessels. Yet single richly dec-orated ones were found among them, as, for example, one which Doctoi-Sapper some years ag-o gave to Mr Lorenz Eyssen, then in (iuatcmala.Among the others the next of importance are the vessels in the formof kneeling female figures, whose removable heads form the covers ofthe vessels. Three such vessels were found in the mound. One fellto the share of Mr Dieseldorfi' when the result^s of the excavationswere divided, and he had the great kindness to present it to the Royal 104 HUREATT OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28Museum when he was in Berlin. The second was given to Consul-General Sarg in Guatemala some 3'ears ago by Doctor Sapper. Thethird was unfortunately lost on its way to Guatemala.Of the plainer vessels some are cup-shaped, some are jar-shaped, whilesome of them have handles, and others have not. The size, too, variesgreatly. But they had all been covered, it seems, with a shallow bowl, Fig. 22. Pottery vessels from Guatemala.or had simple disklike covers (see J, figure 22). The vessel ?, figure22, is made of light-gray clay and seems to have been without a col-ored coating. Various others are not only carefully smoothed, buthave a coating of yellowish-red or brown. A small vessel in the shapeof a bird, c, was likewise found among them, but I am not informedwhether it, too, had a cover and whether its contents were the sameas those named above.The middle mound, B, and the northern mound, C, were less rich ?eler] antiquities OF GUATEMALA 105in finds. From the latter the Sapper collection contains a cup- shapedvessel, with a wide opening, about 10 cm. high, d. From the middleone it contains a cup-like vessel, 17 cm. high, e, of a form frequent inYucatan and Tabasco. Both have the reddish-yellow coating which isquite common among the cla}' vessels of this region and of the neigh-boring Yucatan and Tabasco.The figure vessel, a^ contained an obsidian knife and the phalangesof the left little finger of a human hand. It is possibl}-, even probably,merely accidental that the figure which forms the vessel has only fourfingers on the left hand. In the same way, it seems, all the othervessels which were found covered with a bowl or a cover containedobsidian knives and finger joints. Some contained, in addition, pot-tery fragments, rattle balls, and pieces (feet) of clay figures. 'Phisfact, which I can not compare with anything among other sculpturefinds of Mexico and Central America, seemed very strange to me atthe first glance. Cutting off the finger joints is known to be a sacri-fice to the deity in the sun dance of the North American Indians. Thewomen of the Charrua and other neighboring South American racescut off single finger joints at the death of their husbands. But noth-ing of this sort has been known up to this time of the ancient racesof Central America.Neither do I believe it is necessary to suppose a sacrifice in thiscase. On the other hand, a certain passage in the Quiche traditionwhich is known under the name "Titulo de los Senores de Totonica-pani'' appears to me to contain a definite allusion to the custom whichwe are considering.It is related that the Quiche, together with the kindred tribes of theTam and the Hoc and the thirteen tribes of the Vuk ama'k I'ecpani.b}^ whom are apparently understood the Cakchiquel and the Tzutu-hil, left their homes and went hj way of Chicpach and Chiquiche tothe mountain of Hacavitz Chipal. There the Tam separated from therest and went to the mountain of Ama'k Tan, and the Hoc, togetherwith the Vuk ama'k, settled on the mountain of U'kin, while theQuiche themselves remained behind on the Hacavitz Chipal mountain.Here the Vuk ama'k threatened them with war, but the Quiche,advised by their nagual, w^re able to defend themselves by magic artsagainst three successive attacks. The first trick played on the Vukama'k was by magic, to cause them to fall into a deep sleep, and whenthey were asleep not only to take away their weapons, but also to cutoff their little fingers and little toes, so that when they awoke they feltso disgraced that they returned to their homes filled with shame."In reference to this passage, I am of the opinion that these were spoliaopima taken from slain enemies, which were buried in the various pots ut the immigration must have occurred inpre-Spanish times.The spread of tlie Nahua tribe toward the south, according to myconviction, proceeded in general from Tabasco, for the Zapotec tribeshave probably alwa3^s formed a barrier in the way through Tehuantepecand the Sierra de los Quelenes, which Ahuitzotl, the predecessor of Mote-cuhzoma first succeeded in l^reaking. But from Tabasco the Mexicansmust have penetrated at an early date to Chiapas and Soconusco onthe roads which Bernal Diaz and his companions who settled at Coat-zacualco easily found later. The Nahuas reached the valley of theMotagua, and farther Honduras, San Salvador, and Nicaragua, by thegreat overland road which Cortes traveled with his army. ThePipils of Escuintla are probably a receding stream of this migratorywave. A third branch must finally have found its way to the interioiof Yucatan. This is known from historical accounts in the books ofthe Chilan Balam, and to my mind is made still clearer by the reliefsof Chichenitza. On all of these three highways the Nahua tribescame into more or less close contact with the Maya tribes. An inter-change of cultural elements doubtless took place, and probablyresulted still more abundantly from the peaceful journeyings ofMexican merchants, not undertaken for the purpose of finding a per-manent home. One of the most important and most interesting prob-lems of Central American archeology is the question how this givingand receiving was distributed. We shall, however, not be able toapproach the solution of this matter until carefully collected and com-plete archeologic material exists from these border regions of inter-mixture, where the Nahua tribes lived as neighbors of the Mayas.What remarkable disclosures may eventually be expected in this matteris shown by the interesting relief tiles from Chiapas in the MnseoNational de Mexico, which are published in the great illustrated workwhich the Junta Colombina de Mexico issued in commemoration ofthe four hundredth centenary of the discovery of America. And then,too, the magnificent monuments of Santa Lucia Cozumalhuapa certainlyoriginated at just such a point of contact between Nahuatl and Mayacivilizations. seler] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 113The sketches of three vessels, which I reproduce below, came to methrough the kindness of Mr Dieseldortf from the al)ove-mentionedPipil territory on the Rio Motagua. They come from the little placeRio Hondo, lying on the Motagua opposite the mouth of the Copanriver, and belong to the collection of Mr B. Castaneda in Zacapa. Thefirst vessel (c, figure 26) has a height of 15.3 cm. and a diameter at thebottom of 10.5 cm. and at the mouth of 16 cm., and the thickness ofthe walls is 1 nmi. The second vessel (/, figure 27) is 17.2 cm. high,13.5 cm. in diameter at the mouth, and the thickness of its walls is5 mm. The figure and the hieroglvph tablet are repeated three times^ m ^^ B Fig. 27. Glyphs from Mnya codices and design on Guatemalan vessel.on the circumference of the vessel, but the drawing is badly injured l)vfire. The third vessel (a, |igure 28) is 22.6 cm. high, the diametermeasures at the bottom 12.7 cm., at the mouth 15.8 cm., and the wallsare 6 mm. thick.The first of these three vessels is of pure Maya character. Thefigures, as well as the hieroglyphs, might have been copied directlyfrom a Maya manuscript. The second is also unmistakably of Mayacharacter, though the position of the figure is decidedly stifi'er. Thethird, however, has an especial character. The models of its figur(\s canonly be found in Mexican or kindred manuscripts (Mixtec and Zapotec),and what hieroglyphs there are difi'er in every way from the familiar7238?No. 28?05 8 114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYforms in Maya hierojijlyph.s. It" it is true ot any specimen, we havein this vessel the artistic production of a nation foreign to the Mayasoil. It is in all probability to be ascribed to the Pipils, the Nahuatribe, who undoubtedh^ lived here a long- time before the conquest.To begin with, the vessel of pure Maya type (c, figure 26), the person-ages represented on it are women. This is especially proved by thelong wisps of hair li.ying down in front, which can be seen in quitesimilar fashion on the female forms in the Dresden manuscript. Theposition of the arms and hands is a favorite one in the figures of godsin the Mexican picture writings, especially in the Borgian codex andCodex Vaticanus B, which, however, appears also in the Dresdenmanuscript, for example, in the Moan bird, on page 11^/. The raisedor outstretched hand is evidently a gesture of speech or of command, h r dPig. 28. Design on Guatemalan vessel and figures from Mexican codices.which, in fact, and especially in this case, are the same thing, fortlahtouani, or tlauto, "the speaker", means the ruler, the prince.The clothing of the figures seems to consist of an enagua, a clothwrapped about the hips like a petticoat and fastened about the middleof the body with a band. Those objects seem to be the ends of this bandwhich are seen to rise above the enagua and fall down behind. Thefigures are represented sitting with crossed legs. Protruding from theenagua is the bare left thigh and below this the naked sole of the rightfoot, a typical position which is very often drawn in the Dresden man-uscript. But the lines in our picture are so displaced as to give theimpression that the drawing is not from life. I)ut from a familiar pictureI'epeated in a stereotyped way.The same impression is made in studying the hieroglyphs. I have SKLER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 115every reason to believe that the drawing which I reproduce here is anexact copy. Yet I have the impression that the artist, whether manor woman, who painted these characters on the vessel was not con-scious of the meaning of their different elements and lines, and there-fore drew them with an uncertain hand. An exact identification is,of course, only possible in the case of a few. All eight hieroglyphsdiffer one from another, so the next question is, Where should webegin to read? The relative position of the hieroglyphs shows thatthey must be read from left to right. I believe we must begin withthe hieroglyph which in the drawing provided by Mr Dieseldorff,(our cs figure 26), stands in the first place at the left. 1 will designatethis by A.I believe that two elements must be recognized in this first hiero-glyph: First, the head of a woman (see the hieroglyph ?, figure 27),but having a peculiar element which is contained in the day sign Eb,"broom", 1j\ second, the day sign Manik, c, whose phonetic sound ischi, which is contained in the hieroglyph Chikin, "west". A com-bination of these two elements exists in the hieroglyph 6?, which isfound on page 62 of the Dresden manuscript, in combination, to besure, with a third element which has the form of the day sign Imix.The second hieroglyph, b, must, it seems to me, refer to the hiero-glyph ^, which appears in the Dresden codex, page 125, as one of theaccompanying hieroglyphs of the death god in place of the hieroglyphy, otherwise indicated in this place. Hieroglyphs b and e are especiallycharacterized as death hieroglyphs by the cross design on the cheek.It is possible that hieroglyph d also refers to one of the hieroglyphsaccompanjdng the death god, the one of which I have reproduced twovariants in g and A.The hieroglyphs c and e show the head of a bird which in both caseshas a curious projection on the beak. One might think that the greatvulture was represented here whose hieroglyph, i^ Z-, is always drawnwith a peculiar projection on the beak and which, in fact, is character-ized by a fleshy growth on the cere covering the root of the uppermandible. I believe, however, that, at least in one of the hieroglyphs,it seems to suggest a bird which generally appears accompanying theblack god. I have reprodi]jced the whole of this bird in m^ and itshieroglyph, as it is found in the Troano codex, page 4* c\ in /. The birdprobably represents the wild fowl of the forest region of the tierracaliente, which was generally called " pheasant'" b}^ the Spaniards, andfor which the Maya has the two names cox and mut. The Mexicansdesignate this bird by the former name, and also by the word cox-coxtli. I believe that this bird nuist be mentioned in connection witha female deity known among the Mayas of Yucatan under the name ofYax cocahmut, in honor of whom feasts were celebrated in the Mulucyears, which belonged to the north. From her they feared dryness 116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.28and drought. The old women danced at her festivals, sacrificed a 3'oungfemale dog to her, and brought her a simple, unembroidered whitegarment. I think that it certainly follows from these characteristicsthat it was a form of the ancient earth goddess who was worshippedunder this name. I call to mind that the earth goddess is also repre-sented repeatedly in the form of a bird in the Borgian codex and theCodex Vaticanus B; that in Maya the word cox, or cocox, means notonly "pheasant", but also "dry, withered, woody fruit", and that themythical king of Colhuacan, where Ciauocuatl, the earth goddess, wastribal goddess, is called Coxcoxtli.I find the sixth hieroglyph of our picture, f, again in n from theTroano codex, page 19*6', where it appears interchangeably with thehieroglyph o as companion of the hieroglyph p. The latter hieroglyph,which is the leading hieroglyph in this passage, appears to me toexpress the ofi'ering of copal or incense. In the former I think Irecognize the rattle which regularly accompanies such acts of worship.Compare the pictures of the rattle which I have given in q. I call tomind that in Mexican representations, both in stone and picturepainting, and also in the Borgian codex and in Codex Vaticanus B,the earth goddess is alwaj's represented with the Chicauaztli, the rattleboard, in her hand.The remaining hieroglyphs of our picture, g and h, are not clear tome, but I notice that the hrst element of the hieroglyph g appears inthe chief hieroglyph, r, of the bat god on the vessel from Chama," pub-lished by Mr Dieseldorff , and that another hieroglyph of this vessel, s,is perhaps directly analogous to our hieroglyph g.The hieroglyphs as a whole appear to me to express an ancient earthgoddess who received in her lap the sun and the light and everythingliving.We will now pass to the vessel t, figure 27. The figure which, withthe hieroglyph tablet, is repeated on this vessel three times is that of aman. This is shown by the breechcloth, with ends hanging far down,but which is here accompanied by a short cloth about the hips madeof thin veiling or netlike woven material. The body is painted yellow.The position of the arms and hands corresponds to that of the femalefigures in the vessel just discussed, and probably has the same mean-ing. Two appendages hang out from the gigantic headdress formed ofloops and bands, and these have apparently at their ends two jaguarears. The reading of the hieroglyphs begins at the right with g. Itis evident that the hieroglyphs g, e, c and, in a similar way, r, d, bseem to be related, while a is apparentl}^ identical with the two headsof birds on the vertical hieroglyph tablet of the lower principal partof the vessel. Thus we have here a case similar to that presented inthe curious varnished vessel of Jaina, near Campeche,'' described by aZeitschrift fvir Ethnologie, 1894, v. 26, pi. xiii.6 Verhandlungen des Vereins fiir Naturwissenschaftliehe Unterhaltung, Hamburg, 1881, v. 5. SELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 117Mr Strel)el?that is, primarily an ornanicntai adaptation of one or morehierogl3'ph,s, which are repeated with variations. Mr 8trebel is ofopinion that ea(^h of these variants has its own special meaning, and itmay indeed have been so in that particular case, for the symbols nearthe ear pegs partly recall the dili'erent signs on the so-called celestialshields, but in regard to our ^, 1 incline to the opinion that we havehere mere variants, and I consider the hieroglyphs g, e, c as the chiefhieroglj'phs of the person represented below, and f, d, b and the birdheads as companion hieroglyphs.The same case of the employment of ornamental hieroglyphs is alsoundoubtedl}^ seen on the remarkable third vessel from Rio Hondo,whose decoration is reproduced in ?, figure 28. This vessel, as I havealready stated above, in all probability is to be considered as an artisticproduction of the Nahua tribe of the Pipils, which doubtless had beensettled for a long time in these regions. We must not seek the proto-types of the figures represented on it in Maya manuscripts or in Mayasculptures, but in Mexican picture writings, or in those of the Mixtecsor Zapotecs, which are akin to them in style. Similarity of st3'lebetween our vessel and the last named appears clearly, both in the posi-tion and in the dress of the figures. The figures are clothed with a sortof shirt, the xicoUi, which is worn by the rain god Tlaloc, and also bythe priests, in Mexican picture writings, and which is especiallyfrequent on the figui'es in the Mixtec picture writings as the Colom-bino codex (Dorenberg codex), Becker codex, and the Vienna codex.Besides this shirt, the fig-ures seem to wear a short loin cloth, which isalso quite commonly drawn on the figures of the Colombino codex(Dorenberg codex). On the front of this, in our figures, there is amask. This is a peculiarity of dress which I have not yet met with inpurely Mexican documents, but have in those from the more southerlyregions of the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs. In the collection of DoctorSologuren, in Oaxaca, I saw two pottery figures which came from LaCienaga, in the department of Zimatlau, which plainl}' show thispeculiarity of dress. On a sheet of the Aubin-Goupil collection, apiece of leather painted in gay colors, evidentl}^ also of Mixtec origin,the five male deities all wear a mask in front on the girdle. This pageis reproduced in page 20 ofr the Goupil-Boban Atlas with the legend"Le culte rendu a Tonatiuh"."Further, the large headdress is conspicuous on the figures in our (1 In fact, the page forms one of the frequent representations of the tonalamatl, divided accordingto the five points, the center, or the direction up and down, and the four points of the compass. Toeach division were assigned a male and a female deity and their different attributes. The 2x5,that is, 10, dates in the circle doubtless refer to these deities. Their names areXe Mazatl, Ce Quiauitl,Ce Ozomatli. Cc Calli, Ce Quauhtli, and Macuil Cuetzpalin, Macuil Cozcaquauhtli, Macuil Tochtli,Macuil Xochitl. and Macuil Malinalli. They correspond to the directions in the order E., N., up,down, W., and S.It may be added that this is the page which Alfred Chavero copied in the first volume of tlie workMexico a traves de los siglos mider the name, " Parte superior de la piedra policroma del suerificiogladiatorio" (!) 118 BUREAT OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.28picture. It con.sists, as usual, of a crown of still' feathers, from whichrise long, slender, tiexi})le feathers. On the forehead is seen an openjaw with prominent teeth, and at the back of the head a disk and abandlike piece with crosshatching. These three elements, and theblack stripes connected with them, seem to me like the rudiments of ahead decoration which occurs with great regularity in the pictures ofthe sun god and its allied forms in Mexican picture writings, especiallyin the Borgian codex, the Laud codex, etc. This head ornament con-sists of a leather strap ornamented with disks of turquoise, or chal-chiuitl, and has on the front part a kind of bird's head with open jawsand prominent teeth. In J, figure 28, I reproduce the head of the sungod according to the Laud codex, and I have marked the leather strap(painted red in the original) with its bands at the back of the headwith crosshatching. 1 remark further that not only is this decorationpeculiar to the sun god and his allied forms, but that other deitieswear a different symbol in the same place. I have pictured in c and dtwo other deities from the related Fejervary codex. The first, a dark,aged, bearded god, perhaps the moon god, wears on his forehead asea-snail shell. The other, <7, the god Quetzalcoatl, vulgarly calledthe "wind god'\ wears on his forehead the hieroglyph '"turquoise".Under the upper disk, fastened to the head strap, there is still a sec-ond disk visible on the ligures in our picture, which is, of course, theear peg. I should prefer to explain the curved strip which is seenunder the lower edge as a lock of hair, in connection with what isseen in h to d. Still it might be a ribbon or an ornament pendent fromthe ear peg. Ends of locks of hair are also seen in the first of the twofigures, a, under the head strap above the forehead. The peculiarlybordered and peculiarly painted portion at the back of the cheek prob-abh^ indicates a special manner of painting the face. In the picturesof the pulque gods, and also in those of Quetzalcoatl, and of the moongod and others, the back part of the face is painted in a color differentfrom that of the front part.Like the majority of the Mexican mythologic characters, the fig-ures in our picture wear a feather decoration on the back?their device.This consists of a basketlike frame, something like that with whichthe godXolotl is represented in the calendars of the Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A, from which rise immense feathers, whilea mask is placed behind this, and one on the girdle in front.If we further examine the hieroglyphs, it is at once evident that inthe upper row three of the hieroglyphs, f, d, and b, figure 28, areonly recapitulations of the heads of the personages represented below.The face is the same. The back part of the cheek is also speciallydefined in the hieroglyphs, and marked by special coloring. Behindthis is the ear peg with its appendage. Above that rises the bandlikepiece with the crosshatched ornamentation?the loop of the head strap, SELER] ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 119 I suppose?the upper (head strap) part, of course, iuoomplete. Overthe forehead we have again the two locks of hair as in the first of thepersons represented below in full figure. The only element whichmight appear doubtful is that which projects from the forehead in thethree hieroglyphs. But even that is in no way doubtful to me. Thewide-open jaws, bristling with prominent teeth, which the full figureswear over the forehead, fastened to the strap, are replaced in thehieroglyphs by a row of teeth, such, for example, as are frequentlyindicated on the stone, or sacrificial, knives, to designate their sharpedge.While in this way the hieroglyphs f, d, and b are perfectly clear inall their details, 1 unfortunately can not say the same of the threeothers, e, c, and a. 1 do not know their meaning; but the study ofthem reveals that they are probably mere variants of the same accom-panying hieroglyph.If we finally turn to the hieroglyphs drawn on the two vertical tab-lets, we again see that there are but two hieroglyphs, with three vari-ants of each. If I designate the hieroglyphs of the left tablet, passingfrom the upper one to the lowest, as g, h, i, and those of the rightone, as k, l, m, then g, k, l are one hieroglyph, and apparently thechief one, and h, i, m, the other, the companion hieroglyph. Sinceboth are forms with which I have not met elsewhere I can only ven-ture to advance a conjecture as to their meaning.The hieroglyphs h, i, and m show, as the most characteristic andessential element, a double zigzag line passing obliqueh' across therest of the hierogylph, in addition to the crosshatched space atthe side, outlined by a double curved line. I can not help thinkingthat this double line, zigzag or wavy, is the same essential elementwhich appears in the hierogylphs a and c, otherwise a puzzle to me,and on this account I am led to suppose that h, i, m is only the com-panion hieroglyph, e, c, a, become alcul-shaped and abbreviated intoone character. If this be the case, one might be led to suppose thatG, K, L is the principal hieroglyph abbreviated into one character andchanged to alcul-shaped. Indeed, it seems to me as though someessential element of the latter were contained in the alcul-shaped char-acter G, K, L?the eye, the locks of hair over the forehead, and per-haps the cross-hatched piece at the back of the head. With these theanalogy appears to stop. But there is still another element of thechief hieroglyph contained in g, k, l, and perhaps precisely the onewhich seemed most essential to the artist; I mean the row of teeth onthe forehead.In the comparative examination of the separate elements which areemployed in the Maya hieroglyphs, I have previously noticed" thatcertain sign?, which I was obliged to explain as expressing an openk "See my treatiseon the characterof the Aztec and Maya iiiamiscripts in Zeitsohrift ftir Kthnologie,1888, V. 20, p. 8. 120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28jaw containini;- forniidahlo teeth, appear as substitutes for and havethe same vaku' as others which I aiu forced to explain as signs for "stone knives". The former, which I copy, d to i, figure 29, DoctorBrinton re|)roduced in his latest treatise on Maya hieroglyphs underthe name of "crescentic signs''. This designation is, to my mind,somewhat misleading. He considers these signs, especially ^% whichis quite frequently placed on the neck, that is, at the mouth of jarsand vessels, as neckbands. I observe in this connection that^ appearsin relief tablets from Palenque in the form of J, and that the signAhau, which usually has the form of <:', appears in the same tabletsfrom Palenque in the form of rf, that is, what in c is a simple mouthopening in a has the form of the element that Brinton explains as aneckband. I need not dwell longer on this, and merelj' observe thatI can cite a dozen hieroglyphs where the element d to /, which, as is id e f 9 h iPig. 29. Adjunct glyphs from Maya codices.shown by comparing these with figures d and J, is, in fact, a toothedjaw, replaced by the element k. If we turn back to figure 28, wemay admit, 1 think, that the element seen below in the hieroglyphsG, K, L, and also in h has a certain relation to k, which means a stoneknife and is analogous to the elements which mean "jaw", "mouth".Should not, therefore, the essential element in g, k, l, the row ofteeth on the forehead of the principal hieroglyph f, d, b, be consid-ered equal to the open jaw bristling with teeth on the forehead of thepersonages represented in full figure?Bvit even if we leave out these doubtful points, it is neverthelessdefinitely shown by the form and nature of the principal hieroglyph,F, D, B, that we do not see in this third vessel from Rio Hondo?thatis, the Pipil vessel? an imitation of Maya decoration and of Mayahieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs f, d, b, perhaps also the others, have sEi-ER] THE MEXICAN CHROlSrOLOGY 121grown out of the oleiiients of the person represented on the vessel, andrepresent rather an earlier stage of alcul-shaped hieroglyphs of theMaya kind than an imitation of them.In conclusion I would say that 1 have been able to emphasize only afew definite points in a wide and interesting- territory, which, unfor-tunately, like most of the reg'ions of ancient Mexican and CentralAmerican civilizations, is little explored. But I believe the precedingremarks will show that we may hope that more complete archeologicresearch will further enlighten us in regard to the early history ofthese ancient peoples, and will make comprehensible the incomplete,uncertain, and contradictor}^ reports of the historian. It is to behoped that our young countrymen who go to these regions will followthe example of Mr Dieseldorfi" and Doctor Sapper, and will, above all,bear in mind that the dumb witnesses of a past world, recovered fromthe earth, should not 1)0 buried anew in a drawing room, but that theirplace is in a public institution, where they can be preserved for pos-terity, and where, classed with kindred documents, they may be sub-jected to careful comparison, and in this way be made to speak. THE MEXICA^T PICTURE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDERVON HUMBOLDTIN TIU: ROYAL LIBRARY AT BERLINEDUARD SELER 123 CONTENTS PagePreface 127Fragment I, plates i-v 128Fragment II, plate vi 154Fragments III and IV, plates vii and viii 176Fragment \ , plate ix 187Fragment VI, plate x 190Fragment VII, plate xi 196Fragment VIII, plate xii 200Fragments IX, plate x; X, XI, and XII, plates xiii, xiv (A and B) xv 209Fragment XIII, plate xvi 212Fragment XIV, plate xvii 217Fragment XV, plate xviii 221Fragment XVI, plate xix 221Conclusion 228125 MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDERVON HUMBOLDT*By Eduard SelerPREFACEThe sixteen fragments of ancient Mexican picture writing, whichare reproduced in colored plates, belong to a " remarkable collectionmade in the year 1803 in the kingdom of New Spain ", which was " presented to the Royal Library by Baron Alexander von Hum-boldt, in January, 1800 ". This statement is made by FriedrichWilken, on pages 155-156 of his History of the Royal Library ofBerlin, printed in the year 1828. Wilken mentions " thirteen frag-ments of historical hieroglyphic w^riting of the Aztecs upon papermade from the fiber of the Agave americana, together with a codex14 feet in length belonging to it, in similar hieroglyphic writing".The number does not correspond Avith the number of pieces now inthe library, for, according to his statement, there should be but 14.The reason of this is that two of the original strips were cut in half,lengthwise, and pasted on the same folio page, side by side. Theseare the pieces shown in plates ix, x, xi, and xii, as I shall describemore in detail in the course of my explanation of these pieces. Withthe exception of fragment I, which has been preserved in its originalform as " the folded codex '', all the pieces are pasted upon foliopages and bound together in an atlas. The title page is reproducedin the heliotype atlas. It has been retained, although the historicand archeologic remarks which it contains do not harmonize withour i:)resent knowledge of these subjects.Alexander von Humboldt, who copies and describes fragment IIof the collection in his Vues des Cordilleres et Monuments des PeuplesIndigenes de I'Amerique, plate xii, under the title " Genealogie desPrinces d'Azcapozalco ", states that he bought the document inMexico at the public sale of the collections of Gama (the well-known astronomer and author of the work Las dos Piedras, wdiosefull name was Antonio de Leon y Gama). Humboldt suggests that a Berlin, 1893. 127 128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 it may formerly have belonged to the '' Miiseo Indiano " of theMilanese historian and antiquary, Cavaliere Lorenzo Boturini Ber-nadiicci. Since various other of these fragments, as I shall here-after show, certainly did belong to Boturini's collection, and weknow that Gama actually knew of, used, and possessed a great partof Boturini's collection, we may venture to conjecture that theother pieces of the collection brought together by Alexander vonHumboldt were acquired in the same way.Fragments II and VI were j^ublished and described by von Hum-boldt in the above-mentioned illustrated work, Vues des Cordillereset Monuments des Peuples Indigenes de TAmerique. Only a smallpart of fragment II, however, was reproduced, and that without theexplanatory notes which accompany it, and neither of the two frag-ments was quite perfectly and correctly reproduced. Fragments Iand II have also appeared in colors in the second volume of Kings-borough's great work, Mexican Antiquities. Fragment II, however,is without the explanatory notes. Close examination readily showsthat neither is b}'^ any means accurately nor exactly reproduced, eitherin drawing or color. The Avhole collection was exhibited in the year1888 in the rooms of the Royal Library, with the other manuscriptsand printed matter relating to the history and languages of America,during the sessions of the International Americanist Congress atBerlin. The four hundredth anniversary of the day on whichColumbus first trod the soil of the New World gave the managers ofthe Royal Library the desired opportunity to render the entire col-lection more accessible for general use by multipljdng it, photograph-ically at least, as their means did not then admit of reproduction incolors. To me was intrusted the honorable task of accompanyingthose pages with a few words of explanation, for which I herewithexpress my thanks to the administration of the Royal Library.FRAGMENT IThis fragment (plates ii to vi) is a strip of agave paper 4.3 m. longand somewhat more than 8 cm. wide, painted on one side and thenfolded fourteen times, thus making a book about a foot in length.The painted side is divided lengthwise by vertical lines into 5 strips,and by other lines cutting the former at right angles into 75 sections.I will designate the longitudinal strips from right to left by the let-ters A, B, c, D, and E (plates ii to vi) , and the subdivisions beginning atthe bottom?-for there the reading begins?by the figures 1 to 75.The lower end is imperfect. It is obvious that there was still anothersection below, which was painted in similar fashion and possiblyformed the end of an entire missing row. The upper end looks asif it had been sharply cut off. As the entries of material objects I BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE II MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT I, PART 1 SELBR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 129(columns c to e) cease in the fifth section from the top, it may beassumed that this was the end of the strip, and that it was not furtherwritten upon because, for some reason, the entries ceased altogether.In column b four pictures follow one another in regular repetition.These I will designate by a, b, c, and d, proceeding from belowupward. Thus we have a in sections 1, 5, 9, 13, etc., b in sections 2, 6,10, 14, etc., c in 3, 7, 11, 15, etc.. d in 4, 8, 12, IG, etc.The picture a, plate ii, shows a dark-colored face with a largeround eye, a row of long tusks, and over the lips an angular bluestripe curved downward and rolled up at the ends. This is thefamiliar face of the rain, thunder, and mountain god of the Mexi-cans?Tlaloc by name?a face the features of which were supposedto be produced originally by the coils of two snakes, their mouths,with long fangs in the upper jaw, meeting in the middle of the upperlip." The face of the rain god here stands for his chief festival, thesixth (according to the usual reckoning) of the eighteen annual fes-tivals of the Mexicans, known as Etzalqualiztli, that is, " when, theyeat bean food " (beans cooked with whole kernels of maize).''The second of the four pictures (b, column b) is a white strippainted over with black acute-angled figures, wound about with a redband, from which two yellow tufts protrude at the top. The whitestrip painted with angular figures represents a so-called teteuitl, orama-teteuitl, a stri]j of white bark paper (the inner bark of a varietyof fig) upon which certain figures are draAvn with liquid caoutchouc.These teteuitl were in general use as sacrificial gifts. At the feastof the rain gods they were hung upon long poles in the courtyard ofthe house ; '" they were fastened on the breast of the small idols of themountain gods,'' and were burned in honor of the fire gods.''These were easih^ prepared images of the gods to wdiich they wereoffered. The picture of the god, or his symbol, was draAvn on thepaper with caoutchouc.'^ The red band which is wound around thepaper is a leather strap of the kind that were much used, either col-ored or gilded, as ribbons and for ornamental purposes.^ And, finally,the yellow tufts which protrude at the top represent a broom. Thesebrooms were made of a hard, stiff', pointed grass, which was cut withsickles in the mountainous forests of Popocatepetl and Ajusco.'' Thewhole picture is a symbol of the old earth goddess called Toci, " our ? See Seler, Das TonalamatI der Aubinschen Samrnlung, in Comptes Rendus da Sep-ti&me Session du Congr&s International des Amt'Ticanistes. Berlin, 1888, p. 584.* See Diirdn, v. 3, sec. 6 ; Sahagun, v. 2, chap. 6. '" Saliagun, v. 2, cliaps. 20 and 35. <* Sahagun, v. 2, chap. 32.? Sahagun, v. 0, chap. 3 ; v. 2, chap. 34.f See Saliagiin, v. 0, chap. 3.B See the hieroglyph of Cuetlaxtlan, " The Land of Leather "', in the Mendoza codex, v 8,p. 21 ; V. 51, p. 1."See Sahagun, v. 10, p. 24; v. 8, p. 61 (Bustamante edition), and a comment on thepassage by the editor.7238?No. 28?05 9 130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28progenitrix "", or Teteo innan, '^ mother of the gods ", and of theeleventh (according to the usual reckoning) of the eighteen annualfestivals of the Mexicans, Ochpaniztli, the ^ broom feast " or " house-cleaning festival ", celebrated in honor of this goddess. For thebroom, which s^nnbolizes one of the tirst domestic, that is, feminine,occupations, was a special symbol of this goddess, who was thereforealso the goddess of purity, of purification and eradication of sin."The teteuitl paper with which the broom is bound together is in our Fig. .30. Ueaddres.ses and fiags from Mexican codices.picture b painted with figures which again denote an attribute ofthe same goddess. The Mexicans in their paintings represented theraw, unspun cotton by acute-angled figures or groups of parallel lineson a white ground. Cotton, as a material for woman's work, was forthat reason one of the chief attributes of the above-mentioned deity.Her headband (see ?, figure 30) called i-ichcaxochiuh, "her headbandof cotton ', was made of that material.'' A strip of unspun cottonhung from her ear peg and loose cotton was bound to the end of thespindle which she wore betAveen the hair and the headband (c and d,figure 30). " Seler, Das Tonalamatl der Aubinsclien Sammlung, volume cited, p. 6.51. '' Veriiffentllchunsen aus dem Konigliclien Museum fiir Vollcerliunde, v. 1, p. 148. SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 131In c and f/, figure 30, we also see a paper covered with drawings ofcotton fastened to the back of the goddess's head. That the paper inour picture b, painted with the acute-angled figures, is, like thebroom, a s_ymbol of the earth goddess is most clearly shown by thefact that the broom which, in her picture, the goddess Toci carries inher hand is wound round with j^aper similarly painted. Thus wesee it in 6, figure 30, which is taken from the picture in the Sahagunmanuscript of the Bibliotheca del Palacio at Madrid, which repre-sents the various ceremonies of the feast Ochpaniztli.The third picture in tlie column, which I designate by c (plate ii),rei^resents a flag ai)parently made of striped woven stuff, with stream-ers of the same material fastened to its top. Such flags were, itseems, called quachpamitl?derived from quachtli, "" a square piece ofwoven cloth ", and pamitl, " flag "". Among the Mexicans, as amongthe nations of the Old World, flags and other insignia played animportant part in war. The Mexicans, however, as a rule, did notcarry these insignia free in their hands, but strapped upon theirbacks, though it seems that flags of the same sort and shape as theone represented in our picture c were also waved in the hand. Thesignal for battle was given with them, as we learn from Sahagun.Thus we read in the Aztec manuscript of the Academia de la His-toria at Madrid: " Yn quachpanitl, coztic teocuitlapanitl yoan quet-zalpanitl, yn teeuitia j^yaoc: yn omottac ye meuatiquetzaya izquiquachpanitl, niman cemeua yaoquizque ynic miccali ". Sahagun(book 8, chapter 12) translates it somewhat inexactly: Tambien usa-ban de unas vanderillas de oro, las cuales en tocando al arma laslevantaban en las manos, porque comenzasen a pelear los soldados("They also used certain golden flags, which, when the call to armsw^as sounded, they raised in their hands, because the soldiers beganto fight"). The correct translation is as follows: "The flag ofwoven stuff, the flag of ])lates of gold, and the one made of quetzalfeathers, they call the people in war time to prepare for battle.When men see how the quachpamitl (flags of woven stuff) are raisedon every hand, then the warriors go forth to battle ". The raisingof the flag, then, was the signal to begin battle. Panquetzaliztli,the raising of the flag, therefore, was the name of the festival?thefifteenth, according to the usual reckoning?which the Mexicanscelebrated in honor of the god Uitzilopochtli, w^ho was especiallyregarded as the god of combat and war. In Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A this festival is represented by the figureof the god himself holding a flag in his hand (^, figure 30), whichshows essentially the same characteristics as the one in the picture c,plate II. Elsewhere the quachpamitl is painted by itself, as in later 132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 calendars, from whicli I reproduce the figure with the legend ine and /, figure 30, and also in our picture c, plate ii, which illustratesthe fifteenth annual festival, the feast Panquetzaliztli.Finally, the fourth picture, which I designated by d, plate ii, showsus the head of a well-known deity, the red god Xipe, whose originalhome was near Yopi, in the deep ravines of the Pacific slope, butwhose worship Avas widely spread throughout the highlands, and par-ticularly in the capital, where it was celebrated with special pomp.It is a peculiar characteristic of this god that he goes about clad in aflayed human skin. Therefore, at his feast victims were not onlj^^slaughtered in the usual manner by tearing out the heart, which wasoffered up to him, but afterward the corpse was flayed and its skinput on by such persons as, for any reason, wished to show the godspecial devotion. It was worn by them continually during the twentydays following the festival. This feast, called Tlacaxipeualiztli, " man flaying "?the second, according to the usual reckoning?isrepresented in our picture d Iw the head of the god Xipe.Thus we have in a, b, c, and d of column b, plates ii and iii, the pic-tures of four yearly festivals, namely, the sixth, eleventh, fifteenth,and second, according to the usual reckoning. The sixth feast wasseparated from the eleA^enth by 5X20, or 100, days: the eleventhfrom the fifteenth by IX^O, or 80, days; the fifteenth from the secondby 5X^0-f5, or 105, clays (in this interval fall the nemontemi,the five superfluous days, which were counted at the end of Izcalli),and, lastly, the second was 4X20, or 80, days, distant from the sixth,giving a total of 100+80+105+80, or 365. These four festivals, itis true, do not divide the year into four quarters, except approxi-mately. It is as exact and regular as is possible in a year composedof eighteen parts of 20 days each and 5 superfluous days.We will now consider column a (see plates ii and iii), the first onthe right hand of the strip. Here we invariably find, together withthe feast Etzalqualiztli (a of column b), a picture and several smallcircles, which express a certain number. Here, again, we have fourpictures, which follow one another from below upward in regu-lar alternation. I will designate these, beginning at the bottom, bya, ft, y, and S.The first character, a, is composed of an eye, a vertical ray, andtwo lateral parts, probably derived from the drawing of a cross, thearms of which cut each other at a somewhat acute angle. This isthe symbol of the four cardinal points (see the variant of this char-acter, e, figure 31, from the Sahagun manuscript of the BibliotecaLaurenziana), but may, perhaps, have some connection with thedrawing often found on spindle whorls (see a, b, c, and d, same figure) seler] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 133 of two eyebrows surroiiiuliiig the liole of the spindle, supposed to bethe e,ye. Compare / and /, figure 31, taken from a list of persons inthe towns of Uoxot/.ineo and Xaltepetlapan (Mexican manuscript No3 of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris) and denoting persons ofthe name of Olin. The whole character stands for the word olin, " that which rolls "''. It is the seventeenth of the twenty day signs ofthe Mexicans, and was regarded as standing in sj^ecial relation to thesun. The forin which the character takes in our picture or, plate ii,most resembles that which we see in Codices Telleriano-Remensisand Vaticanus A (see /, figure 31), and it is not wholly without sig- Fio. 31. Variations of tlie Mexican seventeenth day sym]jol. nificance in deciding the question of the origin of the picture writinginider consideration.The second sign of colmnn a, which I call yS (plate ii), representsthe head of the wind go/l, Ehecatl, or Quetzalcoatl. He has a pro-truding, trumpetlike mouth, for the wind god blows (see also (\ d.and e, figure 41). Generally speaking, this figure suggested whirlsand circles. Hence his temples were built in circular form. The capwhich he wears is cone-shaped. The ends of his headband and hisbreechclout are rounded. His head ornament is the spiral snail shell.He w^ears snail shells as a necklace, and his breast ornament, the eca-ilacatzcozcatl," as well as his ear ornament, is carved from a huge " Veriiffientlichungen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde zu Berlin, v. 1,pp. 128, 129. 134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 wiu'lk shell. The head of the wind god here stands for the second ofthe twenty day signs of the Mexicans, which was called Ehecatl, '" wind ". The form which the character has in our figure likewiseresembles most the form Avhich is drawn in Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A.The third sign (y, plate iii) in column a shows us the head of adeer, which is most unnaturally drawn, having upper incisors, but isplainly intended to represent a deer, as is shown by the branchingantlers. The seventh of the tAventy day signs of the Mexicans wasdesignated by the picture of the deer (Mazatl).The fourth sign, ^, is a death's-head, with fleshless jaw, a great,round eye Avith an eyebroAv, and a protruding tongue, such a head aswas customarily used among the Mexicans to represent death or thedeath god. But here the skull is covered with a green bush, the sepa-rate stalks of which end in small yellow knobs. This green bush rep-resents grass, and is illustrative of the rope twisted of grass (niali-nalli), which has been used from remote antiquity down to the pres-ent day for cording heavy burdens, such as charcoal, etc. The wholedenotes the twelfth of the twenty day signs of the Mexicans, calledmalinalli, "" that which is twisted ". The green bush is combinedwith the death's-head in this picture, because the rope twisted ofgrass suggested the mummy bales corded with rope, like a burdenwhich has the form given to the bodies of the dead. Perhaps, too,the grass itself, shooting up anew wdth the first show^ers of rain andthen withering quickly, awakened the thought of the transitoriness ofearthly things. At any rate, it is a fact that malinalli was consid-ered a sign of misfortune; that decay, destruction, and change weresupposed to follow swiftly in its train. We may also note in regardto the form of the sign that our picture S most closely resembles theforms in which this sign of ill omen, malinalli, is represented inCodices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A.The Mexican numerical system was vigesimal. Therefore the num-ber 20 naturally formed the basis of computation of time. The j^eo-ple designated each one of the 20 consecutive days by a particularsign. But with these twenty signs they combine the numerals 1 to 13in such a way that each of the consecutive days was designated by asign and a numeral. If, therefore, the numeral 1 , combined with thefirst sign, served to designate the first day, then the fourteenth daytook the fourteenth sign, and also the numeral 1 again. Thus a periodof 13X20, or 260, days was reached as a higher chronologic unit. Forno day received the same numeral and the same sign until after theexpiration of this period. The period of 13X20, or 260, days wascalled tonalamatl, " the book of the day signs ". ^tl^z ITING-HUN "TTfTry DT FRAGM MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMB0LD1 FRAGMENT I, PART 2 SELEK] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FF.AGMENT I 135The Mexicans reckoned ^M\^) days to rlie year, and I have alreadystated that they divided the year into eighteen periods of 20 dayseach and 5 superfiuous days, called nemontemi. These 5 superfluousdays were regarded as unlucky days, as useless, fit for no seriousbusiness. Hence the ancient Mexicans said of them '' actim pouhqui ".This undoubtedly means '' they were held in no esteem ", but accord-ing to the original meaning of the Avords they may also signify '' theywere not counted '\ It has therefore been inferred that these 5 dayswere left blank; that the continuous series of signs and numeralswas not applied to them. In an article which I presented to theAnthropologic Society at Berlin in the year ISOl,** I pointed out thatthe whole Mexican system of designating the year?namel3% that theconsecutive daj^s were designated by four signs, each two of whichwere 4 days apart?and the Mexican periods of 52 years were intel-ligible only if Ave assume that the 5 nemontemi. the superfluous days,Avere named and numbered in the same Avay as the others. Ourmanuscript, plate i of the present series, affords the best proof ofthis theory.In column b the pictures follow in regular altermition, and ap-proximately denote the beginning of every quarter of a year for aconsecutive series of years. Besides the first of these, the symbol of thefeast Etzalqualiztli, there are in column a numerals and signs Avhich,taken together, denote each the date of a certain da}^ In the loAvestof them, in square 1a (plate ii), the small circles, Avhich i-epresent thenumerals, are imperfectly preserved. But from Avhat remains, andfrom the connection of the Avhole series, it may be inferred that thenumeral 12 should stand here. If Ave introduce this numeral Ave seethat in column a (side by side with the Etzalqualiztli of column b,[)lates II to vi) the following dates of days are given : Olin 136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYTablk 111. [bull. 28 MEXTCiAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT ITable IV. 137 1 Acatl 138 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the characters which correspoiul to the Mexican Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli,and Tochtli.It is true our manuscript (plate i) does not mention the first daysof the years, but in cohmin a it gives the days on which the sixth feastof the year, Etzalqualiztli, felhWe know that in the so-called months, or periods of 20 days, whichwere named for the various yearly festivals, the actual feast of therespective name always fell on the last day of the period. If, there-fore, as our cohnnn a shows, in the 19 years presented here the feastEtzalqualiztli, the sixth festival of the year, fell on the days)lein >l I JM )T FR/s BUREAU OF AMERICAN KTMNOLOQH' MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT I PART 3 SELEKl MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 139 structioii devised by her of the Mexican calendar, further j^articuhirsconcerning which she has reserved. Upon this chart was the follow-ing passage from an important Mexican picture manuscript, whichbelongs to the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence, and which will soonbe published in facsimile b}' Mrs Nuttall : Es de notar que siemprecomienga el aiio en un dia de quatro, el uno que llaman acatl. Y dealii toman nonbre. O en otro que llaman calli. Y de alii toman non-bre. O en otro que llaman tecpatl. Y de alii toman nonbre. Y deotro que llaman tochtli. Y de alii toman nonbre (" It is to be notedthat the year always begins on one of four days?the one which theycall Acatl, and from there they take the name; or on another whichthey call Calli, and from there they take the name; or on anotherwhich they call Tecpatl, and from there they take the name; andfrom another which they call Tochtli, and from there they take thename "). This is clear and intelligible, and Mrs Nuttall has correctlymade this passage the starting point for her researches.It is quite another question, and one which I must touch upon here,whether the month Atlcaualco, stated by Sahagun and others to bethe first month of the year, is really the one which was the leading,or first, month at the time wdien the designation of the years, accord-ing to the four days Acatl. Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli, first came intouse. This question, it seems, should be answered in the negative.The most important statement by the old writers which makes anagreement between the Mexican and our chronology and a compari-son of the Mexican designations of the years with certain days of anyone year possible is that made in Sahagun, book 12, chapter 40, whereit is stated that the capture of Quauhtemoctzin, which put an end tothe desperate defense of the city of Mexico, occurred on the day ceCoatl, " 1 snake ", of the year yei Calli, '"? 3 house " : Auhin omomaiichimalli inic tixitinque in xiuhtonalli ei calli, auh in cemilhuitlapoallice Coatl (" When the shield was laid down (the war ceased), whilewe fell to the ground, that was the year ' 3 house ' and the day ' 1snake'"). (Biblioteca Lorenziana manuscript.) This day was, aswe know from the letters of Cortes and Gomara's history, Tuesday,St. Hippolytus's da;V, August 13, 1521." The Aztec writer Chimal-pahin says the same thing in his Seventh Relation : Yhcuac canqueyn tlatohuani Cuauhtemoctzin ypan cemilhuitonalli ce cohuatl* * * ic matlactlomey mani metztli agosto, ypan ylhuitzin S. Tipo-lito, martyr {"' They took King Quauhtemoctzin i)risoner on the day ' 1 snake ' * * * on the 13th day of August, the feast of the holymartyr Hippolytus '').^ On the basis of this statement Orozco yBerra, in the second volume of his Historia Antigua y de la Conquistade Mexico, tried to find an agreement between the Mexican and Euro- ? Cartas de Ilernan Cortes, ed. (rayansos. Paris. 1866. p. 257 : Gomara. t'rftnica. chap.14.S. " Anales de Dominso Francisco de S.iii Anton Mufioz ( 'liini.ilpaliin (Jnanlit Ichuanilzin.Seventli Relation, edid. Itemi Simeon. \). P.M. 140 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28peaii chronologies; but the attempt failed in the most essential points,since Orozco favored the erroneous view that the Mexicans begantheir years, and therefore also what they called their months, withthe days Cipactli, Miquiztli, Ozomatli, and Cozcaquauhtli.In order to make the matter clear, I will mention still another pointof agreement. In the Seventh Relation of Chimalpahin (page 188of Remi Simeon's edition) we read that the entrance of HernanCortes into Mexico and his reception by the kings of the three alliedkingdoms, Mexico, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, took place on the daychicuey Ehecatl, " 8 wind ", the ninth day of the month Quecholli : " ypan cem ilhuitlapohualli chicuey ehcatl, auh yn ipan ynin metz-tlapohual catca huehuetque chiucnahuilhuitia quecholli ". We havealso a statement in regard to the same day in the Aztec account whichis preserved in the Sahagun manuscript of the Biblioteca Lorenziana.This latter account agrees with the former in stating that the comingof the Spanish occurred in the year ce Acatl, " 1 reed ", on the 9th ofthe month Quecholli?or, as the author says, on the eve of the 10thof the month Quecholli?but it differs from it in saying that this daywas not designated as a day " 8 wind ", but as ce Ehecatl, " 1 wind",and that would be a day 20 days previous to the other : " auh inizquilhuitico in Mexico in ic calaquico in Espaholes: ipan ce hecatlin cemilhuitlapoalli : auh in xiuhtonalli ce acatl, oc muztla tlamat-lactiz quecholli : auh in cemilhuitique ome calli : vel iquac in tlama-tlactli quecholli ". If Ave consult Spanish historians we find, in Ber-nal Diaz del Castillo's Ilistoria Verdadera, the day of the Spanishentrance given as November 8 of the year 1519.The writer of the account in the Sahagun manuscript continueshis computation from the date given above by counting each month,to which fact I would call attention here. This was, no doubt, theusual historic chronology, for on page 136 of Codex Vaticanus Awe see the months which elapsed during the stay of the Spaniards inthe city similarly set down. The writer of the Sahagun accountreckons in this wa}^ to the feast Toxcatl, when Alvarado fell upon theunarmed Mexicans decked for the feast and slaughtered the flower ofthe Mexican nobility, and then onward to the feast Tecuilhuitontli,that is, the completion of the month Tecuilhuitontli. On this day.he says, the Spanish fled by night from the city : " Niman quival-toquilia tecuilhuitontli, ie oncan in quizque, vel ipan in ilhuitl inquizque in Espanoles in moioalpoloque ". There were altogether,he says, 235 days, that is, 195 days during which the Spaniards andMexicans were friends and 40 days during which they fought eachother. Computed accurately this can not mean the feast Tecuilhui-tontli itself, but the eve of the feast. For counting 235 days fromthe ninth day of the month Quecholli we come to the 19th and not to SELBR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 141the 20th, the hist day of the month Tecuilhuitontli. The Spaniardsprobably left the hostile city on the night before the feast, and thenarrator counts the whole days Avhich lay between the ninth day ofQuecholli and the feast Tecuilhuitontli. It can be computed withtolerable accuracy that this day, the "noche triste " of unhallowedmemory to the Spanish, was the 30th of June, 1520." But from Nov-ember 8, 1519, to June 30, 1520, there are actualW 235 days, since 1520was a leap year. The authenticated European chronology and thatof our Indian informant thus agree perfectl3^If we now comj^are these newly acquired dates with the one firstquoted, the day of Quauhtemoc's capture, we have the following com-putation: Between November 8, 1510, and August 13, 1521, thereelapsed 644 days. If we count 644 days from the 9th day of Que-cholli in the Indian calendar of feasts, in doing which we should takeinto account that the Mexicans had no leap years, we come to the thirdday of the month Xocotluetzi. We must conclude that in the Indiancalendar of feasts this was the day of Quauhtemoc's capture.But now, before I draw further conclusions from this result, Imust mention that it contradicts certain other records. Accordingto an account quoted by Leon y Gama '' Quauhtemoc's capture did nottake place in the month Xocotluetzi, but in Nexochimaco, or Tlaxo-chimaco, the preceding month. Chimalpahin seems to make a simi-lar statement, for he says, in the passage from which I quotedabove: Auh yye ohuacic nauhpohuallonmatlaqu-ilhuitl yn otechicalque tlaxochimaco yye . . . yc tixitinque (" after they hadstriven against us 90 days, we at last surrendered in Tlaxochi-maco (?)").It is obvious that this can not be reconciled with the statementsmentioned above. As, however, those other statements are to acertain extent controlled by European computation, it is very pos-sible that there is an error here, the more so because, b}^ our calcu-lation, the day of Quauhtemoc's capture was comparatively close tothe feast Tlaxochimaco, being on the third day following it. Thebeginning of the battle and the appearance of the Spanish caravelsat Nonoucalco, which^ according to Chimalpahin's repeated assertion,occurred 90 days before, are placed by Chimalpahin in the monthToxcatl. This coincides with our reckoning. But when he saysin the passage in question <' that it was on the day ce Cozcaquauhtli, " 1 king vulture ", it is incorrect. It is undoubtedly a slip of the penor, perhaps, an error in reading. It should rather be ei Cozcaquauhtli, " The letter of Cortes states that the army reached Tlaxcala on the 8th of .Tuly, andfrom the general's accurate account of their progress each day it appears that they leftthe capital on the last night of .Tune, or rather the morning of July 1 (Prescott, Hist.Conquest Mexico) '' Dos I'iedras, 2d ed., p. 7'.), nole, and p. SO. " Page 193 of the R6mi Simeon edition. 142 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 " 3 king vulture ''. This latter day occurs 00 days before the dayce Coatl, the day of Quauhtemoc's capture.Now, if the day of Quauhteuioc's capture was August 13, 1521,the third day of the mouth Xocotluetzi, it follows, as this was saidto have been likewise a day ce Coatl, " 1 snake ", that the first day ofthe month must have been the day 12 Calli and the first day of theyear 1 Calli. Hence it follows, as I stated above, and as can safelybe concluded from the dates in our manuscript, that the years of theMexicans began with the signs Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli,and not, as was hitherto generally supposed, with the signs Cipactli,Miquiztli, Ozomatli, and Cozcaquauhtli ; and it follows, since the year1521 is said to have been a year 3 Calli, that the years of the Mexicanswere not named for the first daA^ of the first month, Atlcaualco, ashas been commonly believed, but, as the computation shows, for thefirst day of the fifth month, on whose last day the feast Toxcatl wascelebrated; lastly, it follows that the beginning of the month Atlcau-alco in the year of the conquest did not fall on the 2d of Febriuiry, aswas decided after much discussion at the Indian conference held atTlatelalco in Sahagun's time,** but that it must have fallen on the 12thof February. The latter result is of special importance because itproves that in the forty odd years which elapsed between the year ofthe conquest and the time when the Sahagun manuscript was com-posed ^ the beginning of the Mexican year was set forward 10 days.This is exactly the sum of the intercalary days, which occur in thisperiod of time, and proves that the Mexicans did not know how toregulate their chronology by intercalations at short intervals.If this is firmly established, then we may further conclude that theday of the arrival of the Spaniards, said to have been the ninth dayof the month Quecholli, can have been neither 8 Ehecatl (as Chimalpa-hin states) nor 1 Ehecatl (as the writer of the account in the Sahagunmanuscript asserts), but must have been the day before 7 Cipactlior 13 Cipactli. Otherwise, the month must hcLve begun with a dayOcelotl, which, as we have seen, is incorrect. But if from 1 Coatl,the day of Quauhtemoc's capture, we count 644 days backward in theIndian calendar we do not arrive at 1 Cipactli, but at 7 Cipactli.Chimalpahin's statement was, therefore, relatively correct (within1 day), and the writer of the account in the Sahagun manuscriptmade an error of 20 days. The only explanation I can give for thefact that both sources agree in mentioning a day Ehecatl instead of aday Cipactli is that tradition confused the day and its eve or that thename of the day was not held fast by tradition, but was only recov- " See Sahagun, v. 7, chap. 12. " In tLe Sahagun manuscript of the Academia de la Historia the year orae Acatl ( =A. D. 1559) is given as the year of writing down at least certain parts (the historicalones) of the manuscript. SKLER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 1 43 ered by coniputation, and that perhaps in doing this they reckonedback not 044, but 043, days, possibly because leap year was not takeninto account.If this be denied, and if the assertions of Chimalpahiii nnd theaccount in the Sahagun manuscript that the ninth day of the monthQuecholli was a day Ehecatl?the only statements to my knowledgewhere there is a distinct agreement between the day of the month andthe name of the day?be considered correct, we should arrive at thedays Ocelotl, Quiauitl, Cuetzpalin, and Atl as the first days of theyears named for the characters Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli.This result is at first sight rather attractive. We should thus ssrriveat precisely the characters which answer to the signs Ix, Cauac, Kan,and Muluc, with which the Mayas began their years in later times. Itwould then follow that the correction which was made by the Mayasalso found acceptance among the Mexicans. I believe, however,since there are no other proofs, and since our computation is upheldby the statements of historians, that if the ninth day of Quechollihad been a day Ehecatl only 643 days would have elapsed before thecapture of Quauhtemoc, and then, one of the two above dates, thatgiven by Bernal Diaz or that given by Cortes, would have to be cor-rected; and since reasons of a general nature, as I have said before,favor the view I have advanced we must not lay too much stress onthis one assertion, especially as an error seems ver}'^ probable. As Ihave already said, it is our manuscript, Avith its festival dates run-ning through nearly nineteen years, which furnishes decisive evi-dence. Chimalpahin wrote at the beginning of the seventeenthcentury and the Sahagun manuscript was com])osed about the yenv1559. At those jjeriods the ancient mode of reckoning the festivaldates had long since fallen into disuse. The manuscript of the Hum-boldt collection is of ancient date, as is showr. by the style cf thedrawing and by the dress of the figures. Its testimony is of decisivevalue.After settling these points, which are generally necessary andalso useful for the proper understanding of our manuscript, I nowreturn to the dates given in columns a and b of our manuscrij)t. Inthe beginning of this chapter I mentioned that the lower part of themanuscript is incomplete, that the upper part seems to be the ar-tualend of the strip, and that the strip was not further written uponbecause, for some reason, entries were no longer made. It would beiTiteresting if we could determine to which one of our years the \earcorresponds in which the last entries were made. The entries ofmaterial objects, of whose nature I shall speak directly, fill columnsc and E. The last entries were made, as a glance at the manuscriptshows, in the month Ochpaniztli of that j^ear in v.'hich the feastEtzalqualiztli was celebrated on the ,day 3 Ehecatl. In this year, as 144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28I have already stated above, the first day of the first montli (accord-ing to the usual method of calculation) fell on the day 1 Calli. Andthis is precisely the year designated by the numeral 8 and the signCalli, in xiuhtonalli ei calli, which corresponds to the year 1521 ofour chronology, in Avhich Quauhtemoc surrendered himself and theruins of the city of Mexico to the victorious Cortes. The last entriesof material objects in our inanuscript were made on the feast Och-paniztli of that year, about 37 days after the fall of the city ofMexico.I shall now proceed to discuss the nature of these entries of materialobjects. They begin at the bottom of column c and for the first 28squares are confined to this column alone. From the twenty-ninthsquare on other entries occur, which fill column d, and from theforty-fifth square on the last column, e, is also filled with entries.These entries doubtless record entrance duties or other revenues,which were payable quarterly in equal amounts. They embrace fi.veclasses of objects: (1) small squareplates, which are always entered bytens; (2) oblong rectangular strips,which occur singly or in pairs; (3)narrow triangular strips, which oc-cur singly, in pairs, or in fours; (4)shallow bowls filled with some pow-C dered substance, which are set down '^\\\'..'.'i!.'V'^ ^^:;> ''!;;;.? .\\*;Vi';,':" singly or in pairs, and (5) bundles\ / V J \ J of textiles or articles of clothing, ^j which also occur singly or in pairs.Fig. 32. Symbols of gold bars, plates, and All are painted ill the Same brown-bowls of gold dust from Mexican codices. i^h-yellow Color, CXCCpt that in claSS4 the bowls are frequently distinguished by a darker greenish coloringfrom the yellow contents.The small number of articles of each class which were to be deliv-ered during the quarter leads to the supposition that they werearticles of value. Indeed, I am of opinion that class 1 means bars ofgold; classes 2 and 3, gold jalates of special forms; class 4, bowls ofgold dust ; and class 5, woven coverlets and articles of clothing, whichwere also used as a medium of exchange, as money. Bars of gold{a and 6, figure 32) , gold plates (c, figure 32) , and bowls of gold dust(c?, figure 32) are enumerated in the tribute list and in the Mendozacodex among the tributes of the cities of Mixteca alta and baja: a isdescribed as " tiles of fine gold, of the size of a plate and as thick as aman's thumb " ; 5 is called " golden tiles, of the size of a consecratedwafer and the thickness of a man's finger " ; 9X c is shown " a smallgold plate four fingers wide and three-fourths of an ell long, of thethickness of a sheet of parchment " ; the symbols marked d rej)resent"bowls (jicaras) of gold dust". SELBR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 145As to the sum of the articles delivered during every quarter of ayear, in the first twenty-eight quarters, during which entries weremade only in column c, 10 gold bars, 2 square and 2 triangular goldplates, and 2 bowls of gold dust were delivered in every quarter.Beginning with the twenty-ninth quarter, that is, if our computa-tions given above be correct, beginning with the year 1511, there wasa new payer of tribute, as it seems, the chieftain of a city, who is repre-sented in column e {m^ plate iv) at full length, with his name hiero-glyph and the hieroglyph of the city itself. In the principal column,c (/I, plate iv), the sum of the payments delivered every quarter islessened by one long triangular plate; but, on the other hand, Avefind in column d (/?, plate iv), beginning with this square, entries forevery quarter of a year consisting of a bundle of textiles, a square anda long triangular gold plate, and a bowl of gold dust. Beginningwith the thirty-third square, in the year 1512, a second new tributaryseems to have been added, the chieftain of the city of Zacatlan, whois also portrayed in column e {q, plate iv) at full length, with hisname hieroglyph and the hieroglyph of his city. From this squareonward, the amounts paid during every quarter are doubled in col-umn n. There are 2 bundles of textiles, 2 oblong rectangular and 2long triangular gold plates, and 2 bowls of gold dust. BeginningAvith the forty-fifth square, three years later (1515), we have a thirdnew tributary, the chieftain of Tenanco, who is depicted in the corre-sponding section of column e (/', plate v) at full length, with his namehieroglyph and the hieroglyph of the city of Tenanco. After thissection the amount of tribute paid in each quarter is increased by abale of articles of clothing, 2 long triangular gold plates, and a bowlof gold dust, which are regularly entered in the fifth column, e. Andfinally, beginning with the sixtieth section, the ]nonth Tlacaxipeua-liztli of the year 1519, the last payments, those set down in colunni e(plate vi), are also doubled. This is the first section in column o inwhich a figure occurs. Thus the entries go on imiforndy up to theseventieth section, the last in which entries were made.The question now arises. To Avhom were these regular quarterlypayments made which are entered in colunnis c to e. At the outset,it should not be supposed that the name of the receiver of the tribute,whether a city, a king, or a temple, or whatever else, is given on thetribute list, for the entries Avere undoubtedly made on a list whichAvas in the hands of the receiver of the tribute. Thus, in the Avell-l^noAvn list of tribute paid to the kings of Mexico neither the kingsnor the city of Mexico are mentioned. On the first page of the trib-ute list (Mendoza codex, page 19) the last Tlatelolcan kings are onlymentioned incidentally, together Avith the contemporaneous Mexicanmonarchs. However, our manuscript is not a tribute list like those just7238?No. 28?05 10 146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Ibull. 28 mentioned, which enumerated the tribute to be paid by tlie variouscities. Our manuscript is a cashbook, in which an account is Iveptof the receipts of the year. It is a kind of financial record, and assuch naturally afforded opportunity for other historical entries. Be-sides the additions of new tributaries already mentioned these consistof the notices of deaths and of the successors of the deceased. Deathsare exj)ressed in the manner usual in Mexican picture annals, by aminnmy bundle, with a name hieroglyph, usually seated in a chairlike a living person. Accession to office is expressed by the figure ofthe living person, with his name hieroglyph, seated according to hisrank, either on a simple straw- seat, or on the royal chair providedwith a back; for omotlali, "" he has taken his seat", or motlatocatlali, " he has seated himself as a ruler ", are the expressions by which theMexicans described accession to power. Where it is a question ofactual rulers, authority is usually expressed by the little tongue infront of the mouth, which in Mexican paintings was a symbol ofspeech; for tlahtouani, " he who speaks ", was the Mexican name fora ruler or king.The most important of these figures are undoubtedly those whichappear in column a, the first, counting from the right. For here, ina conspicTU)us place, we nuiy exjiect to fiud the names and the dates ofaccession to power of those men who lived where these lists were pre-pared, and who were therefore the actual reciiDients of tlie tribute.It is important to note here that of the four figures of living personswho are portrayed in this colunni only the one in square 53 wears thexiuhuitzolli, the turquoise mosaic- headband of secular rulers andnobles, and is characterized as of higher rank, as a king, by the strawseat with a back. The other three have the hair merely bound witha strap, their seat is without a back, and they bear on their backs, bya cord slung round the neck and knotted in front, a small yelloAVobject flanked by two large gay tassels. This object is the so-calledie-quachtli, the '' tobacco cloth ", a small pouch (taleguilla), in Avhichthe jDriests carried the incense pellets. The cord with the tassels, toVvhich the pouch is attached, is called mecacozcatl, " necklace ofagave-fiber rope '\ The little pouch is called ie-quachtli, "' tobaccocloth ", because the incense pellets, which are called yaqualli anddescribed as pills or pellets shaped like mouse droppings, were madeof " tinta "; that is, probably of yauhtli, or iauhtli, " incense plant ","mixed with pulverized tobacco leaves con polvos de una yerba queellos llaman yietl, que es como belefios de castilla (" with dust of anherb which they call yietl, which is like henbane").^ Tobacco " One meaning of the syUable iauh is " incense plant ". Compare Sahagun, v. 2, pp. 25,35, and the liieroglyph of Yaulitepec in the Mendoza codex, v. 26, p. 14. But it also means"black": yaiih-tlaulli, " mayz moreno 6 negro" (Molina). " Sahagun, v. 2, p. 25. skler]- MEXICAN I'ICTUKE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 147played precisely the same part among the j^riests and medicine men ofancient JNIexico as it has from the remotest times down to the presentday among- the various savage tribes of North and South America.The tobacco pouch (ie-quachtli) or tobacco calabash (ie-tecomatl)was, therefore, the special badge of priests. I have broughttogether, in a to />', figure 3o, a number of figures of jiriests from theMendoza codex and the still unpublished Aztec Sahagun manuscriptof the Biblioteca del Palacio at Madrid, Avith incense basin and copal Fif!. FiRm-ps of priests from Aleiuloza codex and Saha}j;?n inanuscript.pouch, with sacrificial knife and copal pouch, and with the greatrattle stick Chicauaztli in their hands, and upon the back of each isplainly to be seen the tobacco pouch or tobacco box (painted yellowor brown in the original) , between two large tassels. Only the priest'sassistants, called '' quacuilli ", who in / hold the victim by the armsand legs and in I bring down the burning billets of wood from thetemple, are dressed differently, simply like messengers of death.Therefore, there can be no doubt that the figures drawn in column a 148 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 of our manuscript, in squares 16, 62, and 72, and the nnnnniy bundlein square 60 are meant to represent the figures of priests. But itshould be noted that the priests in our manuscript do not carry anie-quachtli but an ie-tecomatl on their back, one of peculiar shape,with lateral projections which were probably made of gold.But while the prince drawn in section 53, column a, has no littletongue?the symbol of speech and of a ruler (tlahtoiiani)?beforehis mouth, the tongue is plainly to be seen Ix'fore the mouth of thefigures of priests in squares 16 and 22, which in the figure in square62 has possibly only been blotted out by time or carelessly omitted,for the mumni}^ bundle in square 60 has the same name inscribed uponit as the living person in square 16. The priest in square 62 is, there-fore, the direct successor in office to the priest in square 16, designatedby the little tongue as tlahtouani. For this reason, and also becausepriests are chiefly represented in column a, I believe I may safely con-clude that it was a temple which received the valuable tribute recordedin columns c, d, and e. This also explains Avh3^ as I stated al)ove,the pictures of princes and cities are given wherever the list recordsan increase in the amount of the tribute due every quarter. If trib-ute wrung from conquered cities by a king were recorded here, then,doubtless, the conquest of the city or the death of the king would benoted in the same place. That the temple of an idol was the recip-ient of the tribute very simply explains the fact that the entries musthave ceased soon after the fall of the city of Mexico.But now where was the temple whose cashbook our manuscriptrepresents? The answer ought to be found in the hieroglyphs whichaccompany the various figures represented in the manuscript; but un-fortunatel}' these are not numerous enough, nor are all of them s\iffi-cientl}^ clear. I will proceed to discuss these hieroglyphs column bycolun)n; i)ut I must observe at the outset that it is precisely in thehieroglyphs that Kingsborough's draftsman has made many mistakes,both in drawing and color.In column a, square 16, the name hieroglyph introduced behind thehead of the figure shows a cloth, which is apparently held up by twohands. The cloth is painted white, the hands yellowish brown. Thehieroglyph seems to refer to an act which we see represented severaltimes in the Zapotec Vienna codex and also in the Mayan Troano codex(see h and c, figure 3J:), which is the tying on of the shoulder cloth;possibly, also, its exhibition, presentation, or offering for sale. In theManuscrit Mexicain number 3 of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paristhere is a hieroglyph (a, figure 34), which shows a shoulder cloth anda hand. It represents the name of a citizen of Uexotzinco who is setdown as among those Avho, escaping, withdrew from the control of theenconienderos and the curas, and bears the legend "Andres Tilmat-laneuh ", that is, "Andrew, the cloth-lender ". NG-HUMI W ^-. IT frag; BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOV MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLOT FRAGMENT I, PART 4 selbr] MEXICAN PICTUEE WRITINGS-?FRAGMENT I 149In h^^quare 52, column a, is seen a hieroglyph behind the niiuinnybundle, consisting of a stalk painted blnish-green, holding a redobject, from tlie left side of which hangs another object painted yel-low. This is probably meant for an ear of corn with its bunch ofsilk hanging at one side. The name of the person Avhose death isannounced here should therefore be read Xilotl, or Cacamatl, '?' youngear of corn ". FiO. 34. Symbols of cloth and precious stones.His successor, in square 53, decorated with the princely headband, isdesignated by a hieroglyph painted yellow, which I (;aii not interpretwith any certainty.The mummy bundle, in square GO of column a, has the same namehieroglyph as the figure in square IG. Apparently the death of thesame person is here announced whose entrance into office is proclaimedin square 16. T50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bult,. 2SHis successor, in square (52, has for his name hieroglyph a singlebead drawn on a strap. This is probably to be read Chalchiuh.The principal j^recious stones among the Mexicans Avere the chal-chiuitl, Avhich comprised jadeite and other stones of a similar greencolor, and xiuitl, the " turquoise ". Both were represented hieroglyph-ieally as lustrous bodies, like the brilliantly polished mirror tezcatl(marcasite or obsidian), with eyes at the four corners, that is, send-ing out rays in four directions. The forms d to /, figure S-t, representchalchiuitl; 7, xiuitl; and n, tezcatl. The chalchiuitl was preferredfor necklaces (cozcatl), beads, and bracelets (macuextli) because tur-quoise (xiuitl) was too valuable, and was not found in such largepieces. Turquoise was used especially for incrustations and mosiacs.The precious ear pegs (xiuhnacochtli), the diadems of the Mexicankings (xiuhuitzolli), were made of turquoise mosaic. When, insteadof the hieroglyphs for chalchiuitl and xiuitl, the object itself wasdrawn, the word xiuitl was represented by an incrusted disk, /;?, andthe word chalchiuitl by one or two strung beads, as we see it in Ji and /,which are taken from a Historia Mexicana of the Aubin-Goupil col-lection (Goupil-Boban Atlas, plates 60, 59). The form h stands forthe chalca tribe, which is designated by the hieroglyph chalchiuitl, d,in a corresponding representation in the Boturini codex, published inthe Kingsborough collection. The form / expresses the name of one ofthe four barrios of Aztlan, which is also to be read Chalco. On thelienzo of Tlaxcala the town of Chalco is also designated by a largel)ead. Comparison with these figures places it, I think, beyond adoubt, that the hieroglyjjh in square G2 of column a is likewise to beread Chalchiuh.Of the persons in column a there still remains the one in square 72.The name hieroglyph is plainly a shield, but there was somethingelse above it which can no longer be deciphered, as only a few rem-nants of blue paint are left of it. Possibly there was a blue royalheadband above it, in which case it would have to be read Chimalte-cuhtli. A man by this name, chieftain of Calixtlahuacan, is men-tioned in the Anales de Chimalpahin in the year 1484.Finally, there is still the hieroglyph of a place, section G8 in columnA. xVrrows are drawn flying toward it or sticking into it. Thisis j^robably meant to signify the conquest of that place. Thehieroglyph consists of the well-known drawing of a mountain(tepetl), of a string of beads laid around its summit (cozcatl, " neck-lace "), and a number of objects on the top of the mountain which Ican not explain with any degree of certainty. The object whichforms the actual pinnacle of the mountain is painted brown, andoblique stripes are plainly visible, between whicji the color seems tobe darker. This may therefore possibly represent the hieroglyphof stone (tetl). The square body above it is painted black. This seler] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 151may, perhaps, be intended for a piece of obsidian (iztli). Accord-ing to this, we liave itz-te-cozca-tepe as elements of the hieroglyph;but 1 can not construct any place name known to me out of theseelements.I will now pass on to columns d and e. In d we have in square60 the mummy bundle and a hieroglyph which in the Kingsboroughdrawing is absolutely incompre-hensible, but which in the orig-inal, and also in our reproduc-tion, can be recognized, withsome difficulty, to be sure, as thehead of a beast of prey withoutstretched tongue. We shouldread this Ocelotl, " jaguar ". Aseated figure then follows, insquare 61, whose head is notadorned with the royal head-band,the xiuhuitzolli,and v.hoselong hair hangs down behind,wound round with a strap, afterthe manner of priests. A cac-tus branch is behind it, by wayof name hieroglyph. Cactusbranches, with the blossoms,often occur in the register ofnames of persons of Uexotzincoand Xaltepetlapan (ManuscritMexicain number 8, Bibliothe-que Rationale, Paris), shown infigure 35 (a, 1 to 5) . There theydenote the name Nochuetl, wliichis also frequently mentioned inthe Anales of Chimalpahin. Acactus branch in conjunctionwith an arroAv is li|vewise usedthere to represent the nameTziuac mitl, h. It seems, there-fore, that a variety of cactus was meant by Tziuactli, or tzinuactli.This name, too, which likewise occurs in the Anales of Chimalpa-hin, might be expressed by the hieroglyph in scpiare 61, colunni i)(plate vi).In the hieroglyph which accompanies the munnny bundle, in square64, column d (plate vi), I think I recognize the head of a deer and anupright tuft of feathers. The deer is mazatl, and the upright tuft offeathers should probably be read quetzalli. According to this we Fig. 35. Symbols of personal and place names inMexican codices. 152 BUEEAtT OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 should have mazaqiietzal, and this is a royal name well known fromthe Anales of Chimalpahin, that is, in the territories of Chalco,Tlalmanalco, and Amaquemecan.The next figure in column d, square 65, is described by a hieroglyphwhich is obviously the picture of a snake. The head is above on theleft, and is white. The forked tongue protruding from the mouthis plainh' visible. The body is painted yellow. A rattle seems to bedrawn at the end of the tail, which is left white like the head. Thename might therefore be read Coatl, " snake ".Finally, in column e, as already stated, in sections 29, 33, and 44(plates IV and v), three chieftains are drawn, with their name hiero-glyphs and the hieroglyphs of the cities ruled by them.The hieroglyph of the city in square 29 shows us a mountain(tepetl) wdiich seems to be formed of streams of water moving in acircle. A mountain of water might be read Atepec. A city isrecorded by this name in the Mendoza codex, page 16, among the con-quests of the younger Motecuhzoma, and is expressed there by thedrawing of a mountain with a stream of water on it (/, figure 35).In Mexican hieroglyphs of towns, however, a mountain often servesmerely to show that reference is made to a place or a jjlace name, thatis, to express the syllable co or can; compare, for instance, the hiero-glyphs of the cities of Aztaquemecan, Quauacan, Quauliyocan, Chicon-quiauhco, and Nepopoalco, from the Mendoza codex (c to ^), andthose of Tzompanco (A), Tlacopan, Toltitlan, etc., from the Osunacodex. If we take this into consideration, then, since the water in ourhieroglyph in square 29 is apparently draAvn moA^ing in a circle, weshould perhaps read it Almo^^auacan, " where the water moves in acircle ". This is the name of an ancient village which is mentioned,after Uexotzinco and Xaltepetlapan, with their barrios (calpulli)and the persons belonging to them in the Manuscrit Mexicain number3 of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. There (k) the water flowingin a circle is much more plainly drawn than in our hieroglyph. Butsince, as we shall see, both the succeeding hieroglyphs also refer toterritories adjacent or friendly to Uexotzinco, I think it quite prob-able that the place hieroglyph in square 29, column e, should be readAlmo3^auacan.The chieftain of the place is designated hieroglyphically by thehead of a jaguar. His name must therefore have been Ocelotl, orTequan, '' beast of prey ".The place which is meant to be designated in square 33 (plate iv)is represented by a bush painted bluish green. Unfortunately, thishieroglyph is also open to various readings. The Mexicans expressedthe word zacatl, " grass ", by a similar bush (see in the Mendozacodex the place names Zacatlan, Zacatepec, and Zacatollan, shown ina, l>, and c, figure 36) ; but they also painted the same thing when they MEXICAN PAINTING-HUIneOLOT FRAGMENT I. PART 5 seler] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS?B'RAGMENT I 153 wished to say popotl, " broom '\ for the broom was made of a varietyof stitf grass (see the hierogWph Popothm, r/ and e) ; and, finally,they also painted it to express the green bushes known as acxoyatl, onwhich they offered the blood which flowed in tortures, self-inflicted inhonor of the gods (see /, taken from the Sahagun manuscript of theBiblioteca del Palacio, expres-sive of tlie religious ceremonyacxoya-temaliztli, " the layinti'down of green bushes before theidols ") . For the interpretationof our hieroglyph in square 33we thus have a choice of Zacat-lan, Popotlan, and Acxotlan, allwell-known place names, anyone of which might be correct.Of these I think we may ex-clude Popotlan, for in its hiero-glyph the band which fastensthe bush to the broom is usuallygiven. But we might choosebetween Zacatlan and Acxotlan.A place named Zacatlan is quiteregularly mentioned, togetherwith Uexotzinco, Tlaxcallan,Tliliuhquitepec, and CholoUan,in the chronicle of Tezozomoc.The Anales of Chimalpahinalso mention together Chichi-meca, Tenanca, Cuixcoca, Temi-milolca, Zacanca, and Yliuipa-neca. Acxotlan was one of themost im]:)ortant barrios ofChalco. The fact tliat the grass(zacatl) in the place name isusually painted yello\v, whilegreen seems to be the color mostnaturally applied to the bush(acxoyatl), militates perhapsin favor of the latter meaning.The hieroglyph of the chieftain of this city is likewise quite unin-telligible in the Kingsliorough drawing. In the original we canmake out, with some difficulty, to be sure, but still plainly, the headof a deer (mazatl), with the eyelids painted yellow and with blueantlers resting on a yellow base, quite in the manner in Avhich the daysign Mazatl, is drawn and colored in column a. Above it are twelve Fig. 36. Symbols of place and personal names,Mexican codices. 154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY fBiLL. 28little circles of various colors, arranged in divisions of 5, 5, and 2.This is undoubtedly meant for the number 12 (matlactli omome).The person drawn here is therefore called by the name of a day, ma-tlactli omome mazatl, " 12 deer ". which Avas possibly the day of hisbirth or had some other connection with him.Finally, the wall crowned with battlements under the figure of thechieftain, in sections 44 and 45, undoubtedly stands for the place nameTenanco, " at the place of inclosures '. The name hieroglyph ofthe chieftain is again quite unintelligible in Kingsborough, and it isincorrectly painted green. In the original there is not a trace ofcolor to be seen. With some difficulty the hairy head of an animalcan be recognized, which is probably intended for a rabbit (tochtli),and the name should probably be read accordingly.If, in conclusion, we now turn to the question of the origin of themanuscript, we see that the analysis of the hieroglyphs leads to nodefinite result. The most important hieroglyph, the place name, insection ()8, colimm a (plate vi), can not be interpreted with certainty.The other place names can, indeed, be explained wath some degree ofcertainty, but they leave room for doubt, insomuch as places calledTenanco and Zacatlan occur in different localities. Nevertheless, Ibelieve that the combination of the names Tenanco, Zacatlan (orAcxotlan) , and, possibly, if my interpretation is correct, Almoyauacanpoints to a particular region, the land of the Uexot/.incas andChalcas, the valleys and slopes at the southern and western foot ofthe volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. In this region also, aswe know from Chimalpahin, various tribal heads bore the titleTeohua teuhctli, " priest-prince '\ Nezaualcoyotl and the great Mote-cuhzoma, the elder, went thither to obtain from the tribal chief avictory-insuring fetish, the otlanamitl teueuelli, the four bambooarrows, and the shield of the war god. I do not believe that the"Monte Sacro", the famous shrine of Amaquemecan, was the one towhich our manuscript refers, for in that case we should be able toA^erifv the names of persons from Chimalpahin. But, besides thegreat sanctuary, there must have been others in the immediate neigh-borhood and more remote. Let us hope that among the many recordswhich were made in the first century after the conquest something-may yet be discovered which shall establish the identity of the personsand places of our manuscript beyond all i^ossibility of doubt.FRxlGMENT IIThis fragment (plate vii) is a strip of agave paper 08 cm. long and40 cm. wide, covered with drawings and writing on one side. It isthe page which Alexander von Humboldt describes in Vues des Cor- h-Q _lOCQ =)I Zu< li-I-Q _JOCODI IOz SELER] MEXICAN PICTUKE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 155(lilleres et Monuments des Peuples indigenes de I'Amerique, underthe title " Genealogie des Princes d'Azcapotzalco "\The drawings on this page (phite vii) occupy a space bounded bystraight lines, to the right of which a path showing footprints and tothe left a body of water, stream or sea margin, indicated by drawingsof Avaves and whirlpools and by a light blue color, run the wholelength of the page. Near the lower edge a second path, beginningat right angles to the first, leads straight across the page to thewater, and about the center of the page a small body of water, alsobeginning at right angles to the principal path, crosses the page inlike manner. The whole space above the lower path is divided byhorizontal lines into 27 divisions, which, however, decrease in lengthfrom the seventeenth down in consequence of a boundary line Avhichbegins at the left and runs diagonally upward to the right. In oneof these divisions, the fourth counting from the lower path, a rowof dark figures filled in with dots and angular lines runs straightacross the page. In Mexican picture writing this is the way in whichthe idea of tlalli, or milli, "? acre "', or "' field ", is expressed. Theother divisions, except two which are empty and a third in which akind of explanatory note is written, are each provided with the headand the liieroglyph of a particular person.This general arrangement of the page shows that we can hardlyhave to do here with a genealogy, as von Humboldt supposed. Thewhole arrangement far more closeh^ resembles a doomsday book, amap of public lands, or a register of landed property; and this infact it is proved to be by the writing, which occurs in the lowestdivision below the lower path.In this division we see to the right the picture of King Motecuh-zoma, the ninth king of the Mexicans, known as Xocoyotzin, "" theyoung ", in contradistinction to Ueue-Motecuhzoma, the elder Mote-cuhzoma, the fifth king of the Mexicans, whose other name wasIlhuicamina, " he who shoots at the heavens '\ To the left is thepicture of a hut built of straw or reeds, painted yellow above awhite circle. And between the picture of the king and the figureof the hut are the woi'ds: y xacallo camaca y tlatovani motecuh-zomatzin mochi ytonal catca (''the country house of Camaca: allparcels of land which belonged to King Motecuhzoma "). The wordtonalli, which is here the most important word, deciding the mean-ing of the whole, means " glow ", " warmth of the sun ", " sunnner ""in its more literal application : but it also means the " character " or '' signs "" of a day or a year; that is, one of the 20 juctures by whichthe Mexicans designated their days or one of the 4 of these Avhiclidesignated the years. Hence follows the secondary meaning, " fatedecided by the day of birth ", and lastly, in general terms, '' thatwhich is assigned to anyone ", that is, what is allotted to him, his 156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY I bull. 28portion, his fate. Thus Molina in his dictionary gives : " racion dealguna, 6 cosa diputada para otro " ('' allowance of something, or athing assigned to another "), and for tlalli te-tonal, "' snerte de tierraagena " (" a piece of land belonging to another person "),I will now proceed to describe the separate pictures and hiero-glyphs. King Motecuhzoma, in the lowest divisions of the fragment,below the lower cross path, is represented at full length, seated ona chair woven of reeds (tepotzo-icpalli), Avliich is like the others, butis provided with a back. lie is dressed in the royal blue garment(xiuhtilmatli), which is woven in openwork and trinnned with a redborder of eyes (tenchilnauayo), probably of feather work. On hishead he wears the band of turquoise mosaic (xiuh-tzontli, or xiuh-uitzolli). There is a small blue tongue before his mouth, the symbolof speech and power (tlahtouani means both '' the one who speaks "and " the king"''). Mexican kings are drawn in almost precisely thesame way in the Sahagun manuscript belonging to the Academia dela Historia (see (j, figure 36), except that here is given the turquoisebar (xiuh-yacamitl) which Mexican kings Avore in the jDierced sej)-tum of the nose, as a distinguishing ornament, wdien they put on galadress. I have also taken from the Sahagun manuscript the termsjust used for the various articles of royal Mexican dress.Motecuhzoma means " the angry lord ". The idea of angry couldnot well be expressed by the Mexicans in hieroglyphs; but it wasotherwise with the idea tecuhtli, " lord ", " prince ". To express thisidea they merely drew and painted the turquoise headband (xiuht-zontli, xiuhuitzolli), the emblem of kings. Thus we find both theolder and the younger Motecuhzoma hieroglyphically designatedsimply by the xiuhtzontli (compare h and n, figure 30, from CodexTelleriano-Kemensis, volume 4, pages 6 and 13). The former isintended for the elder Motecuhzoma and the latter for the younger.Usually, however, to prevent confusion, the elder Motecuhzoma ishieroglyphically designated by an arrow sticking in the picture ofthe heavens, i, a hieroglyph, which represents his other name,Ilhuicamina, " he who shoots at the heavens ". The younger Mote-cuhzoma, on the other hand, is more particularly designated by apeculiar element added to the royal headband, which is visible in thehieroglyph of our picture as well as in k, figure 3G of the Mendozacodex, and Sahagun manuscript, Academia de la Historia, page 68.Why this element should express the idea xocoyotl, " the younger ", Ican not state, and would merely mention that a similar element is to beseen in the Sahagun manuscript of the Academia de la Historia onthe leg painted white and dotted with black, m, figure 36, which rep-resents the name of the seventh Mexican king, Tizoc or Tizocic (Tiz-ocicatzin). I still think it very doubtful whether o, which occurs SELKR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 157on the great so-called calendar stone in the upper left-hand triangularspace, is meant for a hieroglyph of Motecuhzoma, as is oftenassumed. Here the xiuhtzontli is combined with the breastplate ofthe fire god. In a corresponding place on the other three triangularspaces are the dates, 1 Tecpatl, 1 Qniauitl, 7 Ozomatli, Avhich appearalso to denote certain deities. I think that King Motecuhzoma tookhis name from one of the cognomens of the fire god ; for el sehorenojado, " the angry god ", Avhich is the meaning of the name Mote-cuhzoma, is a fit title for the god of devouring fire. I think I dis-tinctly recognize the hieroglyph of the younger Motecuhzoma in />,which occurs on the inner side of the cover of a cinerary casket, whichbears on the outer side (the top) the date 11 TecpatL Peilafiel repro-duced this casket in his " Monumentos del arte mexicano ", andregarded the hieroglyph as that of King Nezaualpilli, of Tetzcoco,said to have died in the year 11 Tecpatl, or A, D. 151G. But, in thefirst place, the year of Nezahualpilli's death has never been preciselydetermined. According to Chimalpahin, he died a year earlier, inthe year 10 Acatl, or A. D. 1515. Furthermore, the hieroglyph hasabsolutel}^ no connection with the elements of the name Nezaualpilli.On the contrar3% all the elements contained in the name Motecidi-zoma seem to be expressed in this figure. The royal headband givesus the element tecuh, " prince ". The little tongue (symbol of speech)with clouds of smoke rising from it seems to express the element mo-zoma, " angry "", fiery speech, as it were. And finally, the elementwith wdiich we became familiar in the hieroglyphs k and ?, and whichwe also see in the hieroglyph of our manuscript, is plainly containedhere, and represents the idea of xocoyotla.Opposite the figure of INIotecuhzoma in our manuscript is the pic-ture of a hut built of reeds, called xacalli in Mexican, or jacal, as theystill say in Mexico. The circle below probably refers to the placewhich is here meant, but I can not explain it more fully. As for thelocation itself, there is no place by the name of Camaca given on morerecent maps, and I have sought for it in vain on the older ones. Onthe map which accompanies the text of the Conquistador anonimopublished by Eamusip," there seems to be the only hint of it. Thisis ])robably based on the first map that was made from the oneofficially sent in b_y Cortes. It differs from the latter, however, inas-much as the fresh-water lake, which on Cortes's map is shown invery much contracted dimensions on the left of the sheet, is repeatedindependently on a larger scale on the upper part of the sheet.''Upon this map. exactly as on that of Cortes, two forked causewaysare given on the north side of the town, which is, however, incorrectly ? Ramusio, Delle navigationi et viaggi, v. 3, Venice, 1556; Garcfa Tcazbalceta, Docu-mentos inrditos para la historia de Mexico, v. 1, p. .390. " Dahlgren, " Niigot om det forna och nuvarande Mexico" (Ymer, No. 1, 18S9). 