This symbol is found quite frequently in combination with other characters, in some of which its phonetic value can be ascertained with reasonable certainty. For example, it forms the lower half of the symbol for the month Yax, as seen at [LXIV], 12; also in the symbol for the month Zac ([LXVI], 48). In both these instances its chief phonetic element appears to be the guttural sound k, or ks. The essential elements are also found frequently on objects which are undoubtedly of wood and where no reasonable explanation can be given except that it signifies “wood” in these places. For example, it is found on what appear to be boards carried in the hands of individuals, on Tro. 32*b ([LXVII], 49); and it also is seen on what appear to be wooden boxes or gums from which the honeycomb is being removed, as Tro. 5*c and 9*a. Dr Seler, who gives quite a different interpretation of the character from that presented here, admits that these are boards. It is also found on trees, as Tro. 15*a (shown in [LXVIII], 1) and 17*a, and Dres. 26c, 27c, and 28c. It is marked on the walls of houses or canopied seats, as Tro. 6b, 29*c, and 18*b. Under the last mentioned we observe the cab symbol, showing that it is a building placed on the ground and not on a stone foundation. It also appears on the ends of beams, as at Tro. 9a and 22*a. True, Dr Seler contends that these are stones instead of weight poles, but I think all trappers will decide against him. Again, it appears on seats (Tro. 13a and 14*a) and also marked on heads, one of which is shown in [LXVIII], 2. That the symbol is not intended to indicate the different articles on which it is found is evident; hence it must be given to denote the substance of which these things are formed, which I maintain can only be wood. That the trees and boards must be wood is admitted; that the walls of many of the houses and of some of the other buildings of Yucatan were of wood must be admitted; that seats were often of wood is well known. The heads with this mark are in all probability representations of wooden masks. Masks are represented in the hands of individuals at several places in the codices, as Dres. 42(1)a and in Peresianus. I therefore conclude that in all these cases the symbol is to be interpreted by che, cheil, “wood, tree, timber, stick.” In order to show the difference between the explanation given here and that by Dr Seler, I copy the latter:
We find, for instance, on the one hand the undoubted application which is connected with the idea of cloud or rain. Thus, in the hieroglyph, figure 80, the accompanying hieroglyph of figure 46, i. e., the bird Moan. So also the one in figure 28 (p. 107) the accompanying hieroglyph of the name Kinchahau, which, besides cauac, contains further the element of fire and that of the hatchet, which may remind us of the ray [or flash] darting from the cloud. The hieroglyph cauac is, however, used far more commonly in the sense of “stone” or “heaviness.” This is most clearly shown in the case of the animal figures pictured in Cod. Tro. 9a and 22*a, where the stone laid upon and weighing down the horizontal beam is represented by the element cauac. But this explanation must be accepted also, because we find the pyramidal foundation of the temple covered with the element cauac. And where, in Cod. Tro. 15*a, to the Chac who is felling a tree is opposed the death god, also felling a tree, covered by the element cauac, it is clear that here there is substituted with the death god a rigid stone in place of what with the Chac is a sprouting tree. The numerous cases in which the hieroglyph cauac serves as a seat or footstool of the gods are sometimes easily interpreted as signifying clouds, but in the majority of cases it undoubtedly represents “stone,” homologous to the hieroglyph caban and the element tun, “stone,” itself (figure 85), both of which are found equally often denoting the seat and footstool of the gods. It is equally evident that in the hieroglyph figure 84, in which there is indicated the bearing of a burden on the back, the element cauac is to be understood simply as the expression of the weight, the burden. In the peculiar cases where we see the gods holding a board provided with the elements of the character cauac, or where a board is placed before the gods, furnished with a plaited handle whose side bears the element cauac, the latter seems to relate to a sounding board, for the accompanying hieroglyphs seem to signify music. Finally, there can be found a direct homology between the element cauac and the element tun. This is seen in the hieroglyph of the hunting god of figure 83, whose distinguishing mark is usually an eye or the element tun (i. e., a precious stone), which he hears in the front of the headdress. The hieroglyph of this god is written sometimes as in figure 81, sometimes as figure 82. And that the element here, which in figure 82 replaces the element cauac, is to be understood in fact as tun or “stone, precious stone,” is evident, on the one hand from the application of the precious stone in the headdress (tun, “piedra, piedra preciosa”), and, on the other hand, from its use as the base of the pole on which Mam, the Uayeyab demon, is set up during the xma kaba kin (Cod. Dres. 25c). Now, it is true that a connection of ideas can be established with considerable certainty between clouds, rain, and stone, for in that region every rain was a thunderstorm. But at the same time it will be found comprehensible that a barrier of doubt was removed when I discovered in the course of my Zapotec studies that in Zapotec the same word was used for “rain” and “stone,” namely, quia, quie.
