2010 3050 3051 3052 3053 3054 3055 _See_ 184 2011 3060 3061 3062 3063 3064 3065 _See_ 131, 2020 2012 3070 3071 3072 3073 3074 3075 2013 3080 3081 3082 3083 3084 3085 2014 [*] These four each side of the main stem of the cross. 1976=_Ezanab_--a Maya day[TN-3] [Illustration: FIG. 48.--The Palenquean Group of the Cross.] IV. IN WHAT ORDER ARE THE HIEROGLYPHS READ? Before any advance can be made in the deciphering of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, it is necessary to know in what directions, along what lines or columns, the verbal sense proceeds. All the inscriptions that I know of are in rectangular figures. At Copan they are usually in squares. At Palenque the longest inscriptions are in rectangles. At Palenque again, there are some cases where there is a single horizontal line of hieroglyphs over a pictorial tablet. Here clearly the only question is, do the characters proceed from left to right, or from right to left? In other cases as in the tablet of the cross, there are vertical columns. The question here is, shall we read up or down? Now, the hieroglyphs must be phonetic or pictorial, or a mixture of the two. If they are phonetic, it will take more than one symbol to make a word, and we shall have groups of like characters when the same word is written in two places. If the signs are pictorial, the same thing will follow; that is, we shall have groups recurring when the same idea recurs. Further, we know that the subjects treated of in these tablets must be comparatively simple, and that _names_, as of gods, kings, etc., must necessarily recur. The _names_, then, will be the first words deciphered. At present no single name is known. These considerations, together with our system of nomenclature, will enable us to take some steps. Take, for example, the right-hand side of the Palenque cross tablet as given by RAU. _See_ our figure 48, which is Plate LVI of STEPHENS (vol. ii, p. 345), with the addition of the part now in the National Museum at Washington. Our system of numbering is here 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3080 3081 3082 3083 3084 3085 Now pick out the duplicate hieroglyphs in this; that is, run through the tablet, and wherever 2020 occurs erase the number which fills the place and write in 2020. Do the same for 2021, 2022, etc., down to 3084. The result will be as follows: RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF PALENQUE CROSS TABLET (RAU).