468 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. !28 



A-N^ien this error is corrected, we see that the ten pictures stand thus 

 on the following pages and after the following numbers of the series : 



1 53a 502 



2 55a 2. 244 



3 56a 3, 278 



4 57a 4, 488 



5 52b G, 230 



6 53b 7, 2(>4 



7 54b 8, 474 



8 56b 10, 216 



9 57b 11,250 



10 5Sb 11. 958 



From this it follows that a picture is assigned to each of the nine 

 sections which form the series, yet never at the beginning or end of 

 the section, but only after the expiration of 502=2 Xl77-|-148 

 days. The intervals of time between the pictures, therefore, amount 

 to 1,742, 1,034, and 1,210 days, exactly the same as the duration of the 

 separate nine sections. The last picture alone is distant 708 days 

 from the last but one, and besides has peculiar characteristics, and 

 consequently must be specially discussed. But these 708 days at the 

 end and the 502 days at the beginning again quite regularly make 

 1,210 days. 



Now it is easy to suppose a new series in these nine pictures, which 

 is interpolated in the original one, a series, in fact, whose zero point 

 falls on the day 502. We shall, therefore, always have to subtract 502 

 days from the days occurring in the manuscript. This new series is 

 then represented in the following manner : 



1 53a 



2 5.5a 1,742 



.3 56a 2, 776 



4 57a 3,986 



5 52b 5, 728 



6 53b 6, 762 



7 54b 7,972 



8 56b 9, 714 



9 57b 10.748 



We are struck by the fact that the final number 10,748 corresponds 

 so closely to vSaturn's period of revolution, which is computed at 

 10,753 days. There is no reason Avhy the Mayas might not have been 

 familiar, not merely with the apparent, but also with the actual revo- 

 lution of this planet, first, on account of the slowness of its movement, 

 and, secondly, on account of the absence of retrogradation, which is 

 so important in the inner planets. Moreover, the apparent revolu- 

 tion of Saturn (378 days from one superior conjunction to the next) 

 could not be made to agree with the length of the solar year. I will 

 immediately offer a further proof of my theory. 



