Part 7

Among the signs on the left side we should expect to find those of the gods to whom the expiring year belonged. On page 25 it ought to be B. Sign 5, however, though it can with difficulty be identified, points rather to god K. Sign 3 on page 26 corresponds better; this is the hieroglyph of the tiger already known to us, which is carried by the priest in the upper section of page 8a; here its prefix is the sign for the west. On page 27 we ought to see the grain-god E carried by the priest; his hieroglyph may be destroyed, but sign 5, which is Kan-Imix (food and drink) is his determinative. Finally the 5th sign on page 28 is, just as we should expect, the hieroglyph of A and, in addition, we find his determinative in 7.

But what is to be said of the fact that the tiger appears again on page 28 in sign 3, and this time with the sign for the east?

The Ahau on page 27, sign 16, refers to the god D of the middle section.

There maybe some reference here to sacrifice, thus:--the 11th sign on page 25 is Kan-Imix, the 12th on page 27 is Kan, which is followed in the 13th sign on page 27 by another one with a Yax and a suggestion of a second Kan-Imix. Also the curious sign in the 8th place on page 27, which we have already discussed under page 8b, is used to denote the sacrifice on pages 18a and 15b. Here its position with reference to sign 6 is the same as on page 8b. On page 26 the prefix of sign 13, which is half destroyed, may be recognized as a serpent. Signs 12 and 15 on page 25 are unintelligible. Unfortunately the following signs are entirely effaced:--Sign 1 on pages 25, 26 and 27, as well as 2 on all the four pages, 3 on page 25, 9 and 10 on all the four pages, 11 on pages 26, 27 and 28, 12 on pages 26 and 28, 13 on page 28, 14 on pages 26 and 28, and 16 on page 27.

4. The Middle Pictures.

On each page at the right there is a house, the back wall of which is always marked with the cross often met with. In front of the house with his back turned towards it, sits a deity. Each of the four deities has the front of his body covered with a gala mantle. Now we know that the god of the new year was set up before the house of the chieftain. On page 25 the god is K with his eyes apparently destroyed, and on page 26 it is B with a Kin sign on his head covering, hence designated here as a sun or day-god. On page 27 the god is D, and on page 28, A with the cross-bones on his robe, his own hieroglyph on his cheek, and the Akbal sign on his forehead. Only on the last page, therefore, and apparently by mistake, the god in the top picture is the same as in the middle picture.

At the left of each page, _i.e._, opposite the house and the god, is a flaming altar, bearing the sign Ix equivalent to fire.

The centre, between the gods and the altars, is occupied by vessels of which there are two on each of the first three pages and but one on the fourth; they contain food, without doubt intended for the sacrificial feast. On page 25 the lower vessel contains Kan (maize) and the upper probably a food prepared from Kan. Or are the spines on the back of the iguana indicated on this vessel? (Compare 40c and Cort. 8 and 12c). The contents of the lower vessel on page 26 are still unknown (birds?). The upper vessel contains a Kan, but the sign has a superfix, which corresponds to the sign for the west. On page 27 the lower vessel contains a fish and the upper the sign for the south. Lastly, the single vessel on page 28 contains the cross-bones (mammal?) and above them the Kan sign repeated three times.

Finally here on the last three pages, we find some numbers, which are still undetermined; on page 26 there is a 7 with the lower vessel, and on page 27 with the upper vessel two dots with a cross between them (perhaps this may mean 20 - 2 = 18, which is used in place of the usual clumsy numeral?). On page 28 we see above the vessel a 6, and below it, in place of a second vessel, a double Chuen sign, as in the upper section of the page, therefore it can hardly be the Akbal sign resembling Chuen.

5. The Middle Hieroglyphs.

On each page these signs consist of but _one_ line containing 5, 6, 3 and 3 glyphs respectively. The first of these signs in all of the four places is the same (_o_), which very suitably refers to the change in the year. The second sign is always the hieroglyph of the god represented in the middle section:--K on page 25, B as the sun-god on page 26, and D on page 27. The second sign on page 28, which is the head without an underjaw and with the prefixed four, probably referring to four fast-days, must, therefore, be an uncommon sign for A, who was similarly designated on page 25 in sign 8 of the upper section.

