1. Kan, “string of twisted hemp” (yellow).
  2. Chicchan, signification unknown.
  3. Cimi, preterit of cimil, to kill = “dead.”
  4. Manik, “wind that passes” (??)
  5. Lamat, signification unknown.
  6. Muluc, “reunion” (??)
  7. Oc, “that which may be held in the palm of the hand.”
  8. Chuen, “board” (??)
  9. Eb, “ladder.”
  10. Ben, “to distribute with economy” (??)
  11. Ix, “fish-skin” (Rosny), “witch, witchcraft” (Brasseur), “roughness” (Perez).
  12. Men, “builder.”
  13. Cib, “gum copal.”
  14. Caban, “heaped up” (Brasseur).
  15. Ezanab, “flint” (Brasseur).
  16. Cauac, signification unknown.
  17. Ahau, “king, or period of twenty-four years.”
  18. Ymix, signification unknown. “Corn” (??)
  19. Ik, “wind,” “spirit,” according to Rosny, one of the symbols of Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl.
  20. Akbal, “approach of night” (Brasseur).

TRANSLATION OF THE MONTHS.

  1. Pop, “mat of cane.”
  2. Uo, “frog.”
  3. Zip, “a tree” (Perez), “fault, error” (Brasseur).
  4. Tzoz, “a bat.”
  5. Tzec, signification unknown.
  6. Xul, “end or conclusion.”
  7. Yaxkin, signification unknown. “Summer” (??)
  8. Mol, “to re-unite, to recover.”
  9. Chen, “a well.”
  10. Yax, “first,” or Yaax, “blue.”
  11. Zac, “white.”
  12. Ceh, “a deer.”
  13. Mac, “a lid or cover.”
  14. Kankin, “yellow sun,” “because in this month of April the atmosphere is charged with smoke,” owing to the work of clearing the soil.
  15. Muan, “cloudy weather” (Brasseur).
  16. Pax, “musical instrument.”
  17. Kayab, “singing.”
  18. Cumhu, “thunder-clap,” “detonation.”[627]

Though these translations may seem uninteresting by themselves, they are of great value when taken in connection with Landa’s alphabet and M. de Rosny’s interpretations. They must ever be important factors in attempts to translate the inscriptions and codices.

Another division of time among the Mayas of a complicated character was the Katun or Cycle of 52 years. The Katun was composed of four periods (indictions or weeks) of 13 years each, enumerated by a system of reckoning kept simultaneously with the current reckoning of days, months and years. The mode of computing the Katunes was, according to Landa and Perez, briefly as follows:[628] The year was divided into twenty-eight periods of thirteen days each. These periods for convenience have been called weeks, and the number of days of which each is composed may have been suggested by the number of days embraced in the moon’s increase, and decrease, twenty-six days constituting about the actual time in which the moon is seen above the horizon during each lunation.[629] The weeks were divided off by counting thirteen days from the beginning of the list of days shown on [page 436], Kan constituting the first day of the first week and according to usage applying its name to the weeks. The week was consequently called by the name of the day on which it began. Caban being the fourteenth day of the current month, became the first day of another week; but as not enough days remain to complete it, the enumeration is begun again and continued down to Muluc, the sixth day of the next month. Oc, the seventh day, then becomes the starting point for another week, which assumes its name, and thus the computation is carried on ad infinitum. A numeral preceded each day designating its position in the week. The people of Yucatan painted a small circle in which they placed the four hieroglyphics of the initial days which constitute the left-hand column of signs given on [page 436]. Kan was placed in the east, Muluc in the north, Ix in the west and Cauac in the south. These signs were termed the “carriers of the years” because no month or year could begin on any of the twenty days, but on one of these. Since twenty days constitute a current month, it is apparent that every month in a given year must begin with the same day. However, the introduction of the five intercalary days at the end of the year, changed the initial day on which the months of the different years began. In reckoning the Katun it is further observed that the numeral which indicates the day of the week (of thirteen days) which falls upon the first of a given month, varies. Supposing the month to begin on Kan and the numeral of the first day to be 1, the numerals indicative of the days of the week (composed of thirteen days) falling on Kan throughout the eighteen months, would be, 8, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3.

