438 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



The Glyphs 



Here we enter a mysterious realm, where conjectures occupy a 

 greater space than actual facts. One fact, however, is certain, and 

 that is that these characters are to be read in the same order in which 

 I have designated them by numbers. I shall therefore discuss them 

 in that order." 



1 to 4. The first three signs are almost wholly destroyed, and this 

 interferes in the highest degree with our comprehension of the whole. 

 It would scarcely be possible to restore them unless a parallel text 

 should be discovered. But this seems to be certain, that the Venus 

 period is the chief subject treated of here as well as in the funda- 

 mental series already discussed. Sign 4, which I formerly regarded 

 as the one belonging to the west, is clearly that of the east. We 

 might, therefore, suppose that these four signs signify the four points 

 of the compass in the same order in which they are set down five times 

 in the middle of the left side of pages 4G to 50, which pertain to this 

 subject, but the remains of sign 3 do not coincide with this theory. 



5 to 9. Here we have the sign for Venus five times in succession, 

 thus indicating the five Venus years, which underlie the series occur- 

 ring on this page. Signs 6 and 8 seem to me now, as they did eight 

 years ago, merely variants of 5, 7, and 1), but I confess that in the 

 former I tried for a time to find the sign for Mercury. Both charac- 

 ters also occur side by side on pages 46 to 50, where there is no men- 

 tion of Mercury, nine or ten times on each page. 



10. This is a familiar form of the sign for Moan. I have recently 

 tried to prove in Globus that Moan also stands for the Pleiades, with 

 whose disappearance and reappearance the beginning of the year 

 seems to be connected. Does sign 10, according to that, denote the 

 solar year, w' ith which our page combines the Venus year ? Moreover, 

 on page 50, wdiere the 2,920-day period ends, we see the Venus and the 

 Moan signs side by side on the right at the top. 



11, 12. If the preceding signs refer to the Venus and solar years, 

 Ave should expect to find the tonalamatl here as the third member of 

 the combination. The two signs occurring here are a repetition of the 

 same one, being the sign for the thirteenth period of 20 days (Mac), 

 the close of which comes at the expiration of 260 days of the year. 

 Does the repetition of the character reall}^ signify the recurring 

 tonalamatl ? 



13= f. This is the sign kin, " sun '", " day ", with the usual affix, 

 which might almost be taken for a sign of the plural. Above it is w hat 

 is known as the rattlesnake sign, which seems to denote a union, a 

 grouping together, by the help of which I thought, in my article 



" Owin^ to some coufiision and uncertainty in tlie idpntifications fig. 106, wtiich was 

 intended to sbow tlie glyplis referred to, is omitted. 



