Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/64

20 We know that tables of days of this form are to be found in some two or three of the Mexican Codices; something similar is also to be found in the Dresden Codex, and by placing the columns of these four plates of the Manuscript side by side we will have just such a table.

But be this as it may, the exact agreement in the other three columns, and the fact that the years named and numbered appear to belong to one continuous period of time—an all-important point in this connection—show, as we think, conclusively that our explanation of these numerals and the day characters, and of the use here made of them, is correct. If so, then the red numerals are used to number the days and years of the week, or, in other words, to number the days and years exactly as the various writers have stated was the usual custom. We have marked this period on the tables of years, with waved lines so as to be seen at a glance, as we shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it.

As further proof that these red numerals are limited to the thirteen series, I now call attention to certain short columns found in the middle division of Plates VII*-X*. These consist of three days each—Cib, Caban, and Ezanab—and each day has a numeral over it, as follows (I give here the exact order in which they stand on the plates, although I have doubts as to the correctness of Brasseur's paging):