644 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



If vce compare sign 12 with the headpiece of jaguar skin, the rehi- 

 tion is certainly striking. Here I woukl recall the fact that the 

 same glyph occurs on the urn described in the Verhandlungen der 

 Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1893, page 550, which we 

 now recognize as the glyph of the day Ix, more correctly written Hix 

 (''jaguar"). Signs 15 and 18 are the glyph of the lightning beast, 

 mapatch, in Indian aj-ou, which was represented by Landa as the 

 letter" " o ", and erroneously assumed by Brasseur to be the letter " p ". 

 The same glyph appears in the codices as the month Xul, and since 

 xul in the Kekchi tongue has retained its original significance, which 

 is " animal ", the month is, therefore, the animal month (k, ?, and w;, 

 figure 130). The double " ik " as an affix of sign 15 recalls Landa's 

 reproduc.tion of the month Pop, e. Sign 10 seems to be the picture 

 of a dead bearded monkey's head, which reminds me that figure / 

 apparently Avears a monkey mask. Sign '20 is the glyph of the god 



iRr'AAA^N^T^I 



/ 



i Ji in p 



Fig. 130. Glyphs from Maya codices and iuscriptions. 



designated by Doctor Schellhas as F, the companion of the death god 

 (Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1892, 

 page 112). Sign 21 occurs in the Dresden and Troano codices in con- 

 nection with fire-kindling; it also appears on the Palenque relief, n 

 (figure 130). Sign 23 is the sign for the year with the numeral 5, 

 and it occurs similarly in the Dresden codex, o. Doctor Seler consid- 

 ers it equivalent to the glj'^ph of god N, />. 



Much in the preceding joicture and in the glyphs is still unex- 

 plained, and much may have been erroneously interpreted by me. It 

 is therefore desirable that further investigations should be instituted 

 by others. I believe that the ceremony represented is connected 

 either with the beginning of a Kan year or of a new katun. On the 

 latter occasion (consult Brasseur, Landa, and Pio Perez) it was 

 alwavs the custom to offer a human sacrifice and to kindle a new fire. 



