. 154 [Oct. 15, 



seq.), with the figures of the Landa text and from other 

 sources. 



Mr. Lesley said that so careful and precise a train of argument has sel- 

 dom been pursued in a difficult case of Philology in dispute, and Dr. Val- 

 entini's conclusion will probably be generally accepted that Bishop Landa 

 obtained from his catechumens the best figures which their imaginations 

 suggested to them at the time for representing the vowels and consonants 

 as he pronounced these before them ; tberefore, that his list of so-called 

 alphabetic figures, being more or less the invention of the occasion, had no 

 scientific or historic value then, and cannot now be used for deciphering 

 Mayan or Mexican picture-writing in an alphabetic sense. 



But had Dr. Valentin! compared Landa's figures with those of Egypt, 

 he would have been surprised at certain resemblances of a remarkably 

 radical character ; although these probably would not have led him to 

 abandonliis train of argument ; as the resemblances cannot be considered 

 sufficiently valid to oblige us to a different conclusion. 



It is nevertheless astonishing to notice that while L&nda's first B is, ac- 

 cording to Valentini, represented by afoot-print, and that path and foot-print 

 are pronounced Be in the Maya dictionary, the Eg3'^ptian sign for B was 

 the human leg. 



Still more surpising is it that the H of Landa's alphabet is a tie of cord ; 

 while the Egyptian H is a twisted cord. What connection can there be 

 Ijetween a cord and the aspirate ? Dr. Valentini explains, that in the 

 Dresden codex a doubled-up rope frequently occurs, and that tying-up days 

 to form a year was a common Mexican chronological expression. Haab is 

 Mayan for year ; and Valentini thinks that the rope symbol for year was 

 given to Landa as the best letter Ra which his pupils could invent for him 

 on the spur of the moment. 



But the most striking coincidence of all occurs in the coiled or curled line 

 representing Landa's U ; for it is absolutely identical with the Egyptian 

 curled U. The Mayan word for to wind or bend is Vug ; and that fact 

 satisfies Dr. Valentini ; but why should Egyptians, confined as they were 

 to the Valley of the Nile, and abliorring as they did the sea and sailors, 

 write their U precisely lilce Landa's alphabetic U in Central America? 

 Birch gives ha-ti as the name of the Egyptian coiled U and oithe tow-line 

 of a boat. 



There is one other remarkable conincidence between Landa's and the 

 Egyptian alphabets ; and by the way, the English and other Teutonic dia- 

 lects have a curious share in it. Landa's D (T) is a disc with lines inside 

 the four quarters, the allowed Mexican symbol for day or sun. So far as 

 the sound is concerned the English day represents it ; so far as the form is 

 concerned the Egyptian "cake" ideograph for (1) country, and (2) the 

 sun's orbit, is essentially the same. The Egyptian name of the latter is read 

 sen-nu. Brugsch gives S^en as circumference, perifery, the turn of the 

 shadow, S'ennu the entourage of a person, S'na to make return, all of 

 them with the circle as a determinative. 



