But we have seen on page 47 and in Table IV that the Maya did not designate the first days of the several divisions of the years according to our system. It was shown there that the first day of Pop was not written 1 Pop, but 0 Pop, and similarly the second day of Pop was written not 2 Pop, but 1 Pop, and the last day, not 20 Pop, but 19 Pop. Consequently, before we can use the names in Table VI as the Maya used them, we must make this shift, keeping in mind, however, that Ik, Manik, Eb, and Caban (the only four of the twenty names which could begin the year and which were written 0 Pop, 5 Pop, 10 Pop, or 15 Pop) would be written in our notation 1st Pop, 6th Pop, 11th Pop, and 16th Pop, respectively. This difference, as has been previously explained, results from the Maya method of counting time by elapsed periods. Table VII shows the positions of the days in the divisions of the year according to the Maya conception, that is, with the shift in the month coefficient made necessary by this practice of recording their days as elapsed time. The student will find Table VII very useful in deciphering the texts, since it shows at a glance the only positions which any given day can occupy in the divisions of the year. Therefore when the sign for a day has been recognized in the texts, from Table VII can be ascertained the only four positions which this day can hold in the month, thus reducing the number of possible month coefficients for which search need be made, from twenty to four. TABLE VII. POSITIONS OF DAYS IN DIVISIONS OF MAYA YEAR ACCORDING TO MAYA NOTATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Positions held by | | | | | | | days expressed in |{ 0, 5, | 1, 6, | 2, 7, | 3, 8, | 4, 9, | | Mayan notation |{ 10, 15 | 11, 16 | 12, 17 | 13, 18 | 14, 19 | |--------------------+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | | { Ik | Akbal | Kan | Chicchan| Cimi | | Names of days in | { Manik | Lamat | Mulac | Oc | Chuen | | each group | { Eb | Ben | Ix | Men | Cib | | | { Caban | Eznab | Cauac | Ahau | Imix | ------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Now let us summarize the points which we have successively established as resulting from the combination of the tonalamatl and haab, remembering always that as yet we have been dealing only with {56} _the name parts of the days and not their complete designations_. Bearing this in mind, we may state the following facts concerning the 20 day-names and their positions in the divisions of the year: 1. The Maya year and its several divisions could begin only with one of these four day-names: Ik, Manik, Eb, and Caban. 2. Consequently, any particular position in the divisions of the year could be occupied only by one of four day-names.