We do not know
the Maya method of intercalation; we do not understand the uses of the
shorter Mexican year, of 260 days; we are at a loss to explain the
purpose of doubling the length of certain months, as prevailed among the
Cakchiquels; we are in the dark about the significance of the names of
many days and months; we cannot see why the nations chose to begin the
count of the year at different seasons; and there are ever so many more
knotty problems about this remarkable system and its variations.
What we imperatively need is a supply of authentic aboriginal calendars,
accurately reproduced, for purposes of comparison. Boturini collected a
number of these, which he describes, and long before his day some
specimens had been published by Valades and Gemelli Carreri.[48] They
were, in ancient times, usually depicted by circular drawings, called by
the Spaniards, Wheels (_ruedas_). After the Conquest they were
written out, more in the form of our almanacs. One such, in the Maya
tongue, with a translation, was contributed to Mr. Stephens' _Travels
in Yucatan_, by the eminent Maya scholar, Don Juan Pio Perez.[49]
Several others were in his collection, and are accessible. Dr. Berendt
succeeded in securing _fac similes_ of Kiche and Cakchiquel
calendars, written out in the seventeenth century, and these are now in
my possession.
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