The month, made up as I have said of twenty days, was called u, or 'moon,' indicating perhaps that time was originally computed by lunar calculations. It was also called uinal, a word whose signification is not satisfactorily given. The year contained eighteen months, whose names with the hieroglyphics by which they were written, are shown in the cut on the opposite page, in their order, Pop, Uo, Zip, etc., to Cumhu.
Not only did the months succeed each other always in the same order, but Pop was always the first month of the year, which began on a date corresponding to July 16 of our calendar, a date which varies only forty-eight hours from the time when the sun passes the zenith—an approximation as accurate as could be expected from observations made without instruments.
MONTHS OF THE MAYA CALENDAR.
Months of the Maya Calendar.
The following table shows the names of the months, their meaning, and the day on which each began, according to our calendar:
| Pop (Poop, Popp) 'mat' | July 16 |
| Uo (Woo, Voo) 'Frog' | Aug. 5 |
| Zip (Cijp) name of a tree, 'defect,' 'swollen' | Aug. 25 |
| Tzoz (Zoc, Zotz) 'bat' | Sept. 14 |
| Tzec (Zeec) possibly 'discourse,' 'skull' | Oct. 4 |
| Xul 'end' | Oct. 24 |
| Yaxkin (Dze-Yaxkin, Tze Yaxkin) 'beginning of summer' | Nov. 13 |
| Mol (Mool) 'to reunite'. | Dec. 3 |
| Chen (Cheen) 'well' | Dec. 23 |
| Yax (Yaax) 'green' or 'blue' or 'first' | Jan. 12 |
| Zac (Zak) 'clear,' 'white' | Feb. 1 |
| Ceh (Qeh, Quej, Queh) 'deer' | Feb. 21 |
| Mac, 'to close,' 'lid,' a measure | Mar. 13 |
| Kankin, 'yellow sun' | Apr. 2 |
| Muan (Moan) 'showery day,' the bird called 'ara' | Apr. 22 |
| Pax (Paax) a musical instrument | May 12 |
| Kayab, 'singing' | June 1 |
| Cumhu (Cumkú) noise of an explosion, as of thunder | June 21[1100] |
INTERCALARY DAYS.
The year was called haab, and consisted of the eighteen months already named,—which would make 360 days,—and of five supplementary, or intercalary days, to complete the full number of 365. These intercalary days were called xma kaba kin, or 'nameless days,' and also uayab or nayeb haab, u na haab, nayab chab, u yail kin, u yail haab, u tuz kin, or u lobol kin, which may mean 'bed' or 'chamber' of the year, 'mother of the year,' 'bed of creation,' 'travail of the year,' 'lying days,' or 'bad days,' etc. They were added at the end of each year, after the last day of Cumhu, and although they are called nameless, and were perhaps never spoken of by name, yet they were actually reckoned like the rest;—that is, if the last day of Cumhu was Akbal, the five intercalary days would be reckoned as Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, Manik, and Lamat, so that the new year, or the month of Pop, would begin with the day Muluc.