72 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 57 



THE KIN GLYPH 



The period of the 1st, or lowest, order was called by the Maya kin, 

 which meant the ''sun" and by association the "day." The kin, as 

 has been explained, was the primary unit used by the Maya in count- 

 ing time. The normal form of this period glyph in the inscriptions 

 is shown in figure 34, a, which is practically identical with the form 

 in the codices (fig. 34, h). In addition to the normal form of the kin 

 sign, however, there are several other forms representing this period 

 which can not be classified either as head variants or full-figure vari- 

 ants, as in figure 34, c, for example, which bears no resemblance what- 

 ever to the normal form of the kin sign. It is difficult to understand 



i j k 1 



Fig. 34. Signs for the kin: a, b, Normal forms; c, d, miscellaneous; e-k, head variants. 



how two characters as dissimilar as those shown in a and c, figure 34^ 

 could ever be used to express the same idea, particularly since there 

 seems to be no element common to both. Indeed, so dissimilar are 

 they that one is almost forced to believe that they were derived from 

 two entirely distinct glyphs. Still another and very unusual sign for 

 the kin is shown in figure 34, d; indeed, the writer recalls but two 

 places where it occurs: Stela 1 at Piedras Negras, and Stela C (north 

 side) at Quirigua. It is composed of the normal form of the sign for 

 the day Ahau (fig. 16, e/) inverted and a subfixial element which 

 varies in each of the two cases. These variants (fig. 34, c, d) are 

 found only in the inscriptions. The head variants of the kin period 

 differ from each other as much as the various normal forms above 

 \( ^^^ O g^^"^'^- '^^^ form shown in figure 34, 6', may be readily 

 * t recognized by its subfixial element (*) and the element (t)> 



