Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/57

Rh 11 at the top. Therefore 8 Ahau of the year 11 Kan is the 17th day of the second and also of fifteenth month.

In the same way we ascertain that 8 Ahau of the year 11 Muluc is the twelfth day of the twelfth month, but in this case we have to count the columns from the one commencing with 11 (always inclusive) to the right, through to the thirteenth (the one with 7 at the top), and go back to the first and count up to the one in which we find the figure 8 in the twelfth transverse line. We also find that 8 Ahau of the year 11 Ix is the seventh day of the ninth month.

If I have succeeded in making this complicated system thus far intelligible to the reader, I may hope to succeed in conveying a correct idea of what is to follow.

Now let us test our arrangement by a historical example. In the Perez manuscript translated by Stephens and published in his "Yucatan," Vol. II, it is stated that one Ajpula died in the year 4 Kan, the 18th day of the month Zip, on 9 Ymix.

The year 4 Kan commences with the column of our table which has 4 for the top figure. The third month (Zip) will then be the column with 5 at the top; running down this to the eighteenth transverse line we find the figure 9; we also observe that the 18th day in the Kan column of the names of days is Ymix, agreeing exactly with the date given.

In the manuscript Troano there is another method of giving dates which is very common throughout the work. Thus: which, according to my interpretation, the reasons for which will be hereafter given, signifies 13 Ahau of the thirteenth month.

As neither the year nor the day of the month is given, it is evident that we may find more than one day answering to this date, but let us hunt them out and see where they fall. Referring to our table we will first take the Ahau of the Cauac column, which is in the second transverse line; the 13 in