The principal representation on all the four pages is a priest, but
disguised as an animal with the head of a beast of prey as a mask (always
the same one) and also with a tail. He is pictured with the same three
articles in each of the four representations, viz:--First, in his right
hand, the staff of office with the hand at the top, which, according to
Seler, "Mittel-Amerik. Musikinstrum.," p. 112, is the rattle-stick, second
the incense-pouch, _i.e._, for copal, and third in his left hand a rattle,
or, according to Schellhas, "Vergleichende Studien" (1880), a fan. There is
one point, however, in which the first two pages differ from the other two;
on the first two the priest is walking on dry land and on the second two
through a stream of water. Was the city, to which this calendar especially
refers, bordered in two directions by water, so that the road led across
it?
On all the four pages, however, the priest carries on his back a different
deity, and I cannot find out by what rule these gods are connected with one
another, or with the one which is represented below them, or with the
years. On page 25 the god is B, on 26 he has the form of a jaguar (Ix), on
27 he is undoubtedly E, and on page 28 he is the god A, Cimi.
Now to the left of the priest on each page there is one of the familiar
Chuen bundles, such as are also frequently found in the the
Tro-Cortesianus. Here, on pages 25-28, there are always three of these
Chuen signs in a bunch. If Chuen really denotes the eighth day (which, of
course, is only possible when Kan = 1), and at the same time the period of
8 days, then in this passage these three Chuen signs would properly
designate the 24 days which elapse _before_ the last day of the year, which
is the last day of the 18th month. In the same way we shall find the Chuen
bundle appropriately given this meaning on pages 42c-45c. Likewise the
simple Chuen sign at the top of page 52 seems to denote 8 days. But what do
the Chuen bundles in the Tro-Cortesianus mean, some of which are much
larger?
In close proximity to these Chuen bundles we find numbers as follows:--on
page 25 numbers 8 and 9, on 26 number 13, on 27 number 2 and on 28 number
13. I can offer no opinion, which would be even approximately acceptable in
regard to the meaning of these numerals, but we shall discuss them later.