On page 46 we see the Venus sign and E's hieroglyph; on page 47 the sign
_c_, which occurs frequently on these pages, and is probably always
connected with Moan (the Pleiades and thus with the year). The numeral 1,
prefixed to an obliterated sign on page 47, is still legible, and we find
it repeated on the lower part of the same page. There is rather more to be
seen on page 48:--first the elongated head _q_ with the Ben-Ik superfix,
then the sign _a_, beside it that for the west with a prefix, in the line
below an Ahau, next, an Akbal sign with the prefix of the north, and lastly
a Moan sign.
On page 49 we see sign _c_ again occupying the first place, then o with
Ben-Ik, and in the lower line the year sign with that for 20 or the moon as
a superfix, and to the right of it the head with the Akbal eye, probably
denoting D.
This top part of the page is best preserved on page 50. In the third line
from the bottom we see the Venus sign and beside it the Moan sign, below, a
Cauac, then a Kin with the Ben-Ik superfix, then a Kan-Imix. Finally, in
the first place in the lowest row there is a Kin sign and in the second
place a sign resembling the year-sign, both having the same superfix, the
next sign is again _c_ and the last is a half-effaced sign, of which only a
Muluc is distinguishable.
Our knowledge of the middle section of these pages is somewhat more
definite. There are twelve hieroglyphs on each page, which I will number in
the following order:--
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12.
Unquestionably these 5 × 12 signs refer to a Venus year, more exactly to
the _beginning_ of it, the period of the east. The first sign, which is a
hand pointing to the right, merely refers here, as on the left side, to the
direction in which this is to be read; the second sign is always the sign
for the east, and the sixth invariably that for Venus.
Notice should be taken of the fact that the signs of the Moan and
screech-owl or death-bird are recurrent, that of the Moan appearing on page
46, sign 7; 48, 3; 49, 11; 50, 11; and that of the death-bird on page 47,
sign 3; 48, 11, 49, 3, 50, 3 and 7, _i.e._, only in places 3, 7 and 11,
which indicates that the 12 signs are divided each time into three times
four.
It is further to be noted that the five gods, who are represented on page
24 by hieroglyphs 36-40, always recur in the ninth place in the order of
the pages:--the god represented on page 24 by sign 36 is the 8th on page
49; the 38th on the same page is the 11th on page 46 and the 12th on page
50; the 39th is the 12th on page 47, and the 40th may be the 5th on page
49, though this is hardly possible. On page 49 the 9th hieroglyph seems to
be the 39th on page 24 joined to the sign for the month Kayab.
Of the twenty gods on the left side of these pages, I have already remarked
that E, who on page 24 occupies the 38th place, and the 11th on page 46,
also occurs as the 9th on page 48 and the 12th on page 50.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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