Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/144

84 In the lower left-hand comer of the same division we observe the figure of a deity, with a fiery red face, marked as the symbol for Ahau, bearing in his hand a torch and on his head what appears to be two little wings. This I presume represents Kinch-Ahau-Itzamna (Kinch-Ahau, the lord of the mouth or eye of the sun or day), one of the idols made during the festival of the Ix years. Here it appears to be sinking out of sight below the western horizon, casting back its fiery rays as indicated by the torch. As it belongs to the Ix year, which is here brought to a close, it would of course be retired. The headless figure immediately above it, and the Caban or Cab which signifies "to descend" or "sink below," and the signification of the blue figure, as heretofore explained, all agree exactly with this interpretation. The wings [if such they be] on the head probably refer to the Ara, the sun token. The bird in the center, seated on the head-dress, may possibly represent or symbolize the "burnt bird," or "bird reduced to ashes" (the meaning of the original is very obscure), of which Landa speaks; the bill in the figure, it is true, is scarcely appropriate for a rapacious bird, which the Kuch appears to have been, but exact representations are not to be expected in this work.

The color appropriate to the Cauac year (the one assigned to the south), as indicated by the Maya word Ek, was black; according with this, the large figure at the right of the upper space, and the bird in the lower space, are of this color.

The serpent, we know, was a symbol used in the Mexican Calendar to denote a long period of time, especially the cycle of 52 years. It is also a prominent figure on these plates of the Manuscript, being found, in three of them, coiled under the clay vessels. (See both divisions of XXI, XXII, and XXIII.) Under each of the vessels in XXIII, and that of the upper division of XXII, it is in two coils; in the lower division of the latter the head is thrust out, apparently in compliance with the solicitation of the white personage to the right; on Plate XXI (both divisions) but one coil remains; and on Plate XX we see nothing more of it. What is it designed to represent on these plates? That it is a symbol of some period of time will scarcely be doubted; but what period?