Ernst Förstemann

“ A serpent in the water, with B emerging from its head, exactly as on pages 36a, Tro. 26 and Cort. 10.
The third sign, that of the serpent-deity H, refers to the serpent. The first sign is the one which I think may be Caban-Muluc, while the second, owing to its indistinctness, eludes interpretation.
2. This also represents a deity sitting in the water, whom we are probably safe in calling H, for the top of his head changes into a serpent, ending, however, in a bird's bill holding a fish. The deity holds up both hands. ”

“ He is walking and holding a torch in each hand. He wears on his head the head of K. He seems to be bringing storm and fire.
Now let us examine the hieroglyphs, which I have numbered thus:—
The first hieroglyph on each page certainly represents one of the cardinal points. They are in the usual order:—east, north, south and west.
2 is the same sign on each page. I take it to be the sign for Xul = end, denoting, it may be, the end of the period of each cardinal point.
In each group 3 is the head with tuft of hair and the Akbal eye; probably the sign denoting beginning. ”

“ B, holding the hatchet, is seated on a Moan head, and the third sign is probably intended to represent the same Moan head, in front of which we find the same crouching person met with in the seventh group, 130 days earlier.
The fourth hieroglyph is again the sign for beginning, which we have already often met with, as, for example, 65 days earlier in the twelfth group.
18. B is sitting in the pouring rain under astronomical signs (Mars and Mercury?) to which those of the sun and moon are added. The god's face is upturned and he holds the hatchet in his hand. ”

“ I cannot decide, at present, whether these are 1st, the moon and Saturn, 2nd, Mars and Mercury, 3d, the moon and Mars, and 4th, Jupiter and Venus.
From each of these shields hangs a figure not unlike an heraldic beast. It cannot be the canine lightning-beast; it has no flames, it is cloven-footed and with the upper lip bent upward and the lower lip curved downward suggesting the storm-god K, and therefore probably represents the four winds; this wind-beast repeated four times also occurs on Cort. 2.
Six hieroglyphs belong to each picture. ”

“ The 3d sign of group 5 is incomplete and cannot be determined. The 3d sign of group 6 displays a repetition of the astronomical signs represented below. There still remain the 3d and 4th signs of groups 8 and 9. Of these the 3d in group 8 is w, which is as yet unexplained. The 4th might be interpreted either as Oc (day 7) or as Xul (end) . Its prefix is a Yax sign. Finally, in group 9 the 3d sign is Manik (day 4) , the 4th the elongated head q with the Ben-Ik superfix, which Seler assigns to Men (day 12) . ”

“ On the left is a house in which C sits holding a Kan sign in his hand; on the roof, as if guarding him, and also holding a Kan sign, lies the god B. In the Cort. 24b-25b, there are six gods lying on houses, within which other gods are also represented in a recumbent position. Then follow two vessels, again denoting the sacrificial feast, the contents of which are probably cooking, and which, from the sign on the second, are probably liquid. Above these are three others, one with the Cimi sign (human flesh?) , one with a bird and the third with the haunch of venison. ”

“ In front of the house with his back turned towards it, sits a deity. Each of the four deities has the front of his body covered with a gala mantle. Now we know that the god of the new year was set up before the house of the chieftain. On page 25 the god is K with his eyes apparently destroyed, and on page 26 it is B with a Kin sign on his head covering, hence designated here as a sun or day-god. On page 27 the god is D, and on page 28, A with the cross-bones on his robe, his own hieroglyph on his cheek, and the Akbal sign on his forehead. ”

“ That the sign for B, who here too plays the most important part, occurs often, is self-evident. It appears in the fourth place, in the 1st, 3d, 4th, and 7th groups, and in the third of the 8th group; in the 6th group it is destroyed. In the 2nd and 5th groups B has neither picture nor sign.
The hieroglyphs of the cardinal points I shall mention in connection with the separate groups. They are especially conspicuous in this section, being sometimes represented in full and sometimes in an abbreviated form as mere prefixes. ”

“ He is gazing upward and presenting a vessel containing an offering, the nature of which is uncertain. The vessel ends in a tube; cf. page 67b.
The first, fifth and sixth hieroglyphs are not finished, and the third is Kan-Imix.
3. The rain-goddess promises aid. B is seated opposite the old red goddess, who is holding intercourse with him. The god is seated on the Caban sign (earth) and the goddess on Muluc (rain?) .
The first, fifth and sixth hieroglyphs are also unfinished; the third is Imix with its meaning intensified by the prefixed Yax (the luxuriantly growing grain?) . ”

“ We have here first a Tonalamatl of the usual kind, arranged as follows:—
That is to say, the 52 days divided into four equal parts.
To these four divisions, as on page 23b, belong the four usual forms of animal food, which are joined in three places to Kan (bread) and probably denote sacrifice. They are, first a mammal, which, however, is erroneously represented by a fish; second, a fish, third an iguana and lastly a bird. I would add, that in the hieroglyphs above, the east, north, west and south correspond in turn with these representations of food. ”

