igures in the Mexican
and Maya codices. Some of these are shown in our plate LXVI, 21 to 24.
The first, 21, is from the Mendoza Codex, and is found also in Tro.
20*d. These are undoubtedly intended to denote mats or something of a
kindred nature. The same figure is seen on the roofs of temples and
houses, one of which is shown in LXVI, 22, from Tro. 10*c. In these
instances they appear to indicate the thatching with which the roof is
covered. The form is sometimes varied, as in LXVI, 23, from Tro. 10*a.
The symbol which, it is presumed, refers to the mat as seen in Tro.
21*d, is given in LXVI, 24; that representing the house in Tro. 10*c is
seen in LXVI, 25; another of a slightly different form, from Tro. 7*c,
in LXVI, 20; and another, referring also to a house or to the roof, as
Dr Seler supposes, is given in LXVI, 27.

There can be no question that plate LXVI, 21, is intended to represent a
mat or something of that nature, nor that the character shown at 24 is
the symbol used to represent this mat, straw, or plaited fabric; nor can
it be doubted that the figures shown at 22 and 23 are conventional
figures for houses of some kind. It must also be admitted that the
characters shown at 25, 26, and 27 are symbols denoting these houses.
According to Dr Seler's interpretation, figures 24 and 27 are, in some
cases, used "to denote a seat on a mat [24]; sometimes the mat roof of
the temple or the temple itself" (27). In his opinion these characters,
especially 27, contain "the element of the mat and a symbol of
carrying--the hand or elements which have been borrowed from the figure
of the hand--and in these hieroglyphs the transition of the
realistically delineated mat into the character _ben_ may be distinctly
traced."

That the upper part of plate LXVI, 25 and 26, and of other similar
figures in the codices which might be shown, do make a close approach in
form to the _ben_ symbol, must be admitted. But there is one break in
the chain which needs to be closed before the evidence is entirely
satisfactory. Does the upper part of these house symbols (25-26)
indicate roof mats or thatching? An examination of the house figures
shows these supposed mat figures to be something standing on the top of
the roof--something rising, as it were, perpendicularly along and above
the comb or crest. Now, precisely such battlements or elevated crests
appear to have been common on the roofs of the temples or structures
which have been preser