MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 



79 



shall nourish the highest intellectual pursuits, unhindered by physical 

 ills and unhampered by ignorant prejudice ; a city, in short, in which the 

 bodies of the inhabitants shall have become living temples of truth ! 



There will be no night in that city, since Truth is itself the eternal 

 source of light, and her torch is never inverted. 



-">*- 



MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 



By KANDOLPII I. GEAEE. 



IN the southeast range of the National Museum at Washington is a 

 collection of casts of Mexican statues, historical stones, and other 

 figures of American antiquities, an examination of which alone is well 

 worthy of a visit to the Museum. This collection was installed for 

 exhibition by its owner, Senor Eufemio Abadiano, and was brought to 

 Washington from New Orleans, where it had been on view at the Ex- 

 position in 1885. These casts are reproductions of precious specimens 

 in the possession of the Nation- 

 al Museum of Mexico, and of 

 monuments of immense value 

 from various parts of that re- 

 public. Our attention was first 

 called to the "Aztec Calendar 

 Stone," which, according to 

 Gama, is a calendar for that 

 part of the year between the 

 spring and autumnal equinox, 

 showing the movements of the 

 sun and the times at which 

 should be celebrated the prin- 

 cipal feasts of the nation. In 

 the center are four rectangles 

 which form a figure constitu- 

 ting the sign of NahiXi Ollin, 

 and represents the four move- 

 ments of the sun. The figures 

 in the circle outside of these 

 rectangles represent the twenty 

 days into which the month was 

 divided. The divisions of the 

 day are shown by eight large 

 angles. The stone served as a sun-dial, by means of which the times 

 for ceremonies and sacrifices were ascertained daily. The original 

 monument is believed to weigh twenty -one tons. Close by is the 

 cast of the statue Teoyoamiqid, or Goddess of Death, about eight 



Tkotoamiqiti, or Goddess of Death. 



