152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. &7 



This applies equally to all terminal dates, whether in Initial Series, 

 Secondary Series, Calendar-round dating or Period-ending dating, 

 though in the case of Initial Series a peculiar division or partition of 

 the terminal date is to be noted. 



Throughout the inscriptions, excepting in the case of Initial Series, 

 the month parts of the dates almost invariably follow immediately 

 the days whose positions in the year they designate, without any 

 other glyphs standing between; as, for example, 8 Ahau 13 Ceh, 

 12 Gaban 5 Kayab, etc. In Initial Series, on the other hand, the- 

 day parts of the dates, as 8 Ahau and 12 Caban, in the above exam- 

 ples, are almost invariably separated from their corresponding 

 month parts, 13 Ceh or 5 Kayab, by several intervening glyphs. 

 The positions of the day parts in Initial-series termmal dates are 

 quite regular according to the terms of the above rule; that is, they 

 follow immediately the lowest period of the number which in each 

 case shows their distance from the unexpressed starting point, 4 Ahau 

 8 Cumhu. The positions of the corresponding month parts are, on 

 the other hand, irregular. These, instead of standing immediately 

 after the days whose positions in the year they designate, follow at 

 the close of some six or seven intervening glyphs. These intervening 

 glyphs have been called the Supplementary Series, though the count 

 which they record has not as yet been deciphered.^ The month gh^ph 

 in the great majority of cases follows immediately the closing ^ glyph 

 of the Supplementary Series. The form of this latter sign is always 

 unmistakable (see fig. 65), and it is further characterized by its 

 numerical coefficient, which can never be anything but 9 or 10.^ See 

 examples of this sign in the figure just mentioned, where both nor- 

 mal forms a, c, e, g, and li and head variants h, d, and/ are included. 



The student will find- this glyph exceedingly helpful in locating the 

 month parts of Initial-series terminal dates in the inscriptions. For 

 example, let us suppose in deciphering the Initial Series 9.16.5.0.0 

 8 Ahau 8 Zotz that the number 9.16.5.0.0 has been counted forward 



1 The Supplementary Series present perhaps the most promising field for future study and investigation 

 in the Maya texts. They clearly have to do with a numerical count of some kind, wliich of itself should 

 greatly faciUtate progress in their interpretation. Mr. Goodman (1S97: p. 118) has suggested that in some 

 way the Supplementary Series record the dates of the Initial Series they accompany according to some 

 other and unknown method, though he offers no proof in support of this hypothesis. Mr. Bowditch 

 (1910: p. 244) believes they probably relate to time, because the glM)hs of which they are composed have 

 numbers attached to them. He has suggested the name Supplementary Series by which they are known, 

 implying in the designation that these Series in some way supplement or complete the meaning of the 

 Initial Series with which they are so closely connected. The writer believes that they treat of some 

 lunar count. It seems almost certain that the moon glj^ph occurs repeatedly in the Supplementary 

 Series (see fig. 65). 



2 The word "closing" as used heremeans only that in reading from left to rit'lit and from top to bottom- 

 that is, in the normal order— the sign shown in fig. 65 is always the last one m i hf supiilementary Series, 

 usually standing immediately before the month glj^ph of the Initial-series tcrniiiial date. It does not 

 signify, however, that the Supplementary Series were to be read in this direction, and, indeed, there are 

 strong indications that they followed the reverse order, from right to left and bottom to top. 



3 In a few cases the sign shown in fig. 65 occurs elsewhere in the Supplementary Series than as its "closing " 

 gl3rph. In such cases its coefficient is not restricted to the number 9 or 10. 



