One Subtle Impact of the Inquisition in the Nahuatl Language

     The Nahuatl language components, thanks to intensive scholarship, are being salvaged and taught again. However, one impotant aspect of all the languages in the Americas, is the deliberate plans of the Inquisition to demonize the good things in the lands here, in any way or form they could manage.,

         This is not an uncalled for problem, since ANY government, civil or otherwise, has always created derogatory components of the conquered mother tongue to create the impetus for a complete conquest. Posters from the World Wars I and II were more explicit "glyphs" but now we have better weapons and do not need words when the weapons alone do a better job.  

         One such victim of such deliberations during the Conquest of the Americas was the renown Pacal of Palenque, a "magian" with a speaking tube from below the temple floor, who according to the languaage components healed many diseases in his Maya medical center. Some words found in Nahuatl, those of which begin with the letters "PA" infer "good medicine."

      My library, as small as it is, contains several books. One, by Frances Karttunen: An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl; the second by  Bernardo de Sahagún, (1956). Historia General de Las Cosas de Nueva España. Another excellent book was a post-conquest Nahuatl dictionary by F. A. de Molina.  Translated in 1970 by Miguel Leon-Portilla: El Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana y Mexicana y Castellana; it remains as an important reference book to long ago. 

      What is found in Sahagun's Historia, or in Molina's Vocabulario  appeared to be of no account, even though they are still used in the modern language. They refer to post-conquest events in both the ancient and modern versions of Nahuatl. The words may be spelled slightly different, but the original translations remain exactly the same and intact.      

      A very basic insult contains the name Pacal. But why Pacal, since he was in Palenque and not associated with the Aztecs in their known history. The word PACALTIA is related to the word PAC(A) that is translated as the causative verb "to wash, to launder something."  TIA{chcauh) refers to a person "more excellent than others", or "brave, and valiant." Even though TIA is not a whole word, it is attached to the word PACAL  which in turn, became a word for cleanliness, very necessary if a disease is to be cured.  

       Coincidence, it may be, since there does not seem to be any real linguistic connection between the verb and the suffix.

    However, that does not explain the word TePACtecALliztica that translates as the word "afrentosamente." (De Molina,  p. 101}.  At first glance, this word with PACtecAL in the middle of it, should be considered to be sheer nonsense if one is to make such a connection with the verb PACALTIA. 

         It seems like a foolish effort to pull out part of a word just to make a "provable" connection. That is all well and good, except for the Spanish words in the front of Molina's dictionary.  On page L-6   "Afrenta,"  and "afrendamente," is translated as TepaPACALiztii. While on page 118, "vituperio" is also translated as TepaPACALiztli. 

        So why is there even a difference in the spelling between Nahuatl and Spanish if the translations are the same? The conclusion I have come to, after reading Libro VII, Capitulas III and IV in Sahagún's translation of the Florentine Codex. The inference was angry prisoners who carefully crafted clues so that later generations would know how they really felt about the changes made to their native language and to the contents of the Codex. 

       First: Although the name Pacal does not appear in Sahagun's translation of the Florentine, his separate list of words contains a series of words that do, with the correct spelling of the Nahuatl words just below it, alphabetically.

chipacaltic very clear.
chipaccaltic very clear.
chipacpatic exceedingly clear, very clean.
chipacpahtic very clean.
chipactic clean, clear.
chipahuacaneci it appears clear

       It almost appears as if Sahagún was practicing a new word containing the name Pacal. But why the double "C"? It seems that Nahuatl is similar to German, insomuch as the prefix and the suffix are also important to a translation of a concept that uses the central noun.  So there is "ChiChi" with a double "C" that means "dog." and "tic" that with a single word may have the meaning "like" or "as."

          chichi          dog

citlalcuicuiltic painted like a star.

        Is it then possible to say that Pacal, the famous person in Palenque was to be considered "like [or as] a dog,"  hence vilified and reviled in all of Mexico, not just in the Maya areas?

       Secondly: Sahagún did make a special effort to tell later generations that he had other ideas about what he had to do and that he actually succeeded in the task he set for himself. In Chapter III of Book VII, he did not use the word Taurus for the constellation.  Instead he claimed that the Mastilejos Ithe title of Chaper III) were in the "signo del toro."

       Now, the word "toro" in a large Spanish dictionary has four different idiomatic phrases that contain the word "toro." And although I have no records in my files that the idioms are from the time of the Conquest, they are very indicative of what a monastic prisoner of the Conquest might want to say to his captors. The pequeño Larousse Español-Inglés/ English-Spanish Dictionary has these phrases: 

toro - figurative: 

          Echarle o soltarle al uno el toro: to give someone a piece of one's mind                             

                               or: decir los cuatro verdades: to tell the four truths,              

 al toro:                        to get to the point, 

           ser un toro corrido:   to be nobody's fool, to be an old hand, to be no easy mark. 

       Were these Sahagún's thoughts, or is this evidence of hiding information where no one could find it?  When I was leaving China by taking the Trans-Siberian Rail to Germany, I was informed by my stateroom companions, that as long as you are not hiding contraband, there was no need to worry, but if you are concealing anything, it would be the cubby holes in the stateroom that would be thoroughly searched.