158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28designated by the author as the west side. One of these causewaysleads to the left toward Azcapotzalco. The other I'uns back of thefork due north. Where this causeway reaches the mainland thename Calmacam is written down. Of course, it is doubtful whetherwe are justified in connecting this name with the Camaca on ourfragment II, for on the map of Alonzo de Santa Cruz, of the year1555," the name Caltlithm appears in about the same place. Never-theless, I am inclined to think that there was a boundary line in thisregion, that is, northward from Azcapotzalco toward Guadalupe.Azcapotzalco was the first of the cities subdued by Mexico, and it isexpressly stated that the lands of Azcapotzalco were divided amongthemselves by the nobles of Mexico, the king taking the lead. Thereare, in fact, fertile farm lands at the base of the mountain, traversedby streams of water which come doAvn from Tliliuhyacan, Tlalne-pantla, and Atizapam. The water drawn on the left side of the frag-ment may be the seashore, and the road running along the right sidemay be the one which ran along the southern base of the mountains ofTenayocan and Guadalupe.Lastly, on the right side of our fragment, outside the path, there isdrawn a figure which seems to represent a kind of box provided witha mecapalli, the broad band of woven straw which was placed acrossthe forehead, by means of which the burden resting on the back wascarried. Perhaps this was meant to symbolize agricultural imjDle-ments.Above the figure of Motecuhzoma, as I have said, runs the drawingof a path. The figures seen on this and on the path at the right arevery realistic reproductions of the imprint of a bare foot, the sole andthe five toes, in sand or other light soil. These footprints are gen-erally used in Mexican hieroglyphic writing to denote a path, travel-ing over a path, or journeying or moving in a certain direction.I will designate the separate divisions or sections above this crosspath, proceeding from below upward, by the figures 1 to 27. Divi-sions 7 and 8 are the most important. In division 7 there is abovea hieroglyph, which I Avill describe later with the others. Beside itis the hieroglvph and the head, adorned with the royal headband, ofthe brave Quauhtemoc, upon whom the Mexicans conferred the officeof king, that is, chief military commander, after the death of Cui-tlauac. Motecuhzoma and Cuitlauac were sons of Axayacatl, thesixth king of the Mexicans. Quauhtemoc was a son of Ahuitzotl,eighth king of Mexico, and the power was conferred upon himalthough there were nearer heirs. In Mexico birth only partiallyinfluenced succession to the throne, as also to the other high offices ofstate. It is well known how heroically Quauhtemoc defended the " Nordenskiold, Facsimile Atlas, p. 109, and Dahlgren, work cited, p. 10. selkr] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 159 city of Mexico for 90 days against Cortes, in spite of European mili-tary science. His capture, which took place on the date ce Coatl yeiCalli, or August 13, 1521 (discussed in the previous chapter), put anend to the war. Cortes at first treated him kindly, but later (accord-ing to a marginal note in Chimalpahin it must have happened on theday 1 Ocelotl, that is, as we reckon it, 169 days later, about the end olthe year 1521) sent him and four other influential Mexicans prisonersto Coyouacan and strove to extort from them by torture informationas to where were hidden the treasures which the Spaniards had to q r s t uFig. hi. Mexican sviuIxjIs of persons and places.leave behind in Mexico the year previous at the time of their flight.Qiiauhtemoc was afterward baptized and named for his godfatherDon Hernando de Alvarado Quauhtemoctzin. Cortes appointedhim gobernador of Mexico, but afterward had him hanged on sus-picion of conspiracy, together with Tetlepanquetzatzin and Couana-cochtzin, the kings of Tlacopan and Tetzcoco. This haj)pened in theyear 1524 at Ueimollan during the expedition to Honduras. " Hedied in some sort like a Christian" (ye yuhqui ye christianoyoticamomiquilli), says Chimalpahin. "A cross w^as put into his hand, his 160 BUREAU OF AMERICAlir ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28feet were bound together with iron chains, and by these they hunghim to a ceiba tree *". The execution is represented on page 138 ofCodex Vaticanus A; but there he is represented as hanged by theneck in the usual way. From Chimalpahin's words, however, itwould seem as though he had been cruelly hung up by the feet.The hieroglyph of Quauhtemoc, " swooping eagle ", is representedin section 7 of our manuscript by the head of an eagle and a foot-print directed downward. In the Sahagun manuscript of theAcademia de la Historia it is represented by an entire eagle flyingdownward {d 1, figure 37). In Codex Vaticanus A. plates 137 and138, we also have a swooping eagle and footprints directed down-ward (f/ 2 and d 3, same figure) . The remark added in the following division, the eighth of ourmanuscript, apparently by the same hand which entered the othernames and remarks, also refers to Quaiditemoc's death. In orderto read the words the fragment must be turned upside down.In this division we have two large circles and one small one, filledwith an irregular network of lines and painted blue. These are hiero-glyphs of the xiuitl, " turquoise ", a word which, as I stated above,is frequently expressed by a small disk of turquoise mosaic (see m,figure 35), But the word xiuitl means not only "turquoise", butalso " grass ", " comet ", and " year ". It is used here in the lastsense, for the little flag over the two large circles means " 20 ". Thetwo large circles and one small circle together, therefore, give us 41years. Accordingly, there is written beloAv them hon poval xivitl oceaxca, "(it is) now 41 years". Besides the number at the left is 7Calli, "7 house"; that is, the year 1524, the j^ear of Quauhtemoc'sdeath. To the right, beside the number, is 8 Calli, "8 house"; thatis, the year 15G5, which is more fully explained by the accompanyingwords: (the numeral is not distinctly legible) del mes de abril1565 aiios ("on the ? of April of the year 1505 "). From the year1524 to the year 1565 there are actiuilly 41 years.The year 1565, in which this note was added, had a certain sig-nificance foi" the descendants of the ancient royal family of Mexico,as in that yeai' Don Luis de Santa Maria Nanacaci])actzin died. Hewas the son of Acamapichtli and grandson of Ahuitzotl, who was theeighth king of Mexico. He was the last descendant of the ancientroyal family, and was still nominally recognized as regent (gober-nador) of Mexico under Spanish rule : " Yehuatl o3^tech tlamicoynic Mexica Tenucha tla(;.'0i:)ipiltin ", says Chimalpahin. This year,therefoi'e, marks the actual end of the ancient royal family, and forthis reason Chimalpahin here adds a sketch of the entire ancienthistory of the city of Mexico and of the Mexican race. We read " that ? C'liimalpahin, Seventh Relation, pp 104, 195. SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 161 Avheii the city of Mexico surrendered to the victorious Cortes afterthe capture of Quauhtenioc, the chiefs of the Mexicans were assem-bled at Acachinanco. Tliey were the following: (1) Quauhtemoc-tzin, King of Mexico (tlahtohuani Tenuchtitlan) ; (2) Tlacotzin,cihuacohuatl, that is, the King's deputy; (3) Oquiztzin, Prince ofAzcapotzalco (tlahtohuani Azcapotzalco-Mexicapan) ; (4) Panitzin(or Ilanitzin), Prince of Ehcatepec (tlahtohuani Ehcatepec) ; (5)Motelchiuhtzin, the keeper of the royal stores (calpixqui), not aman of roj^al blood, but a great war chief (amo pilli, yn yece hueyyaotiacauh catca). Cortes had them put in chains and taken asprisoners to Coyouacan.The same four men who are mentioned here with Quauhtenioc arementioned again in the same order in the account of Quauhtemoc'sexecution and that of the other two at Ueymollan : Cenca yc tlao-coxque, motequi-pachoque, quichoquillique, yn quinhuicac Mexicatlahtoque (" The princes of iMexico, who had been brought hither,were deeply moved and wept for him "). Their names are given asDon Juan Velazquez Tlacotzin, cihuacohuatl, Don Carlos Oquiztzin,Don Andres Motelchiuhtzin, and Don Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin.There is still another native account of events that happened duringthe siege and after the taking of the city of Mexico. This is the accountpreserved in the Sahagun manuscript of the Biblioteca liorenziana,which forms the t^velfth book of the work. It is stated there that onthe day after Quauhtemoc's capture he and all the dignitaries Averetaken to Cortes at Atactzinco, to the house of the tlacochcalcatlCoyoueuetzin. Here, directly after Quauhtenioc, are named Coana-cochtli and Tetlepanquetzatzin, the kings of Tetzcoco and Tlacopan,and then the following men of high rank: (1) cioacoatl Tlacutzin;(2) tlillancalqui Petlauhtzin ; (3) vitznavatl Motelchiuhtzin, mexi-catl achcauhtli; (4) tecutlamacazqui (" high priest "') Coatzin; (5)tlatlati (?' steward ") Tla^olyautl.When tlie princes came before Cortes, the three kings of the alliedcities of Mexico, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan took their seats besideCortes. Then follow iiiixcoatlailotlac Auelitoctzin and tlatzacuticayopicatl Pupucatzin pilli, who, as a comparison with previous pas-sages slioAAs, are to be regarded as leaders of the Tlatelolcas.And then we read : "'' On the other side sat the Tenochcas ". Theirnames are given as Tlacutzin, Petlauhtzin, Motelchiuhtzin mexicatlachcauhtli, tecutlamacazqui Coatzin, and tlatati Tlac^'olyautl. Thesenames are mentioned repeatedly on previous pages of the narrative.If we comi>are the two accounts, that of Chimalpahin and the onein the Sahagun manuscript, we must at the outset discard the last twopersons named in the Sahagun narrative, for they are priests. Ofthe other three^ two are identical with two of those mentioned by7238?No. 28?05 11 162 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Chimalpaliin. The difference between the two narratives apparentlycan be exphiined by the fact that in the Anales of Chinialpahin wehave in the begiiniing an account of the interview held with the Mexi-can princes immediately after the surrender of the city, while the listAvhich then follows does not mention the princes present at this inter-view, but those whom Cortes afterward sent as prisoners to Coyouacanand put to the torture in order to wring confessions from them inregard to the treasures left behind by the Spaniards in their flightfrom the city.If we now retinii to our manuscript we see that in divisions 5, 3, 2,and 1, below Quauhtemoc, the same four men are named whom Chi-malpaliin mentions as Quauhtemoc's companions; but the order ofsuccession is somewhat changed, for, whilst we must always think ofTlacotzin as occupying the first place, Oquiztzin must be in the fourthplace here instead of tlie second, as in Chinialpahin.The four persons, like those named in the other divisions, are ex-pressed in our manuscript by a head with the name hieroglyph behindit. Besides Avhich a scribe, wlio, as we have seen, made his entries inthe year 1565, has added the names of the persons in writing.Here, as elsewhere, the heads serve to show the rank of the persondesignated. In our manuscript, Uanitzin and Oquiztzin, who arenamed above as kings of Ehcatepec and Azcapotzalco, have the royalheadband of turquoise mosaic, like Motecuhzoma and Quauhtemoc.These two alone of the four have the little tongue before their mouth,the symbol of speech and also of power. Von Humboldt was ofthe opinion that the Mexicans intended to designate persons as livingby the addition of this little tongue. That this is not the case here isobvious, for Oquiztzin died earlier than the three others, and Mote-cuhzoma, who also has the little tongue, earlier than any of the fourand before Quauhtemoc, who is represented Avithout the little tongue.Apparently the tongue is meant here as the direct hieroglyph fortlalitouani, '' the one who speaks ", or " the lord "', " the king ", a pen-dant, as it were, to the royal headband.The third of the four, Motelchiuh, who was described above as awar chief, is represented by the peculiar manner of wearing the hairwhich was a distinguishing mark of warriors. Sahagun tells us(App., chapter 5) that when warriors adorned themselves for thedance they bathed, covered their whole bodies, except the face, witliblack color, and painted their faces with black stripes, and that in-stead of combing their hair " they made it stand on end to give them-selves a tei"rible aspect ". There were two different ways, as the pic-tures show, in which it was customary to arrange the hair on theseoccasions. One was to draw the hair together on the crown and windround it a leather strap, to which, on gala occasions, large tassels ofornamental feathers 'were fastened, while the rest of the hair, as it SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 163 seems, stood out short and sliti' all around the face. It is worn thusby the figures of warriors in the Mendoza codex (see /. figure 37) andon the head of Yacatecuhtli, the god of traveling merchants andcaraA^an leaders, in the Sahagun manuscript of the Biblioteca delPalacio, m. This manner of wearing the hair was called temillotl, '? stone-pillar hair dress ", and the great tassels were called quet-zallalpiloni, " ornamental feather band ''." The name temillo, " wear-ing the stone-pillar hair dress (warrior's hair dress)'', occurs fre-(juently in the list of names from Uexotzinco (Manuscrit Mexicainnumber .3, Bibliotheque Rationale), already mentioned several times,and is represented there sometimes by the figure of a pillar, some-times by a stone or a stone in a setting, or, finally, by a stone "in con-nection with a head of dressed hair (see ?, figure 37). In the othermanner of w^earing the hair it was made to stand up high over theforehead and allowed to hang down from the crown of the head overthe neck, where it was wound by a strap, into which a feather orna-ment Avas stuck on gala occasions. This fashion is shoAvn in the pic-ture of a chieftain arrayed for the dance, o, Avhich in Codices Telleri-ano-Remensis and Vaticanus A designates the feast Tecuilhuitl,and in the draAving of the head of Tlacochcalco yaotl in the Saha-gun manuscript in the Biblioteca del Palacio, p. The chieftainsof the Tlaxcaltecs are also draAvn Avith this hair dress on thelienzo of Tlaxcala, in the representation of the festiAdties which therepublic of Tlaxcala prepared for the reception of the conquerorCortes, Avhom they hailed as their ally. This manner of Avearing thehair was called tzotzocolli, and the feather ornament stuck into thestrap, consisting of a furcated plume of heron feathers, Avas calledaztaxelli.^' In q I giA'e a picture from the Sahagun manuscript in theBiblioteca del Palacio, in which Avarriors are represented executinga dance at the feast of Ochpaniztli, Avhere these two modes of Avear-ing the hair are to be seen side by side, distinctly draAvn. Theformer, the temillotl, is the distinguishing mark of the actual chief-tains, the tequiua. Motelchiuh, the great Avar chief, is thereforerepresented Avith it in division 3 of our manuscript (plate vii).Finall}^, Tlacotzin,in division 5 (counting from the loAver path),lias neither the royal headband nor the chieftain's hair dress, but isrepresented simply wdth hair hanging straight doAvn, Avithout anyinsignia whatever. He was drawn wdthout the royal headband,because at that time he AAas probably not yet in possession of theroyal poAver AA-hich was afterAvards conferred upon him. Nor Avasthe warrior's hair dress appropriate to him, because the title ciua-couatl, Avhich he bore, Avas apparently not a military one. I willmention, hoAvever, that aboA-e Tlacotzin, in division 6, there Avas " VeioITentlichnngen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde, v. 1, p. 140.* A^eroffentlichungen aus dem KonigUclien Museum fiir A'olkeikunde, v. 1, p. 166. 164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2Spainted a head with the royal headband like Qiiauhtenioc, but thatthis has been pasted over; that is, expunged.As for the hieroglyphs, there are two in division 5 with Tlacotzin,Avhich, however, do not both refer to the name. The first one seemsrather to express the title and the second the name of the man. Thelatter represents an implement, a sort of wooden shovel which wasused to work the ground, but also served to shovel earth, lime, etc.(see t and v). The former is taken from the Mendoza codex. Aboveis the tool, below the basket (chiquiuitl), in which the earth, lime, etc.,was transported, with the broad carrying strap (mecapalli) to beplaced over the forehead. In w, taken from the Osuna codex, isshown the Mexican laborer using this tool, the name of which isuictli, or coauacatl. In our manuscript it serves to express thename Tlacotzin because it was the symbol of servitude or bondage, ofslave labor. The serf, the slave, was called tlacohtli. A tlacotl,somewhat differently pronounced, with the vowel short in the firstsyllable, meant the blossoming bough, an example of which isdepicted in the hieroglyph Tlacopan (Tacuba). As in the presentcase the name Tlacotzin is expressed by a tool, we may conclude thatthe first pronunciation (Avith the long a) and also the first meaningbelonged to it.The first hieroglyph shows the picture of a snake with open jawsholding a human face. The snake is painted yellow, excepting therattles and belly, the human face brown, and on the cheek there seemto be traces of the two stripes which are almost invariably drawn inthe hieroglyphs of the Mendoza codex when a female face is to beexpressed (see r, figure 37, the hieroglyph Ciuatlan, from the Men-doza codex, volume 40, page 1). The first hieroglyph in division 5 istherefore the exact reproduction of the word ciuacouatl, " femalesnake ", the title, which it is stated by Chimalpahin and in the Saha-gun manuscript was borne by the Tlacotzin mentioned here. The titleciuacouatl belonged to the higliest dignitary in the realm, who was ina certain sense the colleague or deputy of the king ( tlalitouani). Thisfact is so often and emphatically rej^eated in Te/ozomoc's Cronicamexicana that it is natural to suspect intention and to conclude thatthe power claimed by the ciuacouatl was not always recognized l)ythe king. In general, the colleagueship was plainly and clearlyenough established. When in the narrative of the deeds of the elderMotecuhzoma,Tlacaelel, ciuacouatl of that period, makes a suggestion,Motecuhzoma answers that he agrees to everything, " for indeed I amthe master; but I can not order everything, and you, ciuacoatl, are asmuch master as I am ; we must both govern the Mexican state ". Thename ciuacouatl has several meanings. It means " female snake ",but it may also signify " female twin " or " female companion". Thename probably refers to the ancient earth goddess, w^ho, in different SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 165places, was called variously Ciuacoatl, " the snake woman ", Ton-antzin, " our dear mother ", or Teteo innan, '' mother of the gods ",and who was to the father, the ancient god of heaven, exactly whatthe ciuaconatl was to the king in the earthly realm of the Mexicancommonwealth.I give in s a painting of this goddess corresponding exactly to theone in our hieroglyph. It occurs on plate 03 of the Goupil-Bobanatlas, and there denotes Ciuacoatl, the goddess of Colhuacan. towhom Mexican j^risoners are being sacrificed.Motelchiuh means '* the despised ". The hieroglyph which here ex-presses this name is the well-known hieroglyph te-tl, '' stone ", whichis painted in brown and black, to express the various colors or theveining of stone. Of course, this hieroglyph is only an approxima-tion of the sound Avhich it is actually intended to represent. It is notimpossible that there is some etymologic connection, though only anindirect one, between the words te-tl, '' stone "", and tel-chiua, " todespise "'. Besides, Motelchiuh is designated also in the Sahagunmanuscript of the Academica de la Historia in precisely the sameway: that is, by tlie hieroglyph te-tl '" stone "' {e, figure 37).Uanitzin, division 2, is hieroglyphically denoted by the flag(pamitl). p, b, and w are all kindred sounds, and our (German) av,or, more correctly, the P^nglish w, is the sound which the old gram-marians intended to express by u or v, and the Jesuits by hu. Itseems to be only an error when Chimalpahin occasionally writesPanitzin instead of Huanitzin; that is, Uanitzin. Uanitl is also de-noted by a small flag in the Sahagun manuscript of the Academia dela Historia (g, figure 37).Lastly, Oqniztli, in the first division above the lower path, issimply described by the hieroglyph of the city Azcapotzalco, whoseruler he was. Azcapotzalco means " in the place of the ant-hills ".The city is therefore hieroglyphically expressed by the i)icture of anant-hill (see a and ?>, the former taken from the Mendoza codex, thelatter from a record preserved in the library of the Duke of Osuna).Here we see in the midst of small pebbles and grains of sand a crea-ture, usually painted^red and of a somewhat exaggerated shape, whichis intended to represent an ant (azcatl).I will noAV state briefly what is known concerning the subsequentfate of the four persons whom Chimalpahin mentions as companionsof Quauhtemoc, the last free king of Mexico, and who in. our manu-script are set down in due order underneath Quauhtemoc.Tlacotzin seems to have been a grandson of Ahuitzotl, the eighthking of the Mexicans." He was therefore a near relative of Quauhte- " See Anales de Chimalpahin, Seventh Relation, ed. Kemi Simeon, p. 266, where theyxhiiiuhlzin inyn, " the grandson c.f riie previous one", can hardly refer to anyone but thepreviously mentioned Ahuitzotl. 1(36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHKOLOGY [bull. 28 moc, who was a son of Ahuitzotl. This probably explains the highposition as ciuaconatl, which he held with and under Quauhtemoc.He took a very energetic part in the defense of the city of Mexico,according to the Aztec account preserved in the Sahagun manu-script of the Biblioteca Lorenziana, which was probably written byan eyewitness who was shut up in the beleaguered city with him.Tlacotzin is mentioned there with tlillancalqui Petlauhtzin and uitz-nauatl Motelchiuhtzin, and these three, as leaders of the Tenoclicas,are placed opposite tlacateccatl Temilotzin and thicochcak'atl Coyo-ueuetzin, the leaders of the TLatelolcas, the inhabitants of the sistercity of Tenochtitlan. After the conquest he, too, was baptized, andwas then called Don Juan Velasquez Tlacotzin. After the executionof Quauhtemoc and his companions at Ueymollan, Cortes made himKing of Mexico (tlahtohunni mocliiuh yn Tenochtitlan) and equipi)edhim like a Spaniard, presenting him with a sword, a dagger, and awhite horse." Tlacotzin, however, was not destined to enter hisnative city as King. After having been absent for nearly three yearswith Cortes on the expedition to Honduras, which was one of hard-ships and privations, he died on the homeward journey, in 1526, atNochiztlan.Of Motelchiuh it has already been stated that he was not a princeof the blood, but had won his rank by distinguishing himself in war.In the passage from Chimalpahin quoted above he is mentioned withthe title calpixqui, " keeper of the royal stores "", This was the namegiven to the governors of subjugated pro^'inces, whose chief duty itwas to collect the tr'ibute and convey it to the royal storehouses. Inthe Aztec account in the Sahagun manuscript he is called uitznauatland mexicatl achcauhtli. The latter means simply " Mexican warchief". The former is one of the many military titles which were inuse among the Mexicans, the actual meaning of which has not yetbeen determined. They probabh^ referred to a particular gens (cal-pulli) and to its temple. After the conquest of the city Motelchiuhwas also baptized, like the other noble Mexicans, and was named forhis godfather, Don Andres de Tapia Motelchiuh. We also see ThapiaMotelchiuh written in our manuscript. After Tlacotzin's death atNochiztlan, Motelchiuh was appointed his successor, but, as he wasnot a prince of the blood, actual royal dignity, the title tlahtouani,could not be conferred on him. I feel convinced that Cortes tookthis opportunity to somewhat degrade the dignity. He is thereforemerely mentioned as a war chief of Mexico (Zan quauhtlahtohuaniomochiuh Tenuchtitlan), but we learn nothing of his activity in thiscapacity. He, too, ruled but a few years and died in the year 1530,during an expedition to the provinces of the northwest (Teo-culhua-can, the province of Jalisco), where he was serving in the Spanish " See Anales de Chimalpahin, Seventh Relation, ed. Hemi Simi'on. p. 207. RELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 167army under Nuiio de Guzni.-in. AVhile bathing in the neighborhoodof Aztathui he was struck by the arrow of a Chichiniec, a hostileIndian, and died of the wound."Uanitzin was a nephew of the king Motecuhzonui. His father,whose name was Tezozomoctii Acohiauacatl, was an ehler brother ofMotecuhzoma. Moteeuhzoma was eventually called to the throne asthe successor of his father, Axayacatl, by the choice of those who hadthe appointing power. But, according to a passage of unusual ethno-logic interest in the annals of Chimalpahin, Tezozomoctii inheritedthe dance yaociuacuicatl from Axayacatl, who bought it of theTlailotlaque, a tribe of the Chalca, whose property it seems to havebeen. ITanitzin"'s mother belonged to the house of the princes ofEhcatepec, a place lying north of Mexico, at the northern base of themountains of Guadalu})e, near the lake of Xaltocan. In the year 1519,shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards, when Motecuhzoma hadsomewhat recovered from the extreme consternation into which hehad been thrown by the first news of the appearance of the Spaniards,Uanitzin was installed by his uncle as ruler of Ecatepec, whichbelonged to him as his mother's heir. According to Chimalpahin,Uanitzin was at that time 20 years old. He seems to have taken nospecial part in the fighting during the siege. The Aztec account inthe Sahagun manuscript of the Biblioteca Lorenziana does not men-tion him ; but Chimalpahin states, as I have quoted above, that hewas one of the Mexicans of high rank who were taken w^ith Quauhte-moc as prisoners to Coyouacan. Cortes had so much regard for hisdescent (or for his youth?) that he did not have him put in chains likethe others. After the princes were released from prison his motherimmediately took him with her to Ehcatepec; as Chimalpahin says,she concealed him there (ca ompa quitlatito yn inantzin Ehcatepec),and the people of Ehcatepec recognized him as their king (ynic ompa(luintlahtocatlallique no yehuantin Ehcatepeca). As a (Christian hebore the name of Don Diego de Alvarado ITanitzin.After Motelchiuh's death in the year 1530 the throne of Mexico wasfor a time unoccupied. After the return from Teocolhuacan, wdiichoccurred in 1582, the office of chieftain was conferred on a certainXochiquentzin, who also was not a prince of the blood (ynin ga noMexica amo pilli), but had only been a large landowner (yece huelchane catca Mexico) and had held the office of a calpixqui, " a]veei)er of the royal stores '" under the old kings. His house was inCalpul Teopan, the southeastern quarter of the city of Mexico, calledalready at that time the barrio of San Pablo. Xochiquentzin died,however, in the year 153G. The viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza,who had arrived in Mexico the year before, at first hesitated to fill the ? Chimalpahin, pp. 209, 222, 266. 168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28post again ; but, in pursuance of his efforts to regulate the relationsbetween the natives and the Spaniards, he found it advisable again togive a chief to the Indian population of the capital. In the year 15)^8he appointed to the office Uanitzin, who, liowever, was not proclaimedking (tlahtohuani). nor could he be quauhtlahtouani, "war chief",on account of his rank ; therefore he was installed in office under theSpanish title of " gobernador ". He died as early as 1541. One ofhis sons, Don Cristoval de Guzman Cecetzin, or Cecepaticatzin, wasafterward, in 1559, the third gobernador of Mexico.Finally, regarding Oquiztli, the fourth person, set down in ourmanuscript underneath Quauhtemoc, we know from Tezozomoc'sCronica that he was installed as king at Azcapotzalco at the sametime as Uanitzin at Ecatepec. Tezozomoc also designates him as anephew of Motecuhzoma; but I have no positive information asto who his parents were. Azcapotzalco had become subject to theMexicans since 1429, when the old rulers Avere driven out and theland was divided. ? Oquiztli also seems to have taken no conspicuouspart in the fighting during the siege. He was forced, with the othernoble Mexicans, to accompany Cortes on his expedition into tlieforest regions of Chiapas and Honduras, and died there soon aftei-the execution of Quauhtemoc, in the year 1542.''So much concerning these four. Of the other persons set downin our manuscript from the ninth division upward, only the oneentered in division 16 (counting from the lower path) is bettei-known. This, as the explanatory note tells us, is Don Diego de SanFrancisco Teuetzquititzin, the son of Tezcatlpo^^ocatzin, who againwas a son of Tizocicatzin, seventh king of Mexico, and lived sub-ject to Spanish rule in Calpul Teopan, the barrio of San Pablo ofTenochtitlan. He was appointed gobernador of Mexico after Uani-tzin's death, in 1541, and died there in the year 1554.^ The nameTeuetzquiti means " the jester ", " he who makes others laugh ". Thehiei'oglyph in our manuscript seems intended to represent a kindof comic mask. Elsewhere in the Sahagun manuscript of the Acade-mia de la Historia, he is represented by an open mouth, /^ anda namesake of his, Tetlaueuetzquititzin, who belonged to the royalfamily of Tetzcoco, and was gobernador of Tetzcoco at about thesame time, is represented by an open mouth with the little tongue (/??,figure 37), indicative of speech, before it. The head, behind whichthe hieroglyph in our manuscript is i^lacecl, is drawn with the royalheadband of turquoise mosiac, as in the cases of Motecuhzoma,Quauhtemoc, Uanitzin, and Oquiztzin. Like them, Teuetzquitizinbelonged to the royal family of Mexico. " Chlmalpahin, p. 99. >> Cbimalpahin, p. 207. ?^ Cbimalpahin, pp. 241, 250 ; Sahagun manuscript, Academia de la Illstoria. seler] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 169Of the other ' persons, I will first mention the one in division 7(plate vii), counting from the lower path, besides Quauhtemoc, whomthe explanatory note calls Don Martin Cortes Nezahual tecolotzin.The name is not known to me from other sources. The head is drawnwith the hair hanging straight down, without the chieftain's hairdress and the royal lieadV)and ; but above the head is the royallieadband of turquoise mosiac. This is the well-known symbolused in the Mendoza codex for the office of tlacateccatl (see a, figure88, page 17, of the Mendoza codex). The hieroglyph behind thehead corresponds exactly to the name Nezahual tecolotl, which means Fk;. .'^.s. Symlxjls of naiiips. " fasting owl ", for the back part of the hieroglyph shows plainlythe face of an owl, and the front part a ribbon, woven of many-colored strips, with ends standing out, which is a familiar anduniversally understood symbol for nezahualli "fasting" (see theiiieroglyphs of Xezahualcoyotl, " the fasting coyote ", h and (\ samefigure, and Xezahualpilli, "the fasting prince" or "the fasting child",d and e). Those marked h and d are taken from the Codex Telleri-ano-Kemensis and c and e from the Sahagun manuscript of theAcademia de la Historia. The symbol was derived from the custom 170 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY f bull. 28 of shutting oneself up for the purpose of fasting. When seclusionwas not actually accomplished, it seems to have been indicated bya ring plaited of the stalks of the aztapilin, or aztopillin, avariety of rush of a wliitish color below and green above (see /,taken from the Borgian codex, wdiich represents the fasting personblowing the conch and carrying a water jug on his shoulder withinan inclosure plaited of green and Avhite strips). In j)arallel pas-sages of the Borgian codex and Codex Vaticauus B a man is draAvn.inclosed in a chest, waving the thorn of castigation in one hand andthe green acxoyatl l)ush in the other. In corresponding passages ofthe Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A Quetzalcoatl, thegod who was considered the inventor of castigation, a])pears armedin similar fashion in a boxlike inclosure, consisting of Iavo parts.A head follows in division (plate vii), which, like that of Motel-chiuh in division 8, wears the chieftain's hair dress (temillotl). Theexplanatory note calls this Anauacatzin, that is, '' from the land bythe water '", '' from the seacoast ""." This name is hieroglyphicallyrepresented here by a circle (island?) surrounded by water. In thelist of names of persons (Manuscrit Mexicain number 3, BibliothequeNationale), already frequently quoted, Anauacatl occurs as the nameof a citizen of Almoj^auacan and is expressed by v, that is, by astream of water which is depicted before the mouth of a person, afterthe fashion of the little tongue which signifies speech. For atl iswater and nahuatl clear, or intelligible, speech. I am unable to saywhere the Anauacatl of our manuscript belongs.In division 10 follows a head with hair hanging straight down,which is designated in the accompanying note as Xaxacjualtzin.Xaqualoua means "to rub", and this action is represented in thehieroglyph by Iavo hands using a sort of scouring brush.In the next division, 11, is another head with the chieftain's hairdress (temillotl). The explanatory note calls it Cuetlachivitzin, " wolf's feather ", and this is expressed in the hieroglyph by the headof a wolf with tufts of down. In Chimalpahin's annals a Cuetla-chiuitzin is mentioned who was installed as ruler of Tequanipan in1561, and who died in 1572, but I am unable to say whether this isthe one referred to in our manuscript. I do not think it at all prob-able, as there is nowhere in our manuscript an allusion to the regionof the Chalcas.In division 12 we have another head with hair hanging straightdown. The note calls it uitznauatl, A\hich is expressed in the hieroglyph by the thorny point of an agave leaf (uitztli, " thorn ")and the small tongue of speech in front of it (nauatl, " clear speech "). ? I have sbown in the comptes rendus of the eighth session of the Congrfes Internationaldes Aingricanistes, I'aris, ISOO, pp. 586, 5S7, tliat the word Anaiiac means tlie seacoast, an.cJthat it is absurd to speal? of the plateau of Anahuac. SELKR] MEXiCATf PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II l7lThe thorn, the sharp point of the agave leaf, is divided by an obliqueline, and one half is painted red, to indicate that it is covered withblood. These thorny points of the agave Jeaf were used in religiousself-castigations, and, as we frequently see on the last pages of theMendoza codex, also largely for purposes of punishment and edu-cational discipline. The word uitznauatl was a title, which inMexico and elsewhere was connected with a certain military or polit-ical office. We saw above that Motelchiuh bore this title. The plu-ral, uitznaua, denoted a class of evil spirits, Avhich were conqueredand destroyed by IJitzilopochtli, and uitznauac, oi- uitznauatlami)a, isthe region of the south.In division 13 we have again a head with hair hanging straightdown. The note says uaxtepecatl petlacalcatl. The first namemeans ''one from Uaxtepec " (from the place of the uaxin. Acaciaosculenta). Uaxtepec was a place in the district of Cuernavaca,therefore in a temperate region (" tierra templada "). Here Avas theJardin d'Acclimation of the kings of Mexico; that is, they trans-planted hither such trees and plants from the tierra caliente as seemedto them interesting, and came themselves for rest and recreation.The i^lace is hieroglyphically represented b}' /^ figure 38, that is,by a mountain and a tree from whose branches hang the long knobbyacacia pods (usually painted red). Petlacalcatl means " the stewardof the mat house ". This was a kind of public storehouse, wherewere kept mats and other articles of furniture which were used whenforeign royal guests came. The petlacalcatl directed the publicworks, as shown in / taken from the Mendoza codex, page 71. Herethe petlacalatl is represented on the left, with nuiny little tonguesbefore his mouth, to express the admonitions which he bestows uponthose commanded to do the work. In the middle are the basketand the tool (uictli, or coauacatl), wdth which we are alreadyacquainted, and to the right crouches the weeping youth commandedto do the work. The hieroglyph behind the man's head in division13 of our manuscript (plate vii) refers to this function of the petla-calcatl, and represents the above-mentioned implement, which wehave already met with as the hieroglyphic expression of tlacohtli.The first word in the accompanying note, " uaxtepecatl ", is not ex-pressed in the hieroglyph. I know of no person by this name.It is prol)able that " uaxtepecatl " does not stand here for the nameof a person, but denotes the district to which the official belonged.^ye often find the- governors of provinces mentioned by the adjectiveform of their district instead of by their proper name?Cuetlaxtecatl, " the governor of Cuetlaxtlan ", etc. So here, too, uaxtepecatl petla-calcatl may mean merely '' the keeper of the stores, the steward oftlie district of Uaxtepec ". 172 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Between divisions 13 and 14 in onr mannscript there is a lesserstream of water, which, as I have said, leads straight across thepage, from the path on tlie right to the water on the left. Then fol-lows above, in division 14, a head with hair hanging straight down, inthe explanatory note of which some of the letters are destroyed andmade unintelligible by a dark stain; but the hieroglyph behind thehead informs us that the note must be read Itz})otoncatzin ; that is, '? He who is stuck over with obsidian knives instead of with feathers".The hieroglyph shows us a stone knife (iztli,.'' knife '\ " obsidian ")with tufts of down sticking to it (potonqui, " stuck over with feath-ers"). Feathers fastened to the hair and naked skin were part ofthe holiday dress. Young girls adorned themselves for a festival l)y I Fig. 30. Symbols from Mexican codices.sticking red feathers to their arms and legs, and because this stick-ing on of feathers was part of the holiday dress the victim of sacrificewas similarly adorned, except that wdiite feathers were used, to showthat he was doomed to death. Those intended for the sacrificio gla-diatorio, in particular, were smeared with white infusorial earth(tizatl) and stuck over with white down (iuitl) a, figure 39. Tosend tizatl and iuitl was therefore a declaration of war. The oppo-nent was thus symbolically doomed to a sacrificial death. Hence inCodex Telleriano-Remensis the conquest of a city is invariably rep-resented by the picture of a man painted white, with dots, and cov-ered with tufts of down ( h, figure 39) , and in the Mendoza codex, page47, we see the declaration of war against an insubordinate cacique SELEK] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 173 also represented in this way, r. The emoy of the king while he deliv-ers his message is sticking feather tnfts upon the head of the caciqne,Avho sits in his chair clothed in a rich mantle. Another brings himthe shield, \A'hich was also part of the equipment of those destined forthe sacrificio gladiatorio.In the next division, 15 (plate vii), w^e have a head with hairhanging straight down, which is called Ixeuatzin in the accom-panying note. Ix-tli means " face ", " front ", " presence ", " eye ";euatl means " the skin ", and was also used especially to denote thegala doublets, made of feather w^ork which were worn by Mexicanwarriors of rank over the wadded armor, ichca-nipilli, which servedfor the actual protection of their bodies. In f/, figure 30, I have re-produced one of these military doublets of feather work which is usedin the Mendoza codex, pages 40 to 49, as a hieroglyi)h for the cityof Cozouipilecan '' where the people wear military doublets of yellowfeathers ". A true euatl, that is, the skin flayed from a man (tla-caeuatl), is Avorn by the god Xipe, " the flayed one ", the red god ofthe Yopi and Tlapaneca. The hieroglj^ph in division 15 of our manu-script (plate vii), corresponding to the meaning given here for thename, is an eye (ixtli) ; above and below it is a shirt, as shown in fZ,figure 39, but having hands hanging from it and Avith a gash straightacross the breast and a few stains below. It is evident that thisdrawing is not meant to represent a feather shirt, but a genuinehuman skin, such as Xipe wore. The opening straight across thebreast indicates the incision wdiich w-as made to tear out the victim'sheart, and the stains are for blood stains. This is still more clear inthe kindred hieroglyph in division 24 (plate vii), where the redstains?blood stains on a yellow groiuid, w^hich indicates the deathhue of a human skin?are plainly to be recognized.After division 15 comes division 16, with the head and hieroglyphof Don Diego de San Francisco Teuetzquititzin, of which I havealready spoken.In division 17 is another head having the chieftain's hair dress,temillotl. The note says coua-yvitzin, "" snake-feather ", and this isrepresented in the hieroglyph by a snake covered with tufts of down.The name Coua-iuitl is mentioned in the annals of Chimalpahin.Chimalpahin tells us there that after the surrender of the city theabove-mentioned five princes of Mexico w^ere taken captive to Coy-ouacan, and then adds: yhuan teohua Quauhcohuatl yhuan Cohuayhuitl Tecohuatzin Tetlanmecatl quintemolli (" and they sought forthe priest Quauhcoatl and for Couaiuitl Tecouatzin. Tetlanmecatr').It is not impossible that the Couaiuitl mentioned here, concerningW'hom I know no further jDarticulars, is also the one referred to inour manuscript. 174 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28In division 18 is a head with hair hanging straight down, which,according to the marginal note, bears the name Imexayacatzin.The hieroglyph is a hnman leg, upon the thigh of which is painted aface. This exactly reproduces the meaning of the name. Xayacatlmeans " the face ", and imexayacatl is literally imex-xayacatl, whichis derived, with syncopation of the final consonant of the first word,from imetzxayacatl, that is, " the face made of her thigh (metz-tli)''.The name refers to a ceremony which was performed at the broomfeast, Ochpaniztli, the feast of the goddess Teteo-innan, or Toci. Awoman was sacrificed at this feast, who, as was customary at the feastsof the Mexicans, was considered an image of the divinity in whosehonor the feast was held, and who represented this deity in dress andaction. This woman was sacrificed by decapitation, a priest hold-ing her on his l)ack, and was then immediately flayed. A priestdressed himself in the skin, and represented the goddess during theremainder of the feast. From the skin of the thigh a mask wasmade, which was called mexayacatl, or more correctly i-mex-xayacatl, " the face made of her thigh "'. It was woiii, together with a peculiarheaddress, which was called itztlacoliuhqui, '^ the sharply curved '\particularly described in the respective chapter of Sahagun (volume2, chapter 30). It was considered the symbol of coldness and hard-ness, of infatuation, of evil, and of sin. I reproduce this mask andheaddress, /, from the Sahagun manuscript of the Academia de laHistoria, where the two combined are depicted as the insignia of awarrior, under the name mexayacatl. The mask (mexayacatl) andthe headdress (itztlacoliuhqui) were put on by Cinteotl, the god ofthe maize plant, or more exactly of the ripe, hard, dry ear of corn,which was called cintli, who was the son of the old earth mother,Teteoinnan, and a battle then ensued between him and his followerson the one hand, and the priest clad in the human skin, representingthe goddess, on the other, which was undoubtedly meant to symbolizethe driving away of frost and other harmful things which threatenthe Indian corn. These harmful things were supposed to be conjuredinto the mexayacatl. Therefore at the close of the feast a chosenband of warriors carried it at a running pace somewhere across theborders into hostile country."In the next division, II), the note gives the name xipanoctzin. Thisshould really read xip-panoc-tzin, derived by assimilation from xiuh-panoc-tzin, just as xip-palli, "color turquesado", is derived from xiuh-palli. Accordingly, the name contains the elements xiuh (or, with thearticle, xiuitl); "turquoise", and panoc, "he who crosses a river"(from pano, " to cross a river "). Both elements are cleai-ly expressedin the hieroglyph. Xiuh is expressed by the hieroglyph foi- tur- ? Sahagun, v. 2, chap. 30. sELEit] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT II 175([uoise (see I. figure 34) and "crossing the river" by the boat whichis drawn below it.In division 20 (phite vii) the note is again rendered quite illegibleby the crease m the page, but I think that I can distinctly make outTepotzitotzin. The name contains the elements tepotz-tli, " hump-back \ and itoa, "" to speak ". Hence the hieroglyph shows a humanIwjdy with a curved back and beside it the little tongue, the symbol ofsjjeech.In the next division, 21, the note is somewhat illegible, owing to anattempted correction. I think I can make out yaotequacuiltzin,which might be translated '' the old priest of Yaotl, i. e., Tezcatli-poca '\ There is no hieroglyph.In division 22 the explanatory note reads aca-zayol-tzin, that is, '" reed gnat '\ The hieroglyph is the picture of the reed (acatl) and,above it, of a gnat (zayolin), painted brown.In division 23 we read Amaquemetzin, " he who wears a garmentof bark paper '\ By quemitl, " garment ", the Mexicans meant akind of covering usually made of more or less costly feathers, whichwas tied around the neck of idols and hung down in front, and wastherefore conniionly called by the Spaniardh ''' delantal ". Amatl isthe inner bark of a variety of fig, which Avas nuich used in ancientMexico, especially as a cheap adornment for idols. Amaqueme, " dressed in a garment of bark paper ", was the name of the idol onthe mountain near Amaquemecan, in the territory of the Chalca,which. Christianized and called Monte Sacro, is still held in greatveneration by the inhabitants of all the neighboring valleys, pil-grimages being made to it from great distances. The hieroglyphin division 23 shows the form of the quemitl usual in the manuscripts(see c\ figure 39, the hieroglyph of Tequemecan, and also ( , figure 35,the hieroglyph of Aztaquemecan), but it is blank and unpainted savefor a few black designs, which were probably made with drops ofhot liquid caoutchouc. Similar paper quemitl with caoutchouc-dropnuirkings played an important part in the worship of the mountaingods at least. With them were decked the little idols of the moun-tain gods, the Eecatotpntin, which were made during the Tepeilhuitl,the feast of the mountain gods (see g and /?, figure 39, the figures ofthe mountains Popocatepetl and Matlalcueye, from the Sahagunmanuscript of the Biblioteca del Palacio). I will mention, by theway, that Kingsborough's artist has erroneously colored this hiero-glyph red and yellow, though it must be and is colorless.In division 24 (plate vii) the explanator}^ note gives the name eua-tlatitzin, that is, '' he who hides the skin *\ An euatl, a doublet madeof a human skin, forms the hieroglyph, like the one in division 15.The name eua-tlati-tzin probably refers to the ceremony Avhich wasperformed at the close of Tlacaxipeualiztli, the feast of the god Xipe, 176 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28when those who for '20 days had worn the skins of the sacrificed vic-tims, out of special devotion to Xipe, carried them in solenni proces-sion to a certain phice in Xipe's temple. Tliis was called eua-tlati-lo, " the hiding- or putting away of the skins ".The twenty-fifth s(|uare is blank. In the twenty-sixth square ahead is drawn which the writing above it calls Teilpitzin, that is. " he who binds people ". The hieroglyph shows a rope tied in a knot,a sufficiently intelligible symbol.This ends the list. Few familiar names are mentioned, as we see,and these belong to about the same i3eriod. They are all the directsuccessors of Motecuhzoma, excepting the first one, Cuitlauatzin(c, figure 37), who, it is well known, died of smallpox after reigninga few Aveeks, and Avho, excepting the last tAvo gobernadores, Cece-patitzin, who succeeded Teuetzquititzin, and his. successor, Nanacaci-pactzin, were the last of the ancient royal family to exercise any kindof royal authority. It therefore seems as though our fragmenttreated of territory which was a roj^al demesne, but which after Mote-cuhzoma's death probably did not pass as a Avhole to hi^ successors,but was in part divided with others.It is my opinion that this manuscript formed a part of the col-lection brought together b}^ Boturini, and that it is described as num-ber 8, section 8, in his Museo Indiano. Boturini there gives thefolloAving description: Otro mapa en papel indiano, donde se pin-tan, al parecer y por lo que se puede clecir aliora, unas tierras sola-riegas de senores, empezando de dicho Emperador Moteuchziima, ysiguiendo a otros hasta los tiempos de la cristiandacl ("Anothermap on Indian paper, where are painted, apparently and so far ascan be said now, lands belonging to different lords, beginning withthe said Emperor Moteuchziima, and afterward to others down tothe times of Christianity").FRAGMENTS III AND IVThese (plates viii and ix) are two fragments of a larger manu-script, which belonged to the collection of the Cavaliere Boturini. Inthe inventory of the collection made after Boturini's imprisonmentit is described in the fourth list, under numl)er 20, in the followingwords: Un mapa grande, papel de maguey gordo con pinturas toscas,nuiy maltratado; trata de las cosas de la con(|uista de Cuanmana yotros lugares, de los Espanoles, con unos rios de sangre, que indicanlas batallas crueles que hubo de los Indies ("A large map on coarsealoe paper, with rude paintings, in very bad condition, treats ofevents during the conquest of Cuanmana and other places by theSpanish, with rivers of blood, which indicates the cruel battles whichthey waged with the Indians ").? Boturini himself describes it as <" Penafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicano. Text, p. 61. I BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY ^fe ULLETIN 28 PLATE 5T FRAGMENT ||| BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE VIII lEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT III SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS III, IV 177number 2, section 20, in the Catalogo del Miiseo Indiano del CavalleroBoturini, somewhat more in detail. He says there: Otro mapa muygrande de una pieza, y maltratado a los dos lados, de papel gruesoindiano. Tiene de largo algo mas de ocho varas, y de ancho dosvaras y quarta, y trata con toscas pinturas de las crueles guerras de lagentilidad entre diferentes pueljlos, cuyos nombres son Hecatepec,Huyatepec, Amoltepec, NientLah, Tzatzaqualan, Hueymctlan, Colte-pec, Antlacaltepec, Tepechalla, Xiquipilco, Achalalan, Zayntepec,Teconhuac, Totolhuitzecan, Yahueyocan, Zacatzolah, Mazapila, ydespues de haver demonstrado con unos rios de sangre, assi lo cruentode la guerra, como de los prisioneros sacrificados, apunta la llegadadel gran Cortes, y de los Padres de San Francisco en Quauhmanco,etc. ("Another map, very large, in one piece, in bad condition at bothsides, on thick Indian paper. It is some 8 ells long and 2|- ellswide, and treats in rude paintings of the cruel wars of the gentrywith various tribes, whose names are Hecatepec, Huyatepec, Amol-tepec, Nientlah, Tzatzaqualan, Hueymetlan, Coltepec, Antlacaltepec,Tepechalla, Xiquipilco, AclnMalan, Zayutepec, Teconhuac, Totol-huitzecan, Yahueyocan, Zacatzotlah, Mazapila, and after havingshown by rivers of blood both the cruel natu.re of the war and theprisoners who were sacrificed, it relates to the coming of the greatCortes and of the Franciscan fathers to Quauhmanco, etc.")"That these descriptions refer to the nuinuscript of which fragmentsIII (plate viii) and IV (plate ix) of the present collection are partsfollows from the general characterization of the manuscript and fromthe reference to the rivers of blood (rios de sangre). which are indeedvery conspicuous on our page; unfortunately, they are not as obviousin the uncolored photographic reproduction. This is clearly provedby the fact that three of the names of places mentioned by Boturiniare actually mentioned in the explanatory notes of our fragment III.The last three places mentioned by Boturini, Yahuayohca, Zacateotlah,and Mazapillah (I read the names thus), are the ones that occur onthe fragment. Our fragment nuist belong to one of the originallateral margins of the manuscript. The missing pieces, which nuistbe ver}^ considerable, since in Boturini's time the whole measured 8ells in length and 2:1 ^11^ ii^ width, are extant elsewhere, whether intactor not I can not say. The Museo Nacional de Mexico possesses largeportions of them. I saw copies of them last year iu the Mexican de-partment of the American historical exhibition at Madrid, and otherparts?as it seems, very important ones, taken from Avhat was origi-nally the middle?I saw years ago in the Biblioteca Nacional inMexico.Boturini states that there had been in his possession a second, similarIdea de una, nueva liistoria general de la America septentrional. App., pp. 38, .30.7238?No. 28?05 12 178 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 manuscript, on which, among- others, were the phice names Tonalxo-chithm, Quanhtepan, Ynenechcoyan, Tepeyahualco, Ohocotlan, Tlilal-l^an, and Ameyalato on the one side; and on the other, Huixocotepec,Huecoyotzi, Coyocan, Quetzalcohuapan, Tlacotlan,Atlan, Quimichocan, Chipetzinco, Quanapa, Tepeyahualco,Yxthihuaca, Ocotzoquafihthi. This and the first manuscript werefound together?enterrados en una caxa baxo his ruinas de hi antiguaermita de la jurisdiccion de Huamantla, Provincia de Tlaxcallan, y dealii los hice sacar ('* buried in a box beneath the ruins of the ancientmonastery in the district of Huamantla, province of Tlaxcallan, andfrom there I had them taken'')?and he adds: "Y solo se p'ledeninterpretar en un todo, en occasion que se consulten los manuscritosde la Historia general ("and they, can only be interpreted as awhole, Avhenever the manuscripts of the general history are con-sulted").This information is very important, because the region from whichfragments III and IV of our collection came is thus definitely fixed.The place called " Quauhmanco " in Boturini's description of the leafand " Cuanmana " in the inventory is undoubtedly Huamantla, situ-ated in the province of Tlaxcallan, at the northeast base of the Cerrode la Malinche (the mountain called in ancient times after the goddessMatlalcueye), in the neighborhood of which Boturini found the tworemarkable manuscripts. Huamantla doubtless stands for Qua-mantla, which, in turn, is derived by contraction from Quauh-man-tlan. In fact, there are still extant in that region many of the nameswhich Boturini mentions as occurring on these two charts. I can not,it is true, accurately define the jjosition of the three several placesAvhose names occur on fragment III (plate viii), but it is beyonda doubt that they Avere in the same region.As for the representations on these pages, the portions belongingoriginally to the middle must be distinguished from those belongingto the borders. The principal part of the left side of fragment III(plate viii) belongs to the part which was originally the middle.Here we see, first, surrounded by flying spears and fighting warriors,a curious design in which a stream of Avater, painted blue, with draw-ings of currents and whirlpools and with the usual snail shells on thebranches, is intertwined with a band winding in a similar mannerand frayed at the ends, composed of alternate sections of gray withdark figures and yellow with red figures. The alternate dark sectionsand light yellow sections with red figures denote fire, and the entiresymbol is nothing more than the pictorial hieroglyphic expression forthe well-known phrase atl tlachinolli, or teoatl tlachinolli, which mayl)e understood as meaning literally " water and fire ", although itsoriginal meaning was probably something else, and which is generallyused in the sense of " war ". The same symbol, someAvhat diifereutly SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS III, IV 179drawn (see ?, figure 40), may be seen in the headdress of the godCamaxtli, the war god of the Tlaxcaltecs, who is opposite the firegod, the ruler of the ninth week, which begins with ce Coatl, onpage of the Tonalamatl in the Aubin-Goupil collection. I haveshown that the tonalamatl occurs in the most diverse Mexican picturewritings with the same regents and essentially the same symbols orsymbols derived from the same idea." If we take the Borgian codex,for instance, we find here, too, the fire god depicted as the ruler of theninth week, ce Coatl. But opposite him we have not the effigy ofCamaxtli, the war god of Tlaxcala, but a design (5, figure 40) inwhich we clearly recognize, besides a scorpion and flying arrows, the 7777=. Fig. 40. Symbols and ligiuvs from the Moxiivin codices. stream of water and the ascending smoke of fire. In another parallelpassage in the same manuscript there is again drawn opposite the firegod, instead of the war god, merely a scorpion, a stream of water, anda burning house, c^ teoatl tlachinolli, the symbol of war.The bodies of the warriors on our fragment (plate viii) , to the rightof the teoatl tlachinolli, the symbol of war, are painted brown andthe faces yellow, like the other figures on this fragment. ISIoreover,all the warriors have a characteristic red face painting, which con-sists of one vertical stripe and two horizontal stripes. This paintingundoubtedly has some special ethnic significance. At least it differs " tJber den Codex Borgia und die verwandten aztekischen Bilderschriften. 180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28from the painting customary among the Mexican warriors, who, aswe learn from Sahagun, app. o, chapter 5, and as we see representedthroughout the INIendoza codex, coh)red the whole body black exceptthe face, and this they painted with a few black stripes, on which theysprinkled powdered iron pyrites?niman michio, mitoaya motliltzo-tia, hapetztli ic conpotonia ininechival, '' Y en la cara se ponian cier-tas rayas con tinta y margagita "." On the other hand, I find facepainting like that of the warriors of our fragment III (plate viii) onthe head set upon a mountain, Avhich is given in the Mendoza codexas the hieroglyph of the city of Otompan, '' in the district of the Oto-mis ", d (figure 40). as well as in a di-awing, r, which, in the list ofnames of persons of TTexotzinco (Manuscrit Mexicain number 3, l^ib-liotheque Nationale), denotes a man named Chichimeca. We knowthat the name Chichimeca was borne as an honorary title by the rulersof Tetzcoco and, especially, by the Tlaxcaltecs. Red and yellowpainting is mentioned as occurring among the Mexicans, but it wasnot a mark of distinction regularl}' conferred by official consent, as Iwould emphasize in controversion of some recent statements, but asymbolic ceremon}^ performed but once, by which it was publiclymade known that a warrior had taken a prisoner alone, without helpfrom others. This painting, which consisted in coloring the bodyand temples yellow and the face red, was applied to the fortunatewarrior in the presence of the king by the calpixcjue, the governorsof the provinces, and the conunanders of divisions of troops stationedat a distance, the recipient being afterward rewarded by the king.It is exactly the same decoration as the one worn by tliose who sacri-ficed a prisoner by fire at the feast Xocotl-uetzi in honor of the firegod. I have spoken elsewhere of the meaning of this manner ofpainting the face, which is really that of the goddess Ciuacouatl, orQuilaztli (see Ausland, 1801, page 805 ).Beside atl tlachinolli, th(> symbol of war, we lune six warrior fig-ures and the lower half of a seventh in our fragment III (plate viii).Five of them wear the warrior's hair dress (temillotl) (see 1 and lu^figure 37, and the heads in divisions 3, 9, 11. and IT, counting from thelower path, on fragment II (})late vii) of this collection). All theseare armed with the shield (chimalli) and the club (maquauitl), whichhas an edge of obsidian splinters on both sides.'^ So, too, the threewarriors drawn on the right side of the fragment have the temillotland are armed with shield and maquauitl. Only one warrior in theleft-hand row, the fifth fi-oni below, has the other style of hair dress,which I described above as tzotzocolli, and which is illustrated by o, ? Zeitschrift fiir Etlinolosie, 1887, v. 21, p. 17.") and folIov\in;i. "das ToualamatI derAubinschen Sammluns' " Compte rendu, seventh session, ("onj;;res Uiternational desAmericanistes, Berlin. 1888, pp. .521-.52.S."See also the pictures of Mexican warriors" ornaments, m, p, and q, fig. 37. RELEU] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS?FRAGMENTS III, IV 181. />, q. figuiv ?)7. This warrior is not armed with shield and club, butwith arrow (niitl), how (tlanitolli), and quiver (mi-comitl). Theditl'erent mode of weariiiij; tlie hair may be due merely to difference ofrank, for the hair (h-ess (temillotl), was the distinguishing mark ofthe tequiua, the great war chieftains. Still I think that there is alsoan ethnic difference apparent here. The maquauitl was the nationalweapon of the Mexican tribes, that is, of the inhabitants of the valleyof Mexico and those who spoke their language. Besides this the spear(tlacochtli, tlatzontectli). thrown with the spear thrower (atlatl), wasalso used as an eff'ective weapon. On the other hand, bow, arrow, andquiver were the weapons of the mountain tribes, the Chichimecs.The name Chichimecatl is reproduced in the Boturini codex andelsewdiere simply l)y the picture of a bow and arrow (/ and ad of the sec-ond I think I see the di-aAving of a l)()ne, and over tlie tliii'd (hat of a 186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY fnuLL. 2Sthorn. These people were therefore probably called Omitl and Uitz.The angular figure over the head of the fourth person, which seemslikewise to be a name hieroglyph, I can not explain.Footprints are drawn on both fragments, running between thevarious representations, denoting a road or a journey in each respec-tive direction. On fragment III (plate viii) the lower row of foot-prints leads from above on the left to below on the right; the upperrow from below on the right to above on the left. On fragment IV(plate ix) there is a similar indication of paths leading in two direc-tions. If we hold the fragment as the figures stand, the footprintson the left lead downward from above?in this row there is but one Fig. 42. Figures from Mexican manuscript, fragment IV.footprint?but on the right they lead upAAard from below. Thetracks themselves, rudely sketched, are verj^ different from the usualdelicate drawing Avhicli we saw, for instance, in the paths on frag-ment II (plate VII ). But this very fact showed me at a glance thata fragment preserved years ago in the Biblioteca Nacional at Mexico,from which I made a little drawing at the time, must have belongedto the same large manuscript. Here, in a bow-shaped green inclosure,are to be seen the four persons whom I reproduce in figure 42 fromthe drawing just mentioned. Above, on the right, is a man investedin the insignia of a priest, meca-cozcatl and ie-tecomatl (see pages146 to 148), wearing the face painting of the fire god, the god who MEXrCAlSr PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT V 187was considered the old and original god, and holding in his hand anosegay and a spear. Oj^jDosite him is a goddess with an erect, horn-like tuft of feathers on her head, therefore probably Xochiquetzal.Below, on the right, is an attendant god or priest with a banner inhis hand. Below, on the left, is another, who is procuring fire byfriction. Beside the latter the date chiciiey ytzcuintli is written,which must be meant to represent the name of this person. Besidethe banner-bearer is the word Xochitonal (?). Beside the chieffigure above, on the right, is another explanatory note, which I prob- ?tbly copied incorrectly, for I can not interpret it; but it begins with? Fig. 43. O 2^.Mexican name glyphs. ;1P the word nicali, the same Avord in the same dialect form with whichthe notes begin on fragment III (plate viii) of our collection.It is greatly to be desired that the present very able and energeticdirector of the IMuseo Xacional of Mexico may speedily publish alsothe fragments of this gi-eat manuscript, now in the possession ofthe museum, for in spite of its coarse and clumsy drawings themanuscript is very interesting.FRAGMENT VNext we have a piece of agave paper 42 cm. long and loi cm. wide,divided into ten divisions by cross lines (plate x). The writer seemsto have begun in the old way (see fragment I, plates ii to vi of this 188 BUREAU OF AMERfCAN ETHNOLOGY | iuli.. lis collection), at the bottom, and to have proceeded upward, for thereappears to have been nothing above the topmost line. It is to benoted that the drawings are made in a different ink, blaclver and more])ermanent, than that in which the names were entered.Abont the middle of the fragment, in the sixth division from below,we have the hieroglyph of a place. I think the explanatory noteshonld be read tezontepec. The hieroglyph is in the familiai^dorm ofa mountain (tepe-tl) bearing a tree. But the mountain is heredivided, as it w^ere, into a series of cliffs and prominences, which arepainted a light bluish green in the middle and reddish at the edges,and its surface is diagonally crossed by a band contrasting sharplywith the rest of the coloring. The light diagonal band is prob-ably intended to recall the familiar hieroglyph of the stone (tetl)(see 71, figure ^^7, and a. figui'e 4o, the hieroglyph of Tepoxauac,"where the stones are loose''). The alternately lighter and darkerportions in this hieroglyph reproduce the various veinings of 'Vu hJ ^^.?^U' SELEU] MEXICAN nCTUEE WEITINGS FRAGMENT V 189man and wife in every household were given, with their names andthe number of their chikh'en. This is confirmed by the fact that inthe two topmost divisions, where onl}- a woman and a number of reddots are entered, after the woman's name is the remark " yc ", whichis the abbreviation for ycnociuatl, *' Avidow ".In the h)west division, over the man's head is written the namelolenzo te s. fo, that is, Lorenzo de San Francisco?for in the Mexicanhinguage there is no r nor d?and behind it is a hieroglyph whichis partially destroyed and somewhat hidden by a fold in the paper,but is still clearly to be recognized as the drawing of a gridiron(see c, figui'e 4;]), the hieroglyph for the name I^aurentius. Thewoman opposite him is named Ana, and the number of red dots iseight.In the second division (plate x) from below the name Antonio iswritten above the man's head. Behind it was a hieroglyph, butunfortunately it is now wholly obliterated. The woman oppositehim is called Catharina, and the number of red dots is eight.In the third division from below the head, the name, and thehieroglyph of the man have been entirely destroyed by the frayingand tearing of the paper. The woman's name is Ana, and the num-ber of red dots is eight.In the fourth division the name over the man's head has also beendestroyed, and the hieroglyph was hidden by a fold in the paper.T reproduce in d, figure 43, as much of it as I could see. The numberof red dots is eight.In the fifth division (plate x) from below I think I can read, abovethe num's head, matheo te s. sepastian. Tlie hieroglyph Is an armpainted 3'ellowish bi'own, and in the hand is a round object paintedlight blueish green. I thinJi: that this is meant for the liieroglyphdesignating matheo, for ma-itl is the Mexican for '' the arm ", " thehand ". The name of the woman opposite is not clear to me. Thenumber of I'cddish dots is six.In the sixth division, as I have already stated, are the luime andliieroglj'ph of the village Tezontepec.In the seventh division, above the man's head, only clemente canstill be read. I can not interpret the hieroglyph. The woman's nameis missing. Six (or eight) red dots are given.In the eighth division, from below, in the note over the man's head,I can recognize distinctly only the second word. It is osola. Thehieroglyph behind it seems to be intended for a bird's head with atall ci'est of feathers. This may refer to the name; for col-in meansthe quail. Over the woman's head is a very nnich faded explanatorynote, of which I can make out nothing but ana d IXqx tz. Thenumber of red dots is four.Before each of the windows in the two uppermost divisions there 190 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. liS lire five red dots. The lower one is named Jiiana, the upper oneMaria. Behind tlie upj^er one is a design wliich loolvs like the mono-gram M A when cut in wood, and probably stands for the name Maria.ElseAvhere?for instance, in the Duke of Osuna's Pintura?thename Maria is represented by a crown; for Maria is the queen ofheaven. Behind Juana's head is a hieroglyi)h which represents aneye in an angle pointing upward, and below it three drops ofwater. This may be the hieroglyph for icno, '' orphaned "', " wid-owed '\ In the lists of names of persons in the Manuscrit Mexicainnumber 3 of the Bibliotheque Nationale this idea is always expressedby tears (see e^ Icnotlacatl; /, icno-ix).This document, too, in my opinion, belonged to the Boturini col-lection. In the catalogue of Boturini's Museo Indiano, under num-ber 10, section 21, are mentioned siete pedazos de mapas en papelIndiano, de los pueblos Tezarco, Tlacoapan, Coj^otepec y Tezontepec("" seven pieces of maps on Indian paper, of the villages of Tezarco,Tlacoapan, Coyotepec, and Tezontepec"). One of these seven frag-ments, therefore, was designated by the name of a village, wdiosename and hieroglyph were found on our fragment V (plate x).Since the majority of the fragments of our collection l)elonged, as weshall see, to the Boturini collection, it is probable that this is not anaccidental coincidence. FRAGMENT VIThis is a piece of agave paper of the size of a quarto sheet (dimen-sions of fragment, 20 by 21 cm.), and is covered on one side with fig-ures and drawings (plate xi). This is the document reproducedand described by A. von Humboldt in his Vues des Cordilleres etMonuments des Peuples indigenes de PAmerique, under the title " Piece de proces en ecriture hieroglyphique (legal document in hiero-glyphic writing).''In the middle of the fragment is a ground plan of buildings. Tothe left of it are written the words ciudad de Tezcuco (" city ofTezcuco "). It is therefore clear that this is the ground plan of thecapital of that name situated opposite Mexico on the other shore ofthe lake. In the middle of the right side a path leads into, or,l)erhaps more correctly, from the heart of the city, as theposition of the footprints shows. At i-ight angles to the firstpath and parallel to the right side, near the edge, there is a pathwhich, as it seems, separates two smaller quarters from the mainbody of the town. In the center of the main part there is alarge group of buildings, \\'hich is doubtless meant to representthe palace. Most conspicuous is a square room, which is enteredby a door on the right. Door posts and rafters, which wereusually of wood, are designated by their red color. Rows of 4 i^^^^ ?^ '>? C^ '-'"^ ' fr^^ ^-^ ? QoCQDI IOzI-z0 [492] and 31 [493]).Reals, or tomines, were designated by a blue circle, containing asmany small circles as there were reals to be represented. Usuallynot more than four small circles were inscribed within one circle, thatis, 4 reals, equal to half a peso. Only, when the pesos were notspecially mentioned, but, as often happened, and in sj^ite of the newdollar and centavo sj^stem still often happens, the sum was reckonedin reals, then Ave find within the blue circle as many as eight small cir-cles (see /). The medio, on the contrary, was designated by a realcut in halves (see d). Thus e (Osuna codex) is explained in thetext as 1 peso ypan G tomines, 1 peso and (> reals; and d^ taken fromthe same manuscript, as ompohualli pesos ypan 7 tomines ypaumedio, that is, twice 20 pesos, 7 reals, and 1 medio.In our fragment VII (plate xii) the price of the turkey (quaxolotbguajolote) in the top row has the highest number of figures; for it ismarked 2 reals. All the rest are marked 1 real. For this reason thelarge circles seem to be used here very often alone, Avithout tiie smallinner circles. According to the prices noted here, 2 bundles or loadsof zacate, 20 tortillas, and 8 fishes were sold, respectively, for 1 real.The fishes can not, therefore, have been of any great size.Since, therefore, we find days set down on our fragment VII, andwithin the days provisions and fodder with their prices, it is clear thatthis fragment must be a bill. This is proved by the w^riting which I SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT VII 199had the pleasure of discovering on the reverse of the paper afterhaving separated the leaf from its backing. These words are writtenthere : Resebi yo micuel mayordomo de la comunidad deste pueblo demisquiaguala del sehor manuel de olvera dos pesos q. monto en comidadesta pintura en quatro de fevrero de mill y q\ y setenta y un aiios.MiGTTEii DE Sang Ju".ante miJuan de p .(" I, Miguel, major-domo of the community of this village of Miz-quiyauallan, received from Senor Manuel de Olvera 2 pesos, the priceof the provisions, which are here depicted, on February 4, 1571.Miguel de S. Juan.Before me,Juan de p .")(I can not wholly decipher this signature.)The village of Mizqiiiyauallan lies in the district of Actopan ofthe state of Hidalgo. The name means " where the mesquite trees(algaroba, Prosopis juliflora) stand in a circle ". It is therefore rep-resented hieroglyphically by a mesquite tree bent in the shape of thebow (see ^, figure 41), but occasionally merely by a mesquite tree,or a mountain with a mescjuite tree upon it, h. The place was inthe Otomi territory and was early subject to the Mexican kings.On the tribute list it is in the group Axocopan between the townsof Tezcatepec and Itzmiquilpan. In the Pintura del Gobernador,Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico (Osuna codex), it is mentioned withtliese and other places in the same region, but Mizquiyauallan wassubject to double authority, for it was a domain of the crown and hadan encomendro besides (see A, taken from the manuscript justnamed, where this double relation is expressed b}^ the crown overthe hieroglyph and the head of a Spaniard beside it). The major-domo who signed the receipt quoted above was no doubt responsibleto the crown.As for the persons themselves, I can not decipher the name of theofficial in whose presence the act was executed. In a and ^, figure 47,I have reproduced the signatures of the witness and the receiptingmajor-domo from tracings which I made. We shall later meet againwith the Manuel de Olvera mentioned in the text. The major-domowas undoubtedly an Indian. Family names like this, borrowed froma saint (or a diocese?), are often encountered in the lists of names ofpersons.I would draAv attention to the fact that the sum of 2 pesos,mentioned in the receipt, is the actual amount obtained if we add the 200 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2,S reals marked on fragment VII (plate xii). In the lowest row thereare 5, in the second 3, in the third 5, and in the fourth again 3 ; in all,16 reals or 2 pesos.I shall show later that another page of our collection, fragmentVIII (plate XIII ) can be proved to have come from the same village.This latter fragment, as I shall show later on, is most closely relatedto one of the manuscripts which passed from the collection of theHon Joel R. Poinsett, former minister to Mexico from the UnitedStates, into the possession of the American Philosophical Society inPhiladelphia, and w^as published in the Transactions of that society(new series, volume 12, 1892, article 4). It is interesting to note thatour fragment VII (plate xii) sliould also find its exact parallel in apiece in that collection. The latter is designated by the editors asTribute Roll (Calendar 2). Here, too, the page is divided by hori-zontal lines into a series of consecutive divisions. On the right is aday, invariably designated by a disk, Sunday by a red disk with athree-armed verticillate design (/, figure 44). Then follow variousarticles of food, with their prices; but the bill of fare is somewhatenlarged. Besides turkey, painted red (A;, same figure), fish (I), alittle basket of tortillas (n). and bundles of zacate (s), we have in pstill another cheap article of food, of which eighty are marked at1 real, but to which I can not at present give a name; in q weapparently haveliaskets of tamales (a kind of dumpling with a filling,which was steamed in a wa'apper of corn husks), eight of which weresold for 3 reals; in 7n, some articles of food painted red, possiblychile con carne, four of which cost 1 real ; in r, a fanega of Indiancorn for 3 reals (see p and q, figure 40) ; and in o. an article of dietwith wdiicli I am unacquainted, which was sold for 2 reals. Finally,in two squares there are figures of Spaniards {t, figure 44). It seemshighly probable that this page belongs to the same date and sameregion as our fragment VII (plate xii). It is very probable that ourfragment VII (plate xii) likewise once belonged to the Boturinicollection. The catalogue of Boturini 's Museo Indiano mentionsunder number 1, section 21 : Tres mapas en papel Indiano como faxas.Tratan de los tributos que pagaba el pueblo de Mizquiahuallan, y enel se ven las cifras numericas de cada cosa que entregalian los vecinos(" Three maps on Indian paj^er like strips of ribbon. They treat ofthe tribute paid by the village of Mizquiahuallan, and in them are thenumerical figures of everything which householders furnished ").FRAGMENT VIIIThis is a strip of agave paper, 33 cm. long, 22 cm. wide, muchinjured at the edges ancl in the middle by folding, and imperfect at theupper left corner (plate xiii). On the upper side of the fragment BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Ig ? M IB J m^ Mk W^^! yti ^rvi0 vlliiij ^''P LlJfc^^ _,iii jiiTuiJL' 1 ffljf ?-ij? Vy, lii ^'^ MEXICAN PAINTING-Hl BULLETIN 28 PLATE XIII V .i5 13 mML: I'f ?U&-s'f" 1/ r "^ii^-flnum. jiiLii.* ^t*^ !1 )LDT FRAGMENT VIII ^^ AUCOirAN ETHNOLOGYBUREAU OF MERIC t. BULLETIN 28 PLATE XIII I fnFtiiii??s^)-' -rnraTBr: #/^?,-. ^r ^.jikfir ji fl,;/l .3 ./ MiSUulL! .1i'?irpiiiiiZ nj-oniT "" W I" 1 j: ut; J.. 'r^.t^ * '^ i .H .? ttii _^^ ^ ^' *-;r^^^^*l3r lEXlCAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT VIII '-^>' ?I SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT VIII 201thore are drawings, done with a fine pen, most of which are touchednp with coh)i-s. On the left side are heads of men. Behind each is ahieroglyph, which gives the name of the man in question, and in frontof each is the wooden implement used for field work, known as uictli,or couaiuicatl (see t and y/, figure 37). These persons are thus marlcedas husbandmen. Before each person is a row of fields with quad-rangular boundaries, on the sides of which are numbers similar tothose which we encountered on fragment VI (plate xi). The num-bers on the opposite sides of the fields, as far as can be determined,are alike, except in some minute particulars. This shows that thesewere meant for pieces of arable land with quadrangidar boundaries.There are hieroglyphs on the upper boundary and on the surface ofthe fields which are repeated in the different rows. In some of thefields, in the lower right-hand corner, there is also a representa-tion of grass (zacatl), painted yellow (see ?, figure 36), and on thelast field of the first row, in the upper right-hand corner, is the pictureof a house (calli), and also in the first and second field in the thirdrow. Finally, the name of the respective jDerson is written with acoarse pen beside each head. From the character of the drawing andthe structure of the hieroglyphs this fragment (plate xiii) resemblesmost closely the so-called Vergara codex. That is a manuscriptmentioned by Boturini in his Museo Indiano, now in the Aubin-Goupil collection, consisting (originally) of 56 pages, which givesthe statistics of the villages of Calcantlaxiuhcan, Topotitlan, Patla-chiuhcan, Teocaltitlan, and Texcalticpac. The heads of families andtheir descendants are set down first, then lists of the persons in eachvillage (tlacatlacuilolli) ,the huids claimed by individuals (milcocolli) , and of what was allotted to individuals at the time of the adjustment(tlauelmantli). On the first (originally the second) page the remark " 1539, marques del valle virey " has been added evidently later, byanother hand. But this note has probably as little value as thoseadded on pages 21 and 22, where a certain Don Augustin de Rosasasserts his claim to the estates of Tzilaquauhtepoztlanallan. At theend stands the name Pedro Vasquez de Vergara, possibly the name ofsome one who had the manuscript in his possession. The manuscrii)thas usually been cited under his name since Aubin's time.On those pages of that manuscript which treat of the distributionof lands the heads of jDcrsons, with their names and hieroglyphs, aredepicted in exactly the same way as on our fragment VIII (plateXIII ) , and beside them, in rows, are the fields, those claimed by themor those which were assigned to them (Goupil-Boban atlas. ])late 39.See a, &,and c, figure 45, which are taken therefrom). In the Vergaracodex the numbers which give the dimensions are placed on only oneof the long, vertical, and on one of the short, horizontal, sides of thefields, and there are hieroglA'phs only in the middle of the fields, but 202 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 28 not, as on our fragment VIII (plate xrii), on the upper boundary aswell.There is still another document on the left side of which persons aredepicted and, opposite them, the fields belonging to them, in the sameway as in our fragment. This is page 34 of the Goupil-Boban atlas.Here, too, as in the Vergara codex, the dimensional figures are on onh^two sides of the square. But, as in our fragment (plate xiii), hiero-glyphs are drawn on the upper Ijoundary of the fields, or beside it,and there are additional designations which make it evident that thesehieroglyphs represent the name of the field or piece of arable land. ?2> ? "rnr>iiii u l^- ^ ^mf ?? t(t\ IfT I llll ts\ E3 Fkj. 4r>. Mexican glyphs denotiha; various olileots.Moreover, the word chinamitl, '' inclosed field ", or milli, "" arableland ", is often quite superfluously written beside them (see d, e, /,figure 45).Comparison with these manuscripts, I think, leaves no room fordoubt as to the general meaning of our fragment VIII (plate xiii). Iwill now resume the discussion of its separate features.The dimensional numbers, which are written on four sides of thefields, are, as I have already said, the same on the two opposite sides.Their construction and characteristic features are exactly the cameas those which we have already seen in the plan of the city of Tez-cuco on fragment VI (plate xi) of our collection. There, as here, SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT VIII 203twenties are denoted by black dots, ones by lines ; groups of five onesare connected by a line; and where there are more than five twentiesthe first five are also connected by a line to form the number 100. Wehave the same system of notation in the Vergara codex, a to e, and onpage 34 of the Goupil-Boban atlas, d to /, except that here the twen-ties are usually denoted by a black dot and a little flag, the four hun-dreds by a black dot and a sign resembling a pinnated leaf, which isthe symbol for tzontli, " four hundred " (literally, '' hair "). But onthis page, too, twenties are denoted simply by black dots, (j and h. ( )nfragment VI of our collection the souls were counted. Therefore wesaw, preceding the numbers, the picture of a heart (yoUotli), expres-sive of the conception "" life " (yol) or " soul ". On fragment VTII(plate XIII ) we should expect to find, preceding the figures, the pictureof some unit of measure. And this is actually the case. We find, pre-ceding the numbers, the picture of a hand. This is in the first, sec-ond, and fifth fields of the third row. But in other fields, precedingthe numbers, we find a picture resembling an arrowhead. Thisoccurs in the fourth field of the upper i-ow (the front of which isincomplete), in the last field in the second row, in the fifth field inthe third row^, and in the first and second fields of the fourth row. Ihave interpreted this picture, from its appearance, to be an arroAV-head. That it is actually intended for one is, in my opinion, fullyproved by the fact that in the first field of the fourth row the arrow-head, which we see on the upper side, is replaced on the lower side bythe hieroglyph tecpatl, '' flint ", that is, by the material from whicharrowheads were made.We also find the hand as a unit of length on page 3i of the Goupil-Boban atlas, where the dimensions of the estate or village of Tzom-pantitlan are given (see <7, figure 45)." The hand as a unit of measureis readily understood. For ma-itl means not only the hand, but alsothe arm, the forearm, including the hand. The use of the hand, there-fore, might denote either an arm's length or an ell. In fact, Molina'svocabulary gives cem-matl (literally defines, " an arm ")by" una braca])ara medir ", that is, an ell. I have not found the arrow elsewhere asa unit of length. But that it was actually used as such is again provedby Molina's vocabulary, where we find cem-mitl, " an arrow ", trans-lated by "' medida desde el un codo hasta la otra mano ", that is, themeasure from one elbow to the tip of the other hand, a somewhatlonger measure, therefore, than the former, equal to about 2 ells.I think it possible, however, that the tw^o symbols, the hand and thearrow, both refer to one and the same customary unit employed tomeasure distance. " Let me draw attention, in passing, to the interesting form whicli this lilerolglyph hasliere. The element tzompan is usually expressed by the wooden framework tzorapantll,upon which the heads of the sacrificed victims were exhibited. But here it is expressedby the tree tzompanquauitl (Erythrina corallodendron). 204 BUREAU OF AMERICA?^ ETHNOLOGY [nnLL. 28As for the hieroglyphs, tliose on the upper side of tlie fiehlsundoubtedly stand for the names of the boundaries of the land.They are repeated in the separate rows of fields belonging to oneowner, because they do not denote the individual field, but the domainwithin which it lies. In exactly the same way, on page 34 of the(Joupil-Boban atlas, the same names of domains recur above andbeside the fields which are set down in rows after the various owners.In our fragment eight different domains seem to be given.The first one is the same in ajl the rows (plate xiii) and is desig-nated by the picture of a house above the field. The house in thefourth row is drawn with a high, pointed, straw roof (painted yel-low), that is, like the xacalli, which we saw in fragment II (plateVII ). The others are apparently meant to represent the adobe houseswith flat roofs of beams, known as tlapechcalli (see i, figure 45, takenfrom page M of the Goupil-Bol^an atlas). The layer of beams form-ing the roof is marked here by red paint, like doorposts and the framesof doors, which were always made of wood " and were therefore alwaysj)ainted red or brown.The second field in the third row (which is the most perfect) hasa hieroglyph at the top which represents the head of a coyote betweentwo streams of water. This domain mav, therefore, have been calledCoyoapan. The name of this domain is set down over the last fieldin the first row.The third field in the third row has no hieroglyph at the top.Perhaps the same one should be here which is over the fourth fieldin the second I'ow and over the second field in tlie fourth row, andalso over the third field in the row to the right of the fragment (platexiii). It consists of a flag and two rows of teeth. The name of thedomain may have been Pantlan or Pancamac. Over the second fieldin the fourth i-ow there is a stream of water in addition to the flag.The hieroglyph over the fourth field in the third row is somewhateffaced; but I think that it is meant for the same hieroglyph thatis over the fourth field in the first row, and over the third field in thesecond roAv, which consists of the picture of a hand and a stream ofwater. The same hieroglyph probably occurred also over the thirdfield in the fourth row. In its ])lace there is a hole in the page, andthe edge of the paper is somewhat turned down; but the stream ofwater belonging to this fourth hieroglyph is still plainly discernibleunder the turned-down edge.The fifth field in the third row has above it a hieroglyph, whichoccurs nowhere else in what is preserved of the other rows. It con-sists of a fruit tree, a small flag, and a stream of water.The hieroglyph over the sixth field in the third row consists of thesvmbol zaca-tl, ''grass" (painted yellow), and a stream of water. " See J. Bautista Pomar, Relacion de Tetzcoeo, manuscript. SELBR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINC4S FRAGMENT VIII 205 It is evidently the same hieroii:lypli as that over the fourth field inthe fourth row, which, in addition to the grass and water, has also aset of teeth (tlan-tli, " tooth ") and a small flag (pan-tli).The seventh hieroglyph occurs in all four rows. It is over thesixth field in the first, the fifth field in the second, the seventh field inthe third, and the sixth field in the fourth row. It consists of agreen bush and a stream of water.The eighth hieroglyph likewise occurs in all of the four rows: inthe seventh field of the first, the sixth field of the second, the eighthof the third, and the fifth field of the fourth row. It is the pictureof a bird.Another separate domain may possibly be designated over the sec-ond field of the row on the unfinished right side. A small flag isrecognizable. AVhatever else may have been there is now obliterated.AVe see, then, that the hieroglyphs over the fields, which, it seems tol-erably certain, represent the names of the domains, exhibit a consid-erable A'ariety. We have been able to count eight or nine of them.Of the hierogl3q3hs on the surface of the fields, only three kinds canbe distinguished, which, as will appear immediately, must have beenintended to express various qmilities of soil.The first presents the hieroglyph te-tl, '' stone ", and a series of finedots proceeding from it, undoubtedly indicating sand (xalli). (See/i, figure 45, xalpan milli, that is, the arable field, xalpan, ''in thesand "; Goupil-Boban atlas, page 34.) This hieroglyph, then, woulddenote stony, sandy soil, Avhich the Mexicans called tetlalli xallalli.The second hieroglyph which A^'e see, for instance, in the secondfield of the third row, shows the picture of a maize plant (toctli).with the tassel (painted yellow) at the top and the ear (painted red)having long drooping bunches of silk lower down at the left of thestalk. Beside it, on the right, is a stream of water (a-tl) and below ita row of teeth (tlan-tli). These three elements together give theword atT riMlM ?- SKLKKl MEXICAN PICTITRE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS IX-XII 209 conipositioii of tlu> hieroglyphs, which approxiniatcs sylhibic and pho-netic writing. All the manuscripts of this kind seem to have origin-ated within the boundaries of the ancient kingdoni of Tezcuco, and itseems that this local element, rather than the time of their origin,ought to be taken into account in explaining these peculiar features,for the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico(Osuna codex), Avhich is later than our fragment VI (plate xi),counts with dots instead of marks. We know that Tezcuco wasanciently regarded as the seat of refined culture and of a certain kindof scholarship; but Tezcuco was also the first to adapt its native ele-ments, in a certain measure, to the customs and civilization of theforeign conqueror. As long, therefore, as the same peculiar featuresoccur in the manuscripts quoted (Vergara codex and others) ingenuine old pre-Spanish documents I shall still incline to attributethis development to the Spanish period. For this reason I can notconsider these docu/nents of the great importance which Aubin andothei's attach to them.FKACtMENTS IX, X, XI, AND XIIThese four fragnients are alike in character. Fragments IX (plateXIV ) and X (plate xv) evidently were once a single strip, as w^ere alsofragments XI (plate xvi) and XII (plate xvii). Fragments X(plate xv) and XII (plate xvii) have a line across the top, cut with asharp instrument; in XII (plate xvii) the cut follows a line drawnacross the fragment, parts of which are to be seen at the bottom offragment XI (plate xvi). The strips are all of the same width,about 17 cm. Fragments X and XI (plates xv and xvi) together are!)S cm. in length, which is therefore the length of the whole striporiginally. Fragments XI (plate xvi) and XII (plate xvii) togetherare 14G^ cm., the original length of the second strip. The first stripAvas once longer above. There are still faint traces of drawingsthere. The second strip seems to have been cut olf sharply at thebottom ; moreover, one corner has been cut out with the scissors. Itwould seem, then, that this strip was also longer. I'he drawings aredone in ink with a coarse pen, and decidedl}^ resemble the illustrationson fragment XV (plate xx), and also somewhat those of ecclesiasticalsubjects on fragment XVI (plate xxi). The colors used are crimsonand yellow, while for the stone wall on fragment XII (plate xvii) ablackish ink has been employed. The circles and squares in the low-est division of fragment IX (plate xiv) are painted crimson. So,too, are the tubs Avhich the three rows of Indians in the upper divi-sion of fragment XI (plate xvi) carry on their backs, the transverserows over and under them, and the hat, coat, and footgear of the7238? No. 28?0 14 210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buli,. 