THOMAS] TABLET OF THE CROSS 7338 
Mr Goodman, after ascertaining the number of days in the time 
periods precisely as they are given above, proceeds as follows: 
From these [1,388,996 days] we deduct as many calendar rounds as possible, 
being 73, or 1,383,540 days, leaying 3,456. From these we take 155, the number of 
days from the beginning of the year to 14 Mol, that being the only date we are cer- 
tain of. This leayes 3,301 days. From these deduct all the years possible, being 9, 
or 3,285 days. There are now but 16 days left. Reckoning back from the end of 
the year, we find these reach to 8 Cumhu [according to his method of numbering 
the days of the month], a circumstance that enables us easily to recognize the 
strange sign as a variant of the symbol for that month. Turning now to the Annual 
Calendar, we find that 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu occurs on page 7, and, passing oyer 9 years 
till we come to page 17, we find that 2 Cib falls on the 14th of Mol in that year. 
Thus we are satisfied that the strange month sign is a symbol for Cumhu, and that 
the cycles, katuns, ahaus, chuens, and days represent the period between the two 
dates, the full reading being: 9-12-18-5 x16, from 4 Ahau-8 Cumhnu, the beginning 
of the great cycle, to 2 Cib-14 Mol. 
As our process is intended to be independent of Mr Goodman’s 
tables, it is necessary for us to divide by 365 in order to find the inter- 
vening years, and to determine the full date including the year, which 
Mr Goodman fails to do. 
TABLET OF THE CROSS 
Proceeding now with the Palenque inscriptions. Attention is directed 
first to that on the so-called Tablet of the Cross, the right slab of 
which is fortunately safely housed in the United States National 
Museum. The inscription on this slab is well known through the 
excellent autotype in Dr Rau’s paper entitled Palenque Tablet, but, 
in order to place the record before the reader in as complete a form as 
is possible, I have given a copy in figure 177, and a copy of Maudslay’s 
photograph of the left slab im figure plate xn; a drawing of the few 
characters above the arms of the right priest in the middle space is 
shown in figure 17%. 
As this is the most important of all the known Mayan inscrip- 
tions, for the purpose of testing Mr Goodman’s discoveries, I shall 
examine it somewhat fully, and to this end give below a list of the 
dates and series in the order they stand, beginning with the large 
initial on the left slab. It is necessary, however, first to notice some- 
what particularly the initial series of the left slab. 
The first character of this series is the large glyph covering spaces 
Al, Bl, and A2, B2. This Mr Goodman interprets as the great cycle, 
which is equivalent to the sixth order of units. I am inclined to 
believe this interpretation is correct. The reasons for this belief 
are the form of the body or chief element of the glyph, which is 
similar to that of the ahau and katun; and the fact that it always 
follows in the ascending scale (counting backward or upward) the 
cycle, there being, so far as known, no exception to this rule in the 
