238 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



ivltar slab of the Temple of the Cross, number 1 (according to Desire 

 Charnay's designation), where A-16 and B-16, belonging together, 

 give the combined date 1 Ahaii, 13 Zotz. 



But I also think that I recognize the hieroglyphs of the bat god 

 among a series of 20 deities represented in hieroglyphs on pages 46 to 

 50 of the Dresden manuscript, accompanying a period of 2X52 

 years divided into five large sections, each of which is again divided 

 into sections of 90, 250, 8, and 236 days. From this series of 20 deities 

 5 are copied on page 24; they are those which, at regular intervals, 

 occupy the last place in each of the five divisions. In this way those 

 seem to have been made prominent which are especially significant 



Fig. 51. Maya hieroglyphs of thfe bat j;od. 



for each of the five divisions. Among them occurs the hieroglyph, 

 which — with a note of interrogation, it is true — I claim as the hiero- 

 glyph of the bat god (see «, figure 50) . 



I think that I also recognize the bat god in the initial hieroglyph of 

 the group w^hich I rejjroduce in «, figure 51. The character kin, " sun ". 

 is before the mouth of the beast. ^Yith reference to a hieroglyph 

 which I shall discuss later I am tempted to interpret it as a swalloAv- 

 ing up of light, that is, an obscuring of the sun. 



Finally, it has occurred to me that possibly the initial hieroglyph 

 of the two groups which I give in 6, and which, on account of the 

 picture accomi^anying it, I formerly explained as the hieroglyph of 

 a bird of prey, may also refer to the bat. For we have here, as in the 



