30 BUREAU OF AMJ:RICAN ethnology [bull. 28 



(/, same figure), and which, as comparison with other glyphs shows, 

 denotes "green tree'' (yax). In r/, figure 1, the element kin i.s 

 combined with the glyph of the twentieth day sign, which is in 

 Ma3'a called Ahau. Ahau, abbreviated ah, means "the lord", "the 

 king". The word is connected with a verb ah, which means "to rise 

 up", '"to awake", "to rise"; ahal-ik, "the wind rises"; ahal-cab, 

 "the world wakes" (the day breaks); ahi cab, "from the beginning 

 of the world". This gl3'ph should therefore be read ahal-kin, "'the 

 sun rises," and this is equivalent to likin, the true Maya expression 

 for the cardinal point of the east. 



In c, figure 1, on the other hand, the element kin is combined with 

 another, which serves as the glyph of the seventh da}^ «ign, in Maya 

 called Manik, which corresponds to the Mexican mazatl, "deer". 

 The element represents a hand with the four fingers curved toward 

 the thumb. I have already explained this in my essay on the Character 

 of the Aztec and Maya manuscripts (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, volume 

 20, page 65), but at that time I was uncertain as to its true signifi- 

 cance. It is sign language for "to eat"". When we traveled in 

 Huaxteca, a district inhabited in old times and down to the present 

 day by a nation whose language shows them to be nearly akin to the 

 Mayas of Yucatan, the invitation to eat, Vamos a comer, was invari- 

 ably accompanied l)y a gesture in which the hand, bent in the style of 

 the glyph Manik, was re])eatedly carried to the mouth. This symbol 

 was taken as the glyph for Manik, "'deer", because the deer was 

 regarded as "meat" Kar e^oxTjv^ "that, which is eaten". In Maya 

 "to bite", "to eat", and "'to be bitten", "to ))0 eaten", is chi. The 

 glyph c would accordingly be read chikin, and this is well known to 

 be the Maya word for the cardinal point west. 



The other two glyphs of the cardinal points, h and d^ figure 1, are 

 not phonetically constructed. In d we have the same element that 

 we have already seen in /, l\ and /, the glyphs Yax and Yaxkin, and 

 which, as I stated, denote "tree". We see it here surrounded by 

 figures which are to be explained as smoke or fire. Therefore d^ 

 figure 1, must be the region of fire, the south. Glyph h shows us a 

 head and a jaw, the two not infrequently combined as if the head were 

 being drawn into the jaw (/ and l\ figure 3). Occasionally an eye, 

 looking toward the head, occurs as a variant of the jaw (see /, figure 3, 

 in the manuscript Troano codex, page 24*^/). Finally, the hieroglyph 

 w/, figure 3, occurs (manuscript Troano codex, page 20*c^) for the 

 hieroglyph h^ figure 1; instead of the head drawn into the jaw we 

 have a head held or lifted up by an open hand. The symbolism is 

 clear. It is the live devouring earth mouth, the underworld, which, 

 as we know, was located by the Mexicans in the north. In Aztec the 

 north is called mictlampa ("the direction of the realm of the dead''). 



Analysis of the hieroglyphs thus leads to the same result as that 



