Chapter 2

Taking up first the central figures, section _e_, we find in each a standing figure, with ceremonial headdress of varying character, offering a dragon’s head (a universal symbol of wisdom) to another figure, seated on a cushioned dais, the side of which bears various “constellation” signs. The latter in turn extends his hands, either holding some object, or else in a simple gesture. The standing figures are all almost completely preserved; the seated ones unfortunately largely or wholly obliterated. In front of the standing ministrant is a vase of offerings, usually a triple Kan figure, and in two cases with knives. In the upper part of the picture, facing in every case but one towards the ministrant, is a bird figure, different on each page, and having in two cases a human head. On each page is an Ahau sign with red numeral, all of them together forming a series which (starting on the supposed page 1 with 4 Ahau) gives the succession 4, 2, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6; in other words the numbers of thirteen consecutive katuns. The Ahau numerals 13, 11, 9, on pages 3, 4 and 5, are entirely distinct, and enough traces appear on other pages to establish this as a katun series beyond question. If this chapter includes just a round of numbers it would of course be complete in 13 pages. The chapter may be historical in contents, but the presence of this numeral Ahau-series clearly relates these pages to successive katuns in some way, whatever other bearings they may have. The ten pages thus in some way definitely have to do with the lapse of 72,000 days, or not quite 200 solar years, and the extension of the series to a full cycle of 20 katuns is quite likely. The background of this section _e_ is red on each alternate page.

Returning now to section _a_, we find on each page three figures, nearly all of persons or animals, seated on a large base [Hieroglyph] practically identical with the tun-glyph. Fourteen of the backgrounds to these figures are red. Above each figure there seems to have been at least six glyphs, of which but very few are left. Above these is a space entirely erased. In the center of the section on each page is a column containing at least two Ahaus with red numerals. The numerals of the upper row exceed those of the lower by 6; each row decreases from page to page by 4. The erased margins of the MS. do not afford space for another picture besides the three, on either side, but they do just give room for another Ahau-column on the left of each page. If this second Ahau-column existed, we have again the katun-series repeated in each row across. If it did not exist, the series (reading from the supposed page 1) of 13, 9, 5, etc., and 7, 3, 12, etc., decreasing by 4’s, give the numbers of successive tuns. Once again the question of whether a simple number-round of thirteen terms, or a full round of twenty terms, whether tuns or katuns, was originally displayed on the Codex, must be left undetermined. It is further to be noted that faint but exact traces of a third Ahau, on a higher line, appear on page 5, as well as some doubtful traces on page 8. No definite relationship between the pictures of this section _a_ and those of section _e_ is apparent.

Section _b_ is made up of 45 or more glyphs in three columns. The first column is almost totally erased on every page, and I have disregarded it both in assigning reference numbers and in the type cards. The other two columns I have numbered in double column sequence downwards; but this can be regarded as solely for convenience’ sake. The glyph [Hieroglyph] which is three times repeated at the beginning of page 2, and recurs in parallel position repeated two to five times on each page, is the most common glyph in the whole Codex. It is identifiable probably 38 times, including twice at the top of the erased _first_ column on page 4. It heads the second column several times on every page, except 7, which is too erased for any determination, and page 3, where a slight variation in what is left of the postfix at b-3 forbade its insertion under the rules I have given limiting restorations. I suspect that this glyph should be repeated at 3-b-9 and 11-b-9, for the following reason. In positions b-6, b-8 or b-10 of each page occurs a certain face-glyph [Hieroglyph] that is found nowhere else in either the Perez, Dresden or Tro.-Cort. codices. If the initial glyph is repeated at 3-b-9 and 11-b-9 as suggested, then (with a slight variation on page 4) this series of repetitions of the initial glyph will in each case be closed by the face-glyph in question.

