The American Egypt Part 19

14th. [Ill.u.s.tration] _Kan kin._ This month name is supposed to mean "the yellow sun." The first is thought to show the sun sign _Kin_, while the second sign has been suggested as a breast-bone, a shield, or a dog.

15th. [Ill.u.s.tration] _Moan._ This is thought to have been named after the crested falcon known to the Mayas as the _Moan_ bird.

16th. [Ill.u.s.tration] _Pax._ Probably from the Maya word _pax-che_, meaning "drum," which seems to form the first elements of this glyph.

17th. [Ill.u.s.tration] _Kay ab._ According to Landa's alphabet these were the signs for _a_ or _ak_, but Sch.e.l.lhas thinks they are meant for the turtle.

18th. [Ill.u.s.tration] _c.u.m ku._ Forstemann's explanation of this glyph is that it represents "two flashes of lightning or the sun's rays striking on a maize field," but we see nothing for this suggestion.

Knowing then that the Mayan year consisted of eighteen 20-day months, the glyphs to represent these days and months have been looked for, and it is believed they have been found. On the opposite page these glyphs are ill.u.s.trated, namely, the day and month signs. Further, the signs representing the other time-counts have been looked for and declared recognised. The first, the year or _ahau_ sign, is supposed to be represented in a variety of forms, three of which are given on the opposite page. It is thought to be the same with the _katun_ or 20-year sign, and the cycle (20 _katuns_) and great cycle (13 cycles) signs, three of each of which we give on the opposite page. The first three of this group, namely, the great-cycle signs, if they have been correctly read, would seem to denote an extraordinary date. According to Goodman's chronological table, he would have us believe that at Copan, where these glyphs always head a series of characters on a tablet, they belong to the 53rd, 54th, and 55th great cycles. From these dates various subtractions are made into which we have no s.p.a.ce to go in detail. In any case, according to the present mode of reckoning, the glyphs at Copan and Quirigua bear the highest numbers in the chronological calendar, and thus those cities must be a.s.sumed to be the latest built, a proposition which, as we pointed out in Chapter XVII., is untenable.

But whether or not this calendar system is really accurate (there are a great many serious discrepancies) has yet to be proved. In the museums of America and Germany scholars have striven hard to soundly base their theories; while others have done yeoman service in the field, and undergone great hardships in collecting material upon which these learned men might work. In their enthusiasm the latter have, without doubt, blundered into deductions which are unjustifiable. They have detected similarities in glyphs which no other person can detect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREAT CYCLE SIGNS

1 2 3]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CYCLE SIGNS

4 5 6]

[Ill.u.s.tration: KATUN SIGNS

7 8 9]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AHAU SIGNS

10 11 12]

As an example of this we give an ill.u.s.tration from Professor E.

Forstemann's own work. In the _Bureau of American Ethnology Report_ (_Bulletin_ 28, p. 549), after speaking of the _ahau_ and _katun_ glyphs, he says: "Then follows, almost of necessity, B 3 = 144,000 days [given in our figure 1], as the sign of similar form on the superscription has led us to conjecture, and as we see it repeated in C 5, F 6, U 2, and V 12."

[Ill.u.s.tration: B 3]

[Ill.u.s.tration: V 12]

We agree with him that, as B 3 comes directly under the initial glyph and above the signs representing the _ahau_ and _katun_, it is the 144,000 days or cycle sign--that is, of course, always allowing that his premisses, to which we give no adherence, are correct; and we follow him when he sees it "repeated" in C 5, F 6, and U 2. There is no doubt that these three glyphs are variations of B 3; but V 12 is an entirely new character bearing not the slightest resemblance except in Professor Forstemann's own imagination. This is but one example of his detecting likeness where none exists. The last-mentioned sign has its counterpart or its variants in many portions of the inscription of the Tablet of the Cross at Palenque with which Professor Forstemann is dealing, and if he had looked he would, with his superior knowledge of the Maya glyphs, have found them quite easily.