28Spaniard; so also is the carpenter's ax on fragment X (plate xv).All else, if colored at all, is painted yellow.As for the general character of this manuscript, the figure of theSpaniard, on fragment XI (plate xvi), Avho is pulling two Indiansalong by a rope and the four Indians, on fragment X (plate xv), who,with their hands bound behind their backs, hang upon a sort of gal-lows, show that this is a bill of complaint. The Indians enter com-plaint of oppression on the part of the Spaniards of ill treatment,work unjustly required, and of supplies unpaid for. This is there-fore a document similar to the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes yRegidores de Mexico, which "was discovered in the archives of theDuke of Osuna, But our manuscript unfortunately is not providedwith text ; therefore a degree of uncertainty will always attach to theinterpretations.Among the various illustrations, I will first draw attention to theone at the top of fragment XI (plate xvi). Here we see the headof an Indian and behind it his hieroglyph, a white roll, probabl}^meant to represent paper (amatl) (see ?, figure 46, from the tributelist in the Mendoza codex, page 27, and described in the text as " papelde la tierra "). After this comes a house, with walls evidently sup-posed to be built of reeds, like the xacalli in the lower part of frag-ment II (plate vii). But the roof is different. It looks as thoughthere had been an attempt to draw the j^rickl}^ point of an agave leafon the house. These sharp points of the agave leaf were called uitztli, " thorn ", and uitztli, or uitzoctli, " j^ricking pulque ", was also thename given to newly fermented pulque, the intoxicating drink pre-pared from the juice of the agave." That there is here a reference tosomething of the kind appears froin what follows the house in thedrawing. We see there three jugs Avith basket-work covering, fur-nished wnth straAV or rope handles.This illustration is valuable in itself, as it incidentally throwslight upon the locality and the outward circumstances. We areforced to conclude that there is a reference here to occurrences on apulque hacienda. Furthermore, we learn from the jugs on fragmentXI (plate xvi) that the peculiar design to be seen on them and simi-lar objects represented on these fragments (an unpainted white borderwith a stripe running through it on one side) is meant for the mouthof a vessel. The artist may have had in mind a vessel with a sort oflip or spout which was formed by narrowing the mouth at one side.We find the same design on the two transverse rows of red, four-cornered objects corded Avith ropes, Avhich are represented in theupper portion of fragment XI (plate xvi), as well as on the similarobjects painted yellow to be seen in the two transverse roAvs at the "Sahagun, v. 4, chap. 5. sASaJwkPwf(RDwin oioiinliidiP?111ttoii( litP'sodlni li.f(PiXlawoili]\Aec ol %3 SKr.KR] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS IX-XII 211bottom of fragment X (plate xv) directly above the Indians hangingon the gallows; furthermore, I believe that these and the four-cornered objects made of yellow staves and corded round the middle,shown at the top of fragment X (plate xv), are all meant to repre-sent vessels, namely, Avooden butts or casks for pulque or brandy. Ithink that I see further proof of this in two other facts: in the firstplace, because, as we shall see, the delivery of wood and of woodenutensils is noted elsewhere on our fragment; and, further, becausewe find a snake above the objects which I have explained to be buttsor casks?the red ones at the top of fragment XI (plate xvi). Thesnake w^as often introduced into ancient pictures when pulque jugsAvere to be represented. The ring or base on which the pulque jugstands is most frequently formed of the coils of a snake.The three rows of Indians on fragment XI (plate xvi) with sticksin their hands carr^nng on their backs tubs which are bound to aladderlike frame (cacaxtli), would illustrate the transportation ofpulque, which labor the Spaniards imposed upon the Indians. Inthe same connection I am inclined to believe that the two Indians onfragment XII (plate xvii) with great pots upon their backs aremeant to represent the bringing or transportation of condensed agavejuice (see &, figure J(5), which is in the tribute list, Mendoza codex,j)ages 29 and 77, and explained in the text as miel de maguey espesa "thickened maguey honey"). The two Indians at the bottom offragment XI (plate xvi) with the small jugs on their backs mightconvey the same idea, or perhaps they are bringing real honey (see thesimilar but smaller figure in the tribute list of the Mendoza codex,page 38, which is explained in the text as cantarillo de miel de abeja(" small jug of bee's honey ").The drawing at the bottom of fragment XII (plate xvii) is alsoperfectly intelligible. Here we see three slaughtered pigs. It isobvious from the shape of the hoofs that they are meant for pigs, andthat they are supposed to be slaughtered is plainly indicated by thered color under the snout; but if these are pigs, then it is clearthat the animal's head in the ten or eleven rows of baskets, which arebound to a ladder-shaped carrying frame (cacaxtli), on fragmentsXI (plate xvi) and XII (plate xvii), must likewise signify pork.If this should not be perfectly plain to anyone, I would refer him tothe lowest row, on fragment XII (plate xvii), where the pig's foot isdistinctly draAvn in addition to the pig's head.The great majority of other representations deal with the deliveryof wood and wooden utensils. The long pieces with a hole at the end,in fragments X (plate xv) and XII (plate xvii) represent beams (see (.', figure 46, which is explained in the tribute list, Mendoza codex,jiage 81:, as vigas grandes?"large beams"). The smaller and more 212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOI>OGY [bull. 28 slender pieces probably represent boards and laths (see d and ^,which are explained in the tribnte list, Mendoza codex, pages 25 and28, as tablones de madera , figure 40),and in another the head is followed by a dry measure, p, wdiich inMexican painting denoted a fanega of corn (see q, taken from apage in the Aubin-Goupil collection, Goupil-Boban atlas, plate 27).On the page referred to there are five such measures with the littleflag above them (20), and the Spanish text below explains that thismeans 100 fanegas of corn (que se entiende cien hanegas de mahiz).But since not only the mealing stone, but also the corn measure, wasdrawn beside the women's heads, I think it can be safely deduced thatthe account represented in the American Philosophical Society's man-uscript noted not merely the service performed, but also the materialdelivered.In our fragment XIII (plate xviti) no such objects are drawnbeside the women's heads. But the writing on the reverse side of thepage proves that the reference is to similar services. The manuscriptsin A. von Humboldt's collection are, as I have already stated, with theexception of the first, pastinl upon large sheets of pajjer of the size ofthe atlas of which this is the descriptive text. In examining frag-ment XIII (plate XVIII ), which is rather thin paper, it first occurredto me that there must be writing on the reverse side. I began cau-tiousl}'^ to detach it, and by calling in expert assistance I succeeded inremoving the sheet uninjured from its backing. On the reverse sideI found the following document:Digo yo diego hermano del mayordomo deste pueblo de misquia-guala q. resebi del sefior manuel de olvera coregidor deste dichopueblo 101 peso y medio de las yndias quelles q. an hecho tortillas ensu casa y me a pagado todas las demas q. han servido hasta oy. fecho seler] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT XIII 215 a veynte y niieve de maj^o de mill y quinieiito y sesenta y nueve afiostg mechior de contreras y galp q. firmo per el otrganteante mis melchior de p. de palencontreras(" I, Diego, brother of the bailiff of this village Mizquiyauallan,acknowledge that I have received from Mr Manuel de Olvera, mag-istrate of this said village, 101^ pesos for the women who made tor-tillas at his house, and (that) he has paid me for all the other(women) who have performed services up to the present date. Doneon May 29, 15G9. Witness, Melchior de Contreras y Galp ??in evidence of which I sign for him who executes this document. " Melchior de Contreras. " Before me, P. de Palen, .") $ayicf On gSHj V- C Pro. 47. OfBcial fi,i;n:it\irps.It is therefore clear that this fragment XITI was likewise anaccount, one indeed of services rendered by women, who Avere orderedto bake tortillas and to do other work. The account comes from thesame village of Mizquiyauallan, to which the account on fragment VII(plate XII ) of our collection belongs, and the reverse contains thereceipt for w^ages paid for these services. The days which were cutout of the right side of the sheet seem to represent a deduction, areduction of the account or a correction to which the person present-ing it was obliged to submit. This document is two years older thanthat on fragment VII (plate xii).As for the persons concerned, the receiver of the money is thebrother of the major-domo of Mizquiyauallan, and is mentioned here,as is common among Indians, liiereh' by his Christian name, Diego.The major-domo's name is not given, but it is probable that he is 216 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2Sthe person who signed the receipt on fragment VII (phite xii).There the major-domo himself signed the receipt {a, figure 47). Herehis brother does not knoAv liow to Avrite. A Spaniard, Melchior deContreras y Galp {e) signs for liim. The bill is paid by thesame Manuel de Olvera mentioned on fragment VII (plate xii).Here, two years earlier, he was corregidor; that is, village magis-trate.I can not quite decipher the signature of the official before whomthe business was transacted, d.Finally, it is to be noticed that there are moreover three men'sheads on our fragment, each with a hieroglyph behind or over it,which undoubtedly gives the name of the man. The heads withhieroglyphs in the top row both stand at the beginning of a sectionmarked by a line of partition. The same seems to be the case in thesecond row from the top ; for the progression here, as showm by theposition of the women's heads, is from left to right, although thebeginning of the division here (at the left end) is not especiallydenoted by a line. In exactly the same way a man's head with ahieroglyph is placed at the beginning of a section, designated by aline, in the document of the American Philosophical Society. Thesemen's heads most probably represent the gobernadores de Indios orthe village magistrates who furnished the Avomen to balce tortillas.The man on the left end of the second row from the top has the headof a bird of prey behind him as a hieroglyph. His name may havebeen quauhti, " eagle ", cuixtli, " hawk ", or something of the kind.The man on the right end of the top row must have had a similarname. The man at the left end of the top row has a hieroglyphAvhich seems to consist of two pointed leaf ends, with thorns on theupper surface. This may be the hieroglyph for Uitznauatl, for inthe list of names of jjersons of Uexotzinco, where Uitznauatl is aquite common name, it is invariably expressed by the points of twoagave leaves draAvn side bv side. It is very remarkable that in thedocument of the American Philosophical Society one of the twomen's heads represented there, the one at the left end of the thirdrow from the top, is marked by the same hieroglyph (see ?)i, figure46). The one at the right end of the fifth row^ was probably namedQuiyauh, for his hieroglyph consists of three drops of rain hangingdown (or falling) (see n, same figure).Fragment XIII (plate xviii) of our collection and the TributeRoll 4 (Calendar 1) of the American Philosophical Society" aredoubtless distinct and independent documents, but so closely akin inidea, in drawing, and in various details, that we can safely attributethem to the same locality and period. Our fragment XIII (platexviii), having its explanation on the reverse side, is, therefore, a BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYQM:ii^ o^^sJs::^1^ dph 4 h^ '^H.?"^'Vn r\^r\ rs''r\ ((.m ?J@0'OQ MEXICAN PAINTING-Hii BULLETIN 28 PLATE XVIII lO'Q-nO QD ^ #,^^ c^i^ CUA. J H)L ) fV OLDT FRAGMENT XIII 3UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XVIM'~^ QOQ'^'":fo^^^ 4f^ 1,5 J fj^li^ Sg^ $J^H^^ ^J v3 7 \ ) { ) MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT XIII SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT XIV 217 valuable dociinient b}^ which to judge the manuscript in the posses-sion of the American Philosophical Societ3^I have already mentioned that fragment VII (plate xii) of ourcollection, which, like fragment XIII (plate xviii), now under dis-cussion, came from the village of Mizquiyauallan, seems to havebelonged to the Boturini collection. I quoted the passage in Botu-rini's Museo Indiano (Catalogo, number 1, section 21) which de-scribes these manuscripts from Mizquiyauallan : Tres mapas en papelIndiano como faxas. Tratan de los tributos que pagaba el pueblo deMizquiahuallan, y en el se ven las cifras numericas de cada cosa, queentregaban los vecinos ("Three maps on Indian paper like bands.They treat of the tribute paid by the village of Mizquiyauallan, andcontain the numerical statement of each article furnished by thehou.seholders ").Now, if the one page of the Poinsett collection, at present belong-ing to the Amei'ican Philosophical Society, is so closely related tofragment VII (plate xi) of our collection, and the other to our frag-ment XIII (plate xviii) that we feel tempted to attribute them to thesame place and date, then the question arises whether the two Amer-ican manuscripts are not also mentioned in Boturini. This seems,indeed, to be the case; for, directly after the jjassage quoted above,two other and longer manuscripts from the same village are men-tioned in section 21 of the Museo Indiano, under mnnbers 2 and 4 : 2. Otro [mapa] de la misma materia y mas largo, de dicho pueblo[Mizquiahuallan] ("Another [map] of the same material and largerfrom the same village [Mizquiyauallan]"),4. Otro del mismo jDapel y mas largo del mismo pueblo ("Anotheron the same paper and larger from the same village").FRAGMENT XIVThis (plate xix) is a piece of tolerably thick, firm agave paper, 34by 15 cm. Near the upper end two strips have been pasted one overthe other. The frayed end of the strip underneath is plainly visible.Below the top row are the words estangia de tlatonpan.The fragment may be divided into two essentially different parts,an upjjer and a lower one. In the upper part everything is paintedcrimson and in the lower yellow predominates. The base of theupper part is formed by a strip inclosed Avithin two transverse lines,in which are three men's heads, each having a remarkable characterbehind it which looks like a key. Two of them are, moreover, pro-vided with special hieroglvphs. I take the character which lookslike a key actually to be one, and consider it as an exjjression of theword tlatlati, which means " he who hides something, or shuts up orguards something " (el (pie guarda alguna cosa, o el que esconde algo. 218 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28Molina), for in the Xaltepetlapan list of names of persons (Mann-scrit Mexicain number 3. Bibliotheque Nationale) I find mention ofa man named Juan Tlatlatin, who is described by the hieroglyph ?,figure 48; that is, by a hand holding up a key. The first personfrom the right seems to be hieroglyphically designated by two hornson his head. His name may therefore have been Quaquauh (see hand c, same figure), which in the list of names of persons (ManuscritMexicain number 3, Bibliotheque Nationale) denote persons of thatname. The second person seems to be hieroglyphically designatedby a stone (te-tl) and water (a-tl). The third person has no hiero-glyph, and I can not interpret the circular design in front of him. a dmmn%K^^^)Mm m h i k mFin. 4S. Syniliols for certain porsons and for numliers.Both divisions of the page treat of the same matter, the deliveryof articles for which payment is asked or nonpayment is comjjlainedof; that is, it is an account or a bill of complaint.If we take for granted that we are to proceed from below upward,as in the other fragments, then the first representation below wouldbe ten turkey hens, followed by five cocks. Beside the cock at theleft end of the row, however, there is a small flag, the sign for 20.This, therefore, must mean 24 cocks. In the next row above, firston the right, there is a vessel and above that a figure, which I can notexplain, surrounded by featherlike rays, very much like those (seethe upper half of this fragment) which are drawn to denote the num- BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XIXmO/fryyt. ctV ^ 'tCo. '^i>^ot-i___? 'BQ^'rass^e^.e .-PQ BiSimi MEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT XIV If SELETi] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT XIV 219)3er 400 (tzontli). Then follow small oblong objects, each with asmall flag (20), and in the roAv above there are ten vessels, each ofwhich probably stands for a fanega of corn (see p and q, figure 46).AVe have in the right lower section of the red upper portion of ourfragment first, immediately over the men's heads, two turkeys' heads,similar to the lower division. Then follow two figures which areprobably meant for chili, " red-pepper pods ", each provided with thebush, which denotes the number centzontli, or 400. Turkey and red-l^epper sauce belong together. Molle con guajolote is still the holi-day dish throughout the country. Then follow three round objects,each intersected by a cross and with the number 400 attached; then,two peculiar figures, which we have not hitherto encountered, and ofwhich I shall speak directly. Over them are five small circles, eachAvitli the number 400, and in the row above eight vessels (fanegasof corn) and round objects like those in the lower row, each with alittle flag indicating 20.The question now arises, Avhat are the little oval objects, fifteen ofwhich in the lower compartment are marked with a little flag, a totalof 3,000, and five in the upper j^ortion with the little flag, a totalof 1,000? Since these articles are counted and the amounts reach sohigh a figure, I think they must be meant for cacao Ijeans (see dto ^, figure 48). This mode of counting also occurs 'in other manu-scripts (see r/, taken from the tribute list in the Mendoza codex, page19, described in the text as " 1,000 almendras de cacao "; and /, takenfrom the Pintura del Gobemador, Alcaldes y Regidores de Mexico,where the little flag or 20 is omitted from the single beans on theright). The text says, chiquacen tzontli ypan chicom]:)ohualli,which means six times four hundred, and seven times tw^enty (cacaol?eans). But this very omission of the little flag in this paintingproves that the unit in counting chocolate nuts was the number 20,which is always applied on our page to these doubtful objects. Itis well known that chocolate nuts were used in ancient Mexico forsmall change and were therefore counted.The decussated and plain circles in the upper division, all pro-vided with the bush (for 400), are probal)ly only simple numerals,and refer either to what Avent before (the red-pej^per pods) or to whatfolloAvs above (the chocolate nuts).As for the two peculiar figures at the left end of the lower row inthe upper division, they are an expression for a load, derived fromthe scale pan of a balance. This is obvious from a manuscript in theAubin-Goupil collection, formerly pwned by Don Antonio Leon yGama, that is interesting on account of the peculiarities of its systemof notation, which will be noticed here and were first noted bv 220 BUEEAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Gama in his appondix relatino; to Mexican arithmetic." A page ofthis manuscript is reproduced on phite 30 of the (Toupil-Bohanatlas. Here we see, for instance, forty-three, tifty-three, and thirty-eiglit loads of cornstalks (zacate) expressed by //, /, and /?. I havechosen these examples because they illustrate the peculiarities of nota-tion, which occur in this manuscript. On this page the number 10 isexpressed by halving the little flag, which denotes 20, and coloringonly one of the halves, the number 1.5, by cutting away a fourth partof the little flag and coloring tlie other three-fourths. It is signifi-cant for our fragment that in all the three figures h to k we have notonly the bundle of zacate, l)ut also a scale pan hanging from it, whichis the symbol of a load. That the scale pan does indeed typify theweight, a load, on this page is made still further evident by the factthat on the same page the same symbol of the scale pan is used todenote the coin 1 peso, as we saw it in c, figure 44 (see I to /;, figure48, where the reals and medios are attached to the pesos in the sameway as we saw them in < to /, figure 44, which I have already dis-cussed more particularly). The two figures at the left end of thelower roAv in the upper (red) division, therefore, must signify a load.This again may i-efer to what went before (the red-pepper pods) orto what follows (the cacao beans) ; for these were also reckoned byloads (see e to //, figure 48, the former from the Mendoza codex, thelatter from the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores deMexico).This being settled, the top rows of the two divisions also becomeclear. In the top row of the lower division we have on the rightfirst, three loads of zacate. Here no scale pan is drawn hangingfrom the bundle, as in A to A-, but the whole bundle, instead of thescale pan, hangs by the three cords. Then follows a mat, and, lastly,two square objects which may represent boards or perhaps somewoven fabric.In the top row of the upper division we have first, on the right, twobundles of zacate; then, two loads of wood. Here the load is drawnin the same way as in the lower division; that is, the bundle of woodin i^lace of the scale pan hangs from the three cords.Plate 30 of the Goupil-Boban atlas, which gave us the key tothe meaning of the figures selected to denote loads on fragment XIY(plate xix) of our collection, belongs to a manuscript which is fur-nished with text and is a bill of complaint issued against CaptainJorge Ceron y Carabajal, alcalde mayor of the town of Chalco,brought before the Real Audiencia of Mexico in the year 15G4. It isnot improbable that our fragment came from the same locality, andperhaps it belongs to the same period. " Gama, Dos Piedras, edid. Biistamente. Mexico, 1832, p. 137. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY ^ '^^ %' MEXICAN PAINTING BULLETIN 28 PLATE XX^ ^ ^ -^ =^^ ^ 49 "T^ "T?" tJS -'^?) ^3)<' '-} "^-^ -;-5) ^lij^-^A lEXICAN PAINTING-HUMBOLDT FRAGMENT XVI SELER] MEXICAN PICTDKE WRITINGS FRAGMENTS XV, XVI 227numeral 10 and a man stretching out his hand to the objects oppositeto him, the lock of a door or chest and a woman. Section 6. Estosdiez mandamientos se encierran en dos (" These ten commandmentsmay be comprised in two "). The picture shows the numeral 10, andjoined to it by a line the numeral 2; then follows the hieroglyph " article ".The seventh and last row begins at the left: Section 1. En servir yamar A Dios sobre todas las cosas (" To serve and love God above allother things "). On the left may have been the picture of God. Thel^icture of the heart is still visible here, as in the first commandment(row 5, section 3), expressing the idea of love. Section 2. Y a tuprogimo como a ti mismo ("And thy neighbor as thyself"). Thepicture shows the numeral 2 and then two men, to express neighborlylove.We have been able to prove, or to make it seem probable, that mostof the manuscripts in our collection once belonged to the great collec-tion of the Cavaliere Boturini, which he was forced to leave behindhim in Mexico wdien he was released from prison. Does this alsohold good in regard to th^s manuscript of religious import, the last inour collection ? Boturini enumerates in section 25 of the catalogue ofhis Museo Indiano the folio ig manuscripts of religious character : 1. A manuscript of 11 pages on European paper, whose authorshiphe ascribes to Padre Sahagun. This now belongs to the Aubin-Goupilcollection. Two pages of it are published on plate 78 of the Goupil-Boban atlas.2. A manuscrii^t on agave paper, which he describes as follows:Otro pedazo de mapa con figuras y cifras en papel Indiano. Demues-tra parte de clichos misterios; i. e.. de nuestra Santa Fe ("Anotherfragment of a map, with illustrations and numbers, on Indian paper,shows part of the said mysteries, that is, of our holy faith ").3. A manuscript of 4 pages on European paper with interlinearexplanations in Otomi, ademas de las figuras y cifras, unos pocosvenglones en lengua Otomi (" besides figures and pictures, a few linesin the Otomi language "). This manuscript now exists in the Aubin-Goupil collection. Two pages are reproduced in plate 76 of theGoupil-Boban atlas.4. Un librito en papel Europeo de 48 fojas chiquitas. Explicacon toscas figuras, y cifras la dicha Doctrina (" a small book on Euro-pean paper, of 48 tiny pages. Explains the said doctrine in rudepictures and figures"). This manuscript is also in the Aubin-Goupil collection. Two pages are reproduced in plate 77 of theGoupil-Boban atlas. The figures are there provided with explana-tions in Nahuatl.Of the four manuscripts of a religious character owned by Botu-rini, the fourth, which Boturini mentions under number 2, has not 228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28thus far been found, but the description of this manuscript agreesperfectly with our manuscript, fragment XVI (plate xxi). For ourmanuscript is also written on agave paper, and in the representationsthe numerals alongside the pictures are very conspicuous. I thereforedeem it not only possible, but highly probable, that our fragment XVIis the manuscript described by Boturini, number 2, section 25.Our manuscript, inferior as it is to the paintings of the old pagantime, is nevertheless superior to the manuscripts of a religious char-acter in the Aubin-Goupil collection by reason of a certain vigorousstyle. I am under the impression that the Aubin-Goupil picturecatechisms were executed by European priests, but that the oldaboriginal Indian training is evident in the drawing of our fragmentXVI (plate xxi). CONCLUSIONThe 16 (properly 14) picture manuscripts in the Alexandervon Hmnboldt collection, however limited the contents of the separatefragments (excepting the first one) present a good synopsis of thevarious styles and of the various purposes for which it becamenecessary to ejnploy hieroglyphs in old pagan and early Christiantimes. They are not only of archeologic interest and of interest inthe history of civilization, but some of them, as we have seen, are alsoof positive historic value; for, as I have shown, it seems possibleto establish a firm chronologic basis only by acting on the indicationsoffered by fragment I of our collection. Some fragments, namely,I, III, and IV (plate ii to vi, viii, and ix), belong to the old paganperiod. Others certainly originated in early Christian times: VI(plate xi) is to be attributed to a period prior to A. D. 1545; II(plate vii), before A, D. 1565; XIII (plate xviii) bears the date1569; VII (plate xii), the date 1571, and the other fragments alsocan not be much later than these. As for the place where they origi-nated, I can unfortunately say nothing positive in regard to I (platesII to vi) ; III (plate viii) and IV (plate ix) came from Huamantla,in the state of Tlaxcallan; II (plate vii) came from the immediateneighborhood of the Mexican capital; while VI (plate xi) and VIII(plate xiv) are from the kingdom of Tezcuco; VII, XII, XIII, andXVIII, from Mizquiyauallan, in the land of the Otomi; and XIV(plate XIX ) possibly from the kingdom of the Chalcas. Several ofthe manuscripts seem to express plainly the differences which existedamong the Mexican-speaking races in spite of all their similarity incivilization, mode of living, and ways of thinking, and they areotherwise very instructive, as we have seen.Our great countryman, whose field of labor lay in quite anotherdomain, rescued these fragments from among a number of docuinents,which at the time were the prey of chance in Mexico. Since then SELER] MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS 229they have hiin among other manuscript treasures in the Ko3'^alLibrary, little noticed, or, more correctly speaking, seldom used. Ttis partly owing to facts that have only very recently become knownthat I have been able to make these fragments dividge some portionof their contents.Last year we celebrated the four hundredth annivei'sary of the dayon which Columbus, the discoverer of America, first set foot in theNew World, and within a few years we can celebrate the onehundredth anniversary of the day on which the scientific discovererof the New World, Alexander von Humboldt, began his travels onthat continent. May this volume, which is the first attempt at treat-ing of the only one of his collections hitherto untreated, be not whollyunworthy of the great name which it bears on the title page. THE BAT GOD OF THE MAYA RACEEDUARD SELER 231 THE BAT GOD OF THE MAYA RACE" By Eduard Seler The beautiful drawing sent by Mr Dieseldorff to the Anthropolog-ical Society shows us a deity whose worship is indeed occasionallymentioned bj^ historians and Avhose name is contained in the names ofvarious Maya races, but of whom, on the whole, as of the mythologicforms of South American and Central American races generally, littleenough is known. This deity is the bat god.The bat in various Maya dialects is called Zotz. From this isderived the name Zotzil and Ah-zotzil, the " bat people ", whichname, on the one hand, belongs to a tribe who from ancient times tothe present day have been settled in the vicinity of what is now SanCristobal de Chiapas?Mexicanized as Tzinacanteca, the people ofTzinacantlan, the " bat city "?and, on the other hand, it belongs toa tribe which is probably to be regarded as a portion of the greatnation of the Cakchikels, the chief nation of southern Guatemala.Finally, there is still a Tzinacantan in the extreme southeast ofGuatemala, within the region of the Sinca language.Unfortunately, we are insufficiently informed concerning the lan-guage and traditions of the Zotzil of Chiapas, but we have someinformation in regard to the tribes of southern and western Guate-mala. Here in early Christian times the natives themselves wrotedown their traditions, and these traditions, the Popol Vuh ^ and theannals of Xahila ' are precious documents. The only drawbackis the difficulty of using them, because, on the one hand, we lack ade-quate lexicographic aids, but more especially because we have noexact definitions of the mythologic animals and the rest of the objectsand expressions which have reference to the ancient folklore of theseraces. , figure 50, thepicture of the bat as the designation of this period of time, which fellin the latter half of our September. That this designation was alsoknown to the other Maya ti-ibes we learn from the date (c, figure 50),compounded of the date of a day (8 Ahau) and a uinal date (the 8thof Zotz), which I copy from one of the Copan stela* as given inMaudslay's great woi'k." In the same Avay the uinal Zotz is given,beyond a doubt, on the altar slabs of Palenque; for instance, on the " Biologia CentraU-Americana. Archasology. 238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28ivltar slab of the Temple of the Cross, number 1 (according to DesireCharnay's designation), where A-16 and B-16, belonging together,give the combined date 1 Ahaii, 13 Zotz.But I also think that I recognize the hieroglyphs of the bat godamong a series of 20 deities represented in hieroglyphs on pages 46 to50 of the Dresden manuscript, accompanying a period of 2X52years divided into five large sections, each of which is again dividedinto sections of 90, 250, 8, and 236 days. From this series of 20 deities5 are copied on page 24; they are those which, at regular intervals,occupy the last place in each of the five divisions. In this way thoseseem to have been made prominent which are especially significant Fig. 51. Maya hieroglyphs of thfe bat j;od.for each of the five divisions. Among them occurs the hieroglyph,which?with a note of interrogation, it is true?I claim as the hiero-glyph of the bat god (see ?, figure 50) . I think that I also recognize the bat god in the initial hieroglyph ofthe group w^hich I rejjroduce in ?, figure 51. The character kin, " sun ".is before the mouth of the beast. ^Yith reference to a hieroglyphwhich I shall discuss later I am tempted to interpret it as a swalloAv-ing up of light, that is, an obscuring of the sun.Finally, it has occurred to me that possibly the initial hieroglyphof the two groups which I give in 6, and which, on account of thepicture accomi^anying it, I formerly explained as the hieroglyph ofa bird of prey, may also refer to the bat. For we have here, as in the seleh] THE MAYA BAT GOD 239hiero, figure 5'2, a very remarkable form of thishieroglyph which occurs on Stela D of Copan (Maudslay's nomen-clature) . This stela is peculiar inasmuch as the hieroglyphic elements,which elsewhere are reproduced in conventional characters, are herecarried out in full fig]ire. This particular stela is, therefore, of thefirst imjjortance as an aid to the discovery of the true meaning of theseelements. In A, figure 52, the form of the bat, the nose leaf, and thewing membrane are distinctly recognizable. The element which Iinterpret as the devouring of light is indicated by a series of dropsand a piece that looks like a ring cut out of a shell. This element,which answers to kan, or kin, also has the same form in the hiero-glyphs reproduced in (i^ figure 53. The Ben-Ik group is wantingin 5, figure 53, probably because it expresses onl}^ a secondary meaning.On the heads and the body in a, figure 52, as m several of the batheads brought together in ^/, figure 53, the elements of the day signCauac are given, which in the last of the hieroglyphs in a, figure 53,is seen in full below the bat's ear. The character Cauac correspondsto the Mexican Quiauitl, " rain ", and to Ayotl, '' the tortoise ", of theGuatemalan calendar. It combines within itself, as I have shownelsewhere," the idea of opaque covering and of stone.We have in the vase excavated by Mr ])ieseldorti' a very character-istic figure of the bat god. In this connection, I would like to mentionthat the god described by Dieseldorff as having been found as a deco-ration on pottery, the god in the snail shell,'' does not answer to theold god, the sixteenth in the Dresden manuscript, but rather to thethird one of the gods represented on plates 4 to 10 of the Dresdenmanuscript. If I were still somewhat uncertain as to wdiether the batgod can be recognized among the five deities given in the hieroglyphson page 24 of the Dresden manuscript, the god in the snail shellis unquestionably represented. As I am forced to conclude from theother places where it occurs that the latter god corresponds to thesouth, so the bat god, if he is really represented by hieroglyph a, figure50, must answer to the cardinal point of the east. This would form afresh link and furnish another proof, either that even in slight detailstliere existed a fundamental agreement between the mythic represen-tations of the Central American and Mexican peoples, or that withthe calendar and everything connected with it an exchange or dis-semination of such mythic elements took place throughout the wholeof the ancient cultural region. ? Zeitschrlft fiir Ethnologie, v. 'l'\. p. 1.S2.* Zeitschi-ift fiir Ethnolosrie. v. LT). Verhandliinfren, 189:i. pp. ;?70 and .")-lS.7238?No. 28?05 16 WALL PAINTINGS OF MITLAA MEXICAN PICTURE WRITING IN FRESCO BYEJDTJARD SELKR 243 CONTENTS PageDescription of Mitla . 247The ancient Zapotec country _ _ _ _ 258Unity of Mexican and Central American civilization 366Zapotec priesthood and ceremonials . _ 275Deities and religious conceptions of the Zapotecs 284Explanation of the wall paintings 306245 WALL PAINTINGS OF MITLA"Bv Eduari) SelerDESCRIPTION OF MITLAIn the broad valley of Tlacolula, which, rising in a succession ofterraces, inclosed by mountain ranges, and intersected by flat-toppedridges and isolated peaks, forms the eastern part of the wide andbeautiful Valle de Oaxaca, lies the place which is called Yoopaa,'' orLioo-baa, by the Zapotecs, and Mictlan by the Mexicans. It is situ-ated near the highest eastern end of the valley, at the foot of themountain chain which separates it from the valley of Villa Alta andthe mountainous regions of the Mixes. The two names of this placehave the same meaning, " burial place ", or " place of the dead '\ Itwas the burial cit}'^ of the Zapotec kings and priests.It was a custom among the Zapotecs and the kindred tribes,Mixtecs, Cuicatecs, and their neighbors, the Mixes, to bur}^ theirdead chiefs and nobles in caves. There was probably a double reasonfor this custom. Throughout the world caves have been looked uponas entrances to the interior of the earth, to the underworld, to thekingdom of the dead. Among the Zapotecs and Mixtecs, however,there existed also the belief, which is met w^ith among several otheraboriginal tribes of America, that the ancestors of their race hadrisen from the inner depths of the earth to the light of the sun.Thus it was, in a certain way, the realm of the forefathers, theirancient home, in which they buried their dead when they laid themto rest in the sacred caves. " Wandmalereien von Mitia, eine mexikanischen Bilderschrift in fresko, nach elgenen anOrt iind Stelle anfgenommenen Zeichnungen, herausgegeben und erliiutert von DrEdnard Seler. Berlin, 1895. Tlie dedication may be translated as follows : To HisExcellency the Duke of Loubat, the generous promoter of the infant science of the newcontinent, these results of earlier journeys and studies are gratefully dedicated by theauthor. Steglitz, July, 1895. ' Burgoa translates it Lugar de Descanso, " resting place ". Indeed the meaning " rest-ing ", " taking breath ", is contained in the root paa. For paa, and the allied form pee,means " breeze ", " wind ", " breath ", and the extended meaning " happiness ", " blessed-ness ", " peace ", " wealth ", can doubtless be traced back to this root. I'au also contains,by implication, the meaning " burial place " ; paa or queto-paa, sepultura, " tomb " ; paa-quie, sepultura de piedra, " stone tomb " ; paa-tfio, sepultura labrada a poste, a " sepulchermade of posts " ; and it is perhaps most natural to accept this especial meaning here.247 248 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28In the country of the Mixtecs the cave of Chalcatongo, situatedon a high mountain, serAed as a burial ph\ce for their kings andgreat men, and Father Burgoa rehites Avith indignation how, evenin hiter Christian times, a cacique, esteemed by the priests for hisgodly life, accepted the last sacraments of tlie Christian Church andyet left behind him the behest that his earthly remains should beburied in that cave." The extensive caves in the limestone moun-tains (whence came its names of Yoopaa and Mictlan) imparted tothis place its sacred character and caused the Zapotecs to choose it forthe burial place of their kings and priests. There were also smallercaves in the place, called Zeetoba, "second burial place ", or Queui-quije-zaa, " the palace on the rock "; in Mexican, Teticpac. It servedas a burial place of the second (subordinate) rank.The peculiar notion connected with caves in specially favoredsituations, namely, that they indicated the ])laces where the ancestorsof the race had come forth from the earth, was, without doubt,the reason why Yoopaa, or Mictlan, was not only a burial place,l)ut^ also the most important sanctuary of the country and the resi-dence of the high priest. He was called Uija-tao, " great prophet ",and was treated by the Zapotec kings, as Father Burgoa relates,with such submissive veneration and regarded as being so closelyconnected with the gods, being the direct distributor of their graciousgifts, as well as of their punishments, that the kings turned to him inall matters and in every need, and carried out his connnauds with thestrictest obedience, even at the cost of their blood and their lives.''It was in keeping with the twofold significance of the place thathere in Yoopaa, or Mictlan, the most important and magnificentedifices were erected, and that here every form of art was employedwhich the ancient inhabitants of this country could command. Mic-tlan was doubtless not the only place in the Zapotec country wheremagnificent buildings were to be found. A beautifully sculpturedtomb has l)een discovered in Xoxo, not far from Oaxaca.'' Moreoveron the mountain citadel of Tlacolula and in Teotitlan del Valle wehave found fragments of wall facings of stone mosaic very similar tothe famous mosaics of Mitla which represent geometric designs.There are undoubtedly similar buildings to be found in other parts ofthis country, which as yet has been little explored. The buildingsof Mitla, however, have always been distinguished for their size,number, and magnificence, and we find in the very earliest reportsenthusiastic and admiring descriptions of them. "P. Burgoa, Segunda Parte de la Historia de la Provincia de Predkadores de Guaxaca,Vlexico, 1674, chap. 29. ' Burgoa, work cited, chap. 53. , chap. 2. 262 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, the Mexicans sub-jugated " the city of Micthi in the province of Huaxaca " in theyear 2 Tochtli, or A. D, 1494, and " the city of Teotzapothm, whichwas the capital of the province of Huaxaca ", in the year 3 Acatl, orA. D. 1495. This information is interesting because mention ismade here of the conquest or destruction of the Zapotec city ofpriests and tombs, Yoopaa, or Mictlan, by the Mexicans in pre-Spanish times. The picture writing itself ? does not entirely agreewith this interpretation. In it only the conquest of Uaxyacac andTeotzapotlan?which may refer, of course, to the entire province,that is, to the whole valley?is expressed by the hieroglyphs of thesetw^o names and a prisoner of war adorned for the sacrificio gladia-torio (figure 55). Fig. 05. Symbols from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis.In the coast land the expeditions doubtless extended through sev-eral years, for the subjugation of the cities of the coast land is notreported until the year 5 Calli, or A. D. 1497, and in this reportChimalpahin, Codex Vaticanus A, and Historia Mexicana of theAubin-Goupil collection agree* Chimalpahin ^ mentions Xochitlan,Amaxtlan, and Tehuantepec as the cities which were conquered inthis year by the Mexicans. Codex Vaticanus A ^ and Historia " Part 4, pi. 22. The name Uaxyacac is expressed here simply by the picture of thealgaroba tree ; the name Teotzapotlan, by the picture of the sapodilla tree. ^ Ailales de Domingo Francisco de San Anton Mufion Chimalpahin Quauhtleliuanitzin.Ed. Remi Simeon, I'aris, 1889, pp. 10 and 167. <^ Codex Vaticanus A, page 127. Amaxtlan is expressed by the combination of a breech-cloth (maxtlatl) and the sign for water (atl), which are to be seen on the conventionalpainting of the mountain. Xochitlan i.s eypressed bj' a flower (Xochitl) and an undeter-mined element, which is perhaps intended to represent a row of teeth (tlantli). Thebattle is represented in the former city, the victory in the latter. seler] HE ANCIENT ZAPOTEC COUNTRY 263Mexicana of the Aubin collection" mention only XochitUn andAmaxtlan (figures 56 and 57). According to the accounts of theMexican merchants, which are preserved for us in the work of FatherSahagun,'' this expedition to Tehuantepec was an independent enter-prise of the great merchants of Mexico, Tlatelolco, and the otherallied cities. They were besieged four years, the story goes, in Fig. 5G. Battle scene from Mexican painting, Aubin-Goupil collection.Quauhtenanco (" forest stronghold ", " blockhouse? ") by the unitedcontingents of the cities of Anahuaca?Tehuantepec, Izuatlan, Xocht-lan, Amaxtlan, Quatzontlan, Atlan, Omitlan, and Mapachtepec. ? Histoire de la Nation Mexlcaine depuis le dgp^art d'Aztlan. Manuscripts Piguratlfsdes Anciens Mexicains. Copie du codex de 1576. Collection de M. E. Eugene Goupil(ancienne collection, Aubin). Nos. 35, 36 du Catalogue. Paris, 1893, p. (6. " Sahagun, v. 9, chap. 2. 264 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28The struggle is said to have ended at hist in a decided victoryfor the merchants and the taking of numerous captives by them.In like manner the chronicle of Tezozomoc ? relates the completeconquest and subjugation of this territory. Xochitlan, Amaxtlan,Izuatlan, Miauatlan, Tehuantepec, and Xolotlan are named by Tezo-zomoc as the cities against which this warfare was directed.There is probably no doubt that these enterprises were so far suc-cessful that the Zapotecs were forced from this time forward toallow the Mexican merchants to ])ass through to the regions on thePacific coast and to grant them freedom of trade in their own terri-tory. It must indeed have been a successful war for the Mexicans,according to all the records, for it filled their slave markets and fur-nished the altars of the gods with sacrifices. These expeditions, how-ever, did not result in a conquest and the lasting subjugation of theZapotec country. The Zapotec kings remained as independent after-ward as they had been beforeand as well prepared to meetthe invading Mexican hostsby force of arms. Indeed,the Mexican kings, owing toclearly understood commercialinterests, evidently felt theneed of entering into a treatywith the Zapotecs. This isproved by the bestowal of aMexican princess in marriageupon the Zapotec king, Cocijo-eza, a fact w^liich is told alike by Father Burgoa,'' who drew hisinformation from Zapotec sources, and by the interpreter of theCodex Telleriano-Kemensis.' This alliance did not, of course, put astop to intrigues on the part of the Mexicans. Indeed, this Mexicanprincess, who was called "cotton flake"" (Zapotec Pelaxilla : prob-ably, Mexican Ichcatlaxoch), gained especial fame and honor amongthe Zapotecs because she did not comply with the demands made uponher by her father, but betrayed the plans of the Mexicans to her hus-band, the Zapotec king. The son of Cocijo-eza and of this Mexicanprincess was Cocijo-pij, the last king of Tehuantepec.When Cortes landed on the coast of Mexico and overthrew thesupremacy of the Mexicans by his skillful management and mili-tary power he was joyfully hailed by the Zapotecs, as well as by theTotonacs and the Tlascaltecs, as their deliverer from the power of o CrSnlca Mexlcana, chap. 75, 76. '' Burgoa, work cited, chap. 72. <" Part 4, pi. 23, in connection witli the year Tochtli, or A. D. 1502. * I Fia. 57. Mexican symbols of years and pueblos. sELEKl THE ANCIENT ZAPOTEC COUNTRY 265the Mexicans. The Thiscaltecs first measured tlieir strengtli withCortes liefore they allied themselves with him, but from that time onthey cleared the way for him and fought his l)attles as devoted andfaithful allies. The Zapotecs submitted unconditionally from the be-ginning to the Spanish conqueror, turned to him when the ISIixtecprince of Tototepec threatened an attack, and received Cortes withgreat splendor when he came down as far as Tehuantepec in lateryears. The Zapotecs, nevertheless, very soon became aware of thepoor exchange they had made. It was in the territory of the Zapo-tecs that Cortes selected the best lands, the Valle de Oaxaca and thefruitful, well-watered vegas of Jalapa, in order to form from themhis earldom, his family estate. However, " Cortes granted a moder-ate allowance in money (le hizo donacion de alguna ayuda de costa)"to the king of Tehuantepec " with Avhich to support the small familywhich still remained to him "; " and while the king, who was baptizedwith the name Don Juan Cortes, built monasteries for the monkswith great liberality and furnished them with lands, gardens, fishponds, etc., the monks seized and imprisoned him because he fell awayfrom the true faith and performed diabolical ceremonies. After longand wearisome processes he was sentenced by the highest court inMexico to lose his dignities and all his remaining possessions. Hedied, while returning from Mexico, in Nexapa, just as he had oncemore set foot on the soil of his former kingdom. u Burgoa, work cited, chap. 72. UNITY OF MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN CIVILI-ZATIONThe Zapotecs and their kindred were a nation unrelated to theMexicans. If they can be classed with any of the great languagegroups belonging to the region of the ancient Mexican-Central Amer-ican civilization, it can only be the Maya group. Indeed, a numberof roots and many structural peculiarities of the language seem toindicate such a connection. The whole region of ancient Mexican-Central American civilization is, however, a conspicuous example ofwhat Adolph Bastian calls a " geographical province ". For, inde-pendent of a linguistic difference, we find the special elements ofMexican civilization developed in an exactly similar way among allthe peoples of this territory. This is true of the general conduct oflife, the technical and military customs, the organization of state andof society, but more especially of religion and learning.The unity of this entire region of ancient civilization is mostclearly expressed by the calendar, which these people consideredthe basis and the alpha and omega of all high and occult knowledge.This calendar is a special product of Central American culture. Itsessential peculiarities are the adoption of the fundamental number20 as the leading unit, and the combination of this leading unit withthe number 18. These are features which appear in no other calen-dric system hitherto known." Within the region of Central Ameri-can civilization not only are these two essential peculiarities to be metwith in the calendars of all the civilized nations, but also a closecorrespondence in the names of the individual days of a lead-ing unit. This I have demonstrated in regard to the Maya territoryin my work entitled " Uber den Charakter der aztekischen und derMaya-Handschriften 'V and regarding the Zapotec territory in awork on Mexican chronology which appeared in 1891. '" The Zapoteccalendar is distinguished from those used by the other nations by cer-tain peculiarities which one is tempted to consider evidences of specialantiquity, but which are, perhaps, only the result of a particulardevelopment and an especial use for augural purposes. " Cyras Thomas attempted to show rehition of the Central American calendar to thatused in Hawaii. This attempt, however, must he pronounced an utter failure. Theancient inhabitants of Hawaii had a kind of actual month of 30 days ; and the onlyagreement with the Mexican calendar could be the fact that 12X30, like 18X20, gives thenumber 360, thus leaving a surplus of 5 days in the year. " Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, v. 20, 1888, p. 1 and following. 52, in a village in the neighborhood of San Francisco deCajonos. Father Biirgoa had come into this region on an inspectiontour, and there he met with a stately old cacique, who was magnifi-cently dressed in Spanish fashion, all in silk, and was ev^identlytreated by the Indians with great respect. He came to pay hisrespects to the padre and to give an account of the progress of reli-gious instruction in his village, and the padre perceived that he was awell-informed man, with comj^lete command of the Spanish lan-guage, but, from some indications which long experience had taughthim, his suspicions were aroused in regard to the man's soundness offaith. He imparted his suspicions to the vicar of the place, but re-ceived such satisfactory information from him that he thought he haddeceived himself this time. It was, however, this same old man who,a few days later, was seen by a Spaniard roaming through the moun-tain forest after game, in a place hidden behind rocks and bushes, per-forming heathenish idolatrous ceremonies in the midst of a devoutassembly. The Spaniard hastened away terrified, roused the monkswhile it was still night, and in the early morning, before an intima-tion of the matter had reached the Indian servants of the monastery,the vicar and the prelate, guided l)y the Spaniard, started on theirway. After weary w^andering in hunters' paths they reached theplace at noon and found on the stone which served for an altar all thesacrificial gifts still fresh, '"' feathers of many colors, sprinkled withblood which the Indians had drawn from the veins under theirtongues and behind their ears, incense spoons, and remains of copal,and in the middle a horrible stone figure, which was the god to whomthey had offered this sacrifice in expiation of their sins (sacrificio deexpiacion de sus culpas) while the}^ made their confessions to theblasphemous priest and cast ofi' their sins in the following manner.They had woven a sort of dish out of a tough herb which was speciallygathered for this purpose (uno como fuente, 6 plato muy grande),and, throwing this uj)on the ground before the priest, had said tohim that they came to beg mercy of their god and pardon for the sinswhich they had conmiitted in that year, and that they had broughtthem all carefully enumerated. They then drew out of a clothpairs of slender threads made of dry maize husks (toto-mostle),that they had tied two by two in the middle Avitli a knot, bywhich they represented their sins. They laid these threads on thedishes of braided grass and over them pierced their veins and let theblood trickl(> upon them, and the priest took these offerings to the idoland in a long speech he begged the god to forgive these, his sons, theirsins which were brought to him and to permit them to be joyful andhold feasts to him as their god and lord. Then the priest came backto those who had confessed, delivered a long discourse on the cere- 280 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 monies they had still to perforin, and told them that the trod hadpardoned them and that they might be glad again and sin anew ''\This elaborate ceremonial, the details of which were establishedbeyond a donl)t in the course of the inquisitorial examination towhich all the j^articipants Avere subjected, was not suggested to theIndians by Christian confession and absolution, but corresponds tothe confession which was made in Mexico to the priests of the earthgoddess, wdio was called, for this reason, Tlaelquani, '* filth-eater ",and Tlazolteotl, " god of ordure '\ Only in Mexico tlie necessity ofthis confession was confined to sins in veneribus, that is, to offensesagainst the sacredness of marriage, while with the Zapotecs, asappears from the entire description, this ceremony must have had amore general intention, applying to the expiation of all sins. Thewords which the padre reported in conclusion, namely, that theheathen jjriest told his penitents that they were now absolved fromtheir sins and could sin anew, are probably to be taken quite seriously;for in Mexico also the idea prevailed that b}^ this confessior., whichwas made to the priests of the earth goddess, and the ])enance fol-lowing upon it the sinner was entirely freed from his sins, to suchan extent, indeed, that he could no longer be reached by any secularpunishment, which in this case w-as A^ry severe, stoning to deathbeing the punishment for adultery. It cost the monks troubleenough to persuade the Indians that the confession whic-h theydemanded and received w^as followed by no such exemptions fromthe law.There is another point of interest connected with the Zapotec cere-monies described above, namely, the use made of the grass rope onthese occasions, for it serves to throw further light on certain passagesin the picture writings. Here, as in the cases discussed in connectionwith the calendar, the Borgian codex and Codex Vaticanus B corre-spond most closely to the description.Among the few fundamental characters which, as I have demon-strated," recur in a typical maimer in the dift'erent picture manu-scripts of the group forming the Borgian codex, a representation ofthe tonalamatl occupies a prominent place. It is here represented asdivided into twenty sections of 13 days each, to each of which i^:ascribed a certain deity who was the ruling power in it, and who wassufficiently indicated to the understanding of the Indians by theinitial sign of the section. The order in which the deities follow oneanother here seems to have been, in a measure, a canonical one; forin other j^assages in these picture w^ritings we find these deitiesascribed to the twenty day signs in the same order, except that in the " Der Codex Borgia und die verwaudteu axtelsischen Bilderschriften, Zeitschrift fiirEthnologle, v. 19, 1887, p. (105) and following. SELEu] ZAPOTEC PRIESTHOOD AND CEREMONIATiS 281latter case a new deity is inserted between the tenth and the eleventh,and therefore the twentieth deit}' of the first (original?) series isomitted at the end. The seventeenth and eighteenth deities of thefirst series, or the eighteenth and nineteenth of the second, are theones Avhich seem to have special reference to the festival of expiationof the Zapotecs which has jnst been described.The expiation of sin is expressed in the clearest and most realisticway, especially by the picture of the first of these two deities. He isdepicted in the form of a turkey cock, designated by the interpreteras Chalchinhtotolin, " emerald fowl ", and explained as the image ofthe god calJed by the Mexicans Tezcatlipoca, " smoking mirror ".By a natural and quite comprehensible transference of ideas sinwas designated by the people of ancient Mexico as dirt, excrement,offal, and was portrayed in the picture writings, in a way to be recog-nized more or less clearly, in the form of human faeces. Tlaelquani, " she who eats ordure ", was called by the Mexicans the " earth god-dess ", because she was the eradicator of sins, to whose priests thepeople went to confess their sins in order to be freed from them bythis confession. In all the passages under consideration there isalways depicted opposite Chalchiuhtotolin a man in the act of self-castigation, of drawing his own blood, or, in his stead, the imple-ments and symbols of castigation. In the calendars of CodicesTelleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A, next to the representation of apenitent, sin is expressed l)y the conventional drawing of ordure (?,figure G0).? On page 51 of the Borgian codex, to which page 32 ofCodex Vaticanus B corresponds, an eagle's claw is represented besidethe sjanbols of castigation, offering the ordure to Chalchiuhtotolin toeat (J, figure OO).'' By this means the '" emerald fowl ", the image ofTezcatlipoca, is likewise designated as Tlaelquani, the erndicator ofsins.^ Finally, in the Borgian codex, page 29, to Avhich pages -i and77, Codex Vaticanus B, correspond, opposite Chalchiuhtotolin, thereis (?, figure Gl) the penitent (who bores out his eye with a sharp-ened bone) in the middle of a ring, which appears from its coloringto be of braided grass, since it consists of alternating green and whitesections, the white ones dotted with red, indicating the sprinklingAvith blood. This ring evidently represeuts the tola of the Zapotecs,the rope of grass, whose use is explained above.The same rope of grass is also represented in page 30 of the " In the third section of the calendar, in the place where in some picture writings theearth goddess is represented opposite the god Tepe.voll()tl, in others, instead of theformer, there is the |)icture of a man eating his own excrement (hieroglyph for Tlael-quani) and the symbol of the moon (see figure (!")). * I liad not arrived at a full comprehension of all these circumstances when I wrotemy work on Tonalamatl der Aubiusclien Sammlung. " This signification of Tezcatlipoca is also supported by other passages in the picturewritings, specially by the following codices: Borgian. p. 1'7 : Valicanus It, pp. (i, 70, orBorgian, p. 4G ; and Vaticanus B, p. 87. 282 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28Borgian codex, corresponding to pages H and 76 of Codex VaticanusB, with the deity of the nineteenth day sign, h and c. Here isapparently not a question of directly doing penance, but of piousexercises in general, especially of fasting. I have copied thesel^ictures, first, because the figure of Codex Vaticanus B, page 3, c,shows clearly a rope of grass by the ends of the braid which are cut Fig. 60. Drawing blood from the ears, and imxilements of castigation, fromMexican codices. off below and terminate above in small floAver heads, after the mannerof the malinalli, and secondly, because this rojae of grass recurs inMexican picture writings, to wit, as a symbol for " fasting " in thehieroglyphs of the kings Nezahualcoyotl, " the fasting prairie wolf '',and Nezahualpilli, " the fasting prince ", of Tetzcoco, as they aredepicted in the Codex Telleriano-Kemensis, <] and e. SELEIil ZAPOTEC PRIESTHOOD AND . CEREMONIALS 283Although it is therefore plain that the symbol of the grass ropewas not unknown to the Mexicans, still it is frequent only in thepicture writings of the Borgian codex group, and in this group isrepresented onl}^ particularly in connection with expiation of sin.Its occurrence, like that of the representation of the four rain gods(figure 58) and the deer figures bearing the day signs (figure 59),seem therefore to point to the conclusion that the picture writings ofthe Borgian codex group are either actually Zapotec or belong to aterritoiT whose people resembled the latter in their religious andcalendric notions. This is a fact whicli Ave have every reason to keepwell in mind. d eFig. G1. Self-piinislinient and symliolr; of two kings from Mexican codices.The special signification attached to the twisted grass roj^e, tola,among the Zapotecs also explains the singularly baneful part whichthe " grass " malinalli, " the twist ", plays as a day sign. For thereis probably no doubt that this Mexican malinalli and the Zapotectola are the same thing, although tola was not used" in the Zapoteccalendar for malinalli, but pija, chija, corresponding to the literalsense of malinalli. This fact seems in its turn to indicate that in theland of the Zapotecs we are not very far from the spot where the daysigns originated and Avhere the whole remarkable system of theCentral American calendar Avas elaborated. DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS OF THEZAPOTECSThe Zapotec dictionary, by Father Juan de Cordova, already fre-quently mentioned, forms a eliief source of information concernino-the immediate religious conceptions of the Zapotecs, the forms ofthe gods which were worshiped by them and to which they turned inevery need and for the satisfaction of all their desires. Among thedifferent names and designations, which, generally speaking, arerather designations of activities than true names, the most prominentof all are those pertaining to a creative deity. In their meaning andapplication these designations were very likely similar to the MexicanTotecuyo, Tloque Nauaque, Ilhuicaua, Tlaticpaque, Youalli ehecatl,and the like, that is, they were, like these, used to a certain extent asa general appellation of the deity, and probably also in addressingthe diiferent deities, or as attributes to name them by. Their con-struction and their etymology, however, furnish a clue to the linesalong which speculative thought moved among the Zapotecs in refer-ence to the origin of all things. 1 give here the names and the Span-ish expression of which they are supj^osed to be a translation, accord-ing to the dictionary of Father Juan de Cordova. They are as fol-low: Coqiii-XC'e, Coqui-Cilla,Xee-Tilo, Pixee-Tt\o, Cilla-Tao,Nixee-TJlo, Nl-Cilla-Tao,Pije-Tao, Pij-Xoo, Pije-Xoo, " God without end and without heginning, so they called him with-out Icnowing whom" (Dlos infinito y sin principio, llamavanle, sinsaber a quien).Coqui-Cilla, Xee-Tao, Piyee-Xao, Chilla-Tao,"The unci'eated lord, who has no beginning and no end" (el Senorincreado, el que no tiene principio y fin).Piye-Tao, Piye-Xoo,Coqui-Xee, Coqui-Cilla, Coqui-Nij, " God, of whom they said that he was the creator of all things andwas himself uncreated " (Dios que decian que era creador del todo y elincreado).As to the elements which are contained in these ai3pellations, coquisimply means "" lord '\ '' leader '\ '' cacique ", '? king " ; tao and xoo areadjectives; tao (too, or roo) means "great". With the prefix foranimate beings, the word forms the customary expression for " god "(Pitiio, Bitoo, that is, " the great one "). Xoo is a synonym of the284 SELEK] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 285former, and means " strong", *?' powerful ". Ni and pi are prefixes;the second is the prefix just mentioned for animate beings, while thefirst has a more general meaning and is equivalent to '"he Avho is".There then remain as essential elements in the above appellationsonly the following: Xee, cilia (xilla, chilla), pij (pije, piyee), nij.Of these different expressions, the first two, xee and cilia, are syno-nyms. They are regularly used together as a compound, with themeaning of " beginning '\ " origin ". The fundamental meaning ofboth is doubtless " growing light ", " morning " ; cilia is the technicalexpression for "morning"; te-cilla, "in the morning"; zoo-cilia,piye-zoo-cilla, or toa-tillani-copijcha, " the quarter of the heavens be-longing to the morning ", " the east ", or " wdiere the sun rises ".Xilla and chilla are phonetic variants of cilia. We nuist probablyaccept " bright " as the exact meaning of xee. Alone or accompaniedby the root ati xee is often used Avith the meaning " pure ". A directreference to the morning lies in the words quixee and quixij, properly " the coming morning ", which are used for " to-morrow ", that is, " the next day "."The lord of the beginning" (Coqui-Xee, C^oqui-Cilla), or "thegreat beginning" (Xee-Tao, Pixee-Tao, Cilia Tao), is thus properly " the lord of growing bright, of the morning ". Translated into Mex-ican it would read Tlauizcalpan Tecutli. The Mexicans used thisword for the morning star.An entirely different meaning lies in the third word. Pij, or chij,for p and ch are here and frequently in Zapotec interchangeable,*means " to be turned ", " to turn oneself ". From that is developed,on the one hand, the meaning pij, pije, chije, piyee, pee, " that whichwhirls ", " the wind " ; on the other hand, the meaning quoted aboveof pije, piye "(rotation, rotation of time), calendar" and chij, chee,yee, " course of time ", " time ", " day ". The latter meaning does notconcern us here. But from the meaning, " Avind ", the further ones of "breath", "respiration"^ and "inner vital principle", "soul", "spirit"" have been developed, and w^e must refer to this for thenames of the creative deity quoted alcove. Pije-Tao and Pij-Xoo are " the great wind ", " the strong wind " and " the great, the strong,powerful (living) spirit".Finally, the fourth word, nij, is the sauie as nija, which means " foot ", " lower end ", " beginning ". Coqui-Nij is therefore onlyanother, a prosaic, expression for the meaning which lies in the nameCoqui-Xee, Coqui-Cilla.However, the association of ideas which arises from the use for the " This interchangeableness evidently occurs in the case before us because the root isproperly ii or ee, which is combined with a prefix (originally nominal) for the forma-tion of an enlarged stem.* Cobaa, pee, pije, chije, " anhelito " (.Juan de Cordova, Vocabnlario). ''Pij, chije, " viento, anima, y espiritu " (Juan de C6rdova, Vocabulario). 286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28 creative deity of names of different origin, preser^?e(l by the Vocalju-lary, has also another interesting and important side. I have trans-Lited above tlie Co(iui-Xee, Coqui-CiHa, of the Zapotecs by the Mex-ican name Thinizcalpan Tecutli. If we should seek to translatePije-Tao, Pije-Xoo, into Mexican, then a strictl}'^ synonymous, thoughby no means literal, rendering would be the name Quetzalcoatl.Here we find a connecting link, which throws light upon the logicof the relation between objects and ideas that have hitherto existedrather incongruously side by side. The Mexican legend tells ofthe wind god Quetzalcoatl that after his death or after his dis-appearance in the sea of the east he changed himself into Tlauiz-calpan Tecutli, the lord of the dawn, that is, the morning star, theplanet Venus. The Zapotec names explain this change to us; for it isthe creative deity who is at once the soul, the spirit, the living prin-ciple of all things and the lord of the dawn, of the coming day, who isconceived of as merged in the star of the dawn, the luminous planet,which was called Pelle-Nij by the Zapotecs and Citlalpol, " thegreat star ", by the Mexicans. It appears, moreover, from the fres-coes which are reproduced in this work, as we shall see below, thatQuetzalcoatl occupied in fact the central place in the ZapotecOlympus, at least as he was understood and presumably expoundedby the priests.Tlauizcalpan Tecutli, the lord of the dawn and of the evening twi-light, who is also designated by the interpreter as the first lightwhich illuminated the earth in the ])eriod before the flood, that is,before the creation of the sun, is represented in the calendar oppositethe fire god in the ninth section, which begins with the day " 1 snake".As the representations of this god are important also for future dis-cussion, I have given them together in figures G2 and 03, taken fromCodices Borgia, page 4(), Vaticanus B, page 40, and Telleriano-Kemensis II, page 14, and the Tonalamatl of the Aubin collection.Coqui-Xee, Coqui-Cilla, the " lord of dawn ", and Pije-Tao, Pije-Xoo, the " mighty, strong wind ", however, designate, as it were,merely the principle, the essence of the creative deity or of deity ingeneral, Avithout reference to the act of creating the world andhuman beings. In respect to this event itself the mythologies of theCentral Americans, as well as those of most of the peoples of theearth, have placed at the beginning of things a male and femaledeity. These were called by the Mexicans Tonacatecutli and Tona-caciuatl, " lord " and " mistress of our flesh " or " of subsistence ", orOmetecutli Omeciuatl, " lords of duality ". In the calendars theyoccupy the first place and are represented as the deities dominatingthe beginning, the first division, whose initial sign is " 1 crocodile ".They are figured always clothed in light, varied, and rich colors.The male deity is more or less definitely identified Avith the sky, the seler] DEITIES AND KELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 287 sun, or the fire god, who was at the same time the god of the chaseand of war; the female deity, with the earth or the water, the element a hPig. ti2. Deity of the morning star, from a Mexican codex.which imparts fruitfulness to the earth. Thus in the Tonalamatl ofthe Aubin collection, on the jfirst page, the fire god and the water god- 'uiiiiniiiiiininniiiHiiiniiniiiinniiiii^a . hFig. 63. Fifjnres of the deity of the morning star, from Mexican codices.dess are placed opposite one another as rulers of the first section ofthe calendar. 288 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28We find a similar notion among- the Zapotecs. Under the headingcriador, " creator ", the dictionary of Father Juan de Cordova givesthe following two different deities : Cozaana, Pitoo-Cozaana, "Creator, the maker of all beasts" (Criador, 6 hacedor de todas los ani-males).Huichaana, " Creator, the maker of men and of fishes " ( Criador asi de los hombres ypeces).Zaana means " to give birth *", " to beget "; and Xaana, chaana, areprobably mere phonetic variants of the same stem. Cozaana, how-(;ver, is the nomen agentis, formed directly from this stem, and there-fore means " one who gives birth '"' or " procreator ". Huichaana,Huechaana imply a causative formed from this stem. Cozaana andHuichaana and Huechaana are both used alike for" descent ", " race"(linaje generalmente). Hence word analysis does not suffice todetermine what deities are meant by the above names, and we shallhave to look for other applications of these expressions, and theseother applications Avill make it possible to determine the deitiesAvithout possibility of error.Cozaana is used concerning the snn. The proper Zapotec name forthe sun is copijcha. It has also a briefer name, pitoo, as in Mexican ithas the name Teotl, that is, " god ". But as the " great procreator ofall things" (el Sol con forme al engendrar las cosas que las engendra),the dictionary calls it Cozaana-tao quizaha-lao. It seems, therefore,as if we ought to accept this as the original meaning of Pitoo-Cozaana; the sun as the male j^ortion of the creative deity; and ifthis Pitoo-Cozaana was designated s])ecially as creator of l)easts, alsoas " god of the chase " and as " god of beasts, to whom the hunter andthe fisher sacrificed in order to be helped "', it seems as if we must re-call also the Mexican point of view, according to which the sun godis also looked upon as the god of the chase and of war. This concep-tion, hoAvever, is in a measure contradicted by the fact that in twoi^laces in the dictionary Cozaana is spoken of, according to the propermeaning of the word, as " procreatrix " (engendradora, procrea-dora) of beasts and of fishes. Since, noAv, the beasts of the woods andfields, as we shall see below, are brought into especial connectionwith the earth, it is still possible that Cozaana also has this meaningand is to be considered as designating either the female portion of thedual creator or, as the male portion, a god of the earth and lord ofbeasts.Huechaana, Huichana, is translated also in the dictionary by " water ", " element of water ", and Huichaana, Pitao-Huichaana, Co-chana, Huichaana, by " god, or goddess, of little children, or of birth,to whom those giving birth sacrificed " (dios o diosa de los niiios, 6de la generacion, a quien las paridas sacrificavan). Hence it is clear SELEK] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 289that this is tlie female part of the creative deity who, as I noted above,is represented opposite the male creative deity, the fire god, in theTonalamatl of the Aubin collection in the form of the water goddess,Chalchinhtlicue; and this, its special meaning, explains the singularcombination by Avhich, as stated above, Huichaana is called the cre-ator, or rather the creatrix, of men and of fishes.In this connection I must mention a legend, which is not tcjd of theZapotecs themselves but of that fragment of the Mixtec nation whichlived in the immediate neighbf)rhood of the royal city of the Zapotecs.^in the place called Coyolapan by the Mexicans, the present Cuilapa.This legend, contained in chaj^ter 4, book 5, of Origen de los Indios,by Fray Gregorio Garcia, which otherwise contributes very little tothe ancient history of Central America, gives the following accountof the origin of things : In the year and in the day of obscurity and darltness, when there were as yetno days nor years, the world was a chaos sunk in darkness, while the earth wascovered with water, on which slime and scum floated. One day the deer god(el dios Ciervo). who bore the surname "puma snake" (Culebra de Leon), and.the beautiful deer goddess (diosa Ciervo) or jaguar snake (Culebra de Tigre)appeared. They had human form, and with their great knowledge I that is,probably with their magic! they raised a great cliff over the water and built onit tine palaces for their dwelling. On the summit of this clitf they laid a copperax with the edge upward, and on this edge the heavens rested. These build-ings stood in Upper Mixteca, close to the place Apoala," and the clift' wascalled " place where the heavens stood ". The gods lived many centiu'ies inpeace, enjoying bliss, until it happened that they had two little boys, beautifulof form and skilled and experienced in all arts. For the days of their birththey were named "Wind 9 Snake" (Viento de neuve Culebras) and "Wind 9Cave" (^'iento de neuve Cavernas).Much was lavished on their education, and they possessed the knowledge ofhow to change themselves into an eagle or a snake, to make themselves invisible,and even to pass through (solid) bodies.While these gods were enjoying the profoundest peace (passed their daysin profoundest peace) they decided to make an offering and a sacrifice to theirancestors. They took for this purpose pottery incense vessels, placed firebrandsin them, and burned a quantity of finely ground poison plant (tobacco). Thatwas the first offering (to the gods). Then they made a garden with plantsand flowers, trees and fruit-bearing plants, and sweet-scented herbs. Adjoin-ing this they made a grass-grown level place (un prado) and equipped it withevei-ything necessary for sacriflce. The pious brothers lived contentedly onthat piece of ground, tilled it, burned poison plant (tobacco), and with prayers,vows, and promises they supplicated their ancestors to let the light appear, tolet the water collect in certain places, and the earth be freed from its covering(water), for they had no more than that little garden for their subsistence.In order to strengthen their prayer they pierced their ears and their tongueswith pointed knives of flint and sprinkled the blood on the trees and plants witha brush of willow twigs. "Apoala (Mexican A-pouallan, "accumulation of water") is the Mixtec Yuta-Tnoho, orYuta-Tnuhu. " the river of generation ", where the ancestors of the Mixtec rulers are saidto have come forth from trees which stood by a deep caiiada,7238?No. 28?05 19 290 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2SThe deer gods li;id more sons and daugliters ; but there came a flood inwhich many of these perislied. After the catastrophe was over the god whois called the " creator of all things " formed the heavens and the earth andrestored the human race.Thus we have here the primal pair of gods and the- actual creatorgod who procured for men light and the other conditions of humanexistence by means of his endeavors and self-castigation. Theformer, since they were designated as '" deer god " and " deer god-dess '*, were probably also considered as the father and the motherof animals, like the Pitoo-Cozaana of the Zapotecs. The latter, thereal practical creative god, has, as among the Zapotecs, an mimis-takable connection with Quetzalcoatl, since the two names givenhere are coml)ined with the determinative word " wind " ; but thispractical creative god is here conceived of as twin brothers. Thenames '' 9 snake "' and " 1) cave " appear to have been intended tomean the light and the dark brother. The second name is inter-esting because the word " cave " evidently forms the connecting ideabetween the IMexican Calli, " house ", and the Maya and ZapotecAkbal and Ela, '' night '', the names of the third day sign, whichapparently differ so very much from one another. Moreover, a dualnature is also indicated in Quetzalcoatl, since the name, as Ave know,can l)e translated '' decorative feather snake "' as well as '' the precioustwin ". Xolotl appears in the calendar pictures as the twin brotherof Quetzalcoatl. He is the sinister god of monstrosities, who wearsthe eca-ilacatz-cozquitl, the spirally-twisted wind ornament (cutfrom a snail shell), and the ear pendants made from the shell of theAvhelk. and also the head ornament of Quetzalcoatl.The primal pair of gods, as I have already mentioned, occupy thefirst place in the calendars of the picture writings, as rulers of thefirst section. In conformity with the peculiar position which Quetzal-coatl occupies in relation to the primal pair of gods and as thecreator of the world and man, he follows the primal gods, comingsecond, as the ruler of the second division of the calendar. In thethird place, as ruler of the section beginning with the day '' 1 deer ",there then follows a god in the form of a jaguar, who sits abovea mountain cave, before him the sign of war (shield, bundle ofjavelins, and spiked club), food (a vessel with maize and a pulquejar), and a costly neck ornament, and opposite liim, in some manu-scripts (Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Yaticanus A), Quetzalco-atl, and in others (Codices Borgia, page 52, and Yaticanus B, page46) ,the earth goddess Tlazolteotl or Tlaelquaui, who apparently bring;n bound captive to him for sacrifice (see figure (If, which is co])ied fromthe Borgian codex, page 52). There, where in the series of gods ofthe day signs this god would be expected to be with his female com- seler] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 291 paiiioii, at the third day sign Calli, " house '' (or Zapotec Ehi, MayaAkbal, ''night"), is the earth goddess alone expressed by the hiero-glypli of her name Thielquani, " dirt eater ", namely, by the picture ofa man eating his oAvn excrement, with the symbol of the moon (fig-ure Go), Fio. \ as of marvelous value, for it wasan emerald of the size of a thick pepper pod (capsicum), upon whicha small bird was engraved with the greatest skill, and, with the sameskill, a small serpent coiled ready to strike. The stone was so trans-parent that it shone from its interior with the brightness of a can-dle flame. It was a very old jewel, and there is no tradition extantconcerning the origin of its A^eneration and worship "'. The firstmissionary of Achiotlan, Fray Benito, afterAvard visited this place " Work cited, chap. 28. SELER] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 293 of worship and succeeded in persuading the Indians to surrender theidol to him. He had the stone g'round up, although a Spaniardoffered 3,000 ducats for it, stirred the powder in water, and pouredit upon the earth and trod upon it, in order at the same time todestroy the heathen abomination entirely, and to demonstrate inthe sight of all the impotence of the idol. It is worthy of noticetliat there existed in the immediate neighborhood of this place ofworship, in the middle of the j^lain of Yancuitlan, a second sanctuary,Avhich also had a high priest, who, however, A\as subordinate to theone at Achiotlan. This sanctuary consisted of a great cave, in therear of which the idol was set up." To a certain extent it seems tohave been considered equivalent to the aforesaid sanctuary situatedon the summit of the mountain, for it is said that those who camehither from a distance, those who were hindered by their inability towalk so far, and the women., who could not climb the rugged moun-tains of Achiotlan, made their offerings here.It is true that, as far as th(* Za]:)otec tei'ritory is concerned, this godis not expressly named in connection with the chief sanctuary of thecountry at Mitla ; but in the neighborhood of Tehuantepec, on thegreat salt-water lagoon, which was called in Burgoa's time " Lagunade San Dionisio '', and which was inhabited b}' the small tribe of tlieIluaves, there was, as Burgoa relates,^ a small wooded island shapedlike a tenq^le pyramid and abounding in game. Upon this island was " a deep and extensive cave, where the Zapotecs had one of their mostimportant and most revered idols, and they called it ' soul and heartof the kingdom (Alma y Corazon del Reyno)' because these barba-rians were persuaded that this fabulous deity was Atlas, upon whomthe land rested and who bore it on his shoulders, and when he movedhis shoulders the earth was shaken with unwonted tremblings; andfrom his favor came the victories which they won and the fruitfulyears which yielded them the means of living"''. There was an oracleconnected also with this temple, and the last king of Tehuantepec,Cocijo-Pij, is said to have received here from the god the informationthat the rule of the Mexicans was at an end and that it was not pos-sible to withstand the Spaniards. AVhen the baptized king was laterseized and imprisoned on account of his falling back into idolatrythe vicar of Tehuantepec, Fray Bernardo de Santa Mai-ia. soughtout the island, forced his way into the cave, and found there a largequadrangular chaml)er, carefully swept, with altarlike structui'esaround on the sides, and on tliem many incense vessels, ridi and (-ostlyofferings of valuable materials, gorgeous feathers, and disks and neck-laces of gold, most of them sju'inkled with freshly drawn blood.There is no record of finding an idol here. Unlike the padre Fray " Burgoa, work cited, cliaii. ;{2. '' Work cited, chaps. 72 and T.'). 294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bttll. 2SBenito, the vicar of Tehuantepec seized all these ornaments, an inven-tory A\ as taken, and by order of the viceroy the j^roceeds of the sale ofthese objects were emi^loyed for the benefit.of the church.It is certain that the expressions mentioned here, " Corazon delPueblo "' and " Corazon del Reyno " are only translations of the nameTepeyollotl, for tepetl means in Mexican not merely " mountain ",but also '' place " ; tepe-pan, " in the place ", " in the country " ; cecentepepan is translated in Molina's dictionary l)y " in every town " (encada pueblo 6 ciudad). The Mixtec translation of the name Tepe-yollotl would probably have been Jni-nuu; and the Zapotec, Lachi-Gueche. However, no deities of any such names are mentioned.According to the passage last quoted it may nevertheless be assumedwith certainty that this god. Corazon del Reyno, Avas a deity of theearth and that earthquakes were asci'il)ed to him. It is thereforeprobable that he is identical with the god who is mentioned in thedictionary of Father Juan de Cordova as Pitao-Xoo, '' god of earth-quakes " (dios de los temblores de tierra).Moreover, the Iviiowledge and the worship of this god was not con-fined to the Mixtec or Zapotec races, but existed, perhaps more exten-sively, among the Maj^a tribes bordering on the south, the Zotzils andthe Tzentals, for there is no doubt that the often-mentioned godVotan of the Tzentals is identical with Tepeyollotl, hence withthe Zajjotec Pitao-Xoo. This aj)pears from the etymology of thename, Avhich, it seems, means in Tzental, simply, " heart '', '" breast 'VThis is furthermore expressly mentioned by Bishop Nunez de la Vega,who states at the conclusion of the paragraph referred to that thisgod was called in some provinces Corazon de los Pueblos; and, finally,this is proved by the fact that this Votan is also the ruler of the thirdday sign. The third day sign, that is, the sign which the Mexicanscall Calli, *' house '", and the other Maya races generally call Akbal, '? night ", by the Tzentals is simply called Votan, after the god him-self. I quote here the statement which Bishop Nunez de la Vegamakes concerning this deity, because it serves to complete the picturein some particulars. The bishop writes :^Yotan is the third beatlien iii the calendar [that is, the deity who is ascribed tothe third division of the calendar], and in the littie history written in the Indianlanguage all the provinces and cities in which he tarried were mentioned ; and tothis day there is always a clan in the city of Teopisa that they call the Votans.It is also said that he is the lord of the hollow wooden instrument which they calltejtanaguaste [that is, the Mexican tepouaztli] ; that he saw the great wall,namely, the tower of Babtl, which was built from earth to heaven at the bidding ? Brinton has proved this in lis book Hero Myths, p. 217. In a copy of bilingualdirections for administering the sacrament, of the year 1707, which is in Brintou'spossession, the following passage occurs : Ta zpizil auotan, " con todo iu corazon (witliall thy heart)"; xatigh xny auotan, " hirrendote en los pechos (wounding thee in thebosom)"; zghoyoc alagh ghoyoc, " di conmigo (spealc with me)". ^ Nunez de la Vega, Constituciones Diocesanas I'reamlnilo, no. 34, sec. ."50. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY i>_p^-_:Lr' ^-^ ~-J..' .">"Ix^'r^y<^^<^:l.^^-<:^ BULLETIN 28 PLATE XXXII5) \vy. ' r-=i- ir? ^ ^ ^llllir^ ' , n^r-^/^V^^ -'n^V' RELIEF DESIGNS FROM THE WALLS AT MITLA selkk] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 295 of his grandfather, Noah ; and that he was the first man whom God sent todivide and apportion this country of India, and tliat there, where he saw tliegreat wall, he gave to every nation its special language. It is related that hetarried in Huehueta [wlilch is a city in SoeonuscoJ and that there he placed atapir and a great treasure in a sli])pery [damp, dark, suhterranean | house,which he huilt iiy the breath of his nostrils, and he ajipointed a woman aschieftain, with tapianes [tiiat is, Mexican tlapiani, "keepers"] to guard her.This treasure consisted of jars, which were closed with covers of the same clay,and of a room in which the picture of the ancient heathens who are in the cal-endar were engra\cd in stone, together with chalchiuites [which are small,heavy, green stones] and other superstitious images: and the chieftainess her-self and the tapianes, her guardians, surrendered all these things, which werepulilicly Iturned in the market jtlace of Huehueta when we insjiected the afore-said province in 1091. Al! the Indians greatly revere this Votan, and in acertain province they call him "heart of the cities" (Corazon de los puel)los).Thus writes Nunez de la Vega. I add in conclusion that the batgod also, Avho was the national god of the Cakchikels, whose form is Fk;. ( h r aMexican symbols and flgures of deities, from the Mendoza codex and theSahagiin manuscript.frequentl}^ met with on antiquities m Guatemala and Yucatan, andwhose picture, as I have proved," is to be found in the Borgian, Vati-canus B, and Fejervsiry codices, may have had some remote connectionAvith this IMtao-Xoo, Tepeyollotl, or Votan.The sun, as f mentioned above, was called by the Zapotecs Copijchaor, more briefly, Pitoo, " the god ". So also the Mexicans in familiarspeech frequentl}^ said Teotl, " god ", Avhen they meant the sun ; Teotl ac, " the god has gone in (gone into the house)", is equivalentto the " sun has gone down " ; and wherever in Mexican city hiero-glyphs the syllable teo was to be represented it is always expressedby the picture of the sun (a, figure 67). The cities also whose namescontained the syllable teo were generally ancient seats of sun worship, " Zeltschrift fiir [^thnoIo.s,'ie, v. !.'?!, 1804, pp. (.'.77)-(5S.5). 296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28like the famous Teotihuacan, abandoned in prehistoric times, where inthe midst of desohited fiehls and the fiat mounds which indicate thesites of ancient dwellings still rise the two high pyramids of the sunand the moon.There is no actual record of sun worship among the ancient Zapo-tecs; but there was, and is, in the ancient tribal countr}^ of the Zapo-tecs, in the Valle de Oaxaca, a place which is called in MexicanTeotitlan, '' near the sun god "; in Zapotec, Xa-Quie, " at the foot ofthe stone ". This village, as Father Hurgoa relates," was one of themost important and oldest cities of the Zapotecs, and there, on a rockycrag, directly opposite the houses of the village, was a very ancientsanctuary, where an idol uttered oracles in a terrific, rumbling voice,which sounded as if it came from the depths of the earth; andthis idol was said " to have come from heaven, in the foi-m of a bird,in a luminous constellation " (fingiendo haver venido del cielo, enfigura de ave, en una lumiosa constelacion).It admits of no doubt that this luminous bird is to be regardedmerely as a particular conception of the sun god. So also descendedabout noon in Izamal, as Father Lizana relates,'' the idol calledKinich Kaknio, which means, " sun with a face whose rays Avere offire '', to consume the sacrifice on the altar, " as the red guacamayo(macaw) flies down with his bright feathers '\ We often meet Avitiisimilar conceptions on the American continent. The Zapotecs calledthe sun's rays simply " foot, sting, or plumage of the sun " (xinnij,xicoocho, xilouela copijcha).*^^This Zapotec Teotitlan generally had the addition del valle (" ofthe valley''), to distinguish it from the Teotitlan which is situatedon the road from Oaxaca, on the boundaries of the Mazateca, andwhich on that account generally receives the addition of del camino("of the road") (see the hieroglyph in a). Herrera makes somestatements concerning the latter place,** from which it would seemthat there the god Xipe, " the flayed one '', received s})ecial wor-ship. In fact, a number of characteristic Xipe representationsfrom Teotitlan del camino have found their way into the collec-tions, together with representations of the rain god. The EoyalMuseum of Ethnology in Berlin possesses a beautiful large potteryimage of Xipe, which Professor Felix obtained in Teotitlan del cam-ino. But, during my stay in that place, I found most frequentlycomplete figures and fragments of a deity distinguished by a white " Work cited, chap. 53.6 Histoi-ia de Yucatan, Devocionario de Nuestra Senora de Izmal, Valladolid, 1633,la. part 7, chap. 4.'"Compare lohue. " plumas, las ordenes dellas (lue tieneii lospapagallos en si (feathers,the kinds thereof that parrots have on them)"; Lohue-yache, "las amarillas (the yel-low) " : Lohufe-yiia, " las azules (the hlue) " ; Lohue-naxinaa, L. huijta, " las coloradas(the red)" (.Tuan de Cordova, Vocahulario). " Decada III, book 3, chap. 18, p. 102. seler] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 297design resembling a butterfly about the mouth, whose face, paintedin many colors, looks out of the open jaws of a bird with a talland erect crest. We succeeded in bringing home a complete spec-imen of this sort, which is now in the Royal Museum of Eth-nology in Berlin, and a copy of this (front and side views) is givenon plate xlii, reproduced by pliotographic process. The worshipof this deity, who, in character is evidently identical with the idol ofthe Zapotec Teotitlan del valle, seems to have been remarkably wide-spread. Countless stone images of this deity, of whose bird's-headmask only the towering crest remained, have been found in the moun-tains of the slope toward the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in thosestrijjs of territory which succumbed to the so-called Chichimec inva-sion, the expansion of the higliland Naliua tribes. In the capital,Mexico, this deity was known under the name of Macuil-xochitl, " 5 flower ", and was regarded as the deity of luck in gaming." Helias a dark brother, to whom the name Ixtlilton, " the little black-face *', was given in Mexico, and to him they turned for help when a hPre. 68. Gods Maciiil-xocliitl and Ixtlilton, from Mexican codices.their children were ill. I have reproduced (in c and edded in the Fio. 69. Zapotec relief frasrments from Teotitlan. walls of houses and churches in Teotitlan. as well as in those of theneighboring ^lacuilxochic. Other pieces have already been i)lacedin the Museo de Oaxaca. What relief fragments I have met with Ihave reproduced in figures 00 ar^d 70. which are. of course, onlysketches and make no pretensions to special accuracy. The frag-ments in h and <\ figure TO. are now in the museum at Oaxaca : ?>.figure 05). was still to be seen in ^lacuilxochic when I was there, while(I. figure 09. and a. figure 70. are embedded in the wall of the church ofTeotitlan del valle. It is quite evident that the reliefs exhibit. selkk] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 299besides the jaguar, the special h)cal deity, a man whose face is heldby the jaws of a bird; that is, the g-od who came down tVom Fig. 70. Zapotcc relief frasments from Teotitl.in.heaven in the form of a bird. A sharply defined feather crest on thetop of the head is seen here, as in the pottery idols of the Maciiil- 300 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 xochitl of Teotitlan del camino, and this again points to the identityof the deities worshiped in both cities.As to the other conceptions of tlie sun held by the Zapotecs, Juandel Cordova mentions in his grammar " the remarkable impressionwhich the eclipse of the sun made on the ancient Zapotecs. Theyfeared nothing less than the end of the world, war of all against all,and murder on all sides; and since they had a notion that dwarfswere created at the bidding of the sun, when an event like theone above mentioned occurred they seized upon all dwarfed personswherever found and sacrificed them, in this way paying their debtto the sun, as it were, by restoring that which belonged to it.There is not much to be extracted from literature concerningthe other deities worshipped by the Zapotecs. Besides the sun, themoon, certainly also some of the stars, received a certain sort ofworship. Of the moon the Zapotecs believed, as did the Mexicansand other peoples, that the Avomen stood in speeial relation to it.If there was an eclipse of the moon, they thought it indicated thedeath of the wives of the caciques and chieftains.'' I have alreadyspoken of the morning star and its relation to the wind god and the<^reative deities. Moreover, the Pleiades seem to have been especiallyregarded, and the Zapotecs called them Pi/.aana-Cache, the " sevenboys "\The rain god, who, as I have already stated above, was calledCocijo by the Zapotecs, evidently had a special significance. With-out doubt he was entirely similar in form and conception to the Mex-ican Tlaloc. Large stone images and small figures with the char-acteristic features of Tlaloc have been frequently found also in theZapotec country ; and, as I have stated above, children in particularwere sacrificed to the rain god among both the Mexicans and theZapotecs.A god whom the dictionary calls Pitao-Cozobi, " god of the har-vests " (dios de las mieses), appears to have stood in a certain rela-^Jtion to the rain god. Human sacrifices were also made to him, and^"the people sacrificed to him were called peni-nije, j)eni-quij-nije, orpen i-cocijo.A special ceremony relating to the increase of the fruits of thefield Avas recorded from the village of Quiecolani. Father Burgoarelates ^ that at the time of harvesting in this village, which wasfamed throughout Die province for the quantity, size, and superiority iof its maize, tlie ear wliich was the largest, fullest, and most conspicu- |ous for its beauty and the perfection of its kernels was selected, and |this was honored with demonstrations of all kinds; "for thev said "Arte (lei idioma znpotero, p. 215. ''.Tiian de Cordova. Arte, p. 215. , ? Work cited, chap. 67. t SKLKR] DEITIES AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS 301that in it the god was present who had furnished them with every-thing besides, and, as the abode of the god, they, with much burningof incense, addressed worship and prayers to it while they placed itui3right on an altar and honored it with songs and merry dances.They dressed it in clothes, which were made according to itsmeasure, and hung upon it small green stones which were theirjewels, and after they had offered it sacrifice it was rolled in awhite cotton cloth and thus preserved. When the season for plow-ing the land and planting the seed returned they notified andsmnmoned the priests, and the foremost men of the village assem-bled in the house where the gaily decked ear of maize was kept, andafter repeating the heathenish ceremonies in its honor they beggedits permission to carry it out to watch over the fields; and then apriest took it, rolled it in a clean deerskin which he had broughtwith him for this purpose, and they all went together to a placein the midst of their planted fields, where they had made for itof stones an ovenlike hole in the ground, and in this they placed it,Avith much burning of incense, and earnestly besought it to takeunder its gracious protection the seeds of these poor men who hopedfor their means of subsistence at its hands, and they covered theplace [with earth j so that they could see it from afar without anyonedaring to apjiroach. If the year Avas a fruitful one, they took it outwith great solemnity at the harvesting of the crops, thanked it forthe liberality with which it had given them food, and the ear ofmaize, Avhich had become entirely moldy from the dampness, wasdivided among those present as a relic and a sacred object ".Pinopiaa, the goddess of the fruitful vega of Xalapa, aboveTehuantepec. seems to have been a deity of the earth. The sanctu-ary of this goddess, whom later tradition declared to be a daughterof the Zapotec king Cocijo-eza Avho had been changed into stoneafter her death, was found on the sunnnit of a small mountain, where,in the middle of a small plaza, were four stone slabs, so placed asto form a roof, and under them the idol of the goddess, a cone-shapedwhite stone. When the matter became known and the monks hunted(loAvn the priests and devotees of this goddess it was found thatthe belief was spread among the Christian Indians of Xalapa thatSt. Katharine of Sienna, who had her church in one of the quartersof Xalapa, was identical with the goddess Pinopiaa and that thespecial worship which was devoted to that saint was really meantfor the daughter of King Cocijo-eza who was turned into stoneafter death."A number of other deities are mentioned in the dictionary ofFather Juan de Cordova, with their functions, but without further " Biirgoa, work cited, chap. 71. 