266 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



line of research in the codices is the groups of glyphs above the 

 pictures, and from their decipherment will probably come the deter- 

 mination of the meaning of this interesting and unusual period. 



Texts Recording Initial Series 



Initial Series in tlie codices are unusual and indeed have been 

 found, up to the present time, in only one of the three known Maya 

 manuscripts, namely, the Dresden Codex. As represented in this 

 manuscript, they differ considerably from the Initial Series heretofore 

 described, all of which have been drawn from the inscriptions. This 

 difference, however, is confined to unessentials, and the system of 

 counting and measuring time in the Initial Series from the inscrip- 

 tions is identical with that in the Initial Series from the codices. 



The most conspicuous difference between the two is that in the 

 codices the Initial Series are expressed by the second method, given 

 on page 129, that is, numeration by position, while in the inscriptions, 

 as we have seen, the period glyphs are used, that is, the first method, 

 on page 105. Although this causes the two kinds of texts to appear 

 very dissimilar, the difference is only superficial. 



Another difference the student will note is the absence from the 

 codices of the so-called Initial-series "introducing glyph." In a few 

 cases there seems to be a sign occupying the position of the intro- 

 ducing glyph, but its identification as the Initial-series "introducing 

 glyph" is by no means sure, and, moreover, as stated above, it does 

 not occur in all cases in which there are Initial Series. 



Another difference is the entire absence from the codices of Sup- 

 plementary Series; this count seems to be confined exclusively to the 

 monuments. Aside from these points the Initial Series from the two 

 sources differ but little. All proceed from identically the same start- 

 ing point, the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumliu, and all have their terminal dates 

 or related Secondary-series dates recorded immediately after them. 



The first example of an Initial Series from the codices will be found 

 in plate 3 1 ( Dresden 24) , in the lower left-hand corner, in the second 

 column to the right. The Initial-series number here recorded is 

 9.9.16.0.0, of which the zero in the 2d place ( uinals) and the zero 

 in the 1st place (kins) are expressed by red numbers. This use of 

 red numbers in the last two places is due to the fact that the zero 

 sign in the codices is always red. 



The student will note the absence of all period glyphs from this 

 Initial Series and will observe that the multiplicands of the cycle, 

 katun, tun, uinal, and kin are fixed by the positions of each of the 

 corresponding multipliers. By referring to Table XIV the values of 

 the several positions in the second method of writing the numbers 

 vnW be found, and using these with their corresponding coefficients 



