FOKSTEMANNj PAGES 71-7.3 AND 51-58, DRESDEN CODEX 449 



initial day or the day Akhal. The latter woidd siwiiify a Kan year, 

 for which I hardly see a reason. 



Further, the four similar groups, 4, 11, 18, and 25 (e), are of special 

 importance. The cross in the upper glyph may here be a compass, 

 although it may have another meaning elsewhere. I regard the mid- 

 dle glyph as a Bacab, or a deity of the wind and the cardinal points, 

 and the lower glyj^h as ik, '' wind '\ AVe have long known that each 

 group of 01 days is under the rule of a special Bacab. 



The most important events of the year are clearly the sowing of 

 the maize and the maize harvest, as well as the beginning and the end 

 of the rainy season. Now, we find the first two in the maize deity, E 

 (according to Schellhas), who appears in 6r and 13(-, which are 91 

 days apart and denote the end of May and the beginning of August, 

 which perhaps applies to a higher region, since in the plains but 60 

 days were reckoned between seed time and harvest. The other signs 

 of the two groups, familiar as they are, I must leave unexplained. 



I am inclined to recognize the beginning and end of the rainy sea- 

 son in signs 8c and 16c (/) , wdiere what I consider three rays of drops 

 fall from a square signifying the heavens (as usual), like the rain 

 falling from the clouds represented on page 86 below (second pic- 

 ture). The serpent, Sh {(/), as the symbol of water, may also be an 

 allusion to this, as it is often combined Avith Akbal (w^hich often 

 stands for "beginning''). The duration would be 104 days, from 

 June to September. But I ought to remark that the sign in which I 

 seek a suggestion of the rainj^ season is very like another, common to 

 both the Dresden and Troano codices, which is very clasely connected 

 with the idea of the week of 13 days (h). 



Some other views I desire to put forth as mere conjectures. 



If the sign Chuen, 7a, is realh^ a serpent's jaw it might refer to the 

 beginning of the astronomic year in Ma}^, as the serpent very often 

 denotes time. In dh (i) there is a crouching human figure beside the 

 sign Avhich, as I have mentioned above, is regarded as that of the 

 death bird. In another place (Ziir Entziiferung der Mayahandschrif- 

 ten, IV) I have regarded a human figure standing on its head (k) 

 on page 58 as a sign for the planet Mercury, and I would add here 

 that I am inclined to consider the crouching captive on page 60' as 

 Mercury subdued by Venus. In 9^, Avhich belongs to the period from 

 the one hundred and fifth to the one hundred and seventeenth days of 

 the year, a 115 days' revolution of Mercury is completed. I consider 

 page 53, at the top, as a parallel to this passage, where the Venus sign 

 occurs quite unexpectedly in the period in which, if the numbers and 

 glyphs have reference to each other, the five hundred and second to 

 the six hundred and seventy -fourth days elapse, in which, therefore, 

 a Venus revolution of 584 days is completed. A crouching figure, as 



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