The Katun year consisted, as we have seen, of twenty-eight weeks of thirteen days each, and one additional day, making in all 365 days. If the year commenced with number one of the week, the additional day (the 365th) caused it to end on the same number. The ensuing year would then begin with number two, and so on through the thirteen numbers of the week, as follows: 1. Kan, 2. Muluc, 3. Ix, 4. Cauac, 5. Kan, 6. Muluc, 7. Ix, 8. Cauac, 9. Kan, 10. Muluc, 11. Ix, 12. Cauac, 13. Kan, thus completing an indiction or week of years. The same combination of names and numerals can only occur after the lapse of the Katun or cycle comprising four of these indictions or fifty-two years. Not only the years of the week, but also the indictions themselves were named by the four initial symbols. The first indiction of each Katun being named Kan, the second Muluc, the third Ix, and the fourth Cauac. The completion of a Katun or fifty-two years was celebrated with feasts and rejoicings as an event of great moment. A monument was reared as a memorial of the event. It is not impossible that the great number of pillars, observed by Stephens at Chichen-Itza were of this character, serving as landmarks to Maya chronology.[630]

A third division of time employed by the Mayas was the great cycle of 312 years, composed, according to Señor Perez,[631] of thirteen periods of time, each embracing twenty-four years. Each of these thirteen periods was called an Ahau Katun, and was divided into two parts. The first part, embracing twenty years, was enclosed in a square and called Amaytum lamayte, or lamaytum; and the other part of four years, which formed as it were a pedestal for the first, was called Chek oc Katun, or lath oc Katun, meaning “stool” or “pedestal.” He affirms that the latter were intercalated, therefore believed to be unfortunate as were the five supplementary days of the year. This may account for their not being reckoned with the Ahau Katun by any other writer. Just here lies the discrepancy which has created most of the confusion in the investigation of this subject. However, if we accept the statement of Señor Perez, that the Ahau Katun embraced twenty-four years instead of the testimony of every other writer that it included but twenty years, we shall have moderately fair sailing until we split upon the rock of his inaccuracies as to dates. He tells us that these periods took their name from Ahau, the second of those years that began in Cauac, and from the order of the numerals accompanying those days would succeed each other according to the numbers 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. The Indians established the number 13 Ahau as the first, because some great event happened in that year. If the 13 Ahau Katun began on a second day of the year, it must have been the year which began on 12 Cauac, and the 12th of the indiction. The next or the 11 Ahau would commence in the year 10 Cauac, which combination in its rotation would happen after a lapse of twenty-four years. The third or 9 Ahau would begin in 8 Cauac twenty-four years later, in illustration of which we follow out the rotation of the four names of the years, Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac, through the indictions of thirteen years each, until we have noted the numerals accompanying them during twenty-four years. Our starting point will be the commencement of the second Ahau Katun on the second day of 10 Cauac.

Year of 13 Year Indiction.
Name of Year.
Year of Period of 24 Years.
Year of 13 Year Indiction.
Name of Year.
Year of Period of 24 Years.

10

Cauac

1

9

Cauac

13

11

Kan

2

10

Kan

14

12

Muluc

3

11

Muluc

15

13

Ix

4

12

Ix

16

1

Cauac

5

13

Cauac

17

2

Kan

6

1

Kan

18

3

Muluc

7

2

Muluc

19

4

Ix

8

3

Ix

20

5

Cauac

9

4

Cauac

21

6

Kan

10

5

Kan

22

7

Muluc

11

6

Muluc

23

8

Ix

12

7

Ix

24

8

Cauac

1st of a new period.

