434 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 2S 



which Maya chronology begins. It seems rather to be merely an arbi- 

 trary term of equation, which must always imdergo correction if it is 

 to be referred to exact chronology. As Maya chronology begins with 

 the day IV Ahau, the correction in our case should consist of -{-140 

 or — 120, We shall, in fact, meet with these figures later. 



But it is the purpose of these series to be continued until their terms 

 and the differences of those terms agree with the tonalamatl of 260 

 days. This object it not attained in the first twelve terms. The series 

 must, therefore, be continued, and this is done not in the next line 

 (the second from the top), but in the topmost line, which we will 

 therefore consider before the second. 



This topmost row, as I have already observed, is in part destroyed. 

 The numbers still legible are as follow : 



I am glad to be able to state here for the first time that I have 

 succeeded in completing this line in the simplest way. It must have 

 appeared as follows, and I have added to it day dates: 



Written according to our method, the figures are 151,840, 113,880, 

 75,920, and 37,960: that is, one, two, three, and four times 37,960. 

 But the latter number is also equal to 13X2,920; it therefore follows 

 directly after 12X2,920, the last term in the series of twelve terms. 



Since the four numbers are all divisible by 260, I Ahau belongs to 

 them all ; that is, the day Avhich I assumed to be the zero point of the 

 whole series. And it is quite in accord with the rest of the series 

 occurring in the manuscript that the difference in the first twelve 

 terms is 2,920, but in the continuation, as soon as the number divisible 

 by 260 is attained, it is 13X2,920. 



Besides 37,960, of which tonalamatl of 260 days, the solar year of 

 365 days, and the Venus year of 584 days are factors, the second num- 

 ber from the left, 113,880, which has been frequently discussed and 

 is usually designated ahau katun, is especially noteworthy among 

 these four numbers. It is also divisible by 780, the triple toualamatl 

 or the Mars year. 



Of the four columns on the right, only the second line, thus far 

 omitted, remains to be described. It contains the four numbers 

 185,120, 68,900, 33,280, and 9,100; to each of them the day I Ahau is 

 added, since they are all divisible by 260. Only the smallest of these 



