Meaning
Ten is where the scale turns: the high numbers, in the highland reports, give the day its full force. Our strong band, 10 to 13, is our grouping of that reported principle, not a published scheme.
Our sentence: ten begins the strong numbers, what was planned becomes visible and the force of the day increases; the keyword is "rising strength". Both are ours, a reading aid.
Days and ceremonies
10 Kej bore the highland year that opened on 19 February 2022, with ceremonies that began on the eve. Its first day in the count is 10 Tz'i', day 10 of the 260.
Read with its sign, a strong number does not change what the day is: by the principle the highland reports describe, the sign gives the kind of day and the number its force. 10 Tz'i', the dog and the nawal of justice, is that sign at full strength; the way of putting it is ours.
Among the highland year bearers, 10 E bears the year that opens in February 2035, thirteen years after 10 Kej.
The numeral
Two bars. Thompson identified the Classic head for 10 as the death god, the god of the day Kimi.
In the count
The number 10 falls on twenty days of the 260: days 10, 23, 36, 49, 62, 75, 88, 101, 114, 127, 140, 153, 166, 179, 192, 205, 218, 231, 244 and 257, with the signs Tz'i', Aq'ab'al, Ajmaq, Toj, Iq', Tz'ikin, Q'anil, Imox, I'x, Kej, Ajpu, Aj, Kame, Kawoq, E, Kan, Tijax, B'atz', K'at and No'j in that order. A sign comes back every twenty days and a number every thirteen, so the same pairing, such as 10 Tz'i', returns only after 260 days. Each year the highland year bearer's number rises by one, because 365 days are 28 runs of thirteen and one day more.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Strength, in the highland reports
- The number gives the day its force: low numbers gentle, high numbers strong (Tedlock at Momostenango and Bunzel at Chichicastenango, as reported) sourced
- Our band
- strong; the bands and their edges are EsoTerrier's grouping, not a published scheme our construction
- Our keyword and sentence
- "rising strength"; Ten begins the strong numbers; what was planned becomes visible and the force of the day increases. our construction
- Head variant of the numeral, after Thompson
- the death god, the god he gave to the day Kimi sourced
- A fixed character for the number
- None established; which numbers are good differs from town to town disputed
How the schools read it
- Highland ethnography, as reported
- The number is the strength of the day, gentle in the low numbers and strong in the high.
- Thompson's survey of highland towns
- Which numbers count as good or bad differs from town to town.
- Classic scribes
- Wrote 10 as two bars, or as a god's head: the death god, in Thompson's identification.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- Gives each number a name of its own in a different modern count; not used here.
- EsoTerrier
- Strong in our bands; keyword "rising strength". Our words, a reading aid.
Claims about it
-
The number 10 has a fixed traditional character.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The highland reports give the numbers strength, low gentle and high strong; fixed characters per number are modern, and our own keyword is labelled as ours.
-
Ten is one of thirteen cosmic "tones" with a Maya name.
falseWhat the record shows: The tone names are Dreamspell's, from 1990. The Maya count has numbers 1 to 13.
