206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 57 



between the day coefficient and the month coefficient is that the hitter 

 has a fiesliless lower jaw, increasing its value by 10. Moreover, com- 

 parison of the month sign in B9 with g and Ji, figm-e 19, shows unmis- 

 takably that the month here recorded is Tzec. But the terminal 

 date as recorded does not agree wath any one of the three above 

 terminal dates as reached by calculation and we are forced to accept 

 one of the two conclusions which confronted us in the preceding text 

 (fig. 77, A) : Either the starting point of this Initial Series is not the 

 date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, or there is some error in the original text.^ 



Assummg that the ancient scribes made no mistakes in this inscrip- 

 tion, let us coimt backward from the recorded terminal date, 8 Ahau 

 18 Tzec, each of the three numbers 2.19.13.4.0, 11.19.13.4.0. 

 12.19.13.4.0, one of which, we have seen, is recorded in A3-B7. 



Reducmg these numbers to units of the first order by means 3f 

 Table XIII, and deducting all the Calendar Rounds possible from 

 each (see Table XVI), and, fuially, appMng rules 1,2, and 3 (pp. 139, 

 140, and 141, respectively), to the remainders, the startmg points mil 

 be found to be: 



7 Ahau 3 Mol for 2.19.13.4.0 



3 Ahau 18 Mac for 11.19.13.4.0 



4 Ahau 8 Zotz for 12.19.13.4.0 



Which of these starting points are we to accept as the one from which 

 this number is counted? The correct answer to this question ^^dll 

 give at the same time the value of the cycle coefficient, which, as 

 we have seen, must be 2, 11, or 12, Most Maya students have 

 accepted as the startmg point of tliis Initial-series number the last 

 of the three dates above given, 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, which involves also the 

 identification of the cycle coefficient in A3 as 12. The writer has 

 reached the same conclusion from the following points : 



1, The cycle coefficient in A3, except for its very unusual headdress, 

 is almost identical with the other two head-variant niunerals, whose 

 values are known to be 12. These three head numerals are shown 

 side by side in figure 52, t-^, t being the form in A3 above, inserted 

 in this figure for the sake of comparison. Although these three heads 

 show no single element or characteristic that is present in all (see p. 

 100), each is very similar to the other two and at the same time is 

 dissimilar from all other head-variant numerals. This fact warrants 

 the conclusion that the head in A3 represents the numeral 12, and if 

 tliis is so the starting point of the Initial Series imder discussion is 

 4 Ahau 8 Zotz. 



2. Aside from the fact that 12 seems to be the best reading of the 

 head in A3, and consequently that the starting point of this number 

 is 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, the writer believes that 4 Ahau 8 Zotz should be 



1 Similarly, it could be shown that the use of every other possible value of the cycle coeflBcient will 

 not give the tenninal date actually recorded. 