A marked feature of section _b_ is the occurrence, near the bottom of each page, of a Cauac-sign, with or without the [Hieroglyph] wing-postfix, and with prefixed and superfixed [Hieroglyph] numerals, exactly as is so common in connexion with the Chuen-sign on the Inscriptions. This Cauac-sign is usually accompanied by an Ahau and a Tun, each with numerals that are for the most part erased. This combination suggests distance-numbers and dates, somewhat as on the Inscriptions; in this case the double-numbered Cauacs would stand for so many uinals plus so many days. The following combinations, besides the one above, are also found:

[Hieroglyphs]

Section _c_ consists of 16 glyphs in two rows, above the central picture. Glyphs 15 and 16 on each page are erased. The chief general characteristic is the frequent repetition of the Cimi-compound, [Hieroglyph]; the repetition on each page of a Cauac-sign with single or double numerals as in section _b_; and of Tun-compounds, with [Hieroglyph] subfix and with varying prefixes (frequently faces), as especially see page 5.

Section _d_ is a triple row of glyphs, originally 21 in some instances, but with many now erased. I am able to establish few general characteristics for this section, save again the frequency of the Cimi-compound as in section _c_, of various Tun-compounds, and of the two glyphs [Hieroglyph] and [Hieroglyph][TN-1] With the exception of 10-b-4, the face with the tau-eye occurs only in this section _d_ and on pages 15 to 18. This glyph is exceedingly common both in Dres. and Tro.-Cort, the form in which it appears at 3-d-4, 6, [Hieroglyph] occurring (including its secondary compounds) no less than 126 times in Dres. and 33 times in Tro.-Cort.

Beneath section _d_ are the remains of red numerals and of heads and headdresses of figures which are now too much erased to give any basis for comment.

A most marked feature of the Codex is the very large number of Tun-compounds, a feature confined exclusively, with one exception, to the present pages 2 to 11, and pages 23, 24. A classified list shows 28 compounds of this glyph, [Hieroglyph] 20 of these showing the subfix, and combined with a face or other prefix. The connexion of this fact with the Tun-bases of section _a_, and with the katun-rounds shown by the Ahau-series above referred to, is manifest.

To sum up the general characteristics of this side of the MS., and without attempting to interpret any separate glyphs, we find the following data:

The Cimi-compound [Hieroglyph] and its sub-compound [Hieroglyph] occurs 25 times.

The numeral-compounded Cauac occurs 20 times.

The glyph [Hieroglyph] occurs 13 times on this side and once on page 23.

The Chuen-compound [Hieroglyph] occurs 19 times and probably oftener--once only on the other side of the MS.

The various Tun-glyphs occur 45 times, on the two sides.

The face-glyph [Hieroglyph] occurs 10 times.

The Kan-Ymix glyph [Hieroglyph] occurs 10 times.

The glyph [Hieroglyph] occurs 37 times on this side and, with a prefix and a changed postfix, once on page 24.

With the exceptions noted, none of the above glyphs occur at all on the reverse side of the MS.

There are finally 19 different Yax ([Hieroglyph]) compounds, occurring in all 25 times, 16 of them on this side of the MS.

With three exceptions the above glyphs are the only ones that are repeated in the Codex with any marked frequency. The three exceptions are the face with tau-eye, already [Hieroglyph] mentioned, and the two glyphs occurring as an initial [Hieroglyphs] pair twelve times on pages 15 to 18, sections _a_, _b_, _c_.

Of month signs used as such I am only [Hieroglyphs] satisfied of 12 Cumhu, at 18-b-4 and of 16 Zac, at 4-c-7. The glyph [Hieroglyph] at 7-c-2 may also be 1 Yaxkin.

The only cardinal point sign is that of the West, [Hieroglyph] occurring at 4-b-14 and again at 16-a-6.

There are besides these numeral Cauacs, 15 other Cauac [Hieroglyph] compounds, occurring in all 17 times on this side, and twice on pages 23, 24.

