1893.] oi-O [Brinton. 



Day. Symbol. Hieratic Significance. 



6. Death. Child-bearing, children. 



7. Deer. Hunting. 



8. Rabbit, seed. Agriculture. 



9. Water, rain. Illness (or, productiveness). 



10. Dog. Hardsliip and suflering (success through them). 



11. Monkey. Difficulties surmounted. 



12. Broom, teeth. Loss, evanescence. 



13. Reed. Cold, drought, advancing years. 



14. Tiger. Learning, wisdom. 



15. Eagle, bird. Knowledge, skill. 



16. Vulture, owl. Old age, misfortunes. 



17. Motion. Debility, failing powers. 



18. Flint knife. War, death. 



19. Lightning. Sickness, destruction. 



20. Sun. The house of the soul. 



All examination of this sequence here exhibited, which is in 

 the main accurate, though doubtful in some specifications, re- 

 veals that it was intended to cover the career of human life, 

 from the time of birth until death at an old age. 



The individual emerges from the womb of his mother and the 

 parturient waters, as did the earth from the primeval ocean ; he 

 receives breath and with it life, which is supported by repose 

 and food. The man reproduces his kind ; the woman, at the risk 

 of death, brings her child into the world. The chase and tilling 

 the ground are the leading occupations of peace, and he who 

 holds firm through illness, suffering and hardships, will gain the 

 prizes of life. Having reached the acme of his career, the de- 

 cline commences. Losses multiply, years increase, and though 

 knowledge and wisdom are augmented, old age comes on apace 

 with failing powers, with vanquished struggles, with sickness 

 and death; until at last, its course run, its task completed, the 

 soul quits the worn-out body and soars to its natural haven and 

 home, the abode of the Sun. 



Such, it seems to me, without any straining, is the philosophi- 

 cal conception of life which was intended to be conveyed by the 

 symbols of this strange old Calendar. They may not have 

 originated contemporaneously with it ; certainl}^ not, if it was 

 primarilj' deduced from astronomical observations ; but quite 

 probably, if, instead of this, it was built on terrestrial relations 

 and mythical concepts. 



PKOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXI. 142. 2 N, PRINTED DEC. 7, 1893. 



