242 CENTRAL AMERICAN PICTURE-WRITING. 
We can often know that two chiffres are alike when one is in a far bet- 
ter state of preservation than the other. Hence we may select for study 
that one in which the lines and figures are best preserved; or from sev- 
eral characters known to be alike, and of which no one is entirely perfect, 
we may construct with accuracy the type upon which they were founded. 
In this case the hieroglyph 2020 is well preserved (see the right-hand 
side of Plate LVI, Fig. 48, the upper left-hand glyph). It consists of 
a human hand, with the symbol of the sun in it; above this is a sign 
similar to that of the Maya day Ymix ; above this again, in miniature, is 
the rebus “snake plumage” or Cukulcan ; and to the left of the hiero- 
glyph are some curved lines not yet understood. No. 2003 of the same 
plate is also well preserved. It has the hand as in 2020, the rebus also, 
and the sign for Ymix is slightly different, being modified with a sign 
like the top of a cross, the symbol of the four winds. The symbol Ymix 
may be seen, by a reference to Plate X XVII (lower half) of the MS. 
Troano, to relate to the rain. The figure of that plate is pouring rain 
upon the earth from the orifices represented by Ymix. The cross of the 
four winds is still more plain in Nos. 2072, 3084, and 3072. 
The part of this symbol 2020 and its synonyms which consists of curved 
lines occupying the left hand one-third of the whole chiffre occurs only in 
this set of characters, and thus I cannot say certainly what this particu- 
lar part of the hieroglyph means; but if the reader will glance back over 
the last one hundred lines he will find that these chiffres contain the 
rebus CUKULCAN, the sign of a hwman hand, of the sun, of the rain, and 
of the four winds. 
In BANCROFT’S Native Races, vol. iii, chapter vii, we find that the 
titles of QUETZALCOATL (CUKULCAN) were the air, the rattlesnake, 
the rumbler (in allusion to thunder), the strong hand, the lord of the 
four winds. The bird symbol exists in 2021, ete. Now in 2020 and its 
congeners we have found every one of these titles, save only that relating 
to the thunder. And we have found a meaning for every part of the 
hieroglyph 2020 save only one, viz, the left-hand one-third, consisting 
of concentric half ellipses or circles. It may be said to be quite proba- 
ble that the unexplained part of the sign (2020) corresponds to the un- 
used title, “the rumbler.” But it is not rigorously proved, although 
very probable. The thunder would be well represented by repeating 
the sign for sky or heaven. This much seems tome certain. The sign is 
but another summing up of the attributes and titles of CUKULCAN. 2021 
gave his portrait, his bird symbol, made allusion to his institution of 
the sacrifice of wounding the tongue, and spelled out his name in rebus 
characters. 2020 repeats his name as a rebus and adds the titles of 
lord of the four winds, of the sun, of rain, of the strong hand, etc. It is 
his biography, as it were. 
In this connection, a passing reference to the characters 1810, etc., 
1820, ete., 1830, ete., 1840, ete., 1850, ete., of the left-hand side of Plate 
LVI should be made. Among these, all the titles named above are to 
be found. These are suitable subjects for future study. 
