Commentary on the Maya Manuscript in the Royal Public Library of Dresden

by Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann

Kin-Akbal, and 5 is a Kan with the prefix which generally belongs to the south as a superfix.

13. B is seated on the elongated head q with a superfix and a prefix, exactly as on pages 37c and 40a, and this sign is repeated in the hieroglyphs (in 2) just as it is in the two former places. He holds the eagle on his lap and we see him connected with the same bird in a different way on page 43c. Is B represented here as the preventer of evil? Hieroglyph 4 is a, while 5 is Kan, apparently with the sign of the south as a prefix. A Bacab period of 91 days ends here. We come now to the upper series of pictures.

14. B is walking in the rain, with the copal pouch around his neck and the hatchet uplifted in his left hand. An unknown object, possibly held in his right hand, is hanging in front of his legs. Hieroglyphs 1 and 3 are effaced, 2 is indistinct, 5 seems to be a Xul (end, close) and 6 is E's head.

15. B is walking, brandishing the hatchet in his left hand, and holding in his right an object resembling a cornucopia filled with fruit; below this hangs what appears to be a flower. The god wears the copal pouch. Hieroglyph 1 is a hand holding K's head; it is curious that this sign should also occur in the next group as an indication of the approaching Muluc year. 3 is a sign still undetermined; but the prefix is the crouching naked personage with dots suggesting stars around its head. I have often thought that similar figures represented Mercury; it is remarkable that exactly the 115th day of this section is reached here, corresponding with the apparent revolution of Mercury = 115 days. Similarly sign 2 invites computation; it is a face resembling an Ahau sign, with a 3 as a superfix and a 9 as a prefix; compare the other places containing the same face, with 33c. After the fashion of the inscriptions this would denote 9 + 3 × 20 = 69, which by the way is three fifths of the Mercury revolution. 5 is a compound of Akbal and Imix and 6 a compound of a Moan sign (c) with a.

16. B is in a half sitting position and holds a strange object before himself. On top of his own head is K's, which is repeated in sign 2. I do not know how to explain 1, unless it is the bat-god; 3 is a Xul = end (but of what?) combined with Imix,

and 5 is the usual Kan-Imix. 6 is a Kin with an 8 back of it (as 36b, 37b, 67a, 68a) and over it is a hand pointing to the right, just like those in groups 20 and 25. This looks as if we ought to count forward 8 days, but what can be the purpose of doing so?

17. B is walking armed with spear and shield. Sign 1 is b, 2 the face resembling an Ahau, which occupied the second place in group 15, 3 is probably Xul again, but with an effaced prefix; of 5 also only an Imix remains; while 6 is the usual compound of Muluc-Caban.

18. We have now reached the day 16 Kayab, a day very close to the day 18 Kayab, which on page 24 we recognized as an especially important day, while in my article "Zur Entzifferung III" I regarded it as the day of the summer solstice. Computed from the normal date IV Ahau 8 Cumhu it may also have denoted the end of a lunar year, as on pages 51-58 where it is the basis of the series. The picture here agrees with this. B is sitting in the pouring rain of the rainy season and gazing upward at the planets, as on page 36c and particularly on 39c; the sun and moon are also represented, but below the planets. The hieroglyphs likewise contain the sun and moon in 1 and 2, in 3, Ahau and Xul with a prefix, as if this were the end of the increase of the sun's power; 5 is Kin-Akbal, day and night, and 6 is Caban with the cross b.

19. B is walking armed with hatchet and shield. He holds a serpent in his hand as on page 40c, but here with the head downward. Hieroglyphs 1 and 2 are destroyed, 3 is the cross b with a suffix and the horse-shoe prefix e, known to us from pages 5 and 6. 5 is Imix combined with Chuen and probably with Yax, and 6 is E's head.

20. This is the old red woman with the tiger claws, whom we saw on pages 39b and 43b and shall see again on page 74; she reinforces the water falling from the planets by pouring a stream from her jug. The first three hieroglyphs are effaced, 4 is the elongated head q, 5 is Kin-Akbal, 6, as in group 16, is again the enigmatical 8 with a hand pointing to the right.