If the gods in the top thirds are those of the past year and those in the middle the gods of the year just beginning, we should expect to find in each top third the deity who is represented in the middle of the preceding page. But this does not hold good. For then we should expect to find K on page 26 and not the tiger, on page 27 B or G and not E, on page 28 D and not A, and on page 25 A and not B.

Hence there is some confusion here. Yet it seems to be in the nature of a correction, that on page 26 the third sign, next to that of the sun-god, is actually the sign for E who is in the top section on page 27, and that the sixth sign is Kan-Imix belonging to this god.

On pages 25 and 26 this line also refers to the past year, _i.e._, to the year set down in the top third. The fourth sign on page 25 is a Manik, _i.e._, originally a grasping hand denoting taking away, disappearance, and the fifth sign on this page is a Muluc, which seems to denote the ending of the Muluc years. The fifth sign on page 26, is, in fact, the tiger pictured above.

The lunar hieroglyph as the third sign on page 25 and the _a_ as the fourth on page 26 are strange and unaccountable. Both appear to be almost without significance here and seem almost like mere points between the names of gods in groups of two each.

The Ahau as the third sign on page 27 is the usual determinative of D, whose hieroglyph stands beside it.

On page 28 the main part of the third sign corresponds to the sixth of the upper section. I do not know, however, how to explain either the upper part suggesting a mat or the familiar leaf-shaped prefix.

6. The Bottom Pictures.

In the left-hand lower corner of each page we see the sign for the year of 360 days, which at the same time designates the heap of stones, on which the stelae were erected, the two thick black lines indicating the two columns of hieroglyphs usually found on them. A tree is growing out of this sign, having on its trunk an abbreviated Cauac sign, at least, on pages 26, 27 and 28, which probably refers to rain as the most desired event of the year. The tree on page 25 has no leaves, but the top is carved into the shape of the head of the god B. In the other three cases it has leaves, but instead of ending in the god's head the tree is draped with a mantle and a breech-clout, and a serpent is coiled about it denoting a period of time (here, the year). Furthermore there are foot-prints on the trunk or the drapery of the tree, which represent it as the goal of a pilgrimage.

If the top and middle thirds refer to the mere transportation of the idols, the bottom thirds refer to the feasts connected with this act, or, at any rate, to those dedicated to the _new_ god. For we see here on page 25 the god B, on 26 the god K, on 27 A and on 28 D, _i.e._, the same deities as in the middle sections, yet so placed that the first two and the last two have changed places.

Each of the four deities hold in one hand a hen with its head cut off; "degollavan una gallina" is the statement made by Landa concerning these feasts. Perhaps all four gods, at any rate the last three, are scattering grain; this was one form of divination; we found the other on page 2. There are besides, on every page, several small objects between the two pictures, just as in the middle section. On page 25 the object is probably an altar, but instead of the flame it has the number 19. Above this is the sign for the west (the Ix days) with that for the sun, and on top of them the sign which we found in the middle section of page 26 as the contents of the lower vessel. On page 26 we see a vessel containing a bird, then another whose contents are indicated by Yax and a double Kan sign. Above it is the sign for the moon or for 20 with a prefix, and above this a 9. At the bottom of page 27 there is a vessel containing two Kan signs and a fish; above this another vessel the contents of which are the same as we found in the vessel in the middle section of page 26 and in that of the lower section of page 25. Above these is again the sign for the moon or 20 with a superfix, which is the same as the prefix on page 26, and beside it is a 16. Page 28 has the usual haunch of venison (Landa:--"una pierna de venado"), above this is a vessel with a bird and Kan and above this again the sign for the moon or for 20 with the same superfix and the numeral 15. I shall discuss below the numbers scattered over these four pages.

7. The Bottom Hieroglyphs.

These hieroglyphs also form but _one_ line on each page and each line contains six hieroglyphs. The _first_ of each line is always the same (_p_). It consists of a surface divided into four quadrants thus suggesting the four cardinal points, the four Bacabs presiding over them and the four kinds of years. The superfix seems to be the abbreviated hieroglyph of the north; the sign for the north, however, is Muluc and these four pages begin with the Muluc years.

