Aids to the study of the Maya codices / by Cyrus Thomas.

  • Cyrus Thomas
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aids to the study of the Maya codices / by Cyrus Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    105/132 (page 351)
    ' No. 17. Chuplal. Woman or female. This symbol is found in the Dresden and Troano Codices, but most frequently in the former. The ap- pendage at the right is sometimes wanting, and occasionally that at the left, but when this is the case some other prefix is generally substituted. If we examine carefully Plates 16-20 of the Dresden Codex, where this symbol is most frequently repeated, and compare it with the heads of the females there figured, it soon becomes apparent that the scrolls with the heavy black dot are intended to denote the locks of hair and that the symbol as a whole is, as usual, a modified or con- ventional form of the head (see Fig. 376). b Otoch. A house or dwelling, or Tabay; a hut or hunting lodge. The symbol marked a is found in the Cortesian Codex on Plate 29; that marked b, on Plates 29, 32, and 34, same codex, and on Plates XVI* and XXII* of the Manuscript Troano. The one marked c is the usual form in the latter, as on Plates V*, VII*, and X*. It is also on Plate 28 of the Dresden Codex. No. 18. roof, leaves no The relation of these symbols to the conventional figures of houses or huts inserted at the points where they are found, together with the form, which shows an attempt to represent the thatched or leaf covered doubt that they are used for the purpose indicated. Buk (?). There are good and, it is believed, satisfactory reasons for concluding that these symbols are intended to denote the action of « whirling a stick to produce fire or rolling a pestle in grinding paint. The first, marked a, is found only on Plate XIX of the Manuscript Troano, and the second, on Plates 5 and 6 of the Dresden Codex. A copy of part of Plate XIX of the Manuscript Troano is introduced here (see Fig. 377) to show the relation of the figures to the characters. If this interpretation he correct, we see here an evident attempt on the part of the aboriginal artist to indicate by the symbol the action nec- No. 19.