8 MAYA AND MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS. 



Before entering upon the discussion of this plate I will insert here 

 Rosny's comment, that the reader may have an opportunity of compar- 

 ing his view of its signification with the opinion I shall advance. 



1 intend to close this report with some observations on the criticisms which have 

 been written since the publication of my " Essay on the Decipherment of the Hieratic 

 Writings," as much regarding the first data, for which we are indebted to Diego de 

 Landa, as that of the method to follow in order to realize new progress in the interpre- 

 tation of the Katounic texts. I will be permitted, however, before approaching this 

 discussion, to say a word on two leaves of the Codex Cortesianus, which not only con- 

 firm several of my former lectures, but which furnish us probably a more than ordi- 

 narily interesting document relative to the religious history of ancient Yucatan. 



The two leaves require to be presented synoptically, as I have done in reproducing 

 them on the plate [8 and D»], for it is evident that they form together one single rep- 

 resentation. 



This picture presents four divisions, in the middle of which is seen a representation 

 of the sacred tree; beneath are the figures of two personages seated on the ground 

 and placed facing the katounes, among which the sign of the day Ik is repeated 

 three times on the right side and once with two other signs on the left side. The 

 central image is surrounded by a sort of framing in which have been traced the 

 twenty cyclic characters of the calendar. Some of these characters would not be rec- 

 ognizable if one possessed only the data of Landa, but they are henceforth easy to 

 read, for I have had occasion to determine, after a certain fashion, the value of the 

 greater part of them in a former publication. 



These characters are traced in the following order, commencing, for example, with 

 Muluc and continuing from left to right: 6,2,18,13,17,14,5,1,16,12,8,4,20,15,11,7, 

 19, 3, 9, 10. * * * 



In the four compartments of the Tablet appear the same cyclic signs again in two 

 series. I will not stop to dwell upon them, not having discovered the system of their 

 arrangement. 



Besides these cyclic signs no other katounes are found on the Tablet, except four 

 groups which have attracted my attention since the beginning of my studies, and 

 which I have presented, not without some hesitation, as serving to note the four 

 cardinal points. I do not consider my first attempt at interpretation as definitely 

 demonstrated, but it seems to me that it acquires by the study of the pages in ques- 

 tion of the Codex Corlesianm, a new probability of exactitude. 



Thesefour katounic groups are here in fact arrauged in the following manner: 



Flo. 1. — The four cardinal symbols. 



Now, not only do these groups include, as I have explained, several of the phonetic 

 elements of Maya words known to designate the four cardinal points, but they oc- 



2 Rosrry says by mistake "Planche VII- VIII." 



