240 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



others in the hieroglyph of the sun god — is an expression of that 

 which the Maj^as designated by u pop u cam, and the Mexicans by 

 i-petl-i-icj3al, "his mat", "his (royal) seat", that is, for dominion. 

 Lastly, there is yet another element present in the hieroglyph, which, 

 taking other cases of its occurrence into consideration, I can only 

 explain as a stream of blood flowing from the bafs mouth, derived 

 from an element which I have shown to possess the phonetic value of 

 kan, " yellow "," and to be used as a substitute for kin, " sun ".'^ In 

 other words, I regard this element of the hieroglyph as nothing else 

 than an expression of that characteristic of the bat god which is set 



5".w 



/3 I 



3o «' 



Fig. 53. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat god. 



forth in the name Cama-zotz and in tlie pictures of the Mexican 

 manuscripts, especially <?, figure 49, that is, the destruction of life, the 

 devouring of light. We are familiar with this element in other hiero- 

 glyphs,, particularly in that of a god who is the fifth in the series of 

 twenty deities in the Dresden manuscript, and who undoubtedly is a 

 god of the earth (b, figure 53). It has long since been remarked that 

 the head of this deity reapjiears in the conventional sign for the 

 cardinal point of the north. But, while in the hieroglyph of the 

 god the head of the god is represented, according to my conception, 

 as devouring light or life, in the hieroglyph of the cardinal point the 



Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, y. 2.3, pp. 108-9. 



6 Science, .Tanuary 6, 1893. 



