CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

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.

For example, commencing with Cauac (No. 31) (see scheme of the plate, Fig. 2), on the right side, and running upward toward the top along the row of dots next the right-hand margin, we reach the character Chuen (No. 32); just above is Eb (No. 33); then running inward toward the center, along the row of dots to Kan (No. 34); then upward to Chicchan (No. 35); then outward along the row of dots toward the outer corner to Caban (No. 36); then to the left to Ezanab (No. 37); then inward to Oc (No. 38); then to the left to Chuen (No. 39); outward to Akbal (No. 40), and so on around.

Before proceeding further it is necessary that I introduce here a Maya calendar, in order that my next point may be clearly understood. To simplify this as far as possible, I give first a table for a single Cauac year, in two forms, one as the ordinary counting-house calendar (Table I), the other a simple continuous list of days (Table II), but in this latter case only for thirteen months, just what is necessary to complete the circuit of our plate.

As explained in my former paper3, although there were twenty days in each Maya month, each day with its own particular name, and always following each other in the same order, so that each month would begin with the same day the year commenced with, yet it was the custom to number the days up to 13 and then commence again with 1, 2, 3, and so on, thus dividing the year into weeks of thirteen days each.

For a full explanation of this complicated calendar system I must refer the reader to my former paper. But at present we shall need only an understanding of the tables here given. I shall, as I proceed, refer to Table I, leaving the reader who prefers to do so to refer to the list of days marked Table II, as they are precisely the same thing, only differing in form.

Table I.—Maya calendar for one year

Table II.

Now, let us follow around this outer circle comparing it with our calendar (Table I), or list of days (Table II), which, as before stated, are for the Cauac year only.

As this is a Cauac year, we must commence with the Cauac character No. 31, on the right border. Immediately to the left of this character and almost in contact with it we see a single small dot. We take for granted that this denotes 1 and that we are to begin with 1 Cauac. This corresponds with the first day of the first month, that is, the top number of the left-hand column of numbers in Table I or the first day in Table II. Turning to the plate we run up the line of dots to the character for Chuen (No. 32); immediately to the left of this we see two little bars and three dots or 13.

Turning again to our table and running down the column of the first month to the number 13 we find that it is Chuen, which is followed by 1 Eb. Turning again to the plate we observe that the character immediately above Chuen is Eb., and that it has adjoining it below a single dot, or 1. Running from thence down the line of dots toward the center we reach Kan, immediately above which is the character for 13. Turning again to our table and starting with the 1 opposite Eb and running to the bottom of the column which ends with 7 and passing to 8 at the top of the second column, and running down this to 13, or following down our list of days (Table II), we find it to be Kan, which is followed by 1 Chicchan. On the plate we see the character for Chicchan (No. 35) immediately above that of Kan (No. 34), with a single small dot touching it above. Running from this upward along the row of large dots toward the outer corner we next reach the character for Caban (No. 36), adjoining which we see the numeral character for 13.