5S 



THE AECHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



YMIX— The Day Sign for 5. 



There can be little doubt, I think, that this symbol is one of the conventionalized 

 forms of the closed hand, typifying a completed count of five by the thumb and fingers. 

 The dots do not qualify the black or cross-hatched mark at the top, evidently intended 

 originally to represent the space between the thumb and fingers when closed. They 

 belong with the lines, and are always found with them when used to indicate finger 

 divisions in highly conventionalized forms of the hand. 



IK— The Day Sign for 6. 



The sign in the second glyph I believe to be the older, and to mean simply 4 + 2 = 6, 

 as already explained. The other symbol shows the easier and quicker way of making 

 the character, which would naturally be adopted in course of time. Ik ends the initial 

 week, or period of six days. This fact, I think, will be found to account for the 

 prevalence of what have been termed the hen-ik signs. Most of thern will be discovered 

 to be reckonings by 6-day periods. 



AKBAL— The Day Sign for 7. 



This is another unaccountable and probably arbitrary sign. The name is believed 

 to pertain to night, and it has been surmised that the symbol is intended to represent 

 clouds or darkness descending upon the mountains. I have no opinion about that, 

 but I know that in some of its uses the sign stands for 7 — as forming 17 in combina- 

 tion with the death's-head, and so forth. 



