69 



NUMERAL VALUE OF THE MONTH SYMBOLS. 



While dealing with the subject of numerals, I think it worth while to reproduce a 

 list of the month symbols, arranged to illustrate a theory of mine that they are con- 

 structed on a strictly mathematical plan and successively denote the number of days 

 from the beginning of the year to the end of the month symbolized — if, indeed, they 

 have not also ordinal values from 1 to 18. This latter possibility is suggested by the fact 

 that in a certain formula, otherwise invariable, the zotz symbol in one instance replaces 

 the sign for 14, which is the number of the month Zotz in the proposed arrangement ; 

 but as I have not found any other of the month symbols employed similarly, I do not 

 attach undue importance to this coincidence. The numerical order of the months 

 begins with Chen, showing that there must have been an earlier form of the calendar 

 in which the year commenced with that month, just as Caban was originally the initial 

 day. These indications of calendar changes give significance to the statement in the 

 Yucatec chronicles that " Pop was put in order " at a certain date, and lend probability 

 to the conjecture that the ahau was at one time composed of twenty chuens. 



To the month symbols found in the inscriptions — which are placed first in the list 

 — I have added those of the codices, as in a number of instances the latter reveal the 

 original design, which is obscured or lost in the former. 



1. CHEN.-20 days. 



It is a curious if not significant fact that both in the codices and inscriptions this 

 symbol is the most variable of all the signs for the months. The first four here given 

 are from the inscriptions ; the others are from the codices. There is no numerative 

 feature in them that can be positively recognized, beyond the cauac, or 10-day sign, 

 in the first two. What the accessories and other signs mean, I am unable to say, 

 though I infer they are intended to designate it as the initial month. 



