SELER] VENUS PliRTOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 357 



of Avoocl) in Spanish. These stars, however, seem out of the question 

 here, since they lie too far distant from the Pleiades. The transla- 

 tion " astillejos " is probably intended to convey onh'^ the literal sense 

 of the word manialhuaztli. When Tezozomoc calls the constellation 

 mamalhuaztli the " keys of Saint Peter "', the editor, Jose Maria 

 Vigil, observes that in the Middle Ages Aries of the zodiac was 

 assigned to the Apostle Peter, and oc of Aries was called the " keys 

 of Saint Peter '\ The form of the constellation which the Mexicans 

 represented by / would be produced by the union of c of Musca and 

 or and fi of Aries with S of Aries. In any case, mamalhuaztli could 

 only have been a constellation situated somewhere below 20° north 

 latitude, since it rose at a point due east from the Mexicans, denoting 

 for them the cardinal point east. Hence it was called youal itqui, 

 " the bringer of the night " (Tezozomoc), or youal tecutli, " the lord 

 of the night " (Sahagun). When it rose in the east they burned in- 

 cense and said: Oualuetz in 3^oualtecutli in yacauiztli: Quen uetziz 

 in youalli, quen tlathuiz, " The lord of the night is come, the pointed 

 staff. How will the night end? How will the morning dawn?" 

 They burned incense three times, the second time at midnight, when 

 the constellation reached the zenith, and toward morning, when it set. 



The neighboring Pleiades, which were named by the Mexicans 

 miec, " heap ", or tianquiztli, " market ", could have had the same sig- 

 nificance as the mamalhuaztli. The former constellation, lying below 

 23° north latitude, might also have marked the east for the Mexicans. 

 It is probable, however, that it served to mark the fifth cardinal 

 point, the center, or the zenith. At the beginning of a new j^eriod 

 of 52 years fire " was newly kindled when the Pleiades were in the 

 zenith at midnight. The flaming up of this fire was a sign to the 

 anxious waiting multitude that the world was not, as they feared, to 

 be swallowed up in darkness, but that a new era would be granted to 

 mankind. 



It is my opinion that y from the Sahagun manuscript is citlal- 

 tlachtli, " star ball ground ". Tezozomoc calls it " the north and its 

 wheel " (el norte y su rueda). This can hardly denote any other con- 

 stellation than the stars which circle about the polar star. It might 

 denote Ursa Major, though the manner in which we are accustomed 

 to represent this constellation, which unites stars of the greatest 

 brilliancy, bears very little resemblance to the figure of the Sahagun 

 manuscript. 



Colotl, "the scorpion", k^ or colotl ixayac, ''the scorpion face", 

 as Tezozomoc calls the constellation, must have been a group of stars 

 diametrically opposite to the mamalhuaztli, situated likewise some- 

 where below 20° north latitude. Perhaps it was Arcturus. It 



" Snbagun, book 4, appendix. Edit. Bustaniante, v. 1, p. 346. 



