486 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28 



From the date on the right to the middle one there is an interval 

 of 32 years and 280 days=32X3654-280; that is, the remarkable 

 number 11,960, already mentioned, in which the tonalamatl and the 

 revolution of Mercury meet. From the middle date to that on the 

 left there is an interval of 6X365-)- 10 =2,200 days, which is given 

 in the manuscript. 



Of these dates, which of course recur every 18,1)80 days, or 52 

 years, that on the right, coiresponding to our September 11, hardly 

 awakens any particular interest. The corresponding number is 

 6,201 X'260-|- 1-10. This 140, however, as already indicated, is quite 

 necessary, since these three numbers all proceed from the normal date 

 IV Ahau, and between IV Ahau and I Ahau there are 140 days. 

 Moreover, I Avould remark that 1.352,100 is 28X48,300 and also 

 115Xll''^60, and is therefore divisible by 28, the month of the 364- 

 day year, and by the revolution of Mercury. 



The middle date is more important. The day 18 Kayab is our 18th 

 of June. In my essay " Schildkrote und Schnecke in der Mayalit- 

 eratur "' I tried to prove that it is likely that the sign for the period 

 Kayab is a tortoise's head, that the tortoise was the symbol for the 

 summer solstice, and that June 18 was probably regarded as the long- 

 est day. The number corresponding to this date is 115X11,864, 

 and this is divisible by the revolution of Mercury. It has still 

 another property, which I hardly venture to mention. It is 29.66 X 

 46,000 ; that is, 46,000 revolutions of the moon, each estimated at 29.66 

 days. On pages 51 to 58 of the manuscript the revolution of the moon 

 seems to have been even more exactly specified, namely, at 29.526 days, 

 as I have pointed out in Globus, volume 63, number 2. It may be 

 objected that 46,000 is a surprisingly round number onl}^ to us and 

 not to the Maya. But to this I reply that if we divide it by 115, 

 the revolution of Mercury, we have 400, and 400 (20X20) in a vigesi- 

 mal system is certainly a round number, which for that reason was 

 sometimes denoted by a simple word, in the Maya (according to 

 Stoll) by bak, in the Cakchikel (according to Seler) by huna. Our 

 number 46,000 is therefore a huna of periods in which the times of 

 revolution of the two celestial bodies that run their courses the 

 quickest harmonize. 



It should also be noted here that the middle one of the three great 

 series on pages 46 to 50, amounting to 37,960 days each, also begins 

 with the date I Ahau, 18 Kaj^ab. 



In the date on the left, Avith the number belonging to it, we see 

 at last the true starting point of Maya chronology, not only for our 

 manuscript, but for Maya literature in general. Thus I consider that 

 the Cross of Palenque by the signs on A and B, 16, indicates pre- 

 cisely the date I Ahau, 18 Kayab; by those on D, 1, and C, 2, pre- 

 cisely the difference 2,200, 8 tonalamatls-f-6X20; and by D, 3, and 



