CALENDAR OF THE ANCIENT INDIANS. 119 



bled to State the interesting fact, that the calendar of 

 Yucatan, though differing in some particulars, was 

 substantially the same with that of the Mexicans. 

 It had a similar solar year of three hundred and 

 sixty-five days, divided in the same manner, first, 

 into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five 

 supplementary days ; and, secondly, into twenty- 

 eight weeks of thirteen days each, with an addition- 

 al day. It had the same method of distinguishing 

 the days of the year by a combination of those two 

 series, and the same cycle of fifty-two years, in 

 which the years, as in Mexico, are distinguished by 

 a combination of the same series of thirteen, with 

 another of four names or hieroglyphics ; but Don 

 Pio acknowledges that in Yucatan there is no cer- 

 tain evidence of the intercalation (similar to our leap 

 year, or lo the Mexican secular addition of thirteen 

 days) necessary to correct the error resulting from 

 counting the year as equal to three hundred and 

 sixty-five day^ only. 



It will be seen, by reference to the essay, that, be- 

 sides the cycle of fifty-two years common to the 

 Yucatecans and Mexicans, and, as Don Pio Perez 

 asserts (on the authority of Veytia), to the Indians 

 of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Soconusco, those of Yuca- 

 tan had another age of two hundred and sixty, or of 

 three hundred and twelve years, equal to five or six 

 cycles of fifty-two years, each of which ages con- 

 sisted of thirteen periods (called Ajau or Ajau Ka- 

 tun) of twenty years each, according to many au- 



