Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices: Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-85, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 253-372Thomas, Cyrus
History
Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices: Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-85, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 253-372
Thomas, Cyrus
Codex Dresdensis Maya; Maya language
Here the author of the codex has made another mistake or varied from the
plan of the series. As several similar variations or errors occur in this
part of the series, it will be as well to discuss the point here as
elsewhere. Dr. Förstemann, in discussing the series, takes it for granted
that these variations are errors of the aboriginal scribe; he remarks
that "It is seen here that the writer has corrected several of his
mistakes by compensation. For instance, the two first differences should
be 177 [8 months, 17 days] and 148 [7 months, 8 days], not 176 and 149,"
&c.
This is a strained hypothesis which I hesitate to adopt so long as any
other solution of the difficulty can be found. It is more likely that the
writer would have corrected his mistakes, if observed, than that he would
compensate them by corresponding errors.
Going back to that part of the series in the lower divisions which has
already been examined and commencing with Plate 51_b_ (see Table VI), we
observe that the numbers in the lowest of the three lines of black
numerals, immediately over the day columns, and the first day of these
columns are as follows (omitting the week days attached):
14 11 8 5 2 10
Ik. Cauac. Cib. Been. Oc. Ezanab.
Turning to the calendar (Table II) and using the Muluc column, we notice
that the figures of this third line of black numerals denote respectively
the month numbers of the days under them; that is to say, Ik is the
fourteenth day of the month in Muluc years, Cauac the eleventh, Cib the
eighth, Been the fifth, Oc the second, and Ezanab the tenth. This holds
good through Plates 52_b_ to 58_b_ without a single exception, provided
the diamond shaped symbol in the fourth column of Plate 55_b_ is counted
as 20. This test, therefore, presents fewer exceptions than are found in
counting the intervals as before explained; yet, after all, this would
necessarily result from the fact that the day Muluc was selected as the
commencement of the series, and hence may have no signification in
reference to or bearing on the question of the year series, especially as
the years counted are evidently of 360 days.
Returning now to our Table VIII, representing Plate 53_a_, we observe
that the number immediately over Kan in the first column is 17, whereas
Kan is the sixteenth day of the month. Is it not possible that the
intention was to designate as the ceremonial day Chicchan, standing
immediately below, which is the seventeenth day of the month in Muluc
years? Even though there is no reference to Muluc years, the intervals
may be given upon the same idea, that of reaching, for some particular
reason, the second or third day of the column instead of the first. This
would account for the compensation of which Dr. Förstemann speaks,
without implying any mistake on the part of the writer. These
irregularities would then be intentional variations from the order of the
series, yet so as not to break the general plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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