482 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



of the north; the spiral is absent. For the rest, there is an inter- 

 val of IC) days between each picture and the next one. 



Let nie note incidentally that this passage 29c to 30c is directly 

 connected with 29b to oOb, possibly with 29a to 30a, which may help 

 us to find a solution ; but this is not the place for further details. 



In close proximity to this group, on pages 33 to 35b, we find the 

 spiral in a second group, which here, as well as in the other, forms the 

 end of a row of a tonalamatl. On each of these pages on the left sits 

 the same god in the jaws of a coiled serpent. In the circle formed by 

 the serpent there is water, and in the water invariably the numeral 19 

 (see the 18 in the passage from Codex Cortesianus, which we took as 

 our starting point). The glyphs al)ove invariably contain the spiral 

 with the numeral 9 before it. I have spoken of tlie series of days 

 belonging to this passage in my Erliiuterungen, page 57. 



We began with the serpent and have insensibly returned to it. I 

 will here also mention page 56b, where, as the last glyph in the lowest 

 row, w^e find one which consists of the abbreviated sign for the south 

 and a serpent. I'his is the same series in which we find the woman 

 hanged by the neck, and it is 3,484 daj'^s after the period of time to 

 which that refers. If I am right above in determining that period of 

 time then this refers to a year 10 Cauac, and Cauac certainly corre- 

 sponds to the south. 



It may further be mentioned here that the serpent often occurs as a 

 head ornament, as on page 9c on a god, and on pages 15b, 20a, and 23b 

 on a woman. In the third of these foiu" passages the glyjihs are 

 obliterated; in the second the glyph of the woman is combined wdth 

 the sign for the north ; in the tw^o others I find nothing relating to a 

 period of time. 



Here we leave the domain of the serpent and come to a wholly dif- 

 ferent sign, which Ave can perhaps regard more definitely as a sign 

 of the change of years, but never of the j^ear itself. I mean the sign X 

 or X- 5 the elements of which, according to Maya usage, may of course 

 be placed vertically as well as horizontally beside each other. If this 

 really indicates the change of j^ears, then it is quite natural to find it 

 combined generally with two glyphs of adjacent cardinal points. 

 With Kan-Muluc we should expect to find east-north, etc. It must be 

 said at once, however, that as a rule west-south is preferred, as if it 

 w^ere not at all essential to designate the particular cardinal points 

 with exactness. So we find it in the center of page 27, where we 

 might expect south-east. 



On page 18c we see it with these cardinal points as the glyph of 

 a woman who carries the sign west-south on her back. The tona- 

 lamatl to which it belongs begins Avith the normal day IV 17. If this 

 day is really the normal date, the eighth day of the eighteenth month, 

 then the picture may coincide exactl}^ with new year's day 10 Cauac, 



