morleyH introduction TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 



153 



from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu (the unexpressed starting point), and has been 

 found by calculation to reach the terminal date 8 Ahau 8 Zotz ; and 

 further, let us suppose that on inspecting the text the day part of 

 this date (8 Ahau) has been found to be recorded immediately after 

 the kins of the number 9.16.5.0.0. Now, if the student wiU follow 

 the next six or seven glyphs until he fmds one Hke any of the forms 

 in figure 65, the glyph immediately following the latter sign will be 

 in all probabihty the month part, 8 Zotz in the above example, of 

 an Initial-series' terminal date. In other words, although the 

 meaning of the glyph shown in the last-mentioned figure is unknown, 

 it is important for the student to recognize its form, since it is almost 

 invariably the ''indicator" of the month sign in Initial Series. 

 In all other cases in the inscriptions, including also the exceptions 



e f 



Fig. 65. Sign for the " month indicator" 



g h 



e, g, h, Normal forms; b, d,f, head variants. 



to the above rule, that is, where the month parts of Initial-series ter- 

 minal dates do not immediately follow the closing glyph of the 

 Supplementary Series, the month signs follow immediately the day 

 signs whose positions in the year they severally designate. 



In the codices the month signs when recorded^ usually foUow 

 immediately the days signs to which they belong. The most notable 

 exception ^ to this general rule occurs in connection with the Venus- 

 solar periods represented on pages 46-50 of the Dresden Codex, 

 where one set of day signs is used with three different sets of month 

 signs to form three different sets of dates. For example, in one 

 place the day 2 Ahau stands above three different month signs — 3 

 Cumhu, 3 Zotz, and 13 Yax — with each of which it is used to form a 



1 In the codices frequently the month parts of dates are omitted and starting points and terminal dates 

 alike are expressed as days only; thus, 2 Ahau, 5 Imix, 7 Kan, etc. This is nearly always the case in 

 tonalamatls and in certain series of numbers in the Dresden Codex. 



2 Only a very few month signs seem to be recorded in the Codex Tro-Cortesiano and the Codex Pere- 

 sianus. The Tro-Cortesiano has only one (p. 73b), in which the date 13 Ahau 13 Cumhu is recorded 



thus(*). Comparethemonthforminthisdatewithflg. 20,--b'. Mr. Gates (1910: p. 21) 

 finds three month signs in the Codex Peresianus, on pp. 4, 7, and 18 at 4c7, 7c2, and 



:Il©:ll^ 



lSb4, respectively. The first of these is 16 Zac (**). Compare this form with 

 i is 1 Yaxkin (t). Cor 

 u (tt); see fig. 20, z-V. 



*l|i^ fig. 20, 0. The second is 1 Yaxkin (t). Compare this form with fig. 20, i-j. 

 • lltlC' The third is 12 C 



•III® 



