As with the other series, we begin here at the right, _i.e._, with page 73.
There in the last column we find the superscription as it were. It is true
that nothing positive can be gathered from the top part consisting of five
hieroglyphs, which are mostly destroyed. The third hieroglyph seems to be
the sign in group 2a discussed above. The fourth is an Akbal with a
prefixed arm as on pages 8a, 36a, and the fifth is an Ik with a prefix.
Below these are three numbers:--14,040, 702 and 54, which are in the
proportion of 260, 13 and 1, so that the 14,040 is a Tonalamatl, as it
were, of 260 periods of 54 days each. The fact that 54 is chosen here as
the difference of the following series is curious, because usually only
parts of 260 or of 364 are selected. But 54 is probably only a secondary
matter, while 14,040, with its marvellous property of divisibility into the
most varied and important periods, is the chief subject.
There is a 9 in a red circle under the three numbers. It is meant to denote
the starting-point of the series, the day IX Ix. Perhaps these two as well
as the 54 are connected with the 9 "señores de las noches."
In passing on to the left, I shall not consider the hieroglyphs and numbers
in the next two columns in the upper third, since they are only set down
here in order to secure space for them. They will be discussed later.
The series itself begins in the upper third of page 71, in the next to the
last column; it is continued on page 72 and on page 73 as far as the third
column. The first twelve numbers are written from left to right contrary to
the usual practice, doubtless occasioned by the passage above the series,
which has already been discussed. And below, again contrary to rule, we
find not the week and month days, but only the week days and they are in
red circles. If written in the usual way, the series would have the
following form (with the usual omission of the initial day IX Ix):--
54 108 162 216 270 324 378
XI Lamat XIII Ik II Cib IV Oc VI Kan VIII Ezanab X Eb
432 486 540 594 648
XII Cimi I Ahau III Ix V Lamat VII Ik.
The series must now continue with the 702 already specified on page 73,
which it proceeds to do from right to left in the middle of page 71, and
continues from there on with regularly added dates and with the 702 itself
as the difference. At the same time, since 702 = 54 × 13, the week-days are
forced to come to a standstill on the IX, while each of the month days
ascends by two (702 = 35 × 20 + 2). The 4914 = 7 × 702 is obtained in the
next to the last column of page 70. On page 71 the 702 is incorrectly set
down as 1. 15. 2. instead of 1. 17. 2. The series continues on page 71 in
the same way beyond the 702, until in 7020 a number is obtained which is
also divisible by 260, so that now the accompanying day must be IX Ix. Now
we ought to expect to see here the double of 7020, the very 14,040
abovementioned, but it is omitted just because it was set down on page 73.
Nevertheless this very number forms the new difference with which the
series returns from page 70 to the top line of page 71, where the numbers
are mostly effaced, but enough remains to enable us to assume that the last
number on page 71 is the 10th multiple of 14,040, and this may be followed
by the 11th and 12th multiples, the last number being 168,480.