504 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



The second (b) represents the period of 20 years, 20X360=7,200 

 days. Both these signs (with variants) are common to both manu- 

 scripts and inscriptions. From the latter I give here for the first 

 time two characters (in the form in which they occur on the Cross 

 of Palenque) : Number 3 (c), the period of 20X7,200=1-14,000 days, 

 and number 4 (d), the period of 20 days. To these I add from the 

 manuscripts number 5 (e), the period of 52X365=18,980 days, after 

 which each day recurs in the same place in the year. Hence this 

 glyph is the da}^ sign Imix, which is usually considered the first of 

 the day signs, with the so-called rattlesnake ornament which here 

 and in other cases, as I will incidentally remark, signifies a tying 

 together, a union. 



I will here pass over in silence the signs for the periods of 260, 2,920 

 (8X365), and 8,760 (24X365) days, which I think I have discovered, 

 but am not yet sufficiently certain to publish a statement regarding 

 them. 



It is important to ascertain whether other stars and constellations 

 besides the sun, moon, and Venus have not their special symbols. I 

 have already attempted in this journal to show that the Pleiades are 

 probably designated by the Moan head and its representative signs. 

 I think Mercury may be recognized in a Venus sign before which 

 a human figure with head downward, /, is drawn (Dresden codex, 

 pages 57 and 58). Doctor Seler has already shown (1887) that in all 

 probability the firmament is commonly denoted by the day sign Akbal 

 (night), g, Avith a circle of dots around it. 



With the chronologic and astronomic signs the ideas of beginning 

 and end are closely connected, and for both these ideas I think I have 

 found the gl3^ph. 



These in the main are two heads, the first of which, /;. has for an 

 eye the day sign Akbal, just mentioned, with which, according to the 

 most recent discovery, the 20-day periods may begin. Below are the 

 familiar footprints denoting a movement forward. The second sign, 

 i, agrees with Xul, the seventh of these periods, and Xul really 

 means the end. From pages 61, 62, and 70 of the Dresden manuscript 

 in particular, but also from other passages, we learn how these two 

 signs are contrasted with one another. 



Of the small signs which appear as prefixes, suffixes, etc., to the 

 larger characters I have alread}' mentioned the four relating to the 

 cardinal points and the rattlesnake ornament denoting a tying to- 

 gether, k. In contrast to the latter is the sign of division, J or 

 m, denoting the obsidian knife, which was recognized by Doctor 

 Seler in 1887. I have already tried to prove in this journal that the 

 superior affix, occurring so frequently, and common to both manu- 

 scripts and inscriptions, which consists of the day signs Ben and Ik. 

 probably denotes single lunar months of 28 and 29 days, and I expect 

 still further to confirm this view. 



