March 22, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



327 



their origin as pifturcs, hut are not to be 

 considered as picturfs but as characters 

 representing sounds — either the name of tlie 

 object pictured, used as a phonetic element, 

 or a sound suggested by that. Looking at 

 the whole field he recognizes three groups of 

 elements : 



1°. Arithmetical signs, numerals, numer- 

 ical computations — ^lathematical elements. 



2°. Pictures of men, animals, fantastic 

 beings, ceremonies, objects, etc. — Pictorial 

 elements. 



3°. Graphic elements, proper. 



To each of these our author devoted a 

 di^^siou of his work. 



Numbers, daj"^ signs, month signs, are so 

 common in the Codices as to suggest that 

 these are mainly time-counts. The IMayas 

 counted by twenties, and had distinct terms 

 for higher orders of numerals up to at least 

 the sixth power of twenty. They were able 

 to write numbers, even the highest ; dots 

 were units, lines were fives, and there were 

 special characters for the score and for 

 higher orders. Forstemann appears to have 

 found that they had a zero sign, and that 

 numbers were written upward, a higher or- 

 der of units being indicated hy position. 

 Maya time divisions are complicated, and a 

 variety of numbers are used in their tables. 

 Thus the numbers 4, 5, 13, 20, 24, 52, 65, 

 104, 115, 260 and others occur in grouping 

 days and months into years, cycles, &c. 

 The Maya idea of a complete number seems 

 to have been the multiple which should con- 

 tain all these numl)ers used in reckoning 

 days. Foi-stemaun claims to find the number 

 1,366,560 days ( = 3744 years) in the 

 Dresden Codex. The eminent German be- 

 lieves the Codices were largely astronomical 

 treatises, and in this opinion Brinton agrees. 

 This is, as he says himself, world-wide dis- 

 tant fi-om the theories of Seler or Thomas. 

 Aside from theories, however, Brinton pre- 

 sents the necessary information, which is 

 gained so far, regarding numbers as they 



occur in the Codices ; he also presents brief- 

 ly and simply a sketch of his owni and 

 Forstemann's astronomiciil views, and calls 

 attention to the fact that other views exist. 



The bulk of the pictorial elements have 

 to do apparently with religious ideas and 

 represent deities, ceremonies or religious 

 objects. Schellhas' paper upon the repre- 

 sentations of the gods in the Maya writings 

 will ever remain the foundation for such 

 studJ^ In some cases Brinton agrees with 

 Schellhas ; in others he reaches a different 

 identification. A considerable number of 

 the gods are satisfactorily made out ; that 

 is certain. Influenced as he is bj' Forste- 

 mann's strongly astronomic views. Dr. Brin- 

 ton feels that among these representations 

 of deities there should be some of the planet 

 Venus. In all parts of the Codex Troano 

 there are many curious representations of a 

 bee ; this he connects with Venus as the 

 evening star and merges the latter into the 

 old woman, so often represented with Cu- 

 culcan, as the earth goddess. In all the 

 Codices, Brinton counts 825 representations 

 of male deities and 125 of females ; he be- 

 lieves that 638 of these have been made 

 out. He says : " This is a satisfactory re- 

 sult and shows that, as far as these picto- 

 graphs go, the contents of these once mys- 

 terious volumes are scarcely an unsolved 

 enigma." 



The graphic elements are and long must 

 be the most difficult. The signs of the 

 days and months have long been known ; 

 those of the cardinal points have recently 

 been pretty surely identified ; the ' mono- 

 grams ' of the gods are fairly agreed upon. 

 In studying the graphic elements the com- 

 posite glyphs must be analj-zed. They 

 consist usually of one main element, with 

 infixed, prefixed, superfixed, postfixed or 

 sub-fixed secondary elements. Then one 

 must, if possible, find the things which 

 these simple elements oiiginally represented. 

 The ideogrammatic force may be gone, but 



