If signs 3 and 4 ought to be read together as VIII Ahau 13 Yaxkin, then this date would come in the year 7 Muluc. In the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie I explained the five hieroglyphs
in the third column at the bottom of page 70 (the third group) as civil years of 360 and astronomical years of 365 days:—
| 1) | 8,760 | = | 24 × 365 | = | 15 × 584 |
| 2) | 2,920 | = | 8 × 365 | = | 5 × 584 |
| 3) | 7,200 | = | 20 × 360 | ||
| 4) | 18,720 | = | 52 × 360 | = | 72 × 260 |
| 5) | 360 | ||||
| ——— | |||||
| 37,960 | . | ||||
This, it is true, is a striking explanation and certainly a surprising one!
Now the date IX Ix 12 Kayab is at the very bottom of the fourth column. This, without apparent reason, would refer to the year 4 Kan. Should it not be read IX Kan 12 Kayab (4 Ix), thus indicating that the entire passage is only the preparation for the date from which the serpent numbers proceed? The scribe may have had in mind the IX Ix of the series.
The fourth and last group on page 73, above the two numbers 83,474 and 34,732, consists of four hieroglyphs. The two upper hieroglyphs on the left are effaced, and the top one on the right. I think it probable that the day VIII Ahau, which will be discussed later, may have stood in the top line, and possibly with a month date. Of the two remaining signs of the fourth group, the upper is the moon and the lower Imix, probably with the hieroglyph of the east as a prefix; but there is nothing to be done with it owing to the obliteration of the sign above it. In the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1891, page 153, I have endeavored to explain these three signs on the right above 34,732, by suggesting for them the values
| 18,980 | = 52 × 365 |
| 8,760 | = 24 × 365 |
| 7,200 | = 20 × 360 |
| ——— | |
| 34,940 |
and calling special attention to the fact that between IV Eb and IV Ahau there are 208 days, and that the 34,732 placed below them in the Manuscript, increased by 208, is equal to 34,940.
This group then seems really to belong to the day IV Eb and to the 65-series, while manifold problems are still to be encountered in interpreting the other groups.
4. The Large Numbers.