I assume that the scribe simply transferred the so-called month days from
the year just past to the year in which he was writing, in doing which they
were, of course, moved five days on (since 365 = 20 × 18 + 5), but he did
not bear in mind, that the pictures and the hieroglyphs could then no
longer correspond. Hence the days must be not
Imix, Akbal, Manik, Oc, Eb, Cib, Ezanab, Ahau, Kan, Cimi, Lamat, Oc,
Ix, Cib, Cauac, Imix, Kan, Cimi, Muluc, Chuen, Ben,
but
Cib, Ezanab, Ik, Chicchan, Manik, Chuen, Ben, Men, Cauac, Imix, Akbal,
Chicchan, Muluc, Chuen, Ix, Cib, Cauac, Imix, Kan, Cimi, Lamat.
Let us now consider the 20 groups, disregarding the first (really zero)
which has no figure and no hieroglyphs. We will leave out of the question
also the first two hieroglyphs of each group, which are the same twenty
times and form, as it were, merely a superscription, in which the first
sign is a head, also occurring elsewhere (4b-5b), with suffix and affix,
and the second is the hieroglyph _i_, which might readily denote a
sacrifice. Thus only the usual four signs remain for each picture.
1. Day 15 = Ezanab; Aztec Tecpatl, flint, lance point. The figure of the
god does not correspond with this at all; it is a god in a gala cloak,
holding before him a serpent and bearing a quetzal bird on his back. This
figure, which resembles none other in our manuscript, strongly recalls
Kukulcan, who, in fact, is often placed by the scribes at the head of the
20 Maya gods (cf. Dres. 36) in which manner he appears in this place quite
without reference to the day and the hieroglyphs. In this interpretation I
follow Seler, in the main, who in his treatise "Quetzalcouatl-Kukulcan in
Yucatan" (1898) expresses this opinion on page 403 of the separate edition.
But possibly the ear-ornament may refer to Ezanab. Of the hieroglyphs, 1
and 2 are the familiar sign of the serpent deities H or I, though here they
are not drawn exactly alike. They also appear together on page 6a. 3 ( =
_r_) I think is the sign for the week of 13 days, which recurs in groups 5,
11, 14 and 16, and hence is distributed 4 times, though not regularly,
among the 4 × 13 days. Sign 4 is the death bird.
2. Day 19 = Ik; Aztec Ehecatl, wind, air, breath. The deity pictured is B,
the god who is found the most frequently, and with the most varied
attributes, of all the gods in our manuscript. He is the god proper of
breathing and living and was, perhaps, the local god in the region where
this manuscript originated. The second hieroglyph is his sign; the first,
with a prefixed 9, is _p_ the third _q_ and the fourth _a_ with the usual 3
before it; their relations to B are still unknown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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