We know that tables of days of this form are to be found in some two or three of the Mexican Codices; something similar is also to be found in the Dresden Codex, and by placing the columns of these four plates of the Manuscript side by side we will have just such a table.[1]
But be this as it may, the exact agreement in the other three columns, and the fact that the years named and numbered appear to belong to one continuous period of time—an all-important point in this connection—show, as we think, conclusively that our explanation of these numerals and the day characters, and of the use here made of them, is correct. If so, then the red numerals are used to number the days and years of the week, or, in other words, to number the days and years exactly as the various writers have stated was the usual custom. We have marked this period on the tables of years, with waved lines so as to be seen at a glance, as we shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it.
As further proof that these red numerals are limited to the thirteen series, I now call attention to certain short columns found in the middle division of Plates VII*-X*. These consist of three days each—Cib, Caban, and Ezanab—and each day has a numeral over it, as follows (I give here the exact order in which they stand on the plates, although I have doubts as to the correctness of Brasseur's paging):
| 6. | 13. | 4. | 11. | 5. | 12. | 2. |
| Cib. | Cib. | Cib. | Gib. | Gib. | Cib. | Cib. |
| 7. | 1. | 5. | 12. | 6. | 13. | 3. |
| Caban. | Caban. | Caban. | Caban. | Caban. | Caban. | Caban. |
| 8. | 2. | 6. | 13. | 7. | 1. | 4. |
| Ezanab. | Ezanab. | Ezanab. | Ezanab. | Ezanab. | Ezanab. | Ezanab. |
- ↑ Since the above was written, I have been so fortunate as to procure a copy of Leon De Eosny's Essai sur le Déchiffrement de L'Ecriture Hieratique de L'Amenque Centrale, in which I find a copy of a plate of the Codex Cortesianus, and also of one plate of the Codex Peresianus. In the former is part of a table of days arranged precisely as in my table, except that they are placed horizontally as here shown, instead of in columns:
Muluc. Oc. Chuen. Eb. Been. Ix. Men. Cib. Caban. Ix. Men. Cib. Caban. Ezanab. Cauac. Ahau. Imix. Ik, Canac. Ahau. Ymix. Ik. Akbal. Kan. Chicchan. Cimi. Manik Kan. Cicchau. Cimi. Manik. Lamat. Muluc. Oc. Chuen. Eb. Whether or not this fragment contains the commencement, I am unable to say; that it does not contain the conclusion, I am satisfied. We have here proof that the order when in lines is from the left to the right. The other plate (from the Codex Peresianus) contains a column similar to those in the four plates of the Manuscript Troano, but here the repeated day (Been) is the last of one of the years as in the Dresden Codex.