According to the explanation I have given above, the chief phonetic element of the character is the guttural sound k, ks (or x), and ch. As additional evidence tending to confirm this conclusion, the following examples are given:
Symbols 61, [LXV], from Tro. 22*a, and 62, from Dres. 1 (42), have already been explained, the first as signifying kutz or cutz, “the turkey,” and the second tzac, the name of a certain fish found in the senotes. In the first (61) the first or left-hand character is our Cauac symbol and has the k sound, and the same symbol forms the right portion in the second (62) and also has the k sound. In [LXVI], 47, from Dres. 18c, the Cauac symbol forms the first or upper portion. The whole compound symbol, as above shown, may be consistently interpreted cuchpach, “a porter or carrier;” literally, “one who bears on the back.” Again we see the k sound given the character is consistent. The symbol for the month Ceh, as found in the Dresden Codex, is shown at [LXVI], 44. In this the last or lower portion is also the Cauac character, and, according to the value assigned it, should have a harder sound than the simple aspirate. That such is the case is rendered probable by the fact that Henderson gives ceh and kez both as names of the month and as Maya words for “deer.” In the Zotzil chigh is the name for “deer.” It is therefore apparent that the symbol has here the guttural sound.
The glyphs in [LXVII], 50 and 51 (Cort. 21), probably signify “night” and “evening”; the first (50), akab, “night,” and the second (51), kankin, one signification of which, according to Henderson, is “evening.” The wing-like appendage is probably a time determinative. These last interpretations are of course given with some doubt. However, this may be said in their favor, that wing-like appendages are usually attached to time symbols, and that the figures below the text represent persons, each of whom carries what appears to be a wheel, possibly like those used in keeping time, and the main character of the preceding symbol in both cases is the Manik glyph, having ch as its chief phonetic element and chackinil, signifying “hours, wheel.” Precisely the same symbol as [LXVII], 51, preceded by the Manik glyph, and a wheel in the hand of the person figured below the text, is seen in Troano 35d.
The character shown in [LXVII], 52, from Tro. 35c, may possibly be correctly rendered by bakah (baakal), “to roll round about, to go round about,” alluding to the flight of the vulture figured below the text. This supposition appears to be strengthened by the probable interpretation of the symbol immediately below it ([LXVII], 53), malaalahah, “without repeated buffetings.” The character given in [LXVIII], 3, from Tro. 31a, may be interpreted pak, “to sow seed, to plant,” and that shown in [LXVIII], 4, from the second division of the same plate, indicates the same word, as the transposition of the parts of a symbol does not always indicate a change of signification. Possibly, however, its equivalent may be capak, “to reseed or sow seed the second time,” or kapak, “to place in a trench or hole.” As the persons figured below the text appear to be planting seed by dibbling them in with a stick, this would seem to be an appropriate rendering. Dr Seler appears to have entirely misunderstood these figures, as he thinks they represent the deities pouring out water. I have in a previous part of this paper given some reasons for believing that these plates refer to the planting and cultivation of corn.
These examples will suffice at this point.
It is difficult to decide as to the origin of the glyph. However, I am inclined to believe it has grown out of a conventional symbol for wood, possibly drawn from the little knots and marks seen on the inside surface of split wood. This may be wide of the true explanation, but all the indications I can find point in this direction. As “wood” (leña) in Zotzil (I do not know what it is in Tzental) is ci—equal to ki or qi—we obtain the guttural sound which appears to be the chief element of the symbol. In its use it appears to shade off from the hard to the soft sound.