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Upon turning over the Codex, we find that whereas on the side we have been considering the scribe limited himself to the conventional red numerals and backgrounds, with here and there a touch of brown, upon this other side we have a wealth of color united with a harmony of composition and structure that marks a very high degree of artistic skill. It is not alone the accuracy of the drawing and the writing, such as we have noted in connexion with the study of the glyphs, but the whole manuscript as it lies open before us shows that sense of proportion, that ability to unify without seeming effort a multitude of details into a perfectly balanced whole, which is the positive mark of developed and genuine culture. When we remember the exceeding difficulty of combining primary colors into a brilliancy that is not garish, and the equal difficulty of achieving artistic mastery in a conventional treatment of forms, we are simply forced to recognize that we have here the evidence of an advanced school of art with full rights of independent citizenship. If the figures look strange and sometimes distorted, we must remember that our whole training has been in the realistic school, by which we are prone to judge all others, but by which they must not be judged. We have no more right to weigh these compositions in the scales of our art motifs than we have to weigh Greek rhythm of quantity or Saxon of alliteration against our weights by which we measure rhythm of rhyme and stress. In fact it is impossible for us even to judge concerning the true harmonic effect of these other measures, and it may well be doubted whether the very soul itself of our meter is not empty and tinny as compared with these others--quality for quality.

There is one great broad line that divides the nations and civilizations of the earth, past and present, in all their arts of expression. We may call it that of the ideographic as against the literal. It controls the inner form of language and of languages; it manifests in the passage of thought from man to man; it determines whether the writing of the people shall be hieroglyphic or alphabetic; it gives both life and form to the ideals of their art. It is a distinction that was clearly recognized by Wilhelm von Humboldt, when he laid down that the incorporative characteristic essential to all the American languages is the result of the exaltation of the imaginative over the ratiocinative elements of mind.

The time has passed when we think that the absence of our perspective drawing in Japanese pictures is due to the fact that these “children of nature” never happened to recognize that a thing looks smaller in proportion to its distance, so that they ought to come to us to learn. We have come, in some measure if not yet fully, to recognize that whereas we show a thing to the eye, these other peoples suggest a thought to the mind, by their pictures. And we should remember, and remember always, that while our modern art having won its technical and artistic skill within the past few hundred years, is now beginning to emancipate itself from the materialism of the eye by efforts towards the “impressionist” methods, these ancient peoples had long since arrived at the ability to convey “impressions” through the medium of harmonious compositions of the most rigid conventional elements--an artistic achievement which those who know its difficulties can alone begin to appreciate.

It may be quite easily forgiven to one trained with Western, modern eyes, who at first sight of these monuments, in total ignorance of their meanings, sees them as strange or grotesque. But when, as their strangeness wears away, one comes to see the unfailing accuracy with which the glyphs are drawn, one’s opinion of their makers has to change. And when, with this familiarity gained, one advances to an appreciation of the work in its bearings as a whole, one has to acknowledge himself facing the production of craftsmen who had the inheritance of not only generations, but ages of training. Such a combination of complete mastery in composition, perfect control of definite and fixed forms, and hand technique, can grow up from barbarism in no few hundred years. I would hesitate to think it could even come in a few thousands, unless they were years of greater settledness and peaceful civilization than our two thousand years of disturbed and warring European Christendom have yet had an example of to show us. It is easy enough in the absence of definite historical records, and in our general ignorance of human evolution, to theorize and speculate about it all; but the commonly accepted picture in our minds of a few savage wandering tribes settling and growing up in this country some several hundred or a thousand years after the Christian era, simply will not fit in with the fact of their ability to produce such works a few hundred years later. Had we nothing but the Perez Codex and Stela P at Copan, the merits of their execution alone, weighed simply in comparison with observed history elsewhere, would prove that we have to do not with the traces of an ephemeral, but with the remains of a wide-spread, settled race and civilization, worthy to be ranked with or beyond even such as the Roman, in its endurance, development and influence in the world, and the beginnings of whose culture are still totally unknown. As to the Codex before us, we can only imagine what the beauty, especially of the pages we now come to discuss, must have been when the whole was fresh and perfect.

The second side of the Codex has to be treated in four divisions or chapters, the first of which includes pages 15 to 18. For numerical reasons which will appear, this chapter must probably have begun, however, at least one page further to the left.

