No one acquainted with the cursoriness of the Maya Manuscripts will be
surprised that among 138 numbers I have declared 21 to be wrong.
Furthermore the 21 errors are lessened by the fact that six of them are
really only one, for in all 6 cases where the difference is 178, the scribe
has overlooked this and written down the usual 177, although the numbers
and the days of the series very correctly indicate 178. Again the three
errors in groups 58 and 59 are also only one, for the author had confused
the differences 177 and 148 and had, therefore, to write down 10,039
instead of 10,068. In group 4 the error is merely the omission of a line
meaning 5. The scribe must have been at the same time the computer and
therefore the actual author of the Manuscript.
Furthermore I must call attention to the regular position of the
differences 178 and 148. In the three periods of 1742 days the 178 always
occupies the 6th place and in the periods of 1034 it is always in the 4th
place. This difference appears, therefore, in groups 6, 14, 29, 37, 52 and
60, _i.e._, 8, 15, 8, 15 and 8 groups apart; but it is entirely lacking in
the periods of 1210 days. And in all nine sections the 148 occupies the
third place, _i.e._, directly in front of the pictures, which will be
discussed immediately, therefore in groups 3, 13, 19, 26, 36, 42, 49, 59,
65, _i.e._, at intervals of 10, 6, 7, 10, 6, 7, 10 and 6 groups. But I must
point out an error fraught with consequences. Groups 22 and 23 quite
correctly have the difference 177, but in this single instance the scribe
has written down 178 and hence has computed the three days belonging to it
as VII Ix, VIII Men and IX Cib instead of VI Ben, VII Ix and VIII Men, and
from here on to the close he is always one day in advance, so that on page
58 group 69 ends with the days X Cimi, XI Manik and XII Lamat, while it
ought to have ended with IX Chicchan, X Cimi and XI Manik.
So much for the series. Vid. on this series my paper "Zwei
Hieroglyphenreihen in der Dresdener Mayahandschrift" (Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie, 1905, numbers 2 and 3). Let us turn next to the ten pictures
which are inserted in this series, three of which appear at the end of each
period of 2920 days as on pages 46-50. Let us attempt to advance a step
further in the darkness which still surrounds us here.
One of these pictures, the 8th, which is on page 56b, is in the wrong
place, owing to the error in computation in Groups 58 and 59 to which I
called attention above. It belongs not _before_ but _after_ group 59, the
first on page 56b. This is indicated in the Manuscript itself. For in group
59 the two hieroglyphs, usually placed above each group, are missing and we
find instead of them the sign resembling a snail, which is doubtless a very
much emphasized zero (compare my "Erläuterungen," page 29), which indicates
that the section designated by a picture closes with this group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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