302 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 28particulars as to their position or importance in the system of wor-ship. Thus was Co(iui-Lao, the '"lord of poultry"; Pitao-Peeze,Pitao-Quille, or Pitao-Yaxe, the god of merchants and the lord ofwealth: Pitao-Zij, Pitao-Yaa, or Pitao-Tee, the god of poverty andmisfortune; Pixee, or Pecala (properly " sleep ", " dream "), the godof desire (luxuria, el asmodeo, 6 demonio que incita, como dicen, eldios de amor, "lust, Asmodeus, or the demon who entices, as they say,the god of love '') ; Pitao-Xicala. or Pecala, the god of dreams; Pitao-Piji, Peezi, or Pijze, the god of omens; and Pitao-Pezelao, the godof the underworld.P'inally, we have an abundant and unsophisticated source of infor-mation, wdiich ought to give us the key to the mythical conceptions ofthe Zapotecs, in the antiquities of the country, the images of stoneand especially those of pottery, the large and small figures, the figurevessels, the pottery Avhistles and small pottery heads, found in greatnumbers in the country, which Avas once thickly populated andabounds in graves. In an earlier work " I have discussed in detailone of the principal tj'pes of these antiquities, the remarkable greatfigure vases, distinguished by gigantic head ornaments and a pecu-liarly conventionalized face, in which the most conspicuous featuresare i)uffings over the eyebrows and under the eyes and a serpent'sjaw set into the human countenance. As to the form of the vessels,I refer to plate xxxvi, where three vessels from Mitla. now in theMuseo Nacional de Mexico, are reproduced. The vessel standingon the right side of the page shows the human face with the insertedserpent's jaw. I have represented other forms in my treatise referredto above. They were probably all burial vessels. I have selectedtAvo figures of the picture writings to exiDlain the deity representedon these vessels. On pages 5, 30, and 33 of the Vienna codex adeity is represented who is painted in a dark color and, like Ixtlilton(see <", figure 67), wears a crest decorated with stone knives, andabout this are wound a couple of serpents, while a serpent crawlsout of his mouth. The deity is designated in each of the threepassages by the day, "4 snake", and in one of them (page 30) he isaccompanied by a dragon, which bears a sun disk on its back. Oppo-site him, as the companion figure, is the wind god Quetzalcoatl,who is designated by the day " 9 wind " and accompanied by a kindof serpent with a dog's or a jaguar's head (?, figure 71). Identicalwith this figure of the deity " -i snake'' is another (6, figure 71),which forms in the Borgian codex, page 14, one of the four deitieswdio are evidently distributed according to the four points of thecompass: Tlaloc, this god with the serpent in his mouth, Mix- ? Die sogenannten sakralen Gefiisse der Zapoteken ( VeroffentUchungen aus dem KOnig-lichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde, Bund I, Heft 4, pp. 182-188). BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XXXV .a,~?il- POTTERY FRAGMENTS FROM 2AACHILLA AND CUILAPA yALL PAINTINGS 307 court. Hence the sun glyph in the middle of this side in Palace IVmust certainly be looked upon as the sign of the palace.There is in fragment 1, besides pedunculate oculiforni elementsand the stone knives, which here represent the rays of the sun glyph,a design, already mentioned, which consists of an eye with an (>yebro\vrolled up at the ends, on which rest elongated (protriuling) eyes,l:?etween Avhich latter are inserted three pointed elements resemblingrays. In the Mexican figurative symbolism eyes are very generallyemployetl to express radiating light. Lustrous stones (emerald, tur-qouise, and muscovite) are expressed heiroglyphically by a disk that Fig. 72. Symbols and figure of deities, from Mexican codices.is marked differently according to the nature of the stone, and on itscircumference are drawn four eyes placed in the form of a cross (seethe hieroglyph chalchiuitl. *? emerald ", in the pyramidal structure ofthe temple, a, figure To). The stars shining down from the nightsky are designated by eyes which are attached to the surface and tothe rim of a stripe or half circle painted in a dark, nebulous color(see the representation of day and night in the middh* design ofligure oS and the (h'awing of night with the symbol of the moon, alabbit in a watery field, in figure 05 and <(, figure 7;2).It seems, therefore, certain that the composite designs in fragment1 are intended to represent radiating light. One is even tempted 308 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28to ascribe to them a special meaning. If the eyes mean stars, thiseye surounded by otlier radiating eyes might be intended toindicate an especially brilliant star; jDerhaps Citlalpol, the "greatstar ", that is, the planet Venns, But the conjecture is contradictedby the fact that where the planet Venus is jilainly expressed in thepicture writings as an astronomic body it is designated by the date. " 1 reed " ; as, for example, in the group m a, figure 72, the symbol ofthe morning star and the moon," which, in the Borgiaii codex, page44, is drawn beside the great picture of the sun god, and in ?, figure('3, from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, beside the deity of the morn-ing star. The gleaming eye of fragment 1 is generally represented ina blue field, a clear sky, as in Z>, figure 72, and a, figure 73, from the Vi-enna codex, pages 47 and 48, and in similar pictures in the same codex,page 52, where the creative gods are seen enthroned in the clear bluesky. In the Borgian codex, pages ()2 to GO, are found a number ofcomplicated representations which refer to the deities of the fourpoints of the compass and of the center, the fifth point of the compass,or the interior of the earth. Here the house of the sun, in the east, isdesignated by c, figure 74, in which the yellow-straw roof is seen to beprovided with a cornice of flowers, while the house of the eartli or of .?^tone, in the north, is crowned with a row of stone kniv^es, and thehouse of the oavI, in the south, is formed entirely' of human bones.Now, there are houses exactly like this house of the sun in the east oncertain pages of the Borgian codex, Cronica Mexicana, chap. 38. SELEn] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 309the Borgian codex (figure G6) is represented opposite Tepej^ollotl. Itis probably intended to represent the house of the earth or stone.In the Vienna codex, page 38, in exactly the same way, a mountain M^ b (Fig. 73. Descent of Quetzalcoatl and house symlwls. fromthe Vienna codex.(painted green, as usual), with the radiating eye on its surface, isplaced opposite another mountain, painted brown and black, thecolor of stone, out of which rise tongues of fire {h, figure T-i). In 310 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BrLL. 28the Vienna codex is found also a representation where the radiatingeye is enthroned in a house of its oAvn (figure 76). This palaceof the radiating eye is represented on a mountain, on whose surface [>VynV^?VU^^^ ^a 1) (Pig. 74. Venus symbol and figures of mountains and house, from Maya and Mexican codices. is indicated a blossoming tree, and opposite is seen, clothed in eaglearray, the deity " 9 rolling ball ". We have already seen thissame deity in the remarkable representation in figure 73, where, a hFig. 75. Temple aud sun symbol, from the Borgian codex. clothed in eagle array, he and a god with an alligator mask, togetherwith the descending Quetzalcoatl, are bringing down from theheavens the houses of the clay and the night. Night is here repre-sented (see &, figure 73) by a head with closed eyes. This representa- seler] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 311tion is one which can unqucstioiiahly be compared with the reiDresen-tations of day and niyht aniona- the so-called celestial shields of theMaya manuscripts, and it i)roves that 1 was entirely in the right when1 pronounced this sign of the night in the Maya manuscripts, which isat the same time the hieroglyj^h for the numeral 20, to be a head withempty, bleeding eye sockets." The entire picture in figure 73 appearsto be a remarkable parallel to <(, figure 74, fn)m the Dresden manu-script, which was interpreted by Fih'stemann as the descent of Venus. Fig. 70. Mexican deity, from the Vienna codex.I even feel inclined to recognize the original form of the Maya sign,which Forstemann regards as the hieroglyph of the planet Venus, inthe object set with five eyes which is carried on the staff of thedescending Quetzalcoatl. If that is the case there is so much theless reason for accepting the theory that the planet Venus wasintend(Hl to be represented by the eye surroimded by radiating eyes infragment 1. A smnming up of the points demonstrated above provesbeyond a doubt, I think, that the eye surrounded by radiating eyes isnot a '" star eye ", as I myself formerly designated it, but an eye oflight, a " sun eye ", kin-ich, as the Mayas called it. Therefore, wemay consider this eye of light of fragment 1 without hesitation ashomologous to the faces surrounded by radiating eyes in the otherfragments of plate xxxvii. For the notions '' ej'e " and " face " are "See Zeitsclu-ift fiir Etlinologie, v. 19 (18871, pp. ( J;{7)-(l'4G). 312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28merged one in the other in the languages of Mexico and CentralAmerica."There is, besides, a representation in which a deity of this " eye oflight " or '^ eye of rays '' is presented tous directly. It is on that one of the fa-mous relief slabs of Santa Lucia Cozu-malhuapa which is now in the RoyalMuseum of Ethnology at Berlin, and Ireproduce it here in figure 77 (after C.Habel, but with some cori-ections).Here is seen the deity hovei'ing above,and before him, below, the dancerdressed in the attributes of the deity.The head of the deity is set. as it were,like an eye under a large eyebrow whichis curled up at the ends, and on whichrest three zigzag rays. The dancer wearsin his hair ornament the eye set in aneyebrow with three upright points, and asimilar eye is above him on the end of aseparate staff. The otlier atti'ihutes, suchas the jaguar's skin which hangs downfrom the back of the dancer, the point ofthe spear, which is seen behind, and thejaguar's head, which he wears as a handmask and as a decoration on his belt, showthat we have before us the deity of a burn-ing star, of the sun itself.No part of the representations Avhichwere below the border of clear sky ispresei'ved on the east side of T'alace TV(fragment 1, plate xxxvii). On thenorth side can be seen the head of Xipe ''near the western end (fragment 2, platexxxvii). The god is recognized by thenarroAv eye, the forked nose ornament, andthe broad red stripe, of the w^idth of the eye, that passes down thewhole length of the face, which seems to connect this deity, much woi'-shiped in the Atlantic Sierra Madre and the coast lands lying before "Compare Mexican: Ixtll, "la haz o la cara (the front or the face)"; ix-telolotll, " ojo(eye)"; Zapotec : lao, loo, piahui-lao-ni, "haz'por el rostro o cara del hombre (front tothe beak or face of a man)"; 13,0, piz^a-lao, "ojo con que vemos, 6 ojos (eye with whichwe see, or eyes)"; Maya: ich, "cara, ojos, vista, semljlante. haz, anverso (face, eyes,aspect, appearance, front, oltverse)". '' See, concerning this god, Tonalamatl der Aubinschen Sammlung, work cited, pp.657-675, and Verolfentlichungen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde, v. 1,pt. 4, pp. 145, 146 (illustration, fig. 13, p. 151). Fig. 77. Sculptured slab, SantaLucia Cozumalhuapa, Guate-mala. '<^Mi=^ WALL PA1^ 5 AT MITLA IKVSaTE^' BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XXXVIImm .^Jmi^v ^^-^ /ALL PAINTINGS AT MITLA 1B7I1^1^^' II SELER] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 813 it^ with a well-known deity of the Maya manuscripts, a deity of war,fire, and death, who appears in the retinue of. the death god. Xipe inour fragment does not appear directly as the " stone-knife god " (Iztapal totec, that is, Ttz-tlapalli, or Tlapal-itztli, Totec), as, for exam-ple, in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis ; but he wears a crown of stoneknives, from which hangs a feather plume. Beside him, on the right,are visible the heads and bodies of two serpents, having a row ofpoints along their backs.In fragment 3 there can be recognized two persons sitting with theirarms crossed over their breasts, evidently two penitents, for be-tween them project two sharpened thigh bones, implements of self-castigation, which served to pierce the tongue, ears, or limbs in orderto draw blood for sacrifice to the deity.The remnants still preserved in fragment 4 will no longer permit ofinterpretation. In fragment 5, however, we still have on each sideof the sun glyph a continuous representation. On the right and left,from the sun glyph, which is flanked by steplike structures, a cord isseen to proceed, which is set with eyes (stars) and the eyes of lightor rays discussed in detail above. Figures falling from the skyborder, wearing peculiar wigs, which rise to a crest and are curledlike waves, grasp at these cords, to which cling, from below recum-bent female forms with jaguar claws. These latter may perhaps beconsidered as homologous Avith the " ilhuica-tzitzquique " of ^,figure 75. The incident seems intelligible. The sun is being clraAvnout of its cave. A legend descriptive of such an incident has, how-ever, not yet been discovered.It is difficult to interpret other remains of figures which can still bedistinguished in fragment 5. On the left side of the fragment thehead of a bird seems partially visible. Farther toward the middle,just on the left of the sun glyph, is the head of a jaguar. It seems "as if this jaguar were intended to bear on its back the entire structurecontaining the image of the sun, for on the right of the sun glyph andequally distant from it there seems to hang down the tail of thejaguar. A scorpion, with one claw and upward-curling tail, is plainlyvisible at the right end of the fragment.Fragments 6 to 11 on plate xxxvii, belonging to the east side of thecourt adjoining Palace I, are more carefully drawn and more deli-cately executed than the paintings of Palace IV. The bird formswith clearly marked crests are very interesting objects here. Theseappear on the left (northern) end of the picture (fragment 6) as com-plete birds; then half turned into men (fragment 10) ; finally, on theright (southern) end (fragment 11), the full human face looks out ofthe bird face, which is reduced to a helmet mask. These bird formsand bird men are evidently identical with the idol of Teotitlan delvalle, whose form I was able to show in the reliefs reproduced abovt' 314 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28in figures 69 and 70. The fact that these figures occur in the rep-resentations of the east side of this court, in the house of the sun. is aproof of the correctness of my conjecture that this idol of Teotithmis the sun bird, which conjectui'c I liave ah'eady mentioned above andwhich was directly suggested by the name Teotitlan itself.Besides the sun bird two figures of the wand god, Quetzalcoatl,strike us as significant on the east side of the court of Palace I, frag-ments 7 and of plate xxxyii. They are recognizable from the ocelo-copilli. the round, conical cap of jaguar skin, and from the winglikefeather ornament on the nape of the neck, concerning which I shallspeak farther on. In regard to the other remains of figures, variousheads of serpents are still rec()gnizal)le ; at the right end of frag-ment 7 is a deity in a watery field, from the sui'face of which rise twodivergent branches, bordered by what seem to be curling wreaths ofsmoke ending in bunches of fiowers or feathers; and in fragment 8is evidently another deity, a counterpart to the first one.The whole of ])late xxxviii and fragments 1 to 5 of plate xxxixare taken from the north, the principal, side of the side court ofPalace I. The border here, as on the .south side, is formed of simpledisks. The underlying idea of this design is doubtless that of thestone disks (representing turquoise, emerald, or other preciousstones), which we find expressed in the headbands, especially in thatof the sun god, in the picture writings and stone figures.The representations on this north side of the court are uncommonlyrich and manifold, and it is only to be regretted that so large a por-tion of the paintings are already destroyed, and also that we do notknow the particular form of the legends which are expressed in thesepaintings.Undoubtedly the god Quetzalcoatl is the central figure of theselegends. His picture can be recognized in the painted fragments onthis side of the court no fewer than nine times (in fragments 3, 4a, 4b,and 5 of plate xxxvii and in fragments 1, 3, and 4 of plate xxxix).I have spoken at lengtli concerning the nature of this god and hisattributes in my article on the Tonalamatl of the Aubin collection,"and in my translation of the chapter on the costumes of the gods ofthe Aztec Sahagun text.''The god is represented in the painted fragments of Mitla, in everyinstance, with the ocelo-copilli on his head, the round conical capof jaguar skin, in which are fixed the implements of castigation?onone side, the sharpened thigh bone, from whose condyle blood flowsor a flower is pendent, and on the other side, the sharp, prickly point " Compte rendu VII. Session Congr&s International des Amtjricanistes, Berlin, 18S8,pp. {>45-559.* Veroffientlichungen aiis dem Konlglichen Museum fiir Vtillierljiinde, v. 1, pt. 4, pp.126-1 -JO. seleh] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 315 of an agfave leaf. The round ends of the head knots, which are char-acteristic of Quetzalcoatl, for eveiythin, from the 316 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [lu-i.t.. 28Vienna codex, page 30; c, from the Borgian codex, and d, fromCodex Telleriano-Remensis, page 2). These intervening parts of thefeather ornaments for the nape of the neck, especially in fragment 7of plate XXXVII, are ver^^ much like the oculiform designs which sur-round radially the faces of light in the sky border.Therefore this figure, as well as ?, from the Colombino codex (Dor-enberg codex), recalls A^ery strikingly the eyes of light, or radial eyes,which I have already described in detail, and for this reason I believethat this feather ornament for the back of the neck, cuezal-uitoncatlis also intended to be a representation of the sun as well as that eye oflight, or radial eye. QuetzalcoatI or a kindred form is portrayedin Codex Telleriano-Remensis II, page 25, rising from the jaws ofthe night monster, with the sun on his back, and in the picture fromthe Borgian codex reproduced in 6, figure 75, is represented hisbrother Xolotl, with the sun disk on his back. The red guacamayofeathers have indeed already pointed to this connection; for the redguacamayo is the xilouela copijcha, as the Zapotecs called it, thecuezal-tonameyotl of the Mexican Sahagun text, that is, " the pictureor the ]-eflection of the sun". The picture of the sun god was deco-rated with the feather ornament, cuezal-tonameyotl, on the day NauiOllin, " 4 rolling ball '', which was dedicated to the sun.? It isan important circumstance for the perfect understanding of theseforms and, not less, for the knowledge of the province which was thehome of this god or in which the people dwelt among whom thisform of the wind god was worshipped that in the description ofcostumes in the Aztec Sahagun text Macuil Xochitl and Ixtlilton, thelight and the dark brother, are likewise provided with an uitoncatl,otherwise called cuezal-uitoncatl. We recognized this light and darkbrother in the idol of the Zapotec Xa quie, or Teotitlan del valle,as well as in that of Teotitlan del camino, situated near the boundarybetween the Nahua tribes and the Mazateca. In the capital, Mexico,the city of Uitzilopochtli, QuetzalcoatI had no festival, scarcelya place of worship, nor in the other cities of the Valle de Mexico,with the single exception of Mizquic ; but he had a sanctuary in Cho-lula, and from that point along the entire road over which the Tol-tecs, the wandering Nahua tribes, are said to have passed we findmore or less evident traces of his worship until we reach Cozcatlan,inhabited by Mexican-speaking Pipils, in the present republic ofSan Salvador.'' It was the Toltecs, or the Nahua race, " who werefamiliar with Mexican, although they did not speak it as perfectly asthey use the language to-day ", whose lord and god was QuetzalcoatI. " Since they were quick of wit and apt in trade the}^ succeeded in a " Sahagun, v. -1, chap. 2. '' Palacio. irelacion de Guatemala. Coleccion de Documentos in^ditos del ArchiveGeneral de las Indias. v. C (1886), p. 20 and following. SELBR] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 317phort time in acquiring riches, and men said their god Quetzalcoatlgave them these, and so it Avas said among them of one who becamerich rapidly that he was a son of Quetzalcoatl "." The same author-ity '' makes a similar statement concerning the Olmecs, Uixtotins, andMixtecs? (under which name, as I stated above, are included differenttribes of the tierra caliente, and probably also the Zapotecs), to wit,that likewise among these " there Avere many Avho spoke the Mexicanlanguage " (iniquein miequintin in navatlatoa). Doubtless the formof this god passed to the Zapotecs from the conquering and trad-ing Nahua tribes, and perhaps the key to this frieze of Mitla, soabounding in figures, might have been found among the Nahua tril)es,neighbors of the Zapotecs, in Teotitlan or in Teouacan (Tehvuican),full of idols and priests and productive of picture writings.The western part of the frieze on the north side in Palace I ispretty thoroughly destroyed. In consequence, fragment 1 on plateXXXVIII shows in general only disconnected remains. Two inter-twined serpents, characterized by a row of points on the back, arequite distinct and recall those of fragment 2 on plate xxxvii. Fur-thermore there is a bird Avith a pointed beak, which appears againbelow on fragment 4b, plate xxxviii. The numerals 1 and 2 arecoordinated in the Borgian codex, page 4-1, Avith tAvo bird formsAvhich apparently correspond to this one of the pointed beak. Finally,there is preserved at the right end of fragment 1 a deit}^ Avho wearsa bar in the nose that diminishes in steps, like those by which thedeities of the earth, Chantico and Xochiquetzal, are characterized inthe Borgian codex. The elaborate painting of the face recalls alsothe Xochiquetzal of the Borgian codex, page 53.In fragment 3 of plate xxxviii are to be first noticed two picturesof the sun god. They can be recognized by the headband, Avhich isset with disks representing precious stones and has a bird's head infront, and by tAVO lines Avhich border the outer corners of the eyes.The sun god in the Borgian codex, page 49, is represented oppositethe moon god, as ruler of the sixth A\'eek, '^ 1 death ", in exactly thesame way (see beloAV, figure 82). The forward one of the tAvo figuresin fragment 3 appears to hold a cup in his hand, the other a disk orball. Opposite the latter a god is portrayed who also wears the step-shaped, tapering nose bar of the earth goddess. To this god the daydate seems to belong, which consists of the head of the rain god(quiauitl, " rain ") Avith a numeral which can no longer be identified.Behind the second figure of the sun god is given the year date ''7 (?)flint". After this folloAvs a representation difficult to interpret, inAA^hich can be recognized a mountain, Avith a finely drawn head of aturkey, and Avith a house (?) on its summit.Fragment 4-a begins with a serpent, Avhich has the head of Quetzal- " Saliagun, v. 10, chap. 29, sec. 1. "11)1(1., sec. 1(>. 318 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 coatl and lies along the roof of a lionse. Then follows unmistakablythe figure of Xolotl," the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl, characterizedby the physiognomy of an animal (dog?)- He is adorned wathQuetzalcoatl's conical cap of jaguar skin and his necklace of snailshells. The torn ears of a dog appear here almost in the shape offeather tufts.After Xolotl the drawing of a mountain, or town, Avith the hiero-glyph '' emerald " on its surface, and on its top a house, follotws, andout of the roof of the house grows a blossoming tree. Then followtwo human forms facing downward, which bear two mountains(towns) on their backs by means of the mecapal. a carrying strappassing over the forehead. The first is characterized by waA^ng lineson its surface, in the middle of which are two mirrors. On its sum-mit it bears the house Avith the blossoming trees. The other mountainhas on its surface the hieroglyph '" mirror " repeated three times,one aboA'e the other, and on its summit it has the head of a turkey.In fragment 5 on plate xxxviii, besides a couple of serpents* heads,there are visible an eagle and a jai^uar, at least the splendidW exe-cuted claws of one.In fragment 1, plate xxxix, the picture of the death god is to beseen, whose face is painted like that of Tezcatlipoca, and wdio Avearsthe stone knife as an ear peg and throAvs a lance Avith one hand.In fragment 4, plate xxxix, the year '" 1 reed ", the name of themorning star, is given beside the picture of Quetzalcoatl. It seemstherefore that liere on the right (eastern) end of the frieze of thenorth side the transformation of Quetzalcoatl into the morningstar Avas indicated.The remains of the frieze on the Avest side of the court of PalaceI are reproduced in fragments (3 to 9 on plate xxxix. I was obligedto free the last of these from the masonry that had been built overthem before I could copy them. The night, or the starry sky, is hererepresented as a surrounding border by means of eyes in a dotted(that is, dark) field.On this side of the court are represented, not different deities,l)ut di tierent disguises of the same deity. The application of darkpaint to the face around the eyes, like a domino, is the one essentialcharacteristic in Avhich this god coincides with the deity of the morn-ing star, who, according to the interpreter's rendering, " is lord of thedaAvn, but also lord of the tAvilight when night is about to fall "(quiere dezir senor de manana quando amanece, y lo misnio es seiiorde aquella claridad quando quiere anochecer). (See figures 62 and08.) The same characteristic is, hoAvever, also an attribute of Cam-axtli, Avho Avas the god of Tlaxcallan and Avas called god of the chase " See, concerning this pod, Das Tonalaniall der Auhinsclien Saninihnif;. p. (582 andfollowing. ^rY^yi^l^U'XlEE IXXII WALL PA JL JLJg. l[-XX''XEI^X'X?J[i w^ .iiliil fj[1II-1X-IJ:11?I?I?EI^ GS AT MITLA IKYEETED. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY UlLETIN 28 PLATE XXXV Mv'?^Su,. 'Ir fr i'fitiirf* 111 'f m a.'uLj^ - v^ WALL PAINTINGS AT MITLA irEVEKTEB. SELEU] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 319 {(f, figure TO, from Diiniu, voluine 2, plate G, a), and of Paynal andAtlaua as they are represented in the Aztec Sahao:un manuscript ofthe Biblioteca del Palacio at Madrid (h and r, figure 70). It was alsoehai-acteristic of Mixcoatl. who. like Camaxtli, was god of the chase,and in honor of whom the Mexicans celebrated the feast of Quecholli.A picture in the Sahagun manuscript of the Bildioteca del Palaciorepresents this feast, with the god and hunters wearing the costumeof the god, who perform a dance or march in procession before him{a, figure 80). Finally, this characteristic is exhibited in exactly thesame way in the Borgian codex, by the god who is being sacrificed onthe ball ground on which the red and the l)lack Tezcatlipoca are atplay (Ik figure 80). It is also one of the attributes of the Mimix-coua, the sorcerers, called Xiuhnel and Mimitzin, who, with theirsister Quilaztli, were found by the migratory Aztecs in the northdilat a heFig. 79. Mexican deities, after Duran and Sahagun.("the land of the Mimixcoua ", Mimixcoua in tlalpan) below themesquites and hanging on the melon thistle cacti, and who becametheir first tribute (yehuantin yacachto tequitizque), that is, theywere the first whom they offered as sacrifices to their god (a, figure81)." Tlie characteristic is doubtless also indicated on the faces ofthe captives adorned for the sacrificio gladiatorio, by whom the con-quest and subjugation of a city or country is regularly typified inthe Codex Telleriano-Pemensis (see above, figures 55 and 56).It is obvious that this black painting about the eye is connected in "Boturini codex, p. !). Tlio foremost prostriite flsure, that is. the one lyins fartheston the ri^ht, whom the Aztec desisnated hy the hieroglyph Aztlan is RacrificinK, is ?quilaztli, that is, the earth goddess, recognizalile l>y tlie hlack color ahout the month.Next follow her hrothers, the Mimixcoua, the lirst designated hieroglyphically by the pic-ture of a fish, mimitzin, the other by the hieroglyph "turquoise (mosaic) " and smallindividual pieces of turquoise, xiulinel. The three are dressed as Chichimecs in skins. 320 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28most of ihese cases with the white or red and white striped paint-ing of the body. It is fairly stereotyped as to form and extension;but a variation exists, inasmuch as in one of the manuscripts ( Borgiancodex) there is only a plain patch of black paint, while in the others(Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Tonalamatl of the Aubin collection,Sahagini manuscript) this black surface has a border of little circles.In the Aztec Sahagun manuscript, this painting of the face is desig- FiG. 80. I'rocession and sacrifice, from t lie Sahagun manuscript and tlie Borgian codex. nated as the " face-cage marking " and the " face-star marking whichis called darkness (tlayoualli) '". The expression " cage marking "refers, it would seem, to the stripes on the face. It is therefore evi-dent that tlie technical designation " star marking, darkness " refersto the design resembling a black domino. This nomenclature notonly explains the nature of the thing itself, but is also a proof that allthe intricate and manifold symbols Avhich Ave find as attri]:)utes of thepersonages of the Mexican Olympus were no thoughtless repetitions .^elek] EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 321 of adopted forms, but signs purposely emploj^ed to enable the be-holder to recognize the nature of the personage rej^resented withoutthe possibility of error. In the case before us there has simply beendrawn on the face of the deity the hieroglyph " night '\ as we havelearned to know it in figure 65 and ?, figure 72; and it follows fromthis signification and the designation given that the more completeand correct symbol was that Avhich shows us the black surface bor-dered by snuill circles. These small circles are doubtless the eyes bywhich the Mexicans indicated the stars in the expanse of the darknocturnal sky.The deities on whose faces this hieroglyph was written have in-deed a large number of traits in common, in spite of the fact thattheir entities are apparently very divergent. The interpreter hasalready laid stress upon the statement that the morning star is alsothe lord of the evening twilight, and thus belongs to the region of Fig. 81. a hSacrifices and tribute-bearer, from Mexican codices.the west. This is, moreover, an astronomic fact. The Indians of theisthmus, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg,'' up to this day call themorning star the '"transient sun" (le soleil passant). The godswho were at home in the north, the region of darkness, were, from theIndian point of view, moreover, merged in these deities of the twi-light, that is, the time when the sun was not yet or no longer shining;and, since in the north lived the roaming hunter tribes, the Chichi-mecs, the god of the north was naturallv the god of the chase. Themerging of the deity of the morning star in the hunting god of thenorth is actually carried out in the Tlauizcalpan Tecutli of the Ton-alamatl of the Aubin collection, since the netted pouch (chitatli), thejavelin, and the attendant animal of the god Camaxtli aiv placed infront of him (see 6, figure 73). The north is, however, also the king-dom of the dead. Therefore, those who are destined for sacrifice, for " Voyage sur I'Isthme de Tehuantepec.7238?No. 28?05 21 I'aris, l.SGl, p. 8L 322 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 2Hdeath, are naturally clothed in the livery of this god. Finally, themorning star, according to the interpreter, Avas also the first lightwhich illuminated the world, before the sun was created. Hence thisgod is the primal deity, the creator of the world and of men, the TztacMixcoatl, who, as Motolinia reports, lived in the north, in Chicom-oztoc, and from whom and his wife, Ilancueye, descended the differ-ent nations of the world, that is, of Mexico.The deities of the evening twilight, who are represented on the westside of the court of Palace I (fragments to 9 of plate xxxix), have,almost all of them, a beard of the kind that is given to Quetzalcoatl,to the creative god Tonacatecutli, and occasionally also to the moongod, and several of the figures Avear a tusklike curved peg in the underlip. The Mexicans called this tez-^'aca-necuilli, and in the historicalpicture writings the warriors of Uexotzinco and Tlaxcallan are gen-erally drawn with it (see 7>, figure 81). The st^de of dressing thehair and the adornment varv somewhat in other particulars, but onehas the impression that these were mere calligraphic variants ordifferent forms of the same deity. Each held a spear thrower in onehand and spears in the other. The gods are probably thus character-ized as gods of war and of the chase.As for the rest of the figures, we have, first, in fragment (>, on theleft side, a deer facing downwards (recognizable by the hoofs) andclothed in a petticoat bordered with stone knives. Then comes aneagle, then a second form facing downwards Avhich has the feet andclaws of the jaguar; in fragment 7, a deer with two heads; in frag-ment 8, a figure difficult of interpretation, in which the petticoat bor-dered with stone knives occurs again; finally, in fragment 10. areintertwined blossoming branches set with thorns or points.The south side of the court of Palace I, from which I have beenable to copy fragment 10 of jjlate xxxix, is the most uniform. Theborder, like that on the north side, consists of simple disks. The per-sonages represented beloAv the border are all different forms or calli-graphic variants of the sun god. The characteristic features here areagain the headband set Avith disks representing precious stones andbearing on the front a conventionalized bird's head and the linesaround the outer corners of the eyes. The headband in all the fig-ures without exception is almost exactly the same. The lines aroundthe outer corners of the eyes of the third figure in fragment 10 are theonly ones drawn in the characteristic manner to be seen in the pictureof the sun god of the Borgian codex (figure 82) and also in fragment8 of plate xxxviii. The fourth personage has a broad rectangularlatticework stripe. The others seem to have onlj^ a line of demar-cation between the parts surrounding the eyes and the upper por- BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOnv ^ ^^ ^^ -^ '-> --2 O S: ENDAR IN HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY 337the first founding: of Chichen Itza. Here the principal events are allset eacli a full period of 13 katuns before the succeeding one; that is,all either in S Ahau or all in 1 Ahau, the computation including in allfour full periods of 25(3 yea rs-|- 146 days. A peculiar feature is foundin a third list contained in the Chilam Balani of Chumayel, which isprinted in Brinton's Maya Chronicles, pages 178 and 179, and whichfor various reasons claims our especial interest. Katun 4 Ahau ismentioned here before the historic events occurring in 8 Ahau, onthe one hand, as the period in which the mythic kingdom of ChichenItza came to an end, and therefore as the period in which the humanrace took its origin; that is, when the great and small descent (greatand small immigration) occurred and men met together in ChichenItza from the four cardinal points. This is the only passage knownto me in the books of Chilam Balam which seems to contain any refer-ence to the normal and initial date of the Dresden manuscript? 4 Ahau, 8 Cumku.Although the books of Chilam Balam do not yield very much forchronology, they are all the more fruitful in intelligence regard-ing that side of the Maya calendar which was incontestably themost assiduously cultivated and which undoubtedly occupies a largespace in the Maya manuscripts, composing the chief, perhaps theonly, contents thereof; that is, the augural side, the consideration ofthe divinatory power which belongs to the signs and numerals ofdays and the other greater and lesser divisions of time. But I mustreserve the explanation of these matters for a future communication.7238?No. 28?05 22 1 TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTLANEDUARD SELER 839 TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTLAN'^ By Eduard Seler The causeway leading from the City of Mexico, which runs south-ward, formerly through (he waters of the salt lake itself, now throughmeadow land, to Churubusco, the ancient Uitzilopochco, where theroad branches off to Chalco, and to the margin of the great lavastream, which extends from a little volcano below the lofty Cerrode Ajusco to the plain lying 2,300 meters above the sea. A travelerleaving the city by this road sees before him a high mountain range,which connects the towering Ajusco with the snow-capped cone ofPopocatepetl and in this direction forms the termination of theundrained basin of Mexico. This mountain range is crossed frpmXochimilco by a long, gradualh^ ascending path, which finalh^ leadsinto extensive pine forests covering the whole breadth of the ridge.Another road, from Chalco, runs in the valley of Amecameca,immediately at the western base of Popocatepetl, to a less elevatedpath. In both places the mountain slopes on the south quite pre-cipitously to the valleys below, the streams of which flow into theRio de las Balsas. These are the valleys of Cuernavaca, situatedabout 1,000 meters above the sea, and of Yautepec, lying about 500meters lower. They have been celebrated from ancient times fortheir mild climate. Here the Mexican kings had their pleasure gar-dens, in Avhich they cultivated plants of the tierra caliente that didnot thrive in Mexico itself. Cortes did not fail to include this dis-trict within the limits of his marquesado, and the viceroys, and alsothe unfortunate Maximilian, loved to sojourn in this favored vale.Midway between Yautepec and Cuernavaca, directly at the footof the \oitj mountain range towering on the north, on a riblikespur at the upper end of a range of hills and ridges which divides thevalleys of Yautepec and Cuernavaca, in the center of a small plain " Die Tempel pyramide von Tepoztlan, Globus, v. 73, n. 8. 341 342 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28forming the extreme northwestern extremity of the valley of Cuern-avaca, lies the small town of Tepoxtlan. Although but 3 miles"distant from each of the cities previously named, this place, becauseit is situated quite away from the great highroads radiating fromthe capital and at the foot of the mountain, has remained until veryrecently little known or investigated. The ancient inhabitants, whoundoubtedly were of the same race as the Tlalhuics of Cuernavaca,have in the main shared the history of the latter. Cuernavaca,the ancient Quauhnauac, was the first territory which fell into thehands of the Mexicans when they began to spread beyond the limitsof the valley. In the reign of the third Mexican king, Itzcouatl,who reigned in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, the siegeand subjugation of Cuernavaca is reported, and under MotecuhzomaIlhuicamina, the king succeeding Itzcouatl, Tepoxtlan i*^ named inthe Mendoza codex, together with Quauhnauac, Uaxtepec, and Yau- a h c (J fFig. 83. Symbols of pueblos, from Mexican codices.tepee, among the conquered cities (see hieroglyphs a to c?, figure 83).The Historia Mexicana of the year 1576 (Aubin-Goupil codex)reports in connection with the accession to the throne in the year1487 of King Ahuitzotl, which was celebrated w^th great sacrifices ofcaptives, that new kings had been installed in Quauhnauac, Tepox-tlan, Uaxtepec, and Xiloxochitepec (see hieroglyphs e and /).In the tribute list (Mendoza codex, page 2(3, no. 13) Tepoxtlan, the " place of the ax ", is again put with the same towns in the Uaxtepecgroup (see i). Cortes came into contact with Tepoxtlan in the year1521 on his march from Yautepec to Cuernavaca, when, because theinhabitants did not voluntarily surrender, he burned the town.Bernal Diaz extols the fine women (muy buenas mugeres) and thebooty which the soldiers obtained here. After the establishment ofSpanish rule Tepoxtlan, with Cuernavaca, was included in the prin-cipality, which, with the title Marques del Valle de Oaxaca, wasaAvarded Cortes as recompense for his distinguished services.'' Amanuscript Relacion of the year 1582, which is preserved withothers of like character in the Archivo General de las Indias in Se- " 14 English miles. Ed. >> See the picture manuscript of the Bihlioteca Nazionale in Florence, folio 37. SELER] TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTLAN 348 villa, refers to the place as Villa de Tepoxtlan, and mentions sixestancias subordinate to it. In the same Relacion it is also stated thatthe Mexican language was spoken by the inhabitants, both by thosewho still lived in the place and those who, having become disgustedwith the country, had emigrated to the neighborhood of Vera Cruz.Through incorporation into the marquesado the town was doubtlesssaved from oppression and vexation by lesser encomenderos. Intheir isolated mountain home the people have been able to preservetheir language and their old customs. The place has now a popula-tion numbering from 5,000 to 6,000 souls of fairly pure Indiandescent, who speak pure, uncorrupted Mexican, are proud of theirdescent, and cling .tenaciously to the ancient traditional customs.It is deserving of mention as an interesting fact that since last yeara newspaper has been published here with the title El Grano deArena, which, besides the Spanish text, always contains severalcolumns of matter in the Mexican language.As we passed through the town of Cuernavaca in December. 1887,on the return from our expedition to Xochicalco we were told thatthere was a pyramid in Tepoxtlan as interesting as that of Xochi-calco. We wished to Ansit it, but the governor of the state of Morelostold us at that time?whether correctly I leave undecided?that hecould not permit it, for '* these Indians are terrible *". As we had stillso much else to see Ave did not insist upon it. Beyond this generalreport nothing has been known until very recently of the pyramid ofTepoxtlan ; but two j^ears ago, when the extraordinary session of theAmericanist Congress was about to be held in Mexico and an effortwas being made throughout the whole country to furnish somethingfresh in the nature of relics and finds for the scholars attending thismeeting, the thought arose even in Tepoxtlan of freeing the pj^ramidof that localit}^ from the rubbish hiding it from A'iew and of openingup its interior chambers and outer walls. A j^oung engineer, Fran-cisco Rodriguez, a native of Tepoxtlan, followed out this idea withenthusiasm and strove to carry it into execution. He was able toinduce the people of his district to furnish volunteer labor, and thusin the months of August and September, 1895, the pyramid was un-covered, a result of which the Tepoxtecs themselves are now quiteproud, A description of the pyramid, including a plan of the struc-ture, was submitted by Mr Rodriguez to the congress assembled inOctober of the year 1895. It has now been published in the pro-ceedings of the congress. Later, accompanied by Mr Rodriguez, MrMarshall II. Sa^nlle visited the pyramid and took several photo-graphs of it. In August, 1896, Mr Saville read a report on thispyramid before the American Association for the Advancement ofSciences, convened in Buffalo, which was published in volume 8 ofthe bulletins of the American Museum of Natural History, and again 344 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2Slater in the journal Monumental Records. From this and from MrRodriguez's report I gathered the information which appears below:The pyramid is situated about 2,000 feet above the town, on a cliffdetached from the ridge of the mountain range, which north of thetown rises rugged and precipitous above the level plain. Thepyramid itself is not visible from the plain, but its approximatelocation is marked by huge crags which on the left project abovethe mountain ridge. From the foot of the precipice the road ascendsthrough a small canyon. Several long flights of steps are encoun-tered, some of them cut into the rock, others built of masonry.Carved inscriptions are to be seeji here and there on the perpen-dicular walls of the ravine. About halfway to the top the roademerges from the canyon and winds aloft on the very face of thecliff. For nearly 100 steps, according to Saville's statement, theascent is almost perpendicular. Steps are hewn into the rock orsupported by masonry. When Rodriguez began his excavations herehe was obliged to use ladders in two places, because the way wasobstructed by fallen rock fragments. Wlien the top of the cliff isfinally reached it is seen to consist of two separate plateaux whichare connected by a narroAv neck. On the western one of these twoplateaux is the temple pyramid ; the eastern one is almost completelycovered with foundation walls of buildings of different kinds andsizes, which probably were the dwellings of priests, and other build-ings adjoining. Behind rises a rocky cliff covered wdth pine woods,wdiich can only be reached from this spot, and here Mr Rodriguezfound running w^ater.Viewed from the east side, the pyramid is seen to rise in threeterraces over a rough substructure that forms a horizontal base onthe uneven, rocky ground (see figure 84, from a photograph). Aflight of steps on this side leads up to the top of the first terrace,which, rising to a height of 9.5 meters above the rock foundation,forms the broad base of the building proper, formed by thetwo other terraces. A second stairway on the south side near theentrance of the temple leads to the top of the lower terrace (see theplan, plate xl). On the west side, which is the front of the temple,this first terrace forms a small platform (e on the plan, plate xl),and in the center of this there is a low rectangular bench, d, withserrated corners, up which flights of steps probably led on all foursides. The location of this little structure corresponds to the spotwdiere, in the great temple of Mexico, stood the two round stones, thequauhxicalli and the temalacatl, and it was probably used for simi-lar sacrificial purposes. I also found a very similar structure inQuiengola in the middle line of the platform of the east pyramid,Avhose front likewise faced the west. From this platform a stairwayleads to the top of the second terrace and to the entrance of the temple seler] TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTIAN 345itself, which the third terrace forms. This temple is formed of walls1.9 meters thick, constructed of blocks of red and black tezontle(porous volcanic i-ock) with copious mortar of lime and sand,and reaching to a height of 2.5 meters. The roof has fallen in.From the ruins Mr Eodriguez was still able to determine that ithad been a flat arch, with a maximum rise of 0.5 meter, a spanof 5 meters, and a thiclcness of 0.7 meter, formed of pieces of tezontleand a great quantity of mortar, the use of which in thick laj^ers madethe construction possible. On the site of the front wall are to beseen the remains of two rectangidar masonry columns, which lefta wide central doorway with a narrow one on each side. The inte- Fiu. 84. Temple pyramid of Tepoxtlan, valley of Cuernavaca. rior space is divided by a wall, 0.0 meter thick, pierced by a door-way, into two rooms, of which the front one runs back 3.73 and theinner one 5.2 meters, with a width of G meters. In the middle of thefront room Rodriguez found a rectangular depression" {h in theplan, plate xl), and in it remains of charcoal and a couple of well-preserved pieces of copal. This was probably, therefore, the hearthwhere the sacred fire burned and whence, perhaps, glowing coalswere obtained with which to burn incense to the god.In the axis of the inner chamber against the rear wall stood theidol. The doorwav connecting the two rooms has a width of 1.9 " " Una oquedad ".form ". Saville erroneously writes in this place "a raised rectangular plat 846 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 meters. It is flanked by two pillars, which are covered with stuccoand richly ornamented. At the bottom there is a sort of fluting;above this a grecque in relief, like those in the palaces at Mitla, andat the top a picture of the sun, only the lower part of which is stillpreserved. All are painted in color, and the colors are still tolerablyfresh. In the place where the idol stood, in the rear room, Rodri-guez found remains of a substructure {a on the plan, plate xl)among w^hich were two sculptured fragments, one of them, accordingto his account, containing a bas-relief, of what character is not stated,painted in a deep red color; the other, the relief picture of a Mexi-can royal crown (xiuh-uitzolli). Both pieces are now preserved in Fig. 85. View of the interior of Tepoxtlan, after Saville.the cabildo of Tepoxtlan, in a room transformed into a museum.The most interesting feature of the inner apartment are the benches,ornamented on the front with carved stones. These run round a partof the front room and along the rear and both lateral walls ofthe back room {c on the plan, ])late xl). They display at the upperpart a narrow, somewhat projecting frieze, on which, it seems, thetAventy characters for the days are represented. Beneath this (seefigure 85), on each lateral wall, there are placed four large slabs,with sj^mbols in relief, apparently relating to the four cardinalpoints. On the south side we see what seem to be the four prehis-toric ages; on the north side the gods corresponding to the four SELEli] TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTI.AN 347cardinal points are represented by their symbols. I must foregoattempting to explain these more exactly until casts or good photo-graphs are submitted for study. The reliefs on the rear wall are,perhaps, of a still more interesting nature, but unfortunately here aportion of the bench is destroyed. It is to be hoped that Mr Saville,who has now started again for Tepoxtlan and Xochicalco, will bringJiome satisfactory casts and make known these representations.Finally, in addition to the above, two stone tablets, which werefound built into the south wall of the lower terrace of the pyramid,are of special importance. One (c, figure 86) contains the hieroglyphof King Ahuitzotl, who derived his name from a small ghostlike wateranimal, which, according to Mexican tales, played the role of a sortof nixy and was represented in this form. On the other slab a rab-bit is depicted, and beside it are 10 circles, which would indicate theyear 10 Tochtli, corresponding to the year 1502 of the Christian chro-nology', the last year of Ahuitzotl's reign, or the year of his death.Saville has interpreted these two tablets quite correctly, and he cou- rt & cFig. 86. Glyphs of the king Auitzotl.eludes that the year of the erection of the temple and its builder wereihus immortalized. This is probably correct, in which case, in truth,l^Hhe ancient temple of Tepoxtlan would be the only aboriginal struc-ilite still standing in Mexico to which we can with j^robability assign ti certain date ".tt would next be desirable to know to which god sacrifices werebfffered in this place. Neither Rodriguez nor Saville have attemptedib answer this question. I am fortunately in a position to be ablelb decide this matter beyond dispute. There was a class of deitiesUiiiong the Mexicans which excited the special wonderment andivbhorrence of the monks and the Spaniards generally. These werethe pulque gods, or the gods of drunkenness. As we say (in German)hi a drunken man that " he has got an ape '\ so tlie Mexicans, ofcourse, with a doubtless wholly different train of thought, spoke of aI'ibbit (tochtli), under whose influence the intoxicated person acted.They said he had "rabbited himself" (omotochtili), when anyonedrank to insensibility and in this condition came to any harm. Hence 348 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the gods of drunkenness were also called Totochtin, " rabbits ". Theday ome Tochtli, " 2 rabbits '\ was under their influence. Wlioeverwas born on that day, if he did not take special precautions, seemedinevitably doomed to become a drunkard. Since there were dif-ferent kinds of drunkenness, intoxication manifesting itself withdifferent people in very different ways, the " 400 rabbits " (centzontotochtin) were spoken of '" as though one intended to say that pulquemade innumerable kinds of drunkards "." Hence the pulque godswere also designated as centzon Totochtin, the " 400 rabbits ", and alarge number of them were specified by particular names. Con-cerning the significance of these deities, this one fact is of primaryimportance, that they are all closely related to the earth goddess.Like her, they wear the golden Huaxtec nose ornament, shapedlike a crescent, which was called yaca-metztli. This ornament isso characteristic of them that it is usually marked on all objectsdedicated to the pulque gods. A second characteristic of these deitiesis the bicolored face, painted red and black. The two colors, inmany parallel red and black longitudinal stripes, likewise served todenote an object as consecrated to the pulque gods. Thus, in the pic-ture manuscript of the Biblioteca Nazionale in P'lorence, the mantade dos conejos, "blanket of the 2 rabbits"' (ome-tochtilmatli), theshoulder covering of the pulque gods, and, in the same manuscript, theshield of Macuil-Xochitl, are marked in this way. These gods arecharacterized by a remark which occurs above them in the picture man-uscript of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence still more exactly thanby their relation to the eartli goddess. The pulque gods in thismanuscript are represented after or among the fiestas mobiles, imme-diately after the feast of flowers (chicome xochitl and ce xochitl),and it is stated in this place that "when the Indians had harvestedand gathered in their maize, then they drank to intoxication anddanced while they invoked this demon and others of these four him-dred '\ It seems, therefore, that here we have to do with gods ofhusbandry, who were to impart virtue to the soil as the pulque?andthis is always brought out?imparts courage and strength and wasthe drink of the fearless and strong, the eagles and jaguars (quauhtliand ocelotl), that is, the warriors.Among the names by which these gods were known, in addition toome Tochtli, " 2 rabbits ", which refers directly to their nature aspulque gods, Ave meet almost exclusively such as are derived fromplace names, or at least are formed in a similar manner to thosederived from place names, as Acolhua, Colhuatzincatl, Toltecatl,Totoltecatl, Izquitecatl, Chimalpanecatl, Yauhtecatl, Tezcatzoncatl,Tlaltecaj'oua, Pahtecatl, Papaztac, Tlilhua : and a pulque god Tepox-tecatl, a god of Tepoxtlan, is repeatedly and prominently mentioned. " Sahagun, v. 4, cliap. 5. selkr] TEMPLE PYRAMID OF TEPOXTLAN 349If the fact is taken into consideration that the temple which I havedescribed above is still called by the people '' casa del Tepozteco ",then the supposition is not far to seek that it is our Tepoxtlan fromwhich the pulque god Tepoxtecatl (figure 87) derived his name, andthis supposition is confirmed by two good witnesses. In the Relacionthat I already mentioned at the beginning, which was the reply toan inquiry blank, dispatched under King Philip II with the samewording to all towns of the Spanish colonial territory, the questionconcerning the name of this place and the meaning of the name isanswered thus: "' They say that the place is named Tepoxtlan because,when their ancestors settled this land, they found this name already Fig. 8" Tepoxtecatl, the pulque god, from Mexican painting inBiblioteca Nazionale, Florence.in use, for those who settled there before (or first) said that the greatdevil, or idol, which they had, was called Ome tuchitl, that is, ' 2rabbits ', and that he bore the surname Tepoxtecatl ". The other tes-timony is furnished by the often-mentioned picture manuscript of theBiblioteca Nazionale in Florence, which, besides various other pulquegods, represents Tepoxtecatl in full figure and in hieroglyph and re-marks concerning him : " This is the representation of a great in-iquity which was the custom in a village named Tepoxtlan; namely,when an Indian died in a state of intoxication the others of this vil-lage made a great feast to him, holding in their hands copper axeswhich were used to fell wood. This village is near Yautepeque.They are vassals of the Lord JMarques del Valle ".In figure 87 I give the picture of the pulque god Tepoxtecatl and 350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28his hieroglyph, the cojiperl^iblioteca ax, from the picture manuscript of theNazionale in Florence. The variousthings by which these gods are usually distinguishedin the picture manuscripts are here given distinctlyand well?the bicolored face, the crescent-shapednose ornament (yaca-metztli), the bicolored shield(ometoch-chimalli) adorned with the same nosecrescent, the long necklace hanging down, made ofthe herb malinalli (tlachayaual-cozcatl), and thestone ax (iztopolli, tecpatopolli). This picture in-deed gives very little assistance in determining theappearance of the idol that stood in the cella of thecasa del Tepozteco. When I was in Cuernavaca Isaw in the house of the licenciado Cecilio Kobelo astone image, which originally came from Tepoxtlan.I made a hasty sketch of it at the time, which is re-produced ill figure 88. There was a very similar stone image fromFiG.88. Stone idolfrom Tepoxtlan. /Ik selee] temple pyramid OF TEPOXTLAN 351 Hiiaiitla in Mr. Robledo's possession. In the old Uhde collection inthe Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin there are others of a verysimilar character (figure 39). These are by no means images ofthe pulque gods, but probably represent Macuil-xochitl, the god ofo-aming, who is indeed frequently named together -with the pulquegods. If any stone image is entitled to give us an idea of theidol which stood in the cella of the casa del Tepozteco, it is the fine Fig. 90. Stone figure of pulque god,Trocadero Museum. statue in the Musee du Trocadero (figure 90), which is reproducedunder the title " Statue en calcaire, Toltec arme de la hache depierre " on page ix of the magnificent album recently published withthe title '' Galerie Americaine du Musee d'Ethnographie du Troca-dero ", for which the Due de Loubat, with his accustomed liber-ality, has again pro^?ided the means. That is without question apulque god, a Tepoxtecatl, distinguished by the crescent-shaped nose 352 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28plate, the stone ax, the ear pendants, which correspond exactly tothose in our figure 87, the frontal in the form of a Mexican royalcrown, examples of which are also Avorn by the pulque god in theBorgian codex, page 2G ; Codex Vaticanus B, page 70 (or Codex Vati-canus 3773, page 31) and Codex Vaticanus B, page 7 (or Codex Vati-canus 3773, page 30), and lastly also by the forehead knot of Quet-zalcoatl, which is to be seen likewise on the pulque god in CodexTelleriano-Eemensis II, page 16, in Codex Vaticanus A, page 35, and,in a somewhat different form, also on page 11 of the Tonalamatl ofthe Aubin-Goupil collection. Fig. 91. "Juego de pelota ", from Tepoxtlan.In conclusion, I give in figure 91 the photographs of several otherrelics which Avere found in Tepoxtlan. The ring-shaped stone in thecenter came from a ball ground. On it there is the large figure of abird and thereunder the date " 2 house " (ome Calli).It is to be hoped that the interest once aroused among the patrioticinhabitants of Tepoxtlan will continue, and that further investiga-tions will produce other important material for the study of theancient civilization and history of these regions." " I am indebted to Dr Max Buchner, of Munich, for tlie pliotographis (figs. 84 and 91),and for the plan (pi. xl), drawn by Mr Rodriguez, to Mr Marshall H. Saville, of NewYork. I was enabled to maice use of the picture manuscript of the Biblioteca Nazionale inFloi'ence through the Itindness of INIrs Zelia Nuttall. to whom I wish to express my sincerethanks. Mrs Nuttall discovered this important manuscript in the library and intends topublish it. VENUS PERIOD IN THE PICTURE WRITINGSOF THE BORGIAN CODEX GROUPEDIJAJRD SELER 3537238?No. 28?05 23 VENUS PERIOD IN THE PICTURE WRITINGSOF THE BORGIAN CODEX GROUP ? By Eduard Seler In chapter 82 of the Cronica Mexicana of Tezozomoc the accountof the formalities observed at the election of Moteciihzoma Xocoyotzinas king of Mexico contains also the purport of the speeches addressedto the newly elected king. He is exhorted therein to receive gra-ciously the tributary vassals when they come to the capital and toprovide them witli all that is necessar}^ for their homeward journey.He is admonished to be valiant against enemies, but also to employdiplomacy, adulation, and gifts in order to bring them to submissionby peaceable means. He should endow the temple and give suste-nance to the old people, both men and women. He ought, above allthings, to stand well with the nobility, be mindful of their privileges,and daily invite them to be his guests; for his authority and powerdepend on them. At the beginning of a long series of admonitions,which enjoin upon him to be careful in the observance of religiousceremonies, faithful in regard to priestly castigations, and to the careof the temples, the sacred places, and the roads leading to them, he isadmonished " especially to make it his duty to rise at midnight (andto look at the stars) : at yohualitqui mamalhuaztli, as they call ' thekeys of Saint Peter' among the stars in the firmament, at the citlalt-lachtli, the north and its wheel, at the tianquiztli, the Pleiades, andat the colotl ixayac, the constellation of the Scorpion, which markthe four cardinal points in the sky. Toward morning he must alsocarefidly observe the constellation xonecuilli, the ' cross of SaintJacob ', which appears in the southern sky in the direction of Indiaand China; and he must carefully observe the morning star, whichappears at dawn and is called tlauizcalpan teuctli ".These words contain data regarding the scope and the principalelements of ancient Mexican astronomy which are exactly confirmedby Sahagun in his account, in the seventh book of his historic " VeihandlunKen dor Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, Ethnologie, und TJrge-schichte, 1898, pp. 346 to 383. 355 356 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28 work, of tlie constellations observed by the ancient Mexicans. In theoriginal Mexican text of this work, which is preserved in the Biblio-teca del Palacio at Madrid, the dill'erent celestial bodies and constel-lations mentioned in the text are also represented by pictures in therespective chapters. Pictures are given of tonatiuh, the " sun " (?,figure 92) ; of metztli, the "" moon '' (b, same figure) : of citlalpol, themorning star, the planet " Venus ", a; of citlalpopoca, the " comet ", d,and of the star which the Mexicans called citlaltlamina, the " shoot-ing star *', e. Among these, finally, are five constellations, of whichthree?mamalhuaztli, /,* xonecuilli, i; and colotl, k?are marked bythe accompanying names as corresponding to three of the above- FiG. 92. Mexican flgure.s of the sun, moon, and certain stars and constellations.named constellations, while the other two, r/ and A, prove by theirform and design to be representations of the others named above, theconstellation of the Pleiades and the *' star ball ground ", thecitlaltlachtli.That marked /, mamalhuaztli, the " fire drill ", the " fire sticks ", isdesignated b}^ Tezozomoc as the '" keys of Saint Peter "". It must bea constellation in which t^^'o rows of stars meet at an acute angle.In Molina, mamalhuaztli is translated " astillejos (sticks of wood)constelacion ". Saliagun designates the constellation as " the wandsof the sky, which are near the Pleiades, a group of stars in Taurus"(los mastelejos del cielo que andan cerca de las cabrillas, que es elsigno del toro). Gemini of the zodiac are called " astillejos " (sticks SELER] VENUS PliRTOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 357 of Avoocl) in Spanish. These stars, however, seem out of the questionhere, since they lie too far distant from the Pleiades. The transla-tion " astillejos " is probably intended to convey onh'^ the literal senseof the word manialhuaztli. When Tezozomoc calls the constellationmamalhuaztli the " keys of Saint Peter "', the editor, Jose MariaVigil, observes that in the Middle Ages Aries of the zodiac wasassigned to the Apostle Peter, and oc of Aries was called the " keysof Saint Peter '\ The form of the constellation which the Mexicansrepresented by / would be produced by the union of c of Musca andor and fi of Aries with S of Aries. In any case, mamalhuaztli couldonly have been a constellation situated somewhere below 20? northlatitude, since it rose at a point due east from the Mexicans, denotingfor them the cardinal point east. Hence it was called youal itqui, " the bringer of the night " (Tezozomoc), or youal tecutli, " the lordof the night " (Sahagun). When it rose in the east they burned in-cense and said: Oualuetz in 3^oualtecutli in yacauiztli: Quen uetzizin youalli, quen tlathuiz, " The lord of the night is come, the pointedstaff. How will the night end? How will the morning dawn?"They burned incense three times, the second time at midnight, whenthe constellation reached the zenith, and toward morning, when it set.The neighboring Pleiades, which were named by the Mexicansmiec, " heap ", or tianquiztli, " market ", could have had the same sig-nificance as the mamalhuaztli. The former constellation, lying below23? north latitude, might also have marked the east for the Mexicans.It is probable, however, that it served to mark the fifth cardinalpoint, the center, or the zenith. At the beginning of a new j^eriodof 52 years fire " was newly kindled when the Pleiades were in thezenith at midnight. The flaming up of this fire was a sign to theanxious waiting multitude that the world was not, as they feared, tobe swallowed up in darkness, but that a new era would be granted tomankind.It is my opinion that y from the Sahagun manuscript is citlal-tlachtli, " star ball ground ". Tezozomoc calls it " the north and itswheel " (el norte y su rueda). This can hardly denote any other con-stellation than the stars which circle about the polar star. It mightdenote Ursa Major, though the manner in which we are accustomedto represent this constellation, which unites stars of the greatestbrilliancy, bears very little resemblance to the figure of the Sahagunmanuscript.Colotl, "the scorpion", k^ or colotl ixayac, ''the scorpion face",as Tezozomoc calls the constellation, must have been a group of starsdiametrically opposite to the mamalhuaztli, situated likewise some-where below 20? north latitude. Perhaps it was Arcturus. It " Snbagun, book 4, appendix. Edit. Bustaniante, v. 1, p. 346. 358 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28marked the cardinal point west for the Mexicans. Sahagun saysthat in some regions the constellation was called " the wagon ""; thatthe Mexicans called it " scorpion " because it had the shape of thatanimal; and that it bore this name in many parts of the world.This last remark of Father Sahagun seems to indicate that he iden-tified it with Scorpio, of ancient astronomy. This would imply oneof the most remarkable comcidences in the nomenclature. I do notconsider this supposition admissible, since Scorpio of the ancients wassituated far to the south?from 20? to 40? south latitude.Xonecuilli, or citlalxonecuilli, the curved S-shaped constellation,is clearly described by Tezozomoc as the Southern Cross. Its formcan be recognized ajjproximately in the design /, from the Sahagunmanuscript, if Centaurus and the two stars lying to the east of thelatter are added. Sahagun calls it the " constellation which standsin the mouth of the trumpet " (las estrellas que estan en la boca de labocina). According to the lexicon it appears that the constellationof the Little Bear was called " trumpet " (bocina) in Spanish. Saha-gun, however, can hardly have meant this, for it follows from thewhole arrangement, which he also adopted, that a constellation ofthe southern sky is here referred to.These four or five constellations were of importance to the Mexi-cans and were observed by them because they marked for them thefour cardinal points, and the plans of their temples and cities hadto be regulated by these points. A great number of religious riteswere also determined by the four points of the compass.There were also some stars that attracted the attention of the Mex-icans on account of their brilliancy and their movements, to whichthey ascribed mysterious influences on the universe and mankind.These stars were worshipped as divine forces, and hence their appear-ance and movements were observed with great care. Such was theplanet Venus, which the Mexicans called citlalpol, or uei citlalin,that is, '' the great star ", and Tlauizcalpan tecutli, " lord of thedawn ", and whose alternate appearance as morning and evening starwas well known to them.The Augustinian monk Padre Jeronimo Roman y Zamora relatesof the Mexican tribes settled on the borders of the Zapotec and Mix-tec country that they paid great reverence to the morning star andkept an accurate record of its appearance. Y tan gran cuenta teniancon el dia que aparecia y quando se ascondia que nunca erravan (" Soaccurately did they keep the record of the days when it appearedand disappeared that they never made a mistake"). The like issaid in a chapter devoted to this planet in a manuscript that belongedto the deceased Don Joaquin Garcia Tcazbalceta, which was insertedat the end of the first part of Padre Motolinia's Historia, and which SELER] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 359was therefore ascribed to Motolinia by Chavero." Padre Sahaguntells us that when the planet reappeared on the horizon it was said togo down four times before it returned in its full splendor, shining likethe moon. AMien the morning star rose, says the same author, theyttoi^ped up the chimneys and smoke vents, so that no harm of anykind should enter the house with its light; but it was sometimes re-garded as jDropitious (according to the time in which it appeared inthe east) .^ In the court of the great temple in Mexico there was a highand massive column covered with a thatched roof. This was calledilhuicatitlan, " in the sky ". The picture of the morning star waspainted on this pillar, and prisoners were sacrificed before it w^henthe planet reappeared in the sky.'' Father Roman relates of the peo-ple of Tehuacan, Coscatlan, and Teotitlan del camino that on the daywhen the morning star appeared for the first time a human offeringwas sacrificed, which the king of the land had to provide, and that oneach day at the hour when this star rose it Avas the duty of the prieststo burn incense and to draw their own blood, which they offeredup to it. As observation of the stars was the duty of the priests, themorning star, it seeuis, was even regarded as connected with the deitywho was considered the first priest and the inventor of every art, ofart handicrafts as well as of the special sacerdotal art and science,of the calendar and the soothsaying art, with Quetzalcoatl, the heroof Tula, the king and lord of the Toltecs. When Quetzalcoatl, soruns the legend, driven from his kingdom by the artifices of the " magician " Tezcatlipoca, journe3'ed eastward and came to the sea-coast, into the tlillan tlapallan, " the land of the black and red colors ",that is, the land of writing or th^ land of the good example,"* into thetlatlayan, " the place of burning ", he donned his ornaments, thefeather ornament (quetzalapanecayotl), and the mask of turquoisemosiac (xiuhxayacatl), as the dead were arrayed in the ornamentand mask on the funeral pile, and cremated himself. The ashes im-mediately flew upward and were metamorphosed into birds of allkinds having brilliant plumage?spoonbills (tlauhquechol), cotingas(xiuhtototl), tzinitzcan, aj'oquan, green parrots (toznene), red ma-caws (alo), and other parrots (cocho). When the ashes Avere scat-tered the heart also flew upward and, reaching heaven, transformeditself into the morning star. " They said that Quetzalcoatl diedwhen the star became visible, and henceforward they called him lordof the dawn (Tlauizcalpan tecutli). They said that when he died he " Anales del Museo Nacioiial de Mexico, v. 2, p. 339.* Saha:;uD, v. 7, chap. 3< Sahai?uu. v. 2, appeiulix. Edit. Bustamante, v. 1, p. 205."See Anales de Chimalpahin ed. Remi Simeon, p. 29: Yn iuli ymamatlaciiilolpan intliltica tiapaltica quicuilotehuaqiie ("As they have painted (written) in their picturewritings with red and black colors") ; and Vocabulario de Molina: tlilli tlapalli nictlalla," dar buen exemplo (to give a good example)'". 360 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY fR'JLL. 28was invisible for four days ; they said he Avandered in the underworld,and for four days more he was bone (dead, or emaciated?). Notuntil eight days were past did the great star (the morning star) ap-pear. They said that Qiietzalcoatl then ascended the throne asgod ".?This death of Qiietzalcoatl is said to have occurred in the year " 1 reed" (ce Acatl). Hence the divinity of the morning star wasalso called Ce Acatl, and was hieroglyphically designated by thenumeral 1 and the day sign Acatl, " reed ".We see the divinity of the morning star depicted with this nameand this hieroglyph in the tonalamatl, the calendar of 13X20 days.He is there the lord of the ninth divison of 13 days, beginning withce Coatl, " 1 serpent ", and is represented opposite the fire god ; for a hFig. 93. God of the morning star and fire god, Mexican.the latter is the old god, Ueueteotl, who already existed in the j^eriodof twilight when as yet no sun illumined the world.The picture of Tlauizcalpan tecutli, the divinity of the morningstar, as he is represented in the tonalamatl of Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A. is given in ?, figure 93. The white bodywith red longitudinal stripes, and with the deep black painting aboutthe eyes, like a domino mask, which is bordered here, but not always, bysmall white circles and is combined with a red painting about the lips,which likewise inay be omitted, are characteristic marks of this god. " Anales de Qiiauhtitlan, printed in the appendix to v. 3 of the Anales del MiiseoNacional de Mexico. I regret to say that I have not been able to examine this importantmanuscript. It seems to have disappeared. The copy in the Anales del Museo Nacionalde Mexico is very incorrect. In the passage in question, I have changed the obviouslycorrupt and unintelligible " campa huilhuiti yn anio nez quitnaya ycua mictlan nemito"into " ca naluiilhuitl ", for the words following, auh no nahuilhuitl momitl ("and forfour more days he was bone"), demand a preceding nahuilhuitl. RELKi:] VENUS PERIOD TN PTCTITRE WRTTTNOS 3(>1The red stripes on a white ground are only a variant of white, a con-ventional mode of representing a Avhite color of the body; for, as weshall see, the god is also painted entirely white, and vice versa wefind deities for whose bodies a white color is expressly prescribed inthe text, like the Ciuateteo, represented with red longitudinal stripeson a white ground. The technical name is motizaiiauana, "' longi-tudinal stripes made with white infusorial earth ". This white colorof the body is evidently meant to represent faint light, the light of thedawn, or a radiance like that of the moon. The Mexicans employed])rilliant red and yellow to express bright light, the glare of the sunor the glow of the fire. The sun god and the fire god were painted inthese colors but diiferently : in one manuscript the sun god is red andthe fire god yellow, in another the sun god is yellow and the fire godred.The black dominolik^ painting bordered by small white circles ; about the eyes Tlaiiizcalpan tecutli shares with Mixcoatl-Camaxtli,the hunting god and god of the Tlaxcaltecs; with Painal, the mes-senger of death, the image and representative of Uitzilopochtli ; withAtlaua, the god of the Chinampanecs; and Avith those gods who, likethe latter, have death symbols and were mentioned by Sahagun miderthe name of Chachalmecs. In the technical description of the deco-ration of these gods this painting is designated as mixquauhcalichiuhticac, ixuacal ichiuale, or mixtetlilcomolo (" he has a cagejDainted on his face ", '' a furrow is made with black paint aroundthe eyelids "), also as ixcitlal ichiuale, mizcitlal ichichiuh, or mixcit-lalhuiticac moteneua tlayoalli (" on his face he has the star paintingcalled darkness ") . From this it follows that this painting is intendedto reproduce the customary representation of night, which Avaspainted as a dark field studded AAath eyes (stars). The deity ischaracterized thereby as a nocturnal one, appearing in the night sky.The crown of black feathers with light tips, which is adorned withballs of white doAvn (iztac totoliuitl), and from which in this picturea tuft of green quetzal feathers projects, is also a characteristic markof this god: characteristic likewise is the headband, which has two])ointed ovate white objects Avitli red centers affixed to it in tlie sameplaces in which the headband of the sun god has blue or green disks(of turquoise or a precious green stone).It is worthy of note how in this picture the artist has expressedthe fact that the god is known in two different forms. The face,decorated with headband and feather croAvn, looks forth from thegaping jaws of a skull, which has the same headband and feathercroAA'n. I think we may accept it as beyond question that the humanface is intended to represent the star as it appears in the eastern skyabove the rising sun, Avhile the skull mask, on the other hand, repre- 862 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 sents the star which, hurrying after the setting sun, as the Mexicansimagined, descends into the earth, the underworld.The breast ornament is also significant. It is a white ring, sup-posed perhaps to be made from a mussel shell, with which, besidesthis god, not only the god Tezcatlipoca in particular, but also Uitzilo-pochtli and his image, Painal, are ornamented. In the technicaldescription this ornament is designated in the case of the latter godas "his golden ring"" (iteocuitlaanauauh), or "his breast mirror"(eltezcatl).The same elements as those in the figure described above are foundin the picture of the Tonalamatl of the Aubin-Goupil collectionplaced at the ninth division {b, figure 93). Here, on the left, is the firegod, and opposite to him, on the right side of the picture, is Tlauiz-calpan tecutli, the divinity of the morning star. The striped whitepainting of the body, the black dominolike painting around the eyesbordered Avith small white circles, the headband with the two ])ointedovate white objects affixed to it, the crown of dark feathers, and thering worn as a breast ornament are to be seen. Only, here, insteadof the quetzal feathers, water and fire (atl tlachinolli), symbolicof war, project from the feather crown, and the skull mask hangsdown at the back of the headdress. Instead of the hieroglyphce Acatl, " 1 reed ", there is only the figure of a blazing star in themiddle of the iiicture. Under it there are some other special sym-bols: the sign of fire, an animal resembling a dog (xolotl), and thebag (matlauacalli) and arrow of the hunting god.The pictures which accompany the ninth section in the tonalamatlof the Borgian codex and Codex Vaticanus B are somewhat dilferent.In the picture of the Borgian codex (cf, figure 94) the morning staris on the left side confronting the fire god, who occupies the rightside of the picture. The former is all white, not white with redstripes, and has the deep black dominolike painting around theeyes, but lacks the border of small white circles. The headbandand feather crown are the same as to their elements as those in a andh, figure 93, except that here two bands terminating in balls ofdown project on either side. The god Avears as a breast ornament,not the ring, but a broad rectangular plate, painted blue, which isprobably meant to represent turquoise mosaic. He wears a nose pegof the same form as those usual in the pictures of Tezcatlipoca.In the corresponding picture of Codex Vaticanus B (5, figure 94)the morning star is represented on the right side. He is stripedwhite and red, has the same dominolike painting around the eyes,and wears the ring as a breast ornament, and also Tezcatlipoca'snose peg. The same elements are to be distinguished in the head-band and feather crown, despite the somewhat uncertain drawing,as in the corresponding articles of dress of the other figures, except selkr] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 363that here a large bunch of quetzal feathers droops from the crown.A similar ornament is displayed on a number of other deities in thismanuscript. d ePig. 94. Figures of the fire god and other deities, from the Mexican codices.The statements made by the historians regard ino: the exactnesswith which the ancient Mexicans observed the appearance and reap-pearance of the planet Venus have recently received surprising cor- 364 BTTREATT OF AMERICAN ETHNOT.OGY [BrLL. 28 roboration through Forstemann's researches respecting the Mayamanuscript of the Royal Public Library at Dresden. As Forste-mann has proved in his elucidation of this manuscript publishedin the year 1886 the apparent revolution of Venus, which is madein 584 days (exactly, 583 days and 22 hours), is represented fivetimes in succession on the remarkable pages 46 to 50, and each timedivided into periods of 90, 250, 8, and 230 days. These 90, 250, 8, and236 days are sioecified on each of the pages by days named accord-ing to the tonalamatl system having these intervals between them,by month dates, and lastly by rows of numerals. Forstemann'sIiypothesis is that thereby the 90 days are reckoned as the period of theplanet's invisibility during its superior conjunction, the 250 days asthe period of its appearance in eastern elongation (as the eveningstar), the 8 days as the period of its invisibility during inferiorconjunction, and the 236 days as the period of its visibility in west-ern elongation (as the morning star). The difference between theperiod of invisibility during inferior and superior conjunctions is ex-plained by the fact that in superior conjunction Venus passes behindthe sun ; hence, owing to the parallel movement of the two heavenlybodies, a far longer period is required than in inferior conjunction.Under the assumption that the planet is invisible during the entireperiod in which it is distant less than 10 degrees from the sun,Forstemann computed the duration of its invisibility in inferiorconjunction at about 12 days, in superior conjunction at from 77to 80 days. He goes on to say that at the time of superior conjunc-tion Venus is seven times farther away from the earth than at thetime of inferior conjunction, and the remoteness from the time ofits greatest brillianc}' is also much greater than at the latter period;hence it would be necessary to allow more than 10 degrees distancefrom the sun for it to be again clearly visible. Thus the assump-tion of 90 days for its invisibilitj^ during superior conjunction wouldbe warranted. The assumption of 8 days for its invisibilty duringinferior conjunction, which is shorter by 4 days than the computedperiod of invisibility, Forstemann believes can be defended by ref-erence to the clear sky of Yucatan and the sudden coming on of night.The difference in the periods of visibility, which are generallyaccepted as 243 days each, but need not, of course, be exactly equal,Forstemann says he is unable to explain more definitely.Let me say at the outset that I have not yet found these de-tailed accounts of the periods of visibility and invisibility specifiedin Mexican picture writings, but the passage from the Anales deQuauhtitlan, which I translated above, contains the definite statementof a period of 8 days from the time of the planet's disappearance asthe evening star until it appears as the morning star. At the timewhen the ulanet (as the evening star) was visible in the sky Quetzal- SELEK] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 8(>5 contl (lied (yn yiih quitoa yn ic-iiac necico j^n mic Qnetzalcoatl).And wlu'ii Quetzalcoatl was dead he was not seen for 4 days;they said that then he dwelt in the underworld, and for 4 moreda^'s he was bone (that is, he was emaciated, he was weak) ; not until8 days had passed did the great star appear (ye chicueylhiiiticayn necico huey citlalli), that is, as the morning star. They said thatthen Quetzalcoatl ascended the throne as god (yn quitoaya Quetzal-coatl quitoa ya yciiac moteuhtlali).Even though it has not yet been possible to prove that periods ofvisibility and invisibility are given in detail in the Mexican picturemanuscripts, the total outcome of pages 46 to 50 of the Dresden manu-script, the apparent revolution in 584 days five times repeated andthese five revolutions repeated thirteen times, is distinctly set down oncertain pages of the Borgian codex group and, moreover, the pic-tures which accompau}^ the dates and series of numerals on pages 46to 50 of the Dresden manuscript have their parallels on the samepages of the picture manuscript of the Borgian codex group. TheVenus period is, generally speaking, the leitmotif for a large numberof the pages of these manuscripts.In the 584 days which constitute the period of the apparent revolu-tion of Venus the tonalamatl of 260 days is contained twice, with arenuiinder of 64 days. It follows, therefore, that if one Venus periodbegins at the first of the twenty day signs, the beginnings of the fol-lowing Venus periods fall on the fifth, ninth, thirteenth, and seven-teenth signs, and the initial day of the sixth Venus period is againdesignated by the same sign as that of the first; but the numeraljoined Avith the sign of the initial day of the sixth period is not thesame as that of the initial day of the first. In other words, but five ofthe twenty signs, which form the basis of the tonalamatl, fall on theinitial days of the successive Venus periods. This important fact ex-plains, first and foremost, as it seems to me, the familiar arrangementof the tonalamatl in columns of five signs each. We see this arrange-ment carried out in detail in the tonalamatl at the beginning ofeach of the three picture writings of our group : the Borgian,Vaticanus B (no. 3773 of the inventory), and Bologna codices.It is also implied on many other pages of these manuscripts and in alarge majority of the representations of the Maya manuscripts. Thisimportant fact explains, above all, why five successive Venus periodshave been grouped together as a unit, as on pages 46 to 50 of the.Dresden manuscript. In view of this fact it should be consideredas in a manner merely accidental that this period of five Venus pe-riods Avas exactly equal to 8 solar years, reckoning each solar year at365 days. If this period of five Venus periods occurs in thirteenrepetitions on the same pages 46 to 50 of the Dresden nuuniscript. thisis indeed quite sufficiently and, in my opinion, solely to be explained 366 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. L'8by the notation of days furnished by the tonalamatl. The greatperiod obtained in this way, which consisted of 13 X?^ revohitions ofVenus, possessed this peculiarity, that after its expiration the initialday of the Venus period again received the same sign and the samenumeral. This great period corresponded, therefore, in its natureto the cycle of 52 solar years, which had the same characteristic.It should again be considered as in some degree merely accidental thatthis period of 13X5 Venus periods was also equal to 13X8 or 2X52solar years.A period of five Venus periods is recorded distinctly, though thedetails of the computation are not given, on page 25 of the Borgiancodex (Kingsborough, page 14), which corresponds to page 70, CodexVaticanus B (Kingsborough, page 27). There are four large figuresof gods placed in the four corners of the page. Accompanying themare the twenty day signs, peculiarly disposed to convey the idea ofrotation in a direction opposite to that of the hands of a clock. Inthe middle of the page, enlarged and inclosed in a square field of itsown, is the seventeenth day sign Olin, " movement ", and beside it aretwice five dots, which together represent the numeral 10."The first day sign, Cipactli, is placed beside a figure, which isreproduced in c (from the Borgian codex) and cl (from CodexVaticanus B), figure 9-1. We readily recognize the striped whitebody coloring and the deep black painting, like a domino, around theeyes, just as they have become familiar to us, of Tlauizcalpantecutli, the divinity of the morning star. Here, however, he wears,instead of the crown of dark feathers, a wig of white down, and onit a tuft from which two dark eagle feathers project. In c (figure94), he wears as a breast ornament a plate like that which we sawin a (same figure). Both representations c and f/, like the others onthis page, hold a spear thrower and a bundle of spears in their hands.We are forced to recognize the divinity of the morning star in thisfigure. The god may, however, here have special form, be repre-sented in a special role. Now if the fact that the morning star occu-pies the first place among the four figures gives rise to the supposi-tion that this page refers to a period of time which is measured by themovements of the morning star, this supposition becomes a certaintyby reason of the large and conspicuous date Avhich occupies the middleof the page. For matlactli Ollin, " 10 movement ", is precisely the daywith which the fifth period of 584 days must begin if the first beganwith ce Cipactli, " 1 crocodile '', the initial day of the tonalamatl.It is therefore the five Venus periods that are intended to be repre- " The numeral 11 is ijicorrectly set down on the page of Codex Vaticanus. Thereis, besides, on this page, a reversal of the direction of the rotary movement indicated bythe day signs, in that three day signs are there set down in order opposed to the generaldirection. SELEK] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 367 sented on this page, and they are evidently meant to be assigned hereto the five cardinal points. Tlauizcalpan tecutli, the lord of the morn-ing dawn, as we have seen, officiates as regent of the first period, theone beginning with 1 Cipactli, which wonid therefore corresj)ond tothe east. In the second division, as indicated by the rotary movement,Xipe Totec, " our lord, the flayed one ", is represented, brandishinghis rattle board (chicauaztli), as lord of the second period (begin-ning with 13 Coatl), which would correspond to the north; in thethird j)eriod (beginning with 12 Atl), which must correspond to thewest, is Tlaloc, the rain god; and in the fourth (beginning with 11x\catl), belonging to the south, is a remarkable and rarely representedgod that I formerly, but probably incorrectly, identified withTepoyollotl, who has the bicolored, half red and half black, facepainting of Quetzalcoatl, heavy beard and ej^ebrows, and a bundleof stone knives before his mouth. The fifth period is only desig-nated by its initial date, 10 Ollin. The fifth cardinal point, thecenter, or direction from above downward, would belong to it. Thename of the day may have been designation enough for it, sinceOlin, or more correctly tlal-olin, signified earthquake to the Mexicans.I think I am able also to recognize the Venus period in a series ofvery remarkable representations which occur in like manner in threemanuscripts of this gi-ouj)?in the Borgian codex, on pages 15 to 17(Kingsborough, pages 21 to 22), in Codex Vaticanus B, on the upperhalf of pages 33 to 42 (Kingsborough, pages 81 to 90), and iu theFejervary codex (Kingsborough, pages 22 to 16). There are fourrows of five gods each. The figures in each row are represented asengaged in the same act. The actions themselves I am forced todesignate as symbolic representations of sacredotal functions.In the first row the gods are each represented as boring out, witha pointed bone, the eye of a naked human figure standing before them(e, figure 94). This is a familiar symbol of priesth^ castigation,self-infliction of wounds and letting of blood in honor of the gods,which were the most usual religious acts among the Mexicans, andwere necessary as a preparation for every serious undertaking." TheMexicans called it nezoliztli, " to prick one's self "; nenacaztequiliztlinenenepiltequiliztli, " to make incisions in one's ear and tongue ".In the second row the gods are oifering a miniature representationof themselves with a gesture which unmistakably expresi^-es giving,presenting (? to d, figure 95). This is doubtless a symbolic expres-sion of tlacamictiliztli, "human sacrifice"; for at all feasts where " In my treatise on the TonalamatI of the Aubin collection (Comptes rendiis dii Congr&sInternational des Americanistes. Berlin, 1888) I have spoken in different places (pp. 548and 689) in regard to this boring out of the eye as a syml)()l of castigation and bloodlet-ting. The strongest proof is obtained by comparing the hon'ologous re]iresentations inCodex Telleriano-Remensis II, |>p. l.'(i, 27, (seventeenth tonalamatl division, ce Atl, "1water") and the Borgian codex, p. 10 (Kingsborongh, p. 29), above on the right (eight-eenth day sign, TecpatI, "flint"). 368 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. '2fihuman beings were sacrificed at least one of the victims was paintedand dressed in precisely the same manner as the idol to whom thefeast was given, and was offered to the idol as its own image.The representations in the third row are more difficult to explain.The gods are depicted here with a naked human form kneeling orlying before each one?one figure of the Codex Vaticaniis is repre- Fig. 95. Figures of supposed deities, Mexican codices. sented with his breast cut open, lying directly on the sacrificial stone ? from whose body they draAV a yellow strip with wavy outlines thatends in flowers, precious stones, and straps with bells {e and /). Thisstrip begins at the abdomen, so that it looks very much as if theintestines were being drawn from the body of the figure. This didindeed occur among certain tribes as an act of torture or sacrifice, ascan be gathered from a few passages, but it was by no means a univer-sal religious ceremony. On the other hand, the color of this strip, seler] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 369which is yellow, in the Codex Vaticanus even dotted yellow and red,and the Avavy outlines forcibly recall the manner in which the skinflayed from a human being, Xipe's usual attire, is commonly repre-sented in the picture writings. Since Xipe Totec is placed among thefive gods of this particular row, I am convinced that the act of tearingolf the strip is meant to represent the tlacaxipeualiztli, " flaying ofthe victim ", which was customary at the feast of Xipe Totec and alsoat the feasts of the earth goddess.In the fourth row five female divinities are represented as offeringthe breast to a naked human form [a, figure 90). I believe that this ? /Fig. 96. Mexican deities and Maya hieroglyphs.row is intended to represent the " nourishing " of the gods, thetlatlatlaqualiliztli, which was the concluding act of the sacrifice, andconsisted in moistening the mouths of the idols with the blood of thevictims by means of a strip of paper or a rod dipped in the blood,which had been caught in a bowl.7238?No. 28?05 24 370 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28All the figures of the four rows are accompanied by day signs, fourAvitli each figure, placed in the order in which they follow each other,so that eight}^ day signs in all, or the twenty day signs repeated fourtimes, are set dow n on these pages. p]ighty days have no distinguish-able direct significance as a division of time.' They denote a definitedivision neither of the tonalamatl, nor of the year, nor of any other ofthe usual periods of time. For 80 days before the principal feast thejjriests fasted and scourged themselves. To fast 4 days was the com-mon practice, and it was the custom to fast full 20 days on especiallysolemn occasions or for especially urgent reasons; but the priests,whose calling obliged them to perform more than was required ofordinary mortals, fasted 4X^0 days. I do not believe, however, thatsuch questions have an^^ connection whatever with these pages. Onthe other hand, it is significant that the rows are ahvays composed offive figures. So are the first signs which accompany the figures,which are always the following five: Cipactli, "alligator*"; Coatl, '' serpent "; Atl, " water "; Acatl, '? reed "; Ollin, " movement ''.These are j^recisely the signs which fall on the initial days of theVenus periods when the first period begins with the initial sign ofthe tonalamatl, Cipactli. I believe it is intended here to desig-nate the initial, days of the Venus periods, and that the three othersigns Avhich, in addition to these initial signs, are placed beside thefigures serve merely to connect one initial sign with the other, pre-cisely as in the representation of the Venus periods immediately tobe discussed ; but as regards the ceremonies Avhich are represented onthese pages, and which J have explained more fully above, I believethat they all refer to the initial day of the Venus period.We have seen that the first appearance of the planet Venus inthe (eastern) sky was celebrated with solemn human sacrifices inMexico and especially among the tribes on the borders of anotherlinguistic territor}^, the people of Tehuacan, Coscatlan, and Teotit-lan del camino, among whom this star was held in special veneration.AVliat I see represented on these pages is the regents of twenty Venusperiods, or, perhaps, more correctly, four regents for each of fivesuccessive Venus periods, and the religious ceremonies which weredevoted to them at the beginning of the period.Within each of the four rows of regents we must, I think, assumean arrangement coinciding with the five cardinal points. In the mid-dle of the rows, in the third place, stands always either the death godor (in the third row) Tezcatlipoca, wdth bandaged eyes, who is to beregarded as the god of the earth or of the interior of the earth. Thesefigures, I think, should be regarded as coinciding with the fifth cardi-nal point, the region of the middle, or the downward direction. Inwhat way the other figures are assigned to the cardinal points I willnot venture to assert, because, according to the subject with which SELEit] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 871the particular representation was concerned, sometimes olie and some-times the other deity was assigned to a certain point, and it thus fre-quently happened that the same deity dominated sometimes one andsometimes another point of the compass.I have still to discuss some figures that occur on these pages Avhichare important for the principal representation to be explained beloAv.They are ?, Z>, c, and d of figure 95, given above. They occupy thefourth and fifth places in the second row ; that is, in the row of godswho express the idea of human sacrifice by holding out a miniatureimage of themselves with a gesture expressive of giving. Thus, therain god, who is in the second place, oifers a miniature image ofhimself, painted black, with the familiar, characteristic, and easilyrecognizable face of Tlaloc. The death god holds out a small deathgod, Avho is identical in drawing and color with the larger figure.In the cases of a and 6, figure 95, which occupy the fourth and fifthplaces in this row, it is remarkable that the image which the}' holdout is the same in both cases, and above all that it coincides with &,figure 95, which occupies the fifth place in the row. We shall have toconclude that a is the same god as h^ likewise that c is the same god as(/, and that a and c are only different manifestations of the divinityrepresented in h and d. Now, h and d are indentical with c and f/,figure 94, given above; that is, they are pictures of the deity of theplanet Venus, of the morning star, perhaps in his special role ofhunting god and war god. Hence we must infer that a and c, figure95, also represent the deity of the morning star. In fact, a has pre-cisely the same headdress as the figure of Tlauizcalpan tecutli, whopresides over the ninth section of the tonalamatl in the Borgian codex(see a, figure 94). The body coloring is also the same, and thebreast ornament is the ring usually found in the representations of thedeity of the morning star. The face painting alone is different, beingblack, with two deep black transverse stripes running across theface on a level, respectively, with the eyes and the corner of themouth and with four round, white spots, as seen in the profile view,which in the front view must have been fiA'e Avhite circles arrangedin a quincunx (see &, figure 96). If we imagine this quincunx ofwhite circles to be inclined about 45 degrees, I believe we havebefore us what Forstemann has proved to be the hieroglyph of theplanet Venus in the Maya manuscripts (see c and e). Glyphs a and The agreement is still more evident in the third representationIn the Borgian codex it is plainly the maize goddess who is repre-sented as struck by the spear, h. In Codex Vaticanus the corre-sponding representation occupies the first place. This is reproducedabove in 6, figure 97. The maize goddess is not here surrounded inthe same way with ears of maize, but she is characterized no lessby the longitudinal angular black lines on her face. Finally, in 'theBologna codex, where the corresponding representation occupies " In i, fii?. 09, the first of the two hieroglyphs is derived from the epitomized repre-sentation on p. '1-i, the second from p. 47 itself. 