ch
side of it there is a large dot, usually, and apparently by intention,
circular or hollow. These differences are permanent in the different
codices.

In the upper division of Plates X and XI, Manuscript Troano, where this
symbol appears in connection with each of the four cardinal symbols, that
relating to the east presents this remarkable variation:

[Illustration: Hieroglyph]

[Illustration: No. 15 _a_ _b_]

(?) A conventional figure of sprouting maize, never inserted in the
text, but frequently in the Manuscript Troano and in the Peresian
Codex made a part of the head gear of figures of deities, in which
case the Kan symbol is generally omitted.

The Kan symbol in this connection cannot be intended, as Dr. Schellhas
supposes, to indicate the field or milpa in which the corn is growing,
but the grain from which the plant is springing. (On this subject see
Study of the Manuscript Troano, by Cyrus Thomas, pp. 105 and 107.)

[Illustration: No. 16]

(?) Symbol of a worm which gnawed the roots of the growing agave or
maguey; appears but once, on Plate XXIX_c_ of the Manuscript Troano.

The animal head and teeth show the erroneous idea the natives had of the
gnawing apparatus of insects. The worm is shown on the next page in Fig.
375.

[Illustration: FIG. 375. Worm and plant from Manuscript Troano.]

[Illustration: FIG. 376. Figure of a woman from the Dresden Codex.]

[Illustration: No. 17]

_Chuplal._ Woman or female. This symbol is found in the Dresden and
Troano Codices, but most frequently in the former. The appendage at
the right is sometimes wanting, and occasionally that at the left,
but when this is the case some other prefix is generally
substituted.

If we examine carefully Plates 16-20 of the Dresden Codex, where this
symbol is most frequently repeated, and compare it with the heads of the
females there figured, it soon becomes apparent that the scrolls with the
heavy black dot are intended to denote the locks of hair and that the
symbol as a whole is, as usual, a modified or conventional form of the
head (see Fig. 376).

[Illustration: No. 18 _a_ _b_ _c_]

_Otoch._ A house or dwelling, or _Tabay;_ a hut or hunting lodge. The
symbol marked _a_ is found in the Cortesian Codex on Plate 29; that
marked _b_, on Plates 29, 32, and 34, same codex, and on Plates XVI*
and XXII* of the Manuscript Troano. The one marked _c_ is the usual