icial mound was ho-m and the pyramidal elevations on which
temples or palaces were built were designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see
Vocabulary, Brasseur de Bourbourg). The title Holpop was moreover that of
the "chieftain of the mat," whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and
to beat the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances
(Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in general was
ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte de la lengua Maya,
Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Merida, 1859). If the foregoing
data be summarized we find that the word ho, the ancient name of the head
of the land, which is figured in its centre, is not only homonymous with
capital and chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and
maintenance, and finally with the numeral 5, also "ho." We shall see that
the identical ideas were similarly associated in ancient Mexico.

Referring once more to the ancient map of Yucatan and to the peculiarity
that the head of the figurative bird, the capital, Ho, is supposed to
occupy the centre of the state, I point out nos. 1 and 5 (fig. 28) from
the Bodleian and Selden MSS. as somewhat analogous representations of a
central capital or chief, and nos. 3 and 6 as possibly being images of a
territorial subdivision of the state, resembling a spider's web. In an
unpublished Mexican MS., which has been recently brought to light, the
middle of the concentric circles is painted blue and suggests the idea of
a system of distribution or irrigation, proceeding from a central supply
of water and radiating in all directions. An accentuation of centrality is
brought into relief in fig. 28, no. 6, where the spider's web is placed in
the middle, between the two peaks of a mountain. In no. 2 a small
quadruple sign, which frequently occurs in the Vienna Codex, always
painted in the colors of the four quarters and united by a cross-band
across the centre (no. 4). also figures between two peaks, above two feet,
the significance of which I do not venture to determine. A remarkable
circular disc resembling the Maya map, and also divided into four parts by
cross lines, but exhibiting footsteps denoting rotation, is represented in
the entrance of a temple, in the Vienna Codex (fig. 28, no. 7). These
figures will be referred to again further on.

Let us now bestow attention upon the names of the Mexican capital and
first note that the edifice of the Great Temple, in which th