14 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAIsr ETHNOLOGY 



Table I (second half) 



[bull. 28 



This period of 260 days, the tonalamatl ("book of days"), in 

 Mexican, ch'ol k'ih ("reckoning- of days"), or k'am iiuh ("book of 

 fates"), in Guatenialleoan, was on the contrary called by the Ma3^as in 

 Guatemala, it seems — though the general opinion is different — kin 

 katun ("the order of days"), and was made to agree with the rest of 

 the system of chronology in various ways. 



The nations of ancient Mexico reckoned 865 days to their year. 

 This appears from the nature of their designation of the year and 

 from the number of years which they combined into a larger period. 

 Since 365 = (28X13) + land also (18x20) + 5, it followsthat when, for 

 instance, a year began with a day whicli took the numeral 1 and the 

 sign I, then the initial day of the following year must necessarily have 

 been called by the numeral 2 and sign VI, that of the third year by 

 numeral 3 and sign XI, of the fourth year by numeral 1 and sign 

 XVI; while the initial day of the fifth year would take the numeral 5 

 and go back to sign I. We have thus the following series of begin- 

 nings of years: 



