92 PICTUEE-WEITINQ AND WORD-WRITING. 



ordinary age of man, and they were painted on skins kept by 

 the principal priests in the temples. They marked on each 

 spoke or division a hieroglyphic figure, to show the memorable 

 events of the year. John Lederer saw one in a village called 

 Pommacomek, on which the year of the first arrival of the 

 Europeans was marked by a swan spouting fire and smoke 

 from its mouth. The white plumage of the bird and its living 

 on the water indicated the white faces of the Europeans and 

 their coming by sea, while the fire and smoke coming from 

 its mouth meant their firearms.^ Thus the ancient Mexicans 

 (as well as the civilized nations of Central America, who used 

 a similar system) can only claim to have dated their records 

 more generally and systematically than the ruder North Ameri- 

 can tribes. 



The usual way of recording series of years among the Mexi- 

 cans has been often described. It consists in the use of four 

 symbols — tochtli, acatl, tecpatl, calli, i. e. rabbit, cane, cuiting- 

 stone, house, each symbol being numbered by dots from 1 to 13, 

 making thus 52 distinct signs. Each year of a cycle of 52 has 

 thus a distinct numbered symbol belonging to it alone, the 

 numbering of course not going beyond 13. These numbered 

 symbols are, however, not arranged in their reasonable order, 

 but the signs change at the same time as the numbers, till all 

 the 52 combinations are exhausted, the order being 1 rabbit, 

 2 cane, 3 knife, 4 house, 5 rabbit, 6 cane, and so on. I have 

 pointed out elsewhere the singular coincidence of a Mexican 

 cycle with an ordinary French or English pack of playing-cards, 

 which, arranged on this plan, as for instance ace of hearts, 2 

 of spades, 3 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 5 of hearts again, and so 

 on, forms an exact counterpart of an Aztec cycle of years. The 

 account of days was kept by series combined in a similar way, 

 but in different numbers.^ 



The extraordinary analogy between the Mexican system of 

 reckoning years in cycles, and that still in use over a great part 



^ ' Journal des S9avans,' 1681, p. 46. Sir W. Talbot, ' The Discoveries of John. 

 Lederer ; ' London, 1672, p. 4. Humboldt, ' Vues des CordiUeres ; ' Paris, 

 1810-12, pi. xiii. 



2 Tylor, ' Mexico and tlie Mexicans ;' London, 1861, p. 239. 



