272 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



esting because it also explains a picture on page 62 of the Borgian 

 codex which I have reproduced in figure 5i), and the first page of 

 Codex Vaticanus B likewise coiTesponds to this representation. In 

 figure 59 the deer is clearly to be recognized by the antlers (painted 

 the customary blue), which are drawn on either side of the head 

 over the ear, and by the deer's hoofs, while the figure of Codex 

 Vaticanus B, although it agrees in every respect with figure 59, would 

 Avithout this comparison with the latter scarcely be recognized as a 

 deer in its anthropomorphic and demonic form. 



The distribution of the twenty day signs on the members of the deer 

 is exactly the same in the two representations. Only, in the Borgian 

 codex (figure 59) the order of the signs begins below on the right, but 

 in the representation of Codex Vaticanus B it begins below on the 

 left, so that these two figures are related as positive and negative. 

 The first two day signs, alligator and wind god, that is, probably, 

 earth and heaven, are placed on the tAvo feet of the animal. The 

 third, house, obviously belongs to the anus. The fourth, lizard, 

 is ascribed to the penis; the fifth, snake, to the flexible tail. The 

 dsij signs from the sixth to the tenth, death, deer, rabbit, water, dog, 

 are placed on a broad band which lies across the belly of the deer. 

 The eleventh, monkey, is on the breast. The twelfth and thirteenth, 

 reed and .twisted grass, are supported by the hands, or fore feet. The 

 seven last, jaguar, eagle, vulture, rolling ball, flint, rain, and flower, 

 are distributed over the face. 



A distribution of the day signs essentially like this, but differing 

 in some details, is portrayed in the Borgian codex, page 22, over the 

 body of the god Tezcatlipoca ; another, in the Laud codex, page 2, 

 over that of the rain god, Tlaloc. A final outgrowth, evidently, of 

 these representations, is on page 75 of Codex Vaticanus A, where the 

 day signs are distributed over the different parts of the human body, 

 but in an entirely different order. 



Each of the twenty animals of the Zapotec calendar " had thirteen 

 different names, and although all these thirteen names stood for the 

 same thing, they were distinguished one from the other by adding 

 letters or taking them away and l)y changing their numerals ". AYith 

 these words Father Juan de Cordova describes that Avhich is doubt- 

 less the most remarkable characteristic of the Zapotec calendar, 

 namely, that the twenty signs of the calendar were not merely, as 

 among the other nations of Central America, combined Avith the 

 numerals 1 to 13 in the way peculiar to this calendar, but that the 

 combination of the signs Avith the numerals became incrusted, as it 

 were, upon the form of the words serving as the day names, so that 

 in every case there can be separated from the name of the Avord a 

 prefix, Avhich is about the same for all signs joined Avitli the same 

 numeral. Variations and exceptions certainly occur, and it is not 



