CENTRAL AMEEICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 718 



more in use as a ceremonial or religious period, both amono- the Mayas 

 and Mexicans, than the secular year of 365 days. 



The order of the daj^s and their numbering- passed on from month 

 to month and from year to year without a break or change in the reg- 

 ular succession. There is one series of 312 years in length in the 

 Dresden codex, in which there is not a break in the succession, nor 

 an indication of a bisextile j^ear. In the series given above, also 

 from the Dresden codex, which covers 34,059 years, 1> months, and 13 

 days, the date of the commencement and of the ending being given, 

 which calculation shows to be correct, this is evidence that there can 

 be no break or change in the succession of days, day numbers, or 

 months. In this regularit}^ of succession lies the possibility of deter- 

 mining the time series of the inscriptions and the codices. 



In order to show what advance has been made in deciphering this 

 ancient American writing, it is necessar}^ to present examples from 

 the codices and inscriptions that the reader may have the glyphs 

 referred to before him, for words alone can not describe them so as 

 to be understood. Beginning with the inscriptions, which appear to 

 be older than the codices, attention is called to plate i, showing the 

 inscription on the Palenque tablet in the Smithsonian Institution, As 

 a means of identifying the individual glyphs, a letter is placed over 

 each column and a number at the side opposite each line, as in refer- 

 ence maps, R, S, T, U, V, W, X have been selected because they 

 are the letters used for these particular columns in Doctor Rau's 

 scheme." 



The column R being separated from the others, and a single col- 

 unni, it must be read from the top downward. Passing by this, 

 attention is called to the other six, which are to be read two and two, 

 beginning with the two at the left, going from the top downward, 

 taking the glyphs alternately in the left of the two columns and then 

 in the right, thus: First glyph, S 1 then T 1; next, S 2, T 2; then S 3 

 and T 3, and so on to the bottom. Then columns U and V are to be 

 taken in the same order, and after these columns W and X. As it 

 would require a somewhat extended stud}^ of the subject to follow 

 out understandingly a complete explanation of the steps in the process 

 of decipherment, an outline only of what has been accomplished in 

 this direction can be given. 



Reading down columns S and T in this manner, the first glyph 

 which has been determined, or rather could be determined if unin- 

 jured, is T 2 (or the second in the T column), which, from the sur- 

 rounding border or band and the number attached is known to be the 

 symbol of a day, but on account of the imperfect markings or weath- 

 ering of the face, is not indentifiable with certainty. Here, however, 

 is an instance where a knowledge of the Maya calendar system 



« Palenque Tablet, in Sm. Cont. Knowl., vol. xxii, p. 6L 



