NUMERAL WORSHIP AND BUILDING UP IMAGES, ETC. 85 



NUMERIC FEATURES OF PERSONAGES. 



I have stated my belief that, with the exception of the priests and their assistants, 

 all the personages of the codices and inscriptions, ornaments and accessories, were 

 composed of numerical signs. I shall not go into the matter very extensively here, as 

 anything like a full exposition of it would consume too much space ; but I will give 

 examples enough to make my theory intelligible and enable those who may be 

 interested to pursue the subject at further length themselves. As one of the best 

 illustrations that could be found, I shall take from the codices the head of what has 

 been called " the long-nosed god." I select that particular head, not that it bears out 

 my theory any better than others, but because some of the features to which I wish to 

 direct attention are more prominently shown in it. Here it is — both whole and 

 dissected : 



Every line of the head is in the fragmentary parts, four of which are intelligible 

 numeral characters or combinations. The center of the ear ornament is the circle 

 sign for 10 ; the upper part, one of the coil signs for 9 ; the two pendants, each a 

 sign for 2 — 10x9 = 90x4 = 360. The ear ornament and the numeric eye express 

 that number almost invariably. The nose here is a sign for 13, reversed from its 

 usual position and slightly modified to adapt it to the purpose of a feature. The 

 particular character for 1 3 intended to be represented is undoubtedly an ornamental 

 combination of the 9 coil and the double right-angle sign for 4, as evidenced by 

 the angular depression shown in the outflaring part of the symbol wherever it is 

 found carefully drawn ; but such a marked indenture would render a nose too 

 grotesque for even Maya art, so they softened the outlines. A survival of the 

 upturned 9 coil, so prominent here, is to be found lyin^ prone upon the nose 

 in many of the grotesque faces of the inscriptions, affording strong presumptive 

 proof that in all such cases the nose has the same numerical value as here. The 

 ornament on top of the head also has the 9 coil, raised to four times its value by a 

 corresponding number of square attachments, and that value multiplied by 10, 

 represented by the double knot constituting the rest of the character, produces the 



