Chapter VI 



THE CODICES 



The present chapter will treat of the application of the material 

 presented in Chapters III and IV to texts drawn from the codices, 

 or liieroglyphic manuscripts; and since these deal in great part with 

 the tonalamatl, or sacred year of 260 days, as we have seen (p. 31), 

 this subject will be taken up first. 



Texts Recording Tonalamatls 



The tonalamatl, or 260-day period, as represented in the codices is 

 usually divided into five parts of 52 days each, although tonala- 

 matls of four parts, each containmg 65 days, and tonalamatls of ten 

 parts, each containing 26 days, are not at all uncommon. These 

 divisions are further subdivided, usually into unequal parts, all the 

 divisions in one tonalamatl, however, havmg subdivisions of the 

 same length. 



So far as its calendric side is concerned,^ the tonalamatl may be 

 considered as having three essential parts, as follows: 



1. A column of day signs. 



2. Red numbers, wliich are the coefficients of the day signs. 



3. Black numbers, which show the distances between the days 

 designated by (1) and (2). 



The number of the day signs in (1), usually 4, 5, or 10, shows the 

 number of parts into which the tonalamatl is divided. Every red 

 number in (2) is used once with every day sign in (1) to designate a 

 day which is reached in counting one of the black numbers in (3) 

 forward from another of the days recorded by (1) and (2). The 

 most important point for the student to grasp in studying the Maya 

 tonalamatl is the fundamental difference between the use of the red 

 numbers and the black numbers. The former are used only as day 

 coefficients, and together with the day signs show the days wliich 

 begin the divisions and subdivisions of the tonalamatl. The black 

 numbers, on the other hand, are exclusively time counters, which show 

 only the distances between the dates indicated by the day signs and 

 their corresponding coefficients among the red numbers. They show 

 in effect the lengths of the periods and subpeiiods into which the 

 tonalamatl is divided. 



J As explained on p. 31, tonalamatls were probably used by the priests in making prophecies or divina- 

 tions. This, however, is a matter apart from their composition, that is, length, divisions, dates, and 

 method of counting, which more particularly concerns us here. 



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