1. Rain is streaming down from two astronomical signs (Mars and Jupiter?
Day and night?) and in the rain stands a black human form, grasping an
implement with the right hand held downward and pointing upward with the
left. It has the vulture head which occurred on pages 8a and 13c.
Hieroglyphs 1 and 2 represent the sun and moon, both surrounded by half
white and half black envelopes, which must denote clouds. The third sign is
Imix, which just here might refer to the rainy season productive of
nourishment. The fourth sign is the vulture head of the picture.
2. B is walking in the rain and holds in one hand a stick pointed at the
lower end. This is doubtless a farming implement, likewise occurring
frequently in the Tro-Cort., which was used for making furrows or holes in
the ground.
The second hieroglyph is B's, the first is Caban = earth, the fourth might
be a compound of Caban and Muluc, referring to the rain, and the third is
the familiar Kan-Imix, which, as the designation of food and drink, would
be especially appropriate here.
3. B is apparently resting from tilling the soil, since he is sitting on a
support consisting of the signs just spoken of, _i.e._, Caban and Muluc
(?).
The latter signs are repeated in the second hieroglyph, while the third is
B's with the sun-glyph (?) prefixed; the first is the head apparently open
on top with the Akbal eye, probably the sign for beginning, and the fourth
is the familiar sign _a_, which I think signifies a good, auspicious day.
4. Page 39. This represents a violent shower of rain, which might be
pronounced a cloud-burst. The old red goddess with tiger-claws and a
serpent on her head is pouring water in a stream from a jug. The same
goddess occurs on page 43b and on the last page, 74.
Her hieroglyph is the second; it is more distinct in the two other
passages. The first part of the third hieroglyph is indistinct, and the
second part is the hieroglyph denoting the year. The first hieroglyph is a
head with the Akbal sign, and the fourth is the usual compound of Kin and
Akbal.
5. The cloud-burst seems to have destroyed the cultivation of the field,
for B walks forth again with the implement for tilling the soil, as in the
second picture. The second hieroglyph is B's with the prefix of the west,
therefore probably denoting sunshine, the first again contains Caban and
Muluc and the fourth is Kan-Imix referring again to the produce of the
field. I shall not venture to explain the third sign here any more than I
did in the previous passages. Compare page 8b.
6. B is again sitting in the rain and under the same astronomical signs as
before on page 38. He is pointing downward (to the sprouting seed?). He has
the sun-glyph on his back. The first two hieroglyphs are unfamiliar to me
(Yax); the third is Imix with the sign for the west, and the fourth is
again Muluc.
7. Page 40. B is plunging down headfirst from the same astronomical signs
and is brandishing the hatchet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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