The first of these two passages is at the top of pages 71-73. Here there
are four horizontal rows of twelve hieroglyphs each. Since, however, the
top row is entirely effaced and none of the other three are perfectly
preserved, it is quite impossible at present to judge of the
interconnection of the whole. But I must point out a certain resemblance to
the passage on pages 44b-45b, where a period of 78 days is considered with
reference to the wind-deities. The first and sixth columns of pages 71-72
likewise contain the signs for wind and the pierced ears. The fact that the
Bacab sign occurs in the eighth column, and in no other, must attract
'attention; if we knew it to be effaced in the first column, then each
column might refer to 13 days, though 12 × 13, it is true, does not form a
natural whole. C's sign is the only hieroglyph of a god to be found in both
passages. E also occurs on pages 44b-45b and may be one of the effaced
signs on pages 71-72. There is no trace left of the others. The fact that
some hieroglyphs occur in both the passages referred to proves nothing with
regard to signs in frequent use and I can find no cases of correspondence
among those occurring more rarely. Hence this passage must be left for the
present as an almost complete mystery.
I have discussed the second passage in detail in my article "Zur
Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften V," of the year 1895, and from it I will
borrow the following. This second passage fills the middle and lower thirds
of pages 71-73, occupying the same space as the first passage in the upper
third, and offering far more reliable material than the latter.
That these hieroglyphs are not connected with the numerals above and below,
can be deduced from the fact that the numbers follow one another from right
to left and the hieroglyphs in the reversed order. This is proved by the
hand pointing to the right, which occurs here at least eight times like the
one occurring twenty times on pages 46-50.
But the scribe, misled by the direction of the numeral series, began on
page 71 to write the _first_ of these hieroglyphs from the right instead of
from the left, but after the first four groups he corrected his mistake.
Hence I read the groups of three hieroglyphs each, in the following
order:--
Page 71. Page 72. Page 73.
2 1 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 19 20 21 22 23
4 3 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 24 25 26 27 28
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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