tiiomas.J RELATION OF MAYA TO MEXICAN SYMBOLS. 63 



If Leon y Gania is correct in his statement, 51 " No todos comeuzaban 

 a contar el circlo por uu misnio auo ; los Toltecos lo einpezaban desde 

 Tecpatl; los de Teotihuacan desde Colli ; los Mexicanos desde Tochtli ; 

 y los Tezcocanos desde Acatl" and the years began with (Jipactli, we 

 arc probably justified in concluding that the Fejervary Codex is a 

 Tezcucan manuscript. 



Be this as it may, we have in these two plates the evidence of an in- 

 timate relation between the Maya and Nahua nations, as that of the 

 Cortesiau Codex certainly appertains to the former and the Fejervary 

 as certainly to the latter. 



Which was the original and which the copy is a question of still 

 greater importance, as its proper determination may have the effect to 

 overturn certain opinions which have been long entertained and gener- 

 ally conceded as correct, If an examination should prove that the 

 Mayas have borrowed from the Nahuas it would result in proving the 

 calendar and sculptures of the former to be much more recent than has 

 been generally supposed. 



It must be admitted that the Mexican or Xahua manuscripts have 

 little or nothing in them that could have been borrowed from the Maya 

 manuscripts or inscriptions; hence, if we find in the latter anything 

 belonging to or found in the former it will indicate that they are bor- 

 rowed and that the Mexican are the older. 



In addition to the close resemblance of these two plates, the following- 

 facts bearing upon this question are worthy of notice. In the lower 

 part of Plate 52 of the Dresden Codex we see precisely the same figure 

 as that used by the Mexicans as the symbol of Cipactli. 



The chief character of the hieroglyphic, 15 R. (Rau's scheme), of the 

 Paleuque Tablet is a serpent's head (shown correctly only on the stone in 

 the Smithsonian Museum and in Dr. Rau's photograph), and nearly the 

 same as the symbol for the same Mexican day. The method of repre- 

 senting a house in the Maya manuscripts is substantially the same as 

 the Mexican symbol for Calli (House). The cross on the Paleuque 

 Tablet has so many features in common with those in the blue and red 

 loops of the Fejervary Codex as to induce the belief that they were de- 

 rived from the same type. We see in that of the Tablet the reptile 

 head as at the base of the cross in the blue loop, the nodes, and proba- 

 bly the bird of that in the red loop, and the two human figures. 



What is perhaps still more significant, is the fact that in this plate of 

 the Fejervery Codex, and elsewhere in the same Codex, we see evidences 

 of a transition from pictorial symbols to conventional characters; for ex- 

 ample, theyellow heart shaped symbol in the lower left-hand comer of the 

 Fejervary plate which is there used to denote the day Ocelot! (Tiger). On 

 the other hand we find in the manuscript Troano for example, on plate 

 HI, one of the symbols used in the Tonalamatl of the Vatican Codex 

 B and in other Mexican codices to signify water. On Plate XXV* of 



61 Dos Piedras, pt. 1, p. 16. 



