44 MAYA AND MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS. 



Botnriui 30 gives the following arrangement of the "symbols of the 

 four parts or angles of the world," comparing it with that of Gemelli. 



"Gemelli. "Boturiui. 



1. Tochtli =South. 1. Tecpatl=South. 



2. Acatl =East. 2. Calli = East. 



3. Tecpatl= North. 3. Tochtli = North. 



4. Calli = West." 4. Acatl =West." 



SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS. 



"Gemelli. "Boturini. 



1. Tochtli = Earth. 1. Tecpatl=Fire. 



2. Acatl = Water. 2. Calli =Earth. 



3. Tecpatl=Air. 3. Tochtli =Air. 



■4. Calli =Fire." 4. Acatl = Water." 



Herrera speaks only of the year symbols and colors, and, although 

 he does not directly connect them, indicates his understanding in regard 

 thereto by the order in which he mentions them : 31 



"They divided the year into four signs, being four figures, the oue of 

 a house, another of a rabbit, the third of a cane, the fourth of a flint, 

 and by them they reckoned the year as it passed on, saying, such a 

 thing happened at so many houses or at so many flints of such a wheel 

 or rotation, because their life being as it were an age, contained four 

 weeks of years consisting of thirteen, so that the whole made up fifty- 

 two years. They painted a sun in the middle from which issued four 

 lines or branches in a cross to the circumference of the wheel, and they 

 turned so that they divided it into four parts, and the circumference 

 and each of them moved with its branch of the same color, which were 

 four, Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow; and each of those parts had thir- 

 teen subdivisions with the sign of a house, a rabbit, a cane, or a flint." 

 From this statement I presume his arrangement would be as follows: 



Calli — Green. 



Tochtli —Blue. 



Acatl —Red. 



Tecpatl — Yellow. 

 Still, this is. at best but a supposition. It is evident that he had be- 

 fore him or referred to a wheel similar to that figured by Duran in his 

 Hlstoria de las Indias, as his description agrees with it in every respect, 

 except as to the arrangement of the colors. 



According to DuraD 32 " The circle was divided into four parts, each 

 part containing thirteen years, the first part pertaining to the east, the 

 second to the north, the third to the west, and the fourth to the south. 



30 Idea de Una Nueva Historia General de la America Septentrional, pp. 54-56. 



31 Hist. Amer. Dec. II, B. 10, Chap. 4. Transl. vol. 3, pp. 221-222. 

 ^Historiade las Indias de Nueva Espana, Mexico, 1880. Tom. II., pp 252-253. 



