6 THE ARCHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



a great convocation of astrologers met to correct the calendar, — while not to be relied 

 upon for historical accuracy, yet tend to confirm the supposition that the native races 

 assumed to commence their chronology with the creation of the world. 



If, as is probable, a more satisfactory answer should be found by many in the asser- 

 tion that I am in error as to such an era, and I be asked how I know that it exists, my 

 reply would be that it is self-evident. Its existence is established by all the certainty 

 of mathematical demonstration. The evidence of the inscriptions does not go hand in 

 hand with us to the ultimate destination, but it leads us far on the journey, and leaves 

 us only when it has pointed out an unmistakable way to the final goal, which an 

 intellectual necessity compels us to reach before we can rest satisfied. The inscriptions 

 show us that every separate chronological period must be rounded out to completeness 

 before the calendar itself can be complete. We see the years, ahaus, and katuns 

 come back to their respective starting-points, thus rounding out the periods of which 

 they are the units. Of necessity the cycles and great cycles must do the same, else the 

 system would be an incomplete creation, without form and void. No fair-minded 

 person, I think, will contend that the Mayas elaborated almost to its conclusion a 

 design not only susceptible of but inviting the most perfect finish and then wilfully or 

 blindly left it disproportioned and awry. If they did not do this — a thing alien and 

 repugnant to human nature — then their grand era embraces 374,400 years. There 

 are two unmistakable indices pointing to this conclusion. The moment the cycle and 

 great cycle appear upon the scene we know by the unchangeable law governing the 

 calendar that they must go forward until they commence again with the same date 

 from which they started. Such a result in the case of the former requires 949 cycles, 

 and in that of the latter 73 great cycles — each of which reckonings constitutes a period 

 of 374,400 years. 



If it should be further asked how I know that just three-quarters of this period had 

 elapsed at the time of the Copan and Quirigua record, my answer would be that, though 

 unable to demonstrate it absolutely, not knowing the precise value of all the factors, I 

 am morally certain of it, for the following reasons: — By another unvarying law 

 governing the construction of their calendar all the periods of the chronological scheme 

 are made to conform to the 13-katun standard, some completing their round or rounds 

 in a single count and the rest in different multiples thereof. An examination of the 

 various inscriptions in which the date 4 Ahau-13 Yax occurs shows that more than 

 fifty distinct periods are associated with it. I am yet unable to prove their values 

 beyond a question, but I know they are all measures of time and that all of them begin 

 with that date. The minor chronological periods cannot possibly amount to that 

 number. To account for so many time-measures worthy of record it is necessary 

 to ascend to the larger ahau and katun counts ; when that is done, it becomes 

 imperative, in the absence of specific numbers, to deal with them in their full rounds. 

 Therefore, if 4 Ahau-13 Yax, the beginning of the 15th katun of the 9th cycle, be the 



