156 On the Great Calendar Stone of the Ancient Mexicans. 



can year receded one day with every fourth revolution. So that 

 the fifth year of the cycle commenced on a day corresponding 

 with our 8th of January ; the ninth year on a day corresponding 

 with the 7th of that month, etc. By this constant recession, the 

 last year of the cycle commenced on a day corresponding with 

 our 26th of December, and consequently (deducting the five 

 "dead days") must have terminated on the 21st of December, 

 the precise date, as we have already seen, of the winter solstice. 



This then may be laid down as the rule, in the scheme of the 

 Aztecs. That the cycle terminated when the last day of the 

 year coincided with the date of the winter solstice. And when 

 we consider the influence which such a conjunction would be 

 likely to have in a system with which the superstitions of the 

 Aztecs were so closely interwoven, we shall be less disposed to 

 look for the reason which determined the selection of the num- 

 ber of years constituting the cycle, in its multiples, however sin- 

 gular their combinations, than in the circumstance of the very 

 conjunction here named. 



No doubt a close dependence, I am not prepared to say how 

 intimate, existed between this conjunction and the great sec- 

 ular festival of the Aztecs, celebrated at the end of every cycle. 

 They believed that at the termination of one of these periods, 

 the sun would never return, and the end of the world take place. 

 This belief which was common to most primitive nations addict- 

 ed to Sabianism, was, as observed by Humboldt, in the case of 

 the Mexicans, M connected with the Toltic tradition of four suns 

 or ages , at which periods the earth had undergone four great rev- 

 olutions." Three of these destructions had taken place, accord- 

 ing to the traditions, at the ends of cycles. At the end of each 

 cycle therefore the deepest consternation prevailed. The five 

 supplementary days were pas ed in great fear. On the fifth, the 

 fires in the temples and houses were extinguished, the household 



utensils broken, garments rent, and whatever was deemed most 



precious destroyed. On the evening of this day, the priests dress- 

 ed in the robes of the gods, followed by an immense procession 

 of the people, went in solemn silence to the top of a high moun- 

 tain near the city of Mexico, there to attempt the lighting of the 

 new fire. The success of the attempt was an evidence of safety 

 and of the benevolence of the gods. The fire was lighted, at 

 midnight, by friction, upon the breast of a human victim sacri- 

 ficed for the occasion. A great fire was then built and the sacred 

 flame again distributed to the temples and houses. When the 

 blaze was seen by the anxious spectators, the most extravagant 

 joy was manifested, which was much augmented when the sun 

 itself arose on the following morning, dissipating all fears with 

 its effulgence. 







