enque again, there are some cases where there is a
single horizontal line of hieroglyphs over a pictorial tablet. Here
clearly the only question is, do the characters proceed from left to
right, or from right to left? In other cases as in the tablet of the
cross, there are vertical columns. The question here is, shall we read
up or down?

Now, the hieroglyphs must be phonetic or pictorial, or a mixture of the
two. If they are phonetic, it will take more than one symbol to make a
word, and we shall have groups of like characters when the same word is
written in two places. If the signs are pictorial, the same thing will
follow; that is, we shall have groups recurring when the same idea
recurs. Further, we know that the subjects treated of in these tablets
must be comparatively simple, and that _names_, as of gods, kings, etc.,
must necessarily recur.

The _names_, then, will be the first words deciphered. At present no
single name is known. These considerations, together with our system of
nomenclature, will enable us to take some steps.

Take, for example, the right-hand side of the Palenque cross tablet as
given by RAU. _See_ our figure 48, which is Plate LVI of STEPHENS (vol.
ii, p. 345), with the addition of the part now in the National Museum at
Washington.

Our system of numbering is here

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
3080 3081 3082 3083 3084 3085

Now pick out the duplicate hieroglyphs in this; that is, run through the
tablet, and wherever 2020 occurs erase the number which fills the place
and write in 2020. Do the same for 2021, 2022, etc., down to 3084. The
result will be as follows:

RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF PALENQUE CROSS TABLET (RAU).

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
^-----------^ ^-----------^

2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035
^-----------^

2040 2041 2042 { 2025 2020 2021
{ ^-----------^
{
2050 2051 2034 { 2053 2054 2055
^-----------^

2053 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065

2070 2071 2020 2021 2022? 2024? }
^-----------^