But what of the other glyphs? Are they simply all calendar signs interlaced with a few other glyphs appertaining to deities; or are they records of Mayan history? D. G. Brinton, in his book _A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics_ (Chicago, 1898), says: "We need not search for the facts of history, the names of the mighty kings or the dates of conquests. We shall not find them. Chronometry we shall find, but not chronicles; astronomy with astrological aims; ritual, but no records. Pre-Columbian history will not be constructed from them. This will be a disappointment to many, but it is the conclusion towards which tend all the soundest investigations of recent years."

Is Dr. Brinton right? Are we to find no records of this mysterious civilisation? Are we to be for ever denied written proof whence the Mayans came and how they attained their civilisation? It is to be hoped that his presumption is incorrect, and that these undeciphered glyphs and those which cannot as yet be regarded as satisfactorily accounted for as mere chronological data will prove to be the key to this problem of the New World. Of the glyphs that are alleged to be calendar signs we have already spoken; their importance can only be shown when their neighbours have been deciphered, and until that day comes the wise will withhold their acceptance of the present calendar or astronomical reading. Searches have been made, searches are being made, but the students who have worked and who are working have received little support in their enterprise.

It has been suggested and in some cases proved that many of the glyphs apart from the calendar signs are astronomical and animal ideographs of deities. Amongst those which are repeatedly made use of is the chief beneficent G.o.d of the Mayans, _Itzamna_, who was to them what Quetzalcoatl was to the Mexicans. Tradition relates, according to D. G.

Brinton, that "he came in his magic skiff from the East, across the waters, and therefore he presided over that quarter of the world a.s.signed to him." His name meant "the dew or moisture of the morning."

To him all the arts are due. He was the G.o.d of their culture, their arts, their writings on stone monuments and books. His sign is found throughout the codices, in paintings, and among the glyphs. The tapir was his princ.i.p.al symbol, and to what does this fact point? Is it not possible to see in him a culture-G.o.d coming from the East? The Buddhists came from the East; they were the culture-heroes of Central America; they were the men who taught the building arts and who possibly introduced the tapir as a deity instead of the elephant of their native country. Thus may Itzamna have risen the personification of their arts and crafts after they had died, the elephant cult of Asia being represented by the tapir.

The other deities were but minor ones compared with Itzamna. They were _Cuculcan_, _Kin-ich_, the G.o.d of the North Star, the Bee-G.o.d, the Bat-G.o.d, and _Ghanan_, the G.o.d of Earth, growth and fertility; _Ah-Pach_ (G.o.d of Death), always depicted in battle scenes with his torch or spear and flint knife; _Ek Ahau_, the Black G.o.d, suggested to have been the G.o.d of the much-cultivated cocoa plant, although his att.i.tude of war with appendages of shield and spear does not quite harmonise with this suggestion that he was a G.o.d of agriculture. In addition to these anthropomorphic deities we find animal life represented by the serpent, the dog, the jaguar, the macaw, deer, armadillo, turtle, monkey, quail, frog, scorpion, zopilote, pelican, blackbird, and what D. G. Brinton has called his "fish and oyster sign."

Again, many are reminiscent of domestic life, for example, of weaving, the spinning whorl, the flint knife (always denoting death or sacrifice and near the G.o.d of Death), and lastly there are those having reference to sacrificial acts and the priests' devotion by the piercing of their tongues. Astronomical ideas figure largely too. Primitive peoples always held the heavens in awe. Their calendar was formed partly by the lunations of the moon and by the celestial bodies, and naturally we find their ideographs often portrayed. Landa mentions that the Mayas measured their time by night, "_Regianse de noche, para conocer la hora, por el lucero, i las cobrillas i los artilegros, de dia, por media dia._"

There is no doubt the Mayan knowledge of the stars was considerable. The Pleiades and Orion were watched by them. They called the North Star _Xaman Ek_ (_Xaman_ north: _Ek_ star). Their astronomers studied the course of the Milky Way and the sun was figured in the glyphs in various forms. The much-discussed _Benik_ sign (_Ben_, idea: _ik_, life) had probably much to do with the sun; but D. G. Brinton believed it to more particularly represent "strength and deific power," and says of Dr.

