Brinton.] '^*^" [Oct. 6, 



The Native Calendar of Cenlr-al America and Mexico. 



A Study in Linguistics and Symbolism. 



By Daniel G. Brinton^ M.D. 



(^Read before the American Philosophical Society^ Oct. 6. 1803.) 



§ 1. Purpose and Method of the Inquiry. 



g 2. Geographic Extension of the Calendar System. 



^ 3. Mathematical Basis of the Calendar. The 20 and 13-day Periods. 



§ 4. The 5-day Periods and " Year-bearers." 



§ 5. The 7-day Periods. 



§ 6. The Vague Solar Year. 



§ 7. Methods of Divination by the Calendar. 



§ 8. Calendar Festivals of the Modern Quiches. 



§ 9. Where was the Calendar Invented, and by what Nation ? 



§ 10. The Linguistic Analysis. 



§ 11. Analysis of the Day-Names in the Maya, Tzental, Quiche, and 



Cakchiquel Dialects, and in the Zapotec and Nahuatl Languages. 



§ 12. Analysis of the Month-Names in the Maya, Tzental, Quiche, and 



Cakchiquel Dialects, and in the Chapanec Language. 



§ 13. The Symbolism of the Day-Names. 



§ 14. Genera] Symbolic Significance of the Calendar. 



§ 1. Purpose and Method of this Inquiry. 



Of all the intellectual monuments which remain to us of the 

 native race of the Western Continent, the most remarkable 

 without doubt is the Calendar system which was in use among 

 the more civilized tribes of Mexico and Central America. Years 

 ago, Alexander von Humboldt assigned to it the first rank among 

 the proofs that they had reached a certain degree of true civil- 

 ization ; indeed, so deeply did its intricacies impress him, that 

 he could not believe that it w^as wholly developed by tribes so 

 uncultured in some other respects, and sought for its chief prin- 

 ciples an origin among the old civilizations of Asia.* 



A profounder stud^^ of the subject, rendered possible by more 

 abundant documents, especially of a linguistic character, has 

 shown that the hypothesis of the great naturalist is unnecessary, 



*See his Vues des Cordillires el Monumensdes Peuples Indigenes (leVAmeriquc, Tome i, 

 p. 332, etc. 



