Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history; . their elements as those in a andfigure 93, except that here two bands terminating in balls ofdown project on either side. The god wears as a breast ornament,not the ring, but a broad rectangular plate, painted blue, which isprobably meant to represent turquoise mosaic. He wears a nose pegof the same form as those usual in the pictures of Tezcatlipoca. In the corresponding picture of Codex Vaticanus B (^, figure 94)the morning star is represented on the right side. He is stripedwhite and red, has the same dominolike pain
Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history; . their elements as those in a andfigure 93, except that here two bands terminating in balls ofdown project on either side. The god wears as a breast ornament,not the ring, but a broad rectangular plate, painted blue, which isprobably meant to represent turquoise mosaic. He wears a nose pegof the same form as those usual in the pictures of Tezcatlipoca. In the corresponding picture of Codex Vaticanus B (^, figure 94)the morning star is represented on the right side. He is stripedwhite and red, has the same dominolike painting around the eyes,and wears the ring as a breast ornament, and also Tezcatlipocasnose peg. The same elements are to be distinguished in the head-band and feather crown, despite the somewhat uncertain drawing,as in the corresponding articles of dress of the other figures, except seler] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 363 that here a large bunch of quetzal feathers (lrooi:)S from the similar ornament is displayed on a number of other deities in d e Fig. 94. Figures of the fire god and other deities, from the Mexican codices. The statements made by the historians regarding the exactnesswith which the ancient Mexicans observed the appearance and reap-pearance of the planet Venus have recently received surprising cor- 364 BUREAU or AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 28 roboration through Forstemanns researches respecting the Mayamanuscript of the Royal Public Library at Dresden. As Forste-mann has proved in his elucidation of this manuscript publishedin the year 1886 the apparent revolution of Venus, which is madein 584 days (exactly, 583 days and ^22 hours), is represented fivetim@^ in succession on the remarkable pages 46 to 50, and each timediviid^id into periods of 90, 250, 8, and 236 days. These 90, 250, 8, and23fV days are specified on each of the pages by days named accord-ing to the tonalamatl system having these intervals between them,by month dates, and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmayas, bookyear1904