The _second_ sign is the head of D as the supreme god; to this a Yax is joined on pages 26-28 as the symbol of strength, and on page 25, but probably by mistake, the abbreviated sign for the west.

The _third_ sign always represents one of the four cardinal points:--on page 25 the east, on page 26 the south, on page 27 the west and on page 28 the north; here then the usual order is reversed and the signs are set down according to the diurnal instead of the annual course of the sun, probably occasioned merely by exchanging the sign for the west (Ix), which belongs on page 25, with that for the east (Kan), which belongs on page 27.

The other three signs do not stand in the same order on every page.

The _fifth_ sign on pages 26 and 28 and the _fourth_ on page 27 show correspondence most clearly. This sign is always a head, undoubtedly that of the god pictured in the bottom third. But on page 25 it is the hieroglyph of E, who is pictured on the top of page 27, instead of that of B.

In the same way the 6th sign on page 25, the 4th on page 26, the 5th on page 27 and the 4th on page 28 have something in common. One element of the hieroglyph is always the sign for the year of 360 days, combined on page 25 with cross-bones and the Cauac sign, on 26 with Yax and Kan, and on 27 and 28 simply with Yax.

The most puzzling and divergent of these hieroglyphs are the remaining ones. The 4th on page 25 has an oblique cross (or bones?) and the abbreviated glyph for the west, the 6th on page 26 is the head of E, the 6th on page 27 is the 360-day sign combined with Kin and Cauac, and the 6th on page 28 is the usual Kan-Imix sign. Here, too, there seems to have been a displacement.

Before I leave the four pages 25-28, I will glance at the numerals, which are scattered over them and which apparently have no connection with one another. I have discussed these numerals in my article "Die Mayahieroglyphen" in Volume LXXI, No. 5, of the Globus, and the following is borrowed therefrom.

First of all, I believe that I proved there, that the sign composed of two dots with a cross between them is an abbreviation for the usual clumsy representation of the numeral 18 and designates it like a duodeviginti by 20 - 2. Next, that in this passage as on pages 18a, 18c, 19c, 46b and 50c, the sign is combined with the hieroglyphs Yax-Kin. Third, that it is closely related to the god D, inasmuch as it stands on page 27b close beside the picture of that god.

Assuming this as a known fact, we find scattered over these four pages the following numbers:--

25: 9, 7, 8, 9, 19, 26: 7, 16, 13, 7, 9, 27: 11, 5, 2, 18, 16, 28: 6, 6, 13, 6, 15.

It is very remarkable that the sum of the numbers on each of the first three pages is equal to 52, and as an accidental freak it would be most surprising; somewhere on the fourth page six units may have been omitted; but perhaps the 6, which stands above the _two_ Chuen signs in the centre, is to be counted twice. The 52, however, designates the very 52 years, which are treated of on these four pages.

As yet I know no reason to account for the fact that the 52 is here separated into these apparently very irregular numbers. The discovery of this reason would be an important step in advance. Or does it means 52 _days_, perhaps those which follow a Tonalamatl coming in the middle of the year?

Page 28 is followed in the Manuscript by three empty pages. The scribe's object in reserving them is beyond our ken; possibly they were intended to represent the period of 8 years.

Pages 29-45 (_i.e._, to the end of the first part of the Manuscript) all belong together. After the Maya manner there is very little system displayed in their arrangement, and though here and there there may be occasion to consider the three parts of each page consecutively, I will discuss them here as follows:--First, the top thirds, which are most difficult owing to the destruction of a large portion of them; then the middle, and last the bottom thirds. They all consist in great part, with a few interruptions, of representations of the regular Tonalamatl, such as we find represented from the beginning of the Manuscript to page 23.

The element which these pages have in common is the fact that the god B, who can hardly be Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl, occurs on almost all of them. He is the god of wind, fire, breath, _i.e._, the true god of life and is here represented in his relation to the most varied manifestations and activities of a human being, so that this section bears a certain resemblance to the Tro-Cortesianus. With this is closely connected his relation to all four cardinal points, which so often occur. He may have been the local god of the region from whence this Manuscript came; in the Tro-Cort. It seems rather to be C who lays claim to this office.

Pages 29a--30a.

