280 AIDS TO THE STUDY OP THE MAYA CODICES. 



whole is one continuous series, yet tlie peculiar combinations of 

 numbers used by the Maya priests render these series very deceptive. 

 There can be no doubt that the black numbers — 8"s — are iised to 

 indicate the intervals between the days specified; but there is an- 

 other possible way of explaining the 17 with which the lines on the 

 different plates begin. 



Here are four j^lates, evidently closely related to one another; the 

 lines of days and numbers in the lowest division of each are precisely 

 alike, except as to the days indicated; in the left hand column of 

 characters of each is one of the cardinal point symbols. It is pos- 

 sible, therefore, that these four plates relate to the four different 

 years or series of years; that is to say, one to the Kan years, one to 

 the Muluc years, and so on. This view is somewhat strengthened 

 by the fact that 4 Ahau, first of the line on Plate i'i, is the seven- 

 teenth day of the first month of the year 1 Kan; 4 Chicchan, first 

 of the line on plate 43, the seventeenth day of the first month of the 

 year 1 Muhic; 4 Oc, the seventeenth day of 1 Ix, and 4 Men the 

 seventeenth day of 1 Cauac. The four figures in the middle division 

 of Plates 1 and 3 seem also to favor this idea, not so much by the 

 peculiar animals represented (of which we have no explanation to 

 give) as by the double symbols from which they are suspended, 

 which I am quite confident denote the union of years or the time at 

 which two years meet — the close of one and the commencement 

 of another— although fully aware that Dr. Forstemann has inter- 

 preted them as symbols of the heavenly bodies. ' 



In the text above these figures are seen two characters or symbols 

 of this type, which in all probability, as will hereafter appear, de- 

 note or symbolize the "tying of the years." We may also add that 

 the five days of each plate or group are the five assigned, as I have 

 explained in " Notes on certain Maya and Mexican mamiscripts," to 

 the cardinal points. For example, those on Plate 43 are Ahau, Eb, 

 Kan, Gib, Lamat." Still it must be admitted, on the other hand, that 

 as the four lines form precisely one complete cycle of 13 months or 

 360 days there is a very strong inference that they together form one 

 continuous series and that the arrangement into four parts or divis- 

 ions has reference to the four seasons or four cardinal points. The 

 final decision on this point therefore still remains in doubt. 



As it has been shown that Plates 33 to 39 and Plates 38 to 43 are 

 properly placed as they stand in Kingsborough's copy and also in 

 Forstemann's and that Plates 1 and 3 follow Plate 43, we have pi'oof 

 that the following jslates succeed one another to the right, as here 

 given: 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 43, 1, 2. 



A slight inspection is sufficient to show that Plates 39 to 33 follow 

 one another in the same order, a conclusion which is easily verified by 



' Erlauteningen zur Mayahandschrift, p. 16. 

 'Bureau of Etli., Third Ann. Rep., pp. 16 et seq. 