“ Cyrus Thomas first made the important discovery that these pages represent the transition from one year into the next, but held the erroneous opinion that the last two days of each of the four kinds of years were treated of on each page. While Seler, on the other hand, found that we have here to do with the last day of one year and the first of the following year, and that, therefore, Ben, Ezanab, Akbal and Lamat are the beginnings of the years and thus of the 20-day periods. ”

“ Here we see B, holding a fish in his hand, and sitting on a hieroglyph, which is compounded of Imix and a prefix, which resembles the tortoise head and which appeared once before in this combination on page 32a. This passage recalls page 40a, where B is seated on the laterally elongated head q. Nothing more can be said of the hieroglyphs, than that 6 is the head without an underjaw. ”

“ B is sitting here in a house; his sign in the third place has Yax as a prefix. Hieroglyph 5, with the number 4 prefixed, recalls the one which we found on page 21c belonging to the baldheaded old man. Hieroglyph 4 is the common Kan-Imix.
Page 45a.
The last page on the front of the first section of this Manuscript is used for a series, which presents itself as a second improved edition of the series which was found on pages 31a-32a. The very fact that the writing is so much better proclaims it an amendment. ”

“ This wall displays the spiral which we found also on pages 33b-35b, and which in the treatise, "Zur Maya-Chronologie" (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie XXIII, p. 147) , I regarded as an abbreviation for a serpent and hence as a symbol of time. It is further to be noted that B is wet with rain and with this the third hieroglyph is in keeping, if it is actually intended to denote the rainy season and not the week of 13 days ("Zur Entzifferung" V, 6) ”

“ Of the 8 hieroglyphs belonging to this picture, only the following are distinguishable:—the 1st containing an Akbal, the 3d, which is the common cross b with a 9, the 4th, an Imix also with 9, and of the 7th only the prefix Yax. The 3d and 4th appear again on page 35a, 28 days later.
3. Page 34, like page 3, represents a human sacrifice. The victim, very vaguely drawn, lies on a step-shaped sacrificial stone, or on the pyramid of a teocalli. There is a Caban (earth) sign between the sacrifice and the pyramid, and also on the walls of the buildings ”

“ In 1 and 3 his head is again surrounded by those dots suggesting stars, in 4 there seems to be a bird (quetzal?) seated upon it and in 2 it bears what may be the Kin sign. In 1 and 5 he has the pouch for incense in his hand, while in 3 alone he wears the gala mantle and is painted black, just as he appears in connection with the same hieroglyphs on page 29c. He carries a hatchet in repose in 2, 6 and 9, and raised for a blow in 1 and 7. In 7 he also holds the Imix sign. ”

“ The repetition of six times eight days in each quarter of the Tonalamatl is closely connected with the fact that there are six Chuen signs on each page, two of which, however, are omitted on page 44. From this it follows, as we have already found on pages 25-28, that Chuen really denotes 8 days and that the count of the days in the "Dresdensis" begins with Kan. But the numbers 12, 15, 16 and 17 are entirely unexplained. They show no recognizable order and always stand near the bundle of Chuen signs. ”

“ XIII Oc stands below this number as the beginning of the series. The first column has 30 as an encircled number and below it the normal day IV Ahau.
The large number must have been formed as follows:—
The point of departure was 230, the interval between IV Ahau and XIII Oc, to this was added 98 × 260 = 25,480, the sum being 25,710. The result of this number added to 11 Ahau-Katuns = 1,252,680, was 1,278,390, which number is not revealed in the Manuscript. It is concealed in XIII Oc 3 Mol (2 Muluc) . But 1,278,390 = 42,613 × 30, i.e., it is divisible by the interval XIII Oc-IV Ahau. ”

“ A thunder-storm, which is very appropriate after the longest day. The lightning-beast, likewise holding a burning torch, is plunging down from the astronomical signs, which are different ones again (Venus and the moon?) ”

“ It is probably not accidental that in these five cases the hieroglyphs refer to the cardinal points. In the eighth group the god is surrounded by the suggestion of one or more trees; he is sitting in water as if in a forest ”

“ Day XIII Akbal, the New Year's day of the 1 Kan years, is given; also the differences of the series 91 and 104, therefore also in the proportion of 7 to 8. If we combine these last two numbers by addition and then by multiplication with 260, the result is (7 + 8) × 260 = 3900. If, however, 7, 8 and 3900 be combined by multiplication the product is 7 × 8 × 3900 = 218,400 = 2400 × 91 = 2100 × 104 = 840 × 260 = 600 × 364 = 1120 × (91 + 104) . We have already met with the 218,400 on page 24, which was obtained by the addition of 33,280 + 185,120. ”

“ Thus the month days are the same as in the preceding Tonalamatl, but should be read in a different order:—Oc, Cib, Ik, Lamat, etc.
Here each of the 8 subdivisions has 6 hieroglyphs, and the order is as follows:—
A few of these signs are common to all the groups. Thus the first sign (v) , as far as what remains is distinguishable, seems to occur in all the groups. It has the leaf-shaped prefix, but I cannot understand the rest of it ”