EXEECISES IN DECIPHEKMENT. 



113 



but as the reader is by this time familiar with the principal symbols and the method of 

 scanning the lines, I shall not pause to point out the different variants, but simply give 

 my idea of the reading. I think the sense of the three passages is identical, and believe it 

 to be this : — " The beginning katun .... commencing a double cycle computation .... 

 1 108x400 (or 6 katuns) .... to the beginning of a 7th katun .... 10 katuns .... 

 to the beginning of the 17th .... 4 katuns, to the beginning of the 1st katun .... 

 13 katuns, in the second reckoning .... to the beginning of the 14th katun .... 

 to the beginning of the cycle." It was not deemed necessary this time to explain the 

 13-katun symbol in the fourth line by the use of a determinative, the pupils being 

 thought to have become sufficiently acquainted with it from the preceding exercise 

 probably. I shall not attempt to analyze the various symbols. The elements of some 

 of them are yet beyond my reach. That they are all combinations of signs for numerals 

 and time periods is self-evident. For the present we must accept them simply for 

 what they stand here. But in the eventual analysis of these and other known texts, 

 and the gain we shall thereby make in our knowledge of particular characters, lies the 

 only way by which we shall be able to penetrate into the secret of glyphs as yet 

 absolutely unknown. 



The examples thus far have all been of a similar character. They are what I regard 

 as lessons, designed for the instruction of students in variants and equivalents and the 

 different ways of computing and scanning. I shall now give an example that has a 

 wider range. It is from the third tablet of the same temple, and is a fair average 

 specimen of the inscriptions in general. I select this particular example because it 

 has more variety than could be found in most extracts of equal length, and because it 

 goes far toward substantiating my contention respecting the bissextile sign. It is an 

 exercise also, but of a different kind, and it possesses the additional value of being a 

 record of specific dates, with reckonings to correspond. Before giving it, however, I 

 wish to call attention to a glyph that will figure in it quite prominently — this : — 



o^ 



The glyph is of frequent occurrence. I believe it to be — or to have been originally — 

 a day symbol, and I give the four examples above in order to show the variety of 

 characters by which 20 and 13, constituting the 260-day number in this case, can be 

 expressed. But if the glyph means, or ever meant, a day, it is not employed in the 

 inscriptions in the same sense as are the other day symbols. Wherever the context is 

 determinable it will be found that the sign never occurs except when the reckoning is 



BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Archa3ol. 15 



