CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 71 7 



Briefly stated, this series (fig. 7) and all those of like character are 

 made up of niinibers and dates, and not of deities, as was formerly 

 supposed. 



The differences in these face characters, by which their respective 

 values are determined, have not in every instance been so clearl}" 

 ascertained that they can be determined l)y inspection alone. In the 

 left face of glyph 1 the circle of dots on the cheek forms the distin- 

 guishing characteristic for 9, but peculiar markings of others are less 

 distinct. The face characters representing the orders of units, as the 

 cycle, katun, etc., can be determined by position alone. 



The great quadruple glyph at the top is the symbol for the sixth 

 order of units (Goodman's ''great C3ade''*'), which seems to have repre- 

 sented the limit of Mayan time counts, although according to Doctor 

 Brinton their numeration in the regular Maya num))er S3^stem was 

 carried a step higher; and Goodman intimates that their time counts 

 reached an additional step in the scale, amounting at the extreme to 

 280,800 years or 102,492,000 days. This large so-called "great cycle 

 symbol," with the number characters and the immediately following 

 date, form what Maudslay has termed an "initial series," as the large 

 glyph is never found except at the commencement of an inscription. 



The month symbol which helps to make up the date in this instance 

 is somewhat distant from the day symbol, five compound glyphs inter- 

 vening; nevertheless thei'e is numerical evidence that the two are con- 

 nected and that the date is part of the "initial series." Tiiere is also 

 evidence that the initial series in the inscriptions at Copan, Quirigua, 

 and some other localities where the numlier of cycles is 9, as in this 

 case, start with the same date (4 Ahau 8 Cumhu), this date being 

 apparently the beginning of an era wnth the priests and scribes of 

 those sections. As this is but one instance of a number where the 

 count in these initial series gives the proper terminal date in the 

 inscription, the proof that thej' have been correctly interpreted seems 

 to be complete. This conclusion necessarily carries with it the accept- 

 ance of the interpretation given the glyphs and also the calendar sys- 

 tem as above explained, though the native priests appear to have pur- 

 posely used characters which would be understood only by their own 

 class. 



The codices, as will be seen b}" referring to plate in, which is a 

 facsimile of three of the four divisions of plate xxix of the Codex 

 Troano, contain a much larger proportion of pictographic representa- 

 tion than the inscriptions. Besides the pictures there are two classes 

 of hieroglyphs; first, the ordinary numerals repl'esented by dots and 

 short lines, which arc of two colors, black and red. The latter, which 

 do not exceed 13 in value, are the numbers attached to or belonging to 

 the days — the day, where the symbol is omitted, as in the lines of the 

 alternate black and red numerals in this instance, being understood. 



