Identifier: mexicancentralamer00bowd (find matches)
Title: Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Bowditch, Charles P. (Charles Pickering), 1842-1921 Seler, Eduard, 1849-1922 Förstemann, Ernst Wilhelm, 1822-1906 Schellhas, Paul, b. 1859 Sapper, Karl, 1866-1945 Dieseldorff, Erwin Paul, 1868-1940 Wesselhoeft, Selma Parker, Alberta M Thomas, Cyrus, 1825-1910
Subjects: Mayas Maya calendar Calendar, Mexican
Publisher: Washington, Govt. print. off.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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^ of this conception of thehieroglyph Caban in the fact that this hieroglyph appears homolo- seler) THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 51 gously with the hieroglyphic men (v, figure 4), which, as I statedabove, is the picture of the old earth goddess, the earth mother, Ixchel,or Tonantzin (compare the two forms g and A, figure 5, which areused for the bee flying down, in Troano codex, page 9^a). And, finally, this conception of the sign Caban also agrees very wellwith the part played by the hieroglyph Caban in the compound hiero-glyphs in the Maya manuscript; for this element forms an essentialconstituent in all hieroglyphs which symbolize the word below or
Text Appearing After Image:
V w X y z aa Fig. 5. Day signs and related glyphs from the Maya codices. descent from above. Thus in the hieroglyph of the fifth cardinalpoint (e to (/, figure 1), which denotes the center; in the hieroglyph ofthe bee (e to A, figure 5), which represents an insect swooping down fromabove; in the hieroglyphs (I to figure 5) which illustrate pouringfrom a jug or wine skin; in the hieroglyph which denotes the fellingof the tree; in the snake formed by the sign Caban, upon which, in theDresden codex, page 30^/, the green Chac, the Chac of the fifth direc-tion, is descending. When, in my former article, I described this caban 52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULlv. 28 snake, as well as which in the Dresden manuscript in several placesserves as a seat or footstool for Chac, and the element Caban generallyas the heavenly seat, I gave the wrong emphasis to descent from aboveinstead of to descent. In fact, this figure, like figure 4, which servesin other parts of the Dresden manuscript as the

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