[1]From drawings and photographs made by the author, and engraved by the Moss Engraving Co., by the new process of Mr. John C. Moss.
From drawings and photographs made by the author, and engraved by the Moss Engraving Co., by the new process of Mr. John C. Moss.
[2]An interpretation of the Maya legend explanatory of the illustration may not be amiss, inasmuch as it shows that the serpent was the symbol of the country. Beginning at the top of the column, it reads as follows:AhauEbKancibLamatA-ha-uHebKanaancibLam-a-tithat is literally:He-water-Basinturnabundantfluidsubmergethe land.Freely translated,The Master of the basin of water turns it: abundant fluid submerges the land.A glance at the illustration will suffice to show that the interpretation is correct. In my work "The Monuments of Mayax," etc., I give a more complete explanation of it.
An interpretation of the Maya legend explanatory of the illustration may not be amiss, inasmuch as it shows that the serpent was the symbol of the country. Beginning at the top of the column, it reads as follows:
Freely translated,
The Master of the basin of water turns it: abundant fluid submerges the land.
A glance at the illustration will suffice to show that the interpretation is correct. In my work "The Monuments of Mayax," etc., I give a more complete explanation of it.
[3]Plate VI., part II. of Troano M.S.The legend reads commencing from the top of the left hand column—CanAhauCimenebforhebEzanabKanthe Kingmaster of the basinof waterdeadforcing itswayearthquakehas risen(beginning again at the top of the second column)Canoccibiklamatixfootsankair—windfilled upcrater—or bosomof the volcanoesuacluumilobumukancankak-mulTimaniksixfertile landsumukanfourvolcanoTimanikCan, the master of the basin of water, who was dead, forcing his way by means of the earthquake, has risen. Can's foot sank, the air having filled up the crater of the volcano. Six fertile lands have appeared in Umukan (Cuba) and four volcanoes in Timanik (one of the small Antilles.)The Maya writers, as the author of the Troano, etc., sometimes represented the Earth under the figure of an old woman and called itmam—the grandmother. She is here represented holding in her left hand the sign of the smoke, and darting a javelin emblem of the volcanic energy, and in her right hand she holds the symbol of the "Land of the Scorpion" "Zinaan," the West India Islands of our days. The deer head represents the Maya Empire.
Plate VI., part II. of Troano M.S.
The legend reads commencing from the top of the left hand column—
Can, the master of the basin of water, who was dead, forcing his way by means of the earthquake, has risen. Can's foot sank, the air having filled up the crater of the volcano. Six fertile lands have appeared in Umukan (Cuba) and four volcanoes in Timanik (one of the small Antilles.)
The Maya writers, as the author of the Troano, etc., sometimes represented the Earth under the figure of an old woman and called itmam—the grandmother. She is here represented holding in her left hand the sign of the smoke, and darting a javelin emblem of the volcanic energy, and in her right hand she holds the symbol of the "Land of the Scorpion" "Zinaan," the West India Islands of our days. The deer head represents the Maya Empire.
[4]The legend literally translated reads as follows:that is:PPeu,cabanforcabahaanhas struck again—bat—ax.Freely translated:PPeu has struck again the tree with his ax. PPeu was the name of one of the twelve ancient rulers who governed the country in times anterior to the great cataclysm during which the Atlantic island was submerged. Deified after his death he became one of the protecting genii of the land, whose effigies still adorn the east façade of the palace at Chichen Itza, where they are placed, between the eyes, over the trunks of the mastodon's head, and surrounded with an aureola.
The legend literally translated reads as follows:
Freely translated:PPeu has struck again the tree with his ax. PPeu was the name of one of the twelve ancient rulers who governed the country in times anterior to the great cataclysm during which the Atlantic island was submerged. Deified after his death he became one of the protecting genii of the land, whose effigies still adorn the east façade of the palace at Chichen Itza, where they are placed, between the eyes, over the trunks of the mastodon's head, and surrounded with an aureola.
[5]Symbol of the three sons of King Can—represented under the emblem of the three deer heads—Uluumil ceh, "the land of the deer," being one of the names of the country of the Mayas.
Symbol of the three sons of King Can—represented under the emblem of the three deer heads—Uluumil ceh, "the land of the deer," being one of the names of the country of the Mayas.