1 2 7 11 15 19 23
3 4 8 12 16 20 24
5 6 9 13 17 21 25
10 14 18 22 26.
Contrary to practice the first section has six hieroglyphs, and the other
five but four each.
As the characteristic hieroglyph we find in 1, 7, 11, 15, 19 and 23 a sign,
the meaning of which is still undetermined and which we shall meet again on
page 60, where it may refer to darkness.
The groups have in common, furthermore, the head without an underjaw and
the hair gathered up in a tuft in 4, 10, 14, 22 and 25 (in 18 perhaps
represented by _q_, the evil days). We shall find this sign on pages 25,
28, 30-35, 42-44 and 65-69, repeated a number of times in many instances. I
consider it the sign for fast-days. It appears also in the Tro-Cort.
Associated with this sign here as in other passages are the four sacrifices
derived from the animal kingdom:--a haunch of venison, a bird, an iguana
and a fish. The fish is beyond doubt denoted by 3, the mammal by 21 and the
bird by 13, and I believe, therefore, that the iguana with its spiny back
is denoted by 9. We find the four animals, though in a different order,
also on pages 29b-30b, 30b-31b and 40c-41c, as well as in Cort. 3-6 and 8,
for example. They seem to have a certain reference also to the four
cardinal points.
Only the first of the six groups has a picture (I?). This represents a
woman with a serpent in her hair, holding in her hand a dish containing a
fish. The woman is denoted by the fifth hieroglyph and the fish by the
third. The 6th sign is an Ahau, which is not quite intelligible here. Sign
2=5 Zac is very remarkable; it is the hieroglyph of the Uayeyab days and of
their god N. If this Ahau refers, as it often does, to the god D, it
suggests the relation between D and N, which follows from page 21c.
According to the 8th sign, the second group might refer to the serpent
deity H, and the 9th sign would not improperly denote the iguana.
In the same way sign 12 in the third group probably denotes the storm-god
K, with whom the bird in 13 accords very well.
In the fourth group both the animal and the sign of fasting, belonging to
it, are wanting, while 16 and 17 as well as the unlucky day in 18 clearly
refer to the death-deity A.
The fifth passage belongs, as sign 20 shows, to the maize deity E and to
this is added the haunch of venison in 21.
In the sixth group we recognize Imix-Kan, the sign for food derived from
the vegetable kingdom. It stands beside the grain-deity E of the fifth
group. I do not understand the vulture-head in 26.
The five deities specified here may be compared with those on page 24,
which are denoted by hieroglyphs 21-25 of the second column, though the
agreement is not perfect.
This ends the first great section of the Manuscript, in which Tonalamatls
are represented in uninterrupted succession. We come now to a page which
stands quite alone, being the first which treats of astronomy and which
ends the front of the first part of the Manuscript.
Page 24.
In my article "Zur Entzifferung IV" I discussed this remarkable page in
detail and in what follows I shall conform to that treatise, though
omitting many things which since then have become the established
possession of science, and shall endeavor to shed a still clearer light
upon other points.
This page presents in brief the subject which is more fully treated of on
the front of the second part of the Manuscript (pages 46-60).
The first problem it presents is to find periods in which the solar year
(365 days) is brought into accord with the apparent Venus year (584 days).
This takes place in a term of 2920 days = 8 × 365 = 5 × 584. Sequent to
this is the still higher aim of bringing the Tonalamatl (260) into harmony
with this period, which is accomplished in 37,960 days (= 146 × 260 = 104 ×
365 = 65 × 584).
The revolution of the moon (28), the ritual year (364 = 28 × 13) and the
apparent revolution of Mercury (115) come in question as secondary matters.