On the Great Calendar Stone of the Ancient Mexicans. 155 



vitality with to breathe in our own language, and to eat and to 

 walk, in those of different stocks. The forehead of this figure 

 is bound with a fillet, upon which, in Gama's drawing, is repre- 

 sented a group of unmeaning ornaments. In place of these, we 

 have, in M. Nebel's copy, the distinct sign of 2 Acatl. Above it 

 is an indicating ray, which points to the sign of the year 13 Acatl, 

 for which year most of the engraved calculations seem to have 



The day 2 Acatl for year 13 Acatl, (which is the 

 £btti ot the Aztec cycle,) coincides with our 'list of December, 

 and is undoubtedly the hitherto undetermined date of the winter 

 solstice, in the Mexican Calendar. 



Fig. J . Fig. 2. 



been made. 



Fig. 1, of the accompanying engraving of the sign in question, 

 is from Gama's drawing ; Fig. 2, from Nebel's. Acatl signifies 

 a reed. The central figure, of the second engraving, is a very 

 common form of this sign, both in the paintings and on the mon- 

 uments. It will be at once seen that the figures presented by 

 Gama could not by any possibility be supposed to represent 2 

 Acatl, and hence the deficiency remarked by the illustrious in- 

 vestigators above named. 



This discovery verifies the correctness of Gama's Analysis of 

 the Aztec Calendar, at the same time that it furnishes us with an 

 explication of certain religious observances, of a very remarkable 

 character, prescribed, at fixed intervals, by the Aztec ritual. 



The civil year of the ancient Mexicans was a solar year of three 

 hundred and sixty days made up of eighteen months of twenty 

 days each. To these were yearly added five complementary 

 days, called Nemontemi or " dead days" which were deemed 

 unlucky, and during which all religious observances were sus- 

 pended. They were not counted as belonging to the year, but 

 lell between the end of one year and the commencement of anoth- 

 er- Four periods (Tlalpilli) of thirteen years each, made a cycle 

 (Xiuhmolpilli) of fifty-two years. It will be seen that the frac- 

 tional part of a day, which in our calendar is provided for by the 

 intercalation of one day every fourth year ; would in the course of 

 fifty-two years, amount to thirteen days. That number of days 

 was accordingly intercalated at the end of every cycle, so that each 

 c ycle commenced and ended upon corresponding days. Gama 

 determined that the first year of the cycle (which was always 

 °»e Tochtli) commenced on a day corresponding with our 9th 

 pf January. On account of the different modes of intercalation, 

 " will be at once evident that, as compared with ours, the Mexi- 



