WORKING-CHART. 



This chart will be found invaluable in working out chronological problems. It will 

 obviate a discouraging amount of figuring, for nearly every factor that cau enter into 

 such problems is here ready reckoned in days. A single example will sufficiently 

 illustrate its use. 



On the tablet of the Temple of the Sun, Palenque, is this record: 9 — 12 — 18 — 5 X 16. 

 followed almost immediately by 4 Ahau-S (the month symbol is new and unrecog- 

 nizable), and that, with but a single intervening glyph, by 2 Cib-14 Mol. Two 

 questions naturally arise — what is the unknown month sign 1 and do these cycles, 

 katuns, ahaus, chuens, and days represent the period between these dates 1 Cib being 

 the sixteenth day from Ahau gives probability to the conjecture. Let us cipher it out, 

 thereby testing the utility of our working-chart. By its help we readily reduce the 

 period to days, thus : — 



9 cycles =1,296,000 days. 

 12 katuns = 80,-100 „ 

 18 ahaus = 0,480 „ 



5 chuens = 100 ,, 



10 clays = 16 „ 



1,388,996 days. 



From these we deduct as many calendar rounds as possible, being seventy-three, or 

 1,385,510 days, leaving 3,456. From these we take 155, the number of days from the 

 beginning of the year to 14 Mol — that being the only date we are certain of. This 

 leaves 3,301 days. From these deduct all the years possible, being nine, or 3,2S5 days. 

 There are now but 16 days left. Reckoning back from the end of the year, we find 

 these reach to 8 Cumhu — a circumstance that enables us easily to recognize the strange 

 sign as a variant of the symbol for that month. Turning now to the Annual Calendar, 

 we find that 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu occurs on page 7, and, passing over nine years till we 

 come to page 17, we find that 2 Cib falls on the 14th of Mol in that year. Thus we 

 are satisfied that the strange month sign is a symbol for Cumhu, and that the cj 

 katuns, ahaus, chuens, and days represent the period between the two dates— the 

 reading being: "9 — 12 — 18 — 5x16, from 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu, the beginning of the 

 great cycle, to 2 Cib-14 Mol " ; and, by the help of the working-table, we have 

 accomplished our purpose with a comparatively small amount of ciphering. 



