Part 10

The sum of the black numbers is 104, the whole is, therefore, a double Tonalamatl = 5 × 104 = 520. While the series on pages 31a-32a primarily brought the 91 and the 104 together, and the series on page 45a accomplished the same result with the 104 and the 364, here, though the process is a different one, the 104 is combined with the 260 in another number.

It is characteristic of this part of the Manuscript, that the astronomical rectangles, which are very rare in the preceding pages, appear here in no less than five of the eleven divisions and six of them represent showers of rain. One is very readily, therefore, led to infer that the 104 days have reference to the rainy season and to its dependence upon the position of the planets. I will now analyse the eleven sections separately.

1. Rain is streaming down from two astronomical signs (Mars and Jupiter? Day and night?) and in the rain stands a black human form, grasping an implement with the right hand held downward and pointing upward with the left. It has the vulture head which occurred on pages 8a and 13c.

Hieroglyphs 1 and 2 represent the sun and moon, both surrounded by half white and half black envelopes, which must denote clouds. The third sign is Imix, which just here might refer to the rainy season productive of nourishment. The fourth sign is the vulture head of the picture.

2. B is walking in the rain and holds in one hand a stick pointed at the lower end. This is doubtless a farming implement, likewise occurring frequently in the Tro-Cort., which was used for making furrows or holes in the ground.

The second hieroglyph is B's, the first is Caban = earth, the fourth might be a compound of Caban and Muluc, referring to the rain, and the third is the familiar Kan-Imix, which, as the designation of food and drink, would be especially appropriate here.

3. B is apparently resting from tilling the soil, since he is sitting on a support consisting of the signs just spoken of, _i.e._, Caban and Muluc (?).

The latter signs are repeated in the second hieroglyph, while the third is B's with the sun-glyph (?) prefixed; the first is the head apparently open on top with the Akbal eye, probably the sign for beginning, and the fourth is the familiar sign _a_, which I think signifies a good, auspicious day.

4. Page 39. This represents a violent shower of rain, which might be pronounced a cloud-burst. The old red goddess with tiger-claws and a serpent on her head is pouring water in a stream from a jug. The same goddess occurs on page 43b and on the last page, 74.

Her hieroglyph is the second; it is more distinct in the two other passages. The first part of the third hieroglyph is indistinct, and the second part is the hieroglyph denoting the year. The first hieroglyph is a head with the Akbal sign, and the fourth is the usual compound of Kin and Akbal.

5. The cloud-burst seems to have destroyed the cultivation of the field, for B walks forth again with the implement for tilling the soil, as in the second picture. The second hieroglyph is B's with the prefix of the west, therefore probably denoting sunshine, the first again contains Caban and Muluc and the fourth is Kan-Imix referring again to the produce of the field. I shall not venture to explain the third sign here any more than I did in the previous passages. Compare page 8b.

6. B is again sitting in the rain and under the same astronomical signs as before on page 38. He is pointing downward (to the sprouting seed?). He has the sun-glyph on his back. The first two hieroglyphs are unfamiliar to me (Yax); the third is Imix with the sign for the west, and the fourth is again Muluc.

7. Page 40. B is plunging down headfirst from the same astronomical signs and is brandishing the hatchet.

Hieroglyph 1 is the cross _b_, 2 is B's sign, 3 probably that of the grain-god E, and 4 being Kan-Imix refers to grain. Favorable weather seems to have set in.

8. The astronomical signs are not the same as those in the three preceding instances (Mercury and sun?). Below them is a deity with tortoise-head--in my opinion, the sign for the longest day--holding a torch in each hand and thus referring to the heat.

Hieroglyph 1 (_w_) with the superfix suggesting K still puzzles me. 2 is the cross _b_, 3 is the tortoise-head with the number 4, which probably refers to the Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac years, as the 4 sometimes appears prefixed to N's hieroglyph. In exactly the same way the tortoise-head with the tortoise itself occurs frequently in the Cortesianus. 4 is the sign of the year with prefixed Kin and Cauac, _i.e._, day-Cauac-year.

