798 MAYAN CALENDAR SYSTEMS [ETH. ANN.19 
thus, 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2511, 7, 3,12, 8, 4, 13) 95 5, 1, ete: Selecting, in’ a 
continued series of days in proper order, with the day numbers 
attached, any day Ahau, for instance 1 Ahau, and counting forward 360 
days (Goodman’s ahau period), we find that the next 360 day period 
begins with 10 Ahau; that the third period begins with 6; the next 
with 2; the next with 11, and so on in the order given above. But 
the same is true if we select any other day, as 1 Akbal in our table 1, 
or begin at any point in the continued series, counting 360 days to 
each step. 
As Mr Goodman holds that each ahau begins with the day Ahau, it 
follows, according to this system, that the katuns, which contain just 
20 ahaus, must begin with the same day. By this it results that katuns 
begin with day numbers running in the order 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, ete. 
This is apparent if we write out the ahau numbers—the 9, 5, 1, 10, 
etc. —in a continuous series and take each twentieth one. As there 
are twenty katuns in a cycle, the latter must also, according to this 
system, begin with the day Ahau. Writing the numbers 11, 9, T, 5, 
3, 1, ete., in a continuous series, and taking each twentieth one, the 
result willl be the’ series 11. 110)°95 (8.7%, 6 5; 45.3, 9) 1 13. 19° 1d ete: 
If the correct count be, as Mr Goodman asserts, 13 cycles to the 
great cycle, the latter will all begin with the same day and same day 
number, but if 20 be the correct count, then the order will be 11, 4, 
iO), BB PE el 1 7G Wek WO Gy bk, 2h ee: 
But after all, this kind of figuring is a mere source of amusement 
except where the knowledge conveyed may aid to more certain and 
rapid counting. It is as though we were to take the days of our 
almanac in regular order as named, beginning the first hundred with 
Sunday; the second hundred would begin with Tuesday, and. so on. 
By taking these and placing them in consecutive order we could pick 
out every tenth one as the beginning of the thousands. This might 
amuse us, and might under possible circumstances be an aid to us in 
counting time, but it would be no explanation of our calendar system, 
and would not be a part, but a result thereof. 
That these ahaus or 360-day counts always began, as Mr Goodman 
asserts, with a day Ahau, is not proved; moreover, there is no reason 
for believing the assumption to be correct, but there are on the con- 
trary, good reasons for believing it to be incorrect. It may be true, as 
will seem to be the case from what follows, that Ahau was more usually 
selected as an initial date than any other day, is, in fact, the initial day 
in most of the inscriptions and is also prominent in the Dresden codex, 
because, perhaps, some great event took place or was supposed to have 
taken place onaday Ahau. But it can be demonstrated that the initial 
day of some of the series in the Dresden codex where the 360-day period 
is one of the counters is Kan, which, in these, is necessarily the begin- 
ning of the ahau count. It is true, however, that the ahau or 360-day 
period must, if the succession be continuous and unbroken, begin on 
