No. 4 is explained by Brasseur as the girdle, xoc, around the body; and I prefer this to later suggestions. A similar design was the tress of hair, kax pol or kaaxi, worn by women (see Cod. Tro., p. 27; Cod. Dres., p. 45). Its signification would seem to be “to tie together, to join,” or, as a rebus, “rain, to rain,” for kaxala (llover, y la lluvia).
Fig. 42.—The Drum Signs.
No more prominent hieroglyph than No. 1, Fig. [42], can be found in the Mayan inscriptions, and none which has proved such a stumbling block to interpreters. Valentini has called it the picture of a censer or brazier; de Rosny thought it a variant of the ahau sign; Dr. Seler explained it as a precious stone; and Thomas as “a stone heap!” It is the upper figure in the “Initial Series” of glyphs at Palenque, Copan, Quirigua, etc. (see above, p. 24), and recurs with but slight variations in all the Codices.
I first announced what it represents and its signification at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, August, 1894.[[118]] It is the picture of a drum, the large variety, made of the hollow trunk of a tree resting upon short feet, the trunk being sawed across partly through so as to give two vibrating surfaces, which were often decorated with cross-hatching. Such drums are described by the early Spanish writers, and one is shown in the Atlas to Duran’s History.[[119]] Their sound could be heard for two leagues, and they were important adjuvants in the services in the temples.
In the hieroglyphics the significance of this design is primarily phonetic. The name of this particular kind of drum was pax che, from pax, musical instrument, and che, wooden; a large one was bolon pax che, the word bolon, nine, being a superlative prefix in Maya. Employed according to the ikonomatic method, this expressed the word paxan, a very common term in Maya, meaning “it is finished,” and applied to anything completed, ended, or destroyed, in a good or bad sense.[[120]] This is why in the numeral signs it marks the end of a series (see above, p. 22), and in the so-called “Initial Series” (which I believe to be terminal), it surmounts and thus closes (reading from below upward) the rows of computation signs. For the same reason it is the support of the figure representing the dying year in the ceremonies at its termination (Cod. Tro., pp. 20–24), and is often associated with the deities of old age, destruction, and death.
Several other varieties of drums were in use among the Mayas. That shown Fig. [42] No. 2, is noteworthy. It is the dzacatan (Berendt), or medicine-drum (from dzacah, to cure, to practice medicine). It was used in the sacred ceremonies (see Fig. 30), and Itzamna is portrayed playing upon one (Cod. Dres., p. 34). Its representations in the Codices are peculiar, and have been entirely misunderstood by previous writers. I show them in Fig. [43], Nos. 1, 2, 3. In a more highly conventionalized form we find them in the Cod. Troano, thus:
which has been explained by Pousse, Thomas, and others, as making fire or as grinding paint. It is obviously the dzacatan, what I have called the “pottery decoration” (see p. 58) around the figures, showing that the body of the drum was of earthenware.
Fig. [42], No. 3 shows the ordinary hand drum, the huehuetl of the Mexicans. Its name in Maya is tunkul, properly tankul, which means either “before the gods,” or “now one worships” (ahora se adora, Baeza.) It was either of wood and was struck with a stick; or of pottery with a skin stretched over its mouth, when the sound was produced by the fingers. Some were large and stood upright, as shown in Fig. [43].[[121]] Representations of these are common in the Codices, and have generally been mistaken for vases. (See Cod. Cort., p. 27.) Even Nos. 4 and 5, Fig. [44], are probably some such musical instruments. (See Cod. Cort., pp. 12, 30, 31.)