CHAPTER V. 



SYMBOLS, PICTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER FIGURES WHICH CAN- 

 NOT BE PROPERLY CLASSED AS WRITTEN CHARACTERS. 



Befox'e attempting to explain any of the written characters I will notice 

 some other figures which ai"e true pictures, but were not specially alluded 

 to when speaking of the figures in the spaces ; others which may be classed 

 as pictographs, and some which appear to be true symbols. 



Foot-prints. — These appear to have two or three different significations 

 in the various manuscripts. 



First. A journey made, denoting not the road, but the fact that some 

 one has passed on in a given direction, that a journey has been partly or 

 completely accomplished. This use is common in some of the Mexican 

 Codices. 



Second. That so many periods of time have elapsed. This appears to 

 be their signification on Plates 34 to 38 of the Borgian Codex and Plates 

 25 to 28 of the Dresden Codex. 



Third. To denote movements to be made during certain religious fes- 

 tivals. This appeal's to be one object of their use in the Manuscript Troano, 

 as, for example, on Plates III and VI. Another is to indicate journeyings. 



The machete or hatchet (hat in Maya) is represented in the Manuscript 

 in two forms (Fig. 1 8, a and b). As it is not likely the artist intended to be 

 strictly accurate in minor details, his only desire being to represent the 

 implement with sufficient exactness to insure its recognition, we may not be 

 warranted in assuming that these two forms indicate a difference in the 

 hatchets. The one marked a may be the conventional figure, and h an 



