cts we understand that the black figure is sometimes at
least assigned to the south.

I am fully aware of the difficulties to be met with in attempting to
carry out this assignment of colors, in explanation of other plates of
this and other Codices, nor do I believe colors can be relied upon. They
form some aid in the few plates of general application to the calendar,
and where there are reasons, as in the cases given, to suppose the
cardinal points will be indicated in some regular order. The same thing
is true also in regard to the Manuscript Troano. For example, if we
suppose character _a_ of Fig. 7 to denote the east, _b_ north, _c_ west,
and _d_ south, we shall find them arranged in the following different
ways:

______ ______
| | abcd cdab | |
| c b | | c a |
| | | |
| d a | | d b |
|______| |______|

______ ______
| | | |
| a d | | c d |
| | | |
| c b | | a b |
|______| |______|

Combine with these colors and other distinctive marks, then vary them in
proportion, and we should have an endless variety, just as we see in the
Mexican Codices. We can only hope to solve the problem, therefore, by
selecting, after careful study, those plates which appear to have the
symbols arranged in their normal order.

Turning to plate 43 of the Borgian Codex, we find it impossible to make
it agree, either with the plate of the Fejervary Codex or the Vatican
Codex. Here we find the days 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 associated with the green
figure in the lower left-hand square; 2, 6, 10, 14, 18 with the yellow
figure in the lower right-hand square; 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19 with the
black figure in the upper right-hand square, and 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 with
the red figure in the upper left-hand square. What adds to the
difficulty is the fact that the symbol of the _Cane_ accompanies the
black figure, thus apparently indicating that this denotes the year
Acatl. That these groups are to be taken in the same order as those of
Plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex, that is around to the left, opposite
the sun's course, is evident from the days and also from Plate 9 of this
(Borgian) Codex, where the twenty days of the month are placed in a
circle.

In this latter the order of the four years is i