240 CENTRAL AMERICAN PICTURE-WRITING. 
This cross-hatching occurs in Plate I. In the six tassels below the 
waist, where the cross-hatching might indicate the serpent skin, notice 
the ends of the tassels ; these are in a scroll-like form, and as if rolled or 
coiled up. In Plate IV they are the same, naturally. So far there is 
but little light. 
In Plate IV, just above each wrist, is a sign composed of ellipse and 
bars; a little above each of these signs, among coils which may be ser- 
pent coils, and on the horizontal line through the top of the necklace 
pendant, are two surfaces cross-hatched all over. What do these mean? 
Referring to Plate I, we find, in exactly the same relative situation, the 
forked tongue and the rattles of the crotalus. These are, then, synonyms, 
and the guess is confirmed. The cross-hatching means serpent-skin. 
Is this always so? We must examine other plates to decide. 
The same ornament is found in Plates IX, XIV, XVI, XVIII, XIX, 
XX, XXI, XX XV (of STEPHENS’), but its situation does not allow us 
to gain any additional light. 
In Plate XII (STEPHENS’) none of the ornaments below the belt will 
help us. At the level of the mouth are four patches of it. Take the 
upper right-hand one of these. Immediately to its right is a serpent’s 
head; below the curve and above the frog’s (?) head are the rattles. 
Here is another confirmation. In Plate XVIII I refer the cross-hatch- 
ing to the jaw of the crocodile. In Plate XXIII have numbered the 
chiffres as follows: 
4201 4202 4203. 4204. 
4211 4212 4213 4214, 
* * * * 
* * * * 
* * * * 
4311 4312 4313 4314. 
4204 has the cross-hatching at its top, and to its left in 4203 is the ser. 
pent’s head. The same is true in 4233-4. In 4264 we have the same 
symbol that we are trying to interpret; it is in its perfect form here and 
in No. 1865 of the Palenque series. In the caryatides of Plate XXIV 
(Fig. 60) the cross-hatching is included in the spots of the leopard’s skin; 
in the ornaments at the base, in and near the masks which they are sup- 
porting, it is again serpent skin. Take the lower mask ; its jaws, forked- 
tongue, and teeth prove it to be a serpent-mask, as well as the ornament 
just above it. In Plate LX (Fig. 59) itis to be noticed that the leopard 
spots are not cross-hatched, but that this ornament is given at the lower 
end of the leopard robe, which ends moreover in a crotalus tongue 
marked with the sign of the jaw (near the top of this ornament) and of 
the rattles (near the bottom). This again confirms the theory of the 
rebus meaning of the cross-hatching. In Plate XXIV (Fig. 60) the cross- 
hatching on the leopard spots probably is meant to add the serpent 
attribute to the leopard symbol, and not simply to denote the latter. 
Thus an examination of the whole of the material available, shows that 
the preceding half of the hieroglyph 2021 and its congeners is nothing 