380 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 28the second place, the quantity of maize ears introduced (?, figure100) again removes all doubt as to the significance of the figure.In ?;, figure 100, I ha\'e reproduced in picture and hieroglyph thefigure struck by the spear on the third page of the Dresden manu-script, page -18. It is the god " with the kan sign '\ he whooccupies the eighteenth place in the series of twenty divinities atthe beginning of the Dresden manuscript {c, figure 100). He is alsofrequently met with elsewhere in the Maya manuscripts and .isdenoted by Schellhas in his list by the letter E. It can be consideredas quite beyond a doubt that this god re])resents the maize deity, andfrom the first he was interpreted as such by Schellhas.The direct or, at least, the more clearly discernible agreements ofthe Dresden manuscript with the manuscripts of the Borgian codexgroup are confined to these three representations. In the fourth andfifth representations in the manuscripts of the Borgian codex group,not persons, but symbols are depicted struck by a spear. On thefourth page of tlie Borgian codex d is represented, which corre-sponds to e in Codex Vaticanus, It is a carved wooden seat cov-ered with a jaguar skin that has been struck by a spear. In e,over the jaguar skin, there is also a mat. Seat, jaguar skin, and matare familiar badges of royalty. That they are used here as such ismade perfectly clear by the fact that in Codex Vaticanus, e, thereis above the symbols a form sitting on a jaguar skin with thesymbol of speech before his mouth?a speaker, a tlatoani ; that is, aking. It belongs to the same order of conceptions as that in theBologna codex, where the image of the sun appears on the throneby the spear; for according to a widespread notion, kings are thesons of the sun. Piltzinteotl, or Piltzintecutli, " god of princes ", " master of princes ", was a familiar name for the sun god with theMexicans.The fifth page of the Bor^an codex shows us / struck by thespear, a shield and a bundle of spears, and above them an eagle'shead, familiar symbols of war and of warriors. The shield andbundle of spears are in a field which is painted yellow, streaked, andbeset with a verticillate design. This picture might signify fire or aburnt field or might even be regarded as an elliptical representationof the atl-tlachinolli, " water and fire " ; that is, of war. In CodexVaticanus we have corresponding to those symbols g, in which we seewater and a mountain with an eagle perched upon it. The eagle isundoubtedly again to be regarded as a symbol of the warrior. Themountain is painted yellow. Fire and the atl-tlachinolli might henceperhaps again be suggested. It seems more probable to me, how-ever, that the water and the mountain are an expression for atl-tepetl, that is, altepetl, or for the aua-tepeua, " the village ", the com-munity or the townsmen, in contradistinction to the king. In tlatoani ki:lkk] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 881 Fig. 100. Symbolic figures from the Maya and Mexican codices. 382 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY I bull. 28in altepetl, *' the king and the connnunity ", are always mentionedtogether in the texts.The representations which occupy the. fourtli and fifth places in theDresden manuscript are apparently of an entirely different nature.In the fourth place (page 49) it is the tortoise that is struck by thespear, h. In the fifth place (page 50) we see the figure of a warriorcharacterized by a peculiar involute marking running over the ej^e,which is also distinguishable in the hieroglyph (?, figure 101).Here the last figure, at least, seems to me to be a parallel repre-sentation to the one which occurs in the fifth place in the manuscriptsof the Borgian codex group. That a is particularly intended todenote a warrior seems to me clear, from the fact that this is theonly one of the five figures struck by a spear who is represented inthe act of defense, hurling the spear and opposing his shield to wardoff the missile.The tortoise may also afford a basis for comparison. It has thedesign of the sun on its shell (see h^ Avhich is taken from the Perezcodex, page 21). As a matter of fact, the box tortoise, widely dis-tributed over North America, of which there is a particular varietyoccurring in Mexico described under the name of Onychotria mex-icana, has upon its shell a yelloAv radiate design, which mighteasily be looked upon as an image of the sun. This may be the reasonwhy its hieroglyph, when this does not simply reproduce the head ofthe animal, as in c\ has for its eye a design similar to the hieroglyphof the sun. This is the case here (/?, figure 100) and in the hiero-glyph of the uinal Kayab (^/, figure 101), which likewise contains thetortoise's head as an element. This may also be the reason why thetortoise is represcuied on page 40 of the Dresden manuscript withtorches in its claws. Perhaps on this account it was regarded as thesun animal and as the royal animal.However this may be, in the first three of the figures struck by thespear, and, in my opinion, also in the fifth, the analogies are perfectlyplain between the figures of jjages 40 to 50 of the Dresden manuscriptand those on the pages of the Borgian codex group which are devotedto a similar representation of the 13X5 Venus periods.Now, what inference are we to draw from the fact that on thesepages the figures of the deity of the morning star?and of those dei-ties, still to be discussed, that are depicted in their place in the Dres-den manuscript?are represented thi'owing the spear, and that in onecase the divinity of the water, in others the jaguar, the maize god, theemblem of kings, and warriors representing the community appearstruck by this spear? Forstemann propounds the question as towhether this ma^^ be the struggle of the sun with Venus, ending withthe disappearance of the latter. This view seems to me to be pre-cluded here, for, as we learn from the manuscripts of the Borgian SKLKU] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 383 ^^^ ^^^ ^s^ ?- o^> - 11^ im Fh;. 1(11. Glyphs and deity fitrnrfs from the Maya codices. 884 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [hull. 28 codex group, Venus is, on the contrary, represented as the conquer-ing party. Conjunctions with other constellations might seem to besuggested here, for they are in fact different for the five periods.That a conjunction of the planet with other celestial bodies wasobserved is positively proved by certain reliefs of Chichen Itza.It is also certain that the jaguar, the tortoise, and the serpent wereseen in the sky by the Maya peoples. It is, however, also possi-ble that we have on these pages simply an astrologic speculation aris-ing from superstitious fear of the influence of the light of thispowerful planet.By a natural association of ideas the rays of light emitted by thesun or other luminous bodies are imagined to be darts or arrowswhich are shot in all directions by the luminous body. The more therays are perceived to be productive of discomfort or injury, so muchthe more fittingly does this api^ly. In this way the abstract nounmiotl, or meyotli, with the meaning " ray of light ", is derived fromthe Mexican word mitl, " arroAv ". Such abstract nouns are used inMexican as the concrete designation of the object when the objectbelongs to another one in its nature or properties. Thus miotli, ormeyotli, is the arrow, Avhich belongs b}' nature to a body sendingforth arrows, a luminous body. Tonalmitl, or tonalmeyotli, are thesun arrows, the sun's rays; miotli, or meyotli, alone, "the ray".Furthermore, there is a verb, miyotia, also written mihiotia, derivedfrom this, which means " emitting light " ; tepan miyotia, " to beamon anyone ", " to strike anyone with its light ".I have already mentioned the fact that in Mexico certain influ-ences were ascribed to the planet Venus, generally baleful, favorablein certain signs only; so that, therefore, when the planet appearedanew in the heavens, smoke vents and chimneys were stopped up lestthe light should penetrate into the house. In the Anales de Quauhtit-lan, appended to the story of the transformation of Quetzalcoatl intothe morning star, there is a more detailed account of these influencesascribed to the light of the jjlanet Venus. It is a remarkable passage,of which I give here the literal translation : 1. Auh yn iiih qwimatia And as they (the ancients, the forefathers)learned.2. Yniqnac hualneztitih When it appears (rises).3. Yn tleyn ypan tonalli According to the sign, in which it (rises).4. Cecentlamantin ynpan mioytia It strikes different classes of people with itsrays.5. Qninmina quintlahailia Shoots them, casts its light upon them.6. Intla ce Cipactli ypan yanh When it appears in the (fir^t) sign, "1alligator ".7. Qninmina huehnetque ylamatque It shoots the old men and women.8. Mochi yiihqvii yntla ce Ocelotl Also in the (second) sign, " 1 .jaguar ".9. Yntla ce Mazatl In the (third) sign, '? 1 stag"".10. Yntla ce Xochitl In the (fourth) sign, " 1 flower". sELEii] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 385 11. CtUininina pipiltotontzin It shoots the little children.12. Auh yntla cem Acatl And in the (fifth) sign, " 1 reed".13. Quinmina tlatoqiie It shoots the kings.14. Mochl yuhqui yntla ce Miquiztli Also in the (sixth) sign, "l death".15. Auh yntla ce Quiynhiiitl And in the (seventh) sign, "1 rain".16. Qniminaya quiahnitl It shoots the rain.17. Amo (?niyahni.: It will not rain.18. Anh yntla ce Olin Andin the (thirteenth ) sign." 1 movement"'.19. Qninniina telpopoclitin ychpopoch-tin It shoots the youths and maidens.20. Auh yntla ce Atl And in the (seventeenth) sign. " 1 water".21. Ye tohuaquiz There is universal drought.I would observe that the I'eprint of the text of these annals isunfortunately very faulty. I have, therefore, had to make a fewslight corrections, in the ninth line substituting ce Mazatl for ceMecatl. and in the twelfth ceni Acatl for ce Mazatl. The order ofthe signs in the tonalaniatl justifies these corrections. I ^vould like,however, to make a third and more important change. I Avould liketo replace ce Quiyahuitl. in the fifteenth line, with ce Coatl, " 1snake " ; that is, the ninth sign for the seventh. I believe this wouldbe correct, because the introductory auh, " and ", is used elsewhere inthis passage only with the signs of the column Cipactli, Acatl, Coatl,Ollin, and Atl, and by wrong reading Quiauitl may very easih^ havebeen substituted for Coatl.Let us admit this change, and let us for the present leave out whatis said at the signs ce Mazatl and ce Xochitl (lines 9 to 11) ; then wehave left the five signs of the column Cipactli, Acatl, Coatl, Ollin,and Atl, which, as we have seen, are in fact the signs ruling the initialdays of the Venus periods. If we arrange them according to theirtrue order, not as they follow one another in the tonalamatl, then, inthe Anales de Quauhtitlan, the following would be said of the influ-ence of the planet Venus in its five consecutive periods: 1. In the (first) sign, Cipactli, "alligator", it shoots the old men and women.2. In the (ninth) sign, Coatl, " snake", it shoots the rain, it will not rain. .3. In the (seventeenth) sign, Atl, "water", there is universal drought.4. In the ^fifth) sign, Acatl, "reed", it shoots the kings. ."?. In the (thirteenth) sign, Olin, "movement", it shoots the youths andmaidens.Here it will be seen at once that as far as the fourth and fifthl)eriods are concerned the statements of the Anales de Quauhtitlanexactly agree with the pictorial representations of the Borgian codex.In the Tiorgian codex, too, we have in the fourth period (//, figure100) royalty struck by the spear, and in the fifth (/, figure 100) thewarriors. The young men (telpochtin) and the w-arriors (quauhtin)are essentially, and in the usage of speech, at least in that of Mexico,identical. In the third period as Avell there is exact agreementlietween the accounts of the Anales and the representations of theTo.-^R?No. 2fi?05 2.5 386 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Borgian codex. In the Borgian codex we saw in the third period tliemaize goddess struck by the spear (k, figure 99). The maize god-dess, however, is here plainly not the divinity who dispenses suste-nance in abundance, but the goddess called by the interpreter of theCodex Telleriano-Remensis la que causava las hambres (" the onewho causes famine ") ; for in k, figure 99, the maize ears are devouredby worms painted white and having death's-heads. Then, too, inthe corres])onding representation of the Bologna codex (i\ figure 95),the ground beneath the maize goddess is surrounded by flames andsmoke ; that is, it is dry and barren.It is more difficult, in case the correction proposed above is reallyadmissible, to form a clear idea in regard to a possible agreement inthe second period between the accounts of the Anales and the repre-sentations of the picture writings. For the first period, likewise, Iforego, for the present, an}' attempt to find a tei'tium comparationis.But this much, I believe, is to be learned from the account in theAnales, that it is hardly possible to see anything else in these figuresstruck by the spear than augural speculations regarding the influenceof the light from the planet, suggested by the initial signs of theIjeriods. AVe shall have to accept this as true, not only for the repre-sentations of the Borgian codex group, but also for the pictorial rep-resentations and the hieroglyphic text of the Dresden manuscript.It is not wholly without interest that in the passage of the Analesde Quauhtitlan quoted above mention is also made of the auguralsignificance of the signs ce Mazatl and ce Xochitl (lines 9 to 11).These are not signs which have anything to do Avith the beginningsof the Venus periods. The first sign denotes the day on which theCiuapipiltin, the specter women, the souls of Avomen who have diedin childbed, who live in the west, come down from heaven and strikechildren with epilepsy. On this day, therefore, children are keptm the house. The other sign, however, was dominated by a groupof gods of whom Macuilxochitl or Auiateotl, the god of merry-making, may be considered typical, and who are represented onpages 47 and 48 of the Borgian codex (Kingsborough, pages 68, 67)with the Ciuapipiltin. It may safely be assumed, I think, that therelation of these signs to these deities is based on the notion that theseparate divisions of the tonalamatl, which is arranged in columns offive signs each, have some mysterious connection with the four cardi-nal points. That it was possible in the Anales de Quauhtitlan todesignate whatever baleful influence of the planet Venus resultedfrom this connection is only a proof that the wdiole arrangementof the tonalamatl in columns of five signs each owes its origin to thefact that the tonalamatl has been brought into accord with theobserved Venus period. SELER] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 387It yet remains for us to form now a clear idea of the meaning of thepersonages aaIio are represented on pages 46 to 50 of the Dresden man-uscript with spear throwers and bundles of spears in their hands, tak-ing the place of the deity of the morning star armed with a spearthrower and a bundle of spears of the other manuscripts. They aredepicted likewise on the right half of the pages, but in the divisionnear the middle. Their hieroglyph is in the text above them, at thebeginning of the second line and directly over the hieroglyph of thefigures struck by the spear, and it is accompanied by the hieroglj-phof the morning star {c, figure 96), clearly signifying that these fig-ures are to be considered the regents of the five consecutive Venusperiods.The regent of the first period is the black god whom I have repro-duced in form and hieroglyph in e, figure 101." His picture is in thetenth place (/, figure 101) in the series of the twenty divinities at thebeginning of the Dresden manuscript, and also occurs many timeselsewhere in the same manuscript, for example, in the middle andloAver divisions of page 14 (r/ and A, figure 101) and on page 74, theclosing page. He occurs in the Troano codex, pages 33 and 34, witha scorpion's tail. Here another black divinity appears to- be veryclosely connected with him, who is usually distinguished from himby the hierogWph and the formation of the face, but in the Troanocodex occurs in innnediate relationship with him and evidently inkindred representations, and likewise has a scorpion's tail, Schellhasdesignated these two figures in his list with the letters L and M.I will indulge in no speculations respecting the character and pos-sible name of this divinit}^, but only express my personal view thatin this god we should recognize a form akin to the fire god of theancient Mexicans. We may assume, T think, that he is intended hereto denote the first cardinal point, or the east.I have reproduced the regent of the second period, with his hiero-glj^ph, in ?'. This is a figure wdiich I have not met elsewhere in themanuscripts and which is, therefore, Avanting in the Schellhas list.It is safe to conclude that the hierglyph given in I is really the hiero-glyphic designation of this particular god because it occupies thesame place as the known hieroglyph of the regent of the first periodand because it follows the hieroglyph of that regent on page 24. Thebody of this god is painted red, and on the front of the trunk, whichfaces the spectator, are drawn the vertebno and ribs of a skeleton.The nose curves downw^ard like that of the rain god, Chac. Theother characteristics of that god, the long crooked tooth and thenourish on the bridge of the nose, are lacking. It seems to me signifi-cant that the string of precious stones, hanging over in front from " The hieroglyplis of the regents of the Venus periods are also set down on the epito-mized p. 24, but only those of the regents of the first two periods. 388 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bt:LL. 2Sthe headdress, has, attached to it by a bow, the hieroglyph of theplanet Venus. I can not refrain from comparing this hieroglyphwith k. the figure drawn on pages 80 to 84 of Codex Vaticanus Bin front of the breast of the deity of the planet Venus (see h, figure97) and wdiich is intended to represent an eye of light, perhaps astar, as will be seen by comparing it with the bright sky (?, figureJ 01). I am, therefore, inclined to think that we ought to recog-nize in our i, figure 101, the Maya representation of the deity of themorning star, or the planet Venus. The hieroglyph corresponds Fig. 103. Glyphs and deity figures from the Maya codices.in its essential elements with the principal hieroglyph of the moanbird (?, figure 102). In interpreting the latter I made use of theoxlahun taz muyal, " thirteen layers of clouds ", which are invokedin the Misa milpera Xcanchakan.The regent of the third period, with his hieroglyj)h, is reproducedin b, figure 102. This one, too, is not in the Schellhas list, nor arethe regents of the last two periods. The face exhibits unmistakableanimal characteristics, and an animaTs ear can be distinguished abovethe pierced ear disk. The hieroglyph contains an element whichoccurs as the essential element in the hieroglyi>h of a god with a deer's sKLKKi VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 389iiead in the Dresden manuscript, <; also, it is true, in the Troanocodex, in a hieroglyph denoting a feminine occupation, weaving orembroidery, d.The regent of the fourth period is reproduced in e^ figure 102, inpicture and hieroglyph. He is obviously a Avarlike divinity. A jaguarskin is wrapped around his hips, and he wears on his breast a diskapparently bordered with jaguar skin. As headdress he wears thef-onventionalized head of a bird having a crest. X\\ entire bird is wornas an ear peg, with the head stuck toward the front through the:nuch-enlarged hole in the lobe of the ear. There is a serpent's headbefore his mouth (as a nose peg?), and the head of a bird projectsover his forehead. The face painting strikingly recalls that of theMexican Tezcatlipoca. The hieroglyph, unforfunately, is not plainlydrawn. I have therefore repeated it in /, somewhat enlarged. Thereis in front the element which in the hieroglyph of the jaguar iscombined with the abbreviated jaguar liead, and in other places isassociated with the cardinal point east, probably denoting a color(red). It is not difficult to recognize the element kin, "sun", atthe right, and in the center a- head with a bleeding, empty eye socket.All these are elements which might stand for a war god.Finally, the regent of the last period, , 2d month. XIII 20: 1, 14tU month. Ill 3; 14, 17th month.Ill 11; 7, 5th month. Ill 1; 12, 12th mouth. Ill 2; 13, 7th mouth.Ill 2; 13, 16th month. Ill 2; 18, Oth month.Instead of the 16 in the first date, I should like to read 17; thedates indicate the years 7 Muluc, 1 Kan, 9 Ix, 9 Muluc, 7 Ix, 2 Ix,4 Ix, and 4 Muluc. The intervals of time are 2,779, 12,483, 13,988,13,650, 2,821, 10,400, and 14,040 days. I am most in doubt as tothe first two and least so as to the last two. The last one, 14,040.as already remarked, is one of the most important dates in our manu- 406 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28 script. These dates and their intervals certainly have some connectionwith the numbers placed within the serpents, but I do not yet ventureto express an opinion in regard to them.Pages 62 and 63 contain, the former in the last two columns, thelatter in the first two, a very fine and lucid combination of largenumbers, of encircled numbers below them, and of dates. AlthoughI have already considered the first, the numbers, I transcribe here theentire passage:1,272,931 1,272,544III 2; 18, 3d month. XIII 20; 11, 1st month.(456) (121)IV 17; 8, 18th month. IV 17; 8, 18th month.1,284,220 1,268,540III 2; 13, 14th month. XIII 20; 6, 18th month.(235) (17)IV 17; 8, 18th month. IV 17; 8, 18th month.I have allowed myself a slight conjecture in regard to the dateat the top in the second group only. I read the manuscript's 15, 1stmonth; 11, 1st month, assuming that the writer made a line insteadof a dot. As Ave consider the differences between the upper datesand the normal date that is set down below, it should be mentionedthat the former indicate the years 4 Ix, 4 Ix, 5 Ix, and 7 Cauac, andthe latter, as already observed, the year 9 Ix. The intervals are,therefore, as follow : 44 years+295 days=:l(),355= (J2x26U+235 days44 years+3.37 days=i 16,397=63X260+ 17 days4 years+ 75 days=: 1,.535= 5x2(50+235 days15 years+ 2 days= 5,477=21x260+ 17 daysThe days in excess of the multiples of 260 are, therefore, equal tothe encircled numbers in the third and fourth groups.The explanation of these groups is written above them, unfor-tunately in characters as yet undeciphered. But there is such a smallnumber of different signs among these twenty-eight, owing to the fre-({uent repetition of some, that I think a complete comprehension willbe achieved here, as well as on page 24, Very soon, especially asseveral of the characters are among those most frequently used inthe manuscript.In the third column of page 63 there is still to be regarded a doubt-ful date at the top, and a normal one at the bottom.Page 69 has the normal date in the middle of the two middlecolumns, but at the bottom the date IX 1 ; 12, 17th month, which is re-peated at the top of the fifth and sixth columns. It is the samewhich we have already met with three times on pages 61 and 62. Fur-thermore, on the right, at the bottom, page 69 gives the days IV 9and IX 11, which are very important for the last pages of the manu- fOhstemaxn] the dates OF THE CALENDAR 407 scrii)t. The month signs below them, with the numbers preceding,are unfortunately entirely obliterated. Since the fifth large serpentof the manuscript is here, a comparison with the dates under theserpents on pages 61 and 62 would be of great importance.Page 70 has the normal date no less than six times, in the middleand at the end of the first and second colunms, as also, half obliter-ated, at the beginning of the third and fourth columns ; and, finally, atthe end of the fourth colunni is the date, IX 11 ; 12, 1st month, whichindicates the year 12 Kan; probabh^, the right-hand lower corner ofpage 69 is to be completed in accordance with this. In the middle ofthe page there seem to be four more dates; the two upper ones musthave been injured, and consequently I do not venture to affirm pos-itively that the two lower ones are to be read VIII 17 ; 13, 7th month(7 Muluc) and IV 9; 10, 15th month (2 Kan).Herewith the calendar dates of our manuscript, and with them mypresent task, come to a close. I have been obliged to express myselfvery briefly, and therefore require of the investigator who wouldclosely follow m}^ exposition that he should be in a measure familiarwith the previous results of Maya research. Still, I hope I have givenan impulse to some one to push farther forward in this field. I mightsay a good deal more concerning this or that passage of the manu-script, but my i)resent purpose has merely been to throw a clearerlight on three important and frequently recurring features. I willonly briefly remark that, in regard to the repetitions of the eighthday, Chuen, regularly bunched together, also found in other manu-scripts and always occurring in combinations of three on pages 25 to28, they undoubtedly designate the expiration of 24 (3X8) le the reliefs of Palenque, but differ strikingly fromthose of the more northern regions. This eighteenth day of themonth Kayab corresponds to our 19th of June. It seems, therefore. roRSTEMANN] TORTOISE AND SNAIL IN MAYA LITERATURE 427to have been regarded by the Mayas as the true middle of the sol-stice, as the longest day.It will be a slight digression if, at this point, I glance at theeighteenth month Cnmku, immediately succeeding KaA'ab, which iscertainly the hottest one of the year. To Stephens's book. Incidentsof Travel in Yucatan (London, 1843), is appended a treatise on theMaya calendar by Perez, a man living in Yucatan, and there we findthe statement that cumku means thunderclap. The hieroglyph ofthe month agrees with this, for in it we see two flashes of lightning(or hot sunbeams?) darting down from the same point upon themaize field (kan). In the above-mentioned passage of the Dresdencodex, page 40, the lightning beast as it rushes down from heavenfollow^s directly after the person with the tortoise's head and the twotorches (see d). In this month the eighth day, the normal datealready mentioned, is the most important of all. Are we to inferfrom this that the Maya chronology dates from the day of the sun'sgreatest heat, the day in Avhich the sun has the greatest power?(See e.)Not only in the manuscripts does the tortoise occur, but also on thestone monuments of the Mayas. At least, I read of its discovery inCopan in Stephens's Incidents of Travel in Central America, volume1 (New York, 1842), page 155: "The altar is buried with the topbarely visible, which, by excavating, we made out to represent theback of a tortoise '\The tortoise seldom occurs in Aztec mommients, but, my attentionhaving been drawn to it by Mrs Nuttall, I can prove that it occursat least in the Vienna manuscript in Kingsborough, volunie 2, ap-parently in a calendric context.I Avill also mention an Aztec stone calendar excavated in 1790,which is represented under the erroneous title of " El Zodiaco '', inNebel's Voyage dans la partie la plus interessante du Mexique (Paris.1830, folio). Here we find two tortoise heads, one on either side ofthe central picture, representing the sun.We may also note that in the Old "World the crab (among the con-stellations and correspondingly in the Tro))ic of Cancer) is used in-stead of the tortoise, it being also a slow-paced creature encased in ashell and the symbol of retrogression at the same time.I have ventured, in the second place, although not so confidently asin the case of the tortoise, to connect the snail with the winter solstice.This occurs in the month JNIol, the eighth of the Maya year. In thismonth the death, relatively speaking, and also the new birth of thesun, takes place. We must therefore endeavor to seek the relations ofthe snail to birth, to death, to the sun. and. if possible, to the monthaiol.It is alreadv known to science, and widelv acknowledged, that the 428 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 28 snail is the symbol of birth among Central American people, and avery appropriate one. Doctor Seler accej^ts this view in the Compterendu of the Seventh Congress of Americanists (Berlin. 1800),pages 580 and following,where he also proves from Aztec manuscriptsthe manifold relations of the whelk, the sea snail, to the deities ofdeath, besides whom the snn god also usually appears. Doctor Selerhas already discussed these relations in his essay " Der Charakter derAztekischen und Maya handschriften ". t G 9 Fig. 105. Glyphs of animals and month Mol, from Maya codices.If we now turn to the Dresden Maya manuscript we find the connec-tion of the snail with the deities of death here plainly indicated. Itappears here on the head of the true death god at least live times(pages 9c, 12b, 13b, 14a, and 23c) . It also occurs elsewhere. The godD (following Doctor Scliellhas's designations, which I hope will begenerally adopted) has the snail on his head, page 5c. This god, withthe face of an old man, occurs here between two pictures of the deathgod. On page 9a we see him, again with the snail, between a vultureand a Avoman with bandaged eyes (ci, figure 105). pOrstemaxn] tortoise AND SNAIL IN MAYA LITERATURE 429The sea snail apj^ears A^ery curioush^ on ])age ;^)TI). Here it lies iuthe water and appears to be in the act of giving birth to a tiny per-jr=on (female?).I can not discover a genuine hieroglyph of the snail in all thesepassages. Doctor Schellhas expresses the opinion, which is worthyof consideration, that the very frequent hieroglyph in which the daysign Oc is combined with the numeral 3 is connected with the snail,and that the suffix attached to this sign strongly suggests the snail andthe foot on which it creeps (h, figure 105, from the Dresden codex,page 43c).Still another passage, perhaps of special imporiance. remains tobe discussed. I refer to pages 10c to lie of the Dresden manuscript.Here we find twenty-four hieroglyphs in tv/o rows, six groups of foureach, but each group begins here with the sign of the above-mentionedmonth Mol, Avhich is the case nowhere else. But to these six Molsbelong six pictures of gods, namely. A, D, F, E, G, and B.The series begins with the death god A; then comes D with iheface of an old man (according to Doctor Schellhas the god of birthand of the moon) ; then F, who, as Doctor Schellhas shows, is in away a second death god. Next comes the grain god, E, bearing on hishead the snail, together with the ears of maize; then the sun god;lastly the deity wdio is the most important one in this manuscript.The snail, therefore, occurs here among the gods of birth, of death,and of the sun in a section in which the month Mol seems to be ofchief importance.The question now arises whether the sign for the month Mol is inany wa}^ connected with birth or death or with the sun or the snail.The sign consists of two parallel lines of dots, forming an ellipse. Inthe lower part of this ellipse is a small circle, whose center is indi-cated, and to the upper part of which two little hooks or loops areattached. In almost the same way in which it occurs in the manu-scripts the sign Mol occurs in the inscriptions, which in every otlierrespect differ so Avidely from the manuscripts. Unfortunately, thereis no convincing theory to explain this figure, although there are threepossible ones. In the first place, the ellipse might stand for the snailshell, and that which is drawn within it may be a cursive indicationof a snail ; in the second place, we might regard it as an egg and itsyolk as an emblem of birth, and, thirdly, it would be possible to regardit as the imj^risoned, and hence po.verless, sun. "Wlio shall decide be-tween these possibilities? The second is supported by the fact that MrDieseldorff writes me from Coban, in Guatemala, that in the languageof that part of the country (the Kekchi) IMol means egg. I can notfind the snail in Codex Troano-Cortesianus, but this may be due tothe hasty and rude drawing of that manuscript. I am preparedto deny positively that it does occur. 430 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 28Of course, the two solstices have not the great significance in Yuca-tan which, Avith their extreme aUernations of light and temperatu.re,they possess in the higher latitudes; yet by the alternations of dryand wet seasons, by the varying length of the days, which differ bytwo hours, and by the higher or lower position of the sun, as well asby the deviation in the point of the sun's rising and setting, they aresufficiently noticeable not to be passed over in silence in the ancientJiterature of a race so mathematically endowed as the Maya.We know from the Maya manuscripts that four animals?deer,bird, lizard, and fish?were frequently placed in combination with thefour cardinal jDoints. To these must now be added, if my hypothe-sis be correct, the tortoise as the representative of the northwest andnortheast and the snail as the representative of the southwest andsoutheast. In Codex Cortesianus, pages 31a and 32a, the four ani-mals appear, and immediately after them (page 33a) the tortoise.On the so-called title page that has been much discussed, which con-nects the Troano codex with Codex Cortesianus, to the days from Imixto Kan, from Manik to Oc, and, lastly, Ben are assigned the fourcardinal points, while Chicchan and Cimi, as well as Chuen and Eb,each have two unfamiliar signs, not the same both times, but differentones, making four signs in all. Can these be the intermediate points?Cimi, like death, would, as we have seen, be very appropriate to thesnail, while the sign for Chicchan in Codex Troano-Cortesianus (notusually in the Dresden) has that latticework which, above, I havealread}' connected Avith the tortoise. On the other hand, the relationof Chicchan to the serpent's skin can not be denied. Moreover, I amaware that the direction up and down is supposed to be indicated bythose two signs introduced between the cardinal points, a theorywhich accords in so far with my hypothesis as these hieroglyphsdenotv3 the highest and the lowest position of the sun. PAGE 24 OF THE DEESDEN MAYA MANUSCRIPT"IntroductionThe Dresden Maya manuscript has thus far been published threetimes, first b}- Lord Kingsborough in his Mexican Antiquities (vol-Lime 3) and twice, with different introductions, by me (Leipzig, 1880.and Dresden, 1892).It consists, as I exphiined in my first edition, of two wholly dis-tinct parts. The first, consisting of 48 i)ages, contains on one sidepages 1 to 24 and on the other pages 25 to 45 and three blank pages ; the second, consisting of 30 pages, contains on one side pages 40 to (50,on the other pages 61 to 74 and one blank page.Page 24, the one to be here discussed, with which the front of thefirst part ends, is perhaps the most important in the entire manu-script, for one entire side of the second part (46 to 60) is merelya further exposition of the contents of page 24.The only difference is that page 24 is confined to astronomic obser-vations, while pages 46 to 60 bring the astronomic and the myth-ologic more into connection.The astronomic problem on page 24 is to connect certain givenperiods of time by common multiples. These periods of time are asfollow : 1. The sacred tonalamatl of 260 days, consisting of 20 weeks of13 days each.2. The old official solar year of 360 days, or eighteen periods of 20days each.3. The true solar year of 365 days.4. The apparent revolution of Mercury of 115 days.5. The apparent revolution of Venus of 584 days.6. Possibly, the apparent revolution of Mars of 780 days.7. The revolution of the moon of between 29 and 30 days, which inthe calendar, however, was computed at but 28 days. Thirteen ofthese month periods of 28 days made up a year of 364 days.8. Possibly, the very ancient period, which was also Aztec, of the9 days or nights (seiiores de la noche).Before we consider more closely in what manner and how far this " Zur Entziffenins dev Mayahandschriften, IV, Dresden, June 11, 1894.431 432 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28page solves the problem mentioned above I will give a sort of copyof it: 1 roRSTEMANN] THE NUMBERS 433dark region of the hieroglyphs from the assured standpoint of thenumbers. The NumbersTo facilitate the comprehension of what follows, I give here thefollowing table : 115 260 360 365 584 7802,920 8 511,960 104 4614,040 54 39 1818,980 73 5237,960 146 104 65The figures on the left denote five especiall}^ important periods oftime; the upper row gives six of the periods mentioned in the fore-going section ; the rest indicate the quotients resulting from the divi-sion of the former by the latter.I will also call attention to the proportion : 11,960 : 37,960 : : 115 : : 23 : 73.We begin by considering the four columns on the right and pro-ceed from below upward and in each line from right to left.We first encounter a progression of twelve terms, the first termbeing 2,920, the diiference being also 2,920, and the last term there-fore being 35,040=12X2,920. Now, 2,920 denotes eight times thesolar year (8X365) or five times the Venus year (5X584).These twelve figures are all accompanied by the days pertaining tothem, between which there is naturally the same difference as betweenthe numbers. But the period of 2,920 days is equal to 11 tonalamatl(11X260) and 60 days. Now, 60=4X13+8; the numbers precedingthe day signs, indicating the position in the week of 13 days, must,therefore, be constantly set forward by eight.Furthermore, 60=3X20; therefore, the same daj^ will alwaysappear in the series of 20 days after an interval of 2,920 days. Andfor this day, the most important one is chosen, the one most frequentlyused, the final point, and, as we may say, the apex of a series begin-ning with the day Imix, the day Ahau, which seems to be sacredto the sun god, the Kin-ich-ahau ('' lord of the day's eye ") , just as thesame day in Kekchi and Cakchikel is named after the god Hunahpu.The actual zero point from which all the series in the Maya manu-scripts proceed is invariably suppressed or only becomes apparentat the very end of the series. The first thing that is recorded inthese series is always the number which results after the expirationof the first period. To find the zero point here we must count back-ward from IX Ahau 60 days, which brings us to I Ahau, a day whichis very important in relation to what follows. Here I must utter awarning against the error of supi)osing I Aliau to be the day with '238?No. 28?05 28 434 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2Swhich Maya chronology begins. It seems rather to be merely an arbi-trary term of equation, which must always imdergo correction if it isto be referred to exact chronology. As Maya chronology begins withthe day IV Ahau, the correction in our case should consist of -{-140or ? 120, We shall, in fact, meet with these figures later.But it is the purpose of these series to be continued until their termsand the differences of those terms agree with the tonalamatl of 260days. This object it not attained in the first twelve terms. The seriesmust, therefore, be continued, and this is done not in the next line(the second from the top), but in the topmost line, which we willtherefore consider before the second.This topmost row, as I have already observed, is in part destroyed.The numbers still legible are as follow : 1 forstbmann] the numbers 435 numbers, 9,100, really has anything remarkable about it, as it isdivisible not only b}' the tonalamatl, but also by the year of 13months, which has 3()4 days. These figures were for a long time apuzzle to me, since they do not form a series and have n(> legitimaterelation to their neighbors. They produce somewhat the effect of amere aid to computation, such as one jots down on a separate sheet inthe course of some great mathematic task.A light suddenly dawned upon me when T combined the first andthird and second and fourth numbers by addition or subtraction. Tthus obtained four results : 1. 185,120+33,280=218,400, which is just 000 13-month years of364 days, 280 Mars years of 780 days, 840 tonalamatls, and 7,800months of 28 da3's.2. 185,120?33,280=151,840; that is, the largest number in thetopmost line, as well as 416 solar years of 365 days, 52 periods of 2,920days, and 260 Venus years of 584 days, oi- the product of the daysof the tonalamatl and of the Venus year.3. 68,900+9,100=78,000; that is, 100 Mars years or 300 tonala-matls.4. 68,900?9,100=59,800; that is, 520 Mercury years of 115 daysor 230 tonalamatls or five times the notable period of 11,960 daysalready mentioned. This can not be chance. The facts speak tooplainly. But w^ho can penetrate the intellectual workshop of theIndian author and trace his course of thought and mode of work?The four columns at the right of the page having been thus dis-posed of, let us turn to the three on the left, and first to that part ofthem which is below the forty hieroglyphs.I Avill here repeat this j^assage from the transcript of page 24given above : (2200) 1,366,560 1,364,360IV Ahau I Ahaii I Ahan8 Cumku 18 Kayab 18 ZipWe will first dispose of the number 2,200. It is simply the differ-ence between the two large numbers and, as is usual with differences,is provided with a red circle surrounding its lower figure (0).Three calendric dates and two numbers now remain. The numberbelonging to the date on the right is missing, probably only for Avantof space, as often happens in this manuscript. I will supply it inparenthesis and write each date, adding the year of each, below thenumber belonging to it. We then have as follow : 1.366,560 1.364.360 (1,352,400)IV Ahau I Ahau I Ahau8 Cumku 18 Kayab 18 ZipYear IX Ix " III Kan X Kan " Accoitling to the system of the Dresden fodex now accepted these will be the yeai-sVIII Ben, II Akbal, and IX Akbal. C. T. 486 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28From the date on the right to the middle one there is an intervalof 32 years and 280 days=32X3654-280; that is, the remarkablenumber 11,960, already mentioned, in which the tonalamatl and therevolution of Mercury meet. From the middle date to that on theleft there is an interval of 6X365-)- 10=2,200 days, which is givenin the manuscript.Of these dates, which of course recur every 18,1)80 days, or 52years, that on the right, coiresponding to our September 11, hardlyawakens any particular interest. The corresponding number is6,201 X'260-|- 1-10. This 140, however, as already indicated, is quitenecessary, since these three numbers all proceed from the normal dateIV Ahau, and between IV Ahau and I Ahau there are 140 days.Moreover, I Avould remark that 1.352,100 is 28X48,300 and also115Xll''^60, and is therefore divisible by 28, the month of the 364-day year, and by the revolution of Mercury.The middle date is more important. The day 18 Kayab is our 18thof June. In my essay " Schildkrote und Schnecke in der Mayalit-eratur "' I tried to prove that it is likely that the sign for the periodKayab is a tortoise's head, that the tortoise was the symbol for thesummer solstice, and that June 18 was probably regarded as the long-est day. The number corresponding to this date is 115X11,864,and this is divisible by the revolution of Mercury. It has stillanother property, which I hardly venture to mention. It is 29.66 X 46,000 ; that is, 46,000 revolutions of the moon, each estimated at 29.66days. On pages 51 to 58 of the manuscript the revolution of the moonseems to have been even more exactly specified, namely, at 29.526 days,as I have pointed out in Globus, volume 63, number 2. It may beobjected that 46,000 is a surprisingly round number onl}^ to us andnot to the Maya. But to this I reply that if we divide it by 115,the revolution of Mercury, we have 400, and 400 (20X20) in a vigesi-mal system is certainly a round number, which for that reason wassometimes denoted by a simple word, in the Maya (according toStoll) by bak, in the Cakchikel (according to Seler) by huna. Ournumber 46,000 is therefore a huna of periods in which the times ofrevolution of the two celestial bodies that run their courses thequickest harmonize.It should also be noted here that the middle one of the three greatseries on pages 46 to 50, amounting to 37,960 days each, also beginswith the date I Ahau, 18 Kaj^ab.In the date on the left, Avith the number belonging to it, we seeat last the true starting point of Maya chronology, not only for ourmanuscript, but for Maya literature in general. Thus I consider thatthe Cross of Palenque by the signs on A and B, 16, indicates pre-cisely the date I Ahau, 18 Kayab; by those on D, 1, and C, 2, pre-cisely the difference 2,200, 8 tonalamatls-f-6X20; and by D, 3, and FORSTEMANN] THE NUMBERS 437C, 4. precisel}'^ the date IV Ahau, 8 Ciimkii. This last date, answer-ing to onr 28th of June, may be regarded as the day of the greatestheat, or the day on which the sun ends its solstice. The correspond-ing number, 1,306,560, combines many properties. It is divisible bythe period of the seiiores de la noche, or lords of the cycle, 9 times151,840 being therefore nine times the number which we find at theapex of the great series; by the tonalamatl, 260X5,256; by oldofficial years, 360X3,796; by solar years, 365X3,744; hj Venus years,584X2,340; by Mars years, 780X1,752: by solar Venus periods,2,920X468; by the solar-year tonalamatl, 18,980X72; by twice thelatter, the period so important in the series. 37,960X36; and by theperiods before mentioned that are usually designated as ahau katuns,113,880X12-It should also be mentioned that the first number is removed fromthis third one by 14,160 days (equal to 11,960+2,200). Hence thedifference between them is 14,040, mentioned above as a remarkablenumber, increased by the interval betAveen I Ahau and IV Ahau,that is, 120, also mentioned above.This number is the real- objective point of our page. It lies, likealmost all tiie large numbers in the manuscript (except those in theserpents), between one and one and a half millions. Did it representto the writer of the manuscript the present, the past (history), orthe future (prophecy) ? Perhaps it may serve to elucidate the mat-ter further if I remark that the monuments of Copan, described byMaudslay, the dates of which most probably refer to the present, allcontain a number of greater magnitude and therefore point to a morerecent period than the page under consideration. I here give anumber of such dates : Altar S 1,375,200 Stela I 1,.S83,760 Stela .T 1.393.200Altar K 1.402,768 Stela A 1,403.800 Stelr. B 1.404.000Stela J\I 1.41.3,000 Stela N 1.414.800From this it follows that this degree of civilization, if it survivedin Copan until the arrival of the Spaniards, probably produced nomonument of such a character before the year 1400. If page 24 ofthe Dresden manuscript indicates the present bv this important num-ber, it was written 132 years before the latest monument of Copan,mentioned above, and 24 years before the oldest. But I think it ismore probable that the date farthest to the right (I Ahau, 18 Zip,year 10 Kan) denotes the present, the other two alluding to re-markable days in the future. In that case, this page is 39 years older.The number indicating the present might then have been omitted as amatter of course and of little significance, while a reference to as-tronomic events of the future was of more importance. Of course, itis taken for granted that the initial point of the computation is thesame for the monuments of Copan as in the Dresden manuscript. 438 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28The GlyphsHere we enter a mysterious realm, where conjectures occupy agreater space than actual facts. One fact, however, is certain, andthat is that these characters are to be read in the same order in whichI have designated them by numbers. I shall therefore discuss themin that order."1 to 4. The first three signs are almost wholly destroyed, and thisinterferes in the highest degree with our comprehension of the whole.It would scarcely be possible to restore them unless a parallel textshould be discovered. But this seems to be certain, that the Venusperiod is the chief subject treated of here as well as in the funda-mental series already discussed. Sign 4, which I formerly regardedas the one belonging to the west, is clearly that of the east. Wemight, therefore, suppose that these four signs signify the four pointsof the compass in the same order in which they are set down five timesin the middle of the left side of pages 4G to 50, which pertain to thissubject, but the remains of sign 3 do not coincide with this theory.5 to 9. Here we have the sign for Venus five times in succession,thus indicating the five Venus years, which underlie the series occur-ring on this page. Signs 6 and 8 seem to me now, as they did eightyears ago, merely variants of 5, 7, and 1), but I confess that in theformer I tried for a time to find the sign for Mercury. Both charac-ters also occur side by side on pages 46 to 50, where there is no men-tion of Mercury, nine or ten times on each page.10. This is a familiar form of the sign for Moan. I have recentlytried to prove in Globus that Moan also stands for the Pleiades, withwhose disappearance and reappearance the beginning of the yearseems to be connected. Does sign 10, according to that, denote thesolar year, w'ith which our page combines the Venus year ? Moreover,on page 50, wdiere the 2,920-day period ends, we see the Venus and theMoan signs side by side on the right at the top.11, 12. If the preceding signs refer to the Venus and solar years,Ave should expect to find the tonalamatl here as the third member ofthe combination. The two signs occurring here are a repetition of thesame one, being the sign for the thirteenth period of 20 days (Mac),the close of which comes at the expiration of 260 days of the year.Does the repetition of the character reall}^ signify the recurringtonalamatl ?13= f. This is the sign kin, " sun '", " day ", with the usual affix,which might almost be taken for a sign of the plural. Above it is w hatis known as the rattlesnake sign, which seems to denote a union, agrouping together, by the help of which I thought, in my article " Owin^ to some coufiision and uncertainty in tlie idpntifications fig. 106, wtiich wasintended to sbow tlie glyplis referred to, is omitted. forstbmann] the glyphs 439 '' Ziir Maya-Chronologie " in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, that Ihad found a sign for the period of 18,980 (52X365) days. Are wethen to regard this sign as twice that period; that is, 37,960 days,which we see is the objective point of the series on our page?14 to 18. As the preceding characters led us to the Venus-sun periodand to pages 46 to 50, connected with it, so Avitli tliese five glyphswe come to the Mercury-moon period and pages 51 to 58, devotedto it, and, therefore, also to the large number in the third column ofour page. Let us compare with our signs the ten glyphs found on thelower half of page 58, above the picture, which I will designatea bc de fg hi k(By the way, I would like to consider a as the glyph of Mercury,e and f as signs for the solar and lunar year of 364 days; c and dmight possibly signify 13X28. I will now try to explain charactersb, g, h, i, k.)AVe here reach the following results : 14^c, which is, as I have shown, the sign for 20 years of 360 days;that is, for 7,200 days.15=g, a hand holding a square which is divided by a cross intofour parts. I am inclined to conjecture that this is the period of20 days. Before the sign 15 is the numeral 1, which occurs on page58 before g, but with a small cross below it, which perhaps merelyindicates that the 1 does not belong here, but with g, where there wasno room for it. I therefore read the whole 1-|-20=21.16^h, the sign of the fourteenth 20-day period (Kankin), aboveit is the familiar Ben-Ik sign, which I take to be the lunar monthof 29, or, more precisely,' 29.5 days (reckoned at only 28 in thecalendar). Before it is a prefix which is more distinct on page58, consisting of two lines and two small circles, which I am inclinedto consider the character for duplication, 2X29.5=59. Yet I con-fess that I nm still doubtful about this, especially as to the meaningof the character kankin. Was it chosen because 14 is the half of 28?17==b. Although 17 is almost destroyed, I think there is no doubtjibout this equation, judging from the fragments which remain.Hence we have here 13X360=4,680 days, a third of the remarkableperiod of 14,040 days.We have therefore, 14= 7. 200 days15=r 21 days16:= 59 days17 3= 4. G80 days11,900 days 440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28that is, precisely the Merciiry-inoon i^eriod ; the last number onpage 58 was only 11,958, and therefore referred merely to the firstof the three days set down near it.18^k, in both instances forming the termination of the group,and actually denoting termination or end, in which sense we oftenfind this sign, for instance, eight times in succession at the termina-tion of the great periods on pages 61 and 62. It is also the signfor the sixth period of 20 days, Xul, and it has long been knownthat xul means the end. Another word, xul, or shul, means thefiute, and the character may easily have originally signified the headof a flute-player.Perhaps it will lead to a better comprehension if we compare thevery similar group on page 53 at the top.19, 20. Here are two characters which indicate that a detailedtreatment of the parts into which each Venus year is divided is now tofollow" ; that is, the 236, 90, 250, and 8 days, as I have already provedin 1886, in my Erlauterungen. For the first of these signs is Venusitself; the second, a hand holding an obsidian knife (as indicativeof cutting, of dividing). On pages 46 to 50, where this dividing isrepresented, we see on the left in the middle an entire line filled withthese hands, four on each of the five pages.21 to 25. These five characters all refer to only one of the four partsof the Venus year, to the period of 236 days (of the morning star),no such amount of space being reserved for the other three. Butthese 236 days are under the domination of the east, this cardinalpoint always accompanying them (in the center of pages 46 to 50,above; in the lower third, below). The signs of the periods, as wellas those of the cardinal point from the middle third of these fivepages, continually move forward one point above, denoting the begin-ning and below the end of the 236 days. The sign (Chuen orAkbal?) constantly repeated in the lower third must likewise havesome connection with this circumstance.If we now turn back to our page 24, we find the signs 21, 22, 23, 24,and 25, on pages 47, 48, 49, and 50, and on page 46 in the fourth lineof the middle third, while on pages 48, 49, 50, 46, and 47, they are inthe first line of the low^er third. It would be venturesome to try toexplain the characters in detail. They are deities without doubt.As seems to me most probable, 21=N, 22^F, 23=H, 24=B, 25=A,to follow the designations of Schellhas in the Berlin Zeitschrift fiirEthnologic ; but that is merely a very modest conjecture. Before 21,which corresponds to the eleventh 20-day period, Zac, we see a 4, andthis may indicate that this Venus year should begin the 8-day inferiorconjunction with the day 4 Zac after. Pages 49 and 50 have a 1before 23, which seems to be obliterated on page 24. In the singu-larly composite character on page 48, first glyph on the right side of fOrstemann] THE GLYPHS 441the center line of the middle, I am inclined to surmise a combinationof the glyphs of those five gods.26 to 28. The sign 26 signifies the day Caban, by which sign alsothe ground and generally the direction downward is often indicated.As in this passage we often see Caban closely combined with glyph27, as on pages 32b to 35b, on page 48 in the middle of the right half,also on page 73 in each of the three divisions, also on pages 38b, 39b,40a, 55a, 56a, 66a, 7la, 7lb, sometimes probably denoting agriculture.Can 27 be the sign Muluc belonging to the north? That would agreevery well with the direction downward. Then follows 28, the famil-iar sign Chuen, which we have already seen repeated so many timeson pages 46 to 50. It has a prefix, the upper part of which is anuhau, the lower part of a god's face, probably that of the god D, whois usually combined with Ahau ; but D, as Schellhas has alreadyassumed, seems to be a god of the night. Therefore, although thereis still great uncertainty regarding this point, I feel strongly inclined e f g h iFig. 107. Glyphs from the Maya codices.to believe there is a reference here to the long period of 90 days inwhich Venus is invisible during the time of superior conjunction,that is, it vanishes in night; hence it is dominated by the north.With regard to the composite sign 28 I would suggest a parallel withA and B, 8, on the Cross of Palenque (?, figure 107).29 to 31. These characters occur close to the end of the great series.They seem to me to denote nothing else than the result of that series;to be sure, 29 is wholly, and 30 almost wdiolly, obliterated ; but I amsure from what remains of 30 that the normal date IV Ahau 8Cumku stood here, as it does in the left-hand lower corner of ourpage. In 31, as in 18, we see the sign for Xul, " end ", here denotingthe end of the great period, which marks the close of the entire compu-tation.32,33 (^>, figure 107). The black deity, L, according to Schellhas,and with it the glyph of Venus, with the sign above it which we havealready recognized as the sign for division. Thus we also find these 442 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28two characters together on page 46 on the right in the middle, wherethe four Venus periods are probably set down in close succession;and that 32 and 33 {b) are really meant to denote the periods of 250days belonging to the west is confirmed b}^ the fact that the blackdivinity on page 50, on the left, actually appears among the deitieswho govern the separate parts of the Venus year?in the middle ofthe page at the beginning and at the bottom at the end of a period of250 days. For prefix the black deity has here the sign Imix withthree rows of dots proceeding from it. Since with the Mayas Imixvery commonly stands at the beginning of the 20-day period, as thecorresponding Cipactli always does Avith the Aztecs, the whole glyphmight be read : Here begins the 250-day Venus period.34, 35 (c) . Exactly in the same place in which are the signs 32 (b)and 33 on page 4G we find the signs 34 and 35 (c) on page 47. 35 isVenus again, and 34 has the numeral 10 (on page 47 it may possiblybe 11) before it, and 34, too, seems to signify a deity, possibly K.(Moan), although in that case we should expect to find a 13 beforeit.On ])age 47, on the left. Moan represents a period of 8 days belongingto the south, the inferior conjunction of Venus.If my conjectures are well founded, we have in 21 to 25 the eastern,in 26 to 28 the northern, in 32 and 33 (/>, figure 107) the western,and in 34 and 35 (c) the southern part of the revolution of Venus(236, 90, 250, and 8 clays, respectively), the last three being morebriefly treated than the first owning to lack of space.But I return once more to sign 34, Moan. The striking number 10before it suggests the possibility that something else, probably a date,was to be designated. Now, the principal part of the sign is likethat of the third 20-day period, Zip. It may, therefore, mean10 Zip. We now remember that the signs for the eastern part beginwith the date 4 Zac. But from 4 Zac to 10 Zip of the next yearwe have precisely the interval of 2364-90-|-250? 576 days, thatis, a Venus year lacking only the 8 days of invisibility duringinferior conjunction; according to our calendar, the interval betweenP^ebruary 4 and September 3 of the succeeding year, the time fromthe appearance of the morning star to the disappearance of the even-ing star. May the future determine the year in question here. Onpages 46 to 50, as I shall directly observe, other years are treated of.36 to 40 {d, e, /, g, and A, figure 107) . These, the last five signs, occurin exactly this order on pages 46 to 50, one on each page at thebeginning of the third line in the middle group of the right half,directly under the signs which we have just mentioned; but with thisdifference, that on page 24 they always have the same prefix, whichthey lack on pages 46 to 50, w^hile there the same glyph invariablyfollows them. On page 46 the sign 36 {Xuly-19 335 to 247 .. 30 Oct. to 11 Nov.. . 20 - 348 to 360 13 to 24 Nov. Yaxkin31 261 to 273 25 Nov. to 7 Dec ^22 274 to 286 8 to 20 Dec /^^^23 287to299 21 Dec. to 2 Jan ^24 300to313 3tol5Jan f^^?"25 313to325 16 to 28 Jan Yax26 336 to 338 29 Jan. to 10 Feb i37 339to351 llto23Feb P*^28 352 to 364 24 Feb. to 8 March CehAVhile calling attention in what follows to certain points whichjustify this arrangement, I regret that a large number of glyphs mustbe omitted because an explanation of them is impossible. This isdoubly to be regretted in the case of characters that frequently occurin Maya manuscripts, which, if definitely known, would throw iniichlight upon many passages.Among these is the universally known, much discussed, but never 448 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28 clearly understood, Kan-Imix sign (?, figure 108), 7c-, 10c, 27c, in ourpassage; secondly, the Kin-Akbal sign (h). here 16, M, 5?>, 216, 28a,to which we would like to attribute the meaning of an initial day, ifthat meaning were applicable in every case. Further, the glyph (c)occurring in 9c, 136, 14c, 19c, 26c, which, although it seems to be con-nected with the conception of a death bird (owl) , is still very far frombeing clearly and suitably explained in every instance. The samemay be said of the Caban sign, which is doubtless often used to indi-cate the idea of earth, here 2a, 3c, 246, 28c, and of the other sign,found in Ic, 3c, 21c, 226, 24c, so often combined with it, as I havealready stated in my article regarding page 24 of the manuscript.A final and authoritative solution is the more to be desired because allthese signs recur Avithout the least regularity.In certain of these glyphs (as in the sign 25c, occurring only oncedD dii^ k Fig. 108. Cxlyphs from the Dresden codex.here, but continually found elsewhere), and doubtless also in others,there may be an allusion to some special feast, some particular (cere-mony, some sort of sacrificial offering, or even to the rank of someindividual ; but of all this nothing certain is known at present.It is delightful, by Avay of contrast, to see this pervasive darknessoccasionally illuminated by a full or even by a dawning ray of light.Group 1 is a case in point. For the glyph la (d, figure 108) can l)eexplained at the outset. It consists of four parts : On the upper leftside, the sign kin, "sun ", " day "; on the upper right side, the signfor the year; on the lower right side, the knife, or symbol of divisionor of section ; on the lower left side, what is particularly decisive, themonth Ceh. I therefore read la : The day of the new year in themonth Ceh. Sign 16 is the Kin-x\kbal sign (6), which is either the FOKSTEMANNj PAGES 71-7.3 AND 51-58, DRESDEN CODEX 449initial day or the day Akhal. The latter woidd siwiiify a Kan year,for which I hardly see a reason.Further, the four similar groups, 4, 11, 18, and 25 (e), are of specialimportance. The cross in the upper glyph may here be a compass,although it may have another meaning elsewhere. I regard the mid-dle glyph as a Bacab, or a deity of the wind and the cardinal points,and the lower glyj^h as ik, '' wind '\ AVe have long known that eachgroup of 01 days is under the rule of a special Bacab.The most important events of the year are clearly the sowing ofthe maize and the maize harvest, as well as the beginning and the endof the rainy season. Now, we find the first two in the maize deity, E(according to Schellhas), who appears in 6r and 13(-, which are 91days apart and denote the end of May and the beginning of August,which perhaps applies to a higher region, since in the plains but 60days were reckoned between seed time and harvest. The other signsof the two groups, familiar as they are, I must leave unexplained.I am inclined to recognize the beginning and end of the rainy sea-son in signs 8c and 16c (/) , wdiere what I consider three rays of dropsfall from a square signifying the heavens (as usual), like the rainfalling from the clouds represented on page 86 below (second pic-ture). The serpent, Sh {(/), as the symbol of water, may also be anallusion to this, as it is often combined Avith Akbal (w^hich oftenstands for "beginning''). The duration would be 104 days, fromJune to September. But I ought to remark that the sign in which Iseek a suggestion of the rainj^ season is very like another, common toboth the Dresden and Troano codices, which is very clasely connectedwith the idea of the week of 13 days (h).Some other views I desire to put forth as mere conjectures.If the sign Chuen, 7a, is realh^ a serpent's jaw it might refer to thebeginning of the astronomic year in Ma}^, as the serpent very oftendenotes time. In dh (i) there is a crouching human figure beside thesign Avhich, as I have mentioned above, is regarded as that of thedeath bird. In another place (Ziir Entziiferung der Mayahandschrif-ten, IV) I have regarded a human figure standing on its head (k)on page 58 as a sign for the planet Mercury, and I would add herethat I am inclined to consider the crouching captive on page 60' asMercury subdued by Venus. In 9^, Avhich belongs to the period fromthe one hundred and fifth to the one hundred and seventeenth days ofthe year, a 115 days' revolution of Mercury is completed. I considerpage 53, at the top, as a parallel to this passage, where the Venus signoccurs quite unexpectedly in the period in which, if the numbers andglyphs have reference to each other, the five hundred and second tothe six hundred and seventy-fourth days elapse, in which, therefore,a Venus revolution of 584 days is completed. A crouching figure, as7238?No. 28?05 29 450 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28in 96, also occurs on page GSa in the second series of 91 days, afterll-f-13=24 days of this series have ex})ired ; that is, directly after the115 days of the apparent revolution of Merc\iry.In lOh, and only in this passage, appears the glyph of the chief godof our nianuscri2:)t, B. This coincides Avith the time of the sun'sgreatest power and of the civil new year, July 16. In group 12 a andc represent the year and h the head with the Akbal eye. Is this thebeginning of the civil year? This should really form group 11, butthere was no room for it, as the signs for the period of 91 days had ofnecessity to stand there.Signs 14rt and 15c are almost alike and remind us of la. Are theymeant to express the middle of the ritual year, the time of the autum-nal equinox, September 10? In 15a two hooks diverge from a sunsign. Are these the two halves of the year and is the numeral 3preceding them the third quarter of the year?In 206 we have the sign for the death god. A, which probably doesnot occur by chance where the month Xul comes to a close, whichsignifies the end.In 23a we have the glyph of a black bird; two hooks pointingup and down proceed from it; below is the sign for the year. Is thisthe time of the shortest day, when darkness prevails?This is all that I can say at present with regard to this calendar;some points are decided, others are still doubtful.I find nothing in Codices Troano-Cortesianus and Peresianus xvhichcorresponds to this passage. On the other hand, several CentralAmerican calendars have been handed down to us from Spanishtimes. For instance, that of Pio Perez from northern Yucatan,Avhich may be found in Stephens's Travels in Yucatan, in the RegistroYucateco, and in Brasseur's edition of Diego de Landa. In Brinton'sNative Calendar of Central America and Mexico (1893), page 48,there are also two Chiapanec calendars from Chiapas. These calen-dars append a few ritual, astronomic, meteorologic, and economicnotes to every period of 20 days. We might believe that these andother similar calendars that probably exist were translated directlyfrom such ancient calendars as the one which is presented to us inthe jjassage just now under discussion, only with the old pagan weeksof 13 days reduced to periods of 20 days. The passage from theDresden codex discussed here, Avlien once it -can be fully translated,will very much resemble these more modern calendars.We have here been concerned with a year of 364 days, the middleof which consists of the sacred period of 260 days, while at thebeginning and at the end there are 52 days more, 104 together. Isit not wonderful, then, that in close proximity, on page 70, on theleft, above and below, we find the two large numbers 1,394,120 and fOrstemann] pages 71-73 AND 51-58, DRESDEN CODEX 4511,201,200, both of which are exactly divisible by 864, 2(')0, and 104,and therefore also by their common multiple, f5,()4().The Dresden manuscrij^t has another remarkable parallel to thispassage, which I shall now proceed to discuss. On pages 51 to 58there is an extremely complex series of numbers, which I have alreadydiscussed elsewhere and may possibly treat later in still greater detail.It is interrupted by ten pictures, to each of which belong eight or tenglyphs, placed above them. This series begins on page 53, at the top,and proceeds first in thirty terms to the top of page 58 ; it then con-tinues on page 51, at the bottom, and goes on in thirty-nine more termsto page 58. Now, as on pages 71 to 73 the twenty-eight terms areaccompanied each by three signs, placed above them, so here we havetwo signs above each of the sixty-nine terms. There, as here, thenumbers certainly have no connection with the glyphs, especially asthe series of numbers forms a clear and perfect whole, and I nowwish to show the probable interconnection of the glyphs, which iswholly different from that of the numbers, as far as that can be done,a great many on the upper part of the leaf being destroyed.First, I will show the positions of the sixtj^-nine groups of glyphsin the manuscript, for the sake of greater clearness : 31 452 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28treated, to a year of 364 days, which is divided into four quartersdedicated .o individual Bacabs, each comprising 7 weeks of 13 dayseach. But we are not dealing here with a single year; but, in pro-portion to the space occupied by the groups, with a period of13X69 ==897 days; that is, with two such years and 13 weeks. Letus try to prove this.First of all, in group 37? appears a human figure stretching bothjirms upward (I) ; this is repeated in group 65c// that is to say,twenty-eight places farther on, so that just one year (13X28^364)lies between them. We see the same human figure, more complete,with its glyph, on page 365/ a bird issues from its head, holding afish in its beak. The preceding year should begin in group 9a, butthe glyph there is nearly destroyed.But now in that year, between groups 37 to 65, I can also point outthe four Bacabs, which, however, as in the passage on pages 71 to 73,do not coincide with the beginning and end of the year. For thesigns 39, 46, 53, 60 {h in every case), show the Bacab sign previouslyfound (m), in the last three identical, in the first at least similar,always after an interval of 7 weeks. We should expect to find thesame sign in the preceding year in groups 4, 11, 18, 25, and 32, but Ican not point it out there, although I will add that 25? shows at leastthe glyph which was combined with the Bacab sign on page 71.If we look at the groups which immediately precede these Bacabgroups, we see in 38, 52, and 58 (which, according to what has beensaid above, should really be 59), in the lower part heads like thoseof birds, resembling the Bacab sign, which all resemble each other.A similar head might be expected in group 45, but instead we find aMoan head, which is likewise a bird's head. Thus we again seeintervals of 7 weeks between each.In all of the eight groups mentioned, 38 and 39, 45 and 46, 52 and53, 59 (nominally 58, as before mentioned) and 60, we always findthe glyph Imix as the first, or at least a part of the first, sign, whichis another confirmation of their general connection.But these are not the only instances of a repetition after sevengroups. In 42a and 495 we see the same sun sign represented be-tween light and darkness. In 17 and 24 the same head occurs as thelower sign ; also, it is true, in 15, 29, 40, 44, but here, too, 15 and 29agree after an interval of 2X7 groups. Groups 15a and 36a agreeafter 3X7=21 groups; after a similar interval 10a and 31a showthe same crouching person ; but so, also, do 20a and 30a.If, according to my proposition, 55 and 54 are transposed, then thetwo signs of 33 and 34 will exactly corresj^ond to these after 3X7=21weeks; so, too, will 35 and 56 agree, if, as I have also proposed, 56 isput in the place of 57. FORSTEMANN] PAGES 71-73 AND 51-58, DRESDEN CODEX 453Nor is it accidental that the serpent signs in 8h and 43rt resembleeach other, although 35=5XT weeks have passed.The perfect agreement between 41 and 47, after only weeks haveelapsed, might indicate that an exchange had taken place betweentwo neighboring grou])s in one of the two passages. In 41^ and Q9athe same head at least occurs; that is, after a space of twenty-eightgroups, or a year, as in 37 and 65.Perhaps the most important thing thus far stated is the probablediscovery of the sign for a Bacab repeated eight times. It is furtherconfirmed by a ninth instance, on page 72, at the top, in the secondgroup from the right, but the glyphs set down there belong to aseries of numbers below them, the difference of whose separateterms is 54. In the third member of this series, page 72, at the leftabove, that is, above the number 162, the lowest glyph is associatedwith the character for the month Ceh in exactly the same way asgroup 1 in the passage first discussed, but the Bacab sign, whichI have just mentioned, is associated with the eighth term; that is,Avith the number 432. Two hundred and seventy days have there-fore passed since the Ceh group, and in this time, exactly after 273days, the rule of a new Bacab begins.It is remarkable that the numeral 4 accompanies this newly dis-covered Bacab sign, just as it does in group 4 of page 71, in thepassage first discussed. To my mind this numeral 4 can only be anexpletive affirmation that one of the four Bacabs is actually dealtwith.Perhaps it may yet lead to further discoveries if I observe thatin both of the passages discussed in detail, pages 51 to 58 and 71 to73 (I can count at least fourteen instances, in spite of the partial PAGES 31a to 32a, DRESDEN CODEX"As it seems that the mathematic sohition of the Dresden codex,which I undertook with imperfect success eleven years ago, has beenAvholly left to me, I will here more closely consider the especially im-portant passage that almost covers the upper third of pages 31 and 32.This passage must have seemed to the writer of the manuscript tohave particular importance; otherwise he Avould not have repeatedthree large numbers and three differences which occur there, on pages62 and 63, where they are mixed with many other things. This repe-tition affords us the welcome opportunity of correcting two clericalerrors in the third large number and in the third difference whichoccur on page 31. I will make these corrections at once, in order not tointerrupt the exposition later.The writer set down the third large number with the numbers 10,13, 3, 13, 2; but it should read 10, 13, 13, 3, 2; or, interpreted inEuropean numerals, 1,538,342.The third difference, standing directly under this number, he wrotewith 7, 2, then a black 14, and next a red 5. This was due to lack ofspace; it should be 7, 2, 14, 19=51,419.Without these two corrections the surprising results which I amabout to communicate would be imijossible.Investigation should begin at the right, which is the rule in all pas-sages relating to arithmetic series.On page 32, on the right, we see the glyphs of all the 20 days, inthe following order: 4 456 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. !i8true of all the succeeding members of the series. The real zero point,which is always concealed in this manuscript, is XIII 20, the same asthe last day of the series. This day is, however, the new year's daywhich recurs every 52 years, followed by I 1 as the second day, whichgives the name to the whole year, for, according to the Maya view, thenew year's day is not the first, but the zero da3^ It is not counted.Day XIII 20 is, therefore, highly significant in this passage.The difference 91 is equally significant. It is a Bacab period, aquarter of the ritual year of 364 days. This entire list of 20 days,therefore, includes a period of 20X91=^1,820, or 7 tonalamatls.The rest of the upper third of page 32 and the column on tlie rightof page 31 are filled by a series which begins with 91, and 91 or amultiple of this number always appenrs as the difference. Thisshows an attempt to obtain numbers divisible by the tonalamatl,260. This attempt is uniformly adhered to in all these series. Atthe same time a number divisible by 10-1 is sought, 104 being theremainder of a ritual year of 304 days when a tonalamatl, 2()0. issubtracted from it. This division of the year into 260-)-104 recallsthe hypothesis of Mrs Zelia Nuttall, which assumes that the Aztecyear was separated into 52-)-260-j-52."It is unnecessary to repeat the entire twenty terms of the seriesin the manuscript, some of which are destroyed, since it concernsmerely an auxiliary calculation. It is sufficient to give the principle.Here the two numbers 728 and 3,640 on page 32, on the left, needa passing allusion. They are of special importance, since with theformer the combination of 91 and 104 is obtained and with the latter,besides this, the agreement with 2()0. It is as follows:728=8X91 (therefore also 2X 3(54)== 7 X 104.3,640=40x01 (therefore also 10x364)=35X 104= 14x260.Our chief concern noAV is to represent what has thus far been statedas the germ of what is to follow.The writer has added two superfluous signs at the end of the fivecolumns of page 31 which belong here, in order to avoid an emptyspace. In the fourth and fifth columns he twice sets down the dayXIII 20, the importance of which is already sufficiently conspicuous.In the first three columns he sets down the day IV 17 three times, and,besides, on the first and second he has twice set doAvn the sign of theeighteenth month, Cumku. But we know that only the beginning ofMaya chronology, upon which all numbers are based, is here meant,for it fell on the eighth day of the eighteenth month and was a dayIV 17 in the year 9 Ix.Before we consider the three large numbers with which the threefirst columns begin I must make a more general observation. The " Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System, Stockholm, 1894. fokstemann] pages 31a-32a, Dresden codex 457 manuscript recognizes a multitude of numbers which increase from1,200,000 to about 1,000,000. A part of these are actually expressedin the manuscript, and another part, as we shall see presently, areto be found by calculation. Now, all these numbers fall into twodistinct divisions. The lesser range from 1,201,200 to 1,278,420.They therefore extend over 297 tonalamatls, or 211 years. Thelarger, on the other hand, begin at 1,366,560 and end with 1,567,332,thus extending over a period of 773 tonalamatls, or 550 j^ears. Thereis a blank space between, which can not be due to accident, for it com-prises 339 tonalamatls, or 242 years. Fifteen lesser numbers precedethis gap and twenty-four greater numbers follow. It may be sur-mised that this gap is the present, that the lesser numbers are the past,and the larger numbers the future for purposes of prophecy. Thestela^ at Copan, whiclrl have mentioned (Zur Entzifferung der Maya-handschriften, IV), extend from the date 1,375,200 to 1,414,800; thatis, through 152 tonalamatls, or 109 years. They signify the present,and must, therefore, provided the zero point of chronologic computa-tion is the same, be more recent than the Dresden codex, in which thefuture begins about where the present begins in Copan.Above each of the three large numbers there was a date composedof a number and a glyph, but with the exception of insignificant rem-nants these dates are destroyed. Therefore, I can oidy regard it asa bare possibility that they denote the sixteenth day in the firstmonth, the eleventh in the seventh, and the first in the fourteenth,which positions belong to the three daj^s XIII 20 to be calculatedafterwards.The three large numbers are as follow : 1. 1,272,544. This is a day IV 1, the seventeenth day of the sev-enth month in a year 12 Muluc. The number is divisible by 91 and104 : 13,984X^1=1^,230X104. Of the three factors sought, 260 isthe only one not found here.2. 1,268,540. This is day IV 17, the actual starting point ofchronology, and this time it is the eighth day of tlie eighth monthin the year 1 Ix. The number is divisible by 260, which is alwaysthe case with day IV 17; that is, it is 4,879X260. But it is alsodivisible by 17; that is, it is 74,620X17. This, too, is not accidental,for the interval between XIII 20 and IV 17 is 17, and we oftenfind that two day numbers jdaced in close proximity with each otherare divisible by their ditlVrence.3. 1,538,342. This is a day IV 19, the fifteenth day of the eleventhmonth in the year 12 Muluc. Thus the year has the same designationas that of the first number, but it is 14 katuns (14X18,980) inadvance of the former, and the day in it is 78 days in advance, for78 days is the interval between IV 1 and IV 19; but the interval 458 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 is the same from IV 19 to IV 17, so that there is the same intervalbetween the three days in the three numbers. The third numberis neither divisible by 91, 104, nor 260, and yet this is the verynumber from which the number sought is to be obtained. However,like the other two, it is at least divisible by 13, the number of weekdays.Among the three large numbers the manuscript shows the nowfamiliar sign XIII 20. This means that those three numbers areall to be reduced to the day XIII 20 by means of subtraction. Now,the distance from XIII 20 to IV 1 is 121 ; from XIII 20 to IV 17,17; from XIII 20 to IV 19, 199. The first two of these numbers aredirectly subtracted, but the third, as is often done, is first increasedby a multiple of 200, which produces no alteration in the position ofthe days. Here 197X260+199=51,419 is subtracted. These threenumbers, 121, 17, and 51,419, the last being in accordance with thecorrection which I gave above, are actually provided in the manu-script with the red ring, which indicates the subtrahend, and there-fore stands for the minus sign with the Maya.By this subtraction the three following numbers are obtained:1. 1,272,423; that is, day XIII 20, sixteenth clay in the first luonth, year .12 Muluc.2. 1,268,523; that is, day XIII 20, eleventh day in the seventh month,year 1 Ix.3. 1,486,923; that is. day XIII 20, first day in the fourteenth month,year 1 Kan. This day, therefore, divides the year, as was previouslypointed out, into a tontlamatl of 260 days and a period of 104 days.These numbers are not in the manuscript, but as usual in such casesthey must be calculated by the reader. W]\y were not 260 days lessdeducted to obtain in this w^y the beginning of a katun, the first dayof the first month in the year 1 Kan ? I believe this was omitted inorder to avoid the unlucky new year's day. I am confirmed in thisopinion by the fact that the same date, 1, fourteenth month, com-puted to be sure from IX 1 and in a different katun, also results fromthe black numbers of the fourth serpent, on page 02.The three numbers found by computation now stand in a muchclearer relation to one another than those set down in the manuscript.1. The difference between the first and the second number is3,900=15X260.That this difference is intentional is confirmed by the number 39,000resulting from the two numbers in the serpent on page 69, which arenearly ten times as large as those mentioned here. There the twonumbers are 12,381,728 and 12,391,470, from w4iich must be subtractedthe differences on page 73, 34,732 and 83,474, and the resulting re-mainders are 12,346,996 and 12,307,996, whose difference is exactly39,000. fOrstemann] * PAGES 31a-32a, DRESDEN CODEX 459 2. The difference between the third and first numbers is 214,500;that is, exactly fifty-five times 3,900, plainly ])roving that nothing hasbeen left to accident here.3. The difference between the second and third numbers musttherefore be 218,400, or fifty-six times 3,900. It should l)e noted herethat 56=7X8 and 7 : S : : 91 : 104.Now, in this 218,400 are united all the properties sought in thefundamental series. It is 2,400X91 (therefore also equals 000X304)=2,100X104=840X260." To be sure, 3,640 already contains these fac-tors, but the fulfillment of prophecy was not sought in such closeproximity, else the prophet might easil}^ have been held accountable.In addition, 218,400 has the desirable property of being composed of600 ritual years of 364 days.The number 218,400 appears to me now as the real objective pointof the computation, or rather as its starting point, for the originalcomputer must have begun at that point in order by calculating back-ward to reach the three apparently unimportant numbers which themanuscript records, and then evolve from them such a remarkableresult.In the last column but one of page 31 our passage presents a num-ber, 2,804,100, which occupies a wholly isolated position in the manu-script, as it is nearly twice as large as any of the other large numbers,except those found in the ser]:>ents. This number ought to allude tothe year 9 Muluc, and to the thirteenth day of the eighth month, 3'etthat seems to have no importance. At all events it denotes the dayIV 17. On considering its remarkable jDroperties we find : 1. It is equal to 10,7S5X2(;0.2. It Is equal to 17.975X156. The last is the difference between tliedays IV 1 and IV 17. From this follows:3. It is equal to 35,950x78. 78 is the difference between IV 19 andIV 17, and between IV 1 and IV 19.4. It is equal to 719X3,9(X). We have above already recognized 3,90Cias a very important number.But 2,804,100, on account of its magnitude, awakens the suspicionthat it may be composed of two of the ordinary large numbers.These might be ? 5. It is equal to 1,308.5804- 1,495,-520; that would signify 14,.380X(91-f-104).6. It is equal to 1,380,600+1,423,500; that would signify 3,900x (354+365.)This shows, as was evident from number 4, the important 3,900, butit divides the 719 mentioned there into the lunar year, 354-=6X29-J-6X30, and the civil year. I confess I have met this nowhere ? 18.'3,120 + 33,280=218,400. 460 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 else with the Mayas, except in the Dresden manuscript, pag-es 51 to58, Avhere we find the often repeated 177^=354-^2.We might inchide here the two important numbers 14,040 and18,980, of the first of which 2(10 and 3(50 are factors, as 260 and 365are of the second. Then we see : 7. It is equal to 147X18,980+14,040.8. It is equal to 200X 14,040?3,900.But it w^ouhl be unsafe to attempt to penetrate deeper mto thesense and purpose of these numbers until new light is shed fromwithout.I have still to speak of the up])er right-hand corner of page 31a, thegreater part of which is unfortunately destroyed. The fifth and lastcolumn is entirely destroyed. It may have contained one more num-ber of the series, Avhose loss is not to be deplored, but above it were,perhaps, one or two glyphs whose loss is sadly felt.There are five or six glyphs in the fourth coUunn preceding. Ofthese only the lower four are to be seen, the first two only indistinctly.I have already said something about them in 1801 in the Berlin Zeit-schrift fiir Ethnologic, volume 23, pages 141 to 155.Of these four signs I must leave unnoticed the second from the top,where we see a red 6 pecnliarly introduced.The first sign is an Imix with prefix and probablj^ also a sign overit. I adhere to the opinion that this denotes the katun period, 18,980days, or perhaps a multiple of it.I have attempted to explain the third sign as 24.><305 days, or thetriplicate of the sacred period of eight years, that is, the so-calledahau of 8,760 days, and I still consider it in a measure a probablesolution, especially in view of the passage on page 73 at the top.Finally, the lowest sign is undoubtedly the one for 7,200 (20X360)days, that T have found provided Avith a prefix in manuscripts andinscriptions, which probably indicates a multiple of this period.It is most remarkable, however, that these three signs are foundver}^ near each other in three other passnges of the manuscript. Onpage 61 the sign for 8,760 occurs in the eleventh, the sign for 18,980in the twelfth, place in the second column, and the sign for 7,200 inthe fourteenth place of the first column. On page 70 the sign for18,980 occurs in the fourth, the sign for 8,760 somewhat loAver in thethird, column, and Iavo places below this the sign for 7,200. Finallv,the three signs all occur in close succession on page 73 at the top, inthe same order as on page 31.It is therefore my opinion that a prophecy is the real purpose ofthis passage, as of all similar ones. For, of course, no one believesthat these are mere exercises in arithmetic or directions for them. FORSTEMANN] PAGES 31a-32a, DRESDEN CODEX 461But now the question naturally arises, What is actually prophesiedhere? We find nothing said about it, and there would hardly beroom for it in the manuscripts. We might conjecture that an omenwas connected with certain numbers and with individual days, as weactually find such omens mentioned in the calendar of Perez givenby Stephens. But it is also possible that the cunning priests avoidedcommitting their prophecies definitel}' to writing and that they leftthem to the chances of verbal transmission and tradition. Finally,the graphic system of the Maya, which never even achieved theexpression of a phrase, or even of a verb, is too imperfect to serve asa medium for the transmission of prophecies; at any rate, it couldonly have done so very inadequately. THE SERIES OF NUMBERS, DRESDEN CODEX. PAGES51 TO 58 ?The most difficult and ingenious number series of the Dresdencodex, which occupies the upper half of pages 58 to 58 and the lowerhalf of pages 51 to 58, has already been discussed by me severaltimes, the first time and most minutely in 1886 in my Erlauterungen,pages 33 to 34 and 68 to 70. But since then my comprehension ofthese numbers has been so enlarged that a new treatment of thisimportant subject seems imperative.This passage, however, is organically connected with the immedi-ately preceding pages 46 to 50, page 24 having briefly treated of thecontents of the two sections (see Zur Entzifferung der Mayahand-schriften, IV). The purport of pages 16 to 50 is the bringing intoharmony of the apparent Venus year of 584 days, the solar year of365 days, and the tonalamatl of 260 days, and this is accomplishedby means of three series, each of which extends over 37,960 days, forthat length of time is equivalent to 65 Venus, 104 solar, or 146 tona-lamatl years.The corresponding problem on pages 51 to 58 is, first of all, to findan agreement between the apparent Mercury year of 115 days andthe tonalamatl of 260 days, and this agreement is afforded by theperiod of 11,060 days= 104XI 15=46X260. Curiously enough, thisperiod includes as many Mercury years as the preceding period con-tained solar years.The upper part of pages 51 and 52 treats of these 11,960 daj'^s, withregard to which I need not go into further detail here, since thegreater part of this passage is occupied by a series whose differenceis exactly 11,960.It is most interesting to note that the Maya also sought to bringthe revolution of the moon into connection with this period, and toobserve the manner in which they did it. For the revolution of themoon, which we assume to be 29.53 days, in any case demands afractional computation, of which the Maya either knew nothing, orwhich they carefully avoided, just as did the ancient Egyptians, whowere familiar only with fractions having 1 for their numerator, andat the utmost with, the fraction ? (see Ilultsch, Die Elemente der .agyptischen Teilungsrechnung, 1895, page 16).But the Mayas knew the revolution of the moon too accurately not "Zur Bntzifferiing der Mayahandschriften, VII, Dresden, Jan. 16, 1S08.463 464 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28to have seen that the period of 11,1)00 days could not be made tocoincide with a multiple of lunar revolutions. With 405 lunar revo-lutions they obtained only 11,958 days, and this number is actually-the highest of the series on the second half of page 58.In order to make the series of 11,958 days applicable to one of11,960 days, they employed a most ingenious device. As the startingpoint for each term of the series they took not a single day, butthree consecutive daj^s: For the first term, XI 4, XII 5, XIII 6;for the last, IX 2, X 3, XI 4. So the first day of the first (erm wasactually 11,958 days distant from the first day of the last term, butthe first day of the first term was distant 11,960 days from the thirdday of the last term.At all events, the whole period of 11,958 days was first divided intothree equal periods of 3,980 days each. In order to divide thesesmaller periods still further the term of 177 days was used, as far asthis was practicable ; but 177 is the half of a lunar j^ear of 854 days,which is composed of months of 30 days and months of 29 days;that is, to each month, in round numbers, are allowed 29.5 days.177 is, therefore, equal to 3X29+3X30; but the average of 29.5days for the duration of a lunar revolution is a little too small. Inorder to raise it to the most exact value possible, in certain places ofthe series of two other numbers were introduced, viz: 148=2X29-1-3X30 and 178=2X29+4X30; 148 is equivalent to 5 months of29.6 days and 178 to 6 months of 29.060+ days. Now, we must seein what proportion these 148 and 178 days were distributed amongthe periods of 177.First we see that the term of 3,980 days, that is, a third of the wholeperiod, Avas divided into three sections of 1,742, 1,034, and 1,210 daysin the following manner : 1,742=8X1774- 148+ 1781,034= 4X177+ 148+ 1781,210= 6X177+ 1483,986=18X177+3. 148+2. 178This equals 135 months of 29.520 days each. How did the Mayaexpress this fraction ? Perhaps it will be shown in the future that inaccordance with their vigesimal system, they approximately denotedit thus: 29 + ^+4^-0 + 8^.The whole period of 11,958 days was therefore divided in the fol-lowing way: 3X 1,742=24X 177+3 X 148+3X 1783X1,034=12X177+3X148+3X1783X1,210=18X177+3X1483X3,986=54X177+9X148+6X178 FORSTEMANN] SERIES OF NUMBERS, DRESDEN CODEX 465For eveiy six divisions by 177 there is, then, one by 148 ; for everynine divisions by 177, one by 178.Since 177 and 178 each embrace 6 months and 1-18, on the otlierhand, embraces 5 months, the whole length of the period equals 405months, which are divided into ()9 periods.All this had to be discussed before 1 could connnunicate the entireseries itself. 1 will here set down the numbers and join to them thedifference between each number and the preceding one (in the case ofthe first, therefore, the difference between that and the zero point),just as they are given in the manuscript. I have placed an asteriskwhere I have corrected a number, the manuscript in the correspond-ing places containing an error in writing or in computation. Thethree columns correspond to the three thirds of 3,986 days each, thetwo horizontal spaces separate the periods of 1,742, 1,034, and 1,210daj's. (Page53a) 24 4,163* 177 47 8,149 1771 177 177 25 4,340 177 48 8,326 1772 354* 177 26 4,488 148* 49 8,474 1483 502 148 (Page 58a) 50 8,651 177*4 679* 177 27 4.665 177 (Page 55b)5 856 177 28 4.842 177 51 8,828 1776 1,034* 178* 29 5,020 178* 52 9,006 178*(Page 54a) 30 5,197 177 53 9,183 1777 1,211 177 (Page 51b) 54 9,360 1778 1,388 177 31 5,374 177 55 9,537 1779 1,565 177 32 5,551 177 56 9,714 17710 1,742* 177 33 5,728 177 11 1,919 177 34 5,905 177 57 9,891 17712 2,096* 177 35 6,082 177 58 10,068* 177*13 2,244 148 36 6,230 148 (Page 56b)(Page 55a) (Page 52b) 59 10,216 148*14 2,422* 178* 37 6,408 178* 60 10,394 178*15 2,599* 177 38 6,585 177 61 10,571 17716 2,776 177 39 6,762 177 62 10,748 177 17 2.953 177 40 6.939 177 (Page 57b)18 3,130 177 (Page53b) 63.. .. 10,925 177(Page56a) 41 7,116 177 64 11,102 17719 3,278 148 42 7.264 148 65 11,250 14820 3,455 177 43 7,441 177 66 11.427 17721 3,632 177 44 7,618 177 67 11,604 17722._ .,. 3.809 177 45 7.795 177 (Page 58b)(Page57a) (Page 54b) 68 11,781 17723 3,986 177* 46 7,972 177 69 11,958 177No one wdio is familiar with the carelessness of the Maya manu-scripts w^ill be surprised that 1 should pronounce 20 of the 138 num-7238?No. 28?05 30 466 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28bers of the manuscript incorrect. Moreover, the 20 errors are lessenedb}^ the fact that six of them ai^e really one and the same, for in allof these six cases, where the difference is 178, the writer has over-looked this and mechanically' Avritten down the usual 177, althoughthe numbers and days of the series quite correctly indicate 178.Moreover, the three errors in groups 58 and 59 are only one, for theauthor had confounded the differences 177 and 148, and was, there-fore, obliged to write the number 10,089 instead of 10,068, which willfind confirmation later. From this it follows besides that the writerwas at the same time the computer, consequently the actual author.I must further call attention to the regular position of the differ-ences 178 and 148. In the three periods of 1,742 -days 178 is alwaysin the sixth place, in those of 1,034 days it is always in the fourthplace. It appears, therefore, in groups 6, 14, 29, 37, 52, and 60, thatis to say, at intervals of 8, 15, 8, 15, 8 groups; in the periods of 1,210days it is wholly wanting. The difference 148 in the nine divisions isalwaj^s in the third place, that is to say, always close to the pictures,of which we shall presently speak; therefore, in groups 3, 13, 19, 26.36, 42, 49, 59, 05, that is, at intervals of 10, 6, 7, 10, 6, 7, 10, 6 groups.We can not yet look further into the causes of this curious fact.But I must refer to a pregnant error. Groups 22 and 23 quitecorrectly have the difference 177, but the writer in this single placesets down 178 and consequently computes the three days belong-ing here as VII 11, VIII 12, "iX 13, instead of VI 10, VII 11,VIII 12, and from here to the end he is always one day in advance,so that group 69 on page 58 closes wirh the days X 3, XI 4, XII 5,which ought to be IX 2, X 3, XI 4.Now it is important to determine the zero point belonging to thisseries, for every series of this manuscript conceals it. It must be 177days before the first group, that is, before daj^s VI 1, VII 2, andVIII 3. which leads to\he days XI 4, XII 5, and XIII 6.Of these days the middle one, XII 5, is by far the most important ; it occurs on the upper half of page 51 six times, on page 52 four times.On page 51, in the first column on the left, we first find the normaldate and starting point of the computation, the da}^ IV 17, as theeighth da}^ of the eighteenth month in the year 9 Ix, but under itour day XII 5. Below the latter there is an 8, beneath this numberthe character kin ('' sun ", "day "), and combined with the' latter thecharacter imix, with a sign above it clearly denoting " combination ", " union '. In the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1891, page 152, I havealready ascribed the meaning of a katun (18,980=52X365 days) tothis combination, and I still hold this opinion.This group may, therefore, signify the 8 days which elapse betweenIV 17 and XII 5, but it may also denote the period of 8X18,980=151,840 days; probably it signifies both at the same time. FORSTEMANN] SERIES OF NUMBERS^ DRESDEN CODEX 467Tavo iiuuibers are sot dovvii Avith this day XII 5, one in red andone in black: 1,578,088 on page 51 and 1,412,848 on page 52. Thefirst ninnber points to the sixth day of the eighteenth month [Cuniku |in the year Kan ; the second, to the first day of the fifteenth month[Moan] in the year 6 Miihic.From the year G Muluc to the year 6 Kan there are 39 years, or14,235 days; from the first day of the fifteenth month to the sixthday, of the eighteenth month there are 05 days; therefore the twodates are separated by an interval of 14,235-(-G5, or 14,300 days, unlessa round number consisting of multiples of a katun (18,980 days)comes into question. But 1,578,988? 