MORLEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 79 



The use of the hand as expressing the meaning "ending" is quite 

 natural. The Aztec, we have seen, called their 52-year period the 

 xiulimol'pilli, or ''year bundle." This imphes the concomitant idea 

 of ''tying up." As a period closed, metaphorically speaking, it was 

 "tied up" or ''bundled up." The Maya use of the hand to express 

 the idea "ending" may be a graphic representation of the member 

 by means of which this "tying up" was effected, the clasped hand 

 indicating the closed period. 



This method of describing a date may be called "dating by period 

 endings." It was far less accurate than Initial-series or Secondary- 

 series dating, since a date described as occurring at the end of a cer- 

 tain katun could recur after an interval of about 18,000 years in round 

 numbers, as against 374,400 years in the other 2 methods. For aU 

 practical purposes, however, 18,000 years was as accurate as 374,400 

 years, since it far exceeds the range of time covered by the written 

 records of mankind the world over. 



Period-ending dates were not used much, and, as has been stated 

 above, they are found only in connection with the larger periods- 

 most frequently with the katun, next with the cycle, and but very 

 rarely vnth. the tun. Mr. Bowditch (ICiO: pp. 176 et seq.) has re- 

 viewed fully the use of ending signs, and students are referred to his 

 work for further information on this subject. 



U Kahlay Katunob 



In addition to the foregoing methods of measuring time and record- 

 ing dates, the Maya of Yucatan used stiU another, which, however, 

 was probably derived directly from the application of Period-ending 

 dating to the Ijong Count, and consequently introduces no new ele- 

 ments. This has been designated the Sequence of the Katuns, 

 because in this method the katun, or 7,200-day period, was the unit 

 used for measuring the passage of time. The Maya themselves called 

 the Sequence of the Katuns u tzolan Icatun, "the series of the katuns" ; 

 or u Jcalilay uxocen Tcatunoh, "the record of the count of the katuns " ; 

 or even more simply, u Jcahlay Icatunob, "the record of the katuns." 

 These names accurately describe this system, which is simply the 

 record of the successive katuns, comprising in the aggregate the range 

 of Maya chronology. 



Each katun of the u kahlay katunob was named after the designa- 

 tion of its ending day, a practice derived no doubt from Period-ending 

 dating, and the sequence of these ending days represented passed 

 time, each ending day standing for the katun of Vv^hich it was the 

 close. The katun, as we have seen on page 77, always ended with 

 some day Ahau, consequently this day-name is the only one of the 

 twenty which appears in the u kahlay katunob. In this method the 

 katuns were distinguished from one another, 7iot by the positions 