As above stated the new Ahau Katun begins in the year 8 Cauac, and as it invariably began on the second day of the year, that day would be 9 Ahau, as Ahau is the next letter in the alphabet after Cauac. An extension of the table will show that the next period will begin in 6 Cauac on 7 Ahau, and so on in the order of the numerals given above. Thirteen Ahau Katunes, as previously stated, constituted a great cycle of three hundred and twelve years. Sr. Perez states that according to all sources of information, confirmed by the testimony of Don Cosme de Burgos, one of the conquerors and a writer (but whose observations have been lost), the year 1392 A.D. corresponded to the Maya year 7 Cauac, and as the second day of that year was the beginning of an era of twenty-four years, it must have been 8 Ahau Katun. By dividing off the time between that date and the beginning of the present century into periods of twenty-four years each, and extending a table of the rotation of the four names of the years, the reader will observe that 13 Ahau will fall in the year 1800; 11 Ahau in 1824; 9 Ahau in 1848; 7 Ahau in 1872, and 5 Ahau in 1896, three hundred and twelve years intervening before this, and any similar combination of Ahau Katunes either have occurred or can be repeated. This would be highly satisfactory if Sr. Perez could be relied upon in this particular, which is doubtful. We are sorry to say that he is certainly chargeable with inaccuracies, which impair the value of his whole system. Most conspicuous of these is one pointed out by Mr. Bancroft, to which we refer the reader below. Señor Perez sets about the verification of his system by citing the death of a notable personage named Ahpula. He states that Ahpula died in the sixth year of 13 Ahau, when the first day of the year was 4 Kan, on the day 9 Imix, the eighteenth of the month Zip. It is seen that 13 Ahau is the second day of the year 12 Cauac which falls in the year 1488, also that the year 1493 is the sixth from the beginning of 13 Ahau, and that its first day is 4 Kan, which is the title of the year. The day is the eighteenth of the month Zip, corresponding to the eleventh of September. The statement is also made that this date fell on 9 Imix. This is tested as follows: The first month of that year commenced on 4 Kan, which combination names the year. The number (of the week of thirteen days) is found by adding seven to the number of the first day of each month successively. The number of the first day of the first month, Pop, in this case being 4, the number of the first day of the second month (Uo) would be 4 + 7 = 11, and that of the first day of the third month (Zip) would be 11 + 7 = 18, but as the week consists of but thirteen days, that number must be substracted, leaving 5 Kan as the first day of Zip. If Zip begins on the twenty-fifth of August, the day 9 Imix will be found to correspond both with the eighteenth of Zip and the eleventh of September, if the Katun week of thirteen days is counted off regularly, beginning with 5 Kan. Sr. Perez is correct enough in his calculations, but unfortunately his system of twenty-four years to the Ahau Katun or his informant as to the correspondence of the Ahau Katunes with our chronology (no doubt the latter) is incorrect, since the Maya manuscript furnished and translated by Perez and published in the works of Stephens and Landa, states explicitly that Ahpula died in A.D. 1536, instead of 1493 (incorrectly printed 1403 in Bancroft’s work), a date which is irreconcilable with the system of twenty-four years to the Ahau, reckoned from 1392 as a starting point. Neither will the statement of Landa that the year 1541 corresponded with the beginning of 11 Ahau relieve the difficulty, but rather increases it, since it will neither harmonize with the date of Ahpula’s death given in the MS. nor with the system by Perez. Furthermore, while Landa gives the same succession of numerals for the recurrence of the Ahaus, he states that they embraced but twenty years each, thus making it impossible for the combinations of names and numerals to correspond to the order which he lays down for their succession. Landa is no doubt incorrect in his statement. Sr. Perez is at least consistent in his adaptation of the length of the Ahau Katun to the order of numerals given by Landa and others. Recently, M. Delaporte, a member of the Société Américaine de France, has, by a series of extended calculations, vindicated the correctness of the statement of Sr. Perez, that the Ahau Katun embraced twenty-four years. M. de Rosny agrees with M. Delaporte in his conclusions. The fault of Perez, probably, lies in his adaptation of the Ahaus to our chronology, and in carelessness. Amidst these discrepancies it is impossible to fix accurately the dates of the Maya history, though they can be approximated.[632] Señor Perez cites Boturini as stating that the day introduced every four years to compensate for the annual loss of six hours, was observed by counting the symbol for the three hundred and sixty-fifth day twice, as the Romans did with their bissextile days, thus leaving the order undisturbed.[633]

The Nahua Calendar system closely resembles that of the Mayas, a fact which adds to the abundant proof that both civilizations had grown up under nearly the same influences, and that they had largely affected each other. If the trifling differences of a few writers concerning some of the details of the Aztec calendar be overlooked, and the best authorities (together with a little exercise of judgment) be followed, the system becomes comparatively simple. Sahagun, Leon y Gama, Humboldt, Veytia, Galatin, McCulloch, Müller, Bancroft, Chavero, and Prof. Valentini, are the authorities to whom we refer the reader.[634]