If that which is actually set down in the Manuscript be compared with this,
it will be seen that in 11 of the 24 places the Manuscript corresponds to
my hypothesis:--1, 7 and 19 are the familiar signs for the three cardinal
points, 8 and 20 are the sign Xul = end, which I have already frequently
mentioned, 9 and 21 are the sign for B, 11 is Muluc, 23 is Cauac, where the
scribe has added to the correct Kin-Cauac the sign for the year, as if the
Cauac _years_ were treated of here as on pages 26 and 27. Finally the two
agree in 12 and 18, where the Manuscript has the compound Kan-Imix to
denote beginning, _i.e._, the two days beginning the series of twenty days,
one of them according to this Manuscript, and the other according to the
method resembling that used by the Aztecs.
The other cases have the correct signs, but set down in the wrong place,
thus B is changed from 3 to 2, from 15 to 16, the north from 13 to 14, the
Xul from 2 to 3, 14 to 15, the E (Kan) from 5 to 4 and 6 and Cauac from 4
to 5, _i.e._, pushed along every time to the next place. This is all in
favor of my theory. As one series began at the top, the scribe incorrectly
placed the sign for beginning in the thirteenth place.
Strange to say in the tenth place we have the very general sign _a_ in
place of Kan. In the 4th, 17th and 22nd, and probably also in the half
destroyed 6th sign, the scribe thoughtlessly put down a sign for E, which
is proper only with Kan and should come after 5 or 10. Finally in the 24th
place he put a sign for A, as if it were the intention that this passage
should end exactly like its parallel on page 28. For, as a matter of fact,
the two principal sections of the first part of the Dresdensis do end in a
very similar way.
* * * * *
PART II.
Pages 46--74.
The first glance at the form and contents of the second part of the
Manuscript shows that it is very different from the first. The pages are no
longer divided into the usual three parts and there are fewer pictures. The
Tonalamatls, which form the principal contents of the first part, disappear
wholly, and with them both the vertical columns of day-signs and the
horizontal lines of numerals alternating between red and black. On the
other hand, the large number series as well as the high numbers
significantly increase and we note the appearance of the large vertical
columns of hieroglyphs, which were impossible in the triple division of the
earlier pages. We also find a large number of hieroglyphs which did not
occur in the first part. The contents are essentially astronomical.
And yet the two parts are so closely connected with one another that the
idea of two independent Manuscripts must be dismissed. Especially the front
side of the second part as far as page 60 is nothing more than an
amplification of page 24. The contents of pages 61-74 are of a more
independent nature, but special attention should be called to the relation
of 31a-32a to 62-63.
Pages 46--50.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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