524 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



birds. But Avith the Mayas these pictures display an attribute which 

 furnishes a striking argument in favor of a connection between the 

 Moan head and the Pleiades. It is the numeral l-S {e, figure 112), 

 and rarely any other, which is placed before the signs in question. 

 We see it thus accomijanying the Moan head in the Dresden manu- 

 script, pages 8b, IGe, 18b, and the second sign in pages 7c, 10a, l-2a, 

 etc. I think this can only mean that there is no reference here to 

 the 20-day period Moan, or to a deity belonging to it. liut to the 

 thirteenth (last) lunar month of the year. 



This view is supported by evidence from still another direction. 

 Pax, as the sixteenth period, follows the 20-day period Moan. Others 

 may have already observed that the sign of this period (/, figure 112) 

 is the same as the sign for the year of 'M'yO days. This sign and its 

 unmistakable variants are common to both manuscripts and inscrip- 

 tions. It has long been thought that they stood for the stone (tun) 

 which was set up at the confines of the villages at the beginning of 

 the new year; for example, in the Dresden codex, pages 25 and 28. 

 I see in the two broad, vertical i*tripes a reference to the columns of 

 glyphs which always cover the monuments of the Maya in pairs. 

 Where two fishes (as happens sometimes on the stone monuments) 

 or at least two fins (as is sometimes the case in the inscriptions and 

 always in the manuscripts) are portraj^ed above this year sign, the 

 sign means 20X300:^^7,200 days, as I pointed out some time ago in 

 the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1891, pages 141 to 153. 



According to Perez's dictionary, cay means " fish "' in the Maya 

 language. Thus a fish placed u]:)on a stone might be read caytun. 

 Can this be an approximate representation of the word " katun "", 

 which, it is well known, was used to designate periods of time (vary- 

 ing probably at different times and in different parts of the country) ? 



Thus Pax proves to be that period whicli, after the reappearance 

 of the Pleiades, or probably a little sooner, begins the year of 13 

 months, the previous one having ended with Moan. Therefore, at the 

 time when the 20-day periods were introduced Moan and Pax, 

 belonging to an earlier period of time, seem to have been retained 

 to mark the former new year, while for others a few new signs at 

 least had to be created. 



Proceeding from the present communication, further research 

 must not lose sight of Iavo important points: (1) The meaning of 

 the signs of the 20-day periods and their i)robable reference to con- 

 stellations; (2) the cases where certain glyphs lacking calendar dates 

 are combined with preceding numbers. 



At all events the number of Maya glyphs whose meaning is becom- 

 ing clear to us is increasing constantly. It is true, however, that we 

 have not progressed as far with the inscriptions as with the manu- 

 scripts. 