        Concluson

      Then I remembered two maps of Texcoco, that are always printed upside-down. They have good information on them, but the orientation changes what one sees so that the valid information is ignored. 

In Nahuatl, by changing a word, including another and then make the politically correct translation so that it will be approved. 

      The rule of thumb, then is: "Hide something in plain sight of the enemy and they will never find it. Pacal was good, but he was made to be evil outside of his realm. It means that Sahagún may have done other things to the translations of the Florentine of which we are not yet aware.

K-3033: A Raft IS Not A Canoe. Why?

Linda Schele' version of the Paddler Gods who were transporting the Maize God 

on a raft, What happened to their canoe? IMS p. 5

     The Paddling Gods, with their legs hanging over the side, are rowing a raft, no longer do they have a canoe,  Their paddles seem to have more pertinent information on them, that was not done in the above drawing since the front oar has less clarity.  The raft is riding on top of a trefoil with a face with a black eye in the middle of a glyph.  Differences in various details are due to deterioration of the painted surface which makes some original items difficult to identify.

      In the above, the Maize god who is tossing out maize kernels to those in the water appears to have a macaw beaked-head in his headdress.  However, in the vase itself,  the form in the Maize god's headdress does not appear to be a bird form, but a human head with a sharp nose [See the original below]. The hand above the head of the Maize god seems to be attached to the headdress figure, not to the god himself. Both hands are left hands

Vase K-3033  ©Justin Kerr

     The man under the raft is flat on his back with a fish nibbling at his face.  His legs are raised in the same position that Pacal's legs are raised on his tombstone.  The paddles on either side of the drowned figure are again decorated differently than the sketch above.  Linda Schele saw the shadow of several intended lines other than what is defined on the vase itself but decided they were not clar enough to include in her sketch.

      The scene above is one of the underworld and in the waters where the Xibalbans threw the ground-up Twins, Hunahpú and Xabalenqu. Whereas the Tulum fresco is specifically a sky of constellations, roped in a sky net, similar to one of two vases, that of the Seven gods.  The rope at Tulum, although they are very straight lines still show the twisted rope, indicated by the twist on each section of the sky "rope."

      The two nude ladies remind me of the two destroyed warrior figures on the presentation of a sky net of  constellations in the Temple of the Frescos at Tulum that Ed. Barnhart is working with.  The "rope" indicates that it is the manner which, during their planting season, the Maya viewed the constellations.

      These connections are supposed to lead one to a different line of thought. There are whole stories behind every codex-style vase, those which are created as memory joggers. And in this respect, exactly what significance is it to have two left hands in a picture? there are many of these doubled hands in the Mixtec Codices. But no explanation is ever given.

Why Does The Maya Calendar Always Have To Be Adjusted?

The Pik-tun has always a mystery to me, especially when the Maya Calendar had to be 
adjusted around it. [1]

       As I see it, the many times, that I have read about the Pik-tun and its extreme numbers, I sincerely believe that the Maya Calendar is grossly misrepresented. I am in full agreement with Bishop Noriega of the XIX century, [2] who, in his farewell address to the Cathedral of Mexico City,  claimed:

" . . . enough good was brought [here] about Saint Tomé, although it is a shame Gama says that the explanation of the Mexican Calendar was erased, and it is full of crude mistakes . . ."            (Noriega, p. 16)

     He did not say that "St. Tomé brought the good," but what was brought to Mexico was good "about St. Tomé."  I think this was a wise way of saying that it was all created for the good of the people, so that they would believe what they were told.  His note about the Maya Calendar was due to the prisons he visited [or was incarcerated in for a time, since "all his honors and goods had been reinstalled and the possessions he lost were reimbursed due to the dispute about his writings. (p.15)]

       Noriega's main thrust in that statement was not so much St. Tomé's existence or non-existence, but instead, what Gama felt was done to the Mexican Calendar system. Since all calendars come about with the help of the stars and their locations in the sky, it is necessary to know the time period of those years  of study. One must also consider the study of the stars by the astronomers in Meso-America and what and how they learned about the stars that passed over their heads: what was different about them and what was the same.

       In the beginning., Maya houses were designed with square spaces in the roof framing, that made it possible to tie down the palm bunches in such a way that the rains never became a problem in the houses.

     Deliberately, or by accident, the men discoverdd that with a slight push against the palm fronds covering the fram here and there, one could actually see the stars as they passed from one end of the house to the other.  It was a practical way for the farmers, once they learned the star elements, and when they occurred. In this way no matter where they lived, they could see the correct stars for their systematic method of farming. The process was and still is similar to our modern quarterly tax collection methods.

