Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/63

Rh stated, two tables, one with Cauac as the initial day (VI) and the other with Kan (VII). Running-our eyes down the Cauac column of either table to 10, we find thirteen numbers from this downwards, as follows, and in the order here given: 10, 1, 5, 9, 13, 4, 8, 12, 3, 7, 11, 2, 6, precisely as they are on the plate of the manuscript.

On Plate XII (our Plate III) the repeated character of the left-hand column is Kan, the numerals over which (reading from the top downwards) are as follows: 11, 2, 6, 10, 1, 5, 9, (?), 4, 8, 12, 3, 7, 11, precisely the same and in the same order as we find them in the Kan column of our tables; the obliterated one being, as we see from this, 13. On Plate XX (our Plate I) the repeated character of the left-hand column is Ix. The numbers here, so far as they can be made out, are 13, (?), 8, 12, 3, 7, 11, 2, 6, 10, 1, 5, 9, precisely the same and in the same order as in the Ix column of our tables.

The repeated character on Plate XXI (our Plate II) is Muluc; the numbers are 12, 3, 6, 10, 1, 5, 9, 13, 4, 8, 2, 7, 3. If we compare these with the Muluc column of our tables, we find that after the first two numbers there is a skip of three numbers before we reach the 6 which should follow according to the plate. But what appears here as a contradiction of my supposition is, as I believe, the strongest evidence of its correctness. If we examine the tables carefully we will observe that after reaching the second figure,—3,—in the Muluc column, the next figure in the adjoining column is 6, and from thence to 8 the same as on the plate. From this I am led to believe the writer had before him a table similar to those I have given, except that it was written in their numeral characters, and that, by mistake in copying, his eye fell on the wrong column. That such tables were used by them is rendered probable by the following quotation which Perez makes from an ancient manuscript in his possession: "They had another number which they called Ua Katun, which served them as a-key to find the Katunes and according to the order of their march, it falls on the two days of the Uayebhaab and revolves to the end of certain years: Katunes 13, 9, 5, 1, 10, 6, 2, 11, 7, 3, 12, 8, 4." By commencing at the bottom of the righthand column of either table of years and running up we find precisely these numbers and in the order given. It is scarcely possible these could have been obtained except by a table similar to those I have given.