, an outer and larger space containing several figures and
numerous characters, the latter chiefly those representing the Maya
days. This area consists of two distinct parts, one part containing day
characters, grouped together at the four corners, and connected by rows
of dots running from one group to the other along the outer border; the
other part consisting of four groups of figures, one group opposite each
of the four sides. In each of the four compartments containing these
last-mentioned groups, there is one of the four characters shown in Fig.
1 (_a_ _b_ _c_ _d_), which, in my "Study of the Manuscript Troano," I
have concluded represent the four cardinal points, a conclusion also
reached independently by Rosny and Schultz Sellack.[TN-1]

Before entering upon the discussion of this plate I will insert here
Rosny's comment, that the reader may have an opportunity of comparing
his view of its signification with the opinion I shall advance.

I intend to close this report with some observations on the
criticisms which have been written since the publication of my
"Essay on the Decipherment of the Hieratic Writings," as much,
regarding the first data, for which we are indebted to Diego de
Landa, as that of the method to follow in order to realize new
progress in the interpretation of the Katounic texts. I will be
permitted, however, before approaching this discussion, to say a
word on two leaves of the _Codex Cortesianus_, which not only
confirm several of my former lectures, but which furnish us
probably a more than ordinarily interesting document relative to
the religious history of ancient Yucatan.

The two leaves require to be presented synoptically, as I have done
in reproducing them on the plate [8 and 9[2]], for it is evident
that they form together one single representation.

This picture presents four divisions, in the middle of which is
seen a representation of the sacred tree; beneath are the figures
of two personages seated on the ground and placed facing the
katounes, among which the sign of the day _Ik_ is repeated three
times on the right side and once with two other signs on the left
side. The central image is surrounded by a sort of framing in which
have been traced the twenty cyclic characters of the calendar. Some
of these characters would not be recognizable if one possessed only
th