Signs 3 and 4 refer unquestionably to D and hence 5 and 7 (the first q with Ben-Ik, and the latter unknown) must be the designation of the person sitting on the right. We shall meet the latter sign again on pages 15b and 18a, with the same person, and on pages 27a and 39b with entirely different persons. Sign 7 is an object, which also appears on 15b and 18a, held in the hands of women and may denote some special sacrificial offering; on 9b Kan-Imix appears in place of this sign, and on 39b beside it. It should be noted that sign 7 stands here in exactly the same proximity to 1 and 6 as on page 27a.
The hieroglyphs 9 and 10 stand outside the two groups, and since, as we know, they belong to the god A, this prophecy must concern death, as is more clearly indicated by the corresponding hieroglyphs on page 9b.
Page 9b.
Here, for the first time in this manuscript, we have a Tonalamatl in which the 260 days are not divided into five fifths of 52 days each, but into four quarters of 65 days. This may be represented as follows, if we supply the III, which is wanting at the beginning:—
| III | 33 | X | 32 | III |
| Muluc | ||||
| Ix | ||||
| Cauac | ||||
| Kan. | ||||
In the first place, the close connection of this Tonalamatl with that recorded on page 8b, just now discussed, is striking, for
1. Here too we find a division into two equal parts is intended, but which, of course, as the number is 65, cannot be mathematically exact.
2. Here too we not only find 10 hieroglyphs, but we find them in the same order as on page 8b, and here too the sign e stands in places 2 and 8, and h in 1 and 6; again 3, 4 and 9 are exactly the same hieroglyphs here as there, so that only 5, 7 and 10 are different.
3. The picture is again that of two persons sitting facing each other. Here D sits on the right and facing him is the grain deity E. D is speaking to E as is indicated by the sign before his face and by the position of his right hand. The signs belonging to E are Hieroglyphs 5 and 7, while those of D are 3 and 4. It seems, therefore, that D is announcing to E the prophecy contained in the preceding Tonalamatl.
4. Two hieroglyphs, 9 and 10, are again added, both relating to death—9 to god A and 10 to F.
Now what especially distinguishes this passage from the preceding one, is the fact that the four days are the so-called regents of the year, Muluc, Ix, Cauac and Kan, above which, perhaps to emphasize this circumstance, there is a particularly elaborate Ahau. Seler ("Einiges mehr über die Monumente von Copan und Quiriguá," p. 210), however, thinks that this sign is the hieroglyph for the numeral three, which should stand here.
The fact that the tenth sign, which is the last, is 13 Moan in the preceding Tonalamatl, while here it is 11 F, will be of special significance in deciding the interpretation.
Page 10b.