FORSTEMANN] THE DATES OF THE CALENDAR 403 



both singly and joined together as series of days; but I mean rather 



the more definite statements which give a date that is unequivocal 



during a period of 52 years, in which the symbol of the month and the 



position in the month are added to the number of the week day and 



the day sign. To begin at once Avith the zero point frequently used in 



Maya chronology (on pages 24, 31, 51, 52, 58, 62, 63, 69, 70 of the 



Dresden manuscripts, occurring several times in places) , they are the 



figures of this formula : 



IV 17th day 4 Ahan. 



or 

 8, 18th month 8 Cumku. 



In what follows I shall write these groups in one line only (thus 

 JV 17; 8. 18th month), although in the manuscript they have the form 

 given above, 



A striking feature in these, the commonest of all groups, is that 

 thej' appear to designate a quite impossible day. since every month 

 begins with one of the year regents (the first, sixth, eleventh, or six- 

 teenth day), and consequently the seventeenth day can never have the 

 eighth place in the month. This group must accordingly be under- 

 stood as designating the day IV 17, which the eighth da}^ of the 

 eighteenth month immediately succeeds. One must constantly sub- 

 tract 1 from the number standing before the month sign in order 

 to find the day intended. This rule proves to be correct in every 

 case where no defacement is found. Such designation by the day 

 following is not extraordinary. Consider the use of pridie in Latin 

 or the Greek manner of designating by rfj Trporepaia and of count- 

 ing backward, as ivvart} cp^ivovTog. Our own holy eve preceding 

 holidays is something similar. In the Maya calendar itself the 

 periods of 24 years, the ahaus, are not counted by new year's days but 

 by the second days of the years (see Erlauterungen, page 22), 



After these preliminary remarks, we will examine the dates of the 

 calendar that occur in the manuscript, and consider especially their 

 usual combination with the encircled numbers and the large numbers. 

 In this I must be brief, and leave much to the reader's own computa- 

 tion. 



On page 24, at the bottom of the first three columns, are the three 

 dates : 



IV 17; 8. 18th month. I 17; 18, 17th month. I 17; 18, 3d month. 



These dates occur in the years 9 Ix, 3 Kan, and 10 Kan, In 

 order to fix the difference of time between them it is necessary to read 

 from right to left. From the eighteenth day of the third month in 

 the year 10 Kan to the eighteenth day of the seventeenth month in the 

 year 3 Kan it is 32 years and 280 days, or 11,960 days — a very impor- 

 tant number in our manuscript (for example, on pages 51 to 58) . From 

 the eighteenth day of the seventeenth month in the year 3 Kan to the 



