Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/271

Rh carefully, we shall find that they are never placed at the left where the outer or left line of the numeral character is 3, 4, or 5. On the contrary, they are always (with two exceptions) present where the left numeral line is one—that is, a single dot—and occasionally where there are two.

The exceptions are R 2 and T 2; but an examination of the tablet in the National Museum shows very clearly that they have been broken off the latter and that they were probably originally on the former. Why do they accompany only those numerals with one or two dots at the left and no others? My answer is, simply to complete the square. This will probably explain the presence of small characters or irregular balls on the foreheads of some of the heads. The loops and balls at the bottom of the characters probably have some particular signification, as something similar is observed in the Manuscripts, as, for example, under the symbol for the month Pax.

I will now ask the reader to refer to Plate IX, representing the tablet. He will observe on each side and near to the upright of the cross two characters—four in all, two in the column marked M and two in that marked N. He is aware, from what has been shown in the previous part of this paper, that in the Tro. Manuscript each division of the plates, or each compartment, has at the left a column of days, usually five in number, though in a few instances there are but four. The four symbols by the cross I think are for precisely the same purpose as these day columns, and that the numeral five, at the side of each, probably corresponds with that placed over the colunms. As the upper left-hand character (M 1) is Ezanab, the equivalent of Chinax in the Chiapan calendar, which, according to Veytia's list, is one of the year-bearers, we might presume the four represent the four year-bearers, Votan, Lambat, Been, and Chinax, or their Maya equivalents Akbal, Lamat, Been, and Ezanab. But one objection to this supposition is that the lower character at the right (N 2) does not correspond with the symbol of either of these days, but appears to be the same as (B 10) on the left slab, which is probably Cimi of the Maya or Tox of the Chiapan list of days. But in these four characters Catherwood, usually so accurate, appears to be at fault, and Waldeck correct.

Turning now to the general inscription on the left and right, I will endeavor to pick out and name the day characters, first notifying the reader