114 



THE ARCHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



backwards. Hence I consider it safe to ascribe tbat significance to it — indicating a back- 

 ward count — though for lack of certainty I did not include it among the directive signs. 

 The extract begins at a point where the reckoning in the inscription, after having run 

 consecutively from the 4th to the 13th katun of the 9th cycle and then leaped ahead 

 to the beginning of the 10th cycle, abruptly breaks off. It is as follows: — 



The reading of the above, so far as I can make it out, is as follows : — [To the] 

 10 Ahau .... 13 Yaxkin .... [that is] 1 calendar round .... [from a, or the 

 same] date appearing some distance back. — 8 days, 9 chuens [there is what appears 

 almost like a trick here : the number of chuens is not designated by three 

 dots, but by three signs for 3] . . . . [and] 12 ahaus .... reckoning backwards, 

 [by] katuns [probably a manner of denoting the reckoning to be a long one] 

 .... [to] 8 Ahau .... 13 Pop .... [1040] bissextile periods [in addition. 

 It is impossible, with our imperfect knowledge of the Maya numerals, to say 

 just how this number of bissextile periods is expressed ; but a subsequent reckoning 

 shows that 80 calendar rounds, or 1040 4-year periods, are implied here.] .... 



