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

by Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann

Pages 25—28.

As these four pages, which are the beginning of the back of the first part of the Manuscript, not only belong together, but also display a parallel arrangement of their separate parts, the corresponding parts will be considered together as a whole.

There are seven of these parts on each page, viz:—the column of day-signs on the left hand; the top, middle and bottom pictures, and lastly the top, middle and bottom groups of hieroglyphs; but I will consider the pictures and hieroglyphs of the same section as belonging together.

1. The Columns of Day-Signs.

On the left-hand side of each page two days are repeated 13 times. They are as follows:—On page 25 Eb and Ben, on page 26 Caban and Ezanab, on page 27 Ik and Akbal, and on page 28 Manik and Lamat. Cyrus Thomas first made the important discovery that these pages represent the transition from one year into the next, but held the erroneous opinion that the last two days of each of the four kinds of years were treated of on each page. While Seler, on the other hand, found that we have here to do with the last day of one year and the first of the following year, and that, therefore, Ben, Ezanab, Akbal and Lamat are the beginnings of the years and thus of the 20-day periods. The years, however, were always named after their second day (i.e., Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac years), since the New Year's Day was considered unlucky and it was the practice of the Mayas to conceal the real starting-point.

These four pages, therefore, extend over 13 × 52 years, that is, over a period of 18,980 days, after which period all the calendar dates are repeated. A list of all these dates is given in "The Maya and Tzental Calendars" by William E. Gates (Cleveland, 1900).

The transition from the Muluc to the Ix years is represented on page 25; from the Ix to the Cauac years on page 26; from the Cauac to the Kan years on page 27, and from the Kan to the Muluc years on page 28. The Ix years are represented first, because the beginning of the historical chronology lies in an Ix year (IV Ahau; 8 Cumhu). This section treats of ceremonies, especially of the setting up of the idols at the changing of the year, which I can pass over here since they have already been described by Diego de Landa and in our own day by Cyrus Thomas in his "Study of the Manuscript Troano," and elsewhere.

2. The Top Pictures.