1,412,848 equals 166,140.Again, if 14,300 is subtracted from this last number, the remainder is151,840, actually then 8X18,980 or 416X365 (solar j^ars) or 260X584(Venus years) or 52X^2,920 (Venus-solar periods). Thus I am justi-fied in IniAdng really read 8 katuns on page 51.Moreover, I found this number 151,840 by computation once beforein the manuscript. Compare my fourth article in this series.- whereI pointed out that it is the ditlerence between the two numbers185,120 and 33,280 on page 24 of the manuscript. On the last-namedpage, if my restoration of the eft'aced passage is correct, this samenumber stands as the highest of the series, actually set down as thequadruple of 37,960, in which the solar year, the Venus j^ear, and thetonalamatl accord.All these remarks relate to the day XII 5, the middle one of thethree days XI 4. XII 5, and XIII 6. But the third day, XIII 6,also demands consideration, for on it depends the great series thatbegins on page 58 at the right and extends over the whole of page 59,which has for its difference 780, in which I recognized the period ofthe apparent revolution of Mars.We must now leave the clear domain of numbers and enter a mys-terious realm in which science thus far has reaped but a scanty har-vest, and on which I, too, can throAv but little light. As on pages 46to 50 at the end of each period of 2,920 days there are three pictures,so there are pictures, ten in all, inserted between the different numbersand symbols.One of these pictures, the eighth, on page 56b, stands in the wrongplace in consequence of the error in computation which I discoveredin groups 58 and 59. It does not belong before, but after, group 59,the first on page 56b. This the manuscript itself suggests, for ingroup 59 the two glyphs usually standing above each group are miss-ing, and in their stead we find a character resembling a snail. Butthis, according to my Erliiuteriuigen, page 29, is nothing more thanan emphasized zero, Avhich indicates that the section marked by apicture closes with this group. 468 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. !28 A-N^ien this error is corrected, we see that the ten pictures stand thuson the following pages and after the following numbers of the series : 1 53a 5022 55a 2. 2443 56a 3, 2784 57a 4, 4885 52b G, 2306 53b 7, 2(>47 54b 8, 4748 56b 10, 2169 57b 11,25010 5Sb 11. 958From this it follows that a picture is assigned to each of the ninesections which form the series, yet never at the beginning or end ofthe section, but only after the expiration of 502=2 Xl77-|-148days. The intervals of time between the pictures, therefore, amountto 1,742, 1,034, and 1,210 days, exactly the same as the duration of theseparate nine sections. The last picture alone is distant 708 daysfrom the last but one, and besides has peculiar characteristics, andconsequently must be specially discussed. But these 708 days at theend and the 502 days at the beginning again quite regularly make1,210 days.Now it is easy to suppose a new series in these nine pictures, whichis interpolated in the original one, a series, in fact, whose zero pointfalls on the day 502. We shall, therefore, always have to subtract 502days from the days occurring in the manuscript. This new series isthen represented in the following manner : 1 53a2 5.5a 1,742 .3 56a 2, 7764 57a 3,9865 52b 5, 7286 53b 6, 7627 54b 7,9728 56b 9, 7149 57b 10.748We are struck by the fact that the final number 10,748 correspondsso closely to vSaturn's period of revolution, which is computed at10,753 days. There is no reason Avhy the Mayas might not have beenfamiliar, not merely with the apparent, but also with the actual revo-lution of this planet, first, on account of the slowness of its movement,and, secondly, on account of the absence of retrogradation, which isso important in the inner planets. Moreover, the apparent revolu-tion of Saturn (378 days from one superior conjunction to the next)could not be made to agree with the length of the solar year. I willimmediately offer a further proof of my theory. fSrstemann] series OF NUMBERS, DRESDEN" CODEX 469All these pictures are joined at the top to those rectangles of which1 have spoken in my Erlauterungen, page 16, and which always con-tain two or three glyphs, that, with much hesitation, I was inclined tointerpret as the symbols of the sun, moon, and planets. No seriouscontradiction of this theory has thus far ensued.As the symbol of Saturn, I indicated in the article mentioned a orh^ figure 109 : These figures are actually found in all of the nine pic-tures wnth the exception of the first, w'hich has no such rectangle, theplace, therefore, wheiv the zero point is concealed, according to thetrue Maya method.But I go still farther in my bold hypothesis. The time assignedto Jupiter for its apparent revolution is 397 days. I believe that theMayas adopted 398 days for the period. In the article mentioned Ihave taken to be the symbol of Jupiter : c or ^/, figure 109.This character occurs in pictures 4, 6, 7, and 9. The numbers^ S[ ^1 Efa-'^ii?/ & <&o p q r sFio. 109. Glyphs from the Dresden codex.belonging to them, reduced for the revolution of Saturn, are 3,986,6,762, 7,972, and 10,748. But in addition I include, as the zero point,the place Avhere the sign has been suppressed, the picture 3, that is, thenumber 2,776, and I also include picture 10, which is not reached bythe revolution of Saturn and has the number 11,958.If these numbers are compared with 398, that is, with the appar-ent revolution of Jupiter, then we have the following result : 3 2,776= 7x398?104 3,986=10X398+ 66 6.762=17X398? 47 7.972=20x398+129 10, 748=27 X 398+ 210 11, 958=30x398+18The differences, 10, 6, 4, 12, 2, 18, in comparison with 398, are all sosmall that the numbers, 2,776, etc., might very well have been consid-ered as approximate multiples of the revolution of Jupiter. Let us 470 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28compare the following numbers, which do not come near coincidingwith it : 1 502= 398+1042 1,742= 4X398+1505 5,728=14x398+1568 9,714=24x398+162Those belonging to the latter four pictures have in fact no Jupitersymbol. Further, the regular progression from the seventh to thetenth, seventeenth, twentieth, twenty-seventh, and thirtieth multiplein the six equations given above somewhat increases the credibility ofmy view.I will not go into particulars here in regard to the rest of theglyphs found in the rectangles. That task must be undertaken someday in a wider connection. For these rectangles are by no means apeculiarity of the Dresden codex, as it has them in common with theother Maya manuscripts, while, excepting one trace in Codex Teller-iano-Remensis, I have not found them in the Aztec manuscripts.Concerning the pictures, I regret that I have only detached remarksto offer, and not, as I always desire to do, a definite, concise result ofmy investigations. I find human figures four times, not countingtlie tenth picture, as follows : Picture 1, page 53a, has the death god. A, sitting and pointingupward.Picture 2, page 55a, has the head of a deity, probably I), yet withthe suggestion of a beard, and on his brow the symbol of the sun.The head is surrounded by a black and wdiite striped ring.Picture 3, page 56a, has the head of B, again with a beard; aboveit, kin (the sun). The head is encircled by a stripe, black on the left,white on the right.Picture G, page 53b, has a lianged female figure, which Schellhas(Gottergestalten, page 11) l)elieves to be the Maya goddess Ixtab,the goddess of the halter ; that is, of the hanged.The suggestion of a face, perhaps in place of the sign ahau, occursin picture 4, page 57a, as the center, but on the sides the surface isblack and white.It is significant, furthermore, that kin (" sun ") forms the center ofthe picture four times, vdz, in pictures 5, 7, 8, and 9, pages 52b, 54b,56b, and 57b. In all four cases we see beside the kin one blackand one white surface, as we have already seen them in picture 4and similarly in picture 3. Pictures 8 and 9 are, as it were, disgorgedby a snake drawn below them. In i^ictures 5 and 8, four arrowlikesymbols diverge from the kin in four directions, probably the fourcardinal points or the four Bacabs. We see two of these symbols FoRSTEMANNl SEEIES OF NUMBERS, DRESDEN CODEX 471 also in picture 7 (page 54b), but only on the black, not on the white,side.Figure 10 is that of a nondescript creature. It has a human formand appears to be diving headforemost from the two symbols ofthe sun and moon, against which it presses its feet. AboA'e the sunand moon syml)ols is a rectangle with the signs of Venus and Jupiter.Instead of a head, or perhaps as a mask over his face, this creaturelias that symbol for Venus which is to be found not only on pages ,51 to 58, but also on pages 46 to 50, and above this there is a khid ofcrown. Between his legs is a symbol which forms a kind of tail andis suggestive of the flint, so often found as the prefix to the Venussign, only here it is so well formed that it resembles still more theAztec equivalent, tecpatl.Of the glyphs above the ])ictures I can likewise give only an unsat-isfactory account. Tliere are properly always ten of them, amongthem the two signs for the sun and moon ; j^et the writer has addedthese sun and moon signs to pictures 1 to 4 only, besides the moreelaborate picture 10. From pictures 5 to 9 he has omitted them, asl)eing understood, in order to make the remaining eight larger andclearer. Among the latter are several glyphs of gods, the most dis-tinct being those of A in pictures 1, 5, and 9, and of H in picture 5,besides which there are other uncertain heads, part of them birds'heads, as in pictures 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9.The Ben-Ik sign, to which I have ascribed the significance of alunar m(mth, we see with pictures 4, 8, 9, and tAvice with pictures1 and 10.I would like to see the symbol of Mercury with the figure in pic-tures 9 and 10, especially on account of its resemblance to the glyphof Venus.Pictures 1, 7, 8, and 10 show hands grasping a glyph (a sign for20 days?).The enigmatic numbers before the glyphs occur several times, as a1 in pictures 1 and 10, concerning which I shall sav more directly,a 4 twice in picture 8, and a in picture 3.I have already discussed the hieroglyph in picture 10 (Zur Ent-zifferung der Mayahandschriften, IV), for they are very similar tothose occurring on page 24. I denote them thus : 1 62 73 84 95 10Of these, 5 is certainly the sign for 7.200. and that for 13X300=4,()80. In 7 and 9, on account of the Ben-Ik, I see two months of 29.5 472 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28days, that is, 59 days altogether, and in 4 I see the sign mentionedabove for 20, together with the 1 that is before the fifth glyph, whichis advanced one place by a little cross, hence 21. From this the fol-lowing result is obtained : 5 7, 2006 4,6807 and 9-_ 594 21n,960,the number arrived at in this whole series.The two rows of glyphs above the figures on these pages I cannot consider as l)elonging at all to the subject under discussion. Ihave considered them more in detail in Zur Entzift'erung der Maya-handschriften, V. 1 MAYA CHRONOLOGY E. FOR-STEMANN 473 MAYA CHRONOLOGY''By E. Forstemann All previous studies of the Maya calendar present some unexplainedor baffling points for which an explanation or correction must l)esought. I will here state these points in numbered paragraphs inorder that I may afterwards refer to them.1. The series of 20 days is said to begin either with Imix, whichview is supported by the Aztec arrangement, as well as by variouspassages in Codex Troano-Cortesianus, or with Kan, which view isbased on the express testimony of Diego de Landa, as well as on theDresden eodex,^2. All computation of long periods of time should, according to myown hyi^othesis, which I advanced in the year 1887, begin with theeighth day of the eighteenth month. What is the reason for theprominent jDosition of this day?3. The periods of 24 years, the ahaus, are said to begin with thesecond day of the Cauac year. Why should this day be chosen ?4. The day XIII 20 is decidedly of great importance in the Dresden codex in cases in which a period of 2()0 days is not in ques-tion, but a solar year divided into four ecjual parts of 91 days each.How is the prominence of this day in such cases to be exjilained?5. Pages 25 to 28 of the Dresden codex, which relate beyond adoubt to the change to the new year, are said actually to treat onlyof the last two unlucky intercalary days at the end of the year. AVhyof these only ?G. Calendar dates have a formula like this: III, 2; 18, 3d month.This I explained in 1887 as the second week day Chicchan that isfollowed by the tliirteenth day of the third month. Although I havetried to establish this view, it still seems somewhat forced. IIow isthis difficulty to be obviated ?I have recently reached the conclusion that at the end of the fif-teenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century the confusion wasobserved which arose from the fact that the year was computed only " Znr Maya-Chronologie, ZeUsrhrift fiir Ethnologic, Dresden, 1801. " This rule, as has been subsequently shown, does not apply to the Dresden codex. C. T.475 4:76 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 at 365 whole days. In earlier times such confusion was perhaps notpossible, because the chronology was probably not based then onthe solar year, but on the period of 260 days, the tonalamatl, pos-sibly also on a period of 400 (20X^0) days. To obviate this con-fusion I think they did what has been done under similar circum-stances by other peoples; that is, they intercalated 17 days; and,instead of Imix, which had hitherto begun the series of days, Kan,which had already passed, was reintroduced with the days which fol-lowed it. Traces are found in Codex Troano-Cortesianus of thisolder arrangement, for instance, in Cortesian codex on page 31a, andin Troano codex on page 31, whether this is older than the Dresdencodex (which my correspondents will not admit), or has been copiedfrom an older manuscript, or was })roduced in some other regionwhich still preserved the Aztec arrangement. But Landa, who un-questionably spoke of his own time, is thoroughly trustworthy whenhe gives Kan as the first day, especially as the Dresden codex givesprecedence to that day. I need only recall the eight highest figures inthis manuscript, those in the serpents on pages 61 and ()2, which areall counted from a day Kan. In this way I explain number 1.Numlier 2 may also be very simply explained. Before the cor-rection of the calendar that eighth clay of the eighteenth month,from which all computation of time proceeded, was the twenty-fifth; that is, the last day of the eighteenth month, and thereforeof the whole year. At least this was the case every four years. TheMaj^as therefore reckoned how many days had elapsed since this dayas the zero i)oint. The years which followed a year closing withAhau quite properly began with Imix, the first day of the series ; theothers, with Cimi, Chuen, and Cib (according to my notation 3,8, 13). It would be interesting if we could discover anything toindicate that these three days had once been of especial imjxjrtance(see, for instance, Codex Cortesianus, pages 13b to 18b, where fourrows of 52 successive days begin with these very four days, each rowwith one of them).New light is now also thrown on number 3. From this startingpoint of all chronology, this last day of the year beginning with Cib,the period of 24 years then beginning (which was also the period of15 apparent Venus years) was always computed. The fourth ahau,for instance, began with the year 5 Imix, and each ahau in the sameAvay with this first day until everything was displaced by the intro-duction of the 17 days. It looks like a modification of this abruptchange that in the j)lace of Imix, " maize bread ", its synonym, Kan, " maize kernel ", was used, the two glyphs occurring countless timesclosely connected in the manuscript.While the first three points are thus explained by my theory of acorrection in the calendar, the other three may be explained by an KORSTBMANN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 477idea which Doctor Seler communicated to me in a letter of December21j 1890. He wrote to me that in his opinion the years in the Dres-den codex did not begin with Kan, Muhic, Ix, and Cauac, but withAkbal, Lamat, Ben, and Ezanab; according to the corrected calen-dar, therefore, the last days of the year must be Ik, Manik, Eb,and Caban. But Kan, etc., still rank as the principal days, and theyears are designated by the first principal day encountered in them.For instance, they are distinctly prominent as principal days inCodex Cortesianus, pages 3a to 6a ; Troano codex, pages 33c to 32c and23 to 20, and Dresden codex, pages 9b and 29c.New light next falls on number 4. The day XIII 20 (Akbal),wherein the highest Aveek-day number is connected with the lastday of the series, is nothing more than the new year's day of the year1 Kan. These periods of 91 days, therefore, arranged in groups offour, are the 4X91 days which, following the day XIII Akbal,make up the year 1 Kan, as, for instance, in the Dresden codex onpages 32 and 64. In the series to be found on the latter page the sig-nificance of the solar year is quite apparent, emphasized by thesingularly elaborated sign of the zero in the fourth and the eighthterms of the series ; that is, at the close of the first and of the secondyears.As Doctor Seler himself writes me, number 5 can also be simplyexplained. For the Dresden codex, pages 25 to 28, does not treat ofthe last two days of the year, but far more naturally of the last day ofthe old and the first day of the new year. I must leave it to Doc-tor Seler to establish his view by discussion of the pictures andglyphs.Lastly, niunber (> also presents a more satisfactory aspect. For nowIII 2; 13, 3d month is no longer called 3 Chicchan which is followedby the thirteenth day of the third month, but far more simj^ly 3 Chic-chan which is the thirteenth day of the third month. Tlie normaldate IV Ahau, 8, 18th month therefore really falls on the eighth dayof the eighteenth month and, in fact, as I have alwaA^s believed, inthe year 9 Ix, which, however, according to the new theory beganwith 8 Ben.The next step is to attempt further conquests in this realm ofglyphs, starting from this firm basis of numbers and computations,and the first thing to be done is to search for pictures which expressthe conceptions of year, the change to a new year, the beginning ofthe year, and the close of the year. As the serpent pictures have anundeniable reference to periods of time, so the most perfect symbolfor the year, it seems to me, is a serpent forming a closed ring. Sucha serpent is found in Codex Cortesianus, page 3a, and inscribedwithin it the numeral 18, which I am inclined to interpret as mean-ing the eighteen months. Likewise in Codex Cortesianus, pages 478 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 284a, 5a, and 6a we always encounter a serpent with the 18 inscribedwithin its ring, so that these four leaves readily suggest the fourkinds of years.So, too, I believe I have found a very perfect picture of the changeof years in Dresden codex, ]:>age 68, above on the left, in the two fig-ures of gods leaning back to back and sitting on a series of astronomicsigns, arranged almost like the roof and wall of a house. But thispicture belongs to a large section, which begins on page 6.5 and endson the left side of page 69. I must here dwell more particularly onthis section than I could in my Erlauterungen (Dresden, 1886).The real nucleus of this section consists of four rows of 91 dayseach, that is, of a year, of which the detailed explanation is found insix rows of glyphs and twenty-six pictures. Now, believing that Ican complete the toj:) row, which is almost wholly obliterated, fromthe still existing renniants, I read these four rows as follows : XII. .5 IV, 1 V, 10 II, 6 VIII, 2 X. 11 VIII. 7 II, .3 V, 12 IV, 8 XII, 4III, 13 III.11 I, 13 I, 11 XII, 1 XIII, 8 VIII, 6 I, 4 V. 2 VII, 13 VII. 6 XIII, VI,8 I, 2 III.11 XI, 13 XI, 11 IX, 1 X, 8 V, 6 XI, 4 II, 2 IV, 13 IV, 6 X, 6 III, 8 XI,2 XIII.9 IX, 5 I, 1 II, 10 XII, 6 V, 2 VII, 11 V, 7 XII, 3 II, 12 I, 8 IX,4 XIII, 13 XIII.The stud}" of these four rows shows that the end of each one of themcan again be very well joined to its own beginning, and also that agood connection occurs between the end of the fourth and the be-ginning of the third, and likewise between the end of the second andthe beginning of the first, also vice versa between the end of the thirdand the beginning of the fourth, and between the end of the first andthe beginning of the second. But the second and third rows, on thecontrary, stand in no such connection.We further see that the final point of the first two rows is a day III,that of the last two a day XIII. AMiat is more natural than to thinkof the two days III 2 and XIII 20, which are of such great impor-tance on pages 62 to 64? Our section, pages 65 to 69, then appearslike an introduction to pages 62 to 64 and one part of our manu-script is again made to harmonize with another.Each row is, as we see, divided into 13 periods of time, whoseaverage duration is 7 days; the four rows therefore form 52 periodsof time. Now, we find 26 pictures on these pages; the half of theseperiods of time is apparently without a picture. Thirteen of thepictures are between the second and third row and 13 below thefourth, but this probably has reference only to the symmetric arrange-ment of the pages. KORSTEAUNN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 479It further appears that if we begin at the top with the first rowand advance to the second, but begin at the bottom, on the otherhand, with the fourth and join it to the third, both rows proceed quitein the same way, and the intervening spaces between the separate days,designated by Arabic numerals, are found to be precisely the same.Thus, therefore, the 26 pictures, in certain circumstances, might holdgood for both rows, that is, for all the 52 periods, although thestarting points are different. Still I am inclined to think that thepictures as well as the glyphs all refer to the two lower rows only;that is, to the more important of the two days, XIII 20.Now, on page 65 at the beginning (the left) of the lowest rowof glyphs we have 9 Kan. Is not this the year here meant, which,moreover, is perhaj)s not by accident the middle one of a katunbeginning with 9 Ix? For, as I have set forth in the Compterendu of the Congress of Americanists at Berlin, page 742, the begin-Jiing of the ^Jaya chronology seems to lie in the year 9 Ix. Butthe day XIII 20 is the first day of the eleventh month in the year 9Kan (according to the new theory making 9 Kan the second day ofthe year) ; this would be the beginning of the fourth row. If wecontinue to count with the differences 9, 5, 1, etc., in this fourth row,it ends with the twelfth day of the fifteenth month, and the thirdrow begins with the third day of the sixteenth month. The ninthmember of this third row would be the twenty-first day of theeighteenth month, the tenth the second day of the first month; thatis, the day 10 Muluc, which gives the name to the new year. Andprecisely in this place, page 68, above on the left, Ave find that Januspicture. To make the meaning of this still more clear there are twocharacters above the gods strongly resembling a horizontal 8 (qo ) {g,figure 109). I think this is the hieroglyphic abbreviation for twocontiguous serpents, that is, two years; and among the glyphs abovethem, the first in the top line is nothing more than the graphic-ally abbreviated repetition of the two persons leaning against eachother (/, figure 109). But to the right of this we find a very com-jjosite glj'ph, one part of which again very closely resembles thehorizontal 8, h. I hope that we are standing on a firm basis.Indeed, even the preceding ninth picture (page 67, above on theright) may be an allusion to the close of the year; it is a stridinggod, at whose feet lies a little deity apparently inclosed in a sack.Therefore this may represent the old year and the young year whichhas not yet crept out of its shell.It seems evident to me that this new year is a Muluc year from thecontinuously pouring rain of the tenth to the thirteenth pictures,as well as from the storm or lightning beast and its attendant inpicture 11, known to us particularly from the Dresden codex, pages 480 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2844 to 45 (see Seler's article in this journal, 1888, pages 68 and 09 ofthe special reprint).Two pictures occurring in this place can also be seen in anotherpassage of this manuscript. First, we find the two figures seatedback to back on page 22, on the lower right, as the last of the upperrow of glyphs. Here is more distinctly to be seen than in the passagejust mentioned that instead of heads they have two half (rising orsetting) suns. I can not positively assert that there is a referencehere to a new year, since I have not succeeded thus far in under-standing the calendar date of the beginning of the various tonala-matls of the manuscript (which w^ould be a very important stepin advance). A single, apparently quite naked, person of this formoften appears in the manuscript; for instance, there is one on page58 on the right, and even with head downward, together with aVenus sign, on pages 57b and 58b. If this should not be intendedto represent persons, but cloud pictures behind which a star rises orsets, my interpretation in regard to the new year would not beaifected. I may add that Doctor Seler, in his Charakter der Maya-Handschriften, page 9 of the special reprint, really regards them asrepresentations of human beings.We might compare the picture on the left of the page 33c with thedeity inclosed in a sack; but we must observe that Doctor Seler(Charakter der MaA^a-Handschriften, page 88 of the special reprint),probably correctly, takes this to be a hollow in a tree (the cloud tree).I am inclined to see another kind of designation for the close ofthe year on page 53, below^, of the Dresden manuscript, to which Tmust here confine myself. There we see a dead woman suspendedby a rope, which is fastened to astronomic signs. Above her areeight glyphs arranged in groups of four in two perpendicular rows.The third glyph in the second row has in the middle the same 8-shaped figure, but this time in a perpendicular position. I take thesign attached to the right of this to be the abbreviated glyph for thewest or the Ix year (see Schellhas, Die Maya-Handschrift zu Dres-den, 1886, page 70) ; but the one added on the left, it seems to me,IS not the expected sign for the north, but a human arm, as if it werean allusion to the hanged woman. Is not the hanging figure intendedfor the Waaler goddess Xnuc, and the whole meant to represent thedeath or end of a Muluc year, the beginning of an Ix year? It isprobably meant for 13 Muluc and 1 Ix, but this is not absolutely cer-tain, especially as the periodic series, Avhich is singularly com23osed of54X177, 9X148, and 6X178 days, still puzzles me greatly (seeanother conception of the hanged woman in Schellhas, same place,page 45 ) . In the two passages which have been discussed more in detail,pages 68 and 53, we see the sign resembling an oo , and this we must I'ORSTEMANN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 481 consider further. On page 2b, on the left, we find it very distinct asthe headdress of a god, but whether here, too, it has reference to theneAv year is uncertain. In other passages I believe that the sign (/,figure 109, is a mere abbreviation of it, as on page 38a on the right.There the j^icture represents tlie god with the serpent's tongue hold-ing the sign Kan in his hand; above is the usual glyph of the god,and above this a composite sign, h; that is, the character referredto here, Avith the usual dots that signify movement or progression;to the left of it is the sign for the east, the Kan year. Does this sig-nify the end of a Kan year? Then, on page 41b, on the right, below,IS the' picture of a new god (the god of the new year?), apparentlybeing carved out of a tree. The first among the glyphs is that ofthe west, probably combined with the sign lor the close of the year,which we shall meet with later (the pile of stones on which the imageof the god is being erected). Again, on page 52b, where, 1,034 daysbefore the picture of the lianged woman, we see i as the first glyph.To this belongs a heraldic figure below, beneath astronomic signs, ofwhich the left side is colored yellow and the right side black, andwhich bears the sign for the sun in the center. It is not improbablethat this, too, may mean the new year, since there is a margin of 178days, which would warrant it, but more than that can not be asserted.Here I would like to point out another sign, Avhich perhaps, likethe preceding one, originated from the serpent, and therefore perhapsalso refers to the year. I mean the spiral, or snail-shell line, k.We encounter it on page 20c both in the middle picture and in theone on the right. In the former we find it in the water, at the footof a black divinity ; beside it, the sign kan, over which lies an alliga-tor. Among the glyphs above we see the abbreviation for the east(the Kan year) ; on the right above it, the entire sign for the west.Concerning the god seated on the right (the same as the one with theserpent's tongue, only white here), we obserA'e over his head the signkan and a fish above that; in his right hand, a bird's feather; in hisleft, the spiral, combined with the abbreviated glyph for the westand south. Among the glyphs above is that of the south in both fulland in abbreviated form.This group is continued on page 30c, where the god, at whose feetthere is an animal, holds a spear in his left hand, point downward;directly above it we find our spiral combined with the abbreviatedglyphs for the west and south. Among the glyphs above we againfind those for the west and south.These three })ictures, however, are preceded by a fourth, whichcompletes the whole row. Here the god is in a boat; close by his headis the picture of a bird's head ; among the glyphs above we find that7238?No. 28?0.5 31 482 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 of the north; the spiral is absent. For the rest, there is an inter-val of IC) days between each picture and the next one.Let nie note incidentally that this passage 29c to 30c is directlyconnected with 29b to oOb, possibly with 29a to 30a, which may helpus to find a solution ; but this is not the place for further details.In close proximity to this group, on pages 33 to 35b, we find thespiral in a second group, which here, as well as in the other, forms theend of a row of a tonalamatl. On each of these pages on the left sitsthe same god in the jaws of a coiled serpent. In the circle formed bythe serpent there is water, and in the water invariably the numeral 19(see the 18 in the passage from Codex Cortesianus, which we took asour starting point). The glyphs al)ove invariably contain the spiralwith the numeral 9 before it. I have spoken of tlie series of daysbelonging to this passage in my Erliiuterungen, page 57.We began with the serpent and have insensibly returned to it. Iwill here also mention page 56b, where, as the last glyph in the lowestrow, w^e find one which consists of the abbreviated sign for the southand a serpent. I'his is the same series in which we find the womanhanged by the neck, and it is 3,484 daj'^s after the period of time towhich that refers. If I am right above in determining that period oftime then this refers to a year 10 Cauac, and Cauac certainly corre-sponds to the south.It may further be mentioned here that the serpent often occurs as ahead ornament, as on page 9c on a god, and on pages 15b, 20a, and 23bon a woman. In the third of these foiu" passages the glyjihs areobliterated; in the second the glyph of the woman is combined wdththe sign for the north ; in the tw^o others I find nothing relating to aperiod of time.Here we leave the domain of the serpent and come to a wholly dif-ferent sign, which Ave can perhaps regard more definitely as a signof the change of years, but never of the j^ear itself. I mean the sign Xor X- 5 the elements of which, according to Maya usage, may of coursebe placed vertically as well as horizontally beside each other. If thisreally indicates the change of j^ears, then it is quite natural to find itcombined generally with two glyphs of adjacent cardinal points.With Kan-Muluc we should expect to find east-north, etc. It must besaid at once, however, that as a rule west-south is preferred, as if itw^ere not at all essential to designate the particular cardinal pointswith exactness. So we find it in the center of page 27, where wemight expect south-east.On page 18c we see it with these cardinal points as the glyph ofa woman who carries the sign west-south on her back. The tona-lamatl to which it belongs begins Avith the normal day IV 17. If thisday is really the normal date, the eighth day of the eighteenth month,then the picture may coincide exactl}^ with new year's day 10 Cauac, FORSTEMANN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 483for the series of days announces tliat 15 days have ehipsed and that 33are yet to ehipse. Here. too. the cardinal points, west-south, areappropriate.On the same page, 18a, at the top. a woman hears in hei- Iiands thesigns for both cardinal points, above which our sign once moreappears. The glyphs belonging to it are ert'aced, and nothing can bedetermined from the series of days.The next page, 10c, again shows the signs west-south on the back ofa woman, with our sign combined with these in the glyphs.Very peculiarly combined with the west and the sign cimi, butvarying somewhat from its usual form, it appears on page 8c in thefirst row of glyplis.We haA'e still to consider pages 4(5 to 50, on which we should expectto find this sign l)efore all. as here terrestrial and Venus years aremade to accord. We find it at once on page 4() in the last place in thelowest line. The date 2. 17 month, ought to be here, but the writerlias placed the little cross between the two dots of the "2, possibly toindicate that a Venus year of 584 days closes here. On the right ofthe same page the line before the last again begins Avith our sign, as ifto join it to the passage already mentioned. If this belongs, as itseems to do, to the third roAV of calendar dates, then it certainly coin-cides with a transition from tlie Kun to the Muluc years.The next three pages lack this glyph. l)ut on page 50 it occursalmost in the same place in which we found it on page 4(5 (on theright side, the first sign in the lowest row), here again combined withthe glyphs for west and south where the fifth Venus year has ex-pired concurrently with the eighth terrestrial year, although notexactly at the close of the latter.So much for the cross between two dots. The dot between twocrosses, which also occurs, seems, on the contrary, not to belong here.One dot with one cross might easily be an abbreviation for then.umeral 2().We now come to another sign for year, but which is, as T muststate at once, that for the old official year of 860 daj^s, which does notinclude the 5 unlucky days intercalated at its close. I mean theglyph U which sometimes has three dots as a suffix, sometimes withother api)endices. I shall in future call it the 360 sign for the sake ofbrevity.Turning next to pages 25 to 28 of the manuscript, which assuredlytreat of the change of years, we find this sign on each of them belowon the left, instead of the pile of stones on which the gods of the yearwere placed at the close of the year. It also occurs on every page intlie row of glyphs which divides the second section from the third,even twice on page 27. It appears also in the partially obliteratedupper lines of pages 26 to 28, on page 26 actually three times, once 484 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 with the sign Ix as a pretix, and once with Caiiac. and this particuhirpage treats of the transition from Ix to the Cauac years. Thus themeaning of the sign seems here sufficiently established.Let us now turn to page 50. Here we find once more the same fig-ure as the second sign in the first line of calendar dates, with a pre-fix which signifies the number 20 and a somewliat unintelligiblesuperior affix. The whole must mean, as I have already stated in myErlauterungen (1886), page 12, the twentieth day of the eighteenthmonth, the official close of the year. This is another confirmation ofmy theory.There is certainly a reason, although it is still unknown to me, whythis 360 sign agrees wholly or almost wholly with the glyph for thesixteenth month, often rendering it difficult to decide with whichone of the two we have to deal. In niy Erlauterungen I still con-founded the two and besides confused them with a third sign, whichI will now discuss.According to the Maya numeral system the number 360 is the unitof the third degree; that of the fourth is 7,200. May not this also,that is, the period of 20 official years, be represented among theglyi^hs? I think I recognize this glyph in an expansion of the 360sign, VI. AVe will call this figure the 7,200 sign.In order to establish this theory we next turn to page 58. In itslower half, on the left, a series of 11,958 (more exactly 11,960) dayscloses with a most striking picture. Above this picture stand tenglyphs in the following order : 3 84 95 10The middle signs, according to position 3 and 8, are the sun andmoon, but the middle ones in the series of numbers, 5 and 6, are the7,200 and 360 signs, the former provided with a 1 (or a 20, if weso read the 1 with a little cross under it ) , the latter vv ith a 13. But theMava figures for 11,958, the number belonging here, are 1, 13, 3, 18.Nothing, I think, could be more natural than to recognize the signsfor 7,200 and 13X360=4,680 in the two glyphs. Together this Avouldbe 11,880. I can not yet determine whether the remaining signs indi-cate the 78 which are lacking to the sum total.Let us next consider page 61, with its two rows of glyphs runningfrom the top to the bottom. The fifth line from below is here formedby the 7,200 sign with the numl)er 15 and the 360 sign with the num-ber 9. Taken together, this would signify 111,240 days. More num-bers from the lines above and below should doubtless be added, but fOrstemann.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 485we can not determine which because we do not know in what relationthe whole stands to the preceding row (on the right) or to any of theother numbers. We ma}'^ conjecture that the glyph standing belowthe 7,200 sign, consisting of the daj'^ Chuen with prefix and suffix andthe anterior 1, is meant for the month of 20 days. The Chuen signwould not be wholly inappropriate for this signification, as it beginsthe second half of a month beginning with Imix and thus, as the mid-dle of it, it represents in a certain sense the whole month. Below the360 sign, however, we see the sun, kin, with a suffix and a prefixed 3.This Avould indicate that kin, in the sense of " day ", ends the wholenumber, as yet unknoAvn to us, with three units. Such a number be-longs indeed to the most important day of this part of the manuscript,the day XIII 20, for the day 17 (Ahau) always corresponds to anumber ending with 0.On the same page, Gl, in the same vertical row, the sixth line fromthe top again forms our 7,200 and 360 signs, the latter forming partof a face and accompanied by an 8. Here again we at least recognizethat these tAvo belong together.As I have proved the parallelism of the two sections in my essayZur Entzifferung der Maya Handschriften, II, we may expect to findin the last part of the manuscript (pages 69 to 73) something analo-gous to that which Ave haA^e encountered in this section. Thus on page69 Ave find the same tAvo vertical roAvs of glyphs and in them again, inthe fifth line from below, the 7,200 and 360 signs, the former againwith 15, the latter again Avith 9; beloAV them, the chuen sign, this timeAvitli 4, and the kin sign, this time again Avith 4. We are justifiedtherefore in surmising some large number ending Avith 4, such as theprincipal day of this section, the day IX 11, really ought to haA^e, ifwe begin once more at Ahau=0.Glancing carelessly farther up the same page we not merely findthere our Iavo signs, but Ave also recognize that the upper 16 glyphsdraAvn in a blue field correspond exactly to those on page 61, saA'e forslight variations and the substitution for the Moan head of a sign ofsimilar meaning often used in its stead.The association of the glyphs for 7,200 and 360 days is not a pecu-liarity of the Dresden codex ; it also extends to the inscriptions onstone, Avhich differ so Avidely from the manuscripts. The inscri})tionon the Cross at Palenque contains the tAvo in close proximity almost adozen times, the one beside or beloAv the other.Where the tAvo signs do not occur in such immediate |)i'oximi(y thematter becomes uncertain from the fact of the almost perfect simi-larity of the 360 sign to that for the month of Pax. I therefore leavethe latter quite out of the question. For the 7,200 sign T ivfer topage 24, first column; page 70, third column, third sign from the bot- 486 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28toni ; page 73, at the top, second column from the right. It occ'iirs inspecially large dimensions on page (JOb, Avhich is executed in a uniquemanner. But I will abstain here from making more remarks, thoughmany suggest themselves, in order not to build farther on a founda-tion which might give way under our feet.In order to proceed I must premise the observation that the wholefront side of Codex B (pages 4G to CO) now seems to me to be closelyinterconnected, the wholly isolated, peculiarly enigmatic page COforming the conclusion. We know now that pages 46 to 50, the firstthird of this whole, is a continuation of page 24. It treats of theagreement of the apparent Venus year of 584 daj^s with the solar, orterrestrial, year of 365 days. This is done in three sections, each ofwhich treats of 13 times 8 terrestrial years or 5 Venus years; that is,13 times 2,920 days, equal to 37,960 days or tw^o katuns or 104 years.The second section (pages 51 to 58) correspondingly treats of 104apparent Mercury years of 115 days; that is, the period of 11,960days.Thus prepared, let us turn to the upper half of page 52, beginningwith the fourth column. Here, at the very top, we find another calen-dar date, unfortunately partially obliterated, and beneath it, com-bined again in the manner that I pointed out when discussing pages61 and 69, the Chuen sign and the 3()0-day sign, the former combinedwith 1, the latter with 5. According to my suggestion, this wouldsignifv 1,820=7X260. It might be explained by the illegible dateabove, but it may refer to the seven quite identical columns of days onthe left, each 260 days apart from the next ones, thus affording aslight confirmation of my theory.But directly below it we see the sign n, that is, Imix with a markabove it which looks like a union, a tying together, jjerhaps a variantof the sign composed of the rattles of the rattlesnake, which oftenseems to indicate a period of time. I take this to be the sign of thekatun (52X365=18.980 days), the period at the end of which each day(here represented b}^ the former initial day Imix) once more returnsto the same position in the year. In this passage, therefore, there isreference to two katuns, the very period of time wdiich we found tobe the subject of pages 46 to 50. Below this sign we find a red 13repeated 13 times. This can only mean that the tAvo katuns are to bedivided into 13 parts, each of which, therefore, as on pages 46 to 50,contains 2,920 days. The 104 terrestrial years are here placed closel)eside the 104 Mercury j^ears. I think there can be no delusion aboutthis. This presumptive discovery of the katun sign seems to findconfirmation close by, in the first column of page 51. Here w^e readat the top the tw o calendar dates IV 17 ; 8, 18th month and XII 5, andbelow them the group in o. FOKSTEMANN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 487The 8 with the kin beneath it may denote the 8 clays which haveelapsed between IV 17 and XTI 5; but it may rather (for it quiteaccords witli Maya usage to hav(^ one number refer to several signs)belong to the katun sign, for the following reasons:The point of departure in the Mercury series (which T regarded asa Saturn series in m}'^ Erlauterungen) is the day XII 5. This dateoccurs with two numbers: l,-112,8-t8, that is, year 6 Muluc; 1, 15thmonth, on page 52 ; and 1,578,988, that is, j'ear 6 Kan ; G, 18th month,on page 51. The first of the two large numbers occurs 166,140 daysbefore the second, but the first date occurs 30 years 65 days=:=^ 14,300days before the second. If we add to this 14,300 the number 151,840,that is, 8 katuns, the result is actually 166,140, and to that this groupof signs seems to me to point.I merely allude in passing to the fact that this Icatun sign alsooccurs in the columns on pages 61 and 69 discussed above close besidethe other glyphs referring to a period of time.If we look more closely at the j^assage on page 61 just mentioned,we find directly above the katun sign a neAv glyph not yet men-tioned, p.We will now look at the last column but one on the upper half ofpage 73. The uj^permost sign is destroyed. Then follow the katunsign, the new sign, the 7,200 sign, and the number 34,732.Now, everything seems to point to the probability that the newsign is the ahau sign of the value 24X365=:8,760. Let us now addthe three numbers : 18, 9808,7607, 200 34, 940It all refers to the day IV 9. But this occurs 208 days before thenormal date IV 17, and to it therefore rightly belongs a ?208, and34,940?208 is really 34,732.In the loAver part of the third column of page 70 are five signs, oneabove the other. The first of these is the ahau sign (of 8,760 days) ;the third, the 7,200 sign; and the fifth, the 360 sign. We areprompted to seek the meaning of the second and fourth.Glyph q- shows us the second sign. It is the Chicchan head, witha prefix, probably phallic, which we know as an element of themonths Yaxkin and Yax, of the sign for the south, etc. Now, whenwe see that the same Chicchan head, with the same prefix, also occurson page 61, in the middle of the first colunni, and on page 69, inthe middle of the third cohnnn, in a connection, too, quite similarto this one on pages 21c and 23b, but in very different surroundings, 488 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28we readily reach the conchision that here, too, a period of time ismeant. We find this combination nowhere else in our manuscript.It now^ becomes jirobable that the period of time which \Ye are seek-ing must have a close connection with the above-mentioned supposedahau, for in this place we see the phallic prefix divided into two partsand furnished with two marks above it. Might it not thereforemean one-third of the ahau, that is, 2,920 days, that important periodof 8 terrestrial or 5 Venus years which plays so great a part on pages24 and 46 to 50 ? If we turn to those pages we find the sign r.The figure on the forehead seems to be only an abbreviation of theprefix, seen, as it Avere, from the other side. The passages in ques-tion are on page 24, second coluum above the middle; page 49, fourthcolumn, in the middle; and page 50, on the left below. I find itnowhere else. We might perhai)s mention that the Chicchan head, asDoctor Schellhas states in his Die Maya-Handschrift (1886), page64, belongs to the picture of a serpent on page 35b, but has different,somewhat indistinct, prefixes and superior affixes. The windingsof the serj)ent run in five different directions, and on its body are8 spots resembling bosses? Can this be an allusion to the 5 Venusand 8 terrestrial years. This might l>e going too far. Suffice it tosay that there are some reasons for thinking that we have really theperiod of 2,920 days before us.A glance at page 31a shows us how all these last-mentioned signsbelong together. There is the number 2,804,100 in the second columnfrom the right. Above this there must have been six signs. Thetwo upper ones are effaced; then follows a trace of Imix, probablythe katun sign with a number before it; then, a very much stainedglyph, perhaps the 2,920 sign just discussed; and last, but quiteplain, the 8,760 and the 7,200 signs. The destruction or indistinctnessof the uppermost signs is especiall}^ to be regretted here, as in allprobability these signs stood in the closest relation to the large num-ber before mentioned.So much for the second of the five signs below on page 70. I willnow hazard a modest conjecture in regard to the fourth as well. Ithas the form s.It probably originated in a bird's head. In place of the eye wefind a figure which looks almost exactly like the 360 sign. The linesbeneath it strongly resemble those in tlie Imix katun sign. Now,this fourth sign occurs between the third, the old ahau of 20X360,as it were (an ahau of 20 years has actually been found in the originalsources), and the fifth, the old year of 360 days. Now, nothing seemsmore natural than that the fourth sign should likewise refer to theancient computation of time, and it is eas}^ to sup^^ose this to be anancient katun=52X360= (72X260). According to this supposition, LditsTEMANN.] MAYA CHRONOLOGY 489by no means positively asserted, but nrerely suggested, tlie five signsshould have the following values of time:8,760 = 1 ahau = 24 X 3052,920 = i ahau = 8 X 3G5 = 5 X 5847,200 = 1 old ahau = 20 X 36018,720 = 1 old katun = 52 X 360 = 72 X 260360 = 1 old year37,960 = 2 katuns (2 X 52 X 365 = 2 X 73 X 260)The period of 2 katuns, however, has often proved very impor-tant ; for instance, on pages IG to 50. It is also divisible by the Venusyear of 584 days, which is not the case with 1 katun.It should not seem very surprising that the old designations, whichmust have been already hallowed by use, were not discarded after theintroduction of the year of 305 days, and the ahau of 24 years. Agreater variety of glyphs enhanced the mystery of writing and theawe with w^hich the priests were regarded.But here I j^ause. Above the five signs just now under discussionthere are four others arranged in pairs.I have already expressed the opinion that these signs signify aperiod of not less than 652 katuns and have tried to give grounds forthis view, but it must rest on a firmer foundation before I can pro-mulgate it, I have perhaps already advanced more than will admitof proof. THE TIME PERIODS OF THE MAYAS E. FORSTEMAISTN 491 THE TIME PERIODS OF THE MAYAS"By E. Forstemann Nature suggested only periods of 20 days to the Maya, becausethese they could count on their fingers and toes, in four divisions offive each. From this the representation in writing of all numbers upto 20 followed as a matter of course.The second thing they obsei-ved was that the sun, and with it thevegetation, returned to its former condition after about eighteen ofsuch 20-day periods. From this resulted the most ancient solar year,consisting of 800 days, which hi later periods was always preservedby the exceptional position of the 5 intercalary daj^s, but soon ceasedto be practically employed.Upon this is based the numeral system which was subsequently inuse, in wliich the unit of the second degree is 20 and that of the thirddegree 360. That of the fourth degree (7,200) and that of the fifth(144,000) had little or no relation to the actual year, and were prob-ably added later without regard to the length of the year, althoughthe fourth degree may have given rise to the erroneous statement thatthe Mayas counted by ahaus of 20 years.These various units were governed by ^'arious gods called " lordsof the cycle""; see "Lord of the C3^cle '' in Thomas's Study of theManuscript Troano, page 29. We find the heads of these lords ofthe cycles of 144,000, 7,200, :')C)0, and 20 days, for instance, at thebeginning of the inscription on the Cross of Palenque (A and B,3 to 6), together with the glyphs representing these periods. Thefifth period, the single day, has no head of a deity, but, quite appi'o-priately, only the instrument of numeration, a hand with its fivefingers. The earliest of the inscriptions at (\)pan, given in Mauds-lay's book, contain similar figures, and these beginnings plainly giveus the dates of the inscriptions.The Dresden codex shows a decided improvement on this method,inasmuch as the heads of the lords and the glyphs are omitted as " Die Zeitperioden der Mavas, (Jlobtis, v. 03, n. 2, 1803. 493 494 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 28 super rinoiis, and, as with us, the value of the numbers is indicated bytheir position. This is also the case in Codex Peresianus, but I cannot interpret the numbers, owing to the condition of the manuscript.In Codex Troano-Cortesianus we find only timid attempts at num-bers consisting of many figures, as in the page which connects bothparts and in the Troano codex, pages 20 to 23.AMien at last it became patent that 360 days by no means consti-tuted a full 3^ear the numeric system could not be changed, becausea nndtiple of 20 was needed for the third degree; but in order to beable to compute by years it was necessary to add to the length of theyear. In all probability the number 364 was chosen because it isdivisible by 4, and thus had a certain relation to the four cardinalpoints and to everything connected with them in mythology.Many portions of the Dresden codex are based upon this year of4X01 days, most distinctly on pages 65 to 69, as I have shown inthe Zeitschi'ift fur Ethnologic, 1891, page 144. To it also pertainthe series ^^ ith the difference 91 on pages 31 to 32 and 63 to 64. Thenumber 364, however, is not only 4X91, but also 28X13, and thisseems to iia ve given rise to the custom of dividing the year into periodsof 13 days each, just as the period of 20 daj^s was a natural divisionof the 360-day year. I^'or nature does not seem to have furnishedthe number 13, unless the most important parts of the human body,l^erhaps the ten fingers, together Avith eye, ear, and mouth, might havesuggested it. Otherwise, there may have been a mythologic basis(13 heavens?) for the number 13.There may have been a time when they wavered between the 360-and the 364-day year, and consequently between the periods of 20 andof 13 days. In order to meet the difficulties arising from this, itwas necessary to introduce a period which could be divided by both 20and 13 days. Thus doubtless originated, not among the people, butamong the priesthood, the sacred tonalamatl of 260 days, which hadno connection with the duration of either the one or the other year.I believe that I have found a glyph which rejDresents the tonal-amatl, combined with the figure 8, in the inscription of the Cross ofPalenque, C, 2. The days of the 20-day period were then designatedby their already established glyphs and those of the later 13-dayperiod by merely adding numbers; thus 260 different characters fordays were easih^ obtained, just as they are in the Aztec, which there-fore thus far agrees both with the method of the Mayas and with thatof the Kiches.The need must now have been felt of bringing these periods of260 days into accord with the year, and particularly wdth the old3^ear of 360 days. For this a period of 4,680 days would have beensufficient, in which the tonalamatl is repeated 18 times, the 360 days13 times, that is, a period in which the 13-day period recurs 360 times. FflRSTEMANN.] TIME PEKIODS OF THE MAYAS 495But this period of 4,680 days seems never to have come into actualuse; the triple of it, 14,040 days, ha vine; been i)referred, a periodAvhich certainly lends itself with marvelous adaptability to an immensenumber of the most various divisions. Like 4,680, it is divisible by2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13. But it also admits of still more importantdivisions: (1) It is divisible by 13, and by the most diverse multii^lesof that number, 26, 39, 52, 65, 78, etc.; (2) it may be divided by 20and by its multiples 40, 60, 120, 180; (3) it is divisible by 18, thenumber of the so-called months of the j'ear, and b}^ several of itsmultiples, as 36 and 54.It is, of course, equal to 54X260-da)'^ and 39X360-day periods. It,therefore, properly forms the very nucleus of the last section of theDresden manuscript and appears conspicuously large in the right-hand column of page 73 with its Maya ciphers : 119 0.From this column proceed two rows of figures, one of which has thedifference 65 ; that is, a fourth of 260, a two-hundred-and-sixteentll of14,040; the other increases by 54, the triple of 18, which is the two-hundred-and-sixtieth part of 14,040.14,040 is also qoncealed elsewhere in the same manuscript. Thus onpage 24, at the bottom of the left-hand column, there are three dates,of which the right-hand one is 11,960 days distant from the middleone, and the middle one 2,200 days from the left-hand one. There-fore the two extreme dates represent together 14,160 days, or, bearingm mind the intervals of days belonging to them, I Ahau and IVAhau, 14,040 days from each other.It is well known that pages 46 to 50 are closely connected with thisjiassage. It need not seem surprising, therefore, that 14,040 can here,too, be obtained by computation, as I ma}' hereafter be able to demon-strate. Thus the ends of the periods recorded in the first serpent alsohave the difference 14,040 (see my treatise Zur Entzifferung derMayahandschriften, II). Hence the period of 14,040 days must havebeen of the utmost importance before the introduction of the yearof 365 days, and was doubtless designated by a word, which weunfortunately do not know.It was presently discovered that the solar year actually consists of365 daj^s, and an attempt was at once made to harmonize it with thetonalamatl of 260 days. The well-known katun=73 tonalamatls or52 solar yea rs= 18,980 days was thus obtained, a period after theexpiration of which each da}^ date again recurs in the same place inthe year. In accordance with this, the katun seems to be expressed 496 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28by a glypli which contains a certain day (Imix) as its principal part,but as a superior affix a figure which expresses a tieing together. Ihave hazarded this conjecture in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1891,pages 152 and 153. The selection of Imix for this sign must there-fore have occurred at a time when Imix was accounted the first of the20 days.The creation of time periods did not cease here. The movement ofthe most conspicuous planet, Venus, was also taken into consideration,and it was found that its apparent revolution embraced a period of584 days. This had now to be harmonized with the newly discoveredsolar year, which could be easily done: 5X584=8X365=2,920. Wefind this latter number clearly indicated as the basis of the calcula-lations on page 24, as well as on pages 46 to 50 of the Dresden codex.Then the Aztecs after every 8 solar years celebrated the greatests])lendor of Venus, when Venus " smokes " (see Anales del MuseoNacional de Mexico, volume 2, 1882, page 342). As we saw above,the Mayas proceeded from 4,680 to its triple, 14,040, in order to obtaingreater divisibility ; so, too, they advanced from 2,920 to its triple,8,760, which is divisible by 3, 6, and 12. This is the ahau of 24 yearsof 365 days each, so often mentioned, virtually the principal periodin Maya history. Here we are indebted to Cyrus Thomas, who, by hisfull investigation of the subject, laid the foundation for further re-search (see A Study of the Manuscript Troano, pages 28 to 58).Both the period of 2,920 and that of 8,760 days still had a defect.They did not harmonize with the tonalamatl of 260 days. The doublekatun of 2X18,980=37,960 days, or 104 solar years, was thereforeintroduced, as we see it especially in the Dresden manuscript, pages46 to 50, where three such i:>eriods are computed, in each of which 260,365, and 584 are factors.The next task was to find a period in which both the ahau and thekatun, as well as the revolution of Venus, that is, 8,760, 18,980, and584, are contained. Accordingly, the triple of the period just men-tioned, the double katun, was employed, which resulted in the ahaukatun of 113,880 days^6 katuns=13 ahaus=195 Venus years=312solar years:^438 tonalamatls.But the utmost perfection was attained in the period of 12 ahaukatuns= 1,366,560 days, divisible not merely by tonalamatl=260, solaryear=365, Venus year=584, ahau -=8,760, and katun= 18,980 days,but also by 9, all important in Maya mythology, and hence b}^ the oldjesir of 360 days. This important period with the figures9916 lORSTEMANN.] TIME PERIODS OF THE MAYAS 497 occupies the first place among the large numbers in the Dresdencodex on page 24, as 14,040 occupies the last place on page 73. Theother large numbers in the Dresden codex, except those in the fiveserpents, are in strikingly close proximity to this high number, justlike the dates on the stelse at Copan. Thus we shall soon be able todetermine all these numbers according to our computation of time,which will be a step of the greatest importance. Indeed, I believethat to all intents and purposes this step has already been taken inthe ingenious exposition of Cyrus Thomas (see A Study of the Manu-script Troano, 1882, pages 187 to 197).The Aztecs do not seem to have been familiar Avith the great periodsof 12X312 years just mentioned. According to the Anales del MuseoNacional de Mexico, volume 2, 1882, pages 347 and 349, they had acycle of 10X104 years and the triple of it, IOX'^12 years; therefore,here, too, multiples of 8 years were always employed.Apparently, side by side with this interconnected series of periods,there is another quite distinct one. It was noted that Mercury per-formed its ap]3arent revolution around the sun in 115 days, and toreconcile this 115 with the tonalamatl of 260 days, is the task of thenumber adverted to, 11,960=104X115=46X260. The two dates onpage 24 of the Dresden codex at the left below, I Ahau, 18, thirdmonth, and I Ahau, 18, seventeenth month, are this distance apart,and this interval also forms the basis of the wonderful series onpages 51 to 58. Thus, that which was only represented in brief onpage 24 is carried out more fully on pages 46 to 50, and also on pages51 to 58.Yet this 11,960 is most curiously connected with the numbers beforediscussed. The double katun (37,960) has the same relation to11,960 that the solar year (365) has to the Mercury year (115), forboth are multiples of 104, and have the ratio, therefore, of 73 to 23.Thus the two numbers are distant from one another by just 100 (around number to us, but not to the Mayas) tonalamatls. Further, ifwe subtract from the double katun twice 11,960 (=23,920), the resultis nothing more nor less than the remarkable 14,040.The apparent revolution of Mars, indeed, which, strange to say,comprises just 3 tonalamatls=780 days, seems to be the basis of theDresden series, on pages 43 to 44 and 59, and that remarkable 14,040IS equal to 18 of these Mars years, while the 113,880 equals 146 ofthem. Here we must not, however, feel too secure. Jupiter andSaturn seem never to have been included in the computation at all,with their apparent revolutions of 397 and 380 days, respectively(between two superior conjunctions), which closely approximate thesolar 5'ear.7238?No. 28-H?r) 32 498 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Not until long after all 1 have thus far explained became clear tome did I recognize that the Mayas had also very naturally turnedtheir attention to the period of the moon's revolution. The wonder-ful series on pages 51 to 58 of the Dresden codex, already mentioned,only arrives at the number 11,960; or, when we take into considerationthat there are three day signs with every number, the highest numberthere is in reality only 11,958. This number, however, is arrived atbecause periods of 177, 148, and 178 days follow each other strangelymixed ; indeed, the 177 occurs fifty-four times, the 148 nine times, the178 six times. But now 177=3x29-f3x30148=2X29+3X30178=3x29+3x30+1The entire series, therefore, is constructed thus : .54X177=162X29+102X30 = 9,5.589X148= 18X29+ 27X30 = 1,3320X178= 18X29+ 18x30+6= 1,008198X 29+207X 30+ 6= 1 1 .9.58There is, I think, nothing more natural here than to see alternatemonths of 29 and 30 days, just as they alternated with the Greeks.The 198 months of the one kind and the 207 of the other togethermake 405 months. But if we divide 11,958 by this 405, we find thelength of the moon's revolution as observed by the Mayas to be 29.526days.But the actual synodical revolution of the moon is 29.53 days. TheMayas, therefore, made it too short by only four-thousandths of aday; surely an amazing achievement. If they had employed merelythe period of 177 clays, the month would only have amounted to 29.5days; by the addition of the nine periods of 148 days, only to 29.512.The six j^eriods of 178 days, containing the intercalary days, werethus quite essential in order to reach this singularly accurate result.Thus we see combined on pages 46 to 50 of the Dresden codex therevolutions of the sun and Venus and on pages 51 to 58 those of themoon and mercury, that is, the revolutions of the four heavenly bodiesmost conspicuous in their movements combined in pairs; on the onehand, the two slower ones, on the other, the two of swifter motion, butof comparatively less brilliancy. Page 59 may refer to the revolutionof Mars alone, while page 60, the final page of this front side of CodexVaticanus B, seems lastly, but in a way as yet unexplained, to con-dense, as it Avere, the entire contents of this section. Perhaps abovewe here see the contest between these heavenly bodies, and below thevictorv of the one over the other. THE MAYA GLYPHS E. FORSTEMANN 499 THE MAYA GLYPHSBy E. ForstemannFIKST PAPER ?It is well for the traveler occasionally to cast a backward glanceover the road upon which he is journeying, and the same holds goodof the path along which science is advancing. From the vantageground of that which has already been attained we can see moreclearly what should be the next step and what is still to be attained.The wonderful hieroglyphs which occur on the stone monuments andin the ancient manuscripts of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Yucatan,Avhich but a few decades ago were a perfect enigma, are to-day oneafter another becoming intelligible and call all the more for such aretrospective view because in them pre-Columbian America attainedits highest state of culture.The birth year of the decipherment of these glyphs was 1863.In that year the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg discovered at Madridthe manuscript of the Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan by Diego deLanda (bishop of Merida in Yucatan from 1573 to 1579), which hepublished in 1864. In this manuscript were found the signs of thenumerals from 1 to 19, the twenty day signs of the 20-day period, andthe eighteen signs of the periods of this kind which make up the year.All these signs, apart from numerous variants, were actually met'withagain on the inscriptions and in the manuscripts, so that by the dis-covery of this manuscript the corner stone was laid, and buildingcould proceed. I do not wish further to discuss these glyphs herenor to copy them since the}^ are the undisputed possession of scienceand have been reproduced in many places, for example, in myErlauterungen, published in 1886. No one will misconstrue mysilence with regard to the so-called alphabet of Diego de Landa.The next addition to this material was made in 1876 by Leon deRosny in his Essai sur le dechiffrement de Tecriture hieratique deI'Amerique centrale, in which we find interpreted the well-knownsigns which unquestionably denote the four cardinal points. This dis-covery was made simultaneously in America by Cyrus Thomas.In two of these four signs and in one of the eighteen signs of the 20-day periods was found the symbol for the sun, as if it were a matter of "Die Mayahleroglyphen, Globus, 1894, v. 60, n. 5, pp. 78-80. 501 502 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 course, as Leon de Rosny himself acknowledged. The word for sun,kin, however, also denotes day, and it was proved, though somewhatlater, that this sign is also used with the latter meaning.In the preface to my first edition of the Dresden manuscript (1880)I did not take occasion to express any opinion in regard to the meaningof the signs, and yet that very edition was a great stimulus to me andto others for further research. It was especially my acquaintance andsubsequent collaboration (in person and by letter) with my friend Doc-tor Schellhas, of Berlin, that i3roved a source of manifold light to usboth. Thus we soon found ourselves studying the sign in whichSchellhas recognized the moon (and at the same time M. Pousse inthe publications of the Societe Americaine), the period of 20 days.Both interpretations were correct. For, either the moon, being con-sidered dead during the period of new moon, was assumed to be aliveonly 20 days at a time, or the moon was conceived of as man, for inthe Maya language " vinak " means both 20 and, from the number offingers and toes, man. I was also on the point of finding a secondsymbol for 20 (Erliiuterungen, page 12) which was positively recog-nized as such by Doctor Seler in 1887.It Avas a source of special satisfaction to me that in April, 1885, Iwas able to determine the sign for zero and soon afterward to dis-cover the way in which the Mayas expressed the higher numbers, sothat they can now be read from zero up to millions. Upon this dis-covery is based the largest part of my later researches.Closely connected with this discovery was that of the glyph forthe planet Venus, of the certainty of which we are constantly receiv-ing fresh proof.Having already communicated all these signs in the year 188(), inmy Erliiuterungen, I can omit them here to save space, only remark-ing that the attempt I made in that article to determine the signs forthe rest of the planets seems to me now, as it did then, very uncertain.Two papers of Doctor Schellhas should have special mention here.Die Mayahandschrift der Koniglichen Bibliothek zu Dresden (1886,in the Berlin Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, page 12) and Die Gotter-gestalten der Maj^ahandschriften (1892, in the same journal, page101). As it is not necessary to speak here of the merits of thesewritings except so far as they are connected with the determination ofglyphs, I merely mention that in these articles Ave find, first, fourlittle signs interpreted beyond a doubt, which often appear as pre-fixes to other glyphs. The office of these prefixes is to jilace theglyphs in their respective relation to the four several cardinal points,thus making it unnecessary to use the actual signs of these mentionedabove. But of much more importance is the second discovery dueto the efforts of Doctor Schellhas, viz, that about twent}^ differentglyphs are recognized as the designations of twenty different deities. FOnSTEMAXX.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 503Those occiirriiio' most fre([uontly were (letenuined witli absolute cer-tainty, the others with more or less i)rohal)ility. Schellhas, how-ever, has Hot applied any of the traditional names to these gods, buthas simply designated them provisionally by letters, and in doingso he is right, for the Olympus of the Mayas and Aztecs has so manyintersecting paths and byway's that it is almost unavoidable not togo astray, especially since it is difficult to discriminate between theuniversal and the local deities.I am now compelled to speak of myself. Since the appearance ofmy Erliiuterungen (1880), I have published eight different treatiseson the Maya science : 1. Three essays entitled Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften,1887, 1891, 1892, in pamplilet form, which were at first only intendedfor private circulation. These will soon be followed by a fourth,which is to be presented to the Congress of Americanists at Stockholm. / o .*. o GQg) C^ C^ Fig, 110. Glyphs from the Dresden codex. m2. Zur Maya-Chronologie (1891) in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie.3. The preface to my second edition of the Dresden manuscript(1892).4. Three articles in Globus, volume 63, number 2, and volume Go,numbers 1 and 15: Die Zeitperioden der Mayas, Zum mittelamer-ikanischen Kalender, and Die Plejaden bei den Mayas.As this material is so widely scattered, and as I still wish to speakof some signs not discussed in the above-mentioned articles, I willhere give the form of a few glyphs which have been recentlydetermined, omitting, for the sake of brevity, those which are stilldoubtful. As I have proceeded from the mathematic standpoint,these glyphs chiefly concern certain periods of time.The first {a, figure 110) is the sign for the year of 360 days, longsince recognized as the sign of the 20-(lay jieriod Pax. As such, how-ever, it generally appears with three balls added below, which, I aminclined to consider as a representation of the most conspicuous pointin the celestial equator, the three stars in the belt of Orion, withwhich the sun is in conjunction in Pax. 504 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28The second (b) represents the period of 20 years, 20X360=7,200days. Both these signs (with variants) are common to both manu-scripts and inscriptions. From the latter I give here for the firsttime two characters (in the form in which they occur on the Crossof Palenque) : Number 3 (c), the period of 20X7,200=1-14,000 days,and number 4 (d), the period of 20 days. To these I add from themanuscripts number 5 (e), the period of 52X365=18,980 days, afterwhich each day recurs in the same place in the year. Hence thisglyph is the da}^ sign Imix, which is usually considered the first ofthe day signs, with the so-called rattlesnake ornament which hereand in other cases, as I will incidentally remark, signifies a tyingtogether, a union.I will here pass over in silence the signs for the periods of 260, 2,920(8X365), and 8,760 (24X365) days, which I think I have discovered,but am not yet sufficiently certain to publish a statement regardingthem.It is important to ascertain whether other stars and constellationsbesides the sun, moon, and Venus have not their special symbols. Ihave already attempted in this journal to show that the Pleiades areprobably designated by the Moan head and its representative signs.I think Mercury may be recognized in a Venus sign before whicha human figure with head downward, /, is drawn (Dresden codex,pages 57 and 58). Doctor Seler has already shown (1887) that in allprobability the firmament is commonly denoted by the day sign Akbal(night), g, Avith a circle of dots around it.With the chronologic and astronomic signs the ideas of beginningand end are closely connected, and for both these ideas I think I havefound the gl3^ph.These in the main are two heads, the first of which, /;. has for aneye the day sign Akbal, just mentioned, with which, according to themost recent discovery, the 20-day periods may begin. Below are thefamiliar footprints denoting a movement forward. The second sign,i, agrees with Xul, the seventh of these periods, and Xul reallymeans the end. From pages 61, 62, and 70 of the Dresden manuscriptin particular, but also from other passages, we learn how these twosigns are contrasted with one another.Of the small signs which appear as prefixes, suffixes, etc., to thelarger characters I have alread}' mentioned the four relating to thecardinal points and the rattlesnake ornament denoting a tying to-gether, k. In contrast to the latter is the sign of division, J orm, denoting the obsidian knife, which was recognized by DoctorSeler in 1887. I have already tried to prove in this journal that thesuperior affix, occurring so frequently, and common to both manu-scripts and inscriptions, which consists of the day signs Ben and Ik.probably denotes single lunar months of 28 and 29 days, and I expectstill further to confirm this view. fOrstemann.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 506The representations of particular objects in Maya literature arenot in question liere, and they will be considered only in so far asthey api:)ear as actual ghqahs in the series with the rest. To thisclass, for example, belong the four animal figures which often occurin close proximity?a portion of a mammal, a bird's head, a lizard,and a fish?possibly designating various offerings.An important glyph is the hand, which so often occurs in bothmanuscripts and inscriptions. It appears sometimes in the act ofgrasping, with the thumb bent forward, and sometimes as pointing,with the thumb close to the hand. The first really appears to denotea tying together like the ornament mentioned above, to which I intendto refer in my forthcoming essay Zur Entzifferung der Mayahand-schriften, IV; the second can hardly denote anything but a move-ment in space (as it does on our finger posts) or a lapse of time,as in the many examples in the Dresden codex, pages 46 to 50.This is practically all the treasure that has thus far been securedfrom the Avritings of the Mayas. It probably comprises the most im-portant ones, but by no means the majoritv of the signs. Let ushope that in the near future these glyphic treasures may increase,though hitherto there has been a lack of laborers in this field. g hiFig. 111. Glyphs from the Dresden codex.SECOND PAPER ? In volume 06, number 5, pages 78 to 80, of this journal, under thesame title, I published a short article which was intended to show inhasty review what progress had been made in the interpretation ofthese signs. Two or three years have passed since then, and now Ihave been unexpectedly called upon to summarize the progress whichhas been made in this work during the time which has elapsed, par-ticularly what I believe has been accomplished by myself. I shallbe obliged to speak more of myself than is usually my custom.(1) ?, figure 111. All that can be said concerning this figure is onlypartially new, for Schellhas has proved in his fundamental treatise ? Die Mayahieroglyphen, Zweiter Artikel, Globus, 1897, v. 71, n. 5, pp. 78 to 81. 506 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Die Gottergestalten der Mayaliaiulschriften that it is the glyph ofthe god C, and that it is a star, the pohir star, in faet. I have recog-nized this meaning from the first, but I would prefer to call it thepolar constellation (Ursa Minor). Now, it happened while I wasrecently examining the remarkable tonalamatl in the Dresden codex.Images 4a to 10a, that I discovered in it a peculiar displacement oftime. As a fixed point of departure I found groups 14 and 15, theformer representing the tiger, the latter the vulture, with an intervalof 2 days between them. There is just the same interval betweenthe Aztec day Ocelotl (jaguar) and Cozcaquauhtli (vulture). Thiswas a very gratifjnng discovery, because it revealed a new point ofcontact between the Aztec and Maya systems. Now if we reckonback from this passage 23 days to group 5 (page 5) we find god Cwith his glyph, and are forced, on account of the distance of thedays, to place this group wdth the Maya day Chuen or Aztec Ozo-matli (monkey). Finding this to be the case, the question at onceflashed through my mind. Does not this glyph in the main repre-sent a monkey's skull? Does it not present an indication of the lat-eral nasal aperture of the American monkey? The Aztec day signOzomatli has a certain, though distant, resemblance to this sign. Buthow are the monkey and Ursa Minor to be connected? I fully be-lieve that the former is more appropriate here than the latter. Thepolar star is the last star in the tail, but the monkey, after the fashionof its kind, clings with its tail to a fixed point, around which itswings the rest of its body. But I already hear the opponents of thisconception, and pass on to a second glyph.(2) h. After I had printed my treatise, Zur Entzifferung derMayahandschriften, V, in 1895, I next undertook the task of ex-amining the 28 groups belonging together on pages 71 to 73 of theDresden codex, each consisting of three glyphs, and found that theyhad no connection with the adjacent numbers, but represented a rit-ual year of 3G4 days, divided into 28X13 days. Then I forthwithnoticed that groups 4, 11, 18, and 25 contained the glyph given above,in several variants, at intervals of 91 days. Hence nothing wasmore natural than to see in this sign h a Bacab, a deity of the windand the cardinal points, since we have long known that each periodof 91 days is under the dominion of a particular Bacab. This wasfull}^ confirmed by a comparison of the 69 groups of glyphs on pages51 to 58, in which I likewise recognized weeks of 13 days. Althoughthe groups are very often destroj'^ed, especially in the first half, thesign appeared again in groups 39, 4G, 53, and GO, and I attachedto this fact various observations concerning repetitions after everyseven groups. In a third series of glyphs on page 72 at the top, 1again found the Bacab in the eighth member. The number 4 fre- fOrstemann.] the MAYA GLYPHS 507quently occurring before this sign proves abundantly that one of thefour Bacabs is intended.(3) c. On page (> of my treatise just referred to in connectionwith the preceding glyph I mentioned the discovery of the charactergiven here as < in the eighth and sixteenth of the 28 groups. I hadreasons for making the ritual year reconstructed there begin with thespring eciuinox, and the consequent positions indicated for the twosigns were June and September; that is, the beginning and the endof the rainy season. It seems to me to represent a cloud from whichthree streams of water are falling upon the earth. The obsidianknife added below may here indicate, as it often does, a division, orperiod, of time. On page 36c of the Dreden coclex we see the figureof a god standing in the water and looking upward, upon whomsimilarly drawn raindrops are falling from a rain cloud, clearlydistinguishable as such.(4) d. This sign occurs very frequently, with different variants, inthe manuscript, but probably never in the inscriptions. In thetreatise mentioned in connection with the preceding glyph, I havealready cursorily pointed out that a somewhat similar sign seemed atleast to approximate the idea of the week of 13 days, and I would liketo speak more in detail concerning it. I will first remark that even inthe manuscripts I can point out this glyph only in those sections whichcontain tonalamatls. It is therefore missing in the entire second partof the Dresden codex, from page 46 onward; also in the first partfrom page 25 to 28, and likewise in the Troand codex on those pageswhich correspond to the last-named pages, that is, 23 to 20, etc. Itoccurs more frequently with day XIII than with any other week day,as in the Dresden codex, pages lie and 41a, and in the Troano codex,pages loc, 16a, 30c to 29c and 31*b. Furthermore, it appears afterthe period of 13 days, as in Troano codex, page 16c, and after 6+7days in the Dresden codex at least, page 23c. But it is used especiallyat the close of the divisions of the tonalamatl, as after 2X13=26 daysin the Dresden codex, page 14c, in the Troano codex, page 31*b, and inthe Cortesian codex, page 29b; after 4X13=52 days in the Dresdencodex, pages lie, 22b; after 5X13=65 days in the Dresden codex,page 16b, and in the Troano codex, page 7*c. Indeed, in the Troanocodex, pages 30c to 29c, it appears to be added to each of the five divi-sions of 13 days each, which, however, is uncertain on account of thecareless drawing. And in (he Troano codex, pages 8c to 7c, where the52 days are divided into five sections (4X10+12) it is likewise em-ployed five times. Finally, I call attention to it in the Dresden codex,page 30b, where it closes 10X13=130 days. I think these examplesare sufficient to warrant me in ascribing to this glyph the function ofdenoting the week of 13 davs or the close of such a week having theday XIII. 508 BUREAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28I have still a word to say concerning the remarkable tonalamatl inthe Dresden codex, pages 4a to 10a, where twenty of the first 52 daysare rendered prominent by pictures and groups of glyphs. Here thischaracter ajjpears in the groups 1, 5, 11, and 16; that is, with the sec-ond, fifteenth, twenty-ninth, and forty-fourth days of the 260-dayperiod. That might mean that a new 13-day period had begun mean-time, though not exactly with these days. The character {e) appearsbesides, in a somewhat different position, it is true, in the fourteenthgroup {the thirty-eighth day) ; that is, after the expiration of 13groups. It is also remarkable that this day, as we saw above, is theday Tx of the Mayas, Ocelotl (tiger) of the Aztec, and this day, if webegin the series as usual with Imix, stands in the fourteenth place atthe beginning of a new week. Indeed, it should be observed thatthis character, e, resembles no day glyph of the Mayas more closelythan Ix; and here there is possibly a forgotten original connection.The sign Ix, hitherto entirely unexplained, almost suggests the ideathat in it two lines radiate from an Imix, between which three dotsare placed; now two lines and three dots form the number sign 13(2X5-1-3). However, I do not wish to assert any conclusion.(5) This glyph, /, is the familiar sign for the thirteenth 20-dayperiod of the year; that is, the so-called month Mac. But I believeI was right when I assigned a second meaning to this sign in mytreatise Zur Entziiferung der Mayahandschriften, IV. I examinedthere page 24 of the Dresden codex, the object of which is to link to-gether the solar year, the Venus year, and the tonalamatl, and inci-dentally the lunar month and the Mercury year as well. Here Ifound, first of all, in the series of glyphs on the left, several signsrelating to the solar and Venus years, and then, in the eleventh andtwelfth places, this glyph wherein I was inclined to see the tonalamatl,for which, strange to say, no sign has as yet been discovered. This signis repeated, which may possibly denote the recurring tonalamatl. Howdoes the period Mac happen to have this meaning? The chief reasonis that 260 days of the year have really elapsed at the end of theperiod Mac; but the form of this glyph also furnishes a certainjustification for connecting it with this meaning, for in reality it is avariant of the familiar Imix which stands at the head of the series ofdays. This sign has a suffix which originally seems to have indicateda bird's feather and possibly still occurs in the manuscripts with thismeaning. A bird's feather, however, is one of the most fitting sym-bols supplied by nature to designate the plural. Thus, in my opinion,this glyph denotes Imix, in that the day constantly returns until itregains its original position m the week.One place where I think I find a sign for the tonalamatl is in col-umns A and B of the Cross of Palenque. After the well-known K5BSTEMANX.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 509 superscription we find there, always combined with the pictures ofthe gods belonging to them, the signs of the periods of 144,000, 7,200,360, and 20 days; then, the single day counted off on the subjoinedfingers; after that, the principal day Ahau in the eighth place, withthe picture of god D, to whom it is dedicated, which is often the case,as for instance, in the Dresden codex, page 9a, on the left.Should w^e not expect to find the tonalamatl among the succeedingglyphs on pages 9 to 12 ? I commend this passage to the student forfurther consideration. In addition, the moon's revolution and thepoint at which Maya chronology begins are represented.(6) First of all, at the top is the sign of a number, ^, which Iwill leave for the present undetermined. Below it are two glyphs, theprobably phallic yax ("vigor", "strength") and the kin ("sun")signs. We are reminded of the month Yaxkin, which corresponds ap-proximately to our November, and consequently can not take its namefrom the power of the sun, but rather from a particular deity or sacri-fice. This, not the month, was thought of in connection with the sign,as is demonstrated by the following six passages of the Dresden manu-script where it occurs.On page 18a is a woman holding the glyph (3'ax placed above kin)in her hand, like an offered sacrifice. The glyphs above the pictureare destroyed, but probably contained the same sign once more. Onpage 18c a woman carries this figure on her back. Such a signusually indicates a particular deity. The glyphs found above repeatthe sign. On page 19c is the same representation as on the precedingpage. The woman has a hair ornament of flowers. On page 27b thesign is placed on a vessel, a kind of bowl. This means food offered asa sacrifice. The two remaining examples, on pages 46b on the rightand 50c on the right, are placed under different glyphs, most probablydenoting gods, at the beginning and end of the great representationwhich treats of the period of 2,920 days, in which five apparent Venusyears (5X584) coincide with 8 solar years. Each time the adjacentsign is the Moan, in which I have surmised the end of the year and thePleiades.Four examples, in which this sign occurs in Codex Troano-Cort-tesianus (Cortesian codex, page 35b, and Troano codex, pages 21a,22*a, and 14*b), owing to the inexactness prevailing in this manu-script, would demand a long discussion without advancing the matter.We must now observe the number sign which stands above theglyphs yax and kin, g. For this purpose I will call attention to theexample cited above from the Dresden codex, page 27b. The fourpages 25 to 28 treat of the last day of the four kinds of years andof the first day of the succeeding years, but still offer a great manyenigmas. The numerals scattered through the different parts of the 510 BUREAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28pages are especially to be counted among these riddles. I will hereshow the positions of these Jiumerals. Pages i-fiusTEMANN.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 511Finally, on page 28, the sum of the numbers is only 46, and thisleads us to surmise that somewhere there should have been written6 units more, in division a.Thus we are compelled to recognize in the number 18 a numberpertaining to a deity, somewhat as 13 belongs to god S and 11 to godI'". AVe should find more examples if the remains of Ma^^a literaturehanded down to us were more voluminous; 18, however, is also thenumber of the '20-day periods Avhich make the year.But which god belongs to the number? I think he is to be foundclose beside this glyph in the Dresden codex, page 27b. It is the "old god ", D, that moon and birth god, who, perhaps, as Izamna,was supreme among the Mayas, and as Tonacatecutli prominentamong the Aztecs and as Hunahpu among the Cakchikels. But whyis the number never added to his picture, as far as we have seen,but only to the sacrifices offered to him? His glyphs already had adeterminative sufficiently plain, the day sign Ahau, which denotesthe most important of all days and, as is well known, the beginningof all Maya chronology. The other chief gods. A, B, and C, likewiserequire no numbers to determine them more clearl3^Where duodeviginti occurs one might expect undeviginti also. Ipresent here for consideration, without being able to prove anything,the sign ^ found in the Dresden codex, page 3, at the top on theright. In this passage it is near the sign of the serpent deity, H,which corresponds to the day Chicchan.But I would say by way of caution that the sign X which in theDresden codex, page 58, low^er half, stands before the glyph for 7,200days, must not be interpreted in the same way as those last discussed,for the cross here only signifies that the dot does not belong in thisplace, but to the glyph above, wlhere there was no room for it. Acomparison with the last glyph but one of the first column, Dresdencodex, page 24, confirms this observation.(7) /.'. It is advisable in attempts at deciphering to turn our atten-tion to the glyphs which occur most frequently, as the difference oftheir environment may sometimes give us the right clue. It will cer-tainly be of value to consider all the details of their occurrence, evenif an actual interpretation is not finally reached. To these fre-quently occurring signs belongs the one given here, k, which Ave willfollow through the Dresden codex, which, owing to its careful execu-tion, gives more promise of success than the inexact Codex Troano-Cortesianus.This glyph occurs on page 3, near the tonalamatl combined withthe picture of a human sacrifice, beside the sign of the god T^, themost frequent in the manuscript. The great tonalamatl. j^ages 4ato 10a, shows the sign not less than five times, in the sixth, fifteenth, 512 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28twenty-third, thirty-tliird, and forty-eighth of the 52 days, with thegods B, C, H, K, and E, successively in the sixth, fourth, fifth, sixth,and fifth phices of each of the six glyphs. On page 5c we find itplaced with the god D, page 6b with E, 7c with H, 10b with B, 11awith H, lib with L, lie with E, 12a with K, 13b with C, 14c withD, I7b with an undetermined female deity, likewise 19b and 20c, 21bwith A, 21c with I), 22b perhaps with I, 23c with D and with threefemale personages. Here, in every case, the glyph is in a tonalamatl.It is wholly lacking on the astronomic page 24, notwithstandingthat it contains 40 glyphs. Of the four calendric pages, 25 to 28,containing no tonalamatl, only jDage 26 contains this sign, where itstands in the middle row between the glyphs of E and U. In thelarge section devoted to god B, which contains so many tonalamatls,it is missing, strange to say, on all the pages from 29 to 37 and thenappears again three times, on 3Sb, 39a, and 40a, each time with thepicture of this god. The last five pages of the first part of themanuscript, 41 to 45, again entirely lack this character, althoughgods and tonalamatls abound in them.In the second division of the Dresden codex, pages 46 to 74, theritual year becomes of secondary importance and the astronomic yearbecomes more prominent. Accordingly, we rarely find this glyphhere. On pages 46 to 50, on which the Venus and solar years aremade to agree, it is found only once, on page 48 at the top on theright, directly in the center of the 20-membered period of 2,920 days,beside its tenth member. In the large section pages 51 to 60 thissign is wholly lacking. We first find it again on page 65, in the lowerhalf. Here the period treated of is the ritual year of 364 days, theactual year 9 Kan, it would seem, the sign of which is on the left ofthe glyph under discussion. However, 9 Kan is the middle point ofthe great world epoch beginning wdth the year 9 Ix. At the end ofthe same section, 91 days, or a quarter of a year later, lower half ofpage 69, this glyph appears again. But what it may mean aboveon the same page, likewise at the end of 91 days, where it is connectedAvith the ordinary sign of the owl (death bird) we must leave quiteundecided. This section, which I have discussed more fully in theZeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1891, presents special difficulties. Finally,in the last example offered by our manuscript, page 73, in the middle,our glyph stands directly under the sign of the death god A in thetwentieth member of a series, each member of which denotes 13 days;that is, after 13X20 days, just a tonalamatl from the beginning of theyear.So much we know concerning the different circumstances underwhich this glyph appears in the Dresden codex, and yet we havehardly formed an opinion concerning its meaning, to find which must lORSTEMANN.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 513be our chief object. We can only make the negative assertion that itcan not possibly denote a particular deity, a particular sacrifice, or aparticular period. Almost the only other supposition is that it mustdenote a particular ceremony. Was it, perhaps, the sprinkling threetimes with the aspergill ? Or are we to think of the three steps whichthe priests had to take 'i The chief part of the glyph is the day signOc, which, to be sure, means the foot, therefore, perhaps, also a step.Some one once suggested a " third order of priests ", of which, how-ever, nothing has ever been known. In any event, this communicationwill supply acceptable material for the final solution of the question.7238? No. 28?05 33 THE CENTRAL AMERICAN CALENDAR E. FORSTEMAISTN 515 THE CENTRAL AMERICAN CALENDAR"By E. ForstemanxDr Daniel G. Brinton, professor of American archeology andphilology in the University of Pennsylvania, besides making manyinvestigations in other directions, has since the year 1809 furnishednumerous valuable contributions to his special branch of the science.Among these is his recent boolc The Xative Calendar of CentralAmerica and Mexico (Philadelphia. 1898). This calendar is inevery essential point identical in the territory of the Xahuas in thevalley of Mexico and in Guatemala and Nicaragua, among the Mayasof Yucatan and their kindred in Chiapas and the surrounding region,hence among tribes Avhich are linguistically unrelated. The chieffeature of this book of Brinton's is an investigation of the nameswhich in very different ways have been given by these peoples to the20 single days and to the 18-day and 20-day periods of the year,erroneously called months. Certainly, no one is able to carry outa linguistic investigation of tliis kind more thoroughly than DoctorBrinton, since he has access to numerous manuscript vocabulariesof the language, some of them in the library of the American Philo-sophical Society and others in his own possession. With the aidof these, he seeks in this book to determine the fundamental mean-ing of the different Avords by which a certain day is designated ; withthe so-called months no such agreement is found. This meaning c.nialways be found in the living forms of transmitted speech in Nahuatl,while in Maya, Tzental, Kiche, Cakchikel, and in the Zaj^otec thesewords mostly have an archaic character, which points to a greaterantiquity of the calendar than it has in Nahuatl and naturally leavesroom for much doubt. Now, it seems as if this investigation mightbe materially aided by the study of the appertaining glyphs, but Doc-tor Brinton does not admit this, for, according to his view, the glyphshave nothing whatever to do with the meaning of the Avord, but onlyAvith the sound, as if we Avere to attempt to represent the Englishpronoun '' I "' by an eye or the A\ord *" matron "' by a mat and a i)er-son running. I do not deny such a process, but accept it in the caseswhere an old day name has vanis^ied from the living language; thus, " Ziim mittelamerikiinishchen Kalender, (Jlobiis, 1894, v. ?.">, p. -+4 (Troauo codex,page 15*c) =5x8+7+5 (Troano codex, page 24*d) =5x9+7 (Dresdencodex, page 8c, and Troano codex, page 31*e) =4x10+3+9 (Dresdencodex, page 40c) =4x10+12 (Troano codex, page 8c) =3x11+10+9(Dresden codex, page 19c) =4x11+8 (Troano codex, page 31b) =4+6x8(Ti'oauo codex, page 23*b).3. 