Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/123

Rh Turning to the "title page" of the same manuscript, we find that these are the first four characters in the second transverse line.

The position of the characters on the plates mentioned led me, at an early stage of my investigations, to believe they were intended to denote the four cardinal points; but the fact that the order was not always the same, and the apparent impossibility of finding words in the Maya lexicon agreeing with Landa's letter characters and at the same time denoting the cardinal points, induced me for a time to doubt the correctness of this theory; but the discovery of the signification of these four plates of the Dresden Codex induces me now to believe that this first impression was correct. It is possible these characters have also some other signification, but that they are intended to designate the cardinal points I can no longer doubt.

In the last or lowest transverse line of characters on Plate 27 of the Dresden Codex (our Plate VII)—the one relating to the close of the Cauac and commencement of the Kan years—we find the character No. 1 (Fig. 8) in close proximity with another character, which I will presently show signifies "stone" or a "heap of stones." If this indicates a cardinal point it must be south or east; if it refers to the place to which the idol was first taken it would then signify south, if to its last resting place it would then signify east. In the corresponding line of Plate 28 (our Plate VIII) we find character No. 2; in that of 25 (our Plate V), character No. 3; in that of 26 (our Plate VI), character No. 4. If we suppose these characters to indicate the final resting places of the idols then character No. 1 would signify east, 2 north, 3 west, and 4 south; but if the first resting place, then character No. 1 would signify south, No. 2 east, No. 3 north, and No. 4 west. That Nos. 1 and 3 relate to the places of the rising and setting of the sun, I think is evident from the following facts:

First. That these are the only two out of the four characters which have anything similar in them.

Second. The lower half of each is precisely like the lower half of Landa's symbol for the month Yaxkin, from which we may infer that it signifies kin, "sun." This also agrees with the fact that the Maya words for east and west (likin, chikin) both end with "kin," which signifies sun or day. Although Landa gives this figure without the wing as the character