170 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



now to th3 forms for the day sign Ahau in figure 16, it is seen that the 

 form in A4 resembles the third variant j' or Jc', the grotesque head, and 

 it is clear that the day 12 Ahau is here recorded. At first sight the student 

 might think that the month glyph follows in A5, but a closer inspection 

 of this form shows that this is not the case. In the first place, since 

 the day sign is Ahau the month coefficient must be either 3, 8, 13, or 

 18, not 7, as recorded (see Table VII), and, in the second place, the 

 glyph itself in A5 bears no resemblance whatsoever to any of the 

 month signs in figure 19. Consequently the month part of the Initial- 

 series terminal date of this text should follow the closing glyph of 

 the Supplementary Series. Following along the glyphs next in order, 

 we reach in A9 a glyph with a coefficient 9, although the sign itself 

 bears no resemblance to the month-glyph 'indicators" heretofore 

 encountered (see fig. 65). 



The glyph following, however, in A9b is quite clearl}^ 18 Cumhu (see 

 fig. 19, g'-h'), wliich is the month part of the terminal date as reached 

 by calculation. Therefore, since A9a has the coefficient 9 it is prob- 

 able that it is a variant of the month-glyph "indicator"; ^ and con- 

 sequently that the month glyph itself follows, as we have seen, in B9. 

 In other words, the terminal date recorded, 12 Ahau 18 Cumhu, agrees 

 with the terminal date reached by calculation, and the whole text, 

 so far as it can be deciphered, reads 9.14.19.8.0 12 Ahau 18 Cumhu. 

 The student will note that this Initial Series precedes the Initial Series 

 in plate 7, A by exactly 10 uinals, or 200 days. Compare A and B, 

 plate 7. 



In plate 8, ^, is figured the Initial Series from Stela 6 at Copan.^ 

 The introducing glyph occupies the space of four glyph-blocks, 

 A1-B2, and there follows in A3-B4a the Initial-series number 

 9.12.10.0.0. The cycle glyph in A3 is partially effaced; the clasped 

 hand, however, the determining characteristic of the cycle head, 

 may still be distinguished. The katun head in B3 is also unmis- 

 takable, as it has the same superfix as in the normal form for the 

 katun. At first sight the student might read the bar and dot coeffi- 

 cient as 14, but the two middle crescents are purely decorative and 

 have no numerical value, and the numeral recorded here is 12 (see 

 pp. 88-91). Although the tun and uinal period glyphs in A4a 

 and A4b,^ respectively, are effaced, their coefficients may be distin- 

 guished as 10 and 0, respectively. In such a case the student is per- 



> So far as known to the writer, this very unusual variant for the closing glyph of the Supplementary 

 Series occurs in but two other inscriptions in the Maya territory, namely, on Stela N at Copan. Sec pi. 20, 

 Glyph A14, and Inscription G of the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Naranjo, C.lyph Al (?). (Maler, 1908 b: 

 pi. 27.) 



s For the full text of this inscription see Maudslay, 1889-1902: i, pis. 105-107. 



3 In this glyph-block, A4, the order of reading is irregular; instead of passing over to B4a after reading 

 A4a (the 10 tuns), the next glyph to be read is the sign below A4a, A4b, which records uinals, and only 

 after this has been read does B4a follow. 



