SELEKl MEXICAN PICTURE WRITINGS FRAGMENT I 139 



structioii devised by her of the Mexican calendar, further j^articuhirs 

 concerning which she has reserved. Upon this chart was the follow- 

 ing passage from an important Mexican picture manuscript, which 

 belongs to the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence, and which will soon 

 be published in facsimile b}' Mrs Nuttall : Es de notar que siempre 

 comienga el aiio en un dia de quatro, el uno que llaman acatl. Y de 

 alii toman nonbre. O en otro que llaman calli. Y de alii toman non- 

 bre. O en otro que llaman tecpatl. Y de alii toman nonbre. Y de 

 otro que llaman tochtli. Y de alii toman nonbre (" It is to be noted 

 that the year always begins on one of four days — the one which they 

 call Acatl, and from there they take the name; or on another which 

 they call Calli, and from there they take the name; or on another 

 which they call Tecpatl, and from there they take the name; and 

 from another which they call Tochtli, and from there they take the 

 name "). This is clear and intelligible, and Mrs Nuttall has correctly 

 made this passage the starting point for her researches. 



It is quite another question, and one which I must touch upon here, 

 whether the month Atlcaualco, stated by Sahagun and others to be 

 the first month of the year, is really the one which was the leading, 

 or first, month at the time wdien the designation of the years, accord- 

 ing to the four days Acatl. Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli, first came into 

 use. This question, it seems, should be answered in the negative. 



The most important statement by the old writers which makes an 

 agreement between the Mexican and our chronology and a compari- 

 son of the Mexican designations of the years with certain days of any 

 one year possible is that made in Sahagun, book 12, chapter 40, where 

 it is stated that the capture of Quauhtemoctzin, which put an end to 

 the desperate defense of the city of Mexico, occurred on the day ce 

 Coatl, " 1 snake ", of the year yei Calli, '"• 3 house " : Auhin omomaii 

 chimalli inic tixitinque in xiuhtonalli ei calli, auh in cemilhuitlapoalli 

 ce Coatl (" When the shield was laid down (the war ceased), while 

 we fell to the ground, that was the year ' 3 house ' and the day ' 1 

 snake'"). (Biblioteca Lorenziana manuscript.) This day was, as 

 we know from the letters of Cortes and Gomara's history, Tuesday, 

 St. Hippolytus's da;V, August 13, 1521." The Aztec writer Chimal- 

 pahin says the same thing in his Seventh Relation : Yhcuac canque 

 yn tlatohuani Cuauhtemoctzin ypan cemilhuitonalli ce cohuatl 

 * * * ic matlactlomey mani metztli agosto, ypan ylhuitzin S. Tipo- 

 lito, martyr {"' They took King Quauhtemoctzin i)risoner on the day 

 ' 1 snake ' * * * on the 13th day of August, the feast of the holy 

 martyr Hippolytus '').^ On the basis of this statement Orozco y 

 Berra, in the second volume of his Historia Antigua y de la Conquista 

 de Mexico, tried to find an agreement between the Mexican and Euro- 



« Cartas de Ilernan Cortes, ed. (rayansos. Paris. 1866. p. 257 : Gomara. t'rftnica. chap. 

 14.S. 



" Anales de Dominso Francisco de S.iii Anton Mufioz ( 'liini.ilpaliin (Jnanlit Ichuanilzin. 

 Seventli Relation, edid. Itemi Simeon. \). P.M. 



