HOLDEN.1 THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS. 221 
IV. 
IN WHAT ORDER ARE THE HIEROGLYPHICS READ? 
Before any advance can be made in the deciphering of the hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions, it is necessary to know in what directions, along 
what lines or columns, the verbal sense proceeds. 
All the inscriptions that I know of are in rectangular figures. At 
Copan they are usually in squares. At Palenque the longest inscriptions 
are in rectangles. At Palenque again, there are some cases where there 
is a single horizontal line of hieroglyphs over a pictorial tablet. Tere 
clearly the only question is, do the characters proceed from left to right, 
or from right to left? In other cases as in the tablet of the cross, there 
are vertical columns. The question here is, shall we read up or down ? 
Now, the hieroglyphs must be phonetic or pictorial, or a mixture of 
the two. If they are phonetic, it will take more than one symbol to 
make a word, and we shall have groups of like characters when the 
same word is written in two places. If the signs are pictorial, the same 
thing will follow; that is, we shall have groups recurring when the same 
idea recurs. Further, we know that the subjects treated of in these 
tablets must be comparatively simple, and that names, as of gods, kings, 
etc., must necessarily recur. 
The names, then, will be the first words deciphered. At present no 
single name is known. These considerations, together with our system 
of nomenclature, will enable us to take some steps. 
Take, for example, the right-hand side of the Palenque cross tablet as 
given by Rav. See our figure 48, which is Plate LVI of STEPHENS 
(vol. ii, p. 345), with the addition of the part now in the National Mu- 
seum at Washington. 
Our system of numbering is here 
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 
2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 
* * * * * * 
¥ * * * * *e 
* * * * ¥* * 
3080 3081 3082 3083 3084 3085 
Now pick out the duplicate hieroglyphs in this; that is, run through 
the tablet, and wherever 2020 oceurs erase the number which fills the 
place and write in 2020. Do the same for 2021, 2022, ete., down to 3084, 
The result will be as follows: 
