128 



A STUDY OF THE MANUSCEIPT TROANO. 



baldachin or place in which their idols were seated in their temples. Some- 

 thing similar is also found elsewhere in the same woi'k. 



Houses, cabins, and other buildings, even temples in which their idols 

 were placed, appear usually to be represented in the 

 Manuscript by such figures as shown in cuts 26, 27, 

 28, and 29. 



These, as will be seen by comparison, are really 

 but slight variations from theMexican conventional 

 symbol for a house (caUi). 



The side wall in Fig. 29 appears to be com- 

 posed of blocks of some 

 kind placed one upon 

 another, probably of 

 stone, each bearing the 

 Muluc character. Mol, 

 therootfrom which most 

 of the words commenc- 

 ^•X.^.,,,^^ ing with mol and mid 

 ^^'«-^^- are derived, signifies "a '"'g- re- 



group of things* united or congregated one upon another,'' but without refer- 

 ence to the material of which they are composed. It is true that in this 

 house we see the figure of a bee, and might therefore suppose it represents 

 the place where the hives were kept, but the ofiiciating priest in front leads 

 us to believe it denotes a temple of some kind in 

 which the ceremonies of the apiarists' festival were 

 performed. The character at the top of the wall 

 with a cross in it, somewhat resembling that in the 

 symbol for Ezanah, is very common in these figures. 

 This probably marks the end of the beam which 

 was placed on the wall to support the roof I so 

 conclude because I find that it is wanting in the 

 lighter and temporary dwellings, represented in Fig. 28. The interpreta- 

 tion of the character as here used is doubtful. The curved line running 

 from tliis to the top portion probably represents the rafter; the slender 



