Briiitoii. dub I^Oct. 6, 



That the same allocation obtained among the Nahuas is testi- 

 fied to l>y Sahagun, whose words are, speaking of the divinatory 



Calendar : " It was composed of 20 signs To each sign 



were allotted 13 days." He adds : " This method of divination 

 has nothing to do with natural astrolog^^ or the movements or 

 aspects of the planets, but takes as its point of departure certain 

 signs and numbers which are not derived from natural phenom- 

 ena, but must have been invented by the Devil himself." " They 

 asserted this system was a divine revelation from Quetzalcoatl ; 

 it consisted of 20 signs, each multiplied 13 times."* 



This writer dilates more than any other on the details of the 

 Nahuatl divinatory sj'stem, but leaves his readers in the dark 

 why the individual signs were chosen, or what their relation to 

 each other and the general system was supposed to be. 



I do not pretend to be able fully to suppl}^ this regretable 

 lacuna in our knowledge of the philosophy of these ancient na- 

 tions. But 1 believe that their system was in a certain sense 

 philosophic ; that it grew out of ripe meditation on the agencies 

 which direct and govern life ; and that it was merely veiled — 

 not smothered— in the symbolism which has been transmitted to 

 us, and which they found it convenient to throw around it, in 

 presenting.it to the unlearned. 



The 20 potencies or agencies, fixed at that number for the rea- 

 son above given, follow each other in the sequence in which they 

 were believed to exert their influence on the life or existence not 

 of man only, but of things and of the universe itself. This 

 opinion exerted a strong constructive and directive influence on 

 the national myths, rites, and sj^mbolism, extending to architec- 

 ture and ornament, to details of government, and to the ever3'day 

 incidents and customs of national and domestic life. In all of these 

 we perceive a constant recurrence of the signs and their corre- 

 spondent numbers, drawn from the composite relations of 20 : 13. 



Turning to the symbolic meaning which may be discoA^ered in 

 the signs and names of the twent}' days, I shall examine each 

 briefly : 



Day 1. — The Swordfish., Crocodile, Spiderjish or other " J/a- 

 rine Jlonster.''^ 

 According to the Codex Fuenleal, at the beginning of things 

 the gods made thirteen heavens, and beneath them the j)rimeval 



* Sahagun, Hisloria de la Niteva Espana, Libro iv, passim. 