9. A thunder-storm, which is very appropriate after the longest day. The lightning-beast, likewise holding a burning torch, is plunging down from the astronomical signs, which are different ones again (Venus and the moon?).

The second hieroglyph contains the sign of the dog together with the cross _b_, while the third is that of the north-god C, and the fourth is Muluc. I cannot explain the first sign; its prefix, which rarely occurs, appears also on pages 23b, 25a, 37b, 63a, and possibly on pages 53b, 62-63a, 69b.

10. Page 41. Another representation of rain. There is an old deity in the rain, who is N rather than F, denoting the end of the old year. He is emerging from a snail (cf. with this page 37b), and is pointing upward; a part of the first hieroglyph is on his head.

This first hieroglyph recalls the sign which, in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, XXIII, p. 145, I ventured to connect with the change of the year; but it also suggests the snail pictured below, hence the birth of the new year. The beginning of the year for the Mayas, although of course not for all parts of the country, is fixed, as a rule, to fall on the 16th of July. This would agree admirably with the eighth and ninth sections, which represent the time of the longest day and of thunder-storms.

The second hieroglyph is B's, the fourth the cross _b_, probably referring here to a union of two years, and the third with its Cauac to the duration of the rainy season or to the god N.

11. The rain seems to fall with less violence. B is seated, clad in the gala mantle with a Kan on his head, as the sign of grain. His headdress also strongly recalls that of the grain-deity E (which is also the case of the headdress on the preceding picture.)

Hieroglyph 1, the upper part of which is very like that of the first sign of the preceding group, looks like a plaited mat. Does it not suggest that the name of the first month of the new year is Pop and that this word is denoted by carpet, mat? Hieroglyph 2 is B's, 3 is the sun between a dark and a bright sky, and 4 is the common Kin-Akbal, day and night.

If the seventh picture really refers to the beginning of the year, then the entire period of 104 days extends from April 15th to August 2nd, which, with the addition of the five days not counted at the end of the year, does indeed make 109 days. All this, however, is only true on the supposition that I have not seen more in these representations than they contain.

Pages 41b--43b.

VI 12 V 7 XII 6 V 21 XIII 6 VI. Caban Muluc Imix Ben Chicchan.

Another regular Tonalamatl, and like the preceding one apparently referring to the change of the year, the tilling of the soil and the rainy season. B's sign is regularly repeated in the second place of all five groups of hieroglyphs, and moreover each of these groups has six signs. The head with the missing under jaw is in the fourth place of groups 2 and 3, in the sixth of group 5 and might perhaps be intended also in the fourth of 1 and 4. The usual Kan-Imix is in the third sign of group 2, in the fifth of 4, and the fourth of 5; possibly also in the fifth of 1; the third hieroglyph in group 3, at any rate, contains Imix.

Let us now consider the five groups individually:--

1. The rainy season seems to have been delayed; the beginning of the year draws near. B is kneeling on a kind of footstool, the hatchet is in his right hand and his left hand holds a kind of chisel with which he is carving something out of the trunk of a tree. The purpose of the work is indicated by the god's own head directly below (probably placed in front of the tree as a model?). No doubt this is intended to represent the making of the statue of the god of the new year destined for the beginning of the year, as we know it from pages 25-28.

Corresponding with this is the first hieroglyph denoting the year with Yax as a superfix, and also the sixth being the sign to which in the article in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie cited above, I attributed the meaning of change of the year. I cannot decide whether the third sign is intended for an Imix-Chuen with the sign of the south as a superfix, the fifth for a Kan-Imix and the fourth for the head without the under jaw.

2. Page 42. Prayer for rain. B (that is to say, his priest) is seated apparently on the same footstool. He is gazing upward and presenting a vessel containing an offering, the nature of which is uncertain. The vessel ends in a tube; cf. page 67b.

The first, fifth and sixth hieroglyphs are not finished, and the third is Kan-Imix.

