66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (bull. 57 



Stelse 15 and P were erected the conventionalization of tlie element 

 in question had not been entirely accomplished, and that the head 

 was added to indicate the form from which the element was derived. 

 (3) If the fish was the original form of the combMke element in the 

 "introducing glyph," it was also the original form of the same element 

 in the katun glyph. (Compare the comb elements (f) in figures 27, g 

 a, b, e, and 24, a, h, d with each other.) If this is true, a natural ^ 

 explanation for the use of the fish in the katun sign lies near at hand. 

 As previously explained on page 28, the comblike element stands for 

 the sound ca (c hard) ; while Jcal in Maya means 20. Also the element 

 (**) stands for the sound tun. Therefore catun or Jcatun means 20 

 tuns. But the Maya word for "fish," cay (c hard) is also a close 

 phonetic approximation of the sound ca or Jcal. Consequently, the 

 fish sign may have been the original element in the katun glyph^ 

 |] which expressed the concept 20, and wliich the conventionalization 

 ff of glyphic forms gradually reduced to the element (ft) mthout 

 destroying, however, its phonetic value. 



Without pressing this point further, it seems not unlikely that the 

 combhke elements in the katun glyph, as well as in the "introducing 

 glyph," may well have been derived from the fish sign. 



Turning to the codices, it must be admitted that in spite of the fact 

 that many Initial Series are found therein, the "introducing glyph" 

 has not as yet been positively identified. It is possible, however, that 

 the sign shown in figure 24,/, may be a form of the "introducing 

 glyph"; at least it precedes an Initial Series in four places in the 

 Dresden Codex (see pi. 32). It is composed of the trinal superfix 

 and a conventionalized fish (?). 



Mr. Goodman calls this glynh (fig. 24, a-e) the sign for the great 

 cycle or unit of the 6th place (see Table VIII). He bases this identi- 

 fication on the fact that in the codices units of the 6th place stand 

 immediately above ^ units of the 5th place (cycles), and consequently 

 since this glyph stands immediately above the units of the 5th place 

 in the inscriptions it must stand for the units of the 6th place. Wliile 

 admitting that the analogy here is close, the writer nevertheless is 

 incUned to reject Mr. Goodman's identification on the foIlo\\dng 

 grounds: (1) This glyph never occurs with a numerical coefficient, 

 while units of all the other orders — that is, cycles, katuns, tuns, uinals, 

 and kins are never without them. (2) Units of the 6th order in the 

 codices invariably have a numerical coefficient, as do all the other 

 orders. (3) In the only three places in the inscriptions^ in which six 

 periods are seemingly recorded, though not as Initial Series, the 6th 

 period has a numerical coefficient just as have the other five, and, 



1 See the discussion of Serpent numbers in Chapter VI. 



2 These three inscriptions are found on Stela N, west side, at Copan, the tablet of the Temple of the In- 

 scriptions at Palenque, and Stela 10 at Tikal. For the discussion of these inscriptions, see pp. 114-127. 



