Page 45 refers to the displacement of the Ix period by the Cauac period, i.e., of the west by the south. The end of the former is represented here. The lightning-beast, which occurred in the preceding period, here lies on his back and B sits astride his body brandishing in each hand a burning torch as an appropriate symbol of the south. On pages 29a and 30c we already saw the god riding on the lightning-dog.
Finally the six interesting hieroglyphs set down in a vertical
row on the left of each of the four pages are still to be examined. I will give here in the following table what I think is a correct interpretation of them:—
| Page 42. | 43. | 44. | 45. |
| South (1). | East (7). | North (13). | West (9). |
| It ends (2). | (8). | (14). | (20). |
| B (3). | (9). | (15). | (21). |
| the time of the Cauac (4), | Kan (10), | Muluc (16), | Ix (22), |
| while Kan (5), | Muluc (11), | Ix (17), | Cauac (23). |
| begins (6). | (12). | (18). | (24). |
If that which is actually set down in the Manuscript be compared with this, it will be seen that in 11 of the 24 places the Manuscript corresponds to my hypothesis:—1, 7 and 19 are the familiar signs for the three cardinal points, 8 and 20 are the sign Xul = end, which I have already frequently mentioned, 9 and 21 are the sign for B, 11 is Muluc, 23 is Cauac, where the scribe has added to the correct Kin-Cauac the sign for the year, as if the Cauac years were treated of here as on pages 26 and 27. Finally the two agree in 12 and 18, where the Manuscript has the compound Kan-Imix to denote beginning, i.e., the two days beginning the series of twenty days, one of them according to this Manuscript, and the other according to the method resembling that used by the Aztecs.
The other cases have the correct signs, but set down in the wrong place, thus B is changed from 3 to 2, from 15 to 16, the north from 13 to 14, the Xul from 2 to 3, 14 to 15, the E (Kan) from 5 to 4 and 6 and Cauac from 4 to 5, i.e., pushed along every time to the next place. This is all in favor of my theory. As one series began at the top, the scribe incorrectly placed the sign for beginning in the thirteenth place.
Strange to say in the tenth place we have the very general sign a in place of Kan. In the 4th, 17th and 22nd, and probably also in the half destroyed 6th sign, the scribe thoughtlessly put down a sign for E, which is proper only with Kan and should come after 5 or 10. Finally in the 24th place he put a sign for A, as if it were the intention that this passage should end exactly like its parallel on page 28. For, as a matter of fact, the two principal sections of the first part of the Dresdensis do end in a very similar way.
PART II.