Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/133

Rh A careful comparison of the chief figure in the lowest division of Plate 27 of the Codex with the left-hand figure in the lower division of Plate XXIII of the Manuscript convinces me that the two are intended as symbols of the same idea or as representatives of the same person. That the former is essentially different from the corresponding figures on Plates 25, 26, and 28 is apparent to any one who will take the trouble to compare them. The cape is here in front instead of on the back. The anklets and bracelets—which appear to be used as tokens of caste—are different from the others. There is also a wide variation in the head-dress, which, together with the exposed bone of the lower jaw, the docked nose, and lines of dots on the limbs, indicate that this priest is here representing Death or the god of Death. A cursory examination of other plates of both works where the same figures will be found is sufficient to satisfy any one of the correctness of this opinion. I refer the reader who may have the works at hand to Plates XXX, XXXIV, IIP, XXII*, XXX*, XXXII* of the Manuscript, and also Plates 6, 11, 12, 18, 45, and 53 of the Codex.

A somewhat similar figure is borne on the back of the Chac in the upper division of Plate 28 of the Codex, on which we see the same bracelets, head-dress, exposed jaw-bone, and lines of dots. Landa states, as will be seen by reference to his account of the festivals of the intercalated days heretofore given, that at the commencement of the Cauac year they carried, among other things, a "dead man." According to the interpretation given, Plate 27 refers to the close of the Cauac and commencement of the Kan year, and 28 to the close of the Kan and commencement of the Muluc year, which would place this ceremony in the year following that given by Landa.

Referring now to Plate XXIII of the Manuscript, which relates in part at least to the Cauac years, we see in the lower left-hand corner of the lower division a white figure with the same anklets and bracelets; and, although portly and apparently clothed with flesh, the ribs denoting death are plainly marked. A hand is stretched out as if to catch the skull, which is dropping from the head-dress that arises out of the earthen vessel.

I note the following additional items in which they correspond; in the