MOKLEY] INTRODUCTION" TO STUDY OP MAYA HIEEOGLYPHS 45 



each returning into itself and beginning anew after completion, lie 

 will liave grasped the most fundamental principle of Maya chronol- 

 ogy — its absolute continuity throughout. 



It may be taken for granted, therefore, in the discussion to follow 

 that no mterpolation of intercalary days was actually made. It is 

 equally probable, however, that the priests, in whose hands such 

 matters rested, corrected the calendar by additional calculations 

 which showed just how many days the recorded year was ahead of 

 the true year at any given time. Mr. Bowditch (1910: Chap, xi) has 

 cited several cases in which such additional calculations exactly 

 correct the inscriptions on the monument upon which they appear and 

 bring their dates into harmony with the true solar year. 



So far as the calendar is concerned, then, the year consisted of 

 but 365 days. It was divided into 18 periods of 20 days each, desig- 

 nated in Maya uijial, and a closing period of 5 days known as the xma 

 ^a&aKn, or ''days without name." The .sum of these (18x20 + 5) 

 exactly made up the calendar year. 



Table III. THE DIVISIONS OF THE MAYA YEAR 



The names of these 19 divisions of the year are given in Table III 

 in the order in which they follow one another; the twentieth day of 

 one month was succeeded by the first day of the next month. 



The first day of the Maya year was the first day of the month Pop, 

 which, according to the early Spanish authorities, Bishop Landa (1864: 

 p. 276) included, always fell on the 16th of July.^ Uayeb, the last 

 division of the year, contained only 5 days, the last day of Uayeb 

 being at the same time the 365th day of the year. Consequently, 

 when this day was completed, the next m order was the Maya New 

 Year's Day, the first day of the month Pop, after which the sequence 

 repeated itself as before. 



The xma kaba kin, or "days without name," were regarded as 

 especially unlucky and ill-omened. Says Pio Perez (see Landa, 1864: 

 p. 384) in speaking of these closing days of the year: "Some call 

 them u yail Tcin or u yail haah, which may be translated, the sorrow- 

 ful and laborious days or part of the year; for they [the Maya] 



lAs Bishop Landa wrote not later than 1579, this is Old Style. The corresponding day in the 

 Gregorian Calendar would be July 27. 



