sign is so surrounded, indicating the junction of two time-periods; or, as others would say, the crooked lightning darting from the sky.
Fig. 51.—The “Cloud-Balls” and the “Cork-screw Curl.”
In Fig. [51], Nos. 1 and 2, copied from the great tortoise of Copan, show the rain-clouds as conceived by the native artist. In the Codices they are seen in the day-sign cauac; and elsewhere. An almost identical conception appears in the pictography of the northern tribes.[[128]] Seler speaks of them as Wolkenballen, “cloud-balls,” an appropriate name for the element.
Fig. 52.—Symbols for the Earth.
No. 3 has been explained by Thomas and Seler as the portrayal of trickling fluid; or, again, by the latter, as a “nose ornament.” Dr. Schellhas first saw its real intention. It is a picture of a twisted lock of hair, or “cork-screw curl,” worn by the Maya women. It appears in the monograms of various goddesses. Ideographically it has two meanings, one, woman or female; the other, down or downward; either from its name (which we do not know), or because it hangs downward. In the latter sense, it is in the hieroglyph of the Earth, as that which is down or below us, Fig. [52]; although, as the Earth is the feminine principle in nature,—Mother Earth,—I would suggest that this is the intimation conveyed by the sign.
Fig. 53.—Signs for Union.