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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



I BULL. 57 



ih^H. o9, B'2, and GO, A6, rcspoctively), on the other hand, the katun 

 is expi(>s8e(l l)y its normal form, wliich is identical with the normal 

 form shown in figure 27, a, b. In figures 58, A5, and 59, A3, the cycle 

 is expressed by its head variant, and the determining characteristic, 

 the clasped hand, appears in both. Compare the cycle signs in figures 

 58, A5, and 59, A3, with the head variant for the cycle shown in 

 figure 25, d-f. The cycle glyph in the Tikal text (fig. 60, A5) is 

 clearly the normal form. (See fig. 25, a-c.) The glyph following the 

 cycle sign in these three texts (standing above the cycle sign in figure 

 60 at A4) probably stands for th(> period of ' the sixth order, the 

 so-called great cycle. These three glyphs are redrawn in figure 

 61, a-c, respectively. In the Copan inscription this glyph (fig. 

 61, a) is a head variant, while in the Palenque and Tikal texts (a 

 and b of the same figure, respectively) it is a normal form. 



Fig. (il. Signs for the great cycle (a-c), and the great-great cycle (d, c): a, Stela N, Copan; b, d, Ti 

 of the Inscriptions, I'alenqiie; c, e, Stela 10, Til^al. 



Inasmuch as these three inscriptions are the only ones in which 

 numerical series composed of 6 or more consecutive terms are 

 recorded, it is unfortunate that the sixth term in all three should 

 not have been expressed by the same form, since this would have 

 facilitated their comparison. Notwithstanding this handicap, how- 

 ever, the writer beheves it will be possible to show clearly that 

 the head variant in figure 61, a, and the normal forms in b and c are 

 only variants of one and the same sign, and that all three. stand for 

 one and the same thing, namely, the great cycle, or unit of the sixth 

 order. 



In the first place, it will be noted that each of the three glyphs just 

 mentioned is composed in part of the cycle sign. For example, in 

 figure 6 1 , a, the head variant has the same clasped hand as the head- 

 variant cycle sign in the same text (see fig. 58, A5), which, as 

 we have seen elsewhere, is the determining characteristic of the head 

 variant for the cycle. In figure 61, b, c, the normal forms there 

 present(>d contain the entire normal form for the cycle sign; compare 

 figure 25, a, c. Indeed, except for its superfix, the glyphs in figure 6 1 , &, 

 c, are normal forms of the cycle sign ; and the glyph in a of the same 

 figure, except for its superfixial element, is similarly the head variant 

 for the cycle. It would seem, therefore, that the determining charac- 

 teristics of tliese three glyphs must be tli(>ir superfixial elements. In 

 the normal form in figure 61, 6, the sup(>rfix is very clear. Just 

 inside the outhne and parallel to it there is a line of smaller circles, 



