Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts

Having recently come into possession of Leon de Rosny's late work entitled Les Documents ecrits de l'Antiquite Americaine , [1] I find in it a photo-lithographic copy of two plates (or rather one plate, for the two are but parts of one) of the Maya Manuscript known as the Codex Cortesianus. This plate (I shall speak of the two as one) is of so much importance in the study of the Central American symbols and calendar systems that I deem it worthy of special notice; more particularly so as it furnishes a connecting link between the Maya and Mexican symbols and calendars. As will be seen by reference to our Plate No. 1, which is an exact copy from Rosny's work, this page consists of three divisions: First, an inner quadrilateral space, in which there are a kind of cross or sacred tree; two sitting figures, one of which is a female, and six characters. Second, a narrow space or belt forming a border to the inner area, from which it is separated by a single line; it is separated from the outer space by a double line. This space contains the characters for the twenty days of the Maya month, but not arranged in consecutive order.