      Every thirteen weeks (one quarter of the 360-day year that they were familiar with) the Maya farmers would perform the following procedures;   

First Quarter:

     Locate new plots on the mountain cliffs. Thus to begin the Tzolkin by  mid-March:

[El primer acto scenográfico de esas ceremionias consistía en la tala {cutting the trees} del monte alto y la roza de las hierbas; {cleared fields} El derrumbe {cliffs} de y la rl monte  y la roza eran el iniciarse el Ttzolkin y duraban hasta mediados de marzo; ]

Second Quarter:
      The burning of the land in order to create the bed of enriching ashes that wil make the milpa productive. the enrichment your fires en the second of April that precedes that which preceded by the the bounty of the rains

[El segundo, en la quenma de la tierra había de ser lecho de ceniza fecunda para las milpas, la quema arremolinaba sus llamas en la segunda quincena de abril que precede a las lluvias;]

Third Quarter:
       The planting of the seeds coincided with the time of the blessings by the sun during his reign at the zenith in the highest part of the sky, and

  [. . .las siembras coincidía con el tiempo en que el sol reinaba cenitalmente en lo más alto del cielo.]

Fourth Quarter:
      That all prayed that the benediction of the sun and by the blessings of the rains… [would bring a bountiful harvest.]

[…que todos quierían que fueran bendecidas por el sol y por la gracia de la lluvias.] [5]

  Conclusion

    The above matches the 360-day year as 4 seasons of 13 weeks of the 365-day year.  And it also matched the 360-day year of 52 weeks of only 20 days each.[6] There would have been no reason to add the Pik-Tun as a different measure to the Maya counting system, since there is no glyph to illustrate that terminology. Adjusting the Maya calendar with "better" (more modern) mathematics, by adding the name PIktun, did not NOT accomplish an understanding of the ancient calendar system,  The crudely compiled Veytia calendar attempted to correlate the 365-day year to the 360-day year. But it has been ignored completely. Why? Because the extra five days were not included in the calendar round.

     Maybe that was the reason why when the disintegrating comet returned to our northwestern shores from the Ring Nebula, no one even considered that the year 2008 was possibly the correct count for our anticipated 2012 event, four years earlier than expected!

 With all the adjustments made over the centuries to try to bring the seasons back into synch with the calendar, one only has to figure the first day name of the four seasons, which probably was found in the Perez Codex. The author, Eugrene Craine and his co-author, Reginald C. Reindorp, translated the burner times, but had no idea what they represented. The burner dates were not understood because they did not match any actual activity since the Conquest.

Addendum

     The sequence of the Calendar serpents in the Madrid Codex was regular for part of the year  they illustrate, but one or two of these serpents did not like facing the same direction, so they turned around and looked the other way. This matches the Hopi Prophecy, thought to be the ninth.  It tells us that "there would be a blue star in the sky, when the earth would rock to and fro."  In that way the earth would be destroyed, [again].  I say "again" because the ninth prophecy of the Hopi was actually the very first historic event that the world recorded after the great disaster. The other eight prophecies are the rest of Hopi history giving an accurate time line [without dates] about the white men and what they accomplished as they destroyed the grassy plains.
____________________________

[1]  Jones, Tom and Carolyn, (1997, app. X, 06) Maya Hieroglyphic Workbook. Glossary. Page. 6 gives us more precise information: "The Piktun occupies [better stated as "has been added as"] the sixth position of the Long Count (LC) and related Distance Number (DN). Hence it is Equivalent to  20 Baktunob or 2,880,000 days but it is rarely used."

[2] de Mier Noriega y Guerra, El D. D. Servando Teresa, (XIX cent,. 13) Carta de Despedida a los Mexicanos, Appendex X, p. 13:  A manuscript was mentioned by Noriega, as being published in 1814.

By the same token on p. 15, Noriega also seems to have insulted those who had to reinstate his honors and goods by calling them of the "cauda clan" of flatterers ex omni et populo..." Caudal in Spanish means "wealth," or "caudal feathers" of a bird, but if one reads "cauda[l]" in English, it means the butt or tail end of a person. i.e. " Butt Heads . , .  However, today, it would be"A--H---s."

[3] Wauchope, Robert (Gen Ed.) (1975, 73-74-75) Handbook of Middle American Indians: Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, V. 14 part 3, (Vol. Ed. Howard F. Cline) Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Veytia Calendar, p. 73.

[4] _________(1979, 20-21) The Codex Pérez and the Book of the Chilam Balam of Maní, Translated and edited by Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindorp. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. (Notes 2-4, p. 20-21)  i.e. 10 Oc, 10 Men, 10 Ahaw, 10 Chicchan and by using the same sequence for 4 Oc; 11 Oc, and 3 Oc. It appears that Oc should have been the first day of each season of the 360-day count.

[5] Castillo-Torre, José, (1955) Por la Señal de Hunab Ku:  Reflejos de la Vida de los Antiguos Mayas. Mexico DF, Mexico: Libreria de Manuel Porrúa, SA. Not information for the New Agers, but instead a reference book for the past.

[6] Madrid Codex.  On the pages of the serpent calendars, the sequence was regular for a time, but one or two of these serpents did not like facing the same direction, so they turned around and looked the other way. This matches the Hopi Prophecy thought to be the ninth.  It tells us that there would be a blue star in the sky, when \ the earth would travel to and fro.  In that way the earth would be destroyed, again.  I say again because the ninth prophecy of the Hopi was actually the very first historic event that the world recorded after the great disaster.