Fortunately, an even superficial inspection of the manuscripts shows us that we are not without material aids to this end. It is clear that many of the hieroglyphs are those of the twenty days and the eighteen months of the Maya year, which are preserved to us in the work of Bishop Landa; others, again, by their arrangement, must be connected with the cardinal points; and others suggest, by their appearance and disposition, that they portray the celestial bodies, the sun, moon, and stars; others are in the columns of numerals, and must have numerical values; and others are so related to the pictures that they are plainly a repetition of them in a partial and conventional manner, as the written characters for divinities, which are usually merely the head of the divinity more or less cursively expressed.
1. The Direction in which the Glyphs are to be read.
The first step in the decipherment of any inscription is to ascertain the direction in which it is to be read.
In my earliest essay on this subject,[[101]] I stated that whatever the prevailing rule in this respect might have been, the native artists had no hesitation in disregarding it, when artistic or other reasons presented themselves. This is the conclusion which has since been arrived at by conservative later students. I shall have numerous illustrations of it to offer in the following pages. Most of the diversity in this respect was not capricious, however, but in accordance with rules, some of which have been ascertained.
Three points in this connection will immediately attract the attention of the student. The movement of the principal figures in the records, both manuscript and mural, is generally from right to left; the main portion of the composite characters are drawn on the right, and the minor portions or affixes are added on the left;[[102]] and in placing numerals on a line, the upright strokes which mean the fives are placed to the right, and the dots which mean units less than five are placed to the left. These facts look as if the lines were written from right to left. The general opinion, however, is that expressed by Pousse and by Thomas, that the characters when arranged in lines are to be read from left to right, and when in columns from top to bottom.[[103]] That this rule does not hold good in a number of instances, as I shall show, need not surprise us, as precisely the same uncertainty in the arrangement is found in the Mexican picture-writing, as Chavero has pointed out,[[104]] and exists to-day in the manuscripts of the Tuaregs of the Sahara.[[105]] Dr. Förstemann has shown conclusively that the numerical elements in the long computations to which I have referred (above p. 30) are to be read from below upward and from right to left.[[106]]
Great aid in settling this question in any given instance can be obtained by a close examination of the rubrication of the manuscript. The native scribe, before he filled in the glyphs or letters, divided his sheet into small compartments by faint red lines, bounding as it were the different sentences or paragraphs he intended to set down. Each such sentence consists usually of four or six characters, arranged either in a column or in a square, the whole of which may be called a “cartouche.” The following diagram illustrates the manner in which the separate glyphs are to be read in ordinary cases:—
| a | a | b | a | b | a |
| b | c | d | c | d | b |
| c | c | ||||
| d | picture | picture | d | ||
Without the aid of the rubrics, from an independent study of the characters themselves, M. Pousse demonstrated that this is a necessary arrangement of the majority of the written passages.[[107]]
The signs for the days are usually placed in columns on the left of the groups of hieroglyphic characters, the numeral belonging to each being inscribed above it; while immediately below the groups are numerals in black and red, generally indicating certain days. This disposition of the elements of the writing shows that it was intended for a “time-count,” as I have before stated. For the somewhat voluminous analysis of the Codices in this direction, the reader is referred to the works of Förstemann and Thomas, who have paid fruitful attention to this department.