THOMAS] MYSTIC USE OF NUMBERS 951 
One thing worthy of notice in this diagram (figure 41) is that one 
of the five figures is placed centrally, at the expense of the four outer 
squares. We have in this, it seems, evidence of reference to the four 
quarters and the center. What is to be understood in these figures 
by the ‘‘center” is somewhat uncertain. It may be simply a conyen- 
ient way of locating the fifth symbol, which is in all probability the 
correct explanation in some cases, but even here it may have arisen, 
as is suggested by Professor McGee, through reference to the Ego in 
considering the quarters, giving rise to the quincunx. The same con- 
cept is symbolized on plate 4 of the Borgian codex, where we see four 
outer colored squares and a central colored circle, the Cipactli figure 
over which the latter is placed symbolizing the earth, and the dark 
outer border surrounding the whole figure denoting the clouds or sky. 
The central circle may in this case indicate the sun, which we find 
clearly represented on plate 43 of the same codex, though what seems 
to be the corresponding figure on 
plate 24 of the Vatican codex is 
without any central symbol. In 
some of the figures indicating the 
quarters, as one on plate 4 of the 
Borgian codex, where the four 
winds are represented, the center 
is occupied by a human form. In 
another place where wind symbols 
occupy the corners a death’s-head 
is placed in the center. 
It is proper, however, to bear in 
mind the fact that the arrangement 
of the days by fours and fives would 
follow as a necessary consequence 
of the time system. The year being divided into eighteen months of 
twenty days each, and five days being added at the end to complete the 
365, each year would be five days in advance of that which preceded, 
Fie. 41—Diagram of figures on plates 11 and 12 
of the Borgian Codex. 
and the years necessarily began on the same four days. The division 
of the twenty days of the month into four periods of five days would 
be a natural result. Why the five days of the columns in the codices 
are not in regular order according to this division, but are selected by 
skipping over regular intervals, is not so easily determined, though as 
has been shown in a previous paper, they usually have some reference 
the 260-day period. 
The number 7, though playing a less important role than 4 and 5, 
seems to have had some significance in the mysteries and ceremonies 
of the Mexicans and Maya. Dr Brinton, in his Native Calendar 
says that the Tzental appear to have developed the number 7 as an 
arithmetic element in their astronomic system, as they had in their 
