These characters are traced in the following order, commencing, for example, with Muluc and continuing from left to right: 6, 2, 18, 13, 17, 14, 5, 1, 16, 12, 8, 4, 20, 15, 11, 7, 19, 3, 9, 10. * * *
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.
Besides these cyclic signs no other katounes are found on the Tablet, except four groups which have attracted my attention since the beginning of my studies, and which I have presented, not without some hesitation, as serving to note the four cardinal points. I do not consider my first attempt at interpretation as definitely demonstrated, but it seems to me that it acquires by the study of the pages in question of the Codex Cortesianus, a new probability of exactitude.
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 (orientation), to wit:
I have said, moreover, in my Essay, that certain characteristic symbols of the gods of the four cardinal points (the Bacab) are found placed beside the katounic groups, which occcpy me at this moment, in a manner which gives a new confirmation of my interpretation.
On Plates 23, 24, 25, and 26 of the Codex Cortesianus, where the same groups and symbols are seen reproduced of which I have just spoken, the hierogrammat has drawn four figures identical in shape and dress. These four figures represent the “god of the long nose.” Beside the first, who holds in his hand a flaming torch, appears a series of katounes, at the head of which is the sign Kan (symbol of the south), and above, a defaced group. Beside the second, who holds a flaming torch inverted, is the sign Muluc (symbol of the east), and above, the group which I have interpreted as east. At the side of the third, who carries in the left hand the burning torch inverted and a scepter (symbol of Bacabs), is the sign Ix (symbol of the north), and above, the group which I have translated as north. Finally, beside the fourth, who carries in his left hand the flaming torch inverted and a hatchet in the right hand, is the sign Cauac (symbol of the west), and above, not the entire group, which I have translated as west, but the first sign of this group, and also an animal characteristic of the Occident, which has been identified with the armadillo. I have some doubts upon the subject of this animal, but its affinity with the qualification of the west appears to me at least very probable.