■rnoMAs.] POSITIONS OF THE CARDINAL SYMBOLS. 55 



strongly inclined me for a time to believe that this should be considered 

 the north, as in the Aztec superstitions one class of the dead was lo- 

 cated in that region ; but a more thorough study leads me to the con- 

 clusion that these figures are intended to represent the earth and to 

 symbolize the fact that here is to be found the point where the old cycle 

 ends and the new begins. I will refer to this again when I return to 

 the description of the Cortesiau plate. 



All the authorities, except Boturini, refer the year Tecpatl or Flint 

 to the north, which agrees with the theory I am advancing, and in the 

 lower left-hand corner we find in the red circle the figure of a flint, 

 which according to my arrangement applies to the north, represented 

 by the yellow loop. 



How, then, are we to account for the presence of this symbol on the 

 head of the right figure in the red or eastern loop ? Veytia says, " They 

 (the Mexicans) gave to fire the first place as the most noble of all (the 

 elements), and symbolized it by the flint," This I acknowledge presents 

 a difficulty that I am unable to account for only on the supposition that 

 this author has misinterpreted his authorities, for no one so far as I can 

 find gives the " sun " or " age of fire " as the first, the only difference 

 in this respect being as to whether the " sun of water" or the " sun of 

 earth" was first, This difference I am inclined to believe (though with- 

 out a thorough examination of the subject) arises chiefly from a varia- 

 tion of the cardinal point with which they commence the count, those 

 starting at the south commencing with the element earth, those begin- 

 ning at the east with water. 47 Not that the authors themselves always 

 indicated these points, but that a proper interpretation of the original 

 authorities would have resulted in this conclusion, supposing a proper 

 adjustment of the different calendar systems of the Nahua nations to 

 have been made. I think it quite probable that the artist who painted 

 this plate of the Fejervary Codex believed the first " sun " or " age " 

 should be assigned to the east, and that here the flint indicates origin, 

 first creative power or that out of which the first creation issued, an 

 idea which I believe is consonant with Nahua traditions. I may as well 

 state here as elsewhere that notwithstanding the statement made by 

 Gemelli and others that it was the belief or tradition of the Mexicans 

 that the sun first appeared in the south, I am somewhat skeptical on 

 this point. 



Such a tradition might be possible in an extreme northern country, 

 but it is impossible to conceive how it would have originated in a tropi- 

 cal region. 



The calendar and religious observances were the great and all-absorb- 

 ing topics of the Nahua nations, and hence it is to these, and especially 

 the first, that we must look for an explanation of their paintings and 



" See the various views presented by Chavero, Anales Mus. Mex. Tom. II Entrag. 2, 

 ami authorities referred to by Bancroft, Native Races, II. p. 504, note 3. 



