Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts | Page 5

immediately to the left of this we see two little bars
and three dots [Illustration: Three dots over two bars] or 13.
Turning again to our table and running down the column of the first
month to the number 13 we find that it is Chuen, which is followed by
1 Eb. Turning again to the plate we observe that the character
immediately above Chuen[TN-4] is Eb.,[TN-5] and that it has
adjoining it below a single dot, or 1. Running from thence down the
line of dots toward the center we reach Kan, immediately above which
is the character for 13. Turning again to our table and starting with the
1 opposite Eb and running to the bottom of the column which ends with
7 and passing to 8 at the top of the second column, and running down
this to 13, or following down our list of days (Table II), we find it to be
Kan, which is followed by 1 Chicchan. On the plate we see the
character for Chicchan (No. 35) immediately above that of Kan (No.
34), with a single small dot touching it above. Running from this
upward along the row of large dots toward the outer corner we next
reach the character for Caban (No. 36), adjoining which we see the
numeral character for 13.
[Illustration: PL. II
THE TABLEAU DES BACAB RESTORED.]
Running our eye down the second column of the table, from 1 opposite

Chicchan to 13, we find it is opposite Caban, thus agreeing with what
we find in the plate.
This will enable the reader to follow up the names and numbers on the
table as I will now give them from Caban (No. 36), in the manner
above shown, remembering that the movement on the plate is around
the circle toward the left, that is, up the right side, toward the left on the
top, down the left side, &c., and that, on the tables, after one column is
completed we take the next to the right.
From Caban (No. 36) we go next to Ezanab No. 37 (the single dot is
here effaced); then down the row of dots to Oc, No. 38, over which is
the numeral for 13; then to Chuen, No. 39, immediately to the left (the
single dot is dimly outlined immediately above it); then up the row of
large dots to Akbal No. 40 (the numeral character for 13 is immediately
to the right); then to Kan No. 1, immediately to the left (the single dot
adjoins it on the right); then to the left along the border row of dots to
Cib No. 2, in the upper left-hand corner, immediately under which we
find the numeral character for 13.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Scheme of the Tableau des Bacab.]
Without following this further, I will now give a scheme or plan of the
plate (Fig. 2), adding the names of the effaced characters, which the
table enables us to do by following it out in the manner explained. I
also give in Plate II another figure of the plate of the Cortesian Codex,
with the effaced characters inserted, and the interchange of Caban and
Eb which will be hereafter explained. This plate corresponds with the
plan or scheme shown in Fig. 2.[4]
In this we commence with Kan, numbered 1, in the top row, moving
thence toward the left as already indicated, following the course shown
by the numbers.
By this time the reader, if he has studied the plate with care, has
probably encountered one difficulty in the way of the explanation given;
that there are usually twelve large dots instead of eleven, as there should
be, between the day signs; as, for example, between Kan No. 1 and Cib

No. 2, in the upper row. This I am unable to explain, except on the
supposition that the artist included but one of the day signs in the count,
or that it was not the intention to be very exact in this respect. The fact
that the number of dots in a row is not always the same, there being in
some cases as many as thirteen, and in others but eleven, renders the
letter supposition probable. In the scheme the number of dots in the
lines is given as nearly as possible as on the plate.
As there are four different series of years in the Maya calendar, the
Cauac years, Kan years, Muluc years, and Ix years, it is necessary that
we have four different tables, similar to that given for the Cauac years,
to represent them, or to combine all in one table.
As I have adopted in my former work[5] a scheme of combining them I
will insert it here (Table III).
TABLE III.--Condensed Maya Calendar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cauac
|Kan |Muluc |Ix