302 AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE MAYA CODICES. 



It may be justly argued that sucli relation to some given day of 

 the month would necessarily follow in any series of this kind made 

 up by adding together intervals of days and months. Still it is not 

 at all likely that these series were made up without reference to fitted 

 and determinable dates. If so, the months given must be months of 

 certain determinable years, and the days denoted must be days of 

 particular months. In other words, if we had the proper starting 

 point we should be able to determine the position in the calendar of 

 any day or month mentioned in the series. 



First. It is easily seen by reference to the calendar (Table II) that 

 Gib is not the sixteenth day of the month of any of the four years, 

 nor is Cimi the sixth nor Kan the fourth. The idea that the figures 

 of this lower line represent the days of the month must, therefore, be 

 given up unless we assume that the year commenced with Ymix. It 

 may be worthy of notice at this point that the list of days on the so- 

 called "title page " of the Manuscript Troano begins with Ymix. It 

 is also true that the remarkable quadruple series in the Codex Cor- 

 tesianus on Plates 13-18 commences with Ymix; as this is evidently 

 some kind of a calendar table, its bearing on the question now before 

 us is important. 



Second. It can easily be shown that the months referred to in the 

 series, if the numbers given denote specific months, are not those of 

 the Kan years. The first, 8 Cib, if in the eleventh month, must be in 

 the year 4 Kan; counting forward from this 4 months and 10 days to 



7 Cimi brings us into the sixteenth month of the year 4 Kan; this 

 agrees with our figures on Plate 4G. Counting forward 12 months 

 and 10 days to 10 Cib, we reach the tenth month of the next year; 



8 days more carry us to the eleventh month, which still agrees with 

 the figures in the codex. Counting 11 months and 16 days more to 

 7 Ahau, we reach but do not pass the fourth month of the next year ; 

 hence the result does not correspond with the series, which has at 

 this point a 5 in the middle line. The same will be found true in 

 regard to the other years as given in our calen-^ar (Table II). This 

 result, as a matter of course, must follow if the figures in the lower 

 line of the series do not denote the month days of some one of the 

 year series as usually given. 



Another fact also becomes apparent here, viz, that the 5 sup- 

 plemental days of the year are not brought into the count, the year 

 consisting throughout of 360 days. There is, in fact, nothing h.ere 

 indicating the four year series as given in the authorities and as rep- 

 resented in our calendar table; yet this ought to appear wherever a 

 series extends over more than one year. 



Dr. Forstemann says that this entire series of black numerals covers 

 2.920 days, or 8 years of 365 days. This is true, but the concluding 

 figures show that it is given by the writer of the codex as 8 years 

 and 2 months, which would also be 2,920 days, counting the years at 



