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SCIENCE 



[Vol. XX. No. 505 



by Europeans, it was applied to an iron plate used to bake bread 

 upon (Henderson). In the codices it appears to have been used 

 chiefly as the name of a jar and of vessels in which meat was 

 cooked ; see, for example, Cort. 27* where there are four symbols 

 and four vessels, and a cardinal point symbol to each, probably 

 indicating the relative positions in which they were to be placed. 

 On Tro. 15° we find the same symbol occurring in five parallel 

 groups, four of them, with a cardinal point symbol accompanying 

 each. The middle one may be interpreted with a strong proba- 

 bility of being correct; xaman xamach, theeth — 9 — ; "In the 

 vessel toward the north the haunch or quarters — ?— ." The 

 fourth character, indicated by the interrogation point, I am unable 

 to interpret. 



Fig. 7. Tro. 17*c. Chim {Chimil), "A bag, sack, a kind of 

 net." The object referred to is seen in the figure below the text, 

 where it forms the net-like covering of the image-head in the 

 vessel. The symbol in the same group — our Fig, 8 — which is 

 a derivative of Kal, " to imprison, inclose, shut in,'' also corres- 

 ponds with what is seen in the 6gure. 



Fis. 9. Tro. 31*b. Ziiin or ZuuTn, "rope, cord, line," and Fig. 

 10, same group, Xel or Xelem, " to part, separate, cut, divide," 

 have been referred to above. 



lay a beam across a place, to traverse." Reference to the plate 

 indicated will make apparent the appropriateness of this interpre- 

 tation. In this symbol the m character is abbreviated to the upper 

 or dot-surrounded portion alone. 



As our Fig. 8 without the suffix is the well-known symbol for 

 30, which in Maya is Kal, we have two places in which the pho- 

 netic equivalent applies. The signification " to imprison or shut 

 in '' is also appropriate in Fig. 4 of my communication in Science, 

 July 23, which gives us a third combination. 



Now let us take the b character as given in my letter-list. It 

 is given by Landa as his second b substantially as found in the 

 codices ; also in his symbols for the months Pop and Kayab as re- 

 peated in Dres. 46^ and 48c. The following examples of its use 

 in the codices are given with interpretations which I believe to 

 be substantially correct. As those who are interested in the sub- 

 ject can make the comparisons and judge of the appropriateness 

 of the renderings without explanations, I will make my comments 

 brief. 



Fig. 14. Tro. 12*i>. Omitting the prefix Ca, I interpret Bon 

 (Bonah), "to paint, dye, tinge, stain." Using the Ca, which has 

 numerous significations, and the chiracter which follows, shown 

 in our Fig. 15, which we render Xelche, " groove or crack in the 



Fig. 11. Dres. W*) and c and 46''. Maax, "monkey, ape, imi- 

 tator." The two dotted lines which fall in this symbol from the 

 m character, I take to be indications of the double a and not of 

 the X. The face, I think, is a mere conventional symbol. The 

 personage with which this symbol appears to be connected is dis- 

 tinct from the dark figure which I have in a former publication 

 assumed to be Ekchuah, the god of merchants, which is accepted 

 J»y Rosny and Dr. Schellhas.^ 



Fig. 13. Cort. lib. Hahaymuc, " To bury or inter super- 

 ficially; " also " A stab or thrust given obliquely." The first defi- 

 nition applies very well to the act of planting corn shown in the 

 figure below. The second agrees equally well with the idea of 

 dibWing holes into the ground with the curved stick which the 

 planter holds in his hand. Attention is also called to the fact 

 that the sign of aspiration is duplicated in the symbol and the h 

 is repeated in the word. The parallel passage in Tro. Sib (left 

 group) appears to have the signification of the second of the above 

 renderings, though different symbols. We may remark in passing 

 that this parallelism in passages and many other things show that 

 the Cortesianus is not a part of the Troano, but a distinct codex, 

 notwithstanding the divided "title-page." 



Fig. 13. Cort. 20b. Hamah, " To make a breach in a ram- 

 part; to break down or break open; " or Semeh (from Hein), " To 



' Brasseur, under Akab-Max, speaks of a phantom or hobgoblin of this 

 name which he says signifies the -'Great Monkey of the night." 



wood," we obtain the following: " Paint twice the grooves in the 

 wood," or " the two grooves." 



Fig. 16. Tro. 31<J: Bulahaan or some derivative of Bui, Buldh, 

 "To submerge, overwhelm with water." The character found 

 immediately below, shown in Fig. 17, may be rendered by Ban 

 (Banah), "To demolish, throw down, level with the ground." 

 As the loDg-nosed god (Tlaloc?) is seen below overturning a jar 

 of water on the sprouting corn, the appropriateness of the render- 

 ing is apparent. 



Fig. 18 (a and b). Tro. 3*b. These two characters we translate 

 Yib-ii-cab, " To liquefy, melt, dissolve the honey." 



Fig. 19 (a-e). Tro. 35o. The characters a, b, c, d, e, which 

 ' form one group, may be rendered with a probability of being cor- 

 rect, — following the order of the letters, — Kitch bikyah hah — 9 — 

 ma-laah, " The vulture moves from one side to the other with a 

 tremulous motion in a wonderful manner — ? — without repeated 

 buffetings." The first character of the group is not included, as 

 it is well nigh obliterated; a is a conventional symbol, and I am 

 unable to suggest the interpretation of d. 



As our paper is necessarily limited, the above must sufSce at 

 present as examples of tracing the combinations of a single char- 

 acter. That those mentioned appear in numerous compound 

 symbols which we are, as yet, unable to decipher, will be admitted ; 

 but this was to be expected, and must continue to be true until 

 more complete lexicons of the language are obtained, or until some 



