MORLEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 73 



both of wliich appear in the normal form, figure 34, a. In some cases, 

 as in figure 34, f-li, this variant also has the square irid and the 

 crooked, snag-like teeth projecting from the front of the mouth. 

 Again, any one of these features, or even all, may be lacking. Another 

 and usually more grotesque type of head (fig. 34, 

 i, j) has as its essential element the banded head- 

 dress. A very unusual head variant is that shown 

 in figure 34, li, the essential characteristic of which 

 seems to be the crossbones in the eye. Mr. Bow- 

 ditch has included also in his list of kin signs the 

 form shown in figure 34, Z, from an inscription at 

 Tikal. While this glyph in fact does stand between 

 tw^o dates which are separated by one day from each f^g- ^s- Fuii-figure 

 other, that is, 6 Eb Pop and 7 Ben 1 Pop, the -"-* «^ '^^ ^*^- 

 writer believes, nevertheless, that only the element {%) — an es- ^ 

 sential part of the normal form for the kin — here represents the t 

 period one day, and that the larger characters above and below have 

 other meanings. In the full-figure variants of the kin sign the figure 

 portrayed is that of a human being (fig. 35) , the head of which is 

 similar to the one in figure 34, i, j, having the same banded head- 

 dress.^ 



This concludes the presentation of the various forms which stand 

 for the several periods of Table VIII. After an exhaustive study of 

 these as found in Maya texts the writer has reached the following 

 generalizations concerning them: 



1 . Prevalence. The periods in Initial Series are expressed far more 

 frequently by head variants than by normal forms. The prepon- 

 derance of the former over the latter in all Initial Series known is in 

 the proportion of about 80 per cent of the total- against 12 per cent, 

 the periods in the remaining 8 per cent being expressed by these two 

 forms used side by side. In other words, four-fifths of all the Initial 

 Series known have their periods expressed by head-variant glyphs. 



2. Antiquity. Head-variant period glyphs seem to have been used 

 very much earlier than the normal forms. Indeed, the first use of 

 the former preceded the first use of the latter by about 300 years, 

 while in Initial Series normal-form period glyphs do not occur until 

 nearly 100 years later, or about 400 years after the first use of head 

 variants for the same purpose. 



3. Variation. Throughout the range of time covered by the Initial 

 Series the normal forms for any given time-period differ but little 

 from one another, all following very closely one fixed type. Although 



1 The figure on Zoomorph B at Quirigua, however, has a normal human head without grotesque char- 

 acteristics. 



2 The full-figure glyphs are included with the head variants ia this proportion. 



