MANUSCRIPTS OF MEXICO SPINDEN 449 



As a terminal picture Nine Flower, the brother of Eight Deer, 

 is sacrificed on the day 10 Rabbit in the year 8 Rabbit, while the 

 Eagle and the Jaguar fight and the Turtle Man seizes a heart. 



Table 2. — G^regoriun dates for the sacrifice of Nine Flower 



Year 7 House : 



Day 13 Crocodile July 22, 1473 Preliminary ceremony. 



Day 1 Wind July 23, 1473 Eight Deer knighted. 



Day 7 Rabbit July 29, 1473 Additional ceremonies. 



Day 8 Rain July 30, 1473 Place captured." 



Day 1 Crocodile Aug. 31, 1473 Heliacal Rising of Venus. 



Day !) Wind Sept. 21, 1473 Autumnal Equinox. 



Year 8 Rabbit: 



Day 4 Wind Aug. 6, 1474 Venus ceremonies begin. 



Day 5 House Aug. 7, 1474 Eight Deer. 



Day 6 Lizard Aug. 8, 1474 Twelve Earthquake. 



Day 7 Snake Aug. 9, 1474 Two Monkey. 



Day 8 Death Aug. 10, 1474 Venus Priest. 



Day 10 Rabbit Aug. 12, 1474 Nine Flower sacrificed. 



These datings indicate the possible accuracy of the entire historical 

 record, although there are numerous problems yet to be adjudicated. 

 It seems that Bodley and Selden records were continued for some 

 time after the Spanish Conquest and I believe that this must also 

 hold true of the Vienna codex, where page XIII, the last one of the 

 genealogical record is clearly in a later hand than the rest. The 

 obverse of this manuscript may deal with tributes and ceremonial 

 obligations. 



HOW IDEOGRAPHY DEVELOPS 



In closing let me draw a few conclusions in regard to ideographic 

 writing, especially since it seems the demonstration contained in 

 the codices of southern Mexico may have a stimulating effect 

 on the effort to solve the resistant hieroglyphic cartouches of the 

 Mayas. It is not improbable that the phonetic hope has been over- 

 stimulated by the well-loiown data on the so-called ikonomatic sys- 

 tem used in Aztec personal names and place names. This approaches 

 a syllabary if not an alphabet, but of course it does not tell you the 

 whole story of Mexican writing. There are numerous cases of pure 

 ideographic writing; take, for example, the sign yotcaJIi, meaning 

 night, which involves the sj^mbolism of blood sacrifice at midnight. 



It seems that sets of pictures and easily remembered symbols 

 were devised by Quetzalcoatl to express the whole ideas rather tlian 

 elemental sounds out of which words might be constructed. He ruled 

 an empire in which many diverse languages were spoken and he 

 required a graphic system independent of speech but easily explained 

 in whatever speech was at hand. Of course, there were cultural con- 



" One place captured on previous day, the others some time later. 



