34 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



conjecture is now wholly superfluous. The Dresden manuscript does, 

 indeed, reckon the years precisely as Landa does, that is, beginning 

 with the east, but the years which Landa designates by the dominical 

 letters, Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac, are here specified by the initial 

 days Been, Ezanab, Akbal, and i^amat. The chief figure on the first 

 page is a god with a remarkable l^ranching nose, whose principal 

 hieroglyph is a^ figure 3, a hieroglyph which otherwise serves to 

 designate the lightning animal, the heavenly dog darting from the 

 clouds. Instead of the latter, e (same figure), that is, the head of Cha(5, 

 appears as the principal hieroglyph in the Dresden codex, page 3. 

 It is therefore obvious that this god is a god of rain and thunder. 

 Landa mentions in the Kan year Bolon Zacab, a name which is not 



Fig. 3. Symbols from the Maya codices. 



known elsewhere. But he also states, and that only of the Kan j^ears, 

 that they are said to be rich in rain. 



On the second page (26) of the Dresden manuscript the chief figure 

 is a god who has the sign kin written on his e3'ebrow, and whose 

 chief hieroglj'ph, h, figure 3, likewise contains the sign kin. This 

 agrees with Landa's statement, who, in the Muluc j'ears, mentions 

 Kinchahau, the "Lord with the sun face". On the third page the 

 old god is represented, whose chief hieroglyph is e^ figure 3. This 

 again agrees with Landa, who mentions the god Itzamna in the Ix 

 3^ears. And on the last page (28) of the Dresden manuscript a death 

 god is designated hy the hieroglyph d^ the face with gaping jaws; 

 elsewhere written also in the form of glyph h. This, too, agrees with 

 Landa, who calls the Uac Uiitun ahau of the Cauac years "Lord of 

 six hells". I can not go into further details concerning these deities 



