MOELEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 47 



It will be seen that in the first method of countmg time, in speaking 

 of 1 o'clock, 1 hour, 30 minutes, we use only the cardinal forms 

 of our numbers; but in the second method we say the 1st of 

 January, the Twentieth Century, using the ordinal forms, though 

 even here we permit ourselves one inconsistency. In speaking of 

 our years, which are reckoned by the second method, we say "nineteen 

 hundred and twelve," when, to be consistent, we should say "nineteen 

 hundred and twelfth," using the ordinal ''twelfth" instead of the car- 

 dinal "twelve." 



We may then summarize our methods of counting time as follows: 

 (1) All periods less than the day, as hours, minutes, and seconds, are 

 referred to in terms of past time; and (2) the day and aU greater 

 periods are referred to in terms of current time. 



The Maya seem to have used only the former of these two methods 

 in counting time; that is, all the different periods recorded in the 

 codices and the inscriptions seemingly refer to elapsed time rather 

 than to current time, to a day passed, rather than to a day present. 

 Strange as this may appear to us, who speak of our calendar as current 

 time, it is probably true nevertheless that the Maya, in so far as their 

 writing is concerned, never designated a present day but always 

 treated of a day gone by. The day recorded is yesterday because 

 to-day can not be considered an entity until, hke the hour of astronom- 

 ical time, it completes itself and becomes a unit, that is, a yesterday. 



This is well illustrated by the Maya method of numbering the 

 positions of the days in the months, which, as we shall see, was 

 identical with our own method of counting astronomical time. For 

 example, the first day of the Maya month Pop was written Zero Pop, 

 (0 Pop) for not until one whole day of Pop had passed could the day 1 

 Pop be written ; by that time, however, the first day of the month had 

 passed and the second day commenced. In other words, the second 

 day of Pop was written 1 Pop ; the third day, 2 Pop ; the fourth day, 

 3 Pop; and so on through the 20 days of the Maya month. This 

 method of numbering the positions of the days in the month led to 

 calling the last day of a month 19 instead of 20. This appears in Table 

 IV, in which the last 6 days of one year and the first 22 of the next 

 year are referred to their corresponding positions in the divisions of 

 the Maya year. It must be remembered in using this Table that the 

 closing period of the Maya year, the xma kaba kin, or Uayeb, con- 

 tained only 5 days, whereas aU the other periods (the 18 uinals) had 

 20 days each. 



Curiously enough no glyph for the Tiaab, or year, has been identified 

 as yet, in spite of the apparent importance of this period.^ The 



' This is probably to be accounted for by the fact that in the Maya system of chronology, as we shall see 

 later, the 365-day year was not used in recording time. But that so fundamental a period had therefore 

 no special glyph does not necessarily follow, and the writer believes the sign for the haab will yet be dis- 

 covered. 