Seler, when referring to this glyph, "that he is apt to see gory human heads everywhere," because Seler thought the glyph represented a head carried in a sling as a sign of "conquered in war."

But the signs which have been most in dispute are those which D. G.

Brinton has called "Drum Signs." Professor Leon de Rosny thought these variants of the _ahau_ sign; Professor Cyrus Thomas a heap of stones; Dr. Phillip J. J. Valentini a censer or brazier; and Dr. Seler a precious stone. They are always found on the "initial" or cycle glyphs at Copan, Quirigua, and Palenque. D. G. Brinton is probably correct in the christening of them; for they are exactly like the drums which the Indians possessed at the coming of the Spaniards, according to Father Duran's _Historia de los Indios_, and which are depicted in the ancient codices. Thus it would seem that these are "Drum Signs" with a symbolical meaning. Another sign which has been the subject of much controversy is that which de Rosny and Professor Forstemann are probably right in calling the "Phallus Sign"; but which Abbe Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg thought represented a gourd, D. G. Brinton the "_Yax_ or Feather Ornament," and Seler a tree of some kind. Dr. Sch.e.l.lhas has gone further and declared it to be the sign "zapote tree," the wood most used by the Mayans in building.

But the time has not yet come when it is possible to say who is right or wrong in the naming of these glyphs. Up to the present it is all more or less surmise based upon the writings of the Spanish historians--such as Bishop Landa. It is on his work that is based the a.s.sumption that the signs on the monuments refer chiefly to the calendar. It is true they seem to be mathematically correct, but this could not be otherwise when the numberings of the dates have been a.s.signed by those who have shown them to be correct. The alphabet which Landa bequeathed us has been proved beyond all question to be false. In fact it is obvious that no alphabet can be formed upon the glyphs, for there are hundreds of signs, some of which would appear to have many variants. If his key to the actual writing through his alphabet is incorrect, there is good reason to doubt his statements as to the calendar signs; and the student ought not to allow himself to begin where others have finished in these researches. He should first of all glance back over the ground which is supposed to have been already covered, and see for himself whether or not there is actual proof that the calendar signs have been correctly interpreted.

Much might be said on the codices and books that have been left us by the historians. They belong to two cla.s.ses and two widely separate dates. The Codices are the surviving ancient glyphic writings of pre-Conquest times which escaped the Spanish bonfires, and are of native paper about ten inches wide and of various lengths, inscribed on both sides, and folded zigzag-fashion like the oldest Buddhist literature.

The others are the books written in Latin characters after the Conquest in several towns and villages and known as the "Books of Chilan Balam."

Only four of the former remain, namely the _Codex Peresia.n.u.s_ in Paris, receiving its name from the fact that the name "Perez" was written on it in Latin characters, probably the name of the Spaniard who saved it from destruction at the Conquest; the _Codex Dresdensis_ in the Museum at Dresden, from which it gets its name; and the _Codices Troa.n.u.s_ and _Cortesia.n.u.s_ in the Madrid Museum, which are probably two parts of the same book. It is generally supposed the _Codex Peresia.n.u.s_ is of Tzental origin written in Guatemala, the Tzentals being a Guatemalan tribe of the Maya family. The _Codex Dresdensis_ is thought to have been written at or near Palenque; the first copy of it to be made public was in Lord Kingsborough's work on the antiquities of Mexico. The _Codices Troa.n.u.s_ and _Cortesia.n.u.s_ are supposed to have been written in Central Yucatan; and, under the direction of the French Government, Abbe Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg made many copies in 1869. On them are depicted the same hieroglyphical characters as one sees on the monuments, allowing of course for the difference and discrepancies which would occur between the work on stone and that on paper.

