This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...no face sign for this period. Singularly enough, the same departure from a 5-day reckoning is found in the cycle symbols. Instead of simply raising the katun sign to twenty times its value, as might be expected, the value of the katun--7,200--is transferred to the subfix, while the 20-day symbol constitutes the principal feature of the glyph. It is the same with the face symbol. The cycle face is a 20 sign. In the glyph here given the subfix is so conventionalized that all its details are lost, but in other places the striation is perfectly distinct, showing that, as in the other symbol, the calculation is: 20x7,200 = 144,000. Here the reckoning reverts to the 5-day period. It is multiplied by 72, making an ahau; that by 20, making a katun; that by 20 again, making a cycle; and that by 13, making a great cycle. The last multiplier is the outflaring trinal character at the top. It is a 13 sign, duplicated to balance the glyph. The two 20 multipliers appear only in the first of the symbols given above--or, rather, only in that does the single one extend all the way to the bottom, as is commonly the case. There should be two separate signs, however, as shown in some of the glyphs; but I have selected these particular specimens for another purpose, which I shall presently state. The 20 sign in the first glyph looks like anything but the same sign in the other two, and resembles a fish more than anything else. Yet they are identical in character, both representing the feathered dragon--the fringed jaw alone of which, reduced to the cursive comblike character, is the commonest sign for 20. The evolution of this character is so curious and interesting that I herewith give a series of glyphs--all taken from greatcycle symbols--showing the gradations: The reason why...