32 A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO. 



my only object in referring to these plates being to illustrate the idea ad- 

 vanced in regard to the meaning of the dagger piercing the eye of the blue 

 figure on Plate XXIII of the Manuscript Troano. 



The next point to be determined is the position of the several Ahaues 

 in the grand cycle. This larger group, as admitted b}'^ all authorities, con- 

 sisted of thirteen Ahaues; as 24 X 1-^^312, it follows that, assuming the 

 Ahau to be a period of 24 years, this longer period would consist of .312 

 years. If the first year of the grand cycle coincided with the first year 

 of an Ahau, the position of these latter groups would be determined by 

 simply dividing the former into groups of 24 years, as shown in Table No. 

 XVI, where the dark transverse lines mark the divisions between the Ahaues 

 as thus obtained. This conclusion is so natural that it would seem to follow 

 as a matter of course from the numbers used, and from the fact that the 

 number of years in a grand cycle is an exact multiple of the number of 

 years in an Ahau. 



But as Sefior Perez, who is our chief authority for what pertains to the 

 Maya calendar, has advanced a different opinion, and as his suggestion 

 affords a means of escape from a very serious difficulty, I will call attention 

 to it before deciding as to which I believe i<o be the true method of locating 

 these periods. But in order that his theory may be clearly understood it is 

 necessary for us first to deteriiiine the dominical day with which the first 

 years of the Ahaues. commenced; for it is evident, whether we count twenty 

 or twenty-four years to these periods — as each is a multiple of 4 — that if 

 they followed each other in regulfir order the first year of each would begin 

 with the same dominical day though not the same number. In other words, 

 if one of the series began with a Kan year all the rest would begin with a 

 Kan year. If the first year of a cycle were also the fii'st year of an Ahau, 

 as we would naturally presume, then determining the first year of any one 

 will determine all the others. 



In the manuscript discovered by Perez and translated into English by 

 Stephens (from the Spanish translation of the discoverer), we find the fol- 

 lowing statement: "In the 13th Ahau Chief Ajpula died. Six years were 

 ivanting to complete the VdtJi Ahau. This year was counted toward the east 

 of the wheel and began on the 4th Kan. Ajpula died on the 18th day of 

 the month Zip on the 9th Ymix." Taking for granted that the day, the 



