XCVI BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
Partly through study of the autographic records, though 
chiefly through personal conference, the calendars of different 
American tribes are known. Among the plains Indians the 
calendars are simple, consisting commonly of a record of 
winters (from which they are sometimes known as ‘winter 
counts”) and of notable events occurring either during the 
winter or durmg some other season of the year; while the 
shorter time divisions are reckoned by “nights” (days), ‘‘dead 
moons” (lunations), and seasons of leafing, flowering, or fruit- 
ing of plants, migrating of animals, ete; and there is no 
definite system of reducing days to lunations or lunations 
to years. Among the pueblo Indians calendric records are 
inconspicuous or absent, though there is a much more definite 
ealendric system which is fixed and perpetuated by religious 
ceremonies; while among some of the Mexican tribes there 
are elaborate calendric systems combined with complete 
calendric records. The perfection of the calendar among 
the Maya and Nahua Indians is indicated by the fact that not 
only were 365 days reckoned as a year, but the bissextile was 
recognized—indeed some astronomers have regarded the eal- 
endar of ancient Mexico as even more accurate than the 
Julian calendar of early Christendom. 
During several years Dr Thomas has devoted close atten- 
tion to the interpretation of the calendrie inscriptions found 
in the Maya codices, and a portion of the results of his re- 
searches has been incorporated in earlier reports. His latest 
publication on the subject appeared in the form of a bulletin 
entitled “The Maya Year,” issued in 1894. In this he demon 
strated that the year recorded in the Dresden codex consisted 
of eighteen months of twenty days each, with five supple- 
mental days, or of three hundred and sixty-five days. In the 
accompanying paper he discusses at length the origin and sig- 
nificance of the names given to the twenty days of the Mexican 
month in the Maya language, as well asin the Tzental, Quiche- 
Cakchiquel, Zapotec, and Nahuatl. In the several languages 
the names are associative or symbolic in the vague fashion 
characteristic of prescriptoriaf ideation; they connote wind, 
water, rain, various animals and plants, ete, and in most or all 
