CHAPTER I.

"The Mexicans counted only by cycles; they designated the termination of a cycle by a hieroglyphic representing a bundle of reeds tied up; and they sometimes designated, by an equal number of small circles, the number of cycles which had elapsed, since the beginning of their era corresponding with the year 1091. But the Yucatecos, besides their cycle of 52 years, had another, containing thirteen periods of twenty or twenty-four years each. These last mentioned periods were called Ajau or Ahau."