The third and fourth hieroglyphs contain the sign resembling that for the
year, which was mentioned in discussing the sixth group (130 days earlier).
In the third a Kin is prefixed to this sign, while the superfix of the
fourth is what I take to be a mat, which also occurred in the sixth group.
The prefix is a figure suggesting the serpent-deity, which we have already
met with in the tenth and fifteenth groups.
17. B, holding the hatchet, is seated on a Moan head, and the third sign is
probably intended to represent the same Moan head, in front of which we
find the same crouching person met with in the seventh group, 130 days
earlier.
The fourth hieroglyph is again the sign for beginning, which we have
already often met with, as, for example, 65 days earlier in the twelfth
group.
18. B is sitting in the pouring rain under astronomical signs (Mars and
Mercury?) to which those of the sun and moon are added. The god's face is
upturned and he holds the hatchet in his hand.
The third hieroglyph may be the vulture head, to which a part of the
unintelligible second hieroglyph may also refer. This second sign stands in
the place of B's hieroglyph, which is wanting here.
The fourth sign contains the enigmatical numeral 8, which we found on pages
36b and 37b, and has the Imix sign as a prefix, as in the first of these
two passages. The same compound appears on pages 67a-68a.
19. B is seated here on his own head, as in the fourth group he is sitting
on D's. His hands are empty.
The second sign is again the vulture head instead of B's hieroglyph. The
third is probably the head of the lightning beast, and the fourth is again
the sign supposed to denote beginning.
20. B is sitting in water and holding in his hands a vessel with a Kan sign
upon it.
The water (with Imix prefixed) is denoted by the third sign, while the
fourth represents a head (with what is probably a hand pointing to the
right above it), which I should prefer to consider the grain-deity E.
In conclusion I would call attention to the remarkable fact that every four
pictures, which are separated from each other by four of the other
pictures, _i.e._, after every 65 days, correspond in certain respects with
one another, _viz_:--
1. Pictures 1, 6, 11 and 16. In all, and _only_ in these, B is sitting in a
house or tent, in 6 and 16 with his arms folded.
2. Pictures 2, 7, 12 and 17. In the first three the god is seated on
astronomical signs and in the fourth on the Moan head, which I think refers
to the Pleiades.
3. Pictures 3, 8, 13 and 18. Here in the last two B is sitting _beneath_
astronomical signs. In all four pictures water, clouds and rain are
represented.
4. Pictures 4, 9, 14 and 19. In the first and fourth the god is seated on
D's head and on his own, and in the third on the elongated head _q_.
5. Pictures 5, 10, 15 and 20. Like the third of these five classes, these
pictures are likewise distinguished by water, clouds and rain.
Now the first set of pictures is between the week days XIII and IX, the
second between IX and VII, the third between VII and I, the fourth between
I and XI, the fifth between XI and XIII, while the month days are quite
different. Hence the conjecture is but natural that the pictures and week
days bear some relation to one another, though that relation is still
shrouded in obscurity.
Pages 40c--41c.
I 10 XI 10 VIII 10 V 10 II 3 V 9 I
Ahau
Eb
Kan
Cib
Lamat.
This is a Tonalamatl of the most ordinary kind, in which an unsuccessful
attempt has been made to divide the subdivisions into equal parts.
In the groups of four hieroglyphs each, which belong to each of the six
parts, the sign _f_ always occupies the first place, and B the third. Let
us now examine the six parts separately.
1. B is sitting in a boat and rowing (as on the top of the same page).
Around his head there is again the suggestion of what may denote the starry
sky, and in this picture his nose-peg is unusually large.
The second sign is an Imix, but it might also denote the thirteenth month
Mac and therefore the Tonalamatl (13 × 20). The fourth sign is a fish
forming a connecting link between the water represented below and the rest
of the group.
2. B is seated on the Caban sign and his arms are apparently resting on an
altar standing in front of him, on which fire is burning, indicated by the
Ik sign, while the moon is placed below the altar.
The Caban sign below is repeated in the second hieroglyph, combined here as
usual with a sign which may be Muluc.
The fourth sign is a head. I think the scribe meant to set down an 8 before
it, but as there was not sufficient space for the heavy line _after_ the
three small circles, he indicated it by a black dot _below_ the circles.
Now, if we call the head D's, which of course cannot be asserted
positively, this would be day VIII Ahau, and this, in fact, is twenty days
from the beginning day I Ahau, as it is meant to be in this passage. There
is no representation of food; can this have been a fast day?
