134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



wiu'lk shell. The head of the wind god here stands for the second of 

 the twenty day signs of the Mexicans, which was called Ehecatl, 

 '" wind ". The form which the character has in our figure likewise 

 resembles most the form Avhich is drawn in Codices Telleriano- 

 Remensis and Vaticanus A. 



The third sign (y, plate iii) in column a shows us the head of a 

 deer, which is most unnaturally drawn, having upper incisors, but is 

 plainly intended to represent a deer, as is shown by the branching 

 antlers. The seventh of the tAventy day signs of the Mexicans was 

 designated by the picture of the deer (Mazatl). 



The fourth sign, ^, is a death's-head, with fleshless jaw, a great, 

 round eye Avith an eyebroAv, and a protruding tongue, such a head as 

 was customarily used among the Mexicans to represent death or the 

 death god. But here the skull is covered with a green bush, the sepa- 

 rate stalks of which end in small yellow knobs. This green bush rep- 

 resents grass, and is illustrative of the rope twisted of grass (niali- 

 nalli), which has been used from remote antiquity down to the pres- 

 ent day for cording heavy burdens, such as charcoal, etc. The whole 

 denotes the twelfth of the twenty day signs of the Mexicans, called 

 malinalli, "" that which is twisted ". The green bush is combined 

 with the death's-head in this picture, because the rope twisted of 

 grass suggested the mummy bales corded with rope, like a burden 

 which has the form given to the bodies of the dead. Perhaps, too, 

 the grass itself, shooting up anew wdth the first show^ers of rain and 

 then withering quickly, awakened the thought of the transitoriness of 

 earthly things. At any rate, it is a fact that malinalli was consid- 

 ered a sign of misfortune; that decay, destruction, and change were 

 supposed to follow swiftly in its train. We may also note in regard 

 to the form of the sign that our picture S most closely resembles the 

 forms in which this sign of ill omen, malinalli, is represented in 

 Codices Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A. 



The Mexican numerical system was vigesimal. Therefore the num- 

 ber 20 naturally formed the basis of computation of time. The j^eo- 

 ple designated each one of the 20 consecutive days by a particular 

 sign. But with these twenty signs they combine the numerals 1 to 13 

 in such a way that each of the consecutive days was designated by a 

 sign and a numeral. If, therefore, the numeral 1 , combined with the 

 first sign, served to designate the first day, then the fourteenth day 

 took the fourteenth sign, and also the numeral 1 again. Thus a period 

 of 13X20, or 260, days was reached as a higher chronologic unit. For 

 no day received the same numeral and the same sign until after the 

 expiration of this period. The period of 13X20, or 260, days was 

 called tonalamatl, " the book of the day signs ". 



