Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/203

Rh Dr. Brinton suggested reading by columns, first down, then up, commencing with the right-hand column.

Rosny believes the characters should be read from left to right.

Wilson believed the inscriptions were to be read in columns from top to bottom, and the manuscripts from left to right.

Mr. Holden appears to have arrived at the conclusion, by his method of examination, that the inscriptions are to be read from left to right.

It is probable that no conclusion on this point will be entirely satisfactory until the characters are interpreted; still I think we can find means of determining it with reasonable, if not absolute, certainty without waiting for them to be deciphered.

The large character at the upper left-hand corner of the Palenque tablet we may safely assume is there used much in the same way as we use capital letters, and hence that the inscription is to be read either in columns, from the top downwards, or in lines, from left to right.

But we find more direct evidence on the point in the Manuscript itself. I have shown, as I think conclusively, that the day columns, at least, are to be read from the top downwards. The natural inference, therefore, would be that the other characters are to be read in the same way. But there are good reasons for believing that, although the usual method of writing was in columns, horizontal lines were by no means uncommon. Turning to Plate XIV (our Fig. 16) we find, in the middle and lower divisions, a series of columns composed of the same characters, except the ones at the top and at the bottom. Three of these columns may be represented by letters, thus: