SELER] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 875 



The same 13X5 Venus periods are recorded on pages 46 to 50 of the 

 Dresden JSIava manuscript, as I have already mentioned above. In 

 the manuscripts of our group the periods are merely indicated by the 

 initial dates, but in the ^faya manuscript, in which the actual length 

 of the period is calculated in detail, these da^'s follow in their 

 real order of succession. It is curious that not one of the initial 

 dates given on page 46 of the Dresden manuscript consists of the 

 numeral 1. On the other hand, in the place where, according to 

 Forstemami's interpretation, the first day of the visibility of Venus 

 as the morning star should be recorded, there is set down the date 13 

 Kan, or 13 Cuetzpalin according to the Mexican nomenclature. If 

 we assume that this date is intended to denote, not the beginning of 

 the planet's visibility, but rather the end of its invisibility, we should 

 have on page 46 of the Dresden manuscript the day 1 Chicchan, or 

 1 Coatl in the Mexican nomenclature, specified as the day of its first 

 appearance as the morning star. That this page is actually intended 

 to express this idea I would infer from the fact that in the tonala- 

 matl the picture of the morning star stands in the very division which 

 begins with the day 1 Coatl. 



On page 46 of the Dresden manuscript the period of the visibility 

 of Venus as the morning star does not occupy the first place. The 

 first date denotes instead, according to Forstemann's explanation, 

 the beginning of the time when the morning star vanishes in the rays 

 of the rising sun. This first recorded date is 3 Cib, or 3 Cozcaqua- 

 uhtli in the Mexican nomenclature. If we assume here in turn that, 

 not the beginning of the invisibility, but the end of the visibilit}' is 

 denoted by this date, then on this page of the Dresden manuscript 

 we should have the day 4 Caban. or 4 Ollin, as the day on which the 

 morning star is in conjunction with the sun. Since 4 Ollin, or naui 

 Ollin, is considered a symbol of the sun, and this day falls in a tonala- 

 matl division whose regent is Quetzalcoatl, the god identified with 

 the morning star, I believe I have correctly interpreted hereby the 

 meaning of this Maya page. 



I find support for these interpretations in pages 71 and 72 of Co- 

 dex Vaticanus B (Kingsborough, pages 26, 25). On the first of these 

 two pages, which for a long time was unintelligible to me. the day 1 

 Coatl is represented rising from the jaws of the earth. Eight rep- 

 resentations follow, which in a similar manner express three addi- 

 tional daj^s joined with the numeral 1 ; but these appear to be only 

 ornamental connecting or transitional members, since the fifth (the 

 center) and the ninth (the end) are again the day 1 Coatl. 



On page 72, however, nine other representations follow, figures of 

 gods drinking pulque, which begin (below on the right) with the 

 date naui Olin and the figure which is designated by this date also in 

 the Vienna manuscript. 



