84 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



katiin ending days and the events wliich "were connected more or less 

 closely \\dtli it. In other words, the monuments were erected at short 

 intervals * and probably recorded events contemporaneous with their 

 erection, while the u kahlay katunob,on the other hand,were historical 

 summaries reaching back to a remote time. The former were the peri- 

 odicals of current events, the latter histories of the past. The former 

 in the great majority of cases had no concern mth the lapse of more 

 than one or two katuns, while the latter measured centuries by the 

 repetition of the same unit. The writer believes that from the very 

 nature of the monuments — markers of current time — no u kahlay 

 katunob ^vdll be found on them, but that the presence of the katun 

 endmg days above described indicates that the u kahlay katunob had 

 been developed while the other system was still in use. If the fore- 

 going be true, the signs in figure 38, a-h, would have this meaning: 

 ''On this day came to an end the katun in which fall the accompany- 

 ing dates," or some similar significance. 



If we exclude the foregoing as indicating the u kahlay katunob, 

 we have but one aboriginal source, that is one antedating the Spanish 

 Conquest, which probably records a coimt of this kind. It has been 

 stated (p. 33) that the Codex Peresianus probably treats in part at 

 least of historical matter. The basis for this assertion is that in this 

 particular manuscript an u kahlay katunob is seemingly recorded; 

 at least there is a sequence of the ending days of katuns shown, 

 exactly like the one in Table IX, that is, 13 Ahau, 11 Ahau, 9 Ahau, etc. 



At the time of the Spanish Conquest the Long Count seems to 

 have been recorded entirely by the ending days of its katuns, that is, 

 by the u kahlay katunob, and the use of Initial-series dating seems 

 to have been discontinued, and perhaps even forgotten. Native as 

 well as Spanish authorities state that at the time of the Conquest the 

 Maya measured time by the passage of the katuns, and no mention 

 is mads of any system of dating which resembles in the least the 

 Initial Series so prevalent in the southern and older cities. Wliile the 

 Spanish authorities do not mention the u kahlay katimob as do the 

 native writers, they state very clearly that this was the system used in 

 counting time. Says Bishop Landa (1864: p. 312) in this connection: 

 "The Indians not only had a count by years and days . . . but they had 

 a certain method of coimtmg time and their aifairs by ages, which they 

 made from twenty to twenty years . , . these they call katunes." 

 Cogolludo(1688:lib.iv, cap. V, p. 186) makes a similar statement: "They 

 count their eras and ages, which they put in their books from twenty 

 to twenty years . . . [these] they call katun." Indeed, there can 

 be but little doubt that the u kahlay katunob had entirely replaced 

 the Initial Series in recording the Long Count centuries before the 

 Spanish Conquest; and if the latter method of dating were known 



I On one monument, the tablet from the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, there seems to be 

 recorded a kind of u kahlay katunob; at least, there is a sequence of ten consecutive katuns. 



