402 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



mentioned above. I am forced to confess that my conjecture in 

 regard to the last number is somewhat uncertain. Still, it answers 

 the requirement in so far as it shows the difference 30, the same as is 

 shown by the corresponding- days, since its distance from the last 

 number but one is 21,870; that is, 84X260+30. Multiples of 260 are 

 naturally indifferent here. 



Of all the numbers in the manuscript, reaching a million, only one 

 still remains to be discussed, with the exception of those between the 

 coils of the serpents on pages 61, 62, and 69. This is 2,804,100, on 

 page 31, in the last but one of the upper columns. It is authentic, 

 since it is equal to 10,785X260, corresponding therefore to the day IV 

 17, repeatedly recorded near b}'. Besides this, it is equal to 147X 

 18,980-|-14,040, to wit, 147 katuns of 52 years augmented by the num- 

 ber 14,040, which number is extremely important in the manuscript, 

 although it is still enigmatic. 



The ten numbers between the coils of the five serpents, mentioned 

 above, which seem to attain the sum of twelve millions, I shall leave 

 undiscussed for the present," for their interpretation is not yet ripe 

 for publication, although remarkable relations are already indicated. 



In my opinion my demonstration also definitely proves that these 

 large numbers do not proceed from the future to the past, but from 

 the past, through the present, to tlie future! TTnless I am quite 

 mistaken, the highest numbers among them seem actually to reach 

 into the future, and thus to have a prophetic meaning. Here the 

 question arises. At what point in this series of numbers does the 

 present lie? or. Has the writer in different portions of his work 

 adopted different points of time as the present? If I may venture to 

 express my conjecture, it seems to me that the first large number in 

 the whole manuscript, the 1,366,560 in the second column of page 24, 

 has the greatest claim to ])e interpreted as the present point of time. 

 It denotes the expiration of 12 ahau katims of 312 years each; that 

 is, 3,744 years. 



In conclusion, I will remark that none of the large numbers furnish 

 me with any indication that a year of 365^ days was already known 

 to the Mayas. In these calculations, at least, which seem to treat of 

 sacred matters, the exposition may not have kept pace with the knowl- 

 edge in the meantime acquired, as often happen-s in similar cases, of 

 which the Russian calendar furnishes a good example. 



The Datks of the Cai-endar 



I do not mean here those short combinations of the number of 

 the week day with the day sign, for they have long been understood, 



" They have been discussed and explained by Thomas in Mayan Calendar Systems, II, 

 22d Uep., B. A. E., pt. 1, 1004. 



