A REVIEW OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. 121 



one other problems involving accurate time measurement. For their daily use they 

 had the art of dialing and of divining the hour from the position of the stars. Beyond 

 this they must have been dependent for time reckoning upon mental processes, except 

 for information derived from sources apart from any in their possession. It was to 

 supply this general need, probably, that the public structures were made a universal 

 calendar — not only for current use but as an enduring record that should be serviceable 

 for all time. If any one desired to know the month and year, or the ahau, katun, 

 cycle and great cycle, in which a specific day fell — whether near or remote — he had 

 only to go to the proper temple or stela and there was the information before him, or 

 the data from which it could be readily reckoned. These inscriptions were public 

 libraries, as it were, more necessary and serviceable than ours from the lack of private 

 works of reference. That they contained nothing historical did not detract from their 

 usefulness. Chronology is a necessity; history is not. The Maya authorities 

 contented themselves with supplying that which was necessary to the public, leaving 

 historical luxuries to be obtained in some other way. 



The inscriptions range from a single date to reckonings extending over thousands of 

 years. Those of Palenque are the most comprehensive. The Copan and Quirigua 

 reckonings seldom cover more than a few score years. It is evident that new monu- 

 ments were constantly being erected. Some of them begin with the very date reckoned 

 forward to in a former inscription. This fact suggests the thought that if all the 

 monuments had been preserved to us we should discover that they constituted a 

 complete series, each taking the concluding date of its precursor and reckoning forward 

 to a date to be taken up by the next. 



This theory of the public purpose and use of the inscriptions necessitates the 

 purveyance of an annual calendar also in order to fully meet popular requirement. 

 That nothing of the sort has been found among the inscriptions does not, in my 

 judgment, affect the soundness of the theory in the least. With their graphic system 

 it would take upwards of sixty-five thousand characters to construct a complete annual 

 calendar — a number which it would have been impracticable for them to carve on any 

 monument or tablet. It is therefore probable that the annual calendar was in book 

 form, and was kept in some place accessible to the public; or, more likely, several of 

 them were kept in different places. 



Another consideration may be advanced in explanation of this childlike scrawling of 

 an identical theme on every available surface. The Mayas, notwithstanding the degree 

 of culture they had attained, were a primitive, and, consequently, single-ideaed race. 

 They were in the childhood of civilization. The calendar, in all its wonderful 

 intricacy and completeness, was probably their crowning work in the direction of 

 applied science ; and, with the iterative instinct of childhood, they indulged in endless 

 exhibition of their proudest achievement. It may be denied that such puerility can 

 attach to an adult state, individual or national. I beg to differ trom that conclusion. 



BIOL, centr.-ameji., Archaeol. 16 