The "Books of the Chilan Balam" are of little value. They are post-Conquest compilations based on the narrations of Indians of their history, traditions, and beliefs. Each town or village at one time probably had its Chilan Balam or record book in which all statements relative to the village were entered. They were formed at the instigation of the Spanish priests, who taught the Indians to write them in Latin characters. The earliest was composed during the latter half of the sixteenth century, but most were written long after the Conquest during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and had become much tainted with the Spanish prejudices. The best collection of these books was that made by D. G. Brinton from various sources, and which he describes in his book _The Maya Chronicles_. But, as we have said before, if they make indifferently trustworthy sources of history, they offer less help to the deciphering of the hieroglyphics.

Now let us turn to the Mayan paintings. The historians tell us--and there is much reason to believe them--that the buildings of Yucatan were often painted externally in different colours. Traces of paint can be found to-day on many of the monuments. But it is not so much with the painting of the outside of the buildings as the internal mural paintings that we shall deal. From them much of the past history of the country can be gathered. The mode of life, the shape of the houses, the dress, the utensils in use and the food of the Indians are often depicted.

Nearly all the buildings in Yucatan have traces of once having been adorned by paintings; but the best still in existence are those in the House of Tigers at Chichen Itza. Although much faded, disfigured and defaced by the vandalism of the conquerors, they show that the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan had a good knowledge of pigments and mixed them so well that to-day, where they exist at all, they are still bright and well preserved. They have been copied by various people; but probably the best reproduction of them is in possession of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Ma.s.s.

In them is shown the daily life of the Indians. In one scene we see a woman seated on a _kanche_, a type of stool still in common use among the natives to-day. Near by her is her basket of small round biscuit-like objects which would seem to be tortillas. The _koben_ or three-stone fireplace, typical of Mayan huts to-day, is just outside the door, and on it a cooking-bowl is standing in which food is being prepared. All the women are dressed in the chemise-like garment, the _huipil_, which is worn to-day, and ear-ornaments adorn their ears; whilst their long, straight, jet-black hair hangs down over their shoulders, or in some cases is done up in a knot on the nape of the neck. There are warriors, too, depicted in battle array in the act of defending a village, while the women are anxiously watching the result from the doors of their huts. The warriors are shown with their spears raised and shields at the defence ready for the oncoming foe. The figures are very realistic, but the one thing which strikes you above all else is the lack of proportion. Men and women appear as tall as the houses in which they live, and which look mere dolls'-houses. We have spoken of the lack of proportion marking the paintings in the early Buddhistic temples in an earlier chapter, but this is naturally common in all countries during the early stages of development of art.

Considering the vandalism to which the paintings have been subject and the climate, it is clear from the brightness of the paints that the ancient Mayans had the secret of mixing pigments. Nor was their method of placing them on the walls to be despised. This was the superimposing of one colour on another. They would seem to have first of all painted the entire wall with the colour which was to serve as the background for the picture. On this the designs were painted, and in cases where more than one colour was employed in any figure, as was often the case, we found that it had been covered entirely with the most prevalent colour, then overlaid with a new pigment until the desired effect had been obtained. The colours used were yellow, blue, green, and a reddish brown. If the background was green, the wall would first be entirely covered with that colour. If a figure of a man or woman was to be depicted it would be painted in reddish brown (the invariable skin-colour in the paintings), and the colouring of the apparel would be placed on the top of this; and in such cases as depicting ornamentation on the garments, another coating of a different colour would be placed on the top of that. Thus one commonly finds three or four coatings of paint overlaid on the base colour.

