NUMERAL VALUE OE THE DAY SYMBOLS. 



57 



CAUAC.-The Bay Sign for 3. 



The very name of this day — ca, two ; uac, six — implies a number resulting from 

 some manipulation of 6 by 2. As, reckoning from any of the dominicals, it could not 

 be the fourth, eighth or twelfth day, there remains only the conclusion that the 

 process implied is division, and therefore that it is the third day. In the codices this 

 position is always distinctly shown by the cross sign for 3, but that distinguishing trait 

 is lost in the inscriptions. The cauac character is the sign commonly used to denote 

 that the reckoning is by days — 10 days being the period usually implied by it, as 

 expressed in the curve surrounded by a line of dots. In this manner it is used single 

 in the month symbols, and double, or representing 20 days, in the cycle and calendar- 

 round, or 52-year, signs. Again, as in the superfix of the katun symbol, it has no 

 specific value, but merely indicates that the computation is by clays. So it will be 

 seen that the sign has at least four distinct meanings — a particular day ; a day, or days, 

 in the abstract : the third day, or three days ; ten or twenty days, as the sign is single 

 or double; and I have no doubt that still other meanings will be found to attach to it. 



ABAU— The Day Sign for 4. 



There is nothing discernible to me why this symbol should mean 4, but that it does 

 is evident from its employment in that sense in a 260-day and other signs. I think it 

 is a purely arbitrary symbol intended to represent the moon, and that the name 

 implies Sir Moon— ah, sir; u, moon — just as ali-kin is the equivalent of Sir Sun. The 

 sun symbol is a sign for 13, as the moon symbol, if such it be, is for 4. 



BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Archoeol. 



