™™''^«l NUMEEAL CHARACTERS. 17 



tation. 1 shall therefore consider the following points settled, and shall 

 henceforth proceed upon that basis: 



1st. That the Manuscript is a Maya document. 



2d. That Landa has given the order of the days and their symbols 

 correctly. 



3d. That the day characters in these colunms are used simply to indi- 

 cate the days they represent, and not the signification of the words. 



It is now generally conceded by all who have studied these hiero- 

 glyphics that the Maya method of designating numbers was by the use of 

 lines and dots, thus: one dot signifying 1, two dots 2^ and so on up to 4; 

 that five was represented by a single short straight line; ten by two lines, 

 and so on. According to this system, a straight line and a dot, thus -Ji— 

 would signify 6; two straight lines and two dots, thus .A-S, , would stand 

 for 12. ^ ""■ 



As heretofore remarked, these numeral characters are found on every 

 page of the manuscript, and if we judge by the color, some being red and 

 others black, they belong to two different classes, or at least are used for 

 two different purposes. As they are generally associated with the day 

 characters, the latter in fact never being without them, the natural inference 

 is that they are used to denote dates. 



As there are two classes, it is not probable that more than one of these 

 is vised to number the days. 



If we examine the red numerals on all the plates of the manuscript, 

 we shall find that — except on the title-page, which is evidently peculiar — 

 they never indicate a greater number than 13 (there is one apparent ex- 

 ception where the number appears to be fourteen, but the additional dot is 

 imperfect, and is either a blotch or evident mistake). In some places we 



find such red numerals as this r ^ ^ apparently denoting 14, but a more 



o 

 careful study of the plates on whiMi these are found satisfies me that there 

 are two numbers here, 13 and 1. From this fact I infer that the red 

 numerals are used here to designate the days or years of the Maya week, 

 which, as I have shown, consisted of thirteen days or years, especially in 

 the computation of time in reference to religious feasts and ceremonies. 



2 M T 



