938 NUMERAL SYSTEMS (ETH. ANN. 19 
never running higher, so far as has yet been determined, than 26. 
Their use is seen on plates 17-56 of the Vatican Codex number 3738 
eB i 
Color scheme used in figures 24-40, 

1, yellow and white; 2, brown; 3, drab; 4, green; 5, blue; 6, red. 
and in other similar counts. Here they are used to number the days 
in regular succession, beginning with 1 Cipactli, 2 Ehecatl, 3 Calli, 
etc., counting to 13, and then commencing again 
with 1, etc., as was the rule in the Mayan day-count. 
As the series on the pages referred to (the order 
being from left to right) runs through two hundred 
and sixty days, or twenty thirteens, the Mexican 
Fic. 24—Symbol for method of numbering days is clearly and distinetly 
pat shown. In this series two plates are allowed to each 
thirteen days, five days on the first (plate 17) and eight on 
the second (plate 18), five on the third, eight on the fourth, 
etc. Why this division into 5 and 8, when 6 and 7 is the 
usual method, is not apparent unless it was best adapted 
to the size of the original page, or was to introduce the 5. 
It is possible the latter explanation is the correct one, as Fie. 5—Sym- 
the eight days are arranged in a line of 5 and column of teas 
8. and the numerals above 5 are, with but two or three 
apparently accidental exceptions, arranged with reference to 5, thus: 

C} Too oO 0 OP rier “e! cell ote t levieire) felve 
Vives, ws 'ej)s ete os se LT eine de: © con Pepramie oho mae 
CCM OPO Or aa IVER Aro Oeoe SOLO OC OOo 
CG) OPO Oo OND 0 G44 [Sib total Copel (etfe\Jaweniey tenella 
This arrangement, which would seem to be merely for convenience 
in counting rather than for any mystic purpose, is not 
found in the Borgian or Bodleian codices, which are 
undoubtedly pre-Columbian, while the Vatican (3738) is, 
in part at least, post-Columbian. The numerals 
are, as is general in the codices, of different Rallis 
Fic. 20— colors; for example, 1, the first of the series oe 
Symbol 
pa eee CLOELECMLOS is green, the next (2) is yellow, the 
quintli next (8) blue, the next (4) red, the fifth green, Fie. 27 — 
(aR) the sixth, seventh, and eighth red, the ninth pik apes 
§ #5 
vellow. the tenth red, the eleventh blue, the twelfth red, (tiger): 
the thirteenth green, ete. The color no doubt had a sig- 
nification understood at least by the priests, but which there is, so far 
as is known, no way of determining at this day. 
In the same codex, on plates 91, 92, and 93 and those which follow, 
