THE WRITING.
It must be admitted that none of the attempts made at deciphering the writing in these manuscripts has proved entirely satisfactory; in fact there is still some doubt as to whether any of the characters are truly phonetic; nevertheless it is believed that what is here shown will tend to lessen this doubt. It must be conceded, however, notwithstanding these drawbacks and difficulties, that some material progress has been made towards a better understanding of its type and of the nature of the characters.
The direction in which it is to be read must of course be determined before any progress can be made in deciphering it. This was, until recently, a matter of speculation, but now may be considered settled. As this has been explained[345-1] it is unnecessary to repeat that explanation here.
A certain parallelism in the sentences or groups of characters has also been discovered. Attention was first called to this by me in the work referred to, but is more fully explained by Dr. P. Schellhas in his paper entitled “Die Mayahandschrift der königlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden.” It will readily be understood from a single illustration. Take for example the lower division of Plate XV of the Manuscript Troano (see Study Ms. Troano). Omitting from consideration the numerals and the day column at the left, there are here two short columns on the left and two on the right over the animal figures, and three longer columns between. As explained in the work referred to, the short columns are to be read as lines from left to right and the longer columns separately, from the top downward. There are, in all, five groups or sentences, each containing four compound characters. Representing these by letters, repeating those which indicate similar characters, and arranging as in the plate, the result is as follows:
| b | a | h | l | m | w | a |
| r | n | a | a | a | r | s |
| r | r | r | ||||
| p | k | t |
In this case the characters represented by a and r are repeated in each group and in the same relation to the other characters. It is apparent, therefore, that each group is to be read separately, and, as each repeats in part what is given in the others, it is more than probable that they are simply short formulas to be repeated in certain religious ceremonies. This parallelism, though not always so apparent as in the case presented, is nevertheless found running through all the codices. The advantage to the attempts at decipherment which results from this fact is evident, as it will often justify the restoration of blurred or obliterated characters, and, what is of still more importance, will enable the investigator to test his conclusions by comparing the different characters and pictures with which they are associated.
Although it appears to be well settled that, as a rule, the writing, when in lines, is to be read from left to right—the lines following each other downward and the columns to be read from the top downward, but the groups, as before explained, to be read separately—it does not follow that the groups succeed one another from left to right. This has generally been taken for granted, but there are some reasons to doubt the correctness of this conclusion as regards a number of plates and possibly one entire codex.
The facts that the lines of numerals attached to the day columns extend to the right and that the written characters, when in lines, follow one another in the same direction lead us to infer that the groups and pictures follow one another in the same order, but the apparent movement of the latter towards the left would seem to indicate that they follow one another in this direction. This inference appears to be confirmed by the following evidence: As is well known, the plates of the Manuscript Troano are to be taken in reverse order to the paging. Turning to Plate II, we observe in the middle department of the middle division a bound captive or victim, on whose neck a machete is descending to sever the head from the trunk. Turning to Plate III, which properly stands to the left of Plate II, we see a headless trunk covered with blood and the fatal machete near the neck. It is fair to presume that this is the same individual that is figured in the preceding plate, and, if so, that the pictures follow one another toward the left.
Placing Plates XV* and XVI* of the same manuscript in the proper relation to each other and carefully examining the figures in the second division, we notice that the idol heads which the artisans are carving approach completion as we move toward the left, those in Plate XV* and the right hand one in XVI* being simply blocked out, while the middle one in the latter plate is completely rounded and is receiving the second ornamental line and the one at the left hand is receiving the third and final line.
The female figures in the second division of Plate XIX* indicate the same order, as shown by the increasing girth as we proceed toward the left.