Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/139

Rh yellow or golden color. On Plates XIX* and XX* of the second part of the Manuscript—lowest division—we observe women bearing burdens on their backs in baskets; the substance carried by three out of six is represented by Kan symbols, and is probably gathered maize.

It is worthy of notice that one of the names of their chief deity Zamna or Itzamna, is Itzen-caan, signifying the "dew of heaven," or "substance from heaven." Itsen and Itmm are given by the lexicons as equivalents, and tzen, and its derivatives, contains throughout the idea of food or that which sustains life. Ixkan-Leox was the name of a female divinity supposed to be the spouse of Zamna; the signification of the name, according to Brasseur, is "Celle de la fronde jaune aux grains de mais"; in other words, the "silk." In the upper division of Plate 19 (Codex) is the figure of a woman bearing the same characters on her back, one above another, as on the Manuscript plate. Just behind her is the figure of a man or male deity, which I judge from the long beard to be Kukulcan, or Zamna, bearing on his back the same two characters. From these facts and others which might be mentioned I am satisfied there was an intimate connection in the minds of this people between maize and this deity.

The two symbols in this form (Fig. 11), and also in reverse order, sometimes with and sometimes without the accompanying characters over them, are of very frequent occurrence in the Manuscript and Codex. That characters similar to the accompanying ones here shown are used in the Mexican Codices to represent cakes of bread or tortillas is well known; whether they have the same signification in this connection is a point that will be discussed hereafter.

Our next step will be to determine, if possible, which of the figures shown on these plates represent the Uayeyab idols. As we have already shown, there were, according to Landa, four of these, as follows: Kan-u-Uayeyab, for the Kan years; Chac-u-Uayeyab, for the Muluc years; Zac-u-Uayeyab, for the Ix years, and Ek-u-Uayeyab, for the Cauac years. "We may assume, I think, without any fear of being in error, that the left-hand figures in the lowest division of the four plates of the Codex are intended as representatives of these images. They are the only ones placed on the stone-heap