Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/178

112 of time I think is clear from what has been shown concerning their calendar. When I first noticed this arrangement I was of the opinion that it indicated the number of different subjects treated of in the manuscript, and that the page should be considered in columns. But subsequent study has led me to doubt the correctness of the first part of this theory.

We observe that the first (top) line consists of seven day characters as follows (counting from left to right as numbered): Ymix, Ik, Akbal, Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, and Manik. Two are obliterated, but there can be no doubt that the missing ones are Kan and Chicchan, a conclusion I had reached before I had seen Rosny's work or Dr. Brinton's article. Brasseur supplied the fourth space with Ahau and the fifth with Kan.

In this connection I call attention to the fact that on the left-hand slab of the Palanque Tablet there are just seven double characters under the large initiatory hieroglyph. Omitting the four characters by the upright of the cross, the number of columns is an exact multiple of seven, whether we omit or include the single ones in the transverse lines above the heads of the priests.

Counting the large initiatory character as four—as it covers four spaces—and each double one as two, there are 245 characters on the entire tablet—an exact multiple of seven. It may be worthy of notice also that there are just seven characters in and immediately around the cross (included in the above calculation), viz, two on the upright, omitted in Dr. Rau's scheme; two each side, and one immediately to the left of the lower end of the arrow shaft (also omitted in Dr. Rau's plan); that there are 17 (= 10+7) characters in each column of the outer slabs.

This may be accidental, and, as a rule, but little confidence should be placed in such calculations; but this, taken in connection with what we find in this line in the Manuscript, is sufficient to lead us to believe that this septenary arrangement is not accidental, but intentional, and has some specific, hidden meaning.

The tablet on the inner wall of Casa No. 1 (Stephen's Cent. Am, II, 343) has on it fourteen columns, each with ten characters, making 140 in all; but those on the outer corridor of the same casa have each twenty columns of twelve characters. The tablet of Casa No. 3, which appears to be