, without attaching any positive meaning to it. It must be added that
Dr. Foerstemann himself states that he is not satisfied with his own
interpretation of these two symbols, the first of which, the seed and
radicle, likewise occurs in the day-sign cib, to which I shall recur.

If any doubt remains as to the signification of the day-sign cab, I think
it will be dispelled when it is shown that the name cab, or caban is
obviously related to the adjective, adverb and preposition cabal or
cablil, which signifies low, below, on the earth, in, beneath and under.
The frequent association of the cab glyph with the image of a bee, as in
the Codex Troano, is partially explained by the fact that the Maya word
for honey is cab, for honey-bee is yikil-cab. It affords at all events, an
instance, in Maya hieroglyphic writing, of a method of duplicating the
sound of a word analogous to that which I detected in Mexican pictography,
and named complementary signs in my communication on the subject,
published as an appendix to my essay on Ancient Mexican Shields
(Internationales Archiv fuer Ethnographie, Leyden, 1892). On the other hand
the day name and sign cib, on which the sprouting grain is also figured,
seems to be related to the verb cibah=to will, to occur, to happen, to
take place. The allusion contained in both glyphs is obviously the same
and signifies, in the first place, the hidden process of germination which
takes place under the surface of the soil, and is associated with the idea
of the female principle in Nature.

The seed and radicle, horse-shoe and rain-drops, are also distinguishable
on a vessel on page 35 of the Dresden Codex and on a small three-legged
vase, which is figured by Doctor Brinton (Primer, 118) as the day sign
ch'en. This vase is surmounted by two in-curving projections and offers a
close analogy to a sacred vase with superstructure (fig. 33, II) from
which projects a peculiar open and double receptacle, into which a priest
is sowing small seeds. The interior of this bowl is represented as hollow,
and containing what I shall show further on to be a native symbol for
Earth: three little mounds. On another bowl, in front of this one, a bird
is sitting and presumably hatching. In another portion of the same MS. a
similar bowl is figured containing three seed fruits and capsules,
resembling pomegranates or poppy-heads (fig. 33, III).

The tree next to which the first two symbolical bowls are placed deserves