A primer of Mayan hieroglyphics / by Daniel G. Brinton.

  • Daniel Garrison Brinton
Date:
1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A primer of Mayan hieroglyphics / by Daniel G. Brinton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    important functions at the end of the years, depicted both in Cod. Tro., pp. 20-24, and Cod. Dres., pp. 25-28.1 A curious scene is that Fig. 29, from the Dresden MS., p. 35. In the center, resting upon an altar of three degrees sur- mounted by the sign cabcin, earth, is the head of the god of fer- tility, his soul escaping from his nostril. Below, on each side of the altar, are two figures, one playing on a flute, the second on the medicine drum. Above are also two, one shaking the sacred rattle, the second squatted before a flaming altar, in one hand the holy staff, caluac, while the other lifts above his head the “ fish and oyster ” sign, symbol of the products of the sea. On the right hand are other offerings, the turkey and the dog ; and below them a ladder, eb-che, probably signifying the day eb, on which this ceremony took or should take place. Its success- ful result is shown in the picture which follows it in the Codex. Those who would follow Forstemann’s (and my own) views in understanding the Codices, mqst accustom themselves to look upon the animals, plants, objects, and transactions they depict as largely symbolic, representing the movements of the celestial bodies, the changes of the seasons, the meteorological varia- tions, the revolutions of the sun, moon, and planets, and the like; just as in the ancient zodiacs of the Old World we find similar uncouth animals and impossible collocations of images presented. The great snakes which stretch across the pages of the Codices mean Time ; the torches in the hands of figures, often one downward and one upward, indicate the rising and the setting of constellations; the tortoise and the snail mark the solstices; the mummied bodies, the disappearance from the sky at certain seasons of certain stars, etc. A higher, a more preg- nant, and, I believe, the only correct meaning is thus awarded to these strange memorials. 1 These are described at length by Landa, and their representations in the Codices have been explained by Thomas in his Manuscript Troano.
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