PAGE 62 OF THE DRESDEN CODEX, SHOWING THE SERPENT NUMBERS
Texts Recording Serpent Numbers
The Dresden Codex contains another class of numbers which, so far as known, occur nowhere else. These have been called the Serpent numbers because their various orders of units are depicted between the coils of serpents. Two of these serpents appear in plate [32]. The coils of each serpent inclose two different numbers, one in red and the other in black. Every one of the Serpent numbers has six terms, and they represent by far the highest numbers to be found in the codices. The black number in the first, or left-hand serpent in plate [32], reads as follows: 4.6.7.12.4.10, which, reduced to units of the first order, reads:
| 4 × | 2,880,000 = | 11,520,000 |
| 6 × | 144,000 = | 864,000 |
| 7 × | 7,200 = | 50,400 |
| 12 × | 360 = | 4,320 |
| 4 × | 20 = | 80 |
| 10 × | 1 = | 10 |
| ————— | ||
| 12,438,810 | ||
The next question which arises is, What is the starting point from which this number is counted? Just below it the student will note the date 3 Ix 7 Tzec, which from its position would seem almost surely to be either the starting point or the terminal date, more probably the latter. Assuming that this date is the terminal date, the starting point may be calculated by counting 12,438,810 backward from 3 Ix 7 Tzec. Performing this operation according to the rules laid down in such cases, the starting point reached will be 9 Kan 12 Xul, but this date is not found in the text.
The red number in the first serpent is 4.6.11.10.7.2, which reduces to—
| 4 × | 2,880,000 = | 11,520,000 |
| 6 × | 144,000 = | 864,000 |
| 11 × | 7,200 = | 79,200 |
| 10 × | 360 = | 3,600 |
| 7 × | 20 = | 140 |
| 2 × | 1 = | 2 |
| ————— | ||
| 12,466,942 | ||
Assuming that the date below this number, 3 Cimi 14 Kayab, was its terminal date, the starting point can be reached by counting backward. This will be found to be 9 Kan 12 Kayab, a date actually found on this page (see pl. [32]), just above the animal figure emerging from the second serpent's mouth.