But also the lower part, with eight signs in each column, shows many points in common with page 61. Here as there the whole is divided into several groups.
With the four signs 11ab and 12ab, which formed the first group there, I can compose only the two signs 11ab here. In the cross 11a, as on pages 24 and 58 of the Manuscript, I see the sign for 20 with the prefixed 5 making 25. In 11b we find the sign for 18,980 days, which we have already met with several times. Hence 11ab would have the value of 25 × 18,980 = 474,500 days, as on page 61 the corresponding four signs seemed to form 421,940. And as the number there was 1156 × 365, so on page 69 we have 1300 × 365.
I believe there is a disarrangement in what follows, inasmuch as I assume that the two signs 12b and 13a ought to be placed before and not after 12a. Assuming that the two little crosses on either side of the 1 are meaningless, we should assign the value of 61 to the 3 Chuen, 1 Kin. Here, in the first place, the intention seems to be to establish some connection with the two days VII Kan and IV Ik specified with their numbers on page 63, column 3, as well as with the days most important there, III Chicchan and XIII Akbal, i.e., a connection with the previous section of the four serpents in general; for the interval from VII Kan to III Chicchan, as well as that between IV Ik and XIII Akbal is 61 and on pages 70-73 the two most important days, IV Eb and IX Ix, are 122 days apart, and 122 is the
second multiple of 61. I can now put the 144,000 of 12a in the place of the 13a. Then, secondly, the four signs from 13a to 14b in the one section are exactly like those in the other section, and therefore need not be discussed here. Only 15ab differs from the signs in the other passages inasmuch as on page 69 we find 4 × 20 + 4 × 1. The last 4 agrees even better than it does there with the distance from IV Ahau to the day Kan with which the serpent numeral begins.
Nothing on page 69 corresponds to the signs in 16ab and 17ab of page 61. On the contrary, the initial date of the serpent IX Kan 12 Kayab, which on page 61 does not appear until 18ab is set down in 16ab. On the other hand on page 69 the four signs 17ab and 18ab are added, 17a being a sign as yet unknown with 13 as a superfix. I feel inclined, though with many misgivings, to treat 17ab like 5a and b of page 61 and to assign to them the value of an Ahau-Katun of 113,880 days. For then they would denote the 13th Ahau-Katun, which extends from the day 1,366,560 (page 24) to 1,480,440 and which contains the two large numbers on page 70, left, top, while the two lower numbers in the first and second columns of that page belong to the 12th Ahau-Katun, and the two in the third and fourth belong to the 14th Ahau-Katun. The 13th would be the present and the 12th and 14th the past and future; but all this could only be confirmed by further research. At all events, the signs for beginning in 17b and for end in 18a refer to past and future. Unfortunately, 18b is entirely effaced.
Page 74.[[5]]
Besides the picture, this page contains only 15 hieroglyphs in three horizontal rows. Only about six of these signs are decipherable. The second, third and fourth of the lower line are three different heads; the middle is the familiar head of god B, the one on the left has the Akbal eye and the abbreviated sign for the south, which is repeated in the affix; the head on the right has the sign for the west as a prefix. Very little more is to be said of the other hieroglyphs than that the second and third of the second line have the sign for the east; the first of the
second line, however, was the one which we found on pages 71-73 as the constant companion of the Bacabs and which suggested the wind. The last sign of the second line must have contained that for north, so that the four cardinal points all came together here.
The picture begins below these signs. Astronomical figures, apparently Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, end in the fore part of a crocodile. Below the astronomical signs are the signs for the sun and moon. Streams of water are falling from the jaws of the crocodile and also from the sun and moon. And a fourth stream is being poured from a jug by the old woman with the tiger claws, and with the serpent on her head, whom we saw on pages 39, 43 and 67 engaged in the same occupation. Cross-bones are represented on her skirt as the symbol of death. The sign of the ninth day, Eb, appears on the jug; this is the day which was avoided in the Tonalamatls, for not a single Tonalamatl begins with Eb in the Dresdensis, nor does one begin with the week-day IX; does Bolon meaning nine suggest Balam, the jaguar?
Still further down on the page sits a black god, who may be the same as the god on pages 7a and 16b, with a bird of prey on his head. There are two arrows in his right hand and his left hand holds what may be an atlatl, but it is very much longer than is usually the case; at the same time it can be regarded as a spear.