It is from these paintings that one can trace the weapons used by the Mayans in the war and chase. The spear or lance is much in evidence; the short serrated sword of flint, examples of which have been unearthed among the ruins, is often depicted. The heavy throwing-stones, which wrought much havoc among the early Spanish adventurers when they attacked and stormed the Mayan cities, and the short obsidian knife a.s.sociated with those sacrificial orgies that often took place after a victory, are also portrayed. Again, we see shields carried on the warriors' left arm, on which the colour-token of their chief is shown in the same way as our knights of old had painted on their shields the arms of their feudal lords. When in battle array they invariably wear the thick, quilted cotton vest reaching from their necks to their thighs, so closely woven as to be proof against the enemy's darts. When not in battle this is discarded for the more easy-going _uit_ or loin-cloth.

Caciques and priests are dressed more elaborately. We see the heavy beplumed headdress, the leg ornamentation and sandals far more elaborate than the thick, plaited, deer-skin, two-thonged foot-covering of their followers.

Last but perhaps not by any means least in importance among these paintings is the much-discussed "red hand." We have spoken of its probable origin on p. 265. We have seen it, as have others, on the ruins of the mainland; but more, we have found it on the walls buried under the debris of fallen roofs in the islands. The best examples of it were found by us at Cozumel in ruins on which probably no other white man has ever looked. On the ruins of the mainland it is rare, but one ruin we discovered, described on p. 180, was literally covered with this form of ornamentation, and here for the first time we realised that the human hand was not always used. It was not always the impression of an actual hand, as has been insisted by many, but of something of a roughly similar shape.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FAcADE OF BUILDING AT KABAH.]

The paintings in all the ruins are fast crumbling away, and to-day a gentle tap upon the walls will show that the layers of paint are losing those adhesive qualities which have held them in position for centuries.

How were such arts of writing and painting attained? The latter question is easily answered. The knowledge of painting in elementary colours has often been found among the most inartistic peoples; but as we have said before, the mural paintings of the monuments of Central America are so similar in design to those of the early Buddhist temples that if we are to believe a migration to America took place in the early Middle Ages the suggestion that the emigrants brought the art of painting into Central America with them is almost irresistible. But it is not so easy with the glyphs. The paper on which the early codices were written and the way in which they are folded bear a striking resemblance to the early ma.n.u.scripts of the Malay Peninsula, but as yet no counterparts of the characters which form the hieroglyphics on the monuments of Central America have been found in any other part of the world.

Most writers would have us believe, as in the case of the architecture, that it is indigenous to the American continent. It is possible that the invention of this writing is the work of the indigenes, but we are inclined to believe that the Mayan hieroglyphics, if they are ever deciphered, will prove to be a combination writing--partly pictographic and indigenous and partly of a foreign character. In Java and the neighbouring islands have been discovered inscriptions in an ancient form of Sunda writing. These have never been deciphered, and they are in certain particulars reminiscent of some of the markings on the glyphs.

But it may be that for the foreign element, if there be one, students would have to look even further east. Archaeology is as yet but a new science. There is much work to be done in the Malay Peninsula and the Eastern Archipelago before the monuments of Cambodia and Indo-China have been explained. Archaeologically this region has been little touched.

The unsettled condition of the Independent Malay States, the indolence of the natives, the unhealthiness of the _kampongs_ or villages, and the hostility of the tribes of the interior as well as the difficulties of transport have helped to keep the explorer away. But these difficulties are gradually disappearing, and in the near future some enthusiast who has the time and money will perhaps turn his attention to this field, when his name may once and for all become immortal in the annals of science as the discoverer of the cradle-land of the American Indian calculiform writing, at the same time linking the Old World for ever with the New.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Bishop Landa, first bishop of Yucatan, according to the evidence of a Jesuit chronicler, had everything appertaining to the Mayan religion, upon which he could lay his hands, destroyed. Five thousand idols, 13 large and 22 smaller stone altars, 27 ma.n.u.scripts on deerskins, and 197 other ma.n.u.scripts are catalogued as thus perishing.

[15] The word is said to be derived from _kat_, to ask, and _tun_, stone: _i.e._ the stone which when asked gives account, in allusion to the fact that at each katun a stone was set up to memorialize the date.