Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Study of American Hieroglyphs
Bishop Landa's signs for the twenty days which occur so frequently in the ancient Mayas Codices are supposed by many students to have been reproduced in far similo on the graven texts of the mural inscriptions, and many writers have pointed out certain resemblances of the day signsin the codices to those on the sculptures, such as [miss C/znon, Ezanab, otc. Prof. Valentini has pursued this investigation further than any predecessor, and the results obtained are of inestimable value to the student. We fully believe that every additional point of evidence in this abstruse and com plicated study will be of Value to the future investigator; and there'is little doubt, but that the ultimate results of untiring and long continued analysis of these glyph forms, will culminate in a broader and more comprehensive-under standing of these hitherto mysterious hieroglyphic inscrip tions. Many'students are of the opinion that the signs for the days are oftentimes to be 'iooked upon as rebuses, and that they do not tell us the name given the day. -when used in this way they believe that they are merely the pict ure of some familiar visible object, whose name is somewhat similar to the name of the day, and which recalls it to the mind. Therefore it is essential to discriminate between those used in their Calendar significance, and those used as rebuses. The glyphs of the various days occur quite fre quently on the tablets, monuments and mural inscriptions; so often in fact, as to make one inferthat they must be chro nological or calendar records of some kind. Some day signs occur many times in each inscription, while others are found very seldom, and in an abbreviated or. Changed form. They are'almost always accompanied by numeral prefixes, com posed of bars and dots at'the left side of each glyph. Some also have numeral superfixes, and others have both forms of numerals attached-to the same glyphs; or in other words, have a double set of numerals, as with Claim and sometimes About.
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