Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/76

32 my only object in referring to these plates being to illustrate the idea advanced in regard to the meaning of the dagger piercing the eye of the blue figure on Plate XXIII of the Manuscript Troano.

The next point to be determined is the position of the several Ahaues in the grand cycle. This larger group, as admitted by all authorities, consisted of thirteen Ahaues; as 24 X 13 = 312, it follows that, assuming the Ahau to be a period of 24 years, this longer period would consist of 312 years. If the first year of the grand cycle coincided with the first year of an Ahau, the position of these latter groups would be determined by simply dividing the former into groups of 24 years,' as shown in Table No. XVI, where the dark transverse lines mark the divisions between the Ahaues as thus obtained. This conclusion is so natural that it would seem to follow as a matter of course from the numbers used, and from the fact that the number of years in a-grand cycle is an exact multiple of the number of years in an Ahau.

But as Senor Perez, who is our chief authority for what pertains to the Maya calendar, has advanced a different opinion, and as his suggestion affords a means of escape from a very serious difficulty, I will call attention to it before deciding as to which I believe to be the true method of locating these periods. But in order that his theory may be clearly understood it is necessary for us first to determine the dominical day with which the first years of the Ahaues commenced; for it is evident, whether we count twenty or twenty-four years to these periods—as each is a multiple of 4—that if they followed each other in regular order the first year of each would begin with the same dominical day though not the same number. In other words, if one of the series began with a Kan year all the rest would begin with a Kan year. If the first year of a cycle were also the first year of an Ahau, as we would naturally presume, then determining the first year of any one will determine all the others.

In the manuscript discovered by Perez and translated into English by Stephens (from the Spanish translation of the discoverer), we find the following statement: "In the 13th Ahau Chief Ajpula died. Six years were wanting to complete the 13th Ahau. This year was counted toward the east of the wheel and began on the 4th Kan. Ajpula died on the 1 8th day of the month Zip on the 9th Ymix." Taking for granted that the day, the