MORLEY— MAYA SUPPLEMENTARY SERIES 



some Supplementary Series certain glyphs may be wanting. When 

 such textual lacunse occur the space (or spaces) is left vacant, and the 

 next glyph in the series is drawn in its proper position regardless of 

 the resulting gap. Thus the several vertical columns show the occur- 

 rence or non-occurrence of any given glyph in all the texts figured. 



Similarly at certain places interpolated glyphs occur. The most 

 conspicuous example of this kind is at Yaxchilan, where an irregular 



glyph jfejX is found standing between the last two glyphs of the 



series, F and G. (See Nos. 17-26 inclusive.) Since this glyph occurs so 

 rarely, no regular place was left for it, and it has been crowded between 

 the two nearest regular glyphs, F and G. 



Where parts of the glyphs are shown in gray, a corresponding loss of 

 detail is indicated, usually caused by weathering, sometimes by break- 

 age. Dotted outlines indicate pieces of the original actually missing. 



One other point about the accompanying drawings remains to be 

 noted, namely, the vertical scale of the glyphs. In order to facilitate 

 comparison, these have all been drawn to the same vertical scale 

 (i.e. three-quarters of an inch high) regardless of their actual sizes, 

 care being taken, however, never to disturb the relative proportions 

 of height to width. In most texts some glyphs occupy only half or 

 even a quarter as much space as others, and when these are drawn 

 to the same vertical scale their relative widths are frequently in- 

 creased beyond that of really larger glyphs in the same text. See No. 

 7 for an extreme case in point, where Glyph B is actually the smallest 

 glyph in the original. Such changes as these are obviously unessential. 

 They do not alter the meanings of the glyphs thus manipulated, 

 and they have been introduced only to simplify comparison. 1 



A glance at any one of the accompanying plates will show that a 

 greater regularity in the glyph sequence results, if we begin at the 

 right with Glyph A and count from right to left, than if we begin at 

 the left with Glyph G and count in the opposite direction. For this 

 reason it has seemed best not only to call Glyph A the first glyph of 

 the series, but also to read the series from right to left. Indeed it is 

 not at all improbable that the ancient Maya themselves may have 

 followed this order of reading. 2 



1 Just as we would instantly recognize any familiar word even if every one of its letters were 

 of a different size, thus: MoNTh, DAy, etc. The two cases are parallel. The size and shape of 

 any Maya glyph always depended upon the space it had to fill, and not in any way upon its meaning. 



2 An analogous case is that of page 24 of the Dresden Codex, where the increasing multiples 

 of 2920, the Venus- Solar period, are read from right to left and from bottom to top, a direct 

 reversal of the usual practice. Other examples in the same manuscript might be cited. 



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