CENTKAL AMEKICAN HIEEOGLTPHK) WEITING. 709 



has special significance in these native manuscripts and suggests the 

 probability that the different colors of the dots used to denote num- 

 bers in the Aztec codices in the time counts have a specific meaning, 

 though this has not as yet been determined. 



The number 20 is represented by several different forms, as shown 

 in tig. 2. Those marked «, J, e, d., and ," are found only in the codices; 

 those marked/*, (/, 7i, and / occur chiefly in the inscriptions and are 

 attached to the left side of the glyphs. Naught (0) is also represented 

 in the inscriptions ^^y characters numbered 1 to 10 in tig, 3, those num- 

 bered 1 to 8 being placed at the left side or on top of the glyph when 

 used. Numbers 9 and 10 of the figure are used chiefly in double-face 

 characters, as those seen in fig. 6. Number 11 of fig. 8 shows the 

 characters for naught (0) used in the Dresden codex. The use of these 

 S3^mbols for naught is interesting, as it manifests a very strict adher- 

 ence to mathematical steps in the representation of numbers, no blanks 

 being allowed. 



The Ma3^a scribes were capable of carrying their numeration to a 

 high number, and this they did in the codices, not with new or diflerent 

 symbols from those mentioned, but by relative position, on the same 

 principle that we denote higher numbers than the Arabic digits l\y the 

 position of these digits. Thus we increase the value of a number ten- 

 fold in our decimal system at each step to the left, while in the vigesi- 

 mal system, used by the Maya scribes, the numbers increased twenty- 

 fold at each step, to indicate which they placed their digits, if we may 

 so call them, in a column increasing from the bottom upward, so that 

 a line and dot, mentioned above as denoting 6 if placed at the bottom, 

 as seen in the margin of the page, would denote *>, 

 but if placed one step upward would denote 120, or 

 6 by 20, and one step higher would, according to 

 their regular vigesimal system, be equal to 2,-tOO, or 

 6 by 20 by 20, but in their time counts, which are 

 the only numeral series in the third place, or third order of units, 

 would be 6 by 20 by 18, making 2,160. The other steps upward 

 increase uniformly twentyfold. As they rise as 

 high as the sixth step the value of the unit in the 

 several steps or orders of units would be as shown 

 in the colunm at the margin. As the da}' was the 

 primary unit, a single dot in the sixth step or 

 order would denote 2,880,000 days. A single 

 dot in the fifth order would denote 144,000 days, 

 and two dots in that place would denote twice that amount; three dots, 

 three times that amount, and so on up to 19. This applies to each of 

 these orders, except that in the second, where 18 is the multiplier. 

 The highest number that can be inserted is 17. They are the same in 

 principle as our compound denominate numbers — as pounds, shillings, 



