THE QUIRIGUA INSCRIPTIONS. 



125 



not be reckoned. I call attention to the fact that in this inscription a form of the 

 len-ik character is used both with the day and katun as a numeral for 1. There are 

 67 glyphs here. Of that number we are able to construe definitely the meaning of 37. 

 Of the remaining 30 we know quite half to be directive signs or symbols for periods. 

 So there is little room left for anything besides the chronological record. 



Stela F. East side. 



Initial date: 54 — 16 — 10—18x20 — 1 Ahau-3 Zip. Here the month symbol 

 does not come until after the initial directive series. The glyphs that immediately 

 follow are so fantastic and unfamiliar that I can make nothing of them until the sign 

 indicating a date to be some score days in the 19th katun is reached. The date is 

 5 Ahau-13 Mol. As that begins the 1st ahau, the number of score days indicated 

 must be 18. Two unintelligible glyphs follow, succeeded by what I believe to be this 

 reading: 3 cycles, 8 katuns and 19 ahaus, a reckoning embracing 26 calendar rounds 

 and extending 360 8-score days into the 13th cycle, to 1 Ahau-13 Yax, the beginning 

 of a 360-bissextile count and of a katun also. This is the inscription I regard as the 

 strongest support to my theory of the Maya bissextile scheme. The month symbol 

 looks as if it might have been intended for Yaxkin, but if so it is a mistake. The rest 

 of the glyphs on this side of the stela are unfortunately mostly destroyed. 



Stela E. West side. 



Initial date: 54 — 9—14—12 — 4x17 — 12 Caban-5 Kayab. There is an error in 

 the very initial date. The ahau number should be 13 instead of 12, for the date is 

 identical with that on Stela F west side. A given date can occur only once in a 

 period of two katuns, twelve ahaus, and thirteen chuens ; so, all the other factors being 

 the same, the mistake in the ahau number here is beyond question. The initial 

 directive series comes in between the day and month symbols, after which follow seven 

 unintelligible glyphs, though there is good reason for believing them all to be period 

 signs. Then comes a reckoning of 6 — 13x3, from the preceding date, to 4 Ahau- 

 13 Yax. We will subject this to the same trial that we did the reckonings in the 

 other inscription : — 



AHAU COUNT. 



YEAR COUNT. 



6 ahaus ... 





2,160 days. 

 260 „ 

 3 „ 



6 years 





39 day-.. 

 . 2,190 „ 



13 chuens... 





3 davs 









I'.u .. 











2,423 days. 



■-'. 123 days. 



