Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/101

Rh method of counting, their use in this manner shows that they were considered important.

If the lustres ended with an Ix year, as I have assumed, Ezanab would be the last of the intercalated days. Now as will be seen by carefully examining the calendar for one year as given in Table II, page 8, the number of the last intercalated day will always be the same as the first day of the year. Having thus determined the name and number of the year, and remembering the series as given in the quotation, it was an easy matter to count back to any desired year. Let me illustrate this: Suppose that at the close of #n annual feast of Uayeb haab which has ended on Ezanab, an Indian was desirous of determining what year of the cycle had just terminated. Knowing the day to be 1 Ezanab, he knows by this that the year was 1 Ix; remembering the numbers of the key, he commences his count with 1, and running back thus: 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, 3, 12, 8, 4, ascertains that the year is the 40th of the cycle (10 X 4).

A little careful study of this subject will suffice to convince any one at all acquainted with this calendar that by simply knowing the number and name of the last intercalated day of any year will be sufficient to enable him to determine what year of the cycle it is If he forgets the key he can easily find it by the continued subtraction of 4, commencing with 1 3, adding 1 3 when the number to be subtracted from is 4 or less than 4. The only thing necessary to be remembered is that the years Cauac, Kan, Muluc, Ix terminate, respectively, with the days Akbal, Lamat, Ben, and Ezanab.

Suppose the last day of a certain year to be 9 Lamat, this gives 9 Kan as the year; the next year would be 10 Muluc, the next 11 Ix, the last of the lustre. If we remember the key, we count back the following numbers or lustres: 11, 7, 3, 12, 8, 4, showing that 11 Ix would be the 24th year of the cycle and 9 Kan the 22d. These calculations are based upon the supposition that Cauac was the first year of the cycle, but the same rule will apply with Kan or any other as the first of the series.

I think it probable that this will furnish an explanation of the phrase "they fall in the two days of Uayeb haab and return to the end of certain years." The manuscript from which this statement was taken by Perez was evidently written by one not thoroughly familiar with the system.