Besides the picture, this page contains only 15 hieroglyphs in three
horizontal rows. Only about six of these signs are decipherable. The
second, third and fourth of the lower line are three different heads; the
middle is the familiar head of god B, the one on the left has the Akbal eye
and the abbreviated sign for the south, which is repeated in the affix; the
head on the right has the sign for the west as a prefix. Very little more
is to be said of the other hieroglyphs than that the second and third of
the second line have the sign for the east; the first of the second line,
however, was the one which we found on pages 71-73 as the constant
companion of the Bacabs and which suggested the wind. The last sign of the
second line must have contained that for north, so that the four cardinal
points all came together here.
The picture begins below these signs. Astronomical figures, apparently
Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, end in the fore part of a crocodile.
Below the astronomical signs are the signs for the sun and moon. Streams of
water are falling from the jaws of the crocodile and also from the sun and
moon. And a fourth stream is being poured from a jug by the old woman with
the tiger claws, and with the serpent on her head, whom we saw on pages 39,
43 and 67 engaged in the same occupation. Cross-bones are represented on
her skirt as the symbol of death. The sign of the ninth day, Eb, appears on
the jug; this is the day which was avoided in the Tonalamatls, for not a
single Tonalamatl begins with Eb in the Dresdensis, nor does one begin with
the week-day IX; does Bolon meaning nine suggest Balam, the jaguar?
Still further down on the page sits a black god, who may be the same as the
god on pages 7a and 16b, with a bird of prey on his head. There are two
arrows in his right hand and his left hand holds what may be an atlatl, but
it is very much longer than is usually the case; at the same time it can be
regarded as a spear.
This page can denote nothing but the end of the world, for which the
serpent numbers have prepared the way. Perhaps what looks like a zero above
the sign Eb in the stream of water may likewise point to this calamity.
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