THOMAS] INITIAL SERIES 805 
not appear to be correct. The drawing shows 12 or 14 cycles and not 
9, unless the two short lines are to be considered as one, which can 
only be determined by inspecting a photograph or a cast. 
The initial series of Altar S (17 of the above list) as given by 
Mr Goodman does not correspond throughout with that of the inscrip- 
tion as given in Maudslay’s drawing (there is no photograph). He 
gives 15 katuns, whereas the inscription shows only 13, the prefixed 
numerals being ef the ordinary form. 
Although the evidence presented is not sufficient to establish Mr 
Goodman’s theory of a distinct Mayan time system, it, together with 
the very frequent references in the Dresden codex to the day 4 Ahau 
8 Cumhu (which always falls in the year 8 Ben), indicates that this date 
was considered one, perhaps the chief, initial point in the time series. 
Dr Forstemann has called attention to its use in this codex in his 
Zur Entzitferung der Mayahandschriften and in a letter to me. 
Neither of the high series running up the folds of the serpent figures 
of plates 61 and 62 appear to begin or end with Ahau. The black 
series in the right serpent of plate 62 over 3 Kan 17 Uo (the 16 is an 
evident error) reaches back, if counted from this date with 20 cycles 
to the great cycle, to 12 Chicchan 8 Xul; or, counted with 13 cycles to 
the great cycle, it reaches 10 Chicchan 18 Pax.’ But it is noticeable 
that at the bottom of the plate (62) at the right of these serpent figures 
and extending into plate 63 are five short series with 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu 
as the given date in each. The red loops here seem, as I have shown 
on another page, to indicate connecting series, as some of them con- 
nect with the dates immediately above. 
The series in the upper left-hand portion, accompanied by loops, 
terminate with 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, but go back to 9 Ix counting either 
or both series of the column, that with the loops and that above 9 Ix. 
The series running through the middle and lower divisions of plates 
72 and 73 starts with 4 Eb. The two high series at the right of the 
upper division of plate 52 go back to 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. 
It will be seen from this discussion that while 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is a 
notable initial date, it is not the only one with which series running 
into years commence, and that Ahau is not the only initial day in long 
series. There is, however, one noticeable difference between the initial 
series in the inscriptions and the series in the codices; in the former 
the symbol of the highest or sixth order of units is a marked character 
which has no parallel in the latter, but it must be remembered that in 
the latter the distinction between the orders of units is made by the 
position of the ordinary counters and not by distinet symbols, as in the 
former. 
One fact which must be borne in mind in connection with this 
point is that Ahau can not be the first day of a year or month in 
Mr Goodman’s system, nor in any Mayan system. It follows, there- 


1See footnote on page 800. 
