3 is really set down X Ahau, but an VIII is written above the Ahau by way
of correction. The day VIII Ahau will presently prove to be important.
6, a compound of Imix and the superfix denoting multiplication, is the sign
for 18,980, and its prefix seems to me to denote duplication. We have long
known how important the 37,960 = 146 × 260 = 104 × 365 is, and, if my
theory is correct, we shall see directly that it occurs again here.
8 seems really to be 1 Zec, but the composite prefixes demand further
examination.
Impenetrable darkness still shrouds the meaning of the whole group. Though
it is clear that in several cases certain days are specified according to
their position in the year, their distance apart does not agree with the
interval between days IV Eb, IX Ix and IV Ahau under discussion here.
If signs 3 and 4 ought to be read together as VIII Ahau 13 Yaxkin, then
this date would come in the year 7 Muluc. In the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie
I explained the five hieroglyphs in the third column at the bottom of page
70 (the third group) as civil years of 360 and astronomical years of 365
days:--
1) 8,760 = 24 × 365 = 15 × 584
2) 2,920 = 8 × 365 = 5 × 584
3) 7,200 = 20 × 360
4) 18,720 = 52 × 360 = 72 × 260
5) 360
------
37,960.
This, it is true, is a striking explanation and certainly a surprising one!
Now the date IX Ix 12 Kayab is at the very bottom of the fourth column.
This, without apparent reason, would refer to the year 4 Kan. Should it not
be read IX Kan 12 Kayab (4 Ix), thus indicating that the entire passage is
only the preparation for the date from which the serpent numbers proceed?
The scribe may have had in mind the IX Ix of the series.
The fourth and last group on page 73, above the two numbers 83,474 and
34,732, consists of four hieroglyphs. The two upper hieroglyphs on the left
are effaced, and the top one on the right. I think it probable that the day
VIII Ahau, which will be discussed later, may have stood in the top line,
and possibly with a month date. Of the two remaining signs of the fourth
group, the upper is the moon and the lower Imix, probably with the
hieroglyph of the east as a prefix; but there is nothing to be done with it
owing to the obliteration of the sign above it. In the Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie, 1891, page 153, I have endeavored to explain these three signs
on the right above 34,732, by suggesting for them the values
18,980 = 52 × 365
8,760 = 24 × 365
7,200 = 20 × 360
------
34,940
and calling special attention to the fact that between IV Eb and IV Ahau
there are 208 days, and that the 34,732 placed below them in the
Manuscript, increased by 208, is equal to 34,940. This group then seems
really to belong to the day IV Eb and to the 65-series, while manifold
problems are still to be encountered in interpreting the other groups.