sKLKKi VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 389 



iiead in the Dresden manuscript, <■; also, it is true, in the Troano 

 codex, in a hieroglyph denoting a feminine occupation, weaving or 

 embroidery, d. 



The regent of the fourth period is reproduced in e^ figure 102, in 

 picture and hieroglyph. He is obviously a Avarlike divinity. A jaguar 

 skin is wrapped around his hips, and he wears on his breast a disk 

 apparently bordered with jaguar skin. As headdress he wears the 

 f-onventionalized head of a bird having a crest. X\\ entire bird is worn 

 as an ear peg, with the head stuck toward the front through the 

 :nuch-enlarged hole in the lobe of the ear. There is a serpent's head 

 before his mouth (as a nose peg?), and the head of a bird projects 

 over his forehead. The face painting strikingly recalls that of the 

 Mexican Tezcatlipoca. The hieroglyph, unforfunately, is not plainly 

 drawn. I have therefore repeated it in /, somewhat enlarged. There 

 is in front the element which in the hieroglyph of the jaguar is 

 combined with the abbreviated jaguar liead, and in other places is 

 associated with the cardinal point east, probably denoting a color 

 (red). It is not difficult to recognize the element kin, "sun", at 

 the right, and in the center a- head with a bleeding, empty eye socket. 

 All these are elements which might stand for a war god. 



Finally, the regent of the last period, </, is a god with bound ey^es, 

 as is most fitting for a deity of the fifth cardinal point, the downward 

 direction, the depths of the interior of the earth ; and there is a temp- 

 tation to discover a Tzonteraoc, "" moving with the head turned down- 

 \\^ard "', in the hieroglyph, which contains the sign Ahua turned 

 upside down. 



In the Dresden manuscript, in the top division on the right side of 

 the page, there are five additional divinities, who are represented 

 holding a vessel in their hands and sitting on a celestial throne. But, 

 ••lince there are no corresponding figures on the pages of the Borgian 

 codex group, I shall not discuss them further in this article. 



In all cases of the occurrence of the Venus period hitherto dis- 

 cussed the question has been one of multiples which naturall}^ result 

 from the length of the period and the designation of the clays accord- 

 ing to the tonalamatl system. There is, however, a representation in 

 the Borgian codex, and in no other manuscript of this group, in which 

 the length of the A'^enus period seems to be compared directly with 

 the length of the solar year or to be measured by it. In former 

 articles I have taken occasion repeatedly to call attention to the sig- 

 nificance of this beautiful page of the Borgian codex, page 27 (Kings- 

 l^orough, page 12). On this page the four quarters of the tonalamatl 

 and the four quarters of the period of 52 years, which are desig- 

 nated by their initial day and their initial year, respectively, are 

 assigned to the four cardinal points in such a manner that they are 

 associated with four images of the rain god, which are placed in the 



