94 



Biinton.] -^"^ [Jan. 5, 



closelv similar rites. The name of their king, who opposed 

 Montezuma the First some sixty 3'ears before the arrival of 

 Cortez, proves that they made use of the same or a similar cal- 

 endar in bestowing personal appellations. It is given as Tres 

 3Iicos, Three Monkeys. 



Unfortunatel3', so far as I know, there has not been published, 

 and perhaps there does not exist, an authentic cop}^ of the Mix- 

 tec calendar. It was nevertheless reduced to writing in the 

 native tongue after the conquest, and a cop}' of it was seen by 

 the historian Burgoa in the Mixtec town of Yanhuitlan.* Each 

 day was named from a tree, a plant or an animal, and from them 

 the individual received his names, as Four Lions, Five Roses, 

 etc. (examples given by Herrera). This latter writer adds that 

 the name was assigned by the priests when the child was seven 

 3'ears old (as among the Tzentals), part of the rite being to con- 

 duct it to the temple and bore its ears. He refers also to their 

 auguries relating to marriage. f These appear to have been dif- 

 ferent from among the Zapotecs. It was necessary that the 

 youth should have a name bearing a higher number than that of 

 the maiden, and also " that they should be related;" probably 

 this applied only to certain formal marriages of the rulers which 

 were obliged to be within the same gens. 



13. I have referred in some detail to the rites and supersti- 

 tions connected with the Calendar because the}' are all essential 

 parts of Nagualism, carried on far into Christian times by the 

 priests of this secret cult, as was full}^ recognized b}' the Catho- 

 lic clergy. Wherever this calendar was in use, the Freemasonry' 

 of Nagualism extended, and its ritual had constant reference to 

 it. Our fullest information about it does not come from cen- 

 tral Mexico, but further south, in the region occupied by the 

 various branches of the Mayan stock, bj^ the ancestors of some 

 one of which, perhaps, this singular calendar, and the symbolism 

 connected with it, were invented. 



One of the most im|)ortant older authorities on this subject 

 is Francisco Nunez de la Vega, a learned Dominican, who was 

 appointed Bishop of Chiapas and Soconusco in 1687, and who 

 published at Rome, in 1702, a stately folio entitled " Constilu- 



* Quoted in Carriedo, ubi t-upril, p. 17. 



t Iliit. de las Indias Oc, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12. 