65=6X10+5 (Troano codex, page 35a) =5x12+5 (Dresden codex,page 23b) =3x16+17 (Cortesian codex, page 20d).The varieties of intentional regularity are entirely exhausted bythese examples, and I should waste space if I were to cite more. Iwill only add one from the Dresden codex, pages 4a to 10a, where theperiod of 52 days is divided into not fewer than 20 parts of from 1to 4 da^'s each without any intelligible order. All these 20 parts havea common superscription, consisting of two glyphs. And, besides,each part has belonging to it the picture of a god and a glyph closelyconnected Avith the latter. I have given a thorough study to this onetonalamatl and have reall}' found nnich that is curious, which, how-ever, is not yet readj^ for publication.Let us noAv attempt to approach these tonalamatls from a thirdside, proceeding from the initial days. If the arrangement here wereleft to chance, we should, on an average, find each of the so-calledmonth days in one-twentieth and each of the week days in one-thirteenth of all the cases. But this does not accord with the actualfacts in two points in which the two manuscripts agree with eachother in a veiy remarkable manner.(1) Among the month days both give decided prominence to theseventeenth day (Ahau, " lord "), which was by far the most exaltedday, and the one most in use among the Mayas and also the beginningof their entire computation of time. Ahau stands 14 times at thebeginning of the tonalamatl in the Dresden codex and 50 times inCodex Troano-Cortesianus, thus in betAveen a fourth and a fifth in-stead of in a twentieth of all the cases.(2) Among the week days, the first and tlie last, I and XIII, weregreatly preferred. They appear in the Dresden codex 9 and 11times; in Codex Troano-Cortesianus 27 and 25 times, respectively, 532 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 amountino;, therefore, in the former to iihout one-third and in thehitter to abont one-fonrth of all the cases, instead of only two-thirteenths. I can further add that the day IV 17 in Codex Troano-Cortesianiis stands at the beginning of the tonalamatl al)out 24 times.Its importance is not so plainly shown in the Dresden codex onaccount of the smallness of the number (I knoAv only of two cases) ;IV 17, however, is the day from which computation of time begins.Codex Troano-Cortesianus (41 instances) gives to IV even greaterprominence than to I or XIII.Apart from these points, the week days and month days in bothmanuscripts are purely the result of chance and caprice.This being so, we arrive first at two negative results : , (1) The tonalamatls of the Maya manuscripts do not immediatelyfollow one another like months and years; else they w^ould all haveto begin wdth the same day, which would ahvays recur after 260 days.(2) Neither can they lia^e a fixed place in the year; else their firstdays, eA'en on the supposition that intercalary days were insertedafter certain periods, would easilj^ be seen to follow a definite rule.The year, or at least the exact date in the year, would also occasion-ally be stated, but as yet I find no traces of this.I have a special reason for speaking of this second point, since thedistinguished and untiring worker in the field of Aztec research, INIrsZelia Nuttall, at the Americanist Congress held last year at Stock-holm, presented her treatise On the Ancient Mexican Calendar Sys-tem, in which with great ingenuity she advances the view that withthe Aztecs the tonalamatl as a special festal season occui:)ied the mid-dle of every year of 364 days, which was preceded and followed byfour weeks. I do not deny that the Mayas had such a festal season,but the tonalamatls of the manuscripts surely have nothing whateverto do with it.After these negations let us .ask Avhat these tonalamatls really are.I can only arrive at the following hypothesis, which may very soon besuperseded by a better one: The tonalamatls of the manuscript arekinds of horoscopes which were cast by the priests for the purposeof foretelling the future lives of persons, classes, or tribes, as well asfuture political events or natural phenomena. They may have beenso employed because they approximate periods of pregnancy. Natu-rally, they had constant reference to the mythologic personages, buthad no connection whatever Avith the established calendar.This hypothesis also explains the fact that such horoscopes wereoccasionally cast, not for only 260 days, but for multiples of thisperiod. I believe I have fouiid five cases of this in the Dresdencodex. I give them here in a table showing in the first column theplace in the manuscript, in the second the distance of the month FiiRSTEMANN.] CENTRAL AMERICAN TONALAMATL 538days from each other, in tlie third the same with reference to theweek days, and in the fourth the entire resuUino: period:Pages 22a to 23a RECENT MAYA INVESTIGATIONS E. FORSTEMANN 535 RECENT MAYA INVESTIGATIONS"By E, FORSTEMANNA bibliography of a science is the bouiidary mark in its history,and such a homubiry mark has now been set for Maya investigation.The CentralWatt fiir BibliotheksAvesen, in the last number for 1895,contains an article by my former colleague, Prof K. Haebler, DieMaya Literatur und der Maya Apparat zu Dresden. What I wroteon the same sul)ject, in an article contributed in 1885 to the samejournal, has here been immensely expanded in accordance with thesurprising activity evinced in this branch of science in recent years.No one has greater cause to rejoice than T that the Dresden Library,since my retirement from it, continues to take an interest in the workof this department, as becomes the custodian of the most importantmanuscript in Maya literature. From 400 to 500 books, treatises, andnotices, some from quite obscure American journals, have beenrecorded there by Doctor Haebler, Avith extraordinary labor and thegreatest care. Thus this literature has been rescued from the deplor-ably scattered condition which characterized it, owing to the factthat the book market supports no special journal for JNlaya literature,nor even one for Central American research in general. It is amatter of course that absolute completeness and jierfect accuracy areunattainable, and for tliis reason 1 am glad to be able to announct*that Mv Marshall H. Savillc, of New York, whom Ave have recog-nized as an earnest Avorker in this field since 189'2, is just noAV occu-pied Avith a Maya bibliography, Avhich Ave shall rejoice to see placedside by side Avith the German one, and wliicli Avill certainly add nnichthat is ncAv to the material already in our possession.We, too, liaA^e neAV and important matter to record, Aviiich liasappeared since the German bibliographer issued his treatise. Thefourth volume of the Veroffentlichungen aus dem KoniglichenMuseum fiir Volkerkunde, issued in 1895, contains two A^aluabletreatises in close succession, namely, on pages 13 to 20, "AltindianischeAnsiedelungen in Guatemala ", by Karl Sapper, and on pages 21 to 53, J0L0QY PAINTED CLAY IMAGE OF THE GOD MACUIL XOCHSELER COLLECTION, ROYAL M BULLETIN 28, PLATE XLII (FIVE FLOWER), FROM TEOTITLAN DEL CAMINOJM OF LTHNOLOQY, BERLIN FuitsTEMANN.] INSCRIPTION ON THE CROSS OF PALENQUE 549point of Maya chronology, denotes the present day or at least a daythat is near the present.(2) The broader inscriptions, the framework of which consists ofcalendar dates, between which large numbers are interspersed thatstate the interval between each two dates. Between these dates andintervals there are some other glyphs, for the most part still whollyunexplained. The Cross inscription belongs to this second class.Leaving aside the center of this tablet as not pertinent to my pres-ent task, I will now give here the six columns of glyphs on each side,containing seventeen glyphs each, to be seen on the left and I'ightof the central sacrificial scene (plate xliii).Thus we see here 201 glyphs. There would be 17X12=204 werenot the first four places above on the left occupied by a single char-acter, the superscription, such as is customary in inscriptions of bothkinds (with some variants). In this case this superscription con-sists of three parts, aside from the ornaments added at the top andbottom. The character for the year of 360 days occupies the chiefplace; on the right and left of it are added the fins, by which the yearis increased twentyfold, that is, to 7,200 days; above it we see a char-acter never yet discussed, to which we must ascribe the meaning of20X7,200=144,000 days, as will be shown farther on.This superscription, compounded of the three largest time periodsin use, accordingly means something like *' chronologic guide '' or " historic table ".The larger part of the two columns A and B under this superscrip-tion seems like an introduction or a guide to the remainder. Itsets forth certain glyphs of special importance, necessary for the com-prehension of the rest. Signs B 4 and B 5 are important to U'-'as having been interpreted be3^ond question, for I ma}^ now assumethat their meaning, 7,200 and 360 days, is fully recognized. Thenfollows, almost of necessity, B 3=144,000 da^^s, as the sign of a simi-lar form in the superscription has led us to conjecture, and as we seeit repeated in C 5, F 6, U 2,. and V 12.I am equally certain that I see in B 6 the sign for 20 days, althoughit has no resemblance to the corresponding signs in the manuscripts.This is confirmed by no fewer than sixteen succeeding passages in thisinscription. The character employed here appears to bo a day sign,Chuen, and such it has already been considered b}' others. As thisday lies in the middle of a 20-day period beginning Avith Imix, it may,perhaps, denote the whole period.Now, the four characters B 3 to B 6 are each connected with apicture, A 3 to A 6. These can hardly be pictures of anything butgods, who preside over such periods, although up to this point wehave known nothing of these deities. In fact, in F 10 instead of the 550 BUREAU OF AMERICA]^ ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 sign for ;'>()0 we notice the correspondino- picture, just as the same sub-stitution occurs on other monuments; for instance, on tlie inscrip-tions in Stephens, English edition, D 7 and H 11 in the beginning ofvolume 2, the same on page 342, and the first sign on page 7.Now, B 7 is quite logically the sign kin. the single day. In A 7there is no longer a jDicture belonging to it, but a hand, probablybecause the single days were simply counted on the fingers, I willnot attempt to explain the figure drawn above the hand. In D -1Ave see the same character reversed, the hand on top, the rest below.In B 8 follows Ahau, the most important of the days, and in A 8the god D (Izamna) belonging to it. This deity is recognized by theoj^en mouth and the solitary tooth, visible in some copies of this pas-sage.Concerning A 9 and B 9 I hardly venture a conjecture. Are thesesigns meant to express the day 20 ( Akbal) and the god B (Cukulcan) ?Thus far the characters in A are joined to those in B with no inter-A'ening space. From here on each of the two signs in the adjacent col-umns is indeiDendently drawn.In B 10 we notice the numeral T). It seems as if A 10 and B 10might denote the 5 milucky days at the end of the year.A 11 I do not know how to explain; it must refer to B 11. Thelatter, however, is composed of the numeral 2, a face looking towardthe left, and a hand pointing to the right. It might be considered assuggesting the change from the old year to the new, the last day ofthe old and the first day of the new year, which two days are theprincipal subject of representation in pages 25 to 28 of the Dresdencodex.A 12 and B 12 are wdiolly obscure to me.In A 18 we see a crescent and under it the numeral 9. Nine lunarrevolutions formed a sacred period, esj^ecially as this length of timenearly corresponded with the tonalamatl. The moon sign in B 13must be closely related to A 18.In regard to the fom- characters, A 14 to B 15, 1 am unable to decidewhether they are to be regarded as the end of this introduction or asthe preliminaries of the real subject-matter of the inscription.With A 16 begins the regular alternation of dates and periods,which continues to the end of this tablet.The points of time, or calendar dates, as I proved long ago, havethe formula : I 17 ; 18, I7th month.This formula designates a certain specified day recurring after aperiod of 52 years, that is, the first day of the 13-day week when itis the seventeenth of the 20-day period and the eighteenth of the sev-enteenth so-called month.The time periods, on the other hand, have as the first sign that forthe 20-day period, which we have already found in B G. There is a BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYA. B. C. D. E. F. S. T. BULLETIN 28 PLATE XLIIIU. V. W. X. 16 17 .g,^\^ iiilS^^@:o /'; <>. (ith month. (11 Kan.)S 12 T 12: 9+3x20+13x300=4,749.S 14 T 14: II 14; 10, Cth month. (11 Muluc.)The space between the two dates is actually 4,749=18X200+69=13X365+4. And 69 is in fact the distance from XI 5 to II 14, 4 thedistance from 6, 6th month to 10, 6th month.In addition, I would mention the second and third dates and thesecond period : D 3 C 4: IV 17; 8, l8th month. (9 Ix.)D 5 C 6: 2+9x30 f360=542.C 9 D 9: XIII 19; 20, 8th month. (11 Kan.)It should be noticed here that an affix is attached to the sign for360, C 6, which seems to me to denote the close of this period and toprevent the next sign D 6 from being added to it. Moreover, D 9probably denotes the eighth month; but its prefix, according to mysupposition, only denotes the close of the month. FORSTEMANN.] INSCRIPTION ON THE CROSS OF PALENQUE 553Now, 542=2X260+22=365+177. The day IV 17, actually pre-cedes the day XIII 19 by just 22 days. But the day 8, 18th month isdistant 177 days from 20, 8th month of the following year, and there-fore distant 365+177:=542 days from the same day 2 years later.A most singular error results if the dates 17 and IS are comparedwith the intervening period 17. The inscription here reads as follows : X 5 W fi: II 18; 4, 12th month. (1 Caiiac-.) .X6W7: 1+20+360=381.X 10 W 11 : VII 1 ; 17, 8th month. (8 Mnlnc.)Now, II 18 to VII 1=83; and 4, 12th month to 17, 8th mOnth=298.The sum of the two numbers is 881, Avhich is recorded as the intervalof time between them, wdiile in reality the two dates are separated by16,723=45X365+298 or 64X260+83. It is plain therefore that thecharacters were engraved on the stone before the computation wascompleted.In one instance the month seems to be omitted. This occurs in F 9.in the date which ends a period in the inscription. I here combinethe starting point of the w^hole computation with the sixth date:A 16 B 16: I 17; 18, 17th month. (3 Kan.)E F 5 and 6: 2+11x30+7X360+1X7,200+2x144,000=297,942.E 9: IX 19; completed, 15, 4th month. (1 Muluc.)If, since after 18,980 (52X365) days, the dates have the same posi-tion in the year, 15X18,980=284,700 is subtracted from 297,942,13,242 days remain. But 13,242=50X260+242=36X365+102. Andthe time from I 17 to IX 19 is actually 242; from 18, I7th month to15, 4th month, 102 days; I therefore believe that it is not venturingtoo much thus to complete the date.The passage F 6, moreover, is the only one in the inscription wherea multiple of 144,000 really follows the sign for 7,200, as would beexpected. Such a multiple of 144,000, indeed, occurs three more times,but in C 5 it is 8X144,000, and here it stands directly before theperiod beginning with the single days, while in U 2 and V 12 we havenine times and five times this number, but separated in each case fromthe succeeding period by a glyph (V 2 and U 13, diflfering from eachother). Here is a problem to be solved in the future.An attempt, however, with the sign IT 2 seems to be successful. Letus compare the thirteenth with the fourteenth date : T 17 U 1: VIII 17; 18, 12th month. (11 Muluc.)U 2 U V 3 U 4: 9x144,000+18+20+8x360+1X7,200=1,306,118.U 7 V 7: III 15; 16, 1st mouth? (2 Kan.)That the indistinct last sign denotes the first month is, of course,only a conjecture; also that a line is lacking in the number 11 stand-ing before it. If it is correct then everything agrees, for 1,306,118 ? 554 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2868X1<^,980=15,4T8, but this equals 59X260+i;}S=42X3(;5-f 148.From VIII 17 to III 15 is 138; from 13, l'2th month to 1(3, 1st monthis 148.In another case, where I combine the fourth iincl fifth dates with thefourth period, I must hazard two conjectures. First, it seems to methat in D 11 the actual starting point of Maya chronology, the eighthday of the eighteenth month, is not designated by the same sign as inC 4, but instead by the old god (Izamna), the lord of the day 17standing beside it ; and, second, I believe that the indistinct prefix ofD 13 is to be read as 2. I^'hese postulates being accepted, we have thefollowing result : C 11 D 11 : X 17 ; 8, 18tb month. (2 Ix.)D 13, C 14 D 14: 2+12x20+3x360+18X7.200=130,922,E 1 F 1 : IX 19; 15, 12th month. (10 Mnhic.)If the number 113,880=6X18,980 is subtracted from 130,922, thereare left 17,042 days=65X200+142=46X365+252, and 142 is theinterval between X 17 and IX 19, while 252 is the interval between8, 18th month and 15, 12th month.Perhaps it is also worthy of notice here that, if 20 years (20X365)are subtrac;ted from 17,042, 9,742 days remain, which we recognizedas a recurrent and very remarkable number in the last part of theDresden codex (see Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften, II,pages 16 and 18).This number, 9,742, results still more directly if the second date iscombined with the fifth date just now inider discussion:D 3 C 4: IV 17; 8, ISth month. (9 Ix.)E 1 F 1 : IX 19; If), 12th month. (10 Muluc.)The two dates are indeed separated by 9,742=27X365?113 days,for 9,742 equals 37X260+122=26X3654-252; but there are in fact122 days between IV 17 and IX 19, and 252 days between 8, 18thmonth and 15, 12th month. It is remarkable that this period of 9,742days does not seem to be expressed anywhere on the inscription ; per-haps it is denoted by a character still unknown.These examples will suffice to point out the way along wdiich fur-ther investigation, not merely of this but of other Maya inscriptions,must be pursued. And I have reasons for desiring an early successorin this work.We have seen that as a rule each date is connected with the oneimmediately preceding it, for I could proceed from the dates 1, 2, 4,11, 12, 13, and 17 directly to 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, and 18. But I havemade a jump only from 1 and 2 to 6 and 5, though I will mention alsothat I have jiunped from 1 to 7 for my own satisfaction, apparentlynot incorrectly.It appears, therefore, that a more or less direct reference to thestarting points of the whole computation occurs in the three dates of BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XLIVm i5 M 8 9 10 U 12 13 14 15 16 i\Qi 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 % ^^Sk 28 29 30GLYPHS FROM THE TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS AT PALENQUE FoKSTEMANN.] INSCRIPTION ON THE CEOSS OF PALENQUE 555 colninns E and F. And these three days arc poctdiar in that they allthree (E 1, E 9, and F 12) proceed from the same day, IX 19. Howmay this be accounted for ?I now add an observation in which Cyrus Thomas has led the way.In nine passages of the inscription we find two unknown glyphs, thesame ones each time in immediate succession : F 7 E 8, S and T 1, T 7S 8, T 15 S K), U and V (>, V 11 U 12, U and V 10, W and X 8, and Wand X 17. Six times this pair of signs occurs between the intervaland the following date; in U 6 V (> it occurs between two dates, inV 11 U 12 between the date and the following interval, in W X 17 atthe end of the whole inscription after an interval. The character-istic of the first sign is a hand pointing forward, that of the second,a kin ('' sun ", " day ") ; accordingly, they may perhaps mean nothingmore than " counting of the days ". The sense must be very general,otherwise it would not occur in nine jjlaces. THE DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS E. FORSTEMANN 557 THE DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS"By E. Forstemann To assign to each day a certain god as a ruler or protector is a wide-spread custom, a trace of which is still perceptible in Europe to-day,inasmuch as w^e still call our w-eek da.js after heathen deities.This custom also prevailed in the domain of Aztec; and Maya cul-ture. With regard to its practice among the Aztecs, Doctor Seler,in particular, has given us considerable information in the Compterendu of the Berlin Americanist Congress of 188S in his greattreatise on the Aubin Tonalamatl. In reference to the Mayas, thisscholar says in his treatise on the names of the Maya gods representedin the Dresden manuscript (1887), page 230, that it appears from theold Relacion of the Priest Hernandez (which I am unable to consult)that Cukulcan was the chief of the 20 gods, who, according to thedescription, clearly denoted the deities of the 20 day signs.Many names and glyphs of Maya and Aztec gods combined withnumbers always refer to certain specified days not in the series of 20but in that of the 200 days of the tonalamatl, especially those of theMayas beginning with Hun (1), and those of the Aztecs beginningwith Macuil (5).From the account of Nunez de la Vega, as well as from that ofFrancisco Fernandez, whose narrative is preserved by Bartholome delas Casas, it appears that, generally speaking, the 20 days were eachdedicated to a god or lord.Such day gods have l)een handed down to us from certain parts ofthe country, not only in a general way, but sj^ecial ones for specialdays.Thus it is said of the first day, Kan, that among the Tzentals inChiapas and Tabasco (who, by the way, were the probable authors ofthe monuments of Palenque and of the Dresden manusci-ipt) this dayhad been called Ghanan, and Ghanan had been a divinity in thoselocalities (see Brinton, Mayan Hieroglyphs, pages 62, 123).The fifth day, Lamat, is designated among the Kiche-Cakchikelsin Guatemala by Kanel, a deity of seed sowing (see below). ? Globus, V. 73, n. 8 and 9, 1898. 559 560 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28The sixth day, Miihic (we are calling the clays according toLanda, that is, according to the usage of northwestern Yucatan),is called Toh in Kiche, after the god of thunderstorms (see Brinton,Calendar of Central America and Mexico, 1893, page 27).The sixteenth day, Cauac, was called Ayotl, "tortoise" (Brinton,Calendar, page 33) , by the Pipiles, an Aztec tribe, it is true, but living-among Maya tribes, and among the Mayas the tortoise belongs to themythic animals, which rank in order with the actual gods.The seventeenth day, Ahau, is called in the Kiche and CakchikelHunahpu, the one lord of power, from which the name for the dayAhau (Brinton, Calendar, page 22) has obviously been derived.As patron of the eighteenth day, Imix, Ek-chuah, a black god, thegod of cacao planters, travelers, and merchants, is mentioned (seeSeler, Charakter der aztekischen und der Mayahandschriften, 1888,pages 6 and 44; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civili-sees du Mexique et de I'Amerique centrale, volume 2 (1888), pages 43and 44).Lastly, the twentieth day, Akbal, is called by the Tzentals Votan, " the heart ", a well-known deity, corresponding to the Aztec Te-[)eyollotl (Brinton, Calendar, page 24).The above are detached fragments of the system of the Maya daygods. But we are now able to see our way more clearly to the recon-struction of this system, inasmuch as the second revised edition ofDie Gottergestalten der Mayahandschriften, by Paul Schellhas, hasjust been issued (Dresden codex, 1897, by Richard Bertling). Inthis work the distinguished author as far as possible separates theindividual gods according to the pictures and the written designation.Furnished with such aids, we will now proceed to join each one of the20 days in their order {g to ??, figure 112) to the respective deities,ignoring everything on the right and left of our path which doesnot further this end.1. Kan, g. Brinton, Calendar, page 24, also gives Kanan, whichseems to me to be the more primitive form, for kan means yellow andripe, and kanan (derived from it) is probably the yellow maize kernelafter it has become ripe. The Tzental form for the day, Ghanan,corresponds to this, for in the Tzental vocabulary of Pater Lara, ghanis the maize ear (see Brinton's Primer, pages 62, 123). The Aztecmeaning of the day name does not concern us, but among the Nahuasof Meztitlan the day is actually called Xilotl, "ear of corn" (seeBrinton, Calendar, page 25).Hence it is safe to assume that E is the deity belonging to this day,in whose picture we plainly see the kan symbol, which is itselfnothing but a maize kernel, and the sprouting maize plant (seeSchellhas, Gottergestalten, page 19). vr.jtsTEMANN.J DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 561 2. Chicchan, /(. Chic means great, and chan in Tzental, can inCakchikel, means serpent; the last syUable of Cukulcan has likewisethe same significance. The Aztec name for the clay, Coatl, alsosignifies serpent. The first part of Chicchan, however, might be chii{"" to bite, to sting"'). Th(> glyph is a head about whose temples iswound a row of small circles like a string of pearls, and according toSchellhas, Gottergestalten, page 23, the divinity H, the serpentgod has the same pretty decoration, wdiich has long been regarded assignifying a serpent's skin.3. Cimi, /. The meaning of cimi is death; the Aztec name for theday, Miqiiiztli, and the Kiche-Cakchikel, Camey, likewise have tliesame significance.Accordingly there can be no doubt that the divinity A belongs tothis day, especialW as the glyph and the picture resemble eachother. Whether the bird Moan, as a special representation of A,also belongs to this day, I must leave undecided for the present, butI will return to the subject later.4. Manik, I,\ We know no more about a satisfactory meaning forthis word than we do for the Tzental Moxic. On the other liand, the(lay name in Nahuatl, Mazatl, in Zapotec, China, and in Kiche-Cakchikel, Queh, denotes in each case deer (Brinton, Calendar,page 26).The glyph signifies a hand in the act of grasping, as in thecharacter for the east, where the hand (as it were) draws up the sunwhich lies below it.To the deer as well as to this hand, a hunting god would be mostappropriate, in connection with which we particularly recall CodexTroano-Cortesianus, in which there is such great prominence given tothe deer hunt (with snares, traps, and spears) that an entire section isdevoted to the subject. But thus far the picture of a god suitablefor a hunting god has not been found, although there is no lack ofnames of gods of the chase both among the Mayas and among theAztecs. I think that one of the various forms under which F is rep-resented might possibly apply here, especially as F is regarded as adeath god, Avho perhaps is meant to denote a violent death by sacri-fice or at the hands of a hunter.5. Lamat, /. Without doubt the Tzental Laml)al is a purer form,which Brinton, Calendar, page 27, interj)rets as derived from lam, '' to sink in ", " to sink beneath '", and from Bat, wliich means boththe grain, the seed, and a mattock for working the ground. TheAztec designation for this da}', Tochtli, " rabbit ", might convey theidea of the animal as a symbol of fertility or even as destroyer of thecro}). The gly])h ])erhaps denotes the furi'ows or holes for the recep-tion of the seed.7238?No. 28?05 ^36 562 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28We might, but only perhaps, look here for a grain god, particu-larly as in Kiche-Cakchikel among the inhabitants of Ixtlavacanin Cxuatemala, the name of the day, Kanel, designates a deity of seed-sowing, to whom sacrifices were performed on this day (Scherzer inBoletin de la Sociedad Economica de Guatemala, December 15, 1870).The picture of a deity of seed-sowing, however, has not yet beendiscovered in Maya literature, although this action is representedseveral times in the manuscripts.6. Muluc, 7)1. This word, to which Mulu, or Molo, in Tzental cor-responds, might be derived from muyal, "clouds" (StoU, Ethnog-raphic von Guatemala, page 59), and this may be connected with mul, '' to heap up ". Among the Zapotecs the day is called Niza, or Queza, ?^ water "; in Kiche-Cakchikel, Toh. Toh, however, signifies the godof thunderstorms. To this the Aztec Atl also corresponds and theQuiahuitl of the Pipiles, water or rain.The glyph is doubtful. It is either the firmament with a cloudin the center, or a sheet of water with an islet rising out of it.With this I place the deity K, blowing from his enormously exagger-ated nose, therefore ])robably denoting the storm god.7. Oc, ri. The meaning, foot, which this word has among theMayas, is of no use to us. But perhaps it is useful to know thataccording to Stoll, Ethnographic von Guatemala, among two Mayatribes, the Tzotzils in Chiapas and the Chaiiabal in the north ofGuatemala, the wild dog (coyote) is called ohil, from which this wordOc may have been derived. Nom^, this day has the name Tzi with theKiche-Cakcliikels, and with the Aztecs, Itzcuintli, both meaningdog; the Zapotec name, Telia, is said, according to Bartolomaus ofPisa (Brinton, Calendar, page 28), to mean the same. But the dogoccurs in mytholog}^ as the lightning beast, in which character it fre-quently and distinctly occurs in the manuscripts (Schellhas, Gotter-gestalten, page ;^0).The glyph occurs in manifold forms, which have in common sev-eral zigzag lines (for examj^le, in the books of Chilam Balam). andAvhich might very Avell signify lightning.8. Chuen, o. In Tzental and Kiche-Cakchikel, this day is calledBatz, in Nahuatl, Ozomatli, and both mean monkey. It denotes aparticular species of monkey, Tzental, according to Lara (Brinton,Calendar, page 28). Chin, and perhaps Chuen, the meaning ofwhich is otherwise unknown, is connected with it.The glyph shows a gajjing jaw. Avhich Seler likewise ascribes to amonkey, but Schellhas to a serpent. I do not venture to decide thematter.The figure of the deity C belonging here displays, as does also itsglyph, peculiar lines about the mouth and nose, which suggest amonkey's skull and even look like the lateral nasal aperture of the FORSTBMANN.] DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 563American monkey. This Schellhas has recognized as a deity of thenorth. We assume, therefore, that the Little Bear is conceived of asa monkey which holds fast with its prehensile tail to the pole andswings about the latter.9. Eb, p. This Maya word is doubtless connected with the Euobof the Tzentals and the E. or Ee, of the Kiche-Cakchikels. Like thePija of the Zapotecs and the Malinalli of the Aztecs, it signifies a com-bination of points, spines, or thorns, a row of teeth, stiff varieties ofgrass, and the brushes or brooms made of them.The glyph of this day is a head, and therefore, no doubt, a deity.By the side of the eye and the nose are seen either two lines runningfrom the top downward or, carried out more in detail, a row ofmany dots like spines around these lines, so that the whole is notunlike a broom, as in Landa and often in the manuscripts.What deity is denoted here we can not yet positively determine.We must expect to find similar marking on its face. In connectionwith day 4 (Manik) we have already alluded to the various kindsof lines on the face of the god E. Here, too, the deity we are in searchof may easily have been confounded with the forms supposed to rep-resent the god E. I recall, for instance, the figure draAvn on the leftat the top of page 5 of tlie Dresden codex, in which two glyphs areunfortunately destroyed. It should also be remembered that amongthe Mayas the cleansing of the dwellings for the feasts was a pre-scribed ritual act. We are reminded of the herba verbenaca used bythe Romans at the lustratio.10. Ben, q. The meaning of reed, rush, or straw belongs to Acatlin Aztec, to Quii or Laa in Zapotec, and to Ah in Kiche and Cak-chikel. The significance of Ben in Maya and Tzental is unknown,but caghben in Tzental means dried cornstalk (Brinton, Calendar,page 30).The Aztec glyph, as usual, is very distinct. In the Maya glyphthere are several straight lines at right angles to each other. Themost probable meaning of this is a roof made of reeds or rushes,and this opinion Doctor Schellhas expressed to me in a letteryears ago. It may possibly refer to the Kiche god Chahalhuc, thegod of dwellings (see Stoll, Ethnographic der Indianerstannne vonGuatemala in the Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographic, 1880).But it is more likely to refer to the Aztec patron of this day, Itztla-liuhqui, whoisgiven asthegodof coolness and of drought, also of sin.It reminds us that the roof is a protection from sun heat and pouringrain, and hides secret sin from view ; for were not adulterers stonedbefore the image of this particular god? I am far, however, fromwishing that this train of thought should be regarded in the lightof an assertion. After the explanation above written ProfessorBrinton sent me his interesting work, The Pillars of Ben, but I must 564 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28here confine myself to referring; simply to it, especially as it reallycontains nothing that contradicts my view.11. Ix, /'. In Aztec this day is called Ocelot! ; in Zapotec, Eche;in Kiche and Cakchikel, Balam. All these mean the jaguar. TheKiche. however, has also the word Hix for it, which is the same inTzental. The Maya word is written Ix, Gix, Hix, and means the sor-cerer. But jaguar and sorcerer are actually synonyms, for to the lat-ter the power is ascribed of transforming himself into the former, andthe verb balam in Kiche denotes precisely this transfornuition (Brin-lon. Calendar, page 30).The Maya glyph with its two lines and three dots, therefore,seems plainly to denote the striped and spotted jaguar skin, whichpossibly is a symbol of the starry heavens (a more detailed account isgiven in Brinton's Calendar, jiage 56). Ocelot! among the Xahuas isspecifically the designation of the Great Bear, as Ozomatli, the eighthday, is that of the Little Bear. But the deity belonging to it is actu-ally represented among the Mayas by a jaguar (Schellhas, Gotter-gestalten, page 31). In the Dresden codex, page 2(')a, at the end ofthe Ix year, the priest carries away the image of the jaguar.12. Men, .s-. The Tzental and Kiche-Cakchikel word Tziquinmeans bird, the Aztec, Quauhtli, specifically the eagle. Now, the birdamong Central American peoples is the symbol of knowledge and ofwisdom, as the owl was among the Athenians. In harmony Avith sucha view this day is called Naa by the Zapotecs, as it is called Men bythe Mayas, both meaning knowledge and understanding, Ah-men, " the wise one ".The glyph is a head. Below the eyes are various markings whichmight very well mean bird's feathers. Doctor Seler has been atvarious times reminded of the Aztec goddess, Tonantzin, the greatearth mother who is adorned with eagle's feathers.Among the mythical birds of the Mayas the most important is theMoan (Schellhas, Gottergestalten, page 29), which occurs often intheir glyphs, and Avhich denotes a month of the year. In Globus,volume 65, number 15 (1894), I have considered whether Moan isthe sign of the Pleiades. This suggestion may be of use in connectionwith this day, but I do not ascribe nuich importance to the fact thatthe consonants agree in Moan and Men.13. Cib, t. The Aztec Cozcaquauhtli means the vulture, literallythe king vulture, named after its feather ornament. The Tecolotl ofthe Pipiles means the owl. The Zapotec Loo, or Guil-loo, seems alsoto denote a bird, for ba-loo denotes crow or raven. The meaningof the Maya word Cib and of the Tzental Chabin is very uncertain(Brinton, Calendar, page 31) ; but that the Mayas actually regardedthe vulture as the symbol of the deity of this day is confirmed below ^see Schellhas, Gottergestalten, page 31). F(".RSTEMANN.] DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 565The glyph shows a line winding from below upward, on the upperend of which there is a small round object. I do not consider itimpossible that this may indicate a bird mounting into the air.14. Caban, a. I connect this word with cab, to which Perez in hislexicon gives the meaning of earth, world, soil. At the first glance theAztec Ollin does not seem to correspond to it at all, because the idea ofmovement attaches to Ollin and particularly the movement of the sun;but when we find that the Meztitlan expression, Nahui Olli means thefour movements given for this day in Brinton's Calendar, page 32,and read " directions " rather than '' movements ", the riddle is solved,for it means the four cardinal points surrounding the world. I mustleave it to the future to reconcile this meaning with the Tzental Chic,the Kiche-Cakchikel Noh, and the Zapotec Xoo, to which the meaningof great, firm, powerful is ascribed. Can these be the designationsfor the gods of the four cardinal points, the Bacabs ?The form of the Aztec glyph accords with my supposition.Around a central design in which, without too much imagination, onecan see a suggestion of the earth, the ocean, and the surroundingatmosphere, figures in the form of sails of a windmill extend infour directions. We are here strongh^ reminded of the represen-tation in Codex Cortesianus, pages 41 to 42, which Leon de Rosny notinappropriately has called a tableau des Bacabs; that is, of the fourdeities of the cardinal points. It is a tonalamatl in which, from acentral inclosure, half of it rectangular and half circular, four figuresrepresenting the separate days project in as many directions.The Maya glyph unquestionably denotes the ground. I here quotethe words of Schellhas (Die Mayahandschrift der Koniglichen Bib-liothek zu Dresden, 188G, page 21) :The sign Is the symbol of land, the ground, the earth, which is called cabin Maya. Numerous pictures of persons and objects, which sit, lie. and standon this sign, and especially its fre(iuent occurrence as ground and foimdationin the representations, confirms the signification of the word. Thus the signcab occurs especially in the Troano codex, frequently also the sign Kan. asa symbolic glyph of the fruitful eartli from whicli maize stalics are sprouting(Troano codex, p;ige 33). In another passage (Troan(> codex, page 32) tliereare vines, twining about a pole, on the sign Caban.Yet, notwithstanding all those assured points, it is difficult to inter-pret the form of the Maya glyph. It includes the .same spiral lineterminating in a small round object at the top whidi we saw in thepreceding day Cib and interpreted as a soaring bird. In addition,it contains a second small object, from which a straight dotted lineruns downward. Can this be an indication of two directions, up anddown? This explanation does not altogether satisfy me. We shalltherefore be forced to regard the four Bacabs as tlie gods of this day.15. Pvzanab, r. The Aztec Tecpatl is flint, such as is used for 566 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28knives and lance licads. To this corresponds the Tzental Chinax, anold form for the usual zninax, "' knife "'. The Cakchikel Tihax issaid to mean hitin<>:, scratch ini>:. while in the Zapotec (Jopaa Brinton(Calendar, page 8'2) surmises a variant of guipa, " sharp point, edge "(gueza-guipa, "flint knife"). The Maya word Ezanab, Brinton, inthe same work, coiniects with edz, " to stab, to shar])en ", and nab,something stained, especially Avith blood. In fact the lance headsrepeatedly api)ear bloodstained in the mannscri])ts.The gly])h consists of two intersecting zigzag lines, which arealso repeated on the lance heads. These lines reproduce very wellthe jagged slanting lines of a flint knife (Schellhas, Mayahandschrift,page 22).It is difficult to find an appropriate deity for this sign. For thepresent I am inclined to consider in connection with it one of theserpent deities (vSchellhas, H and I), so difficult to distinguish, one ofwhich belongs to the second day. The wound made by stabbing orcutting could be conceived of as a serpent's bite. All this is very un-certain, but I hope later to bring forward moi-e arguments in supportof my opinion.IC). Canac, w. In this sign I see the rainy season, the time of thegreatest heat and most frequent thunderstorms. The Maya wordis exactly equivalent to the Tzental Cahogh (chaoc), the Pokonchiand Pokoman Cahoc (cohoc), and the Chontal Chauoc, Avhich allmean thunderstorm. Even the remote Huastec has the same wordin its tzoc. The Zapotec Ape (api), jjroperly dark cloud; in thecompounds laari-api-niza and ri-api-laha, signifies lightning (Brin-ton, Calendar, page 33). In the Aztec the name of this day is Quia-huitl, equivalent to rain.The glyph, which distinctly includes a mass of clouds, corre-sponds very well to the above.The language of the remote Aztec Pipiles shows us how to find thegod belonging to the day. In this language the day is called Ayotl, ^' the tortoise ", which is a symbol of the thunderstorm deit3^ as Schell-has has already stated in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1892, page120, and also in his latest work, page 31. I myself have principallydemonstrated in my third treatise, " Zur Entzifferung ", that the tor-toise signifies the summer solstice, the climax of the season of rainand thunderstorms. Add to this that among the Mayas cooc, orcaoc, denotes the lightning, and coc the tortoise, and it seems prob-able that the resemblance of the word may have influenced the selec-tion of the symbol. . Indeed, it may be thought that the Yucatec raingod Chac is the same word as cauac, caoc, or cahogh. Even to-daychaac (chac) is used in the sense of rain.17. Ahau, x. Literally " lord of the necklace ". as the ornamentmarking a distinguished rank. From this the name of the day iT.iiSTEMANN.l DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 567Aghiial, " lordsliip *\ is dcrhiMl in the T/ental. Tii the Kiclic-Cak-chikol it is eaUcd outright hy the name of the _<>(k1 I!iin-ahi)ii. " theone lord of power ", in Zapotee Lat), or Loo, " the eye '\ which meanstlie eye of the day, the snn, as the Mayas have the god name Kin-ich-ahau, '" lord of the eye of the day ". And the Aztec Xochitl, " flower ", is also explained by the xochitonal of the dialect of Mez-titlan, '" the flower of the day, the sun " (Brinton, Calendar, page 34).The glyph displays a face which differs from the other heads,inasmuch as it is seen from in front, and its eye forms the symbol ofthe moon, while an akbal (night) is placed on the forehead. The;god belonging here is doubtless the old god D, to whose glyphthe sign Ahau is usually added as a determinative. The close rela-tion of this god to the sun is probably the reason why there no longerseems to be a vacant place for the sun god proper, which in all prob-ability he originally occupied, as we shall see directly. The questionnow arises, Is the close relation of god D to the moon among theMayas an innovation or is it the most ancient relation? The moonis the nearer, the sun the more remote, lord of time and of the wholechronology.18. Imix, y. In the course of time the meaning of Imix has under-gone two changes which have rendered the interpretation very clifficult. It may be assumed that among the Mayas, mex, or meex, meansthe beard, which doubtless suggests primarily the sun's beard (u mexkin), that is, the sun's rays (Brinton, Calendar, page 23). This isvery appropriate to the day, which was placed at the head of the dayseries by the Aztecs and by various Maya races. Mex, however, isalso the name of the cuttlefish, from whose head extend eight or tenraylike arms (un pescado que tiene muchos brazos), and it may be theoldest hieroglyphic designation of the day.But the little-known cuttlefish, when the original connection wasforgotten, was replaced by another aquatic creature. Among theZapotecs the day was called Chiylla, '' water lizard ". In the Nahuatlit was Cipactli, which is applied to an undefined aquatic creature.The Aztec glyph is an alligator. Secondarily, the j)rocess wiiich Brin-ton calls ikonomatic began at this point. Instead of Mex, the Mayasused Imix as the designation of this day; the Tzentals used Imox. orMox. The Kiches and Cakchikels have Imox, or Moxin, which intheir hinguage, according to Ximenes, also denotes the swordfish,and this facilitates the transition of the meaning. Im signifies udderor the female breast, while ix is a frequent prefix or suffix, denot-ing the feminine gender. Here it should be observed that milk isdenoted by cab-in, " honey of the breast "\ Then, in this connection,we are reminded that the intoxicating pulque was obtained fromhoney, and that numerous |)ul(]ue gods occui- among (he Aztecs andMayas. The gathering of honey was a prominent industry, as is 568 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28shown by the large section devoted to it in Codex Troano-Cortesianus.The frequent eombination of the signs kan and iniix (with wnter andpipes as affixes) seems to signify food and drink, a meal, a banciuet.They occur almost exclusively in the tonalamatl, and not in theastronomic representations. The Maya glyph unquestionably denotesa female breast.All this seems, therefore, to point to a deity of the honey industryor of pulque. Schellhas has not yet discovered such a god, but I hopeto find one farther on.I must call attention to the fact that, first by Brasseur de Bour-bourg, then by Seler and others, a black god, Ek-chuah, is mentionedas patron of the day Imix, as protector of cacao planters, travelers,and merchants. Yet I avoid connecting this god by a factitious trainof thought with the desired pulque god, and leave the question openfor the future.19. Ik, z. The Maya word ik is the same as the igh of the Tzen-tals and the ik of the Kiches and Cakchikels, and corresponds in mean-ing also to the Aztec Ehecatl. Owing to this agreement it is unnec-essary for my purjDose to examine the various Zapotec expressions forthis day. But the common meaning is that of wind, breath, air (inthe jDictorial representations also that of fire, as a particular kind ofair), then, figuratively, that of life and spirit.The glyph of the day has various forms. The most primitiveappears to me to be the rectilinear one, as it occurs particularly inthe inscriptions, and also in the eye included in the glyph of the god.The day series of the tonalamatl readily suggest a burning torch orcandle, but this rectilinear shape reminds one of the tree of Jife or ofthe sacrificial tree. In addition to this other forms occur^ which areentirely unintelligible to me (see, for example, Brinton, Essays of anAmericanist, page 271).The deity of the daj' is decidedly god B, Cukulcan. or Quetzalcoatl,the bird-serpent, this most universal and most diversely busy god ofthe Mayas, especially of the Tzentals. In place of the eye this glyphdisplays the rectilinear figure of ik, which alone is conclusive. Thepicture of the god itself may, by the long nose, have reference tobreath, just as god K, by his ornamental nose, denotes the blast of thestorm.20. Akbal, aa. In Kiche-Cakchikel this day is called b}^ the samename. It means darkness, night, like the Zapotec (luela. In Nahuatlwe have Calli, '" the house ", ])robably in the sense of an abode forthe night and on account of the darkness prevailing within it. InTzental the day is called Votan, after the demigod, the so-called " heart of the nation '', who built a dark house in Tlazolayan for thesacred objects of his cult. He answers to the Aztec Tepeyollotl FuKSTKMAN'x.] DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 569(Seler in the Compte rendu des Berliner Kongresses, pages 561 to569).The Aztec glyph of the da}' distiuetly designates a house, whilethat of the Mayas is still unintelligible to me. Seler (Berliner Kon-gress, page 562) sees in this a representation of the mountain cavern,the jaws of the earth. This deity we shall ])robably find in the blackgod whom Schellhas has denoted by L.I am unable to discover a methodic arrangement in the significanceof the 20 days or in the gods belonging to them. When Brinton inhis calendar undertakes to construct an organic order of the daynames I am not able to follow him.It is plain that in this grouping of the gods with the daj^s, alongwith nuicli that is certain, there is also much that is doubtful, but Ibelieve that I am in a ])osition to find confirmation of my opinions inanother direction. My hope rests, first of all, on the unique tonala-matl of the Dresden codex, pages 4a to 10a, which in the customarymanner treats the first 52 da3^s more in detail, but specifically dividesthem into 20 different parts, w'hich occurs in no other tonalamatl.One is therefore involuntarily led to ask whether a relation may notbe discovered between these small time periods and the 20 days. Atfirst glance the answer to this question is in the negative. The tona-lamatl has as its zero point the day Imix, y; but if, proceeding fromthis point, we attempt to prove the divisions of time recorded in themanuscript and the representations concluding them, then the dayfound in no case corresponds with the pictures and their glyphs.It is quite a different matter if we assume that the zero point wasmistakenly placed at Imix, y, by the scribe, instead of five daysearlier at Cib, t, where it should be. He seems to have placed thetonalamatl of a certain j-ear on the same days of the next year, with-out reflecting that they ought to be moved forward five days. Thissupposition seems to me to become a certainty through the followingstatement.If we proceed from the day 13 (Cib, f) the intervals of one, two,three, or four days will give at the close the following days of the 20sections : 1 15 Ezanab 11 2 Chicchan2 19Ik 12 6Miihic3 3 Cimi 13 8 Chuen4 4Manik 14 11 Ix5 8Clmen 15 13 Cib6 10 Ben Ifi 16 Cauac7 12 Men 17 18 Imix8 16 Cauac 18 1 Kan9 18 Imix 19 3 Cimi10 20Akbal 20 5 LamatThus it appears that there was no attempt made to have all the 20days represented, for the days 3, 8, 16, and 18 occur a second time 570 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 after 20 or 40 days, while, on the other hand, the days 7, 0, 14, and 17are missing. Now let us see how the groups consisting each of apicture and six glyphs (of which the first two are always the same)agree with the days found by calculation.1. Ezanab, tK We find here an actual serpent god (H or I) hold-ing a serjjent in its hand, and in the third and fourth glyphs, withslight variations, the symbols of the other serpent god belonging tothe day Chicchan. h. The deity as an ear ornament distinctly wearsthe sign ezanab. Here everything corresponds.2. Ik, .2. This is the actual god B. His sign is also in the fourthglyph. If the object held in his hand is intended for a bird, it wouldbe a symbol of wind. This also agrees.3. Cimi, i. We expect to find the god A here, but we find another,probably N. Unfortunately the destruction of the glyph has ren-dered a critical examination difficult. We can not, therefore, provean agreement.4. Manik, k. Here we plainly have one of the forms of god F, butthe difficulty of arriving at a decision in reference to this god, as wellas the obliteration of the glyphs, prevents us from definitely placingthis group among those which show a satisfactory agreement.5. Chuen, o. The picture of god C, as well as his glyph, accordsadmirably with my view.6. Ben, q. Here, it is true, one of the common Ben-Ik signs isfound among the glyphs, but below it is again the deity B. We musthere defer a final decision.7. Men, s. This is a sign which belongs to the sought-for Moan,but the picture is probably another form of god F, with the nose pegof the sun god G. It is true the Moan is connected with the positionof the sun, but that is not sufficient to constitute a positive agreementhere.8. Cauac, w. The sought-for tortoise does not occur here, unless weare inclined to consider the object which the god holds in his hand assuch. Among the glyphs the two central ones Avhich belong to theserpent god H are noticeable, and they agree tolerably well with therainy season and thunderstorms. A proof of positive correspondence,however, does not appear.9. Imix, y. The deity is feminine, as is appropriate to this day.This is shown by the tresses displayed before the third and fifthglyphs. But she appears to be one of the forms of god F, which isindicated by the death sign on her cheek. I do not venture to explainAvhat she holds in hei- hand or the serpent on her head. The matter,therefore, remains undecided.10. Akbal, aa. The black god L, as weJl as the traces still left ofthe third glyph, correspond to the idea of darkness conjectured here. rORSTEMANN.] DAY GODS OF THE MAYAS 571And since Akbal is one of the days with which the months in theKan year begin, the sixth glyph, ahau, also agrees.11. Chicchan, h. The dog with his glyphs certainly does not agreewith this, since Ave expect a serpent god here. Yet it is cnrious thatthe last two glyphs are the same, only in reversed order, as the lasttwo in gronp 1, which certainly belongs to a serpent god. The ques-tion remains undecided.12. Muluc, 7n. Here the divinity K corresponds admirably in thepicture and the two central glyphs. The fifth glyph shows the dayas one of the regents of the year.13. Chuen, o. Here there is no agreement, since the picture repre-sents god A, and the glyphs are his.14. Ix, r. Nothing can better correspond to this day than the pic-ture of the jaguar and his glyph occupying the third place.15. Cib, t. Here, too, as in the preceding group, the picture andthird glyph agree, both denoting the vulture. The fifth, on the otherhand, represents the lightning dog, in relation to which it is curiouslyfitting that on page 13c vulture and dog are combined in one group.These two groups, 14 and 15, separated by two days, like jaguarand vulture in the Aztec calendar, seem to me by themselves quite aconvincing proof of the connection of this tonalamatl with the days.They formed the basis of my hypothesis.16. Cauac, w. Here we find nothing that we expected, but in itsstead the god D and the ahau sign, almost always accompanying him,in the fourth place, the third glyph being unfortunately destroyed.We are, therefore, led to assume, not with certainty, but with greatprobability, that an error of one day has been made here by thewriter. It should be the day 17 (Ahau), for otherwise the chief ofall the gods would be missing. The number of days wanting in these20 groups and of those appearing tAvice is, therefore, reduced to throe(T, 9, and 14 and 3, 8, and 18).17. Imix, y. ' Corresponding to the day, the picture shows a femaledeity who in two things agrees very well with what was remarlvcilabove, in the bee sitting on her head and in the bandaged eyes, whiciiI believe, as Avell as the uncertain position of the hands (or do 1 seetoo much here?), indicate intoxication from drinking pulque.18. Kan, g. The sought-for grain goddess P^, Avith hei- glvi)h; isactually found here.19. Cimi, /. This is not the expected deity A, but the closelyrelated figure of the Moan, having the death symbol on his head, andhis glyphs, thus entirely suitable to the day.20. Lamat, 7. Nothing corresponds to this day, but god A occursAvith his glyph, perhaps not througli error, but intentionally. Thefourth glyph is A^ery remarkable. In it I am very much inclined tosee a time period, lunar mouths and (l days, that is, (')X28-|-('., or a 572 BUREAU or American ethnology [bull. 28 space of 174 days; yet I hesitate to express the conjecture which Ientertain rehitive to this subject, for it does not pertain to my presenttheme.Among the twenty groups, therefore, ten (1, '1. 5, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17,18, 19) agree very well with my view, corroborating it in part, whilean eleventh (16) will as well if we accept a slight conjecture.After this result the question naturally arises whether in theremaining tonalamatls of the manuscripts the pictures and glyphscorrespond to the intervals of the days. Such cases are readilyfound : In the Dresden codex, page 15c, D appears 14 days after A (Bto 17) ; page 13b, C, 7 days after E (1 to 8) ; page 16b, A, 4 daysafter B (19 to 3). But still more cases must be found to form a con-clusive proof, as isolated cases can readily be ascribed to mere acci-dent. This is a question upon which I will not touch at present. THE TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS ATPALENQUE K. P'ORSTEMANN 573 THE TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS ATPALENQUE"Bt E. ForstemannWe have perforce confined our efforts from the beginning of MayaI'esearch chiefly to the manuscripts, in the interpretation of whichconsiderable progress has already been made. The time has now cometo take the first steps toward a decipherment of the Maya inscriptions.Available copies of the inscriptions were until recently too inaccurateto offer an incentive to thorough study. My treatise, Die Kreiizin-schrift von Palenque, published in Globus, volume 72, pages 45 to 49,might therefore be called premature, since my only guide, at least,for the left side of the inscription, was the drawing by Catherwoodin Stephens's book of travels. This drawing is admirably executed^it is true, but it is inadequate for accurate research. I use the Avord" premature ", hoAvever, only in reference to a few details upon whichfuller light has now been shed ; I certainly comprehended correctlythe main point, namely, the fact that the inscriptions consist essen-tially of a framework of dates and the intervening periods.Considerable progress has recently been made in the critical exami-nation of the inscriptions, since we noAv have facsimiles of them whichare as accurate as the condition of the originals permits. In par-ticular the great Biologia Centrali-Americana, by Godman and Sal-vin, has materially assisted us in this wnth the section edited byMaudslay under the title Archeology, and each new number of thiswork as it appears is an additional station on the road of science.Of the plates to this work, the free use of which has been madepossible to me by the courteous permission of Mr Maudslay himself,I wish to call attention to the three designated as plates lx to lxii.They are from the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque. Plates t.x andLXII are of the same dimensions, each having '20 vertical cohunnsand 12 horizontal rows, while plate lxi has only 14 vertical columnsand 10 horizontal rows. Hence there are on these plates 240-f 140-f-240?620 glyphs, of which, however, those in the first D columns ofplate LX are mostly destroyed. There is no doubt that plate lx is " Aus dem Inschriftentempel von Palenque, Globus, v. 75, n. .5. 1899.575 57(3 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Hull. 28 actually to be considered the first of the three, because its initialgl3'l)hs correspond with those at the beginning of other inscriptions,while plates lxi and lxii are without such characters, I shall denotethe colunnis of plates lx and i.xii by the letters A to U, of plate i-xiby A to (), allowing H, I, and K to succeed one the other in theoriginal way (without a J), and the horizontal rows I shall naturallydenote by numbers.It can furthermore be proved that plate lxi is in fact the continua-tion of plate LX.The day 9X144,000+9X7,200=1,300,800 is given on plate lx atP and Q 6; on the same plate U 2, on the other hand, 10X7,200 isgiven; on plate lxi A 3 is 11X7,200, and on the same plate (> 2 is12X7,200; that is, they occur in regular periods of 20 years, just asthe centuries are sometimes found noted on the margin of our his-torical tables. Evidently 9X144,000 is mentally to be added to eachof the last three numbers. Hence they signify the four days1,360,800, 1,368,000, 1,375,200, and 1,382,400; these, however, denotethe calendar dates III 17, 3, 4 (year 7 Cauac), I 17; 8, 17 (year 13Tx), XII 17; 8, 12 (year 7 Ix)W X 17; 8, 7 (year 1 Ix). As amatter of fact the first date occurs in plate lx, Q 2 P 3, the third inplate LXI, A B 2, the fourth, although somewhat irregularly written,in plate lxi, G H 1 ; and the second, in plate lx, T U 1, has beendestroyed. These dates, judging by the other inscriptions, obviouslyrefer to the present. Let us hope that we shall soon be able to trans-late them into our chronology. According to all appearances theyare in the fifteenth century.Plate LXI suggests another observation which may be of impor-tance. We find there in not fewer than 6 places a gl3^ph which isnot unlike a fist (see 1, plate xliv). With this there are always from4 to 12 other signs, which, from their positions, as well as from theirrepetition, suggest the idea that we have to deal here with groups ofglyphs closely allied in meaning. The 6 groups are as follow : I C 5 to C 7, five glyphs.II C 8 to E 1 , seven glyphs.Ill F 1 to F 6, eleven glyphs.IV I 4 to I 10, thirteen glyphs.V L 3 to L 9, thirteen glyphs.VI M 9 to O 5, thirteen glyphs.The total numl)er of glyphs is, therefore, {'>'2, but this inimber,owing to many repetitions, is reduced to about 29 different characters.As all the glyphs of the inscriptions are subject to manifold varia-tions, it is not always easy to distinguish between them. It is possiblethat there are 28 or 30. I give here a transcription of these charactersin the following order: First, those (1 to 3, plate xliv) which occur 6times in these groups; then, those (4 to 9) occurring 3 times; then, r?OJ^sTKMW\^J TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS AT PALENQUE 577tliose (10 to 15) occurriiii,^ twicv, and, tiiially, those Avhicli occur butonce (l()to2<)).These 29 signs are now divided in the following manner among the6 groups : 578 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28This, however, is no other than the glyph of god C, the representa-tive of the north and tlie night.The six small groups on this plate are as follow : A 7 to B 9 : 1, 13. ( ?), 30, 10, 9, 29.F 9 to E 11: 16, 9, 29. 1.KG to 7: 1. 4, 30.B 4 Q 4 : 1, 30.R 7 to 8: 1. 13, 30.T 10 to 11: 1, 13, 30.The last two identical groups have still further reference to oneanother inasmuch as each is directly preceded by three glyphs wdiichcorrespond to one another; S 1, S 2, and S 3, namely, are like U G,U 7, and U 8, though the int/ervening characters in columns R and Tare very different in both places.On plate lxii the formation of such groups or formulas would behardly appropriate, for this plate is almost wholly filled with datesand i^eriods, as I haA'e shown to be the case in the familiar Crossinscription. A few remarks relative to the dates and periods may bein place here.We are first struck l)y the fact that the beginning of the page con-tains four dates without a statement of the periods intervening : B8 A9: X 17; 8, 7 (1 Ix).C 1 D 1: VIII 17; 8, 2 (8 Ix).O 7 D 7 : VII 17 ; 18, 2 (10 Kan).C 11 D 11: X 17; 13, 7 (9 Muliic).The day 17, therefore, occurs four times. This is the most impor-tant and most frequently employed of all the days, but it occuj^ies avarying position in the weeks and years. The interval from the firstto the second is computed at 7,200, from the second to the third at740, from the third to the fourth at 9,220 days. The number 7,200represents, of course, the familiar period of 20X3(>0, but what arethe other two intervals?A few of the dates on this plate correspond to the interveningperiod : Q .5: X 17; there is no 8. 7 (1 Ix) with this.P o Q 5: ()+r,x20+3x3()0=l,20(i=4x2. 1 (7 Kan).R 7 to K 8: 1 +(;x2()+7x3(;o+2x7.2(?0=17.041 =<;.~.X2()04-141=4r.x3G.5+2.'^1.R 11 S 11: V 1.5: G. 14 (1 Ix).R 6 should be read VIII rather than VII. Then, VIII 14 to V 15=101and 15, 1 to 6, 14=251. BORSTEMANN] TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS AT PALENQUE 579Thirdly and lastly,R 11: V 15; 0, 14 (1 Ix).S 11 R 12: 2+11x20-1-9X360=3,482=13X260+82==10X365? 188.T 1: IX 17; 18, 4 (11 Kan).But V 15 to IX 17=82 and 6, 14 to 18, 4=?188.I now come to a mysterious circumstance. It is this, that though(he period corresponds to the time between the two neighboring dates,it only does so when the j)rocess is reversed and the computation ismade from the second to the first : C 11 D 11 : X 17; 13. 7 (0 Muluf).E 1 F 1: 9X 20+ 12 X 360=4,-500= 17X260+80= 12X365+ 120.E 3 F 3: VIII 17: 13, 1 (10 Muliic).But VIII 17 to X 17=80; 13, 1 to 13, 7=120.I would also note that the 9 in E 1 is only a conjecture with me;the original being plainly 8.Similarly,E 6 F 6 : V 5 ; 1, 8 (9 Mnlnc).E 7 P 7: 8+4X20+2x360=808=3X260+28=2x365+78.E8F8: III 17; 3, 4 (7 Cauac).But actually, III 17 to V 5=28: 3, 4 to 1, 8=78.Thirdly and lastly,P 7: VII 3; 19, 12 (4 Muluc).Q 7 to 8: 9X144.000+7X7.200+11X360+3X20=1,3,50,420=5,193X260+240=3,699X 365+285.P 10 Q 10 : I 3 ; 19, 16 (9 Mulue).And. in fact, I 3 to VII 3=240 ; 19, 16 to 19, 12=285.There seems also to be backward computation in the case of U 5to U 8, but the characters of U 8 have certainly undergone a changewhich as yet is inexplicable.Since this backward computation occurs several times, it can not bebased upon a confusion of the two dates or upon a mere accident.Furthermore, I think it also occurs in columns Q and R, of theTemple of the Sun at Palenque (Maudslay, plate i.xxxix). Onehardly would think that the Maya priests tried in this way to obscurethe meaning of the inscri])tions.In two cases the period between the two dates is evidently omittedl)ecause the interval between the dates is the same in the tonalamatland in the year : G 9 H 9 : X 17 : 1.3, 7 (9 Muluc),H 10: V 5; 1. S (9 Mulue).For the interval X IT to V 5 and 1:^ 7 to 1, 8 is in each case only8 days: P 10 Q 10: I 3: 19. 16 (!) Mulue).SI: VII 3; 14, 10 (10 Ix). 580 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Here I 3 to VII 3 as well as 19, 16 to 14, 10 is equal to 240 days.For unknown reasons the period is not stated in other places, asbetween F. 3 and F 6, between E 8 and G 2, between H 10 and H 11,between T 1 and T 3. It is impossible to obtain a clear understandingof the matter. There must be a corruption of the text in H 1 to G 7and in T 3 to U 4 which it is quite impossible to fathom.It is very remarkable that the first date is omitted before Q 3 andalso before R 3. The day VIII 17, occurring in both cases, appears tohave different positions in the year. This day, which divides a regu-lar tonalamatl, beginning with IV 17, in the ratio of 8:5 (160: 100),is of special significance in the last part of the Dresden codex. Theratio 8 : 5 is also that of the apparent Venus year to the solar year(584:365).Plate Lxii suggests still another remark. The plate contains, atthe most, 30 regular calendar dates, each consisting of 2 glyphs and 2numbers. Now, since there are in all 18,980 (52X365) different datesof this kind, it would be very improbable that one of these datesshould be repeated if we were dealing with a historical succession ofevents. Nevertheless we find here : X 17 : 8, 7 in B 8. A 9, and Q 5.X 17 : 13, 7 in C D 11 and G H 9.V 5 : 1, 8 in E F 6 and H 6 G 7, also in H 10.The frequent use of the day 17 (B 8, C 1, C 7, C 11, E 3, E 8, G 9,P 4, Q 5, T 1, U 8), which occurs almost as often as all the remaining19 days together, is in itself an argument against a historic andin favor of a hieratic significance of this plate, while plates lx andLxi indicate rather that the significance is of a historic nature. Theprayer formulas, if they be such, mark the transition.Quite different from the inscriptions is the well-known Crossinscription of Palenque (Maudslay, pages 73 to 76). The latterappears to be a consecutive chronologic table which treats of mythicages as far as F 12 and thenceforward of historic time. Two otherinscriptions, likewise from Palenque, one from the Temple of the Sun(Maudslay, pages 81 to 82), and one from the Temple of the FoliatedCross (Maudslay, pages 88 to 89), are very closely related to oneanother, particularly ho in their arrangement as a whole, then in thestriking agreement of the so-called initial series, and also in theiralternation of dates and periods: but I will venture no furtherremarks.Very different from all these inscriptions are the stelae and altarsof Copan, which belong to about the same period as the monumentsof Palenque, as those appear to refer in every instance to a singleevent. THREE INSCRIPTIONS OF PALENQUE E. FOR^STEMANIST 5S1 THREE INSCRIPTIONS OF 1^\LENQUE"By E. Fokstemann If we turn to the southeast from the principal edifice, the so-called palace, on the long famous site of the ruins of Palenque, wefind at a distance of about 100 meters three buildings which approxi-mately form the corners of an equilateral triangle whose sides areabout 50 meters in length. Their position can be best understoodfrom the sketch map of Holmes, Archaeological Studies among theAncient Cities of Mexico, part 2, page 208, plate xxiv, Chicago, 1807;also in Maudslay, volume 4, plate i.The three buildings are as follow:I. The Temple of the Cross, the inscription of which I have dis-cussed in Globus, volume 72, number 3, pages 45 to -19.II. The Temple of the Cross No. 2 (according to Holmes) or ofthe Foliated Cross (according to Maudslay).III. The Temple of the Sun.Each of these three buildings contains a large inscrij^tion of an en-tirely different character from the three tablets in the Temple ofInscriptions southwest of the palace, of which I have recently treateil.The inscriptions of these three temples, on the other hand, areclosely related, and to show this will be the theme of the present arti-cle. I shall designate them by the numerals I, II, and III, as thetemples themselves have been designated. Maudslay also says, vol-ume 4, page 30, in regard to Temple II: "' The plan and arrangementof the building are almost precisely similar to those of the Temple ofthe Cross ".A cursory glance shows that these three inscriptions belong together.Their center is occupied by a large design, which in I and II is afigure resembling a cross, usually thought to be the tree of life, onwhich the sacred quetzal bird sits. In III the central figure rests onthe shoulders of two crouching persons. The lower part of tlie figureconsists here of a rectangle curiously adorned, from which two crossedlances project, the point of intersection being hi,dden by a fantastic " Dit'i Insiliriftt'ii von rali'iKiuc, (ilobns. v. "<>, n. 11, lS't',1. 583 584 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [rill. 2Sface, Avhich has been regarded as the symbol of the sun, hence thename of this inscription and of the temple.At the right and left of the central ])ictiire stands a i^riest, or, morecorrectly, a jn'iest with his assistant, the latter smaller in size. In Iand III the priest is on the right, in II on the left, and his assistanton the other side. The ])riest in each of the three reliefs holds uphis hands, also the assistant in III reaching toward him a form re-sembling a human being as a sacrifice. The assistants in I and IIhold the hands downward and grasp an object unintelligible to me.Tablets of inscriptions on each side of the picture produce a sym-metric whole. In I each of these tablets has six columns, in II andIII only four. I designate those in I by A to F and S to X, in II byA to D and L to O, in III by A to D and O to R. The interveningletters I employ for the smaller groups of glj'phs, which are irregu-larly scattered about the central design. In I and II each verticalcolumn consists of 17 glyphs, in III of 1(5.Not only are the three inscriptions very much alike in their generalarrangement, but they also correspond in many details. All have atthe top, on the left, the superscription occurring on other Maya re-mains, which occupies the space of four glyphs. These superscrip-tions, indeed, differ in particulars which are still unexplained, butthey all have the signs for 300 and 7,200 days, and must, therefore,denote something like " measure of time ". In fact, the three in-scriptions contain numerous periods and dates, which occur most fre-quently on inscription I, as I have stated in the article referred to.The superscription is followed by the eight glyphs A 3 to B 6, ofwhich the several pairs undoubtedly indicate the periods of 144,000,7,200, 300, and 20 days, and in II and III there are two heads of god^for each period, a fact which is not yet clearly understood. In I, in-stead of the second head (in column B) there is the mere glyph whichelsewhere denotes the period in question. I am inclined to concludefrom this that I is more recent than II and III.A 7 B 7 in I has a hand, cleverly intimating that counting is to bedone on its fingers, and there is no head beside it. This at all eventsdenotes the single clay. Both II and III, on the other hand, have twoheads each.Farther on the three inscriptions become more unlike, yet theystill offer manj^ points of comparison. Thus in almost the sameplace they have a pointing or an extended hand?in I, B 11; in II,B 10; in III, A 11.The various glyphs w^hich have a Ben-Ik above them occur inthese three inscriptions, as in all Maya literature. They do nottherefore prove that a more or less close connection exists betweenthese inscriptions, but they deserve very special investigation.That the familiar signs for the days and those of the months, rARSTF.MANN] THREE INRCRTPTTONS OF PALENQUE 585which are more difficult to recognize, often occur in each one of thethree inscriptions, I need not point out in detail, any more than thattlie day 17 ( Ahau) is very prominent here, as in all Maya literature.But T nntst call attention to a sign {a, figure 118), the understand-ing of wliich would be an im])ortant step in advance. With manyvariants, it has the form given al)ove.We find this glyph in the following places:I : A 11. 17. C 17, D 2, E 7, 13, 17, S 7, 11, U 15, V 4, 0, W i:i, 10, X 2,7, 9.II: A 10. B 16, C 5. N 2.Ill : B 10, (' 1, 10, Q 13.I believe the chief element of this sign to be a serpent from whoseback arrow points project. This recalls the Aztec itzcoatl (" arrowsnake "), as it is represented by Brasseur de Bourbourg (Histoire desnations civilisees du Mexique, volume 1, page xlv). This was alsothe name of the fourth king of Mexico. Can this sign have the mean- Fig. 113. Glyphs from the Palenque inscriptions.ing of combat or war? I hesitate to refer it to the king who died in1440.Quite as important as points of agreement in all three inscriptionsare jjoints of agreement in two of them. The most iniporltmt ofthese is the repetition on one inscription of a calendar date occurringon another. This can not be accidental, for the Mayas had 18,980different calendar dates, and each of the three inscriptions has onlybetween 10 and 20. But it must be regarded as direct evidence of thedependence of one inscription on the other when in two inscriptionsthe same two calendar dates are consecutive and the actual intervalbetween the two is even given in both cases. I will mention the fol-lowing instance first : I IIIDate IX 20 ; 6, 6 G 1 H 1 Q R 6 and E F 1Interval .537 L 7 and S Q 14 R 14Date XIII 17; 18, 14 L 9 R 14. Q ir>. and (J 2 H 2Thus ill TTT the two dates occur even twice, but theii- distance npai'tis stated onh' once. 586 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28This interval, however, is really the correct one, but in III it issomewhat irro<>:ularly Avritten. But 537=2 X^f^O-j-lT, and there is,in fact, an interval of 17 days from the day IX 20 to XIII 17. 537also equals 365-|-l72, and from the sixth day of the sixth month to theei<2:hteenth day of the fourteenth month there are in fact 172 days.In none of the three cases, however, does the interval follow directlyafter the first date ; after G 1 H 1 there first follow 8 glyphs, afterE 1 F 1 there are 4, and after Q 6 R (>, 14. But of these 14 signs thelast G are doubtless to be disregarded ; they consist of a period, a date,and two more glyphs, which, it is true, are connected in a manneras yet obscui-e with the rest of the passage in which they are inserted,the detailed investigation of which does not belong here.In the three places, therefore, there are left 8, 4, and 8 glyphs,which are inserted respectively betAveen the first date and the periodof time. We can, therefore, readih^ conjecture that these threegroups have a similar purport and similar signs, and where thesigns differ that one sign has been substituted for another. But Imust leave the investigation of this point, like so many others, tothe future. I only add that the sign I 1 in inscription I is like thesign E 2 in inscription III; both stand at the beginning of thegroup of inserted glyphs; and in G 1, which is third in the group ofthe inserted signs of inscription III, we find a glyph with the nu-meral 7 as a prefix ; with this corresponds the fourth in inscriptionI, the obliterated glyph L 2, of which, however, enough remains toshow that it likewise has the prefix 7. Thus we certainly have twoindications that the inscriptions are of like import.But I can furnish a second example of the agreement of two datesand their interval in two inscriptions. It is the following:II IIIDatell 13; 14, 8 , LlMl 04P4DateIII14; 15,8 -.- M5L6 P708It is plain that two successive days are here meant, therefore aninterval need not be stated. Between the two dates inscription IIhas 7 glyphs, inscription III only 5. Among these the first twoin both cases are identic, and this is also true of the third, which isa very evident sign that the two inscriptions are of kindred import.It should be remarked, further, that the date II 13 is repeated ininscription II, N 16, in the following very remarkable connection:Period 604 ----- 13N14Date VIII 17; 8,2 N 15Date II 13 (no month given) N 16But 604=2X260+84, or 365+239. From II 13 to VIII 17, how-ever, there arc 84 days (counting backward), hence the fourteenthday of the eighth month is to be supplied after N 16, as we foiund itabove with the date II 13. FrtRSTEMANN] THREE INSCRTPTTONR OF PALENQUE 587It is ven' remarkable that the inscriptions I and II correspondwith regard to the following point: In I, on the right and oji the leftof the lower part of the cross, there are two glyphs, each combinedwith the numeral 5; in II the middle part presents the same signs,although less synnnetrically. One glyph in each of these two seriesof four glyphs contains the sign of the fifteenth day, Ezanab; theothers are indistinct. But in a period of 20 years, each period of 5years begins with one of the days Lamat, Ben, Ezanab, and Akbal,and to this the glyphs seem to refer.The date VIII 7; 3, 17, is worthy of notice; this occurs in I at O 1and 2 ; in II it even occurs twice, N and O 5 and E 1 and 2.In reference to the prominence of the day 17 (Ahau), already men-tioned, it should be remembered that the beginning of Maya chro-nology is to be sought, as a rule, in the day IV 17 ; 8, 18, in the year9 Ix, whilst sometimes the day I 17 ; 18, 17 in the year 3 Kan, wdiichday is 2,200 days before the day first named, is also regarded as astarting point. In the last part of the Dresden manuscript the dayVIII 17 seems to be important; this day divides a tonalamatl, begin-ning with IV 17, in the ratio of 8 : 5, that is, in the ratio of the appar-ent Venus year to the solar year. If we examine our three inscrip-tions with respect to this day, we find the normal date IV 17; 8, 18actually in I, D 3 and E 4, and in III, P 2 and O 3. The day I17, but in a different position in the year, appears in I, A 16, and inII, B 8 and D U ; the day VIII 17 occurs in II, N 15. The day II 17,too, occurs in II, C 8; V 17, in I, U 10; XI 17, in II, C 13; XII 17,in III, Q 2 ; and XIII 17, in III, G 2. The other 19 days only occursingly.In my treatise mentioned above, I remarked, at the end, concerninginscription I, that in it these two glyphs (6, figure 113) occur ninetimes, apparently indissolubly united.The passages where they occur are F 7 E 8, S 1 T 1, T 7 S 8, T 15 816, U 6 V 6, V 11, U 12, U 16 V 16, W 3 X 3, W 17 X 17. In II wefind this combination only twice, O 2 N 3 and E 3 and 4, once also inIII, namely, at M 2 N 2. They are even found in the Temple ofInscriptions (see Maudslay, plate lxii, T U 9). With this abundanceof examples, it is hoped that further light will soon break on themeaning of these glyphs.Inscriptions II and III, but not I, also correspond with regard tothe preceding sign, e. We find it in II, C 9 and M 10; in III, P 13.It consists of a hiMid grasping an object in such a way that it is, heldbetween the thumb and four fingers. When the separate placesAvhere it occurs are compared with each other, tlie object can notwell be anything but a fish, and fish have a meaning of no slightimportance in the manuscripts of Maya literature. Does this glyphrefer directly to fisliing? In I lie next four examples we see an agree- 588 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28ment of inscriptions II and III with the Temple of Inscriptions,while on the other hand these glyphs are lacking in I.The most important among them is a hand, of which the thumb andforefinger are plucking or picking or holding up some object (see dand e).Another of these two figures occurs in inscription II, M 2 and O 8 ; in III, O 9; and in the Temple of Inscriptions (in Maudslay, plate02), in D 2, H 1, and G 11. The second figure means, as the contextshows, nothing else than the day IV 4, or IV Manik. I think thatin my article on the Day Gods of the Mayas (Globus, volume 78,number 9) I have pointed out that the fourth day, the hand, and ahunting god belong together, but I do not know what the hand wasdoing in this connection. Now, the second of the above signs showsin two passages in the inscriptions of the Temple of Inscriptions thatit is hanging the snares in which the game?the same day is called inAztec Mazatl (" deer, or roe ")?-is to be caught, such snares as havebecome familiar to us as forming the subject of an entire section ofCodex Troano-Cortesianus. We see a similar snare with a XIII inan inscription of the Palace of Palenque, in Maudslay, volume 4,plate 29.The following three glyphs have been met with already, in myarticle on the Inscriptions of the Temple, as parts of those groupswhich I believe should be regarded as formulas of prayers, but thesecan hardly be in question in inscriptions I, II, and III. The signrepresented in / usually occupies the first place in the formulas ofprayer and seems to be only a left fist. It occurs in II, E 7 and M 8,as well as in III, P 10.A second sign is the accompanjdng figure, resdener Haiulsiclirirt. Dresden,1901; Zur Madrider Handschrift, Danzig, 1902; and Zur I'ariser Ilandsclirift, Danzig.3 903). 598 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28It is therefore difficult to settle the question. It is possible that thevery skillful scribe of the Dresden manuscript took the more elaborateforms of the inscrii)tions for his models.We have already (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1886, page 50)emphasized the fact that the forms of the outlines of the writtencharacters show characteristic differences. In the Troano and Cor-tesian codices the form of the parallelogram prevails, /, while theDresden and Peresian codices give })reference to a ix'culiar ellipse, e.The inscriptions have more or less perfect circles or squares withrounded corners, 0), the large hooked nose, and the protruding lips, all ofwhich are evidently racial peculiarities of the peoples of the Mayaregion. So, too, that " los indios de Yucatan son bien dispuestos yaltos" (Landa, chapter 20) is repeatedly confirmed by figures on thereliefs and by the clav images in the Yucatan collection. A beard,which, it is well known, the jNIayas lacked, occur;^ in very rare in-stances and of scanty growth in the Dresden mamiscript (for instance,on pages 7 above, 11 in the middle, and 27) aud always in the case ofa particular deity, the god D. It also occurs once in the Troanocodex, on page 24 above. A figure with complete moustache and chinbeard, of the form worn by the Spaniards at the time of the conquest,occurs in the Yucatan collection; nothing similar appears either on 600 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ miiiL. 28the reliefs or in the mamiscripts. There is nothing to favor theassumption that the figure represents a European. It shows quitethe usual type seen in similar representations.TattooingTattooing was customary among the Mayas. Landa gives anaccount of it in chapter 22. We find l)ut little in the manuscriptswhich we can positivel}^ regard as tattooing. As such we may cer-tainly consider the foregoing character, g, figure 115 (cimi, " death "),on the cheek of the sitting figure from the Dresden codex, page 28,middle (priest of the death god), and perhaps the sign akbal("night", "dark") on the forehead of the same figure (see, too,Dresden codex, page 5, middle), also the sign for the sun on the bodyof the figure (sun god) in the Dresden codex on page 15, above.It is hard to say wdiether the singular flourishes on the faces of manyof the deities " represented are intended for tattooing or whether O o o o o o SCHELLHASi DRESS 601'Compare with this the head of the death god so often representedin the manuscripts, for instance, on pages 15, 23, and elsewhere in theDresden codex (see c), in which the hiwer jaAvbone with the teeth islikewise always seen, drawn very plainly ; also the glyphs given above{a, c, and d, figure 114).This tattooed jawbone with teeth was apparently meant to impartto the face a terrible aspect. A decided preference seems to have ex-isted for tattooing the vicinity of the mouth. The accompanyinghead {d, figure 116) occurs frequentlv in the manuscripts, for instance,in the Dresden codex, page 14, below, and in Codex Cortesianus, page33, above. Viewed from the front it would give the mouth tattooingin e. We find quite similar faces in the Yucatan collection, wheretattooing also occurs most frequently about the mouth (see - Called znyen according to rogolhulo. Ilistoria do Viicalan. GG2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28In another place (chaj^ter 5) Landa says, speaking of the ancientbuildings : That all these buildings were erected by the same Indies who live therenow o is plainly seen by the naked men portrayed on them in stone, whosejirivy parts are covered with broad girdles, which they call in their languageex.''And we are told of the warriors that they went fcn-th to war " cladin the skins of tigers and bears ".Concerning the dress of the w^omen, Landa says, after paying thema very flattering and, we hope, unbiased compliment (" son en generalde mejor dispusicion qne las espaiiiolas y mas grandes y bienhechas '')," that it consisted merely of a skirt, Avhich covered the bodyfrom the hips down, while in some parts of Yucatan still anotherarticle of dress was used, which covered the breast. A long, sacklikejacket, reaching to the hips and fastened there by a belt, was alsoworn by many. In chapter 3 he states further that the femaledivinities of the country were represented " vestidas de la cinta abaxoy cubiertos los pechos, como usan las indias ". Lastly, also a cover-ing is mentioned, which the women use when sleeping, and which " when they take journeys they commonly roll up and carry on theirshoulders ".The meager accounts of other authors for the most part agree withthe foregoing, for instance, Cogolludo in his Historia de Yttcatan.Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, draws fromrecorded statements the conclusion that the dress of the variousclasses of the population did not differ greatly among the Mayas,save that, of course, the material used by persons of liigher rank wasfiner. Warriors were, however, as already mentioned, provided withspecial articles of dress (skins), and the priests were also undoubt-edly distinguished by their dress from the " profanum vulgus ''.Landa says, in his account of the Yucatec ceremony of infant baptism(chapter 2G), that the officiating priest "wore an overdress of redfeathers, decorated with feathers of various colors, while largerfeathers were pendent from it, and to the lower hem were attachedlong strips of cotton reaching to the ground. On his head he wore asacerdotal cap of the same feather work and in his hand he had akind of asiDcrgill of wood, Avith elaborate carvings, upon Avhich, in-stead of horsehair, rattlesnakes' tails were fastened ". One of thesesprinklers is depicted in Codex Cortesianus, page 26, lower middle.A glance at the representations in the manuscripts, the reliefs, andthe figures in the Yucatan collection is enough to show that, on the " This could not Lavo been accepted as a fact beyond a doubt even at that time. Howelse could Landa have thought of bringing forward express testimony in Its favor? "* Ex in the Maya of to-day (according to Pio Perez) means " breeches ".< Moreover, other authors say the same; for instance, Cogolludo (Book IV, chap. (J)and Herrera (Historia de las Indias Occident:i!es). SCHELLHASI FOOT GEAR 603one hand, the dress was far more varied and manifold, and that, on(he other, Landa's description is not entirely accurate, nor do theremains correspond among themselves. Brassenr de Bonrljonrg'sassertion: " Le vetement chez la plupart des Americains etait immu-able " (Hist, des nat. civ., volume 3, page 647) is contradicted b}^ theantiquities. Herrera's remark that " the Mayas dress like the Mex-icans " is not wholly accurate, and we can by no means draw the con-clusion from the remains, as Bancroft does, that the dress of peopleof various ranks among the Maya was very uniform.FOOT GEARLet us begin with the foot gear. According to Landa the Mayaswore sandals. While these occur constantly in the Mexican manu-scripts, they are almost wholly wanting in the Maya manuscripts.Cogolludo (page 187) says, indeed, that the Maya mostly Avent bare-foot ; however, if they used sandals at all we might expect to find themfrequently on the persons represented in the numuscripts (priests,warriors, gods, etc.). Cogolludo's remark plainly refers to the dailycustom of the common people. In the Dresden manuscript the feetare almost always bare and quite carefully drawn. There are but fewah c d e fFig. 117. Representations of sandals, from Dresden codex and inscriptions.places where we find sandals (pages 2('), 28, 40, 47, and 50). Onpages 26 and 28 they have the form of r/, figure 117; on pages 46, 47,and 50 that of h.This is the same form that this foot gear lias in the ^lexican manu-scripts (see c, Codex Telleriano-Remensis, and (h Fejervary codex).On the other hand, not a single sandal occurs either in the Troanocodex or in Codex Cortesianus; all the feet are uncovered; ja^t san-dals are apparently quite common in the very badly i)reserved CodexPeresianus, usually in the form of h above. They are certainly farmore frequent on the reliefs than in the Maya manuscri[)ts. l)ut hereof an entirely different form (see e, bas-relief at Labphak, afterStephens, and /, drawing on a door at Chichen, after the same).These forms of foot gear occurring on Yucatec reliefs are, to all ap-pearances, not sandals, but complete slioes coveiMug the entire foot,no mention of which is made l)y Spanish authors. Besides these,sim])le sandals also occur on the reliefs.In tlie figures of the Yucatan collection iit the l^x-rlin Museum thefeet are, for the most j)art. -o very slightly treated that it is not jjos- 604 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY fBULL. 28 sible to tell whether they are clad in sandals. Some of them, how-ever, are evidently bare. The fine, lifelike figure of a priest copied inthe Veroffentlichungen des Koniglichen Museum fiir VcWkerkunde,October, 1888, plate x, wears distinctly executed sandals, of the formgiven in a, figure 118. We also find in the same collection a certainnumber of large clay feet with sandals, 5, strongly resembling thosegiven above taken from the Dresden manuscript. These feet do notseem to have been l)roken off larger figures, but to have an independ-ent purpose, one of religious symbolism. This view is confirmed bythe circumstance that similar feet are given in the Troano codex,page 21, in a sacrificial scene, c. Pig. 118. Representations of sandals and leg ornaments.The form and manner of fastening these various foot coverings iseasily recognized from the illustrations (see a similar modern exam-ple that follows the ancient models in Guatemala in Stoll, Ethnol-ogic der Indianer von Guatemala, 1889, supplement to InternationalesArchiv fiir Ethnographie, plate i, figure 15). This one subject ofcomparison shows hoAV strikingly the remains differ one from theother. DRESS AND ORNAMENTATION OF THE LEG A'\'Tiile foot wear is so rare in the Maya manuscripts, a peculiararticle of dress or ornament for the lower part of the leg is all themore common, but only for males, however, as the women do notwear it. This object is to be seen on almost every figure in all theMaya manuscripts, and may be regarded as distinctly characteristicof these re]3resentations (another proof of the common origin of the BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XLV DRESS AS SHOWN IN SCULPTURED FIGURES, YUCATAN SCHEr.LHAsl DRESS AND ORNAMENTATION OF LEG 605 manuscripts). It takes the form of d in all the manuscripts, andit appears in similar shape and almost as often as an arm ornament.To judge by the manuscripts, it nuist have been in general use as anational article of ornament. Hence it is the more amazing that wenowhere encounter it among the reliefs nor on any of the figures inthe Yucatan collection.. A leg ornament appears, it is true, quite fre-quently among the former, but never in the shai)e which we regu-larly find in the manuscripts. Compare e (from a doorpost atKabah, after Stephens), and / (mural decoration at Chichen, afterthe same). Such coverings for the entire lower leg are wholly absentfrom the Yucatan collection.Besides the above-mentioned leg ornament, single instances of an-other kind appear in the manuscripts, shaped like g. It is found onlyon the figure of the death god and evidently forms one of his attri-butes (see Die Gottergestalten der Mayahandschriften, page 9). Itspurpose is readily grasped. It consists of rattles or bells, buckled tothe leg in order to produce a rhythmic sound during the dance, asis still the custom among North American tribes. a I r s t uFio. 119. Leg and wrist ornaments.Lastly, we have a few instances, for example, Troano codex, page17*, of a simple anklet like a and h, figure 119; also in one ])lace(Dresden codex, page 50) as a leg decoration below the knee, <.Similar objects occur in the Yucatan collection, as on the before-mentioned figure of the priest, d^ and on another figure, e. Thesesimple leg rings are also frequent in the reliefs at Palenque. A i-iclicovering for the whole lower leg is also not unusual there, /.A foot ring, apparently made of the feather work that is held insuch high esteem in Central Amei-ica, occurs on a figure in a carvingon a beam of sapota wood at Kabah, //, after Stephens. Similar ex-amples are frequent at Palen, , below, g.This belt with the apron occurs in all the manuscripts as though anarticle of dress in general use. The stuff was evidently decoratedwith bright-colored ornaments, some of which are recognizable in therepresentations. We find a more elaborate form in the Dresdencodex, where above the belt a piece is added, which covers the lowerpart of the body h (Dresden codex, page 14. beloAv).A departure from this generally customary mode of dress occurs inthe case of one figure only, and that is the striding priest in the Dres-den manuscript, pages 25 to 28, above. Exactly corresponding tothe description Avliich Landa gives of the priests' costmne (Relacion,chapter 26), long strij^s of cotton reaching to the ground are fastenedto the belt, which is of the ordinary shape, while a row of large fi08 BUREAU OF AMERU*AN ETHNOLOGY [bui-l. 28feathers hang down over them, a^ figure 121 (Dresden codex, page27), and h, somewhat diiTerent (page 25). The upper part of thisfigure is naked, save for the eUiborate neck ornament.Plate XLV, number 5, the figure of a priest in the Yucatan collec-tion (compare the description of this figure by Doctor IThle in theVerotfentlichungen aus dem Kaiserlichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde,October, 188S, pages 15 and 16) aifords a suitable object for compari-son w4th the above-mentioned example of sacerdotal dress, the onlyone in the manuscripts. Instead of the cotton strips we have herean obvious stiff belt, as in the codices, below it an apron, which isopen in front, just as in the manuscripts, / and //, figure 120.The pendent strips of cotton are missing, however. In the place ofthem we see the legs clad in a kind of feather-work breeches, nothing a hePig. 