THOMAS] EXPLANATION OF FIGURES ON PLATES XX-XXIIL 87 



black figure in Plate XXIII of the Manuscript. In front of each inclosed 

 figure, and immediately over the head of the serpent, is an urn. The snout 

 of each serpent is crowned with a plume-tipped process. These resem- 

 blances, notwithstanding the otherwise great dissimilarity of the figures of 

 this plate of the Borgian Codex to those of the other two works, render it 

 quite probable that they relate to the same general subject.^ I think it 

 very probable that the serpent was sometimes used to symbolize the Ahau, 

 as for example on Plates 33, 34, 35, and 69 of the Dresden Codex; that on 

 Plate 33 to denote the 6th Ahau, that on 34 the 3d; that on 35 the 8th, and 

 that on 69 the 10th. The lustres are evidently indicated on the last by 

 the colors. 



Turning again to the plates of the Manuscript, we notice the figure of 

 an animal of some kind mounted on the right-hand personage in the upper 

 division of XXI, XXII, and XXIII. The peculiar form of the eye shows 

 these to be quadrupeds. They are doubtless mounted on these individuals 

 to show that they are Chacs, corresponding with those in the upper division 

 of the Codex plates. 



We may as well call attention here to the fact that several of these 

 things which appear on the other plates and seem to be equally applicable 

 to all the years alike, are wanting on Plate XX, w-hich relates to the Ix 

 years. For example, the serpent is wholly wanting here; there is no animal 

 denoting the Chac, and one at least of the clay vessels is missing. What 

 does this signify ? I confess that I am somewhat at a loss how to account 

 for it, but, from my examinations and what has been ascertained, am dis- 

 posed to explain it by the fact that Ix is the closing year of the lusters and 

 cycles, and that the things mentioned, being symbols of one or the other of 

 these periods or depending upon them, properly disappear with this year. 

 If this view be correct, it will probably enable us to assign a signification to 

 the large (supposed) red-clay vessels placed on the serpent coils in Plates 

 XXI-XXIII. Uai/eb-haab or Uayeyab (the latter is but a contraction of the 



'111 a pamplilet by Sr. J. M. Melgar, of Vera Cruz, entitled "A comparative view of the sym- 

 liolical signs of the Ancient Systems of Theogony and Cosmogony, and those existing in the Mexican 

 MSS., as published by Kingsborough, and the alto-relievos on a wall in Chichen-Itza," 1872, which Dr. 

 Foreman, of the Smithsonian, has very kindly translated for me, I find a somewhat dilferent interpreta- 

 tion of this plate of the Borgian Codex. This will be found in my Appendix No. 2. 



