Lexicon).

If this supposition be correct, it may furnish a clue to the name of the
deity whose symbol is shown in plate LXIV, 48. Here the left-hand
character is the _akbal_ symbol (though not complete) surrounded by a
circle of dots. This circle, Dr Seler contends, often indicates flames
which consume the object it surrounds, or light which emanates from that
object. If the whole is but a simple ideogram, it must be taken, as a
whole, as indicating a particular mythological personage; otherwise it
is in part phonetic, or given after the Mexican rebus method of denoting
names. If not a simple ideogram, this prefix is most probably used in
some sense phonetically with reference chiefly to the _k_ sound. The
circle of dots is used here probably to indicate the vowel sound _u_ or
_o_. But in making this suggestion I do not by any means intend to
suggest that the Maya scribes had reached that stage of advancement
where they could indicate each sound by a character. All I wish to
assert is that I find in numerous cases characters accompanied by this
circle of dots where the proper interpretation appears to be a word
having as its prominent vowel element _u_ or _o_. Hence the inference
that there is some relation between this circle and these vowel
sounds--this and nothing more.

In Dres. 16c is the symbol shown in plate LXIV, 49. This, as I have
shown elsewhere,[224-1] represents the _kukuitz_ or Quetzal figured
below the text. Here are encircling lines of dots, and in the Maya name
the _u_ sound repeated; and here also is Landa's _ku_. In Dres. 47c the
symbol for the month _Mol_ is given as shown in plate LXIV, 50. Here
again is seen the circle of dots, and the vowel appears to hold good in
other places. We see it in Landa's first _o_. It will also assist us in
giving at least a consistent interpretation to the strange character
shown in plate LXIV, 51, which occurs repeatedly on plate 19 of the Tro.
Codex. In the pictures below are individuals apparently, and as
interpreted by most authorities, engaged in grinding paint or other
substance or in making fire. The right half of the glyph, including the
circle of dots and crosshatching might, according to the value
heretofore given these elements, be rendered by _huck_, "to rub, grind,
pound, pulverize;" which certainly agrees with the interpretation
usually given the pictures below. Possibly the whole glyph maybe
interpreted by _cecelhuchah_, "to triturate." While this, so