THOMAS] MEXnOD OF NUMBERING THE DAYS. 7 



the number 365, and were called "nameless days" (though in reality named 

 as other days), and were considered unlucky. 



If the year began with Kan, the last day of the eighteenth month — 

 Cumhu — wovdd, as a matter of course, be Akbal, the last of the twenty. 

 The five intercalated days were named in regular order following the last 

 of Cumhu, and in this case would be Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, Manik, and 

 Lamat. The next — Muluc — would begin the new year. Muluc being the 

 first day of the month, Lamat would necessarily be the last — the five added 

 days at the end of the year would be Muluc, Oc, Chuen, Eb, and Ben, 

 making Ix the first of the following year. Ix being the first, Ben would be 

 the last of Cumhu, and the added days being Ix, Men, Cib, Caban, and 

 Ezanab, Canac would be the first of the next year, the added days would 

 close with Akbal, and the following year commence with Kan. It will be 

 seen from this, that the year always commenced with one of the four days, 

 Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac, following each other regularly in the order given. 

 'If these were all the peculiarities of the system, the Maya calendar 

 would be comparatively simple and easily understood. 



But another method of numbering the days was inti-oduced, doubtless 

 long after the calendar had assumed a regular form, and probably by the 

 priests, for the purpose of complicating it and rendering it as far as possible 

 luiintelligible to the people. This was to limit the number to thirteen, or, 

 in other words, to divide the year into periods of thirteen days. • I have 

 followed other modern authors in calling this period a week, though it ap- 

 pears the Mayas gave it no name, nor in fact do they seem to have consid- 

 ered it a period, but simply a method of numbering the days and years. 

 As there were twenty names of days to be used, the introduction of this 

 system of thirteen numerals, as the one chiefly adopted in giving dates, 

 necessarily greatl}- complicated the calendar, and, together with the inter- 

 calation of the five days at the end of the year, produced some singular 

 results. 



To illustrate this I give first a list of days for one month (Table No. I) 

 numbered according to this system, following it with a table (No. II) num- 

 bered in the same way for an entire year — something after the manner of 

 our common counting-house calendar. 