3. The rain-goddess promises aid. B is seated opposite the old red goddess, who is holding intercourse with him. The god is seated on the Caban sign (earth) and the goddess on Muluc (rain?).

The first, fifth and sixth hieroglyphs are also unfinished; the third is Imix with its meaning intensified by the prefixed Yax (the luxuriantly growing grain?).

4. B is again tilling the ground in the manner already familiar to us. Under him lies his own head with the Imix-Kan sign, denoting food and drink, as a superfix. The first hieroglyph is the sign of the eighteenth month Cumhu, _i.e._, of the end of the year. The third is a Kin-Akbal, the fifth a Kan-Imix, the sixth is not finished, and the fourth may be intended for the head without the lower jaw, but it is carelessly drawn.

5. Page 43. The solicited rain begins. The goddess with the serpent on her head is pouring streams of water from her vessel.

The first hieroglyph repeats the month Cumhu, denoting the beginning of rain, before the close of the year; the third is the sign of the goddess met with on page 39b, here also with the sign for the west as a prefix; the fifth is her determinative, the serpent, and the fourth is Kan-Imix.

If the first sign in the first group is not regarded as the sign of the year, but as that of the sixteenth month (Pax) resembling it, and the fact is taken into consideration that there is an interval of 34 days between the second and fourth groups and of 40 days between the second and fifth, this would be found to correspond with the interval between the months Pax and Cumhu.

Pages 43b--44b.

This is the fourth and last series of the first part of the Manuscript; the first is on page 24, the second on pages 31a to 32a, and the third on page 45a. The first series is quite by itself, but the second and third are similar in form to this fourth, though their initial days are different from those of the latter:--XIII Akbal, XIII Oc and III Lamat. All three begin with differences which are divisible by 13:--91, 104 and 78, equal to 7, 8, and 6 × 13. All three aim and arrive at numbers which are common factors of 260, 104 and 364, and therefore also of 3640, which last number is written out in the other two series, while in this series it can only appear later on and then, increased by multiplication.

Since this series has the difference 78, the week day numbers remain the same, while those of the month days must advance by 18 each, that is, from the hidden starting-point III Lamat they go on to III Cimi, III Kan, III Ik, III Ahau, etc., until the tenth member of the series is 10 × 78, _i.e._, 3 × 260 and thus comes again to the day III Lamat.

From 780 onward this number is itself always the difference of the higher terms of the present series. At the same time 780 days are the duration of the apparent revolution of Mars, which is here supplementary, as it were, since page 24 treated of the revolutions of the sun and of Venus, and also of those of the moon and of Mercury. Hence in the present passage we find the numbers 1560, 2340, 3120 and 3900, always accompanied by the day III Lamat. The larger numbers require a few corrections; I read them 13,260 (17 × 780), 15,600 (20 × 780), 31,200 (40 × 780), 62,400 (80 × 780) and 72,540 (93 × 780). The very largest again are correctly set down; first 109,200 equal to 140 × 780, but here also equal to 1050 × 104 and 300 × 364, so that in this series the goal aimed at is not reached until later than it is in the two preceding series. Then follows 131,040 = 168 × 780, 1260 × 104, 360 × 364, but finally 151,320, which number = 1455 × 104 and 194 × 780, but is not divisible by 364.

Detached in the usual way from this series on the left of page 43 is the number 1,435,980. Above and below it is the day III Lamat, further down IV Ahau, and between them is 352 in a red circle. This number seems to have been obtained in the following way:--The writer began with the distance between III Lamat and IV Ahau, which is 92, added to it 172 × 260 = 44,720, and subtracted the result 44,812 from 13 Ahau-Katuns = 1,480,440. The remainder was 1,435,628, which number would correspond to the date III Lamat 6 Zotz (4 Kan), which, however, is suppressed in the Manuscript. The 352 = 260 + 92 was added to this sum, and the result was the 1,435,980 written out in the Manuscript, _i.e._, a day IV Ahau 13 Zip (5 Muluc). Now this number is the one sought; it is 5523 × 260 = 1841 × 780 = 3945 × 364, and hence must also be equal to 263 × 5460, since the 780 and 364 are united in 5460. According to our present knowledge, it would seem to lie in the future, but not far from the present; the solar and Mars revolutions are united in it. There is but a single hieroglyph here, the hieroglyph of the animal which is the chief subject of the next section; from which it appears that the two sections are closely connected.

