PAdES 71 TO 78 AND 51 TO 58, DRESDEN CODEX" 



Pages 71 to 73 of the Dresden Maya manuscript in the middle and 

 lower third have each three horizontal rows of hierogl3^phs so placed 

 that three always align vertically. These hieroglyphs have no con- 

 nection with the numbers below them, which are continued toward the 

 left and belong to a series with the difference 65, of which I have 

 already spoken in the second paper of this series. The hieroglyphs 

 and numbers can have no connection with each other because the num- 

 bers are to be read from right to left, the written characters from left 

 to right. This is proved by the fact that in at least eight instances we 

 find above the hieroglyphs a character in which w^e recognize a hand 

 pointing to the right, similar to a hand which occurs twenty times in 

 succession on pages 46 to 50 of the manuscript. 



But, misled b}' the direction of the rows of numbers, the writer 

 began the hieroglyphs on page 71 at the right instead of at the left, 

 but corrected his mistake after the first four characters. Accord- 

 ingly, I read the groups of three hieroglyphs each in the following 

 -prder : 



There are, therefore, 28 groups, or 84 separate hieroglyphs, fortu- 

 nately in an excellent state of preservation, excepting slight injuries 

 to groups 19 and 24. It will greatly aid the comprehension of what 

 follows if the reader will write these figures on the edge of the sepa- 

 rate pages in his copy of the manuscript as well as on that of the pas- 

 sage to be discussed later. The number 28, I am very sure, indicates 

 the purport of this passage. We have unquestionably to deal here 

 with the year of 364 days, of which I treated in my article on " Die 

 Zeitperioden der Mayas " in Globus, volume 63, and which consists of 

 13 revolutions of the moon of 28 days each, or of 28 weeks of 13 

 days each; each of the 28 groups, therefore, doubtless signifies a 

 period of 13 days. 



But the year of 364 days is divided into four periods of 7X13—91 

 days each. The series in our manuscript, pages 31 to 32 and 63 to 64, 

 lire based upon such periods, and in close proximity to our passage, 

 on pages 65 to 69, we find four similar periods, each divided into 



" Zvir Entziffening der Mayahandschriften, V, Dresden, July 1, 18P5. 



445 



