THOMAS] NUMERAL SYSTEMS 715 

TIME SERIES IN THE CODICES AND INSCRIPTIONS 
THE DrespEN CopEXx 
As the Dresden codex is now so generally known, it will be made 
the point of departure and the first examples showing the method of 
counting time will be taken from it. In this examination further com- 
parison will be made between the system used by Mr Goodman in count- 
ing time series and that first made known by Dr Foérstemann and used 
by him and myself in the papers relating to this subject which have 
been published. As I have somewhat fully illustrated and explained 
in my Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices (in Sixth Ann. Rep. 
Bur. Ethnology), a considerable number of the time series of the 
Dresden codex, in which the figures do not rise above the fourth order 
of units, the examples referred to here will be those involving high 
numbers, in order to strengthen the proof of Dr Férstemann’s theory 
and to establish clearly the respective values of the units in the 
higher orders. These will also necessarily indicate the calendar 
system in vogue, to which it is desirable to call special attention. 
The names of the several orders of units is a matter which failed to 
receive attention until the subject was taken up by Mr Goodman; 
those that he has applied are unfortunate and can result only in con- 
fusion so long as they remain in vogue. Dr Brinton remarks that 
‘No doubt each of these periods of time had its appropriate name 
in the technical language of the Maya astronomers, and also its cor- 
responding character in their writing. None of them has been recorded 
by the Spanish writers, but from the analogy of the Nahuatl script 
and language, and from cer.ainin dications in the Maay writings, 
we may surmise that some of these technical terms were from one 
of the radicals meaning ‘to tie, or fasten together,’ and that the 
corresponding signs would either directly (that is, pictorially) or 
ikonomatically (that is, by similarity of sound) express this idea” 
(Primer, pp. 30, 31). He suggests ba/ for the 360-day period, and 
pic for the 7,200-day period, and fal for the 20-day period. The 
name chuen, which Mr Goodman has applied to the month equiva- 
lent, the 20-day period, was adopted by him because of the resem- 
blance of the glyph to the symbol of the day Chuen. This duplicates 
the name in the time series. The same objection applies to the 
names ahau, katun, and cycle; each of these is now applied in three 
different senses in the calendar system, ahau being used as a day 
name, as a name of the 24 or 20 year period, and now for the unit of 
the third order, or 360-day period; katun for the 24 or 20 year period, 
with ahau prefixed for the 312-year period, and for the unit of the 
fourth order, or 7,200-day period; and cycle for the 52-year period, 
also sometimes for the 260-day period, and now for the unit of the 