Pages 44b--45b.

This section supplements the pictures and hieroglyphs belonging to the series just examined. Therefore it likewise extends over 78 days and divides them as follows:--

III 19 IX 19 II 19 VIII 21 III.

These five days are plainly intended to be the days III Lamat, IX Manik, II Cimi, VIII Chicchan, III Cimi.

With regard to the real purport of this section, it is my opinion that it has reference to the time of the shortest day and also to the four winds and that this section therefore forms, in a measure, a contrast to pages 38-41, where attention was called to the rainy season, the longest day and the thunderstorms.

We see here in the first place four of the ordinary heavenly shields, with two astronomical signs each. I cannot decide, at present, whether these are 1st, the moon and Saturn, 2nd, Mars and Mercury, 3d, the moon and Mars, and 4th, Jupiter and Venus.

From each of these shields hangs a figure not unlike an heraldic beast. It cannot be the canine lightning-beast; it has no flames, it is cloven-footed and with the upper lip bent upward and the lower lip curved downward suggesting the storm-god K, and therefore probably represents the four winds; this wind-beast repeated four times also occurs on Cort. 2.

Six hieroglyphs belong to each picture. Those in the first place are pierced ears and refer therefore to the ritual bloodletting, which may have been performed at this season. In Tro. 5*b we also find the pierced ear; a pierced _tongue_ (Tro. 17*b), however, does not occur in the Dresdensis. The second place always contains the sign of the beast like the one instance on page 43.

The third place seems to be devoted to the four cardinal points, _i.e._, to the four winds. First we see Akbal-Kin, _i.e._, the transition from night to day, the east. The north-god, C, is here in the second group; in the third we see Kin and beside it in the fourth place Akbal, both enveloped by clouds denoting the transition from day to night, the west. The fourth group, it is true, has the year-sign here, but with the compound Kin-Cauac prefixed, and Cauac always belongs to the south. I believe I have found a distinct reference to the season of the year in two other places. The fourth hieroglyph of the second group and the sixth of the fourth both have the familiar prefix suggesting K, the storm-god. The first of the two contains the month Mol (December 3d-22nd); the second might very well be the month Yax (January 12th-31st). This is quite in keeping with the distances 19 + 21 = 40 set down below.

In my "Tagegöttern der Mayas" (Globus LXXIII, 10) and above in my discussion of the great Tonalamatl under pages 4a-10a, I have assigned the day Chuen to C, and Muluc to K, _i.e._, the first to the dark north and the latter to the wind, which are both under consideration here. In fact, we find the Chuen sign in the fifth place of the fourth group with the same prefix that C has in the second group. The Muluc sign, however, seems to occur three times:--1st, group 1, sign 6, where it may be joined to the month Mol belonging here; 2nd, group 3, sign 5, joined to the Akbal, which also belongs here; 3d, group 4, sign 4, with a usual prefix. In the second group it may be included in the very similar month sign of Mol. Four hieroglyphs remain:--1st, Akbal in group 1, sign 5, hence probably denoting the darker time of the year in general; 2nd, A in 2, sign 5; 3d, E in 2, sign 6; _i.e._, probably referring to the death of the grain (I do not know to what extent this expression may be used in relation to the Maya country); 4th, Kan-Imix in 3, sign 6, perhaps expressing the hope of new harvests.

This finishes the middle sections of the pages of the first part of the Manuscript, and we must now turn back again to page 29 in order to examine the lower sections.

Pages 29c--30c.

III 16 VI 16 IX 16 XII 17 III Ix Cauac Kan Muluc.

Here is a Tonalamatl of four quarters, 4 × 65.

