Each of the four deities hold in one hand a hen with its head cut off;
"degollavan una gallina" is the statement made by Landa concerning these
feasts. Perhaps all four gods, at any rate the last three, are scattering
grain; this was one form of divination; we found the other on page 2. There
are besides, on every page, several small objects between the two pictures,
just as in the middle section. On page 25 the object is probably an altar,
but instead of the flame it has the number 19. Above this is the sign for
the west (the Ix days) with that for the sun, and on top of them the sign
which we found in the middle section of page 26 as the contents of the
lower vessel. On page 26 we see a vessel containing a bird, then another
whose contents are indicated by Yax and a double Kan sign. Above it is the
sign for the moon or for 20 with a prefix, and above this a 9. At the
bottom of page 27 there is a vessel containing two Kan signs and a fish;
above this another vessel the contents of which are the same as we found in
the vessel in the middle section of page 26 and in that of the lower
section of page 25. Above these is again the sign for the moon or 20 with a
superfix, which is the same as the prefix on page 26, and beside it is a
16. Page 28 has the usual haunch of venison (Landa:--"una pierna de
venado"), above this is a vessel with a bird and Kan and above this again
the sign for the moon or for 20 with the same superfix and the numeral 15.
I shall discuss below the numbers scattered over these four pages.
7. The Bottom Hieroglyphs.
These hieroglyphs also form but _one_ line on each page and each line
contains six hieroglyphs. The _first_ of each line is always the same
(_p_). It consists of a surface divided into four quadrants thus suggesting
the four cardinal points, the four Bacabs presiding over them and the four
kinds of years. The superfix seems to be the abbreviated hieroglyph of the
north; the sign for the north, however, is Muluc and these four pages begin
with the Muluc years.
The _second_ sign is the head of D as the supreme god; to this a Yax is
joined on pages 26-28 as the symbol of strength, and on page 25, but
probably by mistake, the abbreviated sign for the west.
The _third_ sign always represents one of the four cardinal points:--on
page 25 the east, on page 26 the south, on page 27 the west and on page 28
the north; here then the usual order is reversed and the signs are set down
according to the diurnal instead of the annual course of the sun, probably
occasioned merely by exchanging the sign for the west (Ix), which belongs
on page 25, with that for the east (Kan), which belongs on page 27.
The other three signs do not stand in the same order on every page.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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