Briiiton.] ^^^O [Oct. o, 



ginning with a Friday'.* It is not possible from the jejune ac- 

 count we have of this feature to say whether it was based on the 

 European week, or was the result of the subtraction of the 13 

 days of the native week from the 20 days of the month. 



I am inclined to the latter view ; for the Tzentals were not tlie 

 onl}' nation employing this Calendar who had a 7day period, 

 although Orozco 3^ Berra, in discussing the subject, asserts that 

 they were.f We have, however, the testimony of Father 

 Thomas Goto to the fact that the Cakchiquels of Guatemala had 

 a period of similar length in their time count, though unfor- 

 tunately he took so little interest in the subject that he mentions 

 nothing beyond the bare fact.| And Father Yarea, writing of 

 the same nation, saj's that they observed a period of 7 days 

 annually in Lent, during which they believed all animals, etc., 

 retired into seclusion. To this period they gave the name K''api 

 kHh, closed days or days apart, the same term which they ap- 

 plied to the intercalary da^^s. § 



The close relation of the 7 period to the 13 period is shown 

 in the traditional history of the Gakchiquels. From the earliest 

 times they were divided into 13 divisions, K''hob, and 7 tribes, 

 Amag\ These were undoubtedly drawn from the numbers of 

 the Galendar. || 



The attention of the native arithmeticians was naturally at- 

 tracted to the number 7, as in order to know the number of the 

 day in the 13-day list on which a given month would commence, 

 they were obliged to add 7 to the number of the first day of the 

 preceding month. This was the foundation of a series of 

 tables preserved in several of the Maya " Books of Ghilan 

 Balam," bearing the title Buk Xoc, or General Computation, 

 specimens of which have been given by Pio Perez. ^ 



* " En muchos pueblos de las provincias de este obispado tienen pintados en siis repor- 

 torios o kalendarios siete negritos para hacer divinaciones y pronosticos correspondi- 

 entes & los siete dias de la semana, comenzandola per el Viemcs A coutar." Nunez de la 

 Vega, Constitua'ones Diocesanas del Obispado de Chiappa, Lib. 1, p. 9. 



t Orozco y Berra, Hisloria A^itigua de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 160. 



X " Algunos meses duran veinte dias, y otros siete ; que ni los aoabareraos de entender, 

 ni ellos se entienden, aunque tienen sus maestros en esta facultad." Thomas Goto, Vo- 

 cabulario de la Lengua Cakchiquel, MS., 1651. 



g " ICapi kill : Siete dias que suelen caer en la quaresma, en los quales dicen los indios 

 que se recogen todos los animales, monies, etc." Varea, Vocabidario Cakchiquel, MS. 



II An7ials of the Cakchiquels, passim. 



•[ In his Essay on tlie ]Maya Calendar, printed in the Registro Yiccatcco and iiiBrasseur's 

 edition of Diego de Landa's liclacion. 



