Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/214

148 very little, slender, thin, or slim"; tzil, "divided, separated, torn, rent," &c.; tzulche, "trellis, lattice-work, barred," &c.; tzic, "to part, cut, divide," &c.; tzack, "to cut fine, to hash," &c; dzil, "to work mosaic, to weave, plait," &c.; all of which are words that have the hissing sound as their chief phonetic element.

On Plates II, III, VI, and elsewhere we see the figure of the redmouthed god, which we can scarcely doubt is Chicchac-chob. On the headdress in the three plates designated is this same interlaced figure. On Plate XXV, lower division, is the figure of a serpent with rattles, to which allusion has heretofore been made, which is marked with checkered or cross-hatched spots; tzabcan, in Maya, signifies "a serpent with rattles"; see also the serpent in the lower division of Plate V. We also see that the apron, and appendage hanging between the limbs, is marked in the same way, possibly denoting, as heretofore suggested, zihil, "birth," as the design appears to be to symbolize the birth of the storm-cloud.

I suggest as possible that the characters in the hand of the left figure, upper division, Plate XXX*, one of which is the reticulated figure, the other that of Gauac, may denote cauche, the cultivated cocoanut. One reason for this supposition is that the figure in the other hand (Fig. 69) appears to be the hieroglyphic for omal, "bread," especially a certain kind of flat tortilla, used in sacrificial offerings.

In the middle and lower divisions of Plate XIX we find the character shown in Fig. 70, occurring several times.

The figures in the spaces appear to be grinding paint in stone andearthenware mortars. The pestle is straight, rather slender, and cylindrical in form, and is grasped by both hands. I venture the suggestion that the circle of dots with the little oval in the center, indicates that the pestle is to be turned or whirled round, and the changed direction of the curves denotes to the right and left, or first one way and then the other. The cross-hatching indicates a word with the sound of ch, tz, or z. As tending to confirm this suggestion, we find, by reference to the Maya lexicon, that dzic and dzical (adjectives) signify "left," and dziical, "left hand." (See Fig. 48, p. 139.)