158 A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT TEOANO. 



Fig. 92, copied from the upper division of Plate IX, is, I think, beyond 



<^i 



doubt the symbol for the armadillo figured in the same division. 



There are characters somewhat closely resembling it found in 



"^^^^2." ' other parts of the Manuscript, but none of them have the jdos- 



terior border of scale-marks, and at the same time the peculiar eye that is 



used throughout the Manuscript to mark quadrupeds. 



Fig. 93, which has for its only characteristic the same figure as Landa's 

 ca, is found frequently in the Manuscript, so placed as to lead me to believe 

 ^^^^ it represents some fruit or vegetable product that is useful as 

 fJ ■'fn^j food, or in some other way in domestic life, and that was also 

 ' considered an appropriate offering to the gods. 



Fig. 93. Yor example, we see it carried in baskets by women — lower 



division of Plates XIX* and XX*; in the hand of the bird figure — middle 

 division, Plate II; in the hands of the priest, apparently as an ofi'ering, on 

 a number of plates; on the back of figures representing persons traveling — 

 Plate V; marked on (as though denoting something in) a vase — lower divis- 

 ion, same plate; in the symbol of the day Cimi; and also in Landa's char- 

 acter for k. 



I presume from these facts that, if phonetic, the word or syllable it 

 represents has as its chief phonetic element the sound of h. As the Maya 

 word ca signifies a species of squash or calabash used for food in Yucatan, 

 I presume this is what it denotes in these pictorial representations, especially 

 as this interpretation does not appear to be inconsistent with its use in any of 

 them. But that it also has other significations is evident from the fact that it 

 is found in Cimi, and also as an eye-mark. The same idea is doubtless 

 embraced in both, that is, "death," and the chief phonetic element h. 



In close relation to this, and which should be considei-ed with it, is the 



character represented in Fig. 94. Brasseur has taken it throughout as one 



form of the Cimi symbol; but there are some reasons for believing 



there is, at least, a slight difference in the signification of the two, 



as on Plates XIX* and XX*, in the basket of the woman at the left, 



Fig- ^i- y^Q ggg bQtii characters. As the other burdens are represented by 



the duplication of one character, the bringing of these two together here 



shows their close relationship to each other. It is also worthy of notice 



