Chapter XI

COMPARISON OF THE SIGNS OF THE MAYA MONTHS (LANDA) WITH THE TABLETS.

We have a set of signs for Maya months and days handed down to us by LANDA along with his phonetic alphabet. _A priori_ these are more likely to represent the primitive forms as carved in stone than are the alphabetic hieroglyphs, which may well have been invented by the Spaniards to assist the natives to memorize religious formulæ.[243-*]

BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG has analyzed the signs for the day and month in his publication on the MS. _Troano_, and the strongest arguments which can be given for their phonetic origin are given by him.

I have made a set of MS. copies of these signs and included them in my card-catalogue, and have carefully compared them with the tablets XXIV and LVI. My results are as follows:

PLATE XXIV (our Fig. 60).

No. 42 is the Maya month _Pop_, beginning July 16.
No. 54 is _Zip_??, beginning August 25.
No. 47 is _Tzoz_??, beginning September 14.
No. 57 is _Tzec_? beginning October 4.
No. 44-45 is _Mol_?, beginning December 3.
No. 39 is _Yax_, _Zac_, or _Ceh_, beginning January 12, February 1,
February 21, respectively.

PLATE LVI (our Fig. 48).

No. 1804 is _Uo_????
No. 1901 is _Zip_????
No. 1816 is _Tzoz_??
No. 1814 is _Tzec_?
No. 1807 is _Mol_?
No. 1855 is _Yax_, _Zac_, or _Ceh_.
No. 1844 is _Mac_?

The only sign about which there is little or no doubt is No. 42, which seems pretty certainly to be the sign of the Maya month _Pop_, which began July 16.

No. 39, just above it, seems also to be _one_ of the months _Yax_, _Zac_, or _Ceh_, which began on January 12, February 1, and February 21, respectively. Which one of these it corresponds to must be settled by other means than a direct comparison. The signs given by LANDA for these three months all contain the same radical as No. 39, but it is impossible to decide with entire certainty to which it corresponds. It, however, most nearly resembles the sign for _Zac_ (February 1); and it is noteworthy that it was precisely in this month that the greatest feast of TLALOC took place,[244-*] and its presence in this tablet, which relates to _Tlaloc_, is especially interesting.

In connection with the counting of time, a reference to the bottom part of the _chiffre_ 3000 of the Palenque cross tablet should be made. This is a _knot_ tied up in a string or scarf; and we know this to have been the method of expressing the expiration and completion of a cycle of years. It occurs just above the symbol 3010, the _chiffre_ for a metal.

An examination of the original stone in the National Museum, Washington, which is now in progress, has already convinced me that the methods which I have described in the preceding pages promise other interesting confirmations of the results I have reached. For the time, I must leave the matter in its present state. I think I am justified in my confidence that suitable methods of procedure have been laid down, and that certain important results have already been reached.

I do not believe that the conclusions stated will be changed, but I am confident that a rich reward will be found by any competent person who will continue the study of these stones. The proper names now known will serve as points of departure, and it is probable that some research will give us the signs for verbs or adjectives connected with them.

It is an immense step to have rid ourselves of the phonetic or alphabetic idea, and to have found the manner in which the Maya mind represented attributes and ideas. Their method was that of all nations at the origin of written language; that is, pure picture-writing. At Copan this is found in its earliest state; at Palenque it was already highly conventionalized. The step from the Palenque character to that used in the Kabah inscription is apparently not greater than the step from the latter to the various manuscripts. An important research would be the application of the methods so ably applied by Dr. ALLEN to tracing the evolution of the latter characters from their earlier forms. In this way it will be possible to extend our present knowledge materially.

FOOTNOTES:

[225-*] The Life Form in Art, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., vol. xv, 1873, p. 325.

[233-*] From KINGSBOROUGH, vol. i, plate 48, it appears that TLACLI TONATIO may have had four hands. His name meant (?) Let there be light.

[237-*] See KINGSBOROUGH, vol. ii, Plate I, of the LAUD MS.

[243-*] Since this was written I have seen a paper by Dr. VALENTINI, "The LANDA alphabet a Spanish fabrication" (read before the American Antiquarian Society, April 28, 1880), and the conclusions of that paper seem to me to be undoubtedly correct. They are the same as those just given, but while my own were reached by a study of the stones and in the course of a general examination, Dr. VALENTINI has addressed himself successfully to the solution of a special problem.

[244-*] See BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, _Histoire du Mexique_, vol. i, p. 328.

Index

Allen, Dr Harrison 208, 225, 238, 245

Bancroft, H. H., Huitzilopochtli, description of 231
, Maya hieroglyphics, mode of reading 223

Band, G. H. 229

Braam, S. A. van 229

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C. E. 208, 210, 243, 244

Card catalogue of hieroglyphs 223

Chalchihuitlicue 237

Codex Telleriano Remensis 243

Copan, Statues of 207, 224, 227, 228, 229, 245

Cortez, H. 209

Cuculkan. (_See_ Quetzalcoatl.)

Deciphering, Principles of 207

Desaix, le Capitaine 210

Herrera 232

Hieratic art 210

Hieroglyphs 210
are read in a certain order 223

Huitzilopochtli 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238, 239, 241

Kingsborough, Lord 210

Landa, Bishop 208, 243

Landa's hieroglyphic alphabet 208

Leemans, Dr 229

Leon y Gama 232

Lockwood, Miss Mary 224

Manuscript Troano 234

Miclantecutli 229, 232

Months, their hieroglyphs 243

MS. Troano 234

Müller, J. G., Mexican gods 232

Naolin 230

Nomenclature 211, 220

Palenque, Statues of 207, 224, 237-239, 245

Quetzalcoatl 230, 237, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243

Rau, Dr 221

Stephens, John L. 207-210

Teoyaomiqui 229

Tetzcatlipoca 230

Tlaloc 229, 230, 231, 233-239, 241, 244

Torquemada 232

Touatihu 230

Troano, Manuscript 234

Valentini 243

Variank 208

Waldeck 210, 243

Transcriber's Note

TN-1 209 cotemporaries should read contemporaries
TN-2 210 the the should read the
TN-3 220 Maya day should read Maya day.
TN-4 225 coindences should read coincidences
TN-5 227 Synonomous should read Synonymous
TN-6 230 Cuculkan should read Cukulcan
TN-7 231 blue globe. should read blue globe."
TN-8 232 Tezcatlipoca should read Tetzcatlipoca
TN-9 Fig. 55 Huitzilopochtli should read HUITZILOPOCHTLI
TN-10 237 pertend should read pretend

The following word was inconsistently spelled:

Labphak / Labphax

The following phrase had inconsistent use of italics and capitalization:

_MS. Troano_ / _Ms. Troano_ / MS. _Troano_