XI 13 XI 13 XI 13 XI 13 XI 13 XI Lamat Ben Ezanab Akbal.

This is a Tonalamatl of 4 × 65 days, each part subdivided into 5 × 13 days. The four days written on the left are those which may begin the year.

In each of the five sections B is pictured in a sitting posture, the first four times on a tree (the tree of life rather than the sacrificial tree).

In the first picture he holds in one hand the haunch of venison, so often occurring as an offering, the last time on page 28; the object above it is probably the Kan sign. There is a vessel at the god's feet, probably a receptacle for the venison, bearing the hieroglyph of the 13th day Cib, which, however, refers rather to a bird.

In the second picture an animal with a protruding tongue lies on its back at the feet of the god, who kneels upon its stomach. This probably represents the lightning-dog as vanquished. The same animal is pictured on the next page and also on page 40b and perhaps on page 60. There are a number of small dots around B's head, which on page 11c we attempted to interpret as the starry sky.

I can find nothing of special importance in the third and fourth pictures, but in the fifth, B is sitting in a house, which is marked repeatedly with the sign Caban (ground). Here the god is holding the hatchet (machete) in his hand, as if prepared for some terrestrial activity. Four hieroglyphs in the usual order belong to each of the five pictures. They are almost entirely destroyed, but the vestiges show that the fourth sign was always that of B, while the third sign with the first picture had the abbreviated hieroglyph of the west as a prefix; with the second picture it had that of the south, and therefore with the third and fourth it must certainly have had the signs of the east and north. We should expect the signs with these prefixes to contain references to Ix, Cauac, Kan and Muluc, but they are not distinguishable.

Thus B is represented in pictures 1-4 as ruler of the four cardinal points and in 5 as the ruler of the earth in general.

Pages 30a--31a.

This passage looks like an amplification of the middle picture on page 29a. Here B is represented with the hatchet in his left hand and holding aloft by the tail with his right hand the animal, which is spitting out something upon a stepped pyramidal structure, probably the pyramid of a teocalli. That this is probably meant to represent lightning is rendered almost a certainty by the picture on page 40b. In this passage there are several red and black numerals scattered around the animal in an irregular manner, which we find nowhere else in our Manuscript, but with which the Tro-Cortesianus has made us familiar. The sum of the black numbers still legible is 23, probably a 3 is effaced and the sum should be 26, the sum which so often occurs in the Cod. Troano 8-13 with the animal represented there. The red numbers likewise do not admit of exact determination. This passage also contained hieroglyphs, four standing side by side on each of the two pages. The legible portion is limited to the Cimi sign in the third place, perhaps an Imix in the second, and possibly an Ahau in the first.

Pages 31a--32a.

In my article "Zur Entzifferung, etc., VI," published in the year 1897, I discussed this passage more in detail, and the following will be in continuation of what I stated there.

The real aim of the computation on these pages is to find a number in which the following periods of time are united with the Tonalamatl of 260 days:--1. The ritual year of 364 days, and consequently also a quarter of it, the Bacab period of 91 days. 2. The period of 104 days, being the number of days which remain after a Tonalamatl has been deducted from a ritual year. The hypothesis advanced by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall ("Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System," Stockholm, 1894) and also the entirely different opinion held by Mr. Charles P. Bowditch ("The Lords of the Night and the Tonalamatl of the Codex Borbonicus" in the American Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. II, New York, 1900) prove the existence not only of merely arbitrary Tonalamatls for the purpose of prediction, as those in our Manuscript, but also of Tonalamatls having a fixed position in certain years. But after the manner peculiar to priestcraft, the number sought is found only by an indirect and mysterious process.

In the first place we find on page 32a all the days set down in the following manner:--

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

That is to say, a series counting from the day XIII Akbal, the New Year's day of the year I Kan, recurring every 52 years, furthermore a series which shows the same difference of 91 from the day XIII Akbal to XIII Ix, XIII Chicchan, etc., and finally ends with XIII Akbal again, after it has run through a period of 20 × 91, _i.e._, 1820 days = 7 Tonalamatls, like a similar representation of 7 Tonalamatls on page 51. Above these 20 days, and to the left of them, numbers are set down rather irregularly, which begin with 91 and are multiples of that number. The signs of the days corresponding to these numbers are joined to them; but they are omitted with the numbers of lowest value. Hence we have:--91, 182, 273, 364 (4), 455 (5), 546 (6), 637 (7), 728 (8), 819 (9), 910 (10). Then with a bound follow 1456 and 1820; with the last number Akbal is reached in the natural way, which day the scribe had erroneously set down again with 1456 in place of Cauac.

