21. B is walking and bears pouch, spear and shield.
Hieroglyph 1 is a hand holding the sign of the rising Moan, just as in 15 a hand holds the head of K; 2 is again K, whose sign is probably effaced several times in the last groups of this series. 3 is E with the sign of the east; 5 is compounded of Imix, Chuen and b, and 6 is Kin with the sign of the north. Here the day of the normal date is reached, but this may be significant only for the year 9 Ix.
22. We come now to the representation of the change of the year, which we have already mentioned. Hieroglyph 1 is curious, consisting of the moon with a stripe running around it like a strap; 3 and 5 are not clear to me and are doubtless closely connected with one another; 3 also contains a trace of K and is perhaps a determinative of the same. 6 is again E, and suggests the tilling of the fields.
23. This picture as well as the first two hieroglyphs have already been discussed above. The crouching personage, repeated again in 3 as a prefix to the cross b, is curious. 5 is again E and 6 is Imix, referring to grain and honey.
24. The picture and three of the hieroglyphs plainly correspond. The grain deity E holds food and drink in his hand. Rain is pouring from the planets, and the wind-beast plunges down, as on pages 44 and 45. Sign 3 is E's hieroglyph, 6 is Kan-Imix and 2 is the wind-beast. B is superfluously added in 4 and the same is true of the cross b in 1, while Kin-Akbal in 5 seems to fit almost everywhere. Pages 29a, 30a and 45c show the lightning-beast in a different form.
25. As is usually the case, rain is pouring from the stars and below them are the sun and moon as before. This time C is sitting in the rain, clad in the gala mantle and holding Kan. Hieroglyphs 1, 2 and 4, the latter apparently representing C, are effaced. The other three are enigmatical, 3 is again Xul with a prefixed 9, 5 a Caban, but with an unintelligible prefix, and 6 is again the mysterious 8.
26. B is sitting on a tree or sacrificial stone, which is colored half blue and half red, and may denote the ceasing of the rainy season; he is brandishing his hatchet. Hieroglyphs 1, 2 and 3
are effaced; 4 is B's sign, 5 might be Xul and 6 is a with c added and thus referring to the Moan. And here the half of the ritual year ends with the 182nd day, which is XIII Chicchan 18 Pop (10 Muluc); and it is left to the reader to imagine or to find hieroglyphs and pictures for the other two series of numeral signs.
I am troubled about the five naked crouching figures of this section, which I am inclined to regard as the sign for Mercury with its apparent revolution of 115 days, which, however, seems sometimes (as on pages 54, 56 and 58 in the upper sections) to be raised to the value of half a Tonalamatl = 130 days. This may be explained by the fact that it is difficult to determine exactly the length of the revolution of Mercury. In group 15 this figure appears exactly on the 115th day of this section, but in group 6 on the 234th day of the year, i.e., approximately at the expiration of two Mercury periods after the beginning of the year. But now for group 23. Here there are three of these crouching figures. The two upper ones leaning back to back must serve the purpose of indicating the change in the year. But they would hardly do so, if the third personage were not added, which may indicate that the solar year consists approximately of three Mercury periods. I look upon this view of the matter merely as the first attempt at an explanation.
Pages 69—73.