APPENDIX. 



441 



Order of the years in the cycle of 52, divided into four indictions, or weeks of 

 years ; and as the year 1841 happens to be the first of one of these cycles , it is 

 taken as the starting-point. 



1st Indiclion. 



2d Indiction. 



3d Indiction. 



4th Indiction. 



1841 



1. Kan. 



1854, 



1. Muluc. 



1867 



1. Gix. 



1880, 



1. Cauac. 



1842 



2. Muluc. 



1855, 



2. Gix. 



1868 



2. Cauac. 



1881, 



2. Kan. 



&c. 



3. Gix. 



&c> 



3. Cauac. 



&c. 



3. Kan. 



&c. 



3. Muluc. 





4. Cauac. 





4. Kan. 





4. Muluc. 





4. Gix. 





5. Kan. 





5. Muluc. 





5. Gix. 





5. Cauac. 





6. Muluc, 





6. Gix. 





6. Cauac. 





6. Kan. 





7. Gix. 





7. Cauac. 





7. Kan. 





7. Muluc. 





8. Cauac. 





8. Kan. 





8. Muluc. 





8. Gix. 





9. Kan. 





9. Muluc. 





9. Gix. 





9. Cauac. 





10. Muluc. 





10. Gix. 





10. Cauac. 





10. Kan. 





11. Gix. 





11. Cauac. 





11. Kan. 





11. Muluc. 





12. Cauac. 





12. Kan. 





12. Muluc. 





12. Gix. 





13. Kan. 





13. Muluc. 





13. Gix. 



1892, 13. Cauac. 



This period of 52 years was called by the Indians Katun, and at its con- 

 clusion great feasts were celebrated, and a monument was raised, on which 

 a large stone was placed crosswise, as is signified by the word Kat-tun, for 

 <Sh memento and record of the cycles, or Katunes, that had elapsed. It should 

 be observed, that until the completion of this period, the initial days of the 

 years did not again fall upon the same numbers of the week ; for which 

 reason, by merely citing them, it was at once known what year of that 

 cycle was arrived at ; being aided in this by the wheel or table on which 

 the years were engraved in hieroglyphics. 



* 8 P . Of the great Cycle of 312 Years, or Ajau Katunes. 



Besides the cycle of 52 years, or Katun, there was another great cycle pe- 

 culiar to the Yucatecos, who referred to its periods for dating their princi- 

 pal epochs and the most notable events of their history. It contained 13 

 periods of 24 years each, making together 312 years. Each period, or 

 Ajau Katun, was divided into two parts ; the first of 20 years, which was 

 included in a square, and therefore called amaytun, lamayte, or lamaytun ; 

 and the other of four years, which formed, as it were, a pedestal for the 

 first, and was called chek oc Katun, or lath oc Katun, which means " stool" 

 or "pedestal." They considered those four years as intercalated; there- 

 fore believed them to be unfortunate, and called them u yail Jaab, as they 

 did the five supplementary days of the year, to which they likened them. 



From this separation of the first 20 years from the last four, arose the er- 

 roneous belief that the Ajaus consisted only of 20 years, an error into which 

 almost all have fallen who have written on the subject; but if they had 

 counted the years which compose a period, and noted the positive declara- 

 tions of the manuscripts that the Ajaues consisted of 24 years divided as 

 above stated, they would not have misled their readers on this point. 



It is incontrovertible that those periods, epochs, or ages, took the name 



