Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I.

by John L. Stephens

In order to prevent that inconvenience, it is necessary to suppose that the Indians, whether they intercalated the additional day at the end of the 18 months or after the five supplementary days, did not only give to it the same number and hieroglyphic as to the day immediately preceding, but also designated it by some peculiar sign or number, in order that it might not be confounded with any other.

In a treatise published by Akerman, the opinion is expressed that the Indians, at the end of their cycle of 52 years, added a week of days in lieu of the bissextile days which had been neglected. This method has not the defect of disturbing the numerical order of the years, but that of deranging the series of the four initial days, which, as has been stated, gives designation to the years. It will be seen by the table of indictions, that each cycle consists of four complete weeks of years, formed by series of each one of the four initial signs, each week of years commencing with number one and ending with number thirteen; consequently, if, at the end of each cycle, a week of days be added, the first day of the ensuing year would be the 14th in the series of the 20 days of the month (instead of being the 1st, 6th, 11th, or 16th), thus abandoning the regular series of the four initial days, and substituting others, changing them again at each new cycle.

6°. Katun, or Cycle.

The Indians made (painted) a small wheel, in which they placed the four hieroglyphics of the initial days, Kan in the east, Muluc in the north, Gix in the west, and Cauac in the south, to be counted in that order. Some suppose that when the fourth year was accomplished, and Kan was again in order, a Katun or lustre of four years, was completed; others, that three revolutions of the wheel, with its four signs, were reckoned, with one (sign) more, which made 13 years, and that this completed the Katun; others, again, that the four complete weeks of years, or indictions, constituted the Katun; and this is probable. Besides the small wheel aforesaid, they made another great wheel, which they also called buk xoc and in which they placed three revolutions of the four signs of the small wheel, making 12 signs; beginning to count by the first Kan, and continuing to reckon all until the fourth naming of the same Kan, which was included, thus making thirteen years, and forming one indiction, or week (of years); the second reckoning began with Muluc, ending in the same, which formed the next thirteen; and so on, till they came to Cauac, which formed a Katun.

7°. Of the Indiction and Cycle of 52 Years, or Katun.

As in the preceding explanations sufficient idea has been given of what constituted the indiction and the cycle of 52 years, called by the Indians Katun, the facts are briefly recapitulated here, that the reader may not be fatigued hereafter with new explanations.

1st. The name of indiction is given to each one of the four weeks of years composing the cycle of 52 years.

2d. The American week was formed by the course of 13 numbers, applied indiscriminately to the 20 days of the month.

3d. It has been explained, that as the year was formed of 26 weeks and one day, by this overplus the years succeeded each other, following the correlative order of their numbers up to 13, in order to form a week, or indiction; for if the year had been composed of exactly 28 weeks, the numbers of the new years would never have formed a correlative week, because they would have commenced with the number 1, and finished with 13; by the other method, one year begins with the first, and terminates in the same; the second year commences with the number 2 and also finishes with it; and so on successively, until the 13 are completed.

4d. It has also been explained that the Indians, seeing that 18 months of 20 days did not make up the sum of 365, in order to complete them added five days more; resulting from this, the 20 days were divided into four portions, and the first of each of these, being Kan, Muluc, Gix, and Cauac, became initials, forming in turn the beginning of the years by courses of four years, every fifth year commencing again with Kan. But as the weeks were composed of 13 numbers, there were in each week three revolutions of the four initials and one initial more, by this excess of one causing each initial to have its own week: thus the indiction, or week, which began with Kan concluded also with the same Kan; so that the next indiction might commence with Muluc, the second initial, and in its turn conclude with the same Muluc; and so on continually, until each one of the initials had formed its own indiction, or week, and given to it its name; the whole composing 52 years, which is the sum of the four weeks of 13 years each, as may be seen in the following table.