140 



A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT THOANO. 



other purposes the two divisions are copied entire in Fig. 48. In each 

 division (not counting the day columns) there are four groups, each of four 

 conipovmd charactei's, the first and second being ahke. If we repi-esent 

 them by letters, and arrange the letters in the same order as the characters, 



they would stand thus in the middle division (the upper one in our figure). 

 We see by this that the first and third columns being shortened are changed 

 into two lines, just as the first and last in Fig. 47, so that what followed 

 downwards in the column follow from left to right in the lines. Plates VI*, 

 XI*, XV*, and some othei's furnish similar examples. 



Although we cannot claim that this furnishes absolute proof of the 

 direction in which these lines and cokunns are to be read, yet it will proba- 

 bly satisfy any reasonable mind that the columns are to be read from the 

 top downwards, following each other from left to right, and that the lines 

 are to be read from left to right, following each other from the top down- 

 wards; also that the usual method is in columns. 



THK ORDER IN WHICH THE PARTS OF COMPOUND CHARACTERS ARE TO BE TAKEN. 



This and the other question, "Are these characters in any sense pho- 

 netic?" are so intimately connected that I will not attempt to discuss them 

 separately. 



The day and numeral characters have already been given, and so often 

 referred to that by this time the reader must be familiar with them. The 

 characters for the months, as found in Landa's work, have also been given, 

 and it only remains for us, therefore, to present Landa's hieroglyphics of 

 the Maya letters (Fig. 49) in order that the reader may have before him 

 the entire key with which we have to work in our attempt to decipher the 

 Maya manuscripts. 



A comparison of the three groups of diameters (days, months, and 



