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DECLARATIVE SIGNS. 



This class of signs is very large. It includes not only most of the characters used at 

 times directively or determinatively, but all of the period symbols become declarative 

 by having a beginning sign affixed to them. Thus, the bouquet sign, when attached 

 to Ahau to indicate it begins an ahau period, renders that clay symbol a declarative; 

 and, similarly, these glyphs are all declaratives, proclaiming alike the beginning of a 



12th katun; for, though the last appears to denote the 10 Ahau to be simply the 

 beginning of a katun, we know that during the cycle in which the date in question 

 occurs no katun but the 12th begins with 10 Ahau. 



But the signs commonly made use of for declarative purposes are different from 

 those ordinarily employed to denote the same periods. The following are the ones 

 most frequently used in connection with the katun : 



The first of these usually precedes a date, announcing it to be the beginning of a 

 katun ; the others follow after dates. The second glyph means, literally, the beginning 

 of a 20th ahau ; but as the beginning of a 20th ahau must always be the beginning of 

 a katun also, the symbol when used declaratively becomes transformed from an ahau 

 into a katun sign. 1 desire to call attention to the third glyph particularly. It is 

 composed purely of numeric elements, with the exception of the beginning character. 

 The main part is a sign for 18, The subfix is one of the characters for 20 raised to 

 twenty times its value by partial striation of the curve representing 5. The two 

 numbers multiplied constitute the number of days in a katun — 18x400 = 7,200. In 

 the last glyph the value of the subfixed sign for 20 is not increased, but the same 



