places it on
some day between the second day of February and the tenth of April. As
their word for year means "new green," it is probable they placed its
commencement about the time new grass appeared. The Mayas are said to
have placed the commencement of the year about the sixteenth of July. As
this happens to be just about the time that the sun is directly overhead
in Yucatan, it has been surmised that the natives took astronomical
observations, and tried to have their year commence at that time. But it
must be manifest that, if they did not possess a knowledge of the true
length of the year, and so make allowance for the leap-year, in the
course of a very few years they would have to revise this date.

Refer once more to the Maya table of days. Suppose the first day of the
year to commence with the day Kan. As there are twenty days in a month,
we see that the second month would also commence with Kan. In like
manner, Kan would be the first day of every month of that year. When
the eighteen months were past, there would still remain the five days to
complete the year. Now, although they were said to be nameless days, the
Mayas gave them names. The first day was Kan, the second day Chichan,
the third day Quimij, the fourth day Manik, the fifth day Lamat. The
regular order of days we see. They were now ready to commence a new
year.

The next day in the list is Muluc. This becomes the first day of the
first month of the new year. But, being the first day of the first
month, it was the first day of every month of that year. At the end of
the eighteen months of that year, the five days would have to be named
in their order again, which would carry us down to Gix, the first day
of the first month of the third year. It would also be the first day of
every month of that year. Similarly we see that Cavac would be the first
day of every month of the fourth year. The fifth year would commence
again with Kan. So we see that four of these twenty days became of more
importance than the others. The years were named after them. The year
in which the month commenced with Kan was also called Kan. The same way
with the other days. So the name of the year was either Kan, Muluc, Gix,
or Cavac. These four days were called "carriers of the year;" because
they not only gave the name to the year, but because the name of the
year was also the name of the first day of every month of that year.

The foregoing will help us to understand the Me