In the Manuscript 16 is again erroneously set down for 17 and the III following it is omitted. The initial day is exactly the same III Ix, as in section 29b above it, to which in other respects the passage now under consideration shows a great likeness, since the four familiar animals occur here as well as there. But in spite of beginning in the same way the days here are different ones, being the four regents of the year, as on page 9b.

The four parts are grouped together by the sign, which always occupies the first place in each part; I have denoted this sign by _f_, and I think it must have a very general significance, since from pages 29c to 40c it always begins the groups. The connection between the four parts is further shown by the four cardinal points in the second place:--the north in the first group, the west in the second, the south in the third and the east in the fourth. In the third place these cardinal points are again indicated by their usual abbreviations; the east is erroneously set down in the second group. These abbreviations are here invariably joined to the head of C as the representative of the north, the first of the cardinal points occurring in this passage; the others revolve about the north pole.

As B's sign always occurs in the fourth place, there is nothing further to be said concerning the hieroglyphs. We now come to the pictures:--

1. B is rowing a boat, as we have already seen him several times (36b, 40a, _c_, and 43c). To the left of his head there is a bird's head and in the left, bottom, corner, a pot in which apparently a soup of fowl is cooking, emitting bubbles. The Cib sign on the pot refers to the cooking or bubbling.

2. B, with his head surrounded by the familiar stars, is seated in water, in which are represented the iguana over a Kan sign, and the familiar spiral probably denoting a serpent. He is painted black (perhaps corresponding to the west?) and holds in his hand an implement not yet determined. Perhaps it may be intended for a tree, _past_ which the water is flowing.

3. The god is seated, holding in one hand the spiral with a Kin sign over it and a Yax on top of that, and in the other hand something which looks like a bird's feather or a fish's fin. Above him is a fish with a Kan sign, as on page 27, where the fish and Kan are also combined.

4. Holding a hunting-spear, he is sitting on an animal slain in the chase, as on page 45c.

Finally, I have remarked that pages 42c-45c, the last part of the first division of the Manuscript, look like an enlargement or amendment of the section just considered.

Pages 30c--33c.

To begin with, the day signs are set down in the following order:--

XI XI XI XI Ahau Chicchan Oc Men Caban Ik Manik Eb Ix Cauac Kan Muluc Chuen Cib Imix Cimi Lamat Ben Ezanab Akbal.

Here then, as is frequently the case in this Manuscript, all the twenty days are specified. But in order to obtain equal periods of time, the left column should first be read from top to bottom and the following ones should be treated in the same way. Then each succeeding day is 17 days distant from the preceding, but in reality the interval is 117 days, since the same week-day is always implied. The hieroglyphs seem to indicate that these 117 days are divided into three distinct parts, 52, 39 and 26.

117 days, however, are equal to 9 × 13 and hence in what follows we find a black 13 set down 9 times as the interval between the days, and a red XI being the number of the week-day an equal number of times. Now, since the whole series extends over 20 such sections of 117 days, the duration of this calendar is 2340 days or 9 Tonalamatl.

Consequently we find nine pictures of the same god B. In five of them (in Groups 1-4 and 9) he is sitting before or on a sacrificial tree or tree of life; cf. 30b. It is probably not accidental that in these five cases the hieroglyphs refer to the cardinal points. In the eighth group the god is surrounded by the suggestion of one or more trees; he is sitting in water as if in a forest; or in a cave bordered by trees? In the remaining groups, 5, 6 and 7 he is seated on various supports, in 5 on an object, which is not completed and which cannot, therefore, be explained, in 6 on astronomical figures (Mars and Venus?) and in 7 on agave leaves. In 1 and 3 his head is again surrounded by those dots suggesting stars, in 4 there seems to be a bird (quetzal?) seated upon it and in 2 it bears what may be the Kin sign. In 1 and 5 he has the pouch for incense in his hand, while in 3 alone he wears the gala mantle and is painted black, just as he appears in connection with the same hieroglyphs on page 29c. He carries a hatchet in repose in 2, 6 and 9, and raised for a blow in 1 and 7. In 7 he also holds the Imix sign.