LANDA'S LETTER CHARACTERS. 



141 



letters), using' the significations given by Lancia, will suflficeto convince any 

 one that it is impossible to form the day from the letter characters, even 

 allowing the widest latitude in the representation of sounds. 



Take, for example, the character for Muluc, as compared with those for 

 m and I; Ahaii, as 

 compared with those 

 for a, ]i, and «; Kan, 

 as compared Avith k 

 and n; Chkchan, as 

 compared with r, //, 

 and n; Ezaiiah, as 

 compared with e, z, n, 

 and b, &c. 



But it does not 

 necessarily follow 

 from this that Landa 

 was wholly mistaken. 

 The days may have 

 retained their charac- 

 ters as symbols from 

 •more ancient times, 

 before any approach 

 to phonetic elements 

 had been made, and hence might not present any of these elements. 



As we find some of these day symbols on the Palenque Tablet, which 

 is probably much older than the jMannseript, we have some foundation for 

 this supposition. Another ground for this supposition is that we have good 

 reason for believing that some at least of these characters are used in the 

 Manuscript and Codex as denoting something quite different from the days 

 they represent, or that which the name of the day signifies. 



Notwithstanding this, there are some of the day and month characters 

 in which we cau detect, beyond doubt, some of the letter elements, showing 

 them to be to a certain degree at least phonetic. For example, the charac- 

 ter for Caiiac differs Init slightly from that for cii (qu?); Chiwn and Tzec 



o-H-o 



n 