These four pages are laid out with three main divisions, upper, middle and lower. Too much of the upper section is erased for any comment other than that its arrangement seems to have been parallel in all respects with the middle section. This latter shows three subsections, the backgrounds in some cases being red,[24-*] containing each a picture (probably of a god or a human figure in every instance), surmounted by a black and a red numeral and by six glyphs, in double column. This gives 12 subsections for the four pages, which we may refer to respectively as 15-_a_, _b_, _c_, etc. Of the initial pairs of glyphs in each subsection many are complete, and no section is left without the correct traces of the corresponding glyph for one or other of the positions; so that although 5 of the 24 glyphs are totally erased, we may safely restore them all. Other features of the comparative use and frequency of the glyphs on these pages have already been given.

At the top of each picture is found a black and a red numeral. These form the consecutive black “counters” or interval numbers, and the corresponding red day numbers of subdivided tonalamatls, so common in Dres. and Tro.-Cort. It is customary to find these tonalamatls divided into fifths or fourths, 52 or 65 days respectively--four or five trecenas. At the 53rd or 66th day the initial red number is again reached, and the calculation is (by hypothesis) repeated, starting again at the left with a new day-sign below the first. Such a column is seen in the lower part of page 17, where we find 6 Oc, Ik, Ix; these are to be completed by restoring below an erased Cimi and Ezanab, completing the 260 days and bringing us around again to 6 Oc. The total of all the black “counters” in any series must always be some multiple of 13, usually 52 or 65, as stated. And since each “counter” is the interval between its adjoining red numbers, wherever a red and a black number are given, the other red number, whether before or after, can always be filled in.

No traces of this initial column appear for the series in the middle division, and several of the numerals are also erased. Two obscurities must be cleared up before trying to fill out the series. On page 16 right is a partly erased black numeral, which from the traces may be either 10 or 11. Taking it as 10, we have 13 plus 10 equals an erased red 10; plus 5 (on page 17) equals the red 2 below the 5. This verifies so far. But we next find--plus 5 equals 8, which is of course incorrect. An inspection of the MS. and the photographs reveals a reddish spot (or perhaps even _three_ such spots) in the extreme upper right corner of the picture space, 17-a, and also a dark spot _under_ the black 5 in 17-b. It is possible that the separated red dots (one doubtful) are to be read together as 3; or that the red dots under the 5 are to be disregarded in the count (just as is the red 8 on the next page, 18-a), and the red number for 17-a found in the upper right, above the seated figure. If the red number in 17-a is 3, the two numbers in 16-c must be 11. Or it may be assumed that the spot under the 5 in 17-b belongs to it, making 6 instead of 5, which figures out. The final result is the same, as we have either 10 and 6, or 11 and 5, in these two places, and either reaches properly the clear red 8 in 17-b.

In 18-a we find black 26, with a small red 8 below, and a large red 13 in the usual place at the side. The red 8 will have to be disregarded, as not part of the series, which requires 13, and nothing else.

We may now possibly set down the series as follows, using small figures above the the[TN-2] line for the black counters, and putting in parentheses all numbers restored:

(6)^{3}9^{(6)}(2)^{5}7^{6}13^{11}(11)^{5}3^{5}8^{5}(13)^{26}13^{10}10, or else (6)^{3}9^{(6)}(2)^{5}7^{6}13^{10}(10)^{5}2^{6}8^{5}(13)^{26}13^{10}10

This leaves us the black number at the beginning, in 15-a, and both numbers at the end, 18-c, still not filled in. Adding together all the counters we get 82, plus at least the two missing black numbers, one at each end. If the total were 104, we might expect it to have been comprised within the four subsections 15-a to 18-a. But 104 is not a tonalamatl fraction. 130 days, although a tonalamatl half, is an unknown division, and would hardly get into the space. If we begin the series in the upper division of the page (as occurs in Dres.) and come around to the middle division, the probabilities would require that it displayed a full series of 260 days, and again also that it began _to the left_ of page 15. The probabilities of this series as it is, therefore, indicate at least a page 14 to the left, arranged like the other four, and forming one chapter with them.

