24 



THE AECHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



THE KATUN. 



It is over this period that the battle royal has been fought. The question of twenty 

 or twenty-four years has raged undeterminedly for more than half a century. As the 

 facts themselves will show the folly of the whole contention, I pass it by without 

 awarding to any individual combatant the discredit of his partisanship. 



Twenty years of 365 days make 7,300 days. The katun does not reach that far, 

 falling a hundred days short, as a multiplication of its constituent parts will show : 

 360x20=7,200. 



In consequence of the day Ahau beginning the ahaus it must also begin the katuns ; 

 and the ahaus succeeding each other by differences of four — as 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, 

 3, 12, 8, 4, 13, 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, etc. — it results that the order of the katuns, 

 composed as they are of twenty ahaus, must be one in which each succeeding katun 

 begins with a day number two less than its forerunner — thus : 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 

 8, 6, 4, 2, 13, 11, etc. 



The katuns are numerated in the same manner as the ahaus : 20, 1, 2, 3, etc., 

 up to 19. 



