| OCR Text |
Show Here the count is incomplete, five more days are needed before the count can return to the existing starting point on folio 24 lower right. Therefore we must deduce that there is at least one page missing. The day signs on the missing page are likely to have been: Centre register: Mazatl: Tochtli: Atl: ».. Lower register:¨zomatli: Itzcuintli: The page was missing when the codex was bound, since the existing skin cover-page is of a different material and size, and it is fitted exactly at the end of one of the skins of which the codex is composed. Here we should note that with regard to missing pages it is most reasonable to assume that a complete strip of skin with six folds is missing. At the beginning of the Codex this may not have occurred, since, as we have seen, it is logically possible that the other pages dealing with the sun's path were introductions to other Codices. However if they were once all part of Codex Laud these missing four pages were possibly accompanied by some introductory painting and a cover fold simply bent back and used instead of another piece of skin as in the existing Codex. The skin necessary to complete the count of the days which is broken on folio 24 may have contained either another four pages covering 20 days, plus the page necessary to complete the counts or else the completing page plus another four pages of unknown content and a cover flap. The completed count with one more page would amount to 40 days, and the completed count, if five more pages were missing, would amount to 60 days, neither of which is known to have a special significance, in Mexican religion. We are left without the possibility of making a definite statement of the contents of the missing skin. It is reasonable to assume that there was one, and that it was lost in pre-Spanish times. The Dorsal side of the Codex is complete in itself, recording several subjects. Folios 1 D and 24 D are occupied by the cover pages of the book, and 1 D is rightly made the front cover, since it protects the "Sunset" page, and faces the beginning of the count of the series which immediately follows it, reading from right to left in Oriental fashion. It is possible there was some indication on this cover before the inscription of Archbishop Laud was placed there, or else that he received |