We have now to deal with the puzzling numeral columns, in alternating colors, found to the left of each subsection of the upper and middle divisions--24 columns in all. These have been referred to at some length in the preliminary discussion of the colors, and there is little more that can be said. As there said, the entire reason for alternating the colors can not be certainly assumed. Alternation of color occurs not only where it is needed to distinguish bars, but also where we have only lines of dots, which are of course self-separating. And to say that it is only for artistic purposes is a mere begging of the question. Only four or five of these columns are complete, and a footing of the numbers in each gives us varying amounts from 113 to 153, and tells us nothing. On the parts that are left we six times have a Chuen [Hieroglyph] with a black number apparently belonging to it (perhaps a multiplier), and also once a double Chuen, as in Tro.-Cort. The use of the red _kal_-sign, or 20, is frequent.

The lower division of these pages was also subdivided, into four sections on each, which we may refer to as _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_. Each contains a picture, with black and red numerals as above, surmounted by four glyphs only. The pictures are all quite incomplete; neither is there anything to add to what has been already said of the glyphs.

In the middle of page 17 one tonalamatl ends, with a red 6, and another begins, also with 6. The second starts with the day 6 Oc, is divided into fifths, and the initial column must have been in full: 6 Oc, Ik, Ix, Cimi, Ezanab. The restoration of the series gives: 6^{22}2^{(15 in two stages)}(4)^{10}1^{4}6. This however only gives a total of 51 for the black counters. There is space to the right for another section, but whatever may have been written there has entirely disappeared. The last three numbers 1^{4}6 seem unmistakable, the [Hieroglyph] especially so. If we regard the last 6 as an error for 5, and then restore ^{1}6 in section 18-g, it would give the necessary 52. This is the one passage in the Codex where I can see no way but to assume a mistake in the writing; for 1 plus 4 does not equal 6, and unless for some entirely unknown reason the error is clear.

The preceding tonalamatl may have been divided either into 52- or 65-day periods. If the period was 52, it must have begun with an initial column on page 15, right side. In this event it would be restored as follows:

(initial 6)^{(19 in two stages)}(12)^{6}5^{7}12^{(12 in two stages)} (11)^{8}6,

giving 52. In this case a third tonalamatl must have begun somewhere to the left, and ended on the erased right side of page 15.

A different restoration would carry the initial column back to the extreme edge of page 15, when we would have this:

(initial 6)^{(2)}(8)^{8}3^{11}(1)^{(11 in two stages)}(12)^{6}5^{7} 12^{(12 two stages)}(11)^{8}6

giving 65.

To choose between these two would be mere guessing.

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The well-known pages 19 and 20 come next. Together they make four compartments, up and down the full length of the pages, two with red and two with black backgrounds. Each is, or rather was, preceded by a column of 13 “year-bearers.” The left column on each page I have restored, although no traces of it are left. But apart from its manifest necessity, as part of the series, if the width of the red ground on page 20 (see the photographs) is measured, it will be found to be just the correct proportion, and part of the straight left edge of the red can still be seen, just left of the rod in the hand of the mummy-figure, and leaving just room for the Ezanab column. In the colored plates I have only shown 12 instead of 13 day-signs in each column, but a measurement of the space above and below shows that the missing four are to be placed at the top and not at the bottom. These two pages therefore have application in some way to 52 solar years, beginning with 1 Lamat and ending with 13 Akbal (Votan).

These “year-bearers” are those of the Tzental instead of the Yucatecan system, as described by Landa, and on these two pages rests, so far as regards known subject-matter, the assignment of the Codex Perez to the Palenque rather than to the northern Maya district. It is thus to be considered with the Inscriptions of that region, and with the Dresden Codex.[28-*] And in accord with what is known of the state of the different parts of the country at the time of the Conquest, and of the history of the break-up and extinction of the Maya empire, it must be assigned the greater antiquity on that account.

It is probable that pages 19 and 20 had no text passages.

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