WORKING-CHART. 



This chart will be found invaluable in working out chronological problems. It will 

 obviate a discouraging amount of figuring, for nearly every factor that can enter into 

 such problems is here ready reckoned in days. A single example will sufficiently 

 illustrate its use. 



On the tablet of the Temple of the Sun, Palenque, is this record: 9 — 12 — 18 — 5 X 16. 

 followed almost immediately by 4 Ahau-8 (the month symbol is new and unrecog- 

 nizable), and that, with but a single intervening glyph, by 2 Cib-14 Mol. Two 

 questions naturally arise — what is the unknown month sign 1 ? and do these cycles, 

 katuns, ahaus, chuens, and days represent the period between these dates % Cib being 

 the sixteenth day from Ahau gives probability to the conjecture. Let us cipher it out, 

 thereby testing the utility of our working-chart. By its help we readily reduce the 

 period to days, thus : — 



9 cycles =1,296,000 days. 

 12 katuns = 86,4,00 „ 

 18 ahaus = 6,480 „ 



5 chuens = 100 ,, 



16 days = 16 „ 



1,388,996 days. 



From these we deduct as many calendar rounds as possible, being seventy-three, or 

 1,385,540 days, leaving 3,456. From these we take 155, the number of days from the 

 beginning of the year to 14 Mol — that being the only date we are certain of. This 

 leaves 3,301 days. From these deduct all the years possil ;le, being nine, or 3,2S5 days. 

 There are now but 16 days left. Reckoning back from t e end of the year, we find 

 these reach to 8 Cumhu — a circumstance that enables us <■ sily to recognize the strange 

 sign as a variant of the symbol for that month. Turning now to the Annual Calendar, 

 we find that 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu occurs on page 7, and, passing over nine years till we 

 come to page 17, we find that 2 Cib falls on the 14th of Mol in that year. Thus we 

 are satisfied that the strange month sign is a symbol for Cumhu, and that the cyi li . 

 katuns, ahaus, chuens, and days represent the period between the two dates — the lull 

 reading being: " 9 — 12 — 18 — 5x16, from 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu, the beginning of the 

 great cycle, to 2 Cib-14 Mol"; and, by the help of the working-table, we have 

 accomplished our purpose with a comparatively small amount of ciphering. 



