MORLEY— MAYA SUPPLEMENTARY SERIES 



attached to its right, i.e., behind it. In Dresden 5b and 19b, the 

 number 29 is actually thus recorded, a perfect parallel with Glyph A 

 of the Supplementary Series. 



Glyph A then may be interpreted as the sign for a discriminating 

 lunar month, discriminating since the exact period of a lunar revolu- 

 tion does not equal an even number of days, i.e., 29.530588 + days, 

 and it was therefore necessary to have two kinds of lunar months, 

 one of 29 and the other of 30 days — as actually provided for in Glyph 

 A — in order to express the lunar period in terms of whole days. 



Very rarely — in 2 texts out of the 80 under observation — Glyph A 

 is omitted. (See Nos. 7 and 9, from Chichen Itza and Piedras Negras 

 respectively.) In the second example a very unusual case of glyph 

 elision seems to have taken place. The moon-element of Glyph A 

 appears to have been omitted, and its coefficient of 9 or 10, here 9, 

 joined to the right of Glyph C instead. In the Chichen Itza text, on 

 the other hand, there are apparently no mitigating circumstances 

 such as this, and this case at least must stand as exceptional. 



GLYPH B 



The second glyph of the Supplementary Series (see Glyph B, pis. 

 i-x) is probably of less importance than the first, since it does not 

 appear to have been in use as early as Glyph A. Its first occurrence 

 is at Piedras Negras on Stela 25 (see No. 9), 120 years later than 

 Stela 3 at Tikal (see No. 1), the earliest example of a Supplementary 

 Series yet known; nor is this omission only accidental, since in the 

 next three texts in point of age, Nos. 2, 57, and 58, it is also wanting. 

 The earliest example is a normal form, the head variant not appearing 

 until a little later. See No. 60. 



Glyph B is composed of four elements, all of which appear to be 

 of equal importance: (1) An elbow element which always has a pair 



of crossed bands at the bend 



probably a rodent (>^p 



. (2) The head of a small animal, 



; this is the variable element, since in the 



normal form of the sign it is replaced by a pair of circles ((°j((Ej\ ', 



as just pointed out this appears to be the earlier form. (3) An oval 

 subfix, which sometimes appears as the ear of the rodent's head 



(4) An ending prefix or superfix 



The rodent's 



[373] 



