Part 8

"They counted their ages and eras, which they inscribed in their books every twenty years, in lustrums of four years. * * * When five of these lustrums were completed, they called the lapse of twenty years _katun_, which means to place a stone down upon another. * * * In certain sacred buildings and in the houses of the priests every twenty years they place a hewn stone upon those already there. When seven of these stones have thus been piled one over the other began the _Ahau katun_. Then after the first lustrum of four years they placed a small stone on the top of the big one, commencing at the east corner; then after four years more they placed another small stone on the west corner; then the next at the north; and the fourth at the south. At the end of the twenty years they put a big stone on the top of the small ones: and the column, thus finished, indicated a lapse of one hundred and sixty years."

There are other methods for determining the approximate age of the monuments of Mayab:

1st. By means of their actual orientation; starting from the _fact_ that their builders always placed either the faces or angles of the edifices fronting the cardinal points.

2d. By determining the epoch when the mastodon became extinct. For, since _Can_ or his ancestors adopted the head of that animal as symbol of deity, it is evident they must have known it; hence, must have been contemporary with it.

3d. By determining when, through some great cataclysm, the lands became separated, and all communications between the inhabitants of _Mayab_ and their colonies were consequently interrupted. If we are to credit what Psenophis and Sonchis, priests of Heliopolis and Saïs, said to Solon "that nine thousand years before, the visit to them of the Athenian legislator, in consequence of great earthquakes and inundations, the lands of the West disappeared in one day and a fatal night," then we may be able to form an idea of the antiquity of the ruined cities of America and their builders.

Reader, I have brought before you, without comments, some of the FACTS, that after ten years of research, the paintings on the walls of _Chaacmol's_ funeral chamber, the sculptured inscriptions carved on the stones of the crumbling monuments of Yucatan, and a comparative study of the vernacular of the aborigines of that country, have revealed to us. I have no theory to offer. Many years of further patient investigations, the full interpretation of the monumental inscriptions, and, above all, the possession of the libraries of the learned men of _Mayab_, are the _sine qua non_ to form an uncontrovertible one, free from the speculations which invalidate all books published on the subject heretofore.

If by reading these pages you have learned something new, your time has not been lost; nor mine in writing them.

Transcriber's Note

The following typographical errors have been maintained:

Page Error TN-1 7 precipituous should read precipitous TN-2 17 maya should read Maya TN-3 20 Egpptian should read Egyptian TN-4 23 _Moo_ should read _Moó_ TN-5 23 Guetzalcoalt should read Quetzalcoatl TN-6 26 ethonologists should read ethnologists TN-7 26 what he said should read what he said. TN-8 26 absorbant should read absorbent TN-9 28 lazuri: should read lazuli: TN-10 28 (Strange should read Strange TN-11 28 Chichsen should read Chichen TN-12 28 Moó should read Moó, TN-13 32 Birmah should read Burmah TN-14 32 Siameeses. should read Siameses. TN-15 33 maya should read Maya TN-16 34 valleys should read valleys, TN-17 35 even to-day should read even to-day. TN-18 38 inthe should read in the TN-19 38 Bresseur should read Brasseur TN-20 49 (maya) should read (Maya) TN-21 51 epoch should read epochs TN-22 52 Wishnu, should read Vishnu, TN-23 58 his art, should read his art. TN-24 59 _Mó_, should read _Moó_, TN-25 62 Mayas should read Mayas' TN-26 63 as symbol should read as a symbol TN-27 66 e. g should read e. g. TN-28 68 _Kukulean_ should read _Kukulcan_ TN-29 69 DuChaillu should read Du Chaillu TN-30 72 death frequently occur; should read death frequently occurs; or deaths frequently occur; TN-31 72 is is should read it is TN-32 73 beats should read beat TN-33 80 _Nicte_ should read _Nicté_ TN-34 80 maya should read Maya TN-35 81 yard should read yards TN-36 81 qualities, (the should read qualities (thus

The following words are inconsistently spelled and hyphenated:

Aac / Aak Aké / Ake birth-place / birthplace façade / facade Há / Ha Hapimú / Hapimu Hemâ / Hema Kinich-Kakmó / Kinich-kakmo Ná / Na Rab-mag / Rabmag _senotes_ / senotes Tipho / Typho

End of Project Gutenberg's Vestiges of the Mayas, by Augustus Le Plongeon