At the top of pages 46-49 there is on each page a deity, who with his right
arm extended is offering or receiving something. He is seated on
astronomical signs; on page 46 B's head accompanies these signs. On pages
46 and 48 the deity is undoubtedly the old woman with tiger claws, who
usually pours streams of water from a jug (compare pages 39, 43 and 74). I
cannot identify the personage on pages 47 and 49. The object in the deity's
hand seems invariably to be a cup of foaming pulque. On page 49 another
object is placed above the cup, which I am unable to determine. The fifth,
page 50, differs from the other four and forms the connecting link, as it
were, between the upper row of pictures and the middle and lower ones.
Here, too, a personage is represented sitting on astronomical signs and
exhibiting symptoms of violent anger toward a second person opposite him
holding the cup in his hands. Both personages are painted as warriors.
The middle pictures on all the pages represent a warrior in a
half-kneeling, half-crouching posture, holding spears or a shield in the
right hand and brandishing a hatchet in the left. The shield on page 46 is
doubtless a representation of the sun-glyph; and on 47 the Venus sign is
combined with the head ornament. The hieroglyphs of these deities occupy
the first place in the middle line of the three lines above the pictures.
The five lower pictures represent a creature lying on the ground, pierced
by arrows and spears. On page 47 it is a jaguar; at any rate it is the same
animal found on pages 29a, 30c and 45c; a very similar creature pierced by
arrows is given in the Cod. Vat. B.; compare also the pictures in Seler's
"Venus-periode," page 371. On the other four pages this creature is in
human guise. On page 50 where, differing from the other four pages, this
figure is represented lying with the head to the right, it is plainly
shedding tears. Seler takes this figure to be E on page 48 and the tortoise
on page 49. The varying periods of time occupied by the revolution of the
planets is plainly conceived of as contest. But who is the victor in this
contest? The planet with the longer or with the shorter period of
revolution? Owing to obliteration only a small part of the hieroglyphs of
the top section is legible.
On page 46 we see the Venus sign and E's hieroglyph; on page 47 the sign
_c_, which occurs frequently on these pages, and is probably always
connected with Moan (the Pleiades and thus with the year). The numeral 1,
prefixed to an obliterated sign on page 47, is still legible, and we find
it repeated on the lower part of the same page. There is rather more to be
seen on page 48:--first the elongated head _q_ with the Ben-Ik superfix,
then the sign _a_, beside it that for the west with a prefix, in the line
below an Ahau, next, an Akbal sign with the prefix of the north, and lastly
a Moan sign.
On page 49 we see sign _c_ again occupying the first place, then o with
Ben-Ik, and in the lower line the year sign with that for 20 or the moon as
a superfix, and to the right of it the head with the Akbal eye, probably
denoting D.
This top part of the page is best preserved on page 50. In the third line
from the bottom we see the Venus sign and beside it the Moan sign, below, a
Cauac, then a Kin with the Ben-Ik superfix, then a Kan-Imix. Finally, in
the first place in the lowest row there is a Kin sign and in the second
place a sign resembling the year-sign, both having the same superfix, the
next sign is again _c_ and the last is a half-effaced sign, of which only a
Muluc is distinguishable.
Our knowledge of the middle section of these pages is somewhat more
definite. There are twelve hieroglyphs on each page, which I will number in
the following order:--
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12.
Unquestionably these 5 × 12 signs refer to a Venus year, more exactly to
the _beginning_ of it, the period of the east. The first sign, which is a
hand pointing to the right, merely refers here, as on the left side, to the
direction in which this is to be read; the second sign is always the sign
for the east, and the sixth invariably that for Venus.
Notice should be taken of the fact that the signs of the Moan and
screech-owl or death-bird are recurrent, that of the Moan appearing on page
46, sign 7; 48, 3; 49, 11; 50, 11; and that of the death-bird on page 47,
sign 3; 48, 11, 49, 3, 50, 3 and 7, _i.e._, only in places 3, 7 and 11,
which indicates that the 12 signs are divided each time into three times
four.
It is further to be noted that the five gods, who are represented on page
24 by hieroglyphs 36-40, always recur in the ninth place in the order of
the pages:--the god represented on page 24 by sign 36 is the 8th on page
49; the 38th on the same page is the 11th on page 46 and the 12th on page
50; the 39th is the 12th on page 47, and the 40th may be the 5th on page
49, though this is hardly possible. On page 49 the 9th hieroglyph seems to
be the 39th on page 24 joined to the sign for the month Kayab.
Of the twenty gods on the left side of these pages, I have already remarked
that E, who on page 24 occupies the 38th place, and the 11th on page 46,
also occurs as the 9th on page 48 and the 12th on page 50.
It is doubtless of special significance that the sign of the first of the
twenty deities on the left side of page 46 is repeated on the right as the
tenth sign on all the pages (on page 47 also in the eleventh place where it
has a prefixed 3). It seems as if this sign, which is otherwise quite
unfamiliar, might be connected with the sun and regarded as a contrast to
the Venus sign in the sixth place.
Also the 9th deity of the left side, the 1st of page 48, reappears in the
4th place on page 49; the 10th deity, the 2nd on page 48, in the 12th on
page 49; the 15th deity, the 3d on page 49, in the 9th on page 46 and the
8th on page 49 (as already stated); the 18th, the 2nd on page 50, in the
5th on page 46.
The 2nd of these deities is suggested by the 8th on page 47, perhaps also
by the 5th on page 50; the 3d and 13th seem to be A and to recur in the 3d
place on page 46.
On the other hand C, the god who, as I believe I have proved, is connected
with the day-sign Chuen, does not appear on the left side. Now the 4th sign
on page 46 contains a Chuen, which in the 12th sign on page 48 is probably
combined with a Muluc, in the 12th on page 49 with Yax and a prefixed 6,
and in the 4th sign on page 50 with C's sign, _i.e._, as a rule Chuen
stands in the 4th place in a line.
As the gods E and K already mentioned also appear on pages 25-28 in
connection with the change of the year, so we find the tiger on the top of
page 26, and I believe this animal occurs again in the 7th sign on page 47.
Of the day-signs I take the 4th on page 47 to be Kan, the 7th on page 48 to
be Caban, and the next sign, the 8th on page 48, to be Muluc. Now if we
take into consideration the fact, that of the three periods of the month
signs on the left side of these pages, the 18th (the middle) line is the
most important, owing to its ending, 18 Kayab, alone, if for no other
reason; furthermore, that in this middle period the second Venus year
always ends with a Kan year and the third with a Muluc year, one is
naturally led to suppose that the illegible sign 12 on page 46 is an Ix
(for thus the first Venus year ends) and that the days Cauac and Kan might
have been found among the obliterated day-signs on pages 49 and 50.