12 PREFATORY NOTE. [eulogy 



of couutiiig or for some obscure reason iu sucb manner as to give a long 

 cycle recorded in the Spanish chronicles and in the books of Chilan 

 Balam, though there is doubt as to its duration. According to some 

 students 20 years were grouped as a "katun " which was divided into 

 five series of four years each (independent of the four-year groups deter- 

 mined by the dominical days), called "tzuc" by the Mayas, "lustros" 

 by the Spaniards; and it was the custom to record or verify the chro- 

 nology by erecting carved stones, each called like the j^eriod a " katun," 

 at the end of each twentieth year, in a historical monument. Now 

 since the days of the "week" were numbered from 1 to 13 and the 

 years of the "katun" from 1 to 20, a new " katun " could not commence 

 on the same immber-day until a period of 13x20 years had elapsed; 

 and in this way a cycle of 260 years was formed.. This period, devel- 

 oped from the chronicles by Brinton, was called an " ahau katun," or 

 chief cycle, collectively, though each 20-year period within it bore the 

 same name; and "each * * * was represented in the native cal. 

 endar by the picture or i^ortrait of a particular personage who in some 

 way was identified with the katun, and his name was given to it. "* 

 According to later students, notably Juan Pio Perez and Dr. Thomas, 

 the katun comprised 24 years, which would make the duration of the 

 ahau katun 312 years. The 13 katuns in this long cycle were numbered 

 in the following curious order, which has been^a subject of much discus- 

 sion — 



13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. 



The foregoing grouping of days and years constitutes what may be 

 called the secular calendar and the basis for the chronology of the 

 Mayas; but there was another and more mystical or sacred calendar 

 system employed to some extent, which is by some regarded as the 

 original or essential system. In this system the 13-day " weeks" were 

 grouped in series of 20 forming a 260-day period called the sacred year, 

 or what is known among the Zunis, according to Gushing, as the " kernel 

 of the year." There is some question whether these 260-day periods 

 were used independently as a consecutive time-measure parallel though 

 not coincident with the secular calendar; but it seems more probable 

 that this esoteric time-measure grew out of industrial and domestic 

 requirements formulated by priests or chiefs, and that it represented an 

 arbitrarily chosen period of 10 lunations (20 semi-lunations) in each year 

 during which crops were developed or gestation was completed, or 

 during which ceremonies connected with these natural processes ran 

 their course. Whatever be the origin of this subordinate calendaric 

 system, there seems insufticient reason for believing that it subserved 

 important chronologic purposes. 



* Maya Chronicles, p. 58. 



