v 



SELERl MEXICAN PICTDEE WRITINGS — FRAGMENT XIII 213 



containing a A^erticillate drawing, a sort of swastika. There are 

 always six yellow circles between the red ones, which is a clear proof 

 that the yellow circles are meant for week days, the red ones for 

 Sundays. Indeed, the wdiirling figure of the swastika is only a some- 

 what different form of the sign {h and /, figure IG) which the Mexi- 

 cans used for the word ilhuitl, which uieant '' day ", but in a special 

 sense " feast day ", " festival ". In the manuscript of the American 

 Philosophical Society Ave must V)egin with the lowest row on the 

 right, follow this to the left, and the next froui left to right, and 

 so on, back and forth. Wlierever a new month begins the series 

 of week days is interrupted by the picture of the moon, which is 

 alternately drawn facing to the right and the left (see k and Z, same 

 figure), and is not to be included in counting the series of days. 

 Proceeding from below^ upward, we have, in succession, first a month 

 of 31 days, then one of 30 days, again 31 days, 30 days, 31 daj'^s, 

 and, lastly, 31 days once more. This last month must, therefore, 

 have been August or January, the first one March or August. On 

 our fragment (plate xviii) the sign for the first day of the month is 

 missing. The rows are probably to be followed back and forth, as 

 described above, as we are led to conclude by certain facts which Avill 

 be mentioned beloAv. But the true circumstances can no longer be 

 determined because several days have been cut away with scissors 

 from the right-hand side of the page. 



Over each separate day on our fragment there is a woman's head, 

 recognizable by the two erect hornlike braids over the forehead — 

 the hair dress of Mexican women (see r, figure 37). This can hardly 

 mean anything else than that on the days in question women were 

 commanded to do service. The heads are arranged over the days 

 in pairs, facing each other, and between the two faces there is always 

 a little flag, the hieroglyphic expression for the number 20. In 

 the two upper rows the matter is simplified. Only one head is 

 drawn and this is connected by a straight line with two consecu- 

 tive days, the number 20 standing beside the single head. At the 

 left end of the lowest row an odd day was left o^er. The woman's 

 head is placed over this, 1)ut only the half of 20, the numeral 10, 

 is added, and this is correct. But, in addition, this odd day is con- 

 nected with an odd day at the left end of the second row from 

 the bottom, and then, pleonastically, as it were, the numeral 20 

 is placed between them. All this can hardly be explained except- 

 ing on the assumption that the shifts of workers were changed every 

 two days, that is, that different women came every two days. But 

 the fact that the writer passed from the left end of the lowest row 

 to the left end of the next higher proves that he began at the right- 

 hand lower corner, as in the case of the document of the Americau 



