THOMAS] MAYAN NUMERALS 861 
and dots are added to these to form the numbers 16, 17, 18, and 19, 
where the use of symbols of this form stops, 19 being the highest 
number for which they appear to have been used in Mayan writing. 
The higher numbers were, as has been shown in my paper on calendar 
systems, represented by other symbols, or by relative position. Sub- 
stantially the same plan of writing numerals is seen in the Roman 
system, the line being used instead of the dot, thus: I, II, I, LV, V, 
V1, VU, VIII, 1X, X, XI, ete., to XIX, 19. Attention is called to this 
because of another resemblance which will be noticed hereafter. 
Now it is apparent that if these symbols, taken in the order in which 
they stand, indicate the method followed in actual or oral counting, 
this method must have been as follows, from five upward: 5 and 1; 5 
and 2; and so on to 2 fives; then 2 fives and 1; 2 fives and 2; and so 
on to 8 fives; then 3 fives and 1; 3 fives and 2, to19. If this theory 
be true, we should expect to find terms in the language to correspond 
with the symbols; evidence that these existed in Mayan count appears 
to be wanting, yet, as favoring the theory, we do find, as will appear, 
that the Nahuatl and some other surrounding languages contained terms 
corresponding precisely with this method of counting. It is, however, 
somewhat strange that the Borgian codex, which is probably the oldest 
of the existing Mexican codices, does not use the short line for 5, but 
counts with single dots as high as 26, and in fact no one of these 
codices appears to use it in counting time from date to date, though it 
is used in them for other purposes. The Mayan terms from 10 to 20 
follow not this quinary system but the decimal order, as will be seen. 
The terms used for numbers up to 20 in the Maya (or Yucatec) dialect 
are, according to the usual orthography, as follow: 
1 hun. 6 uae. 11 bulue. 16 uaclahun. 
2) ca. 7 yee. 12 laheca. 17 uuclahun. 
3 ox. 8 uaxac. 13 oxlahun. 18 uaxaclahun. 
4° can. 9 bolon. 14 canlahun. 19 bolonlahun. 
5 ho. 10 Jahun. 15 holahun. 20 hunkal, or kal. 
It is scarcely necessary to state that the orthography is varied 
slightly by different authors, the Spanish 7 being used by some for / 
in hun, ho, and lahun, and k substituted for ¢ in wae, wuc, and waxae. 
Tt is apparent from these terms that the numbers from 12 to 19 are 
formed by adding 2, 3, 4, etc., to 10. The terms for 6, 7, and 8 appear 
also to be composite, as the terminal c or / seems to indicate either 
the same radical throughout, or the same suffix, though no satisfac- 
tory explanation of this point, which will be again referred to, has 
been presented. As additional data bearing on these questions, the 
names of the numbers up to 10 in the different Mayan dialects as given 
by Stoll? are added here, the Spanish 7 being used by him instead of /. 


1 Zur Ethnographie der Guatemala, 1884, pp. 68-69. 