121. Di-ess of tlip Inwpr body, from codices and sciilptiirps.analogous to which occurs in the manuscripts or on the reliefs, unlesswe choose to compare the leg ornaments already described (see e. fig-ure 118, and /, figure 110). Besides this, the upper part of the bodyis fully dressed in a feather shirt, which even has sleeves, a thingwhich occurs nowhere else in the codices nor apparently on- thereliefs. Here, too, together with certain resemblances, Ave find strik-ing differences. But we shall return to this figure farther on."Still greater are the differences found by a comparison of theremaining clay figures in the Yucatan collection and the figureson the reliefs with the representations thus far described. The cottonstrip described by Landa, occasionally occurring in the manuscripts,is very unusual on the Yucatec reliefs. It is unmistakably recog-nized in a representation at Kabah (c, figure 121, after Stephens). " See' the standing figure on the bas-relief in Stephens's Central America, n. 26.belt there has the same decoration as in the above figure of a priest in the collection. The SCHELLHASJ DRESS OF LOWER PART OF BODY 609The often-mentioned belt is also frequently seen on the reliefs;both on the temple walls at Palenque " and in the statues at Copanthis article of dress occurs, frequently combined with an apron, as inthe Maya codices.A cotton strip of a hand's breadth, such as Landa describes, andas undoubtedly occurs in the manuscripts, is scarcely to be foundamong the figures in the Yucatan collection, but, on the other hand,there is a very similar article of dress, that is, a wide loin clothwound round the hips of the form," seen in ?, Z*, (\ figure 122.In the manuscripts this loin cloth sometimes so completely coversthe legs of the sitting figures that it looks as if the figure wore trous-ers, '" bragas y calcas '\ according to Landa (see e and 7(, figure 120). / gFig. 122. Dress of females, from Dresden codex and monuments.As a rule the lower part of the body of the clay images is verysuperficially executed, so that we often can hardly tell how it isdressed.For iromen. According to Landa (see above), the Maya womenwore a skirt from the hips down. CogoUudo says the same, andaccording to him this garment was called " pic ".''In this respect all the illustrations agree. In the codices, on thereliefs, and in the Yucatan collection such a skirt forms a part of the "See the dress of the fiajiire of a priest on two reliefs at Palenque; the vrellknownrepresentation of the cross and the relief in easa n. 3, after Stephens. There, too, itconsists of a wide cloth. "Pic in Maya is fnstan (fustian petticoat), according to Beltran de Santa Rosa Maria.Arte del idioma Maya.7238?No. 28?05 .39 (UO BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28women's usual attire. The representations at Palenque and Copanshow us exactly the same thing. Such joetticoats are very common inthe Maya manuscripts (see d^ figure 122, Dresden codex, page 17,above; ^, same figure, from the Dresden codex, page 21, above and/, from Codex Cortesianus, page 35). They are almost alwaysrichly decorated and seem to have been an especially favored articleof the Aveaver's and dyer's art among the Mayas. Especially dis-tinct ornamentations of a very tasteful kind, quite recalling theGreek classic style, occur in a figure in the Troano codex, page 27,below delate xlv, number 7). In another from the Troano codex(page 25, plate xlv, number 8) the skirt is shorter than is usuallyseen elsewhere in the manuscripts. The women of the loAver classes,however, as well as the men, seem to have worn merely a simple clothabout their hips, examples of which are seen in the Dresden manu-script, as g^ figure 122 (Dresden codex, page 10, below). a h cFig. 123. Mantles from Maya codices.Petticoats like those copied above from the manuscripts, and wathsimilar ornaments, are worn, as already stated, by the female figuresin the reliefs of the Yucatan collection. Here, too, the ornamenta-tion often displays graceful and tasteful meander patterns. Thisarticle of dress seems to have been of like appearance and naturethroughout Central America. It occurs as frequently among thereliefs at Palenque as among the idols of Copan, and the pattern inboth jilaces agrees exactly with ?, figure 123 (see Stephens, CentralAmerica, number 7, statue at Copan, and number 34, bas-relief atPalenque). In old Mayapan j^roper (Yucatan) female figures arevery rare among the architectural remains, but they are all the moreabundant in the Yucatan collection, where the petticoats, as in theDresden codex, usually reach to the ankles (see plate xlv, number 1).DRESS OF THE UPPER PART OF THE BODYFor meAi. As a rule, in the manuscripts, the upper part of thebody is bare, while elaborate necklaces with broad ornaments cover-ing the breast occur, which in the drawings sometimes make the trunk SCHELLHAS] DRESS OF UPPER PART OF BODY 611look almost as if it were dressed. The cloak fastened on the shoulder,described by Landa, if we judge from the representations, can by nomeans have formed a j^art of the regular dress. A cloak of this kindis found, it is true, of similar shape to that which occurs in the Mexi-can manuscripts, but rarely, and then only on persons who evidentlywear a costume j^eculiar to a certain privileged class. The same canbe said regarding the figures in the Yucatan collection and in repre-sentations on the reliefs. The trunk is nude in far the greater num-ber of instances. Moreover, the cloaks occurring in the manuscriptsdo not wholly correspond with the one described by Landa. Theyare not square (as the}' usually are in the Mexican manuscripts), butapparently oval, and are not fastened at the slioulder, but at the neck,either in front or behind, so that the mantle falls either over the backor over the breast. In Codex Troano-Cortesianus the latter is inva-riably the case (see &, figure 123, from the Dresden codex, page 25,below ; , (U and ?), above, and 7j, figure 128, same place, 36, below, withc from the Yucatan collection). However, in most cases the headornament is much more elaborate. We constantly find, as here, thehair bound up above on the head and surrounded with ornaments I m n uFk;. 128. Headdresses, from Maya codices and monuments.and feathers, while it hangs down long behind, intertwined withfeathers and ribljons.A headdress consisting of a sort of bow or knot is most commonin the manuscripts {d, Dresden codex, page 68, and e and /, CodexCortesianus, page 11). Strange to say, it does not occur elsewhere,either among the reliefs or the clay figures; another striking pecul- BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28 PLATE XLVI HEADDRESSES FROM THE CODICES AND MONUMENTS SCHELLHASI HEADDRESS 619iarity of the four Maya codices." There are otherwise, however,many resembhmces in the forms of hair-dressing between the manu-scripts and the figures in the collection. Thus the headdress from theDresden manuscrij)t on page 19 above, ^, is repeated exactly in afigure of the collection ;'' /, front view ; k, side view.A headdress verj- common in the Dresden manuscript is shown inZ, page 27, and 7n, page 28, below. Compare also g and A, figure 120,and I and c, figure 123.' It has also an analogue in the Yucatan col-lection; compare n and o and the often-mentioned figure of a priest(plate XLV, number 5). These are only single instances, chosen atrandom; the forms are, as we have said, so multifarious that but veryfew obvious resemblances can be established. In the Yucatec reliefsthe headdresses usually have enormous feathers, which hang downbefore and behind, showing a certain resemblance to man}' of therepresentations in the manuscripts, which, however, lies rather in thetotal effect than in separate details. The Palenque reliefs also showsimilar feather ornaments, but far simpler and more in accordancewith reality than the Yucatec reliefs.AYe may also mention what was undoubtedly the headdress of aAvarrior,'^ which we find in the Mexican manuscripts as well as in theMaya codices and on the clay figures. In the first of these it takes theform of a and 5, plate xi.vi (from the Mendoza codex) . Compare withthis, c (Dresden codex, page GO^ and the head from a figure in thecollection, d.The headdress of the women is generally simpler than that of themen. The elaborate feather decoration is missing on them in themanuscripts, and in its place we have the hair itself arranged inlong strands, which fall partly over the breast, partly over the back; , vn. and others.In the following year (May 3, 1849) the Yucatecos. under ColonelZetina, succeeded indeed in regaining possession of the city, but inJune of the same year the eastern Indians, under Jacinto Pat, vv'iw-forced by the southern Mayas of Chichanha, under Jose Maria Tzuc,made another vigorous attack on Bacalar, and Avere repulsed onlyAvith difficulty. The siege lasted for years, and Avas only interruptedwhen the Mexican garrison received large reenforcements. " Globus, V. G7, n. 1.3. '' Bacalar, originally called Bakhalal, was founded in 1545 by Don Melchor Pacheco.Concerning the history of this place see the article " Bacalar "' in The Angeliis, Belize,V. 9, 1893, pp. 48 and following.723S?No. 28?05 40 625 626 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28It was not until Gen Don Eomiilo Diaz de la Vega assumed com-mand in Yucatan that the Avar was carried on with greater energ}^by the Mexicans. This general marched by way of Chan Santa Cruz,the " sacred city " of the eastern Indians, to Bacalar, where he arrivedon March 1, 1852. The southern Indians, whom the Mexicans haddefeated, now ofTered to negotiate for peace with the Yucatecos,which enraged the eastern Mayas, who turned against them, unex-pectedly attacked their principal town, Chichanha, and almostentirely destroyed it. But soon afterward (July, 1S52) Diaz de laVega surprised the principal town of the eastern Indians, Chan SantaCruz, which had been fortified in the meantime, and in this engage-ment the dreaded chief, Venancio Pec, and his adjutant, JuanBautista Yam, fell. The Mexicans, however, were not able to achicA^ea permanent A'ictory over the eastern Ma^^as, to Avhom, in the year1858, they finally lost Bacalar, which has now become an importantbase of operations and rallying point for these Indians. In 1871'^ theMexicans made another armed incursion into the territory of theeastern tribes, again captured tlieir principal city, Chan Santa Cruz,and again withdrew without the slightest permanent success. Afterthe withdrawal of the Mexican troops the Indians quietly returned totheir former habitations, and occupy to-day the same territory thatthey formerly occupied. From time to time they make predatoryexpeditions into the Mexican territory of Yucatan or Into the terri-tories of the southern tribes; but their military operations no longeraim at great enterprises, and seem to be directed only to the occa-sional acquisition of rich booty.Thus, while the eastern tribes have stood uninterruptedly on a warfooting with the Mexican GoA^ernment since the year 1847, the chiefsof the southern tribes, Jose Maria Tzuz, Andres Tzima, and JuanJose Cal, concluded a treaty of peace as early as 1853 Avith the Mexi-can agents, Doctor Canton, Colonel Lopez, and P. Peralta, throughthe instrumentality of the English superintendent at Belize, Ph. Ed.AVoodhouse, the conditions of Avhich Avere recorded in both the Span-ish and Maya languages. Unfortunately, 1 have not been able toexamine the terms of this treaty; but the conditions actually existingindicate that full independence in the conduct of their internal affairs(civil and judicial administration, etc.) was guaranteed to the In-dians, AA'hile the latter formally recognized the suzerainty of Mexico,and their caciques have to be confirmed by the Mexican Government,that is, the gobernador of the state of Campeche.The southern tribes are divided into two distinct states, Avhosechief toAvns at present are Ixkanha, in central Yucatan, and Icaiche,in southern Yucatan. Both states, in the main, have faithfully kept " See A. Woeikof, Reise durch Yucatan und die siid-ostlichen Provinzen von Mexiko InI'etermanDS MitteUun^en, 1879, v. 25, p. 203. SAPPEit] INDEPENDENT INDIAN STATES OF YUCATAN 627their treaty with Mexico, l)ut in 1869 Mexican troops were obliged toenter the district of Ixkauha to suppress an insurrection of theIndians under (General Arana, the brother of Gen Eugenio Arana,now in office. On the other hand, both states have had to repel occa-sional incui-sions of the eastern Mayas, who have been hostile sincethe conclusion of peace in 1853, and thus the southern Indians haveserved as a bulwark and outpost, as it were, for that portion of thestate of Canipeche Avhich is under Mexican authority.Among the Icaiche Indians, Avho retreated farther southwardafter the destruction of Chichanha, the Avarlike spirit once rousedwould not be quieted, and manifested itself in numerous raids intothe territory of British Honduras, where at one time the Indiansadvanced as far as the neighborhood of the city of Belize." In 1868the Icaiche Indians, under their leaders Marcos Canul and EafaelChan, occupied the city of Corozal, but withdrew through fear ofthe Santa Cruz Indians; and in 187'2 the Avarlike Gen Marcos Canulattacked the city of Orange Walk, but Avas fatally Avounded dur-ing the siege by a SavIss named OsAvald; Avhereupon the IndianswithdreAv. The British Government complained to the MexicanGoA^ernment of the repeated Indian iuA^asions, and Avhen the Mexi-cans explained that the Icaiche Indians Avere not under Mexicanauthority, but Avere an independent tribe, the English pointed outthat the leaders of the Indians Avere Mexican generals. The pro-test, howcA^er, Avas not folloAved up, since the Icaiche Indians made nomore raids into British territory after CanuFs death, neither underRafael Chan, Canul's successor, nor under the excellent SantiagoPech, nor mider the present cacique. Gen Gabriel Tamay. At pres-ent, indeed, great Avarlike enterprises on the p-cwt of the IcaicheIndians are quite inconceivable, for their number has been c(mtinuallyreduced by Avar, rum, and pestilence, and in the year 181)2 virulentsmallpox and Avhooping-cough epidemics sAvept away about half oftheir number, so that noAv the entire population of the once fearedindepeiident Indian state can be estimated at only about 500 souls.Nevertheless, in Icaiche, a feAV Indians are always stationed as sen-tinels in a special hut called the cuartel ("barracks"), and in thehouse in Avhicli I liA'ed during my residence there five loaded repeat-ing rifles hung on the crossbeams of the roof, a sign that the IcaicheIndians are ahvays on their guard against the Santa Cruz Indians,Avho, in fact, a short time before (during the rule of General Tamay)had made an unsuccessful attack upon the village.In Ixkanha there are a larger number of soldiers on guard, dayand night, in the barracks, under the command of a captain, andalthough thev do not Avear a uniform any more than do the Indiansof Icaiche, they are a somewhat nearer approach to disciplined " See, respecting these Indian raids, A. R. Gibbs, British Honduras, London, 1883. 628 BUREAU OF AMERK'AN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 military, iiiasiniu-h as they use druin and trumpet calls, etc. Inthe district of Ixkanlia the population has also diminished, comparedwith its former number, especially through smallpox epidemics andowing to an utter lack of good medical aid, and a few years ago GenEugenio Arana ceded the important village of Chunchintok to thestate of Ca]npeche. Nevertheless, the population of the independentterritory of Ixkanha is probably about 8,000.At the beginning of the rebellion the population of the Santa Cruzterritory was stated to be about 40,000; l)ut since then the numberhas also greatly diminished, and is estimated by those familiar withthe country at elize either by way of OrangeWalk and Corosalito, or by way of El Cayo and Caxuvinic, there isa road over Ilalatun to Ixkanha, which is little traveled and can beused only by pedestrians and beasts of burden. The road whichonce led from Icaichi' over Xaibe to San Antonio is now overgrown.(3) A bridle path leads from Orange Walk, by way of Santa Cruz, onthe Rio Hondo, to Ixkanha. FVom there a direct road leads over Xulto the railroad station Oxkutzcab and another runs by way of Chun-chintok to Tturbide or to Tzibalchen and Campeche. (4) A bridlepatli h'ads from Hacalar to Petcacab, and thence through populatedterritory, by way of Chunox, to Santa Cruz la Grande and Chanquec.Foot paths, but seldom used, lead from the district of Santa Cruz tothe neighboring inhabited regions. The topography of the peninsulaof Yucatan, apart from that of the seacoast, is still very defective, andtherefore I hope that the modest, approximate corrections presentedl)y m}' sketch map, which is intended ouly for general orientation,will not be deemed quite without value. TWO VASES FROM OHAMABY?1. F?. DIESELDORFF, EDUARD SELER,ANDE. FORSTEMANN G35 CONTENTS PageA pottery vnso with fiKur(> itniiitiii;;. from ;i grave in ('liania, by I<]. W Dies--eldorfl", with nniiarlcs by Doctor Schellhas 639The vase of Chaina, l)y E. Fflrstciiiann 647The vaso of Chaina, by Kihiard Solcr <>51A clay vessel witli a picture of a vampire-headed deity, by E. P. Dieseldorff _ 6f!r?mi A POTTERY YASE WIIH FIGTTRE PAINTING,FROM A (IRAYE IN CHAMA? By E. P. DiESELDORrFA notable discovery h;is recently been made in the Chama valley,known to us through Verhandlungen der (jesellschaft ffir Anthro-pologie for 1893, pages 375 and 548. In the excavation of the north-western temple mound of the upper plaza on the left bank of theSalta river a grave formed of stones was discovered, nearly 8 feetbelow the surface, containing several pottery vessels, the most im-portant of wdiich I borrowed for a short time in order to make theaccompanying draAving (plate xlviii). The original is now in theUnited States, where it probably figures as one of the chief ornamentsof some drawing-room.When I first began my excavations in Chama, in 1892, I began toexplore the hill in question, but was forced to abandon Avork becausethe owner forbade further search, in the belief that the articles foundwere of great money value.I observed then that, just as in the northern mound of the lowerplaza (described in Verhandlungen, 1893. pnge 376). about 3 feetbelow the surface there Avas a laj^er of resin about 6 feet broad andone-half of a foot thick, in Avhich a quantity of small broken sacri-ficial plates Avere mingled Avith bits of burnt stone beads and polisheddisks of iron pyrites, Avhich I recognized as the remains of a burntoffering to the god of tlie north.Unfortunately, no notes Avere taken at the lime of the discoA'ery ofthe grave, but I heard that various pieces of jadeite Avere fouud auiongthe pots, but no remains of bones, which is exphiiued by the fact thatthe tomb had partially fallen into ruins.The pottery vase is cjdindric; its height is 23.5 centimeters, and itsdiameter at the top and at the bottom is 14.8 centimeters, Avhile thesides are 4 millimeters and the bottom 5 millimeters thick. In the " Ein bemnltOR Thongefiiss mit figiirlichen Darstelhingen, ans einem Grabe von Chamil.A'crhandliingen der Berliner < Jesellschaft fiir Antlirnpologie, Ethnologie und llrgeschlchte,pp. 372 and following, published in the Zeitsciirift fiir Ethnologie, 1804, pt. v. G39 640 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2S colors used, in polish and border decoration, it corresporids to thevases described in Verhandlungen, 18^3, page 548, except that theground is white. It is well preserved, and does not seem to have beenused before burial.This time, however, the picture is essentially different. Thus farwe have only met with paintings where one figure appears twice onthe same pot, with slight variations; on this vase, on the contrary, wehave a group of seven persons taking part in a common action. Thisis no conventional design, but a painting which possesses life andshows an amazing degree of artistic skill. It seems to represent somereligious ceremony which Avas celebrated at the completion of a cer-tain still undetermined j^eriod of time, and at which human sacrificewas performed. It ought to be possible, however, to determine thisperiod, since the glyph referring to it occurs on the monumentsof Palenque and Co^ian. Ihifortunately, it has not thus far l)een pos-sible to collect sufficient accurate material for such comparisons, andyet it is of the utmost importance for the decipherment of theglyphs that the inscriptions on stone should be made accessible to all.The only student who has made this his life task is the distinguishedEnglishman, Mr A. P. Maudslay, wdio for many years has studiedthe ruins and collected extensive material, which he is graduallypublishing in his work, Biologia Centra li-x\mericana, issued inLondon. Thus far four volumes have appeared, which treat of Copanand Quirigua, and which should be consulted b}' all who are inter-ested in Maja investigation. Science owes Mr Maudslay a debt ofgratitude for his generous labors, to which he is devoting nuu'h careand expense. It is to be hoped that others may soon follow whowill share in these researches, but wealthy institutions and govern-ments are particularly called upon to undertake this work. InGermany we possess the most valuable Maya manuscript, and ourscholars have taken the most active part in deciphering it; but, on theother hand, almost nothing has been done on the part of Germanytoward collecting fresh material and promoting researches whichgive such rich returns when conducted on the spot. The BritishMuseum, on the contrary, as soon as space can be found will arrangea Maya department in which the plaster casts prepared by MrMaudslay are to be placed, and the Peabody jNIuseum has leasedthe ruins of Copan for eight years more and has already begun exca-vations, the results of which Avill, it is hoped, very soon be published.Meanwhile some of the ruins, especially Quirigua, past wdiich thenew Guatemalan railroad is to be carried, will soon be completelydestroyed. If Germany desires to take part in these researches abeginning must be made at once.I will now proceed to a description of the picture. I wnll designatethe Indian standing in the left-hand corner by a, the next by 6, and niESELDOKFF] POTTERY VASE WITH FIGURE PAINTING 641SO on. An elderly Indian, who has been chosen for the sacrifice,kneels in the center; a black personage of rank advances toward himfrom the right, holding a lance and apparently demanding his lifewith bloodthirsty vengeance, while another stands on the left, evi-dently trying to j^acify his o])posite neighbor. About this main groupstand four Indians who take no active i3art in the proceedings, andseem more like subordinates, upon whom the execution of the sacri-fice devolves. Each of them has a strongly marked type of face, ofwhich I have found examples among the Kekchi Indians showingan almost perfect resemblance. From the diversity of headdress,ornament, and clothing we are justified in supposing that the char-acters represented filled ditFerent offices. It is probable that theIndian advancing from the right held the office of high priest, the oneopposite him that of chilan, " soothsayer ", and that the other fourwere the Chacs, who were chosen by the priests and people in themonth Pop from among the old men of rank to assist at sacrifices andreligious ceremonies (see Landa, Kelacion, pages 146, 160, and 166).The kneeling figure, which I have designated by e, holds a staff,which is either the token of his rank, like the short thick staff that thestewards of the caciques of Mayapan used to carry (see Landa, page40) , or was used to ignite fires, as in the pictures of the codices. Onhis arms and legs appears, painted or tattooed, the design of thewoven mat, which I call the pop character, and to which I shall recurlater. His right hand is held over the left shoulder so that it is notvisible, though it seems to hold a white flower. He has no head cov-ering or ornament. The wrinkles on his face and his black-rimmedeyes characterize him as an old man. His mien is rather that of fearthan of calm submission to his fate, such as Indians usually show.The chief priest, /', advancing from the right, is painted l)lackand has in his outstretched right hand a gala lance, with a flint pointand rattles, the shaft of which reaches to the ground. In his lefthand he holds a painted fanlike object, which I recognize as thesoplador Avoven of palm leaves, used in every household in thiscountry to kindle the fire, and which I do not think was ever used forfanning, a custom unknown among the Indians. A jaguar skin withhead and forepaws hangs from his shoulders and seems to be fastenedto a white article of attire on the breast, something like a shirt front.The under side of the animal skin is visible below the left armand has a jagged edge produced in drying, the fresh skin beingstretched on the ground with wooden pegs. A black stick protrudesfrom his neck, which I can not exi)lain. Wrists and ankles areswathed in colored fabrics, also the left leg above the knee. The exappears between the feet. The face is covered by a long beard, andthere is a white rim about the mouth, such as we find in the l)lackmale monkey (batz, in Maya), and it is therefore probable that he7238?No. 28?05 11 642 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 wears a monkey mask, like the priest in the Dresden codex, pages 25 to28, who appears with an animal mask at the ceremony of the new year.To the left of the kneeling figure stands the figure cZ, painted black,holding in its right hand a two-lashed scourge, wdiile the left israised appeasingly. The orbit of the eye, the ear, and the lower partof the face are painted yelloAv. A checkered, pointed cap, such asthe chief priests usually wore, is bound on the back of his head.An ex of elaborate design hangs down before and behind. The blackpainting of figures / and d may possibly have some connection withthe thirteen days' fast which is observed at the end of the year,during which it was the custom of the Mayas to paint their bodieswith lampblack (see lianda, pages 278 and 280), or the persons repre-sented may be the priests of black gods.The short but corpulent figure c that follows holds a soplador in hisright hand. The face is distinguished by an aquiline nose and droop-ing lower lip and the black ring about the eye already noted in figuree, Avhich I had also noticed in a statue at Copan. The head is boundwith a strip of jaguar skin, from which the hair protrudes in rays.Below the ear and on the necklace hangs a round, black ball, whichalso ai^j^ears on the shoulder of figure c/, and looks almost like a blot,but undoubtedly has a meaning.Figure h has the same sort of staff in his hand as the kneelingfigure. The face is dark-colored, and the headdress similar to thatjust described, save that the hair is worn in tufts. On the breast,attached to a neck chain, rests a shield bearing the pop character,with an edge of sharp points. One end of the chain seems to beheld by the man behind, as if he were holding him fast by it, anidea which is probably not conveyed intentionally.Figure (number 6is Imix) ; before c, T, 8, 0; before <:/, 10, 11; before /, 12, 13, 14, 15(12 is the jaguar's head) ; behind /, 16, 17, 18, 19 ; and before e, 20, 21,22, 23 (the last is the sign for the year). Glyphs 1 and 10 are thesame, except that the latter has an affix, AAhich I translate by aj,as I take 1 for the sign of the month Pop and 10 for the Ahpoprank (see the sign of the month Pop in the Dre>:den codex, /, figure130). Glyph 2 signifies a period of time, which is greater than20 years of 360 days each, because it appears twice in the Palenquerelief in a place Avhcre a period of time and a date arc given andin both cases the sign for 20 years of 360 days each, determined byProfessor Forstemann, stands next as indicating less value (Zeitschriftfiir Ethnologic, 1891, page 150, and here //, A, and /, figure 130).Sign 3 is the glyph for yellow (kan). Sign 4 occurs with pre-fixes as sign 17 and 21; the prefix of 17 signifies black, and as itbelongs to /, plate xlviii, which I regard as the black high priest,sign 4 might read " priests ", which would harmonize with the factthat figures h and e carry the staff used by priests to ignite the fire. 644 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28If vce compare sign 12 with the headpiece of jaguar skin, the rehi-tion is certainly striking. Here I woukl recall the fact that thesame glyph occurs on the urn described in the Verhandlungen derBerliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1893, page 550, which wenow recognize as the glyph of the day Ix, more correctly written Hix(''jaguar"). Signs 15 and 18 are the glyph of the lightning beast,mapatch, in Indian aj-ou, which was represented by Landa as theletter" " o ", and erroneously assumed by Brasseur to be the letter " p ".The same glyph appears in the codices as the month Xul, and sincexul in the Kekchi tongue has retained its original significance, whichis " animal ", the month is, therefore, the animal month (k, ?, and w;,figure 130). The double " ik " as an affix of sign 15 recalls Landa'sreproduc.tion of the month Pop, e. Sign 10 seems to be the pictureof a dead bearded monkey's head, which reminds me that figure /apparently Avears a monkey mask. Sign '20 is the glyph of the god iRr'AAA^N^T^I / i Ji in pFig. 130. Glyphs from Maya codices and iuscriptions.designated by Doctor Schellhas as F, the companion of the death god(Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1892,page 112). Sign 21 occurs in the Dresden and Troano codices in con-nection with fire-kindling; it also appears on the Palenque relief, n(figure 130). Sign 23 is the sign for the year with the numeral 5,and it occurs similarly in the Dresden codex, o. Doctor Seler consid-ers it equivalent to the glj'^ph of god N, />.Much in the preceding joicture and in the glyphs is still unex-plained, and much may have been erroneously interpreted by me. Itis therefore desirable that further investigations should be institutedby others. I believe that the ceremony represented is connectedeither with the beginning of a Kan year or of a new katun. On thelatter occasion (consult Brasseur, Landa, and Pio Perez) it wasalwavs the custom to offer a human sacrifice and to kindle a new fire. KEMAEKS BY DOCTOR SCHELLHAS ?The discoveries of Mr E. P. Dieseldorff show in the forms of thepictorial representations and of the glyphic characters the greatestresenibhmce to the antiquities of Palenque. They evidently belong- toa common cultural region and cultural group; to the same group,indeed, to which the Maya manuscripts, and especially the Dresdenand Peresian codices, belong. On the otiier hand, they show the samedeviations from the antiquities of Yucatan proper as do the manu-scripts and the antiquities of Palenque and also those of Copan.Aztec accordances and influences, such as exist in northern Yucatan,seem to be wanting. Mr Dieseldorif's discoveries (especially thepresent one and the one published in the Verhandlungen der BerlinerGesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1893, page 547 and following) con-firm the theory already set forth by me in Internationales Archiv fiirEthnographic, volume 3, 1890, at the end of the paper entitled " Vergleichende Studien aus dem Felde der Maya Alterthiimer ", thatthe Maya manuscripts originated in a region to the south of the pen-insula of Yucatan and that we must seek in that region, that is. in tlieinterior of Chiapas and Guatemala, for the primal seat and originof the ancient civilization of Central America, whose more highlyartistic and more realistic forms appear in Yucatan proper to bealready blended with and influenced by the more rigid, conventionaltypes of Mexican art and mode of representation. " Same place as the preceding paper. 645 THE VASE OF CHAMA"By E. Foi?STEi\tANXMy friend, Mr Dieseldorff, of Coban, Guatemala, has rendered amost acceptable service to Maya investigation by the discovery andfirst discussion of this remarkable vessel (Verhandlungen, volume IG,pages 372 to 377 and plate viii). As he is desirous that it should befurther investigated by others, I will not withhold my opinion,although I am Avell aware I can add but little and must still leavemuch in obscurity.For the better comprehension of Mr Dieseldorlf's drawing, 1 willfirst set down the 23 glyphs belonging to the picture in the orderin which they occur on the plate (plate xlviii). They are arrangedin seven groups, as folloAvs : 1 4, (') 7 10 12,13 IG2 5 8 11 14 173 J) ir> IS20 1921, 2322My first remark refers to a certain resemblance between this pictureand the lower half of page 60 of the Dresden codex. There we see onthe left a personage, spear in hand, enthroned on a serpent, wliiclilies upon the neck of a second personage, v.hose eyes are bandaged. Athird personage in warlike dress, arn)ed Avith a spear, leads a fourthtoward this group from the right ; this fourth figure is coweringon the ground, with arms bound and e^^es rimmed with black. Thesefour are all gods, and I have already expressed my ideas regardingthis picture elsewhere.The vase of Chama, on the contrary, for once presents nothingsupernatural, but more agreeably, if I may say so, a scene of purelyhuman interest. The picture here clearly refers to the great feastcelebrated by the Mayas, as well as by the Aztecs,' every 8 years,that wonderful solar and Venus period of 2,020 days, which I lastdiscussed in my article " Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften, ? Das Oefiiss von Chama, Vefhandliingen der Berliner GesellschaU tiir Anthropologle,Ethnolosie, und Urgeschichte, pp. 'u'-i and following, published in Ztitschritt fiir Ethnologle, 1804, pt. 6. (547 648 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28IV ". Glyphs 1 to '3 and 28, the initial ones and the last, point to thisperiod of time, unless Ave are wholly mistaken. Mr Dieseldorffregards sign 1 as that of the first 20-day period of the year, Pop,and I have no other suggestion to offer, although we have here onlya part of Pop. In regard to sign 2. I differ with Mr Dieseldorff,who is reminded of the designation of a period of time on a relief atPalenque. But the period referred to there embraces a huna, that is,400 years, and this seems to me entirely irrelevant here. It seemsrather to suggest a variant of the sign of the south, that is, the Cauaoyears. But the sign of the south is something resembling a pair ofscales, doubtless referring to the rising and setting of the sun, and be-low this, the sign yax ("power", "strength") as symbolic of thepower of the southern sun. In this case I believe I find the sign yaxduplicated, the scales being merely indicated for lack of space. MrDieseldorff regards sign 3 as that representing yellow^ color, but it isthe symbol of the east and the Kan years. According to this 1 to 3would read " the month Pop midwa}^ between the Cauac and the Kanyears ". It might, therefore, be regarded as a method of dating.The concluding sign, 23, offers no difficulty at all. It consists ofthe glyph for year combined with the number 8 and a ]ii-efix. whichpossibly gives that ijlyph the value of 305 days, w'hile by itself itdenotes only 360 days.Moreover, I believe that this picture does not represent this feastin general, but a particular feast of this nature, and that it may notbe im])ossible in the future to determine the time of this feast exactly.The festival consisted, after previous fasting and scourging, princi-pally in the kindling of new^ fire, in feasting, and in human sacrifice.Fasting, as Mr Dieseldorff also thinks, is probably indicated by thepainting black of the personages d and /, possibly also by the black-rimmed eyes of f, e, and g. "Vhether the scourges carried by d and grelate to this chastisement (it seems very much as if g were engaged inthe very act) I leave uncertain.The kindling of fresh fire, which plays so important a part inthe Perez calendar given by Stephens, is indicated by the implementheld by ?, c, /', and g, which Mr Dieseldorff distinctly recognizes asthe soplador, or fire kindler, still in use. The personage l> seems tobe the actual kindler of the fire, since he holds the wooden fire drill inhis hand ; in the Perez calendar the fire-kindler is a special official. Itis with h that Ave find sign 4, so often met w-ith, wdiich plays so greata part and is apparently connected with fire, for instance, in the Dres-den codex, pages 4c to 5c; perhaps it even designates the rising flame.This glyph appears twice more in our picture ; first, as sign 17, whereit has a prefix, apparently that of the north, and, secondly, as sign 21,where it also has a prefix, Avhich apparent!}^ occui"s three times in the FOESTEMANN] THE VASE OF CHAMA 649Dresden codex, pages 5b to Gb. in direct connection with the kindlingof fire.The banquets are very realistically indicated by the bones, whichthe two personages, a and g, doubtless the lo^vest in rank among theseven, hold in their hands. Therefore it would seem that the glyphsought also to refer to food, which reminds us that the sign Imix(6 and 14 here, both provided with the same secondary sign) hasthe added sense of maize. Indeed, I would make the suggestion,though I may be in error, that gh'phs 8 and 22, which are wholly unfa-miliar to me, may perhaps denote some local form of baked food.We now come to the human sacrifice, the performance of which wedo not see here, as in certain passages of the manuscripts, but onlythe preparation. I imagine the purport of the scene to be as follows:A warrior of high rank has captured a wounded enemy, who, againstthe will of the actual victor, is claimed by the priest as a sacrifice.Let us now consider the separate actors in this scene.The prisoner, t\ of course, is the central point. We see him sunkdown upon the ground. In his hand is a staff, which I can by nomeans regard as a fire drill, but eitlier as a badge of rank or as abroken spear. It is evident to me that he is wounded from the arrowpoint piercing the lower jaw and the agonized motion toward it ofthe right hand. Behind the neck we see a flower. This may possiblyexpress the prisoner's name, bat I will not withhold another observa-tion regarding it. Two words are common to all the Maya dialects,one of which is written quix, chix, cliiix, and the like, the otherquic, chich, chic, etc. The former seems to signify a plant, the dic-tionaries usually giving the meaning of thorn; but the secoud wordinvariably signifies blood. Does the flower, possibly that of a thornbush, refer to the wound ?Before the prisoner, at the right, stands the warrior, /, who claimshim as his property; for that he is a warrior and not a priest is indi-cated by the lance (the tip of Avhich seems to be stained with blood,as in the Troano codex, pages 5b to 4b) and by the jaguar skin thrownabout him. Before his face are the four characters 12 to 15, whichseem to have reference to him. I regard 12 as the sign of his rank,which is further emphasized by sign 13, the well-known ahua(" lord "). 14 is, like G, imix; I am uncertain as to what it signifieshere. Nor do I venture to decide regarding 15, although the signabove it is clearly the ben-ik sign, so frecjuently found in the manu-scripts and inscriptions, to which, until a better meaning appears, Iattach that of the lunar montli of 28 days; unfortunately the prin-cipal sign beneath it is indistinctly draAvn. What the stalf protrud-ing from this person's neck signifies I am unable to say, as is MrDieseldorff. If it is a spear thrower (Aztec, atlatl), then it is indis-tinctly represented. 650 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28Behind / stands g, doubtless a person of lower rank, belaboringhimself with his scourge and rejoicing in his bone. I can not explainthe four glyphs 16 to 19 before his face; 16, with the closed eye,generally indicated death or the death god ; 17 seems to be composedof the signs for the north (^the region of death) and for flame. Iventure no conjecture concerning 18 and 19. Can this whole groupbe an allusion to himian sacrifice?We now come to the four personages to the left of the prisoner.The black one, (L, recognizable as chief priest by his headdress, seemsto lay claim to the prisoner. T venture no suggestion as to the twosigns 10 and 11, apparently belonging to him; perhaps the first, asMr Dieseldorff thinks, refers directly to the priest.Next comes the interesting personage c^ a short, stout gentleman,whose face is not in the least couA^entional, but, on the contrary, veryindividual, which suggests the idea that the artist in this case, aspossibly also in that of the other personages represented, had certainindividuals in mind. His jaguar-skin cap and perhaps the blackballs hanging below his ear and over his breast indicate his high rank,and sign 9 (ahau, " lord ''), close before his forehead, confirms this.If signs 7 and 8, as I suggested, refer to the feast, then the formerindicates the presiding officer, for which his corpulence well befits him.This personage seems to me to have something humorous about him.c is accomi)anied by the fire-kindler. h, who seems to give his opin-ion in regard to the quarrel between priest and Avarrior with the lookof an experienced official. Of the three glj^phs alloted to him, 4 to 6,the last at any rate gives his rank, while T have tried to attribute to1 the kindling of the fire and to 5 the banquet.There still remains, on the extreme left, a subordinate figure, ?, Avhowas not deemed worthy of a glyph, and who has an extremely stupidface and an open mouth. His livery, confined wholly to his head,must have seemed comical even to the Mayas themselves.I suppose that this discovery is the more valuable because wepossess hardly any representations pertaining to actual human lifefrom the Mayas, except perhaps in some parts of Codex Troano-Cortesianus. THE VASE OF CHAMA?By Eduard Selkr The beautiful vase of which Mr Dieseldorff was unfortunately notable to send the society more than a drawing, which is reproduced inplate VIII of the volume for 1894, was discussed in the last numberof the same volume by Mr E. Forstemann. To my mind it is not safeto attempt special interpretations of complex representations of thiskind in which glyphs also play a part, when only a drawing andnot, at the very least, a photographic reproduction serves as a guide ; for we know how even the master hand of a Catherwood and of theartist w^hom Lord Kingsborough employed failed in the reproductionof these intricate figures and symbols. I would, therefore, haveavoided any expression of my opinion as to the meaning of these rep-resentations had I not observed that an incidental identification men-tioned by Mr Dieseldorff in his description of the picture, and whichis certainly incorrect, has been used by Mr Forstemann as the princi-pal argument to prove a certain point.Mr Dieseldorff'' says: "The chief priest, /, advancing from theright, is painted black ... ; in his left hand he holds a jjainted fan-like object, which I i-ecognize as the soj^lador, Avoven of palm leaves,used in every household in this coimtry to kindle the fire, and whichI do not think was ever used for fanning, a custom unlcnown amongthe Indians ". And similarly, in discussing the other figures, hespeaks of this implement as a " soplador ". But INIr Forstemann con-cludes : ^ ?' The implement held by persons, a, c. /, and g points to thekindling of the new fire, and is most distinctly recognized by MrDieseldorff as the soplador, or fire kindler. still in use " (see plateXLVIIl).It is certainly true that fans woven of strips of palm leaf are usedin Guatemala, as in many parts of tropical America, to kindleand keep up the fire. Dieseldorff's statement that the Indians of the " Das Geflss von Chamd, Verhandlungen der Berliner tTCsellschaft fiir Anthropologic,Ethnologic, and Urgeschichte, 1895, pp. 307 to 320, published in Zcltsehrift fiir Ethnologic,1895, pts. 3-4. " Verhandlungen, v. I'G, 1894, p. 374. ?? Verhandlungen, v. 2(), 1894, p. 574. 651 652 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28present day in Guateniiila do not use a fan for fanning themselves isalso doubtless true. Neither to my knowledge are fans used amongthe Mexican Indians of to-day, at least not as a general custom, butamong the ancient Mexicans the fan was an article in general use.We know this from the language; we learn it from the texts andfrom history, and we see it in the illustrations of the Mendoza codex.And it was not otherwise with the Maya races, for the word existsin the Maya language proper as well as in the languages of Guate-mala." If we find no fans represented in the few Maya manuscriptswhich we possess, it is simply because they treat onl}' of religious andcalendric matters, just as we also look in vain for fans in Mexicanpicture writing of the same kind. But we find pictures of them inthe Mendoza codex, the only manuscript which treats of everydaycivil and political life, and they occur in Mixtec picture writings,which appear principall}^ to relate to legends of the immigrations ofancestors, human or divine. It strikes me as simph' inconceivablethat the fire fan should have been used in the ceremony of procuringfire by friction or that it should have been placed in the hands of thefigures portrayed merely to convey to the beholder the idea of theceremony of fire-making. In the many representations of fire drill-ing Avith which I am familiar in Mexican picture manuscripts, andthere can not be far from a hundred of them, the fan is not used forthis purpose in a single instance. The use of a fire fan is depicted byold de liCry as familiar to the Tupinambas of Brazil, and he describesit as follows: '"At night he orders the fire betimes to be blown to aflame with a kind of small bellows, called tatapecona, not unlike thescreen which our women hold before their faces when they standby the fire ". But when he describes the fire drill he does not men-tion ''a small bellows''. He says: "Such rapid and vigorous rub-bing ]3roduces not only smoke, but also fire. Then they put on cottonor dry leaves, instead of our tinder, and the fire kindles very easily ".Two kinds of fans were in use among the ancient Mexicans. Thoseof one kind, made of feathers, were costly. They were used atfestivals and served as tokens of high rank, inasmuch as kings andnoble warriors were entitled to wear those made of the precious greentail feathers of the quetzal bird,'' the great merchants being alloAvedonly to use those made of the feathers of the grouse'' of the tierra " Ual, " abanico, aventador, mosqueador " (Perez, Diccionario de la Lengua Maya).Val, "aventador de pluma, o de pahna " (Brasseur, Vocabulaire do la langue Quichee).Xua\, " Filcher " (in the I'okoniam tongue, according to Berendt). On the other hand,hopob-kak or hopzah kak, " soplador del fuego " (Perez). ' Usaban traer los Sefiores unos mosqiieadores en la mano que llamaban quetzal ecaceii-aztli, y con unas bandas de oro que subian con las plumas (Sahagun, v. 8, cap. 9).< Cuando lleguemos a nuestra tierra sera tiempo de usar los barbotes de ambar. y lasorejeras que se llaman quetzalcoyolnacochtli y nuestros bficulos negros que se llamanxauactopilli y los aventadores y ojeadores de moscas (coxoli yeheaeeuaztll), las mantasricas que hemes de traer y los maxtles preciados (Sahagun, v. 'J, cap. 2). selek] THE VASE OF CHAMA 653 c-aliente. Fans of tlie otlK^r kind wciv s!in[)loi' and wore used intraveling'. Hence tliev are the symbol for a traveler or for a king'smessenger. I reproduce here a i)icture from the Mendoza codex,page 09 (figure 1?A), which I'epresents the old and tried warriors Fio. lol. Warriors with fans, from tlie Mendoza oodex.who had received the title Tequiua from the king and had the rightconferred on them to go as his ambassadors (eml)axadores) and toserve as leaders and pathfinders in war (adalides en las guerras).They are represented ''with their great lances and fans" (con sus Fig. 132. MessenRers and tradei-s .-iltMckcd, from tlie Mendoza codex.lanzones y ventallos), as the translation says, and with their bodiespainted black, corresponding to their rank, and because they arebound on an official mission. In a, figure VV2. I give a pair of mes-sengers of low^n- rank (mandones?executores y embajadores del 654 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28Seiiorio tie Mexico), from the Mendoza codex, page (u, who havecarried a declaration of wnv to the cacique of a village and are flee-ing from the now hostile region, pursued by archers. In />, samefigure, also from the Mendoza codex, page ()T, we have the eventwhich occasioned the challenge?the surprise and murder of Mexi-can traders by natives of the village in question. Here, too, besidesthe carrying frame with the bale of wares and the traveling staff,we have the fan as a necessary article to be carried on a journeyas a matter of course. To these three pictures from the Mendozacodex I add still another example {a, figure 133), taken from the Mix-tec Colombino (Dorenberg) codex, illustrating a subject of a moremythologic nature. Here, too, is an undoubted representation oftravelers, who therefore hold in their right hand what may be alance or merely a traveling staff and in their left hand carry a fan.But the foremost of these persons is the most famous of the Mexican a I>Fig. 133. Travelers iind whip, from the Mixtec-Coliimbino codex and the Cbania vase.gods, Quetzalcoatl, the Avind god and the hero of the myths of thewandering Toltecs.The application of these pictures to the scene represented on theChama vase is self-evident. A^Tioever examines the attitude and bear-ing of the separate personages impartially will scarcely form the ideathat one of the chief priests advancing from the right " seems to de-mand the death of the kneeling victim with bloodthirsty vehemence,while the one opposite is evidently trying to pacify him ". It isscarceh^ probable that such matters were ever discussed. If a sacri-fice Avas deemed necessary or useful, and a fit subject was at hand,the sacrifice was performed. The scene assuredly has- an entirelydifferent meaning from the one ascribed to it, and I think I canexplain it in tAvo Avords: an-ival and reception.Now for the kneeling figure. Mr Dieseldorff thinks it is an elderly SELER] THE VASE OF CHAMA 655Indian intended for sacrifice, and Mr Forstemann refers us to page ()0of the Dresden manuscript, where Ave see a captive kneelini? at thefeet of a warrior armed with shield and spear and adorned with agreat feather crown.Whoever is willing to conclude that the person in question (e,according to Dieseldorff's designation) is an Indian intended forsacrifice, merely because he is represented kneeling, may do so.But I do not believe that he will succeed in finding anything tosupport his theory in any pictorial representation of a Maya manu-script or Mexican picture Avriting. To me it seems indubitablethat this figure (see plate xlviii) is not meant to represent a prisoner.In their pictorial representations these ancient peoples were wont tospeak a language which can not so easily be misunderstood. The pris-oner was dragged to the spot by the hair of his head. That is theusual mode of representation in Mexican picture writing and onMexican reliefs. That was the actual procedure in the worshi[> of theMexicans when a prisoner was offered as a sacrifice. Or else the pris-oner is represented as a captive, with arms bound behind his back, orcarried in a bag like a trophy of the chase. It is thus in the l\Iayamanuscripts. Mr Forstemann goes still more into detail in describ-ing his picture. lie believes he recognizes in the object which theperson e has in his hand either a badge of office or a Ijroken spear. Hesees an arrow head sticking in the lower jaw, and the right hand seemsto him to be raised in agony toward the wound. And, lastly, he isinclined to consider the flower visible at the back of the neck as asymbol for blood, the result of an association of ideas produced bythe similarity of sound between quix (" thorn "), and quic (" blood ").Precisely Avhat Mr Forstemann takes for the arrow head })iercingthe lower jaw, whether it is the two last hairs of the beard, or theblack marking, which seems to be below the upper- lip, or perhapsthe two ear pegs, I frankly confess I do not know. As for thegesture of the right hand, which is moreover exactly the same asthat of the last personage, the companion of the advancing chief-tain, it has quite a different and a very definite meaning. It was thecustomarjr salute among the pagan Mayas, or rather a sign ofhumility and submission, the sign of peaceful intent."The gesture is perfect!}^ comprehensible. The hand in which theenemy holds his weapon, the hand with which he deals a blow, is turnedbackward, away from the one who is to be peacefully saluted. Theweapon which is held in the right hand was probably laid aside for ? See Cogolludo, v. 0, cap. 8, and Villagiitierre y Sotomayor, v. 2. cap. 2 : Luego quellegaron, saludrtron los dos eapitanes (Itzaex), tt los dos Ueligioso.s. ii su iisanca (que es,echar el braro derecho solire el ombro, en sofial de paz y amistad), that is they salutedthe two monks after their fashion, by raising the right arm upward toward the shoulder,as a sign of peace and friendship. 656 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the moment." In this picture the figni'e //, the companion of thevisitor, has tucked the fan, which he originally held in his right hand,under his left arm in a rather comical manner, in order to perform thesalute. The reason why but two of the seven figures in our pictureperform the salute is that this gesture is here made only by the fol-lowers of the chief personages. These chief personages are, on theone side, the strange chieftain just arriving; on the other side, the fourprinces of the tribe visited, who, if they were of the Kiche tribe, forinstance, would bear the titles Ahpop, Ahpop Camha, Ahau Kalel,and Ahtzic Vinak. The kneeling person, therefore, marked for sacri-fice by Mr Dieseldorff, regarded by Mr Fiirstemann as a wounded,bleeding captive claimed as a victim by the priest against tlie wnllof the real victor, I consider simply as the attendant, the servant, thefolloAver?the slave, if you will?of the four princes who are i-eceiv-ing the strange chieftain into their territory. It is possible that heIS represented kneeling merely for the sake of economizing space,since the attitude of a person advancing in rapid action left a gapnot otherAvise to be filled. Moreover, a greater degree of submissive-ness is justifiable or at any rate courteous on the part of those receiv-ing a guest.Mr Forstemann is quite correct in assuming, contrary to Mr Diesel-dorff's view, that the personage advancing from the right can onlybe a Avarrior. I would like to be more explicit and assert that he isa w^arrior chief. The common soldier among the Mexicans carriedthe maquauitl, the wooden sword with an edge of obsidian splinters.The chieftains, as figure 131 and other pictures in the Mendoza codexshow^, carried long pikes, which had at the point a bladelike expansionarmed with obsidian splinters. The common soldier among theMayas was armed with bow and arrows and the chief carried a longpike. In the passage which I cited in confirmation of the gesture ofsalutation these pikes which were carried by the Maya chiefs areexactly described. I will quote the description here, because it putsinto words precisely what we see in the Chama picture. The refer-ence is to the two leaders whom Canek, the chieftain of the Itzas,sent to Tipu in 1618 to meet the tAvo Franciscan monks, Bartholo-mew^ de Fuensalida and Juan de Orbita: " They carried pikes withblades of flint, quite aftel* the manner of ours, only that ours haveblades of steel, and they have at the base of the blade many feathersof bright and beautiful colors, just as our ensigns have tassels woundabout at the head. The blades are about one-fourth of an ell long, "In the same way the North American Indians hold out the riglit hand, palm upward,or raise botli hands empty, in sign of peace and friendship, while the Natchez, who metLa Salle's column in 1682, expressed the same idea by clasping- their hands together.See Garrick Mallery in First Annual Report. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 530 and 531. SELBK] THE VASE OF CHAMA 057Iwo-edged, and Avith points as sharp as a dagger j:)oint. The otherItzas carried bows and arrows, witliout which they nev^er ventureout of their town ''.With the view I hold in regard to the kneeling figure in ourpicture, e, I can not, of course, suppose the object which this personholds in his left hand and seems to be presenting to be a part of a firedrill. Owing to the indistinctness of the (h-awing I can not say whatit realh' represents.On the other hand, I can only regard as a misapprehension thestatement of Messrs Dieseldortf and Forstemann that the companionof the advancing chief {, figure 134,which I have also taken from a relief of Cozumalhuapa.I will not enter into the details of dress and ornament, but I willonly add that thereby the chief dignitaries of a tribe are evidentlycharacterized, of whom there W'Cre always four among the Kichesand other Guatemala tribes, distinguished by special titles. MrDieseldorff, in describing the black-painted figure (^/, j^late xlviii),mentions that he wears bound on the back of the head " a pointed,checkered cap, such as chief priests usually wore ". I do not remem-ber to have found this described anywhere as the dress of a " chiefpriest ", nor to have seen it anywhere. The object projecting fromthe back of the neck of the chief personage /, advancing from theright, which looks like a staff, I will not venture definitely to interpret.It may be connected in some way with the ear ornament or Avith theback bow of the neck ornament. The ear ornament is sometimes ofmonstrous size on the figures of Maya art, one of the deities in theMaya manuscripts having an entire bird as an ear peg.The glyphs still remain to be discussed. Messrs Dieseldorff andForstemann have numbered them as folloAA's, according to their orderin the picture : sr-i'EKl THE VASE OP CHAMA 661V21 662 BUREAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 L']yi)lis ill (jiK'stioii to take into consicleration, and if I could l)econvinced of the exclusively astronomic purport of the manuscriptsand of the myths of the Central Americans. But I think that all thepersonages, including /, exhibit so much i-ealism and local color thatwe can not rest content with mere astronomy. This realism is like-wise fully a])preciated by Mr P^orstemann.A certain analogy existing between the first person in the picturegiven al)ove in ((, figure 133, and /, plate xi.viii, of the vase picture,might admit of another explanation. The Maya races in (juatemala,as I have already shown in an earlier essay," were well acquaintedwith the Toltecs, the Yaqui-Vinak, and their god Quetzalcoatl. Inthe Popol Vuh the creative god is identified with (Tucumatz, thatis, Quetzalcoatl. and in one place he is actually called Ah-Toltecat,the Toltec. According to the traditions of the Guatemala tribes,as well as those of the Mayas of Yucatan, the ancestors of their racescame from Tula, the city of the Toltecs. In a most valuable treatiseupon the Toltec question Doctor StoU '^ calls attention to the greatpart which traveling Nahuatl merchants and the great hordes ofNahuatl nationality which crowded into these southern regions astraders and colonists must doubtless have played in Central America. ^s it not possil)le that the painting on our. vase illustrates the ap])ear-ance of one of these tribal hordes, represented by their deity, in themidst of the native Maya population? There is undoubtedly a cer-tain contrast between the figures on the right and those on the leftof the pictui'e. The arrangement and bearing of the different figuresin the two groups would seem entirely natural if we accept such asolution. Unfortunately, there is very little prospect of ever attain-ing positive knowledge in regard to questions of this sort. It isprincipally in Guatemala that we are very insufficiently or not at allinformed respecting the local traditions and myths of the varioustribes. Priests sent to Guatemala were forbidden by an absurddecree to teach Christianity to the Indians in their own language.Hence the jiriests took no interest in the language or in the traditionsof the natives, and the later discovery of such interesting documentsas the Popol Vuh can not wholly supply the absolute want of amediiun of interpretation. Unfortunately, a Sahagun did not arisefor the ancient races of Central America.In concluding these remarks I will add a few observations concern-ing the other vessels from Chama which Mr Dieseldorff has de-scribed. It is particularly worthy of notice that at least four of thevessels?the one first discussed, the one with the bat god (Verhand-lungen, 1894, plate xiii), and the two vessels shown in plate xvi, Ver- ? Verhandlungen, 1894, p. 578."Guatemala. Reisen und Schildenmgen aus den Jahren, 1878-1883, Leipzig, 1886,pp. 408 to 412. ?Kr>Eul THE VASE OF CHAMA 663haiidlungen, 1803?are proved by the style of the figures and glyphs,and especially by the pattern of decoration, to be allied to eachother and evidently to have been made in the same place. Theglyphs generally agree with the forms with which avc are familiarin the Maya manuscripts and on the reliefs of Copan and Palenquewithout enabling us to connect them more closely with any onemanuscript or relief. With regard to the figures, the god in thesnail shell, occurring on two vessels, maj^ at once be identified w^iththe god who is regent of 7 Ahau in the Perez codex. I sent adrawing of this god to Mr Dieseldortf, which is reproduced in hisfirst essay." I would, however, remark that tins god does not hold askull in his hand, but the head of the god with the proliferous nose,the god of increase and abundant water, whom I think I can identifywith Ah Bolon Tzacab. The god in the snail shell is the third in theseries of 20 deities in the Dresden manuscript. He has no directconnection with the old god, D of Schellhas's nomenclature. Thisputs an end to the speculations in regard to the moon and the north.The relations of this old god to the moon are at least very doubtful.A youthful god is represented on one of the two vei^sels, which arereproduced in volume 25 of the Verhandlungen, plate xvi. Theglyphs between the two ])ictui'es of the god in the upper half of thedecorated surface may be of value in determining this deity. Theseconsist of two rectangles, each containing two day ^igns. 'Jlie firstone, whch I have reproduced in r, figure 134, undoubtedly containsthe signs ben and ix." In the other, f/, the lower character iswith equal certainty meant for Caban, while the upper one is some-what more uncertain, but in my opinion it may, with tolerable ])r()b-ability stand for Cib. Now, as P>en and Ix both precede the charac-ter Men, Avhile Cib and Caban are the day signs immediately follow-ing it, it seems probable that the picture of the god between the tworectangles containing the glyphs is meant to represent or to expressthe sign Men, which is missing between the two pairs of day signs,as being a deity in some manner associated with it.Two rectangles containing glyphs occur on the other vessel, thatrepresented in plate xvi, which is decorated with the figure of the godin the snail shell. One rectangle, /, figure 134, contains the same ? Verhandlungen, 1893, p. 379, flg. 9. ^ Mr I>iese!dorCf originally read these ben-imix, or, with reference to the three dots inthe second sign, Imox. After receiving a communication from me he accepted my reading,p. 376 of the Verhandlungen for 1894. But when lie says there: " Ix, more correctlywritten hix {' jaguar ')"', I must observe that the Maya Ix corresponds to Iz or Hz ofthe Guatemalan tongue, and the latter means "magic", or "magician". lu the lattersense it may take the prefix ah, the sign of the masculine gender, which gives us ah-itz,and in Maya, hix. But tlie latter is by no means necessary, and indeed we more fre-quently find the Maya character written Ix and Mix. The day sign Yiz, Ix, or Ah-ltz, Ilixcorresponds in I'ipil to the character reyolloquani ("the magician"). The latter wordwas undoubtedly allied in the old Indian c()ncei)tion to te(iuani, another word for Ocelotl("jaguar"), the Mexican name for this day sign. 664 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2S signs Ben and Tx in reverse order. In the other, c, I think I recognizewithout a donbt the day sign ()c.I am still doubtful about the upper character. But if we could as-sume that the same connection between the picture and the glyphsexists here that T have just proved to exist on the other vessel, wemight read the upper character in e as Chuen, and we should thenhave in d Oc and Chuen, the two signs preceding Eb, in /, Ben and Ix,the two signs following Eb, and could therefore assume that thedeit}^ in the snail shell, who is twice repeated upon this vessel, isintended to represent or to express the day sign Eb. In that case weshould haA'e a very peculiar, hitherto unknown, form of the signChuen to deal with.A third god is the bat god, who is also represented on two of theDieseldorlf vases. In an earlier article ' I assembled what informa-tion I had at hand regarding this deity and pointed out that specialveneration was jjaid to it in Guatemala, among other places. I had atthat time only very cursorily seen the glyphs accompanying the pic-ture of the bat god on the Dieseldortf vase. Opportunity now being-afforded by the publication of the drawing to study them carefully, Istill consider the same reserve to be wise on m}' part which INIr Diesel-dortf uuiintains on his in regard to their interpretation. I will onlyremark that the picture of the bat, which is obvious in the glyph ofthe uinal Zotz and in the other glyphs reproduced there, does notappear here. If we designate the glyphs, as in plate xiii, volume 26of the Verhandlungen, by the numbers 1 to (> from above downward,then glyph 1 appears to me to be the principal one. It contains thecloud masses of the cauac sign, which also occur everywhere on thehead of the bat in the glyphs on the Copan stehw'' The second glyphmay contain the skull of the character Cimi. The third seems alliedto the sixth, and both seem to contain the character Kan. The fifthcontains the character Imix, together with another element, which,combined Avith Imix, occurs in another glyph on page 61 of the Dres-den manuscript. But I can offer no suggestion as to the actual mean-ing of all these glyphs.Mr Dieseldorif has rendered to science a conspicuous service by hiscareful and expert excavations and by the publication of their results.Had there been the same careful and thorough researches made inmany different localities of Mexico and Central America, we mightdecide with much more certainty the problems which now occupy ns,and we should more clearly comprehend the early history of theseinteresting ancient races. May Mr Dieseldorif be enabled to continuehis iuA'estigations and may equally active and e(iiially successfulworkers come forward in other places to increase our knowledge. ? Vorliandlungen, v. 26, 1894, pp. 577 and followins,^"Verhandlungen, v. 26, 1894, pp. 583, 584. 3UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 28, PLATE XLIX >; -";??>?, ofi. .if, ^y-<.i%-i>?m'77. pub-lished ill Zoitsclnift fiir Etlinolosie, 1S94, pt. G. 065 666 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28the bands of breath that shoot from his mouth as a symbol of sunsetand dawn. It seems to me certain that this does not mean wind, withAvhich force of nature this god has no connection, although I knowthat his glyph often occurs with Ben-Ik, which combination, however,refers to all birds, beasts, and gods whose life and dwelling is sup-posed to be the air.We may therefore regard the vampire god as the servant of death,the ruler of twilight.The god Cukulcan, ruler of air and light, and therefore of life,is represented in almost all the temple pictures and on the monolithsof Copan, sometimes with a human body, more frequently as a bird,also as a double snake. I will not at present enter more deeply intothe reasons which have led me to this decision because the subjectdeserves treatment in a special paper.Tlie glyphs belonging to the picture on this vessel aiford us nosolution, since we do not understand them; the centi'al glyphs of plat&a probably denotes the vampire god, since the dots appearing on theforehead remind us of the representations at Copan, where theyoccur in a similar manner. The central glyph of plate h occurs inthe Dresden codex, page Gl, at the bottom,I do not think that this clay vessel was prepared especially forburial, as I supposed in regard to the urns with a melon-shaped base.It seems to me rather to have served for religious purposes. NOTES AND EMENDATIONS BY DR EDUARD SELEROwing to the absence of Doctor Seler on an expedition to Mexicoand Central America during the period in which his papers weregoing through the press, the proofs could not be placed in his hands.On his return to Berlin, however, he kindly consented to prepare theaccompanying notes, in which are incorporated such corrections andadditions as he deemed most important : 1 (page 22, line 4). My suiiposition that the Jesuit astronomer Don CarlosSiguenza y Gongora was the first who brought up the theory of an intercalationof thirteen days at the end of each period of fifty-two years was an erroneousone. The same opinion had been stated before him by Jacinto de la Serna, theauthor of Manual de Ministros de Indies, who, too, relied on former authorities.It is quite probable that these were the same as those consulted by Siguenza.Nevertheless I have not been able to find a trace of a similar explanation fromthe contemporaries of Father Sahagun and his immediate successors.2 (page .34, line ?> from the bottom). 1 have lately changed my opinion inregard to the correspondence of colors and directions. I believe now that thecorrespondence given by Landa^that is to say, that yellow, red, white, andblack represent, resi:)ectively, south, east, north, and west?was the generallyaccepted one, but that Landa did not connect in the right way the colors andtheir directions with the different years. He ascribed the colors and the direc-tions to the yeai's next following their respective years, because in the last fivedays of a certain year the u-uuyeyab, or evil demon, of this year was taken tothe plaza of the village, and, after certain i)erformances had taken placeover him, was thrown out of the village in the direction appropriated to thenew year. Thus, for instance, the yellow demon of the south was set up in thelast five days of the Cauac, or soutliern, years, and thrown out of the village inthe direction east, appropriated to the new year, viz, the Kan year. Tlie pages30b and 29b, .Sid and .30d of the Troano codex, adduced by me in support of tlietheory I presented in my former paper, admit a different explanation. On theother hand, the very name given by Landa as designating the Ekel Ba and 2S of the Dresden codex, but the whole lower partsof these two pages, with the signs of north and south they contain, must bechanged, 667 668 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ET?INOLOGY [bfll. 284 (page ?)(>, line 14 from the bottom). The name, correctly spelled Ah holontz'acah. occnrs in corresponding places in the different l)ooks of the ChilamBalani.5 (page 55, line 0). Brinton, in his Native Calendai', drew attention to thefact that the name of this sign with the Yncatecs, us well as with the differentGuatemalan tribes, means " thunder storm ", " thunder and lightning ". In theZapotec language '* thunder and lightning " are rendered by the term laliaquiepaa queca quiepaa, " fire on the sky, water on the sky ", and the verb " itthunders " is given by ti api nica, ti api laa, " water comes down, fire coniesdown ". It may l)e that this very api, " to come down ", is to be supposed to becontained in the Zapotec name of the nineteenth day sign. Ape, Appe, Aape,fiappe. The turtle may be identified with the cloud or the thunder storm,because the carapace of the turtle was generally used as a drum. The thunderis the " big drum of the heavens."(J (pages ()S, line 10 from the bottom, and 117, line 5 from the bottom). Asto the region to which the Vienna manuscript and the allied codices belong Ihave changed my opinion. I believe now that they originated in the territo-ries bordering the Gulf coast, inhabited by the people that are designated in theAztec manuscrijjt of Father Sahngun as Olmeca Uixtotin Mixteca.7 (pages 95, line 2, and 112, line 3 from the bottom). The comparison withthe so-called relief tiles of Chiapas, preserved in the National Museum in theCity of Mexico, ought not to be taken into consideration, as these relief tilesseem to be a fraud.S (i)ages 157, line 27). The element generally explained as giving the ideaxocoyotl, "the younger", is the yacaxiuitl, "blue (or turquoise) nose orna-ment ". the particular badge of the soul of the dead warrior, as it is represented,for example, by the nuimmy bundle built up at the time of the feast Tititl. (SeeCodex Magliabecchiano, page 72, XIII, 3, edited by the Due de Loubat.) Thehieroglyph giving the name Motecuhzoma xocoyotzin is in fact designative of thesoul of the dead warrior or dead king, which may have been in some wayidentified by the Mexicans with the fire god. ( See my (Jesammelte Abhandlungenzur amerikanischen Sprach- und Alterthumskunde. 1!?U4, volume 2, p;iges 731 to73S and 742 to 745. ) !) (page 170. line 4). The figure in question is more correctly designatedTlauizcalpan Tecutli, " god of the morning star ". (See my paper on the VenusPeriod in Picture Writings of the Borgian Codex Group, pages 355 and follow-ing.) Camaxtli. the w:ir god of the Tlaxcaltecs, was, it seems to be beyond(juestion, a very near relative of the god of the morning star, wearing the samecolor of the body and the same facial painting as the morning star.10 (page 287, last line). The confrontation indicated in the text is not to betaken into consideration, as pages 1 and 2 of the Tonalamatl of the Aubin Col-lection seem to be a fabrication, attributable to Leon y Gama, the author ofthe well-known book Las Dos Piedras, or to one of his contemporaries.11 (page 293, line IG). It has become a matter of doubt to me whether thewords " corazon del pueblo " are in all cases to be identified with the MexicanTepeyollotl. There might be applied to it the more sinq)le meaning of " life ofthe sky" or "tribal god". As to the idol fetish of the town of Achiotla, thesculpture on its sui'face. described by Father Burgoa. points to the nameQuetzalcoatl, who, it seems, ought not to be iderdified offhand with Tepeyollotl.12 (page 312. line 28). I have of late become more doubtful regarding eventhe meaning and the origin of tliost* compounds of radiant eyes, and am nowinclined to i-etain for them the character of luminous objects in general andparticularly of stars, Doctor Preuss has lately ideutifieU them with the butter- SELEU] NOTES AND EMENDATIONS 669fly as an image of fire. This is in :\ certain way in-ovctl l)y tlio itarticnlar formwhich these radiant eyes assume on certain monuments of Mexican construction.(See the account of tlie quanlixicalli. " djsh for sacrificial l)loo(l ", of theNational JNInseuni in the City of Mexico in my (Jesannnelte Al)han(llun;:en zm-anierikanischen Sprach- und Alterthunislcinule, 10(14, volume 2. pa^e Nil.) linthere, too, the coincidence ini.uht he explained in a different way?that is to say,hy the supposition that the Mexicans by this form tried to transform the starsymbol, which, perhaps, was handed over to them by the astronomer-|)riests ofthe eastern tribes, into a symbol more in accordance with Mexican thought andMexican pictorial style. As to the true meaning of tliese eyes and the facesby which in fragments II to XI of our INIitla wall paintings the eyes arereplaced, it is an im]iortant fact that in fragment V the faces sui-rounded byeyes, which are seen looking down from the sky, are painted with the quincunx,the facial painting of the morning star. The interpretation I gave of theborder of which these eye-surrounded luminous faces form part, viz, that thisborder represents the eastern sky, is proved b>- this to be true.13 (page 342, line 2). The plain on which the houses of the village ofTepoxtlan are built is the bottom of a huge crater, the borders of which sur-round the plain on the north and south sides of the village.14 (page 344, line 8). On my recent trip to Mexico, in October and Novem-ber, 1904, I took the opportunity to visit Tepoxtlan, in order to make molds ofthe sculptures that adorn the walls of the cella. I there assured myself thatthe walls of the i)yramid are plainly visible from the village site, being dis-tinguished by their white color from the surrounding mountain crest.15 (page 340, line 5). On visiting Tepoxtlan I saw that it is not a pictui'e ofthe sun that is seen on the pillars walling the entrance to the cella, Iml thelower part of a huge glyph of the chalchiuitl, or green precious stone.16 (page 3(>(j, line 20). I was mistaken in assuming that the day sign ("ipactli.on page 25 of the Borgian codex, is placed beside the god C (figure 94 ?, who,by the striped white body coloring and the deep black i)ainting around theeyes, resembles Tlauizcaliian Tecutli," the divinity of the morning star. Itescaped my notice, when I first brought together the material handled in thisarticle, that on page 25 of the Borgian codex it is indicated by red lines in whatmanner the day signs are to be connected witli their corresponding figures.By these red lines the sign ('ipactli is appointed to the figure in the ujijiercorner on the right hand, who, by his long beard and general appearance,resembles the god E (figure !>4). This god is consequently to be consideredas the representative of the east, and the figure resembling TlauizcalpanTecutli, the divinity of the morning star, corresponds to the n(n'th. The latterfigure is, in fact, not the morning star represented in a special role. It isan image of Mixcuatl, the god of the chase, the god of the Chichimecs, whois not identical, it is true, with the morning star, but nuist be regarded asvery nearly related to him. I explained this more in detail in the revision ofthis article, published in my Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur anierikanischenSprach- und Alterthumskund(>. 1002. volume 1. pages (518 to (UiT, and in thefirst volume of my interpretation of the Borgian codex, 1004. pages 250 to 2t>5.IT (page 3(57, line 15). As 1 pointed put in the foregoing note, the god withthe heavy beard and eyebrows and the bicolored, half red. half black, facepainting, nuist be regarded as the lord of the first division, or the east: XipeTotec, consequently, as the lord of the third division, or the west, and Tlalocas the lord of the fourth division, or the south.18 (page 3(50, line 8). As to this point, too, I canu' recently to another inter-pretatiou. I believe now?and I explained these figures in this way in 670 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 volume 1 of my interpretation of the Borjiian codex?that the first two rowsof divinities are constructed with regard to the planet Venus as morning star,and consequently refer to the east ; but that the two latter I'ows are constructedwith regard to the evening star, and refer to the west. The east is the regionof the warriors, that is, of the sacrificed; the west, that of the women. Inthe first two regions we have, therefore, representations of sacrifice ; in thelatter two, representations referring to childbirth and nursing. The tearingout of the yellow stripe ending in flowers and precious stones I am inclined toconsider now as a figurative expression of childbirth, since It is very commonin Mexican figurative speech to allude to a newly born child by the names ofprecious feathers or precious stones.19 (page 309, last line). In conformity with the view expressed in the fore-going note, I am now inclined to accept the nursing of the female deitie-i simplyas that which it is, i. e., the nursing of a child?20 (page 371, line 25). I repeat that 1) and (/, figure 9.''>, as well as c and d,figure 94, represent not the morning star himself but the morning star in hisspecial role of hunting god and war god; that is to say, the god Mixcuatl, orCamaxtli.21 (page 389, line 25). I am now inclined to assume another correspondenceof these five spear-throwing gods with the five directions, supposing that eachof these divinities was allotted to the (luarter just opposite to that where livesthe demon at whom he throws the spear. On this supposition, the blaclc godwould occupy the region of the west, throwing his spear at the god of festivityin the east; this black god, consequently, would correspond to the god Xipe ofpage 25 of the Borgian codex. The red rain god of the second period, throwinghis spear at the jaguar in the north, would then own the region of the south andcorresi?ond to the rain god of the Borgian codex. The god with the animal face,w^ho throws his spear at the maize god, that is, to the west, must correspondinglybelong to the east and be identified with the god with the heavy beard andeyebrows and the bicolored, half red, half black, face who stands in the upperright corner of the page in the Borgian codex. And the warrior with the facepainting resembling that of the Mexican Tezcatlipoca, who throws his spearat the sun-bearer, the turtle, the symbol of the kings, must correspond to theChichimec god Mixcuatl of the Borgian codex, god of the north. The fifth andlast divinity is the god with the beady eyes, who, I said, must symbolize thelower region, or the earth. He throw^s his spear at the warrior, that is, theinhabitants of the upper world, of the heavens,- where the dead warriors go(see my interpretation of the Borgian codex, 1904, volume 1, pages 327 to 330). lE'DEX rage.Acalan, female deity worshippedin 81inhabitants of 70visited by Cortes 78Acalans, worsliip among 82Acatl (reed), JNIexican year sign__ 24,2.5, 26, 27, 33, 47Aehiotlan, holy city of Mixtecs 202-293idol at 202-293. 668oracle at 292Acompanados, the nine " lords ofthe night" 18Ahau, Maya day sign 26,27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 54Ahpiila. date of death of _ 332Akbal, Maya day sign 26, 33, .34, 35Alta Vera Paz, ancient inhabitantsof 101characteristics of 78Alva Ixtlilxochitl, .Tuan de, paperbelonging to 20Amatitlan, toothed vessels of 77Aml)ras, collection at castle of 59, 73Anales de Quauhtitlan, account oflight of planet Venusin .384-385ornaments asciibed to Quetz-alcouatl in 60Andagoya on dress in Nicaragua.- 612Antequera, settlement of 260Antiquities, Maya, comparativestudies of, paper on,by r. Schellhas 501-622no uniform type among. _ 621Zapotec, bearing of, on myth-ical conceptions 302-305Architecture in Guatemala 81Arm ornaments, Maya 606-607Atemoztli, Mexican feast 23Atlcaualco, as first month of Mexi-can year 139Aubin-Goupil collection, figure ofAxayacatI in 59, 60papers of Siguenza containedin 20shield in 64synopsis of, by E. Boban 60, 64Auitzotl. King, glyph of, in templeof Tepoxtlan 347AxayacatI, figure of, in Aubin-Goupil collection 60in war against Moquiuix 61Xipe dress worn by 62,63, 64, 65, 07, 60 Page.Azcapotzalco, Mexicans freed from,by Itzcouatl 61Bancroft, H. II., on Maya dress_ 602,603, 617Banner of AxayacatI and Bilimecwarriors 72Bastian, Adolph, on the " geo-grajjhical province". 266Bat god, corresponds to east 241cult of, limited to Maya andZapotec-Mixtec 235drawing of. sent by Dieseldorffto AnthropologicalSociety 233glyph of 238-241names of 234of the Maya, paper on, by Eduard Seler 233-241on vase excavated by Dies-eldorfr 241Beard, depicted in Maya manu-scripts 599-600in Mexico 658-659Becker, P. .T., Mixtec manuscriptsIn collection of 64Been, Chiapanec or Maya yearsign 24.26, 27, 33. 34, 85, 40, 47Benito, Fray, idol at Aehiotlan de-stroyed by 292-293Berendt. C. H.. books of ChilanBalam prepared by_ 27, 329on Lacandons 80Berlin Anthropological Society,drawing of paintedvessel sent to 87report of Dleseldorflf's workpublished by "8Bornal Diaz, on date of Cortf^s's en-trance into Mexico. _ 140on expedition of Cortes toHonduras 78, 79, .80on Zagoatan in Tabasco 81Bibliography, Maya 537-538Biblioteca Laurenziana, figure fromSahagun manuscriptin 132Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence,picture manuscriptin _ .59. 60. 72Bilimec collection, painting in 6(?.62, 63, 64. 65. 67Bill for provisions from Mizcpil-yauallan 196-200671 672 INDEX I'age.Bill of complaint, Indian 210-212Biologia Centrali-Americana 575Blood offering among Zapotecs 277Bolian, E.. synopsis of x\nl?in-Ooupil collection 1\V- '>0, 04Bolon Zacab, Maya god 34, 40, 008Bones, use of, in making imple-ments tiriSBoturini Bernaducci, CavaliereLorenzo. Museo Indi-ano of 128on fragments iii and iv ofIlximboldt collection. 170-1 7sSiguenza's papers in posses-sion of 20Boturini collection, fragments ofHumboldt collectionattributed to 100.100. 200. 217. 221. 227-228Bowditch. C. 1'., study of nativeAmerican writingpromoted bytranslation of papers on na-tive American writ-ing directed by loBowls, circular, of Amatitlan lloBradley, Chan Santa Cruz visitedby __. o:?:!Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbe.Landa manuscriptdiscovered 1iy 50]on blessing of the fields 43on dress of American In-dians 003on morning star 321Brinton, 1 ?. C. Irooks of CliilanBalam owned by 27Cbilan Balam pulilished by__ 320glyph on vessel reproducedby , 111on relation of glyphs tomeaning of word 517on sign Cauac_" 008Buildings, magnificence of, in Za-potec country 248Burgoa, Father, on harvest cere-mony at Quiecolani- 300on house of high priest atISIitla _ 249-252, 253-254, 255on human sacrifice amongZapotecs 277on idol at Achiotlan 292, 668on intercalary daj's 19on marriage of Mexican prin-cess and Zapotecking Cocijoeza 264on Mixtec cave burial 248on southern migration of Za-potecs 201on Zapotec expiation of sin-_ 278-280on Zapotec high priest 248on Zapotec priest pupils 277on Zapotec priests 275, 270Caban, Maya day sign 33, 50, 51, 52Cacique, office of, among theMayas 630 rage.Cahabon, characteristics and lan-guage of 88Calendar, Central American, in-vention of, ascribedto Toltecs ;'>27paper on, by E. FJirste-mann 515-519Maya, baffling points in 475dates of 402-407nature of 327significance of, in historicchronology, paper on,by Eduard Seler 325-337III 2 ; 13, 3d month,explanation of 477Mexican, origin in Zapoteccountry 55table illustrating^- 130Zapotec 36-54, 206-267, 268four sBclions of, referredto rain god 208-209initial days of four quar-ters according to 25Calendars. Central American 150Call! (house), Mexican year sign. 24,25, 26, 27, 33Camac.a, estate of Motecuhzoma- 155,157-15SCamaxtli, Tlaxcaltec war god 170,008, 670Campur, cave in. excavated bySapper S!>-90Canek, cacique of Peten, visitedby Cortes 7SCannilialism among Mexicans andZapotecs 278Cardinal points, colors for 31-33, 667glyphs for 27-35in Zapotec calendar 38symbol of 132-133Carrillo y Ancona, Crescentio, onvessel found atPuerto Progreso 108-100Castaneda, B., collection of 113Cauac, Maya glyph 53, 54. 668Maya year sign :_ 24,20. 27. 28. 33, 34, 35, 607Cave burial among Zapotecs andMixtecs 247-248Cazuelas, three-footed dishes 92Ceamay, cave in, excavated bySapper 90Chac, Maya god of rain and thun-der 22,31, 32, 34, 40, 46, 51, 52Clialca, subjugated by Motecuhzo-ma the elder 61Chalcatongo. cave of. burial placeof Mixtec kings 248Cliamfl. Maya ruins near 86. 87, 88two vases from, papers on, byDieseldorff, Seler,and Piirstemann 035-006Chan Santa Cruz, sacred city ofeastern Mayas 026,628, 629, 030, 633, 634 INDEX 678 Charencpy, (' iht de, vocjihularyby 50C'harnay, I)., sacrificial vesselsfound by, at MencheTinamit ,s:5vessels from Tabasco placedin Trocadero Museumby 90Chiapas, as an industrial center 110Lacandons in 80Chiatzam, collections from !)0Chibiras, Zapotec goddess 50Cbichen Itza, fall of 336-337ruins of 335Chilan Balani, books of, assign-ment of Maya yearto cardinal points in 27chronology in 330-331Initial day of Maya yearin 26nature of 329sixteenth Zapotec daysign in 49Chimalli stone from Cuernavaca_ 64Chimalpahin, on date of Cortes'sentrance into Mexico 140on death of Quauhtemoc 159-160on San Antonio PimentelTlauitoltzin 194Chinax, Chiapanec year sign 24Chixoy, valley of, ruins in 86Chols, characteristics and lan-guage of 81-83described by Dominican monks 82-83fate of 82location of 80Chronica de la S. Provincia delSantissimo Nombrede Jesus de Guate-mala, 1683 19Chronology, Maya, paper on, by E.Forstemann 473-489Mexican, early, contradictionsin 332-333how reckoned 134-1.39In early history 330paper' on, by EduardSeler 11-55peculiarities of 13Ciclografla Mexicana. lost workby Siguenza y Gon-gora 20Cipactli. Mexican day sign 25,26, 366, 369Civilization, degree of. in VeraPaz 110Central American, character-istics of 596-597source of 621-622Maya, modern 628-6.34relation of to Aztec civil-ization .540-.')43Mexican and Central Ameri-can, unity of 266-2747238?No. 28?05 43 Page. .f time 252061142271267, 3002644621235-237 Clavigero, on beginnincycleon intercalary daysCloaks used by MayasCoatI, Mexican day signCocij, Zapotec time period of 13daysCocijo, Zapotec god of rain, etcCocijoeza, marriage of, with Mexi-can princessCodex, Borgian, demon Xolotl inMexican chronology inpictures of bat god inrain god in 38,260-270Tezcatlipoca represented in __ 6Stiger dr\imskin in 67Xolotl represented in 65Codex, Boturini, glyph in 60Codex, Cortes, cardinal points in_ 28, 29, 31glyph in_ 52nineteenth Zapotec day signin 53Codex, Cozcatzin, figures in 60,61, 63, 64, 65, 67Codex. Dresden :black Cbac in 40celestial shields in 95computation from zero pointin 35-36computation of time in 20explanation of page 24 of 431-443pages 25 to 28 477pages 31a to .32a 455-461pages 46 to 50 387-389pages 51 to 58 and 71to 73 44.5-453pages 61 to 64 and 69to 73 409-422series of numbers, pages51 to 58 46.3-472glyphs in 31. 51, 52, 54, 438-443initial day of Mexican year in 26-27numbers and dates in 397-407numbers in 433-437page 24, astronomic problemoncopy oftenth Zapotec day sign ln_Codex, Fejervary, pictures of batgod inCodex, Mendoza, tribute of citiesof Mixteca inCodex, Perez, celestial shields in__computation of time inCodex Telleriano-Reniensis. begin-ning of time cycle infigure of member of .laliscotribe inmarriage of Mexican princesswith Cocijoeza inMexican flag festival inseventeenth Zai>olec day sign 431432452351449521 264i:!l Tepeolotlec in. .50291 674 INDEXPage.Codex, Troano, animal traps in 53black Chac in 40colors for cardinal points in 32glyphs in 30, 51, 52inversion of true order ofglyphs In 33Codex Vaticanus A, Mexican flagfestival in 131seventeenth Zapotec day signin 50Tezcatlipoca represented in 50war dress in 61-62Codex Vaticanus B, demon Xolotlin 46pictures of hat god in 235rain god in cardinalpoints in 38Codex, Vergara, village statisticsin 201, 202, 206Codex, Vienna, cited 48region of 668Cogolludo, on length of Katun 329on Maya dress 602,609,611on second Zapotec day sign 40Collars, Maya 613-617Commandments, Ten, and Creed,in fragment XVI ofHumboldt collection 221-227Congress of Americanists at Ber-lin, exhibit of Hum-boldt collection at__ 128Constellations, Mexican, relation ofto cardinal points __ 356-358Cooking, importance of amongMexicans 214Copa piti\o, Zapotec name ofordinary priests 276Copan, arcliitecture at 81Chorti near 81excavations near 77prosperity of 82Copenhagen, museum at, clay ves-sel fiom Peten In 83clay vessel from Tabascoin 83Coqui-CiHa, Zapotec deity 284, 285, 286Coqui-Nij, Zapotec deity 285Coqui-Xee, Zapotec deity 284, 285, 286Cordova, Juan de. on animals inZapotec calendar 43on human sacrifice among Za-potecs 278on Zapotec calendar 37on Zapotec day signs 271, 272-273on Zapotec expiation of sin 278on Zapotec omens 42on Zapotec religion 284on Zapotec time signs 267Zapotec calendar recorded ingrammar of 36Zapotec language taken up by 41Cortes, agreement on dates of, inMexico 140-144expedition of, to Honduras,1525 78-79on Zagoatan in Tabasco 81 Page.Coslahan tox, demon of theTzental-Zotzil 43Cozilana, Zapotec creation deity __ 288Cozcaquauhtli, Mexican day sign_ 25, 48, 49Creation, god and goddess of 286-289Mixtec legend of 289-290Creed and Ten Commandments Infragment XVI ofHumboldt collection^ 221-227Cr, 277-278in Mexico__ 174. 278, ;{67 -.369. 370Sahagun, B., de, on beginning ofMexican year 22on Cipactli .30on date of Cortt5s's entranceinto Mexico 140on intercalary days 18-19on last five days of Mexicanyear 16,17on Mexican astronomy 355-356,357, 358on Mexican feather orna-ments 71, 74on ornaments of Quetzal-couatl 60on Quetzalcouatl 316-317on tlaca-xolotl 94on war dress 61shield in manuscript of 64Saint Katharine of Siena, con-fused with goddessPinopiaa 301SalamS, tradition regarding 112Salinas de los Nueve Cerros,pottery, etc., frommound at 86ruins of 86San Cristobal de Chiapas, Zotzilsettled near 233San Francisco Teuetzquititzin,Diego de, head andglyph of l(i8, 173Sjint.a liiicia Cozumalhuapa, mon-uments of 112relief slab of, deity on__ 312.668-669sculpture from, in Royal Mu-seum 94Santa Marfa Nanacaclpactzin,Luis de, death, in1565, of 160Sapper, Karl, contribution to Cen-tral American arche-ology by 537-538example of 121excavations by, at La Cueva. 103at Panquip 107in Alta Vera I'az 78on caves in eastern Qu'eckchiregion 88-90on Choi language In Cahabon. 88on Chols and Chorti 81on (luatemalan millstones 90-91on I-acandons 80,82,83on ruins In Chixoy vjilley 86Sarg, F. C.. Ouateinabin antiqui-ties collected by 77Savillc. M. IL. Maya bibliographyby 5.37report on pyramid of Te-poxtlan by 343-344Scaraba-us. Egyptian. In collectionof Sociedad Econi'un-ica 77 680 INDEX Pase.Schellhas, Paul, on Dieseldorflf'spaper on pottery vasefrom Chama 645on glyph of month Kayab 42Hon Rlyph of snail 429on frlyphs for cardinal points- 31on Maya day s'ods 560on Maya glyph of Caban 565studies of Maya glyphs liy 502-508Schultz-Sellack, on cardinal points 27.29, 31, 32Segura de la Frontera. Sec Ante-quera.Seler, Eduard. contribution toCentral Americanarcheology by 538contribution to Maya studiesof 506on beginning of years in Dres-den codex 477on Maya day gods 550on relation of sea snail todeities of death 428Serpent as Maya year symbol 477-478Shield in Sahagun manuscript 04Shoe vessel, from Quiche territory 110in Sarg collection 01Sickness, eruptive, epidemic of 334Slguenza y Gongora, Carlos, fateof papers of 20on intercalary days 22, 667Skin, human, drawing of 173Snail, tortoise and, in Maya litera-ture 423-430Sociedad Economica, (iuatemalanantiqtiities belongingto 77Soldiers, Maya and Mexican, de-scription of 656-657Solstice, summer, assigned byMayas to tortoise 423-427winter, assigned by Mayas tosnail 423, 427Spaniards, appearance of, in Yuca-tan, date of 33,3-334Mexican glyphs of 105Standard for feather ornament 66-67Star, morning, divinity of 360-363,366, 382worship of, iii Mexico 358-360symbols, Maya 504Stars, worship of, in Mexico 358Stephens, ,T. L., cited 547on tortoise on monument atCopan 427Stoll, Otto, on Indian burialmounds in (Juate-mala 77on Lacandons 80on Nahuatls in Central Amer-ica 662on SalamS 112on uniformity of religiousideas 275Stones, precious, among the Mexi-cans 150 Page.Strange, Chan Santa Cruz visitedby 633Strebel, glazed fragments found atZoncuautla by 109on varnished vessel of .Taina_ 117vessel from region of Atoto-nilco and Quimistlanin collection of 109Stuttgart Museum, Mexican shieldsin 182-183Sun, eclipse of, Zapotec ideas re-garding 300god, Kinieh Ahau, heads of 99-101worship in Mexico and Cen-tral America 295-296of Lacandons 82Tabasco, as commercial center 110female deity worshiped in 81traffic with Acalan 78Tablets, red pottery, in Sapperand Dleseldorff col-lections 101Tahitza 79Tattooing in Maya inscriptions 600-601Tecpatl, Mexican year sign 24,25, 26, 27, 33, 52Tehuantepec, idol near 293intercalary days in year of 19oracle near 293Tenanco, chieftain of, in fragmentI of numl)oldt col-lection 145Tenochca, Tlatelolca conqueredby 61Tenochtitlan, war with Tlatelolco- 61Teotlhuacan, pyramids of sun andmoon at 296Teotitlan del Camino, worship ofXipe at 296-297Teotitlan del Valle, buildings at__ 298-300idol and oracle at 296-298Teotleco, twelfth feast of INIexicanyear 59Tepeolotlec, Zapotec god 291-294,668Tepoxtecatl, god worshiped atTepoxtlan 349-352glyph of 350images of .350-352Tepoxtlan, history of 342-343location of 341-342,669temple pyramid of, date of 347deity worshiped at 347-352description of 344-347, 669paper on, by EduardSeler 339-352Teteo innan. Mexican earth god-dess 130Tezcatlipoca, feather basket wornby 67forms of 68-69god of the Chalcas 59, 670Mexican god who eradicatessin 281Tezcuco, palace at 190-191plan of 190-192, 196popiilation of 192 INDEX 081Page.Tezontepec, places of that name inMexico 188I'ezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana of,Mexican astron-omy in__ 355,356,357,358Motecuhzoma's armor in_ 69war dress in 61, 62Thomas, Cyrus, aclinowledgment to 10cited l'!). 266, 411, 418,406, 407. 501, 527, 548, 596signs of cardinal points inter-preted hy 501Time, computation of, in Mexico__ 15Time periods of the Mayas, paperon, by E. Forste-mann 401-498Time unit of 20 days, Mexican 13dedication of 16Tititl, Mexican feast 23Tizoc, Tizocic, glyphic representa-tion of 156Tlacauepan, brother of Motecuh-zoma the younger 62Tlacaxipeualiztli. Mexican feast__ 23, 132Tlacotzin, glyphs of 164-165Tlaelquani, Mexican earth god-dess as eradicator ofsin 281Tlaloc, ^Mexican rain, thunder, andmountain god 22, 129, 669Tl.iltelolco. conference to decidebeginning of year at_ 22conquered by Tenochca 61Moquiuix, king of 60war with Tenochtitlan 61Tlauitol family in Tezcuco 104-195Tlauitoltzin, San Antonio Pimen-tel, Chimalpahin on_ 194Poniar on 194-195Sahagun on 194Torquemada on 104Tlauizcalpan Tecutii, as synonymof Coqui-X&e, Coqui-Cilla 286, 669Tlaxcala, clay vessel found near. 64Toditli, Mexican year sign 24,25, 26, 27, 33, 44Toci, Mexican earth goddess 129, 131Tollan, legend cycle of 60Toltecs, jmtiquity of 327explanation of 542identified with Quiches inPopul Vuh 234Tonacaciuatl, Mexican creationgoddess 286Tonacatecutli, Mexican creationgod 286Tonalamatl, as horoscope 532Central American, paper on,by E. Forstemann__ 525-533Maya name of 14Maya, divisions of ?'>27origin of 494Mexican time period 14, 134referred by Zapotecs to car-dinal points 26* Page.Tonalamatl, represented in Aubln-(ioupil collection 64Tonantzin, Maya goddess 48, 50, 51Torquemada, .Tuan de, on inter-calary days 10on temples at Mltla 240Tortoise and snail in Maya liter-ature 423-430In Codex Cortesianus 423-426in Troano Codex 426Trade, pottery distributed by 107-109Trading expeditions. Mexican, intoZapotec country 2.58-259Treaty with Mayas in 1853 626Trocadero Museum, vessels fromTabasco in 00Tzimin-Chac, Itzaex idol, god ofthunder and light-ning 45Tzinacantan, Guatemala 233Uaxtec cap <(7, 71Uaxtepec, " Jardin d'accllmation "of Mexican kings 171I'axyacac, settled by Mexicans un-der elder Motecuh-zoma 261Uexotzinco. enterprise against 62T'eza-eche, Zapotec name of ordi-nary priests 276T^hde. collection of, Royiil Mu-seum of Ethnology- 64Mrs Nuttall's views defendedby -___ 60on Mexican feather orna-ment 71, 72on standard of feather orna-ment 66Uija-tao, Zapotec high priest 248, 275I'itzilopochtli. Mexican god ofwar 131Mexican tribal god. head-dress of 50shield of 181-182Uixachtepec, periodic fire on 20Usumacinta, sacrificial vessels ofthe 77,83Utensils in Maya inscriptions 620T'uayayab, Maya demon of evil 17Valentini. P. .T. .T.. cited .50,540,548Vampire god. Maya 665-666Vase, pottery, with figure paint-ing, from a grave inChama. paper on. byE. P. nifseldorff 6.39-645Vase of Chama, paper on, by E.Fiirstemann 64 7-650paper on, by Eduard Seler? 651-664resemblance of, to DresdenCodex, i)age 60 647Venus, planet, glyph of 371-373human sacrifices to 370light of .38.3-386Mexican observations of. 363-367,375-384revolution of, length of.- 496worship of. In Mexico ? 358 682 INDEXPage.Venus period, analogies betweenMaya and Mexicanmanuscripts regard-ing 376-382assignment of, to five cardinalpoints 367compared with solar year 389-391initial days of, table of 374paper on, by Eduard Seler... 353-391relation of, to tonaIamatl_ 365-367, 386Vessel with vampire-headed deity,Dieseldorff on 665-666Vessels, glazed 107, 110Guatemalan, at American His-torical Exhibition __ 77juglike, in Sapper collection-- 92of the Maya type 77representing toad and monkey,in Sarg collection __ 108sacrificial 8.3-85sketcnes of, from Castanedacollection 113-121toothed, obtained by Sarg inNebah 110Vienna, Mexican feather orna-ment in museum at- 59Villagutierre y Sotomayor on Que-hache (Mazatlan) __ 79-80Votan, Chiapanec year sign 24Mexican god 4.5Tzental god 294-295Vues des Cordillferes, by Hum-boldt, fragments IIand VI of Mexicanpicture writings in-- 127-128Wall paintings at Mitla 256-257explanation of 306-324importance of 324paper on, by EduardSeler 243-324Wesselhoeft, Selma, papers trans-lated by 10V>'hip, use of, in Central America- 657Wilken, Friedrich, on Mexican pic-ture writing in Hum-boldf collection 127Worship of Acalans, Lacandons,and Chols 82-83Xahila. Zotzil traditions in 233Xipe, red god, Mexican 132,669,970of the Yopi, dress of- 61, 62, 63, 67forms of 68-69shield of 63-64,66,67Xiuhtecutli, Mexican fire god ISXochitl, Mexican day sign 35, 36, 54Xochiquetzal, goddess 50Xolotl, Mexican and Zapotec god- 4665-66, 74,94-95, 118 Page.Year, Maya, assigned to cardinalpoints 27beginning of 446last five days of 17length of 402symbols of 477-489Mexican, assigned to cardinalpoints 24beginning of. variatiotisin .' 21-24,26first month of 139-140initial day of 14, 25intercalary days in 18-21last five days of 15-18length of 14, 15named from initial days- 15names of 136-1.39table illustrating 137ritual, Maya 447Year signs, Chiapanec 24in Yucatan 24Mexican 24Y'ears, order of 33period of 24, Maya computa-tion of 476Yokes, stone, in Royal Museumfrom Seebach collec-tion 111Yucatan, belief regarding theBalam in 52frontier tracts near, charac-teristics of 78-79independent Indian states of,geography of 63.3-634paper on, by Karl Sapper- 623-634last five days of year In 16-17Zacatlan, chieftain of, in fragmentI of Humboldt col-lection 145Zapotec country, ancient 258-265authority of Mexicans in- 260estate of Cortes in 265isolation of 258Mexican conquests in 261-264settlement of Mexicansin '259Zapotecs, deities and religiousconceptions of 284-305relation of, to Mexicans andMayas 266submission of, to Cortes 264-265Zero point, among Cakchikels 35among Mayas 35days reckoned by Mayas from_ 35Zotz. Maya for bat 233name of Maya time period 237Zotzihia, " bafs house "' 234Zotzil, tribes so uamed 233o ^