12 THE AECHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



involved in the latter clauses; therefore I chose them as a starting-point for my 

 attempts at a solution. It was safe to begin with 1 Ymix, because Landa explicitly 

 denoted that day to be the commencement of a calendar of some sort. 



Ymix is the day following Ahau ; hence, I reasoned to myself, if a period begin 

 with the former it must terminate with the latter; moreover, 1 succeeding 13 in the 

 day count, if 1 Ymix begin a period, 13 Ahau must end it ; and, further, this period 

 being composed of thirteen lesser ones of twenty years each, it is at a distance of two 

 hundred and sixty years apart in the annual calendar that I must look for a 

 corresponding 1 Ymix and 13 Ahau — recollecting that I need not expect to find them 

 falling on any fixed date. But, as the order of the thirteen subdivisions is given, with 

 the terminal Ahau numbers, it is not necessary to attempt so extended a research, 

 and prudence dictates that I keep my experiments within the narrowest possible limits 

 to guard against mistake. I will, therefore, at the start, proceed only to the end of 

 the first twenty-year period, or katun, and look for 11 Ahau. The trial is made. It 

 proves abortive, as I anticipated. The Ahau number at the end of twenty years is 

 7 instead of 11. The desired 11 Ahau is five months away to the left. It is the same 

 old story of failure over again. But wait a minute ! Five months are equivalent to 

 one hundred days. To divide by twenty would take just five days from each of the 

 twenty years of the katun. Years ] What if they were not years at all that Landa 

 was talking about, but only periods of three hundred and sixty days ] They may be 

 the ahaus. Let me hasten to find out how the numbers will run in a division of this 

 possible katun into twenty such periods. Here it is — 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, 3, 12, 

 8, 4, 13, 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11. Ah, this is significant! That paragraph of Perez — 

 what are its exact words 1 " The Indians of Yucatan had yet another species of cycle, 

 but as the method followed by them in using it cannot be found, nor any example by 

 which an idea of its nature might be imagined, I shall only copy what is literally said 

 of it in a manuscript, viz. : ' There was another number which they called ua katun, 

 and which served them as a key to find the katuns. According to the order of its 

 march it falls on the days of the uayeb yaab and revolves to the end of certain years : 

 katunes 13, 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, 3, 12, 8, 4.' " Poor Don Pio ! To have the 

 pearl in his grasp and be unaware of its pricelessness — like so many others ! But I 

 must not exult too much yet. The succession of the katuns, reckoned according to 

 this principle, is yet to be ascertained before my fancied discovery can be established 

 by a crucial test. I score the ahaus off in the foregoing order, and, sure enough, the 

 twentieths give the desired result: 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 13. Eureka! 

 The perturbed spirit of the Maya calendar, which has endeavoured so long to impart 

 its message to the world, may rest at last. 



But, though confident I had discovered the secret of the ahau and katun count, 

 when I tried the plan on the dates and reckonings of the inscriptions it proved totally 

 inapplicable. There were periods into whose nature I had no insight ; and if those I 



