VENUS PERIOD IN THE PICTURE WRITINGS 

 OF THE BORGIAN CODEX GROUP « 



By Eduard Seler 



In chapter 82 of the Cronica Mexicana of Tezozomoc the account 

 of the formalities observed at the election of Moteciihzoma Xocoyotzin 

 as king of Mexico contains also the purport of the speeches addressed 

 to the newly elected king. He is exhorted therein to receive gra- 

 ciously the tributary vassals when they come to the capital and to 

 provide them witli all that is necessar}^ for their homeward journey. 

 He is admonished to be valiant against enemies, but also to employ 

 diplomacy, adulation, and gifts in order to bring them to submission 

 by peaceable means. He should endow the temple and give suste- 

 nance to the old people, both men and women. He ought, above all 

 things, to stand well with the nobility, be mindful of their privileges, 

 and daily invite them to be his guests; for his authority and power 

 depend on them. At the beginning of a long series of admonitions, 

 which enjoin upon him to be careful in the observance of religious 

 ceremonies, faithful in regard to priestly castigations, and to the care 

 of the temples, the sacred places, and the roads leading to them, he is 

 admonished " especially to make it his duty to rise at midnight (and 

 to look at the stars) : at yohualitqui mamalhuaztli, as they call ' the 

 keys of Saint Peter' among the stars in the firmament, at the citlalt- 

 lachtli, the north and its wheel, at the tianquiztli, the Pleiades, and 

 at the colotl ixayac, the constellation of the Scorpion, which mark 

 the four cardinal points in the sky. Toward morning he must also 

 carefidly observe the constellation xonecuilli, the ' cross of Saint 

 Jacob ', which appears in the southern sky in the direction of India 

 and China; and he must carefully observe the morning star, which 

 appears at dawn and is called tlauizcalpan teuctli ". 



These words contain data regarding the scope and the principal 

 elements of ancient Mexican astronomy which are exactly confirmed 

 by Sahagun in his account, in the seventh book of his historic 



" VeihandlunKen dor Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, Ethnologie, und TJrge- 

 schichte, 1898, pp. 346 to 383. 



355 



