1893.] Zi b [Brinton. 



it was employed by the Mixtecs, a tribe of antique and devel- 

 oped culture, who had employed it for an indefinite period ;* 

 and are equally ignorant of its form and names among the Toto- 

 nacos, who put forth the claim that they themselves had in- 

 vented it, and had constructed the celebrated pyramids of the 

 sun and moon on the plain of Teotihuacan as a permanent 

 memorial of it.f 



The period of 20 days is characteristic of this Calendar ; and 

 wherever in America we find the solar year divided into periods 

 of this duration, we may be sure that the local Calendar is based 

 on this ancient divinatory scheme. So far as I know, this does 

 not occur outside of Mexico and Central America. The Peru- 

 vians divided their year into lunar months, and the Muyscas 

 or Chibchas of Colombia, although, like the Cakchiquels of Gua- 

 temala, they had a year cycle of 20 j^ears, measured each year 

 by 12 months of 30 daj^s each. In the Old World no similar 

 combination of 20 and 13 in a time-count has come to my 

 knowledge. 



§ 10. The Linguistic Analysis. 



All who have made a stud}' of this Calendar have appreciated 

 the importance of a close etymological analysis of the names of 

 the days and months. It was, as regards the Nahuatl, attempted 

 by Boturini in the last century and more successfully by those 

 versed in that language at the present day — but still leaving 

 much to be desired. 



In the ]V[aya, Don J. Pio Perez paid considerable attention to 

 these etymologies, and so also have Dr. P. Schellhas and Dr. Ed. 

 Seler in Germany.J They have left, however, many gaps to fill, 

 principally from their defective resources in a lexicographic appa- 



* There are said to be one or two Calendars extant, as yet unpublished, of Mixtec ori- 

 gin. That this nation liad a " month " of 20 days bearing the same names as those of 

 their neighbors Is evident from the statements in Herrera, Hist, dc las Indias, Dec. iii, 

 Lib. iii, cap. xiv, and Garcia, Origen delos Indios, Lib. v, cap. iv. These give the day 

 names. Wind, Snake, Deer, Monkey, Tiger, Rose, etc. 



t Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. iii, cap. 18. According to the same authority, 

 the first king of the Totonacos bore the uame Ome Acatl, 2 Reed, which, if true, proves 

 their knowledge of the Calendar at that time. 



I Pio Perez's translations may be found in various publications, especially in Brasseur's 

 edition of Land a' s Belacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. Dr. Schellhas' analysis is in the 

 Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1886, p. 19, seq.,VL\i6. Dr. Seler's in the same periodical, 1888. 