3. B is seated on four astronomical signs. He wears the gala mantle and
holds a serpent in his hand.
The second sign is _b_, and at the same time one of the astronomical signs.
The fourth is the iguana prepared as food, recognizable by the spines on
its back, as on page 25b. It is drawn in precisely the same curious fashion
in Cort. 8 and 12c; hence it is represented in the picture by the serpent.
4. B is falling down from above headfirst. I believe that the numerous
footprints below him are only intended to represent swift motion. The
descent from above may only be intended here to bring the god into closer
relationship with the head of the bird of prey in the fourth sign. That
this head is again as usual joined to Kan, may refer merely to the fact
that it was the Maya custom to eat bread with animal food. Compare page
27b. The second sign might be the abbreviation for the south.
5. B is seated on a mat with his hand extended as if to receive something.
He is wet with water.
The second sign contains the mat, with what may be the sign below it, and
the leaf-shaped prefix probably denoting the plant from which the mat is
plaited. The very same combination is given on page 35c and a similar one
on 38c. The fourth sign has the prefix of the west followed by two Kans, as
if on this day (V Akbal) it had been the custom to eat tortillas without
meat.
6. B is standing holding the hatchet. The fourth sign must denote venison,
the fourth article of animal food. The second seems to represent the day
Eb, with which the remaining 52 days begin, and if the prefixed 9 indicates
nothing more than that the ninth day of the month is here meant, it is
further evidence that the "Dresdensis" began the days with Kan and not with
Imix.
In the discussion of this Tonalamatl I have omitted the mention of a very
peculiar feature, which as yet does not admit of explanation. I refer to
the numbers below the pictures. With the first picture we find 6 + 20, with
the second 20, with the third 19 + 20, with the fourth 6 + 20, with the
fifth 19 + 20, and with the sixth 6 + 20, _i.e._, with the exception of the
second, 26 or 39, two multiples of 13. Now the question arises, should not
one of these multiples have been set down with the second picture? There
was no space left for a prefixed 19. Therefore the idea suggests itself
that what we took to be an altar with the sign Ik above it, is intended for
nothing else than this 19, and Ik is the 19th day, if we count from Kan as
the starting-point.
Pages 42c--45c.
This is a Tonalamatl consisting of 4 × 65 days. If written out in the usual
way it would run as follows:--
XIII 17 IV 8 XII 8 VII 8 II 8 X 8 V 8 XIII
Akbal
Lamat
Ben
Ezanab.
Since, however, the subdivisions are divided and the individual month days
also are given for all the parts of the whole Tonalamatl, the
representation follows the order which we have already found on pages
31b-35b and 33c-39c. In this place, as in the two former ones, I will
reproduce in four lines what is set down in the Manuscript in one single
line extending over all four pages.
XIII Akbal (17) IV Ahau (8) XII Lamat (8) VII Cib (8)
II Kan (8) X Eb (8) V Ahau (8)
XIII Lamat (17) IV Chicchan (8) XII Ben (8) VII Imix (8)
II Muluc (8) X Caban (8) V Chicchan(8)
XIII Ben (17) IV Oc (8) XII Ezanab (8) VII Cimi (8)
II Ix (8) X Ik (8) V Oc (8)
XIII Ezanab (17) IV Men (8) XII Akbal (8) VII Chuen (8)
II Cauac (8) X Manik (8) V Men (8)
Thus the days Chicchan, Lamat, Oc, Ben, Men, Ezanab, Ahau, and Akbal are
repeated here twice, and the others occur but once. The 4 (17 + 48)
strongly recalls the 4 (19 + 46) on pages 31b-35b. The repetition of six
times eight days in each quarter of the Tonalamatl is closely connected
with the fact that there are six Chuen signs on each page, two of which,
however, are omitted on page 44. From this it follows, as we have already
found on pages 25-28, that Chuen really denotes 8 days and that the count
of the days in the "Dresdensis" begins with Kan. But the numbers 12, 15, 16
and 17 are entirely unexplained. They show no recognizable order and always
stand near the bundle of Chuen signs. They recall the numbers on pages
25-28, which are equally irregular and unintelligible, and upon which, it
is probable, light will break at the same time as it does upon these now
under consideration.
We come now to the purport of this passage, which seems to be a further
amplification of the contents of pages 29c-30c. The meaning is simply as
follows:--every 65 days the god B discards a cardinal point and the deity
presiding over it and installs another.
From this point of view let us now examine the four pictures.
