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    Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66
    Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66
    Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66
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    Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66

    By Cyrus Thomas

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66

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      Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66 - Cyrus Thomas

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican

      Manuscripts, by Cyrus Thomas

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts

      Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the

      Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82,

      Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66

      Author: Cyrus Thomas

      Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20456]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAYA AND MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS ***

      Produced by Carlo Traverso, Julia Miller, and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at

      http://gallica.bnf.fr)

      Transcriber’s Note

      This book was originally published as a part of:

      Powell, J. W.

      1884 Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1881-’82. pp. 3-66. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

      The index included in this version of the book was extracted from the overall volume index.

      A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the current version of this book. They are marked

      and the corrected text is shown in the popup. A list of these errors is found at the end of this book.

      Tables II and XV were lists printed in four columns. The contents have been rearranged by month in this version.

      SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

      NOTES

      ON CERTAIN

      MAYA AND MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS.

      BY

      PROF. CYRUS THOMAS.

      CONTENTS.

      ILLUSTRATIONS.

      PL. I TABLEAU DES BACAB CODEX

      NOTES ON CERTAIN MAYA AND MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS.

      By Cyrus Thomas.

      TABLEAU DES BACAB.

      Having recently come into possession of Leon de Rosny’s late work entitled "Les Documents ecrits de l’Antiquite Americaine," ¹ I find in it a photo-lithographic copy of two plates (or rather one plate, for the two are but parts of one) of the Maya Manuscript known as the Codex Cortesianus. This plate (I shall speak of the two as one) is of so much importance in the study of the Central American symbols and calendar systems that I deem it worthy of special notice; more particularly so as it furnishes a connecting link between the Maya and Mexican symbols and calendars.

      This plate (Nos. 8 and 9 in Rosny’s work), is entitled by Rosny "Tableau des Bacab or Plate of the Bacabs," he supposing it to be a representation of the gods of the four cardinal points, an opinion I believe to be well founded.

      As will be seen by reference to our Plate No. 1, which is an exact copy from Rosny’s work, this page consists of three divisions: First, an inner quadrilateral space, in which there are a kind of cross or sacred tree; two sitting figures, one of which is a female, and six characters. Second, a narrow space or belt forming a border to the inner area, from which it is separated by a single line; it is separated from the outer space by a double line. This space contains the characters for the twenty days of the Maya month, but not arranged in consecutive order. Third, an outer and larger space containing several figures and numerous characters, the latter chiefly those representing the Maya days. This area consists of two distinct parts, one part containing day characters, grouped together at the four corners, and connected by rows of dots running from one group to the other along the outer border; the other part consisting of four groups of figures, one group opposite each of the four sides. In each of the four compartments containing these last-mentioned groups, there is one of the four characters shown in Fig. 1 (a b c d), which, in my Study of the Manuscript Troano, I have concluded represent the four cardinal points, a conclusion also reached independently by Rosny and Schultz Sellack.

      Before entering upon the discussion of this plate I will insert here Rosny’s comment, that the reader may have an opportunity of comparing his view of its signification with the opinion I shall advance.

      I intend to close this report with some observations on the criticisms which have been written since the publication of my Essay on the Decipherment of the Hieratic Writings, as much, regarding the first data, for which we are indebted to Diego de Landa, as that of the method to follow in order to realize new progress in the interpretation of the Katounic texts. I will be permitted, however, before approaching this discussion, to say a word on two leaves of the Codex Cortesianus, which not only confirm several of my former lectures, but which furnish us probably a more than ordinarily interesting document relative to the religious history of ancient Yucatan.

      The two leaves require to be presented synoptically, as I have done in reproducing them on the plate [8 and 9 ²], for it is evident that they form together one single representation.

      This picture presents four divisions, in the middle of which is seen a representation of the sacred tree; beneath are the figures of two personages seated on the ground and placed facing the katounes, among which the sign of the day Ik is repeated three times on the right side and once with two other signs on the left side. The central image is surrounded by a sort of framing in which have been traced the twenty cyclic characters of the calendar. Some of these characters would not be recognizable if one possessed only the data of Landa, but they are henceforth easy to read, for I have had occasion to determine, after a certain fashion, the value of the greater part of them in a former publication.

      These characters are traced in the following order, commencing, for example, with Muluc and continuing from left to right: 6, 2, 18, 13, 17, 14, 5, 1, 16, 12, 8, 4, 20, 15, 11, 7, 19, 3, 9, 10. * * *

      In the four compartments of the Tablet appear the same cyclic signs again in two series. I will not stop to dwell upon them, not having discovered the system of their arrangement.

      Besides these cyclic signs no other katounes are found on the Tablet, except four groups which have attracted my attention since the beginning of my studies, and which I have presented, not without some hesitation, as serving to note the four cardinal points. I do not consider my first attempt at interpretation as definitely demonstrated, but it seems to me that it acquires by the study of the pages in question of the Codex Cortesianus, a new probability of exactitude.

      These four katounic groups are here in fact arranged in the following manner:

      Fig. 1.—The four cardinal symbols.

      Now, not only do these groups include, as I have explained, several of the phonetic elements of Maya words known to designate the four cardinal points, but they occupy, besides, the place which is necessary to them in the arrangement (orientation), to wit:

      I have said, moreover, in my Essay, that certain characteristic symbols of the gods of the four cardinal points (the Bacab) are found placed beside the katounic groups, which occcpy

      me at this moment, in a manner which gives a new confirmation of my interpretation.

      On Plates 23, 24, 25, and 26 of the Codex Cortesianus, where the same

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