198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



Roducing this number to imits of the first order by means of Table 

 XIII, we have: 



A3= 8X144,000 = 1,152,000 

 A4 = 14x 7,200= 100,800 

 A5= 3X 360= 1,080 



A6= IX 20= 20 



A7 = 12X 1= 12 



1, 253, 912 



Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 66 

 (see Table XVI), and appljang rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 139, 140, and 141, 

 respectively) to the remainder, the terminal date reached wall be 

 1 Eb Yaxkin. The day part of this date is very clearly recorded 

 in A8, the coefficient 1 being expressed by one dot, and the day sign 

 itself having the hook surrounded by dots, and the prominent teeth, 

 both of which are characteristic of the grotesque head which denotes 

 the day Eb. See figure 16, s-u. 



The month glyph appears in A9a, the lower half of which unmis- 

 takably records the month Yaxkin. (See fig. 19, Ic, I.) Note the yax 

 and Mn elements in each. The only difficulty here seems to be the 

 fact that a bar (5) is attached to this glyph. The writer believes, 

 however, that the unexplained element (*) is the month co- ^^7\ 

 efficient in this text, and that it is an archaic form for 0. He * 

 would explain the bar as being merely ornamental. The whole Initial 

 Series reads: 8.14.3.1.12 1 Eb Yaxkin. 



The fact that there are some few irregularities in tliis text confirms 

 rather than invalidates the antiquity which has been ascribed to it 

 by the writer. Dating from the period when the Maya were just 

 emerging from savagery to the arts and practices of a semicivilized 

 state, it is not at all surprising that tliis inscription should reflect 

 the crudities and uncertainties of its time. Indeed, it is quite possi- 

 ble that at the very early period from which it probably dates 

 (8.14.3.1.12 1 Eb Yaxkin) the period glyphs had not yet become 

 sufficiently conventionalized to show individual peculiarities, and 

 their identity may have been determined solely by their position 

 with reference to the introducing glyph, as seemingly is the case in 

 some of the period glyplis of tliis text. 



The Initial Series on the Leyden Plate precedes the Initial Series 

 on Stela 3 at Tikal, the earliest contemporaneous date from the 

 monuments, by more than 160 years, and with the possible exception 

 of the Tuxtla Statuette above described, probably records the earliest 

 date of Maya history. It should be noted here that Cycle-8 Initial 

 Series are occasionally found in the Dresden Codex, though none are 

 quite so early as the Initial Series from the Tuxtla Statuette. 



