426 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



drawing-, -which bears the representation of the tortoise back as a 

 breastphite. Here, too, the hieroglyph is missing. 



Althongh I have said that the hieroglyph is missing in the last 

 three instances, yet I must state that in all three passages, as well as 

 in many others, among the hieroglyphs occurs the one which de- 

 notes the official year of 360 days, and to this is appended a sort of 

 latticework, which may have been evolved from the drawing of the 

 tortoise's back. 



In the Troano codex itself I find the tortoise rej^resented but twice 

 (pages 25*c and 32*c). The appropriate hieroglyphs occur in these 

 passages, but in others in a form easily to be confounded Aviih a simi- 

 larly shaped bird's head (pages 2b, 81c, 32b, 19*c). So, too, in 

 Codex Cortesianus, page 33a, a deity carries under his arm an animal 

 which may be equally well taken for a bird or a tortoise. The hiero- 

 glyph is above it. The passage in the Troano codex, page 25*c, is 

 particularly important. Here, an animal (jaguar?) sits on the tor- 

 toise, and to the right and left are two human figures, whose heads arc 

 surrounded by rays. In the hieroglyphs above we see the four car- 

 dinal points, and below the sign of the tortoise repeated. 



Two days in the tortoise month, Kayab, are of special importance. 

 The first is the twelfth day (see h, figure 104, from the Dresden codex, 

 page 62), corresponding to our 13th of June, which was perhaps re- 

 garded by the Maya as the beginning of the solstice. It is the actual 

 point of departure of the enormous periods which are represented in 

 the coils of the serpent on pages 61, 62, and 69 of the Dresden manu- 

 script, which at once becomes apparent when we examine the various 

 passages in w4iich occur the hieroglyphs belonging to it. The second 

 is the eighteenth day, set down below on the left of page 24 of the 

 Dresden manuscript ((", figure 104), coinciding with the day I Ahau in 

 the year 3 Kan. Regarding it we find written there that it precedes the 

 regular normal date, the usual beginning of the Maya system of com- 

 puting time (IV Ahau; 8, 18th month), by 2,200 days. It is a very 

 remarkable fact that in the well-known inscription on the Cross of 

 Palenque, at the end of the first two and at the beginning of the third 

 and fourth columns, these identical tAvo days are given, having the 

 same jjosition in the year and the same interval of time (8 tonalamatl 

 and 6 months) betw^een them. 



Therefore, either the state of civilization was about the same 

 throughout the whole Maya area or the Dresden manuscript must 

 have been i)roduced not far from Palenque. In favor of this 

 theory is the circumstance that the drawings in this manuscript un- 

 doubtedly reseml>le the reliefs of Palenque, but differ strikingly from 

 those of the more northern regions. This eighteenth day of the 

 month Kayab corresponds to our 19th of June. It seems, therefore. 



