Although Brinton has almost always translated “tun” by “year,” it is very evident from the above that the Mayas called the native division of the katun “tun.”
It may further be noted that the word “kin” is used for day in the way of numeration in the Book of Mani, paragraph 13, “9 Imix was the day on which Ahpula died” and in paragraph 13 of the Book of Tizimin and paragraph 7 of the first Book of Chumayel, the same statement is made.
May it not then be fairly assumed that the Mayas called the day or the unit of their calendrical numeration “kin,” their 360-day period “tun,” and the period of 20 tuns “katun,” as Dr. Seler has suggested?
The third question is as to the so-called period of “ahau katun.” I give below all the cases in which Brinton has used the word, and in all but one of them the Maya has “ahau u katunil”; and in one case Brinton has translated a sentence as “it was the eleventh ahau katun,” while exactly similar phrases (with the exception of the number) have been translated by him as “4 Ahau was the name of the katun.” In the phrase in paragraph 9 of the second Book of Chumayel, where “ah Bolon ahau katun” appears, the whole context makes it evident that a katun and not an ahau katun, if there was such a period, is meant. The paragraph says “9 Ahau; no stone was taken at this time; in this katun came the Bishop Brother Francisco Toral; he arrived in Tun 6 of Katun 9 Ahau”; and yet Brinton makes it read in the first clause that while Bishop Toral came in a katun called 9 Ahau, he “arrived in Tun 6” of the “ninth Ahau katun.”
Dr. Tozzer, whose knowledge of the Maya languages, gained in long residence among the Maya Indians of Yucatan and Chiapas, enables him to speak with authority, writes me as follows: “The form u katunil of ahau ukatunil, for example,” in paragraph 3 of the second Book of Chumayel, p. 167, “is probably possessive, and it would then be literally ‘the Ahau 8, its Katun’ (the Ahau’s Katun) which might strengthen the point against joining the two together as Ahaukatun.”
In the second Book of Chumayel, p. 167, paragraph 3, “uucpiztun uaxac ahau u katunil; laix u katunil, etc.” Brinton translates “in the 7th year of the 8th Ahau katun, in this katun, etc.” There is no authority for translating ahau u katunil “ahau katun.” It should be “In Tun 7 of Katun 8 Ahau, in this katun, etc.,” or, as suggested by Dr. Tozzer, “In Tun 7 of Ahau eight’s Katun.”
Again, in paragraph 5, the translation of “Hun ahau—tu hunpiztun ychil hun ahau u katunile” is given, “The first ahau—in the first year of the first ahau katun.” It should be “1 Ahau—in Tun 1 of the Katun 1 Ahau, &c.”
Again, in paragraph 8 “tu uucpiztun Buluc Ahau u katunil” is translated “in the seventh year of the eleventh ahau katun,” when it should be “in Tun 7 of Katun 11 Ahau.” Just above “Tun 1 of 11 Ahau” is given and followed by “in this katun.”
Again in paragraph 9 we read “Bolon Ahau—lay katun yax ulci obispo Fray Fran’co to Ral huli tu uacpiztun ychil ahBolon ahau katun lae,” which Brinton translates “The ninth ahau—in this katun first came the bishop Brother Francisco Toral; he arrived in the sixth year of the ninth ahau katun.” It should be “9 Ahau—in this katun—in Tun 6 of Katun 9 Ahau.” This is the only place in the Maya where the words “ahau katun” appear together. But the context makes it clear that “ahau katun” is not a period of time. The paragraph begins with “9 Ahau,” and speaks of it as a katun during which Bishop Toral arrived, and then proceeds to say that he arrived in Tun 6 of this “ahBolon ahau katun,” which can mean nothing else than the “Katun 9 Ahau.”
In the third Book of Chumayel, paragraphs 5 and 6, Brinton translates “Can ahau u katunil” as “The fourth ahau katun” instead of “Katun 4 Ahau.”