392 MEXICAN CALENDAR. 



LIB. vi. f or ^t they ought to be ruled according to their owne 



lawes and priviledges, so farre foorth as they doe not con 

 tradict the Lawe of Christ, and his holy Church, which 

 ought to be maintained and kept as their fundamental! 

 lawes. For the ignorance of laws and customes hath bred 

 many errours of great importance, for that the Governours 

 and Judges knowe not well how to give sentence, nor rule 

 their subjects. And besides, the wrong which is doone 

 vnto them against reason, it is preiudiciall and hurtefull 

 vnto our selves ; for thereby they take occasion to abhorre 

 vs, as men both in good and in evill alwayes contrary vnto 

 them. 



CHAP. ii. Of the method of computing time, and the 

 Kalendar the Mejcicaines vsed. 



And to beginne then by the division and supputation of 

 times which the Indians made,wherein truely wee may well 

 perceive the great signes of their vivacitie and good vnder- 

 standing. I will first shew in what sorte the Mexicaines 

 counted and divided their yeere, their rnoneths, their kalen- 

 der, their computations, their worldes and ages. They 

 divided the yeare into eighteene moneths, to which they 

 gave twentie dayes, wherein the three hundred and three 

 score days are accomplished, not comprehending in any of 

 these moneths the five dayes that remaine, and make the 

 yeare perfect. But they did reckon them aparte, and called 

 them the dayes of nothing : during the which, the people 

 did not any thing, neither went they to their Temples, but 

 occupied themselves only in visiting one another, and so 

 spent the time : the sacrificers of the Temple did likewise 

 cease their sacrifices. These five dayes being past, they 

 beganne the computation of the yeare, whereof the first 

 moueth and the beginning was in March, when the leaves 



