1 - Histomesoamericana

i68 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
day, whenever they come, the
monkey and turtle katuns and
their departure. (4722)
And this was the lord of the
south, 3 Cauac 1 Pop in 1752 in
katun 4 Ahau. There was a
twenty-year cycle and then four
more and Cauac returns. Then
Kan speaks, making five days,
U cuch num ya
Tiolantac
Ti u talel ti kin
Licil u binil tz'acab kin
C u talel e
Ha li be oclis t u ba ob
U maxil katun
Coc ix u katunilob
Oklem ix
U u ichob.
38. End of the Long Count
(I8r) He x Ahau culh i*
T u cuch hab ti nohol
Oxil Cauac
U hun te Pop
T u habil
Hi 1552 culh i
Can Ahau katun
T u hach kinil
Hun hun kal hab u cuch ob
Hun hun tul ti ob
Tun cam ppel i e
Ix ma kaba
Licil u baxal ho ppel hab i
Y etel Cauac bac ix
Ti lie u cutal katun i e
Kaan
The burdens of suffering
Will be recounted
4715 That are coming at the time,
As well as the future steps of days
That are coming.
However they will be brought
together:
The monkey katuns,
4720 The turtle katuns,
And the departure
Of their faces.
And that was the lord who was seated
And bore the year in the south.
4725 On the third Cauac
On the first of Pop
In the year
1552 it may have been seated.
4 Ahau was the katun
4730 At that very time.
Each twenty years were their burdens,
Each and every one of them.
Then there were four of them
And they were without names,
4735 As they played five years
And Cauac was once again
The one who was seating the katun,
Kan
4723. This is the earlier of the two texts in the Tizimin dealing with the
Valladolid calendar. Written in 1752, it is a concise summary of the state of the
Mayan calendar at that time. It acknowledges the supremacy of the Spanish año
(albeit still without recognizing leap year), lists the tzol kin second, then the hab,
and finally the katun of tuns—for sacrifice and divination. It leaves unstated the
premise of the change, which was that in a year beginning 3 Cauac 1 Pop the
name day of the katun fell on May 27,1752, the second day of the year: 4 Ahau
2 Pop. Calculating correctly that extending the katun from twenty tuns to
twenty-four habs would make this circumstance permanent, the priests decided
to do so, even though it meant giving 4 Ahau a span of thirty-nine years. They
continued to peg the Mayan new year to an arbitrary July 16 in the Christian
calendar and to carry the leap year correction "in their heads."
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