ail DAY SYMBOLS OF THE MAYA YEAR (ETH. ANN. 16 
value of the parts is obtained in this way. The upper character with 
two wings is Landa’s ma, except that the circular wings contain the lines 
or strokes which the bishop has omitted, and which appear to indicate 
the m sound and are observed in the Imix symbol. Colonel Mallery, 
‘comparing this with the sign of negation made by the Indians and that 
of the Egyptians given by Champollion (our plate LxIv, 15), concludes 
that it is derived from the symmetrically extended arms with the hands 
curved slightly downward. This will furnish an explanation of the 
strokes in the terminal cireles. The left of the two lower characters is 
almost identical with the symbol for the month Mae (plate Lxrv, 4), 
omitting the ca glyph. The lower right-hand character is similar to the 
symbol for the month Chuen. We thus obtain legitimately the sounds 
ma ma-ch, whether we consider the parts truly phonetic or only 
ikonomatic. 
For further illustration of the use of this symbol and evidence of 
phoneticism, the reader is referred to the article in the American Anthro- 
pologist above mentioned. 
The fact that a symbol is used to denote a given Maya day does not 
prove, supposing it to be in any sense phonetic, that the Maya name 
gives the original equivalent. It may have been adopted to represent 
the older name in the Tzental, or borrowed from the Zapotec calendar 
and retained in the Maya calendar for the new name given in that 
tongue. However, the symbol for this first day, which has substan- 
tially the same name in the Maya and Tzental, appears to represent the 
name in these languages and to be in some degree phonetic, m being 
the chief phonetic element represented by it. The crosshatching in 
the little circle at the top, seen in some of the older forms found in the 
inscriptions, may indicate, as will later be seen, the x or ch sound, thus 
giving precisely the radical m-a. 
It may be said, in reference to the signification of the names of the 
day in different dialects, that no settled or entirely satisfactory conclu- 
sion has been reached in regard to either. 
The Cakchiquel word imo is translated by the grammarian Nimenes 
as “swordfish,” thus corresponding with the usual interpretation of the 
Mexican cipactli. Dr Seler thinks, however, that the Maya names 
were derived, as above stated, from im. Nevertheless he concludes 
that the primitive signification of both the Maya and Mexican symbols 
is the earth, “who brings forth all things from her bosom and takes all 
living things again into it.” If we may judge from its use, there is no 
doubt that the Mexican cipactli figure is a symbol of the earth or under- 
world. The usual form of the day symbol in the Mexican codices is 
shown in plate Lxrv, 16, and more elaborately in plate Lx1v, 17. As 
proof that it indicates the earth or underworld, there is shown on plate 
73 of the Borgian Codex an individual, whose heart has been torn from 
his breast, plunging downward through the open jaws of the monster 
into the shades or earth below. On plate 76 of the same codex, the 