The number 728 already united the numbers 91, 104 and 364, but did not include the number 260. This inclusion is accomplished by the number 3640 on page 32, quite on the left where we find the numbers 10 and 2, under which only a 0 has been omitted. With the usual hiatuses this series seems to end on page 31, where I think the numbers 4, 0, 16 and 0 ought to stand, but they are almost wholly effaced; this would then be 320 × 91, 280 × 104, 112 × 260, 80 × 364 = 29,120.

We have thus gone far in advance of the first problem, but a second always presents itself in these series, it is that of using these periods for larger numbers, which refer to a not too remote past or to a future not too distant. The first numbers are, as a rule, in the neighborhood of 1,252,680, the close of the eleventh Ahau-Katun, and the latter in the neighborhood of 1,480,440, the close of the thirteenth Ahau-Katun. The Manuscript presents the following:--

1,272,544 1,268,540 1,538,342. XIII Akbal XIII Akbal XIII Akbal 121 17 51,419 IV Ahau IV Ahau 8 Cumhu 8 Cumhu IV Ahau.

In connection with this it should be noted first that I have restored the 8 in the statement of the months, and second that the two numbers on the right were found with the aid of page 63 only by an easy conjecture. For with the reading of the Manuscript 10, 13, 3, 13, 2, I do not agree, but read instead 10, 13, 13, 3, 2; the number below, however, is given in the Manuscript as 7, 2 and then a black 14 joined to a red 5; I read this 7, 2, 14, 19.

The three numbers nearest the bottom have red circles around them, indicating subtraction, or, according to my present point of view, addition.

Now let us see how the computer arrived at the large numbers.

Day XIII Akbal, the New Year's day of the 1 Kan years, is given; also the differences of the series 91 and 104, therefore also in the proportion of 7 to 8. If we combine these last two numbers by addition and then by multiplication with 260, the result is (7 + 8) × 260 = 3900. If, however, 7, 8 and 3900 be combined by multiplication the product is 7 × 8 × 3900 = 218,400 = 2400 × 91 = 2100 × 104 = 840 × 260 = 600 × 364 = 1120 × (91 + 104). We have already met with the 218,400 on page 24, which was obtained by the addition of 33,280 + 185,120.

My opinion is as follows:--First 11 Ahau-Katuns = 1,252,680, were taken as a point of departure, and to this sum was added 15,600 = 4 × 3900, and 243 as the interval between the normal date IV Ahau and XIII Akbal. The result was 1,268,523. The position of this day, however, is XIII Akbal 11 Xul (1 Ix).

Then the 3900 mentioned above was added to this number and the result was 1,272,423 = XIII Akbal 16 Pop (12 Muluc).

Then to the 1,268,523 was added the 218,400 and the sum was 1,486,923 = XIII Akbal 1 Kankin (1 Kan), the very place in that year where a Tonalamatl ends.

The following numbers were thus obtained:--

1,272,423 1,268,523 1,486,923.

These numbers are suppressed in the Manuscript. But if the encircled numbers are added to them, viz:--121 (interval between XIII Akbal and IV Kan), 17 (interval between XIII Akbal and IV Ahau), and 51,419 (= 197 × 260 + 199; 199, however, is the interval between XIII Akbal and IV Ik), the result is the three large numbers set down in the Manuscript, which have the following properties:--

1) 1,272,544 = IV Kan 17 Xul (12 Muluc). This number = 13,984 × 91 = 12,236 × 104 = 3496 × 364. It also = 4894 × 260 + 104, the interval between IV Ahau and IV Kan.

2) 1,268,540 = IV Ahau 8 Mol (1 Ix) = 4879 × 260 = 3485 × 364 = 74,620 × 17. 17 is the interval between XIII Akbal and IV Ahau.