Consequently we find nine pictures of the same god B. In five of them (in
Groups 1-4 and 9) he is sitting before or on a sacrificial tree or tree of
life; cf. 30b. It is probably not accidental that in these five cases the
hieroglyphs refer to the cardinal points. In the eighth group the god is
surrounded by the suggestion of one or more trees; he is sitting in water
as if in a forest; or in a cave bordered by trees? In the remaining groups,
5, 6 and 7 he is seated on various supports, in 5 on an object, which is
not completed and which cannot, therefore, be explained, in 6 on
astronomical figures (Mars and Venus?) and in 7 on agave leaves. In 1 and 3
his head is again surrounded by those dots suggesting stars, in 4 there
seems to be a bird (quetzal?) seated upon it and in 2 it bears what may be
the Kin sign. In 1 and 5 he has the pouch for incense in his hand, while in
3 alone he wears the gala mantle and is painted black, just as he appears
in connection with the same hieroglyphs on page 29c. He carries a hatchet
in repose in 2, 6 and 9, and raised for a blow in 1 and 7. In 7 he also
holds the Imix sign.
The hieroglyphs form nine groups of four signs each. The first hieroglyph,
as is always the case in this part of the Manuscript, is the sign which I
have denoted by _f_, and the second is always B's hieroglyph. The cardinal
points are everywhere specified by two signs each; in places 3 and 4 of
group 1, the west comes first and beside it is the sign for the east,
erroneously used for that of the west (a like error occurred in the
preceding Tonalamatl); in group 2 there are two signs for the north; in
group 3 that for the east with the sign for the west beside it erroneously
given for the east, and in group 4 two signs for the south. In groups 5, 6
and 7 we find in the 4th place the head of C, and the same sign in group 7
in the 3d place, where it is joined to another head, which may be that of a
woman. The 3d sign of group 5 is incomplete and cannot be determined. The
3d sign of group 6 displays a repetition of the astronomical signs
represented below. There still remain the 3d and 4th signs of groups 8 and
9. Of these the 3d in group 8 is _w_, which is as yet unexplained. The 4th
might be interpreted either as Oc (day 7) or as Xul (end). Its prefix is a
Yax sign. Finally, in group 9 the 3d sign is Manik (day 4), the 4th the
elongated head _q_ with the Ben-Ik superfix, which Seler assigns to Men
(day 12).
Pages 33c--39c.
The beginning of this Tonalamatl is indicated by a large red dot on page
33. It resembles the Tonalamatl almost exactly above it on pages 31b-35b,
inasmuch as its arrangement is an unusual one. I will here, as I did above,
give it the form in which it would present itself if it were set down in
the usual order:--
XIII 9 IX 11 VII 20 I 10 XI 15 XIII
Ahau
Chicchan
Oc
Men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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