Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts | Page 2

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.[TN-1]
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:

[Illustration: 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:
West. S N o o u r t t h h . . East.
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[TN-2] 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
groups and symbols are seen reproduced of which I have just spoken,
the hierogrammat has drawn four figures identical in shape and dress.
These four figures represent the "god of the long nose." Beside the first,
who holds in his hand a flaming torch, appears a series of katounes, at
the head of which is the sign Kan (symbol of the south), and above, a
defaced group. Beside the second, who holds a flaming torch inverted,
is the sign Muluc (symbol of the east), and above, the group which I
have interpreted as east. At the side of the third, who carries in the left
hand the burning torch inverted and a scepter (symbol of Bacabs), is the
sign Ix (symbol of the north), and above, the group which I have
translated as north. Finally, beside the fourth, who carries in his left
hand the flaming torch inverted and a hatchet in the right hand, is the
sign Cauac (symbol of the west), and above, not the entire group,
which I have