Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/174

108 figures and vegetable sprouts upon it do not agree with this interpretation. Still I believe it to be the idea intended.

Plates XXIX-XXXIII appear to relate entirely to agricultural puruitspursuits [sic], especially to the cultivation of maize, cacao, some vine, and possibly, cotton.

In this connection I would call special attention to the first (top) and second divisions of Plates XXX and XXXI, and the two Tlaloc figures in the lower division of XXXIII In these we undoubtedly have the planting of seed, most likely corn, represented. The number of grains deposited in a place appears usually to be five, but occasionally six seem to be dropped. The opening or hole in the soil is made with a pointed wooden stick, always more or less bent or curved in the figures. According to Landa the custom of the native farmers was to make holes at regular intervals, and in each deposit "five or six grains" of maize. The number appears to be indicated in the plates, not only by the figures of balls dropped, but also by the spread fingers with knobs at the tips, showing that five was the established number. As further evidence of the correctness of this interpretation, the individuals represented on Plates XXX and XXXI, as engaged in this work, have their heads covered with a kind of matting or straw hat, indicating that they are in (he sun, where the head needs protection. The character in this headgear, as will hereafter be shown, probably signifies ppoc, "a hat" or "head-covering."

The similar operation represented in the lower division of Plate XXXIII, where Tlaloc, or a priest attired as this deity, is the planter, probably refers to the seed of some other plant, possibly the gourd or bean, or the leguminous plant figured in the second division of the same plate.

As I have expressed a belief that the figures with a two-colored face are given to represent Zamna, or Itzamna, one of the chief Maya deities or culture heroes, I will give here in part my reasons for this opinion.

First. As has been heretofore intimated, and as will hereafter be more fully shown, the Imix and Kan symbols are undoubtedly often used to denote bread and maize, and the word, or name, Itzamna has as its primary signification seed from which plants issue, the chief reference being to maize.