136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 57 



between.* Certain exceptions to the above rule are by no means 

 rare, and the student must be continually on the lookout for such 

 reversals of the regular order. These exceptions are cases in which 

 the starting date (1) follows the number counted from it, and (2) 

 stands elsewhere in the text, entirely disassociated from, and unat- 

 tached to, the number counted from it. 



The second of the above-mentioned general rules, covering the 

 majority of cases, follows: 



Rule 2. When the starting point or date is not expressed, if the 

 number is an Inital Series the date from which it should be counted 

 will be found to be 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu.^ 



This rule is particularly useful in deciphering numbers in the 

 inscriptions. For example, when the student finds a number which 

 he can identify as an Initial Series,^ he may assume at once that such 

 a number in all probability is counted from the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, 

 and proceed on this assumption. The exceptions to this rule, that 

 is, cases in which the starting point is not expressed and the number 

 is not an Initial Series, are not numerous. No rule can be given cov- 

 ering all such cases, and the starting points of such numbers can be 

 determined only by means of the calculations given under the third 

 and fourth steps, below. 



Having determined the starting point or date from which a given 

 number is to be counted (if this is possible), the next step is to find 

 out which way the count runs; that is, whether it is forward from 

 the starting point to some later date, or whether it is hackward from 

 the startmg point to some earlier date. This process may be called 

 the third step. 



Third Step in Solving Maya Numbers 



Ascertain whether the number is to be counted forward or backward 

 from its starting point. 



It may be said at the very outset in this connection that the over- 

 whelming majority of Maya numbers are counted /orwar<^ from then- 

 starting points and not backward. In other words, they proceed from 

 earlier to later dates and not vice versa. Indeed, the preponderance 

 of the former is so great, and the exceptions are so rare, that the 

 student should always proceed on the postulate that the count is 

 forward until proved definitely to be otherwise. 



1 These intervening glyphs the writer believes, as stated in Chapter U, are those which tell the real story 

 of the inscriptions. 



2 Only two exceptions to this rule have been noted throughout the Maya territory: (1) The Initial Series 

 on the east side of Stela C at QuLrigua, and (2) the tablet from the Temple of the Cross at Palenque. It 

 has been explained that both of these Initial Series are counted from the date 4 Ahau 8 Zotz. 



3 In the inscriptions an Initial Series may always be identified by the so-called introducing glyph (see 

 fig. 24) which invariably precedes it. 



