24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



ciscana of 1683, was usual among- the Cakchikels, proves that festivals 

 were displaced aiuong- the Mexicans, that their years were actually too 

 short, and that they were constantly falling into confusion in their 

 calendar of feasts. 



But if among the Mexicans festivals were constantly displaced in 

 consequence of their inability to express the real length of the year in 

 their system of chronology, on the other hand the tonalamatl computa- 

 tion ofi'ered a strong framework, which, elaborated by the expert hands 

 of priests, left not a moment's doubt as to the space of time which 

 divided a given day from another. At one point only is the uncer- 

 tainty of Mexican chronology apparent here; that is in regard to the 

 lirst day of their year and to the titles which were assigned to the 

 different years, corresponding to their initial days. If, as 1 said 

 above, it necessarily follows from the system of the tonalamatl and the 

 acceptance of a year of 365 days that of the twenty day signs only 

 four fall on the opening days of the year, which four were each four 

 signs apart, one from the other (that is, there were four intermediate 

 signs), and if we further find that the years wereusuall}^ designated by 

 four day signs standing four signs apart, it is then the most natural 

 inference that it was from the initial davs of the year that these years 

 themselves were named. But this does not seem, or at least not uni- 

 versall}^ to have been the case. 



Among the Mexicans the years were designated by the signs Acatl 

 (reed), Tecpatl (Hint), Calli" (house), Tochtli (rabbit); that is, XIII, 

 XVIII, III, and VIII, of the twenty day signs. To these correspond 

 exactly the Chiapanec, Been, Chinax, Votan, Lambat, while }n Yuca- 

 tan the signs Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac — that is, IV, IX, XIV, and XIX 

 of the day sig-ns — were used for successive years. The four signs, 

 Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtli, were registered upon the four arms of 

 a cross with hooks, in the style shown in tigure 2. By following a 

 circle in the direction opposite to that in which the hands of a clock 

 move we pass from 1 Acatl past 2 Tecpatl, 3 Calli, 4 Tochtli, to 5 

 Acatl, etc. , until we come to 13 Tochtli, As this registration suggests, 

 the 3^ears recorded on one arm of the cross with hooks were always 

 referred to a particular quarter of the heavens; the Acatl years to the 

 east, Tecpatl to the north, Calli to the west, and the Tochtli years to 

 the south. Computation within the cycle began in the east with the 

 Acatl years, not with 1 Acatl, but, singularly enough, with 2 Acatl, 

 so that the cycle closed with 1 Tochtli. The present period of the 

 world began, so the Mexicans believed, in the year 1 Tochtli. The 

 earth was created in this period, or rather the heavens, which fell at 

 the close of the last prehistoric period of the world, were again lifted 

 up. Not until this was completed could tire be again produced and 

 the first cycle of 52 years be thus begun. This is expressly stated in 

 the Fuenleal codex of the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. 



