440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



that is, precisely the Merciiry-inoon i^eriod ; the last number on 

 page 58 was only 11,958, and therefore referred merely to the first 

 of the three days set down near it. 



18^k, in both instances forming the termination of the group, 

 and actually denoting termination or end, in which sense we often 

 find this sign, for instance, eight times in succession at the termina- 

 tion of the great periods on pages 61 and 62. It is also the sign 

 for the sixth period of 20 days, Xul, and it has long been known 

 that xul means the end. Another word, xul, or shul, means the 

 fiute, and the character may easily have originally signified the head 

 of a flute-player. 



Perhaps it will lead to a better comprehension if we compare the 

 very similar group on page 53 at the top. 



19, 20. Here are two characters which indicate that a detailed 

 treatment of the parts into which each Venus year is divided is now to 

 f ollow" ; that is, the 236, 90, 250, and 8 days, as I have already proved 

 in 1886, in my Erlauterungen. For the first of these signs is Venus 

 itself; the second, a hand holding an obsidian knife (as indicative 

 of cutting, of dividing). On pages 46 to 50, where this dividing is 

 represented, we see on the left in the middle an entire line filled with 

 these hands, four on each of the five pages. 



21 to 25. These five characters all refer to only one of the four parts 

 of the Venus year, to the period of 236 days (of the morning star), 

 no such amount of space being reserved for the other three. But 

 these 236 days are under the domination of the east, this cardinal 

 point always accompanying them (in the center of pages 46 to 50, 

 above; in the lower third, below). The signs of the periods, as well 

 as those of the cardinal point from the middle third of these five 

 pages, continually move forward one point above, denoting the begin- 

 ning and below the end of the 236 days. The sign (Chuen or 

 Akbal?) constantly repeated in the lower third must likewise have 

 some connection with this circumstance. 



If we now turn back to our page 24, we find the signs 21, 22, 23, 24, 

 and 25, on pages 47, 48, 49, and 50, and on page 46 in the fourth line 

 of the middle third, while on pages 48, 49, 50, 46, and 47, they are in 

 the first line of the low^er third. It would be venturesome to try to 

 explain the characters in detail. They are deities without doubt. 

 As seems to me most probable, 21=N, 22^F, 23=H, 24=B, 25=A, 

 to follow the designations of Schellhas in the Berlin Zeitschrift fiir 

 Ethnologic ; but that is merely a very modest conjecture. Before 21, 

 which corresponds to the eleventh 20-day period, Zac, we see a 4, and 

 this may indicate that this Venus year should begin the 8-day inferior 

 conjunction with the day 4 Zac after. Pages 49 and 50 have a 1 

 before 23, which seems to be obliterated on page 24. In the singu- 

 larly composite character on page 48, first glyph on the right side of 