1. Page 42. B is represented here as a warrior with the front of his body
painted red. He is aiming a blow with his hatchet at a person sunk down
before him, who, from the ornament above his head, seems to be the
grain-deity E, the ruler of Kan and of the east, although the contents of
this passage really demand a deity of the south, a ruler of Cauac. In a
very similar way on page 27, E occurs with the completed Cauac years,
instead of with the Kan years just beginning. Behind B's head is the sign
of the discarded cardinal point, the south, while below it is a vessel with
food, clearly a piece of venison with Kan.
2. Page 43 deals not with the removal of the old cardinal point, but with
the introduction of the new one. Here B is rowing in a boat, as in other
passages (29c), and Muluc, the north, has certainly a close relation to
water. We see here two kinds of food, while none is represented on page 45.
The same bird's head, which we find at the bottom of the corresponding page
28, is placed in front of the canoe, and on 29c it is combined with the
representation of rowing a boat. On the left is the picture of a vessel
with Kan and the iguana. There is something resembling a net between the
boat and the bird.
3. Page 44 likewise refers to the introduction of the new cardinal point,
west, which is represented on page 26 by the tiger Ix. The two hieroglyphs
in the middle of this passage must surely refer to an animal; the lower is
the skeleton of an animal, which we so often find as the sign of the
lightning-dog, but also as that of the month Kankin, and the upper I take
to be a rather vague picture of the day Oc, which certainly denotes the
dog. Below these two signs the fish is represented as the fourth species of
animal food.
The picture belonging to these hieroglyphs is very remarkable. B stands
opposite a seated personage wearing an animal's snout, which somewhat
resembles that of the wind-beast on pages 44b and 45b and also the nose of
the storm-god K, who occurs on the corresponding pages 25 and 26 both with
the coming and the departing Ix years, as he does here with the coming
years. In the picture before us, the two personages seem to be throwing
something resembling a rope at each other, as if these ropes were to be
tied together. Is this meant to suggest the casting of lots by means of the
knotting of cords, as it is represented on page 2? Or of hunting with
snares?
Page 45 refers to the displacement of the Ix period by the Cauac period,
_i.e._, of the west by the south. The end of the former is represented
here. The lightning-beast, which occurred in the preceding period, here
lies on his back and B sits astride his body brandishing in each hand a
burning torch as an appropriate symbol of the south. On pages 29a and 30c
we already saw the god riding on the lightning-dog.
Finally the six interesting hieroglyphs set down in a vertical row on the
left of each of the four pages are still to be examined. I will give here
in the following table what I think is a correct interpretation of them:--
Page 42. 43. 44. 45.
South (1) East (7) North (13) West (9).
It ends (2) (8) (14) (20)
B (3) (9) (15) (21)
the time of the Cauac (4), Kan (10), Muluc (16), Ix (22),
while Kan (5), Muluc (11), Ix (17), Cauac (23)
begins (6) (12) (18) (24).
If that which is actually set down in the Manuscript be compared with this,
it will be seen that in 11 of the 24 places the Manuscript corresponds to
my hypothesis:--1, 7 and 19 are the familiar signs for the three cardinal
points, 8 and 20 are the sign Xul = end, which I have already frequently
mentioned, 9 and 21 are the sign for B, 11 is Muluc, 23 is Cauac, where the
scribe has added to the correct Kin-Cauac the sign for the year, as if the
Cauac _years_ were treated of here as on pages 26 and 27. Finally the two
agree in 12 and 18, where the Manuscript has the compound Kan-Imix to
denote beginning, _i.e._, the two days beginning the series of twenty days,
one of them according to this Manuscript, and the other according to the
method resembling that used by the Aztecs.
The other cases have the correct signs, but set down in the wrong place,
thus B is changed from 3 to 2, from 15 to 16, the north from 13 to 14, the
Xul from 2 to 3, 14 to 15, the E (Kan) from 5 to 4 and 6 and Cauac from 4
to 5, _i.e._, pushed along every time to the next place. This is all in
favor of my theory. As one series began at the top, the scribe incorrectly
placed the sign for beginning in the thirteenth place.
Strange to say in the tenth place we have the very general sign _a_ in
place of Kan. In the 4th, 17th and 22nd, and probably also in the half
destroyed 6th sign, the scribe thoughtlessly put down a sign for E, which
is proper only with Kan and should come after 5 or 10. Finally in the 24th
place he put a sign for A, as if it were the intention that this passage
should end exactly like its parallel on page 28. For, as a matter of fact,
the two principal sections of the first part of the Dresdensis do end in a
very similar way.
* * * * *