Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices

to the Study of the Maya Codices, by Cyrus Thomas

Project Gutenberg's Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices, 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: Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-85, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 253-372
Author: Cyrus Thomas
Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19777]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDY OF THE MAYA CODICES ***

Produced by PM for Bureau of American Ethnology, Julia Miller, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Biblioth��que 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. 1888 Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-'85. pp. 253-372. 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 found in the original text have been maintained in this version. They are marked in the text with a [TN-#]. A description of each error is found in the complete list at the end of the text.
Tables XX, XXI, and XXII were too wide to fit within the character limits of the text file for this ebook. They have been broken into two parts.
Special characters:
The following characters used in the original publication are not available in the character set used for this version of the book. They have been replaced with the following codes.
[=h] Small h with stroke [(1)] Circled 1 [(2)] Circled 2 [(3)] Circled 3 [(4)] Circled 4 [(5)] Circled 5 [(6)] Circled 6 [(7)] Circled 7 [(8)] Circled 8 [(9)] Circled 9 [(10)] Circled 10 [(11)] Circled 11 [(12)] Circled 12 [(13)] Circled 13 [(I)] Circled I

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
AIDS TO THE STUDY
OF
THE MAYA CODICES.
BY
PROF. CYRUS THOMAS.

CONTENTS.
Introduction 259 CHAP. I. The numerals in the Dresden Codex 261 II. Conclusions 339 III. The writing 345 Signification of the characters 347 Symbols of animals &c 348 Symbols of deities 358 Discussion as to phonetic features of the characters 365

ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. 359. Line of day and numeral symbols from Plates 36c and 37c, Dresden Codex 272 360. Line of day and numeral characters from Plates 33-39, Dresden Codex 276 361. Unusual symbol for Akbal from Plate 8 of the Dresden Codex 284 362. Copy of Plate 50, Dresden Codex 297 363. Copy of Plate 51, Dresden Codex 306 364. Copy of Plate 52, Dresden Codex 307 365. Copy of Plate 53, Dresden Codex 308 366. Copy of Plate 54, Dresden Codex 309 367. Copy of Plate 55, Dresden Codex 310 368. Copy of Plate 56, Dresden Codex 311 369. Copy of Plate 57, Dresden Codex 312 370. Copy of Plate 58, Dresden Codex 313 371. Specimens of ornamental loops from page 72, Dresden Codex 337 372. Numeral character from the lower division of Plate XV, Manuscript Troano 343 373. Turtle from the Cortesian Codex, Plate 17 348 374. Jar from the Cortesian Codex, Plate 27 349 375. Worm and plant from Manuscript Troano, Plate XXIX 351 376. Figure of a woman from the Dresden Codex 351 377. Copy of middle and lower divisions of Plate XIX, Manuscript Troano 352 378. Copy of lower division of Plate 65, Dresden Codex 353 379. The moo or ara from Plate 16, Dresden Codex 355 380. The god Ekchuah, after the Troano and Cortesian Codices 358 381. The long nosed god (Kukulcan) or god with the snake-like tongue 359 382. Copy of head from the Borgian Codex (Quetzalcoatl?) 360 383. The supposed god of death from the Dresden Codex 361 384. The supposed god of death from the Troano Codex 361 385. The god with the banded face from the Troano Codex 362 386. The god with the old man's face 363 387. The god with face crossed by lines 364 388. Wooden idol in vessel with basket cover 371

AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE MAYA CODICES.
BY CYRUS THOMAS.

INTRODUCTION.
The object of this paper is to present to students of American paleography a brief explanation of some discoveries, made in regard to certain Maya codices, which are not mentioned in my previous papers relating to these aboriginal manuscripts.
It is apparent to every one who has carefully studied these manuscripts that any attempt to decipher them on the supposition that they contain true alphabetic characters must end in failure. Although enough has been ascertained to render it more than probable that some of the characters are phonetic