Identification of the British Incli as the Unit of Measure, 243 



counting time, especially in the priestly or sacerdotal way, t'ounded 

 on the idea of phallic creative growth by periods of 7, viz., 4X7 

 ■=28, of menses, 7X18=126, of quickening, 30X7^=210, of viabil- 

 ity, and 40X7 (or 28Xio) = 28o, o{ gestation, and 52X7=364, the 

 holy, or week year. So, also, in the great characteristic measures 

 of the Mound works, viz., 1050 and 1080, we find a mode of the use 

 of a year cycle founded on 52X6=312, for, 1 05 ~j- 108=2 13, which 

 is the reverse of 312 and indicates it by the Mound Builder custom 

 of reversed numbers, and again, 213 of itself is 6 times 355 the 

 numerical value of the lunar year in days. 355X6=213, and 312 

 is a great cycle of 52X6. 



The writer considers himself very fortunate to be able to close 

 this paper with a fact of discovery in Yucatan, by Dr. Augustus 

 Le Plongeon and his estimable and brave wife, of Brooklyn, New 

 York. When they made the remarkable discovery of the sej^ulchre 

 of the royal Kan Coh, at Chichen--Itza, they found therein a great 

 number of personal ornaments. These consisted of worked arrow 

 and spear heads, of fine quartz and serj^entine, with shell beads, 

 and extraordinary ornaments in jade, of marvelous polish. The 

 l^oint of great interest as to these is this, that though the Mayas 

 had arrived to the great advance in civilization of splendid stone 

 cutting and mason work and sculpture, with an elaborate hiero- 

 glyphical alphabet — an advance parallel to that of the old Egyp- 

 tians and Babylonians— yet their articles of personal ornamentation 

 were the same (of the same kind, material, and design) 7oit/i t/iose of 

 tlie Monnd Builders of the Ohio Valley. The labors ot Dr. and Mrs. 

 Plongeon in Central x\merica are the most valuable of all others, 

 and their results are so surprising, and so promising of the discov- 

 ery of "missing links,'' that they should be furnished with material 

 efficient support b\' the C/Overnment in the further prosecution of 

 this wonderful field of their self s icnhcing personal investigation. 



J. Rai.stox Skinner. 



Note. Erratum. In a note to a former article 5011506 is said to he the square root ot 

 51315, whereas it should be 251152. 



