: Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1881-82 Government Printing Office Washington 1884 pages 3-66 by Thomas Cyrus - Maya calendar; Calendar Mexico

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Page. Tableau des Bacab 7 Plate 43 of the Borgian Codex 23 Plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex 30 Symbols of the cardinal points 36

FIG. 1.--The four cardinal symbols 8 2.--Scheme of the Tableau des Bacab 13 3.--Copy from Plates 18 and 19, Codex Peresianus 19 4.--Copy of Plate 43, Borgian Codex 24 5.--Copy of Plates 51 and 52, Vatican Codex, B 27 6.--Scheme of Plate 44, Fejervary Codex 34 7.--Symbols of the four cardinal points 36 8.--Calendar wheel, as given by Duran 44 9.--Calendar wheel, from book of Chilan Balam 59 10.--Engraved shells 61 11.--Withdrawn

BY CYRUS THOMAS.

"TABLEAU DES BACAB."

Before entering upon the discussion of this plate I will insert here Rosny's comment, that the reader may have an opportunity of comparing his view of its signification with the opinion I shall advance.

In the four compartments of the Tablet appear the same cyclic signs again in two series. I will not stop to dwell upon them, not having discovered the system of their arrangement.

These four katounic groups are here in fact arranged in the following manner:

Now, not only do these groups include, as I have explained, several of the phonetic elements of Maya words known to designate the four cardinal points, but they occupy, besides, the place which is necessary to them in the arrangement , to wit:

West. S N o o u r t t h h . . East.

We see from this quotation, that Rosny was unable to give any explanation of the day characters, dots, and L-shaped symbols in the outer space; also that he was unable to suggest any reason for the peculiar arrangement of the day symbols in the intermediate circle or quadrilateral. His suggestions are limited to the four characters placed opposite the four sides, and which, he believes, and I think correctly, to be the symbols of the four cardinal points. Whether his conclusion as to the points they respectively refer to be correct or not, is one of the questions I propose to discuss in this paper. But before entering upon this, the most important question regarding the plate, I desire first to offer what I believe will be admitted to be a correct explanation of the object and uses of the day symbols, dots, &c., in the outer space, and the intermediate circle of day characters.

As explained in my former paper, although there were twenty days in each Maya month, each day with its own particular name, and always following each other in the same order, so that each month would begin with the same day the year commenced with, yet it was the custom to number the days up to 13 and then commence again with 1, 2, 3, and so on, thus dividing the year into weeks of thirteen days each.

For a full explanation of this complicated calendar system I must refer the reader to my former paper. But at present we shall need only an understanding of the tables here given. I shall, as I proceed, refer to Table I, leaving the reader who prefers to do so to refer to the list of days marked Table II, as they are precisely the same thing, only differing in form.

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