366 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. L'8 



by the notation of days furnished by the tonalamatl. The great 

 period obtained in this way, which consisted of 13 X«^ revohitions of 

 Venus, possessed this peculiarity, that after its expiration the initial 

 day of the Venus period again received the same sign and the same 

 numeral. This great period corresponded, therefore, in its nature 

 to the cycle of 52 solar years, which had the same characteristic. 

 It should again be considered as in some degree merely accidental that 

 this period of 13X5 Venus periods was also equal to 13X8 or 2X52 

 solar years. 



A period of five Venus periods is recorded distinctly, though the 

 details of the computation are not given, on page 25 of the Borgian 

 codex (Kingsborough, page 14), which corresponds to page 70, Codex 

 Vaticanus B (Kingsborough, page 27). There are four large figures 

 of gods placed in the four corners of the page. Accompanying them 

 are the twenty day signs, peculiarly disposed to convey the idea of 

 rotation in a direction opposite to that of the hands of a clock. In 

 the middle of the page, enlarged and inclosed in a square field of its 

 own, is the seventeenth day sign Olin, " movement ", and beside it are 

 twice five dots, which together represent the numeral 10." 



The first day sign, Cipactli, is placed beside a figure, which is 

 reproduced in c (from the Borgian codex) and cl (from Codex 

 Vaticanus B), figure 9-1. We readily recognize the striped white 

 body coloring and the deep black painting, like a domino, around the 

 eyes, just as they have become familiar to us, of Tlauizcalpan 

 tecutli, the divinity of the morning star. Here, however, he wears, 

 instead of the crown of dark feathers, a wig of white down, and on 

 it a tuft from which two dark eagle feathers project. In c (figure 

 94), he wears as a breast ornament a plate like that which we saw 

 in a (same figure). Both representations c and f/, like the others on 

 this page, hold a spear thrower and a bundle of spears in their hands. 

 We are forced to recognize the divinity of the morning star in this 

 figure. The god may, however, here have special form, be repre- 

 sented in a special role. Now if the fact that the morning star occu- 

 pies the first place among the four figures gives rise to the supposi- 

 tion that this page refers to a period of time which is measured by the 

 movements of the morning star, this supposition becomes a certainty 

 by reason of the large and conspicuous date Avhich occupies the middle 

 of the page. For matlactli Ollin, " 10 movement ", is precisely the day 

 with which the fifth period of 584 days must begin if the first began 

 with ce Cipactli, " 1 crocodile '', the initial day of the tonalamatl. 

 It is therefore the five Venus periods that are intended to be repre- 



" The numeral 11 is ijicorrectly set down on the page of Codex Vaticanus. There 

 is, besides, on this page, a reversal of the direction of the rotary movement indicated by 

 the day signs, in that three day signs are there set down in order opposed to the general 

 direction. 



