114 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



alphabet, but what he really obtained was a list of 

 signs representing among other sounds the particular 

 sounds he had asked for. 



The phonetic use of syllables rather than of simple 

 sounds or letters is probably an important feature of 

 Mayan writing. Many hieroglyphs are pictographic 

 and consist of abbreviated pictures of the thing intended 

 or of some object connected with it. Often a head 

 stands for the entire body. The following list practi- 

 cally exhausts our knowledge of Mayan hieroglyphs : — 



1. The 20 day signs which occur in variant forms in 

 the inscriptions and codices. 



2. The 19 month signs. 



3. The face signs for numbers from zero to 19. 



4. The " period glyphs" which represent 1, 20, 360, 

 7,200, 144,000 days, etc. 



5. The symbols for the four directions and possibly 

 for the four colors associated with them. 



6. The hieroglyphs of several gods, mostly from the 

 codices. 



7. The symbols of the sun, moon, Venus, Mars, 

 Jupiter, and perhaps other heavenly bodies. 



8. A few more or less realistic hieroglyphs represent- 

 ing natural objects, especially offerings. 



Of this brief list many signs connected with the cal- 

 endar are given by Landa and other signs have been 

 worked out through absolute mathematics in codices 

 and inscriptions. 



We may expect to find in the Mayan inscriptions some 

 hieroglyphs that give the names of individuals, cities, 

 and political divisions and others that represent feasts, 

 sacrifices, tribute, and common objects of trade as well 

 as signs referring to birth, death, establishment, con- 

 quest, destruction, and other fundamentals of individual 

 and social existence. These signs taken with directive 



