Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/224

158 Fig. 92, copied from the upper division of Plate IX, is, I think, beyond doubt the symbol for the armadillo figured in the same division. There are characters somewhat closely resembling it found in other parts of the Manuscript, but none of them have the posterior border of scale-marks, and at the same time the peculiar eye that is used throughout the Manuscript to mark quadrupeds.

Fig. 93, which has for its only characteristic the same figure as Landa's ca, is found frequently in the Manuscript, so placed as to lead me to believe it represents some fruit or vegetable product that is useful as food, or in some other way in domestic life, and that was also considered an appropriate offering to the gods.

"For, example, we see it carried in baskets by women—lower division of Plates XIX* and XX*; in the hand of the bird figure—middle division, Plate II; in the hands of the priest, apparently as an offering, on a number of plates; on the back of figures representing persons traveling—Plate V; marked on (as though denoting something in) a vase—lower division, same plate; in the symbol of the day Cimi; and also in Landa's character for k.

I presume from these facts that, if phonetic, the word or syllable it represents has as its chief phonetic element the sound of k. As the Maya word ca signifies a species of squash or calabash used for food in Yucatan, I presume this is what it denotes in these pictorial representations, especially as this interpretation does not appear to be inconsistent with its use in any of them. But that it also has other significations is evident from the fact that it is found in Cimi, and also as an eye-mark. The same idea is doubtless embraced in both, that is, "death," and the chief phonetic element k.

In close relation to this, and which should be considered with it, is the character represented in Fig. 94. Brasseur has taken it throughout as one form of the Cimi symbol; but there are some reasons for believing there is, at least, a slight difference in the signification of the two, as on Plates XIX* and XX*, in the basket of the woman at the left, we see characters. As the other burdens are represented by the duplication of one character, the bringing of these two together here shows their close relationship to each other. It is also worthy of notice