XI XI XI XI
Ahau Chicchan Oc Men
Caban Ik Manik Eb
Ix Cauac Kan Muluc
Chuen Cib Imix Cimi
Lamat Ben Ezanab Akbal.
Here then, as is frequently the case in this Manuscript, all the twenty
days are specified. But in order to obtain equal periods of time, the left
column should first be read from top to bottom and the following ones
should be treated in the same way. Then each succeeding day is 17 days
distant from the preceding, but in reality the interval is 117 days, since
the same week-day is always implied. The hieroglyphs seem to indicate that
these 117 days are divided into three distinct parts, 52, 39 and 26.
117 days, however, are equal to 9 × 13 and hence in what follows we find a
black 13 set down 9 times as the interval between the days, and a red XI
being the number of the week-day an equal number of times. Now, since the
whole series extends over 20 such sections of 117 days, the duration of
this calendar is 2340 days or 9 Tonalamatl.
Consequently we find nine pictures of the same god B. In five of them (in
Groups 1-4 and 9) he is sitting before or on a sacrificial tree or tree of
life; cf. 30b. It is probably not accidental that in these five cases the
hieroglyphs refer to the cardinal points. In the eighth group the god is
surrounded by the suggestion of one or more trees; he is sitting in water
as if in a forest; or in a cave bordered by trees? In the remaining groups,
5, 6 and 7 he is seated on various supports, in 5 on an object, which is
not completed and which cannot, therefore, be explained, in 6 on
astronomical figures (Mars and Venus?) and in 7 on agave leaves. In 1 and 3
his head is again surrounded by those dots suggesting stars, in 4 there
seems to be a bird (quetzal?) seated upon it and in 2 it bears what may be
the Kin sign. In 1 and 5 he has the pouch for incense in his hand, while in
3 alone he wears the gala mantle and is painted black, just as he appears
in connection with the same hieroglyphs on page 29c. He carries a hatchet
in repose in 2, 6 and 9, and raised for a blow in 1 and 7. In 7 he also
holds the Imix sign.
The hieroglyphs form nine groups of four signs each. The first hieroglyph,
as is always the case in this part of the Manuscript, is the sign which I
have denoted by _f_, and the second is always B's hieroglyph. The cardinal
points are everywhere specified by two signs each; in places 3 and 4 of
group 1, the west comes first and beside it is the sign for the east,
erroneously used for that of the west (a like error occurred in the
preceding Tonalamatl); in group 2 there are two signs for the north; in
group 3 that for the east with the sign for the west beside it erroneously
given for the east, and in group 4 two signs for the south. In groups 5, 6
and 7 we find in the 4th place the head of C, and the same sign in group 7
in the 3d place, where it is joined to another head, which may be that of a
woman. The 3d sign of group 5 is incomplete and cannot be determined. The
3d sign of group 6 displays a repetition of the astronomical signs
represented below. There still remain the 3d and 4th signs of groups 8 and
9. Of these the 3d in group 8 is _w_, which is as yet unexplained. The 4th
might be interpreted either as Oc (day 7) or as Xul (end). Its prefix is a
Yax sign. Finally, in group 9 the 3d sign is Manik (day 4), the 4th the
elongated head _q_ with the Ben-Ik superfix, which Seler assigns to Men
(day 12).
Pages 33c--39c.
The beginning of this Tonalamatl is indicated by a large red dot on page
33. It resembles the Tonalamatl almost exactly above it on pages 31b-35b,
inasmuch as its arrangement is an unusual one. I will here, as I did above,
give it the form in which it would present itself if it were set down in
the usual order:--
XIII 9 IX 11 VII 20 I 10 XI 15 XIII
Ahau
Chicchan
Oc
Men.
In this passage as in the earlier one, instead of employing the above
concise order, a preference has been shown throughout for carrying out the
whole series in such a manner that the week days are set down each time and
not merely in the left column. It, therefore, has the following form in the
Manuscript:--
XIII Ahau (9) IX Muluc (11) VII Ahau (20) I Ahau (10)
XI Oc (15)
XIII Chicchan (9) IX Ix (11) VII Chicchan (20) I Chicchan (10)
XI Men (15)
XIII Oc (9) IX Cauac (11) VII Oc (20) I Oc (10)
XI Ahau (15)
XIII Men (9) IX Kan (11) VII Men (20) I Men (10)
XI Chicchan (15)
I have arranged the whole series in four parallel periods of 65 days each,
for the 65 appears throughout the computation, although the entire
Tonalamatl is written out in _one_ continuous line. On the right of page 35
the scribe seems to have wished to erase an entirely incongruous 4, and in
writing the last 15, on page 39, he began to use the red paint prematurely,
so that the top one of the three lines is red.
Attention should also be called to the fact that the second of my vertical
columns contains the year-regents, the others only the days following
immediately after them, while 12 month days do not occur at all. Also the
intervening periods 9 + 11 (= 20), 20, 10, 15 doubtless reveal some design.
In order to avoid repetition, I think it proper to mention first, that in
the twenty groups of four hieroglyphs each, the sign _f_ always stands in
the first place, but the hieroglyph of B, who is represented 20 times,
usually appears in the second place, in the first and second groups in the
third place, and in the 18th and 19th his sign does not appear at all. I
will discuss the remaining hieroglyphs in their place in each of the 20
groups.