i-fiusTEMANN.] THE MAYA GLYPHS 511 



Finally, on page 28, the sum of the numbers is only 46, and this 

 leads us to surmise that somewhere there should have been written 

 6 units more, in division a. 



Thus we are compelled to recognize in the number 18 a number 

 pertaining to a deity, somewhat as 13 belongs to god S and 11 to god 

 I'". AVe should find more examples if the remains of Ma^^a literature 

 handed down to us were more voluminous; 18, however, is also the 

 number of the '20-day periods Avhich make the year. 



But which god belongs to the number? I think he is to be found 

 close beside this glyph in the Dresden codex, page 27b. It is the 

 "old god ", D, that moon and birth god, who, perhaps, as Izamna, 

 was supreme among the Mayas, and as Tonacatecutli prominent 

 among the Aztecs and as Hunahpu among the Cakchikels. But why 

 is the number never added to his picture, as far as we have seen, 

 but only to the sacrifices offered to him? His glyphs already had a 

 determinative sufficiently plain, the day sign Ahau, which denotes 

 the most important of all days and, as is well known, the beginning 

 of all Maya chronology. The other chief gods. A, B, and C, likewise 

 require no numbers to determine them more clearl3^ 



Where duodeviginti occurs one might expect undeviginti also. I 

 present here for consideration, without being able to prove anything, 

 the sign ^ found in the Dresden codex, page 3, at the top on the 

 right. In this passage it is near the sign of the serpent deity, H, 

 which corresponds to the day Chicchan. 



But I would say by way of caution that the sign X which in the 

 Dresden codex, page 58, low^er half, stands before the glyph for 7,200 

 days, must not be interpreted in the same way as those last discussed, 

 for the cross here only signifies that the dot does not belong in this 

 place, but to the glyph above, wlhere there was no room for it. A 

 comparison with the last glyph but one of the first column, Dresden 

 codex, page 24, confirms this observation. 



(7) /.'. It is advisable in attempts at deciphering to turn our atten- 

 tion to the glyphs which occur most frequently, as the difference of 

 their environment may sometimes give us the right clue. It will cer- 

 tainly be of value to consider all the details of their occurrence, even 

 if an actual interpretation is not finally reached. To these fre- 

 quently occurring signs belongs the one given here, k, which Ave will 

 follow through the Dresden codex, which, owing to its careful execu- 

 tion, gives more promise of success than the inexact Codex Troano- 

 Cortesianus. 



This glyph occurs on page 3, near the tonalamatl combined with 

 the picture of a human sacrifice, beside the sign of the god T^, the 

 most frequent in the manuscript. The great tonalamatl. j^ages 4a 

 to 10a, shows the sign not less than five times, in the sixth, fifteenth, 



