Codex Nuttall

have come to a natural end, since it represents a death, funeral offerings, and a ceremonial cremation, the Codex itself must be regarded as unfinished. The last page is only partially colored. It would seem as though the artist's last touches were those he made in its lower right-hand corner, with the yellow color he had commenced to use on this page. The left upper corner of page 84 is blank, as well as the four following pages, three of which are painted on their other sides.

THE EXPLANATORY NOTES

SOME European, in a monkish hand-writing, which resembles the Spanish script of the 16th century, has taken advantage of the blank spaces on page 84 and the second page beyond it, to make a note of the native names of the four year-signs of the Mexican Calendar. The fact that he jotted them down in a wrong order (the right one being Reed, Flint, House, and Rabbit original Nahuatl: "Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli") seriously detracts from the value of his other, extremely meagre notes, one of which only (on page 76) gives a suggestive explanation of a hitherto unknown native sign. It is interesting to find that, with a single exception, his notes are confined to the last ten pages of the Codex, which he seems to have erroneously taken for the first, and are in three languages, as follows: —

On page 84 and blank page beyond: names of four year-signs, in wrong order.

Page 84. Name of month "The Flaying of Men" original: "Tlacaxipehualiztli", a major solar festival in the Aztec/Nahuatl calendar; the annotator wrongly spelt it "tlacaxipectli"..

Page 76. The names of one unknown and one known native sign: "Copper-Tooth-Old-Woman" original: "Tlantepuzillamatl"; the name combines tlan (teeth), tepuztli (copper/metal), and ilamatl (old woman). and "Four Movement" original: "Nauhollin"; a significant date in the calendar representing the current sun or era..

Page 83. Year of . . . original: "Año de..." numeral partly effaced; next to year-sign 12 Rabbit original: "Tochtli".

Page 82. Year of 39 original: "Año de 39", next to year-sign 10 House original: "Calli".

Page 80. Year of . . . original: "Año de..." (remainder indecipherable) next to day-sign 8 Rabbit original: "tochtli", which thus appears to have been mistaken for a year-sign.

Page 77. Year 52 of the last age original: "Año de 52 de la ultima edad"; next to day-sign 11 Rabbit original: "tochtli", which again appears to have been mistaken for a year-sign.

Page 53. The word "year" original: "año" and the numerals 33 and 42, wrongly accompanying a day-sign. Then the detached numerals 42 and 46 equally written next to day-signs.

Page 76. In the same handwriting as the Spanish and Nahuatl notes, the words ninth year original: "anno nono".

An analysis of the above notes seems to prove that they were the result of some ineffectual attempt to decipher the Codex by some one who was familiar with both Italian and Spanish and had learned some Nahuatl names.

The circumstance that he noted the native years in a wrong sequence, mistook day-signs for year-signs, assumed that the Codex was to be read from left to right, and began to study it at the wrong end, sufficiently demonstrates the regrettable fact that his explanatory notes can