FOESTEMANN] THE VASE OF CHAMA 649 



Dresden codex, pages 5b to Gb. in direct connection with the kindling 

 of fire. 



The banquets are very realistically indicated by the bones, which 

 the two personages, a and g, doubtless the lo^vest in rank among the 

 seven, hold in their hands. Therefore it would seem that the glyphs 

 ought also to refer to food, which reminds us that the sign Imix 

 (6 and 14 here, both provided with the same secondary sign) has 

 the added sense of maize. Indeed, I would make the suggestion, 

 though I may be in error, that gh'phs 8 and 22, which are wholly unfa- 

 miliar to me, may perhaps denote some local form of baked food. 



We now come to the human sacrifice, the performance of which we 

 do not see here, as in certain passages of the manuscripts, but only 

 the preparation. I imagine the purport of the scene to be as follows: 

 A warrior of high rank has captured a wounded enemy, who, against 

 the will of the actual victor, is claimed by the priest as a sacrifice. 

 Let us now consider the separate actors in this scene. 



The prisoner, t\ of course, is the central point. We see him sunk 

 down upon the ground. In his hand is a staff, which I can by no 

 means regard as a fire drill, but eitlier as a badge of rank or as a 

 broken spear. It is evident to me that he is wounded from the arrow 

 point piercing the lower jaw and the agonized motion toward it of 

 the right hand. Behind the neck we see a flower. This may possibly 

 express the prisoner's name, bat I will not withhold another observa- 

 tion regarding it. Two words are common to all the Maya dialects, 

 one of which is written quix, chix, cliiix, and the like, the other 

 quic, chich, chic, etc. The former seems to signify a plant, the dic- 

 tionaries usually giving the meaning of thorn; but the secoud word 

 invariably signifies blood. Does the flower, possibly that of a thorn 

 bush, refer to the wound ? 



Before the prisoner, at the right, stands the warrior, /, who claims 

 him as his property; for that he is a warrior and not a priest is indi- 

 cated by the lance (the tip of Avhich seems to be stained with blood, 

 as in the Troano codex, pages 5b to 4b) and by the jaguar skin thrown 

 about him. Before his face are the four characters 12 to 15, which 

 seem to have reference to him. I regard 12 as the sign of his rank, 

 which is further emphasized by sign 13, the well-known ahua 

 (" lord "). 14 is, like G, imix; I am uncertain as to what it signifies 

 here. Nor do I venture to decide regarding 15, although the sign 

 above it is clearly the ben-ik sign, so frecjuently found in the manu- 

 scripts and inscriptions, to which, until a better meaning appears, I 

 attach that of the lunar montli of 28 days; unfortunately the prin- 

 cipal sign beneath it is indistinctly draAvn. What the stalf protrud- 

 ing from this person's neck signifies I am unable to say, as is Mr 

 Dieseldorff. If it is a spear thrower (Aztec, atlatl), then it is indis- 

